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[0:00] I shall sing to God's praise the words of Psalm 110. I'm going to sing the whole psalm.

[0:14] Psalm 110. The Lord did say unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thy foes a stone, Whereon thy feet may stand.

[0:27] The Lord shall out of Zion send the rod of thy great power, In midst of all thine enemies be thou the governor. A willing people in thy day of power shall come to thee, In holy beauties from morn's womb thy youth like dew shall be.

[0:47] The Lord himself hath made an oath, And will repent him never, Of the order of Melchizedek, Thou art a priest for ever. The glorious and mighty Lord that sits at thy right hand, Shall in his day of wrath strike through kings that do him withstand.

[1:07] He shall among the heathen judge, He shall with bodies dead the places fill, Or many lands he won't shall every head. The brook that runneth in the way with drink shall him supply, And for this cause in triumph he shall be his head on high.

[1:28] The whole of the psalm to God's praise, The Lord did say unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand. The Lord did say unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thy goals a stool, Whereon life he may stand.

[2:11] The Lord shall have the cross, The Lord shall have the cross, The cross, The cross of thy great power, In this of all thine enemies, Be thou the God of the Lord.

[2:44] The cross of God. The Cross of God. The Lord shall come to thee, And holy beauty's crosswords whom thy youth like youth shall be.

[3:17] The Lord himself hath made a truth and will repent in heaven.

[3:35] Of your dead, O Jesus, in the day, the world of peace forever.

[3:52] The glorious and mighty Lord that saves thy right hand.

[4:10] Shall live this shape of rock and blue, kings are to this land.

[4:28] He shall among the human judge, he shall with bodies dead.

[4:45] The places fell for many lands, he won't shall ever be had.

[5:02] The brood that runs, the thin away with rain, shall hence supply.

[5:18] And for this cause, in triumph he shall lift his head on high.

[5:37] We can turn for a short while to the passage that we read together. The book of the Revelation, chapter 22.

[5:51] And we can read at verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

[6:04] I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. As we fast approach the end of another year, it is a milestone of importance, no doubt, to many of us.

[6:30] For whatever reason, as we journey on through what is, for the most part, a veil of tears. But one thing that is often overlooked and often forgotten is the promise that we have repeated in triplicate in this chapter that we read.

[6:55] In verse 7, the words, behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

[7:09] Again in verse 12, behold, I come quickly. And then, finishing off at the end of the chapter, again, these same words, behold, I come quickly.

[7:25] Now, considering that it is roughly 2,000 years since the Apostle John wrote these words, it could be that many are saying that John has got it terribly wrong.

[7:42] Even though he is described as the beloved disciple. And someone who had the favour of the Lord, perhaps more than most.

[7:59] And yet, the truth is the truth. And we know that there are those who have taken these words to heart.

[8:13] And the longing that fills their heart is a longing that says, well, no matter, he cannot come quickly enough for me.

[8:27] There are others, on the other hand, and they probably came to mind as we sang the last psalm there. Some, at least two, are the enemies of the King.

[8:42] They have no notion of what it means for Christ to come. But they will come when they will understand it.

[8:53] I'm not sure when. I'm not sure at what point. They will understand what is happening. They perhaps will be reminded of the fact that Jesus was in the world clothed in poverty and humility.

[9:13] that he was somebody who, during his lifetime, encountered much sorrow at the hand of all kinds of enemies who despised him and who rejected him.

[9:30] No doubt they will have some appreciation of the fact that his life was ended on the cross. But at some point, they will come to realise that one that they thought whose end had come with his death will be the one who comes, as promised, to deal with the world.

[10:02] Whoever is in the world at the time, whoever lived in the world at any time, Jesus Christ has promised to come.

[10:13] And he will come, not as a vanquished foe, but as a victorious, triumphant leader of his own people, a king, bearing the crown, hallowed and revered by his people and by the angels who are his emissaries.

[10:35] But tonight we're wanting to look at these words in particular. Four things stand out to think that we can just take a brief note of as we consider these words.

[10:52] There is a description given to us of Christ, the one who is coming. The first thing that we see is that it is him that is speaking.

[11:07] I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. The testimony of Christ is what is before us in the scripture and in the scripture in particular.

[11:27] Secondly, he sends his angel into the church to testify of his word.

[11:45] These two things are, they're not mutually exclusive, but we need to understand that the very fact that it was him who sent his angel that gives the message that the angel bore, the church bore, the witness of the church, to the church.

