If you would turn with me to
Psalm 113. Psalm 113. We just read from
1 Samuel chapter 2. And you'll notice pretty much
word for word found here in verses 7 and 8 to the Scripture that
we read in 1 Samuel. He, God. raiseth up the poor out of the
dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may
set them with princes, even the princes of his people." The greatness
and majesty of God Almighty, especially when it comes to sovereign
grace and mercy in Christ, is absolutely inconceivable. It's utterly impossible for the
greatest of minds, in the most spiritual state, to even begin
to stretch their imagination around the grandeur of God Almighty,
the Sovereign Potter. The old prophet said, let's go
down to the potter's house. Let's see how this whole thing
works. The sovereign potter is far greater
than the vessel that he fashions. And he's infinitely greater than
all his works. Why, God spoke this world into
existence. How great a God he must be. When an adult stoops to help
an ailing child, we've seen it often, a little toddler barely
walking and he's ailing and the adult stoops down to pick him
up and holds him in his arms and tries to comfort him. That
picture in no way, shape, fashion, or form even enters into the
depths of how God stooped to deliver wretched sinners from
the dunghill of despair. What a matchless stoop for God
to visit the palace of a king, much less a maggot in the dunghill. No wonder why David said, the
Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. He raiseth
up. That should be our first source
of joy. He raiseth up. Who does he raise
up? He raises up the poor, those
that are spiritually bankrupt. He raises them up from where?
The dust. And He lifts the needy. Are you
needy? Christ said that those that are
whole have no need of a physician, but those that are sick. Are
you sick and needy? Well, if so, God lifts those
like you. out of the dust in the dunghill.
And this happens in God's divine providence whenever God determines
to have mercy on a fallen, depraved sinner. He stoops to deliver
them out of the cesspool of the dunghill. Now our text this morning
has a special result with God's acts of grace. Here it is above
all other acts of grace that we see the condescending sovereignty
of His divine dealings. First of all, we must ask ourselves,
is He obligated? Is God obligated to condescend
down and raise up the poor from the dust and to lift the needy
out of the dunghill? No, not in the least is He obligated. It's an act of grace. It's unmerited. It's undeserved. God takes the
base things of the world. We read this in Sunday school.
And the things which are despised have God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are. God has determined
to save a chosen people. But where are they? Where are
they found? They're found in the dust. of
the dunghill. How does God raise these objects
of mercy? Why does He raise them? And where
does God bring them? Those are the four questions
that I will endeavor, by God's grace, to answer this morning
and through the Scriptures. These will be our four points
this morning. So let's begin with the first
of the four. A child of God cannot and will
not be offended. Now, we say this all the time,
but it's the truth. You cannot offend a child of
God when you tell him who he is, what he is, and where he's
at. He'll just sit there and smile
and shake his head. And he's happy about it. Do you
know why? Because that's where God comes. The Dong Hill, that's
where he lifts the poor and the needy and sets them among princes. Where does God find the objects
of His mercy? Now naturally speaking, there
may be few who are found in an earthly castle. Others may be
found in an old fallen down shack. Others may have no home at all. But in spiritual and divine deliverance,
all of them are found in the same place, in the dunghill. Now the dung hill refers to a
scrap yard, a scrap yard of waste. The lack of a better way of explaining
it, a final place where you put things of no value. A heap of
dung, manure, a place of waste. And though it's true that on
earth many may be rich and others desperately poor, some may be
great, famous, and wise after the flesh, and others weak, unknown,
and ignorant, but spiritually speaking, dear friends, all are
found in the same place. And it's in that dunghill. Can
you see that? Now compared to a holy God, that's
the only place that a fallen, depraved man can be. If you're
to be found, Let me tell you, you're going to be found as a
beggar. And that's the word that's used in 1 Samuel in our reading.
He lifts the beggar out of the dung hill. If you're going to
be found, if you're going to be saved, you're going to be
found and saved as a beggar. Those of you that have come to
Christ know that to be so. You're going to come in your
rags. You're not going to come in any righteousness of your
own because you don't have any. You're going to come in rags.
You have no other covering. The prophet wrote in Isaiah 55,
He that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Oh, friends, we were all
once very important in our own estimations. But to those who
trust Christ and have come to Him, God has shown you what you
are. And you've seen by grace that
it would be of no consequence to anyone that you be thrown
like a rotten piece of food up on the dunghill. And the text
is clear, and it describes what we are. We're poor and in the
dust. in my hand no price I bring."
I have nothing to offer God, nothing but His Son, nothing
but the Lord Jesus Christ. All I have that's my own is my
sin. That's sure nothing to offer
God, is it? This verse By inspiration of
God shows us we're poor and in the dust, we're needy and on
the dunghill. Has God shown you what you are?
