The priest king
[0:00] Well, good morning and welcome to this pre-recorded service for the 31st January 2021 here at Calvary Church in Brighton.
[0:17] ! So the usual welcome if you're regular, watch regularly, and if you're just dropping in for the first time. My introduction is to say that we are an independent Baptist church on the south coast of England, south of London on the coast.
[0:35] Back in the day when we were meeting normally, there would be 75 to 80 of us, but here we are meeting yet again by YouTube, and following this there'll be the opportunity to meet up by Zoom. That's if you're watching in real time, as it were.
[0:53] My name is Philip Wells. I've been working for the church for many years here. I'm serving as pastor elder, and I'm going to be leading this morning and speaking a bit more in our series on Hebrews.
[1:07] And if you want to catch the previous versions of Hebrews or the previous talks on Hebrews, there will be a link which will be cleverly put up on the screen.
[1:20] So let me tell you the plan for just now, which is up there on the screen by my head, and I've welcomed you and given that little brief introduction, and I'll pray.
[1:37] Lord, you said that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. So please deliver us from distractions, from all that might get in the way, including our own sin, and draw us to you.
[1:53] We want to seek you and pray that you will be found by us as we come this morning. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And we're going to be thinking about who Jesus is.
[2:09] Understanding who Jesus is is the key to understanding what being a Christian is, and it's the key to living the Christian life. So it's a very important subject. We're going to be continuing to think of this whole matter, of this pattern of what it is to be a saviour, exemplified in Melchizedek, this old priest-king whom we've been following through in the scriptures, right from Genesis through, and we're hopefully getting back into Hebrews, and linking the thread up there with the flow of the letters of Hebrews, which is what we're looking at in this series.
[2:54] And Hebrews is very keen to show us the greatness of Jesus, and to fill our hearts and minds with the magnificence of this person, in dimensions that you might never even have thought of.
[3:13] But Hebrews is full on in saying, he's all these things and more. And Hebrews would love to remind us of Psalm 45, and in a moment we're going to have that read to us actually, but Psalm 45 is totally enthusiastic about the king.
[3:33] My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is the pen of a skilful writer, and it's like the court poet laureate is ready to say how great the king is, and the writers of Hebrews in the whole New Testament would want to say, this is Jesus.
[3:55] So it does say, you are the most excellent of men, and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one.
[4:06] Clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In majesty ride forth victoriously, on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.
[4:20] Well, it's full of depictions of the greatness of Jesus. And here is God himself giving us words, which we as human beings can deploy to praise Jesus Christ.
[4:32] So without further ado, let's sing that psalm. It's Psalm 45. And here we go. With hearts in love abounding, We now prepare to sing, A lofty theme resounding, Your praise, almighty King, Whose love rich gifts bestowing, Has blessed the human race, Whose lips are overflowing, With words of truth and grace, In majesty transcendent, Put on your covering sword,
[5:34] In righteousness resplendent, Ride on, incarnate word, Ride on, O King, Messiah, To glory and renown, Pierced by your shafts of fire, Each lobe being overthrown, So reign, O God, in heaven, Eternally the same, And endless praise be given, To your almighty name, Clothed in your dancing brightness, Your church honoured behold, In robes of purest whiteness,
[6:36] In garments worked in gold, Let every tribe and nation, Come gladly in the throng, To share her great salvation, And join her grateful song, Then shall no note of sadness, Awake the trembling strength, One song of joy and gladness, The ransomed world shall sing.
[7:19] Well we've sung, And now let us bow before God in prayer. Almighty God, Great Creator, Mighty Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The beginning and the end, The Alpha and Omega, You through whom all things were created, And for whom all things were created, We bow before you in all of your mightiness, We come before you in our own smallness, In our own self-centredness, In our own limitedness, And ask that you would lift our hearts To some sense of your greatness, Your glory and your magnificence.
[8:07] We come confessing our smallness and our sin, How small our minds are, How much they're curved in on themselves, How hard we find it as sinners To lift our hearts, To be elevated into the presence of holiness, Of majesty, Of divinity, And yet we would seek by the power of your Holy Spirit To lift our hearts toward you.
