and for his son. And we know
how the Lord arranged this. King David is praying for his
son Solomon, that the Lord would give him wisdom in ruling the
people of Israel as the king when he would take the throne. But also, the king's son is Christ. David may have had temporal reference
to his son Solomon. No doubt he did, but I believe
he understood. I don't know that he knew what
all he understood exactly, but I believe even David surely understood
that this concerned his other son. Talks about in this chapter of
how that all of the kings of the earth would bow down to him.
Pretty sure David wasn't naive enough to think that was going
to happen to Solomon. There was going to be the same
turmoil and war and things that were true in David's reign. All the kings of the earth aren't
going to bow down to Solomon. David understood that. It talks
about how his dominion would be as expansive as to the very
ends of the earth. He knew that wasn't true of his
son Solomon. And you remember in the scripture
how the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to quite a bit as the
son of David. Several times in scripture, Bartimaeus
cried, Jesus, now son of David, have mercy upon me. Our Lord
asked the Pharisees in Matthew 22, 41, it says, while the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, what think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, the son of David. That was the prophecy, that he
would be born of the lineage of David. And he saith unto them,
how then doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? And it says there that no man
was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. Doesn't seem like a difficult
question if you know the word of God, does it? Can you answer
our Lord's question there? How can he be David's son and
yet David's Lord at the same time? This is the son spoken
of in our text, isn't it? The son of David. But he's also David's Lord. Listen
to what Paul wrote in Romans chapter one. We'll just start
with verse one. He said, I'm Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God, which he, God, had promised afore by his prophets
in the holy scriptures concerning his, God's, son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh, just like he said he would be. and declared to be the Son of
God with power. He was made of the seed of David,
but he wasn't made to be the Son of God. He's always been
the Son of God. He's the eternal Son of God. He was just declared
to be the Son of God with power. And that's key, isn't it? Because
that's what our whole, all those verses we read, it had to do
with dominion, rule, power, authority. And that's what we're going to
talk about tonight, the dominion of Christ. Okay, so declared to be of the
seed, made of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared
to be God's son with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection of the dead. We know that he was who he said
he was, God's son, by the resurrection of the dead. But you see here,
that's, that's, The answer to the Lord's question, he was David's
son in an earthly sense, in a temporal sense, but eternally the son
of God. Born of a woman, made under the
law that he might redeem them that were under the law. It behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren. That's why he was made
of the seed of David. So he could become one of us
so that he might, under the law, Just what it says, he was born
under the law that he might redeem them that are under the law.
He was made a curse for us because, so that he could redeem them
that were under the curse. And he had to do that as one
of us, as a man. So when our psalm speaks of the
rule and dominion of the king's son, we have to see the spiritual
truth here and rejoice in Christ, our king. In verse one, David
prays that God will give to Solomon the gift of knowing and being
able to execute the judgments of God and the righteousness
of God. That's what he means by give him the righteousness.
He's not specifically saying there, make him righteous. He's
saying, give him the understanding and knowledge of righteousness
so that he might rule in righteousness. And that's a good prayer, isn't
it? But God, as king of Israel, gave
that to Solomon, didn't he? To a great degree. He was a wise
king in most respects. But this refers to God the father,
God the king, God the father, committing all judgment unto
God the son. God gave his son the spirit without
measure. The spirit of righteousness,
the spirit of holiness, the spirit of wisdom, the Holy Spirit without
measure as a man to execute righteousness in the earth. That's what he
does. He executes from his throne. He executes righteousness. And
we talked about righteousness a lot recently about God's righteousness,
the righteousness that God requires. what his righteous, the standard
of his righteousness, the righteousness that he reveals and how he reveals
it. And then how a sinner can be
righteous before God. We spoke at some length about
that in a recent message. So we kind of try to remember
that and call upon that. But I want us to understand that
Christ reigns to execute that righteousness. And turn to John
chapter five, and I think this will help us. John chapter 5 verse 21 For as the Father raiseth up
the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. This is why Christ
gives life to whom He will, for the Father has given Him the
authority. He's made Him judge. He's made
Him the decider between life and death among men. That's just
clear there. He's committed all judgment to
the Son, and as a result of that, the Son gives life to whom He
will. Verse 23, that all men should honor the Son. There's
part of the purpose of it too. that god would be glorified in
all of his persons even as they honor the father he that honoreth
not the son honoreth not the father which hath sent him you
remember the pharisees were always talking about how god was their
father and he said no if god was your father you would love
me he that doesn't honor me is not honoring my father don't
start talking about how you're children of god you're children
of the devil because god is standing here talking to you And you're
revealing how you feel about God. So don't be talking about
Father God. You're showing by your action right now how you
feel about God. And that you're children of the
devil. Verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word and believeth on him that hath sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death into life." Now you see, this is akin to that verse where
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast out. The all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, that's the first part
where he says, I give life to whom I will. All that the Father
gives me, I'm going to give them life. And they're going to come.