[12:09] That is what gives it importance. The third thing and the fourth thing, I suppose, can be thought of collectively.

[12:20] The names that he gives himself. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. There are many of the sayings of the Lord that we remember as I am sayings.

[12:37] Well, this is another one. I am. He means us to understand that these words that we have been presented with, that we have been given by way of proclamation, are the words of God.

[12:58] Even the words of the Son of God. And the description of himself, the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star.

[13:11] It seems obvious, and we don't need to dwell on it, I suppose, that it is Jesus that is speaking, because I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify.

[13:24] What could be clearer? It tells us exactly who it is. But its significance is not so much in the clarity of the person doing the sending, but the authority that it is given to those that are sent.

[13:47] Because the words of Christ the Lord are all important to the church that bears his name.

[14:01] And he gives authority to John, to the church to which John is sent to bear witness to the gospel.

[14:13] And it is something that I suppose some regard as being all important to the person of John.

[14:25] That he has this seal of approval. He has this word that identifies the Lord as the one who sent him with this word.

[14:43] And we go back to the beginning of the book of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.

[15:03] And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. And there are many things about this passage, this book, that may be mysterious to many.

[15:21] There are many experiences that John had that may have brought into question his calling. He is, after all, a human being with human failings and shortcomings.

[15:37] He is, by the point at which this word is written, an old man, old in the faith. And I would be surprised if the enemy was not very close to him.

[15:50] And suggesting that the word that he was proclaiming was anything other than the truth of God. But the word comes to him from the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:04] And he has given him a word that is dependent upon his own life, being productive of life in others.

[16:20] He is the one who came into the world. And he was humbled, even to the point of death on the cross.

[16:31] But that isn't the end of the story as far as he's concerned. He rose from the dead. He ascended up into the right hand of God.

[16:42] He is glorified there. And he carries out the word, the work of intercession. Now all of that is spoken of throughout the pages of this book.

[16:55] It emphasizes his place as Lord and Savior and intercessor of his people.

[17:06] And it is this Jesus who has promised to come again. Remember, that's the context of these words.

[17:17] That Jesus seeks to emphasize this thought that while he has accomplished all there is to be accomplished with regard to redeeming the lost in the world.

[17:33] It is not finished in the sense that he has yet to come and take them to be with himself as promised. The commentator William Hendrickson says the following.

[17:49] He just states the fact as you see it before you. That there are three witnesses in this passage. There is the witness of the angel.

[18:01] There is the witness of John himself. But most importantly, there is the witness of Jesus himself. And it is Jesus who attests to the character and veracity and truth of the book.

[18:19] And who establishes and underlines the fact that the book is of divine origin. He has given it, he says, sent by his angel.

[18:40] Who or what is meant can be understood from the task that is given to the angel. At the very outset, again going back to the first chapter and the first verse, we are told there of the process involved in endowing his emissaries, his missionaries, his ministers with the word of God.

[19:10] If you go to the first three chapters there, you will see how it describes to us the way the church itself is described in a specific way.

[19:29] For example, chapter 2. John 2.

[20:01] That word is. And in the word he describes to us what the future of this world holds. The future of the world in which his church exists and what will lie beyond this world once the world has come to an end.

[20:26] And in many ways Jesus has forewarned this world of his intentions. We find in the gospels as we find in the epistles and again in this final book of the Bible.

[20:45] Promises that come from his mouth concerning his return again to the world. Promises that we can simplify to the degree when he speaks to his disciples.

[21:04] He says, He intrudes itself into their thinking.

[21:36] But he is repeatedly telling them of the fact that he has to go and in order to come back again.

[21:48] But the difference between his incarnation, his coming in our nature is going to be...

[22:01] Well, I don't know how to put it the other way around. His second coming will far surpass his first as far as glory is concerned.

[22:17] Robert Murray MacJane speaking of one of the Lord's parables. And in some of his parables the Lord had an eye to this future glory which many could not have possibly understood.

[22:39] In Mark's gospel we find him speaking about the householder who had to go away and who left his home in the care of others.

[22:54] In chapter 13 and verse 14. In verse 14. I think it's chapter 13 anyway.

[23:08] The Lord describes the imminence of Christ's coming. And it is a picture of imminence.

[23:22] It tells you how he is going to come to judge the world. And people are presenting a knowledge of his coming as if they are fully conversant with it.

[23:44] But Jesus says false Christs and false prophets shall rise and shall show signs and wonder to seduce if it were possible. Even the elect.

