There was a time when out in
sin I wandered Completely blind to pleasing self I told But wrapped
in sin I never saw my need Precious blood to cleanse and save thy
soul Precious blood poured out upon the altar Offered there
to make this sinner whole O Beloved, He has a Calvary given
A precious blood to cleanse and save my soul Then came the truth, like a pointed
arrow, like it lived all on Damascus Road. The precious blood to cleanse
and save my soul. I cry, no, I don't deserve thy
mercies I'm not worthy of the scars in your hands Just love to cleanse and save
my soul. Precious blood poured out upon
the altar, Offered there to take this sinner home. Oh, the love He has in Calvary, precious blood to cleanse and
save my soul. Now I'm justified in Christ Jesus. To be more like Him now is my
goal. His precious blood poured out
upon the altar Offered there to make this sacrifice Oh, the love He has at Calvary
given A precious blood to cleanse and save my soul A precious blood
to cleanse and save my soul That song was written by Brother
Ed Hale, the man who wrote Ransom Was Found, Scars in Heaven, Oh
How Merciful, and so forth. I believe that old man knew the
gospel, didn't he? Turn with me now to Psalm 110. I hope you have a Bible. We will
be going through verse by verse. Psalm 110. If you do not have
one, please listen carefully while I read. It's not my desire
to preach or tell you anything except according to the Scripture. All right? Psalm 110. look at verse three with me. It's on 110, verse three, which
is our text and title. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And this message was born out
of a phone conversation with a member of a local religious
organization. And in the course of over almost
a forty-minute phone conversation with this person, we talked about
the Scriptures. I talked about the Scriptures.
She said mostly what she thought. about them. But we talked about
the gospel, and I quoted this person several verses of Scripture,
one of which I just read to you. And after hanging up, I rethought everything that we
had said in the course of that conversation. Because really
and truthfully, I didn't want to tell her a lie. I didn't want
to tell her any untruth. And I wanted to be true to God's
Word. And I began to rethink our conversation. I hope she did. I hope she did
the same. But the last verse of Scripture
I quoted to her was this one here. And I turned over here
to Psalm 110 and began to look at that verse of Scripture. It's
one which we quote quite often here, or at least the first part
of it. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Who is this talking about? Who
are these people? What are they willing about?
What is this will of these people? What is this power? By whose
power are they willing? Now, we've got to start. Now,
that was verse three of Psalm 110, right? We've got to start
where the Scripture starts. You see, religion today starts
with man. Everything, most everything in
religion today is geared toward and appealing to and starts with
man. Man, you must this, you must
that, you must decide, you must choose, you must accept, won't
you let him, won't you do this, won't you, won't you, won't you,
won't you. The Bible doesn't start with man. Neither does
salvation and neither does our text. Everything starts with
God, right? Look at Psalm 110 verse 1 with
me. The Lord said, everything starts with God. In the beginning, God. And that's what the beginning
of this Psalm starts with. And I might add, that's how the
end of the book reads. God. In the beginning, God. The Lord said. Now turn over
there with me to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God. And it
says in our text, the Lord said. The Lord said. The Lord God or
Jehovah God said. Now in the matter of history,
You don't begin with time, even. You're going to study history?
You better study His story, God. You don't begin with time. You
begin with God who was before time. If you're going to talk
about creation, which we're going to read of here in a moment,
you don't start with creation. You start with the Creator, right? If you're going to study anthropology,
or which is a study of man, you don't even begin with man. You
begin with the God who created man in his own image. If you're going to begin, if
you're going to talk about salvation, or a big word is soteriology,
the study of salvation, you don't begin with the object of salvation. You begin with the one who does
the saving. You begin with the one whose
mind and purpose it all began. Because whatever is, is because
God is. Right? Whatever comes to pass
is because God brought it to pass. When all is said and done,
listen to me. When all is said and done, it's
because God hath said and done. Right? Not man. God. God. Look at Genesis 1, verse
3. And God said, let there be life.
Verse 6. And God said, let there be a
firmament. Verse 9. said, Let the waters under the
heaven be gathered together. Verse 11, And God said, Let the
earth bring forth grass. Verse 14, And God said, Let there
be lights. And verse 20, And God said, Let
the waters bring forth abundantly. Verse 24, And God said, Let the
earth bring forth living creatures. Verse 26, And God said, Behold,
I have given. Look at chapter two verse eighteen
and the Lord God say it is not good that man should be alone.
