All right, let's open our Bibles
now to Psalm 72. I titled the message this evening,
Sovereign Power in Action. And you know, almost every earthly
ruler, they all use their power to make themselves rich and comfortable. They use their power to help
themselves. And it's always at the expense
of the poor people that they rule. Your rulers may start out,
you know, wanting to help the poor, make everybody equal. They'll
start out by saying, you know, the ruler is the same as the
peasant or whatever. But inevitably, that's going
to change. The one that's got the power
is going to use that power to make himself rich, to protect
his power, to be sure he stays in power. That's an earthly ruler. That's universally true. Now
last Wednesday, we looked at the rule. and the power of Christ,
how Christ rules over all. And thankfully, he does not use
his power to try to add to his greatness at the expense of the
poor. As a matter of fact, what he does is he magnifies his power
by saving the poor at his expense. He lifts them up at his expense.
He doesn't try to lift himself up at their expense. Verse 10
in our text here, Psalm 72 says that the kings of Tarshish And
of the isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall
offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him. All nations shall serve him.
Now, why would they do that? Why would these kings come and
offer these gifts? Why would people come from all
nations to serve him? For, verse 12 says, here's why
they'll do that for. He shall deliver the needy when
he crieth. The poor also, and him that hath
no helper. All these people will bow down
and worship Christ the King because salvation is His to give. Now
that's the heart of worship. It's not because we don't worship
because of what He does for us, it's because of who He is. Salvation
is His to give. That's the reason we worship.
And thank God He saves sinners. God's sovereign power put in
action has seen And these words I want us to look at in the text
tonight. They're deliver, spare, save, and redeem. Those words are God's sovereign
power in action. So here's the first one. Christ
uses His power to deliver the poor and the needy. And the word
deliver that David uses here means to snatch away. It gives
the impression of snatching a person away from certain destruction
or certain death certain torture, something bad, just snatching
them away at the last minute. It's a dramatic word. Now look
over at Zechariah chapter 3. It's a dramatic word because
it's always dramatic when God delivers His people. He always
delivers His people. Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1,
And He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel
of the Lord, and Satan at his right hand to resist him. Joshua
here is a picture of all of God's people that God has delivered.
And I can show you that. Look here at verse three. Here's
where he's described. Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with a change with change of raiment. And I said,
let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair
mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel
of the Lord stood by. Now the angel of the Lord there
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's looking at Joshua and
he does for Joshua what he does for all of his people. All of
God's people were born in the filth and the stench of their
sin. But Christ takes away the filth
of their sin. He washes them in his blood. He clothes them
in His righteousness. He puts the fair miter upon their
head. He makes them all kings and priests to God. And this
dramatic change is done in a very dramatic fashion. Now look at
verse 2 there in Zechariah 3. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? This brand has been delivered
from the the fire, it's been snatched away, it's been plucked
from the fire. When God delivers His people,
He always does it at what seems to us to be the very last possible
moment. Those people are just dangling
over hell, just getting ready to get what they got coming to
them because of their sin. And at the very last moment,
because we never do it early, at the very last moment, we cry
for mercy. And God hears that cry and he
reaches down and he plucks one from the fire. He delivers them
from the fire at the very last moment. Now that's dramatic.
How God delivers his people is dramatic. But it's also dramatic
when we consider who he is, who it is that he delivers. He doesn't
deliver people who can help him. He doesn't deliver people who
can do things for him. God delivers those who can't
do anything for Him. They are the needy and the poor.
That's the way David describes them here, needy and poor. And
if the needy and the poor are going to be delivered, God's
going to have to do all the work. He's going to have to do everything
for them because they're needy. The word here David uses means
destitute or beggar. It's a penniless beggar, begging
for what he does not have and begging for what he cannot earn.
He's destitute. And the poor means humble. It's those who don't have anything
to be proud of. That's the people that God delivers. See, God's
sovereign grace is dramatic because God delivers the poor and the
needy. He delivered them by delivering
His Son to justice as their substitute. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
their substitute. He satisfied justice for them
by His death. And they're delivered. They're
delivered in justice because Christ was delivered in justice
for them and paid the price for the needy and for the poor. If
God ever give us a sight of that, if He'd ever give us any understanding
really of how glorious that deliverance is for the poor and for the needy,
it'd take our breath. It's dramatic how He delivers
the poor and the needy. All right, the next word is spare. Christ uses His power to spare
the poor and the needy. Verse 13 said, He shall spare
the poor and the needy. Now this word spare, it means
to cover in pity. Now the needy, remember, they're
beggars. They don't have anything. They can't earn anything for
themselves. They're beggars, like old blind Bartimaeus. He's a beggar. He's got nothing.
