March 25, 2012
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse,
2nd Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New
Jersey, 08553
Telephone:
615-513-4464
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10:15 AM Bible
Class
Sunday 11 AM Morning
Service
Thursday 7:30 PM
Midweek Service
Sin is the great block and bar to our happiness, the
procurer of all miseries to man, both here and hereafter: take away sin and
nothing can hurt us: for death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, is the wages
of it. John Bunyan
THE JUDGMENT COMMANDED
Psalm 7:6-9
David
was being hounded by raging enemies of God—wicked king Saul and all his wicked
cronies (Ps 7:6). The judgment God had
commanded was for David to be king over Israel.
When David would take the throne of Israel, King David would put down
the reign of wicked Saul and his men.
King David would bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem,
establishing true worship in Jerusalem for the children of Israel. King David would bring the children into the
peace of the righteous and just reign of the true and living God. All of this King David would do for the
children of God when he was exalted to the throne. So it would be that the
people would compass God about. So David
asks for their sakes for God to command the judgment God had purposed from the
beginning for him (Ps 7:7).
Now see
in all that, King Jesus. When Christ
walked this earth he was hounded by Satan and wicked self-righteous, religious
men who loved a form of religion, but hated God. This was his prayer (Ps 7:6). The judgment God had commanded was for Christ
his Son to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself then rise to the throne of
glory, King of kings and Lord of lords (Jer 23:5-6). Christ petitions the LORD based on his
promise—the judgment thou hast commanded.
Christ Was Heard
Having
highly glorified God by satisfying divine justice, having made his people the
righteousness of God in him, Christ was heard (Phil 2:9-11).
When
Christ took the throne in heavenly Jerusalem King Jesus put down the reign of
wicked Satan and his wicked men. King
Jesus, the one represented by the ark, came back into heavenly Jerusalem,
establishing true worship for the children of Israel. King Jesus sends forth his ambassadors and by
the power of the Holy Spirit Christ receives the glory for bringing every elect
child of God into the peace of the righteous and just reign of the true and
living God.
Christ’s
prayer was not only for himself but for his people (Ps 7:7). God’s true Israel, the elect of God, chosen
unto salvation in Christ Jesus before the world began, are the congregation of
the people. They are brought to
congregate together with one another by King Jesus putting away their sin,
defeating our enemy and ruling over his kingdom in righteous judgment to bring
each one to himself (1 Pet 3:18; Jn
12:32; Eph 4:10-16). His people
congregate from the four corners of
the earth into the local assemblies our King has assembled, the church over
which Christ is Head, where he feeds us through his gospel in spirit and in
truth from his high throne of grace in heavenly Zion (Jer 17:12; Rev 5:10; 19:16; Is 9:7). So it is that the
congregation of God’s elect compass God about (Ps 6:7).
The Rage of Mine Enemies (Ps 7:6-8)
Satan
and self-righteous religious men set themselves in the judgment seat of God, judging
Christ and his disciples. They attempted
to find unrighteousness in Christ and to smear his holy character (Luke 6:7; 7:39;
15:2; 20:20). I would not be surprised
in our day if those who hate the gospel paid men to disguise themselves in an
attempt to find something in our words to accuse us, or use email or phone
conversations to try to find something to use against us.
Beware
brethren, the enemies of Christ labor to make their case against the Lord and
his people (Ps 7:14). Instead of travailing to hear the good news till Christ
be formed in them they travail with iniquity to find fault in another to
justify their refusal to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. The main reason the enemies of Christ tried
to find something with which to charge Christ was to justify themselves before
the people for rejecting God, rejecting his Word, and rejecting his followers,
even as they did David in his day and do today. So it is they are pregnant with
mischief. But though the enemies of
Christ lay traps, they are fallen into their own trap (Ps 7:15). God shall arise in anger against his enemies
and though the enemy of Christ would give himself a crown yet all his mischief
comes down upon his own head (Ps 7:16).
Brethren,
when the enemy rages, ask Christ, to whom all judgment has been committed, to
arise to the judgment he has commanded for his own sake and for his congregation
(1 Pet 4:19). He shall save us!
*******
It is absolutely
impossible for any sinner to preach the gospel unless God sends him for “how shall they preach, except they be
sent?” (Rom 10:15) God is pleased to save by preaching so God who cannot lie
promises, “I
will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding” (Jer 3:15). Where
ever God has one of his lost sheep, God emboldens his messenger
like he did Paul at Corinth when he said, “I have much people in this city. And he
continued there a year and six
months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:10, 11). If the Lord has a Lydia from Thyatira he
can bring her to Philippi and forbid his servant from preaching in Asia, direct
his steps to that child as he did Paul who said, “assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them” (Acts 16:10). If the Lord has an Ethiopian to call out
God will cross his path with the gospel by directing one of his Philip's by saying, “Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from
Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” (Acts 8:26) The reason it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe is to the glory of Christ
Jesus, the Word, the Power and Wisdom of God as well as to stain the pride of
the wise and prudent, “because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than
men.” (1Co 1:25) Men who can willfully disregard the hearing
of God’s own Son’s holy honor proclaimed in truth through the foolishness of
preaching are also prone to disregard searching the scriptures themselves to
see the truth of God’s righteousness in his Son. When sinners have a heart problem with one
thing that pleases God they generally have a problem with everything that pleases
God.