The book of Psalms, the 110th
Psalm. As you can see, this is rather
short. Maybe a few psalms shorter than
this one, but only seven verses in length. It is a psalm of David, but from verse 1 all the way
through verse 7, it is a psalm about Christ. David's not talking about himself,
he's talking about His blessed Savior and Redeemer. First I wish to read it, and
then come back and take several looks at Psalm 110. Now before we read, may we pray? Lord, our last hymn reminds us that those who are truly in Christ, by the saving power of your gospel,
the miraculous work of your Holy Spirit, the blood and sufferings
and life of our Lord Jesus Christ, being necessary for us to have
this life. No wonder that hymn is simply
titled, Satisfied. Christ is the satisfaction of
our souls. We are not satisfied with ourselves. We hate ourselves. We despise
ourselves. But we rejoice in our blessed
Lord and Savior. Lord, may our time this morning
in this place as we open this holy book that
you have miraculously brought into being and brought it through
century after century after century to bring it before us this morning. Lord, that you might speak, as
no one else can, from the words of this grand and glorious psalm. Enable us, give us spiritual
eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear, and a heart that is
born again to understand these precious statements concerning
our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Lord, no preacher, no matter how great, no preacher
can make these words alive to our souls. This work is the work
of God the Holy Spirit alone. Oh, that he might come to us
this day. We beg these mercies. through the merit and blood of
our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Amen. The first thing I have
to do in Psalm 110 verse 1 is to show you again, to remind
you, you should already know this. We've dealt with it in
so many different places, but the word Lord in verse 1 is not
The spelling is not the same, the letters are the same, but
one is all capitals and the other just begins with a capital. So we have two different names
for God. One is all capital letters, L-O-R-D. This is Jehovah. It is the triune
God. Whereas the other word, capital
L and lowercase o-r-d, is referring to Christ the Messiah. He is a member of the first Lord,
the triune God, but it is speaking of Christ in his mediatorial
work in regard to this second word, Lord. So David is saying
that Jehovah, said unto my Lord, the Lord Jesus," you see that? You've got to be able to distinguish
this or you cannot understand that particular statement. The
Lord said unto my Lord, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
said to the Lord Jesus, sit you at my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool. Where is the Lord Jesus in Psalm
110? He is seated on a throne in glory. And the Father said, sit until
I make all your enemies your footstool. The Lord, all capitals, shall
send the rod of your strength out of Zion, Zion meaning the
church, the true church, the people of God in whatever age
or generation, the Lord shall send the rod of your strength
out of Zion, rule you in the midst, right smack dab in the
middle of your enemies. Now do you remember, I can't
remember, Curtis you probably know the answer to this, how
many times in the New Testament There were attempts made to kill
our Savior, and He walked right smack through the middle of them,
and nobody laid a hand on Him. Now how that was done, I'm not
sure. There are many ways that our
Lord could have done it. He could have simply cast a spell
upon everybody in the place. Just walked right out the door. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Verse 3, your people, Christ's
people, the people that God gave to him in that covenant in old
eternity, your people shall be willing. Oh really? I thought we were unwilling in
the day of your power. It takes the power of God the
power of his grace, the power of the gospel, the power of the
Son of God to cause us to believe. Your people shall be willing
in the day of your power. Well, what about other people?
We're not worried about the other people. We're trying to tell
you about Christ's people, about his bride, his church. and she
must be made willing. None of us have the ability or
the will to make ourselves respond to such a call as this. Your
people shall be willing in the day of your power in the beauty
of holiness from the womb of the morning Speaking to the Lord
Jesus, God the Father still speaking to the Son, you have the due
of your youth. Christ has exactly the amount
of power today that He had at any point since old eternity
to the end of time. There's no shortage, no lacking
on God's part. So you have to conclude the Lord
Jesus, right now this moment, In this wicked world in which
we live, with these wicked hearts still within us, the Lord Jesus
is doing exactly what he intends to do. And nothing can keep that
from taking place. All the inhabitants of this earth
can rise up in rebellion against God, and he'll just laugh like
he does in Psalm 22, in Psalm 2, which is the essence of that
little short psalm, twelve verses in length. Your people shall
be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness,
from the womb of the morning you have the due of your youth.
