Please turn to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. As we learn of the Lord, as we learn of his gospel, as we see the magnificence of his plan, his wisdom, his promises, there comes a point where you can't do any more than to fall into awe and wonder and then just worship. Just worship. I saw Paul do that in Romans. He had all those chapters from 1 to 11 talking about the mercies of God, the way God was able to have grace on sinners to be still holy and yet justify guilty sinners. And then there comes that point where he just says, oh, the depth of the wonder of the wisdom of God, his ways are past finding out. And you know that last little part in chapter 11, that becomes a song, a benediction. And in searching and comparing and connecting passages, I realized Psalm 45 is just dedicated to the moment where there's nothing more to say except love Him and embrace Him and celebrate Him. So Psalm 45, you can read verses 1 through 17, the whole thing. 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 honorable 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 unto 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." God bless the reading of his word and enrich us today. We have been looking longer than I expected at the king. He came humbly the first time. as a servant, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And in his service to the Father, he served the needs of men. And in that we saw meekness and lowliness. We saw humility. And without losing any of that, he has now risen from the dead after paying for our sins. And now he's a triumphant king. And Revelation had 45 different instances where it referred to the lamb as the triumphant conqueror, not weak or meek, but strong. And he's king of kings and Lord of lords. And we had touched lightly on Psalm 45, just touched. And I wanted this message to be just dedicated to this Psalm, We're told in Ephesians, or excuse me, I mean Colossians 3.16, to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The Old Testament is a Christian book. Some people try to imply we're borrowing some things from the Jewish people. No, they laid a foundation by God's grace, and this is handed over to us. And when they catch on, they can do the same thing, is join with us in the worship of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the King. And so all of scripture is referred to as the record that God gave of his son. And so we are seeing here what Revelation will tell us later is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And we're to bathe ourself. We're to let this dwell in us richly. We're to inhabit this and have it inhabit us. All the Bible's a book about Jesus, and we are to be loving Him, appreciating Him, understanding Him, following Him, obeying Him, remembering Him, and sharing Him. Psalm 45 is a royal wedding song. It describes a king, his princess bride, the wedding procession, and the anticipation of children born from this wonderful union. Now the marriage of an earthly king of Israel is the first application of this psalm. This would describe some king and his wedding and the guests and the wonderful bride and all of that. And that's the first level of interpretation. We have to realize that like many other Psalms or many other scriptures in the Old Testament, they go beyond what's normal and natural. And there is a second interpretation that reveals things that are future and divine and glorious. And may God's spirit help us. We already have a tip. from the book of Hebrews chapter one, verses eight and nine, quoting from this psalm. And that's what helped us get back here and see this in the light as a psalm for God's King, the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the kind of things we're gonna look at. We're gonna behold the King in the first eight verses. We're gonna behold the queen and her procession in verses nine through 15. We're going to behold the prospect of future generations in verse 16, and we're going to be busy promoting the king and his kingdom in verses 1 and 17. Now we'll get started. I know it's a whopper, and I left lots of verses for you to study on your own, get questions, contact me. We'd love to talk more about it, but let's get the big picture here as best as we can. Now, when we talk about beholding the king, the first thing I do is take us somewhere else to the book of Isaiah, chapter 33 and verse 17. I hope you'll get the pleasure sometime of catching things in the Old Testament and you'll say, hey, wait a minute. Somebody looked at this a long time ago and wrote a hymn and used these words. And I was just singing it because I thought it was some nice old poetry, but oh, it's older than that. It goes right back to scripture. So here's something that you may hear a hymn in the background, and if not, you maybe will in the future. But Isaiah chapter 33, verse 17, Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Speaking of a future time in this world, I would believe this is the millennial kingdom, but the king and his beauty, that's to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And one day he will physically be seen. Now he has to be seen with the eyes of the mind and the heart, the spirit that's been born again. We see him with our soul in scripture. So It says there in verse 1 of Psalm 45, my heart is indicting a good matter. I speak the things which I have made touching the king. Okay, this is a good thing. The king is worthy of much good thought and discussion. And I'm going to have to abstain from all these lovely side references. I put them in there, boy. And I'll be honest with you, I had more than I could stuff on this paper. And I showed restraint. If you only knew, you'd be so pleased with me. Because it looks like a pretty packed paper