Well, it's lovely to be back
here. I was here in August 2017, which is about 17 months ago,
and one of the reasons I wanted to come to San Diego was that
in terms of the geography of this world, you were the closest
fellowship to us in Australia, because still at this stage,
we are looking and longing for a fellowship in Australia that
that believes the same simple things about this same glorious
Lord that we've just been singing of. And so, last time I came
here, I was at the end of a long trip around America and up to
Alaska and across to Florida and down to Mexico. And I came here tired and unwell,
and I think I had, by that stage I had 15 flights. And so, But
I love being here with you all, and you guys have been much on
my heart. And the day that I left here
was one of those memorable days when I said to the Lord on my
way to the airport, I hadn't slept at all that night, I was
sick, I picked up a bug in Mexico, and I said to the Lord, I'm done.
I'm done. There's nothing left in the tank.
Just get me home. and remarkably, I met on the
way from San Diego to San Francisco, I met a young lady who works
here in television in San Diego called Gloria, and we spent the
whole trip from San Diego to San Francisco speaking about
the Gospel. She was the daughter of a legalistic
pastor, and she seemed to just rejoice. in understanding the
freedom that there is in the Lord Jesus. And so I got to San
Francisco and I was worn out and I was trying to find some
rest in San Francisco airport because I hadn't had much sleep
and I was unwell. And then I hop on a plane at
midnight that night and lo and behold at the very back of the
plane there are two seats on these big 747 jumbos. And as we were walking down onto
the plane I met this American girl from San Francisco who works
in in Sydney, and she was praying as she walked down that this
trip to Australia would be a trip where the Lord would do something
to revive her faith. And we sat next to each other
at the very end of the plane, and we spent 10 hours of a 14-hour
trip talking about the gospel. and she just had me up at Lake
Tahoe to visit with her family and to speak to them about the
Lord. So San Diego has been much on
my heart for all sorts of reasons over this last time, and that's
a long introduction, and I don't want to talk about myself, but
I want to talk I want to talk to you about our great God and
Savior. I suppose what I wanted to do in that introduction was
just remind you that our God sits on the throne of this universe
and he's got his people out there all over this world and they're
in little scattered groups like this. and he in his sovereign
mercy will make sure that every single last one of them will
get to hear that gospel, will get to rejoice in that gospel,
will get to be in this world where there are trials and troubles
and the trials and troubles of God's people are way beyond the
understanding of the rest of the people of this world. We
have our battles. We have our battles with the
world that all the world has. We have our struggles with health
and all of those things. but also we have the battle with
the reality of what we are as sinners in this world. And so
we have an internal battle. We have an internal battle. And
so therefore, in the proclamation of the Gospel, we want to just
remind ourselves again and again and again of how big our God
is, how absolutely supreme and sovereign He is. And we want
to lift Him up and magnify Him. And we want to say to each other,
which is what we're doing as we preach the Gospel, we're saying
to each other, our God reigns. Our God reigns and He knits the
hearts of His people together and He causes us to have a bond
of fellowship which is something that this world will never know
of, but something which we are just getting a little foretaste
of, aren't we? And Heaven will be all about
Him. Heaven will be all about Him. And here, here is this one
opportunity we have in this brief time that we're here. to actually
magnify His name. This brief time, this one opportunity
we have to live as children of faith, to have our eyes fixed
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to see Him high and lifted
up, and we want to see Him magnified. And to magnify something is to
take something which is distant and indistinct and make it clear,
or to take something that's incredibly tiny and make it big. And our
Lord Jesus Christ fills this universe. In fact, He is so big
and so immense that Hebrews 1 says that He can wrap up this universe
like a cloak. Our God reigns. We all, we all
have our struggles in this world and we live in a world which,
for those of us who are old now, Don Fortner said, you're an old
man now, Angus Fisher. For those of us who are old,
we contemplate what is happening to the foundations of this society
and we need to remind ourselves and young people that our God
is sovereign over all of it. life is not going to be easy
in your country nor mine in this world. It never has been for
God's people, but our God reigns. So I wanted to speak to you tonight
from Psalm 110. I'm sorry about that long introduction.
