Psalm chapter 45, Psalm chapter
45. And we'll be looking this evening
at verse three, Psalm chapter 45 and verse three. Well, let's
go ahead and read the first three verses again together. My heart,
God says, is indicting a good matter. I speak of things which
I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee
forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O most mighty, with thy glory and with thy majesty. The title of the message tonight
is The Sword, Might, and Majesty of Christ. All found in verse
3. The Sword, Might, and Majesty
of Christ. Now last week we saw that this
psalm is a song of loves. That this psalm is a song of
God's heart to every believer in Christ. This is God's song
of loves toward Christ, which is the gospel of his heart. He says this is a good matter. A good matter. God's gospel is
a good matter. Because it comes from a good
God. God is good, and all that God does, and all that God intends,
all that God purposes, all that God decrees, and all that God
does is a good thing, whatever it is. God cannot do anything
but good. And the heart of the goodness
of God, the heart of the matter of the Gospel, is one person. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God the Father so delights in
His Son, so loves Him with all of His perfections as the mediator
between God and men, that all throughout time God has done
nothing but this thing of declaring the Word of God to men. which is Jesus Christ, His Son. This is the sum and substance
of all the gospel. The gospel of Christ is God's
heart of love. The gospel is God's heart of
satisfaction in the person and work of Christ. Verse 2, Thou
art fairer than the children of man. God's good matter of the gospel
points all men to one man. All men to one man, to Christ,
who is the fairest of all His creation. You remember what God
said concerning Christ at the Mount of Transfiguration? He
said, Behold, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. In Isaiah, he said, Behold, my
servant, in whom my soul delighteth. God's servant, Christ, is the
one delight of the Father. And there is none fairer among
the sons of men, or the host of heaven, than Christ. None
fairer. None better. None better. You see, Jesus being God and
man, He is God blessed forever, the creator of all things, the
sustainer of all things, and none of His creation can equal
Him. No one can measure up to Him.
He is God. He created all these things. He's the Maker of all things.
And yet the Maker of all things was born a man. And what a man
He was! What a man He was! If ever there
was a true man, it was Christ. The man. He was the sinless Son
of God. Yet He was also the sinless Son
of Man. So much so that He was bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh. And everything that we partook
of, He partook of. He was a man. He felt pain. He
felt hunger. He felt hurt. He wept. He cried. He prayed. Just as every man. But yet, one
thing excepting, He was without sin. So was He not the greatest
man? Is there anyone that you can
think of that's above Christ? Is there anyone that you can
think of that is more worthy of your thoughts or your actions
or your deeds than the man Christ? Is there anyone? Is there anyone? There's no one. He sits high
above everyone, both as God and man. He is truly the fairest
of ten thousand. the fairest. He is the lily,
the lily among the valleys. You ever seen like a ditch and
one flower standing out of the middle of the ditch? Now that's
what it is. He's one flower in the midst
of a ditch. We're the ditch and He's the
flower. He's most beautiful, most beautiful. And now next we see in this text
of our Lord, "...gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty,
with thy glory and with thy majesty." Now, the first thing that I see
in this text is this, a call to battle. A call to battle. "...gird on thy sword." What
does a man gird on a sword for? He girds on a sword because he's
ready for battle. For battle. He's ready to engage
an enemy. And this is not just any soldier.
