Psalms

[0:00] I'll sing hymn number 339, June 5-8.

[0:14] O my distrustful heart, Has all thy faith appeared, The greater Lord thou art of all my heads appeared.

[0:26] If Jesus once upon me shines, Then Jesus is forever mine. 339, June 5-8.

[0:56] O may and 내 nature have been through me, No more will, .

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[4:21] I would draw attention this evening, as the Lord may help, to a word found in the 40th Psalm.

[4:51] 40th Psalm and the 9th verse. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[5:06] Lo, I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest. A wonderful mercy to be preaching the gospel of God.

[5:26] To be able to say with truth. And indeed, if we can say that with truth, then it calls forth for great humility.

[5:46] To be able to say in any measure, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[5:59] It's also a wondrous and unspeakable thing indeed, an unspeakable mercy to have the gospel preached unto.

[6:17] To be under the sound of it. And it is far, far greater in wonder and blessedness to have that gospel preached with effect and consequence in our souls.

[6:42] For it is by the gospel that the Lord brings his people to a knowledge that is essential to salvation.

[6:55] It's by his gospel that he prepares souls for everlasting glory. And it's through the blessed gospel that Jesus Christ shows his beauty and his glory.

[7:15] And lays hold with the hand of almighty love the sinner's heart. And lifts them up and draws them to himself.

[7:35] And therefore, what our text here this evening speaks of is of unspeakable wonder. Blessedness and glory.

[7:48] And our first thing that we would examine this evening is this. Who is the preacher? The one who says here, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[8:06] And then secondly, we would examine a little, as the Lord may help, what is the preaching? What is the preaching? This preaching of righteousness, which is declared here by the speaker to have been preached in the great congregation.

[8:31] And then thirdly, who? And who constitutes the great congregation? These are three very important things indeed.

[8:47] Now, the writer of this psalm is, of course, David. But it is only in a limited sense that it could be said of him.

[9:01] And he would have laid claim himself to this declaration. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[9:14] He was a prophet of God. The sweet psalmist of Israel was raised up by the Lord, anointed by God, and was enabled as inspired to write and set forth glorious things concerning the Lord himself, the way of salvation, the truth of God, the realities of redeeming love and mercy, and also every believer, in a sense, every real believer, preaches righteousness, shows by the effects of the grace of God in their lives and in their conversation, whose they are and whom they serve, and in so far, they are preachers in the great congregation.

[10:22] We ought to remember this. No individual believer is completely without the testimony, though it be silent in many instances, but a very important testimony concerning the truth of God.

[10:49] Ye are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. And how are believers' witnesses that God is what he is and who he is more than by demonstrating the power of his grace in their lives and in their souls.

[11:21] David did speak of the Lord. Christ himself declared that he spake of him.

[11:34] And you remember how when he was speaking to the Pharisees, he refers to David and tells them how David called him Lord.

[11:49] Yes, it was a wonderful prophet, was David the king of Israel, a wonderful psalmist that was anointed and appointed to write these precious psalms that we have here before us.

[12:09] But there's a greater preacher. And our text is exclusively in reference to him. The whole of this wonderful psalm is a psalm in reference to the person of Christ.

[12:27] Christ, right from beginning to end, it is Christ in all the glories of his offices and all the wonders of his grace and all the purposes of his love are set forth in this wonderful psalm.

[12:48] His sufferings, his humiliation, his condescension is all traced out in this 40th psalm.

[13:02] And I want you to want to lead a little into the beauty of this fact here this evening. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[13:18] You know, essentially, my friends, there is only one person that could give utterance to these words, and that is the blessed Lord himself.

[13:32] All we poor preachers, when we have done preaching, however long we may be at preaching, we cannot say, other than this, we are unprofitable servants.

[13:47] we have come short in everything, we have failed in so much, we have so often sullied the beauty of the gospel, and there is always a dread and a fear, in my heart at least, that we might darken counsel by our words.

[14:12] And from such a claim as this, one has to shrink, and fall back with self- renunciation, when such pure, glorious words are uttered, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.

[14:34] There is only one person that could use these words, and that is Christ. Now let us look how perfectly and beautifully this psalm sets forth him.

[14:51] Look at those words first in the sixth psalm, sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering, hast thou not required.

