Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 28 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book,
number 28. Let's all stand together. God has mercy on whom He will,
and whom He will, He art unstill. To whom He will, He gives His
grace, and when He will, He hides His face. Let none despise God's
sovereign throne. He does what he will with his
own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand. Prostrate I fall before His throne,
a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can,
I say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at
your throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting
Jesus Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm his chosen one. And God's eternal, sovereign
choice makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read from Psalm 110 tonight, if you'd like to open your Bibles
there with me. Psalm 110. Good to have Cheryl and Denise
from Cottageville, or Mike Walker Pastors, with us this week. And Cyril. is having some stints,
I think, put in tomorrow. And I told him that we would
remember him in prayer. This coming weekend, the church
in Great Falls, Montana, where Moose, the pastor, is going to
have a conference. So y'all remember to thank Todd
and who else? Frank. Frank, I think,
Todd and Frank are going to be preaching at that meeting. I
want to thank Jeff and Hugo for bringing such good messages last
Sunday. I was encouraged. I got to listen
to those on my way home. And thank you for your prayers. I think we had a good meeting
in Pennsylvania. It seemed like everybody was
encouraged. It was a blessing to be around them. Felt like
the Lord met with us. Very thankful. You have your
Bibles open to Psalm 110. A Psalm of David. The Lord said
unto my Lord. Notice that the first Lord is
all in caps and the second one is a, begins with a capital L. First one's a reference to the
Father. Second one's a reference to Christ, the Son. This is very
important in light of the passage I want us to look at tonight
from Matthew. So let's take notice of that.
The Father said to the Son, who is David saying, my Lord? The
Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. 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 due of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn and will
not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen, and he shall fill the places with dead bodies,
and he shall wound the heads over many countries. And he shall
drink of the brook in the way. Now David, when he was fleeing
Absalom's takeover, scripture says that he crossed over the
brook Kidron, which would have been a brook. It would have been
a clean, and he stopped and drank there. And he did that by way
of prophecy that the Lord would cross over that same brook. But when the Lord crossed over
it, it wasn't a brook. It was a sewer, literally a sewer. All the refuse from the city
went down through that. And when they took him from Pilate
to Golgotha, he had to cross over that. And the Lord says he drank, the
scriptures here says he drank from it like David did, and not
literally. Not literally, he didn't drink
from that sewer. But that's the cup that he drank
from. when he went to the cross and
he drank the bitter dregs of our sin, which was nothing but
refuse. And so that's the reference here. He shall drink of the brook in
the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Because the Lord drank from that
brook, that sewer, we don't have to. He lifts up our heads and
we look up. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you for the fulfillment of this wonderful promise that
thy dear Son, our Lord, drank from the brook. He drank damnation
dry so that there is now therefore no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Lord, we pray tonight that you
would lift up our heads. We confess to you, Lord, that
our heads have been down much too much. Lord, might in this
time of worship, might your Holy Spirit cause us to look up Might
we see the Lord Jesus seated at their right hand, made a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek, the one who ever lives to make
intercession for us. Lord, lift him up by your spirit,
by your word. Lift Christ up and lift our hearts
and heads up. Lord, we pray for the church
and Great Falls and ask Lord that you would bless your gospel
as it's preached there this weekend and bless Todd and Frank as they
prepare to preach Christ. Lord, we pray for our brother
Cyril and ask that you would help the physicians tomorrow
to do their job well and that you would bring healing to his
body and that you would comfort his heart in Christ. Lord, we
pray for our brother Marvin. Thank you for him. We ask, Lord,
that you would give him a good, full recovery. And Father, we
pray for Jennifer, that you would give her strength and healing
and grace and that the scans that tomorrow would be a good
report. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I forgot to mention, I did talk
to Marvin on my way here tonight. So he is in rehab and still has
some eyesight issues. And he seemed to be searching
for words as we were talking. But everybody seems really encouraged
with the progress that he's making. So he thinks he'll probably be
there for about three weeks. And he said they had set up a
TV in the church, and they were going to live stream. services,
I think from Gabe, to the church there while he's out. So Jennifer's
having a PET scan tomorrow at Mayo to find out the results
of the last test that she, the last procedure she went through.
