Good morning, everyone. It's nice to see you all out this morning to worship God's holy name. Please, if you would, turn the Scriptures to the book of Psalms, please. Psalm 57. Psalm 57, and we'll begin our reading from the first verse, or the title, please. Psalm 57, beginning at the start of this psalm. To the chief musician, Al Taskeith, Mictam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave, be merciful unto us, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up, Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before me. Into the midst whereof they have fallen themselves. Selah. My heart is fixed, O God. My heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto Thee among the nations. for thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth." Ending reading there at the end of verse 11, and again here We see the psalmist, he has his heart fixed, and that should be all of our desire here today, that our hearts would be fixed to worship the Lord. We haven't come here just to meet with other people and to socialize. We come today to worship God, and our hearts ought to be fixed. to praise God and to sing unto His holy name, because, as you can see in verse 10, His mercy is great unto the heavens and His truth unto the clouds. So, God's mercy toward us has been great. Therefore, our praise to Him should be with all our might and with all our soul, that we may glorify our God that is in heaven. But before we go any further in our worship today, let us Pray and ask for God's help on our meeting. Our Father in heaven, We are thankful again for this opportunity on this, the Sabbath day, to worship our God in heaven. We thank you for all of your mercy toward us, and I pray you'll come then and show us more mercy today, that you'll grant us your Holy Spirit, and that your name will be glorified and honored today in this place. I pray you'll give us help and you'll bless us as we seek to meet with our God and continue with us as we seek to worship you today. For us in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. We will begin our worship, our singing today by singing from Psalms. Psalm 24, please. Psalm 24, beginning from verse 6 and singing down to the end of verse 10. So, Psalm 24, verses 6 through to the end of verse 10. And we'll stand to sing, please. O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? ♪ And the perpets of life rejoice at the story ♪ ♪ Be with them, the soul and being, of glory enter in ♪ ♪ Daughter of glory, is the King, the mighty Lord is his ♪ ♪ He loves him, Lord, and with his life has spoken the truth ♪ ♪ With a purge he was forced unto the soil ♪ ♪ He did fill up the soul and ring of glory entered there ♪ Ulysses, the king of glory, Ulysses, the Lord of hosts and of body, the king of glory, Ulysses. Let us again come before the Lord and a word of prayer, please. Let's all pray. our great God of heaven. We come into Your presence this day in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that we have this opportunity again to come before You. We know that it's not in our own merit. We know it's not because of any righteousness that we have or any good thing that we have done. But we're thankful this day that we have a great Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you of one who loved us and gave himself for us. And we're thankful for that mercy that you have shown toward us. How gracious you have been to us in sending your only begotten Son into this world, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We thank you that as your people, We are saved. We are redeemed. We are washed today in that precious blood. So we thank you, Father, for our Savior. We thank you for that great work that He has done for us, that He came to this world to live for us perfectly. For we know that we have no acceptance before Almighty God, and today we confess our sins. We have sinned against you this week in many, many ways. We have broken your most holy law, and therefore, in and of ourselves, we've no right, but we thank you that our Savior lived for us, that we may have that righteousness that we need to approach you today. We're thankful, then, that He went to the cross to die for us, that He may purchase our salvation. And we're thankful today that He has accomplished redemption for us Then he went to the cross, and before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost, he said, it is finished. The work has been completed, and we're thankful. Then we read of that veil that was rent from top to bottom, giving us access right into your most holy presence. We thank you that all of this was possible through the blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But today we do not come to worship a Savior that is on a cross or a Savior that remains in a tomb, but Father, today we worship a Savior who is in heaven today, whoever liveth to make intercession for us. So we're thankful that we have a Savior who rose from the dead, and we're thankful for the resurrection today. We can know then that His work was accomplished. We know that what He did on the cross was acceptable in your sight, for you rose Him again from the dead. And we're thankful today we have a living Savior, and that as a result we do not need to remain dead in our sins, but we have a Savior who is living. And we're thankful that you have saved us and made us alive in Jesus Christ. And today we are here, though living to praise the Almighty God of heaven. And therefore today we ask that you'll come and bless us. within our worship. And You'll come, and You'll grant us more of Your mercy. For we read today, You've told us that Your mercy is great unto the heavens. So today we want to exalt our God above the heavens. We want to declare the glory of God to all the earth. So I pray You'll help us today to worship and praise our God and our Savior, the Savior we've been singing about today, that great King of glory. the mighty Lord, the Lord of hosts, that has entered again into heaven, bringing victory with Him. We're thankful, then, today we come worship, and I pray, then, you'll help us as we worship. Help us to lift our hearts in praise and worship. May we sing from our hearts. May we pray for with the petitions that you'd have us to pray, and from our