[0:00] Scottish Psalter, Psalm 89 in the Scottish Psalter, it's on page 344. June is done, firm line.
[0:17] God's mercies I will ever sing, and with my mouth I shall thy faithfulness make to be known to generations all. For mercy shall be built, said I, forever to endure thy faithfulness even in the heavens thou wilt establish sure.
[0:34] I with my chosen one have made a covenant graciously, and to my servant, to my love, to David sworn have I, that I thy seed establish shall forever to remain, and will to generations all thy throne build and maintain.
[0:50] The praises of thy wonders, Lord, the heavens shall express, and in the congregation of saints thy faithfulness. For who in heaven with the Lord may once himself compare, who is like God among the sons of those that mighty are.
[1:07] These verses 1 to 6, Psalm 89, God's mercies I will ever sing. God's mercies I will ever sing, and with my mouth I shall thy faithfulness make to be known, to generations all.
[1:45] For mercy shall be built, said I, forever to endure.
[2:00] Thy faithfulness in the earth, thy faithfulness in the earth, the world is established sure.
[2:15] I with my chosen one have made, God of man, gracious me, and to my servant, who my love, to David's born alive.
[2:46] God of man, gracious me, and to my servant, who my love, to me, and will to generations all. For mercy shall be built, said I, forever to remain, and will to generations all.
[3:08] God of man, gracious me, and will to generations all. Thy throne build and maintain.
[3:19] The graces of the hand, of the hand, of the hand, of the hand, of the hand. The graces of thy wonders, Lord, the heaven shall express.
[3:36] And in the congregation of saints thy faithfulness.
[3:52] For who in heaven with the Lord may once himself compare, Who is like all among the sons of those that mighty are.
[4:24] Let us bow in prayer. O Lord, our gracious God, as we gather together this morning, we pray that we might be able to understand just what we're doing.
[4:38] We give thanks for the ability to approach a throne of grace. We pray for quietness in our soul. We pray to help us as we bow in reverence before the King of glory.
[4:52] We pray, Lord, that we may realize just what it is we're doing, because it's very easy for us in some ways to breeze in before the King and to forget that we are the created and we are a fallen created.
[5:08] Not that we were fallen when we were created, because we were created, God created man and woman in perfection. But because of the fall and sin, we are sinners.
[5:23] Help us to remember what it costs for us to do what we're doing today. Because we do this week in, week out, we are so often familiar with our worship, but we often forget just what is involved, that it involved the death of Jesus.
[5:41] It would be impossible for God and man to meet in this way, were it not for God's mercy and grace, for God's love and goodness, because the barrier that sin erects is so great that God and man cannot meet together.
[5:58] But we give thanks for the provision that has been made, and that from the very beginning that we acknowledge that the Lord came looking, looking for man who was on the run.
[6:12] Adam, where are you? And we pray then that we might always remember this, that our worship, our salvation, everything begins in heaven.
[6:24] And we pray that for all of us here today, that it might end in heaven. We pray that there won't be any who are gathered here today who will go away rejecting Jesus, and at the end of the day we'll discover the awfulness of what that rejection involves, when these awful words depart from me, for I never knew you, will be pronounced.
[6:51] O Lord, help us then to worship with the eye of faith, to with a sense of purpose, with a sense of need, with a sense of desire.
[7:03] O Lord, we pray then to be with us all as we gather together today. And we give thanks that we are able to worship in the way that we do, without the fear of disruption that takes place in so many places.
[7:20] O Lord, we give thanks for the liberty that we have in this land, and particularly where we live here. And help us to treasure these things.
[7:31] And our prayer is that there will always be liberty and freedom given to worship the living and true God, without any distraction, without any interruption, without the law in any way trying to prevent.
[7:46] Because as things are going, we fear that the day will come when the law might try and prevent evangelism.
[7:59] There seems to be almost that movement where we're finding that the Christian freedom is being curtailed bit by bit. O Lord, our God, we pray that in our land we will always have this freedom.
[8:15] We pray for lands and nations and peoples who do not have this freedom. Those who do not have a public place of worship.
[8:27] Those who have to worship privately, almost individually. Those who are in fear from the state. We pray for the persecuted church in so many lands today, in so many parts of this world, where families have been torn apart, where there are people who have been imprisoned for their faith, where the opportunities of work are denied people because of their faith, where homes have been vandalized and set on fire for their faith, where people have been killed because of their faith.
