In Psalm 72, in the first 10
verses of the Psalm, we saw the clear theme, the dominion of
Christ. And this same thought takes us
right into the last half of the chapter. Look at verse 11, where
we'll start tonight. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him. All nations shall serve him. In 1 Timothy 6.15, Paul said,
In his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate,
the king of kings and lord of lords. Even kings have a king
in God's kingdom. And if kings bow down to him,
then what are we going to do? Revelation 17 14 these shall
make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them They're
gonna fail they're gonna fall for he is Lord of Lords and King
of Kings and They that are with him are called and chosen and
faithful He is the King of Kings Kings will fall down before him
and there's somebody with him and There is one ultimate authority.
We're all gonna bow to the King of Kings sooner or later. And as we saw in verses two and
four, and in John five, all judgment is committed unto him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. All judgment, that is the deciding
of every issue, everything that's important, everything that needs
to be decided, he's gonna decide it. We saw in verse 8 that His dominion
is universal from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends
of the earth. We saw something very important also and we need
to reiterate it here because it is very important. Christ's
authority here is unquestionable. He has dominion. He has all judgment
committed to Him. He has all authority committed
unto Him. But what is the significance of the Father committing all
judgment unto the Son? And as it says in Matthew 28,
18, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations. This is what we call the Great
Commission. Go and preach, teach, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And this is
significant because we see this in our text, we see it all through
the scripture really. He came and spake to them and
said, all power is given unto me, therefore you go. Because
here's the thing, all power is given to him for a reason, for
a purpose, for a specific purpose. All power is mine, therefore
you go preach. Because all power is his to an
end. A goal is going to be accomplished
by him having all authority. All power was his as God before
the world began. All power didn't need to be given
to him as God, that's just what it means to be God, you have
all authority. That was essential to his character.
and just simply by virtue of being God. But as a man, as the
God man, as the son of man, as the son of God, he is given power
by the Father. Why? He answers that question
in John 17 too. Thou hast given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. That's why he has all power.
We will see that in our text in a minute. We saw that in John
chapter 5. All judgment is committed unto
me that I should give life to whomsoever I will. All authority,
and then do you see the connection between this and Matthew 28,
18, and 19 where we just read? He said, all power is given unto
me, therefore you go preach. All power is his for the purpose
of saving his people. How's he gonna do that? By the
preaching of the gospel. And so that's why he said, all
power is mine, therefore you go do what I sent you to do.
I'm gonna accomplish through you what I came to do, and the
purpose for which the Father gave me all authority. to save
my elect. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them as they believe on the gospel. The
very power, now this is important, that may sound like a very simple
and basic truth, and it is, but there's a lot of truth that goes
with that. You think about this. The very
power of God's throne is exerted for the purpose of saving God's
elect. Christ is lifted up on the throne
of all authority and judgment and dominion for that specific
purpose. Now what does that tell you? The means whereby that happens
is you and I going and preaching. That's why he said it the way
he did. And do you see the certainty of it? The promise of God's grace
to all the seed, to all the elect is sure It is as sure as the
very power and authority of Christ. Salvation does not depend upon
man's will. It depends upon Christ's sufficiency
and surety of his people. Do you see that here? He has
all power that he might give eternal life. And he said to
his disciples, Because it was his will that that life come
through the hearing of the gospel, he said, all power is mine. Now you go preach to him. I'm
gonna save him by my mighty arm. So go preach to him, because
that's how I'm gonna save him. Do you see that beautiful truth
here? It's not a question of man's will, it's simply a question,
it's a matter of whether or not Christ is able to get it done.
With all of the authority of God, is he able to save who he
came to save? That's the question. That's why
he asked those blind men in Matthew 9, 28. When he was coming to
the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus saith unto
them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? Do you think I can
help you? Do you think I can have mercy
on you? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Do you? Do you believe
he can do what he came to do? Do you believe he can do the
impossible? Do you believe that he can be just and yet justify
sinners? Do you believe that his precious
blood is worth enough to pay for all of the sins of all of
his people for all time? Is his righteousness, without
blemish and without spot, enough that all of his sheep, all for
whom he stood surety, can stand before God without blame? You see what salvation hinges
on? Thank God it doesn't hinge on
you and me. This is why Darius asked Daniel
in Daniel 620. And when he came to the den,
he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. He loved Daniel.