So the Lord enables you to remember us tomorrow and be thankful for
that. Tom? Number 228 from the hardback
temple. Let's all stand again. 228. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One,
His wounds for me shall flee. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
He died for one like me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
He died for one like me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. He died for one like me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. He died for one like me. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Matthew
chapter 9. Matthew 9. Our Lord heals two blind men
who come to Him and ask for His mercy, acknowledging Him as the
Son of David. The Son of David. title that was given to the Christ. And it was a declaration of his
sovereignty and his power. And I've titled this message,
The Son of David, but it really has to do with the lordship of
Christ. The Lordship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I would introduce it by saying
that the answer to easy believism is not the law. There are some
that would say, just pray this prayer, accept Jesus, make a
decision. You've heard it. Truth is, there's
nothing easy about believing. Truth is, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ is not only not easy, it's impossible. It's impossible. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. Faith is a gift of God. But for those who promote some
sort of easy believism, as they would say, The law is not the answer to
that. We don't put men under the law
either as a means of their salvation or as a proof of their salvation. Those who teach lordship salvation
as an answer to easy believism, they do that. They want to counter the error
of one by creating an error on the other side. They want to
get you to look at your obedience as the proof of your salvation. The problem with easy-believism
and lordship salvation as it is taught is that in both cases
it promotes man, it promotes the the looking
to self for the hope of salvation. Either I'm looking to a decision
I made and a prayer I prayed, or I'm looking to the evidence
of my salvation. But in both cases, it is a denial
of Christ. One man wrote a book titled Lordship
Salvation, and he came to the conclusion that one third of
the professing, this was what inspired the book and this is
the introduction to the book, that one third of all the professing
Christians in America were holding on to a false hope. It'd be a whole lot more than
that. And I fear that the man who wrote such a book, having
listened to him on many occasions, was guilty of the same. We know that no man can make Jesus Lord. That's what they say. Make him
Lord of your life. God's already done that. He set
him on his throne. I have sat on my holy hill of
Zion, my king. And he reigns. He's a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. We just read that in Psalm 110.
Sit thou here at my right hand until I make all thine enemies
thy footstool. The Lord Jesus reigns sovereign,
he is Lord. We don't make him such. But in that psalm that we read
also, the scripture says that he makes us willing. Willing
in the day of his power. Lovingly, gladly rejoicing that
Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the work of the spirit
of God. And that's the work that the Lord had done for these men
who came to our Lord and said, thou son of David, have mercy
on us. We are completely dependent upon
you to have mercy on us. You see, easy believism has one
looking to their profession as the hope of their salvation,
And what's being taught in religion today, which is called Lordship
Salvation, has one looking to their performance for the hope
of their salvation. And whether you're looking to
your profession or to your performance, you're not looking to Christ.
You're not looking to Christ. The title Lord is is used over
and over and over again in God's Word. In the New Testament, it's
the word kurios. It means an owner. It means a
master. It means one who has complete
control over another. And he is such. But we're not... He doesn't treat us like property.
