Once again, it's just a delight
to be with you, and we have been treated so well. Your pastor
and his wife have treated us so well, so kindly, and your
fellowship is just something we're going to go home and speak
about. Now, I tell my church every time I leave, I brag about
you. Your pastor bragged about you
when he came to Oregon. I pastor the best church. that
I could possibly pastor. I love it where I am. And I expect
someday that I'll be planted there waiting for the resurrection. That's what I expect. I don't
have any interest in moving anywhere else in this world. And you know
what? Other churches have quit calling
me. Would you consider? No. No. Would you join me in that psalm
that was just read? I asked Brother Marvin to read
that. Psalm 18. And I'm not going to
reread it. I'm just going to pick out a
few verses. We were talking last night, and it is so true that
our message is repetitive. We just keep repeating ourselves.
And it was made evident tonight as I was visiting with a brother
and sister here They said, Brother so-and-so was up here and he
preached on the wind. And it was just a lot like how
he controls the wind. And another brother came up and
talked about the valley of dry bones. We're repetitive. One reason is we forget so easily. And secondly, this message is
worth repeating. It's a good message. It's a glorious
message. Now we're going to spend just
a little bit of time here in Psalm 18. And I want to say this
before I begin that the Psalms are devotional. There's no question
about it. There are times when I have desired
to pray and I've read the Psalms and here it is what I want to
say. They are devotional. The Psalms are also historical.
They do record many important events that took place, but Most
of all, of the greatest of value to the church is they are Messianic. They're telling us about our
Savior. They're reporting on the work
and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'll be the first
one to say that I do not understand all the ways in the Psalms that
he is reported as we read just tonight. Some of those verses
of Scripture are difficult to be understood. But there's a
verse of Scripture that has come to my mind as I read through
the Bible, not just the Psalms. We look through a glass darkly.
God has revealed some things to us, and we're privileged to
see some things about the Lord Jesus Christ and his great work
of grace. But we do not know all things.
We pray that he would reveal some more to us, and that may
happen tonight. But it is up to God to do that,
and it is His glory and grace when He does it. And we praise
Him for it. We'll never say, well, I studied
eight hours today, and this is what I got out of it. We'll even
then say, thank God He revealed this to me. And I just want to
share a little bit of it. A number of years ago, I was
visiting with a pastor, and I said, have you ever preached through
the Psalms, verse by verse? And he says, I've done it twice
and I'm working on the third time. First time took me, I believe,
seven years. Second time, nine years. And
he says, this third time, I will never get through it. I said,
brother, if you can do it three times, I'm going to try it once.
Now, we've been about three years and we're in chapter 19 or Psalm
19 now. It is a wonderful book of the
great victories of Christ. And that's what I want to talk
about tonight. This psalm encourages the saints of God with the continued
statements and pictures of the victory of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ over all his enemies and over all the enemies of the
church. Every victory that is recorded
is a real victory. It is not just a contained victory,
but it is a victory. And several times in that Psalm
18, as Brother Marvin read it, there was an account or a restatement
or a repetitive way of saying much the same thing, that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord and he is victorious over every
one of his enemies all the time. And he purposed to do that. And
it was determined before the foundation of the world that
he would do what he did in time. And he was successful at it.
The victory our Lord Jesus Christ has won is based on several things. Number one, let me say this,
and may I say it, do not give me a God that wants to and can't. That's not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible is the Lord God Almighty. I have a Bible class teacher
and I just love him. He presents the word in my Bible
class and I just love to fellowship with him and visit with him and
we talk about things. And one time he mentioned, it's
not the Lord God almost, it's the Lord God Almighty. And there
is no Lord God almost, there is only the Lord God Almighty. That's who is declared in this
book. And I want to say too as we begin, grace cannot act Well,
there is ability. Now, if you have ability. Then
you have not grace. Grace is unmerited favor, and
if we have an ability in an area, then we'll never be given grace
for that. Now we're going to find out that
grace does not help. It is absolute. So as we read
through a few verses here in the Psalms, Psalm 18, and read
about the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over His enemies,
He is going to be absolute with His grace. What does that mean?
