Alright brethren, Psalm 21. Now in Psalm 20, we saw that the
church prayed for Christ our King. And then in Psalm 22, we
saw the cry of Christ our King when He hung up on the cross.
And now here in Psalm 21, we have the joy of our King. The joy of our King. Let's begin
in verse 1. The King shall joy in thy strength,
O Lord, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice. Christ our Savior is the King.
He's the King. He says here, the King. And Christ
is the King. Christ Jesus is King of Kings. and Lord of lords. That means
he's the king over every king and every lord in this earth.
He's more powerful than they and he rules them. That's who
he is. David wrote Psalm 21. We read
there that this is a Psalm of David. He wrote it. David wrote
it. And historically, It applies
to David. The things that he's talking
about here apply to David. But David was a type of Christ. Throughout the Scriptures, David
is a type of Christ. So when we read about David's
kingdom in the Scriptures, it pictures Christ's kingdom. When
we read about David's victories in the Scriptures, it typifies
Christ's victories. When we read about David's glory,
that's typifying Christ's glory. So this King in Psalm 21 is Christ
our King. That's who we're talking about.
God said, I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. And that's Christ. Turn over
to Acts 2. I'm going to show you. Before you turn there, let
me show you something. Look here in Psalm 21. Look down
at verse 6. He says, Thou hast made him exceeding
glad with thy countenance. Do you see that? Alright, look
over at Acts 2. Now, I just want you to see in
the whole of Acts 2, And what Peter says here, on the day of
Pentecost, he's quoting David. He's quoting several Psalms of
David. Now listen to this. Psalm...
I mean Acts 2, verse 25. Acts 2, 25. Peter stood up on
the day of Pentecost. There's all these different people
there from all these different backgrounds and they all speak
in different languages. And God gave His disciples the
ability to speak to those men and preach the gospel to them
in their own language. That's what speaking in tongues
is. They weren't standing up and doing this hocus-pocus that
folks do where they just speak a bunch of nonsense. They were
able to speak in the language that those men could hear them
in. And they preached the gospel to them. Here's what Peter said.
Acts 2.25, David speaketh concerning him concerning Christ. Now here's
a psalm of David. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face for he's on my right hand that I should not be moved.
When David wrote that, David himself was writing it of Christ.
But as it showed Christ, it was speaking of Christ looking to
God his Father. Look here, therefore did my heart
rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Our psalms are a song of rejoicing.
It says, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. He says,
because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine holy one to see corruption. That's a psalm of
David. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt
make me full of joy with thy countenance. Did you see that
last part? That's our psalm. Thou shalt
make me full of joy without countenance. This is Christ speaking to God
the Father. Now watch. Peter is going to
give us that information now. Verse 29. Men and brethren, let
me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both
dead and buried. and his sepulchers with us unto
this day, therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on the throne."
That's what God told David. Christ is coming through your
loins, David. And so, he, verse 31, David seeing this before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ. That his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption. This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. You know,
when you have witnesses about something, you should believe
them. God said, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let
every word be established. Here's Peter, and Paul, and John,
and all these apostles that saw Christ after He arose from the
dead. And Peter's standing here telling
us, we're witnesses of these things. Believe on him. He said we're witnesses of these
things. Look, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
Christ is exalted. And having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, Christ has shed forth this which
you now see and hear. Us speaking in tongues and preaching
this gospel, Christ has done this, he said. For David is not
ascended into the heavens. He's saying David wasn't talking
about himself in those Psalms. But he saith himself, Thee, Lord,
said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thy
foes thy footstool." That's another Psalm of David, and he's saying
David was speaking of his Lord when he spoke of this. He's speaking
of Christ. Therefore, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
with full assurance, that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you've crucified, both Lord and Christ." Now that's who we're
talking about tonight. He's the King. Christ is the
King. And that's who's speaking here
in our psalm. Now back in Psalm 21, in verse
1, Christ our King joys in whom? Who does He joy in? He says,
Thy strength, O Lord. Christ says, Our joy in thy strength,
O Jehovah. O Jehovah. And in thy salvation,
how greatly shall he rejoice. He's talking about God's strength
and God's salvation. Now make no mistake about this,
the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is the Son of God. He's God. He's all-powerful. He worked
miracles that only God could work when He walked this earth.
He stopped the wind from blowing one day in the middle of a storm.
