There we go. And this Psalm 85, of all the
Psalms, this, of course, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Psalm 110, these
all speak about our Lord Jesus. And our Lord told His disciples,
after His resurrection, and He had them all, and He said, you
know, He said, You know, all that's written in the Law of
Moses and in the Psalms and in the Prophets, they're all about
me. They concern me. They concern
me. And when you're talking about
preaching the Lord Jesus from the Old Testament, you know,
just verse 10 alone would be worth this psalm and preaching
from just verse 10. Mercy and truth. are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Oh my, God's
mercy, God's truth, God's righteousness, God's peace meet only in one
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look here at verse one
together. Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Thou
hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Now the author of this
psalm, David, he speaks of God's past mercy to the land of Israel
and the sons of Jacob. And how he delivered them out
of Egypt's bondage and captivity. But all believers, all believers
are the true, true sons of Jacob. And I can prove that from the
New Testament time and time again. They're the seed of Abraham.
They really are. When you talk about the sons
of Jacob, he said, you know, there's been fable on the land
brought back to captivity of Jacob. Now I want you to keep
this, but I want you to look in Galatians with me. Look in
Galatians chapter three. I haven't seen this in a while,
and I thought this would be interesting to you. And talking about being
the sons of Jacob, the seed of Jacob. You know what? All believers are the true sons
of Jacob and the seed of Abraham. Look what he says down here in
verse 7, Galatians 3, 7. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, you know Abraham believed God and God counted
to him for righteousness. Well, we believe God and we're
made righteous in Christ. Know therefore that they which
are of faith are the same as the children of Abraham. Now
look what it goes down here and says now in verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for
you all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. So
we're, you know he's a Jew which is not one outwardly, but he
that's one inwardly. Circumcision not of the flesh,
but of the heart and that's where we're we're true to that you're
looking at a real son of Abraham a real true Jew And that's that
you know those fellows that live in Israel over there They may
have some heritage in them, but I most of them couldn't trace
their lineage back nowhere but when you look at every believer
you can say that's the son of Jacob and That's one whom God
loved. That's one whom God said He's
affection on. And He said He's affection on
before the foundation of the world. And then when He talks
about the land that thou has been fabled under the land. You
know the land that He's talking about here as far as God's people
is concerned is the kingdom of Christ. God's kingdom on this
earth. And the Lord Jesus Christ and
his church are true Israel and true sons of Jacob. Our Lord
said in Malachi 3, 6, he said, you know the reason you sons
of Jacob are not consumed is because I'm the Lord and I change
not. That's the only reason. And I'll
tell you what, and when he talked about bringing back the captivity,
our Lord Jesus brought us from captivity. And you know what
kind of captivity we were bound by? Sin, the worst kind of bondage
that a person can possibly be in is sin. He can't set himself
free from it. He can't save himself from it.
He can't help it. It's his nature. He's born with
it. And our Lord Jesus, he came down and he redeemed us from
our sin and brought us out from the bondage of sin and set us
free once and for all. Amen. Yes, sir. Then look in
verse two and three with me. Thou hast forgiven. Thou hast
covered all the sin. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned from the fierceness of thine anger.
I want you to notice four things here. Stand out. Really stand
out. The author of all spiritual blessings, the author of everything.
Thou hast. It says four times, Thou hast.
