Psalm 110. This is a powerful
psalm. I know I can only scratch the
surface of this psalm. This psalm is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. It's about
His kingship. It's about His priesthood. It's
about His sovereign rule and reign over all His enemies. It is all about the Messiah and
His work. As I was looking at this before
coming out, I thought, we are getting to look And this ought
to really, and I wish to God this would really sink in to
us tonight. We are getting to look into heaven.
It's as if God has pulled the curtain back a little bit, and
He's letting us listen in on a counsel. A counsel that's going
on between Him, between the Father and the Son. And He is allowing
us just for a little bit to listen in on this counsel. Let's not just read this as a
psalm. It is a psalm of David. But we are literally getting
a glimpse and to listen to God the Father speaking to God the
Son in the covenant of grace. This is what we're getting to
listen to. Our Father made a covenant with
His Son. He's going to be the King. He's
going to be the Priest. He's going to be everything.
He's going to be all in all in the covenant. And then, in time, the Son of
God came. He came to fulfill this covenant. between Him and the Father concerning
us. Stop and think that this covenant
was made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
involved in it, in regeneration, for me, for you who believe. Before time began, God thought upon us and took
care of us. He took care of us. Now when He came into the world,
when the Son came into the world and took upon Him flesh, He didn't
look like much. He wasn't impressive to look
at. No beauty that we should desire in Him, like a root out
of dry ground. When He suffered on Calvary's tree, He looked
defeated. He looked like an imposter. He looked like the biggest loser.
that ever lived, that's what he looked like to them. And when
he died, the Jews thought they had gotten rid of him. But my, what a surprise. He arose,
he ascended on high, and right now he's doing exactly what the
first verse says, sit down at my right hand, till I make your
enemies your footstool. Men and women, Better pay attention
to God's Word, because that is the only thing that's coming
to pass. Nothing else is going to come
to pass. You know, we worry about the economy, we look at, you
know, it's going to be inflation, it's going to be this. I don't
know what it's going to be, but I do know this, this is going to be.
Every word, every jot, every tittle that's written in this
book is coming to pass. and nothing else. We don't add
to it and we don't take away from it. This is coming to pass. I was saying to myself, my soul,
pay attention to God's Word when you read it. This is what's happening. It's happening right now. It's
not going to happen, it's happening. Now this is said to be a psalm
of David, and we know it is, the Lord quoted it Himself. Paul
quoted from this Psalm. Listen here, the Lord said unto
my Lord, there are two different spellings here. I mean, they're
spelled the same, but one is all capital. And one is just
capital L in lowercase, L-O-R-D, the sovereign. This is the Messiah,
but the capital L-O-R-D is the self-existing Jehovah. This is
Jehovah the Father speaking here to his son, David's Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David knew a lot more than we think he knew. Abraham. Abraham saw my days, the Lord
said, and he was glad. He was glad. In spirit, in the
Holy Spirit, David heard the Father speaking to the Son concerning
His reign, concerning His priesthood, and concerning His victory. He
said, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. And you know what? You and I
have that same privilege tonight. We get to take His Word and look
into this verse, this psalm and this verse, and we read it as
if it was being spoken right now, because it is. It's fresh. The Word of God is always fresh.
It's not old. It's always fresh. It's always
relevant. Always relevant. And I believe
David knew that the second person of the Trinity was the Messiah,
the King Priest that was to come. You know, those Old Testament
saints, they are saved by the same gospel we were saved by.