anyways. But there's lovely thoughts to correspond with this here. But right there in verse one, the king is worthy of much good thought and discussion. We should be occupied, preoccupied with him. There's an expression in Scripture that he might have the preeminence, which is a nice word to say he should be first place. First place. Now, in verse 2, the king's words are gracious. And again, I had a paragraph of things I wanted to say about that, but I am going to have to show you a few of these. They are just so lovely. We go to Luke chapter 4. Even people that didn't like him marveled at his words. In Luke chapter 4 and we go to verse 15, Luke chapter 4 and verse 15, it says, and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all. Now I'm just going to have to tell you that from the things I've gleaned from the Gospels is that some people were glorifying him and they didn't even want to. Some people are fulfilling Scripture and saying things, and even when they're trying to be not nice, in God's hands, He's glorifying His Son. Sometimes an insult is a compliment in the mouth of the right person. And I've told you many a times, even Satan is the unwilling servant of God. And I read in Psalm 76 10, that even the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain. If you try looking that up in some other Bibles, it will get a little difficult. But bear with me for this thought, that even man, when he's pouring out his wrath, is still fulfilling God's will, and it's going to bring back praise and glory to God. So in these synagogues, as Jesus went around and he got to speak, read the scriptures, he was glorified by everybody because something's going on here. It was not normal. It was not the everyday. And so they're marveling Some like it, some don't, some are just so confused they don't know what they think. But you go then also in chapter 4 to verse 22. And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? I mean, he's not one that's been brought up in the Sanhedrin and schooled by the Pharisees and the scribes. He's just a carpenter's son? How's he talking like this? Now, please understand, in a while, they're gonna wanna take him and shove him off a cliff. They're so mad at him, but they have to stop for a minute and marvel. Such gracious words, such amazing things. There's something about this. And then eventually people's feelings catch up to them saying, well, I don't like this after all. Also in verse 32, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. And that's the thing that maybe drives this home, is that our words may not be popular, but they must be powerful. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. It's not the fanciness of the words. It's not the articulation. It's not the sense of academia. It's power from the Holy Spirit. When Christ is honored, the Son of God is honored, then the Spirit of God empowers that, and people may not like it, but they won't forget it. And in time, they might actually benefit in a delayed action. One of my teachers in school once said, when you throw a rock at a pack of dogs, the one that yips is the one that got hit. And so sometimes when you hear a yip, it might be actually something good is about to happen. And you might get pushed off a cliff first, but you've sown the seed faithfully. Let the seed do its work now. Water that seed with prayer. I have a picture, I wish I could put it up on a screen somewhere right now, but it says we can never force our beliefs on anyone, but never underestimate the power of a seed sown. And it shows a giant rock split in half. I mean a rock as tall as me pretty much, split in half with a tree growing up out of it. And that speaks volumes. We've got something precious and powerful and gracious. And Jesus, as he was ministering, kept people in a state of astonishment and surprise. He wasn't just the same old, same old, quoting the rabbis and entering into the debates, blah, blah, blah. Then I would take you to John 6, verse 63. I did want to linger on this particular area, John 6, 63. And I know I quote this one a lot, but Jesus said in John 6, 63, it is the spirit that quickens or makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And you go a little farther down to verse 68. Now there was a whole lot of people turned away from Jesus and didn't follow him anymore. It tells you that in verse 66. And Jesus asked him in verse 67 to the disciples, will you also go away? And then Peter answers this in verse 68. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And that's the vital point. The powerful word, the gracious word, is the Word of eternal life that comes right from the heart of Jesus. His Spirit, His Word, the flesh profits nothing. It isn't a matter of how intellectual we are or how entertaining we are or how many great illustrations we have. All of that can be used, but the real point is the plain preaching of the Word done faithfully, lovingly, in truth. And I might just add some courage. some courage, but you've got to really know and stay focused on this to get this point. In chapter 7, The Pharisees had sent soldiers out, temple soldiers, to go arrest Jesus and bring him in for questioning. They wanted to try to nip this in the bud if they could. And in chapter seven, verse 44, it says, and some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, why have you not brought him? The officers answered, Never a man spake like this man. They were dumbfounded. They forgot what they were supposed to do or they were afraid to do it because they were in the presence of some greatness, and the Spirit of God subdued them, and they had to come back empty-handed. And of course that made the Pharisees angry. I won't go into the rest of the dialogue. You can check it out if you want. But the king