He treats us like sons. He treats us like children. And
we love having him as Lord. We rejoice in having him as Lord. The Lord makes his people willing
in the day of his power. He gives them a new heart. He
causes them to not just be willing to bow, but he causes them to
be, to rejoice, to be glad. to acknowledge their need for
him to be Lord of their life. Let's read this miracle together
in Matthew 9, verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on us. Two is significant here. And the two shall be made one
flesh. Two is a reminder of our union with Christ. We have acceptance with God in
the beloved, the Lord Jesus. so that as he is, so are we in
this world. Two is a, the scripture speaks
of the two witnesses. Who are the two witnesses? Well,
it's the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And they confirm
one another is the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the
law required an accusation to be confirmed by two or more witnesses. And so, When the Lord heals these
two blind men, they are witnessing and confirming one to the other
of what they're declaring and what the Lord is doing. When our Lord sent the disciples
out, he always sent them out two by two because the testimony of the
gospel must be confirmed by more than one witness. So this is a confirmation of
who the Lord Jesus is as the Son of David. Both of these blind
men, and there we are, there we are, spiritually blind, we
cannot see, we're born blind, and unless the Lord's pleased
to give us sight, we'll not see, we'll not perceive, we'll not
understand, we'll not come to any correct conclusions about
anything. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, accept you be born again. You cannot see the kingdom,
you can't perceive of it, you can't understand it. It's completely
uncomprehensible. It is a mystery that must be
unveiled and revealed to you. And the seen eye is a gift from
God. So, here we have a picture of
our salvation. And these two blind men followed
him, crying and saying, thou son of David, have mercy on us.
So they say the same thing that Bartimaeus said when he said,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. How many times we
hear this in the New Testament where one who is seeking mercy
acknowledges the Lord Jesus as the son of David. In verse 28, and when he was
coming to the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus saith
unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this. And they said
unto him, yea, Lord. Yes, Lord. We believe that you
are able. Would you be willing? The false
gospel says that God's willing to save, but he's not able unless
we do our part. We have to make our contribution.
We have to make our decision. Or we have to give evidence of
our salvation by our obedience. We have to find, let me rephrase
that. We have to find the hope of our
salvation in the evidence of our obedience. And God's willing,
but he's not able unless we do our part. Lord, I know that you can, if
you will. You are the power, you're Lord.
You're the omnipotent one, you're the immutable one, you're the
omniscient one, you're the self-existent one. You are able to do all things. Coming
to faith in Christ is bowing to and rejoicing in and resting
in His Lordship, His Lord. confessing Jesus as Lord. But they, when they were departed,
spread abroad His fame in all that country. I looked up the word willing
in the Bible. And the first mention of it is in Genesis chapter 24,
the word willing. A desire, a willingness of submission. And it's the story of Abraham
sending his servant Eleazar to fetch a wife for his son Isaac. And you remember he makes a covenant
with Eleazar and he's sending Eleazar back to his, where Abraham
came from, to get a wife for Isaac from his family. And he
makes Eleazar promise not to take Isaac back there but to
bring the wife to Isaac. And when Eleazar shows up, Rebecca,
she's the one that gives water to him, and he shows up with
all these wonderful gifts. But before he leaves, Abraham,
he says to Abraham, he says, what if she's not willing? What
if she's not willing to come? And Abraham in faith said, God
will send his spirit ahead of you and prepare her heart and
she will be willing. She will be willing. But if she's
not willing, you're not bound to this covenant anymore. And
when Eliezer got to where Rebecca was and she saw the gifts, the
dowry that he had brought, and the wealth of her husband, and
she heard the stories that Eleazar told her about Isaac. And then they asked Laban, her
brother, you know, is Rebecca willing? Well, let's go ask her.
Let's go ask her. And they did, and they presented
it to Rebecca, and Rebecca said, I will go. I will go. I'm willing to go. I want to
go. You've made this man irresistible
to me. And the Spirit of God had obviously
gone before Eleazar and prepared her heart so that she was willing. And when she came back with Eleazar
and she saw Isaac from afar, she said, who is that? And Eleazar
said, that's my master. And she lighted off her camel
and she ran to him. Lord, draw us and we will come
running to thee. There's the evidence of salvation
that when God does a work, we like Rebecca, I will go, we're
made willing in the day of his power. And we're irresistibly
drawn to him. And we're not bowing to him as
a tyrant, Lord, we're bowing to him as a loving husband and
a caring father and a loving brother who We rejoice in having
him as Lord. Wilt thou go with this man? That
was the question that Laban asked. Wilt thou go with this man? She
said, I will go. I'm glad to go. There's the work of grace in
the heart. They shall be made willing in the day of his power. And saving faith doesn't just
bow to the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says
in the day of judgment, when the sky, eastern sky is split
and the trump of God sounds and the dead in Christ are raised,
that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So there you
have all of creation acknowledging, yes, that's Lord. That's the
Lord. He's the all-powerful, sovereign
creator. Well, saving faith is more than
just bowing in that regard. Saving faith is more than just
confessing that he's Lord. The Lord Jesus said, you honor
me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. And James tells
us, you believe that there's one God, you do well. The devils
believe also and tremble. So just to make a confession
that Jesus is Lord is not saving faith. Yes, it is bowing. Yes, it is confessing. But it's
so much more than that. When God makes us willing, we
come to him rejoicing. We're thankful that he's Lord.