[15:10] Now, this is a very striking word indeed, because we know how God commanded Aaron and his sons to offer continually the sacrifices, the burnt offerings, under the Levitical law.

[15:31] And yet here the psalmist says that these sacrifices were not desired, and again they were not required.

[15:43] Therefore, there is something else here that is superior, far superior, to those constant round of sacrifices that were under the Levitical law.

[16:00] As one says, all the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the heifer could not take away sin, but Christ the heavenly Lamb alone by his one offering has taken away the sins of his people forever.

[16:22] Now, just look at this word a moment again. Mine ears hast thou opened. And if you have a marginal Bible, you'll find this, that that word opened is spoken of in the margin as digged, digged.

[16:44] I think our dear wise translators put the wrong term in this word, when they put this word, mine ears hast thou opened.

[16:59] But if they had used or gone to the full extent of the Hebrew word, they would have brought before us the sweet and sacred significance of this truth.

[17:16] Now, this is what I believe it means. Mine ears hast thou pierced. What a different reflection, that, what a wonderful new aspect that places upon this truth.

[17:32] here is the servant, God's own precious servant, willing to be the servant of Jehovah, and for the love of his people, his church, he is willing to take that lowly place.

[17:51] As we were reading under the law just now in the book of Deuteronomy, when a servant had served six years in his master's house, and if he loved his master, and loved his master's house, and loved his master's service, and was unwilling to be sent forth and released when the year of release had come, then his master would take him and pierce his ear through to the door post of the house, and he would become his servant forever.

[18:40] He would no more go out. He would willingly bind himself in the service of his master forevermore.

[18:51] Now, this is where the dear Lord Jesus Christ, in sweet prophetic language of the psalm, shows how willing he was to be bound to the cause of his people, to bind himself for their salvation and their redemption.

[19:17] God says, behold my servant, whom I have chosen, mine elect, in whom my soul delights.

[19:32] He is the one who ears have been pierced, pierced, so that he might be the Lord's servant forever, and be bound and united in that service forevermore.

[19:54] And my dear friends, this is a sweet word really, when you come to realize that if you're one of these people, this great congregation, whose character we shall look into for a moment, in a moment or two, if you're one of these, then what this blessed word means is this, the Lord has bound himself to your soul's everlasting salvation.

[20:25] So, sacrifice and offering, thou didst not desire, no, and all those Levitical ceremonies and services, what were they compared with this one glorious offering, this one great sacrifice of the blessed Redeemer, that transcended everything.

[20:49] It absorbed all the others. All those sacrifices only had their achievement and fulfillment in his glorious sacrifice that was once offered for the sins of many, and once offered, never to be repeated again.

[21:15] My ears hast thou pierced. Then, again, notice this, he says, then, he says, lo, I come, the servant, you see, the one who has pierced to the doorpost of his church, so to speak, is the servant forever.

[21:38] he now says, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, oh, my God.

[21:50] Oh, my dear friends, if you've got any desire to do the will of God from your heart, it's all of God's grace. You never had this desire before. You were never willing to follow him, never willing to obey his voice.

[22:08] All your will was to go and get and obtain the vanities of this present mortal world, and to go in the opposite direction to that way of truth and righteousness.

[22:27] And if, by God's grace, you find your poor heart made willing in the day of God's power to follow him, to seek him, to worship him, then that willingness is all of God's grace.

[22:47] And while it is a wonderful thing, if we can say this, I delight to do thy will, oh, my God. There's so much sin and weakness mixed with it all that makes it so, so, so imperfect.

[23:06] But here is one who can say this, I delight to do thy will, oh, my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.

[23:18] And notice the word low. That is a word which appeals to God's infinite knowledge and wisdom searching to know whether this is the truth or not.

[23:34] Lo, thou knowest. Yea, thy law is within my heart. My dear friends, none could say this but that blessed one who went to the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believeth.

[23:57] and all what it meant, we can never calculate, never fully grasp or understand what it meant for this blessed person to go to the end of the law.

[24:11] In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy law, oh, my God. Now, he says, I have preached righteousness.

[24:27] Who could preach righteousness but the blessed Jesus? He knows what righteousness is. He is righteousness. He is the source of all real preaching.

[24:45] the gospel which poor men have been ordained and appointed to preach has its source in God, in the Trinity.

