My text comes from Psalm 110, verse 3. That is not the magical Psalms that I'm looking at. I'm looking at the prose Psalms in the middle of the Old Testament. Psalm 110, verse 3. Let me read the verse. Psalm 110, verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Those are the words I wish to look at. Now this Psalm 110 is what we call a Messianic Psalm. You will know that that means it is a prophecy of the Messiah which is of course the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the words in verse 3 refer to Jesus. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I think it might help if I give you just a few brief comments on the psalm here as a whole. This is not going to be an elaborate, complete explanation, but to give you some clues as to how we are to think of this psalm. Well, first of all, it's the psalm of David. You see that as the heading. which means that King David was the author of it and he lived about a thousand years before Christ came into the world. So let us begin by expressing our amazement that God in great detail gives a description of Christ and his sufferings a thousand years before Jesus came into the world. It just shows how inspired the Bible is. It teaches us how much we should be reading it day by day and meditating upon this wonderful book. Verse 1, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now, who is speaking? The answer is, it is God, the Father. As we all know, there are three persons in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And this is the Father. And he's talking to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what he says, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. So it is a prophecy that when Jesus would come into the world, he would have enemies. No wonder Jesus said, Marvel not if the world hate you. You know it hated me before it hated you. How true that is. Even today, 2,000 years after Christ came, all around the world many Christians are being persecuted. So we are not surprised when we read this. Verse 2. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Thou shalt rule in the midst of thine enemies. So, there we are told not to be afraid if people hate you because the Jesus in whom we trust is perfectly able to put our enemies in their place. He did that with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, etc. So don't be surprised if you meet those that hate everything that you believe about Christ. Verse 3. Thy people should be willing in the day of thy power. I'll come back to that because that's my text. And then verse 4. The Lord has sworn he will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator has three offices. He is prophet, priest and king. And that is implied here. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. You will probably know that those words are to be found in the epistles of the Hebrews and they tell us that Jesus is a kingly priest. Melchizedek was a king and also a priest, and Jesus was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So Christ is a lordly priest, not just like the priests of the Old Testament, but he's an absolutely supreme priest, able to look after all the spiritual interests of his people. So the comfort here is this, if we trust in Jesus, he will look after everything in our life. His eye will be upon us. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Verse 5. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in a day of his wrath. Now this teaches us that the enemies of the church over the centuries will pay a fearful price. God will knock them down. Christ will knock them down because he is Lord of all. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in a day of his wrath. A good example of this is the emperors of Rome in the pagan days. The emperors of Rome were often enemies of the gospel and They went to war against the church, but time and again they failed, they failed. They tried to wipe out the church, but they failed. That's also happened in modern countries, even today in China where there's a hundred million Christians, the government are trying to suppress it, suppress it, suppress it. We mustn't be too upset about that. There's nothing new about that. The world hates God. The world hates Christ. The world hates the Bible. The world hates the Gospel. They're afraid of it. They don't want a God because they know they're going to have to answer to Him. If He's on the throne, how can I answer Him? That's the terror which is deeply in the conscience of all unbelieving people. They know very well there's a God. Everybody knows there's a God. It's just that they don't want to confess it. So it goes on like this, verse 6, he shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies, he shall wound the heads of many countries, which shows that the gospel which was in Old Testament times simply in Israel is going in New Testament times to fill the whole earth. Wound the heads over many countries. That's exactly what we see today. There are Christians in just about every country in the world. Whether you want America on that side, China on that side, North, South, East and West, the gospel has gone everywhere. Exactly what is implied in this inspired psalm. And then verse 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way. That's Jesus shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore shall he lift up the head. That's not such an easy verse to explain. I believe the interpretation is this. Jesus will drink up the sin of his people. He will drink up the dirty water of our wickedness and our sin in order to do away with it. He'll take the responsibility for our filth and our sin and our ungodliness, and He will suffer for it on the cross. He'll be punished for our sin. But then, when He's done that, He shall lift up the head. So it's Christ's humiliation and exaltation. Notice this. The exaltation always comes after the humiliation. Oh yes, people hate Christ in the world today, but We haven't heard the last word yet. The last word is not what they wrote in the newspapers last week, or what they said in the BBC this morning. The last word has yet to