[9:05] O Lord, what grief arises in this world because of people's adherence to the Lord Jesus Christ. And surely it just shows us the madness of sin for Jesus who came into this world to bring peace.
[9:21] And yet the world cannot bear the peace that is in Christ. O Lord, be merciful to us, and we pray. We ask, O Lord, that as we come to the word today, that it might be open to us.
[9:33] We pray that we might hear the voice of the living God, challenge us in our hearts, give us a greater appreciation of all that the gospel speaks to us about and what the word unfolds to us.
[9:46] We pray to bless young and old alike today, the different ages and different stages in life. Pray for our church camps, and we pray for safety for all who travel.
[9:57] And at Anad Camp, we pray for leaders, for cooks, for campers. We pray that it will be a time of blessing for many a soul. We ask, O Lord, to be with those who are away on holiday.
[10:12] Lord, watch over them and keep them, bring them back safely. And those who come on holiday at this time, we pray that thy blessing will be upon all. Pray for those who are sad and lonely in heart, those who have experienced loss and bereavement and pain.
[10:27] We pray, O Lord, for those who are struggling in life and meeting one disappointment after another. Those, Lord, who have experienced so many knocks, that they feel that life is becoming almost intolerable.
[10:42] O Lord, draw close to them, and may they come to realize and appreciate at a new level the glory and the wonder of your grace. Lord, help us then to worship in a right way.
[10:56] Be merciful to us. We come acknowledging our sin. O Lord, forgive us all our sin. Use us, Lord, wherever we are. May we seek to give ourselves to you, body, mind, and soul, that we might be used wherever we are for your glory's sake.
[11:14] Take away your sin in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And just a wee word to the young folk.
[11:26] Long ago, when Israel were moving and they had come out of Egypt, they spent a lot of years in the wilderness, in the desert.
[11:37] And there, they worshipped God in a huge tent. They couldn't have a building because they were going from place to place.
[11:48] They would stop for a while, and then they would put up this massive tent. Not just like the kind of tent you might put in your back garden or if you're off on holiday and you decide to do a wee bit of camping.
[11:59] It's not a wee tent. A massive, massive, massive tent. Kind of even bigger maybe than tents that you might see at a festival or at games or things like that.
[12:11] These great marquees. It was a massive tent. Built specially. God gave special orders how this tent was to be built. But then the people were to bring what they could.
[12:28] And if people had gold and silver or precious stones or brass, they were to bring that and give it to Moses or give it to the priests and bring it to the temple so that it was going to be used for the tabernacle, for the building of it.
[12:49] But some people didn't have gold and silver and precious stones. So the Lord said to them, well, there are other things you can bring. You can bring the skin of a ram.
[13:01] Ram, after a ram, say, had been killed, the skin, and it would be dyed red. They had to dye it red. Badger skins. Some people were asked just if you can bring some wood so that everybody was involved.
[13:19] Some people, as we say, had loads of things. Other people had very little. But the great thing was everybody was involved. And, you know, it's the same today because God has made us, we're all different.
[13:35] Some people, young people, might be very good at drawing. Some people might be very good at writing. Some people might be very good at doing sums. Some people might be very good at running.
[13:49] Some people might be very kind and gentle. Some people might be very good at fixing things. You know, we've got lots of different things we can do.
[14:01] And we mustn't look at somebody and say, oh, it's not fair. I can't do that. Maybe you can't. But you can do something else. And the thing is, God has given us all these different things that we can do.
[14:16] But you know what He wants? He wants us to come to Him and give ourselves to Him so that He will use these things that He has given us for Himself.
[14:31] And you might say to yourself, there's not much that I can do for the Lord. Oh, yes, there is. You know, sometimes if we do something, supposing we do something nice to people, supposing just you're the person who's kind, kind with your words, help people and say nice things to them, and you do it because you love the Lord.
[14:59] That is beautiful in the sight of God. So I would say that all of us, whether we're the youngest to the oldest, let's do for the Lord with what the Lord has given us so that His name will have all the glory.
[15:19] Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. I'm going to sing again from Psalm 147, Psalm 147. And this is from Sing Psalms, the tune is Creditan.
