Series:
Psalms
Title:
Christ’s Description of His Saints
Text: Ps
35: 19-28
Date: May
3, 2018
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
This is
Christ’s prayer for himself when he walked this earth. And this his
intercession for his people now that he is in glory with the Father. He
describes his enemies: those irreligious and those religious for contention and
debate.
Psalm 35: 19: Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me:
neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. 20: For they speak not peace: but they
devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. 21: Yea,
they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye
hath seen it. 22: This
thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.
Christ’s
people are those who are “quiet in the land.” We are not striving and
contentious with others. We rest in Christ and preach Christ and him crucified
trusting Christ to call out his people.
But self-righteous legalists watched to find something to accuse Christ
and they do the same to God’s people. Then
“they opened their mouth wide saying, Aha,
aha, our eye hath seen.” But
God’s saints have this comfort, God sees them, “This thou hast seen, O LORD.” Christ
intercedes on behalf of his people.
Psalm
35: 23:
Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God
and my Lord. 24: Judge me, O
LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.
Once,
Christ allowed sinful men to nail him to the cursed tree. But, now, having
fulfilled all righteousness for his people, God will not allow anyone to lay
anything to the charge of one for whom Christ died. It is because Christ has
justified us and Christ ever lives to make intercession for us before the
Father, saying “Judge me, O LORD my God,
according to thy righteousness.” And
because we are one with Christ, whatsoever the enemy does to us they do to him.
So he speaks of us in the first person, “and
let them not rejoice over me.”
Psalm
35: 25:
Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We
have swallowed him up. 26: Let
them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt:
let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves
against me.
So it
shall be. For the sake of his elect among Israel, God “suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes, Saying, Touch not mine
anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (1 Ch 16: 21-22) So it shall be for
God’s saints in our day because Christ intercedes on our behalf.
Next, is our subject: Christ’s Description of his Saints
Proposition: Every sanctified child of God have these things in common
by the grace and power of God.
Divisions: First,
all Christ’s saints joyfully favor Christ’s righteous cause—Psalm 35: 27: Let them
shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause;
Secondly,
all Christ’s saints give all glory and praise to the LORD alone—Psalm 35: 27:…yea, let them say continually,
Let the LORD be magnified;
Thirdly, all
Christ’s saints have pleasure in the
prosperity of Christ Jesus, God’s servant—Psalm
35: 27:…yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified which hath
pleasure in the prosperity of his servant;
Lastly, we
will see why all this is so.
FAVOR CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUS CAUSE
Psalm
35: 27: Let
them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause:
All
Christ’s saints joyfully favor Christ’s righteous cause. Christ’s righteous cause is
the cause of God’s elect. It is to save all his people from our sins by his
righteousness through the preaching of his gospel.
Christ
successfully pled the cause of God’s elect on the cross when he bore the fury
of God’s just wrath as our substitute. Thus he put away our sins and made us the
righteousness of God in him. Therefore, God will not pour out his fury on one
for whom Christ died.
Isaiah 51: 22: Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God
that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand
the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more
drink it again:
Now,
Christ is risen as Head over his church. His righteous cause is to bring each
of his redeemed under the preaching of the gospel, regenerate them to faith in
him, and thus free us from all our oppressors.
We see it typified in the children of Israel and the children of Judah
but this is so of all his elect then and now.
Jeremiah 50: 33:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were
oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they
refused to let them go. 34: Their
Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall
throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the
inhabitants of Babylon.
The word “rest”
is the same word as “quiet” in our Psalm when he describes his people as those
who are “quiet in the land.” While the LORD delivers us out from the hand of
our oppressors, giving us rest or quiet in the land through faith in Christ,
the LORD also disquiets or unrests those who oppress us.
Therefore,
since it pleased God to save through the preaching of the gospel using his
church that he has already saved, Christ causes each of his saints to favor his
righteous cause so that we joyfully send his gospel into all the world.