I will make. I've quoted that Latin phrase
many times here dictum factum dictum factum said the said the
dictum In fact, in the beginning, before time, in the council of
eternity, before there was a universe, God said something. God said something. All right? We've got to begin
with God. That's the way our text begins.
The Lord said. And over and over in the Scripture.
God said this, and this is what the summary of the account we
just read in Genesis 1. God said, I will create a universe,
and it was done. God said, I will put man in it,
and it was done. God said, that man will fall
and disobey me and fall into sin and bring his whole posterity
into sin and corruption. And it was done. God said, but
I will save some of those fallen creatures, some of those people. It's as good as done. And God said, in the course of
time, I will send my son, who is a very God like me, done. He came. And God said he will
fulfill all righteousness for these fallen people whom I have
chosen and bring them to me. Christ did, and it was done.
And God said, He will pay the price that their sins demand,
which is punishment, which is death, which is the shedding
of blood on behalf of My chosen people who are sinners. He did,
and it was done. And God said, He will rise from
the grave, and death has no hold upon Him. He will arise from
the grave, and He did. And God said, He will ascend
back to heaven. He did. And God said, He will
then sit down upon my right hand, and I will give him all power
in heaven and earth, and he will reign over the earth as King
of kings and Lord of lords. And he did, and he does. Dictum
factum. Said, done. And in our text here
it says, the Lord said, after all this was said and done, after
all is said and done, verse one in our text, the Lord said something
unto my Lord. Who is who? Who is my Lord? He's Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom God the Father hath made Lord. All right? The Lord said
unto my Lord, my sovereign ruler, the one whom I answer to now,
the one who rules over me now, my master. He said to my Lord,
you sit there at my right hand. Sit thou at my right hand. Now, any of you that are familiar
with the Old Testament scriptures knows that the high priest went
about all of his work in the sanctuary, offering sacrifices
many times, many times, but he never, what? He never sat down,
did he? There was always something to
be done. There was the morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice,
and the later sacrifice, and then the morning, then the evening,
and the morning, then the evening. He never sat down. His work was
never finished, right? Well, the Scriptures call Jesus
Christ, the Savior, the Messiah, the great high priest, who by
himself purged our sins. who, when he had offered one
sacrifice forever for sins, the Scripture says he did what? Sat
down at the right hand of God. One sacrifice. He made that one
sacrifice and he sat down because his work was done. Now, it's not that he has done
all he could do and now the rest was up to men. No, he did all
that could be done. He did all that could be done,
and sat down, and the Scripture says he's expecting God to make
his enemies his footstool. His footstool. He sat down at
the right hand of God, which is the place of authority, the
place of power. Do you know that God is right-handed? He does all things by his right
hand. You know who is the right hand
of God? Who is at the right hand of God? The right hand of His
power? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. For
of Him and through Him and by Him and to Him are all things. He is the Lord God. God is right-handed. He does all things in and through
the Christ who is at His right hand. And He said unto him, Sit
down. He said unto his son, after he
came, I said all of these things that God purposed. Are you with
me? All of these things that God
purposed to take place in time, done. Done. And after Christ arose from the
grave, God said, sit down. Sit down. Like that high priest,
his work was done. And in another sense, he said,
sit down. Christ is not pacing back and
forth in heaven, worried about who might and who might not believe
or accept him, so to speak. Christ is not leaning over, as
one old preacher said, the banisters of heaven, hoping you will let
him or you will do this or you will do that. Brother Henry,
it says here that he is seated, right? Do you ever sit down before
you're through with what? Let me ask somebody else. I come in the station sometimes,
you are seated, but that's because he's begun a long time before
I got there. But we're not going to finish
what we've done if we're seated, right? and you'll not sit down
satisfied until you've got it all done. Christ the Lord is
seated, established, settled. He's relaxing. As one preacher said, he's in
regal and royal repose. He's got his feet propped up,
He's not wringing his hands, looking down. He's not weeping.