We should be looking at him in the Scriptures, and that's where
I want to spend our time this evening. This is, Psalm 110 is
the Psalm of David. It's the Psalm about the king
who is the priest, or the priest who is the king. Let's just read
this glorious psalm together, these seven verses are seven
verses of magnificent scripture. They are quoted in the New Testament
often and they were preached on by the early church so often.
Psalm 110, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the worm of the morning, thou hast the Jew of thy youth. The
Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. He shall drink of the brook in
the way. Therefore, therefore shall he
lift up his head. Therefore shall he lift up his
head. I wanted to spend some time looking at this and then
concentrate, if I may, on the last verse of Psalm 110. But it's wonderful, isn't it,
in the Scriptures that we actually get, at the beginning of this
psalm and in many other places, we actually get a conversation
between the Godhead. And whenever there's a conversation
between the members of the Godhead, we need to take careful notice.
The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand. until
I make thine enemies thy footstool." You might recall in Matthew 22
the Lord Jesus Christ had been questioned and criticized by
the Pharisees for three and a half or three plus years of his ministry
on this earth. And he quotes this verse to them
in Matthew 22 and he asks them, He's asked them in verse 42,
Matthew 22, he said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? That's the great question of
the gospel, isn't it? That's the great question of this universe.
What think ye of Christ? They said unto him, the son of
David, and he saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit
call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at
my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David
then called him Lord, how is he his son? And you see the response
of these people. When the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
the depth of His glory, the man will have his mouth closed. And no man was able to answer
Him. No man was able to answer Him
a word. Neither does any man from that
day forth ask Him any more questions. So Psalm 110 is the end of the
questions of man. Psalm 110 begins the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. just before he goes to Calvary's
tree. This is a psalm, this is a psalm about the majesty and
the magnificence of a king who rules. The Lord said unto my
Lord, Jehovah said unto Adonai, sit thou at my right hand. The
Lord Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of glory, doesn't
he? There's nothing in this universe, brothers and sisters, that comes
outside of his absolute sovereign control. So often, so often in
this Adam flesh and so often when we look away at this world
and we look at our flesh and we look at the flesh of other
people, we are prone again and again and again to dethrone our
king. We keep thinking that he's not
big enough and he's not in enough control. It's terrible unbelief
and I own my unbelief in that. and I trust that you might do
as well. But our God reigns. There's nothing that happens.
The government of our country is in a mess. The governance
of all Western civilization seems to be in a mess. Our God reigns. Our God is reigning and there
will be nothing happens that causes any harm to the spiritual
good of all of God's people and nothing will ever cause any harm
to the glory of our sovereign God. So let's put away our worries
and turn to Psalm 110, and we're concerned about, well, your,
my government, I can be concerned about my government, I don't
know about yours, but dear oh dear. Sit thou at my right hand. To sit, to sit is to be in a
place of rest, isn't it? We working men find, at the end
of the day, sitting down is a great pleasure, isn't it? You take
the weight off your feet and you realize that the work's done
and I can sit. It's a place of rest and it's
a place, sitting on a throne, is a place of authority. Our
King sits at rest. "'Until I make thine enemies
thy footstool.'" There are two ways of looking at these enemies,
of course. immediately we want to think well our God's going
to reign and all of those enemies of his are going to be put down
and they will be and there will be but there's another enemy
that's been made to sit at his footstool turn with me to Romans
chapter 5 for a second Who are those who are going to sit with
him? Who are those who are going to
be made to be, as it were, in delight at the footstool of the
Lord Jesus Christ? What were they? Romans 5 tells
us very, very clearly, doesn't it? It says in verse 6, when
we were without strength, Romans 5, 6, when we were without strength, No strength whatsoever of our
own, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were yet sinners, verse
8, Christ died for us. How much more then, being now
justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through
him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son, Much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. You were an enemy, weren't you?