[8:36] You know us in all that goes on within us, All that are thoughts, Our motivations, Our inclinations.
[8:49] Look upon us with mercy, O God, And work within us, we pray, What is pleasing to you. We come to thank you, And to bow before you in reverent worship, That if we are yours just now, We are yours because you, Before the foundation of the world, Set your love upon us.
[9:11] What a mystery that is, How deep that is, How marvellous it is, That before we were even born, You chose us in Christ, That you knew the sort of people we would be, You knew the sort of things that we would say and do, You knew all of that, And yet you still chose us, And you saw fit to bring us to yourself, To love us with an unfathomable love, And to determine and purpose in your heart, To bring us to glory, To share your throne, To share eternity, To be risen with Christ, To be made new in him, And to be with him forever.
[9:55] And we can hardly grasp this, But we do want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We thank you for our election, We thank you for our redemption, That by a mighty act of power, And a mighty expenditure, And at huge cost, You brought us to yourself, Paid the price for our sins, Paid all that was necessary for us to receive, The promised Holy Spirit, Within our hearts, To change us and transform us, To put a new song on our lips, And a new love in our hearts, And a new hope for the future.
[10:35] Thank you for all these things that you have done for us, And it is our prayer that you would continue to make us as your people, Suitable to belong to such a great God, And such a great King, Continue to work within us, Things of holiness, Continue to transform us, So that we'd be more like Jesus Christ, Teach us Lord, To unlearn the things of sin, That have come to us so naturally, And teach us to put on, And learn the things of Christ, Which are far more beautiful, Far more wonderful, Far better.
[11:15] So teach us to put these things on, To become this sort of person, Each of us. And it is our prayer, Again, We must sound like broken records Lord, That you would give us help and strength, In this time, You know, How difficult, We find it, Different people in different ways, And perhaps it teaches us, That every moment, And every day, We need to depend upon you, And we come to do that just now.
[11:45] We pray Lord, For your church, And your churches, May your churches, Represent you, And be shining lights, In a dark world, May be the, May be the pillar, Upon which truth is held forward, Into this world, May they be, Centres of mission, Through which your gospel, And the word of salvation, Goes out, May your churches be bright, Shining lights, In a dark place, And may they bring glory to you, May your kingdom be expanded, Through even us, Your people here on earth, And we pray for our friends, In this city, That you will help and bless each of them, We think of the folk in Ebenezer, We think of the folk at Park Hill, We think of the folk at New Life Molescombe, We think of the impending church plant,
[12:47] With David's skull, Please hear our prayer, That you would bless and increase, And guide, And be glorified, In your churches, And we pray all these things, In Jesus name, Amen.
[13:04] So we've prayed, And before we go on, I'm going to say a few more things, On this subject of forgiveness, So we've been looking at this, For the past few weeks, And I think it is an important subject, Helpful to us, To think of this, It's very fundamental, To our standing with God, And it's very fundamental, For the way that we relate to one another, So here's something, On how to say sorry, So little sister, Or big sister, Has just thrown little sisters, Well, You just threw your little sister's favourite, Cuddly toy down the toilet, Say sorry, And the big sister says, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Well, You might think that's a rather comical, Scenario, I, I tremble to think of the things, I did to my little brother,
[14:06] When I was little, But anyway, Here's something, Uh, Sister's cuddly toy, Throwing down the toilet, Say sorry, Sorry, Is that the right way to say sorry, Uh, Probably not, A better way to say sorry, Is like this, Uh, What are you sorry for, Mm, What are you sorry for, I'm sorry I snatched your toy, And, What did you do with it, Sorry I put it down the toilet, And what are you going to say, Please forgive me, That's better isn't it, It's specific, And it includes, Uh, A request for forgiveness, Now what do you think of what you just did, Mm, No, What do you think of what you just did, Was horrible, It was a horrible thing to do, And I won't do it again, Okay, So there's something there, Of, Repentance, Uh, Showing that, Uh, There's a change of attitude about this,