They're going to live. They're going to have spiritual life.
And Him that cometh, that's this part, He that believeth on me. The same people. They're those
that the Father chose from the beginning. That He gave to His
Son. He gave His Son authority to
give them life. And the Gospel call goes out,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they do. All that the Father
has given me shall come to me. And I tell you this, you come
to Him, He won't throw you out. Now you can sit and argue about
that all day, or you can just come to Him. That's what I do. That's what I recommend. Verily I say unto you, verse
25, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and
now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that hear shall live.
The spiritually dead. The prophet is going to say to
those dead, dry bones, live. And they're going to hear. How
can a dead person hear anything? Well, it depends on who's talking.
If he sends his prophet to say it, then that's God talking.
Not a man. And when God speaks, the dead
hear. And they come forth. They have
life. They shall live. They shall live. Now I hope somebody will avail
themselves of life. If he speaks life to you, you
live. And here's the premise behind
that. This is why that happens. Because
as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to
have life in himself, and hath given him authority. certain judgment, but also the
authority. We're talking about the dominion
of Christ in the first eight or nine verses of this psalm. It's so prevalent there. The
king, the son of the king, he's going to rule. He's going to
rule in righteousness. His dominion is going to be from
sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. That's
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says His
dominion is an everlasting dominion. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said
when the Lord turned on the light. He said, I praise and extol the
King of Heaven. His dominion is everlasting. And has given him authority to
what? To execute judgment also, because
he's the son of man. Now in what way does he execute
judgment? He just said twice in that passage,
he gives life to himself if he will. A judge is the one that
decides the case. And that's just clear now. In
verse 2 of our text, he shall judge thy people with righteousness
and thy poor with judgment. And as we said, I'm continuing
this same thought because the scripture does. The word judge
means to rule. He shall judge, he shall rule
thy people. And the word judgment, he'll
rule thy poor with judgment. That means to decide the case.
He decides the case. Now just exactly what was spoken
of in John chapter five where we just read. He's the decider
of the case. He determines the difference
between life and death. Now think about this with me.
When you think of Christ as a judge, and I've mentioned this many
times before, when you think of the judgment of God, you think
about his wrath. That's not at all what this is
talking about. His wrath is a result of his judgment. If he judges
you to be sinful, Then you're going to experience his wrath.
But the word judgment is not synonymous with wrath. It just
isn't. Look at it. When you think of Christ as a
judge, what does it mean to you? It's a very simple truth. He
decides who lives or dies. Our case before the throne of
God, before the judgment bar of God, is a life or death case. I think they would call that
a case of capital punishment or whatever, whatever they call
it in earthly terms. Before God, your case is one
of life or death. It's not about you paying a fine
or anything like that. It's life or it's death. You're going to
live or die one way or another. Before you get out of the courtroom,
that case is going to be decided. All right, and that decision
is based upon perfect justice and righteousness. That's what
he's saying there. He shall judge thy people. He'll
rule them with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. There you go right there, seeing
clearly how that judgment is not synonymous with wrath because
he's gonna rule thy poor with judgment. And that's talking
about That's a good kind of judgment, isn't it? He's going to rule
the poor. He's not going to send the poor to hell. Thy people. He's not going to send his people
to hell. He's not going to pour out his wrath upon his people. But he is going to deal with
judgment. He is going to judge them. He
is going to decide the case. So it's a life or death case. It's based upon perfect justice
and righteousness, and you and I don't decide the case any more
than we would if we were the defendant in an earthly court.
