You would open your Bibles again
to Psalm 85 passage for Cecil Redforce. Some of the historians
say this psalm was written when Israel was. Being delivered or
maybe getting ready to be delivered from captivity in Babylon about
the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, they've been delivered from captivity
in this psalm was written. We see in verse one, the psalmist
writes, Lord, Thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Thou
hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. The Lord has been favorable
to His land. I read that this week and I thought
how favorable the Lord has been to His people. He has been so
favorable to us. And He's favorable to thy people,
it says, in thy land, in His land. We ruined our land. In Adam, we ruined our land,
made a desolation of it. But the Lord favored His people.
He translated us out of that dark, barren, dead wilderness
where there's no life. And translated us into His land.
Into the kingdom of His dear Son. He's brought us to a land
flowing with spiritual milk and honey. Mike was talking about
how much he likes honey. This is a land that flows with
milk and honey. Spiritual milk. Spiritual honey.
And He has favored His people in His kingdom. You think how
the Lord has favored us. He favors us with His presence.
That's enough. We have His presence. We have
everything. He's favored us with His gospel. A place where we
can hear His gospel preached. He's favored us with salvation. Salvation undeserved, unearned,
unmerited. But He's given it to us. He's
favored us. He's favored us with the forgiveness of our sins.
He's favored us giving us His Word. He favors us by feeding
us and protecting us in His land. He's been so favorable to His
people. We ought to be a thankful people,
shouldn't we? How the Lord's favored us. And
we enjoy freedom in His land. He's brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Now, we're called under the name
of Jacob, because that's whose nature we've got. And Adam, that's
the nature that we have. Cheap and supplant. That's who
we are. We sold ourselves into captivity,
into captivity to Satan, into captivity to self and the bondage
to the law, the bondage of sin. But our Lord Jesus Christ came
to set the captive free. He came and He led captivity
captive. Look over in Isaiah 61. This
is a prophecy of the coming Messiah in Isaiah 61. In 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. He has led captivity
captive and nobody enjoys freedom like a former prisoner. I remember
when the In Iran, those hostages that were captured there in the
embassy were set free. Years and years later, I heard
one of those men speak at a conference, a business conference I was at.
And he talked about how he enjoys freedom. Just the basic, simple
things we take for granted every day, he enjoys them. Nobody enjoys freedom in Christ
like someone who's a prisoner. that He came to set free. He's
favored us with freedom. Verse 2, He goes on. He says,
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people and has covered
all their sin. Now who can forgive like God
can? Who will forgive like God? God
has forgiven the iniquity of His people. And it's hard for us to understand
the depth of the wretchedness of our iniquity, our sin against
God. We've committed horrible acts
of rebellion against Him. We've spoken blasphemy against
His name. We've rebelled against His right
rule as King. I think for myself how hard it
is for me to forgive somebody when they've lied about me. I
got a tough time swallowing that one. When they've lied about
me. When they've spoken evil about your name, about your reputation.
Isn't that what we've done to God? That kind of forgiveness
is impossible with men. I mean, I can say I'll forgive
you. Maybe I won't bring it up again. But it's in my mind. God's
forgiven all of our iniquity. One of the translations of this
is He's carried our iniquity away. He's carried it away like
that scapegoat. When that high priest put his
hands on the head of that scapegoat, transferred the sins of the people.
He confessed the sins of Israel on the head of that scapegoat.
took that goat out of the wilderness. He went until he disappeared.
And even after he disappeared, he kept going. And he came back
without that goat. Those sins were never seen again.
That's what our Lord has done in forgiving our iniquity. He's
carried them away. He's forgiven our sins so completely
that no one ever will see them again. And the psalmist says
He's covered all of our sins. He's covered every stain of sin. He's covered every spot of the
disease of sin. He's covered every wrinkle of
sin. They've all been covered under the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we can cover things. When
he says he's covered our sins, it's not like he covered our
sins with something and they're still there. I can take this
piece of paper and put it under that coaster and it's covered. You can't see it. But it's still
there. All you got to do is lift it
up. It's still there. That's not how our sins are covered.
We're not playing hide and seek with our sins. They're not there.
