All right, let's begin our service
opening our Bibles to 1 Peter, the book of 1 Peter chapter 5. Delighted to have Vicki Chapman
back with us this evening. I know John will be happy for
her to come home, but we're glad you're here. 1 Peter chapter 5, we'll read the
first 11 verses. The elders which are among you
I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind, either as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, He shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea,
all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with
humility. For God resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him. For he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a while, make ye perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle ye. be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Let's turn in our hymnal to 129,
129. Alas, and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes that I have
done, He crowned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, Where
I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight. Now I am happy all the day. Well might the sun in darkness
hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ the mighty Maker
died, For man the creature's sin. At the cross, at the cross,
Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled
away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, And now I am happy all the day. The drops of green can ne'er
repay The debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away,
Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, And now I am happy all the day. 63, 463. Now let's sing the chorus after
the odd verses 1, 3, and 5. Look and cheer the heart like
Jesus By His presence all's divine True and tender, pure and precious
Oh, how blessed to call Him mine Oh, that thrills my soul with
Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see Love of Christ so freely given Grace
of God beyond degree Mercy higher than the heaven Deeper than the
deep the sea What a wonderful redemption Never can a mortal
know How my sin, though red like crimson, Can be whiter than the
snow. All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand,
In my blessed Lord I see, Every need His hand supplying, Every
good in Him I see On His strength divine relying He is all in all
to me By the crystal flowing river With the ransomed I will
sing And forever and forever Praise and glorify the King All
that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me, And
the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see. All right, let's open our Bibles
now to Psalm 108. Psalm 108. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I
will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, psaltery
in heart, I myself will awake early. I will praise Thee, O
Lord, among the people, and I will sing praises unto Thee among
the nations. For Thy mercy is great above
the heavens, and Thy truth reacheth under the clouds. Be Thou exalted,
O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth,
that Thy beloved may be delivered. Save with Thy right hand and
answer me. God has spoken in His holiness. I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem and meet
out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the strength
of mine head. Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is
my washpot. Over Edom will I cast out my
shoe. Over Philistia will I triumph.
Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? Will not thou, O God, who has
cast us off. They will not thou, O God, go
forth with our hosts. Give us help from trouble, for
vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly,
for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. Thank God for
his word. Let's bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Father, we've gathered
here together this evening in your name, in that name which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've
gathered here to worship you. We've gathered here to hear word
from thee that would reveal more of Christ our Savior. Father,
I pray you'd enable us to truly worship you, to worship in spirit
and in truth. Father, I pray that you would
give faith, that faith would be mixed with everything that
we hear of Christ our Savior, that we might believe Him. Father,
for your glory, we ask, would you reveal yourself in power
to us here tonight? Would you reveal yourself to
the lost? Call them to faith and life in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you reveal yourself to
your children and thrill our hearts, comfort our hearts one
more time by hearing Christ our Savior, who He is, what He's
accomplished for His people, how He sits upon the throne of
glory, ruling and reigning, ever living to make intercession for
us, the guilty. And Father, what we pray for
ourselves, we pray for all of your people who are meeting together
tonight to worship you. Father, bless your people through
your word. Bless your servants as they stand
to preach. Don't leave us alone. How we
beg of thee that you not leave us alone. Father, deliver your
people from just hearing the words of a man. But give us the
message to preach. And I pray you give your people
ears to hear it. heart to believe it and rejoice
in it. Father, we thank you for the
many blessings of this life, how richly you've blessed us. Everything we have has come from
your hand and we're thankful. Pray that you continue to watch
over and provide and lead and guide and be merciful and gracious
to us as you have in the past. We pray a special blessing, Father,
for those that you brought into the time of trouble. We know
that this is something that you've done. You've brought this trouble
for our good, for our learning, for your glory. And Father, I
pray that if it could be thy will that you deliver your people
until such time as you do. Father, give them a fulfillment
of your promise that you comfort their hearts, comfort their hearts
with your presence. Father, we give thanks for our
country. We thank you for the freedoms
that we enjoy here. What a blessed privilege we have. And Father, we pray that you'd
protect this country, that you'd protect it from ourselves, that
you'd preserve the freedoms that we have here to worship. For your glory, Father, we pray.