We don't decide the case, the judge does. We're at the mercy of the court,
and we're guilty. Do you see that? When you think of Christ as the
judge, think about those things. Not just, oh, he's gonna judge
the earth, he's gonna pour out his wrath. No, that's not what
it's talking about. He's told us in John 5 there
what he's talking about. When God made him the judge of
all the earth, what does that look like? It looks like him
giving life to some and not others. He decides. The case is life
or death. And he's the judge. And I'll
tell you this, we're at the mercy of the court and we deserve death. But here's the thing, we have
an advocate. My little children, John said, these things I write
unto you that you sin not. And I'll tell you this, you'd
be hard-pressed to read this book and find any excuse to sin
against God, but I'll tell you this, when you do, and that's what he's saying here,
he says, I write unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin,
he's not saying in case you do, he's saying when you do, We have
an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the who? What did
David say? He's going to judge in what?
Jesus Christ the righteous is our advocate. He's going to rule
your people in righteousness. And I should have had you turn
to 1 John 2. This is so beautiful. And it's
exactly what David is talking about here. Let me read it to
you carefully and think about it as I read. My little children.
These things I write unto you that you sin not. Don't sin against
God. David said, Lord, hide your word
in our heart that we sin not against you. We don't want to,
but we're going to. We do, we have, we will. And
when we do, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins. He's the judge. He's the advocate. Think about it this way. The judge is our advocate. The
one who decides the case is the one pleading our case. And he
is our propitiation or our sin offering. Our advocate has bought
us a not guilty verdict. not under the table, but according
to perfect righteousness, insomuch that the perfect law before which
we stood, accused and guilty in ourselves, that same law now
demands our freedom. Because he's Jesus Christ the
righteous. He advocates according to not
our righteousness. He doesn't plead our case this
way. Well, he's done some good things. He's an exemplary fellow,
you know. He believed, you know. No, none
of that. You know what the basis upon
which He pleads our case? His righteousness. His love for us. His mercy, His
love, His grace. He is the, that's where that
last part comes in. He is the propitiation for our
sins. Our advocate has paid for our
freedom. freedom from death in every sense
of the word. And he did so righteously, so
that the law now, we stand in Christ before the bar of God,
innocent. But here's the thing, in Christ,
God doesn't just let us off the hook, but he bestows all of his
blessings upon us in him. We don't just not pay for our
crimes. But we have every good gift that
God is able to give. Because of our standing in him. It is a legal matter. But we
have an advocate. And he's the judge. And he bought
our freedom. And he shall rule thy people
with righteousness. It says we preach with this in
mind. He shall rule thy people with
righteousness. He rules. Listen to what he said
in Matthew 28, 18. And Jesus came and spake unto
his disciples, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth. That's what we're seeing in our
song. The king's son has dominion and the power and authority.
He's the judge. He decides the case. And then
he turned around and said, now you go, therefore, because I
have all, not because you have all power go, but because I have
all authority, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in my
name, in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy
spirit. We say what we do on the authority
of the one who has all authority. And when I preach, I know this,
and I thank God. And he is the judge. He's the
one that decides the case. This is not up to the will of
man. It is not of him that willeth or of him that striveth. It is
of God that showeth mercy. And he's committed all judgment
to the Son. Listen to it John 17 to he said
it there in John 5 pretty clearly. It's just as clear here John
17 to as thou hast given he this is Christ praying to the father
and saying you've given me authority over all flesh that I Should
give eternal life to as many as you gave me you see how his
authority his his status as judge of all things and has to do with
life and death in the sinner. He gave him authority as judge
of all to give life to whom he would. And whom he would are
those that the Father gave him from eternity. And they're coming
to him. They're going to believe on him. We're not going around trying
to get sinners to decide something for God. Let me just put it as
plainly as I can. The gospel is not going forth trying to
get you to do something for God. We come with a proclamation from
the king. The son of the king, who is king
by divine authority, he has all authority and all dominion and
executes judgment in righteousness. He decides the case. And as we
come with His proclamation, His message, that message will be
to you the saver of life or death, and that's at His discretion.
He gives life to whom He will. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. It's not complicated, it's just
really despised by sinners. If it ain't making you mad now,
praise His grace. Because it would if He didn't
have mercy on you. There is nothing that men hate
more than that. You tell somebody and find out.
He will judge in favor of the poor. That's what he's saying,
the poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Because God made,
they're blessed. Not better than somebody else
or the poor. Blessed of God are the poor in
spirit or they wouldn't be poor in spirit. And theirs is the
kingdom of God. He's the king, he's the one with
dominion and we're his kingdom. where his subjects, his people,
verse three, the mountain shall bring peace to the people, and
the little hills by righteousness. Now there's not much this can
be, but the church, and it's plural, so it's the churches,
the local churches that God established and ordained from the Catechists.
