Psalm chapter 47. Psalm chapter
47. This morning, we'll be looking
at verse 3. Psalm chapter 47 and verse 3. Let's go ahead and read the first
two verses with it. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph. For the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great King over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. The title of the message
this morning is Victory in Jesus. Victory in Jesus. Now, this last time on Wednesday
evening, we've been studying the first two verses about clapping
and shouting. If you remember, we clap and
shout from the inside out. We don't clap and shout out here
because that does very little. It does nothing if the heart
is not If the heart and the corrupt nature are not taken care of
by the blood and righteousness of Christ, all the shouting is
not going to do any good. Remember Israelites, when they
brought that ark out there, there was a great shout. They were
clapping so loud the earth shook. And you know what happened? They
got defeated. They were defeated. But it was when David brought
that ark back, he brought it back with sacrifices, with the
offering of blood. Friends, there is no remission
of sins without the shedding of blood. And not just any blood. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. His blood is the only hope for
our sins. And we, this morning, come to
honor the Lord Jesus Christ. And this verse, in verse 3, speaks
about the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, He. Who
is that? The great King over all the earth.
That's who He's talking about. The great King over all the earth. Shall do what? Have victory. What else does a great king do
but have victory? But have victory. He said he
shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our
feet. The first thing I want us to know this morning is that
man, all of us, by nature, are a defeated race. A defeated race. You didn't come into this world
with one strike against you or two strikes against you. You
came into this world struck out. You were out before you got to
the plate. You and I by nature were born
spiritually depraved. Spiritually dead in sins. And this is caused, this was
caused by the fall of Adam. The fall of Adam. In the scriptures
you'll know that God always deals with us, with man, through a
mediator, through a representative. And all of us this morning have
been already represented by this man, Adam. This man, this first
man that God created, he is the father of us all. And when he sinned, we all sinned in him. We sinned in Adam. Now, before
you start getting mad at Adam, or you start saying, that darn
Adam, I can't believe he did that to me. Let us remember what Adam was
before Adam was fallen. He was the best of us. Adam was the best that man could
offer. He was created in perfection. He was the most educated being,
the most intelligent being. He was perfect in every way. He was innocent. And he had unlimited access to
the presence of God. Now, which one of us can ever
say we matched up to his standard? None of us. This man was created
after the image of God. God said, let us make man in
our image, in our likeness. And the triune God made Adam
holy and upright, the best in the best environment too. This
environment that Adam was in, it was the best. There were no
distractions of things around him. He enjoyed everything to
the fullest. He didn't have to go out and
mow the grass. He didn't go out and pluck the
weeds. All he did was pluck the fruit
from the vines. It was that easy. The best environment. And yet, being the best of men
and having the best understanding, he could not sustain his own
holiness. God gave him one law only, that
tree is mine, don't eat it. Now, which of us here think that
they could have kept that commandment? Man, if that's all Adam had to
do, then surely I could have done that. No, you would have
failed just as miserably as he did. He was the best of us. Imagine if you were there. I know this, I'm not the best
of us. And I would have failed just like he did. And when he
failed, he fell into spiritual death and brought us all in with
Him. Therefore, God has dealt with
us by our father Adam, and we have been ever since held into
captivity of our own sin. None of us escape this. Not one
child that is born in this world escapes this condemnation. Not one child escapes this sin
that is passed down. This death is passed down to
us. What is this death? It's a heart
darkness. It's a darkness that covers the
heart of man Be in opposition against everything that's godly,
everything that's good, everything that's righteous. Man by nature
is in opposition and hatred of those things. Remember when I
was a child, I look back and I see some of the foolish and
silly things that entertained me. And I thought they meant
the world. I don't have to look that far
back. I can look just back yesterday and some of the things that I
did that were just simply foolish. They had no value in them. Our foolish heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? We are enslaved by sin. This whole race is blind and
groping in the dark. for some kind of peace. Some
kind of peace. Do you suppose if they got world
peace, they would have peace? Do you suppose if they got everybody
in the world to get along just for a couple of years, just for
a couple of weeks, do you suppose that there would be peace at
that time? No. Because man cannot produce peace
in his own heart. He's enslaved. He's enslaved
to sin. And I'll tell you, our father,
who was the most intelligent man after he failed, how intelligent
was he? He thought that fig leaves would
cover the sight of God. He thought that God wouldn't
know the difference. If I just cover myself, surely
God will not think anything is wrong. Surely I can cover over
my disobedience and sin with these leaves. Now that sounds
silly, doesn't it? That's the same as religion.