The Lord has sworn and will not repent. How is that one spelled? All capitals again. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. And to the Lord Jesus, these
words belong, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This Melchizedek is the fellow
that met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings where
he went to rescue his nephew Lot. And while he was there,
he rescued everybody else and got all their possessions back.
And he met this man who was God's priest and he bowed to that man
and gave a tithe of all that he had recovered from those raids
that had taken those cities. You are a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Now please listen. Every believer is a priest, and there ain't no such thing
as a priest any higher than a believer. There's nobody on this earth,
no human being anywhere, through whom we must go in order to go
to God. That makes the entire Catholic
Church, and for that matter, the Baptist Church, the Methodist
Church, the Presbyterian Church, Pentecostal churches, and all
the rest, it makes them liars. Because in those churches, some
of them have priests and they call them priests. Some of them
have preachers, but they don't call them priests, but that's
what they're doing. You come take my hand and God will save
you. Let me pray these words over you and God will save you.
No, listen, salvation is of the Lord and of Him alone. You are a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at your right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of His wrath. Notice verse 5
has Lord in lower case letters except the first one. He shall
judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. And finally, he shall drink of
the brook in the way. Therefore shall he lift up the
head." Now, I wanted to comment on verse 7, but I'm going to
mention that again in just a moment, so I'll just wait a second. Christ and His people. That's
our title. And in this psalm are seven promises
from Jehovah to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
our Substitute. our federal head, our representative,
and all of the things that the gospel teaches us about him. Here's the first thing. It's
in verse 1. It has to do with that little
word, sit. S-I-T. Christ is seated at God's right
hand. And there he intercedes for his
people And he exercises the will and power of God in their salvation,
in their lives, in their protection, in everything about them, from
the beginning of that life until the end, or the end of time. Sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies your footstool. Does God still have enemies?
Does Christ have enemies? Now listen carefully. We all
start out in this life haters of God and enemies of Christ. And if left in that condition
and leaving this world, we must go straight to hell. But if God
in Christ comes to us in the power of His grace. My, what
a change. What a change that is. What a
change. Second thing is in verse 2. All of these things now having
to do with our Redeemer. We called it seven promises to
the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 2, the Lord shall send
the rod of your strength The Lord shall send the rod of your
strength out of Zion, and here's the word, rule, rule you in the
middle of your enemies. Take for example, when Christ
was hanged on the cross. Can you imagine that event? Do
you know what he was doing? He was ruling. Right smack in
the middle of his enemies. Even the devil says, oh, I've
got you now. All he did was seal his doom.
He's now God's devil. He was then and he is now and
he ever will be. Ain't no contest going on to
see who's God. Verse 3. Here's another wonderful
expression, at least it ought to be to us, thy people. God promises to make the Lord's
enemies His footstool. He promises to rule, for Christ
to rule in the middle of His enemies. And now we learn that
He has a people. And those people are a what kind
of people? Willing, willing people. Something we never were before.
