Turn to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. As I was sitting there listening
to David sing, and thinking that shortly I'm
going to stand here and preach of the glories of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I thought of that scripture,
and I felt, and I feel the power of that scripture. Who is sufficient
for these things? I'm just a clay pot. But God
has put this treasure, this gospel treasure, in earthen vessels. Clay pots like me and David and
Paul and other men. And He has sent us out to preach. And I'm trying. I'm not even
going to scratch the surface, let me tell you. I'm way over
my head. I'm way over my head this morning.
But I'm going to try to scratch the surface of the glory of our
King. I want us to think this morning
of our King. Now you and I have grown up in
a democracy and we really don't know what it is or what it was
to grow up under a king. A sovereign. And this morning, I want us to
have our minds and our hearts set up on the King of Glory. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. We are under a theocracy. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's never
given it up. God has never turned this world
over to men or Satan. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. That gives me
comfort. I probably quote that verse more
now than as much as any verse that I quote. Because it gives
me great comfort to know that this world, this earth, everything
on it, everyone in it belongs to my King. They are under the
authority of my King. They can't even move. A dog can't
even bark. A dog can't even move his tongue
against you. Except he gets the permission
from my King and your King. So I want to look at Psalm 45. The writer of the Psalm here,
he says, is indicting a good matter. Now,
if you look at the beginning of this psalm, look here, it
says, To the chief musician upon Shoshanim, which means lilies.
Lilies. Who's that? That's Christ. It's the lily of the valley.
For the sons of Korah, Masculine, a song of love. This is a love
song. To the King of Glory. And he
says here, my heart is bubbling. It is boiling over with a good
matter. A good matter. You know, the
best preaching is heart preaching. When someone can preach from
their heart to my heart. God has spoke to their heart
and He's speaking to my heart. That's the best preaching. And
that's what we have here. He said, my heart. is bubbling
over. It is boiling over with a good
matter. You know, worship starts, the
worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, it starts in the heart. It is a heart matter. It is the
heart being taken up and obsessed with Jesus Christ. My heart is
obsessed with Jesus Christ. It's not just impressed, and
it is impressed, but it's obsessed. You know, to me, that's what
worship is. Worship is to be totally obsessed with that object. And we are obsessed with the
Lord Jesus Christ. If the heart is filled with thoughts
of Christ, then it's a good matter. And if the heart is filled with
thoughts of Christ, then for the first time, it's being used
right. It's been used what God made
it for. To worship Him. To give unto Him the glory due
unto His name. And I pray God will enable me
and David to do that this morning. That we will give unto our King
the glory that's due unto His name. And listen, out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. And He says, My tongue
And I prayed to God this morning that my tongue is the pen of
a ready, and that means skilled. Now, if you're skilled at something,
it's something you have studied. It's something that you are very
well acquainted with. And He says my tongue is the
pen of a skilled writer. And here's my subject. My heart
is inditing a good matter, my tongue is the pen of a ready
writer, and it's things touching the King. My heart is set upon
the King. Christ is the subject of our
preaching. He's the subject of our teaching. He's the subject of our hearts,
is He not? Christ is. We have a King. Listen, we have a God-King. We have a God. God is King. David said, God is King over
the whole earth. He's never relinquished that.
He's a King. And here's His person. He describes
the person of the King. Thou art fairer, and He's speaking
here, I think, of His moral beauty. He knew no sin. We have a King who knew no sin,
never has known sin, never had a thought of sin, a deed of sin. This is His moral beauty. Thou
art fairer than the children of men. There has never been
anyone among the sons of Adam compared to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's never been anyone
among the mighty men of God compared to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the chiefest among ten thousand. When He steps forth, Everyone
else pales in comparison to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I can only imagine what it's
going to be like when we see our King face to face. When we
see Him walk in. I don't have words for that.
