[0:00] Let's turn to God's Word. We have two readings today. Our first reading is in Psalm 110. The book of Psalms in Psalm 110. And our second reading will be in Hebrews chapter 7.
[0:15] First of all, the book of Psalms in Psalm 110. Let's hear the Word of God.
[0:25] The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
[0:36] The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.
[0:48] In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, Thou hast the Jew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, And will not repent. Thou art a priest forever, After the order of Melchizedek.
[1:02] The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings, In the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries.
[1:15] He shall drink of a brook in the way. Therefore shall he lift up the head. Now the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7. I'm reading from verse 11.
[1:28] Hebrews chapter 7. I'm reading from verse 11. If there for perfection were the Levitical priesthood, For under it the people received the law, What further need was there that never priest should rise After the order of Melchizedek, And not be called after the order of Aaron?
[1:56] The priesthood being changed, There is made a necessity or a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken, Pertaineth to another tribe, Of which no man give attendance at the altar.
[2:10] For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, Of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident, For after the similitude of the Melchizedek, There ariseth another priest, Who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, But after the power of an endless life.
[2:32] For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever, After the order of Melchizedek. For it is verily a disannulling of the commandment, Going before the weakness and unproperableness thereof.
[2:44] For the law made nothing perfect, But the bringing in of a better hope did, By which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath, He was made priest.
[2:58] For those priests were made without an oath, But with this an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord swear and will not repent, Who art a priest for ever, After the order of Melchizedek.
[3:11] By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, Because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
[3:23] But this man, Because he continueth ever, Hath an unchangeable priesthood, Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, That come unto God by him, Seeing he ever liveth, To make intercession for them.
[3:39] For such an high priest became us, Who is holy, Harmless, Undefiled, Separate from sinners, And made higher than the heavens.
[3:51] Who needeth not daily, As those high priests, To offer up sacrifice, First for his own sins, And then for the people's. For this he did once, When he offered up himself.
[4:02] For the law maketh men high priests, Which have infirmity. But the word of the oath, Which was since the law, Maketh a son, Who is consecrated forevermore.
[4:15] Amen. We give praise to God for his holy, And his perfect word. Let's again sing to God's praise. Again singing, This time from Psalm 110.
[4:27] Psalm 110. We can sing verses 5, Down to verse 7. Psalm 110, Verses 5, To the end of the psalm.
[4:39] The glorious and mighty Lord, That sits at thy right hand, Shall in his day of wrath, Strike through kings, That to him withstand, He shall among the heathen judge, He with the bodies dead, The places filled with many lands, He wound shall every head.
[4:55] Psalm 110, Verses 5 to 7, To God's praise. The glorious and mighty Lord, That sits at thy right hand, Shall in his day, God passed by fruit, Bangvan down to the heavenly nation, He shall among the handsome Past, The good and child, It shall have upon His death
[5:55] The blessed spell for many loves Be your womb shall every end The fruit of God will fill the way With rich and in supply And for this cause the triumph The fruit of God will fill the way Let's turn back to the book of Psalms and to Psalm 110
[6:57] The book of Psalms and Psalm 110 I'm taking in the whole Psalm today but for the sake of a text we could take perhaps just verse 1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand Until I make thine enemies thy footstool Apparently if you talk to my friends I have quite a bad habit of repeating myself But sometimes that bit of news Sometimes that thing I've seen or read is so exciting I can't help but repeat myself again and again And share the same thing again and again In our Psalm here we have the most repeated section Of the whole of the Old Testament to be found in the New Testament Out of all the books in the Old Testament The book of Psalms is the most repeated
[7:57] And the most quoted section of Scripture To be found in the New Testament from the Old Testament So the book of Psalms is the most quoted then From the book of Psalms Psalm 110 Is the most quoted Psalm by quite some distance in the New Testament Even from Psalm 110 The very first verse either in full or in part Is one of if not the most quoted verses of the Old Testament To be found in the New Testament It's quoted again and again In part throughout the Gospels In full throughout the Acts Hebrews We see again and again This Psalm appears Over and over again So for a short time together today The question is Why is this Psalm Why was it and why is it so important to the early church Why do the apostles quote from it again and again Why do the early church As it was beginning to form and begin to grow Why do they keep coming back to this Psalm again and again