Have you seen that this is your state before God Almighty? Well,
you're not a very upbeat preacher telling you the truth about what
you are and where you have to be found. Oh, has God graciously
shown you that you're of no more use than salt which lost its
savor? You know, I thought about this.
Salt without flavor is a pretty useless thing, isn't it? You
see, and that perfectly describes us. We cannot glorify God as
we wish we could, and we don't wish to glorify Him as we should.
We've seen that we cannot pray with the seriousness that we
desire or praise God with the gratitude that we wish we felt. And we look back on our lives,
at least I do. I won't speak for you. And I'll
be honest with you, I'm greatly ashamed. But let me say this,
if I'm describing you and the way you feel, then there's yet
hope for you. Christ came into this world to
save the poor, needy, desperate sinners in the dust of despair
and in the dung hill. Dung hill is a place for filthy
and offensive things. Gary can tell you something about
that in the business that he's in. Even the trucks that they
empty when it's all said and done still carry the stench of
the offensive things that was in it. I'll tell you this, when
something's in your refrigerator or your trash and it becomes
putrid and offensive, you can't wait to get it out. You'll clean
that refrigerator. You're motivated then, ain't
you? I've got to get that out of here. I don't know what it
is, but it's got to go. It's got to be removed at once. And
where is it put? It's put in the dunghill. That's where God finds His poor
and needy people in sovereign redemption, dear friends, in
the dunghill. A stench in the nostril of God. And it's true that when we think
ourselves to be little and insignificant, That's when God thinks much of
us. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4, 6. So where are God's
people found? They're found in the dust, in
the dunghill. Second thing, how does the Lord
raise sinners from the dunghill? How does He? He lifts the needy
out of the dunghill, it says. And friends, let me tell you
something. It's a dead lift. a deadlift. Now I know that most
of you probably have. I know that when I was, when
my father was sick, a lot of times if you go to lift someone
or help them up, And even at their weakest point, they can
put a little effort in themselves to help you. But when something's
dead and lifeless, it's a dead lift. And I tell you what, it
can only be lifted by an eternal arm. Have you heard of dead weight? That's what we are. We're just
dead weight. The lifting is done in this way.
And those of you that know Christ will, I believe, agree with me. When the Lord first begins to
deal with a needy sinner, the first lift He gives him raises
his awareness and desire. Now what do you mean by that?
Well, the first thing is the sinner's not satisfied to be
where they were and what they were. Something changed. Something's
changed. And I tell you, at that point,
God's already done a work of grace. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. I remember when God caused me
not to be satisfied with where and what I was, I had perceived
my home in the dunghill to just be home. I didn't see it as foul
and putrid, and I didn't smell the stench of death and rottenness. You see, the first sign of spiritual
life, dear friends, is the sinner's horror of his own lost condition. and an anxious, anxious desire
to escape from it. Have you come as far as this?
Do you feel that all is wrong with you? And do you desire to
be saved from your present state? Now, as long as a sinner can
say, it's well with me, everything's alright, and boasts that you're
no worse than others, then you remain in your lost estate. God
does not lift those up who are lifted up already. But when you
begin to feel your need of Him, you begin to feel that your present
state is one of humiliation, shame, and ruin. Oh, I'm telling
you, grace is not far away. When you desire deliverance like
a drowning man desires deliverance from the water that he's drowning
in, then you can rest assured that the Lord has put His everlasting
arm under you and has begun to raise you up. You see, a quickened
soul, a soul that's made alive, feels the weight of sin. Can't
find pleasure in it. Oh, there was pleasure in sin
for a season. But when God gets a hold of a
man or a woman and shows them their state, where they're at,
what they are, and they feel the weight of that sin, the pleasure
leaves. Now, does that mean they never
sin again? Absolutely not. But the pleasure
of that sin is gone. One old preacher said it best,
I think. He said, when sin grows bitter,
mercy grows sweet. Oh dear friends, may the Lord
wean you and I from the world's sweet poisons. And that's what
they are. Sweet poisons. And bring us to
the true pleasures which are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's another blessed sign that
the man's being lifted from the dunghill when he begins to feel
that his own self-righteousness is no assistance to him. I remember
as a boy, a preacher came by the house one day and began to
use the word that they call witness to me. Just a young boy. I didn't know much about sin,
salvation, or anything. But his message was for me to
take the first step. How's a dead man going to do
that? How's a dead man going to take the first step? No righteousness
in me. Nothing that I can do. would
cause God to be mindful of me, or to say, well, I see some good
in him. Oh, that old publican that we
talked about last week, his cry was far different from that of
the Pharisee, wasn't it? The Pharisee is said to pray
to himself, and that's exactly what he did. He wasn't praying
to God. He was sitting there patting himself on the back.
