This is Psalm 89. I will sing
of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations, say the Lord. And
the heaven shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also
in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven can be
compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty
can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a
strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about
thee? Thou rulest the raging of the
sea. When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast
broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered
thine enemies with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine. The earth also is thine. As for
the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north
and the south thou hast created them. Tabor and Hermon shall
rejoice in thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou
art the glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horn shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. Then thou spakest in
vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant,
with my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall
be established. Mine arm also shall strengthen
him. The enemy shall not exact upon
him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat
down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him.
But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my
name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His
seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the
days of heaven. If his children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my
lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall
endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall
be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness
in heaven, say, But thou hast cast off and abhorred. Thou hast
been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant
of thy servant. Thou hast profaned his crown
by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his
hedges. Thou hast brought his strongholds
to ruin. All that pass by the way spoil
him. He is a reproach to his neighbors. Thou hast set up the right hand
of his adversaries. Thou hast made all his enemies
to rejoice. Thou hast also turned the edge
of his sword and hast not made him to stand in the battle. Thou
hast made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the
ground. The days of his youth hast thou
shortened. Thou hast covered him with shame.
Selah. How long, Lord, wilt thou hide
thyself forever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Remember how short my time is. Wherefore hast thou made all
men in vain? What man is he that liveth and
shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from
the hand of the grave? Selah. Lord, where are thy former
lovingkindnesses which thou swearest unto David in thy truth? Remember,
Lord, the reproach of thy servants, how I do bear in my bosom the
reproach of all the mighty people, wherewith thine enemies have
reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps
of thine anointed. Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and amen. and so the psalm
ends as it begins. And that is bringing praise unto
the Lord. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. Now this is indeed a psalm considered
by most to have been written by David, It doesn't really tell
us that it was. It was given to Ethan the Ezraite,
who was probably one of the musicians, as many of the Psalms are given
to various musicians to sing. Of course, this is the hymn book
of the Bible, are the Psalms, which literally the word Psalm
means song of praise. And so, So the beginning here, and I
believe that these are the words of Christ, even though they're
given to David. The Lord said, I will sing of
the mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth, while I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. And he has done that with his
own mouth as he was anointed by the Lord to go forth to bring
the gospel. Never been a more true gospel
preacher on the earth than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord anointed
him for that purpose, that he might preach liberty to the captains
and set those that were bound free. And so he says, I will
sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I
make known thy faithfulness to all generations. And so the Lord
Of course we know that he's not here in the flesh, but the Lord
Jesus Christ is indeed with his people. He's told his people,
his disciples, he said, I will send my spirit and he will guide
you into all truth. And when the Lord sends men into
the world to declare his truth, it's just as if he is declaring
that truth because they're not, God didn't send men into the
world to make up stuff. He didn't send men into the world
to figure out stuff. He sent men into the world to
declare the acceptable year of the Lord. And so when men preach
something that is outside of the realm of the acceptable year
of the Lord, that is declaring the glory of God as it's revealed
in Jesus Christ, with the centrality of that thought being on that
which Christ came to do, as Paul said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of Christ. And he said to the Corinthians,
I've determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And that is the message that
we've been sent into the world to declare. Now, there are men
that get strung out on all sorts of prophecies and doctrines of
one kind or another, and you can listen to them day after
day, and many of them never even mention Christ. But I'm telling
you, a preacher, the whole message that he has is Christ and Him
crucified, not preaching the gospel. Now he may be eloquent
and he may be good. He may be able to gather and
hold a crowd. He may do great things as far
as men look at it. But if a man is not preaching
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. If you come away from hearing
what a man says, and that's not the central thing that is upon
your mind and heart, then you have not heard the gospel, because
that's what the gospel is. And so we will sing of the mercies
of the Lord forever, because that is the mercy of God manifested
unto men. How else has the Lord shown His
mercy unto men except through Jesus Christ as He sent His own
begotten Son into the world to die for sinners? Now that is
the demonstration of mercy. That is set before the Lord,
saying, If I be lifted up, I'll draw men unto myself. And that
is what the Lord came to do. I'll make known thy faithfulness. to all generations. Now how has
the Lord been faithful to all generations? I mean, He never
changes. So there's a sense in which He's
faithful because He's faithful. But what's being spoken of here
is the fact that the Lord, as He goes on to say in this Psalm,
that He will never forsake His people. He's faithful unto that
people which He chose and gave to Christ from before the foundation
of the world. They are special in His sight
and He will do all things to bring them unto Himself. He said, I'll give people for
thee. I'll give men for thee, and people for thy life. He said,
Nothing will be withheld from those whom I love. The Lord Jesus
Christ, when He prayed in the garden, He said, Father, I pray
not for the world, but I pray for them whom thou hast given
me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them to me. So this is the demonstration
of God's faithfulness. And I believe this is a true
thing, that you cannot absolutely preach on the faithfulness of
God if you do not preach on the faithfulness of God to His elect.