Do you remember the days of being an enemy against God? I remember
with horror my days of blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ along with
the rest of the population. It's one of the glorious works
of our God, isn't it? He will subdue all of his enemies.
but he'll subdue his people who were enemies in their hearts.
We were enemies in our mind by our evil works and our evil thoughts. We were enemies of his, reconciled,
made to sit at his footstool. Jesus Christ, our God, our God
will have all of his enemies. There will come a day, won't
there brothers and sisters, there will come a day, that great day
of that white throne judgment where all of this world will
be at the footstool of our God. All of this world will be at
his footstool. His people are made, made to bow to him right
now. while you were there in Matthew
22. I should have asked you to keep
your places there, but there's a remarkable verse that takes
my attention often. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking,
speaking to these people. He speaks of that parable of
the vineyard, of him being that one that will come and be taken
put away. But he says in verse 43, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof. He's talking about the church.
The church will be that nation that brings forth the fruits
thereof. And whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be
broken. To fall upon that stone of the
Lord Jesus Christ is to be broken by him. We were enemies and we
were broken. We were like wild asses being
ridden and we were broken. We were enemies and we've been
broken to be made friends. We sort of pose to him in our
Adam flesh and he rules over his people. And whosoever shall
fall upon this stone will be broken. To be saved is to be
broken, isn't it? To have our Adam self-righteousness
and the pride that we came into this world with, the ability
that we thought with our wills and our wisdom and our worth
to commend ourselves to God, we'd be broken, broken. If you
fall on this stone, you'll be broken, but on whomsoever it
shall fall, it will grind him to powder. The Lord said to my
Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. Verse 2, the Lord shall send
the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst
of thine enemies, the Lord shall sing. The longer you go on in
the Christian life, the more you love the shalls and the wills
of our God. The Lord shall, every time you
read shall and will in the scriptures, you know that it's finished.
It's a promise and it's happening and it has happened. The Lord
shall send the rod of thy strength. It is the scepter of thy might.
the ruling power of our God. And how does he rule in this
world? He rules by the proclamation of the gospel. He gathers his
people. He gathers his people. The gospel
is the power of God under salvation. Churches that have the gospel
need nothing else but the gospel. We have one simple task, brothers
and sisters, isn't it? Our God reigns. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Lift Him up and wait and see.
Lift Him up. Churches that don't have the
Gospel have everything but the Gospel. Programs and busyness
and entertainment and activities and all sorts of things. If you
have the Gospel, you don't have anything else, you don't need
anything else but the Gospel. We have one purpose. We have
one purpose in meeting and that is for him to be exalted and
magnified. And the Lord sends the rod of
his strength out. Isn't it wonderful to think that
the Lord has sent the rod of his strength into this community
here and gathered his people together, into all these little
communities throughout time and throughout this world. The Lord
has never been without his witness. And the thing that was remarkable
in talking to Mark last night as I realized that your fellowship
here began in very similar ways to ours in Nauru. And there,
there the rod of his strength had gone out, hadn't it? The
Lord had sent it. And ten years ago a little fellowship was raised
up in Nauru without us knowing that there were any other fellowships
around the world that believed the things we believed. We knew
that people in history believed it and we knew that it was in
here that God had sent this Word. And then we find what happens.
A little fellowship like this is raised up in a little country
town in Australia. And at the same time, there's
a little fellowship raised up here, and at the same time, there
was a fellowship raised up in Princeton, New Jersey. The Lord
is sending out His Gospel. It's His Gospel, isn't it? See,
we are just ambassadors. We're ambassadors. It's the King's
message, and he's responsible for the sending of it. He's responsible
for the response to it, isn't he? And God is not ashamed of
his character. In fact, the Gospel is a declaration
and a magnification of the character of God. He delights in the proclamation
of himself as sovereign because he is. He delights in the proclamation
of free and sovereign grace. He delights in the proclamation
of the perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
delights in all of those things. He delights in predestination.