When our sins were put under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's like a stain that's been covered with bleach. It removes
it. It's gone. Those sins are gone. They do not exist in God's sight. They're covered. They're gone.
And only God can do that. Only God, only through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ can our sins be covered. Spurgeon
said it would be easier to cover the sun than to cover a man's
sins. But God did it in the blood of
His Son. And then we see the word seelah.
Now we don't read that term when we read Scripture. It's a musical
term. But it also means stop and think about what you just
read. If you're singing it, repeat that. Think about what we just
said, what's written here. God has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. He's favored his people, hasn't
he? Look at verse 3. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine
anger. As soon as sin is removed, God's
anger is removed too. That which made him angry that
which violated his holiness is gone and his anger is gone too. Now, God's anger against sin
is a holy anger and it's real. He says here, the fierceness
of thine anger. This is a real anger. Well, how can a holy God not
be angry with sinners like you and me? That's the question.
Where'd that anger go? Well, again, one of the Mr. Gill
says that one of the translations of this is you have gathered
up by anger. He gathered it up. He didn't
gather his anger up and take it to goodwill. You know, about
every so often, Janet goes through the house gathering stuff up
and she takes it to goodwill. You got to watch. She might be
taking something you like, you know, so you got to watch. She's
taking it to goodwill. She's gathered it up. That's
not how God gathered up his anger. He didn't gather it up and take
it down to the dump. He gathered up His anger against the sin
of His people. All that sin that was laid on
His Son, our Substitute. And He poured the fierceness
of His anger on that sin. Unmixed with mercy. Fierce anger. He poured it out on our Substitute. And now God's anger is taken
away from us. Because it was poured out on
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's taken away all His wrath.
Now verse 4, Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine
anger toward us to cease. Now before God can do anything
for us, He's got to do something for Himself. There's got to be
a sacrifice offered to God that removes sin, that makes God's
anger cease. And that's exactly what He did
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He offered Himself as
a sacrifice for sin And that sin's gone. God's turned away
from His anger. Now we've got to be turned. God's
turned away from His anger. Now we've got to be turned away
from our sins and turned to God. God is reconciled. Now you be
reconciled. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5. God's reconciled. And as an ambassador
for Christ, we pray you in Christ's name, you be reconciled to God. You be turned. Like Brother Henry
said so many years, put up your shotgun. Stack your arms and
surrender. This turning is a surrender. The war is over. It's finished.
There'll be no more war. Surrender. Turn to Him. And this turning is a work that
only God can do. Salvation from beginning to end,
you know, is a work of God. Whatever you want to call it,
every stage, every part, every step, every necessary element
of salvation is something only God can do. Only God can turn
a sinner to Him. It would be easier for us to
reverse the orbit of the earth around the sun than it would
be to turn a sinner's heart to God. The sinner's heart, the
heart we're born with, can't be turned to God. But I'll tell
you this, that turning must happen. Because if there's no turning,
if there's no conversion, then there's been no salvation. When
God saves a man, there's a turning because God turns him. God grants
repentance and he gives a new heart that can't turn away from
Christ, that loves him, that clings to him, that depends to
him, that looks to him. God causes all of his people
to turn. Away from ourselves. Away from
our sin. Away from our righteousness.
Away from everything that we think is so important. And turn
to Christ alone. But you know, this is not a forced
turning. You know, we walk our dog. I
got him on a leash. I can turn him wherever I want.
Now, he don't want to go that way sometimes, but he goes. Because
I got him on a leash, I make him go. I'm bigger than him,
I can do that. This is not a forced turning.
All God's got to do to turn His people to Him is let the light
of His sun shine. And we turn to Him just like
a flower turns to the sun and follows the sun as it goes across
the sky. God's people turn to Him when the light of Christ
is revealed. Just a natural reaction to the
new man. Now he says in verse 5, without
being angry with us forever, Will thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Now we know God's anger against
sin is going to burn for all of eternity. He's angry with
the wicked every day. Now here, the psalmist is talking
about us. Those that God has turned His
anger away from. Those that He's favored. Now
we know God's anger against our sin has ceased. It's been poured
out on Christ our substitute, and it'll never start again.