[25:01] It's not their concoction. The gospel of God's grace is a blessed river that flows from the eternal source, God, in three glorious persons.

[25:21] And it has that authority. Anything that is less than this is totally unworthy to be called the gospel.

[25:37] And anything that is less than this is detrimental to the good of mortal souls. There can be no salvation there.

[25:50] There can be no glory for God there. I have preached righteousness. And oh, what a vast ocean of unfathomable depths there is in this preaching of righteousness.

[26:16] All that is that the eternal God, all the fullness of the eternal God is contained in this glorious preaching of righteousness.

[26:36] Love and mercy, righteousness and truth, power and blessings beyond all our comprehension are stored up and compassed in the preaching of righteousness by this glorious person.

[27:02] Then I come to the point here tonight. We've noticed the preacher then. Let us look a little at the effect of his preaching.

[27:17] And just as we come to this point, I would again point out how wonderfully applicable the psalm is to the Lord, to the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[27:33] I mentioned just now how the psalm fits so perfectly in with that figure of the servant being bound to his master forever by being his ear being pierced to the door.

[27:49] And you remember how that chapter speaks of the poor and the needy and what the attitude of the Israelite should be toward them.

[28:01] And look to the last verse in this psalm. I, but I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer.

[28:15] Make no tarrying, O my God. I believe we come very close in those words to the blessed Redeemer when he was at Calvary.

[28:27] When he had to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When he was indeed poor and needy, when his own followers forsook him, and when his father for a brief moment in incomprehensible mystery forsook his own dear well-beloved son, he was then poor and needy as never anyone ever was or ever will be.

[29:06] And he cries in the words of the Psalms, as it were, the very words that come from Calvary, make no tarrying, O my God.

[29:22] Now, my friends, one great thing with you and me is this, whether or no, we have received his preaching.

[29:34] His preaching will be received by the whole of this great congregation, every member of it, will receive his preaching.

[29:47] And his preaching is by the Holy Spirit. the last word almost the dear Lord spake to his disciples when he was here.

[30:00] He says, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I go, I will send him unto you, and he shall teach you all things.

[30:19] He shall take of the things that are mine and reveal them unto you. He shall preach unto you the righteousness, my righteousness, the righteousness of my life, my death, my resurrection.

[30:36] he shall preach these glorious things unto you. The Spirit is good bearish, I think it is, says, the comforter must teach, the Saviour's toil and smart, and with conviction preach atonement to the heart.

[30:57] Then the poor believer cries out with wonder, with love, and with worship. yes, all believers are the subjects of this preaching and of this preacher, and he preaches righteousness to the great congregation.

[31:22] I wonder how much we know really of gospel preaching. We've heard it, but do we know it? Has it affected us?

[31:34] Has it brought us to points in respect to God? Has it impressed and convinced our souls of the truth of God?

[31:46] have the benefits of the gospel ever been received by our souls? And oh, how unlimited are those benefits.

[32:03] How great, how rich, how unspeakably wondrous they are God, when sinners hear his voice, when love proclaims the mercies of God and the salvation of God, all of which is righteousness.

[32:28] It means this when God says, when the Lord says, I have preached righteousness, it means this, I have preached everything that will be receivable and acceptable to my people.

[32:45] He will not give something that they do not or have no right to receive, something that God has designed for them and which in the very character of the gift is suitable and acceptable in their souls because there's redemption in it all.

[33:11] Redeeming love is in the whole of it. And it means this, this righteousness that is preached by the Lord is the outcome of divine satisfaction.

[33:27] It means to say this, when a judge, for instance, if I could use an illustration, when a judge has before him an accused person, that person may be charged with certain offence or something that requires the law to investigate, and if before the judge there comes evidence from some quarter, that perfectly satisfies the judge's mind and the requirements of the law, that that accused person is cleared, then the judge can give that sentence, that acquittal.

[34:22] He can proclaim the words that will set that person free, and no one can again charge that person with the offence.

[34:33] You see, justice has been satisfied and the offender has been cleared. Now, that is what this means when the Lord says, I have preached righteousness, it is because justice of God has been satisfied and the offending sinner has been cleared of all the charges and all the condemnations of his guilt or her guilt, and now nothing but righteousness can be the proclamation of God toward that sinner.