and we rest in him as Lord. We know that whatever he does
is right, and it's good, and it's necessary, and he reigns
sovereign, and he only has good for his children. I know the
plans that I have for you. I know the thoughts that I have
for you. Actually, he didn't use the word plans. He used the
word thoughts. The word plans is nowhere to be found in the
Bible. God doesn't have plans. It's thoughts. I know the thoughts
that I think toward you. Thoughts of good and not of evil
to bring you to your expected end. We have a Lord that we rejoice
in coming to. We have a Lord that we can rest
in. You know, By nature, we come into
this world not liking to be told what to do. I was thinking about it today.
I don't know if children learn to say no before they walk or
they walk before they say no. But pretty much the first word
that comes out of their mouth is no. No. I just, we don't like, and we
still don't like being told what to do. If you're gonna tell me
what to do, tell it to me in such a way as to not demand it
from me, because as soon as you demand it from me, I'm gonna
bow up. Until it comes to our relationship
with our Lord. Lord, I'm ignorant. Tell me what
to do. Just tell me what to do. Lord, if you don't cause me to
look up, I'll set my affections on the things of this world.
Cause me to look. I need a Lord. I need a God who
will reign over me. A God that will control me. A God that will help me. A God that has the power to overrule
me. I don't want another man like
that in my life, but I have a God. Lord, if you don't give me eyes
of faith, I'll walk by sight. I'll make decisions in life based
on what I see, based on my experiences, based on my feelings. Lord, if
you don't reign over me, And if you don't take control
of me and speak to me, I need a Lord. I need a Lord who's all powerful.
I need one who's sovereign. I need one who's loving. I need one who's full of mercy.
I need one who knows me thoroughly from in and out and one that
will direct me and lead me. You see, this is what being made
willing in the day of his power is. And the natural man says
what? I'll not have that man reign
over me. And when God makes one willing in the day of his power,
we just bow. Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins. Lord, teach me. I won't understand
anything if you don't teach me. If you don't open the eyes of
my understanding, if you don't sit me down and speak to me and
teach me, and the believing heart doesn't
say no, it doesn't rebel, it doesn't know. Lord, lead me not into temptation.
Lord, direct my steps. If I'm gonna be tempted, I know
I'm gonna sin. I'm gonna sin in my temptations.
The Lord didn't say, when you pray, pray like this. Lord, help
me when I'm tempted. He said, lead me not into temptation. Why? Because the believer understands
their weakness and frailty and how easy it is for them to fall.
Lord, restrain my flesh. It's too strong for me. Restrain
me. Reign over me. Take control of
me. Be Lord. This is the lordship
of Jesus Christ. This is the spirit of grace that
God gives. Let those who promote an easy
believism think all they got to do is pray a prayer and they
got their ticket to heaven. Let those who want to look at
their performance as the hope of their salvation put each other
under the law. You know that guy that wrote
the sovereignty, not the sovereignty of God, but lordship salvation?
I've listened to him recently and I've come to this conclusion.