The song says, Jesus weeps and loves us still. He ain't weeping. He's smiling. And he's got his arms folded
and his feet propped up. And do you know who's under his
feet? Some people. He's the victorious king. The
song says, victorious Lord and Savior. He's not waiting for
anybody to do anything. He's not hoping anything. He's
not worried about anything. This scripture said he's expecting
to his enemies be made his footstool. Who's going to do that? God said,
dictum factum. Said, done. Good as done. And Christ, who knows the Father
and his perfect in his knowledge. Not worried about a thing. Expect
it. Till his enemies be made his
footstool. Why? Why? Verse 1. Look at it. Because
God said, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Because God said, Your enemies
will be under your feet. Paul said this. You read it with
me over there in 1 Corinthians 16. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. You know what it said? Let him
be. If any man love not or know not, believe not, bow to, trust,
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, this sovereign Lord, A lot of
people love a Jesus, you know, that can't do anything, who's
all love. But if any man loved not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha, dictum,
factum. They will be. It was said, and
it will be done. Right? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ conquered sin on the cross. He put it away. He paid for it,
because the Lord Jesus Christ conquered death. It was not possible
that he should be holding of it. He arose from it. He couldn't
be held back. He gave up his life. He said,
no man takes my life from me, and no man keeps it from me.
And so one day he just bowed his head and gave up the ghost,
and one day he just up and took up the ghost and came back. He's
Lord, the Lord of life. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
conquered all the forces of evil. Now you listen to me very carefully,
okay? Satan is not co-equal with God. Satan is not over here fighting
against you and God over here fighting for you, helping you.
Satan's on a chain. Read the book of Jude sometime.
Satan is on a chain. He's reserved in chains of darkness. He's reserved in chains of darkness,
and he has to report to God just like everybody else does. Read
the book of Job sometime. Satan has to report to God like
everybody else. He's not co-equal with the Father.
There's one God. One God. Satan is a little pawn,
a little pawn in God's service. You know that? Like it or not,
believe it or not, it's so. There's one God. One God. He said, see now, I am God. There's no God with me. Satan's
not with me here, co-equal with me. I'm God. There's none else. He's conquered all the forces
of evil. And Christ did that, in effect,
on the cross. He bound all the forces of evil. All the forces of evil. And he
conquered a people. Jesus Christ on the cross conquered
a people by what he did on that cross, and that's what we're
going to dwell on here, and that's our text. Look at verse 2 with
me. He does this by his royal rod. Verse 2, it says, The Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. The rod of thy strength. What's that talking about? If
you say what, you don't know what it's talking about. It's
talking about who. The rod is not a what, it's a
who. Look over at Isaiah chapter eleven with me. Isaiah chapter
eleven. The Lord Jehovah, God, shall
send thee rod of his strength. out of Zion. Like all kings, God has a scepter. Have you ever seen these old
movies or stories? King Arthur or whoever it may
be, they have a scepter. Generally, it's a long thing
with a little ball on the end of it or whatever. And by these
scepters, they rule with. They rule their kingdom. They
say, so it is written, so let it be done. They rule with it. They take this scepter. Generally,
they have their arms folded in the scepter in their right hand.
And when a decision is to be made, they decide with it. He
thinks about it, and he says, So it is written, so let it be
done. And he blesses with it. A man
or woman comes into this sovereign king, even an earthly king, and
the king says, Thou shalt no more be this, but thou art that.
I will give unto thee the half of my kingdom. Or he curses with
it, bind him hand and foot, and cast him out of my presence.
Or he deigns or doves with it, thou art this day sir this or
sir that." Right? Well, the Lord God has a rod
too. Look at verse one of Isaiah chapter
eleven. And there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots." See, it's not talking about a thing, is it? It's talking
about a person. This rod is a person. Look at
verse 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him without measure, full in him. the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him
of quick understanding," or give him quickening power, "...in
the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears, but with righteousness." Are you watching that with me?
First of all, with righteousness. shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of
his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be his
girdle." Righteousness his girdle? And there's a verse over in Hebrews
that said, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom.
