(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, Psalm 45, beginning verse number one, the Bible reads, 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. This is a very famous psalm. It really stands out when you're reading the Book of Psalms for a couple reasons. Number one, it's a very beautiful psalm. Number two, it's also like the Song of Solomon in that it's a love song. And so it has a lot of the same type of language and feel of the Book of Song of Solomon. But then lastly, because of the fact that there are some very important quotes in the New Testament that come from this psalm in Hebrews chapter one. So it's a very significant, powerful psalm just for its sheer beauty, and also because it has some very important doctrine in it. But in verse number one, we have this great statement at the end there where it says, My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. This is a great scripture on the inspiration of the Bible, because over and over again, the Bible makes it clear that it's not just being written by human beings, or it's just coming from their own whims or their own will. The Bible says that the prophecy of the scripture in old time did not come by the will of man. It came by the will of God. And the Bible says that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But it's not just that they were inspired in the sense that you could say that, you know, hey, I was inspired by that sunset, so I drew this picture or something. That's not what we mean by inspired. We mean that the Bible is actually God-breathed. You know, God spake all these words. That's what we mean when we say the Bible's inspired. And there are even some very explicit statements in the Bible where he says, you know, well spake the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David the prophet. So notice it's the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of David the prophet. You know what that means? That means that his tongue is the pen of a ready writer. So his tongue, David's tongue, is the pen that God is using to write scripture. Okay, that's what that means. So that's why it says Isaiah spake. But then often it'll say, well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet. So basically it's the Holy Ghost talking. It's God talking. Isaiah is simply the instrument. David is the instrument. His tongue is the pen of a ready writer. So God used the tongues of human men, holy men of God that spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That was his writing instrument. So don't ever let anyone tell you that God did not write the Bible. They'll say, oh man wrote the Bible. And of course we understand that the Bible does have human authorship. And that's what's so amazing about the Bible is that it's written both by God and by man. It's both human and divine. It's perfect and without error, but yet it has a human feel to it, right? So that's what makes the Bible special. Just like Jesus Christ is both God and man, the word is also both human and divine. But we want to make sure that we understand that it's completely without error. The Bible says every word of God is pure. The Bible tells us that it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one jot or one tittle passed from the law till all be fulfilled. So don't ever get the idea that the Bible is just sort of roughly, you know, the gist of what God's trying to get across to us. Or, you know, read the four gospels. You know, they're just kind of doing the best that they can to tell the story. Wrong. God's word is perfect in every way. It is divinely inspired. And so this is a great verse to really drive in that point and help us understand that on a different level when he says, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. It says in verse number two, 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. Now, when you read over this psalm, it's a very messianic psalm. It's pointing a lot to Jesus Christ, especially with the quote that comes up in Hebrews chapter one. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And when it speaks about Jesus Christ, it pictures him riding on a horse. And this is how we're going to see him in Revelation chapter 19, right? Coming at Armageddon on a white horse. And it says, gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. And we have to understand that the term most mighty is a significant term because this is one of the names of God. This is something that God goes by throughout the Old Testament. Almighty God, right? That's the name that he was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by Almighty God. Jesus Christ is the most mighty. So when we understand the Trinity and the three persons that make up the Godhead, we need to understand that Jesus Christ is not downgraded from God the Father. Like he's not less God than the Father. He's every bit as much God as the Father is. And in fact, all of the Old Testament names of God, all of them, whether it's God Almighty, Jehovah, or whether it's the Lord of hosts, you know, you can go through all of those major names of God in the Old Testament. Every single one of them applies to Jesus Christ. And you can actually prove and point to specific examples where all of God's Old Testament names are attributed to Jesus Christ. Because in the Old Testament, we're talking about God in general. So there's not really a clear distinction made throughout the Old Testament breaking down this doctrine of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those things are revealed in the New Testament. There are a lot of things that are not as clear in the Old Testament and then they get really clear in the New Testament. Obviously, the Trinity is one of those things that's really taught in detail in the New Testament. So what we need to understand, though, is that Old Testament names of God can always be applied to Jesus Christ. They all are relevant to him, including the Almighty. And I've heard the Jehovah's Witnesses try to make a distinction on this, like, well, he's the mighty God, but he's not the almighty God. Or something like that. They'll kind of try to split hairs like that. But what does the Bible say here? This is about Jesus Christ. This isn't talking about God the Father, if you get the context in a moment. This is Jesus riding on the horse and it says here about him, most mighty. All right. And so this is one of many places that would refer to Jesus Christ being omnipotent, almighty. Those two words mean the same thing. So he's most mighty. He's riding with glory and majesty. His sword is girt upon his thigh. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, verse 4, because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. So this triple group here, right? Truth, meekness, and righteousness. You know, the Bible often puts together little groups of attributes like this. And this is the trifecta here, okay? This is what we need to strive for in our lives if we want to do terrible things. Now, when we say terrible, we don't mean that in the 2020 meaning of terrible, like, oh, that's just terrible, you know, it's so bad. Terrible basically means terrifying or invoking terror or invoking awe and admiration. But not just on admiration, but just something that just blows you away that it's fearsome, right? It's just terrifying. That's what that means when it says terrible things. Now, think about these three things. Truth, meekness, and righteousness. This is the key to succeeding in the Christian life. This is the key to doing great things for God. First of all, you've got to have the truth. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. If you don't have the truth, you're spinning your wheels. I mean, you could spend your whole life working hard and quote unquote serving God. You better make sure that you know the truth. You better, I mean, there are people out there, they've got the wrong doctrine, wrong gospel. They might be going through a lot of motion and doing a lot of work. They're working hard, but who are they working for? Because if you don't have the truth, you're going nowhere fast. So we must make sure that we have the truth. And this is why it's so important to read your Bible every single day. And don't just sit there and say, well, I've read it enough. I know I've been in church my whole life. Friend, let me tell you something. You will forget what you have learned if you do not continually read the Bible. I don't care how much you've read it. I don't care if you've read it 20, 30 times. You must continually on a daily basis take in God's Word. First of all, just for a personal devotional, just to keep your heart right with God. But not only that, just to get the information, just to get the knowledge. Because I guarantee you, you will forget things in the Bible. You know, I've gone back and listened to sermons that I preached like 10 years ago or something. And I listened to it and I'm like, whoa, I've never thought of that. But then I'm like, but I must have thought of it because I'm the one who's saying it. But I'm like, I don't remember this. Like, I never even, I never thought about that verse that way. But I must have, you know. I mean, unless there's some kind of a Mandela effect. No, don't even get me started on the stupidity of that. But anyway, I'm just saying that, you know, even I could go back and listen to old sermons and I'm learning something new because you forget things. You know, so you got to keep on staying current. It's like in your job. You know, if you just learn the job 20 years ago and then you never refresh that and you never do any continuing education, you're just going to start getting outdated. You're going to start falling behind and you're not going to do as well as you once did at your job if you don't keep learning. You've got to keep reading the Bible to make sure that you're teaching the truth, that you're walking in truth, that you know what's true. And there are so many people who lie in wait to deceive us with their cunning craftiness. We need to be grounded in the Word of God so that we know what the truth is. So we need the truth, number one. But number two, we need meekness. See, the Bible says knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifyeth. So you start getting a bunch of truth, right? You're in the truth movement and you're listening to a lot of preaching and you're reading your Bible and you get all this knowledge. You know what the tendency would be if that goes unchecked? It's to start getting arrogant and prideful and just thinking to yourself, wow, I know so much. Look at all these people out here. They don't know what I know. See the people going down the street and passing me? They don't know anything. Look what I've learned, right? And you just start getting this puffed up attitude that you have all this knowledge. And you know what? Maybe you do have more knowledge than most people or the people around you or something like that. You know what the Bible says? Be not high minded, but fear. Look, if you have a lot of knowledge, that's great. Use that knowledge to further the kingdom of God. Use that knowledge to be a better servant of Christ. But don't start thinking that you're better than someone else, because I've got news for you. When you get to the judgment seat of Christ, there is no award for most knowledge. You can keep studying the Bible. You can study and study. And the award for the most knowledgeable goes to you're not going to find it. You say, well, how do you know what the rewards are going to be like? Well, because Jesus said it over and over again. Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. He didn't say, I'm going to give you according to your knowledge. You know, I'm going to give you a test, right? You're going to have to take a test. You have to fill in little bubbles and we're going to see. And it's not open book with the Bible. OK, and we're going to see how well you know the Bible. Folks, you could go through life with a ton of knowledge, even good knowledge, even Bible knowledge, even the right knowledge. And you know what? You could go through life with all that knowledge and still accomplish very little. I guarantee you that there are people at jobs. They know that job better than anyone else, but they're just a slacker. They're lazy. And so it doesn't mean that they're the most productive guy on the job. OK, the reward goes to the one who does the work. OK, so it's great to have knowledge. It's important to have knowledge. But we need to put that knowledge into practice. And when we just fill ourselves with knowledge all the time, that's going to puff us up unless we have charity to go along with it, because charity edifies. And what does that mean? Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies. Well, if we get the context in 1 Corinthians, we see that when we have knowledge or ability to preach or ability to speak in a foreign language, we should use that for the edifying of the church. So our goal should not be to just puff ourselves up with knowledge. Our goal should be to use our knowledge to edify other people, right? So if I study the Bible so I can get up behind the pulpit and preach sermons that are going to build people's faith and help them grow, then now my knowledge is going into practice, right? If I study the Bible and then I go out soul winning, and now I'm able to clearly present the Gospel at the door, and if someone raises objections, you know, I'm able to hit them with that perfect Bible verse and preach to them the Word of God, you know, now my knowledge means something. Now it matters. And we have to make sure that we have a balance in our life of knowledge coming in and work going out so that we don't get too puffed up, right? So think of it like a pressure valve. Basically, the knowledge is coming in, we're like, right? And then, you know, preach, go soul winning, do good deeds, it releases it, right? So we got to keep that balance there and not just become just the, you know, the Pillsbury Doughboy spiritually, all right? And we don't want to be emaciated spiritually either. We want to make sure that we have the balance where we're getting the knowledge, but we're doing the works. And you know what the Bible says? Condescend to men of low estate. Condescend to men of low