All right, let's open our bios
again to Psalm 65. Now, when we read these verses just a few
moments ago, there was a real sweetness in reading them. It sounds like these verses are
describing God governing and blessing His whole creation. God spoke and put this whole
world into creation. And He set fast the mountains.
Can you imagine the power of God? As He created the earth,
He set fast those mountains so they cannot be moved. And there
they sit today. God stills the noise of the sea. He stills the storm with just
a word. Be still. Our dear friends in
North Carolina are getting ready to face an awful big storm. But
you know, that's God's storm. God could still it, move it,
do whatever. He governs the earth. Even the
storm and the wind and the waves of the sea, God governs them. He makes the morning and evening
rejoice with His blessings every day. He visits the earth and
waters it. What a dry, lifeless ball this
earth would be if God didn't visit it and water it. He softens
the ground with the rain to make the crops grow. God covers some
pastures with sheep, He covers other pastures with corn, so
His people are well supplied. The wicked partake of it, but
God covers those pastures with those things just for His people,
so they're well supplied. God crowns the year with His
goodness. Every year of our lives has been
crowned with God's goodness. And all that's true. We can find
comfort and there's a sweetness in seeing how God rules over
his creation, how he supplies everything in it. But David's
talking about an even greater blessing than that. As we go
through these verses, what I hope we'll see tonight is David's
giving us the life story of God's elect. That's why I've titled
the message, The Life Story of God's Elect. David here is still
talking. Remember we looked at the first
four verses last Wednesday. David's still talking about the
man that God chose to save. Verse four, he says, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee
that he may dwell in thy courts. We should be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And the rest
of this Psalm, David goes on showing us the things that God
does, how he governs his creation, what he does in the lives of
his people for all those that he chose to save. And if God
saved you, you'll recognize your life story, your spiritual life
story in these next verses. Here's the first thing of our
life story. God teaches his people to reference
him. In verse five, David says, by
terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of
our salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth
and of them that are far off upon the sea. Now, these terrible
things that God does are things that cause God's people to reference
him. These are terrible things. They're
awesome things that are done in righteousness. Now remember,
one of the blessings that comes from God's election of a people
is he hears the prayer. Verse two says, O thou that hears
prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Well, God's elect people,
they cry to God and he answers them with these terrible things,
these great things, astonishing things. that teach them to reverence
God. These are astonishing things
that the God of our salvation has done in righteousness to
save His people from their sin. The works of God are too many
to list. I'll just mention a few. This is an astonishing thing. A terrible thing. God teaches
His people. Almighty God became a man. God became flesh. He clothed
Himself with flesh. He didn't just cover himself
with flesh. He actually became a man so that he could be the
representative of his people. And we wonder, how can our mind
ever comprehend that? How can God become a man? How is that possible? I don't
know. I don't know. You don't either,
do you? We don't know how can God become
a man. But that's not the real question. Here's something that's just
as impossible to figure out, and this is the real question.
Why did God become a man to save the likes of me? There's a question. Oh, what an awesome thing, a
terrible thing God has done. I don't know how God did that,
and I don't know why God did that, but I tell you, I'd reverence
Him for it. That someone as great as Him would do something like
that for somebody like me, I could reverence God for that, can't
you? Christ coming in the flesh, the Son of God coming in the
flesh. That's the wisdom of God in salvation that God teaches
his people. By one representative man came
sin. By a second representative man
came righteousness. Adam made all of his race sinners. Christ made all of his race to
be righteous. And that's our life story. That's
the believer's life story. Christ came in the flesh. to
make us righteous. Here's another terrible, awesome,
amazing thing. The holy God loves sinners. God elected a people to say because
he loves them. Now, by nature, we don't think
that's such an astounding statement. Because by nature, we think we're
so lovable because everybody's always told us how lovable we
are. We think we're so lovable and we love ourselves right well,
so we think we're so lovable. God ought to love us. And one
of the first things God has to teach us is by nature, no, we're
not lovable. Not at all. We're not lovable.