And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of
the living God, is your God whom you serve continually able to
deliver you from the line? You see why that story is in
God's book? This is the question. This is what everything hinges
upon. Is Christ able to do it? The
Father gave him all power to get it done. This is the same reason he raised
up Pharaoh. Now you think about this. From
the peak of the highest throne on this earth at the time, God
plunged him from there into the depths of hell. Why? For defying
his authority, his dominion. And he said he did it to make
his power known. Isn't that what he said? To make
my power known. That's why he's gonna save you
too. To show that by his mighty arm, he can save to the uttermost
those that come to God by him. It's to make his power known
in whether it's wrath or mercy, whether it's life or death. And
you and I will attribute power unto him, sooner or later, one
way or the other. In Pharaoh's case, we see that
Pharaoh's fall was not for lack of power on Christ's part. When
a sinner goes to hell, it's not for lack of power on Christ's
part. On the contrary, that's why he
sends them there, he said, to make my power known. And in the
case of God's sheep, we see the invincible power of his precious
blood. to save sinners to the uttermost.
Pharaoh fell really far. He fell from the highest throne
on this earth all the way to hell. And God reached way down
for me. You see where his dominion and
power, it'll take the highest and bring
them down and then get hold of the lowest. Lift the beggar off
of the dunghill and set him among princes. That's the power of
my Lord Jesus Christ. All power. Kings are going to bow down to
him and beggars are going to be lifted up and exalted by his
power. He sets up one and puts down
another. God honored the son. Now think
about this. God honored his son by bestowing
all power and authority and judgment upon him. The government is on
his shoulders, Isaiah said, so that he might save us. So what's
going to be the result of that? We're going to honor the son.
God honored the son and gave him all power so that he would
save us, and then we're going to honor the son. It's all about
honoring His Son. The Father judges no man but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son that all men should honor
the Son. God honored Him by committing
all judgment unto Him and He did it so that we would honor
Him. Now this is important to see now. Because this is what
nobody in religion understands. They think it's all about you.
It's not all about you. It's not all about me. It's all
about Him. I just won't in on it, don't
you? I just won't in on it. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. And to say that
Jesus died to try to save everybody and now it's up to them, you're
not honoring the Son now. And the Father's not gonna be
pleased with that. Because he said he gave all power to the
son to get a job done. And you're saying he can't get
it done without your help. I can't think of a way to more
dishonor the son, can you? Than to say he can't do what
he came to do? What he sits on the throne in order to accomplish,
he can't get it done? Do you see, let me say it one
more time before we move on to the next point. Now the son is
honored that he might be honored. Oh, that we might honor God's
son. That's what this whole shootin' match is about. His dominion,
his authority, is directly related to the certainty of the salvation
of his sheep, and we see that, and we say, Lord, if you will,
you can. All power is given unto you so
that you can, and you certainly can. If you will, you can save
me. That's what you came to do. It's to save those who it pleases
you to save, those that you love, those that you've chosen. So
if it's your will to save me, I'm fixing to be saved, and I
know that. That's who I come to. If you didn't come to that
one, you didn't come to the Lord. And we see it in our immediate
text. Look at the next verses, verse 12. For he shall save.
What did we just get through talking about? His dominion,
kings are going to bow down to him. We see kings bowing down
to him, and then we see him saving people. That's why he's on the
throne that he's on, in order to save his people. He shall
deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath
no helper. You don't need any other helper.
And he shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls
of the needy, He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence,
and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Oh, now, we
got to see the gospel here. What's the gospel? Have you ever
heard anybody say the gospel is who he is, what he did, why
he did it, and where he is right now? Have you ever heard anybody
say that? What are we seeing in this text? Who is he? Kings bow down to him, that's
who he is. The centurion knew who he was,
didn't he? He said, all you got to do is
say it. That leper knew who he was. Lord, if you will, you can.
The thief knew who he was. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Do you know who he is? That's
the question. And I'm not talking about intellectually.
If you don't live before King Jesus, then you don't know he's
the king. And I don't either now. It's not a doctrinal belief. It is a constant acknowledgement
every moment of our lives. He shall deliver, he shall spare,
he shall save, he shall redeem. Do you see that? We see him lifted
up and then we see him saving. That's what he said. All power
is given unto me, therefore you go preach and I'm gonna save
him. You've given me power over all flesh that I might save them.