People think that if they just get religion, that God's going
to be okay with them, that God's going to be fine if they just
do their best. What a lie! What a darkness that's
on the heart of men. It's because they're dead. I tell you, we all fell in Adam. And because God is holy, He must
punish all sin with death. All sin with death. Well, I know
this. People say, well, that's not
fair. Preacher, that's not fair. If I died in Adam, I didn't have
a chance to begin with. That's not fair. If God sends
me to hell because it was Adam's fault. Well, this same question is raised
in Romans chapter 9. Flip over there for me. Hold
your place. Romans chapter 9. Look at verse 19. What wilt thou say unto me? Why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
In other words, if salvation is by the grace of God alone
without the works of man, if salvation comes by God's election,
then how can God condemn me if I wasn't chosen? What's the answer
to that? Who are you to reply against
God? That's the answer. How do you think you can stand
against your Creator and speak anything ill of Him? How? You
can't. You can't. We are God's creatures. And as God's creatures, we are
subject to our Creator. We are subject to Him. And He
will do with us as He pleases. You see, just because man lost
the ability to obey God, God never lost the right to demand
of his creature's perfection. That's like a man who has committed
a murder. He goes to the judge and he's
guilty. He goes to the judge and he says, Judge, it's impossible
for me to be unguilty, so you should bend the law to fit me. Wait. You murdered. Why should
we bend the law for you? Why should we lower the standard
now because you're guilty? You see, the law has no... It would be unjust for the law
to come down and give you a lighter sentence. And God would be unjust
if He came down and let you slide because of original sin, because
of Adam's sin. God's not going to do that. God's
just. And God will punish all sin. Let me ask you this this morning.
Have you been made sensible of your enslavement to sin? Has God the Holy Spirit shown
you that you can do nothing but sin? Have you seen how holy God is? Have you seen how righteous He
is? How can we approach unto a holy God being such sinners
as we are? Have you been made aware of this?
If you have, there's hope. There's hope to the defeated. There's hope. To the enslaved,
there's hope. Jesus said, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sinners! Sinners! Do I have sinners? Am I preaching
to sinners? Christ said He came to save sinners.
If you have no need of salvation, this is not for you. If you don't
believe you're captive, You don't believe anything's wrong, everything's
all right. This is not for you. This is for people in captivity.
This is for people who are enslaved to see it. God's word promises
here a victory. So I see an enslaved people that
we are by nature, but I also see that God promised a victory. Look at our text. God promised
a victory. Why are we to do all this clapping
and shouting? Here it is. For He shall subdue
the people under us and the nations under our feet. This King, this
King who is King over all the earth, He Himself shall come and deliver His enslaved people. Who are these people that shall
be victorious? These are the people that God
purposed to save. These are the people God purposed
to save. This promise is to His purposed
elect people that He promised to deliver before the world was. He promised to save for himself
a remnant. That word is used quite often
in Scripture. A remnant. What does that mean? A remainder. A small section
of a larger group. That's what it is. When Elijah
He thought he was it. He said, God, kill me. I'm the
only one that believes in you. I'm the only one that loves you.
