I've titled the message this
evening, The Subduer and the Subdued. This is a psalm of David,
but once again, like I try to look at every psalm as the verse,
as the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. These clearly are the
words of the Lord Jesus, who's the son of David. If you look
at the end of verse two, this is where I took my title from,
who subdueth my people under me. That is our Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior. All of his people are subdued
under him. He's got no rebellious children
who are fighting against him and he subdued all of his children. I want us to look at the subduer
the subdued first the description of the subduer the one who subdues
his people first of all the subduer he has to have the strength to
subdue and he does first one says blessed be the Lord my strength
now we know that our Lord has all strength all power he's the
Almighty that's his name the Almighty he has all might and
all power But what a mystery that as a man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he's a son of God, he has all power, yet he depended
on his father to strengthen him. He depended on his father to
enable him to do this mighty job that the father had given
him to do, to redeem his people, to make them righteous. We often
read in scripture how our Lord prayed to his father for strength
and for help. And he gave it to him to be able
to do the job And you know, you and I would be wise to follow
the example of our Savior. We are so weak, we don't have
any strength, none whatsoever. We have to ask for it, don't
we? We'd be wise to constantly be praying for strength to continue,
strength to believe, strength to continue looking to Him. Now
as God, our Lord Jesus, He had all power. He had power to obey
the law. He prayed and the Father gave
it to him. Power to obey the law. He had the power to please
his Father. No other human being ever did
that. Please the Father. He had the power to do absolutely
everything that the Father sent him to do. The word strength
here, blessed be the Lord my strength. The word means a rock. A great immovable rock. That's our Savior. He was immovable,
unmovable, however you're supposed to say that. He couldn't be moved.
He could not be moved away from his mission to redeem his people
from their sins. Just like Jacob, he worked those
seven years. He worked those extra seven years
for Rachel and they were just like nothing to him. He was unmovable
because he loved her. The Savior was unmovable in His
mission to redeem His people because He loved His people.
He was determined to have her. He loves His Father. He was determined
to honor His Father and do what the Father gave Him to do. Now
the Lord Jesus Christ, by His work, by His obedience, by His
sacrifice, He made a sinful people that the Father gave Him to save
righteous. He made a people who are nothing
but sin to be sinless. Now that's power. I mean, the
power that it takes to do that, to take a sinner and to make
them righteous. But you know, by nature, those
people are His sworn enemies. By nature, they hate God and
they hate God's Christ. They hate the way of salvation
by grace. They don't hate religion or religion
of worse, but they hate the way of salvation by God's grace alone.
They love their works. They love their filthy rags of
righteousness. Those rags that are defiled by
sin, that cannot cover their nakedness and their shame, but
they're so dead. Their nature is so dead and so
blind. They love them. They love their
own works, their rags of righteousness. And they're stiff-necked people.
They will never bow to Christ and beg him to save them. That's
our sin nature. Our sin nature is dead and it's
unmovable too. Thankfully Christ our Savior
was unmovable in his mission to redeem his people. But our
nature is unmovable as well. It will not bow. It will not. So thankfully our
Savior has the power to make his people willing. He makes
them willing to bow to him. David, another Psalm, he's the
one that told us, thy people shall be willing. When? When they make up their mind
to and they, you know, decide, oh, this is a good thing. No,
thy people shall be willing in the day of His power. When God
comes and He overpowers them. In the day the Savior comes to
His people, He comes in power. And there's none of this knocking
on the door, begging you to let Him in. He kicks the door in.
I mean, He just kicks it in. Just kicks it off the hinges.
And He comes in as the mighty, conquering Savior, never asking
permission, and sets up shop and rules and reigns forevermore. Because He's the King. He comes
in power to redeem His people. The Lord saves His people. against
their will, with their full consent. He saves them against the will
of their nature, but with the full consent of the new nature
that He gives them. In power, the Savior gives, He
overcomes His people, and He gives them a new nature, a nature
that's willing to bow, a nature that's willing to be saved on
God's terms, a nature that loves grace, that loves salvation by
grace. Oh, thank God, our Savior has
the power. He has the power to save and
the power to make us bow to Him. Neither would happen unless He
overpowered us. He has the power to save. He's
the subduer. Second, the subduer is the mighty
warrior. Verse 1, blessed be the Lord
my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to
fight. And when Christ came to save
His people, He entered into a battle. He came to this earth to battle. That's why David, Gideon, Joshua,
those men are good types of Christ because they were warriors. Warriors
who led an army. And that's what the son came
as, a warrior, a mighty conqueror. The father sent the son to come
to earth to go to war. To go to war against sin, to
go to war with Satan, and the father equipped him for the job.