Father, all these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name
which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We beg of you that you'd hear us, that you'd hear our prayers,
that you'd see us only in Him. It's in his blessed name we pray,
amen. Father of mercy, have mercy on
me. This is my prayer, Lord, my heart's
earnest plea. Mercy is Thine, Lord, to give
or withhold. Mercy, I pray, Lord, for my sinful
soul. Father of mercy, thy mercy is
free, Choosing the foolish and wretches like me, Calling the
poor ones and less than the least, Giving them grace, Lord, to dine
at thy feast. How can we praise Thee? How can we adore? Blessing and honor be Thine evermore. Praise to Thy Spirit, heavenly
dove. Hail to Thy Son, Lord, the Son
of Thy love. Father of power, by power we
sing. Perfect redemption through Jesus
our King. Righteous before Thee, He stands
in our place. Looking at Him, Lord, we look
on Thy face. Father of glory, all glory to
Thee For Thy salvation, for setting us free Mercy and truth, Lord,
in Thee embrace Owing it all, Lord, to Thy sovereignty Alright, let's open our Bibles
again now to Psalm 108. I titled the message Grace, Mercy,
Love, and Sovereignty. That very well could be four
of my favorite topics. Grace, Mercy, Love, and Sovereignty.
I want us to see something at the outset of this psalm. I want
to point out that David was writing this psalm during a time of trouble. See what he says in verse 12?
Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Through
God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down
our enemies. Now something has happened here
to put David in a time of trouble. And I point that out. Because
I want us to see this. That as David is writing this
psalm, he sits down to pen this psalm. He's in a time of trouble.
Maybe the whole nation is in a time of trouble. Maybe it's
him personally. I really don't know. But in a time of trouble,
David sits down to pen a psalm. And he begins praising God. Now God is to be worshipped at
all times. I don't care what it is that
is going on in our lives, whether we think it's good or we think
it's bad. God is to be worshipped at all times. Whatever it is
going on with me, my circumstances change. I change from minute
to minute. God never changes. His character,
because of who He is, He always deserves to be praised. When
we have times of blessing, we ought to worship the Lord, shouldn't
we? He's the one who blessed us. And in times of trouble,
we should worship the Lord. He's the one who sent the truck.
He's the one who can deliver us. We ought to worship him.
You know, that leper came to our Lord and worshipped him. That man's in trouble. He's dying.
He's miserable. He worshipped him. Saying, Lord,
if you will, you make me whole. That's worship. It troubles me
a great deal to see someone quit coming to the worship service
When they find themselves in trouble, they're suffering pain,
sorrow, loss, whatever, I just can't tell you how much it bothers
me to see that person absent themselves from the worship service.
It makes me so sad. That person has left the believer's
only source of comfort, the preaching of the Lord. When we need him
the most, that's when they've left. And thankfully, that is
not what David does in his time of trouble. He begins praising
God. In times of trouble, we should
draw closer to our Lord to find our strength and our comfort
in Him. And I tell you, a good way to do that, you know, I mean,
that sounds like real good religious words, doesn't it? When you're
in trouble, you're in sorrow, you're heartbroken, you're in
pain, draw closer to the Lord. How do I do that? Well, here's
a good way to do it by doing what David does. by praising
the Lord, by giving God thanks, and praising Him at all times.
In this time of trouble, David praises the Lord here for four
vital attributes of God. And the first one is His grace.
Verse 1, he says, Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and
give praise even with my glory. Now grace, you know this, is
God giving us what we do not deserve. When we're in a time of trouble,
we can never say, well, I don't deserve this. I can't say I don't
deserve trouble and sickness and sorrow or pain. We all deserve
those things, don't we? Because of our sin. But thank
God, He does give His people what they do not deserve. We
don't deserve salvation, do we? We don't deserve for God to forgive
our sin. We don't deserve for God to give
us spiritual life or to give us fellowship with Him. But that's
exactly what God gives all of His people. We don't deserve
God's electing grace. We never could do anything that
would deserve God choosing us, but He chooses His people anyway
in grace. We don't deserve God's redeeming
grace. In order to redeem us from our
sins, God had to sacrifice His Son. He had to slaughter His
Son. Well, I don't deserve that. That's what the grace God gives
all of his people, redeeming grace. We don't deserve God's
calling grace. I shudder to think how many years,
how many times I shut my ears from the sound of the gospel.
