Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 318, 318, I Need Thee Every Hour.
We can stand. Yeah. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need thee always. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. I need thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need thee every hour, in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Please be seated. Every time we sing that hymn,
I'm reminded that there's not an hour in the week that the
words of that hymn are more true than this hour. We need him. We need him to meet with us,
to speak with us, to speak to us, and to make himself known
to us, to bless his word to our hearts. And oh, how needy we
are and how hopeful that he will answer that prayer that we just
prayed. For our call to worship, I'd
like to read Psalm 110, and actually that will also be our text tonight
for the message. So if you'd like to turn with
me in your Bibles to Psalm 110. Oh, how we long for the day when
the Lord will bring us all back together. It's been a difficult
few weeks, but, We look forward to the Lord bringing
this to an end and enabling us to gather again. I want to express
my sincere appreciation for your prayers and concern for me. I
have been suffering with the shingles the last couple of weeks,
actually, and just in the last 24 hours or so, I felt like they
made the turn getting better. So thank you. Thank you for for. your prayers,
and I can testify what I've always heard, that shingles are very
painful. But the worst part of the shingles
is not the physical pain. It's the people that say to you
every time you talk to somebody about having the shingles, oh,
yeah, my grandfather had those. Or somebody you talk to your
age and says, oh, yeah, my dad had those last year. And I'm
thinking, okay, my pride has been wounded more than my body,
but the Lord has provided, and we're very thankful. You have
your Bibles open to Psalm 110, and Lord willing, I'm going to
bring another message out of Psalm 110 this coming Sunday,
and plan on, been preparing to bring a message on saving faith
for this Sunday, so hoping that, the Lord will enable us to look
at that. Psalm 110 verse 1, 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. He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries and he shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore
shall he lift up the head. Let's pray together. Our glorious and merciful heavenly
father, we come into thy holy presence. asking you that for
Christ's sake you would hear our prayers. Should be pleased
this hour to meet with us that your spirit would would serve
you in power to speak to our hearts and reveal to us the glory
of Christ. Lord, how? We need your grace
and we need your mercy. We need. your righteousness and
and we need the blood of Christ for the covering of our sin.
Lord, we we pray that you be pleased to bring this time of
trouble to an end and that you would enable us to be reunited
as a as a fellowship and as a family and or that we would be able
to gather ourselves together We ask, Lord, that you'd bless
that to your glory. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. If everyone would like to stand
again, we'll do the hymn that was on last Sunday's bulletin.
We didn't get a chance to sing that, so we'll do that. And I
sent that out by email, so it should be on your phone there
if you want to look at that. Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong, a perfect plea. The great high priest, whose
name is love, Will ever live and plead for me. My name is graven on his hand. My name is written on his heart. I know that while in heaven he
reigns, no tongue can bid me to depart. Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me. Behold Him there, the worthy
Lamb, My perfect, spotless righteousness, The great unchangeable I am,
the King of glory and of grace. Let's open our Bibles again to
this very glorious and familiar passage of scripture in Psalm
110. The Lord And every time you see
L-O-R-D all in caps in the Old Testament, you know that that's
Jehovah. And the Lord hath said unto my
Lord, that's Adonai, Master, that's L, small O-R-D, sit thou
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. What a glorious promise when
the Lord was confronting the Pharisees about who he was. He asked them this most important
and most probing question when he said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? That's the title
of my message tonight. What think ye of Christ? The answer to that question is
eternally important to the salvation of our souls. Not, what do you
think about election? Not, what do you think about
total depravity? Not, what do you think about particular redemption? Not, what
do you think about any doctrine? What do you think about the church?
