Series: Psalms
Title: For the Poor and
Needy
Text: Psalm 9: 18
Date: June 21, 2012
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Though it may appear that
wickedness is prevailing in this world do not judge by outward appearance, but
judge righteous judgment. Hear the word of
God and you will know who is really prevailing in this world right now.
Psalm 9: 16: The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth:
the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. 17: The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
·
Infant Moses—God overruled the work of wicked hands—put Moses in
Pharaoh’s house
·
Mordecai—God overruled the wicked hands of Haaman who built
gallows to hang Mordecai—on which Haaman himself was hanged.
·
Christ on the cross—Ps 2: 1-4; Acts 4: 28: For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done.
Like no other time in
history before or since, when it appeared that wickedness had prevailed, by the
judgment of God, the wicked were taken in the net they laid, in the works of
their own hands, but it meant salvation for his children:
Hebrews
2: 14:…through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil;15: And deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage.
John
12: 31: Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world
be cast out. 32: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. 33: This he said, signifying what death he should die.
Re
1:18 I am he that liveth, and was
dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and
of death.
Hebrews 9: 15: And for this
cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Proposition: Christ the King and Head is working judgment
in righteousness and uprightness in this earth right now AGAINST the wicked but
all the while, right now in this earth, the Lord is performing his righteous
judgment FOR his people. Here is why: Psalm 9: 18: For the needy shall not alway
be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.
Divisions: 1) Who are the poor and needy?; 2) The
needy shall not always be forgotten; 3) the expectation of the poor shall not
perish forever
I.
WHO ARE THE POOR AND NEEDY? God’s elect—believers—are the needy
Believers are needy.
We need Christ our
Righteousness and Sanctification because apart from him we have no
righteousness and can produce no holiness of heart—there is none righteous, no not
one. We need Christ our Strength
because we have none and can produce none—“without me ye can do nothing.” (Joh
15:5) Because we have Christ our Prophet, Priest and King to feed us, teach us
and keep us we can go forth bearing witness of him.
Matthew 28: 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world. Amen.
We need for Christ to
remember us continually. And he shall: “for
the needy shall not always be forgotten.”
Believers
are poor
We have the Pearl of great
Price, and we are rich in Christ. We possess unsearchable riches in God’s
unspeakable Gift, joint-heirs with Christ. But while in this world we are not as the
self-made, self-righteous men who are “rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Believers are poor and needy, we expect
Christ to save us and he shall, for “the
expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Only those who are needy and poor
receive all from Christ
“Blessed are the poor
in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3)
“Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
(Mt 5:6)
Luke 1: 52-54: He hath put
down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in
REMEMBRANCE of his mercy.
Psalm 9: 18: For the needy shall not always be FORGOTTEN: the
expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Application: You who think you are rich and have no
need of Christ have no reason to expect anything from God. But you who have nothing but Christ—you have
All and we should expect all from him.
II.
THE NEEDY SHALL NOT ALWAYS BE FORGOTTEN
Forgotten of Loved Ones
Believers are sometimes
forgotten of those who were once our closest companions who we thought would
never forget us. Why? The tie that once bound us together becomes broken. The
union of self-righteousness becomes severed when Christ becomes all our
Righteousness.
It is rare to find a rich
man who prefers the company of the poor.
But it is impossible to find a man rich in his own self-will, his own
wisdom and conceit, rejecting Christ and going about to establish his own
righteousness who prefers the company of one poor in spirit whose All is Christ
Jesus.
But when we are forgotten of
the self-righteous, what mercy God has shown us! Hear your heavenly Father speak to you in
Psalm 45:
Psalm
45: 10: Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also
thine own people, and thy father’s house; 11: So shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
Forgotten in Reproach We Bear
Believers sometimes feel
forgotten when we bear the reproach from those who despise our Redeemer having
all honor and glory and sinners contributing nothing. But remember, Christ was forgotten of men,
reproached of men and separated outside the gate on that wretched hill but it
was there where Christ bore our sin his own body on the cursed tree
Psalm 22: 1: «To the chief
Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.» My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the
words of my roaring?...6 But I am
a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they
shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would
deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9 But thou art he that took me out of
the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb:
thou art my God from my mother’s belly. 11: Be not far from me; for
trouble is near; for there is none to help….22: I will declare
thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him;
all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but
when he cried unto him, he heard.
There
Christ sanctified us with his own blood—he perfected us forever by his one
offering—he made us as accepted in the Beloved as the Beloved is accepted.
Hebrews 13: 13: Let us go
forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach….
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten.
When
deceitful, violent snakes would attempt to harm our souls, remember that he has
not forgotten to deliver our souls…
Psalm 72: 14: He shall
redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be
in his sight.
Feel Forgotten in the Experience of Grace
Sadly, there are times, when
believers feel forgotten even in the experience of God’s grace. There are times
when our unbelief seems far greater than our faith. We feel we cannot even
crawl must less walk. We say in our
hearts…
Ps 44:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest
our affliction and our oppression?