He just said, Peace, be still, and it stopped in a wave season.
He raised Lazarus from the dead. Only God could do that. He's
God. He's Almighty God. And in His
divinity, in His divinity, in His own strength, He's speaking
somewhat of his own strength here. When he says, Jehovah,
I glory in thy strength. Because he's the second person
of the Trinity. But now, when he became a man, when he took
the nature of his people and assumed flesh, he took the form
of a servant. And as a man, as that perfect,
holy, righteous man, he was serving God the Father for his people. He's the one man that's holy
and righteous, serving God in holiness and righteousness for
His people. And so, He accomplished the salvation
of His people by the strength of God. By the strength of God. And so, God's salvation is His
salvation because He's God. God's salvation is Christ's salvation
because He is God. He's the Son of God. And the
salvation He accomplished is God's salvation Because God purposed
it. God entrusted it to Him. And
He accomplished it for God. And His salvation is the salvation
of all those the Father gave Him. He said, I'm going to be
exceedingly glad in Thy salvation. Our salvation is that Christ
entered in one time into the holy place with His own blood
and has obtained eternal redemption for us. That's our hope. That's
our rejoicing. What joy was it? What joy was
it for Christ to accomplish the Father's will for His people?
He says here, I'm only joy in thy salvation. What was the joy? What was the rejoicing? Well,
at God's right hand, right now, there's rejoicing in Christ's
heart as He sits upon the throne, right now, because His work is
finished. He finished the work. His Father's
glorified. He's rejoicing in that. His people
are redeemed. He rejoices in that. His work
cannot be undone. He rejoices in that. So brethren,
He's made each of us that believe now. We read this, He says, Now
the king shall joy in thy strength, and in thy salvation shall he
greatly rejoice. How does that apply to us? Me
and you that believe, how does that apply to us? You who are
sitting here that don't know Christ and believe on Christ,
how would that apply to you if God opened your heart and gives
you faith in Him? Turn to Revelation 1. Revelation
1. Here's how it applies to us.
Right now, every believer is a king under
God, by Christ. We're king under God. Look here,
Revelation 1 and verse 5. Jesus Christ, he says here, is
the faithful witness. He's the first begotten of the
dead. He's the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That
means we don't have any more, brethren. Everybody that he washed,
they don't have any more sin. Now look at verse 6. And hath
made us kings. Our text is speaking of a king.
The King shall glory in God's strength and in God's salvation.
He's made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. And
to Christ is both the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Look at Revelation 5 and verse 9. It tells us again. The mouth
of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. Here
it is again. Revelation 5, 9 says, they sung
a new song. Don't we have a lot to be singing
about? We got a lot to be delighting
and enjoying in. They sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof.
Speaking to Christ, for thou was slain and has redeemed us
to God by thy blood. out of ever kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation, and has made us unto our God kings, kings,
and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." You know what
it means to be a king-priest? It's to be a royal priesthood. A royal priesthood. Turn to 1
Peter and I'll show you why he did this. Why did he make us
kings and priests? 1 Peter. Look at chapter 2, 1 Peter 2. I'm sorry, let's begin in 1 Peter
2, verse 5. You also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house. You see, there used to be a temple
under the old covenant. Now his people are the house.
And he says this, And you're a holy priesthood. Remember there
was a priesthood in that old building under the old covenant.
Well now, we're the building and we're the priesthood. And
it's a holy priesthood. Set apart by God and made holy
by Christ and by the Holy Spirit. And here's why, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices. They offered up physical sacrifices,
earthly sacrifices, blood and goats and all that. We don't
have to do that now. Christ is our one offering. The
spiritual sacrifices we're offering up now are the calves of our
lips, giving thanks unto God, a heart of rejoicing, rejoicing,
worshiping God in spirit and in truth. walking after Christ,
rejoicing in Christ, telling sinners about Christ. These are
spiritual sacrifices. And they're acceptable to God.
by Jesus Christ. Remember they had to come and
they were acceptable because they were on God's altar. Christ
is our altar and he makes them acceptable to God for us. Now
that's what it is to be a priest. And he tells us then in verse
9, he says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. You see that? That's a king,
royal, and a priest. You're a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the
praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light to show forth His praises. Everything we do
in the name of Christ is a holy time. It's not like any other
time. It's not like You're sitting
on your couch at home watching television. It's not like that.