heart as well, and you've told us that they that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Give us a right heart today. Cleanse our hands. Purify our hearts to sing your praises, to pray unto our God. In the name of the Father, especially as we come to your Word. You have said here, and again, that we read this psalm today, that your truth is unto the clouds, and we're thankful for the truth that you have given. But the psalmist said that God shall send forth his mercy and his truth, and I pray today that your word would be sent to us today, that you would speak to our hearts, and you would draw us closer to our Savior, you'd warm our hearts of us as your people, and you would have us understand who our Savior is, what He has done for us and what we are in Jesus Christ. But also we pray for those out of Christ today that You will speak to them as well through Your truth. So I pray You'll continue with us now as we would seek to further worship our Savior and our God. First in Jesus' name I ask and pray. Amen. Amen. I'm just going to ask for the announcements to be brought, please. Thank you. Firstly, I just want to welcome each one to our service this morning. Thank you for coming. I'd like to also give a welcome to those who are watching the service, joining with us online, and together we pray that we'll know the Lord's blessing here in God's house today. It's good to welcome again to our pulpit Mr. Thomas Hanna, a student assistant here in our congregation, and it's good to renew fellowship with him today. This evening, at the service, we will have Mr. Mark Woods, who will be preaching the word this evening. So I would encourage you to come out this evening, support our brother Mark, and support the meeting here in the church, please. Today is Building Fund Sunday. Please remember that in the offering. Then at 3 o'clock, there is the meeting in Ashwood Nursing Home. 6.30 is our time of prayer. And as I mentioned, at 7 this evening, Mr. Mark Woods will be here. Then on Wednesday at 8 o'clock, our Bible study and prayer time. And perhaps I could just mention Last Wednesday evening was the school prize giving. We had a special offering. I want to thank all who contributed to that offering. That offering, together with the gift aid that will come, came to just over £2,000. Since that, there's been an additional gift of £250. We want to acknowledge that. And perhaps I could just say that if you didn't have an opportunity to contribute to that special offering for the school, You can do that today. Just mark an envelope for the school and we'll add that to the offering. Then on Friday at 7 is the Bible Club. That takes us through to Next Lord's Day. Next Lord's Day is Remembrance Sunday. We'll have the Act of Remembrance in the morning. The Sabbath School at 10. And in the public worship, 11, 30, and 7, both services preceded by the half hour of prayer. And we will have our communion service after the morning service next Lord's Day. In the evening, there will be the youth meeting at 8.45 after the evening service, when our own minister, God willing, will be back with us next Lord's Day. Could I ask you to remember those in our congregation who are unwell. We have quite a number of people unwell at the moment, some in hospital, some have been in hospital, some waiting to go into hospital. Please remember them in your prayers. A couple of other things. Church committee meeting will be on Thursday, the 13th of November at 7.45. You put that Committeemen, please remember that. Also, Mr. Christopher Orr will be taking the prayer meeting here on Wednesday, the 12th of November, and that'll be a deputation meeting for him. One other thing I want to mention, and I'm sure you're all aware of the devastating weather conditions there have been in Jamaica. You may also know that our denomination have a church there in a town called Little London, and our mission board want to try and raise funds to support the work there in Jamaica. Now, a WhatsApp message has been sent out that gives you details if you want to contribute to that fund. If you find that difficult or you can't do that, if you do want to put a gift to that into any of the offerings, we will see that that's forwarded to the mission board. I'll just leave that with you. These are all the announcements. They're all in the will of the Lord. We'll hand back now to Mr. Hannah. Thank you. Thank you very much for making the announcements for us today. We will sing our offering hymn. Hymn number 40, please. Hymn number 40. Oh, worship the King, all glorious above. Oh, gratefully sing his power and his love. Hymn number 40. We will sing the entirety of this hymn, but we'll remain seated while the offering is collected, please. Yeah. ♪ Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing ♪ The low is the high ♪ ♪ The earth's the heav'nly space ♪ ♪ It sure is so crowded ♪ ♪ Here from the night's morn' ♪ ♪ And our wishes welcome ♪ ♪ The wings of the storm ♪ ♪ The earth with its storm ♪ ♪ Of the birds of dawn ♪ Oh, why he I mourn ♪ At my way of old ♪ As the wish they first thought ♪ Of changelessly green ♪ At my way of last time ♪ Of adolescence ♪ Father, sing the remainder of this hymn, please. it shines in the light. It springs from the empty, it sends to the plain, and sweetly whispers There's children of us, but we grow astray. In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, my tender, my firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend. Thy angels behind, to name Thee above. I am the creation of Thee, O my face, with true adoration shall whisper Thy praise. Would you please turn in Scriptures again to the book of Psalms, and this time to Psalm 45, please. Psalm 45. Today I want to take Psalm 45 as my text and make our way through the entirety of this psalm and see what lessons we can learn from it. So we'll read the entirety of this psalm, Psalm 45, and again we'll begin by reading the title. So Psalm 45, and beginning at the start. To the chief musician, upon Shushanim, for the songs of Korah, Maskell, a song of loves. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee forever. gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought on to the king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever." Ending our reading again at the end of this psalm, but before we come to consider God's Word, let us come before the Lord in a word of prayer, please, and ask for some of the petitions we would have. Father in heaven, we give thanks today for the Word of God. We thank you for those who in the past, and we've been remembering recently, that have taken the time and have educated themselves in order that they could read your Word in its original form and then translate it for us so that we may read it today in our own language, and how precious this is to us that we have Your Word here and we can read it, we can understand it, and we can be blessed by it. So we pray today that as we would come to it, to consider what is given to us here, that You would help us. You bless us, and You attune our hearts to receive Your Word today. We pray that whatever is of man and of the flesh, that it be disregarded and wouldn't be considered or remembered, but we pray that all that is from the Lord will be taken. Apply to the heart, and I pray it will be a blessing to all of us today. Speak to us. For us, your people, cleanse us from our sin. Fill us with the Holy Spirit that I may preach and that the congregation here may listen and understand and hear what you'd have to say to them. I pray that you'll encourage your people. Give us a word today that we may go in the strength of it for the rest of this week, but also for those who have gathered with us out of Christ, not resting in Jesus Christ for salvation. I pray you will speak to them even through this message today and then later on also in the evening service. but we pray that you'll come and bless us. We also pray for those who have been unable to gather with us today, the many, as has been announced, that have been unwell and are sick, those who have been in hospital, those who are in hospital, and those who will go in the future in your will. I pray your mercy will go with them. You'll encourage them, strengthen them in body, but also in soul. And I would pray you'll speak to them and show to them the brevity of life that they would prepare their hearts, especially those who are out of Christ, but also for your people that are unwell, that you will encourage them and bless them and speak to them even today, the day that is a day of rest for the soul. I pray you will speak to your people especially this day. We also pray for those who have been bereaved, maybe in the congregation, or those who are away at this time. We pray you'll comfort their souls and encourage them. We also pray for Mr. McClung and Mrs. McClung as they're away on holidays at this time. Encourage their hearts, bless them as they'll be worshiping today, and encourage them wherever they would meet. I pray you will bring them back even with refreshment and be an encouragement and blessing to the congregation here, but we also take time today to bring before you the work in Jamaica. And we know that You have sent this storm to Jamaica, and there's much damage and destruction has come as a result. And I pray, Father, that then You will provide for Your people and that you will then help us to be a help to others. But I pray you'll encourage your believers there. You'll bless that work, and may many in that nation consider how short life is, and that they would prepare themselves to approach God after they die, and that they would have their souls prepared, that they would be right before a holy God. And I pray that your people that remains there that they would be able to speak to others, speak a word for the Lord Jesus Christ, and may many be saved in Jamaica at this time. So I pray you'll bless the cause of Christ across this world, and I pray today you'll bless us even as the word of God is opened. Whether it is further afield, across this world, from one end to the other, I pray especially you'll bless us here. that you'll have mercy upon us, and that this will be a word from the Lord. So I pray you'll help us now as we would consider it, and may you bless us by it. First, in Jesus' name I ask and pray, amen. Whenever you are coming to the book of Psalms, it can be a habit of preachers sometimes to forget to read the title. Oftentimes, those who publish the Bibles, when it comes to Psalms, they come to the title, and you'll often see, and it may be the case in nearly everyone's Bible here today, that the title is often put in smaller print. And sometimes, as a result, people can be led to believe that the titles of the psalm have no significance to what is being said here. They may think, well, it's some helpful wee note to help us understand something here, but oftentimes people don't even consider the title as being inspired of God. But the title is part of inspired Scripture. So therefore, it's important for us to take time, when we're reading the Psalms, to come to the title and try to understand what is being said to us there. And one thing I want to point out from our title today, from Psalm 45, is the word mascal. Now, the word mascal is not an English word. It is actually just transliterated from the original into the English. And some have suggested that this word, masculine, means giving instruction. So whenever you see this word, masculine, you can say, well, this psalm is given to me to instruct me. The psalmist wants to teach me something from the words of this psalm. So it's important then for us to ask the question, well, what can we learn today from Psalm 45? For that is the title it's given. What can we learn today from Psalm 45? As we look at this psalm, you will come to see that it's speaking to us of Christ and the church. But here, if you look with me at the first verse, look at the first verse. My heart is indicting a good matter. Now, I have preached on this on a few other occasions. On one occasion, I was speaking to a youth fellowship group, and I asked them a question in an informal setting. I'm not going to ask today. But I asked the young people, does anyone know what the word indicting means? And in that youth fellowship, no one knew what that word meant. And it's vital for us to understand that word if we are to understand what this here sentence is saying to us. My heart is indicting a good matter. And to be honest, I didn't really know what it was when