And not only that, God cannot and will not love us the way
we were born in Adam. God cannot love anybody in their
sin because God's holy. See, the mystery is not that
God hated Esau or that God could hate you and me in our flesh.
The mystery is that God could love Jacob, that God could love
you and me. Now that is a mystery. It's a mystery because only God
has the capacity to love sinners. Only God has the capacity to
love someone, to set his love and affection on someone that's
the opposite of him. We don't have that capability.
We don't love people who are different from us. We only love
people who love us and people who are like us. We do not have
the capacity to love people who hate us. We don't do it. We just don't have that capacity.
That's why it's such a mystery to us. The Lord told us to pray
for our enemies. Now, we might be able to force
ourselves to say the word, but we cannot make ourselves love
people who hate us. We just can't do it. God does. Oh, thank God He does. And that
makes His people revere Him and love Him. We love Him because
He first loved us. Look at 1 John chapter 4. God
set His love on His elect people and He made sure they knew it.
He demonstrated His love for His people by making them what
God does love by killing His only begotten Son in their place.
1 John chapter 4 verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because the God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Now herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. And here's how he showed his
love. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. And if God has saved us, that's
our life story. God loved me when I was yet in
my sin and sent his son to die for me. And in return, I revere
him. I love him. Here's another awesome
thing. That the sacrifice of Christ
completely saved, utterly saved everyone for whom he died. Christ
didn't die to give us a picture, to give us an idea that, well,
here's how God saves sinners. The animal sacrifices, the Old
Testament did that. They gave us a picture of what
Christ was going to do when he came. But Christ's sacrifice
actually took the sin of His people away. Put their sin away
and made them righteous. Now that's a terrible, awesome
thing that makes God's people revere Him. And it makes God's
enemies stumble. They think, they read what Scripture
says, that Christ was made sin for His people. And they stumble
at that. They stumble at that because
their human mind can't comprehend it. How can the Holy Son of God
be made sin? You know, they say, well, you're
saying he's made a sinner. No, sir. No, sir. Nobody's saying
that at all. He was made sin. That's what
the scriptures say. Christ was made to be the entire
mass of the sin of his people, all in one place, all in one
body. And the father killed him for
it. He was strong enough to bear up under the burden of that sin.
He bore it all away. He put it all away by His death
on the tree. Now, smart people want to know,
how did God do that? I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know how the Father could
make His Son to be sin. I don't know. But you know what? I don't have to understand how
God does something in order for it to be so. God does lots of
things that I don't understand. I don't know how he did it. And
they're still so. This is one of the most simple
things. Here it is. We're getting ready to have a
whole bunch of rain. You know, man doesn't know how to make
it rain. They try to figure out how to seed the clouds and make
it rain and stuff. And even really super smart people can't figure
out how to make it rain. I have no idea how God puts rain
in those clouds and makes it fall there. I have absolutely
no idea. I don't know how God does it.
But it still rains, doesn't it? The rain still so. Well, I don't
understand how Christ could be made sin. But I know God did
it. I don't understand how is it
that the sacrifice of Christ put all of my sin away and made
me righteous. Even though when I look at myself,
I don't see any righteousness. All I see is sin. I don't know
how that can be, but I know God did it. And that makes me revere
him, to reverence him because God gave me faith to believe
it. He didn't give me the wisdom to understand how he did it,
but he gave me the faith to believe him, to believe Christ, to believe
him. He gave me faith to believe Christ. And that's our life story. If God saved us, we believe on
him. Christ took our sin and put it
away and we believe him. God gave us faith to believe
that. Christ, the sinner substitute, actually died for sin to satisfy
God's law and God's justice. And then three days later, a
man who'd been dead for three days, rose from the grave by
his own power. I don't know how he did that.
But I sure am glad he did. Aren't you? Oh, I'm so glad he
did. Because the resurrection of Christ
proved His sacrifice, put away the sin of His people. He had
to stay dead if the sin charged to Him was still there. But it
wasn't. It's gone. And if God has saved
us, that's our life story. That's how I was given life.
