That was so good, Mike. Thank
you. It's been too long since I've heard that song. I like
those old Frank Sweeney songs. I don't know if he wrote it or
not. It's the first place I ever heard him sing. Anyway. Alright,
let's open our Bibles again to Psalm 60. I titled the message
this evening, Healing the Breach. Now this is a golden psalm of
David. In the title you see the word
mitzvah. That means a golden song. This is a golden song to
teach us a golden truth. How God has healed the breach
that's been made between God and man by man's sin. Let's begin
here, verse one. David says, Oh God, thou has
cast us off. Thou has scattered us. Thou has
been displeased. Oh, turn thyself to us again.
Thou has made the earth to tremble. Thou has broken it. Heal the
breaches thereof. for it shaketh." And in this
opening of the psalm, we get a picture of the utter devastation
that's been caused by Adam's sin. Because of Adam's sin, God
has cast man off. Those words, cast off, means
rejected and to be removed afar off. God has rejected man in
their sin. The holy God will never accept
man coming to Him as we are in our sin. He has rejected men
and God has removed men far off from Him because of their sin.
Man has removed himself so far from God that it's impossible
for us to find our way back to God. It's impossible for you
and me. That's the devastation that's
been caused by our sin. N. Davis says, God has scattered
men because of their sin. That scattered means broken,
like he just with his hands just smashed down on the earth and
just smashed men to smithereens and scattered them everywhere
in his anger. David says here, God is displeased
because of sin. Now, when we use the word displeased,
it makes it sound like we're just a little bit perturbed.
The word that David uses here means enraged. God is enraged. See, our sin makes God's anger
burn with a white-hot fury. You know, God does not think
that we're cute, doing the best that we can do, even though it
falls short. God doesn't think that's cute
at all. It makes His anger burn. He's angry with the wicked every
day. David says God's judgment is
so severe, it's so awful, It's made the earth to tremble just
like an earthquake, like God just reached down and grabbed
ahold of the earth and just shook it by the scruff of its neck.
And this earth has been shaken. All the foundations of anything
that we hope in is based on this earth have been shaken and fallen
apart, just crumbled into ruins. And that's what the word breaches
in verse two means. The word breaches, it means words
that we typically associate with the effect of sin. The word breaches
means to ruin. It means destruction, and it
means to bruise. Now this breach is not like sin,
it hasn't caused, he's not talking here about the gap that's caused
between God and man, although that gap does exist. But this
word, Breach is here. It means something worse even
than a gap between God and man. It means that sin has ruined
the relationship between God and man. Man cannot come back
to God as we are because we're ruined in sin. Beyond repair. Something that's ruined can't
be repaired. The only thing that's good for
us is to be thrown away. Got to get a new one. Sin has caused
destruction that's left us dead. without any spiritual life whatsoever
and no way to go get life because we're dead. Look over at Jeremiah
chapter 30. The next part of that definition
there is bruised. Sin has left us bruised, but
you know, don't be mistaken into thinking that that means the
bruise will heal in time. That's not the kind of bruise
he's talking about here. Jeremiah chapter 30. Jeremiah
tells us what this is. Verse 12. For thus saith the Lord, thy
bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none
to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast
no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten
thee, they seek thee not. For I have wounded thee with
the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one for
the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased.
Why cryest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the
multitude of thine iniquity. Because thy sins were increased,
I have done these things unto thee. Your sorrow and your bruise
is incurable. Now this bruise is a bruise that's
been left by the mark of God's justice. Isaiah told us about
it. Remember in Isaiah chapter one?
He said, from the sole of the foot, even unto the head. There's
no soundness in it. There's nothing but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. They've not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. That is the disgusting
description of us spiritually by nature. This is the bruise,
the stripes is caused by a beating, the beating of God's justice,
which always brings forth death. And if you look in verse three,
God has told us plainly the condition that we're in. Verse 3, David
says, Thou hast showed thy people hard things. Thou hast made us
to drink the wine of astonishment. I looked up that word, hard things,
and it means severe. It means severe truths that are
on just either one extreme or the other, severe truths. And
it also means stubborn. I don't know why, but when I
read that definition, stubborn, I thought of a message Brother
Henry preached years and years ago. Six stubborn statements. Remember it? Six stubborn statements.
