I invite you to take your Bibles tonight and turn in them to Psalm 45. Tonight, in just a moment, we will consider verses 13 through 17 as we finish up this series on Psalm 45. But before we get there, and as you're turning, I just want to give a very, very quick plug for a book. It's called Robert Murray McShane, and it is by Andrew Bonar. This is, of course, the biography of Robert Murray McShane. Robert Murray McShane was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and missionary in the 19th century. One of the things that drew me to Robert Murray McShane was his series of sermons on the Lord's Day. He was a Sabbatarian, but his sentiments are very much in line with a love for the market day of the soul. And when I read those sermons on the Lord's day, I was drawn like a moth to a flame to his other sermons. And I was very much blessed by him. If you've never heard or read a sermon on the Song of Solomon, I recommend Robert Murray McShane to you. He has about three sermons on the song. and he of course points it to Christ in a way that I think few preachers in our age today can, while keeping a straight face at least. And so I'd never heard such a love put on display in sermonic form for Jesus Christ and an exhortation that you do the same than his sermons on the Song of Solomon. One of the other things I really loved about this biography is Andrew Bonar does not engage in what is called hagiography. And hagiography literally means holy writings. And oftentimes, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but you've been reading a biography of somebody, David Livingston, William Carey, whoever, and whoever wrote it, you get the impression that they thought that these people were Jesus, that they walked on water and did no wrong. That's what's called a hagiography, just declaring the greatness of the person without showing their warts. Andrew Bonar doesn't do that when he gives an account of Robert Murray McShane, especially in his years before conversion and even after conversion. He tells stories of Robert Murray McShane training for the ministry and yet staying up late on Saturday night playing poker with his friends. and then having a guilty conscience about it and just working through that in his soul. And I thought, thank you, Lord. Thank you that you can give a raw display of a sinner who is wrestling toward grace so as to strengthen my soul. So I encourage you to check out this book, Robert Murray McShane. It's put out by Banner of Truth. I don't know if we have it in the library. I pulled this out of my own library. All right, let's turn our attention then to the Word. I'd like to focus tonight, as we finish up our series on Psalm 45, on verses 13 through 17. If you're coming in a little bit later and you haven't heard the other three talks, I encourage you to check them out just for purposes of context and exhortation. But I'm just gonna read in your hearing tonight Psalm 45, verses 13 through 17. And you can find that on page 471 in your Pew Bibles. Let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word. The psalmist says, "...All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness, they are led along as they enter the palace of the King. In place of your fathers shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. Amen. That's the further reading of God's Word. I like to, I was telling somebody this this morning, I like to get my exercise done early in the day, like at the beginning of the day. Sometimes I leave my exercise toward the end of the day and it kind of serves as a summons to the principal's office. You're just not looking forward to it all day. So I try to get it over with in the beginning of the day and that means that when the alarm goes off and after I've snoozed for about four or five times to the chagrin of my wife, I'm drawn like a tractor beam to the coffee maker, and I get that sweet caffeine coursing through my veins, and I start to wake up, and I start to think. I have to go through a process. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go run now. I'm gonna go run, and I'm thinking about running, and I'm thinking about my dog pulling me like a locomotive, and I'm just trying to prepare my body for the temperature that I'm going to face, which in Virginia Beach, you never know. I mean, the other day, it was 34 degrees, and now tomorrow at 5 a.m., it's gonna be 55. blessing and a curse at the same time. But once I finally wake up and start realizing, okay, I'm gonna do this, I wanna go back to bed. But I can't, I can't because the caffeine is now coursing through my veins. And what I need is I need something that will prime the pump to get me ready to exercise. Now for me, there's a few different things that I use. Sometimes I just put on some edgy music and some edgy music will get me going. Sometimes I go out into my garage and on my board of tools that's hanging, I have affixed a picture of me about 20 years ago and about 50 pounds heavier. And I just go out into the garage and I look at that and that usually does it. And I get my running shoes on and I go off and run. Well, in the same way that I need to prime the pump for exercise, I don't know about you, but I also sometimes need to prime the pump to pray. Just being honest with you, sometimes I come before the Lord in my prayer closet and I just don't want to pray. You ever experience that? To be honest with you, to continue this transparency, and I'm ashamed to confess this, but I wanted