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. End of statement. Period and explanation point. Because if the Lord has ever
shown us about His grace, and about his mercy, we are thankful
that he picked us up out of the place we were in and showed it
to us, because we'd never got there on our own. And what we
see God doing in time, if we see the victory of the Lord Jesus
in here, what we see him doing in time, going to the cross,
his own personal ministry, or the record that is given by the
Holy Spirit to his secretary most of the time, David, in the
Psalms, What we see there is the purpose of God before the
foundation of the world in the covenant of grace being carried
out in time. Every step that Jesus Christ
took during his personal ministry was preordained before the foundation
of the world. He never took a misstep. Now, the other day in getting
prepared, I almost got out to the car and remembered I'd forgotten
something. I was on a misstep. I had to
go back to the house. The Lord Jesus never, ever had
a misstep. Every step he took was determined
before the world began that he would take it, and he fulfilled
it. He came to do his Father's will
and accomplish it. All enemies, even the best equipped,
will fall before the Lord God Almighty. Now, would you turn,
keep your finger right here, but would you just turn ahead
a couple of chapters, a couple of Psalms, excuse me, to Psalm
24 and verse 8. Psalm 24 and verse 8. As we look
here, we find and we can watch the Savior in battle as he goes
against the enemy. Now, I've never seen, and I guess
I hope I never see, a physical battle where there's two armies
thrown against each other and bullets are flying. But this battle that the Lord
fought on our behalf, he disconfitted his enemy, tied them up, beat
them down, pulverized them, threw them out in the street to walk
on, and they will never be his enemy again. And the scripture
share with this who shall lay any charge to God's elect. It is God that justify us. That's a wonderful thing. It
is a conclusive statement for the church to say he was victorious. And I love to read about my savior
and his victories. Psalm 25 or excuse me, Psalm
24 and verse 8. The scripture says this. Who
is this king of glory? Answer, the Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle. So that's who we're reading about.
The Lord mighty in battle. He is going to go up against
his enemies. He is going to whip them severely into the point
that they will never rise up again. David illustrated this
point when he went up against that nine-foot man. He went up
against him with a Providential stone. But you know, he made
sure that that giant never, ever, even though he was thumped in
the forehead, he made sure that that giant never walked again. He decapitated him and showed
off. He will never be our enemy again. That's how Jesus Christ wins
his victories. They are so conclusive. that
there isn't even a whimper out of the enemy. Going back to Psalm 18 now. Psalm 18, verse 37. I have pursued my enemies
and overtaken them. Neither did I turn again till
they were consumed. That's one of the blessings that
God has given to his church, that he was so successful that
when he went against them, he never turned away until it was
over. He never stopped halfway. He never went up against his
enemy and said, that's enough. They've already raised their
hand in surrender. He was going to totally defeat
them. And in that same Psalm, Psalm
40, or excuse me, Psalm 18 and verse 40, it says here, Thou
hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might
deliver them that hate me. And then in that same Psalm,
Psalm 18 and verse 42, Then did I beat them small as the dust
before the wind. I did cast them out as the dirt
in the street. These verses illustrate the point
of the completeness of this victory that the Lord Jesus Christ won
over all our enemies. In the book of Revelation, it
shares this. He goes forth conquering and
to conquer. That's this king. Conquering
and to conquer. And he has put away sin, it tells
us in the book of Hebrews. Now, the question I had as I
went through here, what? Who? is the enemies of Christ. That's who I want to know. That's
what I want to know. Who's His enemies? And if I can
find out who His enemies are and find out that He totally
disconfitted them and put them asunder, then I can sit back
here and say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive all
glory, honor, and praise. Now, we find right off that the
Lord Jesus Christ dealt with great enemies. He dealt with
sin. He put away sin for his people. He dealt with it in such a way
that he on the cross who he became sin for us in such a way. And I'm never going to be able
to understand that on this side of heaven. And I'm not sure that
it will even be brought up on that side of heaven. I don't
know. But he was so completely sin for us that in his death
he paid the very last sin of his people. Completely. And there'll be no charge brought
against him. It also tells us that he dealt with death. Death
is no longer the enemy of the church. In fact, he has made
death our friend. It is death. that introduces
us to the king. It is death that we pass through
and we're brought into his presence. We also find that we deserve
hell, but he took that away from us. In those three hours when
Jesus Christ was on the cross, when he suffered the intensity,
I can get a picture in the Old Testament. I can't get the reality,
but in the Old Testament, the priest came out, took a lamb,
slew it, cut the blood, and then put this lamb on an altar and
God set down fire from heaven and consumed it. That's what
happened to Jesus Christ on the cross. God set down that fire. The pain of the nails was not
what killed him. The pain of being on the cross,
the beatings, the crown of thorns. We can look at all of those things
and say, oh, that was terrible. And it was. But the Father is
who poured out His wrath on His Son when He became sin for us
and consumed the sacrifice so completely that sin would never
be brought up against His children again. That's a hallelujah point. No more would sin be a part of
us in that sense. We find that He also dealt with
the eternal hell that we deserve. I cannot imagine what I read.