Christ died for me. And I was resurrected in Him. And that gives God's elect confidence. Now this is not being brash and
bragging. It gives God's elect confidence. We don't have confidence now
because of our faith. We don't have confidence because
of our repentance. We don't have confidence because
we think that we're righteous or we see that we've done anything
good. Here's our confidence. Christ is our confidence. David
says here, who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth?
Our confidence is not a thing. It's a person. And a people from
all of the ends of the earth have their hope and their confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because God saved them. And that's their
life story. That's your life story, if God
saved you. All right, here's the second
thing. This is the life story of God's
elect. God sets his people fast upon
Christ, so they cannot be moved. Verse six says, which by his
strength set as fast the mountains, being girded with power. And
God created the world. He put the mountains in their
place. We know he did it with just the word of his power. But
you think what power it is in that word to put those mountains
right where they are. Sometimes we go down to visit
Jan's mom. We got to drive through the Smoky
Mountains and I look at those things and I thought they've
been here 6,000 years, right exactly where God put them. I mean, I just am amazed at that.
And nobody has the power to move them. Now he's not just talking
here about the Smoky Mountains or the Rocky Mountains or the
Alps or something. What he's talking about is his people. God does the same thing for his
people with the word of his power. He sets his people fast upon
Christ, the Rock of Ages. And right there they stay. Just
like those mountains cannot be moved, God's people cannot be
moved off Christ. You can't blast a mountain. God
holds them fast by the word of His power. He won't let them
move out of His hand. And I tell you, I'm so thankful
for that. That just thrills my heart because
I know enough about myself to know this. If God leave me alone,
I'd leave Christ in a heartbeat. And I'd lose my salvation in
a heartbeat, but He won't let me go. And if God has saved you,
that's your life story. God saved me by His power. By
His grace and by His will, and by that same power, by that same
grace, by that same will, God keeps me saved. By God's grace
and God's power, He put me in Christ, and by God's grace and
power, there I stay, because of His will, His power, keeping
me fast in His Son. All right, here's the third thing.
This is the life story of every believer. God gives His people
a quiet submission to Him. Verse 7. which stilleth the noise
of the seas, and the noise of their waves, and the tumult of
the people." Now, before God saves His people, they're rebels
against Him. Every one of us was born a rebel
against God. If you've never been a rebel,
God hasn't yet saved you. Everybody God saves is born a
rebel against God. Look over a few pages at Psalm
83. Psalm 83 verse one. Keep not thou silence, O God,
hold not thy peace and be not still, O God, for lo, thine enemies
make a tumult and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
They have taken the crafty, they've taken crafty counsel against
thy people and consulted against thy hidden They have said, come
and let us cut them off from being a nation that the name
of Israel may be no more in remembrance for they have consulted together
with one consent. They are confederate against
thee. Oh, they've made a great tumult.
He said in verse two, they've made a great tumult against thee. They're confederate. They've
joined together against thee. They're making this great war
against thee. And God just laughs. It doesn't bother him a bit.
When God saves a sinner, when He moves in grace to save a sinner,
He conquers that sinner. He conquers them. They willingly
surrender to Him. He stills their noise. He stills
the tumult. He silences the rebellion. And
He makes them to be quiet. He makes them to quietly and
silently submit to Him and bow before Him in worship. And that
is something only God can do. David likens it to stilling the
noise of the sea. You know, what a miracle that
is. Remember that night the disciples were out fishing and they thought
that they were going to be drowned in this great storm that blew
up on the wind and the waves. And the Savior, He came walking
on the wind and the waves and He just said, peace, be still.
