Willing in the day of thy power

Seeking the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 110. Psalm 110, and we'll read from our text, verse 3, specifically the first part of the verse. 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 dew of thy youth. Psalm 110, verse 3. Specifically, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. This psalm is a messianic psalm. It is pointing very clearly to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in several respects.

Our Lord quotes it and recorded in Matthew 22 and verse 42, the Lord asked the Pharisees when they were gathered together, saying, what think ye of Christ, whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. He saith unto them, how then doth David in spirit call him Lord? And this is where he is quoting Psalm 110. Saying the Lord said unto my Lord, that is Jehovah, said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? So there David in prophecy is speaking of Jehovah, that is saying unto Jesus his Lord, sit thou on my right hand.

And we read that no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. Of course, David, he viewed, understood what our Lord said concerning him and Abraham. Before Abraham was, I am. That the Lord was from everlasting, the eternal Son of God, but was to be David's son according to the flesh, born unto David's line.

And so this is what they couldn't fathom and couldn't understand, but it's a blessed thing if in the gospel we can, and we can understand the reconciling of this in this psalm that clearly points to the Trinity, it points to our Lord Jesus Christ, points to him that is truly God, and is truly man. So it is the Lord Jesus that is being spoken of here. Verse 2, the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength, that's our Lord Jesus Christ, out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Then we have in verse 4 another pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ, And this is in the time of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek we read of in Genesis, and how that he met Abraham as he came from the slaughter of the kings, delivering lot, and Abraham gave him tithes of all. But we don't read of Melchizedek, his father, his mother, his birth, he suddenly appears and he is mentioned here. So he's pointing the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So not having generation. We think of when our Lord was 12 and he stayed at Jerusalem and his parents sought him sorrowing And his mother said, wherefore have thou dealt thus with us? Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said, wist thee not that I must be about my father's business. Well, it's not his father Joseph he was speaking of, but his heavenly father. And so his lineage in that way cannot be traced. It is from above, though we have the kingship line traced in Matthew.

So the Apostle in Hebrews, Hebrews 7, he introduces at the end of Hebrews 6, the type of Melchizedek, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made in high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek, and then in Hebrews 7, he goes through that order and that time.

It's a beautiful time, and the way, and what I like most about it, is it's making another one of these clear distinctions between law and gospel. With the law, the Mosaic law, there was the priests after the order, of Aaron. But in the gospel, in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is our high priest, and Paul makes the statement that if there is a change of priesthood, there is a change of law also.

And that is why we hold this in the gospel standard that God's people, those that are redeemed, those that are saved, are not under the law, they are under grace. And this is highlighted in the time of Melchizedek. It doesn't mean to say that we're lawless, we don't take any notice of the law, but we're not under its condemnation, and we're not under it in a slavish way. The Lord has made us, as we have in our text, willing people to serve the Lord, not by force, not by constraint, but in a willing way.

Now just an overview of the verse itself with our text, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, specifically thinking of the new birth and the soul being born again and quickened into eternal life, That is the day of God's power and they're made willing in that day. But it also goes on in the beauties of holiness. The new birth is a holy birth. It is all from above. And it is a beauty of holiness. And it's from the womb of the morning.

It doesn't grow in holiness. The work of God right from the beginning is a holy work and it's good for us to remember that when the lord begins he which hath begun a good work in you he doesn't begin first in an unholy way and then gradually builds up more holy and it's good principle for us as well if we are reaching out to the lost evangelizing We don't entice them with a softened gospel or the world's things and then slowly when they take the bait we introduce them to the solid truths of the gospel. The Lord begins holiness right at the start and it is a real mark of that work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not do anything but that which is holy and pure. And so right from the very beginning, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.

And it's a beautiful picture, as it were, when God works in his people, and he has the fruits of that. He has their praise, he has their strength, he has their praise, their labors. And that's a beautiful thing, where the Lord is reaping of that which he's wrought in his people, they return and give him the praise and honor, and also serve him, willingly serving him.

And so, overall, that is our view, the verse that is before us. Lord, he wanted to confine Our thoughts this morning to the first clause. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And so three thoughts. Firstly, thy people. And then secondly, an unwilling people. This is implied in the text. If they are to be willing in the day of God's power, then first they were unwilling. And then thirdly, the day of God's power. But firstly, thy people. God does have a people, has always had a people from everlasting eternally. He has a people loved with an everlasting love.

