The Successful Reign of the King

[0:00] Turned out to the book of Psalms and Psalm 110 and we can read at the beginning. Psalm 110 at verse 1. Psalm of David.

[0:15] The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foodstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

[0:27] Roll in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

[0:42] And so on. As you read this psalm, it's clearly a psalm about a king. It's a psalm about a king's coronation.

[0:55] We don't know the context in which the psalm was written, but we do know that it is a special psalm. As we read our Bibles, Psalm 110 is the most often quoted and referred to passage of the Old Testament that we find in the New Testament.

[1:14] It is hugely significant. It was significant to the church in the days of Jesus. And it was indeed significant to Jesus himself because he found himself in the psalm.

[1:29] And if we understand the psalm, then it does mean that we ourselves will find Jesus in it. And that's what the gospel is for, to give us to understand the word of God and to give us to understand the many different ways in the rich fabric of the Bible in which we find the Lord Jesus brought to our attention.

[1:49] As we look at the psalm also, we can see that it gives to us a particular insight. You may have a conversation with someone and it's private and nobody knows.

[2:05] It might be a key conversation. It might be a crucial conversation. But as long as it's between you and someone else, then it is private. And as we understand God in the Bible, we do understand that there are conversations between God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that we have never heard of.

[2:28] They are private. They belong to God. The hidden things belong to God. But there are rare occasions when we have an insight, when a window opens and we have an insight into a particular conversation that takes place as it does here.

[2:47] And that's where the psalm begins. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. David is overhearing and we are benefiting tonight from the way in which David has overheard.

[3:01] And I want us to look at this psalm to show that there is something more important in this world than your life and mine.

[3:13] To show that no matter how much we are busy with life and no matter how much we face challenges around us and no matter how much we are trying to work things out, there is something far more important.

[3:27] The drama of your life is loaded up in public display. But I want us to see tonight that there is a more important drama. It is the drama of God's salvation and it is working in an invisible right here and now.

[3:44] We cannot see it and we cannot see him. But the drama is unfolding. And if we understand that, it puts our lives into perspective.

[3:54] It gives us an understanding of where we are and where we are going if we know what God is doing. And against that background, I want us to notice first of all that we have in this psalm a program.

[4:10] It is God's program. And the program comes to our attention in this conversation that is brought before us at the beginning of the psalm.

[4:22] And David is looking in and listening in to this conversation and we see that there are two people involved. And we read that David is saying, The Lord says to my Lord.

[4:38] And we need to understand something of who is having this conversation. Unless we know that, then it is going to be meaningless. But if we are able to identify those who are having this conversation, then the Bible becomes alive.

[4:54] And this psalm becomes about what God is doing and what he is doing around your life and around mine. And when we look at the way in which David writes the psalm, he uses Lord twice, but we recognize and see that he uses capital letters in the first reference and lowercase with a capital L and the second reference.

[5:16] And that highlights two particular things. It highlights that the Lord is the covenant God, the Jehovah. It is the God who spoke to Moses. It is that great God of the covenant of God.

[5:29] It is the Lord Jehovah. And the Lord is the sovereign Lord, is the anointed one, the sovereign one of God who has power to reign over the things of God.

[5:43] And as we read through our Bibles and as we see, as we saw in Hebrews chapter 1, and as we see in the story of the Gospels, what emerges is quite clear.

[5:54] That when the Lord Jehovah had this conversation, he had it with his son. Hebrews chapter 1 shows us that. And we see in Matthew 22 that in his consciousness that Jesus knew that this was about him.

[6:15] And he's challenging the Jews who were around him. He's challenging them because they don't understand who he is. And he is asking them the question about Christ, whose son is he?

[6:28] And the conversation goes on and they said he is the son of David. And he is saying, David in the spirit calls him Lord. And how then can he be David's son?

[6:40] That there's that conversation going on and what emerges from that is that this Lord concerning this conversation is the son of God.

[6:54] And the conversation took place with regard to the son of God at the time of his coronation. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

[7:08] It's the welcome of the Lord Jehovah as the Lord Jesus, his son, comes back from his time spent on earth and his time spent on the cross and his time spent in the tomb and he is raised up in glory and here is God on his throne and as if the door of heaven opens and here enters the son of God who has finished the work that God has given him to do and he stands waiting to be received in the throne room of God and as soon as he appears and the door opens, as soon as that happens, the Lord said to my Lord, what did he say to him?

[7:53] Sit at my right hand. Not anywhere else in this throne room but in the place of intimacy, in the place of authority, in the place of power, in the place of further conversations.

