Psalm 65 is our text this evening. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse four. Blessed is the man
whom God has chosen. Blessed is that man to whom God
has called him to come to him by saving faith. So the title
will be the message, Blessing by God's Sovereign Choice. Blessing
by God's sovereign choice. He's the first end. He's the
first cause, rather, and the last end of all spiritual blessings. As we read just a moment ago,
in Ephesians 1, he blessed us with all spiritual blessing in
the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ, according as he chose
us in him before the foundation of the world. Boy, that's a blessing,
isn't it? That's a blessing. That's a blessing
from the hand of God. The bountiful and spiritual blessings
that every believer enjoys come from his sovereign hand, the
hand of our blessed God and Savior. They come from his hand, and
the blessings that God has for us are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything God has for us is
in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. God who spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall not he
with them also freely, freely, I like that word, don't you? Freely give us all things. They're
given unto us by the sovereign grace of God, freely given to
us, not because we're deserving, but rather because our Lord is
abundantly merciful. What did we sing a moment ago?
His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Where
does that come from? That comes from Lamentations
chapter 3, doesn't it? His mercies are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is gracious, abundantly
so, and the Lord is merciful. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to show mercy unto his bride, his chosen, his church. He loved the church so much that
he willingly, freely, laid down his life for us, took all the
wrath of God due our sin, and put our sin away. As we're going
to read here in a minute, he purged our sin from us. He purged
our sin from us. Now look at verse 1. Every believer's
desire is to quietly wait upon the Lord and to give Him the
glory that's due His name. That's what David's saying in
verse 1. Praise waiteth for thee, for I wait upon the Lord. I wait for an occasion, an opportunity
to praise the Lord. When should that be? All the
time in our heart. And it's not something, turn
over here to Psalm 27. You remember this Psalm, we quote
it quite often. Psalm 27, verse 14, Psalm 27, verse 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage. Let's back up one verse. I had
fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. For his blessings are worth waiting
for. He's worth waiting for. Be of good courage, he shall
strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, upon the Lord. My soul waiteth for thee. Well, he's worth waiting on,
isn't he? We wait for a blessing, a time
of blessing to praise His name. Praise the Lord. Praise Jehovah. Praise Him at all times. Now,
I want you to turn to another psalm, over here in Psalm 115. Psalms are so full of such comforting,
mercies in Christ. Psalm 115, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, verse one, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. He didn't say, where is your
God? David said, our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever
he is pleased. He's done all things for us so
abundantly, so mercifully, we wait. Praise the Lord. Back to Psalm 103. Turn there. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, verse 1. O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless His name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagles." We have much reason to praise our
Lord for everything we are, everything we have, everything we know.
only looking to Him to perform all things for us. And look what
it says, praise waitest for thee, O God, in Zion. That's God's
church, God's chosen. And unto thee shall the vow be
performed. Unto thee. It's a vow of worship. Only looking to Him to perform
all that He has promised unto us. You remember Abraham was
Persuaded that all that God had promised, God's able to perform. Psalm 57 says, He performeth
all things for me. We wait upon the Lord to worship
Him in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed, the vow
of worship. When mercy is given and praise
to our God, when mercy is given to us, worship and praise to
our God is spontaneous. It's spontaneous. It just happens.
It's automatic. It's delightful. It's not a burden
to worship the Lord, is it? David said, I was glad when they
said to me, man, let's go to the house of the Lord. Why do
you want to go there? I want to hear his word. I want
to hear his gospel. I want to see him in his word
and to worship him. The vow of worship is performed.
We worship God in spirit and in truth. Every believer has
vowed in his heart to worship the true and living God and say
as Jonah did from the belly of the great fish that had swallowed
him up, remember? He said, I will sacrifice unto
thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed. Remember what he said? Salvation
is of the Lord. Stand still and see the salvation
is of the Lord. This is our privilege and this
is our delight. To vow unto him the vow of worship,
the vow of commitment. I'm thinking of that verse over
there in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 where Paul said, I know whom
I have believed and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. We have committed everything
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse two. O thou that
hearest prayer. God hears the cry of his children. What should that encourage us
to do? Call upon the name of the Lord.