Just like any good nation, any good king, you send men to war,
you equip them, don't you? Our soldiers, we send around
the world to defend our freedoms. They're equipped, I mean, they're
armed to the heel, to the teeth, aren't they? The father sent
his son, and he equipped him. He gave him every weapon he'd
ever need to defeat every enemy. He was fully armed. Part of the
meaning of this word, hands, where it says, it teaches my
hands to war. Part of that word, hands, means
consecrated. The father appointed, he consecrated
Christ to the battle, and he gave him the weapons to win it.
But now we got to remember this warfare. It's a spiritual warfare. It's not carnal. It's not fleshly. It's a spiritual warfare. This
war is for a spiritual kingdom. It's not for an earthly kingdom.
You know, we may as well quit trying to tie religion to government
because it's never going to work. You know why it's never going
to work? Our Lord didn't come set up an earthly kingdom. This
warfare is for a spiritual kingdom. That's why when he stood before
Pilate, our Savior did not fight Pilate. My kingdom's not of this
earth. If it was, he'd have had it,
wouldn't he? He'd have fought and he'd have had it. But it's
not an earthly kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
a spiritual warfare. And a spiritual warfare is a
completely different kind of war. You know, normally wars
are won by the victor living and the defeated dying, or more
of the defeated dying than the victor. That's how fleshly, carnal
wars are won. It's just a war of attrition
until you finally just wear them out, you know, they don't have
anybody left to fight. But the spiritual warfare that our Lord,
our Savior came to fight was won by the victor dying. by the victor dying as a substitute
for his people. The spiritual warfare against
sin was won when Christ our Savior died for sin and he put it away
forever. The spiritual warfare against
Satan, that warfare was won when the heel of the Savior was bruised. When he died, his heel was bruised
But when he died, as his heel was bruised, he crushed Satan's
head. Just like God promised Adam he
would. He crushed Satan's power to deceive God's people, to hold
them under the law, to keep them from believing Christ, to keep
them from looking to him and trusting him. Our Savior put
that power away so that his people do look to Christ. They do believe
him. They do come to him. Christ defeated death. In a way,
human beings, human logic never would have come up with. He defeated
death by dying so that his people would never die because his death
satisfied justice for them. See, that's the war that our
Savior fought and won. And here's how the father taught
the son's hands to war and his fingers to fight. And in the
interest of full disclosure, I've got to give credit where
credit is due to this. I didn't come up with this. I got this
from Greg Elmquist, but this will be a blessing to you. Here's
how the father taught the son's hands to war. When those Roman
soldiers laid the Lord Jesus down on that cross, getting ready
to nail His hands and His feet to the cross, the Savior gave
them His hands. How many victims to be crucified,
fought and did everything they could to keep that hand from
being nailed. Every single one of them. Those soldiers probably
got to be skilled at how to hold somebody's hand so you could
nail that to the cross. This was the only victim who
said, here, nail it there. He gave his hands to them. And
when he was crucified, when he was nailed to that bloody tree
and he was crucified, he suffered and died for his people, he won
the victory. He won. He purchased salvation
for all of his people with his precious blood, the blood that
he shed at Calvary's tree. He won the victory when he gave
his life, a ransom for his people so that they must go free. That's
how he won that battle, by giving his hands to them to crucify
him. You see, the Savior won the victory
by being subdued before his Father. He was subdued. He suffered willingly. He said, Father, if it could
be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as
I will, but as thou wilt. He was subdued. And that's how
the mighty conqueror won the victory over every enemy, over
sin, over Satan, over death, over hell. That's how he won
the victory. But you know, he's also the mighty
conqueror in the hearts of his people. See, he became the captain
of their salvation and all of his people are going to willingly
fall in line and follow him. God's people follow Christ, the
captain of our salvation, into battle. Now, it seems strange
that Christ defeated every enemy. He's already won the war, hasn't
He? But yet, we still have a battle to fight. And just like our Savior,
our battle is not a carnal, fleshly warfare. It's not like we're
going out here and trying to change the world around us and change
how it's run, change its morality and those kinds of things. It'd
be nice, but that's not our war. Our battle, the believer's battle,
is a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6, verse 12. For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. That's our battle. That's our battle. And this spiritual
wickedness in high places I guess that has something to do with
the world and things out there. I don't know about you. It seems like a losing battle
to go out and try to change the world. You know where my biggest
battle is? Spiritual wickedness in high places? In my heart.
That's the battle I fight constantly. Constantly. Just battling that
old man. Constantly. Just, I mean, with
everything he's got, warring against the new man, isn't he?
Trying to bring you back into captivity to the law. Trying
to get you to doubt. Trying to get you to doubt the
Savior. Trying to get you to doubt his love. Trying to get
you to doubt his blood. You just ask yourself, Can one
man's death really save me? Can one man's blood all those
years ago, can that really put my sin away? Just getting you
to doubt. Getting you to doubt. Constantly, isn't he? Constantly
he's whispering here, better keep some laws. Better keep some
laws. You know, it'll improve your situation. Oh yes, yes,
you need Christ, but now keep a few of these laws and it'll
pump you up a little bit. You know, get God to be happy
with you. Take note of you. It's a constant warfare, isn't
it? You know how to win that spiritual warfare with that old
man? It's by being subdued. We win
this spiritual battle with our sin nature by doing nothing.
Nothing but trust Christ. Nothing but trust Him. Nothing
but look to Him. We are more than conquerors in
Him. Not in what we do, not in the
strength of our faith and how much of a great Christian life
we live and what a great witness we live before people. No, sir.
If that's what we're trying to do, we'll be defeated every time.
We're more than conquerors in Him, in Him by trusting Christ
to do everything that it takes to save us and to keep us. All right, here's the third thing.
The subduer subdues his people in mercy. You know, normally
the conqueror subdues people by just crushing them, doesn't
he? Here, the subduer subdues his
people in mercy. Verse two says, my goodness,
my goodness. God is my goodness. This word
goodness in the original is mercy. And that's good. God's goodness
is his mercy to his people, isn't it? God's greatest goodness is
mercy to people that do not deserve it. And oh, how merciful, oh,
how merciful God is to his people. Mercy is God not giving us what
we deserve. And I don't know about you, but
I just think in this sinful flesh, we understand the concept of
mercy. We understand, yes, God's mercy
is rich, it's deep, but we can't fully grasp the depth, the riches
of God's mercy. You know why God gives mercy
to his people? You know why God does not give
his people what they deserve? Because he gave his son what
we deserve. He gave his son everything the
sin of his people deserves. All the wrath, the just untold
wrath of God that fell upon Christ, our substitute. Now that shows
us something of the depth of mercy that God has for his people.
You see, God never shows mercy at the expense of his justice.
God never glorifies one attribute of his at the expense of another
one. God is never merciful to somebody that doesn't deserve
it. Justice must be satisfied. When God is merciful to his people,
he makes it right for him to show mercy to them. God made
it right for him to be merciful to his sinful people by punishing
his son in our stead. Now that's mercy. I mean, just
let that sink in. Just think about that for a while
tonight. The mercy of God. In order for God to save you,
he had to kill his son. God is so rich in mercy, we'd
never calculate the value of it, or the depth of it, or the
riches of it. How can you put any value on
that? How can you put any value on God killing His Son to show
mercy to us? Now that ought to subdue us,
shouldn't it? Shouldn't that just make us bow?
Shouldn't that just break our hearts? What God did to His Son
to save the likes of you and me. That ought to subdue us at
his feet, shouldn't it? Christ put away the sin of his
people in goodness and mercy. And he subdues his people the
very same way, in goodness and mercy. It's not threats of God's wrath. It's not the threats of the law
that makes you repent, is it? It's the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance. It's goodness and mercy that
follows us all the days of our life. Surely, David said, surely,
certainly, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Subdued, subdued by God's mercy. All right, here's the fourth
thing. The subduer delivers and protects his people. Verse two
says, my goodness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer,
my shield, and he in whom I trust. Now Christ delivers his people.
You know how he delivers them? He delivers them by hiding them
in him. The Lord is the high tower for
his people. The high tower we hide safely
from every enemy. You know, it's very difficult
for an enemy to blast the enemy out of a well-defended position
up there on the mountain. The high ground is always the
best place to have in a battle. I remember that and we visited
the battlefield at Gettysburg, and there's little round top
and big round top. If you've never been there, you
already know which one you want. You want big round top, don't
you? You want the high ground. You can see them coming. You
can see the enemy coming. It's easier to pick them off.
You've got the high ground. Well, the believer's high ground
is Christ our Savior. And it's not just difficult for
the enemy to get to us when we're in our high ground. It's impossible. It's impossible, it's impossible
for anyone to pluck any of God's elect out of his hand. He's our
high ground, our high tower, and he's our deliverer. And our
deliverer teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight,
just like the Father taught him. And you know how he teaches our
hands to war, our fingers to fight? By running and hiding. running and hiding in Him. That's
the only way we can fight the spiritual battle. It's not by
our strength. It's not by our might, the strength
of the flesh. We're delivered in Christ by
hiding in Christ, by being subdued and hiding in Him, by resting,
resting in Christ who already won the battle. Christ our deliverer. delivers his people from every
enemy. And he does it by himself. He
delivers his people from death by dying for them. Second Corinthians
1.10 says this, who delivered us from so great a death and
doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.
He's delivered his people and he is delivering them. He delivered
them from death. Christ delivered his people from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for them.
Christ delivers his people from sin, from the power of sin, from
the condemnation of sin, by being made sin for them. Romans 4.25,
who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
That's how he delivered us. Christ delivers his people out
of the darkness of sin, out of the darkness of unbelief. Have you ever been in an unbelief?
And it's so dark. You can't see Christ. A preacher
tells you to look to Christ, but you can't see. It's so dark.
You can't see. You can't believe. It's so dark. That darkness is just holding
you in its grips. Christ delivers his people from
that darkness, the darkness of sin, the darkness of unbelief,
and brings them into faith in him. Colossians 1.13, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness. And he's translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. Took us from darkness to
light. Christ delivers his people from
the power of this world. The power of this world to get
you caught up in the way of this world, the way of the flesh,
the religion of this world. He delivers his people from this
world. And one day, thank God, he's
gonna deliver us from this world itself. Galatians 1 verse 4. who gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world. And
Christ the Deliverer delivers his people out of the trials,
out of the troubles, out of the heartache and sorrow that fill
this life. The believer soon finds out the
Lord was telling the truth when he said man's days are few, few,
they're short. They just pass like a post, like
a weaver's shuttle. and they're full of trouble.
You know what Peter said, 2 Peter 2 verse 9, the Lord knoweth how
to deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows and he will. So Christ,
he's our high ground. He's our deliverer and he's our
shield. The shield that protects from
every fiery dart, from every accusation that Satan or the
law may hurl at us, Christ is our shield. Christ is the shield
from every one of those charges. Because he is innocent, because
he's righteous and he is our righteousness. No accusation
can stick. No accusation can harm us. No
accusation can be hurled against us. And the judge will say that
accusation is true. Not if Christ is our righteousness
again. He's made his people not guilty. See, that's how he delivers
his people. That's how he shields his people
from every accusation of sin. It's Himself. It's who He is,
the person of our Redeemer. And it is the Holy Spirit is
the one who subdues God's elect. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. And you know how the Holy Spirit,
He moves in power. And you know how He subdues God's
people? By revealing Christ in them. Oh, if God ever would ever
show us Christ His glory, if He'd ever show us the redemptive
glory of Christ, that we would see that He, He is everything
we need. I don't need its and things,
I need Him. If God will ever show us His
glory and how much we need Him, I promise you this, we'll be
subdued, we'll be down in the dust at His feet, Saying, Lord,
what would you have me do? Who are you, Lord, that I might
believe you? Just like Saul of Tarsus. Saul
of Tarsus was somebody, wasn't he? He left Jerusalem on his
way to Damascus. He's somebody, wasn't he? By
the time he got to Damascus, he was subdued. He was on his
way to that synagogue to wreak havoc. By the time he got there,
that fella was subdued. And the only thing he had to
say is, Jesus is the very Christ. He's the son of God. How was
he subdued like that? All it took was the Holy Spirit
to reveal Christ to him. That's all it took. God will
subdue you and he'll subdue me. The same, very same way by revealing
Christ to us. And that's why we just keep preaching
Christ. We just keep preaching Him. Because
any sinner who sees Christ and His glory, I promise you this,
they'll be broken. They'll be broken. They'll be
subdued. They're going to quit. Oh, if
God will show us Christ. We will quit fighting for our
own works, our own recognition and our own rights. And we'll
see, I got no glory. There's no reason for me to have
any glory. I've got no rights. All I can do is beg God for His
grace. We'll be subdued like that if
we ever see Christ. Pride will be put down. And not
once and for all. We'll have to keep fighting it,
won't we? But you know how pride is put down and put down and
put down and put down and put down again? By being subdued. When we see Christ our Savior,
And we surrender, surrender to Him. That's how God subdues His
people, by showing us Christ. Alright, that's the subduer.
Now what about the subdued? God has a people. You read scripture,
you don't have to read very long until you find out God's got
a people, doesn't He? And those people are being subdued. Well, how can I tell if I'm one
of the subdued? God's people are subdued. I want
to be one of those people. How can I know if I'm one of
the subdued? How can I tell? Has the Holy Spirit subdued me? Or do I just like going to church
where people use biblical words and say thee and thou and use
the name of God, talk about terms of grace and mercy and peace?
How can I tell? Am I religious? Or have I been
subdued? How can I tell? Well, David here
describes the people who the Lord subdues. And if the Lord
has subdued you, you'll fit the description here. And the main
characteristic of the subdued is they see themselves as nothing. They see themselves as not being
worthy to be redeemed by God's Son. Verse 3, Lord, what is man,
that thou takest knowledge of him? Or the Son of man, that
thou makest account of him? Man is like the vanity. His days
are as a shadow that passeth away. Now what is man that the
Lord would take any thought, any knowledge of us? I mean,
we're so far below God, you just can't even fathom the distance
there is between God and us. We're so far below Him. Why would
God ever take note of this dirty, sinful speck in his universe?
Unless it's to wipe it out, why would God take any note of us?
Man. And all of us here tonight are
included in that. I'm not preaching to the whole
wide world, I'm preaching to us right here. All of us, man,
the flesh, We're less than vanity. Less than vanity. Vanity is empty
and we're less than that. How can you be less than empty?
Negative numbers. I reckon that's why they had
to come up with negative numbers because that's us. We're the negative numbers.
We're less than vanity. There's no goodness. No goodness,
no soundness in us at all. There's no substance to us. No
substance at all. All we are is a shadow because
we're empty of life. A shadow doesn't have any life
in it. We don't either. That's us. It's a miracle that Almighty
God would take any note of us. It's a miracle God would even
Can you say take the time with God? That God would even know
who we are. That He didn't bother to know
who we are. Isn't that a miracle? Well, if that's a miracle, how
much greater a miracle is it that God would give His Son to
die for the likes of us? That's a miracle. That's a miracle
of God's grace. Christ who is everything. Died for a people who are nothing. Christ who is worth everything. He is precious. Christ who is worth everything.
Died for a people who aren't worth a thing. Now that's a miracle
of God's grace. Not one of them deserved it.
Every single time God saves one of his people, it's a miracle.
Now do you see yourself that way? I'm nothing. I mean, I am nothing. I'm worth
nothing. There's no substance to me. There's
just nay more than there is any substance to a shadow. I'm nothing. Who am I that a king would bleed
and die for? Who am I that he'd say, not my
will, thine are? Who am I? Oh, King David, in
all of his splendor, had to sit before the Ark And say, Lord,
who am I? And what is my house? That you'd
be saying this, make these promises to me that you'd be so gracious.
Who am I? If you see yourself that way,
is not worthy of the least of God's mercies, that if you see
yourself God would be just in sending me to hell. I don't know
why God would take note of a speck like me and then to wipe me out
of his creation. I'm marring it. I'm making it
ugly. Send me to hell. If he did, he'd be right. If
that's you, then you fit the description of the subdued. The
only reason you see yourself that way, man by nature is so
full of pride. We see ourselves much greater
than we always are. If you see yourself that way,
it's worth nothing. The only reason you think that
is you've been subdued by Christ, the subduer. And eventually,
He's going to subdue all of His people just like that. And I
pray that's what He'll do for each of us tonight. That He'll
subdue us by the power, His power and His goodness and His mercy.
Alright, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank You
Such a great Savior, the subduer of his people. How we thank you
for his power, his saving power, his power to redeem, his power
to make righteous. Oh, how we thank you for your
mercy, for your grace, for your goodness to your people. Father,
how we thank you. Father, how we thank you for
this opportunity to have one more look at Christ our Redeemer. And I pray that you enable each
of us tonight to see, and as the apostle of old, to be subdued
at thy feet. There can be no better place
for us than to be subdued at thy feet. Father, how we thank
you. And I pray you bless us as we
sing a song, we go back home and go back out in the world
tomorrow. Father, bless and keep your people. Encourage us by
bringing your word back to our mind that we might rest in our
Lord Jesus Christ. For his blessed name we pray
and give thanks.