Father, we thank you again for allowing us another Lord's Day. By your grace, you've allowed us to wake up and breathe the air that you've created, by your grace only. And we thank you that your son Christ, who was obedient to the law, the law that all of us broke, died, buried, and rose again, and ascended to heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of you, Father. We thank you for that gospel. We thank you for your Holy Spirit and your means of grace. We thank you for each and every gift of your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would make yourself known through your word today, that we would grow in your grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The theme of this psalm is the announcement of the Messiah's reign. Generally speaking, it's one of the royal psalms that we've been going through, but more specifically it is a prophetic messianic psalm. It is rich in theology, Christology, and divinity. This psalm and the psalmist look forward to Christ, and David wrote this psalm, by the way, as we too should look forward to the second coming of Christ and spending our eternity with Him and our Father who is in heaven. Matthew Henry said, some have called this psalm David's creed, almost all the articles of the Christian faith being found in it." And the division of this psalm is as the following. Verse one is a promise. Verses two and three is victory. And verse four is God's promise to not repent. I repeat, God's promise to not repent. And verses five through seven is victory. Beginning with verse one. We'll read the whole chapter. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 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 beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sown, sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever and 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 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, and therefore shall he lift up the head. It's important to understand that the different ways the Lord is mentioned here in the text, it's used in the psalm in two different ways, and some of your Bible translations may not make that clear. I'm sure everybody in the congregation already knows this, but when the O-R-D in the word LORD are on all smaller upper caps, that word is Yahweh, for the Father. It's Yahweh, for God's name. And where you see the ORD in the word LORD in lower caps, that's speaking of the Lord Jesus. Though there are different interpretations, a large number of scholars do not believe that's the Lord Jesus, but I believe it is the Lord Jesus. That's why when I gave the brief introduction that this psalm is rich in Christology. Verse one is the promised. The LORD, in upper caps, said unto my LORD, in smaller caps, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The first Lord here is Jehovah, which means the existing one. That is the name of the one true living God, the only true living God of the scriptures. The second Lord is the Hebrew word Adon, or Adonai, which refers to Jesus, who Jesus is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Many scholars and many commentaries, most of them are dispensationalists, believe that this second Lord is referenced to a mere man or a king, though it was common for men then to call other men Lord. Matter of fact, sometimes people from Scotland today will still call men Lord. But this Lord here is speaking of the Lord Jesus, Christ God Almighty Himself. Jesus is both God and man. As God, he would be David's Lord, and as man, he would be David's son. So Jesus was David's master and David's son. Remember, we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God that Jesus Christ is the son of the seed of David. So here, Jesus was David's master and David's son. And this verse contains the doctrine of the ascension. And the ascension of Christ is, in fact, a big part of the gospel. Jesus had two natures, a human nature and a divine nature. And after his death, burial, and resurrection, his ascension exalted Christ, that he has now been exalted. What people thought was a defeat was actually a victory, as he is exalted and now seated at the right hand of the Father. The majesty, most high God, seated at his right hand, where he now is equal with the Father. And the father, Jehovah, declares his son, Adon, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. This is actually encouraging, especially for nations that are being persecuted, that their enemies and Christ's enemies, the enemies of God, will one day be under the foot of Christ and they will become his footstool, that he will defeat the enemies in the end. And thank God that we are on the other side of that equation, that Christ's bride is saved, that we are chosen by Him, that God has chosen us to be His elect, that Christ propitiated our sins for us on His cross, that He declared us sinners righteous before the Father because of His love for us. In the New Testament, Jesus Himself actually referred to this psalm. As he said in Mark chapter 12, beginning with verse 35, and Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth my Lord, And whence is he then his son? And the common spoke heard him gladly. Amen. It's amazing how the word of God interprets the word of God, how the word of God actually becomes our commentary, that what Jesus said, the New Testament actually told us whom wrote that psalm many years beforehand. Next in verses two through three is victory. Verse