I'm at a loss. I'm at a total loss for words. For beauty there are none to
be compared to the Lord Jesus Christ. For meekness and lowliness
of heart, there's none compared to Him. Come unto Me, all you
that labor." There's never been a king on this earth that has
ever sent out that kind of a message. He said, all you that labor and
heavy laden, you come to Me. You can walk right in to the
throne of this King and be heard. You can't do that with any other
king. There's too many guards. There's
too many blocks to keep you out of there. But the King of glory
says, come on in to the chief of centers, to those who are
laboring, heavy laden. He says, come. Come. Oh, and he's meek, he's approachable. This king, our king, is approachable
by wretches like you and me. Harlots felt comfortable in his
presence. Publicans felt comfortable in
his presence. And he felt comfortable in their
presence. For strength, In glory, there's
none to be compared to our King. And listen, when our King speaks,
grace pours from His lips. Never man spake like this man. Never man. Grace pours from His lips. Scripture says that the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of grace
and truth. When you see Him, you see grace
and truth. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. When you look at Jesus Christ,
you see life. Life has a name. Do you know
that? Life has a name. Jesus Christ. John says in 1
John, we have handled Him, we have touched, we have handled
life. We have touched life. We have heard life. And His name
is Jesus Christ. And He is our... Life is my King. God is my King. Life is my King. Righteousness is my King. The
Lord our Righteousness. He's my King. My, what a King. And when He speaks,
grace pours from His lip. He who is full of grace and truth
speaks the truth. And He speaks grace to sinners. To sinners. That's what upset
those Pharisees so much. This man receives sinners, and
can you believe, he eats with them. I hope he eats with us
this morning. I pray to God that he will sit
down and eat with us this morning. Enable us to feast on the bread
of life. Now because of who He is, therefore
God hath blessed thee forever. God said, this is My beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. He's the only one. He's the only
one that ever pleased God. Listen, He's the only one that
God has ever been impressed with. This is my beloved Son. God is
well pleased with His work of redemption. God is well pleased
with His righteousness. And because of this, He has blessed
Him forever, and listen, and whatever He has blessed Him forever
with and in, He's blessed us also. Whatever He has, I have. Whatever is His is ours. All
things are yours in Christ. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O Most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. As a warrior,
go forth with thy sword." That's right, as a warrior, go forth
and conquer. Not this weak little Jesus. No. Gird thy sword upon thy side,
upon thy thigh, O Thou Most Mighty. His sword, do you know what His
sword is? It's His Word. His Word. I pray that God would
take His Word this morning and rise prosperously and conquer
us. Not just conquer some sinner
out there, but us. I want the Lord to conquer me
every day. I need to be conquered every
day. Because there's a part of me
that still rises up in rebellion. That old man, he'd like for me
to uncrucify him and bring him down and entertain him. No, Lord, conquer me. Conquer
me daily. His sword is His Word, His weapon
is His Word, and His field of battle is the heart. That's His
field of battle. He's not out here just fighting
flesh. It's the heart. It's a spiritual warfare. Now listen, He can either conquer
us or kill us. He can either bring us to His
feet or lay us in the grave. Whichever He will. Because our
King is sovereign. He's sovereign because look at
the next verse. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of
truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. In thy majesty, that word majesty
there also means this, in thy sovereignty. In thy sovereignty
ride victoriously. There's nothing that Satan hates,
that false religion hates, and this world hates more than the
sovereignty of God. God being God. That's what sovereignty
is. It's God being God. And you and I, who believe God,
who believe the Gospel. We desire. We desire God's sovereignty. We desire for God to ride in
His sovereignty. Aren't you glad He's sovereign? If God were not sovereign, we
would really be in a mess. You think we're in a mess? We'd
really be in a mess if God were not sovereign. Our God is sovereign. Our King is sovereign. And our
Lord is a great King and we desire to see Him exalted over all. That's the desire of my heart.
Thy Kingdom come. I pray. And I understand more
now as I get older, as I grow older in the Lord. I pray Thy
Kingdom come. It's not the kingdom of men I'm
concerned about. It's the kingdom of God. That's
the only kingdom that's going to last. And that's the only
kingdom that is righteous. That's a righteous kingdom. It's
the kingdom of God. Thy kingdom come, right upon
the chariot of truth and meekness and righteousness. This is the
battle He's engaged in. This is the battle He's engaged
in. Truth and righteousness. And these are the things we want
to see prosper. I wish this was the things men
were talking about. Truth and righteousness. Those are the things we are interested
in. Tell me the truth. I don't care how much it hurts.