be spoken, and here it is. He shall lift up the head. Christ will reign and rule over all the nations of the world. Every knee shall bow to him. Every tongue confess that he is Lord. That'll be something for these political atheists and these proud atheists. There is no God. We don't believe in God. When they meet Christ, they'll have a different story to tell. They'll say, we knew very well it was a God. Oh, blessed Savior, what fools we were. Now, I want then particularly to look at that verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. What does that mean? It means, in the course of human history, some people will be different from others. And the difference will be this. There will be a willingness in those people whom God the Father has given to Christ. You see, before the world began, God the Father gave some people who were not yet living, but they were going to live, to Christ. If you're uncertain about that, let me prove it. John 17 is the great high priestly prayer of Jesus for his people. And Jesus says things like this, of those who now gave us none is lost. Those whom you have given me, O Father, I have kept. He's referring to the fact that before Genesis chapter 1, before creation, before there was anything created at all, Jesus, being the Son of God, received from God the Father the names of all those who, out of the fallen race of mankind, were going to be saved. by Christ. He was given the responsibility to save those whom God had given to him. So, this is what is said here. A willing people shall serve thee in a day of thy power. So, it's not talking about everybody in the world here. It's not talking about all those who go to church. He's not talking about all the Jewish people who were the Old Testament saints or church. He's talking about those who come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy people, he's talking to Jesus, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That means when Jesus has finished his work of suffering for us and dying on the cross, Christ will be lifted up on high, there he is seated at the right hand of God. And he is being told by God the Father that his people shall be willing in a day of his power. Not all the people of the world, but all those who are taught by God. And they are the ones for whom Christ died. We refer to a limited atonement. That means that Jesus did not die for every single person who would live in the world. Jesus came to die for those whom God the Father had given him. You remember how Jesus prayed that? Jesus said, I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me. For all thine are mine, and mine are thine. We must just pause about that, dear friends. If you're a Christian today, we must say, thank God that God put our names in his book before we were born. I know we often think that it is my choice to choose Christ, and it was. But then we have to say, who gave me the ability to choose Christ? And the answer is God. And how did God make me willing? He made me willing in a day of His power. I'll say a bit more about that in a moment but that's the substance of it. The day of power is a day in which the Lord Jesus Christ, having been crucified for us and exalted to the right hand of God for us and seated now at the right hand of God for us, has the power of His Holy Spirit. That's where the power is. It's not physical power. We're not talking about engineering power like electricity. We're talking about spiritual power. And the author of this spiritual power is the third person of the Godhead. Let me just pause for a moment to remind you of this important truth. We speak about the Gospel as the eternal purpose of God before the world began. And we talk about the eternal purpose of God like this. We call it the covenant of redemption. There are three covenants we talk about, covenants. The first covenant is what God made with Adam. We call it the covenant of works. Had Adam obeyed God, then that would have been sufficient to take all people to heaven. But he broke the covenant of works, so God made a second covenant with the human race, or some of the human race. And that is the covenant of grace. And that covenant is made with all true believers. They are in the covenant of grace, not thanks to us, but all thanks to God's mercy. But then we use another phrase, the covenant of redemption. What's that? The covenant of redemption is a term we use for the eternal purpose of salvation which the three persons of the God had planned before the world began. They looked forward into the future and they saw that Adam was going to sin, so they made a covenant, one with another. The father said, my son, Jesus, When the world is made and when Adam and Eve are created, when people in this world are sinners, my son, I want you to go into the world, to take human nature, to be born as a man in the world. And I want you, my son, to live and to die so as to pay the price for the sins of thy people. And Jesus said, O my Father, I am willing to do that. And the Holy Spirit said, and I will go into the world to give power to sinners whose names are in the book of life, so that they might have the ability to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. So it's a covenant between the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And this covenant means that power will certainly be given to those whom God is going to save. And this power will be the ability to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, after he was at the age of 33, he died. He was buried. He was dead for three days. On the third day he rose. He was on earth for 40 days. At the ascension he rose up on high and the apostles saw him go up and up and up and up until he sat on the throne. And then so many days later the Lord Jesus Christ poured out his Holy Spirit. And this is to be read about in Acts chapter 2. day of Pentecost. And what a power that was. Do you remember that? The day of Pentecost. Let me remind you of some of the things that happened. The apostles were given unusual powers to speak with other tongues, other languages. And then they were full of spirituality, full of a sense of the glory of God. And then they began to preach. People thought People who weren't believers, they heard all this noise and this amazing succession of events. Oh, they said, these men are full of new wine. They're drunk. That's why they're making these funny noises. What came next? Peter stood up and said, these men are not drunk. This is that which is promised in the word of God. The coming of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God. And he explained to them how Christ died and rose again and poured out his Spirit. And the effect of that was that instead of scoffing... Do you remember how many people were converted that day? 30,000 people. I'm sorry, 3,000 people. 