I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Psalm 110. And if you don't have a Bible, or if you want to take notes, there's a handout there in your bulletin that has Psalm 110 printed on it. And this sermon is going to show us how much we underestimate the Bible. And I'm not just talking about atheists underestimating the Bible or liberal scholars out there in academia underestimating the Bible. I'm talking about me. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about people who grow up going to Christian schools. People go to church on Saturday night, those kind of people, people that think we know the Bible and we settle for I'm familiar with that. I've heard that. I've kind of been there, done that, and we don't want to know as an ongoing experience. We don't want to know in such a way that we could teach it to other people ourselves. Psalm 110 is such an epic chapter of Scripture, there is no possible way I will be able to do it justice, explaining all of the awesomeness. But if I just even do a decent job of preaching this text here tonight, you will leave here realizing that God is operating on a much higher level than any of us are thinking, and that the only way we could possibly know what God is thinking is through what he reveals right here in the Scripture. And so, we should be paying attention, not like we already have heard it before, but paying closer attention to what we have heard. And so, I'm inviting you to Psalm 110, and really what I'm inviting you to do is read through book five of the Psalms here with our church.
Now who has read 106 Psalms so far in the book of Psalms? Okay? So, we have people who like to sit in the front, these folks. We have people who are reading through the Psalms, and we've been doing this now for months. If you've been here at our church, you have heard about it, and one thing you may not know is that the Psalms, 150 chapters of Psalms, they are broken down strategically into five different books, five different collections of Psalms. This is something not a lot of people talk about but when you study the different collections, they have certain themes. There's a reason we put this psalm in this place with these other Psalms. Now go to Psalm 107; it's just a few Psalms back from 110, and this is where we're at right now in our reading book five. And you can see, if you open up your bulletin, not only is there a handout, there's also an insert that gives you the Psalms we'll be reading on what day throughout the month of February, which starts tomorrow, everyone. And you can see, yes, some of you have been wondering, are we going to do Psalm 119 in a day? No, it's going to take a whole week to read Psalm 119, and so we'll get to that later on in the month. But you can see, we're going to read book five. And if you start in 107 it says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. And let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble.” And then here's the key verse. Verse 3, “He has gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” See, we've been building all of the Psalms. It starts out with King David, and he's praying in all kinds of situations. He's praying raw, honest thoughts to God that have inspired many people here at this church to pray to the Lord more than they have before, to be more honest with the LORD than they have before. But it starts like that in book one, and then it becomes more about the nation, and then it becomes about all the people coming together to worship Yahweh malach, God reigns. Let's all sing if he saved you. Let's all shout if he saved you. But now book five is looking forward to the climax, the future, when someday, God's going to get all of his people together in Jerusalem. And the kingdom? Have you heard about the kingdom? “Oh, let all the redeemed say yes. When he gathers us together from the four corners of the earth, and he puts all of his people together in one place, when the King comes back.” See, that's what book five is setting up. Oh, there's history and there's already reasons to sing, but what about the future? What about the victory? What about the best days that are yet to come? That's what book five of the Psalms is about, and they have saved the best for last. They pulled no punches. I mean, that's why you got Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. That's why you have the Songs of Ascent leading you up to Jerusalem as you anticipate the day that the king is there reigning. And so, book five is meant to be climactic. So, whether you've read 106 Psalms, or whether you've read zero Psalms, I'm here to invite you to read book five with us, and I thought to encourage you to read it, we would go straight to the absolute best Psalm. And the reason I say that Psalm 110 is the best Psalm is because it's the most quoted Psalm. It's quoted by Jesus. It's quoted by Peter in the first sermon of the church in Acts, chapter 2. It's quoted in many of Paul's letters. And really Psalm 110, two different verses in Psalm 110, are the most talked about parts of the book of Hebrews.
So, this psalm that you might think is just buried in here randomly at the number 110, no, this psalm is one of the most important Scriptures that we have. And so, out of respect for God's word, I am going to ask everybody to stand once again for the public reading of Scripture. And I want you to pay attention to Psalm 110, not like you know it, but like you want to know God. Please follow along as I read a Psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. And it says, there, very important, and make sure you underline this in your Bible, and you need to write it on our handout. For some reason, when we copied this chapter onto our handout, it did not say a “Psalm of David” at the top. Can you all write, a Psalm of David? When you see those subscriptions, those are inspired when it says, “A Psalm of David.” That's not somebody putting that in there later. That is a part of the actual Psalm. King David, the king of Israel, he reigned roughly three thousand years ago. That's when this was written, three thousand years ago. A king over in the Middle East, on the other side of the world, from where we are, he wrote this in Hebrew. And we're going to try to make sure things don't get lost in translation, coming from a different culture, three thousand years ago, in a different language. But one of the things that's hard for us as we look at the Bible in English is we have “LORD,” but we have two different words behind the English word “Lord”. And so, if you've got the handout, I want you to put Yahweh under the capital LORD. So, write Yahweh, that's the name of God. And then the other “Lord,” that's not capitalized, that's the Hebrew word Adonai. Okay, so Yahweh is a name. That's God's name. That's how God introduced himself through Moses to the people, “Tell them I am, that I am. Tell them I'm Yahweh, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, tell them I am Yahweh.” So that's God's name, but we just call it LORD, but really it's his name. And then there's also Adonai, which means Lord, but that's a title, and it's a title that would be used about anybody who's the master of the house, they're the Lord of the house.