He's sitting there in his darkness, just begging for a few pennies,
and he's trying to cover his nakedness and his shame with
an old rag of a blanket. And you remember the story of
Bartimaeus. He was there begging and calling
on the Lord, and they came and told him, now you be of good
comfort. The Master's calling for you. You know what he did?
He threw away his blanket. He came running to the Lord. And that blanket's a picture
of the rags of our righteousness. We're trying to use that to cover
our shame and our nakedness, but it's not working. It's obvious
to everybody. Our rags of righteousness don't
cover our sin. Not just because that rag is
full of holes. You know, if something's full
of holes, you know, it covers this part, but not this part.
It covers this not worth a hole. It's not that our righteousness
is full of holes. Our righteousness is non-existent.
We're trying to cover ourselves with the emperor's new clothes.
That's what we're trying to do. There's nothing there where everything
is open and naked with the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Now, most people would see that naked, dirty, shameful beggar
sitting there begging, and you know what most people would do?
Us included. You know what we'd do? We'd turn
our eyes the other way. We'd cross the street and go
away from him. That's what we'd do. Not the king. not the sovereign
savior, not the one who has all power. He stoops down and he
tenderly picks up that dirty, shameful beggar, takes him up
in his arms and he takes him home. And he covers that sinner
in his righteousness. He spares him. He covers him
in his righteousness. Now, he doesn't just cover up.
He doesn't just take a robe and wrap around him and cover up
the filth and the stench and the sin, it's all still there.
Man just can't see it because it's got a robe around it. No,
the righteousness of Christ makes a sinner righteous through and
through. We talk about being covered with
righteousness. It means not just covering, like
I got a suit covering up most of my shirt. It's being encircled. It's being made righteous. The righteousness of Christ takes
away, covers the shame of that sinner because the righteousness
of Christ makes that sinner not guilty. He's not trying to hide
anything. He's been made righteous. He
doesn't have anything to be ashamed of. When he stands before God,
he's got nothing to be ashamed of because his sin has been covered. He's been spared. His sin has
been covered in the blood of Christ. Christ uses his almighty
power not to crush the poor and needy, not to embarrass them,
but to spare them, to cover them. and his righteousness. The third
word is save. Christ uses his power to save
the needy. Here the rest of verse 13 says,
and shall save the souls of the needy. Now remember this word
needy is a destitute beggar. He's got a sin debt. But the
problem is he can't pay it because he's got nothing to pay. It's
not just that his payment will be a little bit short. He's destitute.
He's penniless. He's got nothing to pay. And
rather than throw that destitute beggar in debtor's prison and
cast him in there forever and throw the key away, Christ in
his power, he saves the soul of the needy. He saves his soul
by paying his sin debt with his own precious blood. See, this
word save here, it's got more to do with than just paying the
debt. Like it's a legal transaction. You go pay the debt and you get
a bill or invoice or whatever, you know, stamp paid. It's a
whole lot more than a legal transaction. This saving, it reaches the heart. The word save that David uses
here means to make free and also to comfort. Now to comfort. Now that, Mike, that's not a
legal thing. That's something done to the heart. What a glorious
feeling it is to be free from that sin debt that has been crushing
us. What a glorious feeling to be
free. And nothing will comfort the
soul of a needy beggar like being set free. Set free from sin. We've got to be saved. We've
got to be set free from the condemnation of sin. And the way we're set
free from the condemnation of sin is because Christ was condemned
for us as our substitute. When he took that debt, it became
his and he was condemned as the substitute for his people. And
justice is satisfied. The bill's paid. So we don't
have to worry about justice finding us and punishing us for our sin
because Christ has already paid for it. He saved us from that
by paying for that sin with his own blood, his life's blood.
And nothing will comfort the soul more than being set free
from the controlling power of sin. I say this over and over
again, it bears repeating. Being set free from the controlling
power of sin doesn't mean that we sin less. That's what it means
we're in trouble. Which one of us thinks we sin
less than we used to? Let me warn you before you say
anything, if we think that, we've got a perception problem. We
sin just as much as we ever did. And the believer will truly say,
I sin more than I used to. It's not that we really do sin.