Lord, I thank you I'm not like other men. And then he went on
a tear almost, saying how much he had done and how much he hadn't
done. All self-righteousness. That
publican, he stood afar off. Said he wouldn't even lift his
eyes up into heaven, but continually beat on his chest as to say,
oh, this wicked heart. Wicked heart. And he simply acknowledged
These words, I'm a sinner. I'm the sinner. Lord, be merciful
to me, a sinner. That's who God's merciful to.
That's who Christ came to save. You hear this week after week,
but I ask you, do you really hear it? Has God shown you what
you are? I can't show you. Your husband,
your wife cannot show you. God's got to show you. Oh, how
I beg today that God would show you that you're a sinner. A desperate,
wicked, needy sinner in the dust and in the dunghill. And unless
God Almighty reaches His hand down and lifts you up, you're
going to die in His hands. Lay down your worthless righteousness. worthless and cling to the perfect
righteousness of Christ. Oh, the righteousness is only
found in substitution. Oh, how we love that verse in
2 Corinthians 5.21, For He, God, hath made Him to be sin for us. We rejoice in that. He who knew
no sin was made to be sin. My, who's sufficient for that?
But friends, concentrate and consider the second part of that
verse, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
That's your only hope. That's my only hope. That God
make me the righteousness that He requires. And it's only in
Christ that He does. Oh, to neglect Christ, to reject
Him, oh, that's saying that your righteousness is sufficient to
stand before God. And I assure you that it's not.
It's a good thing now. It's a good thing when a man's
cut off entirely from all confidence in himself. That's a good thing. And he may yet be on the dunghill,
but I'm sure he won't be there long. When a man begins to quarrel
with himself, begins to take sides with God against himself,
he and God begin to make peace. That's just the way it is. And
then comes that true lift from off the dunghill. Oh my, that
poor, guilty, lost, worthless one hears of the Lord Jesus Christ
and hears that He came into the world to save poor, needy, bankrupt
sinners that are in the dog hell. That poor soul looks to Him with
a look that says, Lord, You're my last resort. If You don't
save me, I'm going to perish. God brought me there. I saw I
couldn't save myself. God showed me I was poor and
needy and a beggar. And I was in the dust of the
garbage heap, just a piece of garbage. Now knowing what you
are and where you are, it's by the sovereign grace and mercy
of God alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. A man will never see
his state before God unless God shows. So I ask you again, has
God shown you what you are? Has God shown you where you are?
I tell you, when a soul gets there, it's off the dunghill. No longer on the dunghill. The
moment a sinner trusts Jesus Christ alone as his salvation,
his sins cease to be in the eyes of God. They're all taken away. God's drawn with His pen of grace
and mercy through them. He's scratched them out. They're
all gone. not guilty in the sight of God
any longer. And he stands acquitted before
the throne of judgment through the atonement, the aonement,
and the justification through the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's a saved man or woman there.
It's only by the gift of the only begotten Son brought personally
to the heart of the dunghill's beggar. The Lord raises His elect
ones from their ruined state. He makes them see it to be a
dunghill. And He shows them that they could
not get off of it by themselves. And God points them to His Son. There He hangs on a tree. There's life and a look to the
Savior. Do you see Him? Do you see yourself on that cross?
That's who should have been there. But there he hangs for poor,
needy, helpless sinners like you and I. And he leads the safe
center to trust his precious blood that was shed in our place. And we are delivered from what
we are and where we were. Third thing, why does the Lord
raise sinners up? Well, the scripture gives many
reasons in answer to that. But the ones that come to mind,
to me, are first in Psalm 115, but our God's in the heavens.
And He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Another answer
is when I see our Lord Jesus who rejoiced in spirit one day
and said, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you that you've
hid these things from the wise and the prudent, those that are
well and have no need. You've hid it from them. But
you revealed them unto me, even so, Father." Now, here's why. Well, here's why God saved sinners.
It seemed good in your sight. "'For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you His people.'" 1 Samuel 12, 22. So what are
you saying? Why does the Lord raise sinners
up? He's pleased to do so. He did
it for His own namesake. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the honor. Turn with me to Ephesians 1.