So, if you read through stories in the Hebrew Bible, they'll say Lord to people they're not always referring to God when they say Lord, because Lord is a title that would mean it's kind of like how we might say in English, sir, or how somebody might say to you at Taco Bell these days, boss or chief, right? They're just referring to you as the person who's making the order, the person who's in charge at that particular moment. That's what the word Lord means. It's a title, okay? So, the problem is, when we copy this chapter onto your handout, it decapitalized some of the LORDs there. So, make sure that the first LORD in your handout is all capitalized, capital, l, o, r, d, because it says, Yahweh says to Adonai, that's what it says. In fact, verse 2 should be all capitalized because that's Yahweh sending forth from Zion. And verse 4 should be all capitalized because that's Yahweh has sworn and he won't change his mind. So, I don't know why, on the sermon, where it is the most important of all time that you would understand the distinction between the capital letters and the lowercase letters, we lost the capital letters in the text on that sermon. Of course, it would happen tonight, right?
But there are two things you need to understand. Verse 1 is Yahweh talking, and verse 4 is Yahweh talking. You should circle those verses. You should underline what is in the quotes in verse 1 and verse 4, because this is what is so amazing about Scripture. We would never know God said these things if David didn't write it down for us; no one could possibly think of this in their own logic. No one could feel this. No one could have some experience where they overheard what Yahweh, the Father said to Adonai, the Son, and he says two very important things about this. Yahweh says to Adonai, he says two very important things. Verse 1, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” That's very important to know that Yahweh said that. And then verse 4, Yahweh says, and he swears this, he will not change his mind. So, whatever he's about to say, you know it's going to be true. “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” We have in Psalm 110, two statements from Yahweh that if you really understand these two statements that he makes here, it will transform your everyday life. Do you realize what I'm saying to you? An ancient Psalm, written by a king across the world in a different language three thousand years ago, could change the way you think today. If you can really hear this and take this to heart, that there was Yahweh, and he said to Adonai, the name Yahweh, who we might think of as the Father, he said to the Lord, who we think of as the Son Jesus, “Sit at my right hand.” And that is a glimpse into heaven right there, something that you would never be able to see with your eyes, but now it has been spoken to you, and this is so whatever is said here, it must be very significant because of how often it is quoted in other parts of Scripture.
Let's go straight to Matthew 22 and let's see how Jesus quotes it. If you know how the Gospels go, and Jesus eventually makes it to Jerusalem. We're going through the Gospel of Mark this year at our church. We're going to get to Jerusalem, and they're going to come together, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers, all the Jewish religious leaders. They're intimidated and envious of the popularity of Jesus, and they're going to come together and try to stump Jesus. They're going to come and try to get him in a word trap, to make him less popular with the crowd and to turn the attention back on them. And so, in Matthew 22, it's like a marathon of a reality TV show “Stump Jesus” here, where they keep asking him different questions, and they're trying to get him to say something that will get him in trouble with the crowd. And after all the questions that they ask him, jump down to the very end of Matthew 22 and look at verse 41, look at how this stump Jesus marathon ends, and they never stump Jesus. They never get him to get caught in one of these word traps. But look at what it says, verse 41 now, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, uh, oh, he's saying, “What do you think about the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One? Whose son is he?” Okay, so this is referring to what they thought about the King who is coming, whose son is he? Well, they're like, oh, we know. We know that one. He's the son of David. He's coming in the line of David. He's going to sit on the throne of David. We know whose son he is. He said to them, how is it then that David, in the spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’”
Okay, so you guys know that the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the King, he's coming in the line of King David. So, you think of him as the Son of David. Well, then why did David call him Lord? And he quotes Psalm 110, verse one. Now notice what Jesus just said. He said that David wrote Psalm 110, and he says that he wrote it. He wrote a revelation given to him by God. Because how would he know what Yahweh is saying to the Son? How would he know what. Yahweh is swearing in heaven, but it was revealed to him by the Spirit. And Jesus says, okay, well, if you think he's the son of David, then why does David refer to him as Adonai? If David's the king, why is he calling him Lord? And then you can see their response here in Matthew 22, verse 46, “No one was able to answer him a word. Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” Stump Jesus officially canceled. From that point on, many episodes where they asked Jesus questions, he asked them one question. The show goes off the air. Do you see how there was a common way that people thought about the Scripture? Oh, yeah, we know who the Messiah is. He's the son of David. He's coming in the line of the king of Israel. And then just by quoting Psalm 110, verse 1, Jesus exposes that even the religious leaders have no clue what they're talking about. He's not coming since David, as they think, although he will be born in the line of David, he's actually the lord of David. Wow, that's a higher thought than what those people were thinking. And in the same way, what it's saying about Jesus in Psalm 110, verse 1, is a higher thought than what most of us are thinking today.
So, let's get this down for point number one. Now, as we get into this study of the Psalms, particularly Psalm 110, we “Want to know God as he revealed himself.” Want to know God as he revealed himself. There are heavenly things, spiritual things, things beyond what is seen. And the only way you are going to know these things is if you study what God has revealed to you. You have to find it in the Scriptures. If you're searching for a knowledge of God through your daily physical experience, how will you know what Yahweh is saying to the one who's going to sit at his right hand? How will you know what Yahweh is swearing that will not change forever. And even if you think you know things about God in the Bible, just be careful, because people who thought they knew a lot in their pride, they couldn't answer the questions that Jesus asked them about Psalm 110.
I find that just a little bit of knowledge about the Bible, what does a little bit of knowledge do everybody? It puffs up. I found within myself and with many people I've interacted with in the church that they know enough about the Bible to be full of themselves, and I want to know enough about the Bible to be full of God. Which one of those people are you? You’ve got to attack the Scripture like there's treasure there, and dig until you find it, because he asks a basic question, who is the Adonai that David is referring to in Psalm 110, verse 1, who did he call Lord? Nobody can answer that question.