[23:58] But the words that I was thinking of in particular come at the end of that chapter. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey. Who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work.

[24:14] And commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore for you know not when the master of the house cometh. At evening or at midnight or the cock roar in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

[24:27] And what I say unto you I say unto all watch. And what McJane was saying as he spoke of these words was. As the householder.

[24:38] As the one who has his house in the world. He will come back to his house. He will return. Because he intends to return for his own in the world.

[24:52] The world. But he says exactly as long as a believer resides in the world. Then the world will be his house.

[25:04] It will be his home. I think what he means. What he means is to understand. As long as there is one believer in the world.

[25:16] Left alive Jesus will return. Because he cannot overlook the fact that his own are in the world. And his repeated reference to that.

[25:33] Within the scriptures should alert us to the fact that when he speaks again. At the end of this New Testament. And again states.

[25:46] In triplicate. That he is coming again. Then we must understand that he is not telling us an untruth.

[25:58] And what convinces us of that. More than anything. Is the fact that he describes himself. These names are names that he gives to himself.

[26:12] Sometimes man gives the Lord names. But the ones that are most potent. The ones that are most pointed. The ones that are most pertinent.

[26:23] Are the ones that he gives himself. And here he describes himself. As the root. And the offspring of David. And that is the one.

[26:36] That is coming back. I am the root. And the offspring of David. And you look at that. Description. A self description.

[26:47] How can it be. That the same person. Is both the root. And the offspring. And the offspring. It seems that they are a contradiction.

[27:00] Because. When you find a root. It is the beginning. It is something. That exists at the beginning of something. Whereas.

[27:11] The offspring. Is something that comes following on from that. But Jesus says. Is that he is both. Is both. And. He describes.

[27:24] In that very name. A name. That he has used. Throughout the Bible. Again. In various places. The.

[27:35] Going back to the. To. I think. In the. In the book of Numbers. There is reference. To. That description. Governing.

[27:46] God himself. The. Governing. God himself. But. The thing is. That he sees himself. As someone. Who is there.

[27:57] From the beginning. Even before the beginning. As the root. Of David. David. Ours. Existence. To him.

[28:09] And as David. Ours. His existence. To him. So. The wonder. Ought to fill. Our mind. Because.

[28:20] We're thinking. Of David. As someone. Who. Is. Also. The one. From whom. Jesus. Is descended.

[28:32] Dr. Philip Hughes. Puts it. Like this. This person. Is David's God. He is. The creator. And.

[28:43] At the same. Time. As the. Shoot. He is. By virtue. Of his incarnation. The son. Of David. David.

[28:54] Ours. His origin. To him. And yet. At the same. Time. He is. A descendant. Of David. These two things. Are there.

[29:05] Can't. Escape. And Jesus. Means. Us. Of. Of. That. As. As. He speaks.

[29:16] Of himself. In. Gospel. Of John. Throughout. The first. Chapter. He. He. Reminds us. Of.

[29:27] His. Origins. In the beginning. Was. With God. With God. All things. Were made. By him. Without him. Right.

[29:38] With God. He. Who. Through him. Is. The. There. This. Was. Someone. Who.

[29:49] Possesses. There. Is. People. From. Who. Who. Who. Who.

[30:00] Has. What. Who. the one who has sent John, the one who has sent the emissaries of the gospel into the world into his church and through his church into the world as a whole, that the one who has sent them is the road. But at the same time he is the offspring and there is the mystery.

[30:28] Don Forstner explains that he is the root the source and cause of David's existence David's faith, David's spiritual life and everlasting glory. David was what he was did what he did and is what he is in heaven today because of and by the power of Jesus Christ our eternal Lord. And you can see these truths, his eternity as well as his humanity marked out by the fact that David is the king who sat on the throne that was going to be occupied by the king of kings.

[31:18] A throne that is without end, a throne over which he possesses dominion as we were singing in Psalm 110 A glorious and mighty Lord that sits at thy right land shall in his day of wrath strike through kings that to him withstand words of the psalmist that tell us of the nature of the victory that he has fulfilled or come to the fruit of that.

