Okay, this evening now we're
going to take a look at Psalm 85. Psalm 85, I'm taking the
title for the message from the well-known, really famous words. This is one of the verses in
verse 10, one of the verses that is probably most well-known in
all the book of Psalms, all the 150 Psalms, verse 10 of Psalm
85. So I'm taking the title from
that verse, mercy and truth are met together. Mercy, mercy, I
need mercy, but I need mercy not at the expense of truth.
And I need righteousness, but not at the expense of peace.
But mercy and truth, righteousness and peace have kissed each other,
reconciled. All the attributes of God are
satisfied and magnified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only mercy
and truth, but also righteousness and peace. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ as a sinner's substitute does not change the character
of God, does not change the character of God. Remember the scripture
in Malachi 3, he said, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ doesn't change the character of God, but rather
all the attributes of God are honored to enable God to be our
just God and Savior, to enable him to be just and the justifier. Now, that's so important. That's so important. God is determined
to show mercy, but not at the expense of his justice. So justice
has to be honored, justice has to be satisfied to enable God
to show mercy and not violate his own holy character. That's
the mystery and glory of the gospel. In that one verse, in
that one verse right there, you remember Isaiah 45, he's the
only just God and Savior. And then over in Roman chapter
3, he is called the just and the justifier of those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Psalm 85, along with 150
psalms that we have, it's another gospel psalm that tells us all
about Christ. When Pastor Mahan preached on
this psalm, he would often call it the gospel according to David. We have the gospel according
to Isaiah, and we have the gospel according to David here in this
Psalm, for it tells us again the good news of the gospel of
Christ saving mercy, saving grace to undeserving sinners. We read just a moment ago, when
we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly. The Lord Jesus Christ is a good
shepherd, our great shepherd, our chief shepherd. He is God,
our shepherd. He's the Lord, our shepherd,
who laid down his life for us, for his sheep. And in due time,
those for whom Christ stood as surety, savior, and substitute
in due time, the Lord Jesus will cross their path with the true
gospel and call them out, out of darkness into his marvelous
light. And he does that with the gospel. He'll cross our path
with the truth of the gospel and he'll take that truth and
reveal it and show it unto us. Remember we studied in Matthew
11, our Lord said, Father, I thank thee that you've hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, even
so, Father, for so it seems good in your sight. It seemed good
in God's sight to do that. Now, let's take a look at verse
1, 2, and 3. And here we see a plain declaration
that our salvation is based upon what He has done for us. It's
not based upon what we must do for Him. It's based upon what
He must do for us. Notice, let's read verse 1, 2,
and 3 again. and that is Jehovah, our God,
Jehovah, our Savior, thou has been favorable or thou has been
gracious unto thy land, thy people, thy church, or we could read
that word, you're well-pleased, well-pleased. God's well-pleased
with his people because he's well-pleased with his son. Thou
has brought back Thou hast been well-pleased, and because God
is well-pleased with everything Christ has done for us, thou
hast brought back the captivity of Jacob, ye sons of Jacob. And Jacob there is a picture
of God's elect. Jacob there, you remember, he
took that man Jacob, and he made him and called him Israel. We
are by nature Jacob, and he makes us Israel in Christ Jesus. Thou hast forgiven, the iniquity
of thy people, and thou has covered all their sin." All the sin of
God's elect, it's all been forgiven, it's all been covered. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. You take away sin, Sin, wrath
is the result of sin. God must punish the guilty. But
when sin is taken away, wrath is taken away, right? There's
no condemnation. There is therefore now no judgment
to those who are in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ consumed
the wrath of God for us. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned from the fierceness
of thine anger. Now the Lord Jesus Christ experienced
the anger of God's holy wrath against sin on Calvary Street,
didn't he? Remember that verse over in Lamentation?
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Lamentation 112.
Is it nothing to you, all ye who pass by? Behold and see if
there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. How can
God be angry with His Son? Only one way. As our sin was
laid upon Him. When our sin was laid upon Him,
He had to be baptized in the wrath of the thrice holy God. Now verse 1, 2, and 3 declare
unto us what the Lord has done for us. It's so clear and so
plain. Salvation is not left up to us.