I try to express it, but I cannot imagine what I read over in the
book of Revelation about the second death. About death and
hell cast into the lake of fire. Have you read that? That's serious. I've got family there. My mom
and dad were religious, but they did not know the gospel. I've
had to come to the conclusion that that's where they are. Death
and hell was cast into the lake of fire. They will be there for
eternity. My grandparents were religious
people, but they did not know the Gospel. They are standing
and waiting, not for whether they're good or bad, but for
the time they will be cast into everlasting punishment. Jesus Christ in those three hours
on the cross He took care of that for every one of His children. I do not know how He could do
it. In three hours, take care of the eternity that was due
us in that severely punishing place. And then I find out that
the Lord also took care of my grave. Oh, grave, where's your
victory? The Lord took care of that. Now,
I read about an old preacher. And he says he has never ran
into a believer that's afraid to die. What we're afraid of
is how it's going to happen. And I think he's right. Am I
going to die of cancer? Am I going to be in a plane wreck?
We don't know. But when it happens, God will
take care of it. He'll give us dying grace. Now, I want to deal
with in the time I have left, I would like to deal with the
enemies of God that are more. They're more closely related
to us. They're personal to us. And that
God took care of these enemies, too. Yes, he did take care of
sin. And yet he did take care of hell.
And he did take care of the grave. And he did take care of all those
enemies. But there's other enemies that God took care of that are
much closer to us today. The first one I'd like to look
at, would you turn with me over to the book of Romans chapter
eight? This is a serious enemy against God, and that is our
very nature. God has said some things, and
here we find that in Romans 8, verse 7, these words are recorded. The Apostle Paul was a recorder. He was a secretary. He was not
allowed to add to or take from God's Word. God delivered it
to him. Paul wrote it down, and we have the translation of that. and we are thankful. I'm thankful
for it. But here in Romans chapter 8
and verse 7, it shares these words. Because the carnal mind
is enmity. Now it doesn't say at enmity,
it says enmity. That means we are seriously angry
with God. It means we're bare against God. And that's what we are by nature.
Thank God Almighty he took that enemy on because in regeneration
he gives us a new heart and no longer are we angry with God.
It took a serious activity of a Christ Holy God to deal with
our enmity and he did. It tells us here for as not subject
to the law of God neither indeed can be and in the book of Luke
19 it tells us he's sharing an account and he says those that
worked in my vineyard says, we will not have this man rule over
us. Believers, are you glad that
Jesus Christ rules over the church? Yea and amen. We're so thankful
that he rules in our hearts. We're thankful that he took away
this enmity, and he did it at the cross. He took away the bitterness,
the anger that we had by nature against God. We are born that
way, but we work on it in our lifetime, too. Being angry with
the message of God, being angry with the way of God, being angry
with the purpose of God. Why is false doctrine so popular? because people are angry with
God. They do not want to submit, and
they indeed cannot submit. And it is because of God's victory
at the cross that He causes us to have a new heart, and we rejoice
that He won that victory over our old will and our old nature. And now, because of that new
heart, we can praise God and mean it. We can be serious about
it. Now, we may not be able to do
it like we want to. And we may not be able to do
it like we're going to. But we certainly do it better than we
used to. Praising God. He took away that old very nature. Turn with me just over there
to Luke, would you? Luke chapter 19 and verse 14. I want to read that verse. Luke
chapter 19. The enemies of God are personal
to us. We are, by nature, enmity against God. We would dethrone
Him if we could have. Why did Jesus Christ get crucified? Now, one of the reasons, we know,
He paid our sin debt. But from the human standpoint,
God permitted man, Jews and Gentiles, male and female, bond and free,
permitted man to do with God what they always wanted to do
with God. Kill him. And they carried it
out because God purposed it. Woe unto him who betrayed him. Some man went as determined.
All right. Luke chapter 19, verse 14. The
Scripture shares here, and I just mentioned that, but his citizens
hated him. and sent a message after him,
saying, We will not have this man reign over us. Now drop down,
if you would, to verse 27. But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay
them before me." This is serious business. If we will not have
God reign over us, if we declare, I will not have him reign over
us, he said, bring them here. And that's what will happen.
We will stand before God in judgment and he will say, put away, depart
from me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Oh, it's serious. But those God has saved, he has
worked this work of grace. and given them the victory in
the Lord Jesus because he took the victory and he won it over
our very nature, our wills. Jesus said to a group of people
one time, you will not come to me that you might have life.