What think ye of Christ, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? We're gonna consider the subject
of faith this coming Sunday. One of the main things I want
to say about faith is that faith is all about its object, not
its strength, not its size, but its object. The Lord Jesus Christ,
his person, and his glorious work is the object of our faith. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Doctrine can't save us. Church
can't save us. Any more than works can save
us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can save us. And we will know him as our savior
if what we think of him is consistent with who he is. And he's made
himself known. He asked those Pharisees, he
said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And they said,
well, he's the son of David. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to them, if he'd be the son of David, Then how is it that David,
speaking by the Spirit, said of him, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou here at my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. And the scripture says that no
man was able to answer him a word, neither from that day forth did
any man ask him any questions more. that shut their mouths
when he confronted them with this passage of scripture, revealing
the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God and as David's Lord. What think ye of Christ? Because the answer to this question
will either shut our mouths or it'll open our hearts. I so hope that the Lord will
reveal to us what he has said in the first two verses of Psalm
110. 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. I have six points I'd like to
make tonight. The first one is, What think
ye of Christ? Christ Jesus the Lord is the
only one that God the Father speaks directly to. No man has
ever spoken to God and God has never spoken to any man apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said to my Lord, he
had a private audience with the Father and always does, always
does. The second is that this, this
passage reveals about the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is David's
Lord. He's David's Lord. The third
point is that he is seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high. The fourth point is that all
men are by nature at enmity with him. The fifth point is that
all men will eventually find themselves at his feet. And the fourth point is that
he will conquer his enemies with the rod of his strength, which
is the gospel. The gospel is the rod of his
strength. That's what went out of Zion. When the Lord told the
disciples, he said, you go back into Jerusalem and you wait and
the Holy ghost will come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses,
both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth. And here, the Lord is promising
The father is promising the son that the rod of his strength
will go out of Zion and that he will bring those who are by
nature at enmity with him to sit at his feet. So let's consider
these things in order. The first one is that the father,
God the father, speaks to the Lord Jesus Christ directly. The Lord, Jehovah, a reference
to the Father here. Sometimes Jehovah is a reference
to the Son. And that's okay. But here is a reference to the
Father. Jehovah has said unto Christ, the Father has said unto
the Son, sit thou here at my right hand. Take thy rightful
place at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool. Men pride themselves in boasting
of a private audience with God. You hear people talk about having
visions, having hearing audible voices. All they're doing is
what men do by nature. They're trying to rob the Lord
Jesus Christ of his glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that has the right to enter in to the presence of God
the Father. by himself. If you and I are
going to know anything about God, we're going to know it through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he said, I am the
way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the father
except by me. We would not dare enter into
the presence of God's, of God's holy presence without the Lord
Jesus Christ as our advocate. without him as our sin bearer.
And here we learn who he is and what access he has to the father
when God speaks to us. He speaks to us through his son,
by his spirit, through his word. Even the penman of scripture
didn't have a private audience with the father. These were holy
men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It was the
spirit of God that revealed Christ or the truth of God to them and
enabled them to pin the infallible word of God. Paul in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 was very humble about the experience that he had 14
years prior. He said, 14 years ago, I knew
a man, and he's speaking of himself, but he won't identify himself.
He said, I knew a man, whether in the body or out of the body,
I know not. I don't know whether I was caught
up into heaven physically or whether it was a vision that
God gave me, but I know this. I was in paradise and the scripture
says that he heard unspeakable words which are not lawful for
a man to utter. Now where did he hear those words?
He heard them from none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
here he's humbled by the fact that he was caught up into paradise
and that he was given this revelation. John had the same experience
when he is given the revelation. And yet we don't read of John
having a personal audience with God. It was the angel of the
Lord that spoke to him. It was Christ that revealed himself
to him. Here's my point. If we're gonna
know God, if we're gonna hear from God, If we're going to,
if we're going to enter into God's presence, we must come
through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why, that's why he said
that, that, that God, um, the Lord has said unto my Lord, listen
to what the Lord said to Nicodemus or to, uh, uh, in John chapter
one, verse 18, no man, no man hath seen God at any time. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. There's
our hope. There's our hope that the Lord
Jesus Christ would reveal the very nature, the purpose, and
the will and mystery of God to us. The Lord, the Father, has
said unto the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can
enter into the presence of the father by himself. You remember when, when the disciples
are asking, when the Lord's asking the disciples in John chapter
14, whom do you say that I am? And, and Peter gives that glorious
answer. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. Blessed art thou Simon Barjona.
