This, that I know of, is the
third time I've preached on this psalm in the last year, year
and a half. I think Brother Larry has the
messages on it. I don't remember what I said
about it, but I was looking at it again, and I want to read
this to you and look at it again with you this evening. It's one
of my favorite psalms, and the more I look at it, the more I
like it. Psalm 110, verse 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, Set
thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemy thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
his strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauty of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the days of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies.
He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink
of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. It's amazing to look at this
psalm and just look at who's speaking to whom and who he's
speaking about. I would challenge you sometime
just to go through that and look at that. But one of the things
that amazes me as I read these psalms and the prophets is the
trinity. that we often see. We see what
you and I refer to sometimes as the Godhead, the Trinity.
And we have that here in verse 1. If we run some references
on these verses, they become somewhat amazing, of all the
places that we find them and what they teach us. And we have
here the Trinity, because here, LORD, when you see those capitals,
L-O-R-D, if you have a Hebrew dictionary, you can look, and
it tells you what that means, LORD, when all the letters are
capital. Of course, this is Yahweh, that's
the Hebrew name. for Jehovah God, the eternal
God, Yahweh, the Lord, and here we have someone else. The Lord
said unto my Lord. This word means ruler, arcane,
superior. It's Christ the Lord, the Son
of God. And that shows right there that we have two distinct
persons down here. Here's Jehovah, and we have the
Lord. Jehovah, Yahweh said unto His
Son, David's Lord. We have two distinct persons.
But in Mark chapter 12, in verse 36, the Lord made an amazing
statement concerning this passage of Scripture. And He adds another
personality to this. And here's what He said. And
you remember when He asked the Pharisees and the scribes, who is Christ, whose son is David. And they said he's the son of
David, and so on. And he quoted this verse to them,
and here's how Christ quoted this verse to those scribes.
He said, David, by the Holy Ghost, said the Lord said unto my Lord. So what does he do? He puts the
third person of the Trinity. Here you have Yahweh, you have
God, the eternal God, you have the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, you have the Spirit of God, all of them are present
here in this verse of Scripture. And I read that and I thought
that was amazing. Three distinct persons. In Genesis 1, it said, In the
beginning, God. And the Hebrew word there for
God, and I looked this up too, was Elohim. Now, I can't pronounce
that like Larry can. I don't have enough Hebrew in
me to pronounce it. But Elohim is the way I pronounce
it. That Hebrew name for God. And
what it literally means, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim. I'll pronounce
it right this time, and in a minute I'll pronounce it the other way.
Elo means the strong. the strong. Ohim means gods. In the beginning, the strong
gods created the heavens and the earth. Ain't that amazing?
From the very beginning, we have the Trinity in the Old Testament. The scriptures teach there's
one God, Here, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. But He's revealed, He's manifested
in three distinct persons. Now, there's no God like our
God. And all the way we can begin to grasp that and lay hold of
it, you just believe it. You just believe it when we see
it. And here, David presents these
two personalities to us right here in this verse 1. Let me
give you another place this verse is used, in Matthew 22, verse
42, and I'll just quote you somewhat. When the Lord Jesus asked the
scribes, He said, What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He? And they said, He's the Son of
David. And the Lord Jesus used this verse, verse 1, Psalm 110,
to prove His divinity. That he's more than a mere man.
And he quoted this verse to him. He said, if Christ is merely
the son of David, and that's all he is, then why did David
save him? The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
on my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.
He said, if he's David's Lord, why did he call him his son?
Well, he's both, ain't he? He's the son of David because
he came out of David's loins. But he's David's Lord. And David
came out of him. David had his life from his Lord. And then the third place, and
the second place this is quoted on that great sermon on the day
of Pentecost, and you'll remember when Peter quoted this verse.
The Lord Jesus used it to prove His divinity. David uses this
very same verse. Peter uses this very same verse
to prove Christ exalted in His humanity. Now that's amazing.
And here's the way he said it. He said it like this. When he
got their attention, he said, men and brethren, I want to talk
to you about David for a minute, he said. His sepulcher, is with
us to this day. He died, and they buried him,
and his sepulchre is with him. But he was a prophet, and God
had sworn to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he had raised up Christ to sit on his throne.
