GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #533
THE FATHER’S
PROMISES TO THE SON Psalm 110:1-3
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
Here are five promises made
by God the Father to the God-man, our Mediator and Substitute, when he crowned
him King over all things. These promises were to our Redeemer because of the
perfect success of his work of obedience as our Representative, having
fulfilled all that the Father sent him to do (Read Hebrews 10:1-14).
A Promised People - This promise from the Father
to the Son concerns a specific people. It concerns no one else. God’s concern
is for his people. Everything he does is for his people. And when he is done
with everything, when he has fulfilled all his purpose, all his will, and all
his desire, every one of those here spoken of as “thy people” shall be with the Son of God in glory.
A Promised Persuasion - “Thy people shall be willing”.
The text does not read, might be, or should be, or could be, but “shall be willing”! This is a matter of
certainty, absolute certainty. The infamous Arminian, Adam Clarke, wrote, “This
verse has been woefully perverted. It has been supposed to point out the
irresistible operation of the grace of God on the souls of the elect, thereby
making them willing to receive Christ as their Savior.” That is exactly what
the verse teaches. The only person who cannot see that is either totally blind,
or willfully ignorant, or incapable of understanding the simplest forms of English
grammar. No sinner, our Savior said, can or will come to him until he is made
willing by God’s omnipotent grace. And all who are thus made willing do come to
him in true conversion. Grace makes chosen, redeemed, called sinners willing to
confess their sins, trust Christ alone as their Substitute, and bow to him as
their rightful and only Lord and King.
A Promised Power - “Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power.” There is a specific day when Christ’s power shall be manifest,
revealed, made known, and experienced by each of his people to the saving of
their souls. Notice that the promise
says nothing about the day of the sinner’s power, or the preacher’s power. It
speaks of the day of Christ’s power.
A Promised Purity - God the Father swore to his
darling Son as our Mediator, “Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power,
in the beauties of holiness." The Lord God will save his people,
but only on the grounds of perfect holiness, by the satisfaction of Christ and
his imputed righteousness. Christ righteous obedience is imputed to his people
in justification; and his righteous nature is imparted to them in
sanctification.
A Promised Praise - “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the
morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth." Those who are converted by
the grace of God are born from the womb of the morning. That is to say they are
born of God by a mysterious work of grace according to his purpose of love in
eternal election. Because they are born to him and born of him from the womb of
the morning, Christ ever has the dew of his youth. His people are numerous as
morning dew drops. And this countless multitude shall be his praise forever. AMEN.