It's a separate time. It's a holy time. It's a time
when we're showing forth His praises. And so we show forth
the best in everything. These are spiritual sacrifices
we make. A sacrifice is something that
is a sacrifice. It's not something that, you
know, it takes from you some way. It's a cross some way. And
it's not just taking the easy way. It's taking something that's
hard. It's a little more difficult
than just an easy way. And this is what he's talking
about here. Now, he's made us priests. Now, that means this,
brethren. As kings and priests, sin's not
going to reign over us. Satan's not going to reign over
us, the law's not going to reign over us, and death's not going
to reign over us, because He's made us king-priests. None of
that's going to reign over us. They're going to never triumph
over us, ever again. Not only that, we've got full
provision. as kings. You know what a king
ate back in those days? You ever just read about how
much was used to feed Solomon and all of his house and all
of his servants? I mean, it was just... He ate
like a king, literally. And that's what we have, the
provisions of kings. We're seated at Christ's table
and we're partaking of the heavenly manna. Heavenly fruit is what
we're eating right now. of God's making. And then our
habitation. Where is it we live? The throne
of God. We sit down with Christ. When
He sat down at the right hand of the Father, we sat down with
Him. In Him. We're in the habitation of God,
in His throne. And we feast now. And not only
do we feast at the table, we wear the King's clothing. We're
attired in King's clothing. We're wearing the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The King's clothing. And we're
constantly attended by God's angels. We have constant servants
waiting on us constantly. We're kings, I'm telling you.
Listen to this, Hebrews 1.14. Are they not all ministering
spirits? Ministering spirits sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. He's talking
about angels. They're sent forth to serve and
minister to those that will be heirs of salvation. That's a
believer. That's one God saved by His grace.
Now let's learn from Christ. Let's learn from Christ. What
did Christ say? What did Christ say here? He
served God rejoicing what? In God's strength. He served
God rejoicing in God's salvation. Now the salvation revealed and
spoken of in Holy Scripture, everywhere you read it, is God's
salvation by God's strength. Christ is God's salvation, Christ
is God's strength for His people. For His people. Of God and by
God and it belongs to God. Salvation is of God, it's by
God and it belongs to God. He conceived it. He purposed
it, He executed it, He applies it, He preserves us in it, and
He completes it. It's all of God. Alpha to omega,
beginning to end, salvation is of God. It's His salvation. Nothing in salvation is ever
attributed to man's will in the Scripture. Nothing is attributed
to man's will. It's all attributed to God's
will. Nothing is attributed to man's strength. It's all attributed
to God's strength. Man's will is only as free as
his nature. Man's will is only as free as
his nature. And even then, it's only as free
as God is willing for it to be free. We're still going to be
under God's power, but man that's left in his sin nature, he doesn't
have a free will. He doesn't have a free will.
You've heard that saying, Brother Scott used to say, a man's will
is as free as a frog in a snake's belly. Just picture a frog in
a snake's belly. He can hop around all he wants
to. He can go backwards, forwards, sideways, turn flips if he wants
to, but he can't get out of the snake's belly. That's our will. It's bound to our nature. That
snake is our nature. And you can't get out of it.
You can't change it. Let me ask you this question.
Anybody here ever seen water run uphill? You ever seen water run uphill?
It always runs downhill. That's the principle of water.
That's the law of water. It's going to go downhill. It
can't do otherwise. And the nature of sin is the
sinner is always going to run downhill. His choice left to
himself is always going to be to choose sin, to choose wickedness,
to choose that which is opposite to God. He may call it God. He may call it truth. He may
call it being born of God. He may call it all the things
we call it. But at the end of it, at the
heart of it all, it's Him doing it. It's His will. And that's
what He's really trusting in. And He can't do otherwise. He
can't let that go. Because when water runs uphill,
that's when He'll be able to let it go. God has to give you
a new heart and a new nature. Believers are God's workmanship.
God's workmanship. Alright, look at verse 2 now. So the point here, who do we
rejoice in? We rejoice in Christ. Who's our
strength? Christ is our strength. Just
like He rejoiced in God the Father, He looked to God, we look to
Christ. We look to Christ. Alright now, verse 2. Christ
says, Thou, Father, Jehovah, hast given him his heart's desire,
and hast not withholding the request of his lips, Selah. Now, what was the desire of Christ's
heart? What was the request of His lips?