They were silent and they were amazed. This is something only
God can do. You know, I like being down by
the ocean. I like sitting there on the beach
and just listening to the ocean and watching the ocean. I get
up in the morning. We're there at the hotel. I get
up in the morning and open and look out and see if it's high
tide or low tide. And the ocean constantly moves. I mean, you just watch it. And
here it comes. It comes in. It comes out. And even when it's
going out, waves keep coming up. It's just constant movement,
just constant. It never is quiet. God could
speak. Just still that. And that's our
heart. That ocean is just like our heart,
our natural heart, just constant rebellion, constant just banging
and bashing against God's will, against God's purpose. And all
God has to do to quiet that rebellious heart is just say, peace. Be
still. Just reveal His Son to you. Just
reveal His Son in you. And everything's quiet. And then
in a storm, I've been near the ocean in a pretty good-sized
hurricane. It's impressive. I mean, it's
impressive. Those storms and those waves
are violent. That's what our brethren in North
Carolina are batting down the hatches for right now. And you
imagine that wild storm. Picture that storm. That's our
heart. That's our heart by nature. And the Savior comes. He's not
in distress. Stressed out, he just says, peace,
be still. And that rebellious storm is
gone, gone. Remember that Gadarene, the demoniac?
They couldn't tame him. They couldn't tame him with chains.
He just tore off all of his clothes, just running around naked, wild
as a, just too wild to shoot at. And the Lord came one day. And the Lord told that legion,
you get out, you get out. And the people came back. And
they saw that demoniac calm, sitting in his right hand. What
happened? The master spoke in power and
grace and the rebellion ended. And there's peace, peace in the
heart. There's a great calm. And that's
the story of our life. That's our life story, if God
saved us. We were rebels, just violent rebels against him. And
He said, peace be still, and He broke us. There's calmness,
there's peace, there's life. And that's why God's people love
God's sovereign power. God's people love to hear. We
love to be reminded. God does what He will, when He
will, with whom He will. And nobody can stay His hand.
Nobody even has the right to ask Him, what are you doing?
God saves His people. He's suffering. He saves His
people by His power, not ours. By His will, not ours. And God's
people love it because that's the only way we can be saved. Because I've got no power of
my own. God's people find a calm assurance in God's suffering
power. But the rebel that's religious,
and he's still religious, But he denies that absolute sovereign
power of God in the gospel. They've got a form of godliness,
but they deny the power thereof. They deny God's sovereign power
in it. But God's people love it. Oh,
that calms and stills their hearts. And here's something else. The
God of our salvation calms our crying fears and our screaming
doubts. Now, there's never a reason for
the believer to have those fears and doubts, is there? Never.
There never is a reason for it. And when you think of it, what
do we have to be afraid of? Our Savior has already come and
put our sin away. Our Savior has made peace with
God for us by the blood of His cross. He's come and given us
eternal life. He's given us the promise of
eternity with Him. And between here and there, between
here and glory, what trial, what problem can come up in this life
that will overcome us? I mean, really, what one? Now
our Savior promised us we'll have them, but he promised us
this also. That in every one of those trials,
he'll go through them with us. When we go through the flames,
that burning trial, it's not going to burn you. It's not going
to destroy you because he's going to go with you. He promised I'll
go with you. You're going to go through deep
waters, deep rushing waters, but they won't sweep you away
because he's going with you. Then what are we going to be
afraid of? Not one thing, not one thing. Yet we are so often full of those
fears and doubts aren't we? Often, often. And our God in
great compassion for our weakness comes Instead of being mad at
us, instead of berating us, instead of taking his presence away from
us because he's mad at us, he comes and he speaks to the heart
of his people. And their hearts are stilled.
They're calm. No fear, no worry. It's calm,
at least for the time. It's calm because the Savior
has spoken through his word. See, God silences that rebellion,
that rebellious heart of his people. They don't stay completely
silent. Now there are times, and this
is maybe even the best times of worship, there are times we
have silent worship and awe before God. But that noise of our rebellion
is replaced with a noise of rejoicing and singing, verse eight. They
also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid of thy tokens.
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Now our God does this great work
of salvations, work of giving peace in the heart. He does it
for a people from all over the earth, from every nation, every
tribe, every kindred, from everywhere that covers from where the sun
goes up to where it goes down. Everything covered by that. God
has a people. God has a people that he saved
and they rejoice. He says here the outgoings of
the morning and the outgoings of the evening. That word outgoings
means the results of something. Well, the result of another morning
is we rejoice and sing God's praise. He's given us another
day. God has given light and ended
the darkness. And we praise Him. And the outgoing
of the evening, the result of another evening is we rejoice
and sing God's praise. He's given us a time of rest.