[15:33] And this is on page... Excuse me. Sing Psalms, Psalm 147.
[15:44] Psalm 147. So on page 192. Oh, praise the Lord how good it is to sing Him songs of praise.
[15:58] How pleasant to give thanks to Him for all His gracious ways. The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and He it is alone who reaches out to Israel to bring the exiles home.
[16:11] He heals His people's broken hearts, restores the bruised and lame. He sets the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and great in power.
[16:23] His wisdom is profound. The Lord sustains the meek, but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thankfulness, with joy His praise proclaim, and with the music of the heart give glory to His name.
[16:38] 127, 147, page 192. Tune is Creditan. O praise the Lord how good it is to sing Him songs of praise. O praise the Lord, how good it is to sing Him songs of praise.
[17:03] And bless and to give thanks to Him for all His gracious ways.
[17:17] The Lord is of Jerusalem, and He is His Son, and He is His Son, who reaches out to Israel to bring the exiles home.
[17:44] He heals His people's broken hearts, restores the bruised and will.
[17:59] He sets the number of stars, and all turn each by name.
[18:13] Great is our Lord and great in power, His wisdom is profound.
[18:26] The Lord's presence, the meek but cast, the wicked to the ground.
[18:42] Sing to the Lord with thankfulness, with joy His grace, with joy His faithful faith.
[18:57] And with the music of the heart, give glory to His name.
[19:11] I just start to read God's word in the prophecy of Zachariah. It's the second last chapter, it's the second last book in the Old Testament. And chapter 6, in ESV, it's on page 960.
[19:27] Zachariah, chapter 6. Zachariah 6.
[19:44] Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze.
[19:55] The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses, all of them strong.
[20:07] Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, what are these, my Lord? And the angel answered and said to him, these are going out to the four winds of heaven after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.
[20:23] The chariots with the black horses goes towards the north country. The white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go towards the south country.
[20:35] When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, go, patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth.
[20:48] And he cried to me, behold, those who go towards the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country. And the word of the Lord came to me, take from the exiles, Heldai, Tobijah, and Jediah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.
[21:13] Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddag, the high priest, and say to him, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, the man whose name is the branch, for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.
[21:38] It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne, and there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both.
[21:56] And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord, as a reminder to Helm, Tobijah, Jediah, and Hen, the son of Zephaniah. And those who are far off shall come, and help to build the temple of the Lord.
[22:13] And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you, and this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.
[22:25] Amen, and may God bless to us this reading of his own holy word. I'm going to sing again from the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 102, and the second version, the tune is Duke Street, and that's on page 368.
[22:41] I'm going to sing from verse 13, Psalm 102, second version, verse 13, from the Scottish Psalter, on page 368. Thou shalt arise, and mercy yet, thou to Mount Zion shalt extend, her time for favor, which was set, behold, is now come to an end.
[23:04] Thy saints take pleasure in her stones, her very dust to them is dear, all heathen lands, and kingly thrones, on earth thy glorious name shall fear.
[23:16] God in his glory shall appear, when Zion he builds and repairs, he shall regard and lend his ear unto the needy's humble prayers. The afflicted's prayer he will not scorn, all times this shall be on record, and generations yet unborn shall praise and magnify the Lord.
[23:36] And so on to verse 22, these verses 13 to 22 of Psalm 102, second version, the tune is Duke Street, that shalt arise, and mercy yet will stand to sing.
[23:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[24:26] Amen. Amen.
[24:56] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. The humble fair, the afflicted spirit he will not score.
[25:36] All times this shall be on record, and generations yet unborn shall praise and magnify the Lord.
[26:01] He from his holy place took down the earth he viewed from heaven on high to hear the prisoners' morning groan, and three dead last are doomed to die.
[26:34] But Zion and Jerusalem too, his name and praise may well record.
[26:50] When people and the kingdoms too, assemble all to praise the Lord.
[27:07] Amen. Let's turn again to the chapter we read in Zechariah.
[27:20] Zechariah, chapter 6. We'll read at verse 12. And say to him, this is a message that was given, say to him, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold the man whose name is the branch, for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. And particularly the next verse, it is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both.