Now, there
are lots of good causes in the world for which men have fought and died. For
instance, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr died fighting for civil rights. But that cause
cannot make guilty sinners righteous before God nor give sinners new hearts and
make them just in their dealings with others. Only Christ and his gospel is the
righteous cause that can do that!
Many
religious organizations engage in humanitarian causes in the world. They
physically relieve the oppressed, physically give food, clothing and shelter. But
by the false preaching of will-works salvation they bring sinners into greater
spiritual oppression. They bring them into a greater famine of spiritual food
and into greater poverty in that they give no spiritual clothing and no
spiritual shelter.
The world
thinks it foolishness but the very thing we are doing right now—the preaching
of Christ and him crucified—is THE righteous cause of Christ our Lord and
Savior. Through the preaching of the gospel, Christ sends the Holy Spirit, and creates
in his people a new heart and a new spirit making sinners truly holy from
within.
Ezekiel 36: 26:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. 27: And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments, and do them.
The statutes and judgments the LORD causes the believer to walk in are those of the
gospel of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
The Holy
Spirit writes on our hearts the law of
righteousness, making the sinner know Christ is the Righteousness of God
who freely justified us of all our sin. From then on the sinner walks in the law of
righteousness, trusting Christ alone. Now, by his Spirit within us, we hunger
and thirst to do that which is right and just toward our fellow man.
He writes
on our hearts the law of faith. God
makes the sinner know that the righteousness of God is manifest by the faithfulness
of Christ. God gives the sinner faith to
believe on Christ, knowing we were in Christ when Christ fulfilled all
righteousness so that we are righteous in Christ. Therefore, through faith in
Christ, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us. From then on we walk in
the law of faith.
The Holy
Spirit writes on our hearts the law of
Christ or the law of love. God makes the sinner see how Christ bore all our
burden on the cross. Thereby, Christ’s love for us constrains us to bear the
burden of our brethren and other sinners who are out of the way. So from then
on we walk in the law of love.
The Spirit
of God writes on our hearts the law of
liberty. He makes us know that
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us
so that we are not under the law but under grace. From then the believer walks
in the law of liberty. By God’s grace, we no longer love putting forth the
finger and exalting ourselves over others with the oppressive yoke of the law. We now know that it is through the preaching
which declares Christ is the Righteousness of God provided for his people that Christ
delivers his people from spiritual oppression: from the devil’s oppression, from
sins oppression, from the oppression of the curse of the law, and from the oppression
of legalists.
Now, we
know that through Christ’s righteous cause, the preaching of the gospel, Christ
gives quiet/rest in him. He feeds us with the everlasting, living Bread. He
said, “I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
(Jn 6: 35) He clothes us in his everlasting righteousness. Christ shelters
us in Christ our eternal Refuge. And Christ
makes his saints delight to do what he says is right and just toward poor,
sinners like ourselves: first, by preaching to them the gospel of Christ; secondly,
by providing their physical needs.
Without a
doubt, after the last hurricane in the Caribbean, Christ did more for his
people through his church than all other organizations combined did for the
rest of the folks on those islands. Christ
used his church to not only provide for the physical needs of his people, but
also their spiritual needs through the preaching of the gospel. The best those
other organizations did was to provide things temporal. Christ not only provided
for the temporal needs of his people, he provided that which is eternal!
See
brethren, if you want to make lasting change in a sinner, it cannot be done
from the outside by physical provisions alone. And it certainly cannot be done with
the oppressive lie that tells sinners they can save themselves by their will
and works. A new creation is needed. A
new heart must be given with faith to believe on Christ. Only Christ is able to
do that! He only does it through the preaching of Christ our Righteousness. His
gospel by which he calls his people to rest in his Righteousness is Christ’s
righteous cause which all his sanctified people favor.
Having
experienced the power of the gospel, now we cease favoring our old
self-righteous cause of carnal, oppressive weapons. Now we favor Christ’s
righteous cause of preaching the gospel of Christ crucified as we wait on
Christ to work in the hearts of his people. That is what God promised to work
in his people in Isaiah 2.