Salvation is not based upon our performance. Salvation is based
upon his performance. Salvation is based upon his doing. Remember, he said to his father,
the Lord Jesus said, I finished the work you gave me to do. Did he finish? Yes, he did. Thou
hast done all things well. The Lord has been favorable or
gracious well pleased with his covenant people and will set
them free from the bondage of sin. Israel of old is an example
and picture of the Lord's free grace and unmerited favor. From
Egyptian bondage of 400 years, they didn't set themselves free,
did they? Israel was in bondage for 400
years. They didn't set themselves free.
What did God do? He sent a deliverer. Moses is
a picture of Christ. And he delivered them after 400
years of bondage. And that's a picture of what
God does for us. We're in bondage to sin, and
he sets us free. Another example of that, many
years after the Egyptian bondage in the 40 years in the wilderness,
and they entered into the promised land, but they didn't do so good. During the reign of David, The
Lord blessed them during the reign of Solomon. But when David
and Solomon was gone, it was confusion. It was idolatry. And God, through Jeremiah, warned
the people, you're going to go into captivity for 70 years,
Babylonian captivity. And they did. God took them away
into that Babylonian captivity. And then God sent a deliverer,
Cyrus, God raised him up and made a decree to set the people
free, and that's a picture of Christ. Even so, the Lord Jesus
Christ has set us free from the curse and bondage of the law.
We studied that in Galatians chapter 3, didn't we? He redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Christ
has set us free from the bondage of sin, Dan saith, in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, when he ascended up on
high, we read in Ephesians chapter 4, when he ascended up on high,
he led captivity captive, didn't he? Our Lord prophesied of him
in Isaiah 61, and then the Lord quotes that in Luke chapter 4,
where it says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to heal
the brokenhearted, to set the captive free, And that's exactly
what he does when he saves us by his grace. Thou has been favorable. He set us free from this captivity
we have. In Christ, he said, you shall
know the truth. And that truth does what? Set you free. God doesn't use
the lies of false prophets to set people free. He uses the
truth to set us free. Now look at verse two. Thou has
forgiven. the iniquity of thy people. Now
why would God forgive the iniquity of his people? Remember Matthew
chapter one, called his name Jesus, he shall save his people
from their sins. The reason he has forgiven us
is because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt of our sin. Hold
your place there and turn back a few pages. You remember Psalm
32, Psalm 32 verse one, Psalm 32, verse 1. You don't
want to turn, I'll just read it to you. Blessed is he, Psalm
32, verse 1. Blessed is he who transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is that man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no God.
That's the blessed man, but we know that we only have forgiveness
of sin because the Lord Jesus Christ took our sin to himself
and in doing so, took it away. Remember in our study in the
book of Hebrews, when he by himself purged our sin, he sat down on
the throne of God. Having accomplished all things,
he was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification.
He appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of somebody, thy people. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power. Who are these people? Our Lord
often spoke about them. He said, all that the Father
had given to me, they will come to me and I will never cast them
out. You remember our study from a
few weeks back in Psalm 65, blessed are those to whom the Lord has
chosen and caused to approach unto thee. What do we call that?
We call that the Bible doctrine of election. The Bible doctrine
of election, God elected a people unto salvation. We are his by
his choice. Our Lord says this in John 15,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. And I ordained you to eternal
life. So we are his people by his choice. We are his people by his divine
purchase. He bought us with his own blood.
We are his people by divine call. He calls us out of darkness into
his marvelous light. That we should show forth the
praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light. So we have sin forgiven based
upon the Lord Jesus Christ paying our sin debt. Sin, iniquity,
and transgression forgiven. And then it says in the second
part of verse 2, thou hast covered all our sin. All our sin is covered. Covered with what? What's it
covered up with? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ cleanses us from all our sin. Christ once suffered
for our sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us
unto God. God made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Our sins are covered because
our sins forgiven. All our sins. Past, present,
and future. Think about this for a minute.
