Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the Psalms,
specifically Psalm 85. Psalm 85, and the title is Mercy
and Truth Become Friends. Mercy and Truth Become Friends.
I took that title from verse 10. of Psalm 85 where it says,
mercy and truth are met together. And then it goes on to expound
upon that even further, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And so I wanna show you something
that is a problem that only the Lord God of heaven can answer,
can solve concerning the salvation of his people. Most people would
read a verse like that. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And they just
roll right over and say, well, what's the big deal? Mercy and
truth. Well, it is a very, very big deal. And it strikes at the
very heart of the problem that we have as sinners who fell in
Adam, ruined by the fall. and who are born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, and who by nature, or as we are
naturally born and based on our works, we are sinful people who
deserve nothing but eternal damnation and death. And so the problem
goes back to the age-old question that was posed at the very beginning
of the Bible in Genesis 3. The age-old question that was
posed in the oldest book of the Bible, the book of Job. And that
is this, how can a sinner be justified before God? How can
God have mercy upon a sinner and still judge and act according
to truth. God is not in the business of
pretending or ignoring reality. God deals with fact. He deals
with truth. What am I truthfully in God's
sight? I'm a sinner. who, based on my
best efforts to keep the law, deserve nothing but death and
wrath. Now that's the truth of the matter.
And the issue comes from this fact here that God must act in
justice. God must act in truth. He cannot have mercy upon me
and not deal in a just way with me. He must act in justice towards
me. And so the question is, well,
how can he do that and still have mercy? Now we know, we think
about human courts and we think about a criminal who comes up
against, who is accused of a crime and comes up before the judge
and cast himself at the mercy of the court. He's guilty. He
did the crime. The law says he must do the time. He must pay the penalty. And
yet the judge says, well, I'm going to be merciful and let
you off. Now we might admire that judge and we might say,
well, this fella, he's not really a bad guy. He, this is just a
first time offense, but you need to understand something about
that situation, whether you like it or not, whether you admire
the judge or not. And especially if the criminal
who is accused is, is a son or a daughter or a husband or a
wife, you may say, well, I'm glad that he had mercy. If he
does that, he acts in mercy, but justice and truth are not
served at all. You need to understand that.
Justice says you do the crime, you do the time. And if that
situation doesn't happen, if justice is not satisfied, if
the penalty is not paid, then justice is perverted. Now, I'm
talking about human courts here. Now, here's what I'm saying.
In God's court of justice, He cannot pervert justice in order
to show mercy. He cannot pervert the truth or
deny the truth that is in Himself. The truth of His justice, His
holiness, His righteousness. And He cannot deny the truth
that we're sinners who have earned nothing but death. He cannot
pervert that. He cannot act in opposition to
that in order to show mercy. But here in Psalm 85 10, it says,
mercy and truth are met together. And the sense is that it's not
just meeting as, you know, say we're introducing. No, they come
together in harmony. And how do you know that? Well,
the next line, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. In other words, there's a union
there. There's a friendship there. There's a quality of there that
is not naturally there. So how does that happen? Well,
if you go back to Psalm 85 here, and you look at verse one, this
is a short psalm. He says in verse one, Lord, thou
has been favorable unto thy land, thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. And of course, what he's talking
about there is bringing the children of Israel back out of captivity. Verse two, thou has forgiven
the iniquity of thy people, thou has covered all their sin. Now
there's a key to what we're talking about. There's a covering for
sin. Now whenever in the Old Testament we see in the prayers
of the Bible and the types and the pictures and the prophecies,
the covering of sin doesn't mean covering over sin so as to hide
it from view. In fact, the covering over of
sin to hide it from view is most of the time considered hypocrisy. It's not just a covering over
of sin to hide it from view. The covering has to do with an
atonement in the Old Testament and in the New Testament has
to do with a reconciliation. It says here in verse 2, God
had forgiven the iniquity of His people. Now, in a temporal,
ceremonial, temporal way, temporary way, you could apply that to
the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant whose sins were
covered again, now listen to me, whose sins were covered in
a temporal, ceremonial, temporary way, symbolically by the blood
of animals. The blood of animals pictured
and typified the justice of God, satisfied by a substitute, a
sacrifice. Now, why was that necessary?
Because the wages of sin is death. The just punishment for sin is
death. And therefore, blood had to be
shed. That goes all the way back to the fall of man in Genesis
3. When Adam and Eve fell, God had told Adam, in the day that
you eat of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, you shall surely die. That's the penalty of sin. That's
the penalty of disobeying God, the penalty of rebellion. It's death. Now Adam fell, he
disobeyed God and he fell. And what he and Eve did, they
became ashamed of their nakedness and they sewed fig leaf aprons
together to hide their nakedness. That was symbolic of man trying
to just hide his sin. We all do that with each other.
You have sinful thoughts. I have sinful thoughts. We don't
want them displayed out there in public. And so we hide them. We cover them over. But now God
cannot do that. And so God removed the fig leaf
aprons and in Genesis 3 and verse 21 it says that He slew an animal,
killed an animal, shed blood. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. And he made coats of skin, which
is a reference to righteousness established through that death.
