If you would, open your Bibles
again to Psalm 85. I've entitled the message this
evening, The Work Done For Us and In Us. The salvation of a
sinner requires that a work be done for that sinner. Sinners
are incapable of doing anything for themselves. So someone else
must do this work for them. And it is God who must do the
work. God must do a work for Himself. And he must do a work
for that sinner in order to save them. But then there also must
be a work of grace done in that sinner. If a sinner is going
to be saved, there must be a new birth. There's got to be a new
nature born. And that's what the first verses
of this psalm tell us about. The psalmist here lists six things
that God does for sinners. And then the psalmist tells us
about the work of grace that God does in a sinner. So here's
the first work that God does for a sinner. It's to deal favorably
with us. Verse 1, the psalm begins, Lord,
thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Now, salvation begins
with God's favor. Salvation began in eternity past
with God's favor for sinners. And in the experience of a sinner,
salvation begins with God's favor. It doesn't begin with our goodness.
It doesn't begin with us taking the first step towards God. Salvation
begins with God's favor to us. This word favorable, it means
to be pleased with or to be accepted. Well, that tells me that God's
favor is all in Christ. The only way God's ever been
pleased with a sinner has been in Christ. The only way God's
ever accepted a sinner has been that that sinner is in Christ.
God can't accept us as we are. We've got to be in Christ to
be accepted. The psalm begins with the word Lord, capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, God my Savior, God
with us, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalm begins with
Christ and that's salvation. Salvation begins and ends with
Christ. The Father spoke from heaven,
said I'm well pleased. That's one of the definitions
of this word favored, favorable. The Father said, I'm well pleased
with my son. And he's well pleased with his
people in Christ. The Father accepts his people
in Christ, were accepted in the Beloved. Now in eternity, before
the worlds were created, God set his favor on his land. That's his elect, his people.
God set his favor on those people. And the only way God could look
favorably on those people is by putting them in Christ. So
he put his elect in Christ. And when those people, God's
elect, were put in Christ, their salvation was guaranteed. Look
back a few pages to Psalm 30. Salvation begins with God's favor. David says in Psalm 30, verse
5, For his anger endureth but a
moment, In his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. We may have a time of weeping
and anguish, but in his favor is life. Salvation begins with
God's favor. And all of God's favor is in
Christ. So life, eternal life, can only
be found in Christ. Christ, who is wisdom, speaks
in Proverbs 8, verse 35. He said, For whoso findeth me,
findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. If you find
Christ, you'll find favor with the Lord, because all of His
favor is in Christ, and you'll find life there in Christ. And
God gives eternal life to His elect. He favored them. But Christ
had to come do a work for us, didn't He? Christ came and suffered
and died, and because of that work, the Father favors His elect. The Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah,
that this psalm begins with, the all-sufficient Redeemer,
died the death His people deserve, and His people live His life
through His perfect obedience that He earned as a man. That
is a tremendous work of God's favor toward His people. The
second work God does for a sinner is God sets that sinner free.
The end of verse one, thou hast brought back the captivity of
Jacob. Now God has an elect people.
He set his favor on those people. He set his acceptance upon those
people by putting them in Christ. But when those people are born
into this world, they're born in bondage. They're born with
Adam's nature. Our first father, Adam, sold
us. under sin. He sold us to the
law and we sold ourselves into bondage because we have Adam's
sin nature. We do what he did. Well, now,
how are these people going to be set free? God set his favor
on them, but they're in bondage. How are they going to be set
free? Somebody's got to pay the price for the broken law. Somebody
has to come and pay the ransom price so we can go free from
the law, so we can go free from the power of sin, so we can go
free from Satan's rule. sin and the law and Satan, they
all have a rightful claim upon us. Somebody's got to come and
pay the ransom price so we can go free. And that someone is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to pay the ransom price
with his own blood. And because his blood is sufficient,
his people go free. Look at Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah 61, verse 1. The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. Now that acceptable year of the
Lord is the year of Jubilee, when all debts were canceled
and every slave went free. He came to proclaim liberty to
the captives, and his people go free. Well, this is what the
Lord sent Christ to do, to proclaim liberty. Well, did he do it? He came to set his people free.
Was he able to do it? Was he able to set them free?
Look at 1 Peter 3. Peter tells us, yes, he did.
The Father sent him to set his people free, and that is exactly
what he did. Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ
also has 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. Now, the psalmist said, you have brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Peter said, he died the just
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Not only did
he set his people free, he brought them out of the prison house
and brought them to God. Christ set his people free by
becoming guilty for them, by being taken captive for them
as their substitute. And he brought his people back
to God because he was separated for them. When sin, the sin of
his elect was charged to Christ, the father separated himself
from the son. Turned his back on his son. Christ
suffered that separation from the Father. So now, no one who's
in Christ, no one that Christ died for will ever be separated
from God ever again. Christ brought them back. He
brought them out of captivity and brought them back to God.