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thy Holy One, to seek a refuge. And he said, beseech Jesus as
God exalted him. And to prove that, he quotes
verse 1. as proof that Christ was raised from the dead and
exalted. The cause, he said, concerning God said to him, sit on my right
hand till I make your enemy thy fist." So the same scripture
that Christ used to prove he was David's Lord, that he was
divine, Peter uses the same scripture to prove that Christ was exalted
from the dead in his body, and there at the right hand of God.
And then another place verse 1 is used here is in Hebrews
chapter 1, and you're very familiar with this. The Hebrew writer
was teaching The God-man. The God-man. He said to the son, verse 8 of
chapter 1 of Hebrews, and in verse 13 of that chapter, he
proves that this place, this place of honor at God's right
hand, this place of glory is reserved for none other than
this God-man. The mighty angels were worthy
to sit there. To which of the angels said he
at any time, Set thou at my right hand, until I make your enemies
your foes too. And then in chapter 10, his father
develops this verse, and he makes a play on this word set, and
you'll remember this very well. He said all of those priests
under the law, they stand daily and offer off-time sacrifices
that can never take away sin. But this man, this God-man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, he sat down. on the right hand of God. And
then he quotes this verse, from henceforth expect him till his
enemies be made his foes too. So see what all, you can just
start on this one verse and run references on it and just find
out all kinds of information. There's no book like the Bible.
And the more I read it, the more I see. There's no word like this
word. You can take one scripture and
prove so many things with it, so many different concepts. The
Lord said unto my Lord, Set thou on my right hand, until I make
thy enemies thy foes." Now, here's God's purpose concerning his
Son, and concerning the enemies of his Son. God said, Son, here's
what I'm going to do. I promise you this. You come
up here, and you set down on my right hand, and you sit there
until all your enemies Now, that's God's purpose. That's verse 1.
That's His purpose concerning His Son. And now, look in verse
2, and it tells us how He's going to accomplish that purpose. Look
at it. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Here's what He's saying to the
Son. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. See how God's
going to accomplish that purpose? He's exalted His Son, and His
Son is going to rule until He's brought all His enemies under
His footstep. He must reign, the Apostle tells us, until He
hath put all enemies under His feet. Now Christ is reigning
right now. He must reign right now. He's reigning. But all His enemies
are not yet subdued. You've got a devil that's walking
to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. But there's coming a
day when Christ will put his foot on his neck and bind him
and forever cast him into the lake of fire. You've got a lot
of rebels running around that says, we'll not have this man
to reign over us, but Christ is going to subdue them someday.
And He's going to put them in with the devil. You've got death.
Death is still our enemy, but it's going to be destroyed. So
the Lord Jesus is going to reign until He by Himself subdues all
His enemies. We have two things here in verse
2 in our text. One of the things is this, where
is Christ ruling? Ain't that very interesting where
He's ruling? Right in the midst of his enemies. They don't know
where they're headed. But he's there. He's there. At
any time, without any effort, he can frustrate their counsels
and bring their wicked devices to naught. It won't be hard for
him to do. Wicked men sometimes assume that
Christ is far off and his hand will not reach them or his word
is not powerful enough. But he's right there in their
midst. And he'll take no effort at all to take them out of this
world. He has the authority, the power,
the right to do that. He rules in the midst of his
enemies. And secondly about his rule,
notice there in verse 1 again, his position as he rules. Did you notice that? He's not
walking, he's not pacing, he's not frustrated, he's not fleeing. The scripture says, set on my
right hand. That's the position as he reigns. He's reigning in calm, supreme,
peaceful sovereignty. That's where he is in it. He
said, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth. God has exalted him far above
all principalities and powers and might and every name that's
named in this world and in the world to come and has put all
things under his feet and made him to be head over all things
to the church. Jesus Christ, the man, the Son
of Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, is seated at God's right hand today.