I began to study this as well. But if you have a margin Bible, sometimes you'll notice that it's translated as bubbling up. So we can read it that way. My heart is bubbling up in a good matter. So there was something here that the psalmist was considering that was causing his heart to bubble up. Now, it can be if you were in school, and if you're like me, you didn't like school, where the teacher was trying to instruct you about something, sometimes it can make you be bored. Sometimes you can think it's very cold. But that's not the attitude of the psalmist. The psalmist here was a teacher whose subject was causing him to bubble up, to warm. It had warmed his heart. He was burning. up thinking about the matter of this psalm. But what was he thinking about? Well, with similar language, if you will turn back a few pages to Psalm 39, please. Turn to Psalm 39. Here David is the psalmist, and he was having problems, and he was having problems with his lips. He was sinning with his lips. We see that in verse 1. "'I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.' So he's afraid what he was saying with his lips. So what was his answer? We read on here. "'I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. So here we see what he decided to do was, I'm just going to keep quiet. I'm not going to speak good, and I'm not going to speak evil. So that means I'll protect my lips. But as often as the case is that whenever we take ourselves away into a quiet place, we end up starting to think, and as we think, we ought to think of something that is profitable and beneficial. But we see here what David started to think about. Look with verse 3. My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned. So, as David went to in his place of silence, he started to burn up because he was thinking, he was musing, he was thinking to himself, and what was he thinking about? Look at verse 7, "'And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee.'" So, The psalmist David here, while he was silent, he started to think about his God and his Savior. And as he considered his God, his heart started to burn up within him. Similar language to here, the heart bubbling up. You can think of maybe a saucepan of milk you've set on the ring, and maybe you've left it. You went to do something else, and when you've come back, that milk has bubbled up, maybe even bubbled over. And the saucepan idea here is that bubbling up, that burning of the soul. And it was because the psalmist, as you can read in Psalm 45 in verse 1, I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. So the psalmist here in Psalm 45 was thinking about his Savior and his Messiah. We will discover it's not here speaking of David or Solomon, it's speaking of the King of kings and Lord of lords. And while the psalmist considered his Savior, his Messiah, his heart started to burn up within him. And that is my desire for everyone here today, that as we consider the same Messiah, the same Christ, our hearts will start to burn within us. For I am sure everyone here that's a believer laments the fact that we are so cold in heart. We want to have those hearts that burn up, but oftentimes we find our hearts are cold. But today I hope through the message that your heart will burn up within you as you consider your Savior and your King And as you consider what you have in Jesus Christ, and this is the experience of the New Testament believers. Think of Luke chapter 24. If you remember the two on the road to Emmaus, you'll remember that the Savior met with them. And as the Savior met with them, He expounded, it says in Luke 24 and 27, and beginning at Moses. And all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And what was their testimony? Verse 32, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? So this is what will cause our hearts to burn, is whenever we take time to consider the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. And that is how I want to make my way through this psalm today, considering Christ and His church, Christ and His church in union with Jesus Christ. And that's how this psalm is split up. We see here verses 2, to verse 8, we have the psalmist considering the Savior and His role as mediator in prophet, priest, and king. Then from verses 9 through the end, we have the church in their union with Christ and what they have in Christ. So that's why I want to take with you today simply Christ and the church. And I want to begin then in verse 2. So as I've said here, the psalmist brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ in the offices of prophet, priest, and king. That's how he executes his role as our mediator. But first of all, the psalmist in verse 2 brings us to the great prophet. So let's read that verse together. Psalm 45, verse 2. Thy art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever." So here we're brought to the lips of the Messiah, and that would bring us then to consider the Lord Jesus Christ as our great prophet. And it is good for us to remember that our Savior is a prophet. Now, oftentimes we consider the Savior as the King, and often as, especially as our great high priest, and that warms our hearts. But it also should encourage us to remember Jesus Christ is the great prophet. And you'll know there from John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word. That word is the word Logos, the eternal Logos, one of the names of Jesus Christ. He is the Word who came down from heaven. Why? Well, He came to reveal the way of salvation. He came to reveal to mankind, generally, how they can know a right relationship with God. And we have the testimony of all those who heard Him. John 7, verse 46, like this man. And you'll notice here from our psalm that grace is poured into his lips. Grace, those words of grace, that word of the gospel, that word of salvation. Our Savior came, and through the gospels, you can see how He presented generally to all mankind how they can be made right with God. But as a believer, we can also consider Christ as our great prophet, as not only just in general, but specifically to yourself. For not only can we look at Scripture and see God's way of salvation, but there was a point in time when the Lord Jesus Christ came to your soul individually, and