He delights in election. It's a title for his son. So
we're not ashamed of it because it's the King's message. And
he sends it forth. He sends it. He sends it. And
he says to this great King, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. People are concerned about what
is happening and what the people of this world are doing. And
Psalm 2 was another Psalm that was preached on so often in the
early church. And people say, well, they're
all conspiring. Well, of course there's a conspiracy. You can
be concerned about the conspiracies, not according to this book. God
promises it. So when we see it, all of these
conspiracies and all this world rise up against our God, it's
just the fulfillment of the promise of God. Our God reigns. Let's read Psalm 2. Enough of
it just to get a mention, a notion. Why do the heathen rage? Why
do the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing. The imaginations of people, vain is empty, isn't it? The
people's imagination is empty. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
Christ, the Anointed One, saying, Let us break their bands asunder."
That's the great cry of sinful man in this world, isn't it?
Let's have freedom. Let's have freedom from God.
Let's rule. You shall be as gods. was the medicine that Satan caused
to course through the veins of every person that walked out
of Eden's garden in Adam, isn't it? You shall be his gods. You
shall be his gods. Let's break their bands. Let's
break the bands of God and his Christ asunder and let's cast
away their cords from us. What's the response of God? What's
the response of our God? Read it with me in verse 4. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then he shall speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his
sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The
Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Did the Lord Jesus Christ ask? He reads John 17. He did. Did God the Father give it to
him? Of course he did. He did. I'll give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye
judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry."
Kiss the son. What a remarkable invitation
from our God. If you were an enemy, what a
remarkable invitation, what a remarkable declaration from our God. Kiss
the son, come close to him and embrace him. Believe is what
it means, isn't it? Just trust him. Lest he be angry
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. It's almost impossible in modern
religion to hear anyone talk about the wrath of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's not embarrassed about his
wrath, brothers and sisters. He's not embarrassed about his
character. It's just. Blessed are they that put their
trust in him. So he rules. He rules sovereignly
in the midst of his enemies. He's sitting, it says in verse
1. And then this glorious verse
in verse 3. for anyone who's ever preached
the gospel, anyone who's in a church that believes the gospel, this
is a glorious promise from our God, isn't it? Thy people, thy
people. So he has a people. He has a
people that God the Father gave him in all of eternity, didn't
he? Before the foundation of the world. He calls them His
because He owns them. He calls them His because they
belong to Him. They are His possession by creation. They are His possession by redemption. They are His possession by marriage. They are His possession by an
eternal covenant union with Him. He calls them My people. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. They'll be willing. Willing. Willing to do what? Willing to
believe. Made willing to repent. Made willing to be baptized. Made willing to share that gospel. Made willing to be numbered with
the church. made willing to be taken out
of this world religion and brought to the footstool of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but made willing. There's no willingness in our
Adam flesh at all. Our God reigns. I'm just so thankful
for that verse. that thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power." We don't have to worry, brothers
and sisters, about the health of God's Church in this world.
It's always perfectly healthy, and everything that happens is
perfectly ordained by our God for the good of His Church. We
don't have to count numbers. We have to believe. We believe
promises rather than counting noses. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness. What a glorious description of
holiness. The beauties of holiness. We
have no idea what holiness is. We have no idea how glorious
holiness is. The beauties of heaven are going
to be the beauties of holiness, aren't they? The beauties of
heaven are going to be beholding that Holy One. The beauties of
holiness is that He has taken that responsibility and He says
in Colossians 1, He will present this bride to His Father. He
declares her in Psalm 45 to be all glorious within. Beautiful,
beautiful. He says in Song of Solomon, he's
captivated by her beauty. Read Song of Solomon. He just,
there is no spot in you, my love, my dove, my undefiled. the beauties of holiness, the
beauties of the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the beauties
of the adornments of that holiness, the wonder of being in His presence
without sin forevermore. Heaven will be singing the beauties
of holiness forever and ever. thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power and the beauties of holiness from the
womb of the morning thou hast the Jew of thy youth." It's an
interesting passage, isn't it? From the beginning of the morning,
from the birth of the morning, thou hast, he has in his possession,
the Jew of thy youth. It's in the plural. So it is
a declaration that his people, he has them, they are willing
in the day of his power They come to him as fresh from heaven
like the dew in the morning and sparkling like jewels in the
glistening sun. It's his people. It's a description
of his church. It's a description of his bride. And he has them. They're in his
possession. What a place to be. What a place
of comfort. What a place of comfort. The
second half of this glorious psalm is a declaration of how
the Lord Jesus Christ in his life and in his sacrificial and
substitutionary death has made these people beautiful and how
he has won that right to rule over them and to present them
to his father. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. What a solemn matter it is, isn't
it, when God swears to God. The glory of our salvation, brothers
and sisters, the foundation of our salvation, the great security
of our salvation, is that it is based on a promise that God
the Father and God the Son made before the foundation of the
world. You are a priest forever. There was a priest before there
was a sinner. There was a savior before there
was a sinner. That's what the scriptures declare,
doesn't it? That we were saved from the foundation of the world.