He doesn't preach as a sinner to sinners. He holds himself up as the example. of one who has made Jesus Lord
of his life and is following Jesus Lord of his life, and if
you could just be like me, you know, everything would be good
for you. And it's just such arrogance and such pride and such self-righteousness. Lord, feed me with the food that's
convenient for me. Isn't that what David said? Why? Because if you don't, I'll eat
the dainties of this world and I'll be like that rebellious
child who just fill up on candy and all the sweets and things
that are not good for me. Lord, I need daily bread. You
see, the believer comes to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord because
they need a Lord. And they rejoice that they have
a Lord, one that is merciful. One that is patient, one that
is kind, one that is good. One that has nothing for them
but that which is good. They don't have to be whipped
into making Jesus Lord or submitting to him as Lord. They've been
made willing in the day of his power. I'm a weak, foolish, sinful man. I need you to take charge of
me. And his commandments are not
grievous. We delight in his law, can't keep it, but rejoice in
it. Paul said that we know that the
law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. If the evidence
of Jesus being Lord of my life is me being able to keep God's
law, that's it. I don't need a God I can control.
I need a God that can control me. That's just the bottom line. I need Jesus to control me. I need him to... How many times we see in the
scriptures where the Lord said, tell no man. He told these two
men that he had given sight to, he said, don't tell anybody.
What is the significance of that? I mean, if you were able to perform
something like that, if I was, I want everybody in the world
to know about it. And now what the televangelists do, they don't
go around behind closed doors healing people. They whip up
everybody into a frenzy and they get their smoking mirrors out
and they want to do it on TV and in front of thousands of
people. If they really had the power to do it, they'd slip into
hospitals, they'd go into rooms quietly and do what the Lord
did. Don't tell anybody. You see,
our Lord wasn't looking for a following. He already had a following. He's
got a people. He's out hunting down his sheep.
Well, he knows where they are. We're hunting the sheep. But
he's not looking for a following. He's not looking for the approval
of men. After he fed the 5,000 in John chapter six, the scripture
says, knowing that they would have made him king, he withdrew
himself into a mountain by himself. You don't make me king, you don't
make me lord. See the absolute total confidence,
he doesn't make his, he doesn't go out in the streets and plead
with men to let him have his way. He's not in the heavens
wringing his hands, looking down and saying, oh, won't you let
me come into your heart? No, no, no, don't tell anybody. He is in complete, control of
the manifestation of his glory. When I'm ready to manifest my
glory to someone, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I love in John chapter seven,
when, I'm gonna read a couple of verses
here. Turn with me to John chapter seven. This is so good. Along these
lines, John chapter seven, verse one, after these things, Jesus
walked in Galilee for we would not walk in Jewry because the
Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews feast of the tabernacles
was at hand and his brother, now this is a reference to his
brothers and sisters and his immediate family. And they were not believers.
His brethren therefore said unto him, depart hence and go into
Judea that thy disciples also may see the works that thou do."
What are they saying? You need to go public. They had
seen enough of the demonstration of his power to know that he
had power. And they're trying to push him
out into the public limelight so that all the people now will
follow after you. For there is no man that doeth
anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly."