Isaiah 2: 4: And he shall judge among the nations, and shall
rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
2 Corinthians 10: 3:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4: (For the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5: Casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Now, let’s
see why we are so full of joy in Christ’s righteous cause. It is because not
only has God made us, ourselves, accepted in the Beloved, but also because we
cannot fail in this righteous cause. We cannot fail because Christ intercedes
for us, saying, “Let them shout for joy,
and be glad, that favour my righteous cause.”
Think on
this, brethren. Our joy is that Christ
has given us this great privilege of preaching his gospel, his name, his
righteousness. Using us, right here, (like Christ uses each of his local
assemblies) Christ shall call out a predetermined number of his lost sheep. We shout for joy because each one that Christ
has purposed to use us to call to faith in Christ, he shall bring under the
sound of our preaching and shall quicken through our gospel.
Ephesians 1: 5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will.
So there
is not a remote possibility that one sinner God our Father predestinated to the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ, which he predetermined to call through
our preaching, shall fail to come to this place and hear our gospel. God shall
bring each one and quicken them through our gospel. So we rejoice and are glad, not only because
God has made us accepted in the Beloved, but because we cannot fail in this
righteous cause which Christ has called us unto!
Brethren
that does not make me want to sit on my hands. That makes me want to spread
this gospel far and wide, how about you? It makes me joy and be glad in Christ’s
righteous cause.
CONTINUALLY MAGNIFY THE LORD
Psalm 35: 27:…yea, let them say continually,
Let the LORD be magnified,
The
second description of God’s saints given by Christ in our text is that we all
continually magnify the LORD.
When you
hear a religious person boasting that some part of their salvation is of
themselves it is a sure indication that they have not been called by the LORD
and made to rest in Christ.
If they
say God’s choice of them was based in part on something God foresaw in them
then they are saying, “Let me be
magnified.”
If their wisdom
in understanding the gospel and their faith in Christ is partly of themselves,
apart from the preaching of the gospel, apart from God’s regenerating grace,
apart from God’s gift of faith then they are saying, “Let me be exalted.” But God
says,
Romans 10: 14:
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear
without a preacher? 15: And how
shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good
things!
If their
righteousness or holiness is in part due to their law-keeping, their morality,
their good deeds then they are saying, “I
am my justifier; I am my sanctifier. Let
me be glorified.” God says, “Of God are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us…Righteousness, and Sanctification.”
(1 Cor 1: 30) Good works are produced by God the same way, through the hearing
of Christ’s faithfulness and works, not by hearing works of the law:
Galatians 3: 2:
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith? 3:
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?
The
reason we know that all who are created of God continually magnify his name is
because God promises it to his church. He says to his church,
Isaiah 43: 5:
Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and
gather thee from the west; 6: I
will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons
from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7: Even every one that is called by my
name: FOR I HAVE CREATED HIM FOR MY GLORY, I have formed him; yea, I have made
him. 8: Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have
ears...10: Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and
my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand
that I am he: before me there
was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11: I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12: I have declared, and have saved,
and I have shewed, when there was
no strange god among you:
therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the LORD, that I am God. 13: Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is
none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
So mark
it down, all who God creates shall give all the glory to God continually. All
who Christ saves shall declare God saved them exactly according to his word.
Concerning
God bringing us under the preaching of the gospel, we say, “Let the Sovereign God of heaven and earth be
magnified!”
Concerning
regeneration and making Christ our Wisdom and giving us faith in Christ, we
say, “God did it all; Let God be
magnified!”
