Psalms 110. This is a very familiar psalm
to you who read your Bibles often, and I want to read it. It's a
very short psalm. If you don't have a Bible, you'll
find a few Bibles there in front of you. Psalms 110. The Lord said unto my Lord, Set thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy 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
hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen. He will fill the places with
dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over
many countries. He shall drink of the brook in
the way. Wherefore shall he lift up the
head. I don't want to look at the whole
psalm this morning. Mainly, there's three verses
in this, verse 1 and verse 3 and verse 4, but I'm amazed when
I read a psalm or a verse in the Old Testament, and then you
come over to the New Testament and find how many times that
verse is quoted. I'm also amazed that when the
New Testament writers quote a verse out of the Old Testament, the
different meanings they get out of it. The Holy Spirit not only
moved upon the prophet David to write this verse, He moved
upon the writers in the New Testament to interpret this verse. And
we get so many different meanings out of it. If you've never looked
up the places where verse 1 is mentioned in the New Testament,
sometimes go and look it up. It's mentioned several places.
And also verse 4, the Lord swore and will not repent, thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And I want to
look at these verses this morning and see how the New Testament
interprets them and the meaning they get from them. Here in verse
1, we know who this is speaking about. We've looked at this before,
haven't we? The Father said to His Son, sit
at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.
That's God the Father speaking to God His Son. And when we come
over to the New Testament, listen now at the different things this
one verse teaches us. Matthew chapter 22, and I don't
want you to turn there because we don't have time, but get these
in your head if you can. And just remember, these are
jotted down. These are very familiar passages of scriptures. In Matthew
chapter 22, the Lord Jesus used this verse 1 in Psalms 110 to
prove his pre-existence, to prove his divinity. You remember when
the Pharisees and the scribes and Herodians were asking the
Lord Jesus all kinds of questions about what's the greatest commandment
and should we pay taxes and what about divorce and remarriage
and all of that. And he answered all their questions.
And then he said, let me ask you a question. Jesus Christ,
whose son is he? And they said he's the son of
David. And Christ said, well, if he's the son of David, how
then did David call him Lord? And then he quotes this text.
The Lord said unto my Lord, set thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. And he quoted that verse to show
those Jews that he, the Lord Jesus, was preexistent. He was in David's day. David
addressed him as Lord. The Lord is my shepherd. Who
was he speaking about? The Son of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ. And when he quoted this verse
to them, they said no man was able to answer it. And they got
so confused they never asked him any more questions. But here's
another place in Acts chapter 2. Remember this one if you can.
This is that great message that the apostle Peter preached on
the day of Pentecost, and he's going to quote this very same
verse, and he's going to prove something else from it. He is
going to prove that Jesus Christ is the exalted Lord. Now listen to how he says it
in Acts chapter 2. He said, David is not ascended
into heaven. David's sepulcher is with us,
he said, even to this day. But David himself said, The Lord
said unto my Lord, Set at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, Peter proved
that God raised Christ from the dead, exalted Him, and set Him
at His own right hand from this passage of Scripture that I read
to you. Set at my right hand till I make
thine enemies thy footstool. Now, I want you to turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 1. The Apostle Paul, in writing
the book of Hebrews, quotes this verse several times. He either
quotes it in the whole of it or in part, and he quotes it
for different reasons. I want you to turn to Hebrews
chapter 1, and Paul here in the first chapter of Hebrews is showing
the distinction between Jesus and angels. The Jewish people
had a high reverence for angels. As a matter of fact, they had
such a high reverence for angels, they were scared to death of
them. In the New Testament, every time an angel appeared, even
to a believer, they became fearful. Remember Zechariah in the temple,
when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said, you and your
wife are going to have a son, even though you are of old age?
And he was scared to death of the angel. And it was the same
way with Mary when Gabriel appeared to her. She was afraid, and he
had to say to her, fear not. Remember the ladies at the tomb,
Christ's empty tomb, and they saw this angel, and they were
frightened. It scared them to death, and
they always had to say, don't fear, don't be afraid. Those
two or three soldiers that were guarding the tomb of Christ,
And the angel came down from heaven and rolled away the tomb,
and his face was like lightning. He was clothed in these bright
robes, and it scared them to death. They became so frightened
they were like dead men. They could not think or move.
