feed. That's good. Our text this morning is Psalm 110, so I'm going to ask you to turn there, and then as always, please stand in reverence for God's Word. And these are the inerrant and infallible words of God. Psalm 110, a psalm of David. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule 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. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head and may God bless the reading of his word. When I used to work with my grandpa, he would often say, in terms of what to focus on and how to think about things, he would often say, make sure you major on the majors and minor on the minors. In other words, let's keep things in proportion. One of my favorite preachers, Steve Lawson, often says that we need to keep the plain things the main things, and the main things the plain things. And I think that is good counsel. So for us that means when scripture makes a passing or an obscure reference or two to something, we need to be careful to not spend too much time in speculation and guesswork there. It doesn't mean we can't discuss those things, but we just need to keep it in perspective. This is a lower tier thing. And yet where scripture emphasizes something, where it shouts things, we need to be equally clear and forceful as the scriptures are. Last year, as we started working intentionally as a church through the church calendar, what's classically called the Five Evangelical Feast Days. And that is so named because before the Reformation in the days of the medieval Catholic Church, you had a holy day almost on every day of the year. And there was a celebration to some saint or another on almost every day. And of course, if every day is special, that means none of them are. And so the Protestants said, well, why don't we focus on the five main events in redemptive history? And we have, to some degree, kept that tradition alive of these five evangelical feast days. But I said last year, and I think I would still hold to that, that we put almost exactly the wrong emphasis on the ascending priority and importance of these days. And these five days are Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, today, and Pentecost. And we make a big deal of Christmas, a so-so deal of Good Friday, a so-so deal of Easter, and in my living memory, this is the second time we've done Ascension Sunday in this church, and that's also the second time in my entire life. It just wasn't even remotely on the radar that this was something that was at all important. And the same holds true for Pentecost. And yet if we think in the purposes of God, each of these events is designed to serve the next one, right? Why do we have Christmas? Well, so that we have a God-man who can atone for our sins on Good Friday. And what's that for? Well, that's so he can be resurrected as he has conquered death. And that stands in service of today, of Ascension Day, which Christ Jesus takes his eternal throne over his kingdom, which is now all the nations of the earth in heaven. And that serves our mission here. I am entirely interested, however, in making a much bigger deal of Ascension and Pentecost as the church indeed used to. You have heard me and most likely many others say correctly that Psalm 110.1 is, at least based on how often it's used, is God's favorite Bible verse. There is no verse in Scripture that receives nearly the attention in the New Testament that Psalm 110.1 does. So if we want to think about focusing on the main things, any understanding of redemptive history that does not focus heavily on what is happening in this passage is missing the storyline of all of Scripture, at least according to the New Testament authors. This verse shows up in all three synoptic Gospels. This verse is referenced several times in Acts. It shows up in Paul's epistles, notably, most of all in Ephesians, Colossians, and heavily in 1 Corinthians. This verse is basically the theme of the entire book of Hebrews, and it also shows up in Peter's epistle. This is a big deal. And we need to see it accordingly. In this psalm, what we have is a picture of David's greater son taking up his throne as a conquering king and as a perfect high priest. And the New Testament writers make mention of this psalm in relation to the ascension of Christ. And that is why today is an important theme. We can see, as we've even worked through the Gospel of Matthew, the trajectory of Christ's ministry moves from obscurity to greater and greater public focus, to majesty. He is moving from dust to glory, as one author has written. And so this does indeed mean that each of these redemptive days on the Christian calendar are in service of the next one. Verse 1 here, it says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And if you don't have a Hebrew Bible, and I'm guessing most of you are not reading from a Hebrew Bible, what you're going to see there is two of the same word. You're going to see the word Lord twice, and yet it's two different words. Look