Psalm 99, p2 of 2

Q: What does the Bible say about the reign of Christ?

The Bible asserts that Christ reigns as Jehovah and has all authority over heaven and earth, having accomplished salvation for His people. Psalm 99 emphasizes the reign of Christ as both God and man, asserting His authority and holiness. The psalm begins by declaring, 'The Lord reigneth,' indicating that Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of God's promises, rules from heaven, seated among the cherubim. This reign is anchored in His finished work of salvation, where He made propitiation for our sins through His blood, establishing Him as the sovereign authority in the context of salvation. Such a reign is a source of awe for believers, who recognize the holiness of God and His gracious provision through Christ.

Q: How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for salvation?

Scripture teaches that Christ's one offering and His exaltation prove the sufficiency of His sacrifice for the redemption of His people. The sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice is evidenced in His exaltation to God's right hand. By offering Himself without spot to God and securing eternal redemption, He fulfills all righteousness required by God. This truth is underscored in passages like Acts 5:31, where the resurrected Christ is exalted to be a Savior, granting repentance and forgiveness of sins. The fact that God accepted Christ's sacrifice on behalf of sinners and seated Him in authority assures believers that their salvation is complete and that they can confidently approach God through Him.

Q: Why is God's holiness important for Christians?

God's holiness is vital as it demonstrates His perfect nature and establishes the basis for our salvation through Christ's righteousness. God's holiness reveals His perfect nature and the unapproachable light in which He dwells. In Psalm 99, this holiness is a recurring theme that instills reverence and awe among His people. Understanding this holiness is essential for Christians, as it emphasizes the need for a mediator—Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law and established righteousness on our behalf. Through Christ’s vicarious sacrifice, God’s holiness is upheld while sinners are made righteous. Consequently, believers can approach God with confidence, knowing they are covered by the righteousness of Christ.

Q: What does it mean that Christ is our propitiation?

Christ as our propitiation means He took on the wrath of God towards sin, satisfying divine justice through His sacrifice. The term 'propitiation' signifies that Christ has appeased God's righteous anger against sin by offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice. This concept is rooted in the Old Testament sacrificial system, where atonement was made through blood. In connection with Psalm 99, we recognize that Jesus, through His shed blood, has not only satisfied God’s justice but has also reconciled believers to God. His propitiation ensures that we are no longer under condemnation but accepted by the Father, thus securing our eternal redemption. This truth is foundational for understanding the grace we receive through faith in Him.

Psalm 99. Now I sent out the document and I realize it's way larger than anybody will probably read except me. So I want to read through this psalm anyway. And let's try to do as I do when I pick up scripture especially one that I've read before and find that here I am starting again it seems like fresh trying to understand it and to glean from it what the Lord has is actually saying there so in Psalm 99 it opens with this way we're going to read through this psalm there's only nine verses it says the Lord reigneth and The Lord here is all capitals, Jehovah, Jehovah God. We know the Lord Jesus is the one intended here because of the contents of this psalm and the previous psalms that went before it from Psalm 91, talking about the reign of Christ. And throughout the New Testament, we'll see this as we go through it, but it says, the Lord reigneth. That's the scene, the scene that God opens to his people in heaven. that they see by faith, they opened it from his word, is that Jesus Christ is the Lord, Jehovah.

And as God and man, he reigns because he accomplished his father's will. And his father honors him. His Father honors Him and put Him, because of what He accomplished, put Him in the place of absolute authority over everything to save His people to the uttermost.

And that's what we'll see here. So the Lord reigneth. And it says, therefore, let the people tremble. Tremble. Now, we think of that as fear that grips us and terrorizes us. But that's not the fear He's talking about here. Not for the Lord's people. As we saw last time, this trembling here has to do with that awestruck recognition of what is going on in this psalm, what the Lord is revealing to us through his word of what is true in heaven.

And we see it in the next words, he says, he sits between the cherubim, or among, that's his habitation is the cherubim, let the earth be moved. Again, the earth being moved is restating the words, let the people tremble in a different way, let them be moved, let this grip them with this sense of awe. and being overwhelmed by what is being said here. And what is being said here is that the Lord reigns and He sits between the cherubims.

The cherubims, of course, as we saw last time, have to do with the mercy seat. That's the place where the cherubims look down and the high priest sprinkled the blood. And we know the mercy seat is the Lord Jesus Christ in its fulfillment. The fulfillment of that type, the mercy seat, is that Christ is our propitiation.