Who is this talking about? Who is this rod of Jesse? Huh? Do you know? If any man doesn't
know, he's unsaved. Who is this rod of God's strength?
Who is this one by whom God blesses, by whom God curses, by whom God
dubs saved, accepted? Who is this one by whose knowledge
we shall be justified? Who is this one? It behooves
us to know. The rod. Do you know what the
rod is? Well, look at verse 10. In that
day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people, a banner, a sign, and to it shall the Gentiles
seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Verse 11. And it shall come to
pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand the second
time to recover the remnant of his people. Do you know who that's
talking about? Look over with me at Acts chapter
seventeen. Acts chapter seventeen. The rod
by whom God rules everything. He rules you. He rules me with
this rod. Acts 17. He blesses, he curses,
he dubs, he deigns, he ordains all things by this rod. Acts
17. God, the Scripture says, hath
made the same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord—incidentally,
the word rod is found in that name, isn't it?—the Lord over
all, both Lord and Christ. And there's a verse in Isaiah
45, verse 25 that says this, the Lord has sworn and will not
repent. He has sworn and it's come out
of his mouth. The Lord has sworn, remember,
dictum, factum, said, done. The Lord has said, the Lord has
sworn by himself, when he could swear by no greater, he swore
by his own name. The Lord has sworn by himself,
the word has gone out of his mouth in righteousness, that
unto him, unto Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that he is Lord, the rod of God's strength. Now some men ignorantly,
or some men and women, they're ignorant of this. Like I said
a while ago, they're talking about some Jesus. Jesus loves
me, this I know. How do you know? Well, the Bible
tells me so. Where does it say that? That
God loves all men without exception. John 3, 16? What about the rest
of the passages that talk about the world? God so loved every
single individual that ever lived. John said, we are of God and
the whole world lies in wickedness. What about those people? What
about his thoughts? God said he hated Esau. Must
not mean everybody, then, must it? What about when it says God
hates all workers of iniquity? Huh? Some people are ignorant. They're talking about a Jesus,
talking about a God who loves everybody, but they're without
excuse. Romans 1 says they're without
excuse. His eternal power and Godhead
is to be known, right? Not only in creation, but in
this book. Rick, do you believe a man can
read this book and if he's honest before God Almighty that he'll
see who God is? Very well. If he's honest before
God Almighty, any man that picks this book up and says, God, you
show me what this book is saying about you, he'll find out. He'll
find out that God is God and that man is a peanut. And in
his hands to do with him to turn him whither so ever he will.
The man is honest before God Almighty and looks in this book.
He's without excuse. Without excuse. Look at Acts
17, verse 30. Now the times of this ignorance
God winked at. Why is that? Everybody didn't
have the book. You see that, verse 30? Everybody
didn't have a book. It's the reason people are more
accountable to God now than they were back then. We're accountable
for the light we have. We're more accountable for the
light you have. The more light you have, the more accountable
you are. The greater will be your damnation. Didn't Christ
say that about certain cities? Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Best
say that. Didn't He? If the works had been
done in Solomon and Gomorrah, they'd have been done in you,
they'd have repented in sackcloth and ashes. He said it'd be more
tolerable for them in the judgment than for you. It'll be more tolerable
for the people here in this congregation right now than the people in
another congregation in the judgment. Because we have more life. I
mean, it'd be more tolerable for them than it will be for
us because we have more life. It'd be more tolerable for the
Africans in the jungle who do not have the gospel like this
nation does, Dan, right? The United States of America
would be more tolerable in the judgment for the Africans in
the jungle and the Mexicans down in the Pueblos than it will be
for the United States of America, because we have the gospel. We
have the gospel. And at those times it says God
winked at, but now God commendeth, not invites. Do you read anywhere
in this book, John, where it says God invites you to do anything?
Huh? It's not in there. It doesn't
say anywhere, God asked you, God wants you, won't you let
God accept God, do this, please, God wants to. It doesn't say
that anywhere in this Bible. It says this right here, though.