[8:08] Sit at my right hand. And he does so as the king of kings, as the lord of lords, who enters into the throne room of God and who comes now to sit on God's throne having completed his work.

[8:27] He has entered in to his rest and he sits at God's right hand. And no matter tonight where you are or where I am, the reality that we need to grasp firmly is that Jesus who died on the cross and who was in the tomb for these three days is on God's throne.

[8:51] And he is there rewarded by God, blessed by God. If anyone was ever deserving of the words, well done, good and faithful servant, here is the servant king of God who did everything that Isaiah wrote about him and here he is now lifted up, being raised up and being very high.

[9:13] We need to grasp that. That right now, Jesus is on his throne with the full authority of God and he is on his throne as the person who has done the work of God and who has secured and sealed the work of redemption.

[9:31] And it is from that enthronement that the program is set for what God is going to do from the time that Jesus sits upon his throne.

[9:48] The program is set for the final scene, the final drama in the work of God's redemption. The day will come when Jesus will hand the kingdom over to God and he will do so having completed, having built his church, having thrown in everyone that he was to draw in and the day will come and he will sit on his throne and in the symbolic way, he will have triumphed over his enemies.

[10:30] He will have stood on their necks. They will be trampled under his feet and he will reign as the king who has triumphed over all of the enemies of the people of God but more especially, he will have triumphed over all of the enemies of God himself.

[10:52] And that's the drama tonight that is unfolding. The turning point, the first part in this final scene of the drama of redemption begins with this enthronement and the curtain will come down when his enemies are at his feet and when his church is before him and when everything will be then about God.

[11:23] That's the program. Where do you think you fit into that program tonight?

[11:34] It's the important question. There are enemies and there are friends. There are enemies and there are children.

[11:46] There are enemies and there are the people of God. And as this program works itself out, as his drama unfolds, there's a separation between those who are enemies and those who are friends.

[12:01] And Jesus is conquering those who are enemies, defeating them. He's doing that for his own sake and he is doing it for the sake of his children. But in this very moment in time, that's what he is doing.

[12:16] And if there is any hope for your salvation or mine, it has to be found in this drama that the invisible thing that God is doing, that in some way, you have to be part of that so that in the visible way in which you sit here tonight listening to the word of God, there has to be an invisible reality to your life where you are walking with Jesus, where you are walking, following him in the service of God and where you are doing so willingly and lovingly.

[12:50] And if you're not doing that, you are outside of the kingdom of God and in the very place of danger where the Son of God in the unfolding of this drama is going to trample his enemies under his feet.

[13:06] The program is crucial for what God is doing and it's critical for you and for me.

[13:18] There is a clear program. And Paul in writing to Romans at the very end of that letter in chapter 16, he makes this great statement and the people of God rejoice in it and the statement is the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

[13:42] It's the final victory. The Satan who is chained, who is working where he is as the enemy of God but restricted by the God who reigns and the King who reigns to build his church, the day will come when he will be crushed completely.

[13:59] And those who think like him, who behave like him, those who are his followers. There is a program and the diary of your life must be readjusted to ensure that you have this firmly as the overview of everything that you put in your daily life that you remember that God's program is to build his church and to defeat Satan and the enemies of God and then everything will be closed down and the kingdom of God will have come in all of its perfection.

[14:41] There is a program. Secondly, there is a power. It's a program with power.

[14:55] The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. There is a real way in which the rest of Jesus as he sits at the right hand of God is actually a rest where he continues to be active.

[15:15] And if that means it's a contradiction, then so be it. But he has finished the work that God has given to him and here he now reigns from that throne for God.

[15:26] And he reigns with this idea of a scepter. It could be a staff. It could be translated in so many different ways.

[15:37] But it does speak to us of two things. It speaks to us in the hand of the Son of God. It speaks to us of loving discipline. It speaks to us of warning people over.

[15:49] It speaks to us of bringing people under his wing. And it also speaks to us of the judgment of God. Of the judgment which Jesus is going to execute when he comes at last to judge the world.

[16:05] And this scepter that Jesus now has, it is a mighty scepter. In other words, it's able to achieve whatever Jesus sets out to do.

[16:18] No one can resist the power of the scepter. It emerges from the Lord Jesus. It emerges from God's throne. And it does so in order to secure everything that God has in his plan.

[16:31] The script is set out for God. And the scepter will achieve everything in that script as the drama unfolds. And the Son of God does so as the one who, in a particular way, has that power to execute that.

[16:49] We saw in Psalm 45 that he has a sword on his thigh. We see in Revelation 19 that he emerges to judge the world. He is called the Word of God.