And that's what we're seeing here. Who is he? This is vital
now. All kings are gonna bow. This
is Jesus the King. That's what it said over his
head now when he was crucified. God made sure of it so that there
could be no mistake in it. This is Jesus the King. Who is it that died? Forget about talking about somebody
down on the cross unless you know who it is that died there.
Who lived? Who came? Who's coming? So this is what we see. Who is
he? What did he do? Delivered, spared, saved, redeemed. All those words are in verses
12 through 14 there where we just read. Deliver, spare, save,
and redeem. Who he is and what he did. That's
what he did. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save. Why did he do it? Look at the
last part of verse 14. How come he would do that? Why
in the world would he save a worm like me? Because I was precious
to him. He shall redeem their soul. He's
gonna redeem them now. That's a key word here. The price
for freedom. a price paid to effect freedom. He shall redeem their soul, and
what's it gonna take? Well, whatever it is, he's gonna
give it, David said. You know why? Because you're
precious to him. If you're his, you're precious
to him, and he's gonna redeem you. My business before God now is
to comfort you. And it's psalms like this that
makes it real easy to do. What did it take? What did it
take to redeem you? Well, you know that you weren't
redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. That's how precious he is to
you. You wanna know how important something that I own is to me? Find out how much I paid for
it. And that may just tell you how important it was to me. The
precious blood of Christ. I know that my blood is precious
to him because he gave his precious blood to redeem me from death. And their blood being precious,
now it has reference to their death. And as we've seen, it
speaks of their value to Him in all of His regard of us. But regarding their death also,
we have Psalm 116.50, precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints. Because they're precious to Him.
Because of His death, our death is gained. Our death shall unite
us to him in the ultimate sense. I know that's one reason why
our death is precious to him. I was thinking today about my
friend and brother, Tommy Robbins, and Robin put a picture of her
and him online, and it just reminded me. But to think about that,
this is something that we would agree with. The precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. But that brings
it home, doesn't it? When my friend died, as he laid
on that bed, dying of cancer, that was precious to our Lord.
That was a special thing to his Savior. And I know part of that is it's
because death unites us in a way that we've never been united. Now look at the result of his
salvation of us, verse 15. And he shall live, and to him
shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made
for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. Now this
seems to refer to the poor and needy mentioned previously in
the passage we read a moment ago. He shall live, that poor
and needy one whom the Lord delivers and redeems and saves. But if you apply it to Christ,
you know it's going to teach the same truth. If it's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, it teaches the same thing, because
we live in Him. Because He lives, we live. Because
He's rich, we're rich, we're joint heirs with Him. We're blessed
in Him, and that's what that word is there at the end, blessed.
But let's look at these one at a time, just briefly. He shall
live, He shall live. John 11, 25, Jesus said unto
her, I am the resurrection and the life, Remember we were talking
a minute ago about how important it is who he is? That's what
he's teaching Martha there. I am the resurrection. I am. I am. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. He shall live. That's
the result of him saving, redeeming, delivering me. I'm gonna live. There is a direct result because
he has all power in order to accomplish it. Because of who he is, I shall
live. That's what he just said to Martha
there in John 11, 25. Because I am, therefore, your brother's
gonna live. And all who believe on me will.
Because I am. Because I am. You see that? Not
if, because. There's a big difference between
because and if. It's the difference between life
and death now. It's the difference between the gospel and heretical
nonsense. The imaginations of men that
passes for a gospel in this wicked world. Because or if? Because I am. Your brother will live. And all
who believe on me will live. All right, they're gonna have
the gold of Sheba. What is that talking about? Well, Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. This gold here
is representative of the riches that we have in Christ Jesus.
Oh, the depth of the riches. And then prayer continually,
will be made for him. You know what that's all about.
That's part of our salvation, isn't it? He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. That's our salvation now. Why wasn't the apostle Peter
sifted as wheat by Satan, just like Judas was? Because the Lord
said, I've prayed for you, that's why. That's why. And then fourthly,
daily shall he be, and that word there is blessed. The word praised
is blessed there now, and let me define it for you. The best way you can define a
word is by how it's used elsewhere in scripture. The same word there
for praised in verse 15 It's translated blessed in Genesis
12 to where God met with Abraham and said, and I will make of
thee a great nation and I will bless you and make your name
great and you shall be a blessing. You want to be a blessing because
I'm going to be a blessing to you. You see that how that's
used there. That's what it is in our text.