spoke to you, and told you that you needed to be saved, and revealed unto you the way of salvation. And if you're a believer, you may remember that time when He came and spoke to your heart, drawing you to Himself. And this ought to warm our hearts to think to ourselves that whenever we sinned against Him, even though we were sinners, our Savior came to us and spoke specifically to you. He remembered you, and you can put your name here today, that Christ spoke to me. Christ spoke to Thomas Hannah, or whatever is the case today. He spoke to us. and drew us to Himself by the words that He spoke to our soul. And it should encourage us to remember today, Christ remembered us, and He spoke to us. We have a great Savior as our great Prophet. But then, one of the main focuses of the psalm is the Lord Jesus Christ as our King. And we see that in verses, really verses 3 down to verse 7. But verses 3 to 5, let's read that together. "'Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee." So here we see our Savior as our great King. We have a wonderful Savior who conquers all of His enemies. And here, for those who are unrepentant, if there's anyone here out of Christ today, there is a word of warning to your soul. For here in this Psalm, if you look at verse 5, it says that the arrows of our King and our Savior are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies. And He will judge you according as verse 4 says, according to truth and righteousness. There we see the truth of His Word. He will come and judge you according to the Ten Commandments, and it will be according to righteousness. No one will be cast into hell who does not deserve to be there. God cannot or Savior cannot be accused of being a bad judge. someone who is unjust, someone who punishes those out of turn. No, everyone who will be punished eternally deserves to go there. And if you are here out of Christ today, then if you are still in your sin and if you remain that way, when you die, you will experience the sharp arrow shot into your soul, and you will know God's judgment and destruction for all eternity. But an interesting Word that's here in verse 4 is not only that God judges and rules and rides prosperously simply out of truth and righteousness, but notice there, it is also according to meekness. And I thought that was a strange word to put in there. But He judges according to meekness. And it is true to say that all of us here at some point or another were an enemy. of the King of kings and Lord of lords, that we're told that the carnal mind is enmity against God. We were all enemies of God. But at one time or other, God, our Savior, shot arrows in our soul and slew us in our sin, but not to destroy us eternally, but so that He could bring us back and He could give us a new heart. He destroyed that stony heart by shooting His arrows out of conviction and of persuasion to bring us to Christ, and He gave us a new heart. a heart of flesh, so that now we can live for a King. And therefore, we're taken away from our wickedness and brought into a new relationship with our God. For we're told that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So while we were yet enemies of God, He slew us in our sin, but brought us back to Himself and brought us into His kingdom, a wonderful kingdom, a kingdom that then we read of in verses 6 and 7. So, verses 3 and 4, we have the description of who the king is and how he conducts himself, but here in verses 6 and 7, we see how his kingdom is ruled. It is a kingdom of righteousness, as we read. Verse 6, "'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thy love is righteousness, and hate is wickedness.'" So we see here that Christ's kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness. That is the kingdom that if you're a believer here today, you've been brought into. And praise God, He did not leave you in a sin, but He translated you from the kingdom of darkness and has brought you into a new kingdom, a kingdom of light. Praise God He didn't leave you in your sin, but He's brought you into a new family, a new kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness and a kingdom of holiness. And this ought to encourage our hearts. This ought to bless our hearts. And if you'll notice with me in verse 7, the effects that coming into this kingdom have. Look at verse 7, thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. So here in verse 7, we realize that because of Christ's righteousness, because He is a righteous King and His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, something was given to Him. What was it? It was the oil of gladness above thy fellows. So here we see that while Christ's kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness and holiness, it's not a kingdom that brings misery. It is not a religion that brings us misery and sorrow, and it brings us a terrible time on earth. For the devil always comes to the believer and tries to woo us away to the things of the world with the promise that you'll experience some kind of joy, some kind of blessing. And he tempts us and says, well, if you just indulge in this, it'll make you happier. It'll give you a better life. But that's not what is told us here in God's Word, and as God's people, we should accept this by faith, that why was Jesus Christ the happiest man that ever lived? Why was He anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows? The reason was because He lovest righteousness. and hatest wickedness." So, we see here what God's way is. Those who love righteousness, those who hate wickedness, will be the happy people. Not those engaged in the sin of the world. The people who are the happiest people on earth are those who are like their Savior, Jesus Christ. And therefore, God calls us, if you've been brought into the kingdom of righteousness, He requires of you holiness. He requires of me holiness. And holiness is a wonderful thing. And God tells us, be ye holy, for I am holy. He doesn't expect you to be something that He isn't, but He calls us to holiness, not to misery, but to happiness. So a holy life is a happy life. And if you're seeking happiness elsewhere, you may enjoy pleasures for a time, but only for a short time. But you will discover that the more you sin, the more you're engaged in wickedness, the more miserable you will become. Not happier, but more miserable. And if you're a believer here today, for any period of time, I'm sure you'd come up in this pulpit and testify the exact same thing. You could say that the times when I was the most miserable, when was the times I was living for myself and for Satan. But the happiest times you've experienced in life is the times when you're holy and you've been close to your God and your Savior. So, God calls us to holiness, and they're both connected together. So, we see here that holiness and happiness go hand in hand. So, this is our God, our wonderful Savior, who is our great prophet, and who is our great king. But then look at verse 8, and here we see the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest. So let's read verse 8. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. So, here we are given a description of the smell of our Savior, our Mediator. He's one who has these lovely smells of myrrh, aloes, and cassia. And you could take these individual spices and learn lessons. They are there for a reason, and they teach us certain things, but I don't want to go into that today. But all I want to consider is the smell. Our Savior has a wonderful smell. But how does this bring us to consider the Savior as our great High Priest? Well, if you'll remember back to Genesis chapter 8 and verse 21, there in Genesis chapter 8, The world had experienced a flood. The world was full of wickedness, and God judged it with a worldwide flood. But afterwards, you may remember what happened, that the first thing that Noah did was that he came out of the ark, and he built an altar onto the Lord. And he took some of those clean animals, and he killed the animal and put it on the altar. And He burned it as a burnt offering. And these are the words we find in Genesis 8, 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. So as that burnt offering ascended up into heaven, God, as it were, smelled a sweet savor. And it was purity, it was righteousness, because before, all that was in the world was that and corruption and evilness and wickedness, but then when the world was judged and there was this new world Noah came into, that sacrifice that he sacrificed, that smell, was pleasing before the Lord. So this reminds us of our Savior as our priest who was sacrificed for us, and before God, our Savior has that sweet-smelling savor. And we can see this if you'll turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Please turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Sorry, Ephesians chapter 5, actually. Ephesians chapter 5 and the verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. So, here we see that as a result, in verse 2, of our Savior giving Himself as an offering. As He gave Himself as a sacrifice to God, there was a sweet-smelling savor. And our Savior is the great High Priest, for He lived for us and died for us that we may be acceptable before the Lord. And that sacrifice was accepted by God. He smelled it as a sweet-smelling savor. And this is our great high priest, the one who died for us is there as our sacrifice. But that ought to then cause us to want to be like our Savior. Please turn back a few books to 2 Corinthians, please, 2 Corinthians and the chapter 2. So yes, our Savior is a wonderful Savior and has that sweet-smelling savor about Him, but here in 2 Corinthians 2, And in verse 15 we read, "'For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?' But as you see in verse 15 there, we are told to be a sweet saver of Christ. Now, we ought to have Christ's smell, as it were, upon us. And how do we achieve that? It's becoming in close contact with our Savior. And the closer we are to the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we will smell like Jesus Christ. And He is a wonderful smell. But there, in 2 Corinthians, it is a sweet-smelling savor of Christ. We in and of ourselves are nothing. We have no good smell about us. However, when we come close to the Savior, we have His smell upon us. And therefore, then, we can be an impact in the world around us. So we ought to have that close fellowship with God to have that sweet-smelling savor upon us. And to illustrate this, back in the summertime, I brought my son to work with me. And we went, whenever we came home, we were coming home from work, it was about dinnertime, and I decided, just as a wee treat for Luke, that we would stop at the chippy and buy ourselves a chip, just a chip with a bit of salt and vinegar on it. And we ate it on the way home in the car. But then for the next two or three weeks afterwards, every time I opened my car door, all I could smell was these salt and vinegar chips in my car. Now, my car is not salt and vinegar chips, but that's all it smelt of. It had this smell because the chips had been in close contact with my car. That car smelt of that smell for a few weeks, but today it doesn't because it hasn't experienced that in quite some time now. But it's to illustrate the point that as we come in close contact, With our God, that smell rubs off upon us. So we must spend time with our God, with our high priest, becoming more like Him, more holy, and then spending time reading God's Word and prayer. And as we do, we'll be made more like Him, and we will smell of Him, and others will be able to save us. And they might not use these words, but I'll use these words. They smell different. They smell like Jesus Christ. And that ought to be the testimony of people about us. Our family members ought to see Christ in us. Those around us, those ungodly around us, they ought to have that smell. We ought to smell of Christ, that we draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, our Savior is a wonderful Savior. One who was sent to be our mediator, who came down to die for us on the cross, so that we can be more like Him. And praise God, we have a wonderful Savior who is our great prophet, our great King, and our great High Priest. So, this is what has caused the psalmist to bubble up within himself. He was considering how wonderful his Savior, his Messiah was, and he wanted to be like Him. and more like Him. But then, the other part of the psalm is considering, the psalmist is considering