They are saved by believing the same God we believe, believe
the same gospel we believe. There's not two different messages,
two different ways of being saved, only one. Through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now David owns Him as his Lord,
his Sovereign. His Sovereign. David doesn't
call Him his Son. David calls Him Lord. Lord. Listen to Matthew 22, 41-46. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose
Son is He? They said unto him, The Son of
David. The Messiah is the Son of David. He saith to them, How
then doth David in spirit call Him Lord? saying, The Lord said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? Boy, you know how dumbfounded
they had to look like a deer caught in headlights. They couldn't
answer that. And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions." They were so dumbfounded. They were like,
never thought of that before. The Lord said, Well, if he's
his son, then how is it that David calls him Lord? In spirit, that is, by the Holy
Spirit, he heard the father say to his Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand. And our Lord, listen, our Lord
earned the right to sit there at His right hand. He earned
that right. He has it by His person as God,
but He also has it by right, by His obedience. He earned the
right to sit down at God's right hand. Grief and sorrow are over,
sin is over, God's wrath is over, justice satisfied, and God says
to him, Sit down. This is a command too. Sit down
at my right hand. It's like he walks in after he
had gotten the victory, after he rose from the grave, and he
walks right in to the Holy of Holies, and God the Father says,
Sit down, son. Sit down. I'm going to make your
enemies your footstool. Sit down." And no priest ever
sat down because his work wasn't finished, but when he walked
in, his was finished. And he says, sit down. No one
has that place but Jesus Christ. Now we are seated in Christ,
but God the Father said to His Son, you sit down at my right
hand. He didn't say it to an angel. We get that in Hebrews
chapter 1. He didn't say that to an angel,
but he said that to his son. Sit down at my right hand till
I make your enemies your footstool. He gives him here a certain victory.
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Christ has many enemies,
mostly in religion. Mostly in religion. You know,
every person... I mean, there's over 7 billion
people in the world right now. I don't know how many have been
born since the beginning. And I don't know how much longer
this will go. But you know everyone is an enemy.
A born enemy. Every last human being that comes
into this world is born an enemy of God. An enemy of Jesus Christ. Every one of them. And He says
here, sit down and I'll make you enemies of your footstool. But here's the good news. Here's
the good news. Even though the Lord makes his
enemies his footstools, the Lord puts his foot on their neck,
you and I at one time were enemies. And yet, by his grace, he has
saved us. He could put his foot on my neck
and break it. He could. But instead, He saved me by His
grace. And I was just as much an enemy of God as anybody on
this earth is. At one time, I was and you were
too. Now here's something the Lord
is going to do, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah, the self-existing One,
God, The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies." The gospel. This is a powerful verse. And
I know, I wouldn't have thought I could give you what I see. I can't always articulate what
I see. It's not easy taking the things
of... You know, when Paul went to the third heaven, he came
back and he said, I saw things that were unlawful. I just couldn't
put it into words. And I haven't been to the third
heaven, no, I haven't. But I'm telling you, when I read
and study, there's things that I see, I just can't express them. I can't find words to give it
to you. But I see it. I see it, but it's
hard to put it in our vocabulary. It's so limited when it comes
to heavenly things. But I do know this, the Lord
Jehovah shall send the rod, the scepter of thy strength." What
is the scepter of the Lord's strength? It's the gospel. It's
the gospel. You know how God subdues the
world? You know how He subdues His enemies? You know how He
subdued me and you? You know how He did that? The
gospel. That's the rod of His strength.
And He says He's sending it out of Zion, the church. He's sending
it out of Zion. Listen to what Paul says here
in Romans 1.16, "...For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation." It's the
dunamis, the dynamite of God, unto salvation to everyone that
believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. The Lord
is the one who sends it out of Zion. He sends it out of His
church. You see how important? I know
we look like we're little in number here, don't we? I mean,
you know, we're not big in number. But you know, He sends the rod
of His, the scepter of His strength out of this place? We feel like
we're so insignificant? We do. We feel like we're insignificant. Yet, the very power of God, the
dynamite of God, the gospel of God, He sends it out of this
little group right here. We support a couple missionaries,
and they preach the gospel in New Guinea. And I was going to
say that Moose, but he's not over there anymore. He's back
in the States. But still yet, the gospel is
being preached. You know, when you send me, you
send me, I go to these other places, conferences, and preach
and things. The gospel has been sent out
of this place to other places. Out of this little insignificant,
small group here. I just can't get that across.
I was just like, when I was reading that today, I was just like,
wow. Wow. The gospel of God's glory, the
power, that's the power of God unto salvation, He sends it out
from here. From here. What a role the church plays
in the whole scheme of things. You know, he says here he sends
it out of Zion. The gospel was first preached
in Jerusalem, which was known as Zion, and then from there
it was sent throughout the whole world, in which we know that
it is the church, that Zion is the church. And he sends it in
the midst of his enemies, right in the midst of thine enemies.