to confess it just so you know that I'm a fellow sinner like you and I struggle. Sometimes I feel like there's better uses of my time than praying. I don't know if you ever experienced that. And what I need is I need to prime the pump to pray. And one of the things that I found to be quite helpful is reading through a passage of Scripture that poetically describes how the work of Christ transforms me and transforms the church. And the poetry element in that is important because there is an aesthetic dimension to poetry that, at least for me, can more quickly permeate my heart and jumpstart my emotions than the linear logic that we often encounter, for example, in the epistles of Paul, and those have their place. But poetry moves the soul, and that is exactly what we see here at the tail end of Psalm 45. You will recall that Psalm 45 is a messianic psalm in its original horizon or first horizon. It was a royal wedding ode to the king and his wife on their royal wedding day. In verse 1, the poet, he addresses the king. I will address my verses to the king. And then in verses two through nine, he speaks of the bridegroom king and all of the ways in which his majesty shines in splendor and in sovereignty. And then in verses 10 through 16, we saw the last few times we were in this passage, the presentation of the bride. She is urged to leave her people. and become one with her king. Now this is the original horizon. On the second horizon, as we saw in Hebrews chapter 1, we can look back at this psalm as Christians and see a typological relationship between the king and his queen and Christ and the church. And so what we see in Psalm 45 is a royal wedding ode to the king, the bridegroom, and the Queen, the Church. And in these last verses, 13-17, we specifically get an unusual picture of the Church. And you'll see why in just a moment. So here's what I want to do in three brief thoughts tonight. I want to look at this description of the Bride, the Church of Christ in verses 13-17. And I'm very intentional with this, so please listen to me. and consider a few ways we can prime the pump of our hearts to break forth in gratitude to our King in prayer. That's what I'm aiming for here, okay? I want to consider how Jesus considers His bride when He looks at her in redemptive history, and then I want to consider how that should prime the pump in our hearts to think about how we can adore the King in our prayers. How we can get alone with the Lord on our knees, in our prayer closets without any distraction, and start with the A in the acts of prayer, which is adoration. Giving to Him thanks. Not immediately coming with a checklist of requests, but coming with adoration, with worship, with splendor to the King. So first off, consider this. Give thanks to the king for how he views his bride. Look at verses 13 and 14. We'll get there in a minute. I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but I have found once I entered into this thing called the Reformed tradition many, many moons ago, that some preachers in the Reformed tradition shout total depravity and whisper union with Christ. Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever been under a reformed sermon or a reformed minister who basically remind you of how much of a miserable, wormish, deplorable sinner, worthy of nothing that you were, except for the wrath and condemnation of God? And the thing is, is all of that is true. It's true. It's the tea and tulip. We are totally depraved. But my greatest life coach, Kohelet, reminds me to strike a balance in all things in life. He says, learn to grab onto one thing without what? Letting go of the other. And while it is true that we are totally depraved and deprived, it is also true that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you are in union with that King. And so the Bible also teaches us that in union with that King, we are a new creation. In Christ, we are perfectly righteous. In Christ, we are the object of beauty. And that is a bright and brilliant hue that our poet draws out in this text. Look at verses 13 and 14. All glorious is the princess. I don't like that translation literally in the Hebrew. It's Bat Melech, which is the young woman of the king, which literally is technically the queen. All glorious is the queen in her chamber with robes interwoven with gold. In many colored robes, she is led to the king with her virgin companions following behind her. I want you to note where she is waiting. Where is she waiting? Where does the text say she is waiting? She's waiting in her chamber. She's waiting in her chamber. It's a chamber in the palace where she awaits until she is led to the king in the marriage ceremony where she will formally be wedded to him. I want to think about that for a minute. It is in that formal ceremony that all the watching world will see the culmination of his love for her. A union promised, a union of matrimony promised, in our day it is with a ring, it is with a word, it is with a proposal, it is with a bent knee, it is with, if a man really is a man, the permission of the father. A union promised will be a union realized. And she is in that chamber and she is waiting. She has the union promised, but she's waiting for the union realized. And when we come to the New Testament, turn very quickly in your New Testament to Revelation 19, 7 and 8. When we come to the New Testament, we see the actual fulfillment. of this ceremony in Revelation 19, 7 and 8. Here the bride, here the church, is waiting in her chamber. She is waiting for her King. And then this declaration is belted forth by John the Revelator in 19, 7 and 8. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. It was granted for her. to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." Now notice that this future event, listen, is the lens through which God views us now. How does He view us? He views us as those who are in union with Christ, who have the promise of union, and will one day realize that union in that public vindication ceremony of the marriage supper of the Lamb. But until then we wait. But with what are we clothed? We are clothed with fine, bright linen. And I want you to notice two things about these garments. What I love about it, verse 8, is that on the one hand, It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. It was granted to you. It was given to you to wear garments that were bright and pure. And what we see here very clearly is that the righteousness of Christ is being given to us. But I want you to notice on the other hand, it says in verse 8, the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. What has he done there? What has John done there? You know what he's done? In some sense he's conflated what God in Christ has given to you and he has made it yours. They are your righteous deeds. Yes, they have been granted to you to wear, but they are your righteous deeds and you wear them with pride and beauty and glory. Now don't get me wrong, I have some righteous deeds, you have some righteous deeds, but in reality, in honesty, could we actually say that our righteous deeds could be described as pure, bright linen? No, they could not. They are stained and they are spotted and there are Spots all over them and yet God describes us as his bride as those who have been granted to clothe themselves with the righteousness of Christ and yet that were those righteous deeds in the eschaton in the new heavens and the new earth will no longer be a forensic declaration but they will actually be yours. You will be perfect. You will partake, as Peter says, in the divine nature. John says, we do not know what we shall be, but we know this. When we see Christ, we shall be like him. Partaking of the divine nature. Now how does this help me? How does this help you? This helps me when I begin to get discouraged with my current state of holiness. It helps me when I begin to get discouraged about my current state of holiness. We heard her hard sermon this morning, right? Self-control. If you think it was hard to listen to, it was hard to prepare. It's hard to stand up in front of you guys and say that because I struggle with self-control myself. And oftentimes we can get discouraged with how we struggle with self-control or the lack thereof, right? So how do I respond to my soul? How do I respond to my soul like in Psalm 42 and 43 when it says, you don't desire God like you should. You are a fake. Just stop putting on airs. In those moments, what do you do? First off, you talk to yourself. First off, you talk to yourself. Do you know how many times throughout the day your soul and the world and the flesh and the devil are whispering in your ear? They're whispering, whispering, whispering, whispering. They're constantly trying to tell you, someone, that you're not. They are constantly, like Cain, it is Satan crouching. crouching at the door and its desire is for you and it whispers and it gets inside your head and like Michael Jordan back in the day, tap dances in your head and makes you forget who you are. And when the world, the flesh, and the devil do that, the worst thing you can do is not talk to yourself. The worst thing you can do is not preach the gospel to yourself. The worst thing you can do is not talk back to those enemies who try to schizophrenically situate you in an identity that is not your own. Martin Luther yelled at the devil. You know the famous story. He threw an inkwell at the devil. If you read past the hagiography, you will find out that he also said some choice words to the devil. The only word I will say is scatology, not eschatology, but scatology. Those are the words that are used toward the devil. Why? Because he realized the fierce gunfight that was ensuing when the world, the flesh, and the devil came to tap dance in his head and tell him that he was somebody that he's not. So talk to yourself. Secondly, and here's where we come back to the chamber of the bride. When the world the flesh and the devil and even your soul Tell you that you are a fake remind yourself that you live in the tension of the already and the not yet You live in the tension of the already and the not yet Some of you don't know what that means the already is the gospel promises that have already been given to you You are already united by faith in Christ. You already have had your sins purified you have the righteousness of Christ and But the not yet is that you don't have a glorified body yet. You still have a body racked with sin. You're still going to fall. You're still going to be a miserable sinner as you struggle with the identity of sinner and saint. But in the glorified state, in the new heavens and the new earth, in the eschaton, is the not yet that we are waiting for. So you live in the chamber of the already and the not yet between those two. You live in the chamber between the already and the not yet you are awaiting your wedding ceremony. It is not the case that is it not the case that