Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleChrist's Description of His Saints
Bible TextPsalm 35:19-28
Synopsis Every sanctified child of God have these things in common by the grace and power of God. Listen.
Date03-May-2018
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Christ's Description of His Saints (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Christ's Description of His Saints (128 kbps)
Length 40 min.
 

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 causePsalm 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!