estate. That means that we need to be able to give the Gospel and preach to and help people that are simple people. And you know what the Bible says about Jesus? The common people heard him gladly. Now I guarantee you there are a lot of Bible preachers today, especially amongst the Calvinists and the Reformed Baptists, you would never say the common people heard them gladly. And because they're preaching these really esoteric sermons that are just designed for their little crowd where they all geek out on all these theology books and commentaries. So they've all read all their Puritans and Westminster Divines and all. So they talk in all this theological jargon and they get up and preach to each other. And they're basically just talking to like one percent of the population or less. But is that the kind of preacher that Jesus was? No, because the Bible says the common people heard him gladly. Now look, I'm all for knowledge. I'm all for being intelligent. I'm all for preaching deep sermons. But you know what we need to do? We need to take the deep truths of God's Word and put them down on the bottom shelf where even a theologian can understand and make it understandable to Joe Blow, Joe Plummer, Joe Sixpack, right? We want him to get saved. We want him to learn the Bible. And so we need to condescend to men of low estate. You know what that'll do? That'll keep you humble. You know what keeps you humble? You go out soul winning and you don't always go to only the nice areas. You know, you go out to the poor areas. You go to the ghettos. You go to the Indian reservations. You go to all types of people, all nationalities, all demographics, all economic classes. And you know what? That keeps you humble when you can condescend to men of low estate. And then you can take as much knowledge as you want because you're going to stay meek about it. Meekness is what we're talking about, right? On the list of three, truth, yes, get the knowledge. Know your stuff, right? Know the truth. Know what's right. Know what's wrong. But then be meek about it. Have meekness that says, hey, it's not about me. It's about others. It's about reaching others, helping others. It's not about puffing myself up. And it's not just about me preaching to this little select few of the initiated, right? We need to reach out to the lost, to the world, to the average people of this world. Why? Because that's the majority of the people that God has called us to reach. God has called us to reach all people. And the majority of people are not intellectuals. The majority of people are just your average types, right? You know, the famous quote, Abraham Lincoln or whoever. God must love the common man because he made so many of them or something like that, right? I'm probably messing up the quote. I'm probably not even giving you the right person that it's from. But so what? You get the point, right? So meek, truth, meekness. And then the last thing that we need is righteousness. Folks, without any of these three, your stool is going to fall over, okay, right? This is the three-legged stool here. It's going to fall over. It's not going to stand. The three-fold cord must be complete with truth, meekness, and righteousness. You know what righteousness here is referring to? Right living, doing right, doing the right things. You see, you could have a lot of knowledge about the Bible and you really love people and you reach out to the common man and help him out. But what if you're just living a life of sin? I mean, is God going to use you effectively? If you're just indulging in sin, but you know, your soul winning and reading your Bible is like, no, you need to have some right living. Now look, you could have some really clean and right living and have a lot of knowledge and you could just become like a Pharisee, right? You just, you have, you're puffed up, you're full of yourself. No, you need the meekness. You could have a lot of meekness and a lot of right living and you're so humble and you're living so right, but you don't have the truth. You're doomed, right? So you've got to have all three of these. So we need to always make sure we have balance in our life, that we're balancing. And this little list of three, even though it's easy, probably just read over it. This little list actually is the formula. This is the formula. And you know, it's funny you're saying, hey, this sermon sounds a little familiar. Look, I've preached the exact same three concepts from a whole bunch of other passages because there are other passages and they don't have this exact list, but they have a list of three things and those three things pretty much fit into these three categories. So this is something that God teaches us in a bunch of different chapters, a bunch of different ways, so it must be important to make sure that we balance truth, meekness and righteousness. What's the result? If we have the truth, if we have meekness, if we have righteousness, we are going to do amazing things. Amazing things. What does the Bible say? Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. That is such a strange statement, isn't it? I just kept reading it. I was thinking about this sermon and I just kept reading that statement over and over again. And I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it and chewing on it and chewing on it. It's such a cool statement, but what does it mean? But it sounds great. Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. And you know, one of the things I was thinking about, because saying thy right hand shall teach thee, that's basically you teaching yourself in a sense, right? I think what he's saying here, you're going to do things that will even amaze you. You're going to sit back and be surprised at what you accomplished even, and you'll even surprise yourself or even shock yourself. You are going to do, the right hand in the Bible is associated with strength, it's associated with bringing salvation, it's associated with bringing victory, winning a battle. So you know, again, the picture here is of going into battle, the sword is strapped to the side, and glory and majesty, just the ultimate glorious warrior riding into battle with horseback and sword, and his right hand will teach him terrible things. Look, I don't know exactly what that means, but I want in, you know? And here's the thing, if we have the truth, the meekness, and the righteousness, we're going to do terrible things. We are going to do some serious works for God. And you know what? We've already seen it in our lives, many of us, right? We've already seen it in our church and other churches, and God's going to continue to answer us and do abundantly above all that we can ask or think. If we follow the formula that God has given. Look at verse five, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. Again, the battle scene, right? The right hand doing terrible things, the sword, the arrows sharp in the heart of the king's enemy, being effective in battle, defeating the enemy, whereby the people fall under thee, corpses are piling up as this warrior goes into battle, firing arrows, right? His right hand doing terrible things. Look at