closely. Look closely at what you'll see in verse 1 of your English Bible. The Lord, all capital letters, says to my Lord, lowercase letters. That's two different words that are happening here, because we only have one way that that can get translated over into English. And the way we differentiate it is with the uppercase letters. And so always look when you see the word Lord in your English Bible, whether you are hearing about Yahweh or whether you are hearing about an Adonai. God, Yahweh, is the God of Scripture. It's the unpronounced name. The Jewish people saw God's name is so holy that they didn't even pronounce it. It was just Y-H-W-H and no one dared pronounce it because the name itself is too holy to be spoken. So we don't even know how they would have pronounced it, because no one ever did pronounce it. You can say Yahweh or Yahveh, I have heard both. And when that word comes up, we translate that into English with the all capital letters. And the second title is Adonai, which is a title for a ruler, including merely earthly rulers. And we have a word in English that has come to us from the ancients that occurred by combining these two words. So you take the consonants from Yahweh, you add in the vowels from Adonai, so you have a new name, Jehovah, which could be pronounced. Because now we're not dealing with God's proper name, so in Jewish custom, you could say this. And so that's where we get our word, Jehovah, it is combining the letters of Yahweh and Adonai. And so what we have here is David telling us that God, so the Lord, capital, Yahweh, says to my Lord. Yahweh says to my Adonai, okay? The God of heaven says to my earthly ruler. And this is David speaking. So David, we have to remember, this is important what it says here, this is a psalm of David. So this applies specifically to David. So the Lord, the God of heaven, says to a man who is a ruler greater than David, Yahweh says to David's Adonai, and then we have what follows. And Jesus makes much of this passage In one of his confrontations with the Pharisees in Matthew 22, 41 through 46, I'll read it, but if you want to turn there, you gladly can. Matthew 22, 41 through 46, one of the traps that the Pharisees tried to set up for Jesus is this. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. And he said to them, how is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord, saying, and Jesus quotes this psalm here now, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare ask him any more questions. And so the Jewish expectation of the Messiah is that he was going to be another in a line of political rulers who was going to free the geographic region of Israel from their most recent conquerors. He would be another Moses-type figure. And while they correctly understood that this Messiah would in fact come from David, they drastically misunderstood the nature of his ministry. And Jesus is pointing that out here. So again, in Psalm 110.1, this opening verse here, what you have is the great, great, great, great, many times great grandfather of Jesus, according to the flesh, King David, calling his grandson Lord. And in our culture where we value youth, right, and there's nothing wrong with being youthful, the Bible says don't look down on youth. Our conception of how to view old people and young people is almost the photo negative of how the ancients would have seen it. In the ancient world, you honor the gray hair. You don't make fun of it. You don't tease it for being an old, outdated, irrelevant geezer. You honor the gray hair. the youths need to learn maturity as they catch up to that gray hair. So this is quite jarring that David would call his grandson Lord. David is saying my grandson is better than me. I'm honoring my grandson who won't be born yet for many hundreds of years. David sees his grandson as greater than he is and that's what Has Jesus tripping up the Pharisees? If this is just a man, if this is just a political ruler, why on earth would the greatest king in the history of Israel call him Lord? That makes no sense. David is the greatest. No one is David's Lord. None of his sons even matched up to him, much less exceeded him. David is the head of this family and he is by far its greatest member. So the whole family in the Hebrew naming system, they would have all been called the Ben Davids, right? The sons of David. Or in English, we might call that family line the Davidsons, okay? David is the greatest in this line. He gets naming rights over his family. And the custom would have been to honor the old patriarchs, the great men among them. So David would have been the man receiving honor from his grandsons. And yet he is calling his grandson Lord, meaning David is bending the knee in reverence to his grandson, jarring. And Jesus catches the Pharisees in their little game of trickery, and they have no answer for him. These guys are expecting a political ruler to liberate a piece of real estate. And Jesus says, you guys have missed it by a thousand