They had a high degree of reverence for angels. And what the Apostle
Paul is going to prove in Hebrews chapter 1, Christ is better than
angels. And look what he says in Hebrews
chapter 1 and look in verse 5. Well, look in verse 4. Being
made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of
the angels saith God at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have
I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son." Who are the angels? They're created spirits. They're
ministering spirits. They're servants of God. But
who is Jesus? He's the Son of God. He has a
better name than any of the angels. And look in verse 6. Here's another
way He distinguishes Christ from the angels. And again, when he
bringeth in the first begotten unto the world, he saith, Let
all the angels of God worship him. See the distinction between
Christ and the angel? When he came into this world,
even before he came into this world, remember Isaiah chapter
6, where Isaiah saw the vision of those holy angels around about
the throne, and who were they worshiping? They were worshiping
the Son, the Son of God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. And when he came into the world,
Paul said, probably at his birth, remember when they announced
his birth to the shepherds, until you is born of this day in the
city of David. Don't you think they went there
and worshiped him? Of course they did. And then
when he rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven, remember
in Revelation chapter 5, When John saw the Lamb in the midst
of the throne, in the midst of the elders, and there was an
innumerable company of angels, thousands and thousands and ten
thousands of angels. And what were they doing? Worshipping
the Lamb. Thou art worthy, O Lamb, to receive
glory and honor and power. Angels worship Him. Why? He's
got a better name than they've got. He's exalted above the angels. And look what else Paul says
about him in verse 8. But unto the Son, he says. To
the angels, he said, you just must minister in spirit. But
to the Son, he says, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
a scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast swept righteousness
and aided iniquity. Therefore God hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above your fellows. these angels. God has anointed him with the
oil of gladness above them. But look over here now in verse
13. He quotes Psalms chapter 110
and verse 1. And look what he says. To which
of the angels saith he at any time, Set on my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. And what does he do here? Well,
he shows that there's a vast difference. Whatever respect
they had for angels, however much reverence they had for angels,
he shows that Jesus is better than the angels. He's exalted
on the right hand of the Father in heaven. Now, here in verse
4 of our text, Jesus is made so much better than the angels.
In verse four, look here in verse, well, I just read verse 13, but
here's something else. So he's better than the angels.
Our text proves that and the apostle Paul proved that, but
there's something else that he proves by this passage of scripture. And that's this, not only the
Lord proved that he is preexistent, he was deity. And not only did
Peter prove by this text that he's exalted, Paul here proved
that he's better than the angels. He's distinct from them. He's
exalted at the right hand of God. But Paul now is going to
prove something else by this scripture in our text. And it's
this. Since God the Father said to
him, my son sit at my right hand. You know what Paul said that
teaches us? That the work of atoning for
sin is finished. Now look over here in chapter
10 of the book of Hebrews and see that. Look in Hebrews chapter
10 and look in verse 11. I love this and it has a wonderful
foundation for our assurance if we are here in believers this
morning. Look what he says in verse 11. Every high priest standeth
daily, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. You remember how they went in
there every year? They took the blood of bulls and goats every
year. They went into the most holy place, the priest did. He
sprinkled the mercy seat with the blood of bulls or of goats.
And then he went back outside and he said, God bless you. God
give you peace. God give you rest because he
has accepted the sacrifice. But the first part of Hebrews
chapter 10 tells us that those sacrifices never could put away
sins. It's impossible. Therefore, that's
why every year you saw him coming back into the most holy places
and repeating the same thing over and over again. That's why
there were many priests and that's why they stood daily. But look
now at verse 12. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. And then he quotes our text. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool." See what he concludes from that? Since the father said to his
son, my son, come up from the grave and sit here at my right
hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And the apostle
Paul said we can reach this conclusion. He would never be at the right
hand of God if God had not looked upon him and was absolutely satisfied
with his bloodshed. And boy, ain't that a wonderful
thing when you see in this passage here that he's sitting. How many
times have we brought your attention to the fact that in the most
holy place, one One type of furniture. Whatever else was in there, there
was one type of furniture that was not there. And that was the
chair to sit in. That was the stool to sit on.