And yes, we might say he had a people of Israel, God's people that he formed from Abraham and then brought into Egypt and built them up to be a people and brought them then to the promised land. And it is a beautiful time when we view that because for us to just have the concept of God having a people, and just a people scattered through the world, it's hard for us to get our mind around that.

But when we see in the type of Israel as God's people, this people have I formed for myself, and we see God forming Israel as a nation for himself, And he brought them out of Egypt, out from the midst of another people, to be his people. And he gave them his laws, his commands, and to worship him in the way that he chose. And they stood out from all of the other nations of the earth. He says, you only have I known of all nations of the earth.

And it's good for us to have a picture of God's ancient people in that way, as a typical people, and then transfer it in a way of grace. God's spiritual people, Jew and Gentile, from every nation and from the beginning of time to the end of time, they're to be pictured as a people, one church, one blood-bought church, the Bride of Christ, and they are given God's laws away, they are made willing, they walk in his ways, he is their God. And we can get then a little picture of a real identity in the church, in the world, scattered but really the people of God.

Thy people, God's people, they belong to Him. They have laws. And Haman in the book of Esther highlighted this, that their laws are diverse from all other laws. Again and again throughout scripture, God's people stand separate from those in the world. The way He deals with them, the laws that they have, the way that they walk, and God's preservation over them. And so it's good for us to have this picture of God's people, a picture before time, where they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

They were the fathers, the Lord says in John 10, Thine they were, Thou gavest them me. And then a people that it was said of our Lord, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Not save the whole world, or not save an indistinct number, but save His people. And He says, I lay down my life for the sheep. He speaks of them as His sheep, His people, and identifying all the time with Him. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given me out of the world.

And the Apostle Paul, he says that ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His, belonging to the law. So when we have in our text, thy people, it is speaking of the people of the Lord, the people that's chosen before the world shall be the same ones that are pictured in Revelation as an innumerable multitude, which are in heaven from every nation, kindred, and tongue. But through this world, we do not know who God's people are, except in the way that he describes them as reacting to his work and to his word. And specifically in the text here, a way of knowing who are God's people, that they are made willing in the day of his power. We could put that in another way here and say God's people, thy people are known by their willingness when the power is given to them. They know the difference of being unwilling and then to be made willing and it is attributed to the power of God. Rather than seeking to know God's people without any evidence or without any mark, the scripture gives us the mark of God's people.

And there are many different texts, of course, in John 10, my sheep, they hear my voice, there's another mark. We have in John Epistles, we know that we have passed from death unto life, Because we love the brethren, there's another mark. In each one of those, you could have a sermon on its own. But they are showing, from different ways and different aspects, what is unique to God's people, and what marks them out as God's people.

And it is for our faith, for the comfort of God's people, to know whose they are, by the description that is given in the word of them. And it is not man deciding what marks them out, it's God deciding and God setting it forth. And it is evidenced right through the scripture how this is shown in the lives of the people of God. shall be willing in the day of thy power may be a desire lord and prayer lord that i might be amongst thy people that i might be thy people not just be with them but actually be them and also that we might be given these marks and eyes to see it hard to perceive and to realize whose we are and whom we serve and the lord would bear witness to what he has actually done and marked in our lives he knows his people we read in ephesians the kingdom of god stand ashore having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And it's a blessing then when those that are his know that they are his in a scriptural way, not in an unscriptural way. There's many that will point to many unscriptural ways And knowing whether we are the Lord's or not, we want to keep to the Word of God and what it says. And faith, it cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And the Lord will always honor that which he has written. Thy people. But secondly, I want to look at this as an unwilling people. Where the Lord finds his people, before they are made willing, they will realize, only looking back over their lives, will realize that they were unwilling.

We have been formed with a free will man had a free will at the fall and he used it to willfully disobey god side with satan and in so doing brought condemnation on himself and on the whole of the human race man still has a free will we are not automatons.

We're not just programmed to do things as if we had no feeling, no will in the matter at all. But in the Fall, our will is perverted, it is turned aside, It is corrupted, it is incapable of choosing that which is right. And especially in the things of God, it is part of the judgment of God, that man has given much wisdom in earthly things, natural things, but in spiritual things, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And the will must be form of things that are heard and of which we are instructed and directed in. But if we are in a natural state, we are so dead and so hard, we cannot even know the Lord's will.

If we are willing, we need to know what the Lord's will is to walk in that way and so by nature man's whole language as well is depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways we don't want to hear about the things of God we're not willing to Even spend time listening, and we see that round about us. You've only got to try to speak to people about the things of God or bring the word of God. Often there's not even a willingness to read it, to even hear. They do not want to hear. And that is how we are by nature.

And Paul speaks of these things when he writes to the Romans, in Romans chapter 10, he says even of Israel and using Israel as a type again, the last two verses of Romans 10, he says, but Esaias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith all day long, I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people, people that, as in Psalm 78, verse 10, refuse to walk in his law. Those are spoken of in the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 28, where we read of the Lord dealing with his people and they first refusing to hear and he says in verse 12 to whom he said this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing yet they would not hear and this is really the the one mark that characterizes an unwilling people, that right at the start, they will not hear.

And if they do hear, they will not obey. Jeremiah, several times through his prophecy, and speaking of the people, especially at his day, they would not hear. He warned, he told the law of God, but They clave to their idols, they went to their own ways, and they would not hear Him at all.

Now He proved this in a natural man before being called by grace. There is not that hearing ear, there's not a willingness, and sometimes there's a very, very clear obstinate hatred to the things of God and the ways of God, not at all willing to be amongst the Lord's people, to be subject to God's laws, to obey his laws, or to be with his people at all. And yet, even when we are called by grace, the same principles apply, the same need of God's power to make us willing Means are used, we sung of that, using rightly means. And you see the picture of our Lord washing the disciples' feet.

Now Peter loved his Lord, but when he went to wash his feet, Peter said, never wash my feet. He was not willing that the Lord should do it at all. And the Lord said to him, if I wash thee not, thou is no part with me. and immediately changed his will. Then he wanted every part washed, not just his feet.

And through the word that the Lord spoke, it changed that unwillingness in allowing the Lord to do this, or to be submissive to what the Lord wanted him to do, to be made then willing. And There are many times in our lives that we need the same. We start off unwilling, but through the Lord's instructions, through his teaching, maybe through providence, through things that come in our lives, he changes that to make us then willing. And many things that we are tied to, either habits or sins and things that we love, things that are not good for our souls, we know that we should give them up, but we don't give them up until we are made willing.

I often think of the case with my allotment that I had and how I loved that and liked to spend time there, but my conscience said over a couple of years, this is not good. It's not using time rightly. It's also burdening on a Saturday evening, especially in harvest time when you should be and your wife should be preparing for the Lord's Day. You're bringing in all of the harvest to be got done because it will have gone off by the Monday.

And I resisted. I was not willing to give it up. So the Lord dealt with it. and preparing the ground for the next year, the streamer sent a stone straight over a long distance hedge and smashed the window of the conservatory of one of the neighboring properties. And so I went over, apologized, and then went straight down to the council and cancelled the allotment.

And the remarkable thing with that time We just had our collections here for the anniversary services. And the Lord had given 200 pounds extra than normal. And I'd said to my wife, well, that might be good for a holiday or something. But within a few days, that 200 pounds was for that broken window. The Lord didn't even require me to pay for it myself.

He gave me the money first to pay for it. and he the rod and who hath appointed him we don't forget those times where the lord has changed an unwillingness that perhaps has gone on two years and in a moment he's changed it and made her willing to do exactly what he wanted that showed such mercy in it as well such kindness in it And we find this in many, many aspects in our lives, where we hold on to things.

We know things are not right. We have a still small voice, but we don't listen to it. And it comes down to this, we are not willing. But instead of bringing the law, instead of bringing the rod, we have a beautiful text like this. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. This is not to give license to refuse to walk and say, Lord, if you want me to do this, then you've got to make me willing. But this is such a help to those who want to be willing, but find they cannot, find the opposition. And there is the comfort what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. God can do, and God does do. And when you have that, then you have a real token. It was the Lord that did that. It was the Lord that changed my heart, that renewed my will, that turned my feet to Zion's hill.

And I don't even have to go right back to conversion every time. I find it right through my life in so many different things. I need to be made willing. Simple things, things that are temporal things. Another thing comes to mind, years ago when I had my first car, had it for eight years.

Spent a lot of time, a lot of money on it. I was brought to sell it, to trade it in. And after I'd done it, I really regretted it. And I bitterly, I wanted to get it back. I was determined I was going to go back to the auction rooms. I was going to buy my car back. And I was in such a state, I couldn't pray, didn't know what to do. I thought, this is no good. And so I opened my Bible, and I looked down, and the first words I read was the time to get, the time to keep, the time to cast away. And it just stopped it like that. That car stayed where it was.

And it's good when you have those things where the Lord does those things that has changed the will and changed the course of your life. They're tangible things that you say, if the Lord hadn't changed me, I would have done something completely different. He turned me and made me willing to follow and to do what he'd have me to do.

When I was called by grace as well, giving up the choir, again it was something I held on to, held on to, didn't want to, and in the end I had to. And it was not The things that we were seeing, the way that we were seeing, especially the things of God, it wasn't edifying. I had to part. And yet again, that took a long time before made willing. And you may have those things as well. You might say this morning, there is this, there is that, but I'm unwilling. I can't see a way. I'm just not able to do it.

And may there now minds go to this word to be really encouraged to make it a real matter of prayer, tend to the means of grace and bring it before the Lord again and again, asking for his power and that we might be made willing and to do what he'd have us to do.

There's something so beautiful about shall be willing. It's not forced. It's not pressured. It's not doing it because we think if we don't we're going to have judgment or hellfire or the rod. It is doing it because the Lord has made us willing and to love to do it.

How would we think of if the love that was shown us by any of our loved ones, if we thought that was not free will love, if we thought it was just forced, they're only showing love because they could get money out of us, or they hope to get an inheritance, or we pressured them in some way. There'd be no thinking well this is a lovely thing there's there's showing this love but when when a child or a loved one just freely shows that love or does things that evidences that love that makes it so much difference when you realize that is freely coming from them without any constraint and that's what the lord does with his people brings from them that which is free He has wrought it in their hearts and it freely comes out.

I want to look then at the day of God's power. The day of God's power. I want to look at several other days first. You think of creation. And when we say the day, it's not a literal day, what we are saying as one day, creation was over six days, but it's like a gospel day, or a specific time that is being spoken of. And certainly the creation, over the six days of creation, the power that brought This world into existence, the sun, the moon, the stars, we can hardly comprehend that power that was put forth. But this doesn't apply with our text, does it? It is not speaking about thy people. Yes, we are formed by the power of God, but thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

If we go to when the Lord destroyed the world with the flood, again, what a power to break up the fountains of the great deep, to send the waters to flood the earth. But in one time in that, you do get a little picture of those willing, Noah and his family, willing in the day of God's power God's power on one hand put forth when the flood came, but 120 years before and throughout those 120 years, there is no one willing to build the ark, to be the ridicule of all of those around, willing to do the Lord's bidding with no sign of water, no sign of judgment.

It's a picture of today, isn't it? Those that are warned of what our Lord says, as in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. If we are preparing, as it were, an ark, seeking the Lord, seeking that hiding place, that refuge, when his judgment come, we're like Noah. And Noah was made willing to do so.

What a miracle, really, to be willing to do all that work. numbered amongst those with faith, and by faith he formed an ark to the saving of his house. So we have a little picture there of God's power in destruction, but God's power also in his people making them willing.

Then we have Calvary, the day of God's power. You might say, but those wicked men, that was Satan's hour. The Lord himself said, this is your hour, and the power of darkness. But Peter is very clear that he was delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. Our Lord was very clear, no man taketh my life from me, I lay it down in myself. And that power of God that was put forth to raise the Lord from the dead, an empty tomb, How easy it is for us to overlook that power.

There's coming a day when that power shall be put forth. Christ was the first fruits from the dead. But one day, every one of his people, those people that are spoken of here, they shall be raised from the dead, those that have died in Christ. Those who are alive, they shall be changed in a moment, twinkling of an eye. and that mighty power be brought forth to bring them to God and given a new body, a perfect body. But at Calvary, that power was first put forth to bring again from the dead that had never ever happened before, a man, a real man, the God-man, yes, but made of the seed of Abraham, actually rose from the dead.

How easy it is for us to overlook what that meant. Right from the time that the curse was put forth in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. No soul, no one had risen from the dead to an endless life. But now Christ has. But even then, this word of our text, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. The Lord was willing. But there comes another day that is so clearly then spoken of. And that begins at Pentecost. And it is the day when souls are quickened into life.