You remember in John 17 when we saw those four requests that
Christ made in John 17? You don't have to turn there,
I'll just give them to you. Number one, He prayed, Father, glorify
Thou me. That was His heart's desire.
That was the request of His lips. Number two, he prayed, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that
they may be one as we are. And then he said, keep through
thine own name those you've given me that they may be one as we
are. That was his heart's desire. Number three was, neither pray
I for these alone, but for them who shall believe on me through
their word. So he prayed for you and me who
believe in this day. That was his heart's desire,
that God keep us, bring us to faith and keep us and preserve
us. Then he prayed this, Father, I will that they also whom Thou
has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory which Thou gave me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. And in another place, he summed
all those requests up this way. He said, Father, Thy will be
done. Thy will be done. That was His
heart's desire, to do the will of God the Father. And all those
four requests are the will of God the Father, because their
will is one. Their will is one. Now get this. Get this. Christ is our King
and He declares that God has. Now listen to this. He's declaring that God has already,
past tense, eternal tense, He has already given Christ his
heart's desire. God has not withheld the request
of Christ's lips. You know when this psalm was
written? A thousand years before he came and did it. And he said,
you have given me my heart's desire. You've given me the request
of my lips already. His desire was to give us redemption
by his blood. His desire was to regenerate
us by Spirit. His desire was to comfort us
in all our trouble. His desire was to preserve us
in all our trials. His desire was to make us holy
before His Father. His desire was to make us happy
forever in His presence. He says here, now, God my Father
has given me everything I desire. And He says, now, Selah, now
you take a long time to think about that. Little creatures of time, you
try to figure that out. Can't see anything, but as it
moves on that hand right there, around the clock, that's the
only way we can figure things out chronologically. Eternity
knows no chronological order. Did you know that? He doesn't
know any, any at all. So anytime you and I are troubled,
you know what we should do? Come to this text right here
and read that and realize long before this was ever written,
I mean long before Christ ever came and literally fulfilled
this, He said, you've already given me my heart's desire. You've
already done it. How did He do it? Verse 3. For,
because, here's how you do it, thou preventest Him, Christ the
King is speaking of Himself, He says, thou, Father, preventest
Him with the blessings of goodness, thou settest a crown of pure
gold on His head. You know what that word prevent
means? It doesn't mean what our English word prevent means. That
word prevent means to proceed, to go before. How did he give
him his heart's desire before as yet he ever came into this
earth and went to the cross? Because you went before me with
blessings of goodness, he said. You prevented me with blessings
of goodness. You went before me. For God gave
Christ blessings of goodness in eternity. He gave him blessings
of goodness before he ever made this earth, or made time. He
gave him blessings of goodness then, long before he came in
human flesh. God set a crown of pure gold
on his head long before he came into this world. How did he come
into this world? Do you remember what they said,
Gerald? Where is he that's born king? That's what they came asking.
Where is he that's born king? You set a crown of pure gold
on my head." What did he say in John 17.4? Go there with me. John 17.4. We may not get too
far tonight. John 17.4. The good thing about preaching
the gospel within the first five minutes of your message is, if
you don't get your message finished, you've already preached the gospel.
That's the good thing about it. That's why you just want to start
out preaching the gospel. John 17, 4. I finished the work,
Christ said, and now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self," watch this, "...with the glory which I had with Thee before
the world was." There's that crown of pure gold that God set
on his head. He gave him these blessings beforehand. How'd he do it? When the Son
of God entered covenant with the Father, and said, I'm going
to be surety for my people, when he did that, Hebrews 4.3 says,
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Well, He hadn't done them yet. Have you ever read in Isaiah
where it says, He shall not fail? When He entered covenant and
said, I'll be their surety, He wasn't saying, if they mess up,
I'll do it. He said, this is your purpose,
God. They're going to mess up. They're going to sin. They're
going to fall. They're not going to be able to do it. I'm going
to go save them. And there was no possibility
whatsoever that He would fail. And when He said, I'm their covenant
surety, The blessings of goodness were His. The crown was His.