Christ, the church in relation to Christ, the church in their union with Him. So when we come to salvation to Jesus Christ, we are brought into a new union with Him. And here in this section, we see, I want to consider especially verses 9 to 15. And here in verses 9 to 15, we see now the psalmist turning his attention to the church. Now, we have two characters here in this section. You'll notice in verse 9, we have the queen in gold of Ophir, and then the next major character is that in verse 13, the king's daughter is all glorious within. See, these two characters, the queen and the king's daughter. So who are these people speaking about? Some have suggested that the queen spoken of here is Israel, and the king's daughter is the church. But whatever way you take it, I think we can consider it, even collectively, as God's people, whether those in the Old Testament or those in the New Testament. And here we have a description of what the church looks like in union with Christ. And here we have the most wonderful, beautiful description we have of the church, nearly in all of the Scriptures, and what wonderful language is here. But what a contrast we have with how we view ourselves. Now, when we look at Christ and as we viewed Christ, we can say, yes, He is altogether lovely. All believers will say that, and the more we see Him, the more beautiful we see our Savior. But how often is it that we consider ourselves as being beautiful? In fact, rather, the more we see of ourselves, the more ugly we seem to appear. before ourselves, and we consider ourselves, as Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6, that from the sole of the foot until the top of the head, we're nothing but full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's usually how we consider ourselves. But that's not how we're described here in these verses. And I think that's important then for us to understand that this is speaking of the church in union with Christ. Whenever you came by faith and repentance to Jesus Christ for salvation, you were made a new creature. You were given something that didn't belong to you. You were given the righteousness of Christ. And here we even have in some form that spoken of here, for we have the description of these two characters, those, the queen in gold of Ophir, or especially we have the king's daughter, verse 14. Or verse 13, that her clothing is of wrought gold. And verse 14, that she is brought into the king in raiment of needlework. The garment that the church has on is a precious garment, described here as gold, as a garment specially handcrafted of needlework. It is a wonderful description here of how the church is clothed, and we are clothed with a righteousness that cannot fade away. It is the righteousness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this should encourage and warm our hearts, that while, yes, we consider ourselves as ugly in the sight of the Lord, that is not how God views us. God views us as perfect in His sight, as righteous before Him, for we have on the righteousness of Christ. And therefore, then, God greatly desires to see us. He loves to see us. And as you have gathered today, God says He takes delight in you. He loves to see you here to worship Him and to praise Him. We're told in Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse 14, again, the bridegroom speaking to the bride, and it says in Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse 14, "'O my dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock, in the sacred places of the stairs. Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. So God looks at us, and when He sees our faces, when He hears our voice, He says, sweet is your voice, and your face is comely. And that is what we have here in our psalm, because you'll notice that as well. In verse 11, "'So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.'" We are most beautiful when we come to God in worship. When we lift our voices, no matter what you sing like, no matter if you consider your singing to be very poor or whether you are a good singer, it doesn't matter. God views it all as the same, not because God doesn't accept your worship because of how good of a singer you are. He accepts your worship because of how great your Savior is. So, whenever you come to worship, don't be afraid to lift your voice up, because you're singing to God, and He sees as beautiful. It doesn't matter if the person two seats down maybe gives you a funny look and says, that's a funny noise coming out of that person. It doesn't matter, because we're not here to perform to other people. We're here to worship God. And when we worship God from our hearts, God hears it as beautiful. Sweet is your voice. Whether it's singing or whether you're praying in a public prayer meeting before the church or in the midweek meeting, God loves to hear your voice. Lift it up. Let it be heard, because God takes delight in it. And whenever we're saved, we often think, well, what can I do for God? I have nothing to offer Him. But God says your worship is worth something to Him. So worship Him, and He will take great delight in it. He takes great praise in you worshiping Him. So come and worship with all your heart, for it's not in vain. God is pleased with your worship, because He looks at you in the name of Jesus Christ. And that's why I often pray in prayer that we don't come in our own name, but we come in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, because if we come in our own name, we are filthy, we are full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, but when we come in Christ's name, we come with His righteousness on us, and He then accepts us, and He accepts our worship. So this is, here in this psalm, we have Christ and the church in union with Christ. And as we consider these both things, it should cause our hearts to bubble up within us, saying, I have a great Savior, and although I don't think I'm beautiful, my God does, and that's all that matters. That should encourage us today to serve our God, be like Him, be holy in our worship, and come in close contact with our Savior. But if I could close up today with the final two verses, verses 16 and 17, and this again is a blessing. So, the psalmist has considered