Now go with me to Acts 2, and let's see what Peter preaches because Peter is going to answer the question. He's going to put an exclamation point rather than a question mark. And Peter, he preaches from three different passages in his first sermon. So, one of the things that's fascinating about the Bible is how the people who write what we call the New Testament quote and refer to what we call the Old Testament, the part of the Bible that is written in Greek after Jesus. How do they quote the Hebrew which is written before Jesus? And Peter, when he preaches the gospel, see, a lot of people today, they have a wrong understanding that the part that's new is about Jesus and the old part is about something else. But when the people were preaching about Jesus in the new part, all they had to go with was the old part, and they didn't have a problem preaching Jesus from the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, he quotes Joel 2 about the Holy Spirit, because that's what's happened here. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit has come down upon them with power. They're speaking in foreign languages. They're drawing a massive crowd. And then when he starts preaching the gospel of Jesus, he quotes Psalm 16 of David, prophesying the resurrection, that the Holy One will not see decay. He will not see corruption. He will rise from the dead. And then look at verse 34. He says, “For David did not ascend into the heavens.” David didn't go sit at the right hand. “But he himself says, ‘‘The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” What is Peter saying to everyone on the streets of Jerusalem? Psalm 110 is not about David. David didn't go to the right hand of God. No, he's talking about Jesus, and Jesus is right now at the right hand of God. You killed him. God raised him from the dead. And guess where he is now, at the right hand of Yahweh. And notice after he says that, verse 37, “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart. “They were greatly convicted by the spirit of their sin, and the spirit bore witness to them of Jesus, and they realized they had misunderestimated and misunderstood Jesus the whole time. They did not really get who he was, and now the one that they killed is at the right hand. He's David's Lord. Wow. That leads to a profound response of many people repenting and believing and getting baptized, and three thousand souls are added that day to the first day of the church, all because they finally understand who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Lord of Psalm 110. Yahweh said to Jesus, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” That's what happened. And so that's my concern for you as a pastor, as one of the pastors here at this church, one of the concerns I have always had for the people of this church is that when I say the name Jesus, what comes to your mind? What comes to your mind, when I say Jesus? What do you think of? Because if you think of a baby that's lying in a manger, which we celebrate at Christmas, or if you think of a man dying on a cross that we remember on Good Friday, and then how the tomb was empty, that we celebrate on Easter Sunday, that's old news. Jesus that you're thinking of when I say the name Jesus, my desire for you would be for you to see eyes of fire and a face shining like the sun at its full strength, and one who, when he speaks, there's a sword coming out of his mouth. When I say, Jesus, I want you to think, oh, the one who sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. That's who Jesus is today. And I've often said, if you've been here, you know that I've said, we should have a day every year where we remember who Jesus is today. Has anybody here ever heard me say that before in all these years? God bless you, beautiful people, that have heard that. So, we're going to start doing that on Ascension Day this year. It's Thursday, May 14, and we're going to have a special service on Thursday night, May 14. I'm announcing it right now. And we're going to because you might have forgotten this sermon by then, and we're going to remember who Jesus is, seated at the right hand of God, where he is right now.
So, Jesus, a lot of us are thinking about him like, oh, Jesus was this, or Jesus was that? And so many people are talking about Jesus when he put on flesh, when he humbled himself, when he was obedient to the point of death on a cross. Yes, praise Jesus for his service of us, for his humility to come and lay down his life for us. Jesus loved us, and he proved it with his blood. But Jesus has risen. Jesus has ascended. Jesus has been exalted. And Yahweh said to Adonai, Sit at my right hand. I'm going to put every one of your enemies under your feet. That's what happened. Jesus is in the place of ultimate power, dominion, and authority. That's who you should think of when you hear the name Jesus, you should think he is the Lord. And when they realize that Jesus is the Lord, that's what led to this profound turnaround in their lives.
Go to Hebrews, chapter 1, because Hebrews begins with this idea of Jesus. Hebrews is trying to help Jews leave behind the old covenant to embrace the new covenant. And so he's arguing why what they have in Jesus, with Jesus is greater than what they had with Moses in the old ways. And in Hebrews, chapter 1, he starts out by saying, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, the Word of God, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. And then, after making purification for sins.” Underline this, “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” What is the writer of Hebrews thinking of when he writes that, everyone? Psalm 110, verse 1, Jesus is using it to shut down his critics. Peter is preaching it in the first sermon, as Jesus builds his church. And when the writer of Hebrews wants to convince the Jews into the new way in Christ, he begins by quoting Psalm 110, verse 1. In fact, if you go down to verse 13, it says in Hebrews 1:13 “And to which of the angels has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?” He's trying to prove that the old covenant, which in their mind came through the angels, is not as good as the new covenant, which he's saying came through Jesus. And notice how Peter is saying, well, David's not the one sitting at the right hand of Yahweh. And here he says the angels. He didn't say to any of the angels, sit at the right hand of Yahweh. No, there is only one who can sit at the right hand of Yahweh, and his name is Jesus. And so, what I'm telling you is that three thousand years ago, a king said that he had a king, that he had a Lord, and that that Lord would sit at the right hand of Yahweh in heaven, and he was prophesying about Jesus, and that's what Jesus referred to. Peter referred to Hebrews. And it goes on and on.
We could look up many Scriptures, but let's get this down for point number two: You need to “See Jesus for where he is right now.” You need to see Jesus for where he is right now. And I'm going to ask you that every single day this week, I would really like you to do this every single day for the rest of your life. I want to ask you to remind yourself, where is Jesus today, and to make sure that you, as you go through your day, as you seek to abide in Christ, to remain right there, connected in Jesus, to stay with Jesus throughout your day. Where is Jesus? He's at the right hand. The right hand is a phrase used throughout the Scripture. In fact, sometimes you might even hear people outside of any kind of Bible study, talk about their right-hand man because the majority of people are right handed. So, the right hand then has this idea of strength, and the right hand is then the position of power. I got somebody right there at my right hand. They're in the place of power, where they're with me. And if God holds you by your right hand, then you feel strong, because you know God is with you. So, to be at the right hand of the Father is in a place of authority, a place of dominion. It is the idea that Jesus has been exalted to the name that is above every name.