You remember Romans 10? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Seeing that he hears our prayer,
seeing he said, make your request known unto God, seeing he says
that all men ought to pray all the time, we are to rejoice in
the Lord and pray without ceasing. Seeing that he hears our prayers,
shouldn't we call upon him? He will answer our prayer. Unto
thee shall all flesh come. A proper and fitting name for
our great God, thou that hearest prayer. You remember when our
Lord Jesus Christ came to the house of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus? Remember when he got there? Lazarus
had already died. And they said, why didn't you
come earlier? If you'd been here, he wouldn't have died. No, it
was God's purpose. The Lord delayed on purpose.
But when he asked him, where's the grave? Where's that body
in the grave? Where's he at? Where's that body
at? And when he came to the grave of Lazarus, remember, he called
upon the name of the Lord and he said, God, I thank you that
you always hear me. You always hear my prayers."
And then he spoke to that dead man, Lazarus, come forth. God
always hears our prayer. Here is the proof of all-sufficient
God. He hears our prayers, our cry,
and supplies our every need. Our God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. We sang a moment
ago, great is thy faithfulness, thou has provided for us every
need. Every need. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and all these things will be added. Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these
things. Don't want to leave that out.
All these things will be added unto you. What is that righteousness? Christ. That Lord Jesus Christ. He always encourages sinners
to come unto him, doesn't he? All you who are laboring heavy
laden, he said, come unto me. He said, how everyone that is
thirsty, come to Christ. Seeing we have a great high priest
that is passed into heaven, that's seated in heaven, he's making
intercession for us. He said, let us therefore come
boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in our time of need. O thou that hearest
prayers, unto thee shall all flesh come, either seeking mercy
or God will answer those who refuse to come in judgment. But all flesh is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Now look at verse 3, a humble
confession and reassuring confidence. Prevail Against me now. This is David the king the sweet
psalmist the man after God's own heart. What is he saying
here? Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in my sight and liquidy do prevail against us Because we're guilty
sinners all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And
he says, as for our transgressions, David said, I'm going to put
away my sin. Oh, that's not what he said,
is it? As for our transgression, thou
shalt put them away. Remember the Lord in Isaiah 53,
when Isaiah writes about the prophecy of the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he was wounded for our transgression, bruised
for our iniquity. That's how sin is put away. And
with his stripes we are healed. He appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. When he
by himself purged our sin, sat down on the right hand of God. We confess that we are sinners,
guilty sinners. If you know that in your heart
what you are, a sinner, I'd be highly encouraged because the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. If you know in your
heart before God that you are ungodly, I'd be highly encouraged
because the Lord Jesus Christ said, when we were yet without
strength in due time, he died for the ungodly. He didn't come
to call the righteous sinners to repentance. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. You ever ask someone sometime,
in conversation, in a personal way, in a personal conversation.
Have you ever said to someone or asked someone, are you a sinner? Oh, I know you are. That's what the
publicans or the Pharisees said. I thank God I'm not like that
guy over there. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. We are sinners. That's what we are. That's what
we are. That doesn't offend a man who
knows, who's been taught of God, when someone says, you're a guilty
sinner. You're a totally depraved, wretched,
ungodly man. Amen! That's me. Amen. That is me. You see, in the flesh,
no man can please God. but the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Iniquities do prevail against
us. When God said guilty, guilty. When God said there's none righteous,
no not one, that's me. There's none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God. So if you know that you're guilty
before God and have sinned against God, what is your hope of atonement
for your sin? A lot of people think they can
put away their sin by what they do or what they don't do. A lot of people think that sin
is put away by repentance. They think they're gonna cry
long enough and feel sorry enough and feel guilty enough and then
at some point, my repentance is gonna put away my sin. Wrong. Wrong. True repentance acknowledges
that the Lord Jesus Christ put away our sin. And just like faith,
faith doesn't put away sin either. My faith didn't die from my sin. What did we study Sunday morning?