We sin the same amount as we ever used to. It's because all
we do is sin. But the believer thinks I sin more than I used
to because now I see my sin. Now I see sin is not just what
I do. Sin is what I am. So being set free from the controlling
power of sin doesn't mean I sin less than I used to. The power
of our own sin nature held us captive so that we could not,
and not just would not, but could not believe Christ. We didn't
have the capacity to believe Him. We didn't have the capacity
to come to Christ because our sin nature controlled us. But
when we're born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, we're
set free from the controlling power of sin because God gives
us a new nature. And that new man reigns. And this is where you see that
he reigns. That new man believes Christ. Now I believe him, whereas
before I couldn't. I saved that former blind man.
This is all I know about that. Whereas I was blind, now I see. Whereas I used to not be able
to believe, now I do. Now I can't explain everything
that went into that, but that's what I know. Whereas I did not
believe, now I do. That's being set free from the
controlling power of sin. The only thing that will comfort
the soul of the needy is being saved, being saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ, being set free from the condemnation of sin
and from the controlling power of sin. That's the only way we
can be comforted. It's by salvation in Christ. And when the rest of the world
is going to hell in a handbasket, that's what comforts the souls
of God's people. All right, here's the fourth
word, it's redeem. Christ uses His power to redeem His people. Verse 14. He shall redeem their
soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood
be in His sight. Now you know the word redeem
means to buy back. And we've sold ourselves under
sin. We've sold ourselves to the law,
and it's our fault. Now we can't blame Adam, we can't
blame our circumstances or, you know, if I lived in a better
situation, I wouldn't sin as much. No, it's our fault. Our
sin is our fault. And most people would say, well,
all right, you've made your bed. Now you got to lie in it. I mean,
you've done this. Now you're the one that's got
to suffer the consequences for it. I mean, it's not like you
didn't know this was going to happen. God put Adam in a perfect
environment and he sinned anyway. So that does away with, well,
if I was in a better environment, I wouldn't sin. Yeah, I would,
just like Adam. I got his nature. God put Adam
in a perfect garden and he told Adam what would happen if he
ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He
warned him, fully warned. And Adam did it anyway in open
rebellion against God. So what we'd say is, all right,
I mean, you've done that. Now you just got to live with
the consequences of your action. And God could have left men in
their misery. But he didn't. He could have
been a severe judge, but He wasn't. He showed mercy. He sent His
Son to be the Redeemer, to redeem His people from their sin. Christ
came and paid the debt in full. He bought His people back. The
whole debt that they racked up, Christ paid it in full and bought
them back. And now, they belong to Him. Now, do you imagine or even a
moment, that God chose a people and gave those people to His
Son to redeem. And His Son went to the lengths that it took to
perform the miracle to become a man. And that He would live
for 33 and a half years under His own law, keeping it and obeying
it perfectly, pleasing His Father in all things. And then, perfect,
holy, righteous son of God was made sin for his people. And
he went to Calvary's tree and he suffered untold agony for
that sin. He suffered not just physically,
he suffered the sword of his father's justice in his soul.
He suffered his father turning his back on him and he gave up
the ghost. He suffered until he died and
gave up the ghost. His body bled out and he died. And then he lay in the tomb for
three days and by his own power raised himself from the dead,
rolled that stone away and went out victorious. Spent some time
with his disciples and ascended back to the Father. Wow, what
a story. Do you reckon, after he went
through all that trouble, that he's going to let one for whom
he died perish? Oh no, I'm a little Of course not. He's going to
have those people that belong to Him, and He's going to bring
every last one of them home. He has redeemed them. And David
gets specific here. He said He'll redeem their soul
from deceit. From the deceit of sin. Now sin always deceives. That's
where it began, isn't it? With Satan deceiving. Sin always
deceives. Sin promises freedom. Sin promises
you just do what you want and everything will be wonderful.
That was Adam's problem. Sin deceived him into thinking
he could be God and he could make up the rules. And then it
oppresses us. First it deceives us and then
it hooks us in and then it oppresses us by killing us. How many earthly
tyrants have done the same thing? They go promising people everything
and they deceive them and then they get all that power and they
just oppress people. They just crush them. Well, you
know why they do that? It's the nature of sin. The nature
of sin is to be deceptive and then to crush people. It's no
wonder they do that. It's a sin nature that we have.
Well, Christ came and redeemed his people. He redeemed them
from the deceit of sin and gives them real freedom, freedom in
Christ. And he redeems his people from
the violence of sin. And that word means it's wrong
that causes damage. It's something that is wrong.
and it causes damage. Just look at us. Look at the
damage that sin has caused us. It's made us deformed. It's made
us spiritually dead. But Christ came and he's redeemed
his people from that damage. And he makes them whole. Makes
them whole. Makes them just part of his body.