Ah, but when the gospel comes in power to a person's soul,
everything changes. Your people shall be willing
in the day of your power. Here's the fourth one in the
fourth verse. It has to do with a statement
now in regard to Christ. So let me read you the whole
statement in verse 4. The Lord, that's the all capital
letter one, the Lord has sworn, now there's not many times that
you find God swearing in the scriptures, but there are a few
places. The Lord has sworn and will not repent, speaking to
the Lord Jesus, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, some people think Melchizedek
was an Old Testament appearance of Christ. I don't know as I
can say what I think about that. I don't know that I know enough
about it to tell you that. But if that were true, that would
be all right with me. But the reason I think Melchizedek,
this is my own little private opinion and I don't want you
to even think about adopting it, But I think that he was an
actual man, but there was no record of his birth, or his death,
or his genealogy, or any of those things, so that he could be a
type and picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're going
to touch on that in just a little while, well, if we have enough
little while, in Hebrews chapter 7, where Paul brings it up in
that passage. So a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Christ has no beginning. He's
always been. He has no end. And therefore
his priesthood is forever and ever and ever. All right, the
fifth verse. Here's another promise to our
Savior. The Lord at your right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of His wrath." Now, I've got
to do some more studying on this verse. I've already run into
this one time sometime early this morning before
you guys ever got out of bed. But anyway, look at the spelling
of the word Lord in verse 5. It looks as if, and I think it
is, referring to the Lord Jesus. So the statement is made regarding
Christ. The Lord at your right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. So it matters not
who it is where it is or how it is that someone is opposing
Christ. It doesn't matter if he's a king
or a president or a dictator. It makes no difference. Verse 6, here's another promise. The Lord
Jesus shall judge among the heathen. We have a little bit different
definition for heathen than the one that is here, I think. This
simply means the Gentiles. But, you know, all Gentiles are
heathen. And for that matter, even the
Jews were heathen until God saved them in Christ by His grace.
So we're all heathen, but we have a particular race. But there
are Gentiles and Jews most often described in our Bibles. He shall
judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. Now, perhaps that refers to his
second coming. Perhaps it is something that
shall take place between then and now. Most of this already
has at least some things that have taken place in history that
proves this fact. So on Judgment Day, when this
whole universe, everybody in it from the beginning of time
to the end of time, who's going to be on that throne of judgment? It is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet the Lord Jesus is at
your heart's door begging to come in. That's baloney. That's stupidity. It denies the deity of Christ. And if Christ ain't God, He can't
help you or me, either one. Let's see, we've got one more.
Here's the one I mentioned I wanted to come back to. He shall drink of the brook in
the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Now most of the
commentators that I looked at on this verse think that this
is speaking of the night that our Lord Jesus across that little
brook Kidron, or Kedron, that ran right by the rear part of
the temple in Jerusalem. And everybody thinks of crystal
clear water like, what's that water you guys drink that looks
blue? You know, it's got to be just
pristine, you know. No, it's not. It has the feces
and the blood and the hair of all of those sacrifices that
were offered in that temple every day, no telling how many at the
time. And our Lord drank of that to
illustrate for us what He would do when He went to the cross.
Take all of our sins on Himself. Anyway, that's what I think it
means, but I don't make That ought not impress you much. All right, let's go back to verse
3 this time. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. What kind of power is this? Now,
in the gospel accounts, the Lord Jesus often I mean often, showed
his power. A leper came to him. Lord, if
you will, you can make me whole. He touched him and said, I will
be clean. And the man's leprosy was gone.
Countless other examples the same way. This power that belongs
to Christ is here spoken of in this Third verse, your people
shall be willing in the day of your power. It is, first of all, an arresting
power. Let's see, I think it's Acts 8 where Paul
is on the way to Damascus from Jerusalem to go down there and
arrest Christians that were Still a part of the Jewish synagogue,
or perhaps they met separately someplace else in the city, I
don't know. But he's out for blood. He's just supervised the
stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. But Christ meets him on the
road to Damascus. And he arrested him. Paul calls it in Philippians,
apprehended And that's exactly what the Lord did to Paul, and
that's how he saved sinners. He apprehends us. He just takes
us by the nap of the neck, and we're his. Secondly, this power that belongs to Christ
is now his in every degree possible and imaginable. It is a convincing
power. A man has been raised in some
religion all of his life, and the Lord Jesus comes through
the preaching of His gospel and by His Holy Spirit, and just
convinces this person of the glorious truth and reality of
the gospel of Christ. My, what a power that is! Do you know that for some of
us at least, to one degree or another, when Christ meets us
in such a fashion, we lose our friends, at least many of them.