oftentimes what happens to the bride in that chamber? Anybody know? What does she get? Cold feet, that's right. She gets cold feet, she gets doubts, right? She starts second guessing the whole shooting match, right? You ever experienced that? We don't like to talk about it. But sometimes as a Christian, as you are the bride of Christ and you're sitting in that bridal chamber and you're awaiting for the not yet, you're waiting for this public vindication, this public ceremony of the marriage supper of the Lamb, you get doubts. and the tension of the already and the not yet, but do not let the absence of the not yet rob you of the standing that the already has already given you. You have been betrothed to one, even Christ. He is yours and you are his. That bright and glorious day of public vindication is coming where you will see your Savior's face for who and what he really is, and all the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil will be exposed for what they are, lies from the pit of hell. Then we will see clearly, not as now through a glass darkly. So as long as I have faith, my broken, inconsistent, righteous deeds are eclipsed by the righteous deeds of Christ, and the Father views me as altogether glorious. That's the first thing I want us to see. Here's the second thing I want us to see. It's a little bit shorter. In verse 15. Give thanks to the King for what He is doing in the church. Give thanks to the King for what He is doing in the church. With joy and gladness, they, the church, are led along as they enter the palace of the King. This is the joy and gladness that we engage in on our way to the marriage supper of the Lamb. We're not there yet, but we have our heading, do we not? Whether you're thinking about this local church or the particular or universal church, It is so very easy to focus on all the corruption, the false teaching, and disunity in the church. How many websites and blogs are out there that are discernment bloggers? And they are there for our benefit. Thank God for them. They are there for our benefit to do all the heresy hunting, and to tell us who all the false teachers are, and to tell us all the things that's wrong with the church, and entry after entry after entry after entry, it is throwing mud on the face of the bride of Christ. I get a little hot under the collar when I see that. First off, oftentimes those discernment ministry people are the ones who are most inconsistent in their church attendance. Oftentimes it's those people who aren't even members of a church, who are not even accountable to elders and congregation. But more importantly, here's my problem. My problem is what are you doing to help the bride of Christ look more beautiful? What are you doing to solve the problem? And here's the other thing I would say, for all the negative things that we could say about the church, and trust me, there are many negative things to say about the church. What about the positive things that we could say about the church? What about the resilience of the suffering church in China that is growing leaps and bounds, and may I add, beyond that of the American church? What about the revivals that are breaking forth in Zimbabwe right now, and Zambia, in Africa, where Reformed Baptist churches are flourishing and growing? What about all these martyrs who refuse to deny the name of Christ, and would rather go to be in the presence of Christ, no longer seeing their family, no longer seeing their friends, no longer seeing their church, because they judge for themselves like Abraham and Moses and David and all the saints in the hall of faith that it was better to suffer for Christ than to live in this life and deny Him. What about blogs about that church? Let us step back from the regional church or the American church and consider the growth of the worldwide church since the first century. My wife always reminds me of this. She's a closet post-millennialist, but she always reminds me that the first century church started out from a rag bag group of 12 disciples and a rabbi to a worldwide phenomenon that has shaped and formed culture for some 2,000 years now. Its missionaries have gone to cannibalistic people and tribes that sacrifice their children and wives and have converted millions who now name the name of Christ. Don't get me wrong, there's a place for calling out Aaron, we must do it, but there's also a place for voicing our joy and gladness over the bride who is on her way to the king. And my question for you tonight, a few of them, is this, when is the last time in this congregation, let's make it practical now, when is the last time in this congregation that you lifted the countenance of a brother or sister genuinely, not superficially, but genuinely because you saw some spark, some growth, some forward movement in their faith. Contrast that with the last time you rebuked somebody, and there's a place for rebuking, or the last time you gossiped about somebody, behind their back, of course. Think about how the bride needs to be encouraged, and start here. Not on your blogs. I don't know how many of you have blogs I'm not saying it's bad to have a blog in most cases it is but anyway Okay, I'm just saying Here's where you live Here's where you live The people if you look around these are your brothers and sisters these are the bride of Christ sitting in the chamber waiting for her King to draw her to the marriage ceremony and the feast of the Lamb and And like you, those brothers