[17:03] And as he disciplines his children lovingly and as he wants people for himself, he does it through the Word of the Gospel. The Word that Paul describes through the cross of Jesus is the wisdom of God and the power of God to those who believe.

[17:22] And whenever the Gospel is preached, the Word of God speaks the Word of God. And he does so in this triumphant way by the power of the Spirit of God working to change people's lives.

[17:35] God is promising to his Son in this moment of his coronation that his scepter will be mighty.

[17:47] It will achieve whatever he sets out to do. And as the scepter is used by him to win a people for himself in his loving discipline, it does so through the power of that very Spirit which Jesus himself identifies as doing this.

[18:08] The Spirit, the mighty force of God, the power of God, he will not make known things about himself. He will not glorify himself.

[18:22] Jesus says he will take of my things and he will show them to you. And he wields the scepter in the Gospel by the power of the Spirit of God and that Spirit of God is drawing attention to the very things that he achieved in this world, to his life of perfect obedience, to the cruel, horrendous nature of his redeeming, sacrificial death, through to the powerful way in which he emerged from the tomb and the powerful and the powerful way in which he poured the Spirit down into the world.

[18:57] The Spirit of God points to all of these things. And so as the program is worked out and as the drama unfolds, the cross of Jesus comes to the center and the person of Jesus comes to be at the center of all that Jesus is doing in his reign.

[19:16] and humanly speaking, we might find fault with someone who sends someone to tell them about what he's like.

[19:30] And it would be wrong of us to do that, to show off what we are. But in the marvelous work of the gospel, the Spirit is the spotlight for Jesus.

[19:42] He shows off all that Jesus is and all that he has done. And the gospel in that way comes with power, with the power of the Spirit of God as he breathes that life into every moment in which the gospel is preached.

[20:02] And you may say, I don't feel that. I cannot see that happening. And you may well ask yourself why. It's not because God is not doing it.

[20:15] because God is always doing it. And wherever the gospel is preached, he is building his church. And he is demonstrating his power in that way.

[20:28] But the scepter that he uses to save will become the scepter that he will use to judge the earth. death. And you can go home perhaps and read Revelation chapter 19.

[20:44] And see this glorious figure of the Son of God coming on a white horse. horse. And there's a sword coming out of his mouth with which he's going to smite the nations.

[20:56] And he comes on his white horse and he comes to a white horse that's stained with blood because he is trampling upon his enemies. He is destroying all those who are his own enemies and the enemies of the people of God.

[21:11] And he is doing that in this final demonstration of his power. It's a program of power. And it puts our lives tonight in the right kind of context because it shows to us what things are important.

[21:33] And God is of supreme importance and what he is doing is of supreme importance. And so this moment as we worship him together this evening is key, it's crucial, critical, and you don't know if this moment will ever be repeated because we don't know when the curtain will come down.

[21:54] It will come suddenly, it will come unexpectedly, and we don't know when. And in the days of Peter they were saying where is the sign of his coming?

[22:06] Everything remains the same. It's a trick of the devil to say that to you. Whatever your thoughts are about God, the devil will come and he will whisper that to you.

[22:19] The program has stopped. The drama has stopped. Everything has ground to a halt. How convenient of Satan to persuade you of that.

[22:31] Then the critical situation in which you find yourself will become even more critical because suddenly you have divorced yourself from the God who is working around you and the God who in this invisible way is doing the very thing that you need.

[22:49] While the gospel is preached before he comes in this symbolic way as the great warrior on his white horse to destroy the enemies of God and to finally bring the curtain down on this stage of his kingdom as it enters into the final endless glorious stage in the presence of God.

[23:15] It's a powerful program. But as we think of that power we want to think of the power being a power in partnership.

[23:32] The Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs that two are better than one. when it comes to God three are better than one.

[23:45] And that's the picture that emerges through this passage that this is such an important work that it's not left to Jesus alone.

[23:56] It's not left to the spirit alone. It's not left to God alone. In fact there is a trio, a trinity, there are three persons involved in this powerful display.

[24:08] of the glory of God in the work of the gospel. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

[24:20] The Lord who says sit at my right hand is the Lord who sends forth the scepter from the glory of Zion where Jesus is sitting. And so the Lord Jehovah is saying to his son your mighty scepter.

[24:37] And he's saying with regard to the mighty scepter I will send forth your mighty scepter. The scepter which is the world of God and the spirit of God. And so in this marvelous demonstration of the power of God, everything that God is and all that God is and everyone that God is is engaged in working out this program and in ensuring that it is worked out in its very detail.