who thou is. You know, oh my, thou has delivered,
thou has been favorable, thou has forgiven, thou has covered,
thou has taken away wrath. And what he said is that salvation
is of the Lord, of its entirety. All that originated with God, It originated with him, and when
it's finished, and it's gonna be consummated by him, and we're
conformed to the image of his blessed son. And the people who
are blessed are his people. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. And you know how we become God's
people? By choice. He chose us. Chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Not only did he choose
us, he said, no, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. And
I'll tell you another thing, we're his because he bought us
and he paid for us. The good shepherd laid down his
life for the sheep. And all that the Father giveth
me, they're gonna come to me. And I tell you, he bought us
and paid for us with his own precious blood. And then we're
his people because he called us. One way you can know you're
one of God's people is did you get called? Did God call you
to Himself? Did He call you from sin to righteousness,
from death to life, from darkness to light? You know you can know
you are, make your calling. He said when you're gonna make
your calling, make your calling first, then your election. But
the election starts with calling. Ain't that right? And I'll tell
you what, that's why we keep on preaching the gospel. God's
going in. You know, that's how He saves these people, by the
gospel. And then, oh my, listen here. He says, Thou hast forgiven
all their iniquity. He did. Thou has covered all
their sin. And He forgave all our sins and
all of our iniquities, but it come, you know, it was not without
a price. Our Lord was bruised for our
iniquities. Chastisement of our peace was
upon Him. Oh my! And our Lord laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. And He says, you've covered all
this sin. You know, you remember the mercy
seat. the mercy seat in the tabernacle. He was behind the veil, out of
sight. And when Aaron or whatever high
priest it was, he went behind that veil once a year. But he
went there with blood. Couldn't go in there without
blood. And when he took that blood and he put that blood on
that mercy seat, That means that God, when He viewed that mercy
seat, He seen sins covered, sins forgot, sins forgiven. Because
that mercy seat, well Christ is our mercy seat. And you know
what He put on that mercy seat? His own blood. He entered in
warmth with His own blood into the holy place and obtained eternal
redemption for us. And I tell you this much, when
God says that He's forgiven y'all sins, you know what He said?
He said, those sins and iniquities, I don't even remember them anymore.
I don't even remember them. I don't remember them. I tell
you, God's forgiven all their sins. How many sins you reckon
we had before He saved us? How many sins have we had since
He saved us? How many sins we're gonna have
before we leave this world? Well, God said, I forgive every
one of them. And you say, well, how can he
forgive us? He forgave us our sin before
you and I was ever born. Christ died for my sin before
I ever existed. And that's what the gospel tells
us. It tells us that Christ died for our sins and he put them
away by his own precious blood. His blood cleanses from how many
sins? Oh, listen. He'll forgive those
that you know you intended not to do. Nope, nope. Did you ever
sin on accident? No, no, having forgiven you all
your sins. Oh, take it away. And I tell
you what. And I tell you, that's these
blessings, these blessings. He turned away this, because
all the sins were forgiven, God's wrath is taken away. Taken away
all the wrath of God. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. Now look here in verse four and
five. Turn us, O God, of our salvation
and cause that anger toward us to cease. without be angry with
us forever, without draw out thine anger to all generations.
Now we just got through reading about how he took away his fierce
anger. Took away all everything that would make him angry. And
in salvation, in this salvation, in thy salvation, that's what
he calls the God of our salvation. In the salvation, God's wrath
is removed from us and upon us. You know, he says, God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. And then, then,
the Lord, when we, he put away all the wrath of God. God reconciled
the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto him, or their
iniquities unto him. So that's, God's reconciled.
God's reconciled by the death of Christ, the blood of Christ.
And then how was our enmity? We were enmity in her. How was
our enmity slain? How did our enmity towards God
go away? Well, when He regenerated us
and gave us the new birth, when we were given new hearts, new
wills, new natures, that new heart and that new nature, it
cannot do nothing but love God. It's not angry. God's reconciled. We're reconciled. He loves us
and we love Him because that new heart is in us. Ain't that
right? He slew that enmity. He took
it away. Do you ever remember being at
enmity with God? Oh my. And you know how both
of these are accomplished? By the power of God. In the day
of His power, His people are made willing. Made willing. And
you know, here's the thing, the wrath of God's turned away from
us by our Lord's obedience, our Lord's debt. And God puts in
regeneration the Holy Spirit in us, and we just got to have
Christ. We just got to. We just got to.
And He puts a heart of love in us. Then look what else it says
now. Just go down here in verse six.