These are facts of the gospel that cannot be changed. Let me give you his outline real
quick. Six stubborn statements. Number
one, this is a stubborn statement. You can't change it. God is sovereign
in all things. or he's not sovereign at all.
It's one or the other, one extreme or the other. Number two, in
the fall, man died spiritually. So he's without hope, without
God, and without Christ. Or he's not dead at all. It's
gotta be one or the other. Number three, God elected a people
unto salvation by the choice of his sovereign will, or he
didn't choose anyone. And salvation is totally in the
hands of the creature. That's a stubborn statement.
It's one or the other, isn't it? Number four. Christ either effectually, eternally
saved the elect for whom he died, or his death saved no one. That's a stubborn statement.
That's an extreme. It's nowhere in the middle. It's
one or the other, isn't it? Number five. The Holy Spirit
either effectually, powerfully regenerates the elect in the
new birth and gives them repentance toward God in faith in Christ
Jesus, or he extends an offer to all men. And Henry said, we
refer back to his man dead or not. Well, if we're dead, the
only way we have life is if the spirit gives it to us. Now that's
a stubborn statement, but that's true. It's one or the other.
Either we're going to generate it ourselves or the spirit's
going to do it. Number six, The elect of God will be preserved
by His grace or no one will persevere to the end. Because if we're
left to ourselves, we will eventually fall as all creatures have. Those
are six stubborn statements. But you can make that apply to
every doctrine of the gospel. Every doctrine in the gospel
is stubborn. It can't be changed. It cannot
be argued against. Every doctrine in the gospel
is severe. It's one or the other. God is
holy. That's what the word says. And
God's holiness is severe. It's absolute holiness. God cannot change his holy requirement. God's holy. He can only accept
perfect holiness. That puts you in need of some
help, doesn't it? Puts us in need of some healing. Because
here's another thing, this is just an absolute severe statement
of the doctrine of the gospel. Man is dead in sin. When Adam
fell, we died. We didn't stub our toe, we didn't
skin our knee, we died. And we have no hope for salvation
in ourselves. In God's justice, it's severe.
It's inflexible. God must punish sin. Even when
God saves somebody, He's going to punish their sin. He must. Man is totally dependent on Christ
to save us. And there's no hint of salvation
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Man has no righteousness
at all. The only righteousness we can
have is the obedience of Christ. Without you and me, anything
to it. Now that's severe. That's inflexible. That truth cannot be altered. Now look at John chapter 6. Man
by nature hears these truths and we're astonished by them.
It's like we've drunk what David called here the wine of astonishment.
It's just real when we hear these things. And if God leaves us
to ourself, tell you what we'll do. We'll do what these folks
in John chapter 6 did we'll just leave him. John 6 verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of
man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living father
has sent me and I live by the father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples
when they had heard this said, this is a hard saying Who can
hear it? This is a hard saying. Now, do
you who believe what our Lord said there is the plain gospel
of God's grace, salvation and union with Christ, Him dying
for us, and us having union with Him. But to those rebels, they
said, this is a hard saying. They stumbled back, they reeled
from it, and they left. Just in here, this is why we
do this. Well, this is a hard thing. I
don't like that. And we just go off making the distance between
us and God even greater because we will not submit to his word. Now back to our text, David,
ask a question here. David asked God to turn himself
back to us again. See that the end of verse one,
Oh, turn by self. to us again. Now to a sinner in trouble, to
a sinner that understands this breach that's been caused between
us and God, that gives us a glimmer of hope, doesn't it? Is there
any way that will happen? That God will turn Himself back
to His people? Is there any way that we can
be brought back to God? Is there any way that this breach
can be healed? Is there any hope of salvation. Is there any hope of curing this
incurable disease of our sin? Well, there is. There is. Here's
another stubborn statement. This is an inflexible truth of
the gospel. There is hope of salvation for
a sinner. But you listen to me. God's going
to have to do all the work in it. He's going to have to do
all the work that's necessary to save his people from their
sin. God's going to have to come where they are because they can't
