Good evening. We'll have a piano
accompaniment for two services. Anyway, welcome, Joy. Let's start
the service tonight, everyone, with hymn number 37 in your Spiral
Gospel Hymns hymnbook. Let's all stand together. Number
37, Approach My Soul, the Throne of Grace. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and bleed His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but mine own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. Compel me to approach thy throne. bid me to come unto thee, Lord."
And the writer of Hebrews put it like this, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Christ is all. It is finished. That's our profession. For we
have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. His temptations weren't like
our temptations. His temptations were experienced
on the cross when he bore the burden of the sins of his people.
The Lord Jesus Christ never had to work to keep the law. He said, my burden is easy, my
yoke is light. Don't be entangled again with
the yoke of bondage, that's the law. Christ kept the law just
easily, easily. And so he says, let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in our time of need. We are a needy
people. The Lord, we just sang that hymn
and The Lord is calling us to himself. And then he enables us to respond
to that call. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful
for you. I appreciate your prayers for
us this past weekend. We had a good trip. Safe travels
and conference I thought was was. I know it was well attended. Chris said it was the most people
they've ever had in their church since they've been meeting and.
and the services were all good, and the Lord seemed to bless
the messages, and so I'm very, very thankful. Michael, thank
you, and Robert, thank you for bringing the messages here in
my absence. Will you open your Bibles with
me for our scripture reading to Revelation chapter 19? Revelation chapter 19. I'm hoping the Lord will enable us to attend
a wedding tonight. That's what Psalm 45 is all about. And that's what Revelation chapter
19 is about. And it begins with contrasting
the bride of Christ to that harlot who pretends to be the bride
of Christ who's not the bride of Christ. And so he says, and
after these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
saying, hallelujah, praise God. That's what hallelujah means.
Salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God
for true and righteous are his judgments. And we, point out
from God's Word the error of false religion. I have people
say to me all the time, don't be judgmental. God says we're
to make righteous judgments. We're to make the judgments that
He makes. And true and righteous are His judgments for He hath
judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her
fornication and hath avenged the blood of His servants at
her hand. That's the false church. And
again they said hallelujah. and her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and 20 elders and the four beasts fell
down and worshiped God that sat on the throne saying, amen. So be it. Praise be to God. Hallelujah. And a voice came
out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye saints and ye
that fear him, both small and great. There's two kinds of fears
spoken of in the scriptures. is the fear of God that causes
us to run to him, and then there's that fear that causes us to flee
from him. And scripture says perfect love casteth out fear.
I was thinking, who is it that I'm not afraid of? I'm not afraid
of the people that I love and the people that love me. And I heard as it were the voice
of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and the
voice of mighty thundering saying hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent,
all powerful, he reigneth. He rules and reigns from the
highest throne. He's unthreatened and uncontested
by any other power. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints." Now the bride of
Christ is clothed in this white wedding gown. She got it from
her husband. It's his righteousness that he
gave to her. And he saith unto me, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Only those that are called will come. And he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship
him. Now this is an angel. And he
said unto me, do it not for I'm thy fellow servant and thy brethren
that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. Everything
that God has told us is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
once again, you've brought us here to this place and you've
promised your presence. Oh Lord, how hopeful we are to
experience the fulfillment of that promise. As we wait on you,
Lord, we pray that you would send your spirit and power, that
you would speak to our hearts, that you would reveal more of
your glory and bring us to that place to where your whole bride
will be in heaven, bowing and praising you and hallelujah.
Lord, put it in our hearts now to be able to worship you in
the power of your spirit and according to the truth of your
gospel. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, while'st
art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me, even me. ? Even me ? ? Let thy blessing
fall on me ? ? Pass me not thy lost one bringing ? ? Bind my
heart, O Lord, to thee ? ? While the streams of life are springing
? ? Blessing others, O bless me ? Even me, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 45, please? Psalm 45. It seems that royal weddings
capture the attention of the world and whenever there is one,
everybody is interested in watching it. Probably none of us would
ever be invited to one. But there is a royal wedding
that makes all the royal weddings that this world gives so much
attention to nothing. nothing. We just read about it
in Revelation chapter 19. The bride of Christ has made
herself ready. She's arrayed in the wedding
garment and she's brought to the wedding feast to sit at the
table with her husband. Oh, what a wedding that is. Everybody
loves weddings. This wedding is going to be like
none other. It's going to be like none other.