Flesh and blood did not reveal the son to you. My father, which
is in heaven has made this known unto you. And, and Philip, When
he hears about my father, which is in heaven, Philip says, Lord,
show us the father and it suffices us. And the Lord said, have I
been so long with you, Philip? And yet you have not known me. For if you have seen me, you
have seen the father. Everything we're going to know
about God is going to be revealed to us in the glorious person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We are complete in him. Turn with me to that passage
in John chapter 14. I wanna read a couple of more verses. John chapter 14 at verse 10. Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me. He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's
sake. And you remember when The Lord
asked the Pharisees, for what works do you want to stone me?
What have I done that you want? They said, oh no, not for your
good works do we stone you, but because you, being a man, make
yourself out to be God. Now that's what we think of Christ. What we think of Christ is that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God, and that he is the
only one who has the right to enter into the presence of God
and hear directly from God. If you and I are going to hear
from God, we're going to hear from God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only man that needs no mediator. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mediator. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, the Lord. What think ye of Christ? He's
my mediator. God speaks directly to him. If
God's gonna speak to me, God's gonna speak to me through him.
And if I'm gonna have any access into the holy presence of God,
I'm gonna have to come based on the righteousness, the person,
and the justification achieved by his shed blood. He's my only
hope to be in God's presence. In Hebrews chapter eight, the
Lord contrast the Lord Jesus Christ to Moses. He's contrasting
law to grace. And he said this, he hath obtained
a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of a better covenant. And the reason why this covenant
is better, it's because it's established on better promises.
The covenant of law is based on our promise to keep the law.
The covenant of grace is based on the Lord Jesus Christ promise
to keep the law. We have a mediator with God. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Christ? He's the only one. He's the only
one that I can hear from God through and by. He's the one
that has to speak to me. He's the one that makes God known
to me. And if I'm going to come into the presence of God, I've
got to come by him. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
down here as the son of God, God speaks directly to him. And
the second point is that the Lord Jesus Christ is David's
Lord. If he'd be the son of David,
why did David call him Lord? That doesn't make sense, and
no man ask him another word. Now David was highly esteemed. by the Jews. The glory days of
David were what they longed for, what they hoped for, to overthrow
the Roman rule. The earthly kingdom was what
they thought the son of David, the Messiah, would come and reestablish
those days. Even the disciples thought that,
didn't they? when the Lord ascended on the Mount of Olives in Acts
chapter 1, just before he ascended back into glory. The disciples
asked, Lord, is it time now for you to set up your kingdom? My
kingdom's not of this world. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
the son of David. He's the son of David according
to the flesh. He came, but he's David's Lord. You remember when, The Lord said to the Pharisees,
he said, your father, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he
saw it and was glad. And they said to him, you're
not yet 50 years old. And what the Lord say before
Abraham was, I am. And they took up stones to kill
him. They, they could not bow. to the son of God who was the
Lord of David. He was the Lord of Abraham and
he was their Lord. You see, if David was, if Christ
is the Lord of David and if he's the Lord of Abraham, then he's
their Lord. And what were they saying? We'll
not bow to him. We'll not have this man reign
over us. How many times in the Psalms
We hear David crying out to the Lord, Lord, hear my prayers. Lord have mercy upon me. Who
was David praying to? He was praying to Christ. The
Lord has said unto my Lord, if David, if, if Christ be the son
of David, why did David call him Lord? Because he was Lord.
He's Lord. And he's come to establish a
kingdom so much better than David's kingdom. A spiritual kingdom,
an eternal kingdom, where we will reign as kings and priests
forever. This is not something we're longing
for to happen in this world. We're longing for that heavenly
kingdom. That will be part of as a result
of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. What think ye of Christ? He's
the son of God, the only one that has direct access to the
father, the one that we must go through in order to know anything
about God. He is David's Lord and he is
our Lord. He reigns sovereign over all
of his enemies. That's what the Lord's saying
here. The father said to the son, sit down here at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And that's the
third thing we believe about Christ. He is seated. He is seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Why is he seated? Why is he seated? Because he's
finished his work. That's what the whole thing,
rest is finished. He's accomplished, it's finished.
Everything necessary for the salvation of God's people and
for the conquering of all of his enemies was accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's seated at God's right
hand. When John in the book of Revelation
sees the seven stars and the seven candlesticks that the Lord
Jesus Christ is walking around, where does he find those stars?
