Psalm chapter 45, Psalm chapter
45. We'll be looking tonight at verse
four. And the title, the message is
the majestic ride of Christ, the majestic ride of Christ. Let's begin in verse three. Gird
by sword upon my thigh, oh, most mighty. with thy glory and with
thy majesty. In thy majesty ride prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. In the margin, that word terrible
is wonderful, awesome, awesome things. The first thing that
I want us to see is Christ has ridden prosperously. He has already ridden prosperously. Look at this. And in thy majesty
ride prosperously. This is a prophecy concerning
Christ riding into battle. You remember last time we talked
about the sword of Christ. gird on thy sword, O Most Mighty."
We saw that Christ, the fairest of ten thousand, has girded on
His sword, readying Himself for battle. He had girded on the
sword of righteousness. And as He had come into this
world, He, by the sword of His mouth, the sword of righteousness,
preached the gospel of God. And by the sword of righteousness,
He did that which was righteous before God. We saw that the sword of justice
came from Christ. That the only way to enter into
paradise, the only way to enter in was through the sword of justice. And Christ went through the sword
of justice in the place instead of His people. Christ the mighty King with His
sword has already ridden prosperously. God purposed Him to put on His
sword so that He might deliver His church, and Christ was a
successful Savior, a successful Deliverer. Look at Psalm 47 over the next
couple of pages there. Psalm 47, verse 1. Oh, clap your
hands! All ye people, shout unto God
with a voice Of what? Triumph. Why? Why would a people shout
with the voice of triumph? Because their king has triumphed. You've never heard of a people
who was defeated shouting triumph, did you? No. Only a people that can shout
triumph is because for the Lord Most High is awesome, terrible. He is a great King over all the
earth. Look at this. He shall subdue
the people under us and the nations under our feet. Believer in Christ, this should
always be our heart to shout and rejoice at every opportunity. Every opportunity. Being a believer in Christ should
be the most joyful thing in all the world, but we are the most
somber people you'd ever want to meet. We are the most depressed
people in the world. Why? Lack of faith. Our Savior has triumphed. They should be sad. We should
be rejoicing. Christ has subdued all of our
enemies. Where? Under our feet. under
our feet. You know when they had a nation
they captured, the king would take his foot and he'd put it
on the neck of that other king. And then he would get all of
his people, all the tribal leaders to come by and they would put
their foot on the neck of that king. Christ has put his foot
on the neck of our enemies and defeated them and has put them
under our feet. Satan has been put down, put
down. He is cast out unto the sides
of the pit, and people, we wag our heads at Him. He is under
our feet because Christ has conquered Him. Not because we conquered
Him. Christ conquered Him. Christ did it for us. Christ
had conquered sin. He, our mighty Savior, has accomplished
the removal of all sin. All sin. In case you didn't hear me, all
sin. All our sin! All our sin. Christ has removed
all our guilt and taken it away, never to be seen again by the
eyes of God. You know our sin is so far gone,
God can't find it? God cannot! Find our sin. It's that far gone. Because of our mighty King. He
bore all of our guilt and God punished all of our guilt in
Christ. So if He took all our guilt,
where's our sins? They're gone. They're gone. Paid for. Paid in full. Paid in full. And God has removed also the
curse of the law. By Christ, He victoriously has
ridden and has delivered us from the curse of the law. When the
law of God said, Thou shalt, what did our nature say? We will
not. That's what we said. When the
law said, Thou shalt not, our nature said, I will. I will. And yet God in grace towards
such rebels, It is toward such rebels that God sent His Almighty
Son to accomplish their salvation. It has been determined of God
that Jesus Christ would be a prosperous King. Prosperous. He would be successful. That's
what it means. that God already determined Christ
would be successful. And when Christ came, guess what?
He was successful. He was successful. He did accomplish
what God sent Him to do. And God hath exalted Him right
now and given Him a name that is above every name, that at
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God. Friends, Christ is God and man
sitting on the throne of God. Let me ask you, is this your
Savior? Do you know Him? You know who I'm talking about? Have you met Him? Do you know
Him? Do you see Him as such a glorious King? Do you see Him as He is, King
of kings and Lord of lords? You that believe on Christ, let
me ask you this. If you see Him as such, how is
it that you see Him and other people don't? How is it that you know the prosperity,
the richness of His grace, and other people have not a clue
what I'm talking about? How is it that other people see
a Jesus of their imagination that did not accomplish salvation
but only made it possible. How is it you see He accomplished
it? How do you know? How are you so sure that He accomplished
it while others are not so sure? How do you know that? This is only because Christ has
not only ridden prosperously when He came. It's not only that
Christ was purposed to ride prosperously. It's not only that Christ did
ride prosperously. I tell you that Christ now rides
prosperously into the hearts of His people. He rides prosperously
into the hearts of His people. You that believe on Christ, do
you not see the standard of God? What's the standard of God? The other day we went to a little
playground and had a little sign there, a little sign that said,
you had to be no higher than this to get in. And Andrew come
up and he went to that sign and he ducked down. He wanted to
be under, he wanted to be in the standard. Now, if we go on
to one of the theme parks, he steps on his toes trying to meet
the standard. You see, there's a standard.