And you can let your place go there
in Psalm. Ephesians chapter 1. You can
read this whole chapter and profit from it greatly, but for time's
sake, let's start in verse 3. Blessed be the God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places. Underline those next two words
in Christ. according as He, who God, had
chosen us in Him, who Christ, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love." The only way you and I ever be holy before Him in
love is it if we be found in His precious Son? And God determined
that before this world was ever made. Before there was ever a
sinner, friends, there was a Savior. Before there was ever a substitute,
Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Verse 5, it says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. Why? According to the good pleasure
of His will. That's why. to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." Who did? God did. He made you accepted. Oh, I can see the potter in those
words. I can see him fashioning a vessel
into honor. He made you His Barak. In whom, verse 7, we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. And wherein He hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will according to what? His good pleasure. There it is again. If you're
saved this morning, if you're a child of God, it's because
God pleased to make you so. Nothing you did. You can't do
nothing! According to the riches of His
grace. According to His good pleasure.
And He purposed that pleasure in Himself. So see, the answer
to that question is a simple one, and yet it can never truly
be understood by the poor needy beggar. We just stand in amazement,
don't we? Why did God save you? He's just
pleased to do so. It seemed good in His sight.
Can you explain that? Thank God I don't have to. I
just believe. I bow to it. I rejoice in it. It pleased the Lord to do so.
And now I can say with old Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Why? Because it pleased the Lord
to reveal it to me. I can now say with the Apostle
Paul that I'm saved by grace through faith, and that's not
of myself. It's a gift of God. Why? Because it pleased the Lord
to show it to me. And I know that God has mercy
on whom He'll have mercy, and He has compassion on whom He'll
have compassion, because it's His will and purpose to reveal
His Son in me. And that's what He said in Galatians
1. But when it pleased God, when it pleased who? When it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. Why did He call you, Paul? To
reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him. There's no other
message to preach. That's the message. Christ, Lord
and Savior. both just and justifier. Now
as God's children who have been lifted up from the dunghill,
we can walk with Him and we can talk with Him. And we can talk
in full assurance that He hears our every word. He causes all
things, right? All things? To work together
for the believer's good. Do you know why? Because God
delivered all things into His hand. They've been delivered
unto Him by the Father. And Christ in all things has
our best interest at heart. There's no more solid ground
than that to stand upon, I'll tell you that. We now talk with
him. We tell him our griefs. We we
tell him our pain though. He already knows all things You
see he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities There's nothing
that we experienced that he didn't experience as a man. Oh, this
is an all-sufficient Substitute this is an all-sufficient Redeemer
and there's nothing absolutely Nothing that he's not felt himself
that we go through. Oh, I wish I could do articulated. We're members of His body, of
His flesh, of His bones. We're married to Him. He's taken
us unto Himself in faithfulness and in righteousness. And friends,
you see, if you can't wrap your arms around this, His people
are more precious and dearer to Him than His own flesh and
blood. You know why? Because He gave
it to die. None of us shall ever perish. None can ever take any
of us out of His hand. And that brings me to the last
point. And I ask you, and I'm serious when I ask it, is all
these things not being set among princes? That's where He sets
us. It's to be with first and foremost
the Prince of Peace Himself. Where He is, we are also. Where
does God put these poor needy beggars? Why, it's among princes.
All the elect of God, in addition to receiving complete justification,
full assurance and communion with Christ, are favored with
the Holy Spirit's sanctification, washed perfectly clean. Can't
get any cleaner. God the Holy Spirit dwells in
every believer, and they're considered a walking temple in which resides
deity. The temple of the Holy God. God in the Holy Spirit dwells
in us and we dwell in Him. That's indeed to sit among princes.
Oh God, help me that I might always feel Your Spirit. Overcoming
my corruption, constraining my soul to holiness in Christ. In Christ, I'm among princes. Now, I give so low at times that
I'll be honest with you, I can still smell that old bow-dung
ale. I can smell it sometimes. I'm
so low, I can smell it. But God's Spirit has cleansed
us from every sin. Whether past, present, or future,
they're all gone. And in Christ, we live as Christ
lived. Perfect. Perfectly righteous. Holy before God Himself. Don't you see that's a royal
standing? That's a royal standing. We're
princes in wealth for God that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? We're talking about the wealth
of a prince. There it is. We're princes in
power. A prince has power. He hath made
us kings and priests unto God and we shall reign forever and
ever. Prince. We're princes with a
special honor. Now hear this precious word,
and I'm done. He hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Is there
any greater or more special honor than that? Princes. We share the honor of Christ
as we share His cross. Paul was taken from the dunghill
of persecution. He's not second to any in glory. And neither are you. Although
we may have been the chief of sinners' friends, we're now set
among princes when Christ comes into His kingdom. All God's elect
are the princes of His people. Princes. God lifteth up the beggar from
the donkey hole. That's salvation. Salvation is
of the Lord. Lift it up. Made to sit in heavenly
place. Oh, may God help us to believe
in more.