Sermon No. 2349: All Comers To Christ Welcomed
Exposition: Psalm 89:1-37; John 6:22-40.
Psalm 89. Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. That is to say, an instructive Psalm, written by or for one Ethan, one of the great singers of David's day. He sings of the Covenant, the Covenant with David, ordered in all things and sure. There is no higher theme for song than the Covenant of God's Grace. One marvels that it has not more often been sung by those who are the gifted children of poesy.
Verse 1. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever. Another subject might wear out, but this glorious topic will never be exhausted! Here is a theme which we can sing of in eternity as well as in time. Let others choose what subject they may, "I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah forever."
1. With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. God's faithfulness is the mercy of His mercy! It is the center point of His goodness that His goodness endures forever. We are not only to sing, we are to teach. The Psalmist says, "With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations." In telling his own experience, narrating what he had observed, as well as what he had proved of God's faithfulness to His promise and His Covenant, he would do this so that following generations should know about it. We are the schoolmasters of the ages to come—I mean, saints who have experienced the mercy and the faithfulness of God. We ought to make known Jehovah's faithfulness to all generations that are yet to come.
2. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever. What a building—Mercy! God's mercy is to be built up forever.
2. Your faithfulness shall You establish in the very heavens. Like the great arch you see in the firmament on high, un-buttressed and unpillared, yet it stands fast. So shall God's faithfulness be built up, settled and established in the very heavens. And now God speaks—
3. I have made a Covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant. Well might the Psalmist say, in the second verse, "I have said," when God in the third verse says, "I have sworn." It is ours to say, but it is God's to say with such tremendous solemnity that doubt cannot be tolerated! "I have made a Covenant with My chosen," King David, who is, however, but the type of his greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the heir of the dynasty of David. With Him is this Covenant made forever.
4. Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations. Selah. Whatever may happen in the world, David's Seed is always reigning. Whatever kings may lose their crowns, King Jesus will never lose the many crowns that are on His head! God has sworn it—"Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations." Then comes the word, "Selah." Rest. Meditate. And truly, here is enough to rest and meditate upon for many a day, if we went no farther into the Psalm!
5. And the heavens shall praise Your wonder, O LORD: Your faithfulness, also, in the congregation of the saints. The Psalmist meant to praise God at such a rate that the sun, moon and stars should hear his song, while angels and the host re-deemed by blood should learn to praise God better than ever. "Your faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints"— one saint begins to sing of God's faithfulness and the others take it up—for God is not faithful to one, only, but to all His people. This is a subject which, when once started, will produce an echo in every Believer's heart.
6. 7. For who in the Heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among the lions of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints. The holiest are always the most reverent. There is no fear of God in the assembly of the sinners, but, "He is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints."
7. And to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. The nearer they came to Him, the more is their awe of Him! The greater their love, the deeper is their humility. God will not have those about Him who are flippant and irreverent! He is "to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him."
8. O LORD God of Hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto You? Or to Your faithfulness round about You? Note how the Psalmist harps upon that one string—"faithfulness." Ah, dear Friends, there are times when this is the sweetest note in the whole scale! "Your faithfulness"—we have a God who never forgets His promises, but keeps them to the moment—a God who never changes! We have a God who never turns away from His Word. "Your faithfulness." Oh, what a blessed virtue is this in God! Let us praise Him for it forever. "Your faithfulness round about You"—as if the Lord never went outside the ring of faithfulness, never did anything that broke His promises, or that made any of His children to doubt. And it is even so!
9. You rule the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof rise, You still them. Are you now in a storm, my Brother? My Sister, are you now tempest-tossed? Listen to this Word of God and remember the Lord High Admiral of the fleet on the Lake of Galilee and how, after He had been asleep for awhile, He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves! "You rule the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof rise, You still them."
10. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your strong arm. Rahab was Egypt. The word means, "strong," "mighty," "proud"—all of which were the characteristics of Egypt—which God broke in pieces at the Red Sea. Pharaoh was the greatest of monarchs at the time, but, oh, how soon he had to yield when God's right arm was bared for war!
11. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours: as for the world and the fullness thereof, You have founded them. Sometimes we are tempted to think that the earth cannot be God's—all over the globe man is the master. He claims everything. If men could map out the heavens, we would have owners for every single twinkling star and, if they could have their way, we would have to buy our light by measure, and our sunshine by weight. But, "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." And the heavens are also His.
12. The north and the south You have created them: Tabor and Hermon. East and West, as well as North and South— 12. Shall rejoice in Your name. There is not a place where God is not to be found! All the points of the compass are compassed by God. You cannot go where the Lord's love reigns not, nor where Providence will not follow you.
13-15. You have a mighty arm: strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of Your Throne: mercy and truth shall go before Your face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. There are some who hear it and yet are not blessed. Blessed are they who "know" it, know its peculiar accent, know its inward power, know its Omnipotence, know its unchangeableness, know it by having tried it and proved it and rested in it! "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."