You know, the Lord said to Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail
against thee. The gates of hell won't keep
you out. You've heard of the Iron Curtain. You had Russia,
and you got North Korea, and you got China, and these communist
countries. If the Lord is pleased to send
the gospel there, there's nobody that can keep it out. There is
nobody that can keep it out. If the Lord is pleased to send
the gospel to the heart of a sinner, the gates of hell can't keep
it out. If Christ says, come out, that demon has to come out. That devil's got to flee. He sends it in the midst of his
enemies. And I've already hinted at this. The first application,
there's a double application here. We were enemies at one
time. Now we're reconciled to God by
the death of His Son and He rules in our midst. Does He not rule
here? Does He not rule in our midst and does He not rule in
our hearts? Is He not enthroned in our hearts? Is He not enthroned
in this church? Is He not the head? Christ is
the head of this group here, this congregate, this local assembly.
Jesus Christ is the head of it. Now He has me here as an under-shepherd. But he's the shepherd. He's the
shepherd. He's the head. You and I, our
body, we're members of that body. And then the second application
is this. He rules now in the midst of those who hate him. You think if the leaders of this
country right now, if they had their way, true Christianity
would be shut down. I guarantee you, this church
would be shut down, the locks put on its door, if they had
their way. The only reason they don't is
because Jesus Christ rules in the midst of His enemies. When
they came out to get Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He
said, It is I, and they identified Himself, they fell backwards. Well, He's going through that
whole process in the judgment hall, at the cross, when He's
being scourged. He's ruling. He's ruling. He is orchestrating the whole
matter. He's ruling. He's never not ruled. "...Rule thou in the midst of
thine enemies." I don't worry about what's going on in this
world. I don't do it. I think it would be sin. I think it would be a slap in
God's face for me to get up and wring my hands and worry about
what's going on. The Lord is ruling in the midst
of His enemies. And that's never going to end.
That's never going to end. No one gives Jesus Christ the
right to rule or the power to rule. The Father gave it to Him. The Father invested. He invested
all power and authority in Him. And I tell you what, He's doing
it. He's doing it. You know, some
people get promoted to the point of incompetence. That's why a
lot of things fail. They get promoted to the point
of incompetence, and the whole thing falls apart. This never happens with Christ,
because He's God. He's God in human flesh. That's
who He is. Now notice here, here's a promise
to the Son. He says here, It says shall be, but that's
been added by the translator. It says this, Thy people willing
in the day of thy power in the beauty of holiness from the womb
of the morning thou hast to do of thy youth. But thy people
willing in the day of thy power. Who shall be willing? Thy people. Thy people. How did they become
His? He said, Thy people. How did
He get these people? The Father gave them to Him. The Father gave them to Him in
that covenant of grace. You see, listen, they belong
to the Father. The whole human race belongs
to Him, right? The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. Every soul that's
ever come into this world belongs to God the Father. to do with as he will. He's the
potter, we are the clay. And he took God the Father, which
is beyond me, but he chose a people whom he loved with an everlasting
love. And he gave them to his son. And he said, bring them
home. Bring them home. And all these
people were nothing but a bunch of wretched human beings Not
one of them was good. He never gave him one good person
out of the whole lot. Out of the whole lot, there was
not one good person. Sinners. Sinners. You know, I have good news for
sinners. Christ died for sinners. I'm telling you the truth. Christ
died for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. It takes God
and the Holy Spirit to make one. They're His, given to Him by
the Father, they're His by election. Listen, they're His by election,
they're His by purchase, and they're His by regeneration,
a new birth. They're His. Now what are they
willing to do? Thy people shall be willing. Well, I thought about this when
I was looking at this. This tells me, first of all,
that we did have a will problem. We had a will problem because we were just like everybody
else. We're not willing because we're different. That is different
by, you know, we just have a different character or personality or better,
more educated. No, no. Our Lord said in John
5.40, "...and you will not come to Me that you might have life."
You will not come. That's your problem. You will
not come. And here's what must happen. The Lord must make us
willing. By His Spirit, by His Word, by
regeneration, by new birth, He must make us willing. Because
we're no more willing to be saved than anybody else. No more willing
to be saved. "...but thy people shall be willing."