[15:08] And then, Now, What have you done with your sister's little toy, What have you done with it, I've washed it, Good, Anything else, I've dried it, Good, And what else have you done, I've put it back in, By, By her bed, Okay, I've washed your toy, And dried it, And put it back by your bedside, So some, Attempt there, At restitution, Uh, Putting things right, Making, If there's an action to be done, To show, Uh, That there's been a change of heart, To take that action, So, Uh, That's a better way, To say, Sorry, Uh, Specific confession, Being specific, That was what I did wrong, Repentance, A change of heart, New behaviour, Something put into action, To show that that was, What was meant, And, I'd like us, To see that this is, Fundamental to the way, We approach, God, Through Jesus Christ, So I'm going to find, Hosea, Chapter 6, Verses 1 to 3,
[16:10] Hosea, Chapter 6, Verses 1 to 3, Hosea is describing, The way that, The people ought to come back, The words are right, It, It, It, Turns out, That they weren't actually, As genuine, As they ought to have been, But, The words are right, And this is what it says, Come, Let us return to the Lord, He has torn us to pieces, But he will heal us, He has injured us, But he will bind up our wounds, After two days, He will revive us, On the third day, He will restore us, That we may live, In his presence, Let us acknowledge the Lord, Or perhaps better, Let us know the Lord, Let us press on to know him, Acknowledge him, As surely as the sun rises, He will appear, He will come to us, Like the winter rains, Like the spring rains, That water the earth, So here are the right words,
[17:11] As I say, They didn't, It didn't go as deep, As it should have done, But here they are, Coming back to the Lord, A returning, We're going to turn, To the Lord, There is, A sense that, If we go to him, He will forgive, He's torn us to pieces, He will heal us, He's injured us, He will bind up our wounds, And a sense that, There is good will with him, If we come, He will restore us, And revive us, That we may live in his presence, And there's this intention, To know him, We've turned from our sins, The horrible things that we've done, And we turn to him, And we want to know him, And we're going to take actions, That show that, Let's press on to know him, And, As we do this, He will come to us, Like the winter rains, Like the spring rains, That water the earth,
[18:11] There's an expectation, That he will meet us, And, There's the, The thoughts on, On what it is to come to the Lord, And I don't think, That we only do that once, And then we've finished with it, I think in a sense, That's our constant, Turning, From our sin, To him, In faith, That he will, Renew us, And restore us, And grant us, Newness of life, So, There's the, The last of our thoughts, On forgiveness, And, I hope that those are helpful, And it is a glorious thing, To come to the Lord, In his salvation, So let's sing that song, To God be the glory, Great things he has done, 676.
[19:21] God be the glory, Great things he has done, So loved he the world, That he gave us his Son, Who yielded his life, An atonement for sin, And opened the life gate, That all may go in, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father, Through Jesus the Son, Give him the glory, Great things he has done,
[20:22] Give him the glory, Great things he has done, O perfect redemption, The purchase of blood, To every believer, The promise of God, The vilest offender, Who truly believes, That moment from Jesus, A pardon will cease, A pardon will cease, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord,
[21:23] Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father, Through Jesus the Son, Give him the glory, Great things he has done, Great things he has done, Great things he has done, Great things he has done, And great our rejoicing, Through Jesus the Son, But purer and higher, And greater will be,
[22:26] Our wonder, Our worship, When Jesus we see, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father, Through Jesus the Son, Give him the glory, Great things he has done, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father, Through Jesus the Son,
[23:31] Give him the glory, Great things he has done, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, Come to the Father, Now we're going to come back to Hebrews, We've been thinking about the priest in the order of Melchizedek, We're going to come right back to square one, And we're going to have Hebrews chapter one, Verse one through to chapter two, Verse three, And Brenda's going to read.
[24:18] Thank you very much for reading this Brenda. In the past, In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, At many times and in various ways.
[24:29] But in these last days, He has spoken to us by his Son, Whom he appointed heir of all things, And through whom also he made the universe.
[24:40] The Son is the radiance of God's glory, And the exact representation of his being, Sustaining all things by his powerful word.