[9:00] In this Psalm We see Jesus And that's true for every part of Scripture We confess that We know that We believe that We see Jesus as it were On every page But in this Psalm We see something quite incredible In this Psalm as it were We are given access to somewhere That's beyond our understanding In this Psalm As we'll see in a second We are given access to a conversation We see into heaven And we get to listen to a conversation Between the Father And the Son We'll see that more As we go on So looking at this Psalm Just under four Very general Very brief headings In reality There's much Much more Plenty more points we could take But four Is enough for our time today So first of all Looking at verse 1 Seeing the place Of Jesus The place of Jesus Then verse 3 The people
[10:01] Of Jesus Verse 4 The priesthood of Jesus And then verses 2 And 5 And 6 And 7 The power Of Jesus His place His people His priesthood And His power Dear Christians As we look at these verses together Take time in this Psalm Let's like the early church Let's like those Who throughout history Have come back to this Psalm Let's leave this place today Having grown in our love Our understanding Having grown in our love Towards our King Who is our Saviour And for those here Again I know you know this But again I don't know Many faces I don't know How to any faces Some I know But some I've never seen before Apart from last time But I haven't met you I don't know where you stand I don't know What your view of Jesus is I don't know If you call yourself A believer or not That's not a bad thing Let the word of God speak today
[11:04] As you look at these verses together Hear the wonder The beauty of Jesus But also As we go through these verses Hear His power The one who is mighty to save But also the one Who will destroy His enemies So first of all Looking at the place Of Jesus Looking at verse 1 Together The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand Till I make thine enemies Thy footstool As you said This is written Thousands of years ago But verse 1 Is fresh Verse 1 Tells us And shows us Something that is happening This very second As we said This psalm Gives us a window Into heaven itself And we don't say that lightly That's what we see here These are the very words Spoken in heaven As our Saviour Returned After his triumphant Time on earth We read verse 1 together In verse 1 In the first reading It's a confusing verse
[12:05] Who is talking to who What is going on The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand Now I had to do a few years of Hebrew So I intend on Getting back to the congregations By making you do some Hebrew With me just now quickly It's important for us To understand What this verse 1 says If we understand verse 1 The rest of the psalm Then makes sense If we miss out verse 1 Then it doesn't make sense at all So please look with me In your Bibles It's important we see together What's being said We see in the very first phrase There's two speakers The Lord said unto my Lord King David writing this psalm So King David is saying The Lord said unto my Lord That first Lord As we see together It's all in capitals L-O-R-D All capital letters That's Yahweh The name of God The covenant name of God
[13:06] The name that God calls himself The name as we heard last time together The name that God gave to Moses That name that God gave to Abraham That name that God gave to his people To call himself by Yahweh The covenant keeping God The one who is incompatible The one who is eternal The one of all power God Yahweh said unto my Lord That second Lord Capital L Then lowercase O-R-D That word is Adonai Adonai Yahweh said unto my Adonai The word Adonai The word Adonai is also used As Lord It's used in Scripture Throughout Scripture To describe both God A name for God But also a name For anyone who is over you Sarah quite often Or Sarah quite often Calls Abraham Adonai
[14:07] Again and again We see Those below Calling those above them Lord As we would do today Out of respect Perhaps It's a word you use To describe someone Who is over you Who is more powerful Than you So in this first section This first phrase King David King David Writing this psalm King David The highest of The highest of men In his country Of course In his nation of Israel King David Writes and says Yahweh said Unto My Adonai David here Is seeing A conversation Taking place Between the Father And the Son Who is over King David In Israel No one No one but God Himself Is above the King Of Israel And yet David says My Adonai My Lord As we start This first verse
[15:08] We start this psalm together We see Yahweh speak To the Son The Father Speaking To the Son Here we have A conversation Christ has ascended Finished his work On earth Ascended gloriously To the right hand Of the Father And here we see What was said To him As the Father Says to the Son Sit thou At my Right hand Till I make Thy enemies A footstool Here we have A greater King than David David is seeing A greater one In himself He is seeing At least However he saw it He is being told Via the Spirit The Spirit is inspiring him And he is writing down Documenting The words Of the greater Final David As he ascended Back into heaven The words Of our Saviour The words Our Saviour Heard From the Father We together In this small building In our small village In our small island
[16:09] Are seeing Into the courts Of heaven As our Saviour Returned And sat In the right hand Of the Father We see the Father Speaking To the Son Dear friends We are on Holy ground here This is something Incredible The Lord has given Us such a blessing By giving us Insight into this Sit At my right hand That's what God The Father Says to God The Son Why?