By his own blood, he made satisfaction to God. He entered himself into heaven with his own blood and offered himself to God. And by that offering of himself has obtained eternal redemption for us. It was one offering Christ offered. He offered himself, an offering made to God, an offering for the sins of his people in order to redeem them to God by his precious blood.

That's where God dwells. That's his throne. This is the place where God is reigning in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ who accomplished our salvation is in the place of absolute sovereign authority over all things, and primarily over all things for the salvation of his people.

I'm gonna just mention a couple references here. I don't expect you to turn to them, but in Acts chapter two, is the first place I'm going to mention. In Acts chapter two, there's a sermon that Peter preached. And in that sermon, he makes this statement.

He says, therefore, in verse 33 of Acts two, being by the right hand of God exalted, the Lord Jesus Christ, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear. So the point I want to make from that verse is that because Christ reigns, God the Father has given him the Holy Spirit to send the Holy Spirit to enable his people, the apostles in this case, at the day of Pentecost, to preach the gospel. In order that, he would bring his people to himself through that light, the light of the gospel about his accomplishments as the propitiation for their sins, to take away their sins and bring them to God. So this is astounding.

This is what should grip us with awe, that God is among the cherubims. God offered himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God offered himself in our nature when we were sinners and could not We could not come to God. There was no way we could take away our sins. His holiness would reject us. And yet God himself provided for himself on our behalf. in the blood of his son so that he might save us. And the way he does that, he brings that to us by sending his Holy Spirit from his throne, his reigning throne, having accomplished our salvation. And we could say it this way. Christ reigns. Christ went to the cross and Christ was exalted at the right hand of God in order to preach the gospel, to save his people from their sins. This is the power of God.

In Acts chapter 3 and verse 26, it says, this is a message that Peter was preaching again to the Jews who actually crucified Christ shortly after they had done this. He says in Acts 3, 26, unto you first, God, having raised up his son, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. So again, because Christ accomplished the work his father gave him to do, he drank that cup from his father's hand, the cup of suffering, the cup of wrath, bearing our sins under the curse and taking away the curse and taking away our sins and making satisfaction to God in his own blood. and exalting God's holiness, he, being exalted, is sent to turn away sinners, these who crucified his son from their iniquities. That is astounding, isn't it? That's gripping grace.

In Acts 5, verse 31, it says, him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Again, by the resurrected Christ, by the reigning sovereign Christ, because he accomplished our salvation, because our salvation has been obtained, He therefore sends his spirit to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to his people. And we could just go through scripture and see this, but you can see how how much God did in order to save his people by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's talking about in Psalm 99.

Christ reigns. He's the Lord. And he's the appointed and the anointed king. And he's the one who is among the cherubim because he's the one who offered himself to God in blood, in heaven itself, and obtained our eternal redemption for us. God, out of his love, gave him. that we might live by Him, and we live by Him because He made propitiation for our sins.

That's the message of the Gospel. And that's why this is so impactful. That's why it's so gripping. When the light of this shines in our heart, then we recognize that because Christ reigns, because He died for our sins, therefore our sins have been put away.

And because God did this who is holy, therefore this is holy. This is holy. This is God in His holiness revealed. The propitiation of Christ and the results of His blood offered to God. He reigns and everything is accomplished. Our sins are put away. We've been brought near in Christ to the throne of God himself. We have access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. OK, so that's verse one and verse two.

The Lord is great in Zion. Zion is the church and he is high above all the people. He's the head of the church and he is exalted above them because he's he is God's son. He's our Christ. He's he's God's Christ. He's our savior. He's our Lord. He's everything to us. He's our life. He's our all. We don't think of anything coming from ourselves. We look to him for everything. He's the head, just like the head of the body. Everything flows from the head.

He goes on in verse three, let them praise thy great and terrible name for it is holy. Again, we emphasize this because that's what this psalm is saying. God is holy. And the the great The awe-striking truth that comes from the psalm is that He who is holy has made propitiation for sinners, made propitiation to God for sinners, and to bring them to God, and make them holy, and bring them into God's presence. And so if God has done this, you know it's done right. It's done right. It's not something half done. It's not something that's compromising anything. This is actually exalting everything about God.