I don't deserve for God to call me. You don't either. None of
his people do. That's the grace He gives all
of His people. He calls and He gives them faith. He gives them
life. There's two more things they don't deserve. So that we
come to Christ willingly and lovingly. We don't deserve God's
keeping grace. Why is it you're here again tonight?
Again? Why are you here again? We don't
deserve God's keeping grace. that He would keep us to the
end by the power of His grace. And if He didn't, we'd run off
into the night right now. But God keeps us. He keeps His
people by His grace. They're in His great hand and
no man can pluck them out of it. David here is in a time of trouble.
We've all been there. And we haven't done anything
to deserve God to comfort us. But God does that anyway for
His people. In His grace, He comforts His people. We don't
deserve all God's promises of grace. God doesn't say, I'll
do this if you do this. No, God says, this is what I'm
gonna do for you. His promise of grace, that I will never leave
you nor forsake you. That's all the grace that God
gives all of his people. Now you might be wondering, where
did I get grace from that verse? The word grace is not in that
verse, is it? Well, look at Hebrews chapter 13, I'll show you. I
got it from David. saying that his heart is fixed.
Well, I know what fixed David's heart, what established it and
fixed it. It's God's grace. Hebrews 13
verse 9. Be not carried about with diverse,
different and strange doctrines, for it's a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, not with means which have not
profited them that have been occupied therein. Now, your heart,
if it's fixed, is fixed with grace. And if your heart is fixed,
it's been established with God's grace, your heart is fixed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if your heart is fixed on
Christ, all these different doctrines of men, which are strange, they're
strangers, they're strangers to grace, they're strangers to
the character of God. They will not be able to carry
you away from Christ if your heart is fixed with grace. The
ceremonies of religion, the meats here, you know, doing all these
different dietary things and what meat you could eat, what
meat you could not eat, all spelled out in the Old Testament law.
That's all just ceremonies of religion. The ceremonies of religion
will never keep your heart fixed on Christ. Never. Even true religion
won't. But grace will. The law, the
Everything that the law requires, all the different religious ceremonies
that you could keep, that's not going to give you a living heart
of faith. It might give you a list of do's
and don'ts, but it won't give you a heart that can obey it.
It won't give you a heart that loves it. But God's grace will. Then by God's grace, I'm going
to praise the Lord for his grace. And I say that and I find I even
need God's grace to be able to praise him. Don't you? So by
God's grace, I'll praise him for his grace. And this thing
is a matter of the believer's heart. Praising the Lord for
his grace is the believer's life. I mean, it's not something we
just do once in a while. It's the believer's life because
it's our heart. We praise the Lord everywhere
we go. I mean, you take your heart, your personality, you
take it with you everywhere you go, don't you? The believer takes
his heart, his heart that praises God for his grace everywhere
we go. David says in verse three, I'll praise thee, O Lord, among
the people. I'll sing praises unto thee among the nations. We praise the Lord among the
people, the people of God. And we praise the Lord among
the people of the nations. We're the ones who sing, everybody
ought to know who Jesus is. Don't we sing that? I love that
chorus. And the believer, this is a heart matter now. Something
that's in your heart. Think of those things that are
so important to you, they're in your heart. My wife's in my
heart. She's important to me. I'm going
to do things to make her happy as much as I possibly can. But
what's in your heart? Well, the believer's heart is
fixed with grace. That heart of the believer is
dedicated to the praise of the Lord. This is not just an outward
show. Now this is a heart matter. David says, I'll give thee praise
even with my glory. Now that sounds a little bit
odd when you first read because we've got no glory. God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This word glory means something that's weighty. What David's
saying here is this, I'm going to praise the Lord with my best,
with my very best. Now I grant you, my best is not
good enough. My best does not begin to get
ready to start to be worthy of God's glory. None of us have
the ability to do that. I'll tell you what, I'm going
to give it my best anyway. I'm just going to give it my
best anyway. I want to dedicate myself to praising the Lord for
His grace. Verse 2 says, Awake, psaltery
and harp, I myself will awake early. Now, I know David's saying
here he's going to praise the Lord beautifully by playing these
instruments. And David had that skill. He
could do that. But you know, if you're going to praise the
Lord with a musical instrument, you're going to have to dedicate
yourself to playing that instrument. You have to practice it and work
at it if you're going to make it sound beautiful. Isn't that
right? Mike and Carrie, oh, how they play the piano. Every single
service, I sit here and I listen to Carrie play that piano. I'm
just, oh, I just worship. I'm just so, I just love the
song she picks up. I'm just singing to myself and
just, and then she stops like, oh, I got to get up and say something
now, you know, but I just enjoy that so much. Well, you know,
that's a mystery to me. Playing the piano is one of the
biggest mysteries in this world to me. There are 88 keys. Is that right, Mike? 88? There
are 88 keys on it, and they're not even all the same color.