In fact, go back to Psalm 110, now that we have a little bit more of how this Scripture gets used, hopefully we're starting to appreciate the importance of it. Let's now consider what Yahweh, the Father, said to Adonai, his Son Jesus, when he said, “Sit at my right hand. And we thought about that a little bit, but now he says, “until I make your enemies your” what, everybody? Your footstool, until all of your enemies are under your feet. So, there would be this picture in some kind of military conquest, that if we capture you, if we conquer you, if our kingdom overtakes your kingdom, well, then the victors, they will come and literally put their feet on the heads of the kings that they have conquered. And so, after Jesus dies, after he rises from the dead, after he ascends and is exalted to the right hand, well, now it's time, and when he's won a great victory that will assemble the enemies under his feet. What a powerful picture.
I've grown up going to church. I've heard people say all the time that we have three enemies in the spiritual battle. And I hear people talk about Satan and all the demons. I hear people talk about the world, the big bad system of evil all around us. And I hear people talk about our flesh, the temptations that rise up within us. And if you hear people talk about our three enemies, you might even hear somebody imply, well, we have these enemies, and they're not going anywhere, and they're always there, and so you're probably going to give in to sin, because we've all got these enemies. And what can we really do about it? What a different way we would all approach this week if we thought that all of our enemies are being assembled right now under the feet of the conqueror, and they're being arranged as his footstool because he sits at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven. That's what Yahweh said to Jesus. I'm going to put your enemies under your feet.
So, who are these enemies that are being assembled? That's how we talk about the enemies. What does Psalm 110 say? And, and we might not be used to this kind of battle language, this kind of military language, but, but let's go through the psalm here. Yahweh, that's capital L, O, R, D, there. In verse 2, he sends forth a mighty scepter. Next to scepter, you might want to write down Genesis 49:10 because to the tribe of Judah was given the scepter to rule, and we could do a whole sermon on the scepter. But let's stick with the enemies here. Rule in the midst of your enemies. So he's been given the scepter to rule over these enemies, and then he's going to have people. Verse 3, people in holy garments. They're going to be with him on this day of power. Verse 4, that's capital L, O, R, D, Yahweh says a second thing about Jesus that we'll get to. But then, go down to verse 5. This is now talking about the Adonai, the one at the right hand. Verse 5. So that's Jesus. We know Jesus is the Lord at the right hand. “He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.” Now that may not sound very nice to you as we sit here in Orange County in the year of our Lord 2026, but if you are going to war with another army and it's a kill or be killed battle at the end of the day, would you prefer for them to be the corpses or for you to be the corpses? Okay? So, you got to put yourself in that kind of mindset, we're going out to the field of battle with these enemies, and only one kingdom is going to emerge at the end of it. And so that's the idea. Here is an overwhelming, decisive victory. Now look at how it says in it, at the end of verse 6, “He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.” And there's even a footnote there. And instead of translating it chiefs, you could translate it... What does anybody see? What does your footnote says? Because it says, “Therefore he will lift up his head.” And so, there's the word head here in verse 6 and in verse 7. So, it talks about shattering kings. And you might think chiefs is just another reference to the kings, but it actually is saying he will shatter the head over the earth. Interesting.
Go back with me to Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15. Let's go all the way back to the beginning, all the way back to when Eve was deceived by the serpent and Adam ate the fruit that God said not to eat. And then God cursed because of sin. He cursed the serpent, he cursed the woman, and he cursed the man. And when he cursed the serpent, God said something, as if God already knew what he was going to do in Genesis 3:15, he said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Now, who is this offspring or seed of the woman? Right? Well, this is why Genesis from here on takes us through all these genealogies, because someone is going to be born of the woman Eve who will crush the head of the serpent. And the serpent is only going to bruise the heel of whoever is born of the woman, but whoever is born of the woman, they will crush the head of the snake. What if I told you that the word for head here is the same word for head that's going to be shattered in Psalm 110. This is God saying in Genesis 1, So God said this to Moses, roughly four hundred years before David. Now God wants David to write down, and he wants it to be said again. I'm going after that snake, I'm going to crush his head.
And that's why Genesis, if you really study Genesis, which some of us have been able to do, as we read through it before, together, we followed this word for the offspring or the seed, and that's why there's all the genealogies, and that's why it's so important that Noah and his family survive. And that's why we find out that it's not just going to be any possible person, but it's going to be someone in the line of Abraham. No, Abraham, he will have a nation, and through him all the families of the earth will be blessed. And God has promised a land to Abraham, and that's why we start paying attention to Abraham and his son, of Isaac and his son, Jacob, and then the twelve sons, and then he sends Joseph ahead into Egypt. And that's why we're so focused on Israel. Why? Because we know that the one who's going to crush the head of the serpent, he's going to be born to the nation of Israel. And so, we pay attention to Israel, even though they have some real rough times in their history, we keep reading, because eventually, God has a man after his own heart, a man that he wants to be king of his people. And when he finally, after he has to run from Saul for so many years, when he finally makes David the king of Israel in Jerusalem, and David says, I want to build you a house, God. I want to build you a temple. I want everyone to worship you. God says to David, you're not going to build me a house. I'm going to build your house, and in your line will come a king who will reign forever. This is the one we've been waiting for from Eve to Abraham to David. This is the one, and when he comes back, he's not just going to shatter the nations. Don't just think the armies of the world know who's behind the armies of the world. He will crush the head of Satan. That's what Psalm 110 is saying. Imagine if you live Tuesday like right now Satan is being assembled under the feet of Jesus so he can crush him. That would be a different perspective than perhaps we are thinking about the days of our lives right now, but we know there's a promise. Go with me to Ephesians 1. Let's jump ahead to Ephesians 1 here, and let's start seeing how they would talk about until your enemies are your footstool, until your enemies are under your feet. How does that get talked about in Ephesians, chapter 1? Paul writes about it.