Christ, then he's considered the church in his day, but then he's considering the church that is yet to come. For here we see. We'll just read it, verse 16. So the psalmist here had the church that is to come in mind. And oftentimes, we can think of as a church, we can say to ourselves, the world is getting the upper hand. The world, will the church even be here? Will this church even be here in 50 years' time? And sometimes we can think to ourselves that way. And we can think, well, what if this church comes to a close? What about the Church of Northern Ireland? Will it cease to exist? Well, I don't believe that is so. And I think we have encouragement from these last two verses, especially to those who are older Christians here today. You can take great comfort in these words, but also anyone, especially who is a father or has any role, especially in children's work. We have encouragement here. Look at verse 16. There's a promise here. God isn't finished with the church today. His name, as we read of Him, verse 17, will be remembered in all generations. And that requires the church to continue on for all generations, because that's the one, the church is the people who causes Christ's name to be remembered. And we have a job here today, we have a responsibility as fathers 2. May Christ's name be remembered, so we speak to those, the next generation to come, and we tell the next generation about Jesus Christ, tell them the gospel, so that in order that they may receive Christ as Savior, and they will do the same thing. They will tell the next generation about Jesus Christ. And that way, the Christ name will always be remembered. That instead of the fathers, whenever we are dead and gone, our children will continue to serve God, to worship Christ, and to evangelize in this world. Christ is not done with the church. Because we are here, and we are making Christ's name be remembered. And today, Christ's name is remembered in this place. And I believe that in many years to come, Christ's name will be remembered. It will not be put out of existence, but our children will pass on to others about Jesus Christ, and His name will be remembered. And I think this is a great thing for us to pray over today, that Christ has promised that His name will be remembered, and it's our responsibility for His name to be remembered, but we have this great promise that instead of the fathers, instead of us, our children will rise up, and they will make Christ's name be known. So what wonderful prospect we have here in the gospel, and in this psalm today. We have considered Christ, how wonderful He is. and how wonderful it is to see our Savior as our prophet, as our king, and as our priest. But it is wonderful to know that today we've come in His name, in His righteousness, and today we can have assurance that the church, there will be a church in the future, but let us be praying that our children will come to Christ for salvation and that we will continue to know that His name will be remembered throughout all generations. And we'll end there in our study today. And I think we'll maybe sing a couple of verses as we close of our final hymn. And we'll sing from hymn number 126. We'll sing verses 1 and 2 and 6, please, of this hymn. We'll stand to sing as we close our meeting. Hymn number 126, verses 1, 2, and 6, please. ♪ Destroyed with glory nigh ♪ ♪ The royal high of Davenport ♪ ♪ Where mighty vanguards fly ♪ ♪ The highest place I've ever seen ♪ This is my sovereign right. When we open the door of hearts, love has eternal light. Let's close our meeting in a word of prayer, please. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for a wonderful Savior and Redeemer that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We come before the King of kings and Lord of lords today. We thank you that He ever thought of us as our great prophet, speaking to our souls individually, calling us to Himself. But we're thankful that we also have a great King who subdued our hearts, who brought us to himself. And today we are delivering here to praise the Almighty God of heaven, because our Savior is that great King who slew us in our sin, who broke that heart of stone and in its place put a heart of flesh. We thank you for a great Savior who has brought us from the kingdom of darkness, brought us into a great kingdom of light. But we thank you especially for our Savior who is our great high priest. One who died for us, who gave himself for us, and shed his precious blood, and there on the cross offered himself a sacrifice, a ransom for the many. We thank you for our Savior that washed us and cleansed us in his own precious blood. And today, as our great high priest ever lives to make intercession for us. What a wonderful Savior we have. But we thank you, Father, that when we come by your way, faith and repentance, that you call us to a new kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness and holiness, and you provide us with new clothes, clothes of righteousness, not that we have earned ourselves, but clothes that have been given to us from the righteousness of Christ. For that perfect life that He lived, we're thankful then, Father, that you see us in your Son. You look at us as you look at your only begotten Son. And today we are accepted in the beloved. And today we can say, yes, like we have described to us in this psalm, that we are all glorious within. And you've told us that you greatly desire our beauty. So I pray, Father, that then you will accept our worship today. You will accept the little that we had to offer. but I pray that it will have been pleasing in your sight. So bless us, help us, even to be a light shining in a dark place. And as the church of today, may we make Christ's name to be known continually, that the next generation may come, and forever and ever our Savior's name will be lifted up and glorified. So thank you for your word today. Encourage your heart and bless us. And as we would separate now, I pray you will speak on. Speak to your people and speak to those that are lost. And may You draw them from their sin, draw them to the great Redeemer, Jesus Christ. But we thank You for Your Word, and I pray You'll bless us now as we separate for us. In Jesus' name I ask and pray, amen. so you