verse six. So the verse five verses are that, and then it kind of shifts gears here. Speaking again, and look at the thy, right? Thy sword upon thy thigh. It starts in verse two, okay? Because notice in verse one, it's in the first person. My heart, I speak, I've made, my tongue, right? Starting in verse two, it's thou, and it's a description of someone, right? And this someone, according to verse two, is fairer than the children of men. Now, obviously, this psalm is being interpreted on a couple different levels, because there's the human interpretation of just the human being. It's the king on earth who's human, being praised for being a great warrior. But obviously, we know that this is about Jesus Christ. That's important interpretation, okay? And so thou art fairer than the children of men. Obviously, this is just the physical description of her beloved warrior, and he's good-looking. He's handsome, is what this is saying. But obviously, again, this is pointing us to Jesus Christ. He is spiritually filled with beauty. He is spiritually got the sword of the spirit, and he's going into battle, and so forth. But it begins to, so it continues to speak to Jesus Christ. So it's speaking to Jesus Christ in verses two through five, and we can obviously apply these things to ourselves, because we want to emulate Jesus Christ. We want to be like him, right? He left us an example that we should follow in his steps. So verses two through five, although on one level they're about Jesus, we are following those footsteps. But look at verse six. This is speaking to Jesus, still in the second person. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Now, this is significant because it's not a lot in the Old Testament that you have just these really clear, powerful verses about the deity of Jesus Christ, or about the Trinity, or just teaching us these concepts that are a little ahead of their time for the Old Testament. You know, you have these little nuggets in the Old Testament of let us make man in our image, or, you know, these rare mentions of the Son of God. You know, Daniel 3.24, or excuse me, Daniel 3.25. You got the Son of God in the fiery furnace. You've got Proverbs chapter 30. What is his name? What is his son's name? Psalm 2, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. You know, thou are my son. This day have I begotten thee. So I say rare only because of the fact that there are just so many chapters in the Old Testament. So out of just the hundreds and hundreds, yeah, you can put together a nice list of foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and his deity. But look how powerful this is. Thy throne, O God. You say, well, you know, maybe that's not talking to Jesus. Maybe that's just talking to God, the Father. But look what it says. This is what's so interesting. And it must have been an enigma back then. But now in the New Testament, it makes perfect sense. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hated and hated. I want to quote the New Testament version. And hate is wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. So he's talking to God. He's saying thy throne, O God. But then he says, your God. So he calls the Son of God, God, and then talks about his God. Now, obviously, this is very significant. And in the book of Hebrews chapter one, flip over there, Hebrews chapter one, we see that obviously in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews, which I believe is the Apostle Paul, is going to jump on this. By the way, the KJV 1611 replica back there says the epistle of Paul, the Apostle of the Hebrews, just saying. But anyway, in Hebrews chapter one here, obviously, if you're going to write a book to the Hebrews, right, you're writing to the Hebrews. And you want to show them Jesus Christ. And that's what the book of Hebrews does so powerfully in its early chapters. You know, and just each chapter is just explaining how Jesus is God. He's the creator. He's better than the angels. He's greater than Abraham. You know, and just all these different things, very powerful material on the deity of Christ. Of course, in chapter one, if you're going to write a 13-chapter book to the Hebrews, trying to convince them that Jesus is the Messiah and of his greatness and of his deity, and that he's not just some human Messiah that they were looking for, some kind of a political liberator, but that rather he's the very Son of God and that he is actually divine himself. You know, you're going to use Psalm 45 in chapter one, because Psalm 45 is just that good of a proof. And so in chapter one, it talks about the angels and so forth, but it says in verse eight, but unto the Son. You see that? Who is he talking to in Psalm 45? Is there any doubt? No, unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. So we have no question when we're reading Psalm 45. See, the New Testament is the ultimate commentary on the Old Testament. So if we're reading Psalm 45 and we're saying, you know, who's this talking to? We know, because it's unto the Son that he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Now, here's the thing. Even without Hebrews chapter one, we would still know that. Because once we learn about Jesus and then we go back to the Old Testament, we're reading Psalm 45 and he says, Thy throne, O God. First of all, we would have already read the previous verses. Thy, thy, thy, thy, thy. It's clearly Jesus because he's a man on a horse with a sword. I mean, it's just it's all the things that describe Jesus in so many other places in the Bible. Okay. And then to say to him, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, therefore thy God, right? But here's what the modern versions will do. The NIV will change this to, but about the Son, he says. About the Son, he says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Now look, you say, well, it's the same thing. Not really, because then you could say, well, the whole quote is about the Son. That first part's talking to the Father and then the thy God, God, even thy God. That's where he's, folks, it's, that's a mess. That's a hodgepodge because actually the natural way of reading the text in Psalm 45 is that he's talking to the Son the whole time, talking to Jesus, talking to Jesus. That's the natural way to read it. And so it makes sense that he says about the angels, who make of his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. Look at verse number seven. Is he talking to the angels in that statement? No, he says it of the angels, he saith, who make of his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But in verse eight, it's unto the Son. It's not of the Son. Unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Folks, is this not one of the best verses on the deity of Christ in the whole Bible? I mean, in the whole Bible, if I just had one shot to give somebody a clear verse that Jesus is God, I'm going to Hebrews 1-8. I think this is probably the best verse in the whole Bible. Unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God. It's so clear. And not only that, this verse got everything because then you still get the aspect of the Trinity in the