And the Lord tells us A little bit about it, one of the most
beautiful descriptions that God gives to his church is to refer
to her as the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ who glories
in her husband and beyond her ability to comprehend, he glories
in her. One day, the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to parade His most beautiful bride before all of creation
as a trophy of His grace. We talk about people today having
trophy wives. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ has
a trophy wife. It's His church. And He loves
her, and He's so proud of her. And the comeliness and beauty
that she has, He gave to her. And if the Lord enables us to
to desire to be a part of his bride. Oh, what hope we have
to know that he's loved his bride with an everlasting love. Never
a time God chose the bride of Christ in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And the scripture says that God
loved her with an everlasting love. He's never not loved her. and he's going to save her. I can't help but to think that
the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 22 when he told about that king
who gave a wedding feast for his son and invited all these
people to come to the wedding and they wouldn't come. You remember
that story? I can't help but to think that
that our Lord was reflecting on Psalm 45 as he told that parable. The people that were called to
come had other things to do. They didn't come. And the king
sent out his army and destroyed those cities of the people who
would not come. See, to not come to the Lord
Jesus Christ is completely our fault. It's completely our fault. If we end up in heaven, it's
God's fault. If we end up in hell, it's our
fault. Now that's what the scripture teaches. We bear the full responsibility
for not coming to the wedding feast. And if the Lord enables
us to come, as soon as we come, we'll realize that he made himself
irresistible to us. He caused us to be willing in
the day of his power. He gave to us the miracle of
faith and caused us to come. So the Lord gives that parable
in Matthew chapter 22 and they wouldn't come. And so he destroyed
them. And that's what the Lord is going
to do to those who refuse to come to Christ. And then he sent
out his servants. He said, go into the highways
and the byways and compel them to come in. Marie said, everything's
ready. Everything's ready. The table
is set. The feast is prepared. Everything
necessary for this wedding feast has been accomplished by the
Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is that every single
thing that God requires of you and me, God himself must provide. And the only thing that God will
accept is that which he provides and he has provided everything
in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's
the gospel and that's the wedding feast. And so the Lord says,
everything's ready. My son has done it all. He's
got it all prepared. Come. And they wouldn't come. And so he sent out his servants.
He said, go on to the highways and byways. Now what that means
is go pick up the homeless. Go pick up the bums on the corner.
Go pick up those beggars. Go pick up the people who don't
have anything, the dirty blind beggars like Bartimaeus and bring
them in that my house might be full." And those are the ones
that came. And you know what? Those are
still the only ones that come. The only ones that come to the
wedding are blind beggars. Those who don't think they need
it, they're not going to come. They're not going to come. It's
the street people. It's the homeless. It's the beggars out on the corner.
They're the ones that come. Now you know I'm talking about
spiritual begging here. And then you remember in Matthew
chapter 25, again the Lord likens the kingdom of God to a wedding
feast and he says there's 10 virgins, 10 virgins and they're
waiting for the bridegroom. And five of them had oil in their
lamp. You know what that oil is. That's
a picture of the Holy Spirit. And five of them didn't have
oil in their lamp and at midnight the bridegroom came. And the
five that didn't have oil in their lamp said to the five that
did have oil, give us some of your oil. It wasn't their place
to give them though. You can't give the Spirit of
God to another person. You can't do it. The Spirit of
God has to be given by God Himself. And they didn't see the need
for that. And they weren't ready. And so they went to try to get
oil. And while they were gone, the
bridegroom came and the five virgins came in. And the bridegroom
shut the door. And those other five virgins
came late and they knocked on the door and they wanted to come
in. And what did the groom say? He
said, I don't know you. I don't know you. Oh, that God
would give us the oil of his spirit. That he would cause us
to wait and to watch for the coming of the bridegroom. The
point that the Lord makes in Matthew chapter 25 on the parable
of the ten virgins is that he says, you be ready, you know
not the hour. Be ready. Be ready. What a beautiful wedding it's
going to be. for those that are watching and
waiting, those that are ready, those who have the oil of the
Spirit of God, those who are looking for their Savior, their
bridegroom. And just the opposite is going
to be for those who aren't. That's the message. It's a life and death message,
isn't it? It's a message of great hope.
and great peace and great comfort. And it's a message of great condemnation
and there's no in-between. There's no in-between. So this is a royal wedding now
that's being described here and one of the reasons we know that
is in the title of this psalm to the chief musician upon Shoshanim. Shoshanim was a A lovely flower
that was used to symbolize, this is really of love letters what
it is. It's a song that was sung by the bridegroom to her bride,
to her groom, to the wife, to her husband. And so the prophet says, my heart
is indicting a good manner. I speak of things I have made
touching the King. Oh, I want to speak of the good
things, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we want
to speak of. The Lord said, and I, if I be
lifted up, will draw men to me. We want to talk about Christ.