Now, freedom from the law, freedom from sin, freedom from the condemnation
of sin, freedom from the condemnation of the law. That's not something
we can set ourselves free from. That's not something we just
need a little help to set ourselves free. This is a work that Christ
does for his people all by himself. He sets them free through his
substitutionary death and his blood paid the penalty of the
broken law and set his people free. What a work that's done
for us. He set us free. Thirdly. The work that God does for a
sinner is to forgive their iniquity. Verse 2 in our text, For thou
hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Now iniquity is a
word used to show us the ugliness of our sin. The word means perversity. It means depravity and guilt.
Well, how can a holy God forgive perversity? How can he forgive
the perversity of sin, the depravity of sin, the guilt of sin? Just
one way, through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
forgiveness of sin is a legal matter. The word forgiven, it
means to lift up, to bear up, or to take away. That's what
it means, to lift up, to bear up, or to take away. The first
two times this word in our text translated forgiven, the first
two times that Hebrew word is used in the Bible, it has to
do with bearing up and lifting up. Cain, this is the first time
this word is used in scripture. He told God my punishment and
that word punishment is iniquity, the same word translated iniquity
in our text. My punishment, my iniquity is
more than I can bear. That word bear can use is the
same word translated here forgiven. I can't bear it. I can't hold
it up. The second time this word uses
in Genesis 7, the waters of the flood bear up the ark. The waters of the flood came
and floated that ark up. It bear up the ark. It's the
same word bear up is the same word translated forgiven in our
text. Well, all right. What does that tell us? Here's
what it tells us. God forgives sin by making Christ
bear the burden of the sin of His elect. The Father lifted
up the iniquity of His people. He took it off of them, but He's
got to put it somewhere. And He placed it on His Son.
Just like Cain, none of us can bear the punishment. None of
us can bear our iniquity. So the Father made Christ sin
for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And when Christ was made sin for his people, he took that
sin away. That's one of the definitions
of forgiven, to take away. When Christ was made sin, he
took the sin of his people away. Just like the scapegoat on the
day of atonement, the high priest symbolically transferred the
sin of Israel to the head of that goat. And a fit man took
him out in the wilderness and all Israel stood there watching
in the camp. They watched and watched and
watched and watched. That man was just a speck on
the horizon. And then they watched some more.
And that speck was gone. Couldn't see him. And they stood
there watching. And they stood there watching.
And a little wild speck appeared. Who is it? Has he got that goat
with him? Or is he alone? And they stood
watching. This is important. Is my iniquity
coming back or not? Now this is important. I've got
nothing better to do. I'm going to watch and see. And
they waited and waited till their friend came up, he by himself. The goat bearing that iniquity
is in a land uninhabited. It never came back. Now that's
a picture, but that's what Christ did in reality. The father lifted
up the sin of his people, lifted up their iniquity and placed
it upon his son and his son bore it away. So you'll never see
it again. It's gone, forgiven. God forgave
the sin of His people, the iniquity of His people, by lifting our
iniquity off of us and putting it on His Son. And His Son put
it away through what these elements represent, His broken body and
His shed blood. Now, God didn't do this for every
son of Adam. He didn't do this to make an attempt at forgiving
the sin of as many people as might accept Him. No, He did
it for His people. This doesn't say thou hast forgiven
iniquity, does it? It says thou hast forgiven the
iniquity of thy people. You've forgiven the iniquity
of somebody in particular, and that somebody is sinners. If you can find a sinner, their
sin is forgiven. The sin of God's elect is forgiven. That is some work that God's
done for his people, forgiving the iniquity of sinners. Well,
here's the fourth work that God does for a sinner. He covers
all their sin. The end of verse two, thou hast
covered all their sin. Now this word covered means propitiation
or mercy seat. And you know full well, that's
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The mercy seat was a pure slab
of gold and it was beaten into the right shape. They didn't
melt it and pour it into shape, into a form, so that the form
would make its shape. They beat that gold into the
proper shape. A picture of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who was beaten for sin. He was beaten, not just in body,
but by the Father. The Father made his soul an offering
for sin, and he was beaten for sin. He was beaten into shape.
And it was beaten into an exact fit. That mercy seat was an exact
fit over top of the Ark of the Covenant, a picture of Christ
who is the exact fit to fulfill all the covenant of grace. Christ
our Savior is the exact fit for what we need. Whatever it is
you need, Christ is the exact fit for what we need. He's the
exact fit to cover the broken law. In that Ark was the law
that had been broken. Christ covered it. An exact fit. He covered it by keeping that
law perfectly for his people. And then he paid the price of
the broken law. The law that was broken by his
people. He covered it. And then he paid the price. One
day a year, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would come in
before that man would take that scapegoat out. The high priest
would come in with the blood of sacrifice into the Holy of
Holies. and he sprinkled blood on that
mercy seat seven times. That's a picture of how the blood
of Christ covered the broken law. His blood paid for the law
that was broken by His people. And this is the sinner's plea.