He was blessed of the Father. And that's still putting it in
time language that we can understand. How does that apply to Christ's
people? Look at Ephesians 1 and verse 3. I'll show you. I can't
get through a message without reading Ephesians 1. How does
it apply? I'm not just making this up trying
to make things connect. This is how it applies. That's
why I read this all the time to you. Ephesians 1 verse 3,
when God blessed Christ before the foundation of the world,
when He prevented him, went before with goodness and blessings to
His Son, it says here, He blessed us with all spiritual blessings
and not a one left out. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ according as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy, and without
blame before Him in love. However Christ was in eternity,
that's how His people were before God, we were holy and without
blame because that's how Christ was. See, when He blessed us
with all spiritual blessings, He didn't leave any out. When's
the last time you got up and did anything, no matter how unimportant
it was, and didn't have some sort of plan before you went
out the door in the morning? At least in your mind, you're
thinking how at the steps of how you're going to accomplish
whatever it was you accomplished. Do we think that we do that, but
we don't think God, holy God of heaven and earth will do that?
Of course He's going to do that. He didn't come and say, let me
put this man in the guard. Oh, he's sinned. I've got to
go to plan B. Let me make this people name Israel. Oh, they're
sinned. I've got to go to plan B. Everything He did from the
beginning had this one purpose. He's going to glorify His Son.
He's going to glorify His Son. It applies to the working of
all His, this prevenient blessing refers to the blessings He gives
to His people. He blessed Christ with all these
blessings by this way. When you and I were dead in our
sins, we didn't know God, and however many years you went before
God interrupted you on your road to hell, All that time, God in
His grace keeps His child. And then He makes everything,
He works everything together for good, on purpose, so He can
have that gospel of Christ cross the path with His child. That's
right. He might send a boy to Philippines
and let him marry a Philippine girl and bring her to a place
just so her path can cross with the gospel. He does that. He
works everything that way to bring somebody under the sound
of the gospel. And the old writers, the old preachers long ago called
that prevenient grace. That's what he's talking about
here. He prevented me. He went before me with grace
before I even knew He'd shown me grace. Grace before grace. That's what it is. Prevenient
grace. Verse 4. He asked life of thee. Christ
asked life of God. and thou gavest it him, even
length of days for ever and ever." From eternity, God gave this
beforehand. He gave life. He gave length
of days for ever and ever. You know how? Whenever Christ
entered the covenant with the Father and said, I'll go and
save them, the Father said, when you've saved them, I'm going
to raise you Not like you win. You win as the Son of God. I'm
going to raise you as the God-man. I'm going to raise you as the
Son of God and the Son of Man. I'm going to raise you as this
one glorified God-man and give you life forever and ever and
ever. That was the promise of the Father to him. Now, think
about this. When He came, what are the wages
of sin? Death. Wages of sin are death. When Christ walked this earth,
He knew no sin. The only man other than Adam
that ever walked this earth from the beginning that knew no sin. He knew no sin. And then Christ
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Look at Daniel 9
and verse 24. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. Let me tell you something about
prophecy. Don't get hung up on something
you can't prove from the Scripture. And that's what most of this
going back and forth with prophecy is all about. And at the end
of all their going back and forth about what does this mean, what
does that mean, here's what you can say. Maybe. You want to rest
anything on maybe. You want to spend 30, 40 minutes
here and at the end of it go, maybe, I want to say, that's
right, that's certain, that's sure, don't you? Alright, look
here, Daniel 9.24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. Now
people get hung up on that 70 weeks and they argue back and
forth over when is that, what does it mean, and they don't
ever hear anything else that's said. I don't care about 70 weeks. I know when the 70 weeks were
fulfilled because I know what it says here will be fulfilled.
And I know who fulfilled it. Look here. 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity. and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up everything the prophets have been talking about,
and to anoint the most holy. And that's what Christ did. When
He cried out from the cross and said, it's finished, He fulfilled
that prophecy. It was done. It was done. And
therefore, Acts 2.24 says, God raised Him up and loosed the
pains of death because it was not possible There was no possible
way he should be holding of death. Death could not hold him. He
knew no sin personally and he took the sin of his people and
died in the room instead of his people under divine justice and
made an end of sin and an end of transgression and brought
in everlasting righteousness for his people. That means he
killed death dead and death can't say another word to him. And
so he had to come out of that grave. He asked life of God and
God gave him life for evermore. He could not be held. He could not be held by death.
Now does that apply to you and me? Who believe? Almost certainly
it does. Paul said in Romans 6.11, Likewise
reckon ye yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin. Now get what that means now.