miles. Please explain, please exegete the psalm to me. And they can't. And they shut their mouths, as they indeed should. So by Christ's own interpretation of this text, we can see here that we have God saying to Christ, so this is David's greater son, is Jesus Christ himself. is what he is saying here. So you have the father saying to the son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. But now, once we see that from Jesus' own exegetical work on this passage, what we are dealing with now is a much expanded understanding of who Christ is, and also a much expanded understanding of who his enemies are. Okay, so the enemies are no longer just Babylonians or Medo-Persians or Greeks or Romans who have come to inhabit your homeland. It's anyone who is Antichrist. It's anyone who stands against the knowledge of God. The definition of enemies has just gotten much bigger. These aren't just mere political enemies. These are cosmic enemies who kick against Christ, the Son of God. Hebrews 1.3 tells us when this psalm happened. It speaks of it in the past tense in reference to Christ's resurrection, or 40 days after his resurrection. Hebrews 1.3 tells us that Christ took this seat after he made purification for our sins. So after the resurrection, Christ ministered for a short period of time, 40 days, and then he ascended back to heaven. My grandparents used to have this old proverb you're from a low German background maybe you've heard it that whatever the weather is like on Easter it'll be like that till Himmelfort okay Himmelfort is the low German word for Ascension so it's just whatever day whatever weather you're having here it's gonna be like that for the next 40 days until the Ascension is what the weather proverb says okay so there's a 40-day gap where the risen Christ is ministering on earth before his Ascension and Hebrews says that's when Jesus took his heavenly throne. That's when Jesus was seated on the throne of his grandfather, David. Psalm 110.1 is about the ascension of Christ when he goes back to the Father after his resurrection. And the Father tells him to stay sitting there until he makes his enemies his footstool. Look what I'm going to do on earth. You stay seated right there. And now we're going to watch this play out. You're going to stay here until all your enemies have been made your footstool. And this is the culmination of Christ's earthly ministry. During his earthly ministry, we have, by Jesus' own word pictures, he has bound the strong man, Matthew 10, 29, so he can take his stuff. And that is an important thing. When we think about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, where Satan tempts Jesus with the kingdoms of the world, the reason that would have been an actual temptation is because Jesus is going to take all the kingdoms of the world. He owns them, okay? That's what's an actual temptation. Satan isn't tempting him with something that's never gonna happen. Satan is tempting him to take it prematurely and the wrong way, and to legitimize the authority of Satan, which Christ cannot do. Christ, by resisting that temptation, is saying, yeah, they're all mine, I'm taking them, but I'm gonna do it the proper way, by defeating you, not by negotiating with you. And that's why that's an actual temptation. So Jesus says, in Matthew 10, 29, he binds the strong man so he can take the stuff. In his Passion Week, in Luke 10, 29, Jesus says that he saw Satan fall like lightning. In John 12, 31, he says that Satan has been thrown out from his place as ruler of the world. A cosmic shift in governance happens in the Passion narrative, in the Passion week. Satan was cast down. Satan is no longer the ruler of this world after the death and resurrection of Christ. And Christ's ascension says, I'm not happy to leave it as a vacuum. Satan has been deposed, he is no longer the ruler of this age, he is no longer the ruler of this world, and I will not endure a vacuum. I'm taking that seat now when I go to my Father. And so having accomplished this change of cosmic order, Christ takes his seat with the Father, so that victory over sin and death can begin to start playing itself out in world history. As I mentioned, next week, nine days after Ascension is Pentecost, when the church is given this Ascension power to play her role in the drama of redemption. And this happens first in the heavenlies, and then it works itself out as historical reality on Earth. We have been, in Sunday school, we have been working through the doctrine of sanctification in chapter 13 of the London Baptist Confession of Faith. And we're seeing there, too, how something is declared in heaven, and then it starts working itself out in history. It starts working itself out in our experience in the physical world. And I do believe this cosmic change in governance works in the same principles, the same manner as individual redemption does. Cosmic redemption works the same way as personal redemption. It's declared in heaven and then it