[16:37] Why is that recorded? What does that mean for us? There are several meanings But at least two meanings We have From this statement Is to sit At the right hand Means A place of completion To sit At the right hand Of the King Meant that He was happy with you He was pleased with you Only in the culture Of the day Only those Who the King liked Who the King favoured Who the King loved Would go near His right hand side That was reserved For his Precious people So Christ Has the blessing Of his Father His work Is completed He has satisfied The wrath Of the Father So by us Seeing Christ At the right hand Of God It tells us Yet again The work Has been done Jesus completed As it were His time on earth He had fulfilled The Father's commands He had fulfilled All that needed To be done For salvation For his people Sit at my right hand
[17:38] But it's not A place of rest It's not rest At my right hand It's sit At my right hand That word Sit there We might read sit And think Well it's Put your feet up And relax No the word sit there It's an active word It's sit and participate The one At the right hand Of the king Even culturally At the time Was fully involved In the affairs Of the king Fully involved In the king's Kingdom building work Of course It's the same For our saviour And we'll see that As we go through This psalm As our saviour Ascends triumphant To the right hand Of God As he ascends Triumphant As he takes his place There to reign And rule forever He is not doing nothing Dear friends Our saviour Is living And active In our lives He is actively Building up his kingdom He is actively Working for his people We'll see that What it means As we go on Our saviour This very moment This very second
[18:39] Is in a place of power We worship Our risen saviour Who is also now Our reigning saviour At his right hand For Jesus Is actively involved In the ongoing Work of the kingdom And we know This is the case We know This verse Refers to Jesus We have various Evidences But one We can go to Is Matthew 22 Matthew 22 The Pharisees That are challenging Jesus yet again With the various issues But the Pharisees Challenge Jesus And they ask him Who is the Messiah Who is he Is he you And as he begins To answer Their question Jesus quotes This verse To them They ask them Who is the Messiah They're challenging As to Is he the Messiah Does he claim To be the Messiah And Jesus And Jesus Uses this verse
[19:39] He tells them That He asks them To think To themselves Who was David Talking about Who was David Talking to As we've said Just now Jesus makes Clear for us And we praise God for that That this verse Indeed is talking About himself Before he even Ascended Jesus quoted This verse About himself He knew This was a welcome He was about to receive Very shortly After these words Of the Pharisees But after Jesus Uses this verse To show them That they are indeed Talking to Adonai They are indeed Talking to the Messiah Jesus then asks them A very striking question A very clear question Using this verse He then asks them What do you think About the Messiah I'm telling you I've just told you He's just read The verse To the Pharisees He's reminded them That this psalm Tells them That the Messiah Is the one
[20:39] Who's at the right hand Of the Father With all power Deserving all glory He then asks them What do you think Of the Messiah What do you think About him Dear friends That's a question We have to ask As we come to Look at these verses I could spend hours Days Sermons upon sermons Perhaps Telling about the glory Of our risen saviour I could use All my Limited English skills To try and Make it as glorious And poetic as possible But I could rant And rave But it all means nothing All means nothing If you can't Answer the question Yourself Who is Messiah To you What do you think Of the Messiah You've heard just now He reigns His works Completed on earth He now reigns Forever As king And as saviour To his people He now reigns