So, you've got point number three: We should “Expect the enemies to be defeated.” We shouldn't just talk about the enemies like they still have all the power and we're all going to be victims of these enemies. No, we can expect the enemies to be defeated. We should picture them already being the footstool of the Lord Jesus. And one of the enemies that we should anticipate being defeated is the one we just talked about.
Your first dash is we're going to “Crush the head of the serpent.” That's referred to in Psalm 110 that goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15, but the serpent does not act independently. Although we often blame the devil, we often just refer to Satan. We all need to be very clear when we refer to Satan that Satan is just one of the fallen angels. Satan is not on the level of God. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Okay, so there's God, the Father, the Son, the Spirit. They're one of a kind. They're on a unique level. Then there's a bunch of angels, okay? And maybe, you know some of the angels, like Gabriel or Michael, you know some of the good angels and then Satan. He's just one of the fallen angels that we know. Okay? And so look at what it says here in Ephesians, chapter 1, where he wants the eyes of your heart to be open to see the immeasurable power, the greatness of God's power toward us who believe. Look at verse 20. This is Ephesians 1:20. He wants you to see the power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. How do we know that Yahweh said to Adonai, sit in my right hand? What is he referring to right there? Psalm 110. I want God to show you what he did when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his what, everybody? When Paul is writing this to the church in Ephesus, does he have Psalm 110 on his mind? Does he want these people to know where Jesus is at the right hand? And does he want these people to know where the enemies are under his feet? Is there any demon that you or I need to be afraid of in the name of Jesus? No, we do not need to be afraid of them, because Jesus’ name is above all other rules, authorities or powers.
Let's get that down for our second dash: “Every spiritual authority of evil,” they're all going to be under his feet. All of them will be defeated, not just the head of a serpent, and we might think of Satan as the head of the demons. Well, Jesus isn't just going to crush the head. He's going to crush them all. That's what it says here in Ephesians 1. He's so far above them, he's above every name, and they're all under his feet. He's head over all of them, and he gave the one who's head overall to us in the church, that resurrection power, that exalted power that sit at my right-hand power that the Father gave to Jesus has now been given to all of us in the church. And just as Jesus rose from the dead, so you too can walk in newness of life, if you are my brother and sister in Christ, these demons, these spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, cannot do anything to you, because Jesus has won the victory over them, and they will be under his feet. That's what it says. They're already there. That's how you should think of it. That's what he wants you to see. Stop looking at the news and thinking it's all out of control. No, the enemies are being made into his footstool. That's what it says.
Now one more thing, 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Paul, when he writes 1 Corinthians, he has to correct so many problems in the church. And then if you ever get to 1 Corinthians 15, it's like Paul now just wants to preach the gospel, after all the issues he's had to address in this church. So, 1 Corinthians 15 is one of the great chapters in the Scripture, because Paul just starts preaching the gospel. Talks about the resurrection. And so many people saw Jesus after he'd risen from the dead, and you got to believe in the resurrection. That's the key that unlocks everything. And then, as he's going through that, look at what he says in verse 25, this is 1 Corinthians 15:25. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” So, here's an idea not just buried somewhere randomly in Psalm 110. It seems like a very relevant idea that so many other people want to refer to in their writings of Scripture. And so, go back even before verse 25, go back to verse 24 where it says, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” Who's that referring to? Satan and the rest of the demons. And after he destroys, he's going to bring the kingdom in. He's going to destroy every one of them, and then he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Verse 26, “the last enemy to be destroyed is” what? Wow.
Let's get that down for our third dash: “Even death” will be defeated. I mean, that's hard for me to even get my mind around. As a pastor, I've been here in Huntington Beach for 11 years, and I've seen some of our brothers and sisters get placed into the ground. Literally, I've seen their bodies get lowered in. I've been there with some of our brothers and sisters who have died, and I have kind of a heightened sense of the inevitability of death for all human beings. As someone who spent time in the house of mourning, I have taken it to heart that death is the end of every man. So, I kind of have this idea that we're all going to die because I've been there. I've seen it, I've interacted with the grieving loved ones. And so now to take me to a kingdom, to a place where there is no death, where all of death, can you picture that for a second in a world where people act like death is just what's going to happen, like it's a normal thing, to then think of a kingdom where no one would ever die, where no relationships would ever be separated, where no one's life would ever be cut short, as if such a thing could happen. Wow. What kind of a place would that be to live where there is no thought or fear of death, and here where people mock Jesus for his resurrection, where people act like Jesus he wasn't even a real person, or he didn't really rise from the dead, where in the land of death, where people will make fun of Jesus for rising from the dead to think that he's going to bring in a kingdom where there's only resurrection, where all of his people live forever. What an amazing victory Jesus has won. And if I think about him at the right hand of the Father, getting ready to come back and start his kingdom, and I think about his kingdom, the age to come, where this life of the age to come cannot be limited, cannot be ended. This eternal life that Jesus has, the resurrection life, the abundant life that you can only find in Jesus. Everyone who knows Jesus, we will live in a kingdom, and none of us will ever die. That's how big his victory is.