Kill me. And God said, I have reserved
for myself 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal. Now it's
7,000 out of millions of people. It was a remnant, a group, a
small percentage of the people. These elect people, they were
born no different than anyone else. They were born enslaved. If God's elect people weren't
born enslaved, then why would we need a Redeemer? Why would
we need somebody to save us? Why would God send His King to
subdue these things under us? If we were already free, we're
not. But God chose of the same lump of sin. In other words,
I am chosen of the same lump of worthless humanity that you
who believe in Christ are chosen from. No different. In this world, we put people
on different levels according to what they earn or what they
know or what they don't know. We say, well, this person's lower
because he's not educated, this person's higher because he has
money. No, God doesn't put people on that level because of what
they have or what they do. He puts us all on the same level
to begin with, worthless. Worthless. You were born just
as worthless as I am. I could not add anything to God
and you could not add anything to God. I could not earn God's
favor and you could not earn God's favor. We were enslaved. I was enslaved to sin and so
were you. But God promised that He would
send His King to accomplish victory. To set His people free. Free. This was the promise of
God. And not only did He promise it,
God accomplished it. He shall subdue. He has subdued. In this text, this was written
before the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. But now
that Christ has come, He that should come, has come. The King has come. The Son of
God has come. And He also came as a representative. As a representative of who? Those
whom God had chosen. He was a representative man just
like Adam was. On Wednesday evening we looked
at David and Goliath a little bit. And you see those two men
out there. They represented each one their
respective nation. If the Philistine Goliath would
have won, then all of the Philistines would have won. But if David won, then all of
Israel would have won. Do you see the picture? You see
how it's a representative? How they represented the whole
Christ is David. Adam, Sin, Satan, and the world
are Goliath. And Christ has accomplished salvation. He's accomplished it. He finished
it. And because He accomplished victory,
He has put his feet on the neck of all our enemies. Go to Joshua chapter 10. I love
this passage of scripture. So picturesque of God's victory
for us. Joshua chapter 10. And look at
verse 24. And it came to pass when they brought out those kings
unto Joshua. Now Joshua is the same name as
Jesus. The same name. So he is a type
of Christ. That Joshua called for all the
men of Israel. That's a picture of his church.
His let. and said unto the captains of
the men of war which went with him, Come near and put your feet
upon the neck of these kings." You see, that was the sign of
victory when they took the king of the opposing army and they
put their foot on his neck before they killed him. Jesus Christ has defeated all
our enemies. Sin. He defeated our sins by being
made sin for us. He took our sins. As God imputed them to Him, He
voluntarily took them and God poured out His wrath on Him for
all our sins. And what happened when He said
it was finished? He gave up the ghost and He died.
But the grave could not hold Him because He had no sin. The power of the grave is sin. But when sin is gone, what power
does the grave have over us? Nothing. Nothing. Because Christ
has already accomplished victory over sin and death, the grave
and hell. He already put His foot on the
neck of His enemies Now then, he sends out his gospel and says,
Sinner, come. Defeated, enslaved people, come
and put your foot on the neck of these enemies, because I've
already done it. I've already accomplished it.
He accomplished victory. And he accomplished righteousness.
righteousness. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? In other words, who's going to
stand before God? Which one of us is going to be able to stand
before God? He that hath pure, clean hands
and a pure heart. Anybody here got that? See, we
don't have that. But that's alright, because Christ
accomplished that. He has pure hands. He has a clean
heart. And He represented a people just
as Adam represented a people and fell into sin. So Christ
represented a people and has given them righteousness. Righteousness. Purity of heart. of soul, of
mind. This is a new nature Christ gives
to his people. He's accomplished it. He satisfied the justice of God. He accomplished it for us. Man always tries to put on his own righteousness with Christ. But Jesus said this very simply,
does anybody put new wine in an old bottle? No. He said, that old bottle
breaks and the wine spills out everywhere. Do you put a patch,
a new patch on an old piece of cloth, old rags, No, because
that would make the rent worse. Therefore, we don't put on our
righteousness or even the righteousness of Christ. We don't put that
over this old man. You see, God must give us a new
bottle, a new patch, a new set of clothes, a new robe. He doesn't just patch up the
old one. He gives us a new one. It's the new nature. And this is because he satisfied
all of God's wrath. And provided all that God needed. All that God required of us.