come to Him. God's going to have to come where they are and He's
going to have to put His hands upon them. He's got to pull them
out of the muck and the mire. He's going to have to heal all
their diseases. He's got to cleanse them in His
blood and bring them back into fellowship with the Father. He's
got to take them from where they are and take them to His Father
and make them accepted in His sight. And He's going to have
to do all of it because He's the only one capable of doing
it. We don't have any ability like that. So the breach can
be healed, but God's going to have to do all the work. Now
I'm going to give you three points on this healing of the breaches. Number one, I've kind of already
said this, this is the point. If the breach is going to be
repaired, God is going to have to turn himself back to the people. David asked him, will you turn
yourself to us again? Well, I'll tell you this, if
God is going to turn to us in salvation, He can't turn to us
in justice, can He? Because justice is going to have
to be satisfied somewhere else other than you and me. He's going
to have to turn to us, not in justice, but in mercy. Mercy. Because that's the only
way a sinner wants God to deal with us. Look over a few pages
at Psalm 86. We need God to turn to us in
mercy. And thank God He's promised to
do that for His people. Psalm 86, verse 16. Oh, turn unto me and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thy handmaid. Oh, turn thou unto me in mercy. Because that's the only way that
we can be saved. You see, we're the ones who left
God in Adam. God didn't leave us. And we're
the ones who left God because of our sin. And we created this
great distance between us and God that only God can cross. If we're going to come back to
God, God's got to be the one to cross that distance and come
to where we are. And that is exactly what he's
done for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, we were removed
far from God in Adam's disobedience, weren't we? But God's people
are brought back to God in the obedience of Christ the second
See, a man's the one that caused this breach. A man's the one
that caused this problem. And a man's the one who's going
to come and repair it. But he's going to be the God-man. The
Son of God in human flesh has come where we are. Because God's
turned back to His people in mercy and grace. But now remember,
we've got this problem with God's justice. God is displeased with
sin. He's enraged at it. And there's
only one way God's holy, white-hot anger can be appeased. There's
got to be a sacrifice. Justice must be met in the death
of the sacrifice. And that's exactly why Christ
came to this earth in our flesh. He came where we are in our flesh
so He could be the substitute for His people. And He could
take that sin that made God so angry and take it away from His
people and put it on Himself. He took it to Himself and then
He suffered. that he died as a substitute
for his people to satisfy God's wrath. So now God can turn to
his people in mercy because his anger, his justice has been satisfied
in the sacrifice of his son. See, Christ has come where we
are and that enables his people to say, lift up your heads. Redemption draweth not. David
asked God, will you turn yourself to us again? God said, I'll do
more than that. I'll come where you are and save you. Our redemption
has drawn nigh because Christ came to his people. And then
if our breach that we caused by our sin is going to be repaired,
God's going to have to rebuild the ruin of our nature. Maybe
that's one of the definitions of this word, breaches. It's
a ruin. Well, sin has ruined our nature. It's made us good
for nothing. We can't be fixed up. God can't
just put some light and some life into this flesh. That would
be fixing up the flesh. We're ruined. We can't be fixed
up. We can't be repaired. So if this ruin is going to be
fixed, we got to be made new. If you look at Isaiah 58, that
is exactly what God's done for his people in Christ. He's made
them new. He's taken those waste places
and rebuilt them, made them new. Isaiah 58 verse 12. And they that should be of thee
shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the foundations
of many generations and thou shalt be called the repairer
of the breach, the restore of paths to dwelling. Christ has
come to be the repairer of the breach. to build his people up
and make them new. And I'll tell you how he does
it. You don't have to turn here, you're very familiar with it. He does
it through the preaching of the gospel. Ephesians 2 verse 19
says, Now therefore, you no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints, and you're of the household of
God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building fitly framed together groweth, unto an holy temple
in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit." See, this is how God saves a sinner.
