Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 110. Psalm 110, and
reading from our text, verse 3. Verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the
morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. Psalm 110 and verse 3. This is the psalm that our Lord
referred to when he spoke to those that were questioning him
and testing him. And he asked them a question
in Matthew 22. And we hear him saying, when
the Pharisees and Socrates gathered together, what think ye of Christ,
whose son is he? And they say unto him, the son
of David. He saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, and this is the
quote from the psalm here in verse 1, The Lord said, Unto
my Lord sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
How is he his son? And we read that no man was able
to answer him a word, neither does any man from that day forth
ask him any more questions. Of course, there was another
time that the Lord He caused much anger really from the scribes
and Pharisees when he said to them that before Abraham was,
I am. And they said, thou art not yet
fifty years old. How art thou older than Abraham? But what is taught and what our
Lord was teaching them and what is set forth in this psalm is
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was
before David. He eternally existed with the
Father and with the Holy Spirit. And so it is Jehovah saying unto
the Lord Jesus his Son, sit thou at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool. And so it is set forth here,
I triune God, God the Father, God the Son. Our text, it begins
with the word, Thy people. And when we think of how our
Lord spoke in John 10, where he speaks of his people as being
his sheep, he says, Thine they were, that is, the fathers, and
thou gavest them me. And the security of them, they
are in the Son's hand. They are in the Father's hand.
They're known by the Father, known by the Son, a people that
already are a people in the mind and purposes of God, chosen in
Him from the foundation of the world and given by the Father
to the Son to redeem. We read in the hymns, He saw
me lost and ruined in the fall and loved me notwithstanding
all. The people of God are a people
that in time will be shown to be a people, manifested as a
people, and saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that
people given by the Father, with none lost, shall be at last glorified
in heaven eternally, with the Father, with the Son, Behold,
I and the children whom thou hast given me, a multitude that
no man can number, of all nations, kindreds, and tongues, a people
that are described here of what they shall be. And we know that
in the Word of God there are many descriptions of the people
of God. Almost it is as like a diamond
where you can look at it from one aspect and then look at it
from another. And we have the same with God
himself. The pictures in the Word of God
are numerous in different ways that God is described, in different
ways that his people are described. We know what that would be if
we were to describe something materially. If it was a garden,
if it was a house, we could describe it in many different ways. Looking at it from one direction,
then looking at it from another, from outside and then going inside
and looking at it and describing it. from all those vantage points,
and you find that in the Word of God. Think of this, when we
read the Word of God, look out for those passages and think,
well, this passage here is giving an aspect of God himself from
this vantage point, or this is giving a picture of God's people
from this perspective. Sometimes it's showing what they
are, as in the fall, lost and ruined in the fall. Sometimes
it shows them when they are convicted under sin and brought to be as
guilty before God. Sometimes it shows them when
they are blessed and they're full of joy and relief and assurance. And sometimes it shows them in
trials and how they're acting in trials and temptations. Sometimes it shows them where
they've fallen and how they are restored again and how they act
while they are fallen and far away from the Lord. We have these
examples in David, in Solomon, in the Lord's people, Peter in
his denying and then Peter in his restoration, Peter in Satan's
sieve and Peter brought out of it. And all of these are pictures
from one side to another. If we had to, well we couldn't
possibly in one sermon describe in every aspect the people of
God or God himself or the plan of salvation. And that is why
we can preach many times from different texts and was showing
different aspects and different parts and different ways and
it is interesting how the Lord used in his parables and remember
he didn't teach except by a parable but he used parables that equated