[28:05] Now as we know, this prophet, the prophet of Zechariah, was a very Christ-centered prophet. And I'm not sure that Zechariah, like the other prophets, always knew exactly what they were prophesying. There would be an element of knowledge, but I'm sure a lot of what they were prophesying, they themselves did not understand. The fullness of that prophecy, of course, wouldn't be understood until, for instance, Jesus came into this world. And as time went on, even those who were with Jesus, even students of the Old Testament prophecies, didn't understand. It was as time went on that they were able to understand, oh my word, this really is speaking to us so powerfully about Jesus. And apart from Isaiah, nobody mentions or talks or prophesies so much about the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah is the one who speaks of Jesus as a branch. He prophesies about him riding into Jerusalem on the, on the cult. He saw Christ pushed. He saw
[29:22] Christ being sold for 30 pieces of silver. Saw Christ being wounded in the house of his friends. He saw this fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. He saw the shepherd, the shepherd who was equal with God. And yet man, he saw this shepherd being the sword coming up against that shepherd. These were amazing prophecies regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of these are found in this prophecy, the prophecy of Zechariah. Zechariah was a young man when God called him into the prophetic office, and to minister. And his main ministry was to try and encourage the Jews who had gone back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord. He prophesied along with Haggai. Haggai had been, first of all, had been given the message to try and stir up the Jews again to get back to building the temple. There had been a, I think it was about a 16-year layoff where they had kind of downed tools. And the thing was that they began, as time went on, they forgot about the rebuilding. And they were just looking after themselves, and they had got caught up with themselves, and they were forgetting about the temple. So the message that was coming was, from Haggai and from Zechariah was, you have to rebuild the temple. And Zechariah's message really was twofold. First of all, it was a message which was calling the people to repentance. In order for God to really work in them and to bless them, they had, first of all, to repent, because they had forgotten about God. Maybe they hadn't forgotten altogether, but they had forgotten a building program. When they went back, there was great enthusiasm for the work. But as time went on, and there was a lot of opposition against them, they kind of, their energy and enthusiasm gave out. And then they began to build their own homes, and they put themselves first. And as always happens, if we begin to focus on ourselves, the more we focus on ourselves, the further down the ladder of priority the things of God become, until they had almost ceased to exist, and they were forgetting all about it.
[31:55] So in order for things to be dealt with in a proper way, there had to be repentance. And there had to be a spirit of repentance. It's not enough just to say sorry. We need to mean it.
[32:11] And if we don't have that spirit of repentance, we have to ask the Lord for it. Because the Lord is the one who gives, just as He gives faith, He gives repentance as well. We've got to understand that.
[32:25] Because it's not the glib, it's, in many words, in many ways, the easiest thing in the world is to say sorry, and we not mean it. Children are excellent at that when you tell them, if they've done something wrong and say, right, say sorry. Some children, of course, are so stubborn they won't, but others will just say sorry. That's what you've asked me to say. You can hear them almost in their mind say, well, if I'm asked to say sorry, I'll say it. Don't mean it, but I'll say it. And you know, to a certain extent, we can be like that before the Lord as well. We can say sorry and not really mean it.
[32:58] But when we mean it, there is that spirit of genuine repentance before the Lord. So, that was the first part of Zacharias' message. The second was that the Lord was still with them, and that He was still going to prosper them, that He hadn't abandoned them, and that He was going to work for them.
[33:22] And I would say it's the same thing for ourselves as well. In order for us to really hear God's Word, we have to, we have to have a spirit of repentance. You know, we can go on. We can go on in our Christian life day to day and day to day and just thinking everything's all right. And then every so often, it's like the Lord will stop us. And He'll kind of challenge us saying, where are you?
[33:53] And sometimes it's like the Holy Spirit will convict you and show you that although you're doing all the right things, you have drifted quite far away. Still reading your Bible, still coming to church, saying the right things, doing the right things, but your heart is quite far off.
[34:21] And the Lord has to get us back, and we need to be open to His ministry in this way. And that's what He was doing with the Jews, because we won't hear that personal Word from the Lord.
[34:37] You know, when you read the Word, when we come to the Word, whether it's privately or gathered as we are today, what we want to hear is to hear that personal Word to our own soul. We want to know that this is the Lord. He is speaking directly into our heart. It's not that we just come, as it were, to tick the boxes and say, oh, well, I've been to church today, or even say, well, I'm going to read, that's interesting.