is worthy of much good thought and discussion. The king's words are gracious. But now we get to verses 3 through 5 of Psalm 45. Taking you back where we started here. Psalm 45. It says, "'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.'" If you like it better, we'll say, awesome things. Terrible used to be a good word, implying it brings a fear of God, a terror that is good, that makes you want to go towards God. And now terror and terrible is all associated with evil. So we still got the word awesome, right? Our God is an awesome God, and you could say awesome things here. Maybe some of the other translations have already taken care of that. The verse 5 says, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Those keys of death and hell that he has. He's in charge. All power, all authorities given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations. Here we're seeing the king as a mighty warrior who stands for truth. Okay, there were some people that heard him in John chapter 8, and they believed on him. They heard him, and they believed on him. And they must have said something, or shown something, so Jesus turned to them and addressed them specifically. If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed, truly. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Unfortunately, the truth just makes some people mad. And even these people, if you follow John 8 to the end, they're ready to pick up stones and throw at him. But there's these moments of impression. Some people truly believed in him and would do what he said, is continue in the word. It is not enough just to say ooh and ah to Jesus. I like you, Jesus. I personally think that's what Nicodemus was doing. He wanted to have an ooh and ah moment, but he couldn't pull away from the Pharisees. He couldn't pull away from the pressures and the powerful things that he had as a Pharisee and a ruler. But it's the follow through. Some say ooh and ah, and then they end up walking away. Others say ooh and ah and then, oh my, and they're locked in and they're continuing and they walk and they follow. It's become necessary in talking about what a Christian is to say more than just, oh, he's a believer. Because some people believe with just their brain and they're missing heaven by 18 inches because it never got from brain to heart. But there's one thing you can't mince on, and your life will demonstrate if it's true or not, if you are a follower of Jesus. If you're a follower of Jesus, it will show in a changed life, changed vocabulary, changed attitude, changed responses. to this world, and it doesn't come all at once. I know that, but it's what we do. If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, my followers, and you shall know the truth, and you shall be made free by that truth, and there'll be liberating moments. Chains are breaking, and old strongholds are gone. that used to hold us so well. And you may still have a few things waiting to get liberated, but continue in His Word. So the king is a mighty warrior. He's here to make war against sin. We've talked about it already in John 18, when he stood before Pilate, and he's being questioned, are you a king? Because it has political ramifications, and Pilate's sweating. You say I'm a king? Well, to this end I came, for this reason I was born, to bear witness to the truth. And he that is of the truth follows me. My kingdom is not of this world, or else my servants would fight. But it's not from here, it's about truth. And so we see his power, his war against sin, his war against the world and Satan. But now, We see in verses 6 and 7 that the king is united with the cause of God and truth. He's united with the cause of God and truth. And when I say united, I mean in oneness. I and my Father are one." And this is the powerful thing here. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And this is quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, and we're told specifically that this is the father talking to his son, calling his son God. Now that blows the normal mind, that blows the normal logic. But God called his son God, and you can't have two gods, it's got to be one. And so we see the divine. We see the eternal truth, the unchangeable truth, the absolute truth. And that the one who has come to us is none other than Emmanuel, God with us. We next see in verse 8 that the king is surrounded with a beautiful, fragrant environment of joy. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, that should ring a bell with the old hymns, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. We had gladness earlier there in verse 7. We have being made glad again, and a sense of fragrance, like beautiful flowers, creating a fragrance that inspires joy. I'll just touch on a couple here, but in John chapter 15, John chapter 15 and verse 11, this is a statement worth looking into. John 15 verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. See, it isn't just about knowledge and it isn't just about willpower, it's about pleasure. If you don't celebrate the Christian life, you will not live it. The joy of the Lord is your strength. that will show me the way of life, Psalm 1611, in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. So we may start out at first saying, well, I got to quit doing bad stuff so I can do good stuff. I'm a Christian, I got to stop doing that, better start doing this, better do this, not that. But you know, that's got to accelerate to a more mature level. I'll give up good things to do the best things, and I get to. It's a joy. It's a pleasure. Yippee! I don't want any more of that stuff. I want this. And if I do that, I don't have time for this. I want this, so I don't have time for that. And you take pleasure in it. Some of you have heard