to men's lives if they were a fisherman He used parables concerning that. If it was a husbandman, he used
parables concerning that in the sowing and reaping. The different parables then meant
more to those that knew the natural. And so the Lord is pleased to
use the different methods of teaching that are brought home
to his people. Well in our text there is a description
of the people of God. Not a very long one but just
three points can be brought out from this verse of the people
of God. The psalm itself of course is
a beautiful psalm showing the glory and majesty of God the
Lord as Melchizedek, which again is taken up by Paul in his letter
to the Hebrews, though some would dispute whether it is Paul's
letter to the Hebrews. I believe it is, The scriptures
are silent. The method is very similar to
Paul's. And we know, of course, it is
the inspired word of God. So we have the account of Abraham
meeting, or Melchizedek meeting Abraham in Genesis, and that
then is set forth here, thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek, and it's fully explained in Hebrews. What a reminder this is, standing,
as it were, almost in the middle of our Bibles, literally so,
but looking back to Genesis, looking forward then to Hebrews,
the Word of God is, though in 66 books, yet one volume by one
author, the Holy Spirit using 40 or so penmen, but the plan
of salvation and the fitting together of it all is one beautiful
fitting together. Well, it is the word in our text
that is speaking of the people of God that I want to look at
this evening with the Lord's help. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the
womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. This is the people we have spoken
of as being chosen in Christ, as already being a people. His
name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. So what shall this people be? The description is here in three
points. Firstly, their willingness. Secondly, their holiness. And thirdly, their fruitfulness. willing, holy and fruitful. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. The very description is implying
that those that are not the people of God are not willing. It also tells us that those that
are the people of God, without the power of God, they are not
willing. Where is the willingness? The
natural man, he says, we will not have this man to rule over
us. Some more than others have expressed
in unregeneracy how unwilling they are They have anything to
do with the God of heaven and of earth. They have nothing to
do with the people of God, nothing to do with the Bible, nothing
to do with religion, nothing to do with prayer or preaching
or reading, and they have been determined that that is to be
the case. But our text, it says here, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And there are
many examples, and the Apostle Paul is one, of which a people
that were not willing, not willing to accept the Lord Jesus as the
Christ, the Messiah, and to be brought then to accept that,
to believe that, and to trust in the Lord. There's many aspects
in the willingness of the people of God. But what we would be
very clear on is that God's people, they are not automatons, they
are not robots, they are not forced into believing or forced
into any way at all. They are made willing of their
own free will. In the Old Testament, The emphasis
on the offerings was that it should be a free will offering,
not by constraint, but in a real loving and free way. One illustration
of the Church of God, or which is the people of God and of Christ,
is that Christ is the bridegroom and that the Church of God is
the bride. What would we think if we had
a wedding and the bridegroom was at the front of the chapel
and we had the bride being dragged up to the front and made to marry
that bridegroom and gave every evidence that she was not at
all willing to actually be with him and to be united to him? If she was actually brought to
that position, what one would want to see was that she lovingly,
willingly, freely came to be with him. And there is no glory
to God if he was to be forcibly forcing people to be what they
would not be. Some people have expressed that.
I don't want to be a Christian, I've no desire to be, and how
dare God force me to be so? I don't want the power of God
to change me, I'm quite happy with my life, I'm happy with
the things that I'm doing. But what shall be very clear
is that everyone that is made willing is happy that God has
made them willing, is pleased that he overcome their rebellion
and hatred and enmity, that he opened their eyes, that he made
them willingly walk in his ways. And there is no one that has
regrets of that that shall be with the Lord in heaven and amongst