And that's why he says, let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy. The words terrible means God is His nature towards sinners would put them in terror, but because of Christ, this terror is turned into reverential awe. Okay. He says, otherwise we couldn't praise Him, could we? We couldn't praise Him if we were terrified of Him, but we're not terrified because by the light of the Gospel, God has given us faith, and faith teaches us that God has disarmed His wrath in the blood of His Son.

Then it says in verse four, the king's strength also loveth judgment. Thou dost establish equity, thou executes judgment and righteousness in Jacob. This is Christ. He's the king. And what is his strength? It says he loves judgment. Now, if Christ loves judgment, that means he's going to perform judgment. And he not only loves judgment, it says, he does establish equity or uprightness. Thou executes judgment and righteousness in Jacob.

Well, Jacob, again, it refers to God's people. It's another name for all of God's elect. the Israel of God, those who are of the, they are the true circumcision, which worship God in spirit, they rejoice in Christ Jesus, they have no confidence in the flesh. So, but the king's strength is that he loves judgment.

That means whatever Christ does, it's uncompromisingly holy. He doesn't consider what men think, He does it because it's right by God himself as the measure. God's will, God's mind, God's character, God's purpose, God's everything, God's glory, all of these, these are the things that move him to do what he does. So that means that what Christ did is perfectly consistent with God's righteous, holy judgment.

And that's the reason we have hope. That's the reason we're so thrilled that the Lord reigns, because he performed judgment and he did it by establishing equity. He executed judgment and righteousness. This establishing equity, it refers to the fact that he's establishing uprightness, which is what? What is this uprightness that Christ established? in His own life and obedience and death and resurrection, the righteousness of God for His people.

He made them holy. He justified them in His blood. He brought them near to God. He perfected them forever. He did everything for them. He made them holy, sanctified them. And so this is what the Lord does. This is His strength to perform this judgment. For their salvation in honor of God's truth, righteousness, justice, judgment, to the satisfaction, pleased his wrath, everything about it was pleasing to God. It magnified it. It's the outshining of God's majesty in the death of his son.

That's why he reigns. He actually accomplished this. God put him on this throne because he did all that pleases God. He put him in charge of everything because he knew that not only has he performed this, but he will carry it through to the uttermost because of his nature, because he doesn't fail.

All right, he goes on in verse four. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy. I'm going to take a minute to get to my place and my notes here so that I don't lose track of these things. Okay, that was verse five. Exalt ye the Lord. Let me see if I can find where I'm at in my notes here. Let's see here. Sorry. I'm on verse 5 and I'm getting there. Okay.

So, there's a scripture in 1 Chronicles, I mentioned this last time, in 1 Chronicles chapter 28. And I'll read that to you in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 so that we get the context here. This footstool, this term footstool, it sometimes is referring to earth. Earth is his footstool. That was actually in one of the sermons in the book of Acts. Earth is his footstool. But there's another thing that's also his footstool in 1 Chronicles chapter 28.

It says in verse 1, David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king. and of his sons and of the officers with the mighty men and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up upon his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people. As for me, I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God. So here, the Lord is referring to the Ark of the Covenant as His footstool and has made ready for the building.

So in this sense, if we apply it in this sense, which I'm inclined to do here, is that the footstool representing the Ark is another reference to the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if that's the case here, then when it says in Psalm 99, verse five, exalt the Lord, our God worship at his footstool for his holy, we're worshiping God because we only see him in Christ through his human nature.

Because he took on our nature, we can see God in his grace and in his truth. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to see him. God is invisible, but because He came in our nature and performed that work of salvation, He made God known. And we'll see this more in a minute here.

So in verse 5, Exalt ye the Lord and worship at His footstool, for He is holy. His nature, both His divine nature and His human nature, is holy. It's especially holy when we tie it in with verse 1, where He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. The one who made propitiation for our sins is holy and that's why he was accepted in his blood.

Verse six of Psalm 99, he says, Moses and Aaron among his priests and Samuel among them that call upon his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them. He spake to them in the cloudy pillar. They kept his testimonies and the ordinance that he gave them. Thou answerest them, O Lord our God, Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Inventions is a word that means, in this case, sinful things, their evil inventions.

All right, so from verse six through verse eight, it's talking about Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. And the natural question, that arises is why is God introducing and talking about Moses, Aaron, and Samuel in this psalm? How does this help us understand the message of this psalm? Because that's why it's given to us. He's using it, he says, Moses and Aaron among the priests, Samuel among them that call on his name, they called upon the Lord and he answered them. So what is the connection? between this psalm and these three men.