Lord, cover my sin. Look in Luke chapter 18. Now,
God's going to look favorably on His people. But the only way
God can look favorably on me If for my sin, it can't just
be covered up. It's got to be removed. It's
got to be cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in Luke 18, this is the publicans plea. In Luke 18, verse 13, and the
publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes
into heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful
to me. a sinner. And that word merciful
is a New Testament word, propitiation, mercy seat. God be the mercy
seat, be the covering for my sin. This is the sinner's plea.
Now, why is this so important? Why is it so important to point
out this publican's plea? God be merciful, be propitious
to me, the sinner. Because look what our Lord said
in verse 14. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified. Now, this man's a sinful man.
He's a publican. He knew he was a sinful man.
God be merciful to me, a sinner. But Christ, our Lord, said he
went down to his house justified. He went down to his house with
no sin. Why? Because Christ was his covering. Now, when we talk about a covering,
sin can't just be covered. It's still there, but it's covered.
You know, we can't see it. Have you ever tried to do that
with dirt on a wall? I tried shortcuts. You know,
we're going to repaint a room. There's dirt on it. You got to
wash it off. Well, I don't know why. I just paint over it. It
don't work. In case you want to know, it
doesn't work. Sin's the same way. You can't just paint over
it. When we talk about Christ covering
our sin, he's not whitewashing our sin. If he did that, God
sees everything, doesn't he? If you could cover it up with
whitewash, God still see it. His all seeing eye would still
see that sin. God in his wisdom, he knows everything. God would know there's sin behind
that whitewash. He'd know it. That's not forgiving
sin. If God's going to save a sinner,
God must cover that sin so that that sin no longer exists. And
that's the work that God has done for sinners. The sacrifice
of Christ covered sin by cleansing it and making it so it no longer
exists. That's a work that God does for
sinners. Here's the fifth work that God
does for sinners. He takes away his wrath against
our sin, verse 3, in our text, Psalm 85. Thou hast taken away
all thy wrath. Now, God should be angry with
us. Because of our sin, God should be angry with us. Every one of
our sins is against God. Every one of them. Our sin nature
is against God. Our nature is opposed to God's
holy nature. Our way is opposed to God's way.
Our idea is opposed to God's way. What we want is opposed
to God's word. Our sin nature wants to remove
God from the throne. We're opposed to God. God should
be angry with us because of our sin. And he is. God's angry with the wicked every
day. Scripture says. And God's anger,
I know most men don't don't perceive it, don't understand it, but
one day God's anger against sin is going to be seen by all men
in the judgment when God and his holy anger sends men to hell
for eternity because of their sin. And his anger, his wrath
is going to be seen. Well, we're all sinners. Is there
any hope that God's anger can be taken away? Is there any hope?
Yes, there is. One way. Through what these elements
represent, through the sacrifice, the broken body and the shed
blood of Christ, God has removed his wrath from his people. By
lifting up the sin of his people, he lifted it up and he put that
sin on his son. And when God lifted up that sin
and moved it from here to here, God's anger went from here to
here. It followed the sin. His anger
was turned away from his people because his anger was turned
to his son. His anger was turned to where
that sin was and it was focused on him, focused on Christ and
Christ Put that sin away through his sacrifice, his blood, blotting
that sin out. And when the sins are moved,
there's no reason for God to be angry anymore. His wrath is
turned away from us and his wrath is no more because that sin is
no more gone under the blood of Christ. God took away his
wrath against his people by removing their sin. Now, that's a great
work of mercy. that God does for sinners. And
that's what the psalmist pleads in verse 5. He said, Wilt thou
be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. That's what God has done for
sinners by turning his wrath away from them, by taking their
sin away. that God does for a sinner is
turning his fierce anger away from them. At the end of verse
3, the psalmist says, Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness
of thine anger. Now this is an extension of God
taking away his wrath from the sin of his people. But it shows
you what a serious matter sin is. God's anger against sin is
described as fierce anger. And God has taken away his wrath
against the sin of his people by turning his fierce anger away
from his people and turning his fierce anger on Christ our substitute. Now, God's holy. God cannot and
he will not just turn off his fierce anger and ignore his fierce
anger against sin. God's justice must be satisfied. The only way his fierce anger
can be turned away, be taken away, is for sin to be removed. God's justice must be satisfied. And at Calvary, the father, he
transferred that sin from his people to his son. He made his
son to be sin. He lifted up that iniquity, that
guilt off of his people, and he put it on his son. And God's
fierce anger turned, it followed that sin, went from here to here,
turned to our substitute, and God's fierce anger against the
sin of his people burned upon Christ our substitute until God's
fierce anger was extinguished. Well, why was his anger extinguished?