He finds them in the hand of the right hand of God. The stars
are in the hands of Christ. The preachers and the churches
are in union with him. And when John fears that he's
seen God and he's going to die as a result of this encounter
that he's had with God, The scripture says, and the Lord reached out
and touched him with his right hand. The Lord Jesus Christ comforted
him and assured him that it would be okay. First Peter chapter three, verse
22 says that he has gone into the heaven and he is on the right
hand of God. For God has made angels and authorities
and powers to be subject unto him. Here he is seated as a successful
Savior, having accomplished what the Father sent him to do, the
saving of his people, the putting away of their sin, the establishment
of eternal righteousness. And he's seated, and God has
made all authorities subject unto him. Turn with me to the
book of Hebrews. What think ye of Christ? Look at Hebrews chapter one.
That's a very familiar passage beginning at verse one. God who
at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past by
the father unto the fathers by the prophet hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his son. The father had spoken by the
spirit to the prophets now Now we're not hearing, thus saith
the Lord. Now we're hearing, I say unto
thee. Now we're not getting the revelation of the gospel through
human prophets. We're getting it through the
son of God, our eternal prophet. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, who being, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down. He's finished his work. He's
purged our sins. He's put them away. God requires
nothing more than what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And now
he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
How many times we'll read this in the scriptures? Turn over
to Hebrews chapter seven. Look at verse 28. For the law
maketh men high priests, which have infirmities. But the word
of the oath, this is the covenant of grace. This is the promise
that God, the father and God, the son made in eternity past. But the word of the oath, which
was since the law before the law, make us the son who is consecrated
forevermore. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty of the
heavens. Here's the summary of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ
is sat down. The father said to him, sit down
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
A minister, verse two, look at verse two, a minister of the
sanctuary of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched and not man. See those Jews, they were looking
for the son of David to set up a throne and a tabernacle here
in this world and to, so they could reign. So they could reign.
They could be in power. They could overthrow the Romans.
And the Lord said, oh no, I'm David's Lord. That's what this,
that's what David was saying when David wasn't talking about
himself. He was saying the father said
unto the son, said unto my Lord, David speaking is my Lord. Sit
thou here at my right hand. Seek those things which are above
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That's where
we look, isn't it? We look to the reigning sovereign
who is seated at the right hand of God, who has satisfied everything
that God required. God is pleased with him and he's
resting, he's sitting down. Nothing else for him to do. Now,
there is a time when we see the Lord Jesus get up from his seated
position. In Acts chapter 7, when those
Jews who were so furious of what Stephen was saying about the
Lord Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ, being the Son of
God, the one which they persecuted and crucified, they took him
out and stoned him, didn't they? And, uh, and just before he died,
he looked up into heaven and he said, I see the son of God
standing at the right hand of God. When does he stand? When does
he stand? You know, if you walked into
a courtroom, um, as a defendant, And the judge is sitting behind
his desk and he's quiet. And he looks at you as you walk
in the door. You don't know what he's going
to, what, what judgment he's going to make. But if the judge
gets up from his seat and he looks at you and smiles and says,
come on in, it's okay. Come on. I got good news for
you. That's what the Lord Jesus is doing. He's standing up to
receive Stephen into glory. As he will stand up for each
one of his children as they come. He's not going to be, he's not
going to be sitting there looking and he's going to, he's going
to stand and say, come on, come into my presence. This kingdom,
which has been, which has been prepared for you. Uh, enter in
to your, to your joy. Look at, look at, look with me
at Romans chapter eight. What think ye of Christ? I think
he's the son of God. He's the only one that has access
into the presence of the father without an advocate. He's the
only one that's able to come into the presence of God and,
and, and speak with God one-on-one. I've got to have Christ. I've
got to have a, I've got to have an advocate. We believe that
he's David's Lord. And as David's Lord, he's all
men's Lord. God has made him to be both Lord
and Christ. Romans chapter eight, we believe
that he's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. Romans chapter eight, look at
verse 31. What shall we say then to these
things? What shall we say then to these
things? What things? The God who foreknew us has predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of his son. And everyone that
he's predestinated, he is called. And everyone that he's called,
he's justified. And everyone he's justified,
he's glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If
God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with
him also freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who even is at the right hand of God,
who maketh intercession for us. Sit thou here at my right. What
do we believe about Christ? What think ye of Christ? He's
the son of God. He's David's Lord, and he's the
successful Savior seated at the right hand of God, and no one
can lay any charge to God's elect. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
has put away their sin. He satisfied the demands of the
law. This is what we think of Christ.