I mean, where has his faithfulness been seen? I mean, the Lord,
sure, he's faithful to cause the sun to rise. He's faithful
to cause the seasons to occur and all of those things. But
those are the natural occurrences which he has ordained and set
forth in the earth. But his faithfulness that faileth
not is manifested in the people of his choice, those whom he
loves with an everlasting love. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. I mean this, that's what the
glories of heaven are. Now men think, and we've talked
about this from time to time, men think about heaven, by and
large, in a carnal way. And they think about it as it's
some place where they're gonna be able to do whatever it is
that makes them happy in this world. is what they're going
to be doing in heaven. If that's fishing, then they're
going to have, you know, the best bass boat and all that kind
of stuff, and everything's going to be going great. But that's
carnal thinking. Because as we sang there a moment
ago, the Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's Lamb. And the thing
that would, you know, cause the sons of God to have the greatest
delight is to be in His presence. to see Him. Why? Because in Him
is the mercy of God. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. Mercy shall be built up forever.
Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. Now, there's
kind of like a shifting of gears here. Now, I believe this is
Christ speaking in both ways here, but I believe He's speaking
as the Father in this next verse as he is speaking as the son
in the first two verses and he says this I have made a covenant
with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant now this chosen
here is singular he has a chosen one now David of course we understand
that David was a king that the Lord set up, and he was a special
king, and the Lord blessed him specially, and he said that David
was a man after his own heart. The Lord loved David, most surely
He did, as we can see throughout the pages of the Scripture. And
in the sense in which the Lord uses types, David, He is speaking
of David here, but He is speaking of one who is greater than David. The David of whom he is actually
speaking of here is not the one who died and is buried somewhere
in the earth today, but he is speaking about that greater David,
that chosen one, that one who is his elect. See, the Scripture
says that Christ is the elect of God. We wouldn't have any
election. We wouldn't have any place to
be elected into if it was not for Christ being that one who
is chosen of God, the firstborn, to come into the world to save
His people. There wouldn't be any salvation
about it. We wouldn't have any place to be was it not that we
were chosen in Christ. And so he says here, I made my
covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one of whom he speaks here. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. Now remember, when
Paul is speaking to the Galatians about the promises of God that
were given as the Jews thought, unto Abraham and his seed. And they thought that meant the
multitude of all the children that came forth from the loins
of Abraham. But that's not what Paul said. He said, to Abraham and to thy
seed, not as of many, but as of one, even Jesus Christ. So the seed of Abraham is Christ. The seed of David is Christ. I mean, you know, isn't that
an amazing thing that he is of the house of David? And yet he's
greater than David. Yes, he is. In fact, David can
be said to be his seed and yet he is of the seed of David. That's
a glorious thing, is it not? But the Lord does have a seed
that is just like Adam and Eve or Adam had the seed of all the
human race within him when he was created. Have you ever thought
about that? I mean all of the seed of the
human race was in Adam. The seed of God is in Jesus Christ. Those whom He has chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world, they belong to Him.
They are His offspring. Not by natural birth, but by
spiritual birth. That's why he said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. And so it is that the Lord does
indeed raise up his seed. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. Now David died. He couldn't have been speaking
about him. David died, but the Lord Jesus Christ, He has raised
up His seed to all generations, those that belong to Him, from
every tribe, kindred, and tongue in all the ages, from the beginning. Now who are they? Now a lot of
people spend time trying to figure out who the elect of God are. I don't know who the elect of
God are. I trust and hope that I am numbered among them. And
I believe all those who have confessed Christ and believe
Him are numbered among those, but I don't know who they are.