next verse. Thou is love, righteousness, and hate and iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy feet. Oh, it's the same person. No, you've got Jesus, who is God, and then you've got his God, God the Father. Say, is that two gods? Nope, one God. There's one God because the Bible is clear over and over again. Before me, there was no God formed. Neither shall there be any after me. I'm he, there's none else. Beside me, there is no Savior. There's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You say, how can that be? Because God exists eternally as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You say, well, I think God should be one person. There's no other God to compare him to. You say, well, other gods are one guy. There is no other God. Now, there are those that are called gods. And any time the Bible says God's lowercase g, you know what you're talking about? False gods. You're talking about devils. Because the Bible says the things that the Gentiles offer in sacrifice to idols, they sacrifice to devils. So these demons or devils will be called lowercase g gods, the gods of the heathen. All the gods of the heathen are idols, the Bible says in Psalm 96. Okay, so here we see God is Jesus, right? Jesus is God. But there's also God the Father. There's also the Holy Ghost. Jesus is not the Father, the Father's not Jesus. Jesus is not the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is not Jesus. But they're all collectively God. God is made up of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is a hierarchy in the sense of authority in the fact that Jesus Christ said, I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Even in the eternal state in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Bible tells us that Jesus will submit himself to the Father, that God may be all in all. And so we see that there is an authority structure there where the Bible says the head of Christ is God. The head of the woman is the man, the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God. It's fun to bring that up to people who don't believe in this and listen to them do the mental gymnastics of trying to explain to you what that means, the head of Christ is God. And they're like, oh, well, that was why he was on this earth. Okay, the head of Christ was God? Is that what it said? 1 Corinthians 11, it said the head of Christ is God. The head of Christ is God. And what about in 1 Corinthians 15 when he said he's going to deliver up the kingdom of the Father? I mean, folks, these are not the same person. So do not conflate Jesus and the Father, okay? Now they're both God because of the fact that there's only one God. So there's this one class called being God. Nobody else is in that class. He's all by himself. Why? Because of the fact that he is unique in the sense that there are no other gods. There's only one. So you can't say, well, this is what God's supposed to be like. You know what God's supposed to be like? The way God is. He existed before anything else. And so he, you know, he said, I am that I am, which in our modern vocabulary means I am what I am or I am who I am. He exists before anything else. He is unchanging. Everything else is created for his glory. So who is he? Is he this lone entity or is he three that are one? He is clearly three. The Bible says in John 17 that the Father loved Jesus before the world began. So before Genesis 1-1, before in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, you have the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost. And you know what? There's love there, a mutual love between Father and Son. They shared glory before the world began. Don't ever get into this oneness garbage or you'll be thrown out of the church. Amen. All right. So let's go back to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. Psalm 45. And we have this powerful passage. It's such a powerful verse on Jesus that the author of Hebrews said, all right, I got 13 chapters. Here's my chance to hit the Hebrews with a truth bomb. What should I start with? All right. You know what? Let's build up to the first major bomb I'm going to drop. Psalm 45. I mean, that's like the first. Because, you know, even leading up to verse 8, it's like you're building up to it and then you just bam, just drop that bomb in verse 8. What now, Jews? Checkmate. All right. Jesus is God. You're looking for some human Messiah. Nope. Psalm 45. It was right there under your noses all along. It says in verse number 6, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of thy kingdom. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Right? Just talking about his righteous leadership, his right ruling. Thou loveth righteousness and hatest wickedness. What a hateful person. I mean, this is a hate group. You know, this is a hate leader. This is hate speech. Folks, in order to love righteousness, you have to hate wickedness. If you don't hate wickedness, you are deficient on your love of righteousness. Because these two things must exist in tandem. You have less love of righteousness than the guy who hates wickedness. The guy who hates wickedness loves righteousness more than you do. You know, David talks about how much he loves the Bible. He loves God's word. He loves the truth. Therefore, I hate every false way. You know, the more you love the Bible, what if you're just a true lover of the Bible? I mean, you are just a connoisseur of the Bible. You know, when you pick up the Quran, you're going to just be insulted by it. Like, you're just going to pick it up and just be like, this is garbage. This is trash. You know, Pastor Jonathan Shelley was recently preaching about Islam. And he mentioned to me over the phone that he was preparing that sermon. And he said, you know, I remember you saying when you preached about just how bad the Quran was. But I didn't really realize it until I read it for myself. It's literally the worst piece of literature that I've ever seen. And I'm not talking about just from a spiritual perspective. I'm telling you, the guy, you know how the Muslims claim that he was illiterate? I believe it. Sold. You know, and like people debate that with them. And scholars will argue that Muhammad could read and write. And I'm like, nope, Muslims, you guys are right. This guy was illiterate. He was really that stupid. He was that dumb. Because I'm telling you, it is the worst piece of literature I've ever read. And look, I've read the Tao Te Ching. I've read the Hindu scriptures. I've read the Bhagavad Gita. I've read the Rig Vedas. Let me tell you something. The Quran is just in a clasp all by itself of just trash literature. I'm not kidding. Just pick it up and just try to read the first chapter. I think it's called The Cow. Just read The Cow. I think there's a chapter called The Rooster. I don't know. But you know, folks, I wish it talked about a cow. I wish there was a rooster in the story. Like the chapter we called The Cow. And you're just like, when's the cow going to show up? You know what I mean? And it's like you get almost to the very end. And then just some cow is just barely mentioned, apropos of nothing. And then you're