We don't want to talk about anything else. This book's all about him. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. The Lord told those self-righteous Pharisees,
he said, you search the scriptures because you think in them you
have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. We spend all our time in God's
Word looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's the prophet
saying, my pen, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. I just wanna, I just wanna, tell
folks about my bridegroom. I want to tell them about what
he is and what he's done for me. Now not every child of God,
not every preacher feels that way all the time. Remember when
Isaiah said, he said, Lord who hath believed our report? It seems like very few people
believe the gospel. No one's interested in the gospel.
And that can become very discouraging. When the Lord told Isaiah in
Isaiah chapter 6, he said, they're going to have ears, but they
will not hear. They'll have eyes, but they will not see. I'm going
to harden their hearts. And Isaiah said, Lord, how long
do I have to preach to such a stiff-necked people? And the Lord said, until
the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the land be utterly
desolate. You just keep preaching the gospel.
Jeremiah put it like this, he said, I will make mention, I'm
sorry, Jeremiah said, I will not make mention of him nor speak
any more of his name. I'm tired of trying to talk to
people who don't have an interest in the gospel. And then he said
this, but, His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut
up in my bones. I was weary with forbearing and
I could not stay or stop from speaking of him." So, as discouraged
as we might get about the few people there are that have an
interest in the gospel, the few people there are that believe
the gospel, Might God be pleased to make our tongue the pen of
a ready writer? Might we have a fire burning
in our bones? Might we want to declare it from
the housetops, to preach the Lord Jesus Christ, because He
is men's only hope. And the truth is that there are
some, there are some, aren't they? Few and far between, there
is a remnant, there is a remnant, and there are some here tonight,
isn't there? that want to hear about the king. They want to
hear about who he is and what he's done in saving his bride. So now she's going to say something
about him. Look at verse two. Thou art fairer
than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips.
Therefore, God hath blessed thee forever. The word holy, I know I've said
this to you many times, but the word holy literally means other. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
here's the conclusion we come to. There's nothing in me that's
like that. There's nothing in me that's
like him. He is other than me in every
way. I cannot make him to be like
me. He's Lord. He's God. He's sovereign. He's holy. He's
omnipotent. And now the bride says, Thou
art fairer. He's talking about Christ. Thou
art fairer than all the children of men. The excellency of His
person. Isaiah chapter 53 says, he hath
no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no
beauty that we should desire him." Now that's the natural
state of the fallen man. The fallen man looks to Christ
and they just think he's like they are. There's no form or
beauty in him that they should desire him or to pursue after
him. It's not until he makes himself
known through the preaching of the gospel that we see something
of his beauty and we're able to say, oh Lord, you're fairer
than all men. God has given you preeminence
over all things. When he makes himself irresistible,
we will say, Lord, thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace
is poured into thy lips. The Lord Jesus Christ always
speaks words of grace to his people. Condemnation, judgment, fire,
that's all the punishment of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ
is seen in Revelation as having a tongue like a flaming sword,
and when the scripture speaks of of him harvesting the wheat
and separating the wheat from the chaff. That's the judgment
of God towards the unbeliever. But towards the child of God,
He always speaks with words of grace. His lips. There's no guile in His lips.
There's no dishonesty. There's no anger. All the fiery wrath of God's
judgment has already been spent. It's been spent. It fell on the
Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. There's no anger in his
heart towards his children. And we just read in Revelation
chapter 19 that when God judges the great whore, the false church,
that woman who calls herself the bride of Christ who is not
the bride of Christ, everyone in heaven is going to cry, hallelujah. Praise God. for the judgment
that he has exercised against her. But that judgment is reserved,
is reserved only for those who will be eternally separated from
God. For his people, there's nothing
but grace, there's nothing but kindness, there's nothing but
mercy, there's nothing but words of love that he has to speak
to his bride Therefore, therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Now the scripture says by your
words you will be condemned or by your words you'll be justified.