There are so many glorious things about that. The glorious things
are about the wonderful covenant relationship between God the
Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But for us sinners,
the wonder of it is that if it's based entirely upon a promise
between God the Father and God the Son as the surety of that
eternal covenant, then my works, be they good or bad, don't enter
into the equation. We'll see why in a little while.
And here's a priest. He bore that priesthood. He's
a priesthood forever after the order of Melchizedek. Not only does the Lord swear,
but He says He will not repent. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. They're irrevocable. If He's
made a promise, there's nothing in all of this universe that
can stop that promise being fulfilled. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
on that surety covenant. engagement in all eternity and
shook hands with his father. From that moment on, God the
Father can only look one place. He can only look to one person. for all of my righteousness before
God, and for all of my sin-bearing before God. At that moment, at
that moment and for all eternity, he looks to his Son, and everything
that God requires of me, he finds in the Lord Jesus Christ." That's
the gospel, brothers and sisters. That's what Hebrews 7.22 declares
of him. It says, He was made the surety of a better
testament. Says in verse 17, he wasn't made,
in verse 16, he wasn't made after the law of a carnal commandment,
but he came after, verse 15, the similitude of Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't he? He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And wonderfully, you might remember the story in Genesis 15 when
Abraham came back from winning that great battle on behalf of
Lot and others. Abraham won that great battle
by the Lord's strength, not by the number of people he had.
And he comes back and Melchizedek, this king of Salem, comes out.
And what does he come with? bread and wine, the body and
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to preach forever. You
are, in verse 17, thou art a priest forever. for there is verily
the dismal nulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness
and unprofitableness of thereof." If people would understand what
the scriptures say about the law and our relationship to it
now, they'd be horrified about their efforts to put us back
under the law again and again and again. What does it say? It says weakness and unprofitable
and yet this religious world of ours is putting people back
under the law in multitudes of places, aren't they? Saying it's
all about what you do. Look what he's done for you and
now this is what you have to do in response. In fact, I heard
a fellow the other day say that he and the leaders in his church
are going to be so zealous for Sabbath keeping that they're
going to turn their mobile phones off and they're going to have
24 hours of silent meditation and glorification of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What on earth allows people to
think that they can do that, other than extraordinary self-righteousness
and delusion? I don't know about you, but so
often when I come to pray, within milliseconds I'm thinking about
something stupid. The flesh is weak, said the Lord
Jesus Christ to those apostles in the garden. He said, watch
with me. He said, can you just watch me go through the agony
of carrying and bearing on my shoulders and in my body and
in my heart the weight of this sin that burst the blood vessels. And what happened? Just asked for an hour of their
time and they fell asleep in a heartbeat. Dear, oh dear, the
spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, brothers and sisters.