88 keys. And you've got to put two hands
up there, and you've got to look. You know how music might think I'm
nuts, but you've got to look up here and down here at the
same time to know how to put two hands, maybe four, five,
six fingers going at the exact same time. I don't see how that's even possible.
How do you do that? How does somebody play an instrument,
a piano like that? Well, I don't have any idea,
but I know how it happened through hard work, through hard work. I mean, you hear Mike playing
his piano and everybody just thinks Mike just rolls out of
bed doing this. I'll tell you a story. True story. There was
one of our dear members here. The Lord was pleased to call
him home. The family called me and asked me if I would preach
the funeral, and I said I would. And they asked me, would you
ask Mike to sing a song at the funeral? I said, yes, I will.
So I called Mike and asked him, would you sing this song? And
he said, I'd be glad to. And here, I mean it wasn't, I'm
not kidding you, it was ten seconds later, my phone rang again. It
was Mike. And I said, hey Mike, long time
no see. And Mike had butt dialed me. And immediately when we got
off that phone, you know what he was doing? I could listen
to him. He was playing that song. He was practicing it already.
And at the funeral, it was just perfect. Well you know why? Practice. Practice. And that applies to
everything in this world you want to do, doesn't it? I don't
care what it is you want to do well, you're going to have to
work at it. You're going to have to work at it. I just now remembered
what Brother Henry was saying, talking about men go out and
work and carpenters and skilled laborers and stuff. He said,
I work like that. I work like that with my tools.
I work like that. If you want to do something well,
you have to work at it. You're just not gonna do good
at anything if you do it halfway. Anything you do half-heartedly,
that's about the result you're gonna get. The same thing applies
to praising the Lord. Gee, I'm gonna do it with my
whole heart. God help me, I'm gonna do it with my whole heart. But I tell you this, we'll get
better at it with practice. All right, we praise God for his
grace. Second, we praise the Lord for his mercy. Verse four,
Psalm 108. For thy mercy is great above
the heavens, and thy truth reaches under the clouds. Be thou exalted,
O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth.
Now, God's mercy cannot be measured. I mean, David, you think of what
it was to live, you know, in his time. He had no idea how
to measure the whole earth. He had no idea how to measure
the distance to the clouds, much less the distance to the moon
or the planets or the stars. There is no concept of that at
all in David's mind. Now, we know how to measure those
distances today. David didn't. And this is why
he talks about God's mercy just be exalted to the heavens above
the cloud is being spread out over all the earth. This is what
David's saying. God's mercy is immeasurable.
You can't measure it. And God's mercy is immeasurable.
I thought several reasons for it. First of all, because God's
mercy is eternal. I mean, I know how to measure
time, don't you? I don't know how to measure eternity. God's mercy is eternal. Many
times in the Psalms we read, Oh, give thanks for God's mercy
forever. God's mercy is forever. It doesn't
have a beginning. It doesn't have an ending. It's
eternal. Almighty God chose to be merciful to a people before
He created anything, before they did any good or evil, so that
it wasn't of them. So they didn't earn it. It wasn't
because of anything they did. It was because of God's choice,
His mercy, which was eternal. And God's all, since God's mercy
is eternal, He's always seen His people in His mercy. He's
always seen them in Christ. And nothing that they can do
or don't do will cause God to take away his mercy or to stop
giving them mercy. Because his mercy doesn't have
a beginning and it doesn't have an ending. And I can praise God
for that. Because I can't do anything to
earn or to keep salvation, but I can receive it by mercy. I'm
thankful. Next, look at Romans chapter
9. Anytime you talk about God's mercy, you've got to talk about
this. God's mercy is sovereign mercy. Romans 9, verse 11. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Now, are we going to say this
is not fair? Are we going to say that's not fair? Are we going
to say it's not fair that God would love Jacob and hate Esau?