And what that is referring to is what we say about the Lord
Jesus Christ will either stand in judgment against us or it
will be our justification before God when we point to the Lord
Jesus Christ and say, He's all. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my justification. He's all the hope of my salvation.
What is the rest of the world going to say? Well, yeah, I believe
in Jesus plus. Plus, a decision I've made, a
prayer I prayed, a work I performed, something that I've done to make
what he did work for me. And the Lord says, by those words,
you'll be judged, you'll be condemned. But you know, in the purest sense
of the word, by your words, you'll be justified and by your words,
you'll be condemned. And the scripture says every
idle word, every idle word will be judged by God. How many idle words you and I
speak? We have one. We have an advocate
with the Father. We have one who never spoke an
idle word. Every word he spoke stands true
before God. Out of his lips pours perfect
grace. See, it's his words that we're
looking to for the hope of our judgment before God. If God holds
us accountable for every idle word that's come out of our mouth,
we're going to be in trouble, aren't we? But those words that came out
of His mouth were never idle. And He's the one that we're being
judged by. He's the plumb line by which the whole world is going
to be held in Standard 2. Look at verse 3. I love this. Now, God raised up 40 men to
pen the scriptures. Forty men. Over a period of 1,500
years, and those 40 men wrote 66 books. And the message is
all the same. It's all the same. The scripture
says, that the prophecies came not of old time by the will of
men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. And that's what he's talking
about here. Look, the bride says to her husband, gird thy sword
upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. Now the scripture makes it clear
that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. It's the
Word of God. We've got God's Word. For the
Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even through the dividing asunder the soul
and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and exposes the
thoughts and the intents of the heart. That's God's Word. Now, what's the bride say? Lord,
gird your sword. speak your word. Lord, it's the
only message I have. Now, the world has not changed.
We live in a... When the prophet said, every man did what seemed
right in his own eyes. Now, that was written 2,500 years
ago and every generation has been that way. Everybody makes
up their own rules. Everybody makes up their own
standards. Everybody does what they think they should be doing.
And that's just the world we live in. God's people are the
only ones that say, no, we have a word from God. We have an absolute
message of truth and righteousness and hope. And the words of men
must all be judged by the word of God. And it is God's word, gird thy
sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. Now the thigh is a symbol
of strength. You remember when Abraham sent
his servant out to find Isaac wife and he made him put
his hand under his thigh and make a covenant with him. And
when the Lord Jesus Christ is seen riding on that white horse
in Revelation, His name, Lord of Lords and King of Kings is
written on His thigh. It's the strongest muscle in
your body and it's a message that the Lord is saying, His
strength is in His Word. His sword is strapped to His
thigh. And when God speaks His Word
effectually to our hearts, it, well, It's omnipotent, isn't it? It's
omnipotent. When God gives you faith to believe
Him, you believe everything He says, everything. You don't need
anyone to prove it. You don't question it. Sid just
said, what did Paul say? He said, what sayeth the scriptures?
That settles all controversy. Whatever the scripture says,
that's what I believe. That's what I believe. So the bride
is now saying, Lord, gird thy sword. I love what Paul said
to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. He said, and some of our young
people, you know, they've lived all their lives hearing the Word
of God. And here's what Paul said. He
said, from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which
is able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God. Of His own will begat He us,
birthed He us into the family of God by His Word. By His Word. And so what's the
bride saying? Lord, gird your sword on your
thigh. Speak your word to my heart.
You know that centurion, you remember what he said? He said,
I know what authority is. I'm a man of authority. I tell
my servants to go, they go. I tell them to come, they come.
And I know that you possess all authority. Speak the word only
and my servants shall be healed. And that's what the bride's saying,
Lord, gird thy sword upon thy thigh. Lord, I'm not interested
in what men have to say. And I'm certainly not interested
in what false religion has to say. I've been thinking lately
about putting on our website a statement of faith. And here's the way it would go. What do we believe about God
and put nothing but scripture about Christ and put nothing
but scripture about salvation and put nothing but scripture.