Now, after he eliminates Satan, after he crushes the head of the serpent, after every single one of these evil spiritual forces is defeated, oh, then death will be defeated and the curse will be no more, and all the people that you love and all the people who love Jesus, we will be with him forever. Man, if you could be thinking about that on Tuesday, how would that change the way you live your life? Psalm 110, verse 1 is the headline we all need to wake up to every morning. Jesus is at the right hand, and his enemies are becoming his footstool; even death will be defeated.
Now, go back to Psalm 110 because that's just the first thing that Yahweh says. The second thing the capital L, O, R, D says is in verse 4. And some of you are realizing that even though we've gone through three points, we're only halfway through this sermon. So, look with me at verse 4, if you dare, where it says, “Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind.” He says, “You are a priest forever after the order of” what, everybody? Melchizedek what? So there's this king, this Lord, this Adonai, who's going to sit at the right hand of Yahweh, who's going to have all of his enemies under his feet, like how conquering kings do. He's also a priest, but it's not like a priest how the Jews would have been familiar with. It's definitely not like a priest, maybe that you've heard of living today. No, it's a priest after a completely different kind of order of priest, the order of Melchizedek. Now, if you're like, I'm not sure who Melchizedek is, that's fine if you don't know who Melchizedek is, if you're new to the Bible, because there's only one other place before this that you could possibly know who Melchizedek is. You have got to go to Genesis 14. So, let's all turn back there. So, this one I'm saying is, if you don't really take time to study, and you don't really turn the pages and get your eyeballs in the Bible, you'll just always be at a Melchizedek-what level with the Scripture? Some people, they never get past a Melchizedek-what? And if you're new to church, that's fine. We're glad you're here. Put on your seat belt, get out your pen. Let's go. If you have been at church for longer than ten years, and you're just at Melchizedek-what level, we’ve got a rebuke coming for you in just a minute. That was your warning.
Go to Genesis 14, and look at what it says here in Genesis 14. This is after Abram goes and rescues his family, and who we know as Abraham, he ends up in a fight here with a bunch of kings, and in verse 17 of Genesis 14, he returns from the defeat of Chedorlaomer, who's a tough name to say, and the kings who were with him. So, there's a whole bunch of kings. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is the king's Valley), and Melchizedek, king of Salem, he brought out bread and wine.” Now it says in parentheses here, he was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him. So, here's the one line we get from Melchizedek, who just happens to be a king and a priest, and who shows up to celebrate Abraham's victory over these other kings, and he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abraham. Abram at this time by God, Most High God, Most High possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God, Most High who has delivered your” what everybody? What is Melchizedek? What's his message? Oh yeah, God Most High, he knows how to defeat the enemies. And so, if you just defeated the enemies, then we should bless God Most High, because he's the one who gave you victory over those enemies. And look at what it says. “Abram gave him a tenth of everything, he gives him like an offering.” This is where the idea of a tithe or an offering of ten. It goes all the way back to Abram, giving ten percent of all the spoils of his victory to this King, Priest, Melchizedek. That is the one and only reference in the Bible to Melchizedek, until four hundred years later, when David writes Psalm 110.
You get a second reference to Melchizedek, and apparently Yahweh is swearing you're going to be a priest, saying that to Adonai, the Lord, now also calling him a priest, which in the Jewish mind is hard to fathom, because kings weren't supposed to be priests, and priests weren't supposed to be kings. Some kind of balance of power in their governing system there, some kind of checks and balances. You couldn't have a priest king, but now the one who's king on the right hand, who's going to defeat all the enemies, he's also priest. But it's not like the Levites were priests. It's like Melchizedek was a priest. So, you just have these three verses, Genesis 14:18-20, about Melchizedek. Then you get one verse about him in Psalm 110. Then go to Hebrews, chapter 5, because the writer of Hebrews, he wants to talk about Melchizedek. He's very excited to talk about Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a major point he's going to bring up if you go to Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 6, he's going to quote Psalm 110, verse 4. Do you remember the promise God made? Do you remember the oath that God took? Do you remember when God swore you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek? Can we go back and talk about that? Who's ready for some Melchizedekian priesthood on a Saturday night? That's what the writer of Hebrews is thinking. Look at him in chapter 5, verse 6, as he also says in another place, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications.” This is Hebrews 5:7,” with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what? He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, and he's expecting everybody to be like.” Amen, right? But he got the same reaction that I got, which is, nobody said anything about Melchizedek. Melchizedek what? Now, here's the rebuke, verse 11, “About this we have much to say.” I’ve got a lot to say about Melchizedek, but it's hard to explain, since you have become look what he says, dull of hearing.” See what you've lost. He says, the writer of Hebrews to the people he's talking to, is you've lost that sense of discovery. You've lost that sense of when it was new, and you wanted to learn all about it, and there was so much to learn, and it was so exciting to study the Bible, and you couldn't hear enough sermons. He's like, yeah, remember when you used to be really interested in it? You would be hanging on every word about Melchizedek, but now you've become dull. You don't really want to hear it anymore. You're not like, well, why does it mention Melchizedek in Genesis, and why does it talk about him in Psalm 110, and Yeah, could you explain that to me? I'd really like to learn more about Melchizedek. No, you're part of the dull of hearing that thinks Melchizedek is some kind of Bible trivia that doesn't have anything to do with my life here today, not my life in Jesus. That must be some old stuff about Abraham and the Jews. Doesn't really matter to me when the whole way that Jesus is your priest is in the order of Melchizedek. But you don't even care enough to find out about it. That's what he's saying to the people here. He's rebuking them. He's like, Man, I got so much that we could get into on Melchizedek. And he does get into it. I mean, he goes from chapter 5, verse 6, he goes all the way through to chapter 7, verse 25 about Melchizedek. There are two and a half chapters in the book of Hebrews. A good chunk of his teaching here is on Melchizedek. But before he gives you the treasure of the Melchizedekian priesthood, he first wants to rebuke his listeners that you're not really listening. You're not really coming to learn something new. You're coming like you already know it all. You've become dull of hearing. Look at what he goes on to say, “Though, by this time, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. Oracles of God meaning things that God has said.