It'll never be kindled again against His people. Well, what's
he talking about here? I believe he's talking about
times of trial. Times of correction. Where it
feels like God's anger against our sin has been unleashed upon
us. We feel that way in times of spiritual leanness. It feels like the Lord's deserted
us. And it bothers us because we know that's what we deserve
if we're left ourselves. What we're begging here with
the psalmist is that the Lord would bring an end to these trials. That He shorten this time. That
He bring an end to them before they destroy us. Because if His
anger goes on, it would destroy us, wouldn't it? So He says in verse 7, Show us
Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation. I'm sorry,
I skipped a verse. Verse 6, Will thou not revive
us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Won't you revive
us again? Every believer has been given
spiritual life, a life that never ends. We were born the first
time dead in trespasses and sins. God's given his people new life
in Christ. And you can't lose that life.
Now, you can't lose it to where you've got to be born again a
second time or you've got to be re-regenerated. That's not
what he's saying here. No believer can ever lose the
life that God's given us in Christ. Cannot lose it. It's eternal
life, so it can't be lost, can it? But we do go through times
of spiritual leanness. Of spiritual sluggishness where
we just feel so dry and dead. And the psalmist is saying, won't
you refresh us? Won't you revive us again? Won't
you restore to us the vibrancy of this life? Won't you enable
us to rejoice in this life again? And if you do revive us again,
he says, we'll rejoice indeed. I read that as I was studying.
I thought of Cecil. He prays frequently. He asks
the Lord's blessings and he says, and if you will, We'll remember
to give you the praise and the thanks for it. That's just what
He's saying right here. Lord, revive us again. If you
do, we will rejoice in Thee. But you notice He says we'll
rejoice in Thee. He didn't say we'll rejoice in
the blessing. We'll rejoice in the Blesser. We don't preach
about and we don't rejoice in all the blessings that a sinner
can find in the Lord Jesus Christ, although there's many. We don't
preach about the blessings, do we? We preach Christ. We look
to Christ. We claim to a person the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you have Him, you have
everything. We preach Christ. We will rejoice
in Thee. Now, verse 7, he says, Show us
Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation. Lord, show
us Thy mercy. You've got to show it to me.
You've got to reveal it to me because I'll never see it unless
the Lord reveals it. The Lord's shown it. Everything
spiritual has got to be revealed. A natural man cannot see it,
can't figure it out. And if we don't know the Lord's
revealed it to us, we'll think, well, that was lucky. Or that
happened good to me because I'm smart and I did this right or
I did that right and I didn't do that wrong. No. It's got to
be revealed. It's like he's saying, I've heard
other people talk about this mercy. I've heard the preacher
talk about this mercy. Lord, show it to me. Show it
to my heart. Let me experience this mercy
myself. And this is so important to experience
God's mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Every once in a while, I just
ask myself. I look at myself. I look at the world around me,
and I thought, why does the Lord put up with this? Why? I mean, I'm just confident He's
going to destroy this world any second. Why? It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not concerned. There's still some of His left
out there He's going to call Himself. It's His mercy. Mercy
can try salvation. Mercy looked down on sinful man.
and had compassion. Mercy elected some to salvation. That's mercy. It was God's mercy
that moved His Son to be willing to die, to suffer and die and
take our place. It was mercy that washed us in
the blood of the Lamb. It was mercy that didn't leave
us naked, but covered us in the righteous robe of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was mercy that brought us
to Christ to beg for mercy. That's mercy. It's mercy that
leads us right now in the path of righteousness. Lord, show
me Your mercy. Show me Your mercy and You've
shown me everything. Show me Your mercy. And aren't
we mercy beggars? He's begging for mercy here.
He says, Lord, show us Thy mercy and grant unto us Thy salvation. That's the message. That's the
language of a beggar. Lord, grant me Thy salvation. Show me Thy mercy. The only way
we'll ever receive God's salvation is if He gives it. He's got to
grant it to us. Lord, grant me Thy salvation.
In verse 8, he says, I will hear what God the Lord will speak.
For He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints.