[21:40] Forever Right hand Of the Father With all power And glory Given to him What do you think What do you make of him What do you think About him Do you care at all Perhaps you're just Doing this Out of habit Perhaps you just Come out Because of Tradition Or because of You've always done it Again I don't know I'm just I'm thinking out loud I don't know your Situations My genuine plea My genuine plea Is you answer the question For yourself This day What do you think Of the Messiah Jesus uses his verse To ask the Pharisees That question They ask that question To you just now What do you think Of the Messiah Do you care for him Do you know him Do you love him Have you thought After him And if you haven't Then your excuses Will one day mean Very little And you know that yourself So we have Our Jesus The right hand Of the Father The place
[22:40] Of Jesus The right hand Of the Father Exalted on high Reigning and ruling Then we see In verse 3 The people Of Jesus A king of course Needs subjects He needs people To rule over To make him A king We see that In verse 3 Thy people Speaking As he's speaking About the Adonai Speaking about Jesus Thy people Shall be willing In the day of thy power In the beauties Of holiness In the womb of the morning Thou hast the Jew Of thy youth How are the people Of this king Described in verse 3 How are Christ's people Described First of all We see We are a willing People People The ESV And Perhaps because I have more clarity here We see A willing Is a good translation But also it could be free Of the same sense Of a word A word that gives a sense Of willingness Of freeness That we are a
[23:41] Willing and free people Now how much Is that contrast To the Culture of the day But also even Our own world Our kingdoms Are expanded Expanded by slavery Expanded by violence Expanded by torture And we see that Even currently Out Our dear friends Our dear situation The horrific situation Out in the Middle East We see The kingdoms Of the world Expand By coercion Expand By force What do we see here?
[24:17] What is Christ's kingdom? What does the king's people Look like? They are a willing people They are a free People Dear friends Unlike the kings Of this world Our saviour Does not coerce us We follow him freely We follow him Willingly The truth is And we all know this That we all follow Our masters There's not one of us Here today Not one of us That does not have A master over us And you've heard this before And you know it to be true The sad and the solemn Reality is We either follow Christ This day as our master We either have him As king over us Just now Or we have the prince Of this world Satan As our master As him Leading and guiding us Today That sounds so dramatic But that's what we have Here clearly in scripture And God willing This evening In Ephesians 2 We'll see the reality
[25:17] Of that played out Those of us today Who know Jesus As our saviour We are free people Yes he comes And he makes Us his people He buys us He purchases us For himself But he does so With his own blood He comes To do what?
[25:41] To set Captives free He comes To make us Free And true freedom Is only found in him Because we were made To worship him We're made to know him Man's chief end Why was man made?
[25:56] What's man's purpose in life? Worship God To know God To enjoy God To be free In worshipping him To be free in knowing him The people of Jesus We are a free people We're free in Christ Dear brothers and sisters Let's never forget That reality That we Should be free In Christ And we know We have to caveat that And we must caveat it We're not free to sin We're not free to do Whatever we want But we are free It's a freeing thing Isn't it Brothers and sisters It's a freeing thing To know and to be reminded That The wrath And the weight of sin Has been removed from us It's a freeing thing To be reminded Yet again In these verses That we worship a saviour Who has done all For his people It's a freeing thing To know and to remind ourselves As we heard last time Together in Isaiah That when God
[26:56] Looks upon his people When God looks upon you Just now dear Christian What does he see? Who does he see? He sees you cleansed Perfected And loved To the finished work Of your saviour That frees us up That should make us A free Willing Joyful people We have a reputation Do we not?