He provided. Therefore, behold the beauty
of the king. For he has by himself purged
our sin. By himself, he triumphed. We can put our foot on the neck
of sin, hell, Satan, and the grave not because we did it. We can safely put our foot on
their necks because he did it. He did it. He got the victory. But I'll tell you what, this
victory that he has purposed, that he has accomplished, it must also be experienced. Experienced. It's not good enough for us to
reckon we've put our foot on the neck of our enemies. No. He says, come and put your foot
on them. Come and believe the gospel. Believe not what you can do for
God. Believe what God has done for
you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on His person. Believe
on His work as all your hope, as all your righteousness. And
those who believe, They have put their foot on the necks of
their enemies. This must be experienced. And when He comes in power to
free a man, that man is truly free. free from the law, free from
death, free from condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. He subdues this rebel nature. Has God subdued your rebel nature? That's the first thing he's got
to go. Is our thoughts and our ways. As to how to please God. In order for God to save a man,
this is the first thing he binds up and cast out is our own self
rule. Man by nature says, I will not
have this man to rule over me. But when God comes in power,
that nature is cast out and a new nature is brought in and he says,
I will have this man to rule over me because he does rule
over me. He subdues that old nature in
our thoughts and ways. He subdues our hearts. It takes
out that old stony heart that had no love and affection for
Christ and puts in a heart of affection. I mean, why do you love to hear
the gospel? Why do you love to hear of Christ? Because He gave you a heart to
do it. He gave you a new nature to do it. He bound that old nature
and cast it out. It's no longer in charge. He will also subdue our minds.
Our minds. Not only our affections, but
our minds. Let this mind be in you, which
also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of himself no reputation. That doesn't sound like the old
nature at all, does it? The old nature wants to make
a reputation for himself. The old nature, our old man,
wants to say, hey, look at me, look what I can do. The new nature says, don't look
at me, look at him. Don't listen to me, listen to
him. He has life. There's hope in Him, not me.
He subdues our minds so that we become lovers of God and lovers
of men. We love each other. Isn't that
the manifestation of true faith is love? Yes, it is. John said, if you don't love
your brother that you can see, how in the world can you say
you love God whom you don't see? How is that possible? He said,
it's impossible and you're a liar. He put it straight out there,
didn't He? Love is a manifestation of true faith and true life in
Christ. And He subdues us to be creatures
of love, creatures of service. Worshipping Him constantly. Faithful
to Him. Faithful to His Word. Faithful
to His Gospel. Faithful to serve Christ and
to serve others. That's what He does to us. Now,
that's not any of us by nature. None of us want to serve anybody
but self. By nature, I want to serve me
because I like me. I like me a lot. But when guys came, I know this,
he put a heart in me that loves you more than me. That's unnatural. That's supernatural. That's the
gift of God. That's the Holy Spirit. And thirdly,
He not only subdues our hearts of affection, our minds, but
He also subdues our will. The natural will is set in enmity
against God. But in the day of His power,
He comes and breaks that will. and gives us a new will. A will that loves to serve Him. You know, I don't serve Christ
because I got to. Now, I'm your pastor and I know
this, I should be faithful to preach the gospel because God
gave this treasure of the gospel to me in an earthen vessel. He
gave that to me. And I should be faithful to preach
the gospel to you. But you know what? I want to
be faithful to preach the gospel to you. Because I love it. Do you think I'm here because
I have to be? I want to be here. There's no
other place in this earth that I would rather be than right
here with you right now. No other place in the world. People ask me, do you want to,
you know, you miss your family? I say, yeah, I miss my family.
Do I want to go back? No, I want to be here with you. I want to worship with you. I love you. Only way I can love you. Is that he loved me. The only way
you love me is if he loved you. He did that. We have victory. We have triumph and our master
has taken all of our enemies that held us captive. And he
put them underneath us. I want to read one scripture
in closing. Let me let me get to this. I know I didn't get
all through, but that's OK. Go to first Corinthians chapter
15. First Corinthians chapter 15. Look at verse 57. Let's go back to
verse 55. Oh, death. Where's that sting?
Oh, grave. Where is that victory? The sting
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our own will."
Is that what it says? He's given us the victory through
our own goodness and our own works. Is that what it says? Absolutely not. He's given us
the victory through The Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore. Therefore is important in Scripture. It's because of. Because of this,
then this is true. That's what it means. Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. Unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord. Friends, our labor is not in
vain, our service is not in vain, and our love is not in vain,
because Christ has given us the victory. I mean, is that not freeing to
do good? Is that not free us to do righteously? To live godly
and soberly in this world? Of course it is. I'm free to
do that now. I'm free to love you. I'm free
to serve you. Free to serve you. Because I have no more enemies
that can conquer me. All my enemies are gone. He subdued
them and put them under my feet. And I have nothing to fear. You
have nothing to fear if Christ has accomplished the victory
for you. And praise his holy name, he
has brought victory. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.