Are you reading Acts 17, 30 with me? It says this, God commanded
all men everywhere to do what? Accept Jesus as their personal
Savior, make Him Lord of their life. To repent. Repent. What does it mean to
repent? If you've ever repented, it's to bow. To get on your face
in the dust before a holy, sovereign God and say, if you give me,
David did it, didn't he? Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil on thy side. That you might be clear
when you judge. And just when you judge me. Man's
never repented until he says, God, you'll be just if you damn
me. A man has never repented until
he's repented of his sin, S-I-N, what he is, not what he's done.
What he's done is a product of what he is, what I am. Didn't that publican in the temple
say, God be merciful to me, the sinner? Didn't Paul say, I am
the chief? what I am, the sin that's within
me, this principle within me. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, to bow before his holy presence, to beg him for
mercy. I don't see this anywhere in
the Billy Graham crusades, the Jimmy Swagger, the whatever.
Keep naming them. I don't see them telling men,
God's holy, God's on the throne, you've offended an angry God.
Repent! Well, I don't see him saying
what John the Baptist came preaching. Repeat, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. I don't see him or hear him saying
what the Lord Jesus Christ himself came saying, did he? Christ came
preaching. Repeat, didn't he? Why? Because they say God's all
love. Jesus died for everybody. What's
there to repent of, John? Repentance is out of the question.
It's not even in the picture. Sin is not even talked about. God commandeth men everywhere
now to repent. Verse 31, Because he hath appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man. whom he hath ordained. He will judge the world in righteousness. He appointed a day in which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Now turn back to our text, Psalm
110. A day. If you've got a concordance,
like I said before, you look up some day where it says, that
day, and in that day, in that day, in that day, over and over
again in the scriptures it says, and in that day, God has appointed
a day. that day, which he will judge
the world in righteousness." And our text says, God sent forth
the rod of his strength out of Zion to rule in the midst of
his enemies, and he ruled them. And it says, verse 3, God's people,
thy people, shall be willing in that day of his power. The day of his power. The day. Now, it said before
that God would have his enemies under his feet. All right? It says that his enemies, verse
one, would be made his footstool. And now, though, it says in verse
two, he will rule in the midst of his enemies, thy people. Do you know that we are all,
by nature, enemies of God Almighty? That's what it says in Colossians
1.27. And you who were sometimes enemies
by your wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh. Yet now. And God rules now in
the midst of his people who are at one time, and by nature, are
enemies. Right? You were an enemy. In
short, you didn't like what I was saying. You didn't like before
what I'm saying this morning, did you? You didn't believe that.
You believed the same thing that 999 out of 1000 people believe. That God's just all love, and
that Jesus just died for everybody, and now it's up to man to accept
him. Don't you? It didn't say that anywhere in
the Bible, but you believed it, didn't you? With all your heart.
And you'd fight a man that said anything about predestination,
election, sovereignty. You'd get mad, wouldn't you? But thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. There was a day when you contended
as strong as anybody out there for your own free will, didn't
you? Did you read that quote in our
bulletin this morning by John Trapp? The friends of free will
are the enemies of free grace. You know why? And you know people
in this, in our blasphemous generation, that's what they are, blasphemers
that believe it. You know why? They post on top of their building,
you've seen it, 13th Street, free will, Baptist Church. Some people in Iceland are looking
for the 13th Street Free Will Baptist Church, and every now
and then they mistake it for the 13th Street Baptist Church.
And they go in, sit down, and they find out eventually, that
name Free Will ain't on this church. I got the wrong place. Free Will. Can you imagine a
man putting instead of God's name in the front of the church,
God's redeeming, instead of God's will? You know, he does according
to his will in the armies of heaven, among the heavens and
the earth. Won't you say, God's will, Baptist church? Huh? Why don't people say that? No. Free will. It's like putting
on the very top of your steeple, like the tower of Babel. Why,
we'll build a tower to the heavens. We'll be gods. That's what Adam
said in the beginning, didn't he? God said, My will will be
done, Adam. I reign over you. I'm God here. You're my underling. Adam said,
No, you're not. I've got, and didn't Satan say
to him, You'll be God. You will. You've got a will. Who does God think he is exerting
his will over you? You've got a free will. And Adam
said, I do, don't I? All right, take this. There,
God! And men consequently do that,
the same thing today. Will! No, it's not. It's only
one free will in this universe. God's will. God's will. God's will. He said, My will
will be done. I purposed it. I will do it. God said, boast not thyself of
tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow.