The faith of God's elect acknowledges the truth. True saving faith,
said the Lord Jesus Christ. The true saving faith said the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all our
sin. How clean does he, and how fully
and completely did he put away our sin? Let's see if I can find
that. Where's that at? Psalm 103, just
what we read a moment ago. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us according
to our sin, nor rewarded us according to our inequities. As far as the east, east, that
way. As far as the east is from the
west. So far hath he removed our sin
and transgression from us. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression
from us. Ain't that good news? Yes, I'm
guilty. Yes, I'm a sinner. Yes, I've
sinned against God. I can't do one thing to put away
one sin. Not one. Certainly, baptism doesn't
put away sin, does it? My soul. A lot of people think
that their sins are washed away in the water. Baptism, like faith
and repentance, acknowledges that Christ put away our sin
by his death, burial, and resurrection, delivered for our offenses, and
raised again for our justification. Now, blessed is the man. Blessed
is the man. Blessed is that man. Now, what is man? There's a question
in the psalm, what is man that thou art mindful of him? What
is man? flesh, all flesh is grass, but
blessed is that person whom God has chosen. Now that's a blessed man, isn't
it? He made God from all eternity. He blessed us according as he
has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Boy, that's a blessed man, isn't it? A blessed man. You can go
through the Psalms, and I've written articles about it, who
the blessed man is. And there's seven of those in
the book of Revelation. We read some of those on Sunday. But turn back to Psalm 32. Now,
here's the blessed man. Not only the man whom God has
chosen, but the man to whom God has put away his sin. Psalm 32,
verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile,
no hypocrisy. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works. Without works. That is the blessed man. That
is the blessed man. The blessed and happy man are
those found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The world of unbelievers,
they would say, well, the blessed and happy man is that man who
has got, as they always say, if you got your health, man,
you got everything. That's not so. You're not going
to stay healthy all your life. You're going to die. You're going
to get sick and you're going to die. That's not a blessed
man. And the world of unbelievers
said, well, blessed is that man who not only has his health but
has wealth. That's not a blessing to have
wealth. I refrained myself from buying
that lottery ticket because I was scared to death I'd win. I was
scared to death I might win. And that wouldn't be a blessing. That would be a curse. I'd be
a curse, I'd ruin a person. That $2 billion, what would you
do with $2 billion? That'd scare me to death. But
the world said, boy, that guy who hit that lottery, boy, he's
blessed. No, he's not. Our blessings are spiritual blessings
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't get me wrong, I was tempted
to go buy a ticket. And then I fantasized how I'd
give everyone here a million dollars. I'd give it all away. And really when you think about
it, everything belongs to the Lord. What we have is His. Some
people have a little more, some people have a little less. But
you see, our blessings we have are eternal blessings. That's
the blessed man. We may have some temporary creature
comforts. You know, a fine house, air conditioning,
heat and those things, those are nice creature comforts. But
if we don't have Christ, we're not blessed. The blessed man
is the man who can say with the Apostle Paul, I count everything
lost, dung, ruined that I may win Christ and be found in Him.
You see, our blessings are spiritual blessings and they're eternal
blessings. The fashion of this world is
passing away. It's passing away. Blessed is
the man that God chooses. Now, here we see God's sovereign
electing grace. We are chosen of God according
to his good pleasure, and he chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Now, the natural man will bucket
that. The natural man will say, that's not fair, or that's not
right. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, And the Lord said, what shall we say to these things?
Well, if God be for us, who can be against us? Blessed is a man
whom God has chosen. Remember, there were those apostles
who were fishermen. James and John, they were brothers.
Peter and Andrew, they were brothers. They were fishermen. And they
were out one day fishing, and the Lord Jesus Christ walked
up to them and said, come follow me. and I'll make you fishers
of men." They folded up shop, said goodbye to their daddy,
and followed the Lord Jesus Christ. He chose them. And then he reminds
them in John chapter 15, he said, you didn't choose me,
I chose you and ordained you. And that's what every believer
can say. He chose us. Left to ourselves,
we'd never believe the Gospel. Left to ourselves, we love darkness
and hate the light. We'd never choose God had He
not chosen us. We'd never have believed the
Gospel. As many as were ordained to eternal life, they believed
the Gospel. And then not only has He chosen
us, but He causes us to do something. He causes us to believe on Him. Look what it says there. causes
to approach unto Thee. Now, how do we approach? We've
said that we're sinful. We've said that we're guilty.