It's not as if you're dead to sin. You take a dead man out
there in the graveyard. You ever seen one of them sinning? Ever? They're dead to sin. Our laws can't touch them. I
don't care how bad what they've done. Our laws can't touch them.
They're dead. They've reached the end of the
law. They're dead. And not only that, in themselves
and in their body and in their flesh, they're not sinning anymore.
They're dead. God says we died so real, so
indeed in Christ Jesus before God that when we died, we died
to the law, And our old man of sin went in the ground and is
buried and it does not exist before God anymore. It does not
exist anymore. He said this, but you're alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And just as real as
we died, we arose in Christ and we're seated with God at God's
right hand. Brethren, I'm telling you, God
said, Christ said, I asked life of Him and He gave it to me forever.
Ephesians 2 said we were raised with Him, and we sat down with
Him. Paul said in Colossians 3, your
life is not here. You're risen with God, and your
life is in God, in Christ, at God's right hand. That's where
your life's at. Now that's done, brethren. I told Chloe before
we started, I'm going to tell a story about a bumblebee. And
I said, so you be sure and listen all through the message, because
you don't know when I'm going to tell it. And I want you to hear this
story about the bumblebee. So I'm going to tell Chloe this
story about the bumblebee. You'll be turning to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. I've told you this before. You
know this from... I got this from Brother Henry. He won't mind me telling it to
you because he got it from somebody. There was a little boy one time
and he was outside playing and a bumblebee stung him. Big old
bumblebee come floating along on the breeze and stung that
little boy. And he went to crying and he
ran into his, to the house and told his mother that bumblebee
stung him. And the mother said, come here
son. And she went over there and she
put something on it and put a little bandage on it, you know. And
she said, okay now, you go back outside and play. And the little
boy said, I'm scared to go back outside and play. That bumblebee's
still out there. And she said, now listen, when
a bumblebee stings you, they can only sting one time. And
when they sting you, and that stinger went into you, caused
it to hurt, that stinger wasn't in that bumblebee anymore. And
I've taken that stinger out, and that stinger's gone now.
So that bumblebee has no more sting. He cannot sting you anymore. Anymore. Now here's what the
Lord says about that. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? Death doesn't have a stinger
anymore. It has no more stinger anymore. It cannot sting the
believer anymore. Why not? O grave, where is thy
victory? The grave doesn't have a stinger
anymore. Look at this. The sting of death is sin. You've got to have sin in order
for death to sting you. And he said he put away sin.
Put it away for his people. It's gone. Now look at this.
And the strength of sin is the law. Christ fulfilled the law. Perfectly. It can't be added
to, it can't be diminished. He fulfilled it in every jot
and tittle. He said, that's what I came to do and nothing is going
to pass away until it's finished. And He did it. He did it. So
the stinger is gone. Look at this. In the strength
of sin's love, but thanks be to God, how did we get this victory?
He gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through
our Lord Jesus Christ. When God gave Him life forever
and ever, He gave all His people life forever and ever. Do you
believe on Christ? Are you resting in Christ? Are
you looking to yourself and saying, well now, but I got to do something?
If you are, you are not resting in Christ. It cannot be by your works and
by God's grace. It cannot be by Christ partly
and partly by you. If that's the case, you're going
to glory in something. You're going to pat yourself
on the back and say, well at least I know. No, God says no. I will not share my glory with
another, God said. He's going to get all the glory.
All the glory. If you rested in Him, trust Him
alone, looking nowhere but to Him alone, you have this rejoicing
with Christ. He's given me life forever. and ever. It can't be undone. He's made me a king. I rejoice
in His strength. I rejoice in His salvation. He gave me my heart's desire.
He's not withholding the request of my lips. He went before me
from the covenant of work, grace from the eternity with blessings
and goodness. And now He set a crown of pure
gold on my head. Christ asked life and He gave
it to Him, length of days forever and ever. And everything He gave
to Christ, He gave to me. It's mine. Now, here's your hope. I'm going to stop here. Here's
your hope. Here's our hope. Here's our assurance right here.
You think He's going to take any of that away from Christ? It's the day He takes any one
of those things away from Christ. It's the day He'll take it away
from one of His people. It'll never happen. His people
are safe in Christ. Rest right there. You've got
comfort, I'm telling you. Anywhere else, you've got works
and hard, bitter bondage. Right there you've got rest.
Amen.