I will. Tomorrow I will tear down my...
No, you won't, you fool. I'm going to kill you tonight. His will, man's will is subject
to his nature. The scripture says, can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Can a black man turn white? No
matter what he tries to do, he can't do it. He said, can a leopard
change its spots? No way. He said, neither can
you do good that are accustomed to doing evil. Neither can a
man who is evil by nature do good. There's none that doeth
good. No, not one. There is none righteous. Not one? No, not one. This is about as basic a message
as a man can hear. Man's will. will only do what
his nature lets him do. Horses eat grain. You could stick
the finest prime rib money can buy in front of a chuka, in front
of a horse, whatever your horse's name is. You can stick the finest
sirloin steak in front of a chicken and he won't eat it. It's not
in his nature. They eat grain. Now, you can
stick the finest loaf of freshly cooked bread in front of a lion,
and he won't touch it. He won't touch it. In Saran Wrap
or out of it, he won't touch it. It's not in his nature. You can tell a man, love God,
serve God, seek God, get to God, do good, and he can't do it. It's not in his nature. It's
not in his nature. His nature is to sin, to do what's
evil. OK? Adam had a free will. Adam's the only man who ever
lived who had a free will. What did he choose? Do we think
we've got a free will? What will we choose? What did
Adam? Adam was better than any man ever lived on the face of
the earth. What did he choose? He had a free will. What did
he choose? Evil. over God, and therefore now nobody
has a free will. But thank God, Psalm 110 verse
3 says this, there's a people that God has chosen, that God
has elected, who will be willing in the day of His power. All
right? In the day of God's power. What
is God's power? Romans 1, 16. What is the power
of God unto salvation? The gospel. What I'm preaching
this morning. In that day, when God sends the
Holy Spirit through the preaching of the messenger of a man to
preach this gospel unto one of God's elect, one of God's chosen,
they may have been sitting there all that time saying, I don't
like that. Yes, I do have a free will. I
don't like that. If it's the day of His power, if it's the
day of His Holy Spirit's reckoning day in power, He'll make you
willing. And it'll break the heart. Before
God's Word, you say, that's me, isn't it? Well, that Word just
revealed the very thoughts and intents of my heart. It revealed
what I was just thinking. You know, preacher, I was just
saying that to myself. How'd you know that? God said
it. And in that day, He'll say, you
will believe this, won't you? Won't you? Yes, I will. I will. They are made willing,
sovereignly constrained to bow to this holy, sovereign God,
repent of sin, self-righteousness, kiss the Son, believe Him, submit
to Him. And verse 3 says it will be in
the beauty of holiness. Their lives will be changed.
They'll desire holiness, and they'll do it in the beauties
of His holiness, His righteousness. That's what we looked at this
morning, wasn't it? and through his righteousness,
holiness, the Lord their righteousness. And like a good shepherd, he
says, the rod is his strength. Listen to this, and I'll hurry. Like a good shepherd that my
Lord is. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Every shepherd
has a staff, a rod, right? Christ is the rod of God. And
also, Christ, who is the shepherd, he has a rod. He has a rod that
he rules with, that he reigns with. And Peter said, this is
the gospel, this is the word of the gospel that we preach
unto you, the staff, the rod of God. And like I said, this
rod is what the good shepherd reigns his people in with. There's
a day when God's sheep hear this gospel and this rod gets them
around the neck. What's that verse Terry talks
about? We're drawn with cords of love. God puts a rope around
our neck. We put a rope around our neck.
Come before God as guilty, deserving to die, like those kings of old. But God gets this rod of the
gospel with a big hook on it. You ever seen those shepherds'
staffs with a shank on the end of it, crook on the end of it?