There's nothing profitable in our flesh. If the unprofitableness
of our flesh will turn us to him, then dear, oh dear, it's
a blessing and a mercy, isn't it? But if you think that you
have something that you can do in your flesh that you believe
is righteous before God, I promise you, you will cling to it until
you meet him. You've got to be broken. You've
got to be broken. And He'll break His people. He'll
make them willing. They'll delight in His breaking
of them. They'll delight in His breaking
of them. The law made nothing perfect
but the bringing in, verse 19 of Hebrews 7, the bringing in
of a better hope did by which we draw near to God. Jesus was made a surety. There
were many priests, but this man is a priest after the order of
Melchizedek. He is both the priest and the king. And it's wonderful
that Zechariah, 400 years before the Lord Jesus came, talked about
this priest and this king together in Zechariah 6. It says, 6 verse
12, it says, Speak unto him, say, Thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts. Behold, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the branch,
we have no question about who that is, that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He shall grow up out of his place and he shall build
the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord and he shall bear the glory. He'll build his church
and he'll bear the glory. and shall sit and rule upon his
throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne." So we have
a priest and a king. He is the priest, and he is the
priest who rules. and the counsel of peace shall
be between them." That's where our peace is, brothers and sisters,
isn't it? In the covenant of peace between them. He's a priest forever. We have
a priest who reigns and rules forever. He's a king and he's
a priest. God has sworn and God has said
that he will not repent. He has no reason to change what
he's declared. It is wonderful, isn't it, to
think that our salvation is as secure as the covenant engagements
of our great God and King. It's wonderful, isn't it, to
think that it was all done. It was all done by Him. Verse
5, the Lord said, Well, the Lord at thy right hand shall strike
through the kings in the day of his wrath. He will rule, won't
he? Our great king will rule. He'll strike through kings in
the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. all the rebellious enemies of
the Gospel will be put down. We have one simple task, and
it's such a delightful thing, isn't it? We declare the glories
of God and then wait for Him to do everything else. There's
a wonderful picture in Genesis 15 of Abraham and that covenant
that was cut. which is a great picture of the eternal covenant,
isn't it? That Abraham had to lay out those animals, half on
each side. In the Old Testament times, it
was saying to the parties that we would walk through these broken,
bloodied animals, and if we break the covenant, we deserve to have
that happen to us. It was a way of forming a very
solemn promise. But Abraham was asked to lay
them out, lay them out, and then that evening Abraham fell into
a deep sleep. Jesus Christ. So when the covenant
was being cut, Abraham was asleep, and that furnace and that lamp
went through, the wrath of God, that holy wrath of God and the
light of the gospel that comes from that wrath being satisfied
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Abraham had one job
to do. during that day after laying
those animals out there. He was to keep the birds off
the sacrifice. He was to keep the unclean birds
off the sacrifice. It's a great picture of what
we are required in preaching the Gospel and gathering to declare
the Gospel to each other, isn't it? It's that we keep the foul,
unclean birds of free will, works, religion and other things off
the sacrifice. We want the sacrifice to be left in its purity. We want the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ to be seen in its clarity, because what
gives most glory to God, gives most comfort to us. What gives most glory to Him,
what magnifies Him the most, glorifies us the most. Stand
together, brothers and sisters. There's a battle going on. Stand
together. Stand and wait and see. He shall judge. He'll fill the
places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads of many
countries. the places that are filled with
the dead bodies are a picture of the dead bodies that filled
that valley, the valley of Hinnon. And you can read about it in
Jeremiah 7, 31 and 32. And then there's this remarkable
verse, and we'll come back to something in verse 6, I trust,
in a minute. But it says in verse 7, He shall drink of the brook
in the way, therefore shall he lift up his head. It's remarkable, it seems a verse
that's out of context with all of the rest of it, isn't it?
He shall drink of the brook. There is just one brook when
the Lord Jesus Christ created this earth, when he formed those
valleys and he formed that city of Jerusalem, he was painting
this picture, wasn't he? And the valley, the brook, the
brook is no question, in no question is the brook of Kidron. And the
brook of Kidron, you might remember that Jerusalem was on a hill
and there was a valley to the east side of Jerusalem and then
there was an olive grove called Gethsemane and over the hill
was Bethany, the place where the Lord Jesus spent his time.