He has the right, he has the authority, he has the wisdom,
he has the will to rule and reign in heaven and in earth till all
his enemies are made his footstool. Somebody said he could, but he
won't. You know what the Father said to him? Rule thou. And I never knew the Lord Jesus
to obey the command of the Father, did you? If the Father says to
him, Rule, Jesus is ruling. That's what disturbs all these
kings of this world at it. They heard there's another king,
one Jesus. There's another king, Jesus Christ
the Lord. What advantage do we have in
this? This is so encouraging to me,
and I trust it's encouraging to you. We have two great advantages
in our Lord Jesus room. And the first is this, you and
I don't have to fear what men can do to us. The Lord is my
helper. The Lord who reigns is my helper. The Lord who sits at the right
hand of God is my helper. Therefore I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. Is that what David said? I will
trust and be not afraid. What harm can man do you? None,
unless Jesus lets him. Jesus is ruling in the midst
of his enemy. You can live honestly, You can
live sincerely, you can live with godly integrity in this
perverted generation without fear of its threats and its rages,
because your Lord rules in the midst of this perverted and crooked
society in which we live. Now, ain't that comforting? That's
a great advantage, brothers and sisters, to know that. And secondly
is this, and this gives us encouragement. to pray for and to hope for and
to witness to our lost love. And we can do it with the assurance
that the Lord who sovereignly rules, even in their midst, is
able to subdue them and remove the enmity of their hearts against
Him. Now, if I believed it was up
to man, If I believed the salvation of my children was up to them,
then I'd be prayerful. We know better, don't we? But
we know of Him that rules right in their midst. My children are
God's enemies. They're the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I'm not at all surprised. I'm disappointed
that they won't come to Christ. I'm heartbroken that they've
not come to Christ, but I'm not shocked by it. Because they're
the enemies of Christ. But He that rules in their midst
is able to subdue that enmity and turn their darkness to light,
their disobedience to faith, their enmity to love. He's able
to do that. Don't that encourage you to think
about that? Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. I hope I'm honest and sincere
when I say I want to see people saved. I hope that's my aim for
God's glory, for men to hear the gospel and genuinely come
to love Christ, Larry, to know Christ, and to seek Christ. Become a seeker of the Lord Jesus.
A seeker to know Him and experience that power of His resurrection
the rest of their life. I hope that's my sincere desire
and prayer. But I tell you, man's wisdom
can't bring that about in a man's life. A mourner's vengeance can't
bring that about in a man's life. The human gimmicks that man's
using today can't bring that about, but I'm the one who can
bring that about. And that's this sovereign Lord
who rules in the midst of His enemy. Salvation is a resurrection,
is it not? It's a regeneration. It's a new
birth. It's a life from the dead. It's
a new love, new motives, new goals. A new end to living. And only one, only one can accomplish
that in a man's heart. That's this sovereign Lord Jesus
Christ. And note this, there's only one
that can make a man willing and even beg the Lord to do it for
him. Ain't that amazing? Thy people shall be willing. Ain't that what he said there
in verse 3? Ruled thou in the midst of thy enemies, and then
he turned right around and says, Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Willing to what? Willing to be
saved on Christ's terms. Willing to be washed in his blood
from all their sins. There's a lot of people that
ain't willing to be washed. The Bible calls it a submission
to sprinkling of the blood. Willing to believe that Christ
is my righteousness. Willing to be justified by that
righteousness. Willing to throw up my white
flag of rebellion and say, Lord, I'll fight you no longer. Everything's
done. It's lost. I've lost it all.
Be willing to be saved by Christ alone. And make a man ask, Oh
Lord, give me a new heart. Give me a new spirit. Look over
here with me in Ezekiel 37, just for a minute. Ezekiel 36, over
to your right, look at this. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. I tell you, a man may pray, a
man may preach, a man may go to church, a man may be baptized,
a man may have faith to relive mountains, Man may understand
all mysteries and have the gift of prophecy, and yet not be one
of God's people. Do you know that? Do you know one of the first
ways we can know that we're one of His elect? Do you know one
of the first ways, one of the first evidences there is in a
man's heart that he's one of the Lord's people? Thy people. Do you know how you know it?
They shall be willing. they shall be willing." Willing
to be saved on the terms of the gospel. That's the surefire evidence
that a man is one of the Lord's. You may have everything else
and know everything else, but I tell you this, if you're not
willing to be saved by Christ alone, you've got no evidence
that you want to hear. That's the evidence that He gives
you in our text. Thy people shall be willing. And not only do they
become willing to be saved by Christ, I'm telling you, they
beg Him to be saved. They beg the Lord to save them.
Give me a new heart. Give me a new spirit. Now, He
built us there in Ezekiel 36. Look at this in verse 23. Notice
this now, I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.
And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord
God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." And
look at this, I will take you from among the heathen. And out
of all countries I will bring you into your own land. Look
at this. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you
shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. I'll give you a new heart
also, and a new spirit will I put within you. I'll take away the
stony heart out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart of flesh.
I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my stature. You shall keep my judgments and
do them." It's one thing for the Lord to say, I'm going to
do all this, and it's another thing for a man to say, I'm willing
to let you do it. And both of those things are going to take
place. But look over here in verse 37. Thus saith the Lord
God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them. See that? I'm going to give you
a new heart, and you're going to say, Lord, give me a new heart.
I'm going to give you a new spirit, and you're going to say, Lord,
give me a new spirit. I'm going to cause you to walk
in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them, and you're going
to say, oh Lord, give me grace to follow you. And I'm telling you, only the
Lord, the sovereign Lord, can take a stubborn rebel. that would
not come to Christ, that had no interest in Christ, that was
not willing to be saved by Christ, and make that man willing. And
when you find in yourself a wholehearted willingness to be saved by this
Sovereign Lord, I'm telling you, you can have some assurance there.
I want His. I want His. I'm going to ask. Look back over at our text now.
Psalms again. Psalms 110. And look here in verse 4. Psalms
110 verse 4. When he says there in verse 2,
Rule thou in the midst of your enemies, two ways he's going
to rule. And we just saw one of them, he's going to rule by
subduing his enemies. His chosen people, He subdues
them, subdues their iniquity, subdues their heart, makes them
willing in the day of His power. And we finally see that here
in verse 4. Look at this. And the Lord hath
sworn and will not repent. This is what he said of his son,
Jesus Christ. Thou art a priest forever and
to the order of Melchizedek. You know what it takes to save.
You know it takes three people to save one person. Did you know
that? It takes three people to save
one person. First of all, it takes a priest.
You've got to have a priest. You can't approach unto God without
a priest. And God cannot approach unto
you without a priest. You have to have a prophet. Somebody
has to come to you and reveal the mind of God to you. How can
I hear without a preacher? There's got to be a prophet.
There's got to be a king. You've got to have three people
to save you. And the Lord Jesus Christ is all three of those
things for us. We have this king because he's ruling in the midst
of his enemy. And I'm telling you, brothers
and sisters, you know this. Until he comes to us and by his
sovereign power subdues us, we won't listen to him. Really,
probably the first thing we have to have is a king, ain't it?
Because he has to come and take hold of us and get our attention. And then we need a priest. We
need a priest to approach Him to God's presence, and we have
one. We can approach Him to God's
presence and call Him our Father with all the assurance in the
world through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God can
approach Him to us and be a merciful Father to us and forgive us and
receive us and look upon us as absolutely perfect through Christ,
our faithful high priest. So we need all three of them.
We need a king to rule us, we need a priest between us and
God, and we need a prophet. We need to be taught of Christ.
We'll never be willing to come, and we never will come, until
He comes to us and teaches us. Thy children shall all be taught
of God. We have to have a prophet, and
Christ teaches us. I thought this morning, going back on the
message this morning, some of you are sitting here this evening,
and you know, you understand God, don't you? Brother, I read
that verse of Scripture over Jeremiah the other day. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches, the wise man glory in his wisdom,
or the mighty man glory in his might, but let him that glories
glory in this, that he understands and knoweth me. You understand
the Lord, don't you? You understand God. You understand
His way of salvation, His purpose. You've been taught that. You're
not ignorant of these things like you used to be. Who taught
you these things? You got a prophet. You got a
prophet. Jesus Christ is your prophet.
He's taught you. Three in one. Thy people shall
be willing. This priest, they have this priest
on the right hand of God. And in here in verse 5 and verse
6, now look at this. Look at this. He changes now. Up here in verse 2, he rules
in the midst of his enemies, but he's going to subdue his
enemies. Those that are his, he's going to subdue them. He's
going to be their prophet, priest, and king. But boy, now in verse
5 and verse 6, there's something else here now. It's not mercy
here we're talking about. This is wrath. Look at this.