Because sin is gone. The sacrifice of Christ put sin
away and God's fierce anger is extinguished, taken away because
Christ extinguished it through the sacrifice of himself. What
a word. I mean, what an amazing work
of mercy and grace. God has done for sinners. These
are six undeniable statements of the work that God has done
for sinners. But in order to be saved, in
order to be converted, whatever term you want to use for that,
there also must be a work done in a sinner. God's reconciled,
but now his people must be reconciled to God. And that's the work that
God does in his people. Look at verse 4. Turn us, O God,
of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Turn
us, O God. You've turned your fierce anger
away from us by turning your fierce anger upon our substitute.
Now turn our heart to you. You've reconciled yourself to
us. Now reconcile us to you. And I'll tell you how that's
done. It's done through the new birth.
It's done through the birth of a new heart that's turned towards
God, a new heart that loves God and not mad at God anymore because
the blood of Christ has been sprinkled on that heart. The
blood of Christ reconciled God to sinners by removing the sin
that made God angry. And it's that same blood of Christ
that reconciles the sinner to God by removing sin. and giving us a nature that loves
God and trusts Christ and depends upon Christ. And a sinner is
born again and reconciled to God through the preaching of
Christ. If we're reconciled to God through
the blood of Christ, don't you reckon somebody needs to tell
us about Him? Somebody's got to tell us about Christ and His
sacrifice and His blood. We can't be reconciled to God
until we hear of Christ. God's got to send somebody to
tell us about Christ. And then God's got to send his
Spirit to give us faith so we believe what we hear. That's
what the psalmist says in verse 7. Show us thy mercy, O Lord. Grant us thy salvation. This
is a gift you've got to give us. I will hear what God the
Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. How is the
Lord going to speak peace unto his people? By telling them of
Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. A sinner is reconciled to God
by seeing Christ in the gospel, by seeing his person and his
work and believing in him. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. He is a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Everything that man used to love,
he now hates, and everything he used to hate, he now loves.
He's a new creature. Well, how'd that happen? How'd
he become a new creature? How was he born again? Verse
18, all things are of God. This is what God has done for
that sinner and in that sinner, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
Namely, this is our ministry, this is our message, that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead, you be reconciled to God. God has reconciled you,
now you be reconciled to God. How can that be? Verse 21, this
is the message. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What the psalmist is saying,
Lord, you've done this for your people. You've been so merciful
to your people. This is the work you've done
for your people. Will you do this for me? Will
you do this in my heart? Will you have mercy on me? The
psalm begins, Lord, you've been favorable unto thy land. And
look at verse nine. Will you do this for me? Surely
his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. Thy land and our land are the
same thing if we're a sinner. If you're a sinner, You come
to Christ. His blood is for you. His sacrifice
is for you. All this is because of the work
of Christ for us and the work of Christ in us. And taking the
Lord's table that we're going to do here in just a few moments
is a picture of this work. It's a picture of Christ's work
for us and Christ's work in us. These elements, this bread, unleavened
bread. A picture of the body of our
Lord was without sin. Leaven in scripture is a picture
of sin. Our Lord was without sin. Perfect in thought, word,
and deed. And that precious body was broken
and sacrificed for the sin of His people. This is a work that
Christ did for His people. He gave His body to be sacrificed. And He gave His blood to be shed.
The wine is a picture of Christ's blood. That wine has been sitting
up on that shelf I don't know how long. It's the same as the
day we opened the bottle. It's not going to spoil. It's
pure. A picture of the blood of Christ. That's why we use wine and not
grape juice. Grape juice will spoil. Just
leave it sitting on the counter. It's going to spoil. Wine won't.
Wine is a picture of Christ. We use wine because our Lord
said this will do. Bob, that's good enough for me.
He said this will do. Use wine. These elements. Picture the work of Christ for
us, His broken body and His shed blood. In just a moment, the
men are going to pass it out. They're going to hold that bread
out to you. If you're a believer, if Christ is all your plea, you're
going to take a piece of that broken body. We're going to give
thanks. You're going to put it in your
mouth and eat it. You're going to chew it up. You're going to
hear it crunching in your mouth, Christ's body being beaten, ground
for His people. And you're going to swallow it.
And in just a little bit, they'll hand out the wine. You'll take
that cup. We'll give thanks and you'll
drink it. You'll swallow it. It'll go into your system. It'll
immediately start being digested. Before you go home, it'll probably
start already going out into all parts of your body so that
you can't distinguish the bread and the wine from the rest of
you. It's become you. It's become your flesh. It's
absorbed into your body. That's Christ's work in us. The
birth of a new man. Christ worked for us and Christ
worked in us that salvation.