But let them not turn again to folly. Now, here's a wise man
right here. He's determined to hear what
God says. I'm going to sit and listen and
hear what God says. I wish we'd find more people
like that, don't you? Let's just hear what God has
to say. Not what some dead preacher says. Not what some guy you think
is so smart says. What does God say? That's what
we need to know. So many times in Scripture, He
tells His prophets, you go tell the people, thus saith the Lord. I want to hear what God says.
God's voice that we hear in His words. is the only place that
we'll ever find salvation. It's the only place we'll ever
find mercy. God's voice is the only place that we'll ever find
comfort. And it's the only place that we'll ever find peace. He
shall speak peace to His people. The Gospel brings peace to people. It brings peace to the heart. It brings peace with God. It
brings peace with each other. Now, we won't have peace with
the world. There's a sense in which the gospel is going to
cause war. It's not going to bring peace with the world. But God's
people are a peaceable people. I know we don't have peace with
the world, but you don't go out looking for a fight every day.
God's people are a peaceable people. And I'll contend for
the truth. If it's challenged, by God's
grace, I'll contend for the truth. But we're not looking for a fight.
God will speak peace to His people. And if you'd ever be determined
to hear what God the Lord will speak, believe it. Don't just hear it
and go home unchanged like you never heard it at all. Hear and
believe. Don't try to find some hidden
meaning in the word and make the word say something or mean
something that it doesn't say in plain language. Don't hear
the Word and try to make it fit in the doctrine that you've always
thought. You see, the problem is not that men can't understand
the Word. You know, people say, well, I
don't like the King James Version. I can't understand it. Well,
yeah, you can. A child with a third grade education can understand
the Word in this book. They can't. The problem is they
don't believe it. By nature, you cannot and will
not believe it. Believe what God says. Hear what
He says and believe it. And don't turn again to folly
through unbelief. Several years ago, when we very
first started going to Williamsburg, the elders of 13th Street were
going over there every week. Different one every week preaching.
I was going with them leading the singing. I'm just leading
the singing, sitting there watching what's happening. I knew, I could
see what's happening. Charlie's becoming their pastor. Before
they ever called him, he was their pastor. And he began preaching
on Sunday nights too. Well, he preached on a Sunday
morning. He told the people, he said, we're going to observe
the Lord's Table tonight. And that morning he preached on the
Passover. And he started making comments about the Lord's Table.
It was a wonderful message. It was such a blessing. And as
everybody was leaving that morning, someone asked Bob Correll. They
asked him, they said, in the past, have you used wine or grape
juice when you observed the Lord's Table? And Bob says, I've always
been a juicer myself. He said, but based on what I've
heard, I'm getting ready to become a wine man. That might be a silly
example, but faith conforms to God's word. Hear the word and
believe it. Don't turn again to folly. Verse
nine, he says, surely his salvation is nigh then that fear him. The
glory may dwell in our land. The Lord is always near His people. He promised, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. He's always near. He's a very
present help in time of trouble. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.
Look over in Isaiah chapter 46. He's near His people. In Isaiah 46, verse 13. I bring near my righteousness,
and it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory." His salvation is near. He places
it in Zion, in His people, in His church, in the land where
we worship Him. He said where two or three are
gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. He's near. And there's glory. dwelling in our land because
the Lord Jesus Christ dwells there. He's the glory of it all. Now, verse 10. Mercy and truth
are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Mercy, truth, righteousness and
peace are all attributes of God. But all four of those attributes
parted ways when Adam fell. When Adam fell, no longer could
God be true to Himself and have a relationship with a man. No
longer could God be true to Himself and deal in mercy with a sinful
man. Can't do it. God cannot be righteous and have
peace with a fallen man. Impossible. These attributes
of God are at odds with each other. Mercy speaks up. And it says we must save some.
Mercy must save some of these rebels. But truth speaks up. It says God must be true to himself. He must be true to his word.
The soul that sinneth must surely die. The soul that sinneth cannot
be shown mercy. It must die. Peace speaks up. It says now there's got to be
some reconciliation between God and men. There's got to be some
peace. And righteousness says, I will only have peace. I will
only accept perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. But no
man has it. So there can be no peace. There
can be no reconciliation. Looks like there's a Mexican
standoff here and there. None of those four attributes
can budge. Well, have they parted ways forever?