Because they could not sit down. Why? Because the work of atoning
for sins was not finished. The blood of bulls and goats
could not take away sin. But Jesus, when He offered His
blood to the Father, He put away sin. Hit atone for sin. And Paul reached this conclusion
from our texts. Other texts, I'm sure. But he
said, if God said to him, you come up here and sit on my right
hand, that's an indication that God has accepted his sacrifice. Sin has been punished. Sin has
been atoned for. Sin has been put away. Isn't that wonderful? Does sin
ever bother you? You ever struggle with it? Oh,
my goodness, sometimes it gets you down, doesn't it? Oh, wretched
man that I am, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
How many times do we fall into sin? If not openly, we do it
in our hearts. Aren't you glad that you can
come here and look up to heaven and there at the right hand of
God sits one who has finished the work of putting away your
sins? One thing so many religions try
to do, they want to live good enough. They want to be good
enough that their sins won't be brought against them and charged
against them on the Day of Judgment. That's not the way to have your
sins put away. The way sin is put away is by
somebody who is full of merit and worth, somebody that God
accepts. He puts those sins away Himself,
and that's what Jesus did. And Paul said the fact that He
did it is that He is seated on the right hand of the Father. He's there at the Father's will. He's set down. Why? He's been punished, and
sin has been punished. This is why this doctrine, awful
doctrine of Catholicism's transubstantiation is so sinful. Because they say
every time we eat the bread and drink the cup, Jesus Christ suffers
in that bread and that cup just as much as He suffered upon the
cross. No, brothers and sisters, He's
not suffering now. He's seated now at the right
hand of God. And what assurance that is. When
Satan comes to you and just gets you down about your sins, agree
with him. You call me a sinner? You don't
know the half of it. You say I've sinned? You have
no idea, Satan, the depths of how I've sinned against God.
But Jesus Christ is my charity. Jesus Christ atoned for my sin. And my trust is in Him who is
seated at the right hand of the Father. Look in another place. I want you to hold the book of
Hebrews because I may take you back there instead of quoting
so many scriptures to you. But look at the book of the epistle
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Here Paul quotes this again. He quotes it in part, but he
teaches us something from it. Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 and look in verse 20. They had some in this church
that was denying the resurrection. Well, how in the world could
you deny the resurrection if you ever read Psalms 110 and
1? It would be impossible, wouldn't it? The Lord said to my Lord,
set it in my right hand. So he says in verse 20, 1 Corinthians
15, But now is Christ risen from the dead and became the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man, by Adam, came
death, By man came also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ Jesus shall all be made alive. But
every man in his own order crossed the firstfruits, afterwards they
that are crossed at his coming. And then cometh the end, when
he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,
when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath
put all enemies under his feet." Now where did Paul get that?
His eye is going back to the Old Testament, isn't it? He is
remembering what he read in Psalms 110, chapter 1. My Son saith
on my right hand, Till I make your enemies your footstool.
So he says here, he reaches this conclusion that since God has
exalted His Son and He is reigning, He will reign. He will continue
to reign until all His enemies are under His feet. Did you notice the places In
Psalm 110, when I read it to you, do you notice the places
there talking about Him ruling over His enemies? In verse 1,
I will make your enemies your footstool. In verse 2, rule thou
in the midst of your enemies. In verse 5, the Lord at thy right
hand shall crush your enemies. He shall shatter your enemies.
He shall destroy your enemies in the day of his wrath. He shall
fill the places with dead bodies. He shall wound the head over
many nations. And Paul takes that same thought
up and says here, Christ will reign until he has put all his
enemies under his footstool. And he uses these two words,
doesn't he? He'll reign until. He's going to outlive his enemies,
isn't he? Jesus Christ has the strength
of his youth. He's not like us. He's not like
Wayne was talking about himself. His eyes aren't getting dim.
His ears aren't clogging. His strength is not debating.
He has the strength of his youth. He can deal with His enemies. He reigns until He subdues all
of His enemies. But it is not man that is His
enemy. He has demons that are His enemies
too. And He is going to put them under His feet. He is going to
crush the serpent, Satan. But more than that is his enemy.
Look what he says in verse 26. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Is death our enemy? Yes, it is.
In one sense, it's not. I realize that. Because death
is the gateway that will get us to Christ, whom we love. In
that sense, it's not our enemy, it's our friend. But in one sense,
in the definite sense, death is our enemy. Because it comes
to us and it separates our bodies from our souls. God never intended
that. And that won't last for long.