just like, that was it? I mean, if I were a little cow, I'd start crying and say, where's the cow, Mommy? Why does this book hurt me so much? Folks, I still haven't finished it. And I'm not like that. When I start things, I finish them. Except in this case, all right? Because look, I've tried three different times. I'm like, OK, this time I'm going to do it. And I was trying to take it in small doses. Just read a couple pages a day, go throw up in a wastebasket, you know, and go on with my day. But seriously, I kept trying and trying. And I preached those three sermons, Islam and Light of the Bible, part one, two, and three. And those represented, you know, the readings that I did to build up to those sermons. I got like three quarters of the way in. I literally only have a quarter left. I'm three quarters of the way in. And, you know, Pastor Jimenez was doing some research because he was trying to win some Muslims to Christ that were family members of his church members. And I, you know, he said, hey, can you tell me which Quran to buy? You know, because you had one that you were reading from. I say, let me just ship you mine. Can I ship it? Can I just ship you mine? And I'm just like, here, take it, get it away from me now. Now I'm excused not to finish the stupid thing. And I'm not exaggerating. And, you know, you pick it up and read it, you'll see that I'm telling the truth as Pastor Shelley did, because I'm telling you it's junk. That's why they have to sing it in another language for it to sound good. Folks, if you sing anything in another language, it's going to sound good. It's like people who get a tattoo on their arm of a Chinese character for water. Fire. Wind or something. You know, what if you just wrote the English word water? Like stupid. Has anybody ever seen that picture on Facebook where it just shows like a Chinese girl with like water on her shoulder, like wind? And here's the thing about that is that, you know, anything looks cool in another language. Chinese characters just look cool. It could say, you know, beer nut or trash can. And we're just going to think that looks cool. That's beautiful. I mean, you know, you put a bunch of Japanese characters on some kind of a paper with a watercolor flower on the side of it. You know, hey, we're not going to know if that's a haiku or not, but it's going to look great. It could be the instructions, you know, for how to program a calculator. But it's just, you know, for all we know, it looks like beautiful poetry. And that's why they sing it in this other, you know, if you actually read the content of what's being said, there's nothing there. You know what? The thing about the Bible is you translate it in any language, it's great. I love reading the Bible in Spanish. I love the Bible in German. I love the Bible in English. I love the Bible in Greek. Hey, any language, you name it, under the sun, the Bible is going to be awesome in that language. It's not like, well, you know, in the Portuguese, you know, you're kind of, no, folks, it's going to be just as great. I'm telling you. Because it's real, okay? Whereas these cheap imitations, I mean, I just can't understand how this religion can have 1.6 billion followers. Oh yeah, I forgot, they went around killing people and forcing people to convert. And that's why these Muslim countries have 90, 90 some percent Islam. Because they just all happen to be that into the Quran. No, it's because they're pressured, they're pushed into the Quran. They're pressured, they're pushed into it. It's illegal to convert. And it's being, it's like, it's like if you went to like a prison camp or concentration camp, you know, they have those loudspeakers that are like on poles, just pumping the leaders, brainwashing or whatever. That's what they do in every Muslim country. Have you ever been to a Muslim country? They have those loudspeakers just pumping the prayers out five times a day. They're just getting brainwashed with it all the time. It's being forced on them. Folks, people, normal people wouldn't choose that religion. And if they do, then they're mentally deficient. Because that book is a nothing burger, all right? Anyway, I don't know how I got off on that. But you know, the Bible is awesome. You know, it's funny how the Quran claims it's such a great book and it says like, you know, well, if the Quran didn't come from Allah, then bring forth one surah like it. Surah is the chapter of the Quran. You know, yeah, go ahead and it's like any idiot could produce a surah like that. And you know, yeah, here's a surah that'll kick its butt. How about Psalm 23? How about Psalm 45? How about 1 Corinthians 13? How about John 14? Any of those. You know, I'm reading the Bible. I don't care what chapter I'm in. I love it. There's not a bad chapter in the Bible. I mean, when you're reading the Bible, it's just how many times? It's like we read our Bibles every day and day after day, the tears come to our eyes and we're just in awe of God's Word every single day. You read the whole Quran. I've not found one sentence that I even liked. And look, I've read other books and I found sentences that I liked. I've, man, I've read books and underlined and said, wow, that's a powerful statement. You know, just in literature. Just wow, that's a really cool statement. Man, I like that. Or, you know, man, those are words to live by. You know, because even if it's not a quote from the Bible, sometimes men have a good thought or a quote, something that jives with the Bible. And, you know, you hear those quotes and you're like, you know what? Man, I like that. I didn't find anything like that in the Quran. Not even one. And I thought there's going to be something here. 1.6 billion people. There's going to be something here. There isn't. Psalm 45. I'm glad I was able to get that off my chest. If you love, I know how I got off on that. If you love righteousness, you hate wickedness. The more you love the Bible, the worse the Quran is going to seem to you. Right? The more you love the Bible, you're going to look at the other so-called religious literature. You're going to look at the Book of Mormon and be like, what is this? Right? You look at these other, you know, the Tao Te Ching and just be like, what? Give me the Bible. Give me Psalms. Give me Genesis. Give me Matthew, Mark and Luke. So let's keep going here. We ought to love righteousness and hate wickedness. And not only the wickedness of false religion, we should hate the wickedness of sin. We should hate adultery. Get mad about adultery. Hate murder. Hate, you know what? You know what hate is? Hate's a really strong feeling, isn't it? You know, we think of love as being an intense emotion. Hate is the counterpart of that. So, you know, what do you feel when you hear about people committing adultery or you see people that you love where their spouse committed adultery or when you see that someone's murdered? What's your reaction to that? Are you just like, whatever. I'm just like, oh, right. You know, you see someone steal something from someone else. Doesn't that bother you? Man, I get so sick of people who steal. And, you know, you know, someone that I