Now this evening for a few minutes,
let's take a look at a portion of Psalm 45. I'm calling the message, giving
it this title, Christ Our King. It says that in the first verse,
talks about the King. I'm ready to speak about the
King. My tongue's a pen of a ready writer when we talk about the
One we love, the One to whom we look to for all of salvation.
We're ready to talk about Him because He's given us a revelation
of Himself and we want to declare the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ our King. That's the subject of this psalm,
and really the subject of all the psalms. They're all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And really, the entire Bible
has one message. That one message is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ our Redeemer, Christ our
Kinsman Redeemer, Christ our God and our Savior, as He's revealed
as Prophet, Priest, and King, who cannot fail. who cannot fail. We studied in Revelation 6, Christ
is the conquering king. Remember? He went forth conquering
and to conquer. All the scriptures tell us about
the Lord Jesus Christ. The hymn, remember? Give all
the prophets witness. And then when the risen Lord
is meeting with His with His disciples before He went away.
The risen Lord said to His disciples when He gathered them around
Himself, He said, These are the words which I have spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets
and in the Psalms concerning Me. So, whatever psalm we turn
to, we're always looking for the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And every psalm is about Him.
Him. H-I-M. About our blessed Lord. There's an indication of that
in verse 6 and 7 of Psalm 45. These verses are quoted in Hebrews
1 verse 8 and 9 and applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
not king by democratic process. You know, we have our election
every four years to elect a president, and he's elected to office by
what we call a democratic process. But that's not the way the Lord
Jesus Christ is installed as our king, but rather by the eternal,
immutable decree of Almighty God. God had made him both Lord
and Christ. eternally by God's immutable,
unchanging decree. He said, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's always been king. He is
the eternal king. And notice the title of this
psalm. This psalm says it's a song of loves. You see that in the
title there right below Psalm 45? It's a song of loves. Now,
basically, really, it's his love for us. When John talks about
the love of God, he said, here in his love, not that we love
God, he loved us. He loved us. How do we know he
loved us? He gave himself for us, a sacrifice
for our sin. And then as a response and reflection
and fruit of that is our love to him. We love him only because
he first loved us. Now, there are many enemies of
the gospel of the sovereign grace of God. who would accuse God's
preachers of not preaching love. Someone said to me years and
years ago, he said, there's no love in the doctrines of grace.
He's complaining about my preaching. He said, there's no love in the
doctrines of grace. I said, my friend, you're dreadfully
mistaken. God chose us in love, didn't
he? Remember we studied that, 2 Thessalonians 2.13? We're bound
to give thanks to God for you, brother, beloved of the Lord.
Well, there's the love of God in election. We're redeemed by
His love. I just quoted that scripture. Here in His love, He laid down
His life for us out of love, didn't He? He said, no man takes
my life from me. I lay it down. And then we're
affectionately called because He loved us. He loved us with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness He called
us to Himself. So, for someone to accuse a gospel
preacher of not preaching the love of God when we talk about
the doctrine of grace, we are saved and regenerated by it in
love. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And then Ephesians 2, God who
is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us.
God's preachers do preach the true love of God. The true love
of God in the gospel is made known to us. He said nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. To say that God loves everybody
and is trying to save everybody, yet some perish in eternal condemnation
anyway, what kind of love is that? God loves me and I perish
anyway? That's not love, is it? That's
not love at all. That's the message of another
gospel. What the Apostle Paul told the Galatians, another gospel,
it's a false gospel. To say that God loves me, and
Christ died for me, and yet I'm gonna perish anyway if I don't
meet certain conditions? That's salvation conditioned
upon me. Salvation, that this book teaches
about, is conditioned on Christ. It's His doing, His dying, His
righteousness, His obedience, His faithfulness, not mine. And
God is that way. Thank God it's that way. The
truth of the gospel says, all that are elected in love, all
that Christ died for out of love, all that are called in love shall
be saved eternally with an everlasting salvation. And the Lord said,
all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and those
that come to me, I'll never cast them out. Boy, that's the kind
of love I want. I want to have that love of God
that's immeasurable, unbounding, eternal love, sovereign love,
electing love, saving love, sacrificial love, the real love of God in
Christ. Now, with that introduction,
let's look at verse 1, my heart. Knowing that, that all about
his love, boy, my heart bubbling over. Think about God loving
His people who are, what are they by nature? Sinful, wicked,
guilty, vile, wretched. But my heart, because of God's
love toward us, my heart is indicting in a good manner. My heart is
bubbling over with good news. It's good news, is it not? This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Isn't that good news? If you're
a sinner it is. If you're a self-righteous man,
that's not good news. Because God says, away with your
self-righteous rags or filthy rags in my sight. But that man
who's a sinner, the Lord came to seek and to save and call,
not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Therefore, my
heart's indicting in a good manner. This is good news. Grace to the
guilty, mercy to the miserable. I speak about things concerning
the King, the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to speak about Him. Preaching the Gospel is called
the Gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
blessed Gospel of the glory of God, which I've made or concerning
speaking about the King. And my tongue's ready to tell
you about Him. I don't want to tell you about me. I want to
tell you about Him. He is the Savior who saves His
people. He is the Redeemer who actually
redeems. The believer's heart is boiling
over with the good news. Good news. You remember those
two men on the road to Emmaus, and the risen Lord drew near
to them, and He listened to their conversation. And then He said,
O fool, slow of heart not to believe all that the prophets
have spoken unto you. And then He opened the Scriptures
and expounded in them, beginning with Moses and all the Scripture
concerning Himself. You remember what they said?