How many sins did you personally commit when the Lord Jesus Christ
died? I hadn't committed any sin. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the eternal purpose and decree of
God, died for all the sins of God's people, even before they
came into this world. He's a lamb slain from when?
The foundation of the world. Do you see God's eternal purpose
in all this? Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. Before Adam fell, Christ stood
as a surety of that covenant. Now look at verse 3. Thou hast
taken away all thy wrath. Now sin deserves a holy wrath
of God. A holy wrath of God. And that's
what happened upon Calvary Street. We see the wrath of men, don't
we? We see the wrath of the soldiers, the wrath of the Pharisees, and
a lot of people focus on the physical anguish and pain of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's what we need to see.
We see the holy hand of God's justice punishing our sin in
our substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ bear our
sin in his own body on the tree. And when our sin was found upon
the substitute, what happened? Wrath. The holy wrath of God
stirred into activity against sin that was laid upon our substitute,
Jesus Christ. Therefore, all of God's wrath
toward God's people has been ever removed. Remember in 1 Thessalonians
5, where it says, God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that good
news? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
made complete atonement for our sin, how complete is his atonement? How complete is His atonement?
His atonement is so complete that God Almighty said, their
sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. As far as the East is
from the West, I've separated your sin from you. All wrath
has been removed. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? No one, because the Lord Jesus
Christ took our sin, took our judgment, took our wrath, And
now in Christ, we are justified. God's anger toward our sin has
been fully, eternally quenched, satisfied. The law of God is
satisfied. The justice of God is satisfied
because the Lord Jesus Christ fully paid our sin debt, covered
all our sin with his blood. Now look at verse four and verse
five. Now our prayer is this. Thou hast turned from the fierceness
of thine anger. God's not angry with us anymore.
God's angry with the wicked every day. You remember that Psalm?
God's angry with the wicked every day. God's not angry with his
people anymore because Christ satisfied the justice of God
for us. Now, here's our prayer in verse
four and five. Now turn us, O God. Turn us. Thou hast done all this. Now
turn us. He's done something for us, right?
Now do something in us, in us. Turn us, oh God, of our salvation
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Will thou be angry
with us forever? Not in Christ. Will thou draw
out thine anger to all generations? Not in Christ. Will thou not
revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Yes. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us thy salvation. O God of our salvation, turn
us. I love that statement, don't
you? O God of our salvation. How many times have we read in
the scripture that salvation's of the Lord? Salvation of the
Lord. He's a God of our salvation because
he's God our Savior. Turn us, O God, of our salvation. Remember we read that. Turn back
to Psalm 80. Psalm 80. I think we read this
last week. Psalm 80, verse 3. Turn us again,
O God, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be
saved. Turn us, O God. Turn us, O God,
turn us unto Thee. Do something in us and for us
through Christ. Now don't turn, let me read this
to you. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter
1, and this will be familiar to you. For they themselves show
of us Verse 9, What manner of entering in we had unto you,
how you turned to God from idol, to serve a living and true God,
and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come. He
turned us and delivered us from the wrath to come. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe. So he has delivered us from the
wrath to come. There is, in salvation, there
is removal of God's wrath toward us, and there's also removal
of our enmity toward him. Both are accomplished by the
power of God through the gospel, through the gospel of Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, in that
same chapter, he said, now be ye reconciled to God. Be ye reconciled
to God. God is satisfied. His anger is
ceased. Now lay down your shotgun. Lay
down your anger. Be ye reconciled to God. be ye
reconciled to him. And that is done by God's willing,
God's power in us. We shall be willing in the day
of God's power. The wrath of God is quenched
by the death and satisfying sacrifice of Christ. And our enmity toward
Him is turned away in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. Now look at verse 6. Will that
not revive us? Psalm 85 verse 6. Will that not
revive us again? that thy people may rejoice in
thee again and again and again. We need reviving, don't we? We're born again by the Spirit
of God one time, right? Except you're born again, you
cannot see, you cannot believe. Except you're born again by the
Spirit of God, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Regeneration
happens to the believer one time. We're brought from death unto
life. You have to be quickened who
were dead And he does that with the word of truth, born again
by the uncorruptible, incorruptible word of God of his own will,
begat he us with the word of truth. He makes us new creatures
in Christ. He gives us life in Christ. He
gives us that new nature born of God by the spirit of God.