This is not just any infantry grunt. This is the king who girds
himself with a sword. He's called to battle. And so
here God calls Christ, the king, to make ready for battle, to
make ready for war. Psalm 110 says, The Lord at thy
right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. This is a call to arms that was
not given after Adam sinned. No, this call to arms, gird thy
sword, my king, gird thy sword on thy thigh, was an eternal
call of God the Father to Christ to ready Himself for battle. To ready Himself. You see, God
was not taken by surprise when Adam sinned. No. God had already
purposed a Savior even before there was a sinner He purposed
a Savior. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. You see, God had prepared Christ
to be the eternal High Priest of His people. God had prepared
and set up Christ to be the Lord of battle. He said, I was set
up from everlasting. Christ was set up to be the King
ready for battle. He was set up to accomplish the
eternal covenant of grace for the glory of God and the salvation
of His people. He was purposed of God to be
the High Priest and King and Captain. Captain of our salvation. Flip over to Joshua. chapter
5, Joshua chapter 5. Here we're going to see the pre-incarnate
Christ come. Joshua chapter 5, beginning verse
13. This is when they were setting
up to go to battle at Jericho, and it says, It came to pass
when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold, there stood a man over against him with a sword
drawn in his hand. And Joshua went
unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No. I like that
answer. No. Are you for us or them? He said no. Not for you or them. This is it. But as captain of
the host of the Lord, am I now come. And here's what Joshua
did. He fell on his face to the earth
and did worship. Who was this man? Who was this
captain that stood before Joshua? Who was the captain of Israel? Who was the commander of that
nation that was going to take that Canaanite kingdom? Who was it? It was Christ with
His sword drawn. And He said, I am the captain
of the Lord's host. And the captain of the Lord's
host said to Joshua, Loose thy shoes from all thy foot, for
the place wherein thou standest is holy." Where else can you
read that? Where else do you read that a man has to take off
his shoes? At the burning bush where God
met Moses. He told him the same thing. This
was God the Son speaking. The captain of the host of the
Lord's armies. This is Christ. He is the captain. He was forever set up to do battle
as both the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. The Lion and the Lamb. The Lion and the Lamb. He was set up because of the
enemies of God's people. The enemies of God's elect are
great and mighty enemies. They're great and mighty. You
know what's worse than an enemy you can see, is an enemy you
can't see. Isn't that worse? It's worse,
you can't see them! You don't know where he's coming
from or when he's going to attack you. Our enemies are invisible. Our enemies are principalities
and powers and spiritual darkness. Spiritual darkness and rulers. Rulers of darkness. Therefore,
Jesus, the king. The priest. The captain of our
salvation must come and slay our enemies. Our enemies. Who are our enemies? Why is it
that God sent His Son to gird on His sword? Because of our
enemies. Who is our enemy? Satan is our
enemy. He is our enemy. Satan is the
father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. He's called
the dragon, the beast, the false prophet. He is the original hater
of God and His people. You remember in Isaiah it says,
For thou hast said in thine heart, speaking of Lucifer that had
fallen, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt myself above the
stars of God. In Revelation, who are the stars
of God? Are they not the odds men? Yes. He said, I'll exalt myself above
the office of God's men. Who is above that? Christ. Christ is above that. God is
above that. He said, I'll exalt myself to
be like unto the most high. You see, there is no higher than
the most high. Satan knew this. He said, I'll
be like the most high. I will ascend to the heights
of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High. And truly,
Satan is the inventor of pride, the inventor of sin. And truly, he did weaken the
nations by the sin of Adam. By him, the children of wrath
were kept under his power to do his bidding. We all, by nature, are children
of wrath, even as others. Every man is under the dominion
of Satan because of his sin. His sin. 2 Timothy 2, 26, that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who had been
taken captive by him at his will. We have an enemy. And friends, don't dismiss him
as some figment of your imagination, some mythological character that
doesn't exist. The greatest trick that he has
ever performed is to make men think he does not exist. Satan
is real! And friends, he hates you! He
hates all of mankind, and were it up to Him, all would be cast
into hell with Him. He hates you, despises you, would
love nothing more than to ruin your testimony in Christ. And
what Christ said to Peter, Satan hath desired to sift thee as
wheat. How easy is it to sift wheat? That's it. Nothing. See, it's nothing for Him to
grab ahold of us and tear us apart. But I have prayed for
thee. That's the only hope we have
against Him. Number two, our enemy of sin.
Because Adam was our federal head, all of mankind, when he
rebelled, we all rebelled in him. This is original sin. Original sin. When Adam sinned,
we all sinned in him. He was our federal head, our
representative. Well, I don't like that. Doesn't
matter what you like. That's exactly what he was. He
was our federal head. He was mine, he was yours, and
he's everybody else's. And when he disobeyed God and
fell into death and sin, he brought all of his race with him. All
of us with him. Therefore, we are all born dead
in what? Trespasses and sins. Born dead. Born dead in trespasses
and sins. Born into bondage. Why is it that we love when someone
tells us to do something? Why do we want to rebel if it
doesn't fit what we want to do? Why is that? Because we are enslaved
to sin and we can do nothing else but sin. Enslaved to it. Man is utterly
desperate. Man is utterly hopeless and helpless
to free himself from sin. You can't do it. You can't free
yourself. You can't escape it. You can't
do it. It's already there. Jesus said, that which is born
of flesh is flesh. It won't change. It's sin. Can an Ethiopian change his skin? Can a leopard change his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to doing evil. God said that. You can't change who you are
by reforming yourself. Can't do it. You can't change
you. You are who you are. And how
do I know what you are? Because I'm one. And you won't fool me because
you're one. I know that. We all are. And number three,
we have an enemy of the law, the law of sin and death. The scripture says the sting
of death is sin and the strength of sin is what the law, the law. Now, the law of God is good.