[31:55] The second part or the final part of this self-description and that's what it is I am the bright and morning star We know some suggest that an earlier mention of that that the morning star is the planet Venus that is in mind the morning star the morning star is the last and the brightest star you see in the sky before the morning comes and as a self-description it describes someone who is there when the glory of the perpetual never-ending day comes and that's what he is wanting us to understand the coming one the one who is coming quickly he is the one who is coming to initiate that to bring this to to the experience of his people for whom he is going to appear we quoted from

[33:13] John chapter 1 verse 14 there describes to us all that is true about the the God that is Christ Jesus the world made flesh he dwelt among us we beheld his glory and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth he is someone who displays to us the glory of God the Father in his own passion and in many respects when you see the glory of the stars and the brightness of the stars they are reflecting the light that comes from elsewhere it is not their own light that they are radiating but reflecting the light from elsewhere whether that is meant to be considered or not Jesus knows that his glory was a glory that he possessed before the world that he went to embrace when he had completed the works that were given to him by the Father to complete but more importantly this is what he is envisaging that will happen this is what's going to take place when he comes some say that by by laying claim to this name and we we've said this is a self-designation he is the bright and morning star and that by saying that he is simply stating that he is the king that he is he is the the king of kings and that is a picture that the scripture invites us to have that he is speaking of himself as the king that

[35:19] God has raised up to reign and rule but I think more importantly the coming coming Christ is somebody who is going to usher in a whole host of things that he has already described and alluded to in this passage and I'm sure you're familiar with these words which you may go to often because it takes you into heaven it takes you into glory it takes you into the experience of the church of God who are in the presence of God for all eternity and the glory that is his his people will be permitted to experience it and there will be no night there he says remember these words the former things will pass away where they dwell there will be no need of the sun nor the moon to shine there the glory of

[36:24] God will lighten it Christ himself the lamb will be the light thereof and when he says that the coming one is the bright and morning star that is what he is inviting us to remember encouraging us insisting that we remember in the face of yet another year another milestone that would suggest that things go on as they always did never to change but we know that that is not what the Bible tells us that's not what Christ himself has promised that Christ is the coming of I've often said it and I believe it most evidently that this truth is one of the truths that the

[37:26] Bible expects us to hold dear but we find ourselves keeping it almost at arm's length because it's too good to be true we've gone on so long thinking well it's just going to carry on the way it has but as we can see even from the scripture that is not that certainly even in Mark the chapter that we read there in Mark the suddenness of Christ fulfilling his promise is there for all to see the awesome you know there's plenty who examine the scripture and they say well we know we know these things we we we we we we we the signs of the times and we can see that Christ is imminent that his coming is imminent well whether they can or whether they can't we know that when he does come that it will be suddenly but there's no doubting that he will come and there's no doubting what will happen you know in these words we know that the

[38:51] Lord's people will anticipate his coming and delight in it the question that came to my mind regarding those who are not his people you know the the psalm that we sang there the Lord did say unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thy force a stool whereon thy feet me stand we can see what is meant by that does it mean that every enemy of the king will willingly bow the knee to him willingly you know ordinarily there are people who will if they are brought to submission that they will they will willingly acknowledge that they are that they are the vanquished foe does that mean that when Christ comes in his glory that there will be all all of the enemies that were his will willingly acknowledge him as

[40:04] Lord whether they will willingly or not is not the question I suppose but that we understand that there will not be one who will not submit to him whether they do so willingly or not the Lord's people will await his coming and delight in it once it takes place and they anticipated on the basis of what God's word says he which testifies these things saith surely I come quickly amen even so come Lord Jesus some have questioned the last verse the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all why would John write these words why would he elevate the grace of

[41:06] God well simply because I believe that until he comes this grace will be in need this grace will be something that we depend upon and that will sustain us until he comes but come he will whatever awaits us in a year that comes if we enter into it however far we enter into it how many more of them we will see I don't know not one of us can say that but we can say with certainty that Jesus has said that he would come quickly shall come bless bless us together and all that are dear and dear to us whatever their love is cash watch over us we pray forgiving sin in Jesus name amen we're closing psalm psalm 102 and we're singing these verses in gaelic psalm 102 and at verse 26 but we're going to read at verse 26 verse 26 read ad

[43:39] He visited a lot and we've planted wealth relying on our salt doesn't. When the top של ties in the country井 iszessone Glass, If you're sovos good in the country, So in the world a Rex, But longoria took a lot of practice, The first time they broke their hands, There is a celebration in my long-term Thiloquh f gustado me ...

[44:15] ... ... Thank you.

[44:52] Thank you.

[45:22] Thank you.

[45:52] Thank you.

[46:22] Thank you.

[46:52] Thank you.

[47:22] Thank you.

[47:52] Thank you.

[48:22] Thank you.

[48:52] Thank you. Thank you. blood. May God bless you.

[49:08]  Peace be to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all your love and all this. Amen.