And that's why Psalm 110 is supposed to be so significant in our mind, because Psalm 110 unlocks two things that Yahweh said in heaven. It unlocks that he's going to sit at his right hand until the enemies are the footstool, and it unlocks that he's going to be a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. These are the two oracles of God that we should all be, wow, I can't believe we got to know those two things. And he's like, you need someone to teach you those things all over again. You should be teaching other people these things, but you need someone to teach them to you. He says, “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to” what everybody? Maturity. Do you want to be a mature Christian? If you've been a Christian for some years, especially if you would say that you've been a Christian for over five years or over ten years, I want to ask you, are you a know it all? Or do you want to know God?
This is something I had to deal with in my own life. There were two paths that I could take as someone who went to Christian school, Bible College, grew up in church Christian parents. It was very clear to me that I was going to judge my maturity based on the information that I had in my brain, or I was going to judge my maturity based on how I actually interacted with God. And he says, oh, we should be deep into Melchizedek by now. We should be teaching other people about Melchizedek by now. See, I want to encourage you that you really know something when you can teach it to other people, and if you can't teach it to other people, then you don't know it yourself. That's what I want to encourage you to think that way, because that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying here, that if you really have that constant discernment, where you're constantly in the Word, and you're really growing up to maturity in Christ, you're learning how to not just be a hearer, but a doer, you're letting your mind get renewed as God transforms you from the inside out, as he sanctifies you by the truth of his Word. If you're really mature, you'll be able to take all the things you're learning and pass them on to somebody else. But if you just think you know it and you share it with nobody, you're in danger of being puffed up, of being dull, of hearing, like if you could hear about Melchizedek and think, yeah, that's not interesting to me. I'm concerned for you. That's what the writer of Hebrews is saying to them. I'm concerned. I’ve got a lot to say about Melchizedek. Melchizedek, if you understand who he is, the king priest, it unlocks, in your mind, the access that you have to God through Jesus, but if you don't understand that Jesus is your priest, oh man, that's going to be a real loss for your life, and it's all through Melchizedek.
And so, I'm asking you, how do you gage your maturity in Christ? Is it based on what you know, or is it based on what you're able to teach other people? Because you really know it when you can teach it to somebody else, and if you can't teach it to somebody else, you need to hear the rebuke of the book of Hebrews, and you need to make sure that you're getting constant practice in the Word. The thing I love about teaching the Bible, the reason I get to come here almost every day and talk to people about the Bible is, this is evergreen. It never stops being relevant. You want to talk about prayer, well, it doesn't matter if you know how to pray. Are you praying? You want to talk about encouraging other brothers and sisters in Christ. Doesn't matter if you know how to encourage them. Who are you encouraging? You want to talk about evangelizing the lost. It doesn't matter if you can answer Bible questions. When was the last time you actually talked to somebody and answered their question?
I could talk about these things all the way till Jesus comes, because knowing is not based on the information that I have in my brain. Knowing is based on the experience I have of walking with God every day. Is that how it is for you? There are two paths. You can be the know it all, or you can be the I want to know God. Which path have you taken? Any of us could go down the Know It All path very easily. All you have to do is just get bored of things like Melchizedek and not want to keep learning.
And so, after this rebuke, he then, in chapter 6, starts building back to the promises. And if God swore something, then you know it's going to happen. And in chapter 7, verse 1, he says, “For this Melchizedek,” let's get back to him now, after this big old rebuke and this big old discourse where he even warns them about falling away from repentance and never coming back. So, it's a major rebuke that he gives here in Hebrews, under the heading of Melchizedek. And then in chapter 7, verse 1, after saying, “If God said it, it will never be broken. God cannot lie. It has to be true. So, let's talk about Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything.” So now, he's reviewing Genesis 14. He is, first by translation of his name, King of Righteousness, also king of Salem with that is king of peace. And he goes on, and he says, this guy just shows up. We don't know much about him. He just shows up. And he gives Abraham a tenth of his spoils. And then he starts comparing Melchizedek to Levi, and how Levi they were the priests, the Levites. They were the priests in Israel. But Melchizedek, he's different than those priests. And you can keep going down to verse 17. You can see he starts building his climax. “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” You can go down to verse 21 and you can see “the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.” There's a big deal that Jesus is a priest, that he's a priest forever, and he's a priest like Melchizedek, a king priest. And that makes Jesus, he says in verse 22, the guarantor of a better covenant. Verse 23, these former priests, the Levites, they were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Did you hear God save forever? Because of this, consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Oh, the Melchizedekian priesthood, turns out, is one hundred percent relevant to your life this week, because the fact that Jesus is a priest forever means you have a 24/7 hotline straight to the throne of God. And the one who sits at the right hand with all power and authority, the one who's going to crush the head of the serpent under his feet, is now interceding to say whatever you want to the Father who sits on the throne the Most High, the majesty, the Glorious One himself, Jesus will now intercede on any request that you have. The risen, exalted, ascended, right hand, Lord is your intercessor.
If you thought you had direct access to the authority of the heavens and the earth. Would it change the way you walk around on Tuesday? We act like our prayers are only hitting the ceiling. We act like this prayer even really matter. We get too busy to pray. We don't feel like praying when Jesus is a priest who will bring us into the holy presence of God.