That's what I want to explore here for the next few minutes. Well, I think this is something that really helped me understand the message of this psalm. First, I want to point out, in verse one, we see the propitiation. We see Christ being offered, the one who is God, offering himself in our nature to God and obtaining our eternal redemption He is holy and therefore he reigns and this is the reason for our praise. This is the reason why we are Staggered by the revelation. The light is so bright from God's Word Concerning what he did for sinners and how though he the fact that he's holy He made them holy to be in his presence. That's staggering. That is comforting, isn't it? That takes away the trembling terror of God's holiness and brings us near in the comfort of faith, seeing that we're accepted in Christ. But what's the other part of this psalm?

Why in verse six does he say Moses and Aaron and Samuel? This is, it's interesting how things come to your mind as you're reading scripture. But I was going through Matthew, the book of Matthew, and one of the things that struck me as I was going through Matthew is how uncompromising the Lord Jesus Christ is. If you read Matthew's chapter five, six, and seven, the Sermon on the Mount, The Lord says, you know, look, there's things that you do that you heard were sinful in the past.

But I'm telling you, if you even think that it's wrong, he says, if you if you are angry with your brother, you're committing murder in your heart already. If you look and just look on a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery in your heart. If you call your brother fool or rock that you're danger of hellfire. Those are things that are very strict, aren't they?

So you can see that in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he doesn't speak, now I'm gonna tell you what Moses said, and you need to believe that. He says, you have heard, then he follows it, but I say unto you. It's authoritative, isn't it? He's speaking as God. He's speaking with authority. And he's speaking as the prophet, as Moses said, God would raise up.

So that's the first thing I noticed in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And then as you go through the Gospel of Matthew, you also see this uncompromising character of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not influenced by what men thought. We are, but he was not. And so much so that when the Pharisees came to him, He just flatly told them, you're hypocrites.

They were the ruling people in that religion, in that government. Not in the civil government, but in the religious government. They were the rulers. They called the shots. And he said, you're hypocrites. You're just a pretense. You're pretending, and it's just all false, so many things.

And then not only did he say that to the Pharisees, but when Peter, for example, when he told Peter and his disciples, it's necessary that the Son of Man go to the cross in Matthew 16, and Peter said, no, far be it from thee, Lord, I'm not gonna allow that.

He turned to Peter and he said, get behind me, Satan. Now that's, he didn't, I would have said, now Peter, you need to settle down a little bit, you know, and go try to soften it up. He just, he came right out. Get behind me, Satan. Because Peter was opposing the very thing Christ came into the world to do, which was to do the will of his father, to finish his father's work, to save his people by offering himself in sacrifice to God and exalting God in all of his perfections, bringing glory to God in that salvation. So he rebuked Peter. Later on, his disciples were unable to cast a devil out of a man's son. And and and Jesus said, oh, faithless generation, how long will I put up with you? Again, you see how Christ was uncompromising and he didn't pull any punches.

If we would say it that way. Now, I say all that to build up to what I'm going to say, what follows here about Moses, Aaron and Samuel. Because Moses, Aaron and Samuel are three men God used to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. They were men that were chosen. They were men that were appointed. Moses was chosen, called by God, appointed by God to that role. He was made a prophet. He didn't put himself into that. In fact, he didn't want to be. He said, choose someone else. Use my brother, Aaron.

But no, it was Moses. God chose him to deliver Israel out of Egypt. And so there was Moses, there was Aaron, and there was Samuel. Each of these men were called of God, and they were called to their office. Moses was a prophet. Moses was the one through whom God gave the law. So Moses represents the law giver, the prophet, the one through whom God spoke. And Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 18, 15 and 18, he said, the Lord, your God is going to raise up unto you a prophet like me, and you must hear him.

If you don't hear him, you're going to be cut off from the people. He was referring to Christ. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen explained that. He said that Moses was talking about Christ. So Moses was the lawgiver and the prophet of the Lord. He spoke about Christ. He himself represented Christ in the office God appointed him to.

And then Aaron, we know, was the high priest. He was chosen by God, appointed, anointed with that holy oil to the office of high priest. It was Aaron who was to offer once a year the atoning sacrifice. So Aaron came to God by the sacrifice on behalf of the people to put away their sins. Typically, not actually, but typically, It represented the putting away of sins, which Christ would actually do.