Makes them perfect in the end. And you might wonder, why would
God do that for these sinful people? It's because they're precious
to him. You're only going to go redeem something that's precious
to you. Their blood, David said, is precious
to him because they're precious to him. Their blood is precious
to him because they are precious to him. They've always been precious
to him. God has always loved his people. That's why he sent his son to
redeem them by dying for them. God didn't begin to love His
people when Christ died for them. Christ came and died for those
people because God already loved them from eternity. He set His
love upon them, He loved them, and He determined to redeem them. And if you look up this word
redeem in the Hebrew, it tells you that this word has to do
with the kinsman redeemer. That's where this love of Christ
for His people comes in. Christ loved His people so much
that he became one of them. He became a man. You know why
he did that? You know why he took on him flesh
and bones and a body? He became a man so that he'd
have the right to redeem those people that he loves. See, the
Redeemer's gotta be a near kinsman. Christ became a man, so he'd
be the near kinsman, so he'd have the right to redeem his
people. It's just like Boaz. Boaz is the great picture of
the kinsman redeemer. Boaz just had a vast fields and
possessions and there he was on his big old horse riding through,
watching all the people in his harvest and he saw one destitute
beggar and his heart was smoothing. He just loved that girl. So you know what he did? Because
he loved her, he used all of his wealth, he used all of his
power He used all of his influence to redeem her. And he did it
legally. He did it in front of all the
elders. Everything was done according
to the book. So she's redeemed. So he had
the right to marry her and give her children because he loved
her. God loves his people so much.
He's used all of his wealth and all of his power to redeem his
people. God's redemption of His people
is His power and action. And then fifthly, Christ uses
His power to make His people live. Verse 15 says, And He shall
live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer
also should be made for Him continually, and daily shall He be praised.
Now this phrase, He shall live, means that He will cause to live,
that He will give life and he will nourish life. That's what
the phrase means. Well, God's elect are born dead.
They're born dead in trespasses and sins. And they don't have
the ability to give themselves spiritual life. Any more than
a corpse has the ability to rise up and give itself physical life.
They're dead. They don't have the ability to
give themselves life. Now, the gold here is not just
gold that his people give him. He already has everything. This
is talking here in a picture. The gold here is the deity of
Christ. All of the best things, things
that are better than gold, they're pure, they're valuable. They're
all in Christ. They've been given to Him by
the Father. Righteousness, the forgiveness of sin, eternal life.
It's all in Christ. And everything that Christ is,
and everything that He has, He freely gives to His people. That's
where they get life from. He gives them. His life. And
everybody who knows Him constantly prays for the glory of Christ. It says here that prayer shall
be made for Him continually. God's people aren't praying for
Christ that He'd be successful. What it is, is it's constantly
praying for His glory, for His glory. Their desire is to see
Christ's glory. Well, what's His glory? His glory
is in giving life to sinners. His glory is in saving and redeeming
His people. And look at verse 16. Here's
how Christ gives His people life. There shall be a handful of corn
in the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof
shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish
like grass of the earth. Christ gives His people life
by dying for them. You're going to wonder, Preacher,
where'd you get that from this verse? Well, it's from the handful
of corn. I make good on this. Look at
John chapter 12. John chapter 12. There were certain Greeks among
them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came,
therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh
and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.
And Jesus answered them. This is his answer to this request. Sir, we would see Jesus. This
is his answer. If you're going to see him, here's
how you're going to see him. Jesus answered them, saying,
The hours come that the Son of Man should be glorified. If you're
going to see Him, you're going to see Him in this hour when
He's glorified, when He's crucified and dies for the sin of His people.
Verse 24 tells us that's what He's talking about. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Christ died, and He was buried,
and He rose again, and that brought forth a large harvest of life. That's why he told his disciples,
pray that the Lord of the harvest send workers out, reapers out
into the harvest to gather up the harvest. Because there's
going to be a huge harvest because Christ died. Just like one grain
of corn, when it's planted in the ground, it dies. But it produces
a harvest a whole lot bigger than that one seed, doesn't it?
Well, one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, died. And David says
that death is going to produce a harvest that is going to It's
an abundant harvest. It's going to flourish like grass
on the earth. And this is what I've learned
from my unscientific observation about grass. You cannot stop
grass from growing in the summertime. It's impossible. You can't do
it. I mean, you can kill a great
big patch of it and a little crack in the sidewalk is going
to spring up. I mean, you can't stop grass from growing. That's
God's people. You can't stop them from receiving
spiritual life. You can't stop them from flourishing
because Christ's death demands that they live. And David says
this grass is going to grow so thick, the grass, God's people,
they're going to grow so thick. He says it'll shake like Lebanon.