The disciples were told to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. And Peter, when he preached, and the power of God was first evident in the clove and tongues of fire and in the miracle of speaking in other languages in an intelligible interpretable way, so that those of other nations could understand what was spoken, and what was spoken was the wonderful works of God. But when Peter preached, there was 3,000 there, that were made willing to repent, willing to acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, and they were willing to be baptized, They were willing to continue with the apostles. A great miracle there, in the day of God's power, that the Lord had said, wait, wait at Jerusalem until this happens. And then when they went forth preaching, We read with the Thessalonians that the word they received was not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

He became followers of the Lord and of us, and to wait for his Son from heaven. The word had had an effect, and it had made them willing. And this is what is set forth here, especially in a call by grace. willing to hear the word, willing to learn. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy children. The power of God to open the ear, mine ear hast thou opened, to give new life, fresh life, and then to be willing to Submit to that Word. Submit to the ordinance of baptism. Submit to the Lord's directions and guidance, to follow Him, to obey Him, and to be with the people of God.

How many things could we look at in the life of God's people, or more particularly in our life, and you say, the Lord has made me willing to do. And that willingness has come as God's work that He's wrought when He has begun with me. It has had this one aspect. There's been a willingness.

Remember when the Lord first began with me, I was fighting against the Lord. I didn't want to go to the house of God. I didn't read my Bible, didn't want to read my Bible, but when the Lord began and made me convicted as a sinner, then I wanted to walk in his ways. I wanted to go to the house of God. You couldn't stop me from doing it. I wanted to read the Bible myself. That willingness was a thing that came as it were immediately. It changed what I willed to do, what I wanted to do.

We think of those in the world, we think of Naomi with her daughter-in-law Ruth, willing to go away from her own people, to cleave to her people, to Naomi, to her God, to her people. We think of the Apostle Paul, hailing men and women to prison, hating the Lord Jesus Christ, but after that Damascus Road, willing, willing to preach, willing to suffer for his name's sake, willing to be with that people, what a difference in his will in those two, two ways. Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians that the preaching of the cross to them that perish it is foolishness, but to Us that believe it is the power of God unto salvation.

Our faith is to stand not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And this is one of the ways that the power of God is shown and evidenced. And we need to be clear on this. We think of in Peter, We didn't read that portion, but it speaks of the Lord's people that are kept by the power of God. But it doesn't just stop there, leaving us to think, well, how does the power of God keep God's people? It is the power of God through faith unto salvation. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So the Lord uses those means, but we look beyond it to the power, power that ordains the means, and power that causes that soul to hear the word, to obey the Lord, to be willing to obey, and to do what they otherwise would not have done.

Often we think, well, the power of God is hidden. It is not evident. If we were to see a great big lorry outside and maybe pulling something up the hill or doing something, you think, what a display of power. And sometimes we're used to thinking, well, you want to see that power. You can see it when you see the Lord dividing the Red Sea and bringing them through.

But to see the Lord's power in changing a heart, converting, a work of grace which is really the greatest work that ever can be done on this earth. I never minimize God's work in calling the sinner, bringing them from spiritual death to spiritual life. How is that power evidence, one way of its evidence in this willing?

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now, what if this word, sometimes I like to do this with texts, to leave out some of the words of the text and see how it reads. Thy people shall be willing in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. What if we were to leave out in the day of thy power?

And leave us just to think, well, we need to make ourselves willing. Or if we are willing, to see how is there a link between our willingness and God? How do we know that our willingness is brought about by God's power? But when we have, in the inspired word, in the day of thy power, and have a persuasion that before I was not willing, but now I am, then we get a picture of who has wrought it. What has made that change and that difference? Who has? And it leads us to the power of God.

You know, when Elijah went to Horeb, and the Lord passed by, and there was a great fire, and then an earthquake, and then wind, but we read the Lord was not in them. And then a still, small voice. And Elijah, he goes, he wraps his face in a mantle, goes out to the mouth of the cave where he'd been sheltering, and he hears his voice. What doest thou hear, Elijah? The Lord spoke to him, a still small voice. That's how the Lord exerts his power with his people. His voice is heard, but in not great demonstration of things, but a still small voice, and it has a real effect on them. real help to them, they recognize it, they hear it, and it makes them willing.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I hope it is this morning that this word will be an encouragement to look to the Lord to give us that power to be willing to do what he requires, but also it might be To show us what he has already done. Where he has already given us a will.

Already that effect has taken place. And to show why it has, and who has done it. And it's leading to identify us with the people of God. Showing whose we are. and who has wrought this in our souls. This beautiful psalm is pointing to Christ and Christ's people are right in it. They're where he is. And surely that is our desire as our Lord's was. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. May the Lord bless this word. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Amen.

Willing in the day of thy power

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Willing in the day of thy power

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About Rowland Wheatley

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