two, the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Between verses one and two has been referred to as the Great Parenthesis, the Great Parenthesis, which is the church age from the enthronement of Christ until his second coming. And we now eagerly wait for his second coming. The Lord, the Father, gave Christ his royal rod, his scepter. The scepter is a symbol of Christ's royal authority as he is royal king and ruler over all things, all persons, and all matters. Christ is given authority to rule over all of the earth in the midst of his enemies. And Jesus rules over them. And one day he will destroy all of his enemies. One day they will be his footstool. Though God gave Christ the rod of strength out of Zion, He rules over everyone in the entire universe. It says in Philippians chapter two, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and of things in earth, and of things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We've said this before from this pulpit. Scripture is even saying that those that will spend an eternity in hell under the wrath of God will be on their knees and their tongues will be confessing Jesus Christ as Lord. That's a scary thought. I can't remember what Puritan it was that said it, but there'll be many people in hell wishing they would have heard the word repent just one more time. That's why it's the love of God that compels us to go out to the highways and hedges and to give them the gospel. To give them the good news so that perhaps if God chooses them that he would save them as he saved wretches like me and the rest of us. In the next verse, verse three, has always been difficult for many to understand. Hence, there's been various interpretations. Actually, that's the case with a couple of verses in this chapter. Nonetheless, it is military royal imagery. Military royal imagery. Verse three. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the due of thy youth. The ESV, many of you have that, it's what we often teach from here, it translates verse three as, your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. Many of you have the NASB in your laps or the New King James and that renders verse 3a as, your people will volunteer freely on the day of your power. Though King David has an army of men that are willing to offer themselves up for battle and go to war for him, but Jesus, the son of David, the king of kings, has an army himself. And perhaps this is imagery, perhaps, this is imagery of the second coming of Christ, where Christ's bride will reign with Christ. This is not known for certain, but the dew of thy youth means, perhaps, It refers to life. As we know, it's mysterious. We know where the dew comes from, but it's a mystery that the dew, at least for me, I have a lawn. You guys in the mountains don't all have lawns, but oftentimes there's a lot of dew on the morning. in the morning on the grass. It's a beautiful thing and it sits there for hours. If that dew was there every day we wouldn't even have to water the lawn. But that's God's providence that he puts dew on our grass or dew on your dirt or your mountain terrain or whatever we would call it. But Charles Spurgeon said this, In consequence of the sending forth of the rod of strength, namely, the power of the gospel out of Zion, converts will come forward in great numbers to enlist under the banner of the priest-king. Given to him of old, they are his people, and when his power is revealed, these hasten with cheerfulness to own his sway. appearing at the gospel call as it were spontaneously, even as the dew comes forth in the morning." I don't know about you folks, but recently I said how important it is to give thanks for our glasses of water. That every time we drink a glass of water, we should give thanks that God gave us that water. Even if it's man that put it in a bottle, that is God's water that he allowed us to drink and we must give him thanks. And the next time we see dew on the ground, let us give thanks for the dew that the Lord provides. Next in verse four is God's promise to not repent. His promise to not repent. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Jehovah God is sovereign over all things. He does not need to take an oath. It's unthinkable to even imagine someone asking God, metaphorically speaking, to raise your right hand and repeat after me. But here in verse 4a, he hath sworn, giving an oath, that he will not repent. Now the word repent that we as sinners, save sinners, are most familiar with is the Greek word metanoia, which means to change one's mind. And it is my daily prayer that the Lord by His grace will continually enable me to change my mind and repent daily. and also when necessary to change my mind and repent from sin as well. Although people today, unfortunately, even in the reform camp will automatically say, well, that's lordship salvation. We don't have to repent from our sins. I don't agree with that teaching. We're saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, but we want to repent from our sin. When we do sin, we want to turn from our sin as well. That is very, very important. But this word repent is the Hebrew word nakam, which means to sigh. In other words, to sigh or to breathe deeply, to be sorry, to be pitiful, to console or to regret. God has no regret. God does not need to repent from sighing. When things happen here on planet earth that are shocking to us, God is not sitting up in heaven biting on his nails saying, I didn't see that coming. God