Paul says, God forbid, of course we're not going to say that.
Verse 15. Four, here's why we wouldn't
say that. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now this is what God says. God says he has the right to
show mercy to whom he will. And we have to say amen. Now
suppose you're out taking a walk one afternoon summer rain. After that rain has stopped,
you're walking along the sidewalk and you see a bunch of worms
out there on the sidewalk. Well, you know the sun's coming
out. All those worms are going to die. And you reach down. You can put a few of those worms
back over in the grass. You can put most of them, all
of them, or you can leave them all there. You've got every right
to do what you want, don't you, over those worms. And no worm
can complain you did something fair. Well, you put this one
over, but you didn't put me. No worm can complain that you
did something wrong. It was merciful that you stopped
and bent down to do something for any of them, isn't it? But God has the right to show
mercy to whom He will. God has the right to stoop down,
at great cost to Himself, stoop down to have mercy upon His people. He has every right to do that
and He has every right to pass by whom He will. God's merciful
to save any son of Adam, isn't He? Then I'll praise the Lord
that He would choose to show mercy to an undeserving sinner
like me. I'll never get over that. Then
God's mercy is immeasurable because it's rich. Ephesians 2 verse
8 says, God who is rich in mercy, that's who's saved us. God who's
rich, who's abounding in mercy. God's never He's going to run
out of mercy for his people because he's abounding in it. He's rich
in it. And I praise God. His mercy is always greater than
my sin. Then God's mercy, this is immeasurable. It's immeasurable. God's mercy
is always saving mercy. God always saves the objects
of his mercy. Not one of them will ever be
lost. Titus 3 verse 5, not by works of righteousness, which
we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us. His mercy. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. I can praise the Lord. He saved
me by His mercy. He saved me by His mercy in Christ
and He didn't make me earn it because I never could have done
it. Then God's mercy is life-giving mercy. I mean, can you measure
life? This is immeasurable mercy. Peter said, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy has begotten us again into a lively, living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I praise
the Lord for his mercy because I've been forever dead. I never
would have had life unless the Lord had been merciful and given
me spiritual life in Christ. I praise God for his mercy. Thirdly,
we praise the Lord for his love. Verse six, back in our text,
that thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand and
answer me. Now God's love, he's talking
here about his beloved. God loves somebody. Somebody's
his beloved. And God's love means something. God's love is meaningful. God's
love is never wasted. No one who God loves will ever
go to hell. No one. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to redeem, to suffer and die and save those whom God loves. The Lord Jesus did not die for
every son of Adam. He died for those people that
the Father elected to save in love. The Father set His love
upon these people and His love is meaningful. That means those
people shall be saved from their sins. Christ died for those who
God loves and Every last one of those people is saved. Every
last one of those people can say they're God's beloved, loved
of God. One person in this room can say,
I'm the beloved of Jann Tate. She tells me, you're my beloved. Nobody else can say that, but
I can. Every one of God's people can
say, I'm God's beloved. Look at Ephesians chapter three
and just like God's mercy, God's love for his people is immeasurable. Ephesians chapter three. Verse 16. That he would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by
his spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now, what is it to know the love
of Christ which passes knowledge? Well, that's not saying a believer
can comprehend the immeasurable love of Christ. We can't. It's
eternal. We already said we can. I know
how to measure five minutes. I don't know how to measure eternity,
something that's eternal. We can't comprehend the immeasurable
love of Christ, but every believer knows God's immeasurable love. How do you know it? By experience. You've experienced it. Well,
how do we know that God loves His people. And I suppose the
better question would be how do I know God loves me? Well,
you know God loves you because He sent His Son to die for you.