[24:51] After he had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels, As the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
[25:10] For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, Today I have become your father. Or again, I will be his father, And he will be my son.
[25:25] And again, When God brings his firstborn into the world, He says, Let all God's angels worship him. In speaking of the angels, He says, He makes his angels spirits, And his servants flames of fire.
[25:43] But about the sun, He says, Your throne, O God, Will last for ever and ever. A scepter of justice Will be the scepter of your kingdom.
[25:54] You have loved righteousness And hated wickedness. Therefore God, Your God, Has set you above your companions By anointing you with the oil of joy.
[26:05] He also says, In the beginning, Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, But you remain.
[26:18] They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, Like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, And your years will never end.
[26:31] To which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand Until I make your enemies A footstool for your feet? Are not all angels ministering spirits Sent to serve those Who will inherit salvation?
[26:48] We must pay the most careful attention, Therefore, To what we have heard, So that we do not drift away. For since the message Spoken through angels was binding, And every violation and disobedience Received its just punishment, How shall we escape If we ignore so great a salvation?
[27:12] The reading tells us about The wonder and the greatness of Jesus. The Son is the radiance of God's glory, The exact representation of his being, Sustaining all things by his powerful word.
[27:29] And let's sing 319 about Jesus, My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise The wonders of your mighty love.
[27:43] The Lord, there is none like you.
[28:07] All of my days I want to praise The wonders of your mighty love.
[28:22] I comfort my shouting Tower of refuge and strength Let every breath All that I am Never cease to worship you Shout to the Lord All the earth that I see Power and majesty Praise you the King Mountains bow down And the seas will roll And the sound of your name I sing the joy At the work of your hands Forever I love you Forever I'll stand
[29:23] Nothing compares to the promise I have With you With you My Jesus My Saviour Lord, there is none like you All of my days I want to praise The wonders of your mighty love The wonders of your mighty love I'm coming Lord, there is none like you I want to praise you Let every breath All that I am Never cease to worship you
[30:23] Shout to the Lord Lord, all the earth Let us sing Power and majesty Praise you the King Mountains bow down Mountains bow down And the seas will roll At the sound of your name I sing the joy At the work of your hands Forever I'll love you Forever I'll stand Nothing compares to the promise I have In you Well, as we come to God's word here in Hebrews, let's pray.
[31:25] Lord, you caused this letter to be written You wanted the original hearers to take good notice of what was written And please help us in our generation To pay heed to your word To make it foremost in our hearts and minds and thinking Not to have that word crowded out by other distracting things And not to stray off the path We ask you to help us Help speak and hear it alike In the name of Jesus Amen Amen Well, my introduction What's the vital word today?
[32:10] If you turn on the radio or look in the newspaper I'm pretty sure before you're too long You will have come across the word pandemic It's a new word Well, a new word to us Yeah, it's all over the place, isn't it?
[32:23] That word Vaccine Yeah, that word crops up an awful lot Lockdown We only thought lockdown ever happened in American prisons But we've been in it Lockdown Or the word Pfizer-BioNTech Is that one word or two words?
[32:42] Well, that word was something we never knew existed, was it? And AstraZeneca I thought that was a racing driver But these are words, aren't they? That are buzzing around and filling our minds Home schooling Did you ever think that word would be relevant?
[33:01] Frustration There's another word And without belittling any of these I want to say that our text insists that there is a more important word than any of these God has another spoken word that is even more important than these words And I want to take us through the logic of that this morning So you remember we were following the trail to the hidden treasure Following the trail from the starting point Past the Eiffel Tower through the mountains until we found X mark the spot And we found that the trail involved As my little drawing is there Sit at my right hand Until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet The psalm, the prophetic, the key prophetic psalm
[34:03] That David wrote about someone other than himself Well, we followed the trail of Melchizedek That was the priest, wasn't it? We started in Genesis We went through Psalm 110 And last week we arrived on the welcome shores of the New Testament And today I'd just like to bring us back full circle To the letter to the Hebrews And I think we will see freshly how important Or I hope we'll see freshly How important this Psalm 110 text is Not only in the New Testament But it's key for the thinking of the writers of the Hebrews And as we come back to Hebrews We'll find that the treasure was right here under our noses And there it was all the time And I'm going to invite us to come back to the first four verses of Hebrews And hear them once again in the light of all that we've been thinking of in the past weeks The Holy Spirit had this in mind from the beginning of the letter
[35:08] And now we know what we're looking for We'll see it right here A vital word for us today So what does the text say?