The Holy Spirit comes and He makes that sinner to be born
again. He builds them up. He builds
them on Christ, put upon that foundation, put upon that solid
rock so that we have union with Christ. And when we're built
on Christ, we can never be ruined again because the foundation
is perfect. The building is perfect because
it's built on his perfect righteousness. It's cleansed in his blood. It's
all held together with the bond of his love. It'll never be ruined
again. That's how he builds up the ruin
is by making his people be born again. But then there's another
definition of this word breach. If the breach is going to be
healed, the breach has been caused by our sin. God must heal us. When I first read this psalm
this week, that's one of the things that struck out to me. He didn't say, repair the breaches
or rebuild the breaches. He said, heal the breaches. Heal, heal them. And that's what
Christ has done for his people. By nature, we're full of wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores that haven't been closed up or
modified, hadn't any ointment put on them. And Christ comes
to His people. He's the good Samaritan. He finds
His people half dead down there in a ditch. And He heals their
sin sickness. He pours in the oil of His Spirit. He pours in the wine of His blood. He cleanses them by the blood
of His sacrifice. That's exactly what Isaiah said.
By whose stripes you're healed. We're healed because He took
our place. He took our place taking those stripes of God's
justice. and by his stripes, by the suffering of his sacrifice,
by his death, you're healed. Christ has healed the breach
by coming where we are and taking our sickness and giving us his
help. By his stripes, you're healed, washed us in his blood,
cleansed us from all sin. Now, there's no more reason for
a breach between us and God because Christ has healed us. But it
was healed because God had to turn Himself to us first. He has to do all the work. But
here's the second thing. God must turn Himself to us.
But if this breach is to be repaired, we've got to be turned back to
God too. Isn't that right? If this breach
is going to be repaired, we've got to be brought to God. Hold
your place here and look at 1 Peter chapter 3. This is what Christ
has come and done for His people. God turned Himself back to us
and then He sent His Son to bring His people back to Him. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,
Christ didn't offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin, hoping that
somebody might come to God. No, He died to bring us, to bring
His people to God. And I'll tell you how He does
it. How is it that God brings His
people to Himself? It's through the preaching of
the Gospel, through the preaching of Christ. Look at verse 4 back
in our text. Thou hast given a banner to them
that fear Thee. that it may be displayed because
of the truth. God brings his people back to
him through the preaching of Christ. That's what this banner
represents. It represents holding up Christ
in the preaching of the gospel. He's given us this banner that
it may be displayed. He didn't give it to us to take
the edges off of it, keep people from seeing what it really says
so we might trick somebody into staying. No, He's given us this
banner that it be displayed, that the gospel be preached clearly.
We must preach this. God's given us this great gift
of the gospel. We must preach it clearly. We
must clearly preach Christ because this is the way, the means that
God uses to bring His people to Himself. And there's two things
about this banner. Number one, when we read about
a banner like this, we probably all immediately think of Exodus
17. Remember, Israel had come out
of Egypt, and Amalek came and attacked Israel there in the
wilderness. And Joshua took men and went out and fought with
Amalek, and Moses went up to the top of the hill. He was watching
the battle there. He's watching the... That's what
the old man, I guess, does. He watches the young men fight
down there. Moses is watching the battle. And Moses held his
hands up with his rod in his hand. Joshua prevailed. Joshua
was winning the battle. But Moses' arms got tired. He
had to let him down to rest. And when he let his arms down,
Amalek prevailed. So Aaron and Hur bought a great
rock, set it down. So Moses sat down. He sat down.
And either one of them, still on either side, held his hands
up. And they kept holding his hands up until Joshua won the
battle and wiped out the enemy. And Moses called the name of
the place Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner. And this is
what we do in the preaching of the gospel. When Christ, our
banner, is lifted up in preaching, God's people will always prevail. Always. Because the preaching
of Christ is exactly what every one of us need. Is there a lost
sinner here? I'll tell you how you can overcome
Christ the Savior. If somebody just get up on his
hind legs and preach him. Hold that banner up. That's how
sinners overcome. It's through the preaching of
Christ. You who believe. It's Wednesday. Been out working? Been a tough
week? You drag yourself in here tonight
and think, I don't know. I don't know if it's worth it.