We're going to be blessed daily, daily, daily. And you can't forfeit
it. You remember we talked about
Abraham? He went into that city and did everything wrong, everything
that ought to have brought misfortune and tragedy upon his head, and
he left a rich man because God's blessing was upon him. He went
into Egypt is where he went. David said in Psalm 23 verse
6 and all everything in that psalm springs from verse 1 the
Lord is my shepherd Therefore I shall not want I'm
gonna lie in green pastures. I'm gonna have the table prepared
for me and This surely the goodness and mercy of God shall follow
me That word is pursue me all the days of my life. I'm being
chased by two hounds all through my life, and I can't get away
from them. You know what they are? The goodness
of God and the mercy of God. I can't get away. They're faster
than me. I can't escape them. I've tried.
In my idiocy, I've tried, and I can't get away. And they're
gonna chase me, like David said, all the days of my life. And
because of that, I'm gonna dwell in his house forever. They're
gonna chase me all the way to God's house. Those four things right there,
that's the result of his redemption, his deliverance,
his salvation. In verse 16, there shall be a
handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains.
The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the
city shall flourish like grass of the earth. There's a lot of
different thought, you know, when there's a verse like this,
it's not expressly clear maybe in the translation. But you know what this, it seems
pretty clear once I had it explained to me in a commentary. This handful
of corn, I believe that's the Lord, don't you? You think about
that for a second. There's a handful of corn in
the earth, just a handful of corn, and you know what's gonna
happen? Everybody in the city, the city of God, the kingdom,
Jerusalem, the city of peace, is gonna flourish like the grass
of the earth. If there's one thing that flourishes
in this earth, it's grass, isn't it? You cut it down and you can
almost see it growing back. That's going to be us. And we're
just feeding on that handful of corn. It's just a handful
of corn now. It seems insignificant to this world, but it never ends. Everybody in the city is going
to get some of it, and it's never going to diminish a single bit.
You remember in the picture when Elijah came to that widow and
she said, well, I've just got a handful of meal in a barrel,
just a handful and a little bit of oil in a cruise. And I'm going
to make a cake out of that for my son and I, and we're going
to eat it. And then we're going to starve to death because that's
the end of it. And, you know, God blessed that handful through
his prophet and it never diminished. She just kept pulling. Kept pulling
wheat out of that, that meal out of that barrel and oil out
of that cruise. And there was always more. Just
a handful, that's all it is. This world, it's of no account. But that's our Lord Jesus Christ
and all of his people are gonna feed upon him and feed upon him
and his flesh is meat indeed. And his blood is drink indeed
and will never be hungry. Will never be hungry. and never
thirst. If Christ is all you have, you
have everything, and you're gonna flourish. Verse 17, his name
shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him. All nations
shall call him blessed. You know, forever, I like that
word forever. He is gonna be who he is forever,
and who is he? all dominion, all judgment, all
power, in order to save his people. And saving his people, now, that's
not an experience that you, like, oh, I got saved, you know, 10
years ago. Him saving his people, that is a lifetime of blessing.
Even before you knew he was blessing you, he was blessing you. And
even now when you don't know he's blessing you, he's blessing
you. That is a lifetime of God's Sweet favor, that's what salvation
is. And it's all in Christ, because
of Christ and who He is and what He did, the shedding of His,
the redemption that's in His precious blood, all that we've
seen in our text. And He's gonna be that for you
forever, it said. Did you see that forever? The
curse of this earth is that even the relative good that we experience
in natural things is so fleeting, is it not? If that's all you
have, it's like a vapor, isn't it? What a tragedy if that's
all you have. We experience some good in this
world, but that, the things of this earth, the fashion of this
earth passes away. Summer's gonna be over soon.