does not need to repent from sighing or from saying, oh no, whoops, what am I going to do? When a sinner goes to hell, God does not say, oops, one lost to salvation, one slipped out of my hand. No, God is sovereign over everything, and he decrees all matters to occur. And therefore, God does not need to repent. Now, calm. And so, because God is so perfect and holy, he has, again, no need to repent, and he vows here that he will not repent. As a confessional church, our confession teaches the doctrine of impassibility, that God is a God without passion. I know I quoted a paragraph from this confession probably about three months ago, but I'm going to quote it again because it is full of theology and doctrine. Chapter 2, paragraph 1 of our confession states this about our God. The Lord our God is but one living and true God, whose substance is in of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body parts or passions, who only hath in mortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal, most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty." Ouch. As one preacher said, that's either a big amen or a big ouch. Amen? That's the God we serve. That's the God of these Scriptures. So again, are you diligently seeking Him? The Scripture says no man can not even seek God in Romans 3, so how is it that we can seek Him? Well, because His monergistic salvation draws us to His Son for the salvific atoning sacrifice of what Christ accomplished on that cross. And so Holy Spirit quickens our mind and grants us repentance and changes our heart, regenerates our heart. And therefore now by the grace of God that he saved us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, we can now diligently seek him. So an evidence of salvation after grace alone is one whom will diligently seek him. and with all most just and terrible in his judgments, it says, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty." Again, that's why we must share the gospel, folks. Because God is just, He hates sin, He loves His church, and He will by no means clear the guilty. I know that pastors and preachers say, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but I'm going to ask for a show of hands. How many of you are guilty? Praise the Lord. Theo didn't raise his hand, but he's only a year old. We'll give him grace. We're all guilty, aren't we? But we've been chosen by the Lord. If you're born again in this congregation, we've been adopted into the kingdom of God. We belong to his family. Now we can enjoy the love and grace of God. How can we not go out and tell others about that wonderful salvation that he has given us? It is we, not him, that needs to repent. It's we that need to repent, not calm or metanoia. And we need to repent often. That was one of my consistent prayers daily. We talked about that in the little fellowship room over there early before church started. One sin that every man is guilty of, and that is idolatry. We all have idols in our minds. in our hearts. They keep creeping in. They keep creeping in. And we've got to continually repent from them. Amen? In verse 4b, God reminded us that his son, who is both prophet and king, is also priest. The priest saying, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ is prophet, king, and priest. Jesus is the one who was, the one who is, and the one who is to come. This psalm is so full of Christology. Next, verses 5 through 7 is victory. Verse 5. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. The second word, Lord, Adon, or Adonai, is Jesus himself again, whom is seated at the right hand of the Father, equal with the Father. A day of reckoning is coming where Jesus will strike the nations, its leaders, and its people, that all enemies of God will one day be defeated by Christ. By the grace of God, so go I, because the Bible says, I once was an enemy of Christ. I was once a son of perdition, and again, a child of wrath. And this day of wrath here is the Hebrew word af, which, strange, A-P-H pronounced af, that's an easy one, A-F, which is a noun masculine, and is in reference to God's face, nostrils, or anger. It's in reference to God's nostrils, to his face and his anger. We've all heard the saying, spitting in the face of God. That's why it's important to not ever draw or create an image of God or an image of Christ. It's a violation of the second commandment. It's sin. But God said himself right here in Isaiah 65, 5, who say, keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you. These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. Those are powerful words, folks. God said that himself. Listen to this, Amos 4.10. I sent among you a plague after the manor of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me, thus says the Lord. And if you dare think that I'm being too Old Testament here in today's sermon, then I'm going to turn to the right side of the book. I'm going to turn to the book of Revelation. We've quoted this one probably several times in the last year, and we'll quote it again, because this is what Jesus looks like in the New Testament. Revelation 19, beginning with verse 11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat on him was called Faithful and True. Christ is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Jesus' name is the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth the sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. On a positive note, because of Christ's righteousness, Christians will be