starts to play itself out in practical history as we live out our days. The psalm goes on in verse 2 and 3. It says, The Lord sends forth to Zion your mighty scepter. Rule 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 the youth will be yours. And so here we have the beginning description of the outworking of Christ's session. A session just means a time where you're seated. And that is the era in history that we are in right now. We are in the session of Christ. He is seated, holding court. And some forms of church government actually call the local body of elders the session. They're the seated ones who are charged with leading Christ's church. So if you've ever heard of a church session, it's named after this. Christ is holding his session over the cosmos at the right hand of the Father right now, and his under-shepherds are to follow. So what happened in time, in history, in Zion, is working its way out. The good news of Jesus Christ starts as a small pinprick in the city of Jerusalem, but it is meant to go out to all the nations of the earth. All the tongues, tribes, and people of the earth are meant to bend the knee to King Jesus. It's like a small chip that starts in your windshield, and over the course of the winter you see this web just spreading out slowly but surely, almost imperceptibly at times, and yet it goes out from its point of origin. Christ is moving, in these verses, into enemy territory. He's moving into Enamir territory and making his rule known. Verse 3 talks about the nature of Christ's redeemed people and how they are made willing to offer themselves up. And I do believe that this is a picture of what life is like in the New Covenant. It's a willingness. The heart is involved in this. Jeremiah describes the nature of the New Covenant and the heart change that happens in the New Covenant in Christ. In Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 33, he says this, Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one say to his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all. know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." And if we think back in the Old Testament, God's old covenant dealings with the people, it was an external covenant. It worked by birth. So you were in God's covenant by birthright. If your father was a physical descendant of Abram, you're in the covenant. Okay? It's an external covenant. And so that means in this old covenant, you had a mixed bag of people. You had regenerate people and you had unregenerate people in the old covenant Israel. Jeremiah says a better day is coming. I'm going to make a covenant that's not, it's not like that one. In this new covenant, in this new substance in Christ, everyone will know the Lord. They will all be regenerated. It's a better covenant. Hebrews 8 talks lots about that. It's a better covenant, it's impossible to apostatize from this new covenant because the new covenant is for regenerated people. It's only for born-again people. It's not an external covenant that you get into by birth. It's an eternal covenant that you get into by being a son of Abram according to faith. Okay, so this is no longer an ethnic or a family covenant. In that sense, it is a covenant by faith. True sons of Abram have faith in the Lord Jesus. And I do believe that is what Jeremiah sees. So we're dealing now that Christ the substance has come. What we are dealing now with is people who have God's law written on their heart. They've been born again. We have the spirit of God. We have the gospel. We understand on this side of the cross who Jesus is and we have that through the new birth in our heart. Jeremiah says these people know the Lord. And David, in this psalm, talks about this in terms of them being in holy garments. And how often does the Bible speak of your righteousness as a holy garment? Even before your behavior is cleaned up, even before your behavior is totally sanctified, heaven has said innocent, pure, holy. You are sitting in God's courtroom, covered in the righteousness of Christ, so that when Christ looks at a believer, he no longer sees their sin, he sees Jesus Christ sitting in the witness stand, and he says, perfect. holy, righteous, no sin, please come enjoy me forever. That is life in the New Covenant. That's the holy garments that are mentioned here. This is the righteousness of Christ for the New Covenant people of God. And so when we as the church go out into enemy territory to announce Christ, What we are announcing is that He has already won. And they need to put down their arms. We're not entering into a negotiation. We're not asking them to make Jesus Lord as though He isn't already. We are announcing He is Lord. Your capital city has fallen. Please come quietly with us. Resistance is futile. Come quietly with us. If you want to wage your little guerrilla attack, you can. But that will not change the fact, fact, Fact, inalterable, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Nobody makes Jesus Christ Lord, okay? He