Our wills are a serious depredation against God. We will not come
to God. We need somebody. If we're ever
going to meet God, We need somebody that will defeat that enemy and
make it possible so that we can be drawn to God. It's real close
to us. It's our nature not to exercise
our will towards God. It's our nature to exercise our
will against God. We can have all the gospel brought
to us and it's like, do you have a zoo here? No, okay. Your pastor doesn't know. Some places have a zoo. And there's
several kinds of critters in there. There's carnivores. And
there's grass eaters. And you can take a piece of steak
and drop it in front of a lion and it's going to eat it because
it's nature. But give it a bale of hay. It's ready to do it. But it won't eat it because it's
nature is not that. Our nature is not, our will is
not oriented towards God. And because of His wonderful
work of grace on the cross, He broke down that partition. He demolished it, pounded it
up, threw it out in the street, if you please. I mentioned last
time, I raised a garden this last year. I found out that there
were some grasshoppers working in my garden. Those great big
ones like this. I would chase them around. They'd
get tired pretty quickly. And I'd get them on the ground
and I'd get my hoe down. Whomp! And it flooded a little
bit and I'd pound it again and pound it again and pretty soon
it was mush. That's what I thought of when
I read this passage about the Lord Jesus Christ. beating his
enemies to powder and throwing them out in the street. And that's
what he did with my old stubborn will. He pounded it to powder
and threw it out in the street. And he says, I give you a will
to worship me. And you know what? It happens. God is gracious to do that. Our
minds Our mind is terrible. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 14. There is an enemy here and
God must overcome it and he will for his people. He will overcome
it and he continues to overcome it. I really appreciate the conversation
I had with your pastor last night about salvation. It doesn't matter
what you did yesterday. How are you doing today? Who
did you trust yesterday? That doesn't make a hill of beans
different. Who do you trust today? Who is all important today? Who
is your savior today? It's not he who begins the race,
it's he who finishes the race. That's who's important. This
is that God will save us, save all of his people to carry out
to the end. But there's many draggers on
and they don't enter to the end. My greatest concern in my church
are those who tell me how much they love the gospel and I never
see them. That's a grave concern to me.
It's not those who started out, it's those who finished the race. And God will give that to us,
the endurance. We don't create it, He gives
it to us. Why? Because He won over our nature,
He won over our wills, He won over our mind. 2 Corinthians
chapter 3 and verse 14. We read these words with regard
to this subject. Chapter 3 and verse 14 of the
book of 2 Corinthians, but their minds were blinded. For until
this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of
the Old Testament." That reading was, keep the long live, keep
the long live, keep the long, oh my goodness. But listen, which
veil is done away, how? In Christ. The victory of the Lord Jesus
Christ won completely over all enemies, so completely that he
ground them up and pulverized them. He overcame them. One of
those verses said he went up and took the iron bow away from
them and broke it. No, it took a real person to
pull an iron bow. Now, that word should have been
translated bronze, but it doesn't matter. I was reading in one
of the commentaries, the man had to get on his back and pull
that bow with his feet. But the Lord Jesus Christ spiritually
goes up against our iron bow, our greatest strength, our greatest
resistance, our greatest, greatest, greatest religion, and takes
it away from us. And what does he do with it?
He breaks it. So we'll never get involved with
it again. That's the victory the Lord Jesus
Christ gives his people. I've had many people come to
me and say, the Lord is so gracious to save me out of the religion
I was in. And you know what, Norm? I can't
go back. And I can't go listen to it anymore.
It makes me sick. You know, that's good news. The
Gospel will delight us. Garbage. Swill. We can't handle
it anymore. We don't want to hear it. It
says here in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 14, It says, in the reading
of the Old Testament, the Jews, everybody in fact, they're blinded. Minds were blinded. For until
this day, this veil is taken away, which veil is done away
in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
he, when Christ shall turn, when they shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away. What happens? Our mind is opened
up. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus."
We have a mind that's been given to us by Christ, and we are privileged
to think about some spiritual things. But we get to see the
Savior in His victory for us. All that He did was on our behalf.
He satisfied God, yes. He satisfied the law, yes. He
satisfied justice, yes. He gave us mercy, yes. But He
did it because He loved us with an everlasting love, and He will
not change on that. Our thoughts. Genesis chapter
6 and verse 5. The thoughts and intents of the
heart were only evil continually. You know, that's God's commentary
Us, before he gives us his son? Only evil continually. And I
thought about Jesus today. I didn't think of him as my Savior.