[27:15] And we still do Of being miserable Of Christians Being just downcast And joy Doesn't mean we're happy All the time But we should be full of joy Because we know That we know The saviour Of the world We know That we have a king Who is the right hand Of the father This very moment That gives us True freedom Real freedom We are a free people A willing people And we have a second phrase Of this verse And this second phrase It has stumped Commentators From the very start Calvin decides to brush over Matthew Henry Brushes over Many commentators Just take the second half Of verse 3 And it's complicated Even in Hebrew It's very difficult Very poetic But the essence Of the second half Of verse 3 Is that of life Of new life One translation Goes along the lines Of the womb
[28:18] Of the morning Is almost a word A phrase used The sun rising east Like a fresh day The people of Christ It's the same feeling The same sense you get On a beautiful Fresh morning There's dew on the ground The sun's just rising The people of Christ Are those Who are rejuvenated Those with freshness Of life We are like The morning dew Brethren and sisters In Christ We are rejuvenated We're given new life We are free people And we're living people We're not subjugated To the whims Of a master Who has no care For his people No We have a living saviour Who cares Intimately for us As individuals Who knows us Who loves us Who walks with us As individuals Us as people As people today
[29:18] We should be Free And full of the joy Of knowing what it is To have a saviour Who knows us A king Who goes before us To guide us In the kids talk So And we As adults We know ourselves How real And how damaging And how easily As Christians Even as Christians here We confess How quickly We go off the track Go off the path And the truth Of that kids talk Is that our wrong Path of Ecclesham Ended up in a broken finger For me And a half broken ankle For my friend It was a much less glamorous Story in real life And that's the reality We go off the path We stop living lives We're called to live And very quickly We find things Falling apart We think We forget And we think for a second That there's freedom There's more freedom Outside of Christ There's more joy Outside of Christ And the second We start going for that
[30:19] And looking for that We forget We find very quickly That's not the case The grass is never greener In Christ we are free Because in Jesus We live the lives We are made Quite literally made To live A free people A rejuvenated People A living people And the question We have to ask As we asked before Who do you serve today?
[30:48] The Christians here We know who we serve We confess Often we serve him Poorly Yes But we know Who we serve We serve a king Who cares for us Who loves us Who promises No to leave Nor forsake us As we heard last time Looking at Jesus Our good shepherd The question is Who do you serve just now?
[31:07] You've heard this question A thousand times The question is real And it's serious And it must Be answered Who do you serve today? Do you know the king Who comes to give life Who comes to give freedom?
[31:21] If not Come and know him Ask that he would be your king That brings it very briefly On to The priesthood of Christ His place Right hand of the father His people A free people A willing people A living people And then we see This wonderful contrast In verse 4 Almost a pause The Lord have sworn That's Yahweh Yahweh has sworn And will not repent They were a priest forever After the order Of Melchizedek In scripture We see one occurrence Where a king of Israel Took on the role As aware of a priest And that ended in disaster Ended in misery 1 Samuel Chapter 13 onwards If you have time To read these chapters You see that The position of king of Israel
[32:22] And the position of priest Over Israel Two different roles Never to be mixed And when they were mixed Like I said Chaos ensued There's no time for that Just now to go into that But the reality is Never before Had a king Ever been called a priest Especially not called one By God himself Yahweh has sworn The covenant keeping God of Israel God eternal Has sworn And will not repent Adonai You are a priest forever Here we see A true priest king In Genesis 14 Again There's no time today No time In a thousand sermons To go into the realities And the complications Of Melchizedek Genesis 14 He appears before us And there's a thousand Different ideas And beliefs As to who Melchizedek was Some believe He was a pre-incarnate Version of Jesus
[33:22] He came as a An image A type Again There's no time today But we do know In scripture What scripture is clear Is Melchizedek In himself Was both a priest And a king But even that He was a figure A shadow A type A type A shadow Of what was to come Of who was to come And here we see That reminder In this psalm That one Is coming Who would be A priest And a king We see that one Is Jesus We read together In Hebrews Chapter 7 And that whole chapter Reminds us And gives detail As to Christ Being called And being made High priest Dear brothers Dear sisters This is not just Dry theology For us today It's important For us to understand That we have a king Who is also our high priest But it's important For a reason Why does it matter to us