And then Samuel, if you remember, he was called a judge, a judge in Israel. There were lots of judges. Gideon was a judge, for example. Well, Samuel was the last of the judges. He was a judge that spanned a period of time from before Saul all the way up until the time of David. David the king. So you can see that these men in their offices, the role that God called them to, their vocation, if you will, there was the prophet Moses, who was also the law giver. There was the priest, the high priest Aaron, and there was the judge Samuel. But these three men also did something that was common to the three. Each one of them made intercession to God for the people.

And you can see this in several places. Let me give you some examples of this from the Old Testament. Remember in Exodus chapter 32, when Aaron made the golden calf and Moses was on the mountain and came down and the people worshiped that and God said, I'm going to destroy them. What happened?

Moses made intercession for the people. He mediated between God and the people. He pleaded for the people. He pleaded God's glory and honor for the salvation of the people. And then there was this matter of a rebellion in Numbers 14 where the people wouldn't go into the land of Canaan. Moses again, he pleaded God's glory for the salvation of the people. And there were lots of murmurings in the wilderness, and Moses was interceding for the people to God.

Then there was a time in Numbers 16, where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had rebelled. They envied Moses and Aaron. They claimed to be able to do for the people what Moses and Aaron could do. And it was such a big deal that God opened the earth and swallowed up the 250 men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their households.

And he said by that that, no, you are not going to insert yourself into this office. God appointed and anointed Aaron And God appointed Moses to this. He did not choose you to do this. You cannot put yourself in this place of a priest, of a prophet, of an intercessor.

And so those people were destroyed. And at that time, after these were destroyed, Israel complained to Moses and Aaron that they had destroyed all these people. that the earth has swallowed up and destroyed them. Can you imagine the audacity of these people complaining that God would have swallowed these people up? Against Moses and Aaron, they complained. Amazing. These people were pretty.

They were risking their lives, in fact, so much so that Aaron had to run among the people. Moses told him to do this. In Numbers chapter 16 and verse 47, Moses commanded Aaron, who was the anointed high priest for the people, to go among the people with the incense and make atonement for them. Now Aaron stood between the dead and the living at that time. And so the plague against those who complained that the earth swallowed up this big company of people who had rebelled against Moses and Aaron and God, those people that complained were protected. The plague that was against them was stopped because Aaron made intercession. And another time, Aaron interceded for Miriam, when Miriam and Aaron, again, they were complaining that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman. Now, Samuel also interceded for the people. Samuel, in fact, Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 12, I'll read this to you, because it's always been a very moving text of scripture for me, and I just want to read this to you.

It was at the time when Israel said, we want a king. We're tired of judges. We want a king. We want a king like these other nations. Someone will go out and fight our battles and so on. And Samuel said, what you're doing, asking for a king, is a very grievous sin. And God showed that it was a great sin that day by thundering and lightning. It was it was not a time for thunder and lightning. But anyway, so when this happened, the people were afraid. And it says in First Samuel 12, verse 20, Samuel said to the people, Fear not. You have done all this wickedness yet.

Turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart and turn ye not aside for then should you go after vain things. In other words, idols which cannot profit nor deliver for their vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake." This is the reason God doesn't forsake us.

It's for his name's sake. For his honor. Because he committed himself to save his people and he will not break his promise. Lest his name should suffer dishonor. But he in fact is going to honor his name in the salvation of his people. So he goes on. The Lord won't forsake His people, this is 1 Samuel 12 verse 22, for His great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.

Isn't that true? And he says in verse 23, Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, But I will teach you the good in the right way. Only fear the Lord, serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he has done for you. You see, that's the only valid service, OK, is considering what great things the Lord has done. All right.

Now, this is showing us that these three men, Moses, Aaron and Samuel, Moses, the lawgiver, and the prophet. That's what Christ did. Matthew 5, 6, 7, what did he do? He's giving them, he says, I say unto you. Things that were so, they reached to the heart. They reached to the heart.

He calls the Pharisees hypocrites. He says every plant my father has not planted will be rooted up. You can't establish yourself in this kingdom. God has to plant you. He has to. He says you you're like those those men who garnish the outside of the tomb. But inwardly, you're full of dead men's bones. Clean up what's inside and then you'll be good to go to do these works. You see, God has to do this. He has to work the work. He has to perform the cleaning process.