That's the gospel. And God, we're on a trail of
His sheep. That's what the gospel is, on
the trail of God's sheep. And the Holy Spirit, through
His power, reaches out and gets one of His sheep. Well, I hope it got you. I hope
this gospel is grappling you right around the neck, by the
throat. Better than that, by the heart. Gets you around the
neck and draws you in. And by that same rod, the gospel
trains them up. Ever seen a shepherd with his
sheep with his rod? Huh? Get over here. Get over
there. Sit down. Lie down. Get in there. That
rod, everything he does, he does with that rod, that staff. Trains
up, and he trains God's Word. And the rod I'm talking about
now is this right here. He trains his people up in the
Word. And a good shepherd, an under-shepherd,
doesn't read a verse and then close it and then get his handkerchief
out and start running around, screaming this and that and the
other. He's got the rod. He's using the rod, right? The rod, and God used this rod
to train them up, chasing them. When they get out of line, what
chases them? What chases them? You've got
two dogs standing, how do you deal with them if they get out
of line? You take a stick to them or something, don't you,
buddy? And God chases them. How? Right here. Right here. Chases them, corrects them, leads
them. And it says there in that same
Psalm 123, the Lord is my shepherd. It says His rod and His staff
does what? Somebody say it. Comforts me. Not only does it chasten me,
not only does it keep me in line and train me up, but it comforts
me, the rod of God. It comforts me, it protects me.
See, when the wolf comes along, and there's lots of them, they
gather around the sheep everywhere, they're everywhere. The wolf,
like that servant of Elijah, He said, it's hopeless. We're
outnumbered here. Elijah said, Lord, open up his
eyes that he may see. And he opened up his eyes, and
the man saw that David were with him, or more than David were
against him. And that's the only way you're
going to see, is through this. And God comforts us, enables us to
see a wolf smelling, protects us, defends us, the rod of his
strength. the rod of his strength. There's
courage, there's strength, there's peace, there's hope, there's
health, there's correction, there's doctrine, there's reproof, there's
instruction in righteousness, that a man of God may be truly
furnished, raised up, trained up in all that he needs, all
that he needs to make him wise unto salvation. Now let me read through these
verses real fast. He says, The Lord has sworn and
will not repent. Verse 4, Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. There's no doubt who this scripture
is talking about. No doubt. The Lord Jesus Christ. The whole passage. It says, He
from the womb of the morning, that is the eternal Son of God,
has the dew of youth. He has eternal life in Him. The
Lord has sworn, God the Father has sworn and will not repent,
saying, this is the high priest. Oh, Romish church, so-called,
today. There's only one foot that you
must kiss. There's only one priest to whom
you must confess. God has sworn. You see that?
Sworn. And will not repent. Thou art
a priest. The priest. The great high priest.
The one and only potentate. Forever after the order of Melchizedek,
having no beginning of days or end of days, the Lord at thy
right hand," this is Christ, "...shall strike through kings
in the day of his wrath." Christ is going to walk this earth again. He's going to walk this earth
again. And His feet are going to be
swimming in blood, not His own. His feet were bleeding before.
The next time He comes, He'll be walking in the blood of people. Is that right? Do you believe
that? That's what this book said. Verse six, He shall judge among
the heathen. He shall fill the places with
dead body. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. And Revelation 19 says that there's
going to be some people going to rise up and try to fight Him
when He comes. Can you imagine? And it says in verse seven, when
it's all done, he's going to drink up the brook in the way
and lift up the head. You know, there was a time when
he was on this earth the first time that he was thirsty as a
man. He was thirsty. And he asked
me, and he said, Really, John, he did it more to fulfill the
Scriptures, didn't he? He didn't ask. He just said,
I thirst. And they ran and got some vinegar
and put it on a sponge and stuck it in his mouth. And he wouldn't
drink it. He's coming back again. And it says after his conquests
are over, he's going to be a little bit thirsty. And he's going to
stoop down and drink a long, satisfied, victorious drought
from the ocean, if necessary. Satisfied. I was thirsty, and
you gave me not water to drink. I'll drink now. I'm the Lord. And he'll lift up his head, and
it's all said and done. Now, where are my enemies? Now,
he'll drop his hand down, and go back to glory. And that's
all she wrote. Dictum factum. I hope you are willing in the day of His power. I hope
it's His will to make you willing in the day of His power. All
right, stand with me and I'll dismiss that.