me talk about the little boy in the ad for the March of Dimes. And he comes up and I think he has crutches and he's talking about raising money for the cause to fight disease. And he says, give till it hurts. And it evokes some compassion. But God says, give till it hurts and get past that and give till it feels good again. And so we should be finding this joy. The Lord loves the cheerful giver. The word literally means hilarious. Like we're getting a real bust on this. This is wonderful. I get to do this. What an investment. I remember a pastor one time, he had a missionary present his field and his ministry, and the pastor got up just bouncing and saying, boy, here's something good. Let's get in on this. You know, not like, oh no, we got another missionary and he needs money. But no, this is exciting, God's in it, let's invest. Let's become a part of it. Which brings me to one I have to mention is 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2, starting with verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make manifest the savor or the aroma of the knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor, a sweet aroma of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other we are the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? I'm going to spare the other verse because I'm aware how many more things we've got to cover. But we smell like Christ. I used to take the kids club and I brought a bottle of perfume and I'd take my time, I'd open it up and have them all smell it. And then I'd put the cap back on and then I'd take that bottle and I'd set it down and I'd go blalalala to it and I'd knock it over and I'd shake it and I'd call it names. I said, now let's see what it smells like. you know what happened. Just the same stuff in there came out, still sweet. That's what we've got to be like. Whatever the world's doing to us, it's Christ in us. Our job's not to accomplish a bunch of things, it's to contain Him. And this sweetness, this sense of fragrance, that whatever they do, however they try to shake us up, we're going to smell like Christ. Now, you know, some people will like that smell and some people won't. You may have some food item or something that you don't like the smell of it. It isn't going to change its smell for you. That's what it is. And other people smell that and go, hmm, hmm. And what's happening by the Spirit of God, and when he asks the question, who's sufficient for these things? Chapter 3, verse 5 says, our sufficiency is of God. We got to leave this between them and God whether they like the smell of Christ in us. But don't change your fragrance to try to please people. You want to please God. We are, what's it say? We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Keep it that way and let the chips fall where they may and God will take care of us. And quite frankly, make sure you enjoy that smell. Because you're going to live with it. And you better like it. Enjoy being like Christ. Enjoy that. Take pleasure in that. Well, I move on to the next area in Psalm 45. We're beholding the Queen and her procession. Verses 9 through 15. King's daughters were among thy honorable 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." Now, we're talking about a wife loving her husband and adoring him, forsaking mother and father and cleaving to him. Now the worship part, ladies, I'm not going to argue with you today. But that's where we know this transcends to Christ. That we get to worship Him. Be in love with Him. Fellowship with Him. And He has desired us. And Ephesians 5 tells us that He is washing us with the water of the Word to present us a spotless bride. And then there's the guests. Goes on to say, verse 12, 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 unto 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. So in looking at the tradition of Jewish weddings, it's a custom that the bride will be in her home and her companions will be with her, the bridesmaids, we would say today. And the bridegroom comes to the house to get his bride and take her back to his place. And that's a picture here. It's not the typical wedding procession and we've all lined up in the front of a church building and come forward and all that. That's our traditions and I'm not picking on them. I'm just saying this is discussing how it was done then. It'll make more sense if you know that the one who's the bridegroom is gonna come to the house of the bride and receive her and all of her companions will come along and he'll take her then to his place. So there's a procession going on here. The Queen is beautiful and glorious. And you check that out with Ephesians 5, 25 and 27 and some other things there. But the Queen's procession is attended with other glorious women, bridesmaids, we'll say. And there will be a great marriage supper of the Lamb, having guests of honor. That's where we're headed here. We've gone past the normal wedding and the normal king and the normal bride, and now we're going to something greater than this. The marriage supper of the Lamb. The guests of honor. Jesus said there's going to be this big dinner. People are going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We've got word of it in Revelation, too, about this marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, I want to give you some food for thought. And I know that I know that it's pretty common for people to feel that when we get the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem and all of that, that basically all the saved, all of God's elect are the church. And that's not a bad thing. What I'm going to share with you is going to sound different perhaps, is that there's a distinction between the New Testament church and others that are saved. I get this