didn't become Lord once 51% decide to vote for Jesus to become president. Jesus is Lord. Acknowledge it, and live, fight against it, and die. Those are your options, but Jesus is Lord, regardless of what you think about it. Regardless of how you're living your life, He is Lord. The announcement of the Gospel is, acknowledge it. Live according to this truth. Verse three also highlights the newness that's coming here. It says here that they come from the womb of the morning. The due of your youth will be yours. And this is probably the most difficult passage here in the psalm, at least based on the commentaries I read. There was a vast array of possible understandings for what is meant by this due. So seemingly, according to the commentators, at least the ones I read, this seemed to be the most difficult word picture here. But it does seem fitting with the theme of Christ establishing a new age or a new covenant or the new heavens and earth that start when he takes his throne because the dew happens in the morning. And it's here connected with youth. So this is also a picture of new beginnings, freshness, something happening again in the morning. In the youth, we see this dew. And perhaps it may remind us of this imperceptible thing that is still real, even though we can't perceive it. When Jesus is talking about the new birth to Nicodemus in John 3, and the work of the Spirit in regenerating the hearts of fallen sinners, Jesus says this, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound. but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. None of us here can see the Spirit of God, and yet His evidence is everywhere. His evidence is everywhere. Sinners bending the knee to Christ, sinners coming to know Christ, sinners being justified as they embrace the gospel. So we don't see Him, it's like the wind, and yet it does its work. I think the best commentary I read on this clause here was from Calvin. Calvin's commentary here says, as men are struck with the astonishment at seeing the earth moistened and refreshed with dew, though its descent be imperceptible, Even so, David declares that an innumerable offspring shall be born to Christ, who shall be spread over the whole earth. The youth, therefore, which, like the dewdrops, are innumerable, are here designated the dew of childhood or youth. The Hebrew term Yalduth is used as a collective noun. That is, a noun which does not point out a single individual only, but a community or society. Should any wish to attain a more definite and distinct signification on this term, he may do so in the following manner. that an offspring innumerable as the dewdrops of the morning shall issue from his womb. So there Calvin is describing this newness or this freshness and you cannot count the dewdrops in the morning. And so Calvin is saying this is for the people of God, this is looking at the whole society. And I also was reminded myself when reading about this imagery of dew, who remembers reading in your Bible that there was a time on this planet when there was no rain? Right? Remember that? There was no rain. God watered the crops. God created life with the morning dew. Okay? Rain is perceptible. The dew is not perceptible. It just slowly comes. It slowly comes. Okay? The kingdom of God, as I said earlier in Sunday school, is not the 82nd airborne. Okay? The kingdom of God is not paratroopers that drop out of the sky and clean everything up in six minutes. Okay? The kingdom of God is like the dew. Slowly, imperceptibly, you cannot see it coming, and yet there it is, everywhere. When you look, it's like the spirit of God, it breathes life. The morning dew, I think, is a suitable image for this new covenant reality that David is looking forward to. In verse four, he goes on and says that the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The kingship of Christ is what has been highlighted so far, but David also sees how Christ is a priest. Okay, and this is the theme that Hebrews spends so much time on, is this Melchizedekian type of priest that we have, that knows what it's like to be tempted as you are. He was tempted every way as we are, and we have this great high priest who can sympathize with us, and so David himself sees that his son, this king who is greater than he is, is also a priest. But he's a strange priest. He's not a Levitical priest, he's not an Aaronic priest, right? That too, at one point in time, worked according to bloodline. You were a priest in Israel if you were a son of Levi. And in the providence of God, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, all the genealogies of Israel burnt. Nobody can ever know that they are a Levite ever again. That priesthood is eternally destroyed. There can never again be a legitimate Levitical priesthood. What we have is a better priest here, a Melchizedekian priesthood. Well, what's so special about Melchizedek? Again, if you know your Old Testament history, Melchizedek was this curious figure that just shows