And the brook, quite simply, was a sewer. So you mustn't think
of this little babbling brook. It was a sewer. It was a sewer
into which all of the offal of the Temple of Jerusalem flowed.
All of the blood of those sacrifices flowed down those streams and
down into this brook Kidron. The Kidron Brook is a sewer of
sin, and the Kidron Brook flows into a perpetually burning garbage
tip. That's the picture, isn't it?
That's the picture. The brook is sin, and sin leads
to an ever-burning wrath of God against sin. And that brook bore
along as it flowed. It bore along the curse of the
broken law. It bore along in its stream the
vengeance of offended justice against a holy God. It bore the
wrath of God against that sin that was poured out. It was like the waters of Mara.
It was full of bitterness and pain and sorrow and suffering
and death. He shall drink of the brook in
the way, or in his way, in the path of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the priest. He is a king, but he's a priest
as well. He created this brook, and he
made that promise that he'll drink of that brook in the way.
and he introduced and declared all those laws of sacrifice to
expose what sin is. It's in his way, it's in the
way, and the way of the Lord Jesus Christ as he went. That
night that he was to be betrayed, he went there as a king into
that garden. He went there as a king to reign
and to rule. He went there as a king to meet
Judas. He went there as a king to meet
those soldiers. We mustn't ever think that the
Lord Jesus Christ was a victim in some way. He ruled and reigned
over all those things, and he is a priest, and a king went
down there into that brook. And the scriptures declare that
he drank that brook in his way. And in Gethsemane's garden, in
Gethsemane's garden, he speaks to his father as the priest. He speaks to his father, and he says, this cup, he took
those waters, didn't he, that foul and filthy stream, and it
was in a cup. And he cries in anguish to his
father. He says that he was sore amazed. The son of God, this king, was
utterly astonished when he looked into the cup. It says that he
was very heavy. It means that it's the strongest
word for depression as he looked into a cup. He said, my soul
is sorrowful even unto death as he drank from that stream.
It says being in agony. And it says in Luke's gospel
that his sweat was of great drops of blood. falling to the ground. The weight of the horror of those
sins broke the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore all that
eternal God could bear with strength enough and none to spare in that
garden. He had to be supported by angels
to stand the horror of it. He was the only man who ever
knew the sinfulness of sin. And when he looked into that
cup, when he looked into that cup that he was to drink from,
from that stream of sin and filth and the disgusting things that
are part of the lives of his people, he was horrified. It nearly killed him. and he was broken. And the wonder of the scriptures
is that he declares again and again that they're my sins. He says they're my sins. He says
it repeatedly in the scriptures. He says in that remarkable description
of the horror of that scene in Lamentations, we know that verse
well, don't we? for all you who pass by, is it
nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there's
any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
But if you read the verse proceeding in verse 11, and said, all her people sigh,
they seek bread, they have given their pleasant things for me
to relieve themselves. Lord and consider, these are
the words that only one man could ever say. He says, for I am become
vile. We're born vile, brothers and
sisters. He's the only person that's ever walked on planet
earth that could say, I've become vile. That cup, that cup, that
in John 18 he says, the Father gave me that cup. and he says
the cup's in his hand, the cup of all of the sins of all of
God's people from all eternity, the sins of Adam and Eve and
the sins of Abel, the sins that you are committing now, the sins
that I'm committing now, the horror of that sin, the guilt
of that sin, the shame of that sin. No wonder we spend so much
time trying to hide the sin that we are. but he couldn't be hidden
from it. He looked into that cup and he
saw all those sins, and the cup couldn't pass from him unless
he drank it. He shall drink, it says. He says
in John 18, when Peter attempts to achieve the things of God
by the hand of man with a sword. He says, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the
Father has given me? The cup was his, and if the cup's
in his hand, it can't be in your hand. And if he drinks the cup,
the contents of the cup become one with him. Just as this cup,
the contents of this cup become one with me." Such is the sacrifice
of this priest. Such is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when they bound those hands
of his, they bound that cup to those hands, and he went to Calvary's
tree, and on Calvary's tree he was cursed of God. and every
one of those sins of yours and mine, brothers and sisters in
Christ, from all time and all eternity, all of those sins met
with the fire of God's wrath in holy justice and judgment. And God cries out, God cries
out, It is finished. They've gone, brothers and sisters.