3,000 people were converted to God in that one day. 3,000 people. And that was because the power was there. The power of the Holy Spirit was changing the lives of these men and women who were listening to Him. And that wasn't the end of the story. Every day, fresh people were added to the church. Daily, new converts, daily. Now, we don't see that today, do we? We don't see people queuing outside the church to come in and then saying, the church isn't big enough, can you make a bigger church for us please? But that's what had to happen in these days, you see. The days when the Lord Jesus Christ had finished his work. Now the lesson here for us all is this. Beloved friends, by nature Everybody is unwilling to become a Christian. Nobody wants to become a Christian of himself or herself. And the reason is because, by nature, we all hate God. It's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. The Bible tells us that. By nature, we all hate God. And we don't want to talk about God. You don't go to public houses any more than I do, but I'm sure if you went to a public house and listened to the conversation, they wouldn't be talking about the gospel, would they? No, no. Football, perhaps. Money, no doubt. Pleasure, eating and drinking. But you see, by nature, man knows very well there's a God, but he doesn't want to talk about God, doesn't want to think about God. This is the way people talk. They say, I want pleasure. I want food and drink. I want to enjoy life. That's the way we all are until God makes us willing to believe the gospel. Even the Apostle Paul was like this. The Apostle Paul, who was such a great writer and preacher, he did not want to become a Christian. Do you remember the story in the Acts of the Apostles? He was going along the road toward the city where he was destined for, when suddenly a bright light shone from heaven, and he fell to the ground. And the voice said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But go into the city, and it will be told you what to do." And he did. And he became willing to become a Christian. How did it happen? Christ put forth power from his own hand, and he gave power to the Apostle Paul to turn from his unbelief to become a real, true, genuine Christian. So Paul began, unwilling, but he was made willing. And that's exactly what my text tells us. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, Christ's power. So let me explain now how Christ works in order to make a person a Christian. The first thing Christ does when he's going to make a person a Christian is he makes them uncomfortable. They go to church and they hear the gospel and they don't like the thought that the gospel challenges them. And people go home, they say, I don't like that today because the preacher was telling us I need to repent. The preacher was telling me I need to be born again. I don't understand that. I'm afraid of that. And people get, you see, nervous about it. But there's something keeps on troubling their conscience. Christ keeps on knocking at the door. So they come back to church and hear a bit more, and a bit more, and a bit more. And then they do what I did when I was converted over 60 years ago now when I was a student. I didn't want to be a Christian. I wanted to love the world. I wanted to love things of this life. I was just like anybody else. We're all the same by nature. I didn't want my life to be given up to enjoying church life and Bibles. But you see, Christ kept on knocking at the door of my conscience. And I couldn't get away from it. The knock, knock, knock was there. Until I got so troubled that I said to God, I will do anything to get peace. I will do anything to get peace. And when I said that, I got peace. You see, Christ makes us worried first. He troubles us first, so that we might realize that as unconverted people, we're not on the road to heaven, but on the road to hell. And he troubles our conscience and stirs us up. May I give you one or two examples of this, because it reminds us how important it is that you and I should be familiar with these things. Remember the Philippian Jailer in Acts chapter 16? The Philippian Jailer. There was an earthquake. And the prisoners, including Paul, in the prison, were able to get out of the prison, because the walls and the doors were shaken. And then the man in charge, looking after these prisoners, came out and he saw that these prisoners were now loose. And he took out a knife to commit suicide. And Paul shouted up to him, do yourself no harm. We are all here. And the man got a shock. What must I do to be saved, he said. And Paul shouted, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And he did. And he was baptized and proved the reality of his faith. So you see, God shook the man first. People need to be shaken out of their unbelief. People are fast asleep in their unbelief. Yes, they're dead in trespasses and sins. And there's an example of how Christ, by his power, made a man willing. Let me take another example. You've all heard of Spurgeon, haven't you? Famous preacher in London, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a very great preacher. When he was a young boy in his teens, he was not yet converted. One day he went to a tiny church in his part of the world, somewhere near Cambridge or somewhere down there, and he had a miserable face. He was just so troubled by his sin, his conscience was knocking on the door of his mind all the