love just had something stolen from them recently and it made me very angry. And I just thought, like, thieves. It just drives you nuts. And I did a sermon a couple of months ago on stealing. And you know what? That sermon just came from just seething anger in me just about stealing. You know, someone works hard for something. And they buy it and they need it. And then some idiot just comes and steals it. And here's the thing that just really just gets me mad about stealing. Because we're talking about hating wickedness. Amen? Is stealing wicked or not? Is murder wicked? Is adultery wicked? Yeah. So here's the thing. You know, this is what gets me mad about stealing. Half the time when people steal stuff, they're not even going to use it. I mean, if someone stole something and they were actually going to use it, they actually needed it, that would still be wicked. But I'm telling you, most of the time they're going to steal it and just waste it. Because the same idiot who's going around stealing things is the same person that doesn't understand the value of things because they haven't earned anything. And so they don't care about things. And so, like, I remember one time when I was in Bible college in Chicago, I had all my schoolbooks stolen. Do you really think for one second, and I was in a deep in the ghetto. You really think that those derelicts in the ghetto just really wanted to study biblical Greek? Because you know what? They took my Greek books and I'm thinking to myself, they're not learning Greek down here. They need to learn English in many cases. But they took a whole bunch of schoolbooks and here's the thing. I guarantee you they just went straight into the trash. Because they just grabbed my backpack, don't care what's in it, just grab it and go. All my schoolbooks. And you know, it cost me hundreds of dollars to replace. And here I am. I've got my wife. I've got three little kids. I'm paying for school. I'm working full time. I'm sleep deprived. I'm trying to make ends meet. And it's just like, you just stole my schoolbooks. Why? They stole a giant ice chest from me with nothing in it. An empty ice chest. Why? You know, and OK, they're probably going to use that because they're going to fill it up with beer. They're going to fill it up with booze. But it just drives me nuts. And you know, when they steal tools and stuff, you think it's because they're just really into carpentry? You think it's because they're an electrician or a plumber when they steal the tools? No. You know why they're stealing tools? They're just going to go sell them for a fraction of the price. So whenever you steal, you end up hurting the person that you steal from way more than you benefit yourself. You know what I mean? Because somebody pays a certain amount for that bicycle, OK, and then you steal it and sell it for a quarter of the price that they paid that it was worth to them. You know, you buy all these expensive tools. They're going to go pawn it at the pawn shop for a fraction of the price. And you know what? It gets me mad. And you know, we need to have an attitude where we don't like sin. Where we hate wickedness. OK, now it's not enough to just say, man, I love righteousness. We also hate wickedness. And I'm not talking about hating other people who are just sinners, who are just, they're lost and they don't know better and stuff like that. But I'm talking about hating the sin. Now, there are some sinners that I hate if they're reprobate God haters, because the Bible says we hate those that hate God. But the average unsaved person doesn't hate God. And probably the average person who steals from me and others doesn't hate God either. So I'm not. But you know what? Just that that that mentality of stealing, that act of stealing. I hate stealing. I hate stealing. And you know, if you hate stealing, then you know what? I bet you're going to be less likely to steal if you have that attitude towards stealing. And if you have that attitude toward adultery, if you have that attitude toward murder, if you have that attitude toward blasphemy, then that's going to help you steer clear of those things. Love righteousness, hate wickedness, and instill that in other people. We need to, in our country, get back to hating sin. And there's been too much soft soap preaching. And we need some more hellfire and damnation preaching that screams and yells about how wicked sin is. That goes down the list of sin, right? I don't know what to preach on. Hey, just pick a sin and rip on it for an hour. That's a sermon. Amen? Because you know what? We all need these constant reminders about the dangers of fornication, adultery, drunkenness, drugs. You say no one in our church would do those things. Look, in a crowd this size, somebody's doing it, all right? Now maybe not necessarily this size, but you know, even in a crowd this size, it's likely that someone has done it, is doing it, or will do it. You know, I remember early in my ministry, I preached on smoking. The church had less than 20 people in it. There were four smokers present. And I didn't know any of them smoked. And they all thought I was mad at them and that I was singling them out. And in reality, I was just preaching on sin. But that goes to show you, you never know what people are into. That's why you got to preach on the drugs. You got to preach on drinking. You got to preach on all these things. I mean, people ask me sometimes like, why did you preach a whole, you preach a whole sermon on that? You know? But you know what? Every single time I preach on some wild subject, some obscure subject, I always have someone contact me or someone tell me or someone comment, yep, I needed that. Yeah, that was for me. It's out there, folks. It's all out there. And when you've been a pastor, as long as I have, you've seen a lot and you've heard a lot and nothing surprises you anymore. Hating wickedness. We got to hurry up here pretty much out of time. Therefore, God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Folks, you want to have happiness in your life? You want to have gladness? You got to love righteousness and hate iniquity. You're going to be a happy person. That's what the Bible says. You're going to be anointed with the oil of gladness if you love righteousness and hate iniquity. That's what the Bible teaches. God has anointed thee with the oil of gladness. The oil of gladness is also referring to the person of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ was filled with the Spirit without measure, the Bible teaches in John chapter 3. So the Bible says here in verse 8, all thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. Let me give a little beauty tip for you ladies since we're in this kind of beauty chapter, right? You want a little beauty tip? Okay, here this is going to do more for your aroma than dousing yourself in a bunch of perfume. Have a joyful spirit. Because see here, the anointing of the oil of gladness is coupled with what? Garments smelling of a sweet saber. You know, there's nothing better than being around joyful people. Don't you hate being around gloomy people? Don't you hate it when people are down in