This is what we think of Christ. We're not, we're, we're, we're
not going to be like those Pharisees who would never ask him another
question, who were stumped. We, we, we rejoice in knowing
that this is who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Fourthly. Fourthly, we see in this verse
of scripture that all men are by nature at enmity with God. Adam walked with the Lord in
the cool of the day, had fellowship with God until he sinned. The Lord said, in the day in
which you eat of the fruit, you shall surely die. And his fellowship
was broken. with the Lord as a result of
his sin. He was put out of the garden.
And as by one man sin entered into the world, and so death
by sin, we all are born of the flesh. We're born spiritually
dead and at enmity separated from God. That's what all men
are by nature. The carnal mind, the scripture
says, that's our fleshly mind. The carnal, you see, we, the
believer has the mind of Christ, doesn't he? We've, we've been
given a new nature. We still have that old man that
we were born with, but here's the, here's the, here's the,
the truth about all men. All men are at enmity with God
by nature. The carnal mind is at enmity
against God for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed
can it be. The carnal mind cannot be subject
to the things of God. It will not believe the things
of God. The Lord has to give us a new heart. He has to give
us a new nature. He has to cause us to be birthed
by the spirit in order for us to be able to not be at enmity
with God. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies mine. thy footstool. Go back with me
to our text. I want you to see a verse that
we're going to look at in more detail later. Look at verse three,
for thy people. Yes, yes, they are by nature. Colossians chapter one, verse
21 says, and you who were sometimes alienated and at enmity with
God, hath he reconciled. in your minds by your wicked
works, yet has he now reconciled. Romans chapter five, verse 10
says, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son. We were at amnesty with God.
God had to reconcile us. Sit down here. You see verse
three of our text in Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. I'm going to take those who are
by nature at enmity with you. They were by nature, the children
of wrath, even as others. And I'm going to make them willing
and they're going to come and they're going to sit at your
feet and they're going to listen to every word you have to say.
What think he of Christ? I think that he's holy and that
by nature. By nature, unless he reconciles
me to him and sits me down and makes me willing in the day of
his power, by nature, I have, I'm an enmity with him. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. What think ye of Christ? This is who he is. This is who
he is. He's the only hope. that I have
to hear from God or to come into the presence of God. He's David's
Lord, he's Abraham's Lord, he's my Lord. He's seated as a successful
savior at the right hand of the majesty on high and I believe
that he's holy and by virtue of his holiness Unless he reconciles me to himself
by his own blood, I'm at enmity with him. Look at Colossians
chapter two at verse 13. But now, but now in Christ Jesus,
you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. You see God's people don't, you
don't hear, you don't hear one of God's people say, well, I'm,
you know, I've always loved God. I've never, I've never had a
problem with God. I've never been an entity. No, no, I was
a far off. I didn't know God. I was a stranger. I had to be, I had to be reconciled
by the blood of Christ. I was at enmity with God. For
he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity. We were at enmity with him. We,
we, we weren't able to keep God's
law. We weren't able to believe on him. but he has abolished
in his flesh. How did he do that? When he bore
in his body our sin on the tree. He abolished in his flesh the
enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinance for to
make in himself of twain one new man so making peace. So by
virtue of his death on Calvary's cross, I have union with Christ,
I have union with God, I have fellowship with God, and I'm
no longer at enmity with him. No longer. I'm sitting at his
feet, for the Lord has made me willing in the day of his power.
Sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. And lastly, I want us to look
at verse 2 of Psalm 110. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. The father is going to send his
spirit. The spirit is going to anoint
the church, which is what Zion is, and the gospel is going to
go forth. That's the rod of his strength.
The rod of his strength is the gospel. You know, the first mention
of rod in the scripture is found in Exodus chapter 4 when Moses
is speaking with the Lord Jesus Christ at the burning bush. What
a glorious picture of Christ that is. The bush is on fire,
a picture of the fiery wrath of God's judgment coming on the
Lord Jesus Christ, but the bush wasn't being consumed. And the
Lord is speaking to Moses and the Lord tells Moses, take off
thy shoes from off thy feet for the ground in which I stand is
holy. And the Lord tells him what he's going to do. And Moses
begins to object. He begins to argue with the Lord.
