Psalm 8, I've titled the message,
Amazing Divine Visitation. We're going to be in Psalm 8,
verses 3 through 9. This is a Psalm of David praising
the excellent name of the Lord, our Lord. Verse 1, he says, The
name of the Lord is excellent in all the earth, and the Lord
has set His glory above the heavens. We know that the regenerated
child of God beholds the excellent name of the Lord in the earth
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said that, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. That's where God has
set his excellent name in the earth. And we see the glory of
God in the face of Christ Jesus. And God has sent His glory, His
own Son, having finished the work of redemption. He has sent
Him above the heavens. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher
than the heavens. That one who descended is the
same that ascended far above all heavens, that he might feel
all things." Then verse 2 declares to us that God Himself chose
babes and sucklings, helpless, powerless children, his elect
children, helpless, powerless children, God chose. Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings, thou has ordained strength, praise,
the gospel we've declared. And he did it, why? Because of
his enemies. that he might steal the enemy
and the avenger. What a weapon. What a weapon. The son of God's love was made
of a woman. He formed in the womb of a virgin.
He came forth an infant, a suckling. And he grew in wisdom and stature
as a man. He is God's maid. And on one
occasion, He silenced his enemies and the avenger so that the scripture
says from that day forward, no man does ask him any more questions. He did it over and over before
then, but finally he just silenced them. And he is the one who through
believers, through his babes and his sucklings, brings to
nothing, confounds, confuses, shuts the mouths of the haughty,
arrogant, know-it-all, self-righteous men that look down their noses
and think themselves something and powerful with some wisdom
and ability. On one occasion, the babe of
God, Christ himself, looked up to heaven And he said, Father,
I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. Wisdom justified wisdom. And so as we've seen Christ in
these first two verses, we're going to see one greater than
David in the rest of these verses. Christ Jesus, the righteous son
of man himself. When I picture David walking
out there somewhere that he was a shepherd of sheep, and I picture
him out there alone by himself looking up to heaven, I see my
Lord Jesus Christ going off in a mountain alone to pray, that
one who is the chief shepherd, going off alone in a mountain
to pray, looking up to heaven as he did when he thanked God
that these things were revealed to babes and hidden from the
wise and proven. And I hear him say this, Psalm
83, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that
thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest
him? You see, Christ really did take
part of what his children are. so that he could look up and
praise God and say this, and say this in perfection, what
is man that thou art mindful of him? There's a road back in
Arkansas on Highway 79 that goes between Forest City, Arkansas
and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, down, leads to my home in Eldorado.
And when I used to go home, travel that way, going home from Tennessee,
I used to love to take that little two-lane road, went right down
through the Arkansas Delta. Poor spot of ground on the face
of this planet, but one of the most beautiful, if you got eyes
to see. Because from one, from east to
west, down that flat ground, from east to west on a clear
night, you can see nothing but stars from one side to the other.
And a big old moon up above. And I've stopped on that road
before and got out and looked at it and thought, what is man? What is man? Look over with me
at Job 26, 27. No, Job 26, 7. The heavens, the
moon, and the stars, these are the work of God's fingers. Look
at Job 26, 7. He stretcheth out the north over
the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in His
thick clouds and the cloud is not rent unto them. An airplane
goes right through a cloud. If you and I were to jump out
on a cloud, we'd fall right through it. But God holds His water in
the clouds and it doesn't go through it until He gives it
permission. It's not rent unto them. He holdeth back the face
of His throne and spreadeth His clouds upon it so that we can't
see it. He hath compassed the waters
with bounds until the day and night come to an end. He sent
the bounds. The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his reproof. He divided the sea with his power
and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. That's what
makes the proud get all bent out of shape. is God's understanding. It's
so much above ours. That makes a proud man just be
smitten through like an arrow. By his spirit, he's garnished
the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked
serpent. I take that to be lightning.
Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard
of him. But the thunder of his power,
who can understand? And we know by the testimony
of God's own Word that sinners are without excuse. The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
They are understood by the things that are made. His eternal power
and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Men are without
excuse. And what a God, the Son of God,
who made these things. For the Scripture says, by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth. God the Son who made these things, who is Himself the One
who stretched out these things, took our nature and as the righteous
Son of Man could look up into the heavens and praise the Lord
for the work of His fingers. What a visitation. He didn't have a place to lay
his head. And everything above his head, he made it. Everything below his feet, he
made it. Well, let's consider the honor.
that was bestowed upon Adam. Psalm 8, 5 says, Thou hast made
him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works
of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the pass of the seas. Great honor God bestowed
upon that first man, Adam. great honor. Look over Genesis
127. So God created man in his own
image. And the image of God created
he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth. Look at Genesis 2.19. Can you
imagine this? Think about this. And out of the ground the Lord
God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
air, and brought them unto Adam. All of them. And he brought them
to Adam to see what he would call them. What honor was bestowed
upon. God brought all the beasts that
God made to this man God made and said, now you name them.
You name them. And whatsoever ever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave
names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every
beast of the field. But then Adam sinned, and the
whole creation, man included, came under a curse. Came under
a curse. We know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. We've tamed a lot of things.
We've worked hard to break horses and train tigers and lions and
all those things. But we don't have the dominion
over them that we did have. Man just does not have the dominion
over things that he had. What's that fellow, those two
fellows that trained those tigers? They stick their head in his
mouth, you know? Ask that fellow if we still have
dominion over tigers. One of them tigers ate him up
one day. Ask him. Go out, go fishing a few times. See how much dominion you have
over the fish. You have to stop and get a hamburger
on the way to the house. We lost the image of God. We lost the dominion we had.
We became a curse in this world. It's an amazing thing that God
the Son, the last Adam, would come down to where we are, seeing
as how we drink iniquity like water. What is man? What is man? An abomination. What is man? He's a puddle of
nothingness. He's just a worthless thing.
But yet Christ came down. Look at verse 5. For Thou hast
made Him a little lower than the angels and has crowned Him
with glory and honor. Look over at Hebrews 2.9. Hebrews
2.9. This is talking about that One
who is the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, the God-Man. Hebrews 2.9. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor. That's who we're looking at.
Jesus Christ, crowned with glory and honor. The work of making
his people perfect was the work put into our sanctifier's hands. The heavens and the stars and
the moon, as grand as they are, those are the works of his fingers.
But the work of redeeming His people and making His people
perfect and restoring His people in the image of God, recreating
them in the image of God, was the work of His hands. And the
work of His hands are His people over whom Christ has dominion.
Look at Psalm 86 back there. Hold your place in Hebrews 2.
We're coming back and forth here for a minute. Psalm 86 says,
it said, Thou hast made Him lower than the angels, crowned Him
with glory and honor. Thou madest Him to have dominion over the
works of Thy hands. Look back at Hebrews 2 and look
at verse 9. We see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. for every one of his elect, for
it became him. This is the work of his hands
and those that he has dominion over, because he suffered death
in their room instead. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things. in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. They are the works of his hands,
the works over which he has dominion. His children, his ones that he
redeemed by his own blood, who he tasted death for. And God,
by setting Christ above the heavens in resurrection glory, has and
shall put all things under Christ's feet. And by putting all things
under Christ's feet, He's put all things under the feet of
His elect. all things under His feet. Back
at verse 6, Psalm 8 6, Thou hast made Him to have dominion over
the work of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
His feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the sea. I want you to see a
beautiful picture. Genesis 9. Genesis 9.1. Christ Jesus came down and He
was crowned with glory and honor. He laid down His life and redeemed
His people. And God has given Him dominion
over all things that He, by His power, by His grace, shall bring
His babes to each one of His elect and through His gospel
He's going to call each one and He's going to tame them. Though
they be like beasts of the field, He's going to tame them because
He has the dominion. All the power in heaven and earth
has been given unto Him. Now look at this beautiful allegory
here in Genesis 9-1. After they came out of the ark,
after the flood of God's judgment was over, that power of judgment
poured out like as it was on Christ our Ark. Genesis 9-1,
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and
the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and
upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth
and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they
delivered. You notice the wording there
is almost the same as when God said to Adam, before sin ever
entered in when he said that to Adam. The wording is almost
the same. Almost because his sons here
are yet still sinners, yet still in their flesh. But in this,
do you see an allegory of Christ? He restored his regenerated child
to the image of God by his spirit. And because his elect were in
Christ, our ark, when he bore the flood of God's wrath on our
behalf, the flood of wrath being put away, God has blessed Christ
and he blesses his sons in Christ, just as he did Noah and his sons.