The Lord at thy right hand, Jesus of Nazareth, that's who he's
talking about, the right hand of God, shall strike through
kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen.
He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound
the heads of many nations. The Lord Jesus is not weak. We
talk about Him being meek and lowly in heart, and so gentle,
the gentleness of Christ. But I tell you, He's not weak.
He's just patient. He's long-suffering. He has a
sword, but sometimes it seems like He's loathe to lay hands
on it and draw it out. Because He sometimes seemed loathe
to use it. But oh, when He draws it, and
when He quits it, and it begins to glitter, He said, I'll cut
through kings. I'll fill hell with the dead
bodies of men. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
there's nothing so grateful as mercy that's been so spurned
that it gives way to wrath. That's the most horrible thing
that I can imagine. They that despise Moses' law
died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much
sore punishment, suppose ye, shall they be thought worthy
who has trodden underfoot the Son of God? Men who attempt to
do what they really can't do. You can't trodden him underfoot,
literally, but you can in a spiritual sense. You can shine him. You can lift your fist up towards
him and say, you ain't going to reign over me. But you know
what he's going to do to people like that? He's going to take
out his sword and he's going to cut them asunder. And he's
going to step on their bodies and crush the blood from their
bodies that stained his reign. I tell you the wrath of the Lamb.
I want something to do with the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sins of the world. I don't want anything to do with
the wrath of the Lamb. Do you? And you can't get the better
of Him. Look what it says in this last verse. He shall drink
of the brook in the way, and therefore shall he lift up the
head. He never gets discouraged. He's
like this runner that's running a race, and he finds this brook
of cool water, and he drinks of it, and he's refreshed, and
on he goes. Or a soldier that's fighting
in the battle, and he comes upon this cold spring of water, and
he refreshes himself and continues to fight. The Lord Jesus Christ
never grows weary. He's fulfilling the purpose of
His Father by ruling in the midst of His enemies. He'll save every
last chosen person that God's gave Him, and He'll bring His
wrath upon the unbeliever, and He'll never grow discouraged
in doing it. He'll never grow weary. You and I, after a long
period of time, we get tired, don't we? We get worn, we get
old, and sometimes our head goes drooping. But not the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has the dew of His youth.
He's just as strong now as He was back in eternity. He's able
to accomplish and shall accomplish His Father's purpose. God give
me grace to bow to Him. I want to, don't you? Oh, I want
to follow Him. Like Brother Larry said this
morning, Lord give me grace to follow Him. I've been knowing
the Lord for 33 years. I want to know Him. Been following
Him for that long, but I want to follow Him. Been looking to
Him, but like Moses, my eyes have never grown dim. Not looking
to Him. Not looking to Him. God bless
this world. Father, we do thank You. Tender
and wise Father. Holy Father. High and exalted. Our Creator and our Sustainer.
Our only Savior. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
our mediator between God and man, our mysterious Lord, our
friend, our life and our living, our hell and our heaven, our
curse and our blessing, our righteousness, our shepherd, our rock, our shade,
our water, our bread, our everything. Lord Jesus, we bless your holy
name. for permitting us tonight and
putting our hearts together here, this side of death and this side
of eternity, to once again worship you. Thank you, Lord, for the
great privilege and the honor and the necessity of letting
us worship, letting our souls worship you. Lord, grant us,
I pray, by your grace, count us worthy for your namesake.
Soon to be free from this body of death. Let us see you then
and worship you as we long to worship you here. To be free
from sin, free from death, and the senses of this evil that
continually dwells with us. Oh, to depart this life, this
game, to be with Christ. Oh, grant us not to be bogged
down and bowed down by the cares the riches and the pleasures
of this world that can bring us love. Oh, give us grace, Lord,
to follow you fully. Forgive us of our sins. Bless
this dear people that's gathered here. Keep us and grant us the
fellowship to love one another, to help one another for God's
glory as long as we live in this world. In Jesus Christ our Lord's
name, amen.