The Apostle John said herein is love. Not that we love God,
but He loved us. How do we know He loved us? He
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. That's how we know
that. Look at John chapter 17. This is where our Lord prayed. Right before he went to the cross,
this is what he was praying. John 17. Verse 23. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. How
is it we know the father loves his people as he loved his son?
He sent his son to die for them. This is how the world's going
to know. God loves his people. He loves them so much. He sent
his son to die for them. Now, it's an historical fact.
The man Jesus of Nazareth lived about 2000 years ago. It's a
historical fact. He died on a cross. All right. How do I know? How do I know
that I will be delivered from the wrath to come? How do I know
that? because Christ was delivered of the Father. See, Christ is
God's beloved, isn't He? The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. And the Father
made His own Son sin for His people, put Him under the wrath
of God for that sin, and He punished Him fully for it. And when that
sacrifice was over, the Father delivered His Son from that wrath.
He raised Him from the dead three days later. Why? Because Christ
satisfied God's wrath by suffering everything justice demands for
that sin. So the Father delivered Him from
death. There's no reason for Him to stay dead. Sin's gone.
He delivered His Son, His beloved Son. Well, the Father's going
to deliver all of His people from His wrath for the very same
reason. Because every last one of them
was in Christ. And since they were in Christ, when He lived,
they lived. They lived a perfect life because
He lived a perfect life and they were in it. They died for their
sins because they were in Christ when He died. They were raised
from the dead again when Christ was raised because they're in
Him. They satisfied God's justice in the person of their substitute.
I'm going to sing God's praises for His undeserved, immeasurable,
eternal, unchanging love that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I'm going to praise him for that
love because God could not love me any other way. It's the only
way God could love me is in Christ. I thank God for his capacity,
his ability to love sinners in his son, because that's the only
way God could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. All right,
fourthly, we praise the Lord for his sovereignty. Now, back
in our text, the rest of these verses Show us how the Lord will
sovereignly call His people out of this world. I don't care where
they're at. I don't care what they're doing.
I don't care what their background is, if they're Jew or Gentile,
if they're religious or heathen. I don't care what language they
speak. I don't care what skin color they have. I don't care
how old they are, how young they are. I don't care. God's going
to call His people out of this world. This world can put up
no barriers to stop Christ our Savior from saving those people
the Father chose to save. Nothing can stop the Lord Jesus
Christ from saving the objects of His love, His grace, and His
mercy. And this will comfort you. This
will encourage you. If for some reason you're here
tonight and you think, I'm too far from the Lord. I'm too far
gone. The Lord's not going to take
notice of me. The Lord's not going to have any... I don't care where
you are. I don't care who you are. You're
never so far out that He can't reach you and call you to Christ.
You have loved, everybody here has loved ones. And I know a
lot of you, your heart just breaks all the time for your loved ones
that don't know the Lord. I don't know if the Lord saved
them or not, but you take comfort in this. He's able. He's able. He will call his people
from all over this earth. Look here at verse seven. God
has spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice. You see, God's
going to rejoice in the salvation of his people. He's not going
to be disappointed. I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to have all of my people.
I'll do whatever it takes to get them. I will divide Shechem
and meet out the valley of Sukkot. Now here he says, I will divide
Shechem. Now what does that mean? Shechem was a city that belonged
to a man named Ishbosheth. Ishbosheth was Saul's son. And when Saul died, Abner, Saul's
right-hand man, he anointed Ishbosheth to be king of Israel. And he
did it in this city, Shechem. Now David knew this. When he
first came to be king, he didn't reign over that area. Ishbosheth
did, Saul's son. But David still believed God's
promise. that one day he would reign over all of Israel, all
12 tribes of Israel, even out of Shechem. David still believed
God would call his people out of Shechem. And you know he did. He did. Historically, he did.
In David's lifetime, he did. Even Abner, I mean Saul's right-hand
man, even Abner came to recognize David was God's king and came
to him in peace and told David, I'm going to go tell all the
other tribes You come bow to David, David's king. You think,
God called his people out of Shechem. And you know, he kept
doing it. He did it spiritually too. Shechem. You know what that town was in
the New Testament? Where the woman at the well was
from. And the Lord came there and called her out of her rebellion
and darkness and sin. and revealed himself to her.