time. And Spurgeon sat somewhere there and the preacher couldn't turn up that day because the weather was against it. So he was one of the office bearers, I think he was a deacon or an elder. He had no sermon but he had to say something. So he kept on saying, you know, look unto Jesus. Jesus died for sinners. Look unto Jesus and you'll be saved. And the amazing thing is that was exactly the message that God blessed to Spurgeon. And when he got home Nobody needed to ask what had happened to him. His face was shining with happiness. He'd set off from home to go to church with a miserable face. His conscience was troubling him so much. But now, he heard that Jesus freely receives all sinners who come to him. And his whole life was changed. That's what made him the man he was. A man full of love for Christ, full of a desire to preach the gospel. Let me give you another example. Thomas Chalmers, a very famous Scottish preacher. Thomas Chalmers, he was the one that started the Free Church of Scotland all those years ago in 1843. I think I'm right with the date. Now, let me tell you about this man, Thomas Chalmers. He was a very brilliant man, academically excellent, very clever, very intellectual and all of that. But when he was a young preacher, in the 1830s, he was a dead preacher. In other words, he himself was not converted. You know, there are preachers who preach and have never been converted. So they shouldn't be preaching at all, but they do. There's many of these people today all over the country. They've never been converted, but they've got a little bit in their head, so they preach. But Thomas Chalmers was just like that. He was a moderate, which means he had never experienced conversion. However, he fell seriously ill and he had to take to his bed and he was there for some time in his bed. And when he was in his bed, Christ began to speak to his conscience and he turned him to read the Bible and to read good books. And when Thomas Chalmers got over his sickness, he was a new man. And when he went into the pulpit, he preached an entirely new gospel. New to his congregation, that is. He preached the old gospel of the Word of God. People couldn't believe it. He was like somebody dead and back from the dead. Now, I say that's an example because, you see, that's exactly what we're talking about here. We're talking about the power of God. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And that power is spiritual power. It's the work of Christ. First of all, he makes you miserable. And then he brings you to despair. And you cry out, what shall I do, Lord? What can I do? And he shines upon your heart and shows you what you must do. You must repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's exactly what always happens in the case of a true convert. And that's what happened with Thomas Charles. Let me give you one more example. There's a friend of mine who lives in Honolulu, a long way from here. Let me tell you how he became a Christian. He's a Japanese gentleman, very nice man, and he's spreading Banner of Truth books, too, where he lives, in Honolulu, in the Pacific Ocean. He was converted like this. He was living in America, and he was on drugs. Isn't that sad? Taking drugs. And this day he was looking at the television and he was on drugs. And when the program he was watching finished, a preacher came on to preach the gospel. So my friend didn't want a sermon, thank you, so he put out his hand to switch off the television. And the first thing the preacher said was, don't switch me off. So he pulled his hand back, thinking that the man behind the television could see him through the television. And then the preacher said, God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And my friend began to cry. He said, could God love a wicked sinner like me? and he discovered that God can. And for many years now he's been supporting the church, spreading the gospel, giving good books to people. And I mention it because all these examples are exactly what my verse talks about. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, made willing by the Holy Spirit. Now my duty, beloved friends, My duty to your soul is to ask you all, have you all had this experience? Do you all know what it is to have seen that the world is vanity? That all that matters is to know God, to know Christ, to have my sins forgiven. If you haven't had that experience, let me plead with you tonight. Oh, let me plead with you. As you're sitting there, give your heart to Christ and say, Lord, I can't live without you. I dare not die with my sins unforgiven. And cry to him to give you that grace which you so much need. And I promise you, if you are sincere, he will give it to you. He promises, whosoever will let him come and gives him the water of life freely. If you want Christ, he will certainly want you. He makes people willing in a day of his power. Now let me then show you the difference between a true Christian and a false Christian. It's all part of my text. A true Christian is one who is willing. You see what my text says, thy people should be willing in the day of thy power. How are Christians willing? Well, like this. A true Christian is willing to turn his back on the world and to walk in the way that God commands in the Bible. A true Christian is willing to receive the Bible as God's divine inspired word. Now there are plenty of professing Christians who are not prepared to do that. If I may illustrate it from my own experience. When I was converted about 1957, I had been attending a Methodist church in Britain, a Methodist church. And I never heard the gospel there, but then I wasn't converted yet, so I didn't know what the gospel was. But I went to university in the northeast of England and became a Christian and I went back home. And I now began to ask myself, I wonder if the minister is a Christian. So I went to see him and I said, Sir, I said, excuse me, I just want to tell you, I'm now reading the Bible for myself. Oh, he said, be careful, you never know where you might end up. Words like that. I knew very well, although he was a minister, he was not a true man of