And there's lots of scriptures that speak very clearly about
what we believe about each one of those things. I'm not interested
in reading some man's interpretation. I'm not interested in having
a creed or a confession that was written by men. God's word
is sufficient. His word's all we need. And the
bride is saying to her husband, and here's a warrior He's coming to his wedding dressed
as a warrior, and he's got a sword on his side. And she calls him,
O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty
ride prosperously. Now this idea that the Lord Jesus
Christ is making an offer of salvation, that he died for everybody,
he loves everybody, he wants everybody to be saved, but he's
depending upon you. That's not what the scripture
teaches. Our God was successful in accomplishing the salvation
of the people that he died for. And his bride now is saying,
oh, ride prosperously. Lord, you accomplished the salvation
of your bride. You did everything necessary
in order for her to be able to come and sit down at the wedding
table. Isaiah chapter 42, behold my servant. whom I uphold, mine elect, and
who my soul delight, if I put my spirit upon him, and he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." He's not going to cry. He's not
going to lift up his voice. He's not going to beg men to
let him have his way. He doesn't have to. When his
word goes out with power and speaks to the heart of his people,
they come. They come. A bruised reed shall
he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged."
The Jesus you hear about today is a miserable failure. But hearing
about him from that harlot that we read about in Revelation chapter
19, you're not hearing about him from his bride. His bride
says, oh no, His sword is strapped to his side, and he is prosperous
and victorious. He has gotten the victory. He's
won the battle. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
63. Here's another picture of our husband. The Bridegroom. Now Edom was a land that was
settled and inhabited by the descendants of Esau. Esau is
a spiritual picture of everything that is at enmity with God. We come into this world at enmity
with God. We come into this world not believing
God, And so we're in a sense Edomites. We're in a land that's
been cursed. And now look what Isaiah says.
Who is this that cometh from Edom? With dyed garments from
Basra. Now Basra means sheepfold. Sheepfold. So here's the picture.
There's a man coming out of Edom. And in Edom is a city called
Basra, which is a sheepfold. And within this cursed land of
the descendants of Esau, there's a group of people. And this man
comes out of Edom and his garments are dyed. This that is glorious in his
apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength, I that speak
in righteousness, mighty to save, wherefore art thou red in thy
apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winepress? So they're asking him, you're
full of blood. You're coming out of Edom. You've
been to Basra and you're all bloody. And so he's gonna answer
now the question when he's asked, why are you all bloody? Where
are you coming from? What have you been doing? I have
trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
with me. And I will tread them in my anger,
and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garment, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of
vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none
to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread
down the people of my anger and make them drunk in my fury, and
I will bring down their strength to the earth." He's coming out
of Basra, and he's saying he's not dragging his sword. He's
not suffering to put one foot before the other as a defeated
warrior. He's coming having conquered.
He's coming having trodden out the winepress all by Himself. He shed His blood to put away
the sins of those that were in Basra that He might bring them
out victorious. And He did it all by Himself.
All by Himself. Now that's exactly what the bridegroom
is saying. in verse 4 of Psalm 45, and in
thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness
and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible
things, strong things. The right hand of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ, and here is bride is glorying in him. saying he's my victor, he's my
conqueror, he's the one that put away my sin, he's the one
that defeated Satan, he's the one that conquered the grave,
he's the one that did everything necessary in order for me to
be his bride. And all my glory is in him. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies whereby the people fall under thee. All
men are going to fall to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going
to fall to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person, every single person
drawing breath will fall to the Lord Jesus Christ. They will
either fall to Him in this life in faith and worship or they
will fall to Him when He smites them with a rod of iron on the
back of their knees and causes every knee to bow. and every
tongue to confess. In that day of judgment, it'll
be too late. But here he says, your arrows are sharp. The arrow
is the arrow of God's word. Sharp to the heart, isn't it?
Oh Lord, make me to fall now. Make me to fall now. Make your
arrows to pierce my heart. Give me the faith to believe
you and to bow now. because in that day it'll be
too late. Now verses 6 and 7 are quoted
in Hebrews chapter 1, you know, when the scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 1 that God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
unto our fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son who is the express image of his person.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness of the Godhead is bodily in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you are complete in Him. And then he
goes on to say in Hebrews chapter 1, God never said to the angel,
sit thou here at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool,
but he said it to his son. Where did he say it? Right here
in Psalm 45. Right here. Verse 6, thy throne, O God, He
is forever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom, is a scepter
of righteousness. Now you think about the kingdoms
of this world. One thing that history I think has proven to
us is that sovereign monarchies don't work. They don't work. And the reason why they don't
work is because power corrupts. We've learned that, haven't we?
And we see nations today that are ruled by sovereign monarchs
and aren't you glad to be living in a republic where you have
a say-so about things and the power doesn't reside in one man?