And so that's settled back then. And then you see the example
of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Cain brought the works of his
hands, the fruit of the ground. What did Abel bring? And Cain
was rejected by God. What did Abel bring? He brought
the blood of a lamb. You see, that's what the covering
of sin under the Old Covenant types and pictures was symbolized
by the blood of animals. But now the blood of animals
could not in an eternal, spiritual, permanent way, take away sin. The blood of animals could not
actually pay the penalty of the sins of God's true people, His
elect. That was just a symbol. That
was just a type. That was just a picture. And
they pictured what? The blood of the Lamb of God,
the blood of Christ, which does bear away sin. The Bible says
in Hebrews 10 and verse 14, by one offering, Christ hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. It's by His blood. We're redeemed,
not with silver and gold and corruptible things. We who are
redeemed, evidenced by our believing, evidenced by our believing, not
brought about by our believing, but evidenced by our believing,
we who are redeemed are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
Now, back over here in Psalm 85 in verse two, thou hast forgiven
the iniquity of thy people. On what basis? Thou hast covered
all their sin." You remember in the tabernacle of old, you
had the different courts. You had the outer court, and
right when you went through the door, there was the brazen altar
where the sacrifice was killed and burned. and they took the
blood from off the altar, and then you had the holy place,
which had the golden candlestick, the golden laver, the table of
showbread, and all the priests could go in there. Then you had
the inner chamber, the holiest of all, which contained the Ark
of the Covenant, and over top was a lid. And the high priest,
one time a year, would bring the blood of the sacrifice on
the Day of Atonement. The high priest alone could go
into that Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle the blood over
that lid. And you know what that lid was
called? The mercy seat. Now that, again, was another
symbolic representation of the blood of Christ, shed as the
full payment of the sins of His people, all whom the Father gave
Him before the foundation of the world." His blood means justice
satisfied. His blood means righteousness
established. And so look at verse three of
Psalm 85. He said, thou has turned away
all thy wrath, thou has turned thyself from the fierceness of
thine anger. The word propitiation, are you
familiar with that word? It appears three or four times
in the New Testament. It means a turning away of God's
wrath based on justice satisfied. Now, he says in verse four, turn
us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to
cease. Verse five, wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt
thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Verse six, wilt
thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Now what he's talking about here is as God has been reconciled
to his people based on the blood of Christ, Now, the gospel goes
out and God reveals Himself by the power of the Spirit and His
people are turned toward Him. And He says in verse 7, Show
us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Now, how are
we going to see God's mercy and God's salvation when we deserve
nothing but death and hell? Well, listen to verse eight.
Now, here's the key. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. That's the key. It doesn't matter
what men say or women say. Doesn't matter the opinions of
men. Somebody says, well, what do you think about this? Well,
who cares? Let's hear what God the Lord will speak. Now, how
am I going to hear what God the Lord will speak? Through his
word, in the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna hear what God
will speak. Now, here's what God will say
to his people. He says, for he will, this is
verse eight, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. God's gonna
speak peace to his people. Now, who are God's people? Well, they're his chosen people
whom he chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Christ
They are those whom He placed all of their salvation upon Christ,
conditioned upon Christ. They're the ones for whom Christ
became surety, meaning that He took all the responsibility and
accountability of their sin debt. Their sins were imputed to Christ,
laid upon Him. The Lord hath laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all. They are those whom Christ came
into the world and redeemed by His blood. These are the ones
for whom Christ died, not all without exception now. Don't
listen to that. No, it's His people. And how
does He speak peace to His people? Well, He does it through the
preaching of the gospel of peace, showing them that Christ has
made peace by the blood of His cross, that Christ has died in
their place, satisfied the justice of God and brought forth an everlasting
righteousness based upon which God can be true to himself and
still have mercy on sinners. You see, it's all based on a
just ground, just to satisfy. And what is that ground? It's
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his righteousness that is
imputed, accounted, charged. to his people. And upon that
basis, God speaks peace unto his people and to his saints.
Now this tells us something here. Who are God's people? They're
his saints. And who are his saints? They
are sanctified ones. They are set apart by God. They were set apart before the
foundation of the world as God chose them and gave them to Christ.
They are set apart as God has justified them, forgiven their
sins, and declared them righteous, based upon the righteousness
of Christ imputed. They are those whom Christ redeemed
by His blood on the cross. And how does He speak peace to
them? Through the preaching of the gospel when He brings them
to faith in Christ. My friend, this is talking about
believers. This is not talking about everybody
without exception. This is talking about those who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are sanctified by God by
the Holy Spirit. That's what the scripture says
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. When he talks about the elect
of God, we're bound to give thanks. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. And it's the gospel of peace.
It's the gospel of a work that is finished by Jesus Christ.
For Christ, Romans 10, four, for Christ is the end of the
law, the finishing, the fulfillment, perfection of the law for righteousness
to them that believe, to everyone who believes. And so he says,
he speaks peace. Now look at verse nine of Psalm
85. He says, surely his salvation
is nigh them that fear him. Now who are those who fear God?
This is not talking about a legal fear of punishment and death.