He's given us rest in Christ. And God saved you. That's your
life story. That's your life story. And then
here's the next one. God waters his people and makes
them fruitful. Verse nine. Thou visitest the
earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou prepares them
corn when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waters the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Now God's people have life and
they're fruitful. because God waters them abundantly. He says abundantly. God softens
the heart of His people with the water of His Word. Just like
in the spring, throughout the summer, He softens the ground
with rain and water. Makes that ground ready to plow
and be planted and produce a harvest. But the water Dave is talking
about here is spiritual. This is a spiritual thing because
he talks about the river of God, which is full of water. He's
not talking about the Ohio River, the Mississippi River, the Little
Sandy River. He's talking about the spiritual river, the water
of God. And this water he's talking about
here. You know, this is not some mystical, spiritual thing that
nobody can exactly define. No, we can define it exactly.
This water he's talking about is Christ our Savior. Because
notice, when is it that God's people, when is it that the earth
is watered and blessed? He says in verse 9, when thou
visitest the earth. When Christ visited the earth
as a man, the water of life flowed out from God to men. When Christ,
the water of life, visited this earth as a man. Look at Revelation
chapter 22. The apostle John wrote about the
exact same river Revelation chapter 22. This river is the river of
Christ that cleanses his people and makes them righteous. Revelation
22 verse 1. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and out of the land. In the midst of the street of
it and on either side of the river was there the tree of life,
which bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there should be no more curse, but the throne of God and of
the lamb shall be in it. And his servants shall serve
him." See, this river of God, number one, is sovereign. This
river, this water, the water of life, Christ is sovereignly
given. Where does it come from? It proceeds
out of the throne of God. It goes where he sends it. This
is sovereignly given. And this water gives life to
the trees, these trees of God's planting his people. This is
the water that gives them life. And then, you know, Christ has
to come and give us this life. He comes and gives us where the
water is. That's where the trees go. You
never have seen a tree get up and go to the water, have you?
Water always goes to the tree and gives the tree life. Why
is it you have life? Because the water came where
you are, came to you and gave you life. And this water removes
the curse of sin and makes His people righteous. Now that's
your life story. That's how God saved you, how
He made you righteous. That's your hope. That's your
life story if God's the one that saved you. Christ the living
water, He flows from God to His people and gives them life. David
says that corn grows where God provided for it. Where God provided
for a crop, that's where it grows. God's people live and they grow. They grow in grace because God's
provided life for them. He sent the gospel to them. He's
given them faith to believe it. They grow where God's provided
for it. And the story of believers life is this, we only live because
God's been pleased to make us live. We don't live because we
did A, B, and C right. No, we live because God sovereignly
gave us life. Sinners live where God comes
and He prepares their heart. He makes their heart good ground,
ready to receive the seed. Sinners live where God's pleased
to provide it, where He's pleased to provide seed to be sown, the
seed of His Word being preached. Sinners live where God's pleased
to send the rain, the water of His Word. Just like on the earth,
some places it rains, some places it doesn't. Why does it rain
over here and not over here? Because God provided it. Wherever
it is, God sends his word, the water of his word. That's where
sinners live. God's people are blessed because
God has been pleased to bless them. God blessed you. God saved you. God revealed his
son to you. Then the story of your life is this. God blessed
me. I'm blessed because God blessed
me. It's all his doing. And then here's the fifth thing.
God covers his people. with his goodness. Verse 11.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness and thy paths drop fatness. Now, when David uses the word
crown here, he doesn't just mean to top it off or to set like
a crown on top of somebody's head. The word crown there means
to encircle or to surround. God surrounds the year with his
goodness. God surrounds the life of his
people, just encircles them with his goodness. So that Everything
that happens to a child of God is good. Everything, whatever
it is that happens, it shall be well with the righteous. Now
it's easy for us to see when you look at all these blessings
of God. It's easy for us to see how those
things are good, aren't they? But you know, even the painful
trials are good for us. They're good for us somehow,
even though often we don't see it. We never figure it out. Somehow
they're good for us. They teach us something good.