I'm so tired. I'm so weary. I'm so worn out. I feel so discouraged. How are
you going to overcome? Huh? Preaching of Christ. It's the preaching of Christ
that feeds the heart. It's the preaching of Christ
that comforts and strengthens the soul. We'll prevail if Christ
is exalted because he's exactly what we need. He's the banner.
If you look over in Isaiah chapter five, Isaiah tells us one another
thing about this banner. Christ is lifted up in preaching.
His people come back to Him. He said before He went to the
cross, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all unto
Me. I'll draw all My people unto
Me if I be lifted up from the earth. Well, if we preach Christ
and Him crucify, we lift Him up. And just preach Him. Don't
try to talk somebody into anything. Just preach Christ. His people
come. And Isaiah tells us why. Look
here, Isaiah 5, verse 26. And he will lift up an ensign.
That word ensign is a banner. He'll lift up a banner to the
nations from far and will hiss unto them. That hiss is whistle.
He'll whistle unto them from the end of the earth and behold,
they shall come with speed swiftly. When Christ is lifted up in the
preaching of the gospel, God whistles. Suddenly you don't
hear the voice of a man. God whistles. like his dog and
come swiftly, come with speed swiftly unto him. We come to
God. We come to Christ because God
whistles and calls us in the preaching of the gospel. And
we come. The only way men's hearts can
be turned to God, there's just one way. It's through the preaching
of the gospel that gives a new heart. Look at Psalm 80. If God will turn to us, we will
turn to Him. Psalm 80 verse 3. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. If He'll turn us, we'll
be saved. Look at verse 7. Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. In verse
19, turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine,
and we shall be saved. O Lord, if you'll come to us
and turn us, we'll be saved. He's got to be the one to turn
us and bring us to him. Jeremiah said in Lamentations
5.21, turn us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. If the
Lord will turn us to him, we'll turn to him and never turn back.
So that's the banner of Christ lifted up in the preaching of
the gospel. But this banner of Christ that we lift up in preaching,
draw sinners to God, is a banner of love. The gospel must be preached
in love. Has to be. In love for God? Oh,
what love we have for the Savior who would do something so great. You just can't even imagine it.
In love for Him? In love for His people, that
we want them to be fed, we want them to be comforted, we want
them to grow. We want them to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Savior. And in love for the lost, that
they might know the Savior. Oh, how we want people to know
the Savior. The gospel can only be preached in love. When a man
starts beating folks up with the gospel, he's not preaching
the gospel. I mean, he's got some doctrine, but he's not preaching
the gospel. The gospel must be preached in love because this
banner is a banner of love. And I'll show you that. Look
at the Song of Solomon, chapter 2. Nothing will draw a sinner to
the Savior more than God's love for sinners in Christ. You can
threaten them all you want. You can threaten them with punishment,
won't work. Actual punishment won't even do it. We read in
Revelation how God punishes those rebels and they curse His name.
They still won't beg for mercy. Actual punishment won't do it.
But I'll tell you what will. God's sovereign love for sinners.
Look here at Song of Solomon 2 verse 4. He brought me to the
banqueting house, and His banner over me was love. The banner
of Christ is the banner of God's love for His people. The Father
loved the people. That's why He chose them. The
Son loved the people. He loved the same people. That's
why He came in their nature and suffered and died to redeem them.