So when He says, don't be angry, He's not gonna be angry. Can't
be angry because what Christ has done. And then He says here
in verse six, Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Now when he says revive
us again, I tell you what happened. We were like dead men, we were
dead men. We were like Ezekiel's dry bones.
God sent Ezekiel down there and said, son of man, can these bones
live? Lord, thou art the only one who
knows that. If you do it, they can. But if I do it, they can't.
And he said that's the way we were. We were like Ezekiel's
bones. And God came along. And He didn't
just revive us, but He gave us life in Christ. He spoke to us
in the Gospel. And He brought us from death
to life. He brought us out of darkness
into light. And He gave us life in Christ. And will you revive us again
and again and again? We sung that song Sunday night.
Wilt Thou revive us, O Lord, wilt Thou revive us again? I say I need revival and that's
why we come to services. To get our hearts refreshed,
our spirits refreshed, our souls refreshed. Get them revived. I don't know how many people
comes to a service and they'll come so tired. They'll come so
burdened down, they'll come out in the world or off of a job
and they feel so unclean. And they'll come to a service,
and then they leave and say, oh, I'm so thankful that I was
there. God so blessed me. God so encouraged
me. God so refreshed me. And that's
why, will you revive us? God, revive us. We're not looking
for a great big revival the way all these people are. Just revive
us, our hearts. Me, you, individuals. That's what he's talking about.
Oh my. And I'll tell you, your people.
Then he says, your people will rejoice in you. Oh, they, my
people. Oh, we rejoice. I'll tell you
something we don't rejoice in. We don't rejoice in us. We don't
rejoice in our doings. We never rejoice in anything
about ourselves. You know, Paul said it like this,
he said, being confident of this one thing, that he, he which
hath begun a good work in you, he shall perform it under the
day of Jesus Christ. But we know, we just, we rejoice
in him. We rejoice in him. We absolutely
have no confidence. The scriptures tells us we have
no confidence in the flesh. But we rejoice in Christ Jesus
and worship God in the spirit. You know how much confidence
I have in my flesh and your flesh? I can't get enough zeros to show
you. That's the way it is, ain't it?
And I'll tell you, every one of us are that way. It's not
just one person, it's all of us are that way. And I tell you,
God revived us again. And then look what it said. Oh,
I love this right here. Oh, how I love this. Verse seven. Show us thy mercy, oh Lord, and
grant us thy salvation. Oh Lord, show us thy mercy. Show
us thy mercy. You know, Jeremiah said, it's
out of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. and his compassions
fail not. And it's the Lord's mercies that
keeps us from being consumed. It's all mercy from first to
last. You know, mercy passed by us
when we were polluted in our blood like that infant cast out
and covered. I'm making this. All mercy come
and robe us with the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy
came and washed away our sins, gave us repentance and faith.
Mercy keeps us in the way, and mercy won't let us go. Not until
mercy has finished its work and conforms us to the image of God's
blessed Son. Mercy is what we need. Mercy
is what He's got. And mercy is what He gives us.
Mercy. Mercy, mercy, mercy. Oh my. And I tell you what the cross
says, grant us thy salvation. You notice it says, thy salvation. Grant us thy salvation. Oh my. God's salvation, you know, I
said it, it started with him. It continues with him. And He
come and He's the one that applied it to us. We would have never
known anything about salvation if He had not come and taught
us and applied what Christ did for us. And we certainly won't
see the inside of God's heaven unless He consummates this thing
of salvation. And what I'm telling you is it's
all of grace. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. That's one of the most blessed
words that God ever taught a human being in this world, is grace
and mercy. If you really understand it,
that's two of the most blessed words you'll ever hear in the
English language. And all the work were by a dead
sinner. defiled sinner, a damned sinner,
is lifted from the downhill and washed and made ready for the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and God before Him all through
eternity is only because of Him. And you know that's why He says,
Lord grant us, grant us that perfect, perfect salvation. Oh,
it's perfect. You know why it's perfect? Because
God's perfect. Christ is perfect. What kind
of salvation could he give besides perfect salvation? Oh, that's
such a blessing to me. Oh, thy mercy, oh Lord, show
us thy mercy. Mercy beggars, you go through
the scriptures, you go through just the Gospels and see how
many times somebody come to the Lord for mercy. sinner that the publican smote
on his breast said, God be merciful to me the sinner. That sorrowful
Phoenician woman that brought her daughter to the Lord said,
Lord have mercy on my daughter. That's what, oh, that's what
people want. That's what people need. And
I'll tell you what, oh God, please, please, please, never, never,
ever let us get over your mercy, mercy-beggars, mercy-beggars.