I know at the very minimum they teach us this. Trials always
teach God's children to depend more upon Him. A trial always
draws God's children closer to Him, never away from Him, but
always closer. Well, that's good, isn't it?
That's good. And trials also teach us this, that God's going
to keep His word. He promised He'll comfort His
people. He promised he'd provide for
his people. He promised to provide a way
out when it's time, when the lesson's been taught and the
right amount of dross has been burned off. He promised he's
going to comfort his people. He's going to teach us more of
him. Well, that's a good thing, isn't
it? You know, the fact of the matter
is this. This is why the believer is glad
God's softened, that God's in control of all these things.
I'm glad I'm not in control of them. Really, I'm not. Because
we all want sunny days. And we want nothing but sunny
days. Is that right? We only want sunny
days. We only want days that are 70
degrees and low humidity and plenty of sunshine and not even
any white clouds in the sky. That's what we all want. And
oh how wonderful that'd be. Until we starve to death. There's not going to be a harvest
unless there's dark, rainy, cloudy days. The earth's not going to
be softened. Our hearts aren't going to be
softened without those dark, rainy, tough days. God's in control
of those things. He sends just the right amount
of both days so that he has encircled our life. He has surrounded our
life with his goodness, with his goodness. In verse 12, he
says, they drop upon the pastures of the wilderness and the little
hills rejoice on every side. God is so good, He makes the
little hills to rejoice. And that stuck out to me. He makes the little hills to
rejoice. Not the great big impressive hills, the giant mountains, but
the little ones. This congregation, here's a little
hill. And God's mercy and God's grace has been on this little
hill and made us rejoice. God sends rain upon the pastures
of the wilderness, in a desert place, just All you can see is
desert as far as you can see in every direction. But God sends
water to this little hill, this little place, and there's an
oasis, beautiful oasis of life in the desert. And that is the
life story of every believer. God chose a worthless sinner
like me, and he saved me by the sacrifice of his son. God sent
Christ into the lifeless desert of my heart and made me live. made me rejoice. We rejoice on
every side because God surrounded us on every side with his goodness.
Verse 13, he says, the pastures are clothed with flocks. The
valleys also are covered over with corn. They shout for joy. They also sing. The pastures
are clothed with flocks. They're covered with sheep. Well,
that's God's church. All the sheep are in just exactly
the right place, right where they should be, right on the
hill, right in the local church, right where they should be because
the shepherd led them there and just covered the hill with it.
And that's our life story. That's the life story of every
believer. Why is it we're here and not somewhere else? God,
the good shepherd came and led us here. That's how. And the
valleys are covered over with corn. We got plenty to eat. because
God gave it to us as a free gift of His grace. And God's people
shout for joy. They shout and sing God's praises
because that's their life story. How God blessed me on every side. I was dead in sin, and God gave
me life. I was a rebel against Him, never
would have chosen God, but He chose me anyway. I never could
have lived, never could have put my sin away. God sent His
Son to be sacrificed to put it away from me. I couldn't believe
it. He wouldn't believe it. Never
would have. But God spoke. He broke my rebellion. He sent
his spirit into my heart and gave me life. And I believe.
I can't not believe. I can't leave him now. He's all
my hope. He's all I want. He's surrounded. He's made every event of my life
to be good. He's crowned me with his goodness. I rejoice, don't you? We do.
That's our life story. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for your goodness, your mercy
and your grace, your sovereign will and purpose being carried
out to your people. Father, how we thank you. How
we praise your matchless name, knowing we do not deserve the
least of your mercies. Yet you've showered us with your
mercy, you crowned us, you surrounded us with your goodness and your
mercy and your grace. Father, how we thank you. I pray
you bless your word, Father, to your glory. Let your people
see your glory in their life story, how your awesome, mighty
work of redemption for them through your son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, comfort our hearts, encourage our hearts with your word. Cause
us to go forth at the outgoing of this evening, praising your
matchless name for all your blessings to us through this day, through
all of our life, and giving us a time of rest, preparing us
again for another day tomorrow. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray and give thanks.