The Holy Spirit loves those people. That's why He comes to them and
gives them life and faith and repentance in the new birth and
dwells in their heart. The banner that we preach is
a banner of love. And God just keeps giving tokens
of that love. Look at verse 5. The bride here
is speaking. She says, stay me with flagons,
comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. Now apples were
tokens of love. God just keeps giving tokens
of His love for His people. Now, how does he do that? Well,
he does it through the preaching of the gospel. He doesn't just
do it by giving us stuff and making us rich and things in
this earth. Been a lot of believers who've been impoverished, who
were just put to death and just persecuted and lived in caves
and dens and animal skins, did nothing to eat. Well, if God's
tokens of love is giving them more and more stuff, God didn't
love them none, did he? So it's not that. God gives tokens of
His love for His people by constantly reminding us of the gospel, by
the constant preaching of Christ who showed His love for His people
by coming where they are to redeem them from their sins. And God's
love for His people makes them love Him right back. The bride
here says she's sick of love. It means she's sick in love,
sick in love for Him. Anybody who's ever been a teenager
or some people even before that had puppy love and great big
old goose eyes for some girl or some boy and they were 10
or 11 years old understands exactly what that's talking about. Oh,
it hurts so much. That's the bride's love for Christ.
She's sick with love with Him. So she never wants to leave Him.
Never wants to. And why would she? Look here
at verse 6, look at the tender embrace He's holding her with.
She says, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I
am sick of love. His hand is under my head, and
His right hand doth embrace me. He's holding her in the embrace
of His great hands. Of course she doesn't want to
leave Him. Of course she's sick with love for Him. He's holding
her face to face, tenderly, with such tender love. If you look
back in our text, that sounds a whole lot like what Dave is
describing here. In verse 5. He said that thy
beloved may be delivered. Save with thy right hand and
hear me. Reach down and save me with your
right hand. Pull me up close to your side
and hear me. That's how Christ brings His
people. He brings them back to God. He
comes where they are. He turns them. He gives them
a new heart. And He holds them in His loving
embrace. And not only can they not leave,
they never want to. God's got to turn Himself to
His people. He's got to turn His people back to Him. This
salvation, thirdly, God's elect, this thing is sure. Because the
healing of the breach is permanent. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is
one of Henry's stubborn statements, He will have all those that the
Father gave Him to save. Everyone for whom He died, He
will have them. They're redeemed and He'll have
them. Not one of them is going to be lost. They will be saved. They will be built up in Him,
never to be made a ruin again. And the flip side of the coin
is this. Every enemy of Christ will be destroyed, never to be
raised up again. Look what He says here in verse
6. God has spoken in His holiness. I will rejoice. I will divide
Shechem and mete out the valley of Sukkot. God has spoken in
His holiness. He has spoken how He will pardon
the sins of His people by charging their sin to Christ, by making
Christ sin for them. He has spoken in His holiness.
How it is He is going to give His people eternal life. He is
going to do it in holiness because Christ our substitute died. that
his people might have life. And God says here, I will rejoice
in them. Almighty God rejoices over the
redemption of the people that he loves, over having all of
them with him. He's not going to sorrow because
he lost one. He's going to rejoice because
he's got them all. Now, I know right now they may be rebels.
I promise you they were born rebels in Adam. They may be living
in rebel strongholds somewhere, but you mark this down. They're
going to be conquered. They're going to be conquered.
God says he's going to divide Shechem and mete out the valley
of Sukkot. He's going to divide Shechem
so that it falls. A house divided against itself
cannot stand. It must fall. And all those people
living in that rebel stronghold, and this was a place of a rebel
stronghold when David wrote this song, God's going to make it
fall. And all those people there that
belong to him, they're going to be conquered because they
belong to Christ. And God will mete out the valley
of Sukkot. He's going to mete it out. He's
going to give it to David. But at the time David wrote this,
that was a rebel stronghold. That's where Saul's sons were
hiding. That's where they lived. God
says, I know that's a rebel stronghold right now, but I'm going to give
it to you, David. You're going to rule over it. And you know
all that's a picture of Christ, the son of David. All his people
are born rebels. They're living in rebel strongholds.
But the gospel is going to go out in power. The gates of hell
cannot prevail against it. They're going to be conquered.
God's going to have them. Because look what he says in
verse 7, I'm going to have them. Because Gilead is mine. Manasseh
is mine. Ephraim also is a strength of
mine head. Judah is my lawgiver. Now David here is speaking of
the lords of Latt, from the four corners of the globe. These regions
of Israel he lists here cover all of Israel. From north to
south, east to west, covers it all. Now, he's the king now. He's been anointed king, but
also sits on the throne. Well, what's he going to do?