[34:23] It matters Because He is not just king If Christ was Just king We perhaps Would be Scared To approach him Be worried To come near to him We've said just now He is Of all power And has all power And has all glory Of a right hand Reigning eternally That man Does not sound approachable Does not feel approachable But reminded That our king Is also Our high priest He is the one Who come before today Brothers and sisters We have one We have one who knows us Not just as subjects But who knows us As the ones He has come to save As the ones He came to live His perfect life for To be that second Adam The one he came to die for The ones he came to rise Again from the grave for The one who in his own body
[35:24] Took on the full wrath Of the father For all the sins Of all his people Had earned that cross Our human saviour Fully God And fully man On his very human shoulders Took on the full wrath Of God Fully God And fully man As fully God He was able And again The mechanics We can't even begin To understand And praise God We can't The mechanics Are such As fully God He was able To have a full capacity In his own body To suffer The full wrath Of eternity's worth of sin Fully God Fully man Our high priest Not distant Not far away The high priest Who knows you Who is The final sacrifice He's not aloof He's not distant The high priest Who makes constant As we read in Hebrews 7 Who makes constant
[36:25] Intercession For his people But dear brothers Dear sisters That your name Is on his lips And my name Is on his lips As he brings us Before the father Never forgotten Always remembered Always known A high priest Who loves His people High priest Who remains eternally Man Eternally God We touched on this Last time There was no time Just now But we have a high priest Forever God Forever man Forever bathing In his body The wounds The evidence As it were Of his love For us Who sympathizes Who knows If he was only ever king We'd be scared To approach him Every time we sinned Every time we Went against him But because He's also a high priest When we find ourselves Wondering Christians When you find yourself Sinning When you find yourself
[37:25] Doing and saying When you find yourself Perhaps walking Towards darkness I know naturally The last place we go to Is back to Jesus We're too scared But we should not be scared If we know him If we love him He is our high priest He has done All that needs to be done For our salvation He will not lose One of his own Our exalted king Is also Our eternal High priest Because he is king Because he has all the Power and glory Of that eternal God Because he lives forever Because he is a second Person of the trinity He is of full power And fully able As it were To perform his duties As high priest Because he is God He is able to forgive To save To never let you go Not just empty your promises Not just a pep talk This new week This is the very word We have The very promise We have here
[38:25] That this king Is forever Forever A priest After the order Of Melchizedek That mysterious priest king Our saviour Is like him But in the fulfilment Of that reality He is forever High priest For all time Serving Loving And being that living Sacrifice For his beloved people Non-Christians Those who as of yet Don't know Jesus Those who as of yet Don't love Jesus We love you And we're so glad That you are here We really are You've heard From this The reality Of Of the power Of the king In the next section We're going to hear more As we come to the conclusion Of the true power Of our king The true reality Of his power But in verse 4 You have a reprieve As it were You have a second To stop and to breathe
[39:26] And to be reminded That right now You have I know That weight Hanging over you You still have Jesus As king You still see him As perhaps A god of wrath And a god Who is against you And you're not wrong In a sense Because that weight Is still hanging over you But dear friends Look in verse 4 And see that you have One who is a high priest The one who has done Everything for you To be saved There's nothing you can do To save yourself But come to him Come to the one Who has done all Come and place your trust And your hope in him The one who has done all To save his people The one who is willing And able To come alongside His people Just now you feel And you have And you sense And you know That wrath Hanging over you It need not be like that It need not stay like that Come to the high priest Come to Jesus Yes he is king
[40:26] But he is the glorified king Who has done all To save those Who come to him You've heard it before Please please listen To the living word of God As we read it together In these verses That brings us finally And very briefly To the last few verses We have here The power Of Jesus And throughout the whole psalm We see that theme The power of Christ Again and again Now if you're eagle eyed You might have spotted We skipped past Verse 2 Only because verse 2 Really quite well connects Verses 5 and 6 and 7 Together If we look at verse 2 together That last phrase Of verse 2 It could easily be written In capitals It's a proclamation Rule Thou In the midst of thine enemies Quite literally You will rule In the midst of your enemies To a literal word For word translation You will rule In the midst of your enemies That is the declaration That Yahweh says