And this is playing out today as we saw in the last days, the
Lord is going to exalt his church. We saw that in the Psalms also.
Or in Isaiah. And they are set on hills. It
says here, the little hills. This is what the Lord said in
Matthew 5, 14. He said, you're the light of the world. And he
elaborated on that by saying this, a city set on a hill can't
be hid. That's what this church is. And
all the churches that preach The truth concerning the judge,
the one who's on the throne, the dominion, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is judge and has dominion to give life. That's
the gospel. He gives life to dead sinners.
He has the authority to do that. It's on the authority of his
own merits. He advocates life. And he passes the judgment. But
we're a city set on a hill, shining a light. That's what he said
in Matthew 5, so I'm pretty sure that's what he's talking about
in Psalm 72, 3. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. It's good to be in the
house, isn't it? Thank God for bringing us in
the house and giving us light. verse four he shall judge the
poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy and
shall break in pieces the oppressor now this is clearly descriptions
of all of those that the father gave him as we saw in the new
testament all that the father giveth me shall come to me he
gives life to whom he will these are just different descriptions
of the poor in spirit the poor of the people he shall save the
children of the needy They that hunger and thirst after righteousness
will be filled. Are you needy for God? Do you thirst after God as the
heart panteth after the water brooks? And he'll break in pieces the
oppressor. The three words stand out in
this verse that I just wanted to emphasize. He shall save. When you're thinking about the
dominion of Christ, Christ as judge and ruler, with all authority
and dominion and power in this world, then when he says, I shall
save, what do you think is expecting to happen? When he says, all
that the Father giveth me will come to me, when he said, all
that the Father giveth me, I'm not gonna lose a single one,
When it says, his name shall be called Jesus because he shall
save his people from their sins, what do you think is going to
happen? You think that means that he's going to give everybody
a chance to be saved? Doesn't sound much like that,
does it? He shall save. And that's integral to who he
is. He has all dominion. He said,
my hand is not short that I can't save you if I want to save you.
That's who we're talking about. And that's the gospel now. That
Christ rules and reigns to give eternal life to all whom the
Father gave him. And here's the message. Come
to me and you'll have life. Isn't that what he said to the
Pharisees? You search the scriptures because you think you have life
in your knowledge of the scriptures. But the scriptures testify of
me and you won't come to me that you might have life. You come
to Him, you'll have life. The spiritual oppressor, of course,
here is our sin. He speaks of the oppressor. He's
going to destroy, destroy our sin. He does so in
our hearts when He saves us. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. And he's gonna destroy all of
our enemies. Death is the last enemy that he shall destroy,
but death is the wages of sin. Sin is the real enemy, isn't
it? Sin is the oppressor. And what's sin? Where's sin?
Oh no, don't look out there. It's right here. It's us. He's gonna destroy the oppressor,
which is me, and yet save me. Does that make sense to you? Then you know something about
the gospel. he's going to destroy the old me but he's made a new
me by his grace and power verse 5 they shall fear thee
as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations You
see the sun out there? It's kind of cloudy today. You
might not have seen it. Maybe you wondered whether God's
going to be feared by his people today because you didn't see
the sun. You know what? We saw it yesterday and it was
red. Did you see that? Because of
the ashes in the sky. When you see the sun, think about
this. God's people fear him because he said, as long as there's a
sun and a moon, my people are going to fear me. They're going
to acknowledge me. This is in the context that we've
been talking about now. We're going to acknowledge him
as the judge, the ruler, the one with all dominion. He's high and lifted up now to
give life. Think of the gospel when you
think of him as judge. Not wrath. He's judged to give
life. He has all power that he might
give eternal life. They shall fear. Let me try to
bring this to right where we are. I've noticed something recently,
and it was a very sad way that I experienced this. But when
you talk to people, listen for this. When you talk to your friends
and loved ones, and the purpose of doing it is not to be a judge
of anybody, but to pray for them. Pray for them. For a heart to pray for those
that we love. and all that we know and have
any dealings with. What I noticed talking to an
old friend recently is that what seems to be missing is a fear
of God. We had a pleasant conversation,
it was a good conversation for the most part, but then we started
talking about things that have to do with God. And there's a
lack of fear. When you can talk about deciding
your own fate, when you can talk about your free will, you know,
how you determine things and you decide things, you can talk
about what you know. without attributing anything
to the grace of God. When you can talk about spiritual
things and there's no reverence, there's no acknowledgement of
God as God, like Paul said in Romans 1, when they knew God,
they didn't glorify Him as God. Can you hear that when people
say, people can just be talking about something, about going
to the grocery store, and you can hear that there's no fear
of God. And you can hear it in their
language, can't you? Whatever they're talking about. James said go to you now you
that say I'm gonna go do this and do that And I'm gonna go
into the city and I'm gonna buy and sell and I'm gonna get game.
What are you talking about? What you ought to be saying is
if the Lord will if the judge of all the earth allows me If
the one with all dominion authority and power is pleased then maybe
I'll do this. I You see what I'm saying? Just
in daily conversation, there is an evident lack of fear for
God, and it ain't getting better. And it breaks my heart to talk.
You remember that thief? What was it he noticed about
the other thief when the Lord saved him? Now, moments after
the Lord saved him, no doubt, because they were in their final
moments on this earth. He said, he listened to what
he was saying. He said, don't you fear God? And I don't want to sound all
high and mighty spiritual that I can hear that, but you can
hear it, can't you? I hear it in things I say. I
say, wait a minute, let me have that back, but you can't take
it back, can you? Let me have that back. Lord, keep the door
of my lips and I might honor you in every sentence I speak. And it breaks my heart to talk
with people that I love very dearly and to hear no fear of
God in their voice. I know this, God's people fear
Him. We don't fear Him like we ought to and we don't always
express it. Our faith is weak and pitiful
and our love for Him is not worth talking about. God's people are
going to fear Him now because He's going to reveal Himself
as He is to them. He's not going to be You know,
sweet little Jesus, He's going to be the King of glory to them
by His grace. May He give us that. Even when
we're just in daily conversation, don't even phrase a sentence
without acknowledging the King. He shall come down, verse 6,
like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth. I bet you're thinking about what
I thought about when I read that. You remember what he said in
Isaiah 55 10 for as the rain cometh down and the snow from
heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh
it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and
bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth It's personal in our psalm, isn't it? He shall
be as water that comes down. You know why? Because he is the
word. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. Planted some cucumbers
real late this year. And boy, we planted them and
I put a little rainwater, I got a barrel in my backyard, put
a little rainwater on them. But then, after like about a week,
I wasn't even expecting them yet, you know. And it's just
been a couple of weeks since I planted them and they're overflowing
because of all this rain we're getting. And I look out there
and I see the rain falling on them and I see, I see them prospering. And you know what I think about? I think about the gospel. He said my gospel's like that.
It's going to do what I sent it to do. You know why? Because he's the
king. He's the judge. His purpose can't be thwarted. We hear his power in that, don't
we? It shall accomplish. It shall prosper in the thing
to which I send it. It shall accomplish that which
I please. That's where David's God is. He's in the heavens and he does
as he pleases. How about yours? How about mine? Verse seven, just a brief comment
on this. In his days shall the righteous
flourish in abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. Just just this on that this is
not earthly prosperity This is talking about he just said now.
He's as the rain that comes down and now There's a certain result
of that in there. There's gonna be a flourishing
When it rains There's gonna be a flourishing In God's garden
there is Every time And he cut he'll come down as the rain and
the righteous shofar will nourish. And this is not earthly prosperity.
Our Lord never promises that. You might find a jack-legged
preacher somewhere to promise you that. But God never promises
that. He promises we won't go hungry.
He promises we'll have what we need. But what men consider earthly
prosperity, our Lord never promises that in this book. But I'll tell
you what he does promise, spiritually. He said, my sheep, is going to
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season and his leaf also shall not wither
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Everything we do is
going to prosper? That's certainly not true in
a temporal sense is it? Not at all. So what's he talking
about here? Do you remember You remember
when we studied in the book of Genesis, in chapter 12, we saw
how Abraham entered into Egypt with his wife Sarah. And he did
so under very false and wicked pretenses. And it was just, if you think
about it, it almost makes you sick, doesn't it? You know the
story, I won't elaborate on it, but it just about makes you sick
what he did. And you can just see, this is
a disaster waiting to happen. Absolute disaster waiting to
happen and yet God Rather than turning Into a miserable disaster,
which should have it should have by all By all expectations by
all earthly expectations should have been a disaster God used
that sin of Abraham in order to cause Pharaoh to make Abraham
a wealthy man You I have to elaborate on it a little bit I guess He
came in and said to Sarah, tell them you're my sister so they
won't kill me and take you. If they know that you're my wife
and they're going to be determined to take you to their cell, they'll
kill me and they'll take you anyway. So just say you're my
sister and then, you know. And she went with Pharaoh. It
didn't end like Pharaoh wanted it to. Pharaoh ended up bestowing
all these great things upon Abraham for the sake of his sister. And then the Lord revealed through
earthly means what was going on. And Pharaoh said, what are
you doing, Abraham? You just about brought the judgment
of God down on us both here. and sent Sarah back and let him
keep all the stuff that he gave him and Abraham left Egypt a
wealthy man. You talk about can't mess it
up, can't mess up the blessing of God. That's a picture of the
spiritual blessing of God upon us. We can't forfeit it. As wretched
and vile as we are and as evil as we are and as foolish as we
are in everything we do, we're just gonna keep coming up roses
because God loves us. And in Christ, all of His blessing
is upon us. And everything works for our
good. Even our evil will work for our
good because of Christ. You cannot lose, believer. Has
that gotten through our thick skulls yet? We can't lose. We
can't forfeit His love. Everything is going to work for
our good in spite of us and because of Christ. in spite of me and
because of him. And verse 8, he shall have dominion,
he must increase also from sea to sea and from
the river unto the ends of the earth. You're not going to hear
much talk about King Jesus in the free will preaching of this
religious godless world. But this book is about King Jesus.
Everywhere you turn, you can't see him in the word without seeing
him on the throne. Even when he was on the cross,
even when he was despised and rejected and spit on and abused
and murdered, it said this is the king over his head. You can't
see him anywhere in this book without seeing the king. And yet, religion insists on
talking about how He's waiting on you. And the reason they do, Paul
called us on it, didn't he? In 2 Timothy 3.5, he said, you
have a form of godliness, except without the power, without the
authority. They denied God His authority. It doesn't change who God is.
It doesn't change Him. They may deny Him His authority
in their hearts. They may not glorify Him as God
in their hearts, but He is God, and He is all-glorious, and He
will receive all glory, whether it's life or death for you. And
He'll be the one that decides it. I recommend bowing. What do you do when you're in
the presence of the King? You bow. That's what you do.
And if you guilty of treason before him, you plead for mercy. Rebelling against his authority,
nevertheless, this is what Psalm 2 is about. I was going to read
Psalm 2 tonight, but I don't want to. I don't want to go that
long tonight. I want you to think about it,
though. In that psalm, it talks about man's denial of the throne
rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks from the point of view
of the sinner and says, let's cast his cords from us, his restraints
from us. That sounds a whole lot like
this hell-bound world we're living in now, isn't it? We will do
as we please, when we please, the way we please, without restraint. And that's what they say in a
spiritual sense, too. It's all up to us and our free
will. A man denying the king his authority, But the Lord talks
about how he's going to destroy them for it and laugh at them
while they burn. It's serious business. And the psalm ends with this
exhortation. I want to just read part of it,
the last part of it. This is the exhortation that's
at the end of that glorious psalm that echoes so much of what our
psalm teaches tonight. Look at the last part. Look at verse 9. God is going
to break them with a rod of iron. He will dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel. And now listen to this exhortation.
Be wise now therefore, O ye king. Do you have some authority? Look
to him who has all authority. It doesn't matter what your authority
is. He gave it to you. of the earth. You think you decide
something? Salvation's up to you, you gonna
decide things? Be wise now, you better read
God's word again. Bow! To the righteousness of
God, which is Christ. O ye kings, serve the Lord with
fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Now, you think you're a king? You're a judge? Bow. Serve. Give honor to the son. Kiss him. Pledge your love to
the son. Your allegiance to the son. Because
I'll tell you this, everybody who doesn't is going to perish. And here's the gospel, blessed
are all they that put their trust in him. Blessed. Oh God, give us grace to bow
and trust him. I don't need to make a decision,
do you? I trust his decisions. Lord, decide the doubtful case,
thou who art thy people's son. Shine upon this work of grace,
if it be indeed begun. And let me love you more and
more. If I love it all, I pray. And if I have not loved before,
help me to begin. Help me to begin today. Whether
you like it or not, he will decide the case. All judgment is committed
to Him, and I'm glad. I think about those that I love,
and I'm glad it's not up to them, aren't you? It's up to the God
of all grace, and I pray to Him for their life. Let's bow together.