Then look what he said in verse eight. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, and listen to this, for he'll speak peace unto his
people and to his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. And that's what we're doing here
tonight. We come here tonight to hear what God says. To hear
what the Lord God will speak. If He speaks to us, He'll go
speak through this Word, huh? And how vital, how precious is
God's blessed Word to His people? It's by His Word and by the Gospel
He speaks peace to us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, His Word is the foundation of our faith. How firm a foundation,
you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent
Word. Our faith, how did it come? By
hearing. Hearing what? The Word of God.
It's the very foundation of it. Very foundation of it. And I
tell you, it's the source of all of our comfort. And it's
the only way we're ever going to grow is by His blessed Word.
And this is children's bread. And let me tell you, Though never. I told you I read about three
prominent men who said that they weren't Christians anymore. Told
all the books they had written and how accomplished they were.
But they, every one of them said, I'm not a Christian anymore.
I'm not a Christian. I don't want to be called a Christian. Then, oh my. Let's not turn back
to sin. Not turn back to beggarly elements
like works. Don't turn back to free will.
Don't turn back to idols. Don't turn back to ceremony.
Don't turn back to rituals. They're just beggarly elements.
There's nothing good in them. And then, oh my, and I tell you
this, we find all we need in Him and we find our rest in Him. And there is no, God will not
provide us anything or protect us against sin and keep us from
apostasy. It's only place you can find
it at is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the reason you and I
haven't fallen away? Christ won't let us. And I've
said this, and you know I've said it time and time again,
if a man can quit, he'll quit. He'll go home and sit down on
the porch and twiddle his thumbs and act like he's as happy as
a hog in mud. But oh my God, save us. Don't
let us go back to them weak and beggly heavens. And the only
place we got protection against sin and provision against it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, then look what he said
in verse nine. Surely His salvation is nigh
them that fear Him, and that glory may dwell in our land."
How near is salvation to us? How near is it? It's here, now,
in us. I mean it can't be any nearer.
than in us. Our Lord is always near and always
with them that fear Him. Always. I don't care what the
circumstances are. I don't care what they are. You
know the man that fears God doesn't fear circumstances. He's not
afraid of circumstances. Because our Lord said I'll never
leave you, I'll never forsake you. And he said, you know it
says that, what does it say there? That glory may dwell in our land.
Yeah, glory may dwell in our land. You know, he's gonna be
glorified and may his glory dwell in us and in his kingdom on this
earth. And then look in verse 10. Oh
my goodness. What a verse of scripture. Mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. You're talking about a declaration.