They shall be willing to be saved. They shall be willing to be saved
from their sins. They shall be willing to be saved God's way.
They shall be willing to be saved by Jesus Christ crucified only. Only. They shall be willing. This is one of the greatest evidences
that God has saved a sinner. And that centers willingness
to be saved by Christ alone. Willing to be saved. Lord, save
me. I can say this, and I can say
this for every believer in here, you want God to save you. I want
to be saved. I do. I want to be saved in every
sense of that word. I want to be saved. Now how shall
He save them? In the beauties of holiness,
in a holy way, in a holy manner, in His righteousness. The way God saves us is holy. It's holy. This is why He can
be just and justify the ungodly. Because the way He saves us is
holy. And it says here, "...in the beauties of holiness." No
sin in it. There's no sin in it. "...from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." I looked at several things looking
at this, but, "...as the dew mysteriously appears,
in the morning, and there's plenty of it. You know, when the sun
comes out, you can see it sparkling. Even so, God's people are mysteriously
born, and brethren, when this is over, there'll be many of
them. Spurgeon says this, I see an
innumerable company of sparkling dewdrops. Sparkling dewdrops. Youth. Young,
in the morning. It's so mysterious, but there
it is. You go out in the morning and there's dew on the grass.
All over the grass. And thou hast the dew of thy
youth. This has to do with the eternal
youth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen, we in Christ are
eternally young. We have eternal youth in Christ.
Only thing, grow it old. that you're looking at here is
my body. I'm not growing old. Not that
new man that's born of God, it doesn't age. He matures in spiritual
things. He matures in grace and in knowledge
of Christ, but it's eternal youth. Eternal youth. There's nothing
more beautiful than youth, is there? It looks so fresh and young. It is. Eternal youth. Thou hast to do
thy youth. I tell you this, it's eternal
youth. His Gospel's always fresh. His Word's always fresh. Isn't
it? Isn't this? You know, you can read a lot
of books. I've read a lot of books over the years. And some
of them I've read twice and I've had about enough. I've read a
lot of books on management whenever I was running a company. I read
a lot of books on that. But I'll tell you about one time
was enough. Every now and then I'd read one
twice and that was really enough. But this is never enough. His
word is always fresh, isn't it? Always something else I'm seeing.
I'm always saying I never saw that before. It's always fresh. And His life in the believer
is always, always young. Always. We don't serve an old Savior. We serve a young, eternal
youth. Someone that never grows old. And I listen, and this is for
me. It's for you too, but it's really
for me. I said, we who preach should beware of growing stale,
because what I have to preach is not stale. That's one of the
things I always admired about Henry. All those years and all
that preaching he did, he was always fresh. It was to me, it
was to me. But now here's the heart of faith.
Christ, our King Priest. He's not just a king, He's the
King Priest. The Lord has sworn, God the Father
has sworn, He has declared and made an oath and will not repent,
He will not turn back, He is faithful to His Word. Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He has an unchangeable
priesthood. And the reason He has an unchangeable
priesthood is two. Number one, God's oath. Secondly,
He lives. He lives. You know, Aaron and
them, their priesthood changed because they died. Aaron lived,
he died, his son took over, he died. Christ lives. He ever lives, it says, to make
intercessions for us. He has an unchangeable priesthood.
The Father made an oath, and He lives, and He'll never die.
He'll never taste of death again. Listen to what it says in Hebrews
7.25, "...wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost,
communion to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us." Oh, we have Christ the King,
Christ the reigning, ruling King in the midst of His enemies.