the people of God. They shall be pleased with the
Lord's choice of them And in return they have chosen him. The Lord has loved them first
and he has brought them to love him. We love him because he first
loved us. And the power of God, the way
it works in a sinner's heart, is to make that people not just
perform what he'd have them to perform, but to willingly, lovingly,
and freely perform it without any constraint at all. The Lord
leads his people. It was said of Jacob when Esau
wanted to go with the flocks and with the young, in returning
back to his father, he didn't want him to do it. He says, if
thou was to overdrive, but one day they would perish. They needed
to be led and led gently and slowly along as they were able
to. And so the Lord said to his disciples,
I have many things to say unto you, but he cannot bear them
now. He only taught them as they were
able to receive it and only able to bear it. And it is line upon
line, here a little and there a little. The Apostle Paul speaks
of the Hebrews as being babes and that he fed them milk and
that they were soon to, should be able to partake of meat. But he recognised that those
that were young in the way, as newborn babes, says Peter, desire
the sincere milk of the word that ye grow thereby. And so
the willingness that the Lord gives his people, very often
it is in, shall we say, stages, a willingness to be taught. A mind open to receive the Word
of God, a teachable spirit is vital. The Lord has said with
his people, they shall all be taught of God. They shall not
teach every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord, they shall
all know me from the least. And to the greatest, well, if
one is to be taught, one needs to be teachable. If you've ever
taught students that are not teachable, you know what a difficult
thing that that is, and how hard it is to impart anything to them. And so the Lord is pleased to
give a teachable spirit, making the people willing to listen,
willing to hearken. And it is through his dealings
in that way. We think of the children of Israel
in their backslidden state in the days of Ahab and Elijah. And the Lord sent three years,
three and a half years of famine to make them willing to come
up to Mount Carmel and to put on test their Baal God against
the true and living God. And they were willing to prepare
those two altars. And the God that answered by
fire, he was the God. And it is the work of God that
makes the people that would reject him out of hand, not want to
hear anything of his word, or anything of his people, at least
open to hear it, to receive it, and to hearken to what is said. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. You might not discern it to be
the power in that, but you think of Zacchaeus, who desired to
see the Lord, who he was, and went, climbed up into a sycamore
tree to see him because he was low of stature. But the Lord
knew Zacchaeus' name, he knew where he was, and already there
was appointment. Come down, Zacchaeus, he says,
I must dine at thine house. And it began with a willingness
to see the Lord, who he was. And we might call it to be inquisitive,
perhaps, or just inquiring, but the Lord had a purpose in it.
And so we would be encouraged, really, in the very beginnings,
and the smallest thing, to be made willing. And many have said,
well, when perhaps it is their wife or husband, believing wife,
believing husband, said to an unbelieving one, come with me
once, come to the house of God, hear the word of God. They said,
well, just this once, and this is all it'll be, and that's all
I intended. and they willingly went once.
And then the Lord worked there and blessed the word to them,
they're willing to go again and again. And gradually they are
made willing to hear the word of God, willing to hear hard
things, willing to hear the sentence of God against sinners, the soul
that sinneth it shall die. One of our hymns says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told, the sight is too killing
for pride to behold. Many will turn away from hearing
the truth about their souls, about their condition, about
the sentence of God against them, the condition that they are in.
They don't want to hear that. Even the children of Israel in
Jeremiah's day, they wanted smooth things. They wanted nice things.
They didn't want to hear that God was not accepting their worship,
that he was angry with their idolatry, that he did not accept
their sacrifices that were made, just putting him in their debt
and with no faith joined with it. No, they didn't want to hear
that. They even spoke of stoning Jeremiah
rather than hear the word at his mouth. And so the willingness
is to know about the malady first and to know the need of a saviour.