He begins to question him about, you know, how can this be? And
the Lord said to Moses, what is that in thy hand? And Moses
said, it's a rod. And the Lord said, throw it down.
And Moses threw it down. And what happened to the rod?
Turned into a serpent. And the Lord said to Moses, now
pick it up. And he picked it up and it became
a rod. Now that rod is the authority of the gospel preached from God's
word, the gospel of God's free grace. The serpent, well, you
know what that's a picture of. Serpent's a picture of our sin,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ was made as a brazen serpent,
as a sign, a symbol, a shadow of Christ in the Old Testament.
And when the children of Israel were being bitten by poisonous
snakes, fiery serpents, The Lord told Moses, make a brazen serpent,
put it on a pole, hold it up, and anybody that looks will live.
And then the Lord said, in the New Testament, he said, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up. You know, the only way, the only
way that that serpent can be dealt with and can be picked
up is by the rod of the gospel. It was picked up by Christ. It was taken by Christ. It was
put away by the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast down thy rod, it turned
into a serpent. He picked it back up and it was
a rod. And it's the same rod that Moses took into Egypt. There's
a picture of the gospel. And he touched the Nile River
with it and it turned into blood. It's the gospel that turns water
into blood. It's the gospel that it was the
same rod that Moses held over the Red Sea and divided the sea
and provided a dry ground for the children of Israel to escape
the enemy of the Egyptians. And that's the gospel that it
gives us escape from the bondage of the taskmasters of the law.
It was the rod of Moses that struck the rock and the water
came forth and provided that for the children of Israel in
the wilderness when they were dying of thirst. That's the gospel. The rod of thy strength shall
go out of Zion and it shall rule in the midst
of thy people. Remember when the children of
Israel were in the wilderness and the Amalekites were battling
the children of Israel and Moses Got up on the hillside and what
did he do? He held up his rod and Aaron
and Aaron and her had to help him to hold up his hands, didn't
he? But it was the rod that gave him that gave the children of
Israel success over their enemies. It's the gospel. That's where
the power of God is. That's the strength of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His strength is seen in the preaching
of the gospel. The foolishness of preaching
shall save them which believe. To the Jews, the gospel's a stumbling
block. Why? Because they can't reconcile
the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of Christ.
who seated at the right hand of the majesty on high with their,
with their works gospel. So it's a stumbling block to
them. So they'll cast away the stone, which the builders have
rejected. And God has taken that same stone, which the builders
rejected and made it to be the head of the corner. It's the
cornerstone of the church, isn't it? He is the foundation stone
of the church. But it's the gospel that's the
stumbling block, the preaching of the gospel. And to the Greeks,
just a waste of time. To the irreligious and worldly,
why would you spend all of your time looking at the Bible and
thinking about these things? And there's more important things
to the Greeks, it's foolishness, the scripture says, but to them
which are being saved, it's the power of God. The gospel is the
power of God, it's the strength of his rod. The glorious message
of what think ye of Christ, who Christ is, where he is, what
he's accomplished, and what he's doing now as he sends out the
rod of his strength from Zion to make those who are by nature
at enmity with him, willing to sit and bow to him as Lord. What think ye of Christ? No more important question. There's
no more important question than that. And the Lord's given us
an answer as to who Christ is. Might he make us willing to bow
to that answer, to believe who he is and what he's done to the
salvation of our souls. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Oh how we hope and
pray that your spirit. Would speak volumes more to our
hearts than what we've been able to express. Give us. Faith in Christ forgive
us of our sin. Cause us to find our rest and
our hope in him. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. All right, 143, let's stand together,
143. Rejoice, the Lord is King, your
King and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again, I say rejoice. Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. When he had purged our stains,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice! His kingdom cannot fail. He rules o'er earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus give. Lift up your hearts. Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice! He rejoice in glorious hope Our
Lord the Judge shall come And take his servants up to their
eternal home Lift up your heart Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice.