Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 110. Psalm 110, this is a psalm written
by David concerning the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning
his resurrection and ascension glory. And the glory that follows
his redemption of his people. So I want to read verse one,
I want to begin right there. The Lord said unto my Lord, or
Jehovah, that's the first Lord, Jehovah said to my Adonai, my
Adonai, my Lord, my ruler, sit thou at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. And David's saying here, I heard
Jehovah God say to him who has the rule and power over me. And the Lord is seated until
the culmination of all things, till the purpose and will of
God in the earth, in Christ, is completed, brought to the
fullness of its completion. This verse here, this is the
verse that Christ spoke when he silenced the Pharisees. At that time when all the different
groups, the Herodians and the Sadducees and the Pharisees came
to try and trip Christ up, this is the verse that he said to
the Pharisees to silence them. Because they knew that David
was writing of the Messiah. And they called him the son of
David. And he asked them, it's in Matthew
22, but he asked them, if David then call him Lord, how is he
his son? And they couldn't answer it.
They couldn't answer it. They didn't understand the deity
of Christ. They didn't see Him as the Son
of God. They didn't believe Him. And
so they weren't able to answer Him and so that silenced them
and that ended all the questions. The next time they see him will
be when he's seated on the throne of judgment and they stand before
him and they'll have nothing to say to him then either. So
just so we're clear, Jehovah God is addressing the Son of
God here as the Messiah. When you see this level of authority
in this way, it's God, holy God, addressing our Lord as the Messiah
in His office, as the Savior of His people, as the Christ.
And that's why it's spoken of in this manner. The Lord is speaking
to Him who will come and save people and now he has come and
David's seeing this he's seeing that work accomplished by the
Lord Jesus Christ for his people that's why he's seated he sat
down just like when you're working hard you don't sit down until
you're finished because if you sit down too soon you're fatigued
you suddenly feel how tired you are and worn out you are so you
sit down when the work is finished when the work is finished And
so his being seated down, it signifies he's accomplished that
labor which the Father sent him to do. He's taken his people
out from underneath the covenant of Adam that we were under, meaning
we were born under a covenant of works, works that we can't
do. We can't satisfy the law of God
by this natural flesh, by the strength of this flesh. And Christ
came and delivered his people out from under that covenant,
and he by his blood has established us under the covenant of grace,
whereby he may be kind to us and merciful to us and gracious
to us in peace and in joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans
4 25 Paul said of our Lord that he was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification That's done brethren. He's done
that which was was necessary for him to do and He laid down
his life was laid in the grave and raised again, and having
done that work, he's now ascended up to the Father, and he's sitting
on the throne in session as the Lord of his people, ruling and
reigning, implementing the will of God now for his people according
to promises. So, having accomplished the work
of redemption, all the promised spiritual blessings that should
flow. Everything that the Father said,
you do this work and I will bless my people with spiritual blessings
in Christ. you do this and your people shall
be blessed and so this now I want to look at at the blessings the
spiritual blessings that should follow the work that our Savior
has done but before we look at that I just want to take one
more notice from verse 1 David calls him my Lord the Lord said
unto my Lord And that says that David has an interest in Christ. He has an interest in that labor
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And my prayer is for me and for
my brethren that we are given that same interest in the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he's done. Lord, cover me with your blood. Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy
on me. Help me, because I can't save
myself either. I can't do it. I don't have a
righteousness of my own. Don't let me stay under that
law, that covenant of works that I cannot do. Lord, satisfy my
debt. And if that's your desire, it's
because He has satisfied your debt, and He's now sending all
His spiritual blessings into your heart. All that Christ obtained
by Himself in His labors are now given unto His people. And
so, let's look at the next two verses in Psalm 110, verses 2
and 3. Let me just read them first,
and then we'll look at them. Verse two, the Lord said, or
the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule
thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness,
from the womb of the morning, thou hast the due of thy youth. And so, Here again, Christ has
finished the work, he's set down from all his labors, and so all
the promised blessings of God in the Lord Jesus Christ are
sent out now, are sent down from heaven to bless the people whom
Christ has blessed in giving himself for them. And so right
now, these blessings are going to go forth from heaven into
the world. Paul writes of these. I'm using
this term spiritual blessings because that's what Paul calls
them, saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. in heavenly places, which is
a reference to the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ in Christ. All our spiritual blessings are
given to us in what Christ Jesus has done for us and accomplished.
It's all there in Him, brethren, in Him. And the psalmist here,
David, speaks of the Lord sending the rod of Christ's strength,
the rod of His strength. What is that? What is the rod
of Christ's strength? It speaks to the word of his
grace and the giving of the Holy Spirit. It speaks to the word
of his grace and the giving of the Holy Spirit that takes that
word and makes it effectual in the hearts of his people, making
us to hear it, making us to desire it, making us to rejoice in it,
making us to believe it and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit
of God makes that word effectual in our hearts. And this word
we know is to begin in Zion. There in Jerusalem, a picture
there, we see that type worked out in that it was poured out
upon them in Jerusalem. When our Lord ascended, he said,
wait for me. Wait for the Spirit. Wait till
I come and tell you what to do in Jerusalem. You go to Jerusalem
and wait there until power come to thee from on high. And so
they did, they were meeting in a room, about 120 disciples in
total there were, and they were praying, and the room shook,
and the wind blew, and in came the Spirit, and sat upon each
of the disciples as a cloven tongue of fire. And the next
verse says, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. They were
filled with the Spirit. And then they left that room
out into the streets and they began to speak and glorify the
Lord God. And there was a lot of people
in Jerusalem at that time. It was Pentecost. And so a lot
of Jews from other nations gathered themselves in Jerusalem, and
they heard in their own language men speaking the gospel, declaring
the glories of God. And they were amazed by this
sight, this sound that they were hearing, and they praised God
for what they were hearing. They rejoiced in what they were
hearing. And so in the very place where the enemies of God crucified
the Lord in Jerusalem. He was crucified without the
gate in Jerusalem there. In that very place, the Lord
sent forth his power, sent forth the rod of his power, his word
of grace and his spirit. came out, came pouring down upon
the people, showing that he's triumphed. That one whom you
took and slew, that one whom you put to death and murdered
unjustly, God has made him both Lord and Christ. He's raised
him from the dead, and he is Lord and Christ. And we know that 3,000 souls
were saved that day and added to the church. It was 120 at
the beginning of the day and 3,120 about at the end of the
day. The Lord having sent forth the
rod of his strength. Now this was the salvation that
the prophets were inquiring about and looking into in the Old Testament,
including David. David was inquiring. David had
the spirit of prophecy given to him whereby he saw these things
and wrote of these things, testifying of the grace that should come
upon us." Turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1 and put a marker there
or leave your finger there because we're going to see three different
passages in 1 Peter. Did I say Mark? First Peter chapter
one. First Peter chapter one and keep your finger there or
put a mark there. First Peter one, let's begin
in verse 11 and 12. So Peter's telling us that they
were prophesying. They were looking into these
things of the Lord's grace that he's speaking of there in the
Old Testament. Verse 11, searching what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. What time is he talking about?
When is this going to happen, Lord? When it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. This is what we're looking at
here, the glory that should follow. unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the
gospel, there's one of them, one of the things of the rod
of his power, the rod of his strength, that preach the gospel
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into. And so David, what he saw
when he was writing this psalm under the spirit of prophecy
given to him, he sees this. This is the rod of Christ's strength
going forth from the throne, from heaven, down upon the earth,
with the gospel and the spirit being poured out upon the people. being proclaimed to the people,
brethren. And to this day, that same blessed
promise is being poured out upon us. What they wrote to the brethren
there 2,000 years ago, they write to us for our joy and our comfort
and our peace and our rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that same power which shook them and delivered them from this
flesh and this death is the very power that delivers us from our
spiritual death and gives us life and light in the face of
Jesus Christ. And so it's the gospel word and
the giving of the Holy Spirit. That is the rod of Christ's strength
going forth. That is the promise which the
father said he would do in blessing his people whom Christ redeemed.
And so that's how we understand this next part in verse three.
Verse three, thy people Psalm 110 verse 3, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of
holiness, from the womb of the morning thou hast the due of
thy youth. And so this is speaking, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power, this is speaking
of how the Lord manifests His grace for that sinner who hears
the word, who receives the word, who believes Christ. It's unto
the saving of their soul. That power that we're reading
about is the power that the Lord sends upon a sinner to deliver
them from death, to bless them in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
making them to hear what Christ has done and to believe it, to
receive it. He manifests His power. He gives
them faith. that we see the Lord is blessing
them. He saved them. He had mercy on that sinner. He delivered them from death. What you see when a sinner believes
Christ and confesses Christ and confesses their sin, Lord, save
me, a sinner. Have mercy on me, a sinner. What
you're seeing there is not their power. It's not their flesh.
It's not their strength. It's not their wisdom that figured
it out. It's not something good in them that caused them to hear
versus the person next to them who doesn't hear. It's the power
of God. coming upon them. It's the rod
of His strength being executed in their hearts. Coming upon
them, brethren. It's a glorious thing. The angels
are rejoicing. Heaven rejoices because God has
delivered another sinner from death by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His power. And so there's
a lot going on here in this verse, but first it speaks of thy people. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That tells us that our God has
a people. He has a people. He knows exactly
whom he's sending his son to save. He has a people, thy people,
the people that the father chose and gave to Christ, they shall
be willing. they shall be willing in the
day of thy power." So we see that our God has a purpose of
salvation from the very foundation of the world and it all lines
up in everything we've read. from the moving of the Holy Spirit
upon this dark, void, formless planet, and God calling forth
that uncreated light to testify of His grace that He is bringing
upon this dark world in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it testifies. First, we know this of Christ.
So go back to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, and look at verse
19 and 20 with me. Peter's writing of us who are
redeemed. He is saying of you that are
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, meaning you were bought
You were purchased, right, when you go into the store, you use
money, currency today in a store and you purchase something. Well,
we were purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, meaning there's
no sin in him, no imperfection in him, there's nothing wrong
with him whatsoever. He's perfect. who verily was
foreordained, he was purposed of God for this before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest, made known, brought forth in
these last times for you. So Christ was chosen before the
foundation of the world. The father gave to the son this
labor for him to do. And then Paul writes of Christ's
people in Ephesians chapter one. We'll be back in first Peter,
but In Ephesians chapter 1 we're told, now we've seen it of Christ,
now we see it of the people of God, that it's according, in
verse 4, Ephesians 1, 4, it's according as God hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated
us, sinners like us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
This is why Jesus Christ, in Revelation 13, 8, is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God always purposed
this. He purposed to glorify the Son
in this work of redemption, and he chose a people for this redemption. before the children did any good
or evil, this was all done and purposed by God. And this is
the rod of his strength being poured out, coming forth because
of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. God ordained
this salvation for us, brethren, before he ever made the world. The son agreed to do it. The
father gave him the people, said, this is your bride. and they're
gonna fall in at him, go and save them and show them, give
them life and light, the true light that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world, he is the light, he's the salvation.
And by his grace, he turns us from that death and gives us
life and light in the face of Jesus Christ. And so this salvation,
which is wrought in the people of God, it's described as a new
birth. a new birth, brethren, so that
it's not of us, it's not of this flesh, but it's of our Savior
who receives all the praise, honor, and glory for this salvation
in His people. Back in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, now in verse
23 through 25, being born again, not of corruptible seed, that's
a reference to what we are in Adam, We're born of corruptible
seed in Adam. Just as he sinned, we come forth
sinners. Just as he didn't know the true
and living God, God was his enemy when he fell, we come forth and
we see God as our enemy when we come forth of that corruptible
seed. But now we are born again of
incorruptible seed, of the seed of Christ. This is his work.
By the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. for all
flesh, right? So he's showing you, why can't
I believe according to the flesh? Well, because all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. And we're told,
this is from Isaiah 40, verse 7, we're told it's because the
Spirit of God bloweth upon it, like that. That chilling wind
that comes at this time of year and starts killing all your plants
and knocking off the fruit and the flowers and everything starts
dying, the leaves start wilting and becoming worthless and they
die. The same thing when the Spirit
of God blows, He brings this flesh to nothing. This flesh
cannot endure the truth and the light of God. I can't imagine
standing before a holy God in my flesh and in my works. It's
going to wither like a dead leaf and blow away if I come in my
own works. That's what he tells us. I will
wither and die, but the word of the Lord That endures forever. That's the word we need in our
heart. The Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, who has made
flesh and did the work and sits on the throne and sends forth
the rod of his strength right now into the hearts of his people
to give them life. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. This is the good news. This is
the word. that the Spirit takes and makes
effectual in your heart, showing, taking the things of Christ and
showing them unto you, what He's done. And so Paul speaks of this,
wording it this way in 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2, in verse
13 and 14, he says, we are bound to give thanks always unto God,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. How? Through sanctification of
the spirit, meaning the spirit of God came and separated you
unto this gospel. He delivered you from death and
took you apart from and separated you unto this gospel and belief
of the truth. And he separated you and gave
you faith so that you heard the word and believe it. you believe
it, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He does this so that you will
not come short. of that which God has purposed
for you in the Lord Jesus Christ before the foundation of the
world. Our Savior cannot fail, brethren. He is the successful Savior. All for whom he shed his blood,
they shall be delivered. They shall be brought out of
darkness. The work's done. Salvation's accomplished. It's
wrought already by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is now the promise
of God coming forth and delivering us from death. making it known
what our Lord has done, that we may rejoice in Him and be
glad in Him. And so this is why when David
writes this, he writes it so confidently. Is there any wavering
in how David has said it? Is there any doubt that this
will be done and worked in the people of God? Not at all. He says, thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. because it's not hinging on you
or me. It's not resting on my shoulders or your shoulders or
our ability or our desire. In spite of us, it shall be worked
out and poured out upon us because it's the rod of Christ's strength. It's his work. It's his glory. It's his power to the praise,
honor, and glory of his name so that there's no earthly power
that can withstand it. There's no earthly power, and
that includes me, and that includes you, and our flesh. Our works
can't withstand the will of God. Our will can't withstand the
will of God. We can't stand against what God has purposed to do for
his people in blessing us in Christ. And he turns our hearts,
making us so that we don't want to withstand it. We want the
Lord to do this for us. We're thankful for the Lord doing
this in us, because otherwise we never would do it ourselves.
We never do it ourselves. And so we see here that this
is power of God. It's actually called in scriptures
the resurrection power of God. That power which raised the Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead is the power which God sends and
raises us up from our death. and delivers us from our death.
This is what Paul wanted to know when he said that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. That's how we're gonna face the
hatred of this world. That's how we're gonna face the
despising and the persecutions and the trials and the troubles
and the difficulties and the afflictions is by that resurrection
power in us. that gives us life and hope in
the Lord Jesus Christ, so that, Paul said, being made conformable
unto His death. He's conforming us to Christ,
that we may live in Him and by Him. So it's not, brethren, as
the Lord said to Moses, I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It's of God that showeth mercy.
And so, brethren, our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our life
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our rejoicing is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're going to stop there
for this morning just seeing that part of the glory and then
when When we come back to it, we'll see the second half of
this psalm and see how it all rests on Christ. He's our Melchizedek. He's our high priest. And we'll
see how it all rests on him, brethren. I pray the Lord bless
that word to your heart.