And then there is the willingness to hear the word of the gospel
and to hear the way of escape from the wrath to come. a power
of God that brings a people to let go of their own works, let
go of their own righteousness, that righteousness which the
Word of God says is as filthy rags, that we can never be saved
by works. By grace you are saved, through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And Paul,
when he wrote to the Romans in Romans 10, He wrote with a desire
that they might be saved, but he wrote to a people that were
not willing to hear the gospel. They claimed to their own righteousness. They did not want to let go of
their own good works as they saw them. And yet that was so
vital that they should, because it's not by work. has done, it's
his sacrifice, it's his offering, it is Christ in this psalm that
is to be extolled and lifted up. And this is a vital point
of a willingness that we should be nothing, humbled in the dust,
that Christ should be all and in all, that he should increase. I must decrease, says John the
Baptist, And is it willing that that should be so? By nature,
we are proud. We want to be someone. We take
the highest seats in the upper rooms. But the Lord says, no,
it is a humble path, a humble way, a lowly way. Even his disciples,
the Lord inquired what they were disputing in the way. And it
was who should be greatest among them. Pride is a great thing. that pride would rob the Lord
of his honour and glory. It is a sin that is to be brought
down. Pride and self must be brought
down. Christ must be all and in all. And it is the power of God that
brings about that, that is able to humble a proud man. You read the account in Daniel
of Nebuchadnezzar, for Nebuchadnezzar and he's in his palace and he
says, all this great kingdom and all this might, all these
things, these are all by my hand. And he's taking all the glory
to himself. But Daniel had told him through
the interpretation of the dream of the tree cut down, that this
shall all be taken away from him. Yet there should be the
stump left in the ground with a band of iron. and that it should
sprout again. And as Nebuchadnezzar then was
giving himself all the honour and glory, then the word came
from heaven, took away his reason, and for seven years there he
was with the beasts of the field, and nails grown as long as claws,
and his reason gone from him. And at the end of that time,
The kingdom was restored to him, his mind restored to him, and
then he gave the honour and glory unto God, not unto himself. And God was pleased to work that. That's the last we read, actually,
of Nebuchadnezzar in the word of God, how that he is giving
God the glory and willing to do so. Such a proud and mighty
king. But we are just the same by nature. We are proud, we do not like
to be humbled and laid low before the Lord. And so thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power, willing to be nothing,
willing to be humbled, willing to be told hard things concerning
themselves, willing to accept the salvation that is a free
gift from the Lord. You might say, well, surely people
would like to be given free gifts or things that don't cost them
anything. But there are many who know that
if you were to offer them charity, they would be too proud to receive
it. They wouldn't want to receive
it, and they would reject it. and we have had that in the past
years ago, tried to help people and it was rejected and is rejected
through pride. Well that which is given through
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is completely free, it is undeserved
and we need to be made willing to receive it as such, charity
as it were. You know in times past the Indians
of the American plains, they were pleased to give charity
to their widows and to those in need, but those warriors,
in all of their pride, they would not receive charity from the
new settlers, and they would rather fight, they would rather
fight to the death and earn their living rather than to be put
in settlements and looked after just by charity. And we are just
the same by nature. But if you and I are saved, we
will not have merited it, we will not have earned it, we will
have been given it by a free gift from the Lord, the salvation
that he has purchased that he has given us and through his
sufferings and through his death and through his putting away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself, the wrath of God falling upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be willing that we should be
saved on his terms and not on our own. I wonder how many of
us have been brought to that position to say that I desire
to be saved and to be saved on God's terms, and to read the
holy word of God with this aim and desire, not to fit it around
our plan of being saved, but to see what God's plan is, to
see what man is saved from, and see what he is saved to, and
desire to be fully conformed to what the Lord would have us
to be. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. to be saved, willing to embrace
the salvation of God. Then there is a willingness to
walk in the Lord's ways, to walk in his ordinances of baptism
and Lord's Supper, being made willing to obey him in that way. Maybe that is where we are found
this evening. The Lord knows where each one
of us are, in where we are in not willing and needing that
power of God to make us willing and to bow before Him. It may
be that is where we are found. You say, the Lord has made me
willing in many, many respects. But in this respect, as yet I
am not willing. And you seek of the Lord, Lord,
make me willing. If we have known that the Lord
has made us willing before in other aspects of salvation, may
that be our prayer, that in this point also, the Lord make us
to be willing. Thank him for what already he
has made you willing to do and to be, and ask him that you be
willing to do all his will, not just some of it, but all of it.
We think of other aspects in the Christian life as well, especially
in crucifying the deeds of the flesh, in mortifying the deeds
of the body, in departing from our besetting sins, those sins
we hug and leave and cleave to, Our willingness to take up the
cross and follow the Lord, to walk in ways the flesh dislikes
the ways, says the hymn writer, but faith approves it well. Many
aspects of the teaching and leading of God, we need to be made willing
to be what the Lord would have us to be and to do what the Lord
would have us to do. We think of Peter, when her Lord
was teaching them a lesson and washing the disciples' feet.