There's nothing wrong with the law. There's nothing wrong with
it. It only reflects what true holiness
is. That's all the law does. It reflects
who God is. So there's nothing wrong with
the law. But because of our evil nature, the law rightly demands
our obedience that we cannot give. God demands your obedience. He demands your perfection. But
you can't give it. You can't do it. It's our sin nature to desire
to do what is forbidden to do. Either written in the law of
the tables of stone or on the law of our hearts, it's our desire
to rebel. It's just our nature. And the sin, and this sin is
the sting of death, isn't it? This is why men fear death. Why
do you fear death? Because you know there is a God
and you know you are a sinner. This is why men fear death. There
is a sting to death. It's a sting to it. It's a misery
to it. Nobody likes to talk about it, do they? You sit around the
table and you say, hey, let's talk about death. Y'all want
to? No! Nobody wants to talk about death.
Why? It's a sting. It's a misery. It's misery and bitterness in
death. Why? Because of sin. And what's
the strength of sin? It's the law. The law is. What does that mean? You see, the law says this, cursed
is everyone that continues not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. That's what the law says. And I'll tell you, every time
we go to the law, it only does one thing. It stirs us to rebellion. That's it. Do not touch wet paint. What is the first thing we want
to do? It's just an H in us. It's just that nature. Now, you
may not touch it, but that doesn't mean you didn't desire to. It stirs up sin. And these are our
foes, friend, and they are mighty. They are so mighty that we cannot
deliver ourselves from them. Can't do it. And for this purpose, God says
to His Son, Gerd, on thy sword, and destroy the enemy of my people. Destroy! The captain of the Lord's
host has come. Let us remove our shoes from
off our feet for a moment. Behold Him. Stop and listen and
look at Him. Behold the sword of the Lord. He has girded it on, ready to
do battle with our enemies, which you and I have failed to conquer. We have failed. It was Christ
who was born King and He was born to destroy the works of
the devil. That's what John says in 1 John
3, verse 8. He says that He has come, He's
manifest to destroy the works of the devil. The works of the
devil is sin, and Jesus came to save His people from their
sins. He came to destroy the enemy
that bound His children. He came not to destroy the law,
but to fulfill it in the place of hopeless and helpless bound
sinners. How then did He accomplish this
work? He came to do it. God purposed
Him to do it. And I tell you that Christ has
done it. He has already defeated our enemies. Already. Already. How has He done it?
How has He conquered His enemies in battle? By the sword. occurred on thy sword." It is
by the sword. The sword of His righteousness. The sword of His righteousness.
When Christ came into the world, the scripture says He came to
be a preacher of righteousness. And therefore, in Revelation
1 verse 16, you remember the picture of John. What was it?
Christ had a sword going out of His mouth. A two-edged sword. What is that a picture of? Righteousness. His word of righteousness. The Sword of Righteousness, Jesus. By the Sword of Righteousness,
Jesus has obtained what we were lacking. Eternal righteousness. We were lacking eternal righteousness.
And He, by the Sword of Righteousness, has brought righteousness. Has
brought righteousness. He's accomplished what Adam and
we could not do. Go to Romans chapter 5. Flip
over to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Now go down to verse 18. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by what? By righteousness. By the righteousness of one.
The free gift that came upon all men unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the righteousness, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Do you not see
that he has come to conquer sin? How? By righteousness. You see, we can't ever enter
into God's kingdom unless we are righteous. Righteous. So what did he have to do? He
had to provide a righteousness that we ourselves could not provide. And he did that by his obedience
to God. And so then, by sin, death reigned. And the law came to make the
offence abound, but Christ came So that grace should reign unto
what? Righteousness. Righteousness. Second of all, the sword of justice. What is the only way to deal
with sin? How should God deal with sin? One of the things that I do sometimes
if my children do something wrong, I say, what do you think should
be done? You see, they know what should be done, but they don't
want that, so they try to say something else. They say, well,
you know, just ground me for two minutes. No, I'm not going
to do that. I'm not going to do that, and
you know I'm not. God is not going to let us slide, and we
know God cannot let us slide. What should we do about sin? How can sin be removed? One way only, death. Not physical death. That's just
the beginning. Eternal death is the only way
to remove one sin. One. How many do we have? All we are and all we do is sin.