a lot from the book of Revelation. But I want you to consider the bride, the Lamb's wife, who is the bride of Christ, and that's his church. And then the nations, and some translations say the nations of those that are saved, They come into this city that has 12 gates, and they're always open, and the nations can come in and out. But right there where the city itself is, this is kind of like what the Levites were like. They didn't get normal portions of land like the other tribes. They attended to the setting up of the tabernacle. or tending to the ministry with the temple, the sacrifices, and so forth. And so they were always a separate priestly tribe, and that that's what the New Testament church people are like. They are going to be facilitators. They're going to be honor guard, where the Lord dwells with men. And we won't even have a temple there, we're told, but the Lord will directly dwell with us. And this city coming down is called the Lamb's Bride, the wife of the Lamb. And that's the church. And the others, we're talking about people that were saved in the Old Testament, people saved in the tribulation period, in the millennium. We're talking about people that have never been born. They died before they were born, unborn. Young infants, and I can't guess an age, When the age of accountability, people love to use that phrase. I don't have any number there, but the Lord knows when a child is just so childish that they're not accountable and then they do become accountable. The Lord knows that. And that's why we carefully teach children as soon as we can to know the Lord and love the Lord. But then there's also people who are mentally unaccountable. And these kinds of people, I can't dwell long on this, but these kinds of people, the grace of God, the blood of Christ, and the Holy Spirit can save all of those. If John the Baptist could be in his mother's womb filled with the Holy Spirit, dancing and jumping for Jesus, being next to him, then the Holy Spirit could come into any unborn child, or any little child. or those who are mentally handicapped. And I worked at least six and a half years with developmentally disabled people. And I'm here to tell you, I had a lot of time with them and I saw faith in many of them, faith in the Lord. I could ask them questions and I could see their interests and the ability for people to love the Lord, even though they're mentally handicapped. And some are so severe that I would say they'd be like a little infant. But God's grace, the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit can take care of all of that. I see God's judgment is according to righteousness, and he's to get glory by judging people for their works that are evil and that they did not repent, and he gets glory for that. But I see him getting more glory when he has mercy on these unborns and these little ones and these disabled ones. So I'm gonna go that route. You know, the baby that died, that David prayed that it would not die, but the prophet said that child would die, and he fasted and prayed while that baby was alive, and the moment he heard it died, he washed his face and ate, and people marveled. Like, why'd you do that? Now you're okay, you can just eat? And he says, well, he shall not come to me, but I shall go to him. And I think that's an encouragement that those who die in those conditions will be there to know in the future. And every, well, between abortions and miscarriages and all those kinds of things, I believe we're gonna see a whole lot of people that we haven't seen yet. So let me use some scripture now, because I've said some things that might make you question, make you wonder. Let's go to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 19 is where that marriage supper of the Lamb is, and I'm going to not elaborate on that anymore. But in Revelation chapter 21, And I'm going to start with verses 1 through 3. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God." And then we move down for time's sake to verse 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel." I'm going to stop there because there'll be a lot of discussion of the details of this city, but I wanted to establish it's called The Bride, The Lamb's Wife. Coming down, it's a city, and there's 12 gates, and we're going to find out those gates are never closed. So I can see the Lord's New Testament church saints are there like the Levites would be in the Old Covenant. They're there to facilitate and to be honor guard, and here they come. We go now to verse 21. Verse 21 of chapter 21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls every Every several gate was one of pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, and it was transparent glass. And I saw no temple there, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Now, it doesn't say there won't be a sun and a moon in the new heavens and new earth. It just says the city doesn't need it. Just thought I'd point that out. Verse 24, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor unto it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall be in no wise enter into it anything that is defiled, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Okay, so all those other kinds of saints, Old Testament, tribulation, millennium, the unborn, the little child, the mentally unaccountable, they would constitute these others who come, always welcome to come worship. So I throw it out as food for thought. It will not make a difference in your salvation whether you agree with that idea or not, but I wanted to present it because it's part of the glory of the Lamb, the King, and we being his bride, his wife, and in Psalm 45, we've seen that the Lord is going to love the beauty, desire the beauty of his bride, and when he cleans her