And he does it in the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. You see there, most of those
animals that God said to Noah he would have dominion over,
most of those animals were in the ark with Noah when they went
through the flood. Most of these animals. Those
elect who are yet dead in their sins may be as wild as beasts
of the field right now. But because they were in Christ
with us when he died, They too must and shall be tamed by His
grace through the Gospel of Christ. Because He's given His Son dominion
over all the sheep and the oxen and the beasts of the field and
the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air. All of them. All
of them. And God strengthens His elect
sheep. Look back there at Psalm 8. all
sheep and oxen. That's the first thing mentioned.
I'm sorry, verse 7, Psalm 8, 7. He gave him dominion over
all sheep and oxen. God strengthens his elect sheep
and he puts us together as witnesses to plow like oxen. We're yoked
together by the same Spirit that indwells us. By the same Spirit. And out of the mouth of His babes,
the Lord creates life in His children and He steals the enemy
and the avenger. Why? How so? The dominion's His. The glory's His. The power is
His to do so. Oh, that we would stop trying
to deny the power of God. Oh, that we would stop trying
to have a form of godliness and deny the power of God. When we have been granted repentance,
we don't continue in denying His power and upholding a form
of godliness and saying, but, but, but. Repentance is being
brought out of that trash and being brought to say, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. That's repentance.
Repentance. Renouncing the former things
as dung, as total dung. This is what our Savior does.
He's bore the flood, He's bore the flood of wrath and all power
and dominion is given unto Him so that He sends forth His babes
and His sucklings and He makes it known in the hearts of His
elect babes and sucklings who are yet dead in trespasses and
sins, He comes to them with the power of this Gospel. And He
tames them like a beast of the field. He tames them and brings
them down and subdues them by the power of His Holy Spirit
through His Gospel. And He does it through the mouth
of babes and sucklings because of His enemies. Because His enemies
are going about trying to do this another way. not by simply
declaring that He is the power and the excellency by which He
accomplishes His work. His enemies are going about to
say, you can be as God. You can be like God. You can
be a little God. You can fix it. You can fix it. Fix it. Fix it. Fix it, little
fixer. Fix it, little God. And he causes
men to look at men. And he causes men to compare
themselves with men. And he causes men to be tossed
to and fro by all the wind of doctrine of the harlots of Babylon.
so that they can never be settled, they can never be tamed, but
they're like a wild beast kicking their heels up and always constantly
finding fault with everybody but numero uno. That's not how God does it. This
one who has the dominion does this work through babes and sucklings,
nobodies from nowhere, nobodies with no power, nobodies that
can do nothing of themselves by themselves at all. And he does it that way because
of his enemies, to confound his enemies and to bring them to
nothing. That he might steal the enemy
and the avenger. I can tell you this. declare
the word, declare the word. It's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. We can put a lot of outward garb
on and we can take on a form and do a lot of things and never
will men that look upon us know what is actually the thoughts
and intents of our heart. The one thing that will reveal
the thoughts and intents of the heart is Christ, the message
of Christ and Him crucified. That will reveal what the thoughts
and intents of a man's heart are. Either they'll be set wholly
by the Spirit of this One who has dominion, they'll be wholly
set upon God and Him alone, upon Christ and Him alone, and they'll
delight to hear the Word of God, they'll delight together with
His people, they'll delight to further this Gospel, they'll
delight in His subduing men and not themselves. And we'll say, I'm gonna go somewhere
where I can get a title, where I get some power, where I get
some prestige, where I can be noticed for who I am. I'm gonna go someplace where
I can get a little power to do a little governing and command.
I'm gonna go someplace where they'll give me some power to
govern and to command. and delight that it's so, and
love to be there, and say this is the gospel that's being preached
unto me, until the last comes down on that back. And then that
vain, deceitful, vain religion will say, well he quit preaching
the gospel. I don't want to be under the
taskmaster anymore. I'm leaving Egypt. But I ain't
ever left Egypt. Because I left for the same reason
I went there. I wanted to be a taskmaster and
they wouldn't let me be a taskmaster. I left there because I don't
want, but I still love the garlics and the leeks and the onions
of Egypt. What's going to bring a man out of that puddle of puke?
What's going to make a man see he's got no power in himself
to do anything, not to save himself from himself? What's going to
make a man see there's a law in his right hand and renounce
it? Who can do that? None but God only. And he does
it through the power of Christ in him crucified, set forth in
power and spirit. We don't see all things yet put
under our feet, but we have this sure hope. Look at Hebrews 2.8. This is what we have a hope of.
This is why we have a hope. Hebrews 2.8. Thou hast put all
things in subjection under His feet. They're all under Christ's
feet. For in that He put all in subjection
under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now
we see not yet all things put under Him. We don't see all things
under our feet yet. But we see Jesus. We see Him
by faith. You see, you can't see the things
I'm talking about this morning. You can't enter into the things
we're talking about this morning except by faith. I see my Lord
Jesus Christ acting performing all that he has promised in the
midst of his people. I see him doing it. Just, just,
faith is the substance of things. I see him by faith. We see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor. David said, by the Holy Ghost,
Thee, Lord, said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. David saw this. David saw him. David saw him. Look at 1 Corinthians. This world
that we're talking about, while you're there in Hebrews 2.5,
this world we're talking about, it's not this world. I'm not
worried about anything being put under my feet in this world.
This world's going to keep on going like it's going until it
falls in the ocean. The world I'm talking about,
look at verse 5. For unto the angels hath he not put into subjection
the world to come, whereof we speak. That's the world we're
talking about. The world to come. The world
to come. 1 Corinthians 15, 24 says, Then
cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom
to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule
and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. It says He'll do that. He'll
do that. Now, look at 2 Peter chapter
3. 2 Peter chapter 3. You see, we're not looking, the believer's not looking to
try to change this world. The believer's not looking to
try to make this world something better. I'm not looking to do
that. I'm not looking to reform men
or reform this world. Not at all. I'm looking for a
new heavens and a new earth wherein everything that is there is the
creation of my King and my Lord. this One who is the Sovereign
of heaven and earth, this One who has created these things
by His blood and by His righteousness, by His Spirit through His Gospel
in truth so that everything that will dwell there will be righteousness. That's what I'm looking for.
That's what the believer's looking for. And we have this good hope
that because He came to where we are and He suffered and died
in our room instead, and that he is crowned with honor and
glory, and that he, in fact, is the one who God shall put
all enemies under his feet. Whether they be the enemies in
their minds by wicked works, who he's elected unto salvation
in Christ by his glory before the world began, and he calls
and brings them to bow to the king, or whether they be enemies
of the avenger, the devil himself, and he leaves them and hardens
them in their rebellion against him. Whichever the case, he's
going to put all enemies under his feet. He's the authority.
He's the dominion. We're either going to come under
his yoke and his dominion and delight in His order of things,
or we're going to go on rebelling against God by rebelling against
men. That's so. But those who look
for these things, here's what we do by the Spirit of His grace
working in our hearts. 2 Peter 3.13, Nevertheless we,
according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, there's that word again, be diligent,
be diligent, that you may be found of Him in peace, without
spot and blameless, and account that the longsuffering of our
Lord is salvation. How is the longsuffering of our
Lord salvation? He's waiting till He has called
out every single one of His sheep. And by Him suffering long, every
one shall be saved and not one shall be lost. The long-suffering
of God is salvation. I know it gets tiresome waiting,
doesn't it? Tiresome waiting. But most of
our tiresome tiredness is really murmuring. We just don't like
the way things are, what God's put us in. But His suffering
long, His waiting will result in the salvation of every one
of His sheep and then not one will be lost. So let's go back
to Psalm 8, we'll end this. So the next time you're outside,
you who know and trust Him. Next time you're outside at night
and you look up into the heavens and you marvel at the work of
His fingers, remember this. Remember the work of His hands. Remember the work of His hands.
When you see a star twinkling in the sky, you think about a
nail hole in his hand, and a spear hole in his side, and lashes
on his back. Because by the work of his hand,
he has perfected forever his people. That's something even
more amazing than the stars and the moon. so that we can say
in verse nine, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth. Amen.