God. Nobody who truly believes the Word of God would put a young person off from studying the Bible. But he did, you see, that was the evidence. He wasn't a true Christian. He wasn't willing. He wasn't willing to accept the Word of God. A true Christian is willing to take the Ten Commandments as his rule of life. God makes us willing. As we had this morning, Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Here's another way in which Christ makes us willing. He makes us willing to do our duty, willing to serve. If we're husbands, he makes us willing to care for our wives. If we're wives, he makes us careful to look after our husbands and families. My beloved friends, let me say that to any person with children. Make it your great priority in life to teach your children the Word of God, even when they're very young. Bring them up to know the Bible as fully as you possibly can. That's what God does. He makes us willing. He makes us willing to do the will of God. Look at the Apostle Paul. Before his conversion, he was putting Christians to death and taking them to prison. When he was converted, he completely turned around. No wonder we call it conversion. Conversion means going that way and then going that way. Turning right round. That's what happened to the Apostle Paul. He was turned right round. He was made willing to go all round the world to preach the gospel. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and so on. He went to these places to spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was made willing to do that. Think of Martin Luther, the great reformer. He was willing to risk his life to show that the Roman Catholic teaching about justification was wrong. The Roman Catholic teaching of his day said that a person is converted and becomes a Christian if they are baptised in the Roman Catholic Church and if they keep the law of God. That's not the Gospel. As Martin Luther told us, we are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone. And he was willing to risk his life to tell the world that. He was made willing to risk his life. to tell us the truth. The great English reformers, Latimer and Cranmer, these great men, they were burned to death, some of them in Oxford, burned at the stake because they believed the Bible and not the false teaching of the church of their day. My beloved friends, you and I must be willing to suffer. We must be willing to be thrown out. We must be willing to suffer misrepresentation for the sake of the truth. My people shall be willing in the day of my power. That's what's said to us here. Think of the great missionaries who've gone all over the world. C.T. Studd, very clever man from Cambridge University. Could have made a fortune staying in this country. But he felt the call to go to the mission field. First he went to China, then to India, then to Africa. He was willing to do the work of God. Willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. Hudson Taylor was one of the great missionaries to China, wasn't he? In the 19th century. Hudson Taylor heard the words in his conscience. Go for me to China. Go for me to China. And he did. And as I said before, there are 100 million Christians or more in China today through the influence of men like Hudson Taylor. What have you and I to learn from this? Well, young men, be willing to serve the Lord as he may call you to serve him. And as I said before, may I repeat it, young ladies, if you have babies, bring them up with great diligence to know the word of God. My people shall be willing in a day of my power. So that's the way this word comes to us here. And in the end of our earthly journey, which is very short, Christ will take you, if you're a believer, into his heavenly Father's house above. If my people are willing to serve me in this world, Christ will certainly be willing to take us into heaven to the glory above. How kind he is! With his power he changes our lives. He finds us sinners, he makes us into saints. He finds us the children of the devil, he makes us into the children of God. He finds us on the broad road to destruction. He takes us by the hand to the narrow road that leads to everlasting life. And in the end they will come safe to those wonderful doors of heaven above and the doors will open and the Christian will go through and Christ will say welcome come into my Father's house. You have been faithful to me in this life and I will show you the love of God to all eternity in the life to come. My dear friends, that's what's meant here then by this verse, these words, My people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And as I close my sermon, may I put it to you Are you willing to obey Christ in all things that he calls you to do? Sometimes when the call to serve him is very difficult, we screw up our eyes and say how could I possibly do that? But his grace is sufficient. If you have that call from God to do something that is put into your mind by the Lord Jesus Christ, then your duty is to seek to do his will with all your heart. This is how C.T. Studd put it. He said, If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, no sacrifice on my part can be too great to make for him. and all the Lord's people will come safely through this world and all the Lord's people will meet in heaven just as Mr. Macrae Stornoway said to his dear wife when he was dying. 1964, wasn't it? Mr. Macrae Stornoway was dying in Stornoway at the time when his wife was beside him. Of course, she was troubled at the thought of losing her dear husband. And he said to her, don't worry, my dear. I'll be waiting for you up there. He and Mary of the Banner of Truth, he puts that into his diary of Mr. Macrae Stornoway. A very fine book, well worth getting if you haven't had it. So as I close then, dear friends, let us each one search our hearts. Am I willing to do what God calls me to do? Am I willing to turn my back on this world and to be doing the things that the world hates? Studying the Bible. engaging in prayer, meeting with the Lord's dear people, and seeking to promote the truth of God in every way I can. May the Lord help us so to do.