Christ sending out the gospel from Zion, His church, the power,
the scepter, which is the gospel going out from the church. We
have Him as our priest. We have to have a priest. You
can't come before God without a priest, a high priest. You've
got to have a sacrifice, you've got to have blood, you've got
to have a high priest. All of that's provided in the man Jesus Christ. But now listen. Just as there
is a day of grace, there's going to be a day of wrath. There's going to be a day of
wrath. That's just as sure as everything else. In verse 5,
the Lord, the Sovereign, the Messiah, see it's with a capital
L with a smaller case, O-R-D, this is the Messiah. The Lord
at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His
wrath." The battle is His. The victory
is His. Here is a side of Jesus Christ
you don't want to deal with. This is a side that religion,
for the most part, ignores. They want to talk about Jesus
loves you, He wants to do this, He wants to do that. God says here that He's going
to strike through kings. He's going to walk over dead
bodies. He's going to kill so many that He's going to pile
them up. Listen to Revelation 16 and 17. And He said to the mountains
and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him
that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath
is come, and who shall be able to stand, hide us from the wrath
of the Lamb? Sooner or later, Christ comes
with omnipotent power to strike through kings, to strike through
His enemies, and He's going to do so with such ease." We're
getting a glimpse of the future here. We're being told the future. And this is the future that's
going to happen. In the day of His wrath, the
day is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time, but
there's an end to the day of grace. There's an end. There's a warning going out.
There's a warning going out. There's an end. And then it's
wrath without mercy. Read Psalm 2 when you go home.
God said, I'll laugh. And he's a sure complete victory.
It says in verse 6, he shall judge among the heathen. He shall
fill the places with dead bodies. What? Did I read that right? Did I read that right? He shall
fill the places with dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. He shall destroy their power.
That's what he's talking about. Well, it's amazing what we're
about to see sooner or later. What we're about to see. He's
going to wound the power over all these countries. The king-priest
is also the judge. All judgment has been turned
over to the Son, and He shall rule among the Gentiles by His
grace through the Gospel, and He shall rule among the rebellious
by His power, and He's going to pile up Jesus Christ is going
to pile up the dead bodies. He's going to kill them. All
His enemies, all those who believe not on Him, He is going to kill
them. He's going to walk on their dead
bodies. That's sobering to me. That's
very sobering. But that's missing in today's
preaching. That's missing. If we're going to preach Christ,
we are going to preach the complete Christ, the whole Christ, the
Lamb that takes away the sin of the world and the wrath of
the Lamb that's going to pile up the dead bodies of His enemies. And He shall drink, listen, and
I'll close, He shall drink of the brook and the way, therefore
shall He lift up the head. First of all, this shows His
humanity. He shall drink of the brook. He said on the cross, I thirst.
This shows his identification with us. He shall drink of the
brook. along the way. Some say this
refers to the cross, and it very well does. Some say it refers
to His return home after obtaining a great victory. You know, a
king would obtain a great victory, and as they'd cross the brook,
they'd take a drink, but they didn't stop there to rest or
to stay, they just took a drink and moved on. But we know that on His way to
victory, we know this, we know He drank of the wrath of God
He did. He tasted death for every one
of his elect. It says for every man. That's
everyone he represented. And we know he rose victorious.
And now he drinks of his victory. He drinks of his victory. But
this also shows his determination to finish his work. He said he
drank of the brook on the way. He didn't stop there. He didn't
stop there. He took a drink and moved forward.
And the end result is this. Therefore shall he lift up the
head. He did not fail. He shall not fail. As it's said
in Isaiah 42. My servant shall not fail. He'll lift up the head. He lifted up his head in victory.
When he cried, it's finished. He lifted up his head in victory
and not shame. His conquest is a glorious conquest. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. He'll not lose one sheep. Not one. Not one. In a little
while, his kingdom will be the only kingdom left. His kingdom
will be the only one left. That's what's going on right
now. Let's not get... caught up in the confusion of
battle. You know, you get into a war,
they have a confusion of battle and the dust and they can't see. Let's not lose sight of this.
This is what's going on. God the Father pulled back the
curtain again tonight and let us get a glimpse of the King
of glory and His success. And what's going on right now
and the future. In the future, He's going to
pile up the dead body. He's going to do it. He's going
to do it. And I thank God that we, even
though this little group here, this small group in this community,
God the Father is pleased to send the rod of His strength
out of this place. Out of this place. But that also
tells me of our responsibility to get the word out, to get it
out. He sends it out and we are to
get it out. My, my, my. Go home and read
that again. That's the Lord to bless it too. I know I barely
scratched the surface of what's in that chapter or that Psalm.