But there are many times, because of the plague of our old sin
nature, We have that new nature in Christ, don't we? We have
that old sin nature, too. There's that warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. That which is born of the flesh,
that's what it will always be, flesh. That which is born of
spirit is spirit. That many times because of the
plague of this old nature, as Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Oh, I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's our hope. And many
times, because of the plague of our old sin nature, we need
reviving. We need refreshing of the Holy
Spirit that we may continue to rejoice and find sweet rest in
Him. We need a reviving all the time. Now, I'm not for this thing they
have, especially this time of year, everybody, that we're going
to have an Easter revival. I'm for God doing a revival in
our heart, in our soul, in our spirit. Revive us again. Now
what's the cause of this reviving? When God revives us again, we
do rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that, that thy
people may rejoice in thee. Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say, what? Rejoice? And then he says the
cause of that reviving and the cause of that rejoicing is, show
us thy mercy. You see that? Show us thy mercy. Remember from last week, look
just across the page, Psalm 86 verse 13, For great is thy mercy
toward me, thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Verse 15, But thou, O Lord, this
is Psalm 86, Are the God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering,
plenteous in mercy, plenteous in mercy and truth. Look up to
verse 5, Psalm 86, verse 5. For thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy. Lord, show us thy mercy. Reveal mercy unto us. When Moses
asked the Lord, remember Exodus 33, show me your glory. Remember? The Lord answered back, I'll
cause all my goodness to pass before you. And that goodness
is Christ. And I will be merciful to whom
I'll be merciful. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy. That's what we need. All of salvation
is by the mercy of God. From the first experience of
his love toward us to the last breath we take upon this earth,
God's people experience his mercy. His mercies are new. You remember that scripture?
Where is that at? Lamentations chapter 3. His mercies
are new every morning. New mercies I see in Christ Jesus. His greatest glory is to show
mercy. That's my greatest need. Not
by works of righteousness, but we've done according to his mercy.
Save us, show us thy salvation. Look at verse seven again. Show
us thy salvation, O Lord. It's his, show us thy mercy,
O Lord. And then he says, grant us salvation. Now you know what a grant is,
don't you? A grant is a gift. He's given us and he's granted
us salvation. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, Those who are the ones who have received this grant
of faith is a gift of God. Now listen, faith doesn't accomplish
salvation. Faith doesn't accomplish salvation.
Faith receives Christ who did accomplish salvation. You see
the difference? My repentance doesn't accomplish salvation,
but repentance as given of God acknowledges that the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished salvation for us. That's true repentance.
That's true faith. Grant us, give us salvation. Salvation we know is of the Lord.
He purposed it. He planned it. He purchased it. He supplies it. God who has begun
a good work in you, he will perfect it. He will perform it, right?
We are to sit still and behold the salvation of the Lord. None
of us are deserving, none of us are worthy, but we rejoice
that the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to save sinners. This is a faithful saying, isn't
it? Worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.
I take my place there. I own that. I'm a sinner, saved
by the grace of God. Never graduate above that. You
remember the Pharisees criticized the Lord Jesus Christ. They said,
he's a friend of sinners. Thank God. Thank God he is. If I can find a sinner, they're
hard to find. If I can find one, I got good
news. If I can find a lost man, they're hard to find. But if
I can find a lost man, I've got good news. Christ came seeking
to save the lost. Oh, look at verse eight. I will
hear what God the Lord will speak. Boy, if he speaks, I want to
hear, don't you? How does God speak to us? Not
by dreams and visions, not by feelings, tradition, or ceremonies.
I will hear what the Lord will speak. God speaks to us through
His Word. Right here you have it in your
hand. That's how God speaks to us through His revealed Word.