Ps 77:9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in
anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
But God cannot forget those
he purchased with his own blood:
Isaiah
49: 14 But Zion said, The LORD hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the
palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 17 Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers
and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.
Instead of listening to our
cold feelings, hearken to God’s promise to us
Isaiah
46: 3: Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of
Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the
womb: 4 And even to your
old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you:
I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Isaiah
40: 11: He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those
that are with young.
Application: Our congregation is a flock of young
lambs. He carries the lambs in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with
young. He remembers his child so continually that he has ordered our every
step, overruled our own vanity, and brings us to see how graciously he remembers
us even when we forget him. How often
his constraining love makes us to cry out,
Psalm
73: 22 So foolish was I, and
ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. 23 Nevertheless I am continually with
thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and
afterward receive me to glory.
Psalm
34: 19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD
delivereth him out of them a
John
Newton’s dying words: "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two
things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Saviour." Psalm 9: 18: For the needy shall not
alway be forgotten:
III. THE EXPECTATION OF THE POOR SHALL NOT PERISH FOREVER
Expectations that Need to Perish
We started out with some expectations
that need to perish. The expectation that now that we are born of God we shall
no longer have to deal with sin in our flesh, no more lukewarm, always gracious,
always faithful, no more troubles in this world.
Illustration:
Israel had no conflict in Egypt, they were slaves there. It was when God brought them out that there
conflict and trials began. We had no
conflict with sin till we were born of the Spirit of God.
Application: God has promised that sin shall not have
dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace. It may seem sin reigns at times. But it shall not have dominion—
·
Not over the real you, the inner man which is the creation of
God—“for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of
God.” (1 Jn 3: 9)
·
Not in judgment—“There is therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” (Ro 8:1)
“The expectation of the poor
shall not perish for ever.”
Maybe some here had the
expectation that we could build a church for God. Were those expectations
realized we would be so proud and boastful.
Instead, his grace is growing us toward becoming “less than
nothing.” The more we learn of Christ
and see the wisdom in his way of bringing things about the more we become
smaller and smaller and Christ becomes All and in all.
Our Good Expectation
Believers are given a good
expectation—a good hope—by the Lord. Expectation means hope.
Our hope is the Lord
himself.
Jeremiah
17: 7: Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the
LORD is…13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me
shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the
fountain of living waters.
Our
expectation is the “hope of the glory of God.”—(Rom 5: 2) We expect to see the
“glory of the Lord” and be made perfectly conformed to his image when he brings
us home with him.
·
Called “the hope of righteousness” (Gal 5: 5: For we through the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
·
Called the “hope of his
calling”, “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1: 8)
·
Called “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven” (Col 1: 5)
·
“The hope of the gospel”—Col 1: 23: “If ye continue in the faith
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every
creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Col 1:23)
·
It is our helmet—“the hope of salvation”—1 Thess 5: 8)—put it on.
·
Titus 1: 2:…“hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before the world began;
·
“Hope set before us”—Hebrews 6: 18: That by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is
for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedec.
·
“Living hope” because Christ lives--1 Peter 1: 3: Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, 4 To an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.
Brethren,
we have the hope that Paul had:
Philippians
1: 20: According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing
I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now
also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by
death.
1. We expect the Lord
to keep us even in death. We expect to
be with him in glory. We expect to behold his glory and be like him. We expect
to be joint-heirs with him. We expect him to make us to overcome and sit with
him in his throne, even as he has overcome, and has sat down with his Father
upon his throne.
The Lord is known by the
judgment he executeth—the wicked is snared in the works of his own hands—then
turned into hell…
Proverbs
11: 7: When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the
hope of unjust men perisheth.
But the Lord promises us who
are made righteous and holy by the works of his hands--THE EXPECTATION OF THE POOR SHALL NOT PERISH FOREVER
GO HOME REMEMBERING THIS THREE THINGS: Believer,
the Lord said, “I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again so you can
be with me where I am.”
1. We have an inheritance
reserved in heaven by him. But as we
suffer now at the hands of the wicked—needy and poor—remember the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Corinthians 8: 9: For ye
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2. We have to wait.
Romans 8: 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is
seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then
do we with patience wait for it.
But
for now we go on expecting—
Lamentations 3: 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul;
therefore will I hope in him. 25 The
LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that
seeketh him. 26 It is good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
3. Tomorrow is as unknown as
the other side of death—yet he led us all through this day, he will lead us tomorrow
and even across the river of death. How are we surviving each day? How shall we be carried across in that
day? All the same way.
Illustration: The
High Priest stood in Jordan. They looked to the ark. The Jordan dried up and Israel went across on
dry ground?
Christ our High Priest has
stood in that river—he has put away our sin and made us righteous in him. Look
to Christ: he will lead you across tomorrow and the next day. At his appointed
hour, he will lead us across the river of death. Then shall he say, “Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.”
Psalm 9: 18: For the needy shall not
alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for
ever.
Amen!