How do guilty sinners come to a thrice holy God? Only in the
mediator. Our Lord said, I'm the way, the
truth, the life. No man come to the Father but by and through
Me. You see, He causes us to come to God through Christ. He causes us to approach Him. We approach Him and we come to
Him as a sovereign. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
confessing that He's all of our salvation. That causes us to
approach unto God. Since we cannot and will not
come to God by ourselves, He graciously works in us and attracts
us powerfully to come. Our Lord said, no man can come
to me except What? The Father which sent me draw
him. He subdues our unwillingness, says in Psalm 110, thy people
shall be willing in the day of his power. He removes our inability
by his mighty working of his mighty power and his transforming
grace makes us new creatures in Christ. What he does, he makes
us to fall in love with Christ. He makes himself so beautiful
and so lovely to you who believe he is precious. We must have
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how He draws us irresistibly
unto Him. And then notice this, that we
may dwell in His presence. In His presence. Remember, turn back to Psalm
27. I think I've got the right scripture
in mind here. Psalm 27. Turn back over there. Psalm 27. Look at Psalm 27, verse
4. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. That's our desire, to
dwell with the Lord. He's chosen us. He causes us
to come to Him that we may dwell with Him. To dwell with the Lord
Jesus Christ. To dwell with Him. To dwell in
His courts, in His house, in His family, in His presence as
sons of God. We may die by the blood of Christ.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called sons of God. He adopted us. into his family. You know, these
adoption agencies that have all these children, those little
children in those adoption agencies, they don't pick their parents,
do they? The parents choose them. God
has adopted us into his family and made us heirs of God and
joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read this to you. But in the fullness of the time
was come, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son in your heart, crying,
Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a
son. And if a son, then the heir of
God through Christ. Because you are sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son in your hearts, making us to cry,
God have mercy on me, the sinner. Now, the last part of verse 4, God has chosen us, He's called
us to come to Him, that we may dwell with him and shall be satisfied
with the goodness of his house and of thy holy temple. Satisfied? Satisfied. Satisfaction, what
a blessed, what a blessed thing it is to be satisfied with the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be satisfied with his goodness, to be satisfied
with him, with him. As I've told you before, many
times, the believer is satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is all and in all. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and we're complete in Him. We are satisfied
with the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, that's not the
most important issue. You say, preacher, what are you
talking about? The important issue, yes, we
are satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ, but more importantly,
God Almighty is satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
our hope of salvation. Let me show you that. Turn there, Isaiah 53. Yet, it says in verse 10, it
pleased the Lord to bruise him, Isaiah 53, 10. He hath put him
to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasures
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." God's satisfied
with Christ, satisfied with his atonement, satisfied You remember
the Lord said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I'm satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their
iniquities. And that's what he did. He came
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now let's just read
a couple more verses and I'll let you go. By terrible things,
By terrible things in righteousness that will answer us. Now a better
word for that word terrible is by tremendous things. Tremendous
things in righteousness that will answer us. Everything God
does for us, he does in a way that magnifies his own character. He gives us salvation by righteousness. The righteousness that he has
established for us. in honoring the law of God for
us, putting away our sin. Two things we must have to stand
before God, righteousness and redemption, and that's in Christ. Regeneration, three things. Oh,
God of our salvation, who art the competence of all the ends
of the earth and of them that are upon the sea, which by his
strength setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power, which
stilleth the noise of the sea, and the noise of their waves,
and the tumult of the people." Confidence. Confidence. We don't have any confidence
in us, do we? Well, I'm confident that I'm
going to honor the law of God. I'm confident that I'm going
to do this. I'm confident that I'm going to do that. What does
Philippians 3.3 say? We are the true Israel. which worship God in the spirit,
that rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have, uh-oh, no
confidence in the flesh. Not mine, not yours, not anybody.
But in Him, we can have confidence. Our confidence is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He indeed is the God of our salvation. It originates with Him, executed
by Him, and applied by Him. He is our confidence, our security. He is our assurance. He is our
assurance. I had a young man a couple of
years ago who called me on the phone and wanted to know what
we preached over here. We preach at Salvation of the
Lord. And I said, if you want to hear that message, come over
here and sit still and listen. Well, he came one time, and he
said, after the service, he said, I want to talk to you. I said,
OK. OK. I sat right down there on
that front row, and he sat down next to me. He said, I don't
have any confidence I said, well, that's a good thing. He said,
I don't have any assurance. I said, my friend, you're seeking
the wrong thing. We don't seek confidence in ourselves. We don't seek assurance in ourselves. We're seeking the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our confidence. He is our
assurance. So we don't seek assurance. We
seek Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our assurance, who is our comfort, who is our confidence. Amen.