Don't you want to be known openly? Why are you over here in Galilee
doing things secretly and telling people not to tell what you're
doing? Don't you want people to follow
you? Don't you want to be popular? If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. You see that in verse four? Show yourself, for neither did
his brethren believe in him. Brethren, we've got a God who
doesn't need, he doesn't need flashy things that men do in religion,
nor try to get a group. You know, God's church always
been just small group of people here and there. And the Lord said, despise not
the day of small things. This is where I'm gonna be glorified
and I'm gonna manifest my glory in the hearts of my people. And
I'm not interested in making a big show out there in the world
and trying to get, there will come a day, in a moment of time,
when every knee will bow and every tongue confess. When the
Trump of God sounds and the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his splendor
and all of his glory and all of his power is gonna come into
this world and everybody's gonna know who he is. And then he's gonna gather up
his sheep, cast all the unbelievers into the lake of fire. He's not. So he tells these men, don't
tell anybody. They acknowledged him as the
son of David. And I can't think about that
without thinking about what the Lord said when he asked his dissenters,
his enemies, the Pharisees, what think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? And they said, well, he's the
son of David. And the Lord Jesus said to them, if he be the son
of David, then why did David, speaking by the Holy Ghost, say,
the Lord, the Father, has said unto my Lord, the Son, sit thou
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Christ be the son of David. Why did David call him Lord? And no man durst ask him any
more questions. Why are you offended at me? Why
do you want to stone me? because you being a man make
thyself out to be God. When the Lord Jesus began his
public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth and went into the
synagogue as was his custom and opened up the scroll to Isaiah
chapter 61 and read that clear prophecy of the Messiah and then
folded it up and looked at his friends people that he was very
acquainted with and said to them, this day, this scripture has
been fulfilled on my side. And they wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth. Could it be that this
is the Christ? Could it be that the one that
we know from our hometown, that he's the Messiah? And then he
interpreted Isaiah 61, when he said, in the days of the prophet
Elijah, there were many widows in Israel, but God showed mercy
upon none of them except the widow of Sarepta. And in the
days of Elisha, the prophet, there were many lepers in Israel,
but God showed mercy on none of them except Nahum and the
Syrian. And those who wondered at the
gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth turned on him
just like that. And they tried to kill him right
there on the spot. Scripture says they were enraged
at his, what was the words that they were enraged at? He's declaring
himself to be Lord. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. I'm God, I reign sovereign. And God's people rejoice in that.
We love it because we know that if he didn't reign sovereign
over us, we would never believe. We'd never believe. And if he
didn't reign sovereign over us, we'd go on our own way and we
would depart. And we would be subject to every
Lord. You see, we rejoice in having
Jesus Christ as Lord. But the natural man doesn't want
him to be Lord. They rebel against that. Son of David. That's the title. Whose son is he? Well, he's the
son of David. And they didn't really have too
much of a problem with the son of David. Because the first time
the Son of David is used in the Bible is talking about Solomon.
And Rehoboam and those descendants of David are called, Absalom
is called the Son of David. So, matter of fact, Joseph, the husband of Mary, is referred
to in the Bible as the Son of David. as a son of David. But this is the son of David. And when the Lord interpreted
what son of David really meant, when he said, why did David then
call him Lord? And they couldn't answer and
nobody else had a question. You see, here's our delight,
brethren, We don't just bow because the rod of God's justice have
smitten the back of our knees. We don't fall to our knees. We
don't just confess Him Lord. We rejoice in Him being Lord. We rest in Him being Lord. We see our need for Him to be
Lord. We delight in His Lordship. Turn with me to Psalm 132, Psalm
132. Look at verse 11. Psalm 132, verse 11, the Lord
hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it of the
fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. There's the prophecy, there's
the promise. In Matthew chapter one, verse
one, the Lord Jesus, the first title that he's given is the
son of David in Matthew 1.1. It's the fulfillment of this
prophecy that the Lord, in Romans chapter one, Paul begins the
book of Romans by saying that this is the gospel of God concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was made of the seed of David. after the flesh. So this son of David has to do
with the Lord Jesus' natural descent. He came through the
line of David, but it's so much more than that. The reign of
David was the reign that, will you restore now the kingdom of
Israel? The disciples asked that when
our Lord was being ascended back up into heaven off the Mount
of Olives. Is it time now for you to restore the kingdom of