Go with me to Romans, chapter eight. Romans 8:34, where Paul makes this same point here, when in his climax, when he's trying to say all the things that we have in Christ, “There's no condemnation for us in Christ. Nothing will separate us from God's love in Christ.” And when he's saying all these great things he says in Romans 8:34, who's going to condemn us now for our sins? Well, Christ, Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God. So when you go before the judge, well, who's the one who would condemn you for your sin? Well, the one who would condemn you for your sin is the one who died for your sin, the one who was raised from the dead, the one you know who he is, the one who sits at the right hand with all of his enemies under his feet. And look at what it says about him, “who indeed is interceding for” who? Who is he interceding for? When you pray, you're talking to the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth, the one who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, the one who made the sun stand still for Joshua, the one who raised his son from the dead, the one who formed you in your mother's womb, the one who gave you breath to wake up with new mercies this morning. You have direct access to God the Father, because Jesus is your priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. If you could just get a little bit of an idea of the unlimited power that you have access to in the name of Jesus, I bet you would want to pray. If you could hear Yahweh say, in eternity, you are a priest forever, I bet it would make you think, oh, I should talk to that priest. And we need to be very clear. You do not need to talk to any man as a priest. Can I get an amen? How long is Jesus our priest for? There's nothing in the Scripture about us establishing another priesthood of people when Jesus is the priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, a king priest man. What better priest could you have than a priest who also has his enemies under his feet, a priest who also has access to the most high God and is at his right hand? You have Jesus.
Let's get this down for number four, that “He is there to make intercession for you.” Do you think this is all just theology, or this is just pie in the sky spirituality? I guess somewhere out there where I can't see, Jesus is seated somewhere, and someday something will happen and Satan will be defeated, and it's just all out there in your mind. No, why does it matter that he's at the right hand? Why does it matter that his enemies are under his feet? Why does it matter because you can talk to him and he makes intercession. A priest mediates between God and man. A priest brings the sacrifice to atone for sins, and then brings people into right relationship as sinners, they actually get right with a holy God. And when they're right with God, they have all access to his grace, to his power, to his mercy, to his steadfast love, to his faithfulness, to his justice, all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, you have access to them all through your priest forever, Jesus, who sits at the right hand.
This is Psalm 110 and I had to edit out many other scriptures I would like to have turned you to this evening. Maybe you think it's just a little Psalm. You can live your whole life in this song, because Yahweh said two things to Jesus. One, Sit at my right hand. We're going to put your enemies under your feet. Two, you're a priest forever. You know how Melchizedek was a king priest. That's how you are, too. And if you could get those two thoughts in your head, that you have a King who's coming to win a great victory over all your enemies, and you have a priest who, right now lives.
Go back to Hebrews 7:25, because I think we’ve got so into the rebuke and Melchizedek that we just want to hear that verse one more time to close it out. Here is Hebrews 7:25, this is where all of that, hey, you're not really paying attention. You're not really learning it. Hey, this is what Melchizedek is about. It all leads to this verse. Because of all this, consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. That is completely, that is at all times, those who draw near to God, you can go to the throne of the most high because of Jesus, since he always lives to make intercession for them. When you are having a rough time this week, I hope that you will remember the name Melchizedek, and you'll think, I have a priest, and I can talk to him right now, and he will intercede to God for me. Let me pray for us.
Father, please, will you do a work on our hearts based on what we've seen here in Psalm 110? Thank you for saying these things, these heavenly things, these spiritual things we could never see or with our eyes or hear with our ears. And you gave them to King David, who everybody thought he was the Lord. But no, he calls Jesus the Lord. And three thousand years ago, he wrote that Jesus would sit at your right hand, a thousand years before Jesus died and rose again. Three thousand years ago, he wrote about Melchizedek, referencing all the way back to Genesis. Wow. God, you have shared it with us over so much time. You've had different people write about it. You have shown us that this is a message that could only come from you, and I pray that we could really take your word to heart. God, I pray that we could hear the rebuke that's bound up in the message of Melchizedek, that if we've stopped wanting to know you through the Word, then we've become dull of hearing. And I pray for the brothers and sisters who need to receive that rebuke. I heard it said just today that a wise man, he'll take a rebuke down to his heart. But a foolish man, he'll hear a rebuke, and it won't even change him. God, if there's anybody here tonight, and they would have acted before this sermon like Psalm 110 already heard about that, Melchizedek, don't need to think about that. If they would have thought that coming in here, let them hear this rebuke and let them approach your Word with fresh eyes. Let them pay closer attention to what we have heard. God, I pray for all of us that we would want to read book 5 of the Psalms, not just because we're doing it as a church, but we want to know you. We want to know the God who's going to draw his people from the four corners of the earth, the god who's going to set up a kingdom in Jerusalem. We want to know the one who's a priest forever, the one whose enemies are under his feet. We want to know the one who's going to crush the head of the serpent, the one who's going to come riding on the clouds. We want to know the one who can give us a resurrected life. We want to know the kingdom that will not end. We want to have friends we never have to say goodbye to. And we want to be able to see your face and all of your glory. There's so much for us to still know. How could we already know it all? God, please forgive us, because a little bit of knowledge puffs us up a lot. Humble us before you and let us know that there are glorious things, there are mighty things, things too wonderful for us, and they're all right here in the Scriptures, the things of you. So, God, as we sing this song right now, how glorious you are, how mighty you are, I pray that we could all just take a moment to humble ourselves before you and just say, God, please forgive me, because I started to act like I know a lot about you, when the only things I know about you are what you told me, and I haven't been paying close enough attention. God, please let us want to know you. That's why we read these psalms. Please let us see you are above us, beyond us. You are awesome with splendor and wonder, you sit on a throne of majesty, and we should want to know you. God, please work on our hearts right now, we pray.