So she said, told all the ministers, you come see this man that told
me everything I've ever done. This is the Christ. How'd she
know that? He revealed himself. He called
his people as Shechem, didn't he? Then he says, I'll meet out
the valley of Sukkoth. And verse eight, he said, Gilead,
Manasseh are mine. Ephraim also is the strength
of mine head. Well, those cities that are mentioned are all part
of the tribes of Israel that would not come under David's
rule when he first became king. But just like Shechem, David
believed all Israel would be under his rule. He believed that
because God promised him that it would, even though they were
rebellious at first and God made it. So those tribes, eventually
they came and submitted to David's rule. And it was the best thing
ever happened to them. They had harmony and peace and
were prosperous living under the rule of David. Well, here's
the picture. All God's people are rebels by
birth. When you hear Christ the King,
first thing you do is rebel against him. I'll not have that man reign
over me. They're rebels by birth. But you just wait. They belong
to God. God's going to give them a new
heart and he's going to make them come submit to King Jesus. And they're going to have peace
and harmony and prosperity under the rule of Christ our King,
just like they did under David. He says in verse eight, Judah
is my lawgiver. Now, Judah was the kingly tribe.
This is where the kings came from. David was part of this
tribe of Judah. And sure enough, just like God
promised, he reigned over all of Israel, didn't he? Most powerful
man, most powerful king. But more importantly, this is
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the king of kings.
He was born from the tribe of Judah. And when he was born,
what did they say? He's born king. This is the king. He's born king. You're not going
to make him king. You don't have to wait and crown
him king. He's born king. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lion of the tribe of Judah. I like to watch these documentaries
on lions. That biggest male lion. Buddy,
he knows it. He knows it. Buddy, I mean, I'm
ruling. He struts around. I rule this
place. And he just lounges around, he'll just walk anywhere, he's
just gonna lie down wherever he wants. He's not worried, he's
the king. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lion of the tribe of Judah. And he rules over all of his
people. I don't care where they're from,
he rules over them. He's gonna bring them under his
rule. Now those are cities of Judah. God has a people from
Israel. But you know, God also has a
people, the Gentiles. He's gonna have them too. Verse
9, he says, Moab is my washpot. Now the Moabites, they were a
people, that nation began with an incestuous relationship between
Lot and his daughter. She had a son named Moab. That's
where all the Moabites came from. And the Moabites were a tough
enemy of Israel. They were a tough enemy. But
every last one of them is going to be a servant to David. He
says, he mentions the washpot. What was the job of the lowest
servant in the house? It was to wash feet. That's what
he's saying. The Moabites are going to be
the lowest servant. God made that proud enemy to
be the lowest servant in David's realm. Well, here's the picture. God's elect are born in sin and
gross uncleanness. I mean, incest is just gross. And that's got nothing on our
sin nature. We are born in gross uncleanness. But God's going to have his people
anyway. Oh, they're born unclean. They're born filthy. Oh, and
they're sin. But he's going to do a couple
of things for those people. He's going to wash them in the wash
pot of the blood of Christ. He's going to make them clean.
He's going to make them his servants. They're going to be his servants.
And they're going to be willing to take the lowest seat in the
house and wash one another's feet. Because that's what Christ
did for them. Then he says, over eat them while
I cast my shoe. Now the casting of the shoe,
that meant ownership over something or it meant, it kind of signified
like you had your foot on the throat of the enemy. And this
is kind of, you know, this is what David believed. This is
what God told him. He's going to rule over all of Israel's
enemies. He's not going to worry about
all these heathen nations around. David's going to rule over them
all. Well, so will the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to rule over
his people. And you know how He does it?
Not with an iron fist. Not with an iron fist. He does
it in grace, in mercy, in love, and in sovereignty. He rules
over His people. He owns them for His own. He bought them with His precious
blood. And He's going to have them.
He's going to have those people to Himself. Nothing can stop
Christ from having His people. And they're mighty glad of it.