and sisters around you are going to experience doubt in the middle and the tension of the already and the not yet, and what they need to hear from you is the thing that, you know what, many of us oftentimes think in our hearts. You see a brother or sister, you hear a brother or sister, you see something going on in their life, and you're like, man, they're growing, that's great, but you never tell them. You never tell them, and they need to hear that. But secondly, what I would encourage and exhort you to do is let this break forth in your prayers. How many times do we see in Paul's writings that he thanks the Thessalonians for their great faith? In the book of Romans, he tells the Romans, I think this is Thessalonians, but your faith is famous. In the book of Romans, your faith is famous among all those in Macedonia. You're doing a great job. He even tells the Corinthians, you're doing well, keep doing well. And I'll never forget what John Piper said about that. He said that was just true enough to be in the Bible. Because we were talking about the Corinthians. It was just true enough to be in the Bible. But sometimes I think, and I've talked to some of you, and I've felt this myself, sometimes people are like, well, I don't wanna affirm somebody, I don't wanna encourage somebody, because it comes across as superficial. Maybe to you it does, but maybe to them it's exactly what they needed to hear. Paul said, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. And I think that it's very important that we seek to have this long view with others in the church. We're all a work in progress. It's important for us to make much even of the smallest increase of faith. Now finally, final thing in verse 17. The resolve of the Christian on knees and feet. The resolve of the Christian on knees and feet. Look at verse 17. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations, therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. This is the last verse in Psalm 45 and it is, it was a little confusing at first. This is the resolve of the poet. This is the resolve of the poet. His voice has come full circle. He began by saying that he will address his verses to the king and now in his parting words, he resolves to the king that by his life and through his testimony, he will be a living emblem of God's praise among the nations. He will make the king's praise known among the nations in how he conducts his life. He will make the King's praise known among the nations in how He conducts His business, runs His household, manages His affairs, orders His weeks, spends His time, and raises His children. With every fiber of His being, He will wash His wife and His children in the water of the Word." Listen. so that by God's grace those children might take the baton of faith to the next generation, and to the next, and to the next, until the King returns and all God's children are gathered together in unceasing praise and glory and honor of the King. It does not happen by itself. We have to pass that faith on to next generations. And this is what this poet resolves to do, and I pray and hope it's what we resolve to do to make God's glory and renown known among the nations, known in our schools, known in our families, known in our neighborhoods. And is this not what prayer is daily meant to do? It is in a psalm like this that we get a vision of the eschaton. We get a vision of what it'll be like when every knee is bowed and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord. And when we open our eyes from prayer and stand to our feet, we are ready to go out and make that glory known to the rest of the world. I don't know about you, but I need that kind of priming of the pump every day. I need just a little taste of that coming glory to prepare my mind for action, to prepare my words to be seasoned with salt, to prepare my will to say no to the sin crouching at my door, for its delicacies are temporal and fading, but the weight of glory. The weight of glory to which I have been called is heavy. The weight of glory to which you have been called is heavy. And I get a feel for that heaviness when my verses are addressed to the King in prayer. Let's pray. Father, God, may that baton be passed to this generation, yea, verily, even to this church, that we, in our prayer, both private and public, would address our verses to our King Jesus, and that, Father, we would be taken up with a view of the new heavens and the new earth, Lord, and that when this world draws us back to its shipwrecked shores, We would not stay in the tension and the doubt, but we would press forward to the eschaton. We would look, Father, we would look as we stand on Jordan's stormy banks into that land of promise, that land of promise that you have given us, that land of promise, as Pastor Ken reminded us this morning, that was cut, as a covenant is, with blood. A covenant through which God, in anthropomorphic ways, walked through that path by himself, swearing an oath, communicating to us and to all succeeding generations that this is a unilateral, unconditional covenant. He has promised it. He will make it happen. It is more sure than the hand in front of my face and the image in the mirror before me. Father, give us faith like that, faith that will follow us into the prayer closets, faith that even now, Father, will cause us to lift up ardent cries to you among this people, your church, for it is in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, let's