[35:18] So I've got a clunky translation there In the past God spoke to our forefathers in the prophets At many times and in various ways But now In these last days In these last days He has spoken to us In his Son Or by his Son In his Son In the prophets In his Son The Son Whom There's some Whoms coming And Whos and Whoms Whom he appointed Heir of all things Through whom He made the worlds Or the universe Who In the original it's a who But the NIV puts Son there Who Being the radiance of God's glory And the exact expression Character I think is the Greek word The exact expression of his actual being The exact expression of his being Upholding
[36:20] Bearing up all things By the word of his power Through himself Cleansing for sins Having made Something like that What we've got here After he had provided Purification for sins Through himself Cleansing For sins Having made He Sat down At the right hand Of the greatness On high There you are You see there's the sitting down At the right hand Of God He sat down At the right hand Of the majesty In heaven And so He became As much superior To the angels As is The more excellent name He has inherited To theirs There's a comparison there And so He became superior In as much as The name he inherited Was more excellent Than the name of the angels And there's those first Four verses Goes on to say To which of the angels
[37:21] Did God ever say You are my son Today I have become Your father So those are the verses I'm just going to Take us through them It's nothing particularly clever Just meditating our way Through those And seeing the impact Of them Yet again So Let's Take them to pieces In the past God spoke To our forefathers So if you want A heading Number one God has spoken To us To us In the past God spoke to our forefathers In the prophets At many times At many times And in various ways In these last days He has spoken to us In his son Let's just think about that So God spoke to them In the past But now he's spoken To us Here's a word To us We are in the same position As the original readers Here's a word From God To us
[38:21] A word And we're told Of the nature of these This is an eschatological word It is a word For these last days These last days We are in The last days That doesn't mean That there's a particular limit That one can predict But it does say That this stretch of time Is the last lap If you like The home stretch He has spoken to us In these last days In his son That's how he's spoken In his son So these are the last days It's an eschatological word Meaning it's for the final End of everything We're on the last stretch Of the race Whether it's longer Or shorter It is the last stretch And the next Eventful thing Apart from running The race Is the finishing line That's That's The That's the journey
[39:23] That we're on And that's The part of the journey That we're on And you remember That he goes on to say It's like The Israelites Crossing the desert We are in The place of testing And trial And we need All the help We can get Where do we look We look to our High priest in heaven God has spoken to us In his son In these last days And the central core Of this message Is in Jesus Christ himself He has spoken to us In his son And my point Which I'll make Several times Is that we should Be listening That was Chapter 2 Verse 1 We must pay More careful attention To what we have heard So that we do not Drift away They were in danger Of drifting away They were in danger Of forgetting How important And crucial This message was And it's a word For us Isn't it Let's not In our stress
[40:25] Frustration Lose focus This is the key thing This is the message To be listening to This is the word To be focusing on Let's move on So I said there were some Who's and whom's And They work out like this Whom He has appointed Heir of all things Through whom He made the universe Who Being The radiance Of God's glory Or the Yeah The radiance Of God's glory And the exact Representation Of his being Upholding all things By the word Of his power Who is this So my second point Here The transcendent Glorious Divine Son Who is this All the who's Refer back to the sun And Let's Try and get Some of the impact Of what is said
[41:26] About this sun It's a deep Powerful Transcendent Description When I say Transcendent I mean It goes Above and beyond Anything in this world Above and beyond that The description Goes out of the reaches Of this world And just being An ordinary human Who is this sun In the Bible God has various Sons Different contexts Israel is my Firstborn son Let my son go That he may Worship me Said God In Exodus The king The Davidic king Is in a Father son Relationship It's a sort of Messianic Sonship And I think that You could say That in a sense That was true Of the human kings It was said Of Solomon He'll be my son I'll be his father If he goes wrong I'll Beat him With the rod Of men To help him To learn lessons So it's true