[41:26] To his son When Christ ascended again He was told And declared Over by the father You will rule In the midst of your enemies The question is Where does Christ rule today Well he rules Even in the midst of his enemies Those who hate him Who despise him He rules I think how can that be And then we stop And realise that That is us Dear Christian Once upon a time You and I Were once his enemies Here we are Worshiping him together Just now He once Came into our lives And he ruled in our hearts And ruled in your hearts Transformed your hearts And here you are just now This verse Verse 2 Was a particular comfort To the reformer Martin Luther Martin Luther often Quoted this verse Privately in his letters And in his dealings Of people As he faced Opposition on all sides His constant reminder
[42:28] Was even in the darkness Even as he was surrounded With the enemies of Christ Even there Jesus still ruled That's hope for us today As we're reminded In the news And reminded Whatever this is going online So be careful how we say things But in the Middle East In certain countries Where we know Certain pastors Certain churches Who this week Have been attacked Who this week Have gone silent Who this week We hear no more news about We are so helpless We are so far away There's nothing we can do Humanly speaking But when you look at this verse We're reminded that Christ rules even there Even in the darkest of situations Christ has his people And he is building his kingdom That's important for us As we think of the church Across the world As we see the church Perhaps declining In our day here In the West But growing at a rate In the East It's public knowledge
[43:28] We see in China There have been millions And a figure is millions A conservative figure Is millions Of new Christians In the last few years In China Millions I was reading A very It wasn't even a Christian It wasn't a Christian Study We were saying that China Could well be A Christian nation By 2060 If things keep going The way it is 2060 A Christian nation China We might bemoan And we perhaps rightfully Bemoan things In our own situation But God is still Building his church He is still growing His kingdom He is still ruling Even in the midst Of his enemies That's comfort for us Globally But also comfort for us Individually All of us here Myself Very much included If we think about Those who we love And those who we care for Who as of yet Do not know Jesus We love them Desperately We love them deeply And we might often Catch ourselves thinking How How is that person
[44:29] Ever going to be saved We have no interest In the gospel We have no interest In the things of Christ How will that person Ever believe I'm exhausted Trying to be a witness Exhausted Trying to share the gospel It will never take place It doesn't make sense We're too far gone Whatever we are Thinking We're all guilty of This verse Should come And should hit us And should remind us Christ rules In the midst Of his enemies Even those Who are so opposed To the gospel Even there Jesus can And will transform I'm sure some Even here today Whose testimony Is like that Some here today I'm sure Who were once So opposed to Jesus And here you are Now Crying out to his name And showing Your affection And your love For your risen saviour Jesus rules We come to the conclusion And we conclude this psalm In the last few verses With a graphic description Of the reality Of the power of Jesus Verses 5 to verse 7 And we have to be honest They make for hard reading For very graphic reading
[45:31] The Lord of our right hand Shall strike through kings In the day of his wrath In these last few verses The day of his wrath His coming day That speaks Quite clearly for us As to the final day When Christ returns He shall judge Among the heathen He shall fill The place of dead bodies He shall wound The heads Over many countries That final verse He shall drink The brook in the way Therefore he shall Lift up his head That's a verse of triumph The image of that last verse It's of a king Who's conquered And he's done He's done his work Verses 5 to verse 7 They are hard reading But they remind us That yes We have a saviour Who is close to his people Yes we have a saviour Who is high priest But also he is The eternal God And we must never forget that How we have a saviour Who is loving towards his people Who is ever merciful Towards his people Who has done all The salvation of his people