up and marries her by what he has done, all that description of gold and pearl and transparent glass and all those things, that's just, figurative to show us the beauty of those who are the Lord's church, the Lord's people, and the wonders of all the other nations. They can come in and out and bring their glory to it. So it's just glorious, everything about it. It's like viewing this wedding procession, I think. Now, I have to move on from that and get to verse 16. Psalm 45 and verse 16. Now, if you had no children, you would be looking at relatives getting older and older and then passing away, and you're looking backwards at your lineage, and there's much good about appreciating the lineage where you come from, but there's this future glance here, there's this, Forward glance in verse 16, instead of thy father shall be thy children whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. Okay, so we're not living in the past and staying there. We're pressing on toward the mark. and the union that Jesus has by dying on the cross, and rising from the dead, and gathering his people, and being king of them, and shepherd of them, and savior of them, and counselor, and all those things, it's going to produce this beautiful, fruitful, forward thing. Now, we know Jesus said at any given time in this world, it looks like a narrow path and few that find it. And there's this broad path that leads to destruction. So many are going there. But you just wait. The tables are going to be turned. Those who were the enemies of the Lord shall be destroyed. They shall be sent away. There'll be eternal separation. As I said before, if there was no hell, there could be no heaven. But all the billions of people that he has redeemed, we're going to see magnificent world where the earth shall be covered with the word of the Lord as the oceans, as the waters cover the sea. The knowledge of the Lord, everywhere people will be able to say, God bless you, and isn't he wonderful, and stop at any moment, instead of talking about the Packers or the Vikings, talk about him. There's always something more to say, something more to learn. For the ages to come, we're gonna be doing this. And so we have this wonderful forward look And God's been pulling out of every generation more of his, more of his, from every kindred, every tongue, Jew, Gentile, whatever. And we have this great heritage to look forward to, this royal lineage that comes from this marriage union. Abraham was given a sample of it. He was told to go out and look at the sky. Count the stars if you can. Now, I'm told by astronomers that visible to the eye, you can see about 3,000 stars in the sky. I couldn't count them. I'd get all dizzy and mixed up. But that was impressive. Abraham, who was just saying, Lord, I have no child yet. When's this going to happen? And he says, you're going to have descendants like all the stars in the sky. Now, we know with telescopes and satellites now that some of those dots up there are not some planet, they're not just some sun. Some of them from very far away are entire solar systems. Some of those dots in the sky are multiple systems. There's one picture I saw and they had one here, one here, one here, one here, and there was four whole galaxies lined up. How far apart? But to us, they were lined up like one big bright thing. So solar systems, galaxies, And that was kind of a way of God letting us know that it wasn't just gonna be physical descendant of Abraham, because these are other family groups. And he would tell them, you're going to make all the families of the earth blessed. And so we have this tremendous heritage to look forward to. The blending, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, what language you speak, what culture you have, what kind of food you eat, or any of that kind of stuff, it's all in Christ. And so, in Galatians 3, it tells us that this seed that was promised to Abraham is not simply a physical descendancy, but thy seed, which is Christ. If we belong to Christ, we're part of Abraham's seed, and we're part of this promise, and we're part of what we're seeing right here, is that there's going to be children, generations born, people yet to be born. You'll see it in Psalm 22. A generation that shall be born shall declare this. In Isaiah 53, he shall see his seed after he rises from the dead and be satisfied. It's just multiplying and multiplying, and you just must not get your worldview from the world. Now what they're saying, there are thousands of people becoming Christians today somewhere. I can't tell you with accuracy, but I can tell you for sure, people are coming to faith. The church, the kingdom of God is growing. It's gonna all be gathered together in one. And we get to look forward to that. And the royal priesthood, He has made us kings and priests under our God in Revelation 1, 5, and 6. And in Revelation chapters 4 and 5, there's the 24 elders, and they take their crowns and they throw them down. We understand that to mean that represents the church. They're like kings. They've been crowned, but they owe it all to Jesus, so they throw their crowns down. We even have a music group called Casting Crowns, don't we? Well, that's all in this wonderful outlook, this forward look that we are part of something and the increase of this kingdom knows no end. Now, the last verse of Psalm 45 says we should be busy promoting the king and his kingdom. We had read earlier in verse 1, my heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is a pen of a ready writer. And now in verse 17, he wraps up by saying, I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever. And if I could take a little liberty here, therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. It sounds like the hallelujah