[35:03] We want this to touch us, to affect us, to impact us, so that when we go away, we go away changed, with the intention to maybe become more serious or at least more diligent in our spiritual exercises.
[35:22] And when that happens, then we are in the place where we're hearing God's Word. We're hearing Him speaking into our heart. And we have to be there in order for us to be effective in the world that we live in. And so that's how it was for these Jews. They had to be in the place where they were going to be hearing God's Word in order for them to be effective in this rebuilding program.
[35:47] And so, as we come to chapter 6, we see here that Zechariah was then given, he was given a series of visions. There were eight visions. And this vision here is about the four chariots. And after this vision, the Lord spoke to Zechariah and told him to take silver and gold and to make a crown and to go and put this crown on the head of Joshua the high priest. Now, of course, this was purely symbolic because this action was going to speak about somebody who was going to come who was a high priest but would also have a crown. And in the history of the Jews, there was nobody up to this point who had ever been a high priest who had a crown on his head. There were the priesthood and the king. King and priest were always two separate things. The king was a king and the high priest was a high priest. The two never met. You didn't have one person fulfilling both roles.
[36:55] The only person, the only king, King Uzziah, at one stage, he tried to sacrifice. He went in, remember, into the temple and he tried to sacrifice. And the Lord punished him with severe leprosy.
[37:11] Because it was something that he was forbidden to do. But here's somebody who's going to come, who's going to fulfill the dual role of being both king and priest. And we know there's only one person who fulfilled that role, and that, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[37:33] Christ. So we're told here that this branch will branch out and he shall build the temple of the Lord. It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor and shall sit and rule on his throne. So the person who is going to be priest king is also going to be a builder.
[37:55] He's going to build a temple. Now, of course, we know this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody else fits this. And Jesus, of course, is building. He is a temple. He spoke about that, destroy this temple.
[38:10] And in three days, he said, I shall raise it up, speaking of himself. But he is also in the process of building the magnificent temple of which we are part. Remember, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And God is building you. Jesus is a builder. He is a foundation stone. He is both a foundation and the builder. And he is building into himself. It's an amazing thought. But he is building his people into himself to become the most glorious, beautiful structure that will reign and shine eternally throughout glory. And so this is what we see in this particular prophecy here. And so it tells us of this king that he shall sit and rule on his throne. And that speaks to us about his authority and his rule and his command. And that's where Jesus is just now. He is sitting as king and ruler.
[39:24] He exercises authority. Now, there are many that have tried to usurp the authority of God. It began at the very beginning. As soon as God made this world and as soon as God created man and woman, straight away, the enemy came in and tried to usurp that authority. But of course, we know that although there are many forces and many powers that have tried to destroy God's authority, there is only one victor. And there will always only be one victor. Let me ask you this very important question. Is this King Jesus your King?
[40:04] King Jesus your King? Because if not, then life for you is not being lived in the right way. And you may be saying to yourself, well, that's very harsh. I think my life is being lived in a right way. Well, don't get me wrong. You might be fulfilling many great things and doing many wonderful things in this world. But if you're not living by faith to Jesus, you're not living for the purpose to which you have been created. Our chief end is to glorify God. And if we are not living, trusting in Jesus, living by faith, then we're living to ourselves. We are seeking our own glory.
[40:57] We might not realize it. We might not get up every day and say, well, today I want to live to myself for my glory. I want my glory to be great. I don't think anybody would be thinking that way. But that's actually, if we could see how it really is, that's how it really is. We are serving ourselves, our own interests. That's what propels us on. And at the end of the day, God is going to require from every single one of us, from everybody, as to how we live. Did we live purely for ourselves, or did we live primarily for Him? And it's as we live for Him that we live to and for others as well.
[41:43] And so, it's so important that we have our focus right, that we accept the rule of King Jesus into our heart. And let me tell you, if you're today without King Jesus, you know, it's the hardest thing. That's the hardest thing to give up, is your own self-will. That is the biggest problem.