Tell me the truth. There's no good that includes
you. That hurts my feelings." Well, I hope it does. You know,
dead people don't feel anything. Dead people don't feel anything.
Maybe if it hurts your feelings, something's going on. Tell me the truth. No matter
how much it hurts, tell me the truth. And he says here, verse 5, Don
Arrows. Don Arrows of truth. are sharp in the heart of the
King's enemies, whereby the people fall unto Thee. When the King
of glory takes aim at a man, He never misses. He never misses. And if He's going to save that
man or that woman, they're going to be saved. And the truth is
going to penetrate the heart. And you're going to experience
what repentance really is. The pain of repentance. Or if He's going to kill you,
you're going to experience that too. Depart from Me. I never
knew you. You know how painful that is,
how sharp an error that is when He speaks and says, I never knew.
We've preached in your name. We've done many mighty works
in your name. And He says, depart from Me. I never knew you. That's
a sharp error. But here's a verse, now listen,
verse 6. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter
of thy kingdom is a right scepter. It's a righteous scepter. How
precious is this verse in our day. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The reach of our King, It's not
from sea to shining sea. It's from eternity to eternity. It reaches over time. It reaches
over space. It reaches over all people. He has no boundaries. All the
kings of this earth, they had their little boundaries that
they stayed within. They called themselves sovereigns.
Well, step outside that boundary and see if you're sovereign.
No, you're a sovereign in a little area. And you're just a little
inkling of a sovereign. But the sovereign of heaven and
earth, He reaches from eternity to eternity. He declares those
things which be not as though they were. You know, whatever's
going on in your life, whatever you're praying about, whatever
you're troubled about, that matter's already settled. It's already
determined. The outcome's already done. There's
not a thing on this earth, there's not a thing that will ever happen.
That's not already done. It's settled. And it's not going
to change. God doesn't change. I am the
Lord, I change not. His purpose changes not. His
covenant changes not. His love changes not. Our King
is unchangeable. When everything else is changing,
He doesn't change. What an anchor. What an anchor
for the Son. He changes not. Now, there's something to hold on
to. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. And we know this verse is applied
to our Lord in Hebrews 1a. It cannot be applied to anyone
else but Jesus Christ. He's God manifest in the flesh. And His reign is in righteousness. You know, when I was young growing
up, righteousness was the last thing on this earth that I thought
of. Actually, righteousness crept
my style. That's the last thing I wanted
was righteousness. And now it's all I want. I hunger
and thirst after righteousness. I never thought that could happen. that I could actually hunger
and thirst after righteousness. I know what I hungered and thirsted
after. And it had nothing to do with righteousness. It had
nothing to do with God. God or Jesus Christ or anyone.
No. But now, look what the Lord has
done. When you look in the mirror,
you should stand astounded. Look what the Lord has done.
He's given me a hunger and a thirst after righteousness to be right
with God. I don't care if I'm right with
anybody else. I don't care if anybody else likes me. And I
don't like to use the word, I don't care. I don't like using that
word because that's really... I just don't like using that
word, I don't care. But I don't care if you like me or not. I do care if God likes me. I
hope you do. I like you and you like me. But
there's one, there's one that I hope and I pray likes me, loves
me so much that He actually died for me and put away my sins. And the blood that He shed for
my sins But I ask for forgiveness. Listen to this. This has given
me great comfort. This thought has given me great
comfort. The sins I ask forgiveness for, His blood answers for them. And
God can say, Son, you're forgiven. Because there's the blood that
answers for my sins that I'm asking forgiveness for. I know people don't think much
of God's law, but He sure does. He sure does. And you and I better
get in line and love what He loves. Because He says here in
verse 7, Thou lovest righteousness and you hate wickedness. This
has to do with His character. You know what we love is what
we are. What we love is what we are. What my heart is after,
that's who I am. And listen, as much as he loves
the one, he hates the other. He hateth all workers of iniquity. God does not love everyone. At least I know of one he didn't
love, Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. But let me tell you this, Esau
hated God too. That's the part we don't hear.
We hear that Esau hath I hated. That's right. But Esau hated
God. He hated Him. He sold the birthright. It meant nothing to him. But our Lord loves righteousness.