I love summer, but it's not gonna last. The cold wind is gonna
blow again. And it won't be long. Nothing
gold can stay. If you've never heard that poem,
look it up, that's a good one. Nothing gold can stay. That's
true of this earth now, but the good news is that the gold that
Christ gives, verse 15, that gold we saw he give, it shall
stay. His gold does stay because he
is that gold. He is that gold. And He is who
He is forever, He changes not. And because He doesn't, we're
not consumed, we're saved, we're safe, we're blessed forever. There is no beginning to our
blessing and no end to it because He is who He is. Is that beautiful
there? When you see as long as the sun,
did you see that? As long as the sun. Can you ever
look at a sunrise the same again after seeing that? As long as
the sun, when you see the sun rise in the morning, you'll know,
believer, that Christ is still on his throne and he's there
to save you, to bless you, to bestow every good gift upon
you and to rule everything for your eternal good. That's the beauty of the sunrise,
not just the pretty colors. I like the pretty colors too,
but the beauty of it is I know when that sun comes up, my Savior's
still ruling and He's doing it for me. And I'll tell you this,
that's what He's doing there on the throne, saving us now.
And when this earthly sun rises no more, then it just gets better. The city that John saw in Revelation
21, the city of God, where God shall dwell with his people directly. He will be in the very presence
of God there. And in that city, there's no
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the
glory of God did lighten it. What's the glory of God? The
glory of God is the light there. What is that? The lamb is the
light thereof. The lamb is the glory of God. And you're not gonna see his
glory till you look into his face. And you can do that down
here. And then one day we'll experience the light of his glory. And the lamb is that light. He
is that gold. He is that light. He is that
blessing. He is that salvation. Number one thing to say to that
verse 18 blessed be the Lord God The God of Israel the God
of us the God of the stiff-necked rebellious fools that we are
Who only do with wondrous things? And blessed be his glorious name
forever and let the whole earth be filled with his glory Amen
and amen May we end our prayers like that He said, after that,
the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended. That's a
good way to end them, isn't it? And I pray we'd end our prayers
and our meditations this evening and every evening the same way,
by blessing God for all of his goodness unto us and at the beautiful,
glorious thought that he ever lives, that his name endures
forever and we're always gonna be this blessed. We don't have
to worry about the time coming when it's not gonna be this way
anymore. It's just gonna get better. Only he doeth, he alone, let's
see, what does it say? Let's see how it's worded here.
Who only doeth wondrous things. Now does that mean only he doeth
wondrous things that nobody else does, only he does? Or does that
mean that's all he does is wondrous things? Yes, it means both. You remember in Judges 13, Manoah
and his wife, such a beautiful story. We're told that an angel
visited Manoah and his wife in Judges 13. We're not told his
name. Manoah asked him what his name
was, and he said in verse 18, why do you ask thus after my
name, seeing it is secret? And that word secret means wonderful,
incomprehensible, Extraordinary. And I think I know who it was. It was the angel of the covenant.
It wasn't just any angel. It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's a lot of reasons for knowing that there. When
they offered a burnt offering unto God, it says that the angel
ascended in the flame. That burnt offering is just a
representation. The reason God is appeased and
we have atonement with God is because the Son of God goes up
on our behalf. Having offered himself, he appears
in the very presence of God, not without blood, but not with
the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own precious blood.
And that's pictured in him ascending with the flame of the burnt offering.
And you know what else happened in there pertaining to our text? He who alone doeth wondrous things. It says in verse 19, so Manoah
took a kid with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto
the Lord, and the angel did wondrously. And it says, and Manoah and his
wife looked on. Can you picture that? Yeah, me
neither. I don't know what in the world
that angel was doing, do you? It just says he did wondrously.
And I know this, it got their attention. They were just sittin'
there watchin' it. They were watchin' it, watchin'
him. He did wondrously. What an interesting, what did
the angel do? Well, I don't know, and you know what? I don't need
to know. God woulda told me if I did. But I know this, everything
he does, he does wondrously. Whatever he was doing, whatever
he's doing right now, he's doing it wondrously. And we get to
look on. We get to see a lot of it, don't
we? By his revealing grace, we look on at him who alone doeth
wondrous things. Thank God for our Savior. He
reigns and has all judgment, power, and dominion that he might
save me. And I'm, by his grace, I'm gonna
lay my head on my pillow tonight and I'm gonna sleep. And I must
say with David, I will both lay me down and sleep in peace because
thou alone, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety from his very
throne. Are you comforted? If that won't do it, I got nothing
else. Thank God for his son. Let's
pray.