[35:12] Oh, what a wonderful gospel. And what good ground it is which we stand upon, my friends, when we feel we can say this, we love the gospel.

[35:26] We love it because it bears our spirits up. We love it because it's life to our souls. It's the very warp and woof of our being.

[35:39] It's the voice of mercy in our ears and it's the heart of God sounding, as it were, in our souls.

[35:51] I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. What is the great congregation? Congregation is the Old Testament word for the church.

[36:06] And though it is in the Old Testament, this word, this psalm, the church was in the Old Testament. there are people, you know, we've come across them at times, most peculiar sort of people.

[36:23] They say there was no church in the Old Testament. The church only began the day of Pentecost. It had its full fulfillment, manifestation, at the day of Pentecost, but it was always there.

[36:41] there was a little church in the Garden of Eden after man had sinned. And God the Maker came and clothed Adam and Eve with garments that were sacrifices.

[36:59] They were obtained by the sacrifice of beasts. That was the first church. and Stephen, you know, before his martyrdom, he says this, the church in the wilderness, the angel that appeared unto the church in the wilderness.

[37:20] Oh yes, my friends, there's always been a congregation. And though it may not be numerically great, it's great in the esteem of God.

[37:34] It's great in favor, great in mercy, great in the sight of God. They shall be mine, says the Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth them.

[37:54] That's how great they are, great congregation. Take them in a generation, they're only a remnant. Look at this little congregation.

[38:05] Why, if this village here of Huffington knew the wonders of the gospel, this place would be full. Though it's a poor minister indeed, and it is by the foolishness of preaching, the Lord saves them who believe.

[38:26] But oh, my dear friend, it's a remnant. not a great, not among the great are the people of God.

[38:38] They are few, and yet they are a great host that no man can number. And they are a great congregation.

[38:52] God saw them from the everlasting before ever the world was made. He loved them. He never has ceased to love them.

[39:05] They've never been less in number than they were in eternity, nor have they been more than they have been, than they were then when God foreknew, foresaw them all.

[39:21] the great point is this, for us, you and me, are we one of them? If we are, we shall love this gospel.

[39:35] And we shall be thankful if the Lord says to us, I have not hid, poor sinner, I have not hid my righteousness from thee, I have not concealed.

[39:52] Is there anyone here tonight who dares, dare to say, to stand up and say this, the Lord has concealed from me everything that is good?

[40:07] Dare you say it? And could you say this, he has hidden from me everything, even my need, even my danger, even my desolation, and the cause of all my misery, my sin.

[40:37] Has the Lord hidden these things from you? ask yourself this question pointedly and purposefully.

[40:49] And then you'll see this, some beauty, some glory in this word, when he says, I have not hid, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, though I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest, I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have not concealed thy loving kindness, or thy truth, from the great congregation.

[41:24] oh, how here and there a little by little the Lord reveals his love, does not hide, it's a wonderful thing if the Lord has not hidden everything from us, you know, you go out tonight into this world, you'll meet with people who can never see a thing, never see anything in the gospel, never feel any danger in themselves, never really know what it is to feel their need of being saved by grace, and they'll laugh at you if you feel, if you express any feelings of anxiety or concern about your soul.

[42:18] you see they're hidden, hidden, these things are hidden from the wise and the prudent, but they are revealed unto names, and here's the blessed one who reveals them, the glorious Lord, the blessed one who says I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, this great congregation, are all saved by wondrous grace, they're all redeemed by the precious Redeemer's shedding of his blood, they're all brought through the Red Sea of that sacrifice, and they're all brought into the heavenly canyon, and there they will rejoice and glory in their wonderful

[43:22] God and their wonderful preacher, who did not hide from them on earth his righteousness and his loving kindness.

[43:32] I hope you may feel something is in this text for you tonight. May God grant it. Amen. Amen.

[43:43] the Lord will be a wood will preacher on Tuesday and next week.

[44:04] Let us close with hymn number 527 to 161 What a divine harmonious and a gospel trumpet is.

[44:25] No music can it compare a soul that knows it lives. 527 to 161 to duch can it be older who can give and by their their O un Lucy in here

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[49:00] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS God bless him, God.

[49:40] Praise God, Jesus. Glory to 1, Mary.

[49:56] Amen. CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS

[51:01] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS Thank you.