Well, there is a benevolent monarchy a benevolent monarchy that's
ruled by the most loving and most powerful king. And all of his subjects bow to
him willingly. He has a righteous judgment,
a righteous scepter. Everything he does is right.
Everything. And that's why he says in Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of Thy kingdom
is a right scepter. thou lovest righteousness, and
hatest wickedness. Therefore God thy God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Now what
is that a reference to? Why did God anoint the Lord Jesus
Christ with the oil of gladness above his fellows? Now the scripture
says if we have not the Spirit of God we're none of his. You
remember those five The virgins that didn't have oil in their
lamp, they didn't have the Spirit of God. But we receive the Spirit
of God in measure, don't we? In just such a small portion
of Him. Just enough for us to realize
that we're completely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ for
everything. Just enough to be able to see that we have no righteousness. Enough to be able to see that
all the hope of my salvation is in Him. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, because he loved righteousness, because he hated iniquity, because
he was pure and perfect and holy, God gave him the fullness of
the Spirit of God. That's what it means to be the
Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. He has anointed me with
the oil of gladness. He came in the full power of
the Spirit of God. in order to accomplish the purpose
for which God sent him. Which was what? To save his people. That's what he came to do. How
could he fail? How could he fail? And here the
bride is praising her husband and saying he's come, he's come
back from battle victorious with his sword on his thigh. And he's
all glorious. and powerful, and his throne
is an everlasting throne, and his scepter is a scepter of righteousness,
and God hath given him the fullness of the Spirit of God." Verse
8, all thy garments smell with myrrh and aloes and casea out
of the ivory palaces whereby they made thee glad. These are
his graces. You just read the Song of Solomon
and the church is likened unto a garden, and the bridegroom
goes down into the garden to have fellowship with his wife,
and the garden is full of these sweet-smelling spices. That's
the aroma of his grace. That's all the graces of God,
all the blessings that his bride enjoys as a result of him. Look at the next verse. King's daughters were among thy
honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
the queen in the gold of Ophir. Pure gold. Pure gold. Here's the king's daughter. This
is his bride. This is the wedding party, if you will, that's all
surrounded around the groom. And she's been arrayed with gold. Now in Daniel chapter 10, if
you remember when we studied Daniel 10 just a few weeks ago,
Daniel saw the Lord Jesus Christ and he describes him with this
figurative language and one of the things he says about him
is that his loins were of pure gold, pure gold. Now loins in the scriptures have
to do with reproduction and everything that the Lord Jesus Christ reproduces
Everything that he births into existence, and that's the new
birth, isn't it? You've got to be born again.
How am I going to be born again? You have to be born of the Spirit.
Everything that he births into the kingdom of God is pure gold,
perfect, sinless perfection. And that's how she's described
now. Here's the king's daughters. They were among the honorable
women, and upon thy right hand they did stand. The queen is
there now. There's the church. The queen
and she's in the gold of Ophir. Now in closing, turn back with
me just a couple of pages to Psalm 38. Psalm 38. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
produces is of pure gold. As he is, so are we in this world
and in the world to come without sin. Perfect. All sin was put
away. When was it put away? Well, Psalm
38 is a, is a Psalm from the cross. Remember, this is the
psalm where the Lord says, I will be sorry for my sin. My sin has
overcome me. He's taking on the sins of his
bride and suffering the wrath of God's judgment in order to
put those sins away. Now look what the Lord Jesus
Christ says in verse seven. For my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease. Now in Isaiah chapter 53, God
saw his seed and prolonged his days. So this one who has loins
of pure gold, when he's on the cross he says, my loins are filled
with a loathsome disease. The bride of Christ can only
be called the gold of Ophir because the Lord Jesus Christ bore her
in his loins on the cross. And her loathsome disease was
put away by the sacrifice of himself. And now that disease
has been put away. All our sin is paid for. And she's seen now as one who
is of pure gold. Pure gold. She's made beautiful in His beauty. And all of her,
all of her ugliness was cast into the depths of the sea so
that He sees them no more. No more. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
O how we pray that Your Holy Spirit would speak truth to our
hearts far beyond what any audible voice can say. For we pray it
in Christ's name and for His sake. 186. Let's stand together. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food, and to one hope she presses with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? ? With God the three in one ? ? And mystic sweet communion
? ? With those whose rest is won ? ? O happy ones and holy
? ? Lord give us grace that we ? Like them the meek and lowly
on high may dwell with thee. Thank you, Jordan. th th