This is not talking about some mercenary relationship between
God and sinners where they're seeking to earn their rewards
and fear of losing those rewards. This is believing God in Christ.
This is resting in Christ. This is submitting to Christ
as their righteousness before God. It's to believe God, it's
to worship God, it's to respect Him. And His salvation is nigh,
it's near them. It's not far off. It's right
there in Christ. And he says that glory may dwell
in our land. And then here's the basis, verse
10. Mercy and truth are met together. How do mercy and truth come together
as friends? Things which are naturally enemies,
how do they come together as friends? On the basis of the
just ground. of the blood of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ imputed. And that's what he describes
here. Look at verse 10 again. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. How can God,
who is just and holy and who must punish sin, how can God
look at a sinner like me, who deserves nothing but his hatred,
his wrath, His justice against me? How can He be my friend? Abraham is called the friend
of God. How's that come together? How can righteousness, which
is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice, and peace for
a sinner kiss each other? Come together. It's only on the
basis. of salvation by God's grace that
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And so he says in verse 11, truth
shall spring out of the earth. Now, how did truth spring out
of the earth? Well, you know what that's talking
about? It's talking about the humanity of Christ. The Bible
teaches us that Christ is both God and man in one person. And Christ, the second person
of the Trinity, who is very God of very God, he came down and
occupied the womb of the Virgin Mary in that conception by the
Holy Spirit. And he occupied her womb for
nine months and he sprang out of the earth without the aid
of man, not born in sin as we are, but that holy birth, that
holy thing the angel said. And so truth, he said, I am the
way, the life, and the truth. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but me. So in Christ, truth sprang out of the earth. That's the
only way truth can spring out. This world is fallen, people. And truth cannot come out of
this earth, naturally, by men. Now, I'm not saying that they're
not men and women who tell the truth. I'm talking about the
gospel. I'm talking about how God saves
sinners. That didn't come from the earth. But in Christ, truth
sprang out of the earth. And then it says, and righteousness
shall look down from heaven. Christ, as the truth, as the
surety, as the substitute, as the redeemer of his people, walked
this earth, and went to the cross, suffered, bled, died, was buried,
arose again the third day because He satisfied justice in the place
of His chosen people, all whom the Father gave to Him. That's
for whom He died, His sheep, His church, all who believe.
And what He did is after He arose from the dead, He ascended unto
heaven. as the one who accomplished the
work of the salvation of his people, as their righteousness. And so in Christ, righteousness
shall look down from heaven. The righteousness by which I
am saved and justified and accepted with God, the righteousness upon
which mercy and truth are met together, become friends, The
righteousness is Christ's righteousness charged, accounted, imputed to
me. It's not in me. It's in Christ
and it's charged to me. It's accounted to me. That's
why the Bible says in Romans 4, 6, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. In other words,
it has nothing to do with my works. It's all his work. And
so verse 12 of Psalm 85 says, yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good, that is in Christ, and our land shall yield her
increase. Now there was a limited application
of that to the nation Israel under the old covenant. But the
greater application, the spiritual application is to spiritual Israel. who's the tree that sits by the
water, trees of righteousness made so by God that bear fruit. And so he says in verse 13, righteousness
shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Righteousness shall go before
him. Before who? Before Christ. and shall set
us, his people, all whom the Father gave to him. You remember
he said in John 6, 37, all whom the Father hath given me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. And he said, this is the will
of him that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. He's gonna
set his people in the way of his steps. And what does that
mean? That means He came to save them. He came to die for them. He came
to establish righteousness for them. And it's all His steps
that we dwell in. We dwell in the merits of the
obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way
of the righteous. That's the way of grace. That's
the way of the cross. That's the way of God. And so
mercy and truth have become friends. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. How? How is that possible? Well, man does not have the answer. Man will tell you, well, you
just gotta do the best you can and you hope for the best in
the end, or that God will save you and he'll bless you if you
believe this or do that, things like that. Mercy and truth become
friends. Mercy and truth are met together. because of what Christ accomplished
on the cross for his people. And there's nothing added to
that. Now, out of that transaction comes the fruit of the blessedness
of the people of God. That's their salvation. And that
fruit includes spiritual life to the dead. You must be born
again or you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. That truth
includes, that fruit includes spiritual life, and spiritual
life is evidenced by spiritual knowledge and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, faith is not the cause
of my salvation. Christ's righteousness, Christ's
blood, His power, His goodness, His merit is the cause of my
salvation. God's love in Christ. Faith is
the fruit of salvation. Here's what I'm telling you.
If Christ died for you, you will live again. You will be brought
to faith in Him. You will be brought to believe
in Him. And you will be brought by God to repent. of all else,
turn to Christ and repent of your dead works, all that fruit
unto death, all that you were so proud of. That which you highly
esteemed before, you'll see as an abomination now. And you'll
turn to Christ and you'll You'll be set in the way of his step. You see that? He'll set us in
the way of his. We don't come of our own free
will, but he changes our will and he sets us in the way of
his steps. And what is the way of his steps?
Mercy and truth become friends. Mercy and truth are met together
in him. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive. Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact
us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.