You have to be this high. God's standard is righteousness. That's God's standard. God's
standard is Christ. How high is Christ? How righteous
is Jesus? That's how righteous we have
to be. We have to be as righteous as Jesus Christ himself. That's
a standard. Pastor, that's impossible. Exactly.
That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you. It's impossible.
We've already sinned. It's impossible for us to take
that back. You can't take back your sins.
You've already done them. You've committed them. You're
guilty. It's impossible then for you to take that back and
to be righteous. You can't. If you started from
right now and you went the rest of your life in righteousness,
what would you do about all the other sins that you committed?
You're still not righteous. It's impossible. Paul says this
in Galatians, the Scripture hath concluded all, all under sin. So when you start
thinking of yourself as a little bit better than somebody else,
you go back to the scripture and it'll knock you right where
you need to be. Down with everybody else. Right there, level. Don't try to peak above somebody
else. You're just as evil and just as wicked as everybody else. All under sin. Well, Pastor, didn't you say
Christ was successful in his work? Absolutely. Christ is successful. He did please God and he did
ride prosperously and he did accomplish salvation. But let
me tell you this. He was only successful for the
elect of God. Christ's blood was powerful enough
to save ten million worlds. But He didn't die for ten million
worlds and He didn't die for every man upon the face of this
earth. He only died for those that were given Him of the Father. That's it. Not one more and not
one less. All, Christ said, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. All which the Father hath given
me I should lose nothing. Nothing. But raise him up at the last
day. You see, he accomplished all that the elect needed. He accomplished all the salvation
for everyone that he died for. Jesus did not redeem the sins
of every child of Adam's race. This was never God's purpose. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter eight. Verse twenty
eight. As some of the people to quote
this scripture, if they are professing to be Christians and see how
far they get. Usually they'll get to the first part of the
first verse and leave it there. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. And that's usually
where they'll stop. But God gives a little bit more
detailed information about who these people that love God are.
To them who are the called according to His purpose. Purpose. God has a purpose. God doesn't do anything by chance
or by accident. He does everything on purpose. Purpose. For whom He did foreknow. Not what, but whom. For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified." Every one of those words there are in the
past tense. Why? God purposed it. And in the eyes of God, it was
already done. Done. Notice them that love God are
them who are called according to His purpose. What is God's purpose then? That concerns every one of us
here, doesn't it? What is God's purpose? God's purpose was to
conform, to conform His elect to the image
of His own Son. That's God's purpose. That's
God's purpose in salvation. This is the grace of God then
to call His chosen redeemed sinners to be conformed to the image
of His Son. We weren't born conformed to
the image of Christ, were we? We were born sinners. Yet the
purpose of God is going to stand. We shall be, every one of God's
elect shall be conformed to the image of His Son. There's no
question. There's no question. It's God's purpose. And we can
be sure this. That all of God's elect, this
is going to happen to every one of them. Christ will ride prosperously
into their hearts and they will be saved. They will. They will. It is a sure thing. How do you know? God purposed
it. God says it's good as done. It's
good as done. And it shall be done. So then
we have the vision here. Notice the picture of the text.
It's talking about a king, and he's girded his sword for battle,
and now he's boarded a chariot. And in front of the chariot are
horses. And he is riding with a purpose. Riding with a purpose. And his purpose is to save his
people from their sins. What's the chariot that Christ
rides in? It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is the vehicle by which God saves sinners. The Holy Spirit. The day that
Christ ascended, if you remember that, the day of Pentecost. He said, when I'm gone, you boys
go up to Jerusalem and wait there, and the Spirit of God will come
down and anoint you with power. Now, there's only been one day
of Pentecost. There's never been another day of Pentecost like
that. God poured out His Spirit in that manner, in that way,
one time, and it's never been done since. never been done since. But when God poured out his spirit,
when God poured out his spirit, it was a fulfillment of prophecy,
the prophecy of Joel. And it shall come to pass in
the last days that God will pour out My Spirit on all flesh."
In other words, it would no longer be the Jews. God would pour out
His Spirit to His people all over the world. Jews and Gentiles,
God would say. It would not just be limited
to one small nation and a few Jews, a few Gentiles here and
there. But God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. And what that means is this is
the manner by which God saves men, all men, of all nationalities,
of all races, of all backgrounds, only by pouring out His Spirit
unto us. Again, we're not going when a
man receives the spirit of God, he's not going to receive the
power that these apostles did, which was speaking in tongues
and miracles. Those things are no longer necessary.