And so so that's what the Lord Jesus was. He was the prophet of the Lord sent. He God has spoken in his son. And in these last days, he's spoken of all that he did to fulfill the law that he gave. And this is such a critical and comforting truth about the Sermon on the Mount. Christ is telling us what God requires.

None of us, none of us can fit that description. Except he also tells us where what God requires is found, and it's in himself. I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. If your righteousness doesn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall no way enter into heaven.

Now, I want you to want to read one verse of scripture to you in Matthew that follows the Sermon on the Mount, the first that follows the Sermon on the Mount. Listen to these words from Matthew, chapter eight. This is astounding. I had never considered this before until today. Look at this in Matthew, chapter eight. All right. When he was come down from the mountain is Matthew, chapter eight.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling, as Moses said, the prophet of the Lord. What does he say? When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Notice. And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will. Now, this is me. When I listen or read the Sermon on the Mount, I become so polluted in my sin in the light of what the Lord says that I can't even hold my head up. But here, notice what this man does. A leper, unclean in the eyes of God's law.

He worshipped him and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And what does Jesus say? He put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Look at verse 17 in the same chapter. It says in verse 14, Jesus was coming to Peter's house.

He saw his wife's mother laid there sick of a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her. She arose and ministered to them. And when the evening was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils. He cast out the spirits with his word and he healed all that were sick. that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 53, verse four, himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses.

This is the lawgiver. He's the one who has become the sin bearing, curse bearing savior. Look at same chapter. I mean, chapter nine. This is again, this is right after he came off the mountain. He says in verse nine, and Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. He said to him, follow me. He rose and followed him.

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, we hold many publicans and sinners known. Ill reputed people came and sat down with him and his disciples. The table was crowded with sinners. And Jesus was there when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, why does your master eat with publicans and sinners?

And Jesus heard that, he said to them, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go and learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I'm come to call not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. You see, Moses was a lawgiver. He was a prophet. Christ came. But I say unto you, he gave something that was unbelievably more strict than just the outward requirements of the law, which we've all broken those. But inwardly, we've broken them. all of the time, haven't we? And yet the Lord tells us when he comes down from the mountain, the one who requires us of us is himself who bears our sicknesses. All right. So that's Moses. And Moses made intercession for the people. Aaron, same thing.

What does Hebrews chapter five say? Let me read this to you from Hebrews chapter five. About Aaron. He says in Hebrews chapter 5, for every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. This is describing what's required of a high priest.

He's ordained for men in things pertaining to God. God's ordaining him for men to God for them. that he may offer God gifts and sacrifices for sins. Isn't that what Christ did? Ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he might offer gifts and sacrifices for men, for us, who can have compassion on the ignorant.

And on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. He bore our sins, he understands everything. He was tempted in all points like we are. And by reason hereof, he ought as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins.

No man takes his honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. All right. So we know that Aaron was a high priest that represented Christ. And then Samuel, as I mentioned, was a judge, and he judged Israel from his youth. And he also made intercession to God for Israel. What's the common thread? These men all represented Christ in his intercession.

The one who is our God made propitiation for our sins, and is seated at the right hand of God, and he makes intercession for us. The lawgiver was made under the law. He whose right alone it is to rule made obedience his rule of life. The one who is equal with God made himself of no reputation, took on the form of a servant, took our nature as man, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

That's our Savior. And he sits at God's right hand, having done all God required, and therefore reigns in proof that our sins are put away, in proof that God is holy in our redemption by his blood, in proof that we're seated there with him. He's our life. He has taken possession of our inheritance. We are children of God by him. And he makes intercession for us.

All right. Let's go back to Psalm 99. He says, Moses and Aaron among his priests, Samuel among them that call on his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them. That is grace for Christ's sake. God hears Christ. He hears his pleas for us. He pleads what? What does he plead? Himself offered in blood. He's there at God's right hand. His plea is his presence at God's right hand as the Lamb of God freshly slaughtered. You see, this is powerful, isn't it? This is staggering light from the throne of God. The one who sits on the throne is the Lamb. And he sits there by God's pleasure.

He deserves it. He's worthy. He alone could loose the seals and open the book, the book of God's eternal salvation, the revelation of God's nature in our salvation, the salvation of sinners and God seen as holy in this, his righteousness, his judgment. He loved judgment. He loved he established equity. He executed judgment and righteousness. He loves righteousness. He hates iniquity. And yet he sits with sinners because he bore their sins. And so sinners come to him and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Isn't that what we do?