Concerning
us being made righteous, we say “Christ
finished it on the cross! Let Christ my Righteousness be magnified!” As the
Psalmist declared, “I will go in the
strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only.” (Ps 71: 16)
Concerning
our new holy heart, we say, “It is Christ in me the hope of glory. Let Christ
my Sanctification be magnified!” (Col 1: 27)
Concerning
perseverance in faith, we say “I am kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time; let Christ my Sovereign Head be magnified.” (1 Pet 1: 5)
From A to
Z all who are created anew by out triune God in Christ, say, “Salvation is of the LORD! Let Christ the
Author and Finisher, the Alpha and Omega be glorified!” Speaking of the day
that God reveals Christ in our hearts, he said,
Isaiah 12: 4: And in that day shall ye say, Praise the
LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention
that his name is exalted.
Isaiah 45: 25: In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel
be justified, and shall glory.
Psalm 71:16: Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Galatians 6: 12:
As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be
circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13: For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may
glory in your flesh. 14: But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16:
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God.
Romans 11: 36: For of him, and through him, and to him, are
all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
So first,
God’s people are joyful because they all favor Christ’s righteous cause;
secondly, all God’s people continually give the triune God in Christ all the
glory for all of their salvation.
PLEASURE IN THE PROSPERITY OF HIS SERVANT
Psalm 35: 27:…yea, let them say continually,
Let the LORD be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
All God’s
saints find all our pleasure in the prosperity (the success) of God’s servant,
Christ Jesus, even as God our Father does.
There are three ways of looking at this statement and all are true.
One, the
LORD has pleasure in the prosperity of Christ his Servant.
Isaiah 53: 10: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; 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
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11: He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he
shall bear their iniquities. 12:
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto
death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Two, in
Christ and by Christ, the LORD has pleasure in the prosperity of all his elect servants.
Isaiah 62: 4: Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;
neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called
Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land
shall be married.
Psalm 149:4: For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people:
he will beautify the meek with salvation.
Jeremiah 32: 41: Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them
good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with
my whole soul.
Zephaniah 3: 14: Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O
Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem…17: The
LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will
rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee
with singing.
Three, by
God’s grace, all God’s saints find all our pleasure in the prosperity of
Christ, God’s servant. The whole
religious world declares that their jesus was not prosperous, not successful,
because he cannot save them unless they make his blood effectual.
Deuteronomy 32: 31: For their rock is not as our
Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
But all
God’s saints have pleasure in the prosperity of God’s righteous servant, Christ
Jesus our Lord and Savior. We declare him the triumphant, successful, victorious
Redeemer of his people. God said,
Isaiah 42: 4: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he
have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Christ
did not partly work salvation and leave the rest up to us. He said,
John 14: 4: I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do.
Therefore,
we obey God in declaring him the all-victorious Savior of his people,
Isaiah 40: 1:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of
the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
All God’s
saints take great pleasure in our Redeemer, because God’s servant is the
successful, victorious Savior and we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us.
THE REASON FOR THIS DESCRIPTION
Lastly,
this description is true of all Christ’s saints, not only by Christ’s works for
us and in us, but because right now in the face of all our enemies, Christ ever
lives to make intercession for us before the Father, saying, “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that
favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified,
which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”
So God
our Father continually works these things in each of his saints. And as he
does, in our hearts, Christ further magnifies God for doing these things in his
people. Christ said to the Father that when he did these things for his people,
which Christ asked, “And my tongue shall
speak of thy righteousness and
of thy praise all the day long.” Where does Christ speak these things? Into
our hearts as the gospel is being preached.
So the
effectual result is threefold: one, “we
shout for joy, and are glad, as we favour Christ’s righteous cause.”; two, “we say continually, Let the LORD be magnified—our
tongue speaks of his righteousness and
of his praise all the day long.”; and three, “we have great pleasure in the prosperity of Christ, his servant.”
This is “Christ’s
Description of his Saints!”
Now, let
me ask myself, “Is this true of me? Do I shout for joy and gladness because I
favor Christ’s righteous cause? Do I say
continually, Let the LORD be magnified?
Do I find all my pleasure in the prosperity of Christ, God’s servant?”
May God
be pleased to make this the description of each one who hears this gospel of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Amen!