Didn't our heart burn within us when He opened to us the Word
of God? That's what it's all about. It's about having our heart opened
up by the Lord that it causes us to hear the good news of the
gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not about what we must do for Him. The gospel and the
good news is about what He's done for us, what He has done
for us. Salvation is always determined
by Him, dependent upon Him, and accomplished by Him. It's accomplished
by Him. It's dependent upon Him, and
it's determined. Who determines who saves? Who
determines who gets saved? I don't like that statement,
well, you know, I got saved. Well, tell me who saved you.
The Lord in mercy has mercy upon me, in grace, in love. Therefore, we are determined
to declare and to preach Christ alone for all of salvation, Christ
by his grace alone, Christ and Him crucified as the wisdom and
power of God to accomplish our salvation for us. As I've said
to you, I don't know how many times over these many years,
salvation is of the Lord. It is of the Lord. We are ready,
willing, and made able ministers of the gospel by His purpose,
power, and pleasure. Therefore, God's servants are
ready. Ready! Do you remember Romans
1? Paul says, for as much as in
me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome. I was preaching in a Bible conference
several years ago down in Tennessee. And there was a man that got
up before I was to speak, and he brought a special in music.
And when he got done with his special in music, he looked right
down at me and said, Brother Tom, are you ready? And I got
up in the pulpit and I quoted that verse that I just quoted.
As much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew and also to the Gentiles. So I'm ready this evening to
tell you about Him. God's ministers are made ministers
according to the gift of His grace given to me by the effectual
working of His power. I never sought this position,
thought about it, or even had any idea about it, until the
Lord one day saved me by His grace, taught me the Gospel,
and then called me and put me in the ministry. And that's the
way the Lord... I pity the man who puts himself
in the pulpit. He's headed for trouble. He's
headed for trouble. But when the Lord's in it, And
the Lord calls the man, and the Lord raises up the pastor for
the church. It's a happy time. It's a good
time. Look at verse 2. Thou art fairer. What about our
King? He's fairer. He's the best. He's
beautiful. Fairer than the fairest of ten
thousand. Fairer than the children of men.
Well, there's none like Him. He was the only man born without
sin. We're born in sin. We're shaped
in iniquity. He's fairer because He's the
God-man mediator. He's fairer than the children
of men. He's full of grace and truth. Grace is poured into His
lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee
forever. When the Lord Jesus Christ, God
incarnate, when He was made manifest in the flesh, He never stopped
being God. He became what he was not, flesh
and blood among us, but he never stopped being God. He's God Almighty. He's a farer than the children
of man. He's fair and He's full of grace.
You remember, of His fullness have we all received, remember,
grace for grace. And I often say that's the reason
for grace. The only reason for grace is
grace of His fullness. Have we all received grace because
the Lord is gracious. He's fairer than all, greater,
better, superior than any. There's none like Him. All through
the book of Hebrews. I love that study in the book
of Hebrews. I think we've studied through that book three times.
But you remember the key word in the book of Hebrews? Better.
Better. Better. Better. Christ is better.
He's a better priest. Based upon a better covenant.
Based upon a better sacrifice. Better in everything. He's a
better priest, the great high priest, the better surety, the
better Savior. He said, I'm God, beside me there
is no other. He's fairer. He's superior. He's
better. He's the best. He's the greatest. The most excellent God, our Savior. And then it says, grace is treasured
up in Him. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is no grace to sinners. Not apart from Christ. The only
way God can be gracious to us is through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only way God can show mercy
to us is have his justice satisfied in the sacrifice of Christ. And Christ is blessed forever.
You see that last line in verse 2? God hath blessed thee forever. He's the Most High, Most Potentate. He's the Blessed God, our Savior. And you know what the good news
to that, to His people, are? What's true of Him is true of
us. Because He's blessed forever. You know what? We're blessed
forever. In Christ, he said, with all
spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Boy,
aren't you glad you have a savior like this? I'm ready to tell
you about him. If you ask me, I'll tell you.
Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into
thy lips. Therefore, God, had blessed thee forever and ever. Now, in verse 3, 4, and 5, we
see something about our conquering king. Our conquering king, he
conquers all of his enemies, and in doing so, he saves his
elect. Call his name Jesus, he shall save his people. from their
sin. You remember Psalm 110? Sit down
at my right hand till I make all thine enemies to bow before
your throne. So let's look at verse 3, 4,
and 5. Verse 3, we see the sword here, gird thy sword upon thy
thigh, O most mighty. We read that, didn't we, in Hebrews,
excuse me, in Revelation chapter 19, I think just recently, gird
thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. Do it with all glory
and majesty. Mighty has a mighty sword. His
sword is glorious and it's full of majesty. The Word of God is
called a quick, powerful, sharp sword. The Word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Saving, dividing
asunder soul and spirit, joints and a myrrh, as a discerner of
thoughts and intent of the heart. Hebrews 4, 12. Gird thy soul,
store it upon thine almost mighty. Now, if you have a sharp sword
in the hand of the king, who is almighty, full of glory and
majesty, who's going to defeat such a one? He went forth conquering and
to conquer, and he has never lost a battle. He's been in a
lot of battles. He's got a lot of enemies. He
subdued every one of them. Every one of them. His sword
is mighty. None can defeat his power. His
sword is glorious. His sword is full of majesty,
splendor, and beauty. Beauty of the Lord. Let me read
this one to you. Psalm 93, let me read this to
you, verse 1. The Lord reigneth, he's clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
Wherewith he had girded himself, the world also is established,
it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of
old, thou art from everlasting. That's good news, is it not?
This is the One who came to save us by His grace. He came to redeem
us, to put away our sin. Now look at verse 4. In Thy majesty,
in Thy glory, in Your majesty, with might, the Almighty, Sovereign
God, ride prosperously. because of truth, meekness, and
righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee the way
of salvation in Christ." Now, I love that word prosper, prosperously. Everything our Lord does, he
prospers. Our Lord, in his glorious majesty,
as the captain of our salvation rides in complete victory upon
that white horse that we talked about. His victory is prosperous
and victorious for he accomplishes all his pleasure. He knows nothing
of defeat or failure. He said, I cannot be defeated.
He is the conquering, conquering king. The Lord rides in the war
chariot of his gospel, defeating all opposition. God has highly
exalted him and given him a name above every name. At that name,
every knee's gonna bow, every tongue's gonna confess that he
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Lord rides in this
chariot of the gospel with his sword drawn, and he prospered
as he rides. You remember Isaiah 53 10 where
it said, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him
to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The Lamb of God prevailed
to accomplish all God's purpose. He prospers, he prospers. You
remember in the study, when we studied through the book of Genesis,
and we came to the son of Jacob, Joseph, you remember? Joseph
was sold off into slavery by his brothers in the Egyptian
bondage, and Potiphar bought him and made him a slave in his
house. And the Lord says of Joseph that he made all that he did
to prosper. And you know the story of Joseph,
who was a type and picture of Christ, how he is raised up on
the throne and provided corn and substance and food for the
children of God. But notice these three attributes
of our Savior. And I love this. He rides prosperously,
and He does so because of truth, because of meekness, and because
of righteousness. Now those three things. Truth. Remember our Lord said, I am
the truth. He is the truth. It's impossible
for God to lie. Our Lord said you should know
the truth, and the truth will set you free. And then this word
meekness, can also be rendered mercy. Our Lord delights to show
mercy. He will have mercy on whom He
will. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other at the cross. Remember Psalm 85, 10?
We need to look at that Psalm. We have not looked at it for
a while, Psalm 85, 10. And then truth, mercy, meekness, and righteousness. Now this righteousness thing,
this is so, so important. So, so important. I've been reading
through, studying personally, for my personal benefit, through
the book of Ezekiel. Because Ezekiel and the book
of Revelation are really a parallel. I was reading Ezekiel 18 today,
and I was reading Robert Hawker's commentary on that particular
chapter, and that chapter has a lot to say about righteousness.
Now, we know in the Gospel that there's a righteousness of God
revealed in the Gospel. And that's Christ. But Hawker
said a lot of people have nothing but a law of righteousness, a
law of righteousness, trying to establish a righteousness
by the deeds of the law. Now, how far is that going to
get you? By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.