[42:27] Of the human kings In the sense They are the sons Of God But this son Is the son Par excellence He's the son With a capital S He's the fulfillment And the fullest Of everything A son should be And you might say All the other sonships Are a little bit Like his But anyway This son What does it say He has appointed him Heir of all things So there's A brief Phrase That says So much Doesn't it The father Makes his estate Over to his son Without exception I gather that I've just Inherited An eleventh I think Of my auntie's Estate Whatever that may be I certainly haven't Inherited all of it She's tried to divvy it out In a fair way Among her Remaining relatives
[43:28] But here This son Inherits everything He is appointed Heir Of all things There is nothing In the whole of creation Which does not Come to him Which the father Does not give to him He is appointed Heir And through whom He made The universe Through whom He made the worlds He is the agent Of creation Reminds us of John chapter 1 Doesn't it It says Through him All things were made Without him Nothing has been made That has been made And I've got a little Picture for that Which I use Sometimes when I'm Lectoring on John's Gospel When I have the opportunity To do that Just briefly explaining It's a sort of Sideways on View of the Trinity So that disc Represents The father Or that ellipse Represents the father Viewed as it were Side on And there Very close to him
[44:29] Is the son Again viewed As it were Side on And here Are lines Of creation The father Is creating Through the sun There he is Creating the sun And the stars And the moon And there is Creating people Through the sun And trees And there is Creating animals Through the sun Two-legged sheep And here is a line In which the father Creates something Without going Through the sun And I always ask The members of class What can you tell me About that line And the correct answer is It doesn't exist There is no such line The father does not Create anything Without creating it Through the sun Through whom He made the universe Let's come back to this Here He is the agent of creation
[45:30] He is the radiance Of the glory He is the exact Is the radiance Of God's glory The exact representation Of his being And this is A wonderful thing An amazing thing To try and put into words That What about putting it Trying to put it this way That the sun Is the outward face Of the father The father does not Reveal himself Into His creation He does not Reveal himself Apart from Through his son He is the exact Representation Of his being And you could draw A diagram A little bit Like the one I drew before To show that That God shows himself Through his son And the son Exactly Perfectly Represents The father There is nothing About the father That the son Is incompetent To show That the son Is full of
[46:30] Ability To show who The father is Because everything That the father Is the son Is And then He is Upholding all things By the word Of his power The son Is the Active interface By which all things Are held in being They don't just Hold themselves In being They're held in being And we're told It's a speaking thing That it's a word Which as it were Continually holds Everything up Like a juggler Constantly holding A juggling act Up by an input Of skill And wisdom And the son Upholds all things By his powerful word So here is A description Of who we're Talking about Who is this That we're told Is a high priest In the order Of Melchizedek Who is this Who we're told Is the lord Of David Who is he He is this
[47:30] Son The deep Eternal Trinitarian Son The one Of whom We can say No one knows The son But the father And no one Knows the father Except The son And those To whom Those To whom the son Is To whom the son Is pleased To reveal him His depth And eternity Deep mysteries Of the trinity This is the son And we come Right into Hebrews And you remember I think we remarked On this before We just jump Straight into this Ocean depth Of mystery And wonder And glory Because this is Who we're talking about This is who Jesus is Let's go on a little bit further So we've had these Whoms And whose And then We have The verb That is