You see, because a man says, I believe, doesn't necessarily
mean that he does. Because I've known a lot of people
that said they believed and turned away and walked no more with
the Lord. Just like many of His disciples did in His day. So
we don't know who the elect are. But we know that the Lord is
faithful unto them, and he calls his own to himself. The Lord
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. You see, if a man is one of the
elect of God, he must come to Christ. The Lord said, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Now some people present that
as though he was out here trying to get some people to come, but
he was commanding those who were in places of need to come to
him. He called sinners. See, the call
of God is not... You know, when I was a little
boy, my mama would often call me. And I'd hear her calling
and I'd just go on about my business because I knew she wasn't really
serious yet. And she might come call again
and I'd still be busy. But buddy, when she called me
by my three names, Michael, Anthony, McInnes, I want you to come here
right now. I knew it was time to come then.
And that's the effectual call of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now not everybody hears it. And
some people just go on about their business as if nothing's
going on. But when the Lord calls His sheep
by name, He said, they come to Him. They follow Him. So who are the elect? They're
those that follow Christ. I can't know them. You can't
know them ahead of time until the Lord manifests them. I mean,
we can't know. And I forget, I think it was
George Whitefield, I believe, he said that he, He didn't know
who was going to be in heaven. But he said he figured that there'd
be some people there that he never figured would. There'd
be some people there that he thought, or there wouldn't be
some people there that he thought surely would have been there.
But he said the most amazing thing is, is that by the grace
of God I'll be there. And that's not presumption, dear
brethren, if we believe. that the Lord calls us by His
grace and gives us a love for His Word, a love for Christ.
Because how could a man have a love for Christ if the Lord
didn't give it to him? See, a man can't just decide
one day that he's gonna love Christ. He can't make himself
love Christ. Only the Lord can bring that
to pass. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. because he will
be worshipped forever in all generations. And the heavens
shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the
congregation of the saints. Because that is where the faithfulness
of God is seen, is among the saints of God. Scripture says
that the name of the wicked shall rot. Now, that seems to indicate
that they are of no consequence. But the Lord's people, Scripture
says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
saints. Why? Because He's faithful to
them. They're precious. He knows where each one is. And
He calls them unto Himself at the time both as far as the call
of the Gospel is concerned and as that call when He brings us
out of this world. You know, we don't know when
that is. Some people live to be 100 years old. Some people
don't make it to 20. The Lord knows them that are
his. And he calls them at the appointed
time. And that's an appointment that
no man can be late for. And you can't be there before
you're supposed to. It's in the hand of the Lord.
For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord. Among all the gods, and we've
spoken about that, and of course the scripture often speaks of
the gods, many gods, there are many gods. There's a bunch of
them running around. People got all kind of gods. I mean, you know, there's gods
of many. Now, are they true gods? No,
because there's only one true and living God. But there's gods
of men's imagination. I mean, make up one like they
want him to be. You know, he's like grandpa sitting
on this big throne somewhere with a long white beard, and
he wouldn't hurt a fly, and just trying to, you know, get folks
to do what he wants to do. He's wanting them to help him
out. But that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible
says, I will do according to my will. in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and there is none
that can stay my hand or say unto thee, What doest thou? David
said, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. So who in the heaven can be compared
to the Lord? I mean, the answer to that is
nobody. I mean, there is none that can compare unto the Lord
in the heavens. Who among the sons of the mighty
can be likened unto the Lord? I don't know of but one. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
because he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Yet he came
and walked among men to demonstrate that he is indeed the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Even as he said unto Philip,
Have I been so long time with you and you don't know me? He
said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Now, I'll leave
that. You know, there are great men
down through the ages, scholars, that have spent worlds of time
and effort in trying to explain and figure out how God is the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I've read a lot of
those books. And I didn't know any more about
it when I got through than before I read the books. And I'm not
saying that a man shouldn't be interested in looking at these
things, but dear brethren, God dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. He alone hath immortality. And
who or what is a potsherd of the earth doing trying to explain
how God is? Job thought he knew how God was. See, he said, until God showed
up. And then he said, buddy, I put
my hand on my mouth. And he said, I have heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee,
and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, that we
might repent in dust and ashes when we think that we've got
a handle on those things that are eternal that we cannot even
begin to comprehend. I don't understand that. How
that the Lord Jesus Christ can say, He that has seen me has
seen the Father. I can't fully explain that, but
yet at the same time I believe that's what the Scripture says.