He's going to destroy death. That's the last enemy. But I
tell you something else He's going to destroy. He's going
to put His feet on your sorrow. He's going to put His feet on
your pain. He's going to put His feet on your tears and your
things that you suffer, your temptation. He's going to destroy
everything that stands in opposition and hurts His people. He's going
to put it all under His feet. And that's the last enemy. He's
going to reign until He puts them under His feet. And the
last one, the very last one, is going to be death. And then
the saints will come out of their graves shouting, O death, where
is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? How do we know he's going to
do that? Our text tells us that. My son, sit on my right hand
until you have made all your enemies your foes. Brothers and
sisters, we have enemies. We have enemies. We are our own
worst enemy. Satan and demons are our enemies.
I tell you this morning, though, if Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is your enemy, if God is your enemy, you're in trouble. I tell you, the only thing a
person can do this morning is throw up that white flag and
say, Lord, have mercy on me. Be merciful to me, a poor sinner. I don't want to die your enemy.
Surrender. Give up yourself to Jesus Christ. Back to our text, look back in
our text again. Well, let me just quote this
to you and I won't have you to even go back there. I want you
to look at this and I hope I don't confuse you on this. Sometimes
I study these things out and I get up here and think, boy,
you're going to really get a hold of this, but I lose you. I know I do because I can see
it in your faces. That's one of the challenges
about preaching. A preacher stays in his study
and he studies these things out and he says, man, I see it. I
see it. Can't wait to give it to these people. And you get
up here and you just start pouring it out and it just runs off like
water on a duck's back because you folks haven't studied it
out. And sometimes it's difficult to relate these things. But sometimes
as you read the book of Hebrews, I want you to notice what the
Apostle Paul does in the book of Hebrews. He takes these two
verses, Psalms chapter 1 and verse 1. The father said to his
son, sit on my right hand until I make your enemy your footstool.
And he takes verse 4 that said, I swear and will not repent,
you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He
takes those two verses and integrates them together. And the conclusion
he comes to is this, we have a great high priest who is exalted
on His throne, and He is a priest forever. And you know how he
reaches that conclusion? By our text, verse 1 and verse
4. My Son said, on my right hand, until you make your enemy, He
is exalted. And verse 4 says, I swear and
will not repent, you are priests forever. He is our exalted reigning
priest. You see, the Lord Jesus did not
just come to destroy those who oppose Him and die in opposition
to Him. He comes to save people. Who is He saving? Sinners. Just listen to me and
how the Apostle Paul does this. In verse 1 of our text, in verse
4, he's exalted and sits on the right hand of God. He quotes
this in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 13, set at my right hand,
tell them make your enemies your footstool. Then Hebrews chapter
5 and verse 6, he quotes Psalms 110 verse 4, that art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now what's so wonderful about
this? You're a priest forever. In the ninth chapter and in the
seventh chapter, he said about those earthly priests, they grew
old and they died. And then they would have to go
and find another priest to represent the people before God. He would
get old and he would die. Now, what's so bad about that?
Well, this. Sometimes if you had a faithful
priest and you had sinned and you took your offering to him
and you said, offer this sacrifice to God for me. Oh, I'll gladly
do it, dear brother. I'll go into God's presence.
I'll offer the blood of this goat or this lamb or whatever
you brought to atone for your sin. But after a while, that
old faithful priest got old. And you had sinned against God
and your conscience was heavy and you're somewhat anxious about
it. And you took your sacrifice. And they said, well, he's sick.
He's so sick he can't even get out of bed. What am I going to
do? The priest has to offer a sacrifice to me, for me. Well, he can't
today. I'm sorry. You come back tomorrow
and maybe you feel better. Well, he goes back tomorrow and
the old priest has died. And they said, well, his son
has taken over for him. Well, his son's a scoundrel.