[48:31] The centre Of all this He sat down Through himself Cleansing Having been made He sat down At the right hand Of the greatness On high So the verb At the centre Of this paragraph Is he sat down This is who he is These are the things That he has been doing But this is the particular action That we're focusing on here He sat down He sat down And he sat down Because he had He sat down Having Done this Having Made Cleansing For sins He sat down Having done This work He sat down Having finished This work He sat down In heaven At the right hand Of the majesty On high He sat down Once I put he sits He's seated Once Having made
[49:32] Cleansing For sin So the act That he did Was on earth The Cleansing Action Was through His death On the cross That mighty Mighty Deed And now We're told Having made That single act Which deals With sin Forever This priestly Act Because the offering Of a sacrifice Is a priestly act And now He sits in heaven Having Risen from the dead Having ascended To be enthroned And systematic Theologians Call that His exaltation He came down In humiliation He goes up In exaltation And he goes To the very Highest place He sits In heaven At the right hand Of God Sit at my right hand Until I make Your enemies A footstool For your feet And there He is enthroned And his enthronement His kingly Enthronement
[50:32] Is a priestly thing He continues To be a priest In the style Of Melchizedek I have sworn You are a priest Forever In the manner Of Melchizedek That's what This oath From God Instituting This An oath Which God Would not take back And which he would Surely fulfil And it's there In that psalm So We flag up Almost at the beginning Here That this priestly work Is a heavenly thing And as we Know He's going to go on And say All the earthly Paraphernalia Of priesthood You know Robes And rituals And holy places And swinging incense And all that stuff At best It's misleading Or distracting At worst It takes you Off the path It's deadly So earthly Priests and rituals Miss the point And lead away From the real Priesthood The real work
[51:33] Which is In heaven He achieved it On earth And now he sits He's sitting Enthroned on high For you And me Number three He cleansed sin On earth And is priest In heaven So number four He achieved The great name So just following Through these verses Still He sat down And so And therefore Sorry And so In this way In this way He became As much superior To the angels As the name He has inherited Is superior To theirs But to which Of the angels Did God ever say You are my son Today I've become Your father He Here's my clunky Translation And so He became As much superior To the angels As is the more Excellent name He has inherited To theirs To which of the angels Did God ever say You are my son Today I'll become Your father That's what he's achieved
[52:33] This status As son So at his Enthronement His resurrection His ascension His enthronement He inherits This superior name Here he is Acclaimed With this superior Name Now John Woods Is going to Mention names In his sermon This evening If I Got that Correct And Of this business Of name There's a degree Of mystery In this But I'll just Say what I can A name Is how people Come to know you Isn't it You have a name As the best Darts player In the village Or something Like that The name Is how people Come to know you I looked for Nominative determinism I think that's What it's called Where your name Becomes particularly Appropriate In later life And you can find This on the internet The same as I did
[53:33] It's Sullivan Cromwell Limited I think An American Law firm With this dear lady Of I presume Asian heritage Whose name is Sue You Sue You The lawyer What a wonderful Name I'm sure She had that name Long before she Became a lawyer But when she Became a lawyer They thought Wow This is just The right name For you Sue You The son Was always The son But now He has Achieved A great Salvation And now In his Career Where he's Achieved a Great salvation A world In a world Of sin He's entered This world His glory Veiled And And And solved This huge Problem of sin Fantastic And he has Been given Great Status He had Great status Before But his Status Didn't include That he was
[54:34] The saviour Of sinners And now Now His status Includes That Fantastic See what An achievement Christ Has Earned For himself And He has Won this First He has Become the First human Being To sit on The throne Of the universe To be sure He was King of kings Before But now In His career As saviour Having come And become Incarnate Having Suffered on The cross Having Risen From the Dead He has Gone to The throne And become The first Human To sit On the Throne Of the Universe What Greatness He has Achieved Much better Than anything Angels have Ever done They're left In the shade By the Achievement Of the Son The eternal Son The name That he has Now Inherited If you like The name Which has Now come To fulfilment