Some of us lose our families. Many people might lose their
job, their welfare. Just all kinds of things. It is indeed not only an arresting
power and a convincing power, but it is a life-giving power. When eternal life is given in
us, in our soul, in our inner man, in the new mind and the
new heart, my, what a power that is. It is a liberating power. Now, I've chosen that fourth
verse. I'm going to put a marker here
at Psalm 110 just so I can find it if I need it. You may not
need it, but I want you to turn with me to John's Gospel. I can't
believe this is only the first time now since we got to Psalm
110 that we've had do any referencing, so you might get lazy on me,
see? But I want to read you a short section of verses in John chapter
8, so that we have some understanding of what it is that takes place
when Christ comes in to a person's heart, to our soul, to our mind,
and the consequences and circumstances that surround it. Alright, let's
see. Let's start at verse 30. And here's something else I want
you to look for. The Scripture sometimes says something, but
if you'll look what's in front of it and especially what's after
it, it may not mean what you think it means. Look here in
verse 30. As he spoke these words, many
believed on him. Boy, hallelujah! Well, all is
not gold that glitters. And people who think they know
who Christ is and what he's about and what he does may be mistaken,
you know. I may think that he just gives
us free food and plenty of money to spend. I question that a little
bit. As he spoke this word, these
words, many believed on him. Now watch this. Now let's see
how long they last. I don't know how many many is.
Nobody else does. But it's more than a few. Alright,
verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him. Notice that. If you continue
in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. Let's see how long they
last. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. Uh-oh, we've hit a snag. He hit a sore spot. They said,
we be Abraham's seed, and we ain't ever been in bondage to
anybody. I have you to know we are already
free. How say you, you shall be made
free? I think they are just on the
border of leaving Him. What do you think? Verse 34,
Jesus answered them, this double verily means amen, amen, I say
unto you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. Now, buddy,
I don't think I shall comment on that statement. I'm just going
to leave it where she is. Because it looks to me like,
I may not like this, but I'm still the servant of sin, at
least to some degree. And the servant abides not in
the house forever, but the Son abides ever. Well, here's the
kicker now. Verse 36, If the Son therefore
shall make you free, all you shall be free indeed. But if He doesn't make you free,
you won't ever be free. I know that you are Abraham's
seed, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place
in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your
father." Oh, my goodness. The air is fiction to come out
of the ball. They answered and said unto him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me.
First time we've been told that in this passage. Now you seek
to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard
of God." Abraham didn't do this. Abraham didn't behave like this.
You talk about being the children of Abraham. Abraham doesn't behave
this way. You do the deeds of your father.
Oh my! Then said they to him, we be
not born of fornication. We're not born out of wedlock.
We have one Father, even God. Jesus said, if God were your
Father, you would love me, for I proceeded
forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent
me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot
hear my word. Oh my, this is it. You are of your Father the devil,
and the lust of your Father you will do. The devil was a murderer
from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why don't
you believe me? He that is of God hears God's
words. You hear them not, because you
are not of God." What started out so promising, they all got left by the wayside.