chorus, right? And that's a hallelujah chorus there. Our job is to be occupied with helping people know the Lord and remember him. We need to promote him and his kingdom. God wants to use us to cause others to know, to honor, to trust, to obey, to never forget His Son. Now, for the sake of this recording, and maybe somebody here would want to do this, but back in April 27th of 2025 and May 4th of 2025, I had a two-part series, two-part message called Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. And it was based on things we were studying in the first chapter of Romans. And that while so many times people want something new, and that's what Mars Hill was full of, people that want to hear something new. And then they heard Paul's gospel and some of them didn't want to hear that anymore. But our job is not to keep coming up with new things. Our job is kind of like an archeologist to dig up the old things and not let them be forgotten. So we repeat, repeat, repeat. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ now and forever. Lo, I am with you all the way, even to the end of the world, end of the age. This gospel is going to be preached in all the earth. Well, I'll let you study references and figure that all out, because I just want to get on to a little thing here called be looking for transformation, not just information. Now, we talked earlier about Isaiah 33, 17. Behold the king and his beauty. So it's a pleasure and it's a privilege to behold the king, to see the king in his beauty. But this glorious pleasure also has some other effects and creates some responsibility. We won't be turning a bunch here, but in Isaiah 6, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And in his temple room, and he's on his throne, and the train fills the temple, and there's smoke, and there's cherubim crying out, holy, holy, holy, and there's a tremendous scene. But when he saw that, here's what he said, woe unto me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Okay, so if I use my spiritual eyes and behold the king and contemplate him as I should, there's supposed to be some things taking place in me, not just ooh and ah, but humility, contriteness, and confession. Now, woe unto me for I am undone. That word became curious to me because every translation said something different here. Undone, ruined, brought to silence, destroyed, cut off, lost. By contrast, I may think I'm doing okay, and then I see the Lord and I go, oops, woe is me. I need grace. Every time I see the Lord, I'm reminded I need grace. Aren't you glad that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ? We beheld His glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, I need that grace. Keep beholding His glory and His beauty. You'll keep remembering how much you need that grace. And humble is a good thing. Humble isn't what you just pull out when you messed up and you got to tell God you're sorry again. Humble is the way we want to be forever. We were created to be humble. The angels were created to be humble, to all know who God is, and all know who we are, and to all know our dependence on Him, and to like it. It's the best way to be, is to know that you're nothing without Him. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and without me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. And we need to like that. It'll keep us from some foolish, stupid, distracting things. So a little later, the Lord says, who shall go out for us? Who's going to speak for us? And there's this moment where Isaiah had a hot, cold touch to his tongue, and he felt he could speak. And he says in verse 8 of Isaiah 6, here am I, send me. When I understand him in his glory, when I understand myself in a more humble state, now, Now submission and service can take place. Peter had a similar experience. They're out fishing. They've been fishing all night and nothing's happened. They haven't caught any fish. And Jesus says, well, why don't you throw your nets on the other side of the ship? Okay, Lord, for you, we'll do this. But we're so tired. And then all the fish come piling into the boat and the nets are breaking. And Peter didn't say, wow, would you like to join our fishing crew? Wow, thank you. This is great. Hey, we're a little busy now. We've got to gather our fish that you gave us, so we'll see you later. No, none of that. When he saw this powerful miracle, he said, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Now that's just the amazing effect. When you get a good glimpse and you get close to the power and the majesty and the glory and the wonders of the Lord, you're saying, who am I? Who am I? And his first thought was, Lord, you need to go. I can't be in your presence. But there's transformation comes with this. Jesus answered back to him and to the other disciples, do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men. That's just a demonstration. That's just an illustration. I'm here to change you into fishers of men. You're gonna be changed now. You're never going back to what's the same. And that's what we need to do. We're on a one-way trip. And by the grace of God, we're gonna get better. We're gonna get happier. we're going to get more faithful and consistent. And we'll have our ups and our downs and our flops and our failures. But you come back to that throne room of grace, and guess what? It's full of grace. And you're going to get grace to help in time of need, because that's just the way He is. I share two things with you. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 6. I wanted to do the James 4 one, but I'm going to have to let you take a little more time for that. But in 1 Peter, chapter 5, and verse 6, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. And then 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, that last verse. But we all with open face, or unveiled face, and that's explained earlier in the chapter why he said unveiled. Beholding as in a glass, or we would say mirror. Beholding the glory of the Lord are changed. Don't let that little English word fool you. That is the word that other places translated transformed, transfigured. This is a major overhaul. This is radical. When we behold the glory of the Lord, we are metamorphosized. Emphasis mind. A metamorphosis takes place and we are changed into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory, not all at once, step by step, from glory to glory to glory to glory to glory. Emphasis mind. Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now, I like systematic teaching, and I like when some people organize a message, and there's seven points they're making, or three points, or ten points. I've asked people to keep it under 20 when I make points, but it's hard. But the fact is, it's not simply about a strategy and steps of action. It's about something that takes place. When you do what you're supposed to be doing, then the Spirit of God does what He wants to do. What am I supposed to be doing? Beholding the glory of the Lord. I'm supposed to take time to be holy. I'm supposed to take time to enjoy Christ, to absorb him, to keep letting his word dwell in me richly. I'm to receive and contain and enjoy and lavish myself on the wonderful things of Christ and the Spirit of God without me even necessarily knowing is changing me, tweak by tweak by tweak. And there's those people that will stand before the Lord one day, And he'll say, well, enter into my joy because I was hungry. You fed me. I was naked. You clothed me. I was in prison. You visited me. And they're going to say, huh? When did we do that? Nothing conspicuous about it. They didn't even realize that these things that they didn't give that much thought to were the big things. It's because they've been slowly becoming more like Jesus, more compassionate, more getting outside of themselves, and more not I but Christ in their thinking and their living. And we'll get rewarded for things we didn't even notice. We might not get rewarded for things we really thought were great. There's some surprises coming for us, I'm sure. But what a great thing here we've been told. That you take away all inhibitions, take away any veils, any covers, and you expose yourself to Jesus Christ and let Him come in and fill you and enjoy Him. And the Spirit of God saying, I gotcha. And bit by bit, little by little, in every way, we become more like Him. And we're going to do it out of a true heart, out of a humble heart, out of a heart that's not filled with self-conscious, conspicuous self things. We just don't because we love Jesus, and we want to be near Him. We want to be like Him. And the Spirit of God says, that's what I want. Just surrender. You know, being filled with the Spirit isn't like pulling up to the gas station and getting a couple gallons or five gallons or ten gallons. You know, just give me a whole bunch of Holy Spirit. It's not a commodity. Being filled with the Spirit, well, Paul compared it to being drunk with wine. It isn't how much you drink, but what's in charge? Who's in control? Is the alcohol in control? Well, I'm not suggesting being filled with the Spirit, you act like you're drunk. But what I'm saying is, when people have been overcome by alcohol, and it's just blurring the thinking and the responses, and sometimes people have total personality changes during that time. But rather, be filled with the Spirit means, let the Holy Spirit be in charge, in control. Yield to Him, and you're given instructions how to do it, with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, speaking to yourself, one another, and with hope in your heart, with glory in your heart to the Lord, and submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. These things are conducive to being filled with the Spirit. As we yield to Him, quite frankly, we go from loving Him to even liking Him, and then we can worship Him. And whether we know it or not, we're becoming more like Him. Usually about the time I think I'm really becoming like Jesus is the time I'm not. You know that book, Humility, and how I obtained it? Not going to be written. It's something you ask God for, never thank Him for. But here we have a psalm that gives us a moment And I don't know how you feel about it. Maybe you've had some bad memories or good memories, but going to a wedding is supposed to be a lovely, joyous occasion. Psalm 45 lets you go and see a wedding procession like you've never seen before. And somehow, in some wonderful way, you're in it, child of God. You're in there. You're this bride whom he desires your beauty. He's just not done making it beautiful yet. But on the inside, he's already started. He's working his way out. And one day, when we get that new body and finally get this old one out of the way, then he's going to present to himself his glorious church without spot or wrinkle. So I'd like to see you soon. But if I don't, I'd like to see you in the new Jerusalem. And we'll worship the King. Father, please give faith where it's needed. Please allow us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Please help us to be so in love with our Lord and desire him. And forsaking all others in this world, follow Jesus. And loving and liking at the same time, Lord, give us the ability to celebrate our faith. and help us to get joy from things like Psalm 45 and other places that Colossians 3.16 would direct us, Lord, to just get full of a wonderful love life with You, Your Word, Your Spirit. So please give faith where it's needed now. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.