[55:34] Yeah He is Great And greatly To be Praised Look at What he's Achieved And you Get the Same sort Of thing In Philippians Therefore Having Humbled Himself And suffered And died On the Cross Therefore God Has Exalted Him And given Him The name That is Above Every Name That at The name Of Jesus Every Knee Should Bow And Every Tongue Confess Jesus Christ Is Lord Great Acclaim Due To Him Our Knees Should Bow And our Tongue Should Confess That Jesus Christ Is Lord And The You know The Uplug Let's look up Let's be Elevated And see What The Situation Is In Heaven And We Could Perhaps Say The Same Thing As That Dour Scottish Preacher Who Having Enlarged On The Glories Of Jesus Said Doesn't It Make You Want To Say Three Cheers For Jesus
[56:34] And I Think It Does Doesn't It Three Cheers For Jesus We Lift Our Hearts To Him And We Say How Great He Is He Achieved A Great Name And Is Called The Son Rightly So There We Are We've Whizzed Through Those First Four Verses Which Actually Had The Treasure In Them All The Time And Now We've Got Eyes To See It And Let Me Just Wind Up By Saying These Are Surely Inescapable Reasons Why We As He's Going To Say Should Pay More Careful Attention To What We've Heard So That We Don't Drift Away The Message Spoken By Angels Was Binding How Shall We Escape If We Ignore Such A Great Salvation Brothers And Sisters Let's Refocus Let's Refocus This Is What We Should Be Thinking About There's All Sorts Of Stuff Going On Around Us But Woe To Us If We're So Distracted By That That
[57:34] We Take Our Eyes Off Jesus The Author And Finisher Of Our Faith We Must Pay More Careful Attention We Should Be Listening It's Not A Feeling Thing It's A Listening Thing It's Not A Seeing Thing It's A Hearing Thing We Should Be Listening To What God Is Saying Lord Open Our Ears So That Every Day We Can Hear From Your Word What You Are Saying To Us And Through The Word As It Were Fix Our Eyes On Jesus We Should Be Filling Our Minds With This Word And We Should Be Living It We Should Be Acting On It Let's Do That Let's Pay More Attention To Jesus Even In Our Stresses And Frustrations Dare I Say It And Here's The Reason Because He's Worth It He's Worth It Isn't He Let's Pray Oh Lord To Realize How Great Our Saviour
[58:35] Is Help Our Eyes To Be Lifted To Heaven And Not Only Focused On The Stuff That's Going On Around Us Help Us To Take To Heart And To Be Deeply Encouraged And Elevated By The Thought Of Who Jesus Is And Help Us To Walk All The Way To Heaven Fixing Our Eyes On Him We Ask It For His Name's Sake Amen So Our Last Song This Morning Is Number 495 By Charles Wesley We Sang It Last Week It's A Tremendous Hymn Whether The Music Arrangement Does Justice To It Is Another Question But It Is A Tremendous Hymn It Is Declaring That Jesus Is On The Throne Rejoice The Lord Is King Lift Up Your Heart Lift Up Your Voice Rejoice Again I Say Rejoice
[59:35] And It Depicts Jesus As Raining When He Had Purged Our Stains He Took His Seat Above His Kingdom Cannot Fail He Sits At God's Right Hand Till All His Foes Submit Rejoice In Glorious Hope Jesus The Judge Shall Come And Take His Servants Up To Their Eternal As We Close With Song 495 Rejoice The Lord Is King Your Lord And King Adore Mortals Give Thanks And Sing And Triumph Evermore
[60:36] Lift Up Your Heart Lift Up Your Voice Rejoice Again I Say Rejoice Jesus The Saviour Reigns The God Of Truth And Love When He Had Purged Our Stains He Took His Seat Above Lift Up Your Heart Lift Up Your Voice Rejoice Again I Say Rejoice His Kingdom His Kingdom Cannot Fail He Rules Both Earth And Heaven The Keys Of Death And Hell Are To Our
[61:36] Jesus Skin Lift! Up Up Your Voice Rejoice Again I Say Rejoice He Sits At Heart's Right Hand Till all his foes submit, and bow to his command, and fall beneath his feet. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice again I say, rejoice, rejoice in glorious hope, Jesus the judge shall come, and take his servants up to their eternal home. We soon shall hear the archangel's voice,
[62:49] God's trumpet call shall sound, rejoice. So for our closing prayer, these familiar words from Hebrews 13.
[63:06] Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
[63:33] Amen. So it's bye-bye from me, and until we meet again, may the Lord bless and keep all of us. Bye-bye just now. Bye.