You're talking about good news. Now you look at these four attributes
of God. We lost every one of them in
our father Adam. We lost them all. We lost mercy. We lost truth. We lost peace. We lost righteousness. We lost
them all. Mercy willed to save me. Mercy delighted to save me. and peace wanted to join with
mercy and come. But truth said, truth said, the
soul of sinneth that has to die, I will by no means clear the
guilty. And if you're going to be saved
by righteousness of your own, you've got to have righteousness
from the day you're born until the day you die. You've got to
be perfectly obedient. And if you're not, then death,
the sentence of death is passed upon you. But now wait a minute. Wait a minute. All of these attributes was manifested
in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know these attributes were
in Him because He's God. And mercy and truth met together
in Christ. Mercy said, I want to save the
sinner. Truth said, I can't. Righteousness
said, I can't. I want to extend peace. So they
met in Christ on the cross. Mercy and truth met right there. in the head and body and broken
body of our Lord Jesus. Righteousness and peace, they
kiss one another. And God looks at him now, so
that's how God can be just. That's how he can justify sinners
like ourselves. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. To who? Them that believe. Mercy
now can be given to us. We can have peace because Christ
upheld truth. Christ upheld righteousness.
And God accepted him and said, I saw the tremendous soul and
I was satisfied. Bless his name. I'll tell you
what. You know, the only hope for a sinner in
this world is what God did for us in Christ. And I found that
to be... God can be just! And true and
righteous! And yet turn around and give
us mercy and give us grace and give us peace! Cause it all met there in Christ.
Huh? They kissed one another there.
Oh my! Oh, what a declaration, what
a truth. Then look what it says in verse
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness
shall look down from heaven. You know, there's a lot of different
things that's been said about that. The truth sprung up out
of the earth, and I'm going to tell you how it did it, about
the same way mercy and truth was. Christ on that cross. You know, they didn't build crosses,
they actually had trees. Christ was hung on a tree. And they'd cut down a tree and
make a cross out of a tree, or just use the tree like this here. Hand over hand, foot over foot. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on that cross, truth,
just like a seed that had been planted. It brought forth fruit
perfectly, clearly, and powerfully when our Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up on that cross. And then look what else it says
there. Looks down from heaven where
Christ is, and that righteousness, when we look for righteousness,
where we look at? We look to Him. We look to Him. Oh, I tell ya, in Him truth is
found. And righteousness comes down
from Him. Comes down from Him with Him
alone. And then let me wind up with this. Verse 12 and 13. Yea, the Lord shall give good.
Does he ever give you good? Oh, bless his name. Oh, listen. Oh, God is good. It's the goodness
of God that led us to repentance. Oh my, every good and perfect
gift comes from Him. And the scriptures tells us nothing
good will He withhold from them, from His people. And I'll tell
you something else, His eternal good is for us. He said He works all things together
for our good. Oh, how good is God? How can
we tell? How can we speak? How can we
think? How can we imagine? How can we, in our hearts and
in our minds and our soul, understand how good, how good God is to
his people? You can't measure it. We could spend the rest of our
lives talking about how good He's good. How He's good in His
Father, He's good in His Son, He's good in the Holy Ghost,
He's good in His Word, He's good in His salvation, He's good in
His providence. Oh, He's good. He is good. And I tell you what, then look
what it says there in verse 13. And righteousness shall go before
Him, Oh my, everywhere our Lord went, righteousness went before
Him. Righteousness is what He is. Righteousness is what He
accomplished. And I tell you, it's by how we're
justified and accepted. And that's all that's gone before
us. And then look what it says. Look what it says there. And He, He shall set us in the
way of His steps. Oh, there's righteousness. There
it is. Come here. Step right there and
follow me. Where I step, you step. And he said, he'll set us in
those steps. Oh, what a gospel. What a gospel. What blessed truth. I've just
got to stop. I know, you know, I'm stirred
up, boy. I tell you, that red gospel does
something for me, nothing else does in this world. Don't it,
you? Our Father, oh, our Father, in
the precious name, blessed name, of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, our Redeemer, the One who loved our very souls and
gave Himself for us, called us by his grace, keeps us by his
power, will someday conform us to the image of your own blessed son. And
Father, we're ready for that day to be when you're ready. So we'll wait on you till the
time comes, till our time comes. God bless these dear saints.
Thank you for your word tonight. God bless it to the hearts, God
bless it to the ears, and Lord bless it to our understanding,
and keep us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. I'll see you Wednesday.