Do you know the answer to that? No. Yes, those four attributes
parted ways when Adam fell, but they come together in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When Christ was born in that
manger, in the second Adam, those four attributes came together.
In Christ, God is true to himself and shows mercy to sinners. God
can be true to his justice because he punished our sins and our
substitutes. He's true to his mercy. and gives
us the righteousness and the life that Christ earned. He's
true to his righteousness. He still doesn't overlook sin.
God's a holy God. He doesn't overlook sin. God
still only accepts perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. But he
accepts us in the beloved, clothed in his imputed righteousness.
God's true to his peace. We have peace with God. through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That blood that covered and removed
all of our sins. In Christ, God is both just and
justifier of everyone that believes in Christ. And in saving His
elect, Christ magnified all the attributes of God at once. It
wasn't like, well, mercy and truth are brought back together
and they're kind of living together under the roof in kind of an
uncomfortable peace. It's not like, well, a peace
treaty's been signed and there's a conquered people here and they're,
you know, they're living at peace on the outside, but inside they're
angry. They hate this. They hate it. They're just not
fighting anymore because they've been conquered and all the fight's
taken out of them. That's not what happened. Mercy
and truth are in full agreement. They've met together. They're
arm in arm, hand in hand. Righteousness and peace. They've
not been brought back together grudgingly. They've kissed each
other. They've embraced one another
as old friends. All the attributes of God are
glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall
spring out of the earth and righteousness to look down from heaven. Now
mainly, to me, this verse is pointing to the God-man. He sprang
from the earth, didn't He? The seed of Jesse, the rod of
Jesse. He's from the earth, the man. But He's God too. He's righteousness
that came down from heaven and dwelt in that man. And the righteous
God looked down from heaven on His Son. And He was pleased. He was delighted in what He saw
in His Son. He was delighted with His obedience.
He was pleased with His sacrifice. That blood, that offering was
a sweet-smelling savor to the Father. And now that same righteous
God looks down from heaven and He delights in everyone in His
Son. He sees us in His Son and delights
in those who are in His Son. He sees us washed in the blood
of Christ. He sees us dressed in the righteousness
of Christ. And He's pleased. But you know,
this also refers to truth and life springing up in the hearts
of believers. Truth springs up in our hearts. In that good ground that's been
prepared by the Spirit, truth springs up. It's truth. It's a true love for Christ.
It's a true repentance. It's true spiritual life. Well, when does that happen?
when it pleased God. When it pleased righteousness
to look down from heaven and move in power and mercy to give
life to sinners. That's when that happens. Now
verse 12, Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and
our land shall yield her increase. The Lord shall give that which
is good. He's favored His people. All
His gifts are good. God is good. You think of the
spiritual good He's given us. Salvation. That's good. Mercy. Truth. Righteousness. Peace. Repentance. Forgiveness
of sins. Pardon for iniquity. He gives
a new nature. He gives His presence. That's
good. That's the very definition of
good. Look across the page there in Psalm 84, verse 11. For the
Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly. He will give everything good
to his people. And the land shall yield her
increase. When the Lord gives good, his
people yield increase. Believers in Scripture are called
trees of righteousness that are planted by the rivers of living
water. David calls them fat and flourishing, full of fruit, full
of the fruit of the Spirit growing on them, yielding her increase. In verse 13, righteousness shall
go before Him and shall set us in the way of His steps. Jehovah
said, Kenu, the Lord our righteousness. He goes before us. And we follow
Him in His steps. Look over in John 10. I'll quit. John 10, verse 3. Let's look
at verse 2. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep
by name, and he leadeth them out. And when He put forth His
own sheep, He goeth before them. Righteousness goes before them,
and we follow Him. The sheep follow Him. Why? For
they know His voice. We know His voice. We've heard
His Word. We believe it. Every step we take, the Lord
took first. We follow Him in righteousness. Well, I hope that would be a
blessing to you. Mike, you come lead us in a song.