We have the word of God for us. We don't need those things to
prove God's word. It's already been proven. But the same Spirit that gave
them power on the day of Pentecost is the same Spirit that comes
to every child of God. Every elect sinner, it is the
same powerful Holy Spirit of God. The same One. And friends,
there is no salvation without the Spirit of God. Some people
believe that you can be saved and then the Spirit comes later. That's a lie. You cannot. Be saved apart from the spirit. Go to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Very familiar
passage, verse 3, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. And Nicodemus said unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? We do kind of chuckle at that,
but you know, Really? I don't imagine we would have
had a better answer. Matter of fact, I know we didn't have a
better answer. Even when we've heard that a million times, we
didn't know what that meant. Can a man enter the second time
into his mother's womb that's not being born again, it's not
what Christ is talking about. He's talking about spiritual
things, not carnal things. Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, even of the
spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit
is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you,
you must be born again. The wind blows where it wants
to, where it listeth, and you can hear the sound thereof, but
you can't tell where it's coming and where it's going. So is everyone
that is born of the spirit. See, there is no new birth without
the spirit of God. No person you can a person can
know all there is about election. You young people, I could probably
sit back and ask you all about election, right? Yeah, I've heard
that. A million times you've heard all about Jesus. And I
imagine you can go down all the catechism. You can just answer
every question without even thinking about it. That's not salvation.
That's not being saved. That's head knowledge. And any
one of you could have that and not be saved. But what I'm talking about is
something supernatural, not talking about something natural. Not
talking about something you can do. I'm talking about something
that has to be done for you. I'm talking about something that
has to be done to you. And it has to be done not by
us. It has to be done by God himself. God himself has to reach his
hand down and touch your heart so that you would live again.
God himself has to do that. There is no life apart from him.
Just dead. Just dead. And there's no faith without
the Holy Spirit either. There's no life, there's no faith.
And if there's no faith, there's no life. And if you don't have
either one of, you don't have both of those, you've not been
touched by the Spirit of God. Jesus said, don't murmur among
yourselves. He said he was the bread of life,
and they said, hey, this guy's Joseph's son. We know who this guy is.
He's nobody. Jesus said, don't fret yourself
about it. Don't murmur among yourselves.
No man can come unto me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. Draw him. Those that the Father gave Christ,
He would lose none of them, but the Spirit of God shall come
to each one of them, and He will give them life, and He will give
them faith, and He will give them love toward God. And if
the Spirit of God doesn't do it, you'll never have life, you'll
never have faith, and you'll never have love to God. So then, if we have belief, If
we have received life and faith of the Spirit of God, it was
because we were taught of God. Jesus says, as it is written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. Be taught of God. What a teacher. There's no better teacher. No better teacher. And every man that hath heard
and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. This friend is the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit, and to everyone whom the Spirit comes,
there is no doubt they will come to Christ. No doubt. I cannot
stand to hear people talk of a spirit that's trying to do
something. I cannot stand it. Drives me
insane. Why? That's no spirit at all.
That's a spirit of the devil. He may try and fail, but the
spirit of God never tries and fails. He always, always, always
gives life. and faith to everyone He comes
to. He's irresistible. Therefore,
when Christ rides upon the chariot of His Spirit to His chosen saints,
it is called a prosperous ride. A prosperous ride. Next, let's
look at the horses. What draws this chariot? causes
this chariot to move three things. Truth, meekness, and righteousness. These are the names of the horses
that draw the chariot of the Spirit of God. Look at your text.
And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness
and righteousness. There's the three horses that
pull this chariot. First of all, the horse of the
truth. The horse of the truth. This
is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the gospel is the truth
of God. It is the true word of God. The
work of the Holy Spirit, like I said, is supernatural. It's
something that's extraordinary. It's something that's miraculous.
It's something that's very special and unique that no man can imitate. You know what I've seen? People
walk into this building and imitate that the Spirit has worked on
their heart. You know what has happened to
every one of them? They've gone. Why? Because it was a fraud.