beautiful in the sight of God. Every person in this congregation that has been saved, regenerate, you are beautiful in the sight of God because of the beauty of Christ, because of the righteous robes of Christ and his righteousness that has been imputed over to you. And you know, the Bible even talks about how beautiful your feet can be. when we share the gospel. I know that I have a daughter that's got a phobia. She can't stand seeing naked feet. She can't stand it. She would scream if she saw somebody's bare foot. To her, it's very offensive. She's got a foot phobia. But you know what God says about our feet? Listen to this, Romans 10, 15. And how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. That's a good remedy from Dr. Scholl's school of theology of having good feet because Jesus is the great physician. Continuing with the victory of the Lord. In Psalm 96 we saw the command to take the gospel to the heathen. Just a few sermons ago the Bible was telling us in Psalm 96 that we are to go out and take the gospel to the heathen. But now in verse 6 of this Psalm 110 God judges the heathen. Imagine that. What happens between the last time we were to share the gospel with the heathen, now he's talking about judging the heathen. Verse 6, he shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies, he shall wound the heads over many countries. The true saved Church, the true Bride of Christ, will know Jesus as the Prince of Peace, the loving Savior as the Prince of Peace. But the heathens of these nations, of all nations, actually all heathens of all nations, will know Jesus in His wrath and fury. And the question is, as I often ask, which attribute of Jesus will you come to know? It says in Joel chapter 3, beginning with verse 9, Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, prepare a war, make up the mighty men, let all the men of war drew near, let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. Thither, cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord, let the heathen be waken, and come up out of the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, you, get down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near, and the valley of decision. The sun of the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem. And the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people. The heavens of the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. so shall we know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain then shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore moving on to verse 7 it says he shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up the head There are many scholarly opinions as to what this verse means. I'm just going to name four of the many. The list is very, very long. But I like what William Plummer said, and I'll quote that in a few minutes. But one opinion is verse 7 is saying that this is the enemy drinking down God's wrath. The brook in the way is the enemy actually drinking down the wrath of God. Another is, this is God providing water for the earthly kings to refresh them during battle as the Lord fights their battle with them. Another belief of verse 7 is this is analogous to a great victory drinking the enemy's blood. That sounds bizarre, but there's a lot of scholars that believe that. Another is that this brook is analogous to the water, referring to the Holy Spirit. According to John 7, as the Holy Spirit is the water, the water is the Holy Spirit, and the Lord refreshes his people with his living water. But W.S. Plummer said this, Various and recondite meanings have been claimed as found here, speaking of verse seven. To enumerate them all would be tedious and unprofitable. The true explanation is that as conqueror in a great contest overcomes all opposition and refreshes himself at the brook in his victorious march and thus goes on conquering and to conquering, so shall it be with the Messiah." End of quote. So in closing, We, the born-again, blood-bought body of Christ, have so much to be thankful, so much to be thankful for, by the graces and the mercies and the love of God that He has shown to us, by saving us from our sins, by granting us repentance. The God has no need to repent, but we certainly do. We can rest assured that Jehovah, Adon, and His living water, His Holy Spirit, are in battle for us. Not only do we have the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have His angels that have been assigned to us as well. We also have each other, this body of Christ. One body of Christ in fellowship, koinonia, and discipleship. that we would be together, not just on the Lord's day, not just on our prayer service on Thursday nights, but other days of the week too, that we can be with each other and lift each other up in the name of Jesus. So let us rejoice in this psalm and be thanks to God for everything that he has done for us and give thanks to God for everything that he has not done for us that we have requested from him as well. Father, thank you. for your Word of God. Thank you for your Son that saved your church, whom is the Word of God. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your presence, for your means of grace. Thank you for your salvation. Thank you for your Lord's Supper that we will participate in next. Thank you for that vicarious, efficacious atonement that Christ did for your bride only, and we are part of that bride, your church. We thank you for that as well. In Jesus' name, amen.