I know his son. I have to pay him $10 just to
get him to offer a sacrifice for me. His son is no good. There were many priests for different
reasons. God killed some of them, didn't
He? Remember Aaron's two sons? Offering strange fire. But here's
the thing. Here's the thing. Because Jesus
Christ has been exalted. And because of God's swearing
to Him that you're a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
who had no beginning of days nor end of life. Because you're
a priest who continues forever. Now, you and I can go into the
presence of God and be assured of this, that we have one who
ever lived. and ever reigns as our high priest
to plead and maintain our cause before God. We have an unchangeable
priest in an unchangeable priesthood. Paul began in chapter 1 of Hebrews
and he hinted at this. He said when he by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of God. And there
he is as our high priest, an unchangeable high priest. And
then he said in the close of the book of Hebrews, Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today and forever. He is unchangeable and
he is God's priest. And he is our priest over the
house of God. Isn't that encouraging? And Paul
comes to that conclusion from our text. in Psalms chapter 110
in verse 1 and in verse 4. And this is why he said in the
9th chapter that since Jesus Christ has been an unchangeable
priesthood, since God has sworn to Him, You are a priest forever. Since that is so, He is able
to say to the uttermost, forevermore, Those who come to God by Him. Who comes to God by Him? Who comes to God? Don't the Scripture
tell us that there is none understanding? There is none that seeketh after
God. Then the Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews, You will not come
to Me that you might have life. By nature, no man will come to
God. And yet he says he'll save to
the uttermost those who do come to God. Well, who are they that
are coming then? Somebody's coming because he's
ever living to save them. We'll look back over at my text
in Psalm 110, and this tells us exactly who's coming. Look here in 110, and look in
verse 3. Look in verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. Willing to do what? Willing to
come to God by Christ. Now this tells us something,
doesn't it? It tells us a lot. I preached a couple of messages
out of this one time, so there's a lot in this. But this tells
us something, doesn't it? This tells us that Jesus Christ
has a people, that he did not go to the cross with uncertainty
and doubt in his mind as to whether or not any man would avail himself
of his sacrifice and be saved. How many times do we read in
the Scriptures phrases like this? I come down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me, and this
is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which He hath
given me. Before the world ever was, God
gave to Jesus Christ His Son a great host out of Adam's race
to secure their salvation. But you know something? He has
secured their salvation on the cross. But they're not even willing
to come to Him now. Are they? You here this morning,
you've got confidence that you've come to Christ? That you found
it in your heart to come to Christ? That you had a will to come to
Christ? Were you born for that? Did you always find that in your
heart? Going back as a little babe and as you grew up, I've
always had this burning desire for Jesus. I come to Him when
I was two years old. It's just the way I am. No, that's
not the way you are. I'm sorry. The only way you know
how you are and who you are is reading the Bible. And the Bible
says you will not come to Me. You don't have a will to come
to Me. When does a person will them?
I mean his own people. We're just like everybody else.
Don't go, please, and I know you don't do this. You don't
go out here bragging about how God has chosen you to salvation.
You don't go out here and presenting yourself to some lost person
that you're better than they are because you're one of God's
elect. There's people who do that. There's
people who do that. We are just like everybody else.
We died in Adam. We live rebels against God without
any fear of God, without any understanding of His salvation,
without a will to come the way He tells us to come until He
makes us willing in the day of His power. Thy people shall be
willing. Now this is an amazing verse. This shows you about free will.
You can talk to free will people, to Armenians, if you will, or
whoever, and you quote this scripture to them, or you send them a text
and have them to read this scripture, and it's amazing the answers
that you get. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And they come up and say, you
mean God saves people against their will? Where did they get
that out of this verse? Or they say something like this,
I believe a man has to be willing to be saved. This is a strange verse to a
person who don't know themselves. If you're here this morning and
God's taught you about yourself, one of the things He taught you
and one of the things that you're learning more and more as you
grow in Christ is this, you do not have the ability to come
to God by Christ. You're in this prison house of
sin. You do not have the will. You
have to be freed. Your will has to be freed. Bruce,
don't we have a free will? You have a free will to walk
through that door back there. You have a free will to sit and
eat your food. You have a free will to do a
lot of things. But it's all in the natural realm. Our will is
not free in the spiritual realm. And nobody will ever come to
the Lord Jesus Christ and to God by Him until the Holy Spirit
does a work of grace in his heart. Giving you a desire to come,
Denver. Giving you a desire to want to
come, a need to come to Christ. Ain't it a blessing then that
you'd come? And what does it prove? What does it prove to
you now that you found it in your heart to come? It proves
two things. One, He's begun a work of grace in you. He gave you
what you didn't have before, a will. And it proves something
else. You're His. You're His people. You're the one He died for. You're
the one He poured out His blood for. You're the one He sets on
the right hand of God and makes intercessions for. It's you.
You're His people. Isn't that wonderful? So here we have this exalted
High Priest. And He sits there in heaven at the
right hand of God. And He never changes. And he
sits there for this reason, to save sinners. And who are those
sinners he is saving? His own elect people. Turn to page 283 in our hymnals.
283. I want you to come where she goes.