[46:31] But when that final day comes He will return He will return Yes to take his people To himself But he will also return To judge those Who were his enemies Those who spent their lives Fighting and railing against him We must not decide Of reality That yes he is our saviour But also he is king And a king Must accomplish his duties And the duty of our king Even as the confession reminds us Subdue his enemies And here we see Christ Doing that He must and he will One day subdue his enemies And this is a solemn way To end this psalm To only sense That this is a future reality For us We must understand this But that reality Has not yet come We're here just now Gathered together Every day Is a gift of life From God Every day Is a chance again For us to come And to know him Not to one day
[47:32] See him as conquering king But to before that point To now This week This moment To come to know him As your king To love him To know him as high priest As the one who has done all So that you may be saved Again we said this last time But dear friends We can become so comfortable In our suits In our procedures So comfortable In our pews So comfortable This part of our weekly routine We forget how real this is And the reality is There's no reason That I'm coming here Just now No reason Anyone ever comes up here A minister Or whoever else Might come up here It's because we want To see the reality Of this in your life We want you to know Jesus as your saviour I can't save you Your spouse can't save you Kids can't save you Only Jesus can save you
[48:32] And you must come to him Go home again This evening This day And the rest of this day Perhaps read over this Psalm Read over Hebrews 7 Hebrews 14 Read over these chapters And see the wonder It means to have a Jesus To have a saviour Who is king Yes But also Who is the one Who is merciful And who is willing And who is able To save all Who come to him Let's bow our heads Now A word of prayer Lord God We come before you again We thank you For the gift of your word Lord We praise your name That we worship today A saviour who is exalted A saviour who is at this moment At your right hand This very moment That his kingdom is being built In our land In our villages But also across the world Even though we see places Of no hope Places with no Reality Of anything good Taking place Lord You are building Your kingdom there We thank you Lord For the gift of your word We ask forgiveness For anything That was said
[49:33] Not in accordance To your word We give you praise The power Is not in the jar Of claves To answer Lord The power Is in your living word And we ask you As we come to sing Our final item of praise We do so Of hearts and minds Full of joy As we sing About the wonderful Saving work Of our saviour Let's go all these things In and through And for His precious name's sake Amen We conclude by singing The final few verses From Psalm 72 A psalm of course Which talks about the future A psalm which talks about The new heavens And the new earth And we can sing Verses 16 to the end And these verses Which just give us A glimpse A passing glimpse As the reality What it will be like For his people To live with him Forever As his eternal citizens In our eternal kingdom Psalm 72 Verse 16 Of corn and handful In the earth On tops of mountains high With prosperous fruit Shall like the trees Of Lebanon
[50:33] That be The city shall be flourishing Our citizens abound In number Shall like to the grass That grows Upon the ground His name forever Shall endure Last like the sun It shall And shall be blessed In him and blessed On nations Shall him call Psalm 72 Verse 16 to 19 To God's praise The poor man The poor man Who laid The earth On top of mountains high In earth In earth The moisture The truth At sea O Toby The truth shall shed like trees, O heaven I'll not be.
[51:32] The safety shall be flourishing, Our citizens above.
[51:51] And onward shall I tell the dawn That grows upon the ground.
[52:10] The truth forever shall endure, Last night the sun is come.
[52:29] The truth shall be done, When in the land of nations Shall then fall.
[52:49] Nor canst it be that heart and heart That call on Israel.
[53:08] Are ye alone that hunders burn In glory that I stand?
[53:28] And bless the beest glorious name To all eternity.
[53:46] The hope of the world Is faithful.
[53:58] And in the land of nations Shall then be. After the prayer, if you please just leave, Following the usual instructions, Let's worship God in prayer.
[54:16] Lord, we come before again, We close our worship, Lord, And we thank you for our time together. Our time spent singing your praises, Our time spent to gather together around your word. We ask the rest of this day to help us to keep our minds and our hearts set on you.
[54:28] This day that you've given us. Lord, help us to rejoice in this day, Lord. This day that you've made specially for us. A day to think about you, to praise you, to enjoy you. Help us, Lord, in our homes, in our own times of fellowship, To honor you and to glorify you, To humbly walk before you.
[54:45] And if it's your will, Lord, help us to come again safely together this evening. To again come around your word and to hear your word, Lord, Being read and explained to us. We thank you for the gift of it.
[54:56] Lord, help us to keep ourselves in our hearts and our minds, In our wandering steps, Lord, set and maintained on you. Let's call these things in and through and forth, Precious name of our Saviour.
[55:07] Amen. .