And Peter, he said to the Lord, thou wilt never wash my feet.
Peter was not willingly going to let the Lord do that menial
task on him. And the Lord said to him, if
I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And when Peter
realised that that's what it meant, He said, Lord, not my
feet only, but my hands, my head, he wanted all washed. The thought
that if he didn't submit to this, he couldn't have any part with
the Lord. He couldn't bear with that. And so the Lord made Peter willing
to have his feet washed by the Lord. And in all of the Lord's
will, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, is a blessed thing where the
Lord overcomes the unwillingness and makes us willing, and that
he powerfully brings us, and yet in a way that is a leading
way, a way that is not by constraint or force, but the actual act
is loving and willingly done, but it is done because of the
power of God. And we may have gone many weeks,
many months, many years Struggling against it, like it was said
of the Apostle Paul, it is hard for thee to kick against the
bricks. And yet then the Lord has changed
that heart, renewed the will, turned the feet to Zion's hill
as we sung in our first hymn. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. So this is the first mark in
this psalm, in this verse, of the people of God. Now maybe
you've heard many sermons and many other marks, but here is
one, and may the Lord bring this and seal it on your hearts, those
of you here, those that are here online, that you find some echo
here of the work of God, the power of God, in making you willing. And that if the Lord begins to
teach and begins to lead in this way, that he will continue. And it is encouragement for us
to ask of the Lord that he will make us willing. It's a hard
thing, I know it is, to feel most unwilling to kick against
the pricks, to have many arguments. We think of what it was with
Moses when God would send him to Egypt and to bring the children
of Israel out. You can read the account there
in Exodus. and how he had argument of argument
why the Lord should not send him but send someone else. And yet the Lord overcome those
and made him willing, and he went. And the Lord greatly used
him and blessed him. I think of it with Peter, how
Peter, when Peter was sent to the Gentiles, Cornelius, and
the Lord gave him the vision of the sheep let down from heaven,
and to teach him that he was not to call any common or unclean. It was a thing that he was later
challenged by the other Jews at Jerusalem, the apostles. Why
did he go into the uncircumcised, the Gentiles, and eat with them?
And Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning. And they
said, then hath God also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto
life. Peter had been made willing to
go to the Gentiles. Many aspects, many examples in
the Word of God of the Lord's servants, the Lord's prophets,
Jonah unwilling to go to Nineveh, but later willing to go. Those that by the Lord's dealings
and power changed that unwillingness to a willingness. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. The second point that
I bring before you is that they shall be holy. We read here in
the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. Now we know that the people of
God are born of God, they are born again of the Spirit. Now
Lord emphasised this in John 3, he must be born again. The womb is, you might say, as close
as you can get to a birth. And what we have here is from
the very, very beginning of the birth of a child of God, there
is the beauty of holiness. It is the mark of God's work. The author of the new birth is
the Holy Spirit. He does not work in a worldly,
carnal, frivolous, light, unholy, base and unscriptural way. The way the Holy Spirit works
is in holiness and right from the very, very start there is
that mark upon the work that is done in a sinner's heart.
That which is born of God is born by the Holy Spirit of God. By nature we are nothing but
sin and disgrace. Nothing good can come from our
old carnal nature, but that which comes from God is pure and holy
and from above. There is many imitations of the
life of God. There are many that call themselves
Christians that are not Christians. There are many that say they're
born again and they're not born again. But those that are truly
born again of the Holy Spirit will have this mark on them. Peter says in his first epistle,
the emphasis on holiness, he says, be ye holy, the saying
of the Lord, be ye holy for I am holy. And the exhortations are
in the path of holiness. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation. Because it is written, be ye
holy, for I am holy. The children of Israel as a type,
a typical people, were a holy people unto the Lord. and they
had to be a separated people, a purchased people, a people
that were a godly people, a people that were chosen out of the world
but not of the world. And the Lord says, You cannot
serve God and mammon. Come out from among them and
be separate. Touch not the unclean thing and
I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Whosoever shall be a friend of
the world is an enemy of God. The things of God are pure, they
are holy, they are from above, they are not of the base, unclean,
lustful, vulgar, worldly ways of this world. They come from
the Lord. And we must emphasise that. Those that are found with the
Lord, those that assemble with the people of God. God is greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence
of all them that are about him." David, when he was to bring up
the Ark, had an illustration of the holy God of Israel that
demanded that they worshipped was in a right way. The ark was
to be brought up on the shoulders of the Levites, not to be carried
on the cart patterning after the way that the Philistines
did. And if we brought with this mark
upon us, the holiness will be according to the scriptures,
the word of God. What the Lord sets forth as holy
is holy. And what he sets forth as vile
and of evil is vile and evil. God's standard is the standard
of holiness, not what man thinks or what man would set forth as
holy. And so right from the very beginning,
and God's children, when he begins with them, they don't know much.