Now the fourth verse in Psalms, I'm going to ask you to turn
to Hebrews 7. The last verse of chapter 6 and
the early part of chapter 7 deals with this man Melchizedek that
we meet in Psalm 110 in verse 4. So we'll leave the psalm and
come to the pages of the New Testament. First thing we learn
about this priest by the name of Melchizedek, who is a type
and picture of Christ, is that he is said to be the king of
righteousness. This high priest is first the
king of righteousness, and then he's the king of peace. Verse 20, Hebrews 6, and reading
through verse 3 of chapter 7, so just four verses, where the forerunner is for us
entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also
Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
king of righteousness, and after that also the king of Salem,
which is the king of peace." All right, let's look at this
subject just briefly. So the Lord Jesus is also the King of Righteousness
and the King of Peace. And this is the true Melchizedek. He is also the priest of the
Most High God. There's only one priest that's
over all of God's people, all of Christ's church. There's just
one priest and that priest is Christ. But the scriptures teach
us that all believers are made priests in Him. But there's no
mediator between us and God except the God-man, Christ Jesus. Don't
let anybody ever tell you that they've got a closer connection
to God than you've got. You just don't do that. And people
who say this and claim to possess such are the worst of liars. I mean, this is just beyond reality. This high priest blesses all
the faithful as Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And this man, Melchizedek,
and this God-man, Christ Jesus, is without father. The Lord Jesus
has no earthly father. in regard to his human nature. Secondly, Christ is without mother
in regard to his divine nature. He is not kin to Adam like all
of us are. Christ is born of the woman's
seed. Mary is the mother of the human
nature of Christ. And since sin is not communicated
through the woman, then our Savior is pure and holy in His human
nature. But when it comes to His divine
nature, Mary has nothing to do with that. He is without mother
in regard to his divine nature. Melchizedek, at least on the
pages of our Bible, has no genealogy. Neither does the Lord Jesus.
He came at the right time, God's appointed time, but he did not
come as the rest of us come, through just natural creation
and recreating. In our Lord's divine nature as
High Priest, He has neither beginning of days nor end of life. Christ
really is the Son of God, and He alone is Priest forever and
ever and ever. Now, one other statement. I'm
going to go back to Psalms, but you can do it or not. It's up
to you. I'm just going to get one little statement out of here. In the third verse that we've
already worked on, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. Let's talk about this power,
this promise concerning Christ's people. It's a promise of time. Who could have known when David
penned the words of Psalm 110, Who could have known that this
universe and this earth on which we live could have lasted this
long? Given man's natural inclination
to do it, damage every chance he gets one way or another, and
yet it's still here. And people are still here. In
the day of your power, when is that day? every day that rolls
by. Even before there was such a
thing as time or a day. And it will be the same in the
other direction. Time will be no more, but Christ,
Christ is the day of your power. It is a promise of people. Now, when we look at Take, for
example, churches like we think of ourselves as being sovereign
grace churches that preach a gospel that nobody else seems to be
preaching much anymore. There is a church here and way
over yonder and way over yonder and over yonder and wherever
else. But listen, we do not see things as they truly are. We
have a very, very limited perception. If all God's doing is what we
can see, then there ain't much going on. But I'm telling you that the
Lord Jesus is in power every hour of every day, of every month,
of every year, and it'll continue as long as it's supposed to continue,
and when time is not, it will be no more. The day of His power. It is a promise of people. Thirdly, it's a promise of disposition. They are said to what? Be made
willing. Now that's bigger than we think
it is. Some of us think it's pretty big already. But I'm telling
you, to be willing, to give up all the brownie points I've earned
in serving God in religion, to throw all that down and leave
it? Yep. That's what it takes. Thank God
it happened to me. I didn't deserve it. I don't
deserve it. But I don't think he pays much
attention to deservings. It is a promise of disposition. We shall be willing. It is a promise of character
in the beauties of holiness. It is a majestic figure of holiness. Fifthly, it is a metaphor in
that expression in verse 3 that is said to be from the womb of
the morning. It's like the dew that falls
early of the morning. Where does it come from? It doesn't
make any noise, it's just there. From the womb of the morning. How is this promise concerning
Christ's people realized? Where do they come from? Well,
like the dew of the morning, it is without noise, it is mysterious,
and it is divine. And that's exactly how it is
with Christ's people, with those that are his, that are mentioned
so wonderfully in this third verse. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. This promise is concerning Christ
himself. It says you have the due of your
youth. This is true personally, it's true doctrinally, and it's
true spiritually. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of your power in the beauties of holiness from the
womb of the morning. Christ has the due of His youth. Me, I've got gray hairs. What's
still in my head, most of it's fallen out. But the Lord Jesus,
oh my goodness, He still has the due of His youth. What a psalm, what a psalm.