the dumps and they're murmurers and complainers and they're always sad or mad or just bad attitude, bad spirit. Hey, joy, joy is going to put forth a sweet saber to the people around you. And don't put on too much perfume because you know what? Some of us are bothered by it, all right? Folks, especially these artificial chemical scents, they're hormone interrupters. And my hormones don't like being interrupted, all right? Don't hit me with those hormone interrupting chemicals. You know what I hate at the airport when you go to another country and you go out of customs and then they force you to go through the duty-free shop and you're just surrounded by perfume. And I'm literally just like, all right, I'm heading for the perfume. I'm just like, oh, you know, I come out the other side, I'm all purple and great. But you know what? My hormones are still going uninterrupted. Okay, folks, I can't even count how many times I've gone hiking at Camelback and it's just perfume, perfume. It's like we're climbing a mountain. We're all covered in sweat. Nobody cares what you smell like right now. We're out in the wilderness. We're trying to enjoy nature. We're trying to smell the scents of the plants and everything. And just there's just so many women there that have just been dipped, you know, they've been like held by their foot and dipped like Achilles or something into just perfume. And it's just like 50 feet away. It's like incoming and then, you know, and then it just continues after they're gone. All right, I'm getting a lot of things off my chest tonight, all right? I haven't had as many people to vent to lately, so I have to just get all this out of my system. But look, you know, the myrrh, the aloes, and the cassia, you know what? Having joy, that's what really, you know, has to do with it. Joy, that's what really puts out the right aroma. Amen? Happiness, joy. Here's a beauty tip for you ladies. You can become 10 times as beautiful by smiling and being happy. And, you know, don't spend a bunch of money on products. Smile, be happy, let real joy come from your heart. Let the joy overflow as the song goes. The Bible says in verse 9, King's honors were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen and gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. We're going to come back to that. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy lord, and worship him. And the daughter of Tyre, again, Jesus Christ receiving worship there. 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, the followers 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, and they shall be brought unto thee. Shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. So I want to couple these two phrases here. At the end of verse 10 it says, forget also thine own people and thy father's house. And then in verse 16 it says, instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. What's the Bible saying here? The idea is leaving behind a foreign country and basically joining up with the people of God in Israel is what's being said here. You know, this is someone who's coming from a distant land and they're becoming an Israelite, right? They're joining the chosen people. They're joining the native. Now in the New Testament, this is like becoming a Christian, right? Because now you're part of that chosen generation, that royal priesthood, that peculiar people. You're part of that nation, according to 1 Peter chapter 2, the moment you get saved, okay? So what the Bible is telling us here is forget about the worldly places that you came from. Don't go back. The Bible says truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, unheavenly. So we need to understand that as Christians, our citizenship is in heaven and we need to understand that there are some things that we need to just leave behind us. Just leave them behind. Just we need to make a break with certain things in our past. And there are certain people that are just toxic. You know, I was just talking to somebody this afternoon that asked me about just a toxic person in their life. And they said, this is what this person has texted me. This is what they're saying to me. You know, what do I do? How do I handle this person? And I said, you just need to block their number. Block them. This person has messed up their life. This person hates the Lord. And at this point, they're pretty much good for one thing, a cautionary tale. Don't end up like this person. So block their number and have joy. You know, just don't let it get to you. You know, there are certain people that we need to make a break with places that we might need to make a break with geographies, make a break with it. And here's the thing. Maybe God has called you or led you to a different geography. And so you're like missing home all the time. Let me tell you something. Make this your home. If this is where God has you, this is home. And you say, oh, but my it's the land of my nativity and my answers. Hey, instead of your fathers shall be your children. You know what he's saying? Look forward, not backward. Fathers are backward, children forward. OK. And obviously here, the fathers are from a heathen land. You've now come to Israel. You've come to the people of God. Leave that behind and make your children princes in the earth. The Christian interpretation of this would be, you know, leave the heathen behind. Leave the worldliness behind. Leave the old life behind and live for God. And your new crowd is the church and your Christian friends and your children, which are the people that you went to Christ, the people that you began in the Lord. You know, that's your family. Those are your people. And so verse 17 ends with I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever. Obviously, that's a great verse about Jesus. And look, you know, I feel bad because, you know, I haven't even done justice to this wonderful Psalm. And so I hope that you will read this Psalm and love it as much as I do. This the Book of Psalms is just such a tour de force. No matter what chapter you're in, and especially when you're in a chapter like Psalm 45. If you read this in your personal study, if you read this in your personal devotional time, if you meditate upon this alone with you and God, you know, you really touch a mountain peak. You really tag a summit spiritually with a Psalm like Psalm 45. Let's brides and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this powerful chapter. Lord, I pray that we would love and meditate upon the Book of Psalms and all of your word, Lord. Thank you for this treasure that we have, Lord, of the Bible. And please help us to love it and study it and also to impart it unto others and to break it down and simplify it for the feeble minded and for those who are not as smart. Lord, help us to spend our lives teaching them and reaching them, Lord, and not to get so puffed up and only cater to a certain, you know, level of intelligence. Lord, help us to realize that you love and want all men to be saved, Lord. So help us to reach the common man with the power of your word and the power of the gospel. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.