[42:06] Because you might be here today and say, you know, I really, really like to be a real believer in Jesus. I would really like to have Jesus as my Lord, but I have a problem. I don't know exactly where that'll take me. I don't know what exactly it will involve for my life. Because the bottom line is, I want to be in control. I want to be in charge of my life. And let me tell you, all the other believers in here today can understand that. It's what we don't want to give up. And that's where we need God's grace and God's help. And that's why you need to go to the Lord and say, Lord, I've got a problem. I'd like to be a Christian, but I don't want to part with my control over my life. Please, Lord, help me.
[43:07] Take me over that step. And if we really mean that, He will help us in that and bring us over it. Again, we see this King that He's sitting on the throne. And I would say suggest to somebody who is at peace with himself. If we're agitated, we're moving about. Very hard to sit still if you're anxious or you're agitated. Here's a King, and He is sitting, and He's at peace.
[43:39] Because I would imagine today in the world that we're living in, there are not many, maybe there aren't an awful lot of kings or queens. We have a queen, but there might not be. But all throughout this world, there are rulers. And whether they're actually sitting on a throne or wherever they're sitting, the one thing I would say is that many of the rulers, those who are in ultimate charge in whatever country in this world are not sitting in peace today. We're living in a world that's in turmoil. And we see it over and over and over again in our news screen, news bulletins. You go to another country, and all of a sudden, there's riots, and one power is deposed, and another comes to the fore.
[44:25] It must be, it's a difficult time to be a ruler. And I'm sure, I don't believe, I wouldn't certainly, for not for all the money in the world today, would choose to be a ruler in any country in this world.
[44:42] But here is one who sits. He sits ruling and reigning because he is at peace with himself. He is at peace. It's a beautiful picture. And again, we see that he rules and reigns. And he is sitting down because his work is finished. The work, you see, he was given a particular work to do in this world.
[45:09] And he has completed that work. That's what you do when you finish the work. You then sit down. And there's got this picture of a finished work, of a completed work. Here is somebody who is not only at peace, but somebody who is at rest. And again, this idea of sitting here speaks to us of a throne that is established. It's firm and sure. Now, we kind of mentioned that already, but that's what the Psalm sings. And that's what about the Lord's throne, that it is a throne that is fixed forever. And again, this rule is one that is just. Can you imagine how it would be if the Almighty Lord of hosts was an unjust judge? That he judged and ruled according to whims and fancies. Imagine, imagine how it would be to have all the authority and rule and power over this whole universe and yet be subject to change and to moods. This, it would be intolerable. But the Lord is unchanging in his being. He's unchanging in his purposes. And he does according to his will with the armies of heaven and with the inhabitants of the earth. And there might be things that we see that might not appear just. And there might be things where we see, I don't see the equality of this.
[46:52] And there are sometimes we have to ask questions. Sometimes deep down, we ask questions because even our faith is sometimes shaken by things that happen. But you know, faith will rise up and recognize that yes, the Lord is still sitting on the throne. And one day, as Jesus said to the disciples, and it's so true, what you don't know now, you will know hereafter. You will yet know. You will yet understand.
[47:23] You will yet see. You will recognize that there is a purpose, even in what seems painful and what has broken you, and you can't understand it. The Lord is saying, I know. I know. To us, it may often appear in unjust, but the Lord rules and reigns over all. But we notice also with regard to this, that this kingship… Now, I think we've got to, before we come, just look very, very briefly with regard to the priest. This, with regard to Jesus' role, we've got to realize that his kingship here is not as king with regard to all the sort of the essential glory that belongs to him as the second person of the Godhead. This is the kingly glory that he receives as mediator. Because remember, the Lord
[48:30] Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, came into this world taking human nature. And he came into this work to do a particular work. He came to be a priest. Remember the work of the priest? The work of the priest was to offer sacrifice. Jesus Christ not only offered the sacrifice, he became the sacrifice.
[48:52] And all the sacrifices that were shown in the Old Testament, whether it was sin offering or burnt offering or peace offering, he became all these, all of them together into one. He became the complete sacrifice. If we go to Philippians, we see the order in Philippians 2. He humbled himself and made himself of no reputation and so on. But then it tells us that God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Christ the Lord to the glory of God the Father. So you see, this is the order.