15. They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Your Countenance. It is all the light they need. Let God but smile, it makes their day! If every candle were blown out, yet the favor of God would make life bright enough for them.
16. In Your name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Your righteousness shall they be exalted. Even in God's righteousness! Until we know the Lord, we are afraid of His righteousness, but when we come to know Him, His righteousness, which once frowned upon us, becomes our Heaven! "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love." God is not unrighteous to cast away a soul that puts its trust in Christ. God is one with His people. When we rejoice all the day in His name, we are exalted in His righteousness.
17-19. For You are the glory of their strength: and in Your favor our horn shall be exalted. For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our King. Then You spoke in Vision to Your holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. This is David first, but it is Christ high above David. One of ourselves, the carpenter's Son, yet has God made Him to be the Head over all things for His Church—"I have exalted one chosen out of the people."
20, 21. I have found David, My servant, with My holy oil have I anointed him: with whom My hand shall be established: My arm, also, shall strengthen him. The full power of God is with Christ. That same arm that bears up the earth's huge pillars and spreads the heavens abroad, is engaged on behalf of the cause and Kingdom of the Son of David.
22. The enemy shall not exact upon Him; nor the son of wickedness afflict Him. He had enough of that when He was upon the earth, but it is all over now. He has gone into His Glory and the enemy cannot touch Him.
23. And I will beat down His foes before His face and plague them that hate Him. This is the portion of all haters of Christ. God will, somehow or other, in the order of His Providence, bring the evil home to them. If they will not have God's Son, they shall not have His mercy—they shall, sooner or later, be beaten down before His face.
24. 25. But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with Him: and in My name shall His horn be exalted. I will set His hand also in the sea, and His right hand in the rivers. He shall reign "from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." We may go on to fight for Him, for His triumph is sure!
26. 27. He shall cry unto Me, You are My Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make Him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. So He is! First-born among men, first-born of kings, His Throne is loftier than the most imperial power on the earth. Blessed be His name! Let us adore Him tonight and here, in the midst of His people, let us crown Him Lord of All!
28-36. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and My Covenant shall standfast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of Heaven. If his children forsake My Law, and walk not in My judgments; if they break My statutes, and keep not My Commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My loving kindness will I not utterly take from them, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. The Son of David is still King in the midst of the true Israel. Still Jesus reigns and on and on, forever and forever, great David's greater Son shall be King of Kings, and Lord of Lords!
37. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in Heaven. Selah. Now let us read a passage from the New Testament showing how the Lord Jesus dealt with the crowds that came to Him.
John 6:22-26. The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, save that one whereunto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone away alone; (howbeit there came other boats from Tiberius near unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks) when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there neither His disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when did You comer here? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek Me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Mixed motives bring multitudes together. How true our Master was! How outspoken! He never tried to win a disciple by holding back the truth—and often He spoke very plainly, indeed, as on this occasion—"You seek Me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled."
27. Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for Him has God the Father sealed. He seemed to say to them, "Do not come to Me for bread and fish. I have given you that. Come for something better. Come to Me for spiritual food—food for your souls—food for eternity!" It is with that objective that we should go to the House of God—not to listen to this preacher or that—but to hear the Word of God, that we may live thereby.
28. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? "What are the best works that we can do? What are the most acceptable?" I wonder what they expected Christ to say? I am sure they did not look for the answer that they received.
29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. The greatest, the best, the most acceptable work in all the world is that you come and trust Christ! This saves you—nothing else will do so. "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent."
30, 31. They said therefore unto Him, What sign do You show, then, that we may see and believe You? What do You work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat. See how they came round to the old subject, again—bread to eat? The Lord Jesus Christ may point them to something higher and better, but their carnal minds always return to that congenial topic—something to eat. Their stomach was lord of their heart!
32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven. "That which will really feed you and feed you for all eternity." Moses could not give the people that bread—only the Father can give "the true Bread from Heaven."
33. For the Bread of God is He which comes down from Heaven and gives life unto the world. "The Bread of God is He." What a strange expression, yet what a true one! The Bread of Heaven is Christ, Himself! You must come and take Him to yourself and trust Him for your salvation—and in that way feed upon Him, or you can never have the heavenly Bread which both gives life and sustains life.
34-39. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of life. He that comes to Me shall never hunger; and He that believes on Me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That you also have seen Me and believe not. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. See how the salvation of Christ reaches right to the end of all things? You and I may die, but though we lie a while in the grave, the salvation of Christ will preserve us, to raise us up, again, at the Last Day! There shall not be a bone nor a piece of a bone, of a true Believer, left in the enemies' land. All Israel and all that belongs to Israel shall come out of this Egypt, through the blood of the Lamb—not a hoof shall be left behind.
40. And this is the will of Him that sent Me that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the Last Day. May all of us see the Son and believe on Him, that we may have everlasting life, and that He may raise us up at the Last Day, for His dear name's sake! Amen.