How many do we have? Sin cannot be reformed, removed,
or relieved by the deeds of the law or religious works, but only
by the sword of God's justice. When God kicked our parents out
of the Garden of Eden, what was put in the way of paradise? Two swords. that turned every
which way so that they could not enter again. How then can
we enter into paradise? Through the sword only. Through the sword only. Only way is through God's justice. Believers in Christ, did not
our sins make us far off from our God? Our sins separated us from God. But now that Christ has come,
what has He done? He's gone through the sword for
us. He took our sins and became guilty
under the sword of God's justice. He paid for our sins. How? By the blood of His cross. By the blood of His cross. I know this is pictured well
by David and Goliath. You remember that story in David
and Goliath? I know every child here understands
that. Imagine David. He's a boy. He's a boy. He probably doesn't even have
whiskers on his face at this time. And he walks out there,
and there's Goliath who stands before him, huge, a mighty man,
an enemy of Israel. And he said, hey, who's this
little effeminate boy you come out here with? You come out here
at me like I'm some kind of dog with a stick. Boy, I'm going
to feed your carcasses to the fowls of the air today. And David
said, oh no, you're not. You come at me with sword and
with shield and with spear, but I come in the name of the Lord
God. And who won? Who won? David. David is a picture of
Christ, isn't he? Here Christ comes in the flesh,
and what does He look like to the enemies? He looks like nothing. He said, Oh, this weak man, you're
going to attack me with this weak man, our enemies mocking
him. But when David threw that stone
and hit Goliath right in the head and he fell flat. How did
David cut off his head? David didn't have a sword. What
do you do? He went over there, grabbed Goliath's
own sword and chopped his head off. Christ used death to kill death. Didn't He? He used death in order to set us free. He used the enemy's own weapon
against Him. and was mighty in battle. Mighty. Did He look mighty on
the cross? No. In the world, He looked weak.
Oh, but He was not weak, was He? He endured all of the wrath
of God for all of the sins of His people. You and I couldn't
bear one sin for eternity. He bore all of them. How mighty
is that man? How great is that man? He's great. He's mighty. And he bore the justice of the
sword of God alone. And lastly, we may be assured
of victory because he had guarded his sword in the covenant of
grace, because he had come and accomplished righteousness and
judgment, because he has ascended victoriously to the throne of
God, we might be assured of his victory. How can we be assured
of such a victory? Go back to your text. Gird on
thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and with
thy majesty. First of all, we might have assurance
in the glory of his person. Believer in Christ, let us behold
in him the glory of God. When Moses asked to see the glory
of God, God said, you cannot see my glory, my face, and live. But every one of us who are believers
in Christ, we may with bold face see the glory of God where? In
the face of Jesus Christ. You want to know where God is
glorified? Don't look in here. Look to him. He is glorified
in Christ. He is glorified in Christ. Jesus
was so victorious over the enemies of our soul that God gave Him,
as a man, all the glory of God. You see, as God, He always had
glory. But as the God-man, He received
all glory. And you know what He does with
that glory? He gives it to us. gives it to us. Oh, father. Glorify me with the
glory which I had with thee from before the world was and what
did you say down the end of that prayer, he says, and the glory
which thou gavest me, I've given to them. That they may be one,
even as we are. He's given us his glory. Number
two, we might be assured of this by His majesty, by the majesty
of His person. Believer, can God fail? Can God fail? If God can fail,
He's not God. If God can fail, He's not God.
But our God cannot fail. And Christ, being God, and man
did not fail. Why then do we doubt him? Why do we doubt him? Why are we so tossed about like
a drunken man on a ship? We're like a little twig. When
the wind's not blowing, we seem like we're so sturdy and so strong
and confident, but you let the littlest tempest blow and we're
tossed. We're tossed. We're so fickled. How then can we be strong? How
then can we have assurance? Christ did not fail to destroy
our enemies. He has accomplished the destruction
of our foes. And nothing, nothing will ever be able to thwart His
will or His purpose. which is to save us and to bring
us to Himself. Behold, the mighty man of God
who is girded on His sword. Behold, He has destroyed Satan,
sin, and enmity that separated us between God, between us and
God, our sin. He has accomplished the law,
finished it, fulfilled it, and satisfy the justice of God for
us. What more then can we ask? Do you need comfort? You need
to look to him. You need to see him. Behold. The mighty man of God, Jesus
Christ. Who's accomplished our salvation. I pray God blesses to your heart.
Let's stand. We dismissed in prayer.