And God answers him, doesn't he? He spake to them in the cloudy pillar, these men. This cloudy pillar also represents Christ because God speaks to us in his son. And from the cloud, God spoke to these men, Moses and Aaron and Samuel. He says, thou answerest them. Sorry, it says in verse 7, they kept his testimonies and the ordinance that he gave them. The ordinance could very well refer to the Passover. The testimonies, everything that God required. How can we keep his testimonies. How can we come to God? Well, it's the same answer that we gave, how can we, what does it mean to fear the Lord? You see, no one can come to God except by calling on Christ.

Isn't that what Acts chapter four verse 12 says? There's only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We call on God through him because God accepts us only by him. To call on God is to call on God through Christ, is to call on the Lord Jesus Christ. Save me for Christ's sake. That's what the gospel teaches.

The only way we can come to God is in the merits of Christ. The only way our praise can be accepted by God is by Jesus Christ. First Peter two verse five. The only way we can keep God's testimonies is by faith in his blood. The only way that we can keep the Passover is by seeing that God offered his son.

All these things point us back to the believers looking to Christ who has is all of his salvation. All right, going on, he says, Thou answerest them, verse eight, Thou answerest them, O Lord, our God, Thou wast a God that forgave us them. We know that's true.

For Christ's sake, we're forgiven, though Thou tookest vengeance on their inventions. Now, in the Old Testament, God visited the people and brought death on some of them for the transgression, for these iniquities, these inventions, as they're called here. But how does God visit How does he bring vengeance on our inventions? Isn't it only in the cup that he gave to his son? He lifted it up from us.

He told those soldiers, if you seek me, then you let these go their way. It wasn't like I'm going to suffer for most everything and then you're going to suffer for some things. No. Everything was satisfied when Christ offered himself. All righteousness was fulfilled then. Eternal redemption was obtained. We were made holy. We were perfected forever by that one offering. This is the only way you can come to God. The only way you can do what God has required is if you did it in Christ. if God accepts him for you. That's what this psalm is teaching.

That's why he reigns. That's why he's seated at the right hand of God, because he purged our sins. And so he goes on in verse nine, exalt the Lord our God. and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy." He anchors it again. Our salvation is a holy salvation by the Holy One of God.

God Himself sitting between the cherubim, having made propitiation for our sins in His own precious blood, intercedes for us by the will of God And it's all to His glory, and we receive it all by faith. We don't do something to make it happen. We see by the light of God's gospel that it has been performed, and we take hold of it by this God-given faith and say, that's mine, that's mine, that's my only hope. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. We come to God by him. We call on his name. We do all that we do in the name of Jesus, his authority, his accepted sacrifice. God cannot accept anything we do unless he accepts us in Christ. But if he accepts us in Christ, then he will remember our sins no more.

We won't be in heaven and God will say, well, I remember what you did. I remember how neglectful you were, how much you failed, how much you defied, how much you were in rebellion. I remember all these things that were in your heart. No, no. You know what God's going to remember of his people in glory? He's going to only remember his son.

In the Lord Jesus, all we did all the time was the righteousness of God, judgment, equity, righteousness, truth, judgment. That's what he came to do, to establish these things for us. And by faith, we enter into it, don't we? And this is the amazing thing. This is the only way we can come to God. We can't come, well, I'm gonna try to do these things so I can be accepted by God.

You'll fail, fail, fail. Read Matthew five through seven, and see if you can find anything in there to take hope. What you'll find in there is that Yeah, I'm a miserable sinner and nothing at all. And I'm poor in spirit. I have nothing. And because of that, I'm meek. I made meek before God. Lord, if you don't do it, I have no hope.

All the things that he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are those that mourn, blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. That's what he does by that sermon, doesn't he? All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Lord Jesus who reigns because of his righteousness, the judgment that he performed for his people to bring us to God. What an incredible, awe-striking salvation in our great Savior. We pray, Lord, that you would exalt him and help us by the light of your gospel, by God-given faith, through your spirit, to trust him only and to join together with your people in this praise that overflows by your grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Psalm 99, p2 of 2

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the reign of Christ?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for salvation?

Why is God's holiness important for Christians?

What does it mean that Christ is our propitiation?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Psalm 99, p2 of 2

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the reign of Christ?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for salvation?

Why is God's holiness important for Christians?

What does it mean that Christ is our propitiation?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

More from Rick Warta

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Suggested for You

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book