Well, David will rule over all of Israel. Not just Judah, not
just a little part of it. He's going to rule over all of
Israel. He's God's anointed king. But more importantly, this is
speaking of Christ, the son of David. God has an elect people,
spiritual Israel. They're from all over the world,
north, south, east and west. And it may look like they're
an enemy territory now. But God's going to have them.
None of them are going to be lost because this awful breach
between them and God has been healed, has been repaired by
Christ, the Savior of His people. And He will have all of His people. But now all of His enemies will
be destroyed. Verse 8, Moab is my washpot over Edom, or my washpot
over Edom, where I cast out my shoe. Philistina, triumph thou
because of me. Now Moab, he says here, will
be made my washpot. Now Moabs were rebel idolaters,
and these rebels are going to be destroyed. All of them are
going to be destroyed, unless God saves one of them, like He
did Ruth. Ruth was from Moab. She was a
Moabitess. But unless God's merciful, plucks that bran from the burning,
they're all going to be destroyed, and they're going to be made
the lowest servant. That's what the washpot means. They're going
to be made the lowest servant washing feet in a wash pot. They're
going to be put to shame. And the Edomites, they were the
descendants of Esau, who despised God, who despised the birthright.
Well, God's going to despise them and make them live on the
dunghill of their own works. That's what casting the shoe
means. It's just something that you'd throw away, that you'd
throw onto the dunghill. It signified shame. It's just
like God saying, I'm going to take them, I'm going to throw
them on the dunghill because that's all they're good for.
Those enemies are all going to be destroyed. But now, right
now, right now, as we sit here. Every enemy is not destroyed,
are they? We see not yet all things put under the feet of
Christ. But we will. We will. God will help his people
and defeat to help his people and defend them in the meantime.
Look at verse 9. Who will bring me into the strong
city? That's what David said. Who will lead me? Who will protect
me? Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me
into Edom? Will not thou, O God, which hast in the past you had
cast us off? Thou, O God, which did not go
out with our armies, is it you that will bring us and defend
us? Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man.
Through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that will tread
down our enemies. All the Edomites are not destroyed
yet, are they? The people of this world, people
in false religion, the idolaters, wherever they're at, they're
not all destroyed yet. Well, who's going to protect
me from them? I mean, they're all around us. Who's going to protect us
from them? David says, hear God will. See, the breach has been
repaired. He had turned away from us, hadn't
he? But he's turned back. He's turned his people back to
him. He's not going to let His people go. He's not going to
turn away again now. Christ has healed the breach,
took away every reason for the breach to be there. So He's going
to hide His people in Christ until He puts down every last
enemy. So every time we face one of
these things, just look to Christ. Just depend upon Him. Don't look
for help from men. Don't try to find, you know,
well, this man's got some resources and some power and some influence.
He can help us. Don't do that. Looking for help from men is
vain. Can't count on it. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. He will do valiantly. He will
win the victory. And David says here, we will
do valiantly. Well, we'll do valiantly because
we're following right along behind the captain of our salvation
who's going to crush every enemy and we'll be real valiant walking
right behind him, won't we? Walking right behind him. We've
got nothing to fear. Let's bow together in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for
this precious portion of your word, how you showed us how the
breach that our sin has caused between us and God has been healed
in Christ our Savior, the repairer of the breach. Father, how we
thank you. And we say with our brother David
of old, O turn unto us, O God. Turn to us in mercy and grace. Turn your ear to us. Turn your
right hand of power, salvation and redemption to us and save
us. Turn to us. And Father, turn
our hearts to Thee. Give us a new heart. Turn us
to Thee. Speak to the heart. Speak salvation
to us, we pray. Turn us and we will turn to Thee. And cause us ever to rejoice.
in Christ our Savior, who's healed the breach, who's won the victory,
who's our great Savior, Defender, and King. It's in His precious
name, for the glory of His name, we pray and give thanks.