God can't find them. They're hidden in the depths
of the sea or behind a dark cloud. He's put them behind his back.
They're gone, and perfect justice. perfect justice demands the salvation
of all of God's people. He called him in John 17, he
said, Holy Father, righteous Father, the most God-like thing,
Todd Niebuhr said, and it's so true, the most God-like thing
God ever did was put his son to death on Calvary's tree. the most God-like thing God ever
did, because it's the revelation of all of the character of God,
isn't it? It's the revelation of His holiness. It's the revelation
of His justice. It's the revelation of the depth
of His love. It's the revelation of His absolute
sovereignty, the determinate counsel and full knowledge of
God brought all these things to pass. This psalm promises
it, and the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled it. They're gone. Our priest is a
king. Our priest is a sovereign ruler. Our priest is now in heaven. And the one thing that we've
left on our priest in heaven is the wounds, haven't we? when
he lifted up his hands and went back into heaven and blessed
his people. They were wounded hands. He's there ever. He lives there ever to present
us before his father. Wholly spotless, unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. And now, as a king, it says at
the end of the psalm, doesn't it, therefore shall he lift up
the head. He bore that burden in Gethsemane's
garden and he lifted up his head and ruled and reigned and submitted
in extraordinary faithfulness to his father in the hour of
his greatest need. And he lifted up his head and
went to Calvary's tree. And he was buried in that tomb
and he rose gloriously and he lifted up his head. And he's
lifted up his head ever since. He lifts up his head and he looks
down upon his bride on this earth. and he has absolutely nothing
but the greatest delight for every single one of them. And
because of his priestly work, every member of his body is a
perfectly fit residence for him. He can take up residence in us.
A holy God can live in us. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. We made perfectly fit residences,
brothers and sisters, for God Almighty to dwell in us. And if He dwells in us, then
He dwells amongst us, and He's with us. Matthew 28. He says, you just go and preach
this gospel. You go and proclaim this gospel throughout the world. This is the king priest giving
instructions to his church, isn't it? He said, all power, the king
who is priest, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. He's here
now, brothers and sisters. He can't leave us. He can't leave
those who are his delights. One interesting thing, grammatical
thing in that verse there, it says that I am with you. Throughout
the Gospels, and especially in John's Gospel, he says, I am,
I am, I am, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world,
I am the good shepherd. In all of it, he's using the
great words that were used of God when he met Moses at the
burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. What's remarkable in the Greek,
and I don't like talking about Greek, but anyway, one of the
wonderful things about the Lord Jesus after his death in this
particular verse, it is, I with you am, as if he's breaking the
I am and he's embracing his church to be one with him. May He give us the simplicity
of simply, wonderfully trusting who He is and what He's done
and what He's promised to do. We've just been reading His promises. He's sealed them with His blood.
Might I pray for us a minute? Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for the declaration of Your Son. We thank You that You send
this Word out to all the world and You send it particularly
and powerfully and wonderfully by Your sovereign will and power
into the hearts of Your chosen people, Heavenly Father, that
we might, in the midst of all the trials and struggles of this
world and our flesh and all that happens around us, Heavenly Father,
that we might be reminded yet again that our great God and
King, the Lord Jesus Christ, rules all things. That he's loved
his people with an everlasting love and with loving kindness,
he draws them to himself. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that you have for all time made your people willing in the day
of your power. May it be a day, Heavenly Father,
where you cause us again and again to rejoice in our sovereign
King and Ruler. And may He be continually magnified
amongst us. I pray you'd bless this fellowship,
Heavenly Father. Grant them the great mercy and
privilege of seeing your dear and precious Son high and lifted
up and fulfilling all that He has promised. and sealed with
his precious life's blood. We do pray in his name that you
might bless us, Heavenly Father. Amen.