I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak
peace. Peace I give unto you, my peace
I leave with you. Unto His people, His elect, His
Israel, His chosen, and He's made them saints. They are sinners. I thought you just said we're
sinners. We are. But we're also saints. Figure
that one out. I'm a sinner in my flesh, but
in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm sanctified. Completely, totally
sanctified. Made holy in Christ. He is our
sanctification, right? For he will speak peace unto
his people. He's made us saints. But, the
last part of verse 8. Let's not turn again to foolishness.
Let's not turn again to folly. There's nothing more foolish
or silly than trying to think that you can earn salvation by
what you do or what you don't do. Thou hast, thou hast, thou
hast done all these things for us. So let's not turn again to
our works. Let's cast them behind our back.
As Paul said, let's count them all but dumb that we may win
Christ and be found in Him. Look at verse 9. Surely His salvation
is nigh them that fear Him. His salvation is near to those
people who worship Him. He is nigh them of a broken spirit
and save us such as be of a contrite spirit. Remember Psalm 34? Ignite them of a broken heart.
Save us such as be of a contrite spirit. That glory, His glory,
He causes the glory of God. We see the glory of God that
shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid we should
glory save in Christ. Verse 10, mercy and truth are
met together. in Christ crucified. All the
attributes of God are in harmony. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. His sheep hear His voice. His Word is the foundation of
faith, the source of all comfort, the means of growth. His Word
is a revelation of peace. Now look at verse 10. All the
divine attributes of God meet in our blessed Savior. The Lord
himself is called mercy. Christ is the sure mercies of
David. The Lord himself is called truth. The Lord himself is called
the Lord our righteousness. The Lord himself is called our
peace. Christ is our peace. All these
attributes are glorified in Christ. In the accomplishment of our
salvation, all the character of God is honored. Mercy will
set us free. and inclined to pardon us, but
truth must stand because righteous justice has a claim on the guilty. The way you have sinned is dead.
Peace by the cross of Christ satisfies every demand and every
claim of God's holy law and justice. enabling God to be just and the
justifier of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
in Christ crucified is the law of God honored, mercy is exalted,
righteousness and truth have kissed each other, magnified,
and peace is given through Christ in Him crucified. He made peace
for us with His own blood. And verse 11, says that truth
shall spring out of the earth. Now, I think this verse looks
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read a moment
ago, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for
our justification. If the Lord Jesus Christ was
not raised from the dead on that third day, we're in big trouble. We're in big trouble because
that proved him to be an imposter. That proves that we have no atonement
for sin and we are yet dead in our sin. If there's no resurrection
from the dead, read 1 Corinthians 15. If he'd be not raised up,
we have no hope. But thank God. He is raised up,
and he's seated in the heavenlies. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and he did. And righteousness, the attributes
of God, righteousness, shall look down from heaven. He said,
I'm well pleased. How do we know that God the Father
is well pleased with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? God
raised him from the dead. He lived in that glorified body
40 days among the earth. And on that 40th day, what did
he do? He defied gravity, just like
he did when he walked on the water. He defied gravity. And
the disciples watched him go up to heaven. And two messengers
stood nearby and told the disciples, that same Jesus, that same one
whom you see go away, he's coming again. He's on his way back. We studied that in Revelation.
Behold, He cometh. He's on His way back. We look
for Him every day. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Verse
12, Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good. The Lord
shall give good, because He is good. None good but God. And
because He is good, we have the increase. We have the increase
of righteousness. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness. We have the increase of the fruit
of the Spirit of God. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 13, righteousness shall
go before him. Righteousness seated on the right
hand of God. Remember our forerunner has entered
in for us and is seated. We studied that in Hebrews chapter
six. Now watch this, and shall set us in the way of His steps. We're walking. Remember our Lord
said, because I live, you shall live also. Remember we studied
in Ephesians chapter 2, but God who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up
together to make us sit together in the heavenlies in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's people right now are already
seated in the heavenlies in Christ. That's what the Word teaches.
I know I'm here in the body, in my body, walking upon this
earth, But in my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, the forerunner
entered in for us, and we being in union with Him, we are seated
where He is in Christ forever. And one day, we'll enjoy that
personally in Christ Jesus. The Lord shall give that which
is good.