It was a fake. They only pretended. But when
the Spirit comes, we don't pretend. This is not some act we're putting
on. It is a supernatural thing. It is a miraculous thing. And
this supernatural work of the Spirit always comes by a physical
means. And it is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is the physical preaching
of the gospel that God has chosen to use to save His people. Always. This means it doesn't
vary, it doesn't change, it doesn't move. This is why preaching is
important. This is why we come to hear the
gospel. This is why we witness of Christ. Because it is by the gospel of
truth that the Spirit comes. 1 Corinthians. Flip over there
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." Baptism
is important, isn't it? You bet it is. Christ ordained
it. We should do it if we believe
in Christ. It's the means of confession. But that's not my
purpose here. My purpose is not to put you
under water. My purpose is the same as Paul's,
to preach the gospel. Why? Not with words of wisdom, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us which are saved, it is the power of God. Look at verse 21. And after that,
in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. Look
at me. You won't, by your wisdom, know
God. You can't. You won't, by your
learning, know God. You can't. Why? Because that's
not the means God chose. God chose the means of this preaching. Look at this. pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Why is this the means? Why is this the means? It pleased God. Do you need any
other means? Need any other reason? It pleased
God. Well, I don't like that. I don't
care. It pleased God. This is how God chose to do it.
And any other way that you want to do it is nothing more than
rebellion. Nothing more than sin. This is God's means. And therefore, I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believe it. You believe my message? You believe in Christ? How did you do that? Was it not
by the hearing? Faith cometh by hearing. And hearing by the word of God.
That's God's means. This is the first horse that
rides through first. The chariot of the gospel. It
is the truth of the gospel. And notice, it's called truth.
Why? Because anything else is a lie.
If I gave you a nice sparkling glass of water and put it there
and you were parched and thirsty, that water would look good. And
I would tell you that water is pure. And then I'd take a little
drop of poison, just one drop, and put it in. Now that water
is 99 and 44 one hundredth percent pure water. It's just a little poison. Would you drink it? No. Why? Because one drop made
the whole thing worthless. And friends, you add to and take
away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is of no value to
your soul. It must be the truth. It must be God's gospel preached
by God's man or it's no good. Number two, the horse of meekness.
Jesus said, No man can come unto me except the Father which has
sent me draw him. How does the Father then draw
us? How does he draw us? Does he draw us by the vengeance
of God? Does that draw you? When you
read Mount Sinai and how that mountain smoked and Moses quaked,
does that make you want to come? What if I start preaching the
law? Does that make a man come to Christ? No. How does God draw a man? Flip
over to Hosea chapter 11. Hosea chapter 11 and verse 4. I drew them with the cords of a man, with
bands of love, and I was to them as they that take off the yoke
on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. Let's talk about Ephraim,
God's church. In the previous verses, God talks
to them like a heifer. He calls them a heifer, a cow,
a cow. But now God doesn't draw them
like a cow. How do you draw a mule? You put
a bridle on him and you try to pull as hard as you can and he's
stubborn and he kicks at it. That's how you draw a beast.
You take a whip and you whip him and you make him go. That's
not how God draws men to Christ. Love. It's by love that God draws men to Christ.
It's the love of God. that draws men. He said, I'll
draw you with the cords of a man. He says, I'll woo you. I'll woo you. Like a bridegroom does her bride,
I'll draw you with your heart. And you know what? A man that's
drawn with his heart comes willingly. He's not beat down an aisle.
He's not pushed into a decision. He comes running. You know, I mean, people stand
there and say, well, if you love Jesus and you want to commit your heart
to Jesus, just raise your hand. You know, I don't have to tell
me in that. If a man is touched by the Spirit of God, I won't
have to say a word. He'll come with or without me.
He don't care. He's coming to Christ. Why? Because God drew him. God drew
him. This gospel comes with meekness. Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful! And my song shall ever be. How
marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. And the
gospel comes, it also produces meekness, doesn't it? Love. Yields love. Meekness. Yields meekness. And humility. The last one is the Lord draws
this by righteousness, righteousness, this is the gospel summed up.
Righteousness. What do you need? Righteousness. What is Christ provided? Righteousness. What does Christ give? Righteousness. Flip over one more place, Revelation,
Chapter 19, Revelation, Chapter 19. Verse seven. Let us be glad. And rejoice. And give honor to him. For the
marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself
ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in
fine linen. Clean and white. And what's this fine linen for
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. I like that the righteousness
of the saints. Now, wait a second. Who here
has done righteously? Well, none of us. Christ has. He's done righteously. And yet here, God says this righteousness
is given to me as my own righteousness. It's mine. It's mine. And he's given his righteousness
to me. You know, that word there is
in the plural. Righteousnesses. You remember what the scripture
says about righteousnesses, our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. But to everyone that God rides
prosperously to. We have his righteousnesses. As our own. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Christ has ridden prosperously. Christ is riding prosperous. And he shall save his people
from their sins. Every last one of us. Who are his own? Oh, my soul, that God would ride
prosperously. God would save every one of you from your sins. I praise God that He saved me.
I praise God for the comfort of His Scriptures that tell me
He is a successful Savior and I have nothing to fear, nothing. Nothing more to be done. All
complete in Christ, our prosperous King. I pray this blessing to
you. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.