Israel? What were they talking about? They were talking about
the reign of David. David, and consequently as a result of David
being such a successful man of war and conquering all the enemies
of Israel, Solomon, those were the two kings that enjoyed peace
in Israel. David was a successful man of
war. He was a reigning king. He had
defeated all the enemies of God. So when the Lord says, your descendant
will reign on my throne and his reign will be forever. He's talking
about the reign of David as a successful reigning king. And the disciples thought it
was an earthly kingdom. But here's the rain. It's the
rain of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of his people. Every experience we have with
unbelief, every experience we have with sin, every experience
we have in looking away, we come back, oh Lord, have mercy upon
us. Son of David, Son of David, you're
my Lord. I need you. I'm not, I'm not
coming reluctantly. I'm not coming forcibly. I'm
coming willingly. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. So much about David we could,
we could talk about for the sake of time. David's name translated
means beloved. Beloved, that's what his name
means. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. We
have acceptance with God in the beloved. My beloved is mine and
I am his. Oh, to be loved of God. And here's what the Lord, this
is a mystery of all mysteries to me. In John chapter 17, verse
23, when our Lord is praying, Hugo, you dealt with this verse
Sunday morning. in them and thou in me that the
world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved
me." Our God only knows one kind of love. You know we we use that
word to talk about a whole lot of things when we talk about
love. God's love is perfect, it's pure, it's holy. He loves those who are in Christ in the same
way that he loves his own son. Beloved, beloved of God. Oh, if God almighty loves me,
I want him to be Lord. I want him to be Lord. Now, if we're gonna look to the evidence of his lordship
in our obedience. And we do, we want to obey him,
we want to follow him. And we're so thankful that when
we don't, he corrects us and rebukes us and chastises us as
a loving father, brings us back to himself. But in this very
miracle, we have an example of those who had acknowledged him
as Lord, but immediately they disobeyed him. Immediately. Does that mean that
he wasn't really their Lord? Look, go back with me to our
text in Matthew chapter 9. The end of verse 29. Then touched
he their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it unto you.
And their eyes were opened, and Jesus, I looked up these words,
straightly charged them. And it's a very strong language.
He got in their face and he said to them with no uncertain terms,
when you leave here, you don't spread this around, you don't
tell anybody. There was no ambiguity about
his language. They knew exactly what he meant. See that no man know it. And their eyes were opened, I'm
sorry, in verse 31, but they, But they, when they were departed, spread
abroad his fame in all that country. There's no justifying this. There's
no excuse. Their disobedience is clear.
You say, well, they were so excited. Yeah, they were. Which tells
me something about myself. They went out and they operated
off of their emotions rather than the clear teaching of God's
word. You ever done that? Sure, yeah. Do it all the time. But Jesus Lord, he said it clearly,
don't do it. but they were so excited they
couldn't contain themselves. And our emotions get the best
of us, not necessarily in excitement like this, but in so many other
ways. We can't contain ourselves. Rather than being tenderhearted,
forgiving, and loving, those who despitefully use us, how
oftentimes our emotions have been anger and resentment impatience
and oftentimes we've been defensive
rather than just letting it go. Why? Because the Lord's been
clear about how we're supposed to react and what we're supposed
to do but we don't do it. Why? Because our emotions get
the best of us and we operate off of feelings rather than faith. How many times we've set our
affections on the things of this earth instead of the things above?
Scripture's clear. Set not your affections on the
things of the earth, but set your affections on things above.
Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. But these
things are so enticing and they're so comforting and they got so
much beauty to them and I like them. And we clearly disobey our Lord
because we, like these two blind men, follow our feelings rather
than obeying the clear teaching of God's Word. The Lord was clear
to them. He charged them straightly, don't
tell anybody, and immediately they went out and did it. The Lord said resist the devil, how
oftentimes we give place to him. Following our feelings. See,
we're just like these fellows, aren't we? Does that mean that Jesus Christ is not your
Lord? No. We disobey our Lord a lot. And every time we do, he's merciful. He's merciful. To make us willing. Again and again and again in
the day of his power. And to bow. Not just. Out of duress, not just out of
punishment, but to bow out of need. Lord, I need you. To control me. Help me. Tom. 352. Let's stand together.
352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. ? Hide me, O my Savior, hide
? ? Till the storm of life is past ? ? Save it to the avid
guide ? ? O receive my soul at last ? Other refuge have I done, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stained. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
art, freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity.