Alright, thank you Art. Let's
turn to Psalm 18. Psalm 18. We're going to try
to finish this psalm tonight. We've been in three or four messages
out of this psalm. We'll try to finish it tonight.
Look now with me at the last verse, verse 50. Great deliverance giveth he to
his king. and showeth mercy to his anointed. And he says here, he also gives
deliverance to David and to his seed forevermore. I want you
to remember this is Christ speaking. This is Christ speaking. He's
speaking in the day that God the Father delivered him from
all his enemies. Look back up there at the heading.
at the top of the psalm. It says, this is a psalm of David. This is a psalm of our spiritual
David, the true David, Christ, the son of David. He says, the
servant of the Lord, the true servant of the Lord, Christ the
servant, who spake unto the Lord the words of this psalm in the
day that the Lord delivered him from the hand all his enemies
and from the hand of Saul. Now it applies to David here
as far as Saul goes and some of the things do apply to David.
He was used to write it. But Christ is the only one that
has been delivered from all his enemies. All his enemies. This is Christ speaking. Now,
you remember Christ came here. He took flesh. And the reason
He came is to show the glory of the invisible God. The fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Christ. He came to show the glory of
God. And He came to show us the faithfulness
of our God. And that's what Christ is declaring
here. He's declaring the great glory,
the great faithfulness, the strength and power of God. He's declaring
it from His point of view as He trusted the Father, as He
served the Father in this earth. And you remember Christ said,
I and my Father are one. So here's what we're going to
get. Here's how this benefits you and I who believe. As we
see the faithfulness of God towards Christ, as He trusted the Father,
as we see the faithfulness of God toward Christ, as Christ
trusted the Father, we see the faithfulness of Christ toward
those who trust Christ. He said, I and my Father are
one. What we see of God here, we see of Christ. I've titled
this God Gives Great Deliverance. God Gives Great Deliverance. Let's look here now. Here's the
first thing. We're going to begin in verse 29. This is as far as
we've made it so far in this psalm. Now here, first of all,
we have a description. of all those that opposed Christ
when He walked this earth. Of all those that He was up against
when He walked this earth. First He talks of a troop. He says in verse 29, By thee
I've run through a troop. A troop. A troop is a crowd of
enemies. It's a large band of enemies. But a troop is a well organized
army. A troop has a head. It has a
general. It has a commander. leading the
troop. Well, when Christ came, he came
up against the devil and the whole troop of hell. That's who
he came to save his people from. Christ sent the Holy Spirit of
God to warn every believer. And this is what he tells us
in Ephesians 6 in verse 12. He says, we wrestle not against
flesh and blood. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. Not only flesh and blood. Not only men. We do have
men oppose us, but that's not our chief enemy, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It
was the devil who entered in the garden and beguiled, tricked,
fooled Eve so that Adam, with his eyes wide open, sinned and
plunged the whole world into sin and death. We're up against
the devil. Power is unseen. And then it
speaks here of a wall. Our Lord came to a wall. Look,
He says in verse 29, By my God have I leaped over a wall. First
of all, there is the broken law in the garden. Adam transgressed
in the garden. And that broken law is a wall
between God and His people. A wall between God and His people,
dividing God from His people. Because God is holy. And when
we sinned, we died. Adam died and his sin was passed
to all mankind whom he represented. And we all died. So we are divided
from God by that wall. And then there was another wall.
You remember God gave the law at Mount Sinai. And the scripture
tells us he gave us that law to show the offense of that broken
law in the garden. That's why he gave the law. Not
to justify us, not for us to find righteousness by it, but
to show us our sin. But you know what the Jews did?
Just like we would have done as Gentiles if God had given
us that law. Just like we do. Just like we
do when we men go and in blindness go to that law and try to use
that law. They built themselves up and exalted themselves and
called themselves better than the Gentiles because they had
this law. And so what does Paul call it
in Ephesians? He called it the middle wall
of partition. He divided the Jew from the Gentile. In fact, even within Israel,
The men looked at the law that spoke about men and they looked
at the law that spoke about women and they said, oh, well, we're
better than the women. And they even had a little wall
in the synagogue to divide the men from the women. And they
had a wall to divide the Jews from the Gentiles. All this division. Why? Because that's what happens
when men try to come to God by the law. They divide. The law
wasn't given for us to come to God by it. The law was given
to put us all in the same place together in the dust at the feet
of Christ. That's what it was given for.
These two broken laws are one law. Too high, too broad for
a sinner. We came into this world sinners
and left to our sins. We can't come to God by the law.
If you could keep the law starting today, what are you going to
do about your sin? What are you going to do about the sin in
Adam? What are you going to do about your sin in nature? What are
you going to do about all the transgressions you committed
up to this day? You see, we can't come to God
in the law. And then the heart and the actions of Christ's enemies
are described. Look at Psalm 18, look at verse
39. Look at verse 39. There at the end of verse 39,
He describes them as those that rose up against Me. These are
men, those that rose up against Me. Then in verse 40, He says,
He calls it there at the end, them that hate Me. And then in
verse 43, it says there at the first part, Thou hast delivered
Me from the strivings of the people. Not striving for Him,
striving against Him. And then He says there in verse
48, in verse 48, at the very end, they're called the violent
man, the violent man. Christ's enemies, men, flesh
and blood, constantly rose up against Him. The whole time He
walked this earth. Together, all men together were
continually striving against Christ, together as one violent
man. all in one accord against Christ.
And they did this because of their hatred for Christ. Do you realize the natural heart
hates Christ, hates God? That's what Romans 8 said, the
carnal mind, the natural mind, the mind you and I are born with
is hatred against God, enmity against God. That's what it means,
hatred. And then notice this description
of Christ's enemies in verse 41. He says they are vainly religious. They cried, but there was none
to save them. They cried even unto the Lord,
but He answered them not. Did you know that whenever David
walked this earth, who was used to pen this psalm, whenever King
Saul, when he rejected David, and he was going against the
will of God, and he was trying to kill David, you know the whole
time he was calling on God while he was doing that? He was claiming
to be doing that in the name of God. And the scripture says,
when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither
by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the prophets. And you know what
that picture? That pictures all those who reject
Christ. Those who rejected Christ when
He walked this earth did so calling on the name of God. Men today
who reject Christ do so calling on the name of God. Claiming
to believe Christ. Claiming to worship Christ. Paul
said it's another Jesus. It's another Jesus. When men
reject Christ, look at Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1. When men reject Christ, This is what the Scripture says.
Look here. Proverbs 1, right after the Psalms there. Proverbs
1, verse 22. God says, How long, you simple
ones, will you love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at My reproof. Behold,
I'll pour out My Spirit unto you, I'll make known My words
unto you. He's speaking right here to just
It's just you who don't know Him. He's saying, just turn and
listen to my gospel. Just turn and diligently seek
me in my Word. You know this. You've heard me
say, if you can do that, God's drawing you. Christ said that.
If you can do this, God's done it. But listen to what He's saying
here. Just turn and listen. I'll pour out my Spirit unto
you. I'll make known my words unto you because I've called
and you refused. Because I have called and you
have refused, I've stressed out my hand and no man regard it,
but you've said it not all my counsel, and would none of my
reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity. I'll mock when
your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer. They shall seek Me early, but
they shall not find Me, for they that hated knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord. That's why, because they hated
knowledge. Look down at verse 33. But whoso
hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from
fear of evil. He said in Zechariah, He said,
I called and He said they pulled away their shoulder. He said
they stopped their ears that they shouldn't hear. They made
their hearts hard as an adamant stone. lest they should hear
the law and the words of the Lord of hosts which he sent by
his spirit by the former prophets. And he says, and therefore, because
they wouldn't hear the word of God, therefore came great wrath
from the Lord of hosts. And it says, therefore it's come
to pass that as he cried and they would not hear, so they
cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. Brother Art
just read that psalm. The Lord's now unto all them
that call upon him. Now how does that reconcile with
what I just read to you? He just said there's some that
call on him and he will not hear. He won't hear them. What's the
difference? He's now and all them that call
upon him in truth. Those that seek Him, that really
seek Him, that want to know Him, He said, I'll make known Myself
to them. Those that call upon Him just
because they want to be delivered from a temporary trial, from
a temporary something, He said, they wouldn't hear when I call
and I'm not going to hear when they call. And what God will
do eventually, a man has the Gospel preached to him. A man
has the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Christ said, be careful
how you hear. What measure you meet it, it'll
be meted unto you. That's what he said. And if a
man won't hear, a man won't even come and hear the words of God,
God'll give him, turn him over to reprobation. And he'll do
it justly. He'll do it justly. So these were Christ's enemies.
The troop of hell, the wall of the broken law that he was up
against, violent men who hate Christ, and vain religion. These
are what Christ came to save His people from. Now brethren,
Everything that's described here, does that describe you? It describes
me. It describes me to a T by nature. This is me by nature. Is it you? If it's not you, you can't be
saved. You got no part in this. But if this is you, there might
be hope for you. If this is us, then why did God
save us? Why did He not take no for an
answer from you and I who said no to God? Grace alone. That's all. God would have the
people for himself to bow and give him honor and glory for
doing everything for them. That's the only reason. Grace
alone. Alright, here's the second thing I want you to see. We see
how completely Christ conquered his enemies. And he gives God
the Father the glory for this. Now look. Now before we look
at this, I want you to remember something. Christ Jesus is God. He's the Son of God. He's the
second person in the Trinity. Only God could speak and make
the wind and the storms cease. Only God could speak and cast
devils out of a man, make them leave a man, like He did that
demoniac of Gadara. Only God could speak and raise
a dead man from the grave like He did Lazarus. Christ is God. He's God the Son. But now when
He came to serve for His people, God, though he was equal with
God, Christ, the Son of God, though he was equal with God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he humbled himself. He made himself of no reputation.
He took upon him the form of a servant. You see, the first
man, Adam, who was the representative of his people, was to serve God
and do as God commanded and obey God and depend upon God. But
he transgressed against God. The last Adam came and he took
the place as the last Adam, as the one faithful man serving
God, representing all of his people. And so he depended entirely
upon God his Father as he walked this earth, trusting God, trusting
the Word of God, trusting the promise of God. So he's God,
no doubt about that. and he's man, he's the servant,
serving God. Now, of that troop of hell, look
what he says, verse 29. Verse 29, he says, By thee I
have run through a troop. God was in Christ. God was in
Christ. And the scripture says, Christ
spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly
triumphing over them in it. Christ's victory. was by God. And he did that for God. And
he accomplished that victory. And he triumphed over his people.
God in Christ did this. And when he accomplished this
victory, this victory was the victory for his people. Look
at Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. He completely conquered
the devil. Look at this. Hebrews 2 verse
14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same." God couldn't die. As a son of God he couldn't
die, but as a man he could. As the son of God, He's God,
he's equal with the Father, but he became a man to serve God. And he says here, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. That's why he took flesh, to destroy the devil.
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to the devil's bondage. How did he deliver his
people from the devil? Well, the devil's chains that
he had us bound with is sin. And the sting of death is sin. We were worried about death because
of our sin. So when Christ came and he took
away the sin of his people, when Christ himself purged the sin
of his people, he took all Satan's chains away. He took the stinger
out of death. When the little boy was outside
running around and the bee stung him and he ran in the house,
and his mama took care of him and bound him up. She said, son,
you can go outside and play. But he said, I don't want to
go outside and play. That bee is out there. And she said, you
don't have to worry about that bee anymore. His stinger is gone.
And that's what Christ did. He took care of the devil's stinger.
He took care of sin. You don't have to worry about
death anymore. He conquered death when he did that. How does he
conquer the devil in his people? He told those people that day
he had cast the devil out of somebody. And they said, he did
this by the devil. And Christ said, a stronger than
he has to come upon him, a stronger than the devil has to come upon
him and he has to bind him. And once he's bound him, Then
he enters into his house and he spoils his goods. You were
the devil's house. I was the devil's house. That's
what Ephesians 2 tells us. We were under his power. And
yet Christ bound him and he enters in through the gospel, through
his spirit and he takes his child and he creates a new and brings
them to faith in Christ. That's how he conquers him. So
just like Christ prays to Father, who shall we pray? We're going
to praise Christ. He did this work. We praise Christ
for doing this. Whosoever honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father, because they're one. That's what Christ has shown
us. Christ did this for us, and He did it by the Father. It's
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit working
in Christ Jesus the God-man. so that our salvation is by the
triune God in Christ Jesus. And Christ is telling us in this
psalm, that's the truth, that's so. And so he that believes on
Christ and honors Christ is honoring God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. All right then, look here, concerning
that wall of the law. He says in verse 29, By my God
have I leaped over a wall. God was in Christ whenever Christ
Jesus removed the curse of the broken law. That law in the garden
put us under a curse. We fell under a curse when Adam
sinned in the garden. That's how the curse came in.
You're born under a curse. I was born under a curse. You
know how Christ removed that curse? He said, Christ was made
a curse for us. He redeemed us from the law being
made a curse for us. Escalations 3. He redeemed us
from the law being made a curse for us. And God was in Christ
when Christ fulfilled the law at Mount Sinai. He fulfilled that whole law in
precept and in penalty. That law was given to show us
something else besides our sin. It was given to show us the righteousness
of Christ. You want to look at that law?
I'm not talking about just the Ten Commandments. I'm talking about
all 615 commandments that were given on Mount Sinai. I don't
know, 600 and something. It was close to 615. Most people
think just 10 commandments were given on Mount Sinai. 615 laws were given at Mount
Sinai. And Christ is the fulfillment of everything given there. Everything
given there. To wit, God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Well, if He
wasn't imputing their trespasses to them, where did He impute
their trespasses? He hath made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Christ took the place of His people. Everything Christ
did when He walked this earth, all those in Christ did it in
perfect righteousness. And Christ went to that cross
and He laid down His life and put away all the sin of His people.
And therefore the whole law is fulfilled by Christ. And through
faith in Christ the believer establishes the whole law because
we were in Christ when He established it for us. That's what Abraham
believed. If you read Romans 3.21 it says,
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, we
establish the law through faith. And don't stop at the end of
the chapter. Keep on reading. And it says, what did Abraham,
our father, find? He says, when was he justified?
When he was in circumcision, when he was under the law, or
without the law? He was justified. Abraham, how
do you do this? Abraham fulfilled the whole law
of God 430 years before God ever gave the law at Mount Sinai.
How do you do that? Same way you and me do it, who
never were under the law. Gentiles never were under the
law. Do y'all know that? We weren't under the law, my
son. Whenever the Lord sent Peter
down there to Cornelius' house and God saved Cornelius and his
house through the gospel, all those that were under the law,
they wanted to bring the Gentiles back under the law. And Peter
stood up and he said, we're going to be saved. Us Jews are going
to be saved the same way these Gentiles are saved. Those Gentiles
never had the law. How are they going to be saved?
The same way Abraham was saved, he didn't have it. Through faith
in Christ. Christ fulfilled it. That's the only way we can fulfill
it. Do you remember the scripture says that, it says that whenever Abraham paid tithes, it says
Levi paid tithes in Abraham. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek
hundreds of years before Levi was ever even born. How did Levi
pay tithes in Abraham? It says because Levi was in Abraham's
loins. That's how he paid tithes, when
Abraham paid tithes. And that's showing us, brethren,
that's how we fulfilled the law. All God's elect were in Christ
when he fulfilled the law, so we fulfilled the law in him. When he paid the debt we owed,
We paid the debt we owe. He did it. He did it. We did
it in Him. We did it in Him. Now, concerning
all that wicked, vain, religious men that came up against Christ,
look at verse 37. I have pursued mine enemies and
overtake them, neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
I have wounded them that they were not able to rise. They have
fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with
strength unto the battle. Thou hast subdued unto me those
that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks
of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. Then
did I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I did cast
them out as the dirt in the streets. Thou hast delivered me from the
strivings of the people. Whoo! That's some strong language
against a man, isn't it? You mean Christ is speaking that
against men? God, who supposedly loves all
men and wants all men to be saved, and Christ is speaking this against
them? God's angry with the wicked every day. Men who hate God. Men who hate Christ. that God's
angry with them. And Christ treads them down.
There's a hell. There's a hell. There was a hell
when Christ came. There were men in hell when Christ
came. And Christ didn't die for men
in hell. Christ didn't shed one drop of
blood in vain. You want man to be exalted or
God to be exalted? We want man to be exalted or
we want Christ to be exalted. We want man to be exalted or
we want Christ to be declared victorious. It can't be both. It's got to be one or the other.
Now the only way we can declare Christ victorious is to declare
He didn't shed one drop of blood in vain. Every person for whom
He died, He shall save. Every person for whom He died,
He justified. Every person for whom He died
shall be brought to faith in Christ, shall be brought to glory,
shall be saved from our sin, because Christ shall not fail.
And when Christ accomplished the judgment of His people, when
He satisfied the justice of God for His people, all those who
will pass through this world rejecting God, refusing to hear
His Gospel, because that's what they want to do. Just like you
did, just like I did. Christ settled the fact when
He laid down His life at Calvary's tree, that they will be judged,
they will be condemned, because they would not believe on Him,
they would not trust Him. Whose fault is that? It's not
God's fault, it's man's fault. We're the ones who sinned against
God. We're the ones who wouldn't believe on Christ. We're the
ones who rejected Him. Christ stood there and opened
His arms up and said, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden. I'll give you rest. And they
wouldn't come to Him. You hear me preaching the Gospel.
I'm saying, Come to Christ. He won't refuse. He won't turn
you away. And men won't come to Him. Won't have anything to do with
it. And then turn around and blame God when I declare to you, God
has to give you a heart and make you believe on Him, make you
willing, make you willing in the day of His power or you'll
pass from this world in that state. Well, that's not fair,
men say. Why is it not fair? You won't
come to Him. You see what I'm saying? So He's
just what He says here about men. And when He conquered all
His enemies, He conquered all our enemies. So He speaks to
you and me. He says, now, be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. When you look around and you
see this world, when you see this world going to hell in a
handbasket, and the handbasket is made in China and sold at
Walmart, you know this, God's still in control. He's ruling
everything. And you don't have to worry.
He's overcome the world. It doesn't matter what you see
happening to His people. And just as He gives His Father
the glory, we give Christ the glory. He says, Thou hast girded
me with strength. We say, Thou hast girded me with
strength. He said, Thou hast subdued unto
me those that rose up against me. We say, Thou hast subdued
unto me those that rose up against me. Believer, our faith, oh what
a little fragile nothing, our faith. When our faith can't even
be seen, so that it don't even appear that we have faith, the
faith of our faith is Christ the faithful one. He's the one
by whom we stand. He's the faith. He's the faithful
one. And it's by Him that we stand.
We have to abide in Him. And the only way we can do that
is by Him. He says, without me you can do
nothing. He said, abide in me, because without me you can do
nothing. How then am I going to abide in Him? He's going to
make me abide in Him. That's right. Here's the third
thing. Christ declares what has and shall come to pass now that
he's risen. Look here. This is what has come
to pass. This is what shall come to pass
because he's risen. When God the Father raised Christ
from the dead, this is what the Father did for Christ his Son.
Verse 43. Thou hast made me the head of
the heathen. Psalm 18, 43. Thou hast made
me the head of the heathen. The head of the heathen. You see it there? Thou hast made
me the head of the heathen. When Christ finished the work,
He finished the work that He promised the Father He would
do. Remember John 17 verse 4? He said, I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. That work was given Him to do
in eternity. And He finished it. He accomplished it. And then
He said, Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. He asked
the father to do for him what the father promised to do for
him when he had finished that work. And God the father did
just what he promised he would do when he finished that work.
He raised him and he gave him all power. Now remember as the
son of God he had all power. But now he's raised him and given
him all power as the God man. There is a man in glory, a man
in heaven who is God, who has all power, as powerful as God
is. What do you think about that?
A man who knows us, his people, whose touch with the feeling
of our firmness is in glory, with all power over all things
in heaven and in earth. That's the God man. He's put
all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church. That means every wicked king
and every good king, you know who put them on the throne? Our
king did. The king of kings and lord of
lords. That means every good thing that comes to pass, every
evil thing that comes to pass, you know who's overruling it?
The sovereign God, our savior, the God-man mediator, Christ
Jesus. He's ruling it. He's ruling it. There's this
glorified man that's in heaven when the scripture says that
God doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him what doest thou. That's the God man. That's Christ
Jesus. God in him. Now this is the sheer
result of what Christ is going to accomplish. Look at verse
43. He says, A people whom I have not known shall serve me. We just saw all that description
of these men, me and you. Hated him, strove against him,
didn't want anything to do with him. That's me, that's you, that's
all the people he's going to save. There's no difference between
anybody he saves and those that he does not save. There's no
difference in us. The only difference is the grace
of God. That's the only difference. Who
maketh thee to differ from another? What do you have that you didn't
receive? If you received it, why do you glory as if you didn't
receive? We can't glory in a thing. Everything in the salvation of
God. And he says here, a people whom I have not known shall serve
me. You know who the fulfillment
of this is? Everyone of you sitting here that believe God, you're
a Gentile. And you're the fulfillment of this scripture right here.
What it means is a people who appeared to be unknown by God. People who didn't know God, who
were outside of Israel, who didn't have the oracles of God, who
didn't have the scriptures, who didn't know anything about God,
and it appeared God didn't know them. He said, I'm going to save
a people. How then are they going to be saved? Obviously God's
going to have to do the work. Isn't that right? They don't
know God. They don't know we were without
God, without Christ, without hope in this world. And he says,
this is that mystery hidden from the beginning. The Gentiles should
be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel. Most in Israel. You know what
most of the folks in Israel believe? They believe they were saved
just because they were the natural sons of Abraham. They believe
we're the elect of God because we're the sons of Abraham. That's
what they believe. Just imagine the shock. Look
at John 8. I want you to see this. Imagine
their shock. John 8 verse 39. Here's these
folks who are just dead sure they're the elect of God. They're
just dead sure that they can take their genealogy and they
can trace it back and they can show you it goes all the way
back to Abraham. And they can say, look there,
I'm a son of Abraham. That makes me a child of God.
They didn't understand the promise of God. Ignorant of the Scripture.
Ignorant of God. They didn't understand. And they're
sitting there boasting, we're children of God. And listen to
what the Savior stood toe-to-toe with them and said. John 8, 39.
They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus
said unto them, if you were Abraham's children, if you were Abraham's children,
you'd do the works of Abraham. These are the works of God that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. That's the work Abraham
did. Abraham saw my day, Christ said,
and he believed, he rejoiced. And the scripture says, Know
ye therefore they which are of faith, the same are the children
of Abraham. That's who the children of Abraham are. And yet right
here in Psalm 18 they had the Scripture that you're reading
right now. They had this Scripture that
said a people that don't know me are going to be saved. And
many more Scriptures just like it declaring that God's elect
are not natural. They're not natural sons of Abraham. They're not born of their will.
They're not born of the flesh. They're not born of blood. They're
born of God. That's what the Scripture declared.
electing grace of God, the redeeming grace of God, and the regenerating
grace of God, so that God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit gets all the glory and men get zero. They
had that. But you know what they did? They
picked up the book and they looked at it and they said, well, I
believe we're saved because we're the sons of Abraham. And you
know what folks do today? The same thing. They pick up
this book and they look at it and they say, I believe I'm saved
because my daddy was a Baptist. My grandfather was a Baptist.
I believe I was saved because I gave my heart to Jesus. I believe
I was saved because I've done all these work blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. I've done. I, I, I, I, I, I. Didn't you
love what Brother Angus said? Did you see it? I'll put it in
the bulletin this coming week. Yeah. Eternity past, as far as
you want to go, to eternity future, as far as you want to go. We
have the eternal purpose of God, our foundation, the gospel, settled
eternity, stretching from eternity to eternity. And puny man has
taken that and reduced it down to the perpendicular pronoun,
the narrowest pronoun in the alphabet, in the English alphabet,
I. I, I, I, I. That's the audacity
of man. That's the enmity of man against
God. But those that are born are born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. They're born
of God. Now look what he says. As ignorant as we are, as dead
as we are. Verse 44. As soon as they hear
of me, they shall obey me. As soon as they hear of me. Not
before, not without hearing of him, and not with natural ears,
but with God-given spiritual ears. Look at Ephesians 3. I
want you to see this. As soon as they hear of me. How
are you going to hear of this one? How are you going to hear
of him? Look at Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, he says here, here's
this mystery they didn't understand, verse 6, that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel. How did he say that? By the gospel.
How are they going to hear? By the gospel. Look, whereof
I was made a minister, Paul said, by the gospel. I was made a minister
by the gospel. according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His
power under me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God, who created all things by Christ Jesus. They're going
to hear it through the preaching of the Gospel. And so Christ
promises, as soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me. All
will obey when Christ gives the new heart. Remember what God
said when He raised Christ from the dead? What Psalm is this?
Psalm 2? When He said, Thy people shall
be made willing. Psalm 110. Thy people shall be
made willing in the day of thy power. How did Paul say he heard? By the effectual working of his
power. That's how they're going to all
be brought to obey. By his power. He's got to give
us a new heart. He's got to put His Spirit in
us. He's got to make us willing. So, if it's all the way, He's
going to get the glory. And so He does it this way. And
to disagree is to deny God, is to deny the Scriptures, is to
deny Christ His glory. Look at Isaiah 55, 4. Isaiah
55, 4. This is why. It's to deny Christ.
This is Christ's glory to do this through the Gospel. Isaiah
55, 4. He says, Behold, I've given him,
he's talking to Christ, I've given him for a witness to the
people, a leader and a commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt
call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not
thee. That's just like we saw in our text, that it appeared
like he didn't know them, and they didn't know him. They didn't
know him. He said, And they shall run unto thee because of the
Lord thy God, for the Holy One of Israel, for he's glorified
thee. Look down here again, I want
to remind you of this. He said, He said, As the rain
came down and the snow, and accomplishes his purpose, look at verse 11.
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 whereto I send it.
You know where we begin to see this? Remember when Paul was
preaching, and he was preaching to the Jews, and they began to
murmur and reject it and hate it, you know, because they thought
they didn't understand election like Paul taught it. And they
didn't understand it spiritually. It's of God. He chooses whom
he will. God of people from the Jews and
the Gentiles. And it says they saw all that
multitude gathered around, Gentiles and Jews, and they were filled
with envy, jealousy. And they began to speak out against
Paul and they began to contradict what he preached and they began
to blaspheme God. And it says, and Paul said, they
waxed bold and they said, it was necessary that the Word of
God should first have been spoken to you. He says, but seeing you
put it from you, seeing as how you judge yourself unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And it says,
And for the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have set you as
a light for the Gentiles, that thou should be for salvation
to the ends of the earth. And it says, And when the Gentiles
heard. What did he say? When they hear
me, they are going to obey. And it says, And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad, and they glorified the word of the
Lord. How did they glorify the word
of the Lord? As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. They believed. All of them. as
many as were ordained, foreordained, predestinated to eternal life,
they believed. That's who believed. And also
to show us how sure Christ's Word is. I want you to get this
now. I'm going to wind it up because I'm not going to finish.
But to show you how sure Christ's Word is, the positive side of
Christ's Word. He shows us the negative effect
His Word is going to have. Now look at this. Psalm 1844. He says, he says, the second
part there says, the strangers shall submit themselves unto
me. Now the strangers here, they're
those who are really strangers. These are those who make a profession
and claim to believe Christ, but really don't believe Christ,
whether they're Jew or Gentile. And he says here, they're going
to submit themselves unto me. The word submit means they're
going to lie. The margin says they're going to yield a feigned
obedience. They're going to yield a fake
obedience unto me. And what shall come of these?
Verse 45. The strangers shall fade away
and be afraid out of their close places. These close places are
their false refuge. We be sons of Abraham. What works
must we work to work the works of God? All those kinds of things.
We meet with folks like this, don't we? They come for a while,
they have refuges, you know, all their different refuges,
what they did. And then they hear the message. Just like Christ's
disciples did. Remember what happened to them?
He was preaching to them one day, and they were saying, our
fathers ate manna in the wilderness. What are you going to do to show
us? And Christ turned to them and he said this, your fathers
ate manna in the wilderness. He said, they ate something natural
and they're dead, he said. You know what he said to them?
He said to them, if you're living off of something natural and
you think you have life by something natural, you are as dead as your
fathers are. You're as dead as your fathers
are. And he said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood,
you have no life in you. He said, any man that eats this
bread, Christ the bread, He said, through faith, believing on Him,
He says, He'll never die. He has eternal life. He'll never
die. And you know what the Scripture says happened? It says, Many
therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This
is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And from that
time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with
Him. That very scripture we just read,
He did that in His day when He walked this earth. So here's
the point. As much as it breaks your heart, believer, when you
see folks come and they hear the gospel and then they renounce
it, they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life and they leave
and depart from the gospel. As much as it breaks your heart,
don't be discouraged by it. That's Christ showing you His
Word won't ever return to Him void. He's going to expose men's
refuges. And when he does, they'll fade
away. If they're not here, they'll fade away. They'll fade away.
That's what this... He said the flood's going to
come. It's going to sweep away the refuge of lies. And this
word sweeps away the refuge. Every refuge. It gets into every
nook and cranny in the recesses of the heart. And wherever a
man's holding on to one little straw that's of his own making,
it's going to sweep it away. And when it does, they're going
to fade away. Every time. Every time. Now let
me end this. Let me end this. The last thing
he shows us here is that The reason this work is accomplished
is Christ is speaking through the gospel. Look at verse 49.
He says, Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among
the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. You know David.
This is not speaking of David. David never preached to the heathen.
He never preached to Gentiles. This is Christ we're talking
about. You know what he's doing right
here tonight? He's singing praises unto the Lord God through this
psalm, through this gospel, and he's giving the glory unto God.
Right here amongst the heathen. Amongst me and you Gentiles.
That's what he's doing. And he did it throughout this
psalm. I won't go through everything I have here. I don't have time.
I just want to end up with this last thing. Let me show you this
last thing. Here's the last verse. He sums
it all up. Verse 50. This is what he's preaching. Great deliverance. giveth He
to His King. He's speaking of God the Father.
Great deliverance giveth He to His King and showeth mercy to
His anointed. Christ is His King. Christ is
His anointed. He said He gave me great deliverance.
He wouldn't suffer His Holy One to seek corruption. He raised
Him and set Him at His own right hand. And there he sits working
this work of grace now. And in Christ he gives great
deliverance and great mercy to all his people. Look at the next
thing. To David and to his seed forevermore. To David and his
children forevermore. So here's the point of the message. Believe the gospel that our Redeemer
is preaching here concerning God the Father. By His great mercy, He's delivered
all His people in Christ to God's right hand. All His people are
saved. If you read Ephesians 2, He raised us when He raised
Christ. We're seated there with Him now. There might be somebody
sitting right here, right now, that don't know God, that's already
seated with Him right at the right hand of God. And through
this gospel, he's going to make it known. He's going to have
great mercy on them and give them a heart to believe and show
them this great deliverance he's accomplished and his great mercy.
And from that day forward, just like it's been before, before
we even knew it, he'd been having mercy on them. having mercy on
us, keeping us, saving us, protecting us from ourselves, protecting
us from dying, until He brings you to hear this gospel. And
then He opens your heart and gives you a new heart. And He
shows you this great deliverance. And from that day forward, just
like it's always been, He keeps showing you great mercy, great
deliverance, until that day when we meet our dying pillar. Whether it's in a tragic car
wreck or whether it's on a soft pillow, He's going to take us
to glory with Him. Great deliverance and show us
this whole mercy that He's accomplished. I guarantee you, I guarantee
you when David penned these words, David was rejoicing in the one
I'm preaching to you. David was rejoicing in the Christ
I'm preaching to you when he was used to penning these words.
Because he said that's all he's hoped. There's all his day. There's
all his salvation. Believe Christ. He'll save you. If you can believe Him, He's
already delivered you. He's already shown you mercy.
Believe Him. Amen. Alright, brother.