[49:34] First as priest, offering sacrifice, fulfilling the work, and then as a result of his priestly work, then the kingly honor and majesty as mediator. And this is in the whole role as mediator. We see him as king and priest. And that's what he is for you and for me today, king and priest. And of course, it was also the duty of the priest not only to offer sacrifice but to bless. And that's what Jesus is doing for us today. His hands are raised in benediction over us. Blessing is an enriching experience.
[50:21] And you know, it's an amazing thing. Not only to say, you know, the priest could say, Lord, bless. But when Jesus, his word carries with it power, it's not just the word to bless, it's the action to bless.
[50:42] And when the Lord blesses, we are enriched through that blessing. And that's what Jesus is doing. He is also at the right hand of the Father. This is part of his priestly role, making intercession for us. And what does that mean? It's as if the sacrifice of Christ had just been offered today.
[51:02] It's as if Jesus had just finished the work on Calvary today and rose up as if it was all happened in one and has ascended to heaven. And it's like a continued presenting of his finished work, of his blood before the Father. And Jesus is interceding on our behalf. And he's not saying to the Father, as he looks at you and looks at me, Father, please excuse them. They can't help it.
[51:31] Please excuse them, Father. It's just the way they're made. Please, Father, excuse them. Please, Father, don't look now at what they're doing. That's not the kind of intercession.
[51:46] Jesus as intercessor is acknowledging and seeing and taking note of our sin. But he is presenting his own finished work on our behalf. And he's covering. That's what's happening. Our sin is constantly being covered by his blood. And that is why the Father is continuing to accept us every day, every single day, every hour, every minute, every second, continuously of our life.
[52:19] And so we see it says here, and there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. Here's the two purposes of the two roles of Christ as king and a priest, and it's peace that comes out. That's what Jesus has won for us. My friend, that's what Christ has won.
[52:44] On the cross, he won peace. That's why he said to the disciples as he was leaving, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. And I can't think of anything greater that you can have in your heart than to have God's peace. A sense of being right with God.
[53:08] A sense of having your sins forgiven. A sense of belonging. A sense of knowing where you're going, and you're going to be with him. The peace of God is a wonderful, wonderful blessing.
[53:26] And that's what has been won for us in Jesus Christ. But one last thing. Time has gone. We see that this crown was made from silver and gold. And where did the silver and gold come from? Well, we're told that the word of the Lord came to me, take from the exiles who have arrived from Babylon and go the same day, take from them silver and gold and make a crown. It's like what we're saying to the young people. This crown that was made for Joshua, it was all symbolic of the king priest. The gold, the silver, and so on was taken from the people. My friend, Jesus has done everything for us.
[54:15] He is looking for us to do for him. And I know so often we say, what can I do? Well, one thing we can all do is pray. And whoever the Lord puts upon your heart, you pray for that passion. But we can all do little things here and there. We can do many a kind deed. We might not do huge things like, for instance, Mary. Remember, if she took that huge jar of that beautiful perfume and broke it and poured it over Jesus. That was something that people remember to this day. You might be able to say, well, I can't do something like that. But there's lots of things that we can do.
[55:07] And you know, if we live by faith, doing the little things, we're going to get a surprise on that great day. You know, that's one of the things that the Bible makes very clear to us. The day of judgment, when God's people are taken into the joy of the Lord, there is going to be some surprise.
[55:30] Remember what it says. When Jesus meets with the people and he says to them, you did this and that and the next thing in my name, they're going to say, Lord, when did we do these things?
[55:48] See, that's what it's going to be like. If you're living by faith, you're doing for the Lord lots of things. Maybe you don't even know. We're told in the Bible, let not your right hand know, your right hand even shouldn't even know what your left hand is doing. But we've got, if we're living by faith, we're doing. Make sure, though, that we are doing for the Lord so that we will bring honor and glory to his name. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God, we give thanks for this word, a word that enriches our life. We pray that we might experience God's blessing in our soul. Lord, forgive us if we feel distant. We pray that we might be drawn closer to the Lord. We pray that we might hear and understand and that our souls will know the joy of the Lord being our strength. Watch over us, we pray, and do us good. Help us to exercise trust and dependence upon you all the time. Watch over us, we pray, and do us good, and lead us to our home safely. Bless the cup of tea in the hall, and do us good, and forgiving us our sin. In Jesus' name. Amen. Our concluding psalm is Psalm 93 from Sing Psalm.