Our King loves righteousness. And He couldn't love me unless
He makes me righteous. Unless He makes me unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
Because of who He is and what He's done, He's been anointed
with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Our Lord was not
a sad, morose person. You know, He would go out and
have communion and prayer with God all night long. You tell
me how you can be sad and spend all night with God. in prayer
and in communion. That's not possible. Our Lord rejoiced. He tells us
to rejoice, doesn't He? He doesn't tell us to do something.
He doesn't. He says rejoice. He was glad. He's glad to die for us. Jesus
Christ was really glad to die for us. He didn't say, well,
I'll do it. You know like we do when mom
and dad tell us to do something. If I don't do it, I'm going to
get in trouble. The wife wants you to do something.
It was honey-do. No, no. He was glad. He was glad
to step forth. He's glad to be the surety. He's
glad to be the lamb. He was glad, joyful to die for
me. If you love someone, I mean,
you really love someone, you'd be glad to take their place.
You'd be glad to do it. And he was. And he is. And all thy garments,
let me read it like this, and all thy offices, smell of myrrh,
aloes, and cassia. Men stink up the office. If you
leave them in there very long, they stink it up. Air freshener
was made for men. They stink up the office. But
all our Lord's offices, prophet, priest, and king, He makes them
smell good. They smell good. His fragrance is sweet to the
Father, sweet to the sinner, saved by His grace. Everything
about Jesus Christ smells good. It smells good. I'm not going to be able to get
through this song. out of the ivory palaces whereby
they made thee glad." You know, one time our Lord said, the Son
of Man has no place to lay His head. He became poor that we through
His poverty might be made rich. His dwelling below was poor,
but now, oh, paradise at the throne. In verses 9-11, he says here,
King's daughters were among thy honorable women. He's speaking
here in those verses. He tells us that we shall share
in His glory. Just to make this short. He tells
us we will share in His glory. What an honor to be the wife
of such a king. To be the wife of such a king. A righteous king, an honorable
king. and hearken, O daughter, and consider and climb thine
ear, and listen, forget also thine own people in thy father's
house." You know, when the Lord speaks, we are to listen intently.
We are to grab at every word. We should be up on the edge of
our seats when the Word of God is being read. God is speaking. God is speaking. And He tells
us here something to forget. Forget thine own people in thy
father's house. When two become one, you're not
running back home with mom and daddy. You forget your father's
house. It doesn't mean you don't remember
them as your parents. No. Here's what He's saying. He that loves father, mother,
sister, brother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Now our
Lord's not jealous of us loving each other as much as we love
Him, but not more. Our Lord desires us to love one
another as we love Him, just not more. Just not more. Now forget your father's house. Our Lord has no rivals. He will
not have our hearts and our affections divided. Remember Lot's wife. Don't ever forget her. When she
looked back, her heart... She didn't just look back to
see the smoke. Her heart looked back. Her heart
was aching to go back to that place. And notice here, and I'm going
to close, this is in verse 11, "...so shall the King greatly
desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him."
You know, in Isaiah 54, verse 5, it says, "...thy Maker is
thy Husband." He created His own bride. That's what's going
on right now. You know that? What's going on
right now is that He's creating His own bride. She's being put
together. And when that last member of
the body is put together, this will be over. This will be over. The best marriages
are those who wholeheartedly love each other. The best marriages
where the husband, he loves his wife. And listen, his wife admires
him. When you lose that admiration,
you got trouble. If we ever lose our admiration
of our King, we got trouble. The church recognizes her husband
as her Lord. And let me say this, Christ never
ceases to be our Lord in all our relationships. He's our Lord
first. He's our Lord and Savior. He's a just God and a Savior. In that order. In that order. And it says, worship Him. Worship
thou Him. Hebrews 1.6, let all the angels
of God worship Him. That's what we're here for, isn't
it? We're here to worship Him. Well, I'm going to go ahead and
close because I've got four more pages of notes. And one more
speaker. And I want to hear David. We have a King. I don't care what's going on
out there. I pray about it. There's that
word again, I don't care. Even though I don't like to use it,
I do. I use it a lot more than I want to. We have a King. We have a real,
living King. And He's the King of glory. And
He's our King. And He's the God King. Whose
throne is forever and ever and ever. Amen.