And so I believe He is God of very God. He's the only God that
you'll ever see. You can't see Him who's invisible,
but Jesus Christ, He has declared Him. He's manifested Him. He's
come and walked among men in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin. What a glorious God. Who among
the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is
greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had
in reverence of all those that are about him. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name? Our God is a consuming fire.
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. What a wondrous God, He is. He's to be greatly feared in
the assembly of the saints. When we come together, it's not
the time to be bobbing around and hooping and hollering. No,
let all the earth keep silence before Him. See, the essence
of worship is silence. That's what Job learned. He put
his hand on his mouth. That's what Daniel learned. He
said, when I saw him, he said, all of my comeliness, all of
the beauty that I thought was in myself, he says, it turned
into corruption. When John saw him on the Isle
of Patmos, he says, I fell at his feet as dead. He is greatly to be feared. He's
a great and mighty God. I fear that today there's such
great familiarity. Men think they know something
about God. Dear brethren, we don't know
anything about God except what He has delivered to us and has
manifested to us, and that is that Jesus Christ is the Savior
of sinners. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He is that One whom we are called
to worship. to be had in reverence of all
of them, holy and reverend is his name. I got a little pet
peeve and it bothers me when men take to themselves the title
of reverend. The scripture says holy and reverend
is his name. Now dear brethren, if holy and
reverend is his name, why on earth would a man want to be
called reverend. I've never called reverend. I
know that it's a very common thing. You know, and if you say
anything about it, people look at you like you're some kind
of a nut. But if I, when I can, and I have been called reverend
from time to time, but when I knew it and when it was in a situation
where I could correct it, I did correct it. I don't want to be
called reverend because reverend is his name. And what that means
is the one who's to be revered. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong
Lord, like unto Thee, or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? Who is like unto the Lord, glorious
in truth and majesty, full of mercy, God who called upon his
name. Who is like unto him? There is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now the way men think about forgiveness
is, well, if there's forgiveness with the Lord, then we just,
you know, we'll just go on about our business and do whatever
we want to, but you see, the scripture says there's forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. You see, when a man understands
that God ought to just smash him like a bug under his thumb
and just grind him to powder. The fact that God would show
mercy and forgive the sins of a people ought to cause us
to be fearful to come into his presence. What a great and mighty
God is he. Oh, that he might cause us to
fear his name. to magnify the name of Christ,
who's our Savior. The Savior of sinners. Not the
one who's trying to save folks who failed at Him, but the one
who went to Calvary's cross and poured out His blood to pay the
sin-debt of His people. He's mighty to save. Who is this
that cometh from Eden with thine garments from Basra? He that
is mighty to save. I the Lord. Oh, what a glorious
God He is. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion. The Lord does indeed reign and
rule among the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and the saints of God praise Him. Oh, that my mouth might
be filled with His praise forever. Someone have a question or a
comment? Yes, He will. Yes, if any man
ever doubts the judgment of God, they need to look to Calvary's
cross, and then they'll know God will not acquit the wicked. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He will exact the punishment that is due unto
sin, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life in Jesus Christ. What a contrast. Men think they're
going to earn something. They are. If they keep going,
they think they're going to come before God and get what they
deserve. They are. See, every man that thinks he's
going to get something he deserves before God, he is going to get
it. But it's not going to be what he thinks it is going to
be. Well, the grace of God is not
something that a man earns, it's something that a man's given. I remember this thought came,
I was thinking about this earlier in the week. Brother Rolf Barnard,
he was telling a story about one time he was conducting some
meetings in a little town and he went in this store and this
a young girl was behind the counter and she was waiting on him and
she told him, you know, well, you know, I heard you're the
one that's preaching down there at that church. They struck up
a conversation and she said, well, I'm a Christian. He says,
is that right? He said, well, how long have
you been a Christian? And she said, I've always been a Christian.
He said, honey, he said, that's too long. See, nobody's always been a Christian. Oh, you were raised up and you
heard the gospel and all of these things. Does that mean that you're
a Christian?