[25:05] The script is specific. The detail is specific and it's being worked out. And here I have God who is God the father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:18] Here I have the son of God who is the crucified recent son of God. And here I have the ruach of God, the spirit of God, the fish of God.

[25:29] And the three of them are together. And what other fish could have such power and what other power could resist the power of the great God, father, son and holy spirit working as he does through the gospel.

[25:54] And it's marvelous as this gospel is preached and as we sense that power, the vision that we have of what God is doing broadens out so that if there's a drama that we see taking place, we recognize the brains behind the drama that is unfolding, the power behind the way in which this is worked out.

[26:23] And we marvel at the Christ who in 1 Corinthians 1 with regard to whom Paul says he has become to us wisdom from God, a marvel that this power is working.

[26:41] And tonight right here together we are supremely honored and privileged to know that all of God is working through his gospel.

[26:57] To know that every person in their own particular way Father, Son and Holy Spirit is speaking through this word and he is speaking out into your life as God builds his church.

[27:12] And that's something that we need to grasp and grasp it sincerely because we ignore that at our peril. And whatever you are doing even right now, whatever thoughts you are having, whatever plans you have, wherever you think you are going, you need to put the brakes on because the traffic lights of the powerful force of the kingdom of God is at red with regard to your life so that your life will be turned around and sort of follow the course that the kingdom of God is following.

[27:52] the power is a bright light. If we should see it, it's a powerful light. It works mightily.

[28:04] It's the power of God. You cannot resist it. You cannot overcome it. And in your life, you can struggle with so many things.

[28:15] But here is the key struggle that goes on when we come in contact with God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

[28:32] There is that power. And thirdly, there is participation.

[28:44] What does this mean? How does this work itself out? the day in which we are living, the day which is the last days, in that day, according to this psalm, it is the day of your power, the day of the power of the Son of God in which he is ruling.

[29:07] It is a day of power. voluntary. And we want to see that participation in what God is doing is first of all, entirely voluntary.

[29:23] Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. It is entirely voluntary. And what do you think tonight?

[29:37] do you want to volunteer for God? Why aren't you doing so? If such is the status of what God is doing, such is the importance of it, why are you not choosing to do the very thing that we have in this psalm?

[29:56] Volunteering to be a disciple of Jesus. Volunteering to be part of the church of Jesus. Volunteering to serve Jesus.

[30:10] Volunteering to line up with this King of Glory and become part of the victorious procession that we see going down through this world where the people of God are married to him, are bound to him, and united to him.

[30:33] And what the psalm suggests to us is that to be a volunteer is the same as being an elect child of God.

[30:48] Your people will offer themselves freely. The people with regard to whom Jesus says in John chapter 17, they were yours and you gave them to me.

[31:02] me. And for their sakes, I'm going to sanctify myself. For their sakes, I'm going to the cross. I'm going to die for them. They're not just any people that randomly in the world become the disciples of Jesus.

[31:20] they are your people. Chosen in hymns is Paul before the foundation of the world so that they would be holy and without blame before him.

[31:31] In love they predestined them. The people of God. The script, the identity of everyone in that script.

[31:43] And here is the gospel proclaimed in the world. God and the elect are volunteering. And the volunteers are elected.

[31:55] And the power that works in the gospel of Jesus Christ is a power which comes to dwell in the hearts of those who are the chosen people of God. And in that moment of the indwelling of the spirit of God, in that very moment, the non-committed person becomes highly devoted.

[32:20] The person who resists becoming involved suddenly springs to action. And that because, or that not because in the struggle that has been taking place that God has overcome you.

[32:36] Of course that in some ways is true. But the real reason for coming to volunteer in this way is because God is doing what he said he would do to his own people.

[32:51] I will give you a new heart. I will tear out this heart of stone that is so unresponsive to the work that I am doing.

[33:02] I will tear that heart away. I will give you a heart that's pumping with life. I will put my spirit within you. And suddenly the pulse of the kingdom of God is working in the lives and the hearts of those who are the children of God.

[33:17] And once that heartbeat and that pulse begins to work then there's no holding back the child of God. To volunteer don't hold me back let me see let me know what I can do.

[33:31] It's that zeal and that compulsion and that compulsion that comes from realizing that he loved me and that we love him because he first loved us.

[33:50] And the glory and the beauty that the spirit of God shines on as it shines on the person of Christ. My pulse and my heartbeat is so connected with him that in many ways my heart beats with his love and responds and corresponds to all that he is.

[34:15] A volunteer. Try holding anyone back who has come to see the beauty of Jesus in that way and it will be impossible. If you can do it, it means that they haven't seen the glory of Christ in that new heart sense of way.

[34:31] glory of God. And as we ask the question if you are a volunteer or not and where your heart is with God, you do have to remember that it raises this serious question about you ever being in the kingdom of God.

[34:56] God. And we're saying that guardedly and we're saying that sensitively because as we see God building his church, he is taking in people that we did not expect, people that surprise us and people that we did expect.

[35:16] And the volunteers are coming and they're here tonight, so many of them in whose lives God has worked and they sparked that, spark of redeeming love in their hearts and so they follow the Lord Jesus.

[35:35] And sadly there are others and they haven't known that spark yet. God is building his church, he is summoning, he is calling people into being his disciples, his power is working in the gospel.

[35:53] and how does that affect you if as yet you haven't volunteered to be in this king's army?

[36:06] Serious questions, serious questions that should lead you on your knees before God, crying out to him that he will unleash this power in your heart and that he will carry out this surgical, spiritual process in your life so that you will sense this beating of the love of God and Jesus Christ in your heart.

[36:30] then there will be no holding you back. It's the participation of volunteers. It is also a participation of those who are dressed for the occasion.

[36:53] We join the army of this king and Paul speaks about the way in which we have to be on the whole armour of God. How do we recognise those in whose lives God has worked, who have volunteers for Jesus, how do we recognise them?

[37:13] They take their place following him but they do so following him in an appropriate way. There is a way of following Jesus and there is a way of not following him.

[37:26] And we see here that the particular thing that's true about them is that they're dressed because their lives are just like the life of Jesus.

[37:39] Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. They are dressed dressed for the service for the God in the way in which God has called them out of the world to follow him but they are also changed from within and that change works itself out in their lives as those who become more and more like Christ.

[38:10] The plan of God in Romans 8 changed into the image of the Son. The purpose of God in all that he is doing that by the Spirit of God we grow in the same likeness.

[38:26] And therefore we look tonight for those who are true participants. Those who are truly choice of God.

[38:39] And here is where we find them. Walking with Jesus. Not only talking the talk but walking with them.

[38:51] His word put in practice in their lives. And as Jesus prayed again in John 17 Father sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth.

[39:04] And we find the children of God and their lives are practical living examples. disciples of the word of God.

[39:16] The hands and feet of the word of God in the life of the disciple of Jesus because their hearts are right with God and because their minds have been enlightened and in that holistic way living out the life of godliness.

[39:36] A volunteer. a holy volunteer. And in closing a refreshing volunteer.

[39:49] Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. From the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours. From the dawning of this day in which Jesus sits upon his throne there is a reference to those who are his children your youth they are your children and it is their dew to which he refers when he speaks of the way in which there is this refreshing aspect to the kingdom of God and to the people of God.

[40:26] And we know what it's like in the natural world when you go out on a calm morning and the moan grass as we read in Psalm 72 as the dew settles on it it's so refreshing and there was that whole idea of washing your face in the refreshing dew of the morning as it covers the ground and here God is saying that that's what the people of God are like the children of God if holiness is challenging surely this is challenging that as the children of God we should be refreshing for other people we should be like the Jew our lives should be like the Jew but when we look more closely it is not other Christians that are refreshed it is the king who sits on his throne from the womb of the morning the

[41:35] Jew of your youth will be yours isn't it wonderful tonight that as you participate in the kingdom of God volunteered by his power to serve him living a life of beauty and of holiness that every step that you take that it is refreshing to your savior who sits at the right hand of God that the joy is his when he looks down upon your life that is delight us in what you are doing because you are living for him and let's not hesitate in taking that to heart the joy of salvation is certainly ours but the joy of salvation is certainly that of Jesus as well and Isaiah promised and Isaiah 53 that after

[42:36] Jesus has suffered given his soul as a sacrifice for sin that when he does that he will see of the fruit of his sacrifice and he will rejoice he shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied there is joy and satisfaction in the heart of the son of God tonight with regard to all those who are his people who are participating in his kingdom in this way and as we close wouldn't it be wonderful if you were the cause of his joy and if he was the cause of you and that there would be that melody in your heart for him and that joy in his heart for you looking down upon you then you're in the drama then you are participating what's invisible includes you and you're on the way to be part of the final demonstration of the triumphant victory of the son of

[43:57] God when he will crush his enemies at last and when he will gather his people around his throne to be there in the throne of God and going into fountains of living water throughout the endless ages of eternity may God grant for us all that will be so may he bless his word to us let us pray