This grass is going to grow so thick and so strong that wind's
going to blow through it. And it's going to sound like
the strong wind blowing through those great big famous cedar
trees in Lebanon. They're just going to grow so
great. And all of this is a picture
which is meant to tell us this one simple truth. The death of
Christ was not in vain. The life of His people is going
to be abundant. It's abundant life in Him. Now
look at John chapter 17. This is the whole reason that
God gave His Son all power. And we looked at this in the
first part of this psalm last week, how the father has given
his son all power. Well, this is why the father
gave the son all this power. It's so that he could give life
to his people. John 17 verse one. These words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father,
the hours come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over all
flesh. That here's why he gave him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. See, that's the reason the father
gave all power to his son and nothing can stop him from giving
life to his people because he died for them. And that life
is going to flourish. It's just going to be abundant,
eternal life. All right, here's the last thing.
Christ uses his power to cause his people to praise his name.
Verse 17, Bacchanatech, Psalm 72. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations
shall call Him blessed. Now the name of Christ, the saving
power of His name will endure as long as creation stands. That gives us such confidence
to just keep preaching Christ, just keep preaching His name.
The saving power of His name is going to be on, will endure
as long as men live in this creation. And they're going to praise His
name throughout this creation and on into the next one too.
And notice David doesn't say that man will be blessed in Christ. He's not saying every son of
Adam is going to be blessed in Christ. He says that men will
be blessed in Christ. Men from every nation are going
to be blessed in Christ because Christ has dominion over every
nation. And he's going to use his sovereign
power to save sinners from every nation. There's no nation in
the history of this earth that's going to be left out from the
benefits of God's grace in Christ because he has dominion over
all of them. He's going to save a people out
of all of them. And what do you reckon those
people are going to do when God saves them? when He delivers
them, when He redeems them, when He covers them, He spares them.
What do you reckon they're going to do? They're going to praise
the Lord for doing it. They're going to praise His name
forever. Verse 18, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel. The Lord God, the God of Israel,
who only doeth wondrous things. See, all this, this salvation,
it takes the power of God. That's why He gave it all to
Christ. It takes power. Now, only God can do these wondrous
things. Only God can and would deliver
and spare and save and redeem the poor and needy. Only God
would do that for them. Not only God can do these wondrous
things, but everything, everything that God does is wondrous. Everything he does is only wondrous. It's only wondrous continually.
And God's people have eyes to see that. They have some understanding.
Even though I don't understand what He's doing, even though
it might hurt my flesh, I do know this. What God's doing is
wondrous. It's glorious. And I can praise
Him for that. And then verse 19. And blessed
be His glorious name forever and let the whole earth be filled
with His glory. Amen and amen. Let all the earth
Praise the Lord. I know they all won't do it. Everybody in the earth won't
praise the Lord. But God's going to make His people
from all over this earth praise the Lord. I thought today, aren't
we thankful that we've got the opportunity to do that here.
We've got the opportunity to do that right now. David says
in verse 20, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended. Someday, I'm going to say my
last prayer. I wish it'd be as good as this
one, don't you? I wish it'd be filled with His power and His
praise and His glory, full of trust and confidence in Him,
full of praise in Him, full of the praise of His name. In just
a moment, Mike's going to come and lead us in singing Amazing
Grace. I believe that we can all stand up and sing that song,
praising the name of our Savior. Isn't it amazing that He would
deliver, that He would spare, that He would save, that He would
redeem, that He would give life to poor and needy people like
we are. That ought to move our heart to praise Him. Let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank You
for this portion of Your Word, so clearly reveals both the power
of the Savior and the compassion of the Savior to reach way down
to the poor and to the needy, to the helpless, to the destitute,
to save their sorry souls and that salvation and life in Him
is sure and certain. Father, we thank you. How can
we ever thank you enough? How can we ever praise you enough?
We ask that you'd accept our praise, our thanksgiving in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His sake, Father, accept
our praise. and our thanksgiving. Cause us
to continually praise you and thank you. Always remember the great depths
that you sunk to to save sinners like we are. Cause us to live
our lives in gratitude and thanksgiving for all your great salvation
for sinners in your city. It's in his precious name that
we pray.