Oh, I'm glad. to be in the kingdom, under the
dominion of Christ the Savior, aren't you? I gladly bow at his
throne. Then he says, over Philistia
will I triumph. David triumphed over the whole
land of Palestine. All that land that God promised
Abraham, David ruled over every square inch of it. Just like
our Lord Jesus Christ rules over everything the Father gave Him.
What did the Father give Christ? Everything. Christ rules over
all of God's creation. He has subdued every enemy. Now,
we haven't seen the last enemy subdued yet, have we? But we
will. By God's grace, we will. He's
going to have all of His people from everywhere, from every generation,
from every nation, and He's going to present them all before the
Father, before the throne, spotless. See, He's conquered their hearts.
He's conquered their hearts. Again, not with an iron rod,
but with His grace, His mercy, His love, and His sovereignty.
And God's people sing God's praises for that. I love, I know the
natural man hates it, but I love, I love a God who's sovereign. I love a God who does as He will,
that no man can stay His hand or ask Him, what are you doing?
I love that. I'm gonna sing God's praises for it, because I'll
tell you why. The only way a sinner like me
could be saved is if Christ sovereignly rules to remove every obstacle,
and He sovereignly rules to make me willing to come to Him in
the day of His power. And that day where He exercises,
He makes known, He reveals His sovereign power, that's the day
I'm coming to Him willingly. And I praise God for it, because
I would never come any other way. See, God's going to save
His people. And you might wonder, well, who
will save me? Well, I tell you, if anybody does, it's going to
be Christ. Look here at verse 10. Who will bring me into the
strong city? Who will lead me into Eden? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only Savior there is.
He's the Savior who saves in grace and mercy and love and
sovereignty. Now you come to Him. You come
to Him. Right now, where you sit, you
come to Him. He'll not cast you out. He'll
bring you into the strong city in His kingdom. All this being true, remember
we start out looking at David's writing, it's a time of trouble.
All this being true, we've seen by God's grace, His mercy, His
love, His sovereignty, all that being true, that gives God's
people confidence to call on God, our Savior, for deliverance.
Verse 11, will not thou, O God, who has cast us off? See, this
is God's in His sovereignty. He's the one who's cast us off.
He hasn't cast off His people. He's the one that put us in this
time of trouble. He's suffering, He's done this. Will not thou,
O God, go forth with our hosts? Give us help from trouble, for
vain is the help of man, mine or anybody else's. Through God
we should do valiantly, for He it is that shall tread down our
enemy. All help for man is vain. But God will deliver His people. He will deliver them because
of His grace, His mercy, His love. His sovereignty. He will
deliver His people in His might. He'll deliver them. He'll comfort
them. He'll be with them. He'll go forth with them. He'll
never leave them nor forsake them. They'll always be able
to rest in His might. Well, I believe I can sing God's
praises for that, can't you? Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, Lord, how can we
thank We know we can't. The human tongue is not capable
of thanking you as you ought to be thanked for your grace
to your people, your mercy to your people, your love to us
in Christ, your sovereignty that rules and reigns to guarantee
the salvation of your people. Father, we can't thank you. We
can't praise you as you ought to be thanked. But with everything
that you've given us, with the heart that you've given us, with
the abilities that you've given us, Father, we praise your matchless
name. We thank you for salvation in
our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for your pity to
sinners, that you would do for us what we could never do for
ourselves and make us willing. You put away our sin to the sacrifice
of your son and you gave us life. You made us willing. to come
and bow lovingly at the feet of Christ our King. Father, we
thank you. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word to your glory and bless it to the hearts of your people,
those that right now are in time of trouble, just like David was
when he wrote this psalm. Cause this to strengthen our
hearts, to comfort us and encourage us. God's grace, his mercy, his
love, his sovereignty has no end, no beginning, and no end
to cause us to rest in Christ our Savior. It's in His blessed
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing 477. We'll sing the chorus after the
second and the fourth. Evenly. Years I've spent in vanity and
pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was
for me He died on Calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned, Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, Till my
guilty soul, imploring, turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great, and grace
was free, Pardon there was multiplied to me, There my burdened soul
found liberty, At Calvary Now I owe to Jesus everything Now
I gladly own Him as my King Now my raptured soul can only sing
Of Calvary Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free Pardon there was multiplied to me There my burdened soul
found liberty at Calvary