And then Hawker talked about a gospel righteousness. Now,
there's two different things. One is condemning. of law, righteousness. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But that gospel righteousness
that's revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, He's called the Lord,
our righteousness. I want you to turn and read with
me. Turn. Do you remember Psalm 71? Do
you remember studying that Psalm? Psalm 71. And the key word in
Psalm 71 is this gospel righteousness. Look at verse 2, deliver me in
thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear
to me and save me. And then also, verse 14, turn
over there, Psalm 71, 14. But I will hope continually,
and will yet praise Thee more and more. My mouth shall show
forth Thy righteousness, Thy salvation all the day, for I
know not the number thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord, I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even Thine
only. You remember Psalm 32, Paul quotes
it in Romans 4, Blessed is the man whom the Lord imputes righteousness
without works. And then verse 19, Psalm 71,
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who hath done great
things, O God? Who is like unto thee? And then
verse 24, Psalm 71, verse 24, My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long. Now, we're going to talk
about righteousness. We're going to talk about Christ,
our righteousness. He's made unto us what? Righteousness,
isn't He? He's called the Lord. our righteousness. My tongue shall talk of thy righteousness
all the day long, for they are confounded, for they are all
brought unashamed that seek my hurt." Back to Psalm 45. And if the Lord is pleased to
teach us His gospel truth, to teach us the truth of His mercy
to the miserable, grace to the guilty, redemption to those who
are ruined in sin, and then the righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel. Thy right hand, and we have to
be taught this, look what it says, Thy right hand shall teach
thee tremendous things. These are tremendous lessons.
All those who have heard and learned of the Father, they come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you come to Christ? It's
not something physical. As the old preacher used to say,
come to Christ and don't move a muscle. Come in your heart. Come by faith, believing Him.
Tremendous, tremendous things the Lord is pleased to reveal
unto His people. This is the education we need
to be taught of God, how He can be a just God and Savior. Now look at verse 5. Thine arrows,
you see how this, our majestic, glorious King, He rides with
a mighty sword. And He also has these arrows. are sharp in the heart of the
king's enemies, whereby the people fall under him." They fall down
under him. The gospel is not only a mighty
sword, but a penetrating arrow, piercing the heart, subduing
the rebel into submission. Thy people, you remember Psalm
110, verse 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of his
power. When God takes aim with the gospel
of his word, with the gospel arrow, it never misses the intended
target. The heart, salvation is a heart
work. The sinner will always be conquered.
By the almighty, invincible, sovereign grace of God, none
can stay His hand or stop Him. None can stay His sword, His
arrow. It always penetrates the heart. Now, quickly, verse 6, 7, 8. Thy throne, O God. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He's God our Savior. Thy throne, O God, this is quoted
in Hebrews chapter 1, and the writer there makes application
to the Lord Jesus Christ. God said unto my God, sit thou
at my right hand. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Surely he will do right. Thou
lovest this righteousness, God too holy to look upon sin. Thou lovest righteousness. The
Lord Jesus Christ had no sin, knew no sin, and did no sin.
He was made sin for us, who knew no sin. He was made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Thou lovest righteousness,
hated iniquity, because He's God. Therefore God, thy God,
hath anointed thee. with the oil of gladness above
all." The Lord Jesus Christ. You know the word Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord of lords, King of kings.
Call His name Jesus, that means Savior. And what does the Christ
mean? When Christ has come, He'll tell
us all things. That means the anointed of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is anointed in all of His office. A King
to reign, a priest to reveal, and a Savior that really is a
prophet to tell us, a priest to redeem us, and a King to reign
over us. He's anointed above all. Anointed
above all. How high is He anointed? How
high is our God and Savior? When He by Himself purged our
sin, He sat down on the throne of God. Thy throne, O God, is
forever and ever. We have one right now. I think
of this often when I personally pray. And when I publicly pray. But more so when I personally
pray myself, thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ seated on the
throne of glory as my advocate, as my mediator, as my intercessor,
interceding for us to the Father. Boy, that's why we pray, isn't
it? Why do we pray? Well, religious people pray for
different reasons. His people pray out of thanksgiving,
out of rejoicing in their heart, giving thanks unto God for everything
we have, everything we know, what I am. I am by the grace
of God. Thou lovest righteousness anointed
above all. Verse 8, Thy garments They smell
of myrrh sweetness. His death is
called a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord. All of our garments
are nothing but filthy rags or smoke in His nose, Isaiah 65. All the garments of the Lord
Jesus Christ are anointed salvation, garments of salvation, robes
of righteousness, the smell of myrrh, aloes, cassia, out of
the ivory palaces whereby they may degland." Happy, blessed
are His people in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's given us the garments
of salvation and the robe of righteousness. He's made us kings
and priests under our God. We reign, we shall reign with
Him forever and ever, whereby they have made... We're glad. We're glad in Him. We need His
righteousness. We need His sacrifice. Basically,
we need Him, don't we? Christ is all and in all. In Him dwells all the fullness
of Godhead bodily, and in Christ we are complete.