I thought of him as someone I could manipulate. But this victory
that God gives his people is he deals with that, our thoughts,
in that new man that's created. God gives us the ability. Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation in my heart be acceptable
unto thee, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Oh, can I think
about you. I wasn't able to before, but
now I can because He has won that victory. And then, turn
with me to Luke, if you would. Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter
18 and verse 11. This is a great enemy. We all by nature have this idea,
and I don't care whether they're down on the islands, in Africa,
in the greatest metropolitan area in the world, whether it's
in small towns or large towns, wherever it is, this is a real
issue. And that issue is our self-righteousness. Oh. What did this man say? Luke 18, verse 11. And this is so common. This is
so common among natural men. Luke 18. And the Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself. God, that's good so far. I thank Thee I'm not as other
men are. Oh my goodness. We have a real enemy. Thank God
Almighty he has won that victory. He took that. You know what God's
people trust now? Christ's righteousness. We do
not depend on our righteousness. We know our righteousness is
as filthy rags. Our righteousness present. Our
own righteousness. Our own righteousness is filthy
rags. His righteousness is white as
snow. It's His righteousness that has
made a difference. This one says the Pharisees stood,
and I like what a pastor down in Florida, Brother Greg Elmquist,
said about this. He said, we are, every believer,
every one of God's children are recovering Pharisees. We deal
with it all the time. But thank God he's taken that.
He has said, I thank thee, God. I thank thee that I'm not like
other men are. extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as a sinner, this publican. Self-righteousness is a killer. We're depending on it instead
of God. It's our nature to do that. And
the Lord God Almighty is so gracious to take that, take his hammer
on the anvil and beat that to a pulp. so fine it can be thrown
out in the road and never be recognized again. And God's people
will never depend on their self-righteousness again to approach a thrice-holy
God. The result of the victory by
the Lord Jesus is an absolute dependence on God for all things
spiritual. He's all and in all. He is all
my hope. David said in his closing hours,
he's all my hope and all my salvation. That's the confession of someone
that God has come and shook and shook to the point they shivered
their timbers and broke them. And in fact, we find a passage
of Scripture where he makes us contrite. I didn't realize until
the other day, and that's over in Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15. Now, he doesn't do this to our
physical body. He does this spiritually. Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15. A word is used in here that I
had a misconception about. Looked it up in somebody's dictionary
and this word, Isaiah 57 verse 15, it says, For thus saith the
high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Now the word
contrite, I looked that up and I said, wow, this is something
we cannot do to ourselves. We cannot make ourselves contrite
because this word means to crumble, to bruise, to beat to pieces,
break in pieces. And there's not a man, woman,
boy or girl that will do that. But thank God Almighty that he,
in his victory over all his enemies, took this. And He makes us contrite. What's He do? He beats us to
pieces in Christ Jesus. The same word is used about the
Lord Jesus in Isaiah 53. He hath bruised Him. He hath
bruised Him. He beat Him to pieces, if you
please. Spiritually speaking. Figuratively
speaking. And in so doing, He did that
for His children. He beat them to pieces. Didn't
lay a hand on them. The substitute took it all. The substitute took it all. But God recognizes that in His
children, that they are the results of the crucifixion of His very
Son. And they are the light that came
out of the dead. They're the ones that have had
this victory happen to them. As it tells us in Psalm 18, there
he took and beat his enemies to a powder and threw them out
into the streets. And that's what he did for us.
He took all our sin, yes, but he took our nature and our wills
and our mind and our thoughts and our self-righteousness. And
he beat them to a pulp in Christ so that he could give us peace. Peace that we could not have
by nature, but peace that we can have through Jesus Christ.
He is the author and finisher of our salvation. He is the Prince
of Peace. He is the only one that can deal
with all those issues and deal with them successfully. Oh, we
can go to this guy. I read about Ben Franklin one
time. It was New Year's Eve and he was going to make some resolutions.
He made several. And you know, he made it through
about a week. And then he noticed, I can't
keep it up. When I keep this one going, this
one falls away. We just can't do it. And we have the wrong reason
for doing it. But the Lord God Almighty, in His death, His burial,
and His resurrection, won a victory. And He won a victory for the
church. And He won a victory for His people, all the same.
And that victory was so complete that now we call Him my God. We bow before Him because He's
given us His righteousness. We are tied to Him. We have a union with Him. We were broken, but now we're
fixed because of His great victory at the cross. And He took care
of all our enemies. And now in this present day,
in this hour, in this moment, he is exercising his victory
when he goes forth in a service like this or a service somewhere
else where the gospel is being preached, and he is conquering
and to conquer. He takes his people and conquers
them. And when it's over, we say thank
you. I know I would have never bowed
until you gave me a heart to bow.