There's much that they need to be taught and much to learn.
But the work that is begun right from the very beginning It is
a heavenly work, a holy work, a work by the Holy Spirit of
God. What a solemn thing to think
that we could be the subject of the Holy Spirit and yet the
work in us do not lead to holiness and not be a holy work. The third thing that is said
before us here is fruitfulness. Thou hast the dew of thy youth. So it goes from those that are
born, right from the womb, to the youth. And we think of the
youth as strength, the people of God when they are brought
strong in the Lord and fruitful in the Lord. The Lord has said
of his people, this people have I formed for myself, they shall
show forth my praise. Come and hear all ye that fear
God, and I will tell what he hath done for my soul. One that
is newly born of the Spirit, those that are young in the way,
may not be able to use, probably most likely will not use that
language. But as they are brought to full
assurance of faith, They brought to knowing whom they had believed. Then they are to be as the salt
of the earth and as God's witnesses, ambassadors in the earth. The
Lord has chosen them to show forth his praise, to be witnesses
of his power, of his holiness, of his work in this world. And
they are as Jew. What is the idea of Jew? The
Jew, it comes from heaven. And it comes so gently, so softly. And yet it comes so universal. And we think of how it is set
forth in the prophet Micah. We read in chapter five and verse
seven, the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people
as a Jew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth
not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And it is a
similar idea to the idea of the salt our Lord speaks of, ye are
the salt of the earth, the sprinkling right the way through that gives
us savour, and so it is with the Jew. God's work and to God's
praise and God's honour and God's glory. And the Lord has that. Those that the Lord works in
this way, his people, while they are on this earth, they do show
forth his praise. They speak of his glory. They
are a prepared people for a prepared place. And their whole testimony
is that they are strangers and pilgrims in the earth, they look
for a city whose builder and maker is God, they look for that
which is above, and their testimony is of that, and they are known
to be the people of God. They are taken note of, we read
of that, the apostles, they took notice of them, that they had
been with Jesus, and how clearly they testified of their faith
in Christ, how clearly God witnessed in those days to them with the
miracles that he did, giving witness to the power and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have in this verse just
a little description of the people of God. We think of not just at the beginning,
but all the way along the way. And I would speak to myself here
and to those of you that have known the Lord for many years,
looking at this verse, looking at this description, how we found
now, how sad it is that we are so prone to backslide. We start to become unwilling
in certain ways of our profession. We drop that desire for holiness
and slowly become hardened, worldly, not sanctified, not made for
the Master's use. and certainly don't show that
fruitfulness and clear testimony that we are the Lords. This verse should be a challenge
to us, to bring us back to remember our spiritual youth, to remember
from whence we are fallen. The power is still the same.
The ability of the Lord is still the same. And may we turn it
into a prayer and cry unto the Lord. Cause us to return to our
spiritual youth. Now this was the word that was
sent to the churches in the Revelation that had left their first love. The first love of the church
of the people of God is Christ. So may this word be a searching
word for us concerning our willingness, concerning our holiness, and
concerning how much we do show forth the Lord's praise in the
earth. And may the Lord then bless this
word and give us this witness that we are the people of God,
people.