up out of the blue in the desert and meets Abram. Hebrew says that he was a man without father or mother. He had no beginning and he had no end of life. Weird guy. Super weird guy. Just shows up in the desert, he's got no parents, no beginning, no end of life, and here he is. Also, he's the king of Salem. What's the word Salem? Peace. Oh, this man's the king of peace. And that place is gonna be called Jerusalem at some point. Weird. This guy's getting really bizarre. Before there's a Jerusalem, here's the king of peace from Jerusalem. Without father or mother, no beginning, no end of life. Weird dude. Okay, weird dude. And Abraham offers him a sacrifice. Meaning Abram meets this guy and he says, you are greater than me. I am going to give you a sacrifice. Melchizedek is greater than Abram. And there is debate on exactly who Melchizedek was. Was he a normal human like us? Who was clearly a type of Christ. He is at minimum that. Some also have argued that this is a pre-incarnate Christ. Abram met Christ out in the desert. I'm highly sympathetic to that understanding, but I won't be dogmatic on it. At the bare minimum, this man is a type of Christ. He is clearly typifying Christ. And his priesthood was quite different than the priesthood of Aaron or the Levites. Why? How? Well, in Israel, you could only serve in one office. If you were a king, you could not be a priest. And if you were a priest, you could not be a king. And some of the kings actually get in very deep trouble when they try to dip over into the priestly responsibilities. God actually condemns the kings when they try to do priestly duties because in the kingdom of Israel, these were separate offices that did not touch. And here, in the person of Melchizedek, we have a man who is both a priest and a king, clearly showing us our future in Christ. In Melchizedek, we have a priest-king. And this foreshadows the way that Christ is going to hold his threefold office. We talk sometimes about Christ's threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. He fulfills and terminates and perfects for all time all of those offices. In Latin, it's called the munis triplex. And if you like learning how Latin comes over here, have any of you ever been to a municipal office? Okay? It's a civic office. Christ holds the Munich's triplex, a civic office. This is for all people, and the triplex, of course, referring to three. So this is Christ's threefold office as prophet, priest, and king. These are all public offices that Christ has assumed on himself. And Melchizedek is an early type of what it's like for one man to hold more than one office. When Christ ascends to heaven, he does so as God's final prophetic word to creation, as the king who has redeemed his kingdom. He is the great high priest who is constantly interceding on behalf of his people to the Father. And so the fact that our king is also a high priest not only assures the victory of Christ's people in history, but it also assures you of your personal salvation. You have a high priest who is pleading your case to the Father right now. This morning, Jesus Christ is pleading your case before the Father. And this particular prophet has yet to lose a court case. If you have Jesus as your advocate, the judge will rule in your favor. Fact. You have a great high priest who will not lose, cannot lose when he enters into a court case. He is pleading your case perfectly, and so you may doubt, you may struggle, you may fear. Your lawyer has it under control. Don't sweat it. Your case is being made, and the judge of heaven and earth will do what is right, not because of you, but because of what your lawyer has done on your behalf. This is what it means for Jesus to be the Great High Priest. He is interceding on the behalf of all those who are in Him. And the fact that we are united now to the Christ, to the God-man, who is both King of the universe and our personal Great High Priest, means that we need to be the most joyful and confident and happy people of all. The Christian life is a battle. Yes, this is a spiritual war, and scripture speaks often of that. There is often warfare language, but that does not mean we have to be angry, shrill, or desperate. Because, after all, we are warriors who have been sent out on behalf of a king who has already won. He already conquered the capital city and now he's sending us out on a mop-up operation. Go into the far corners, let everybody know that this is over. We're not trying to get Jesus Lord, he is Lord. We are announcing it. We are announcing it. And we ought to be joyful, happy servants, happy ambassadors as we announce the total victory of Christ. The heir has reclaimed his vineyard. Okay, it's his, and we get to work under it. We get to work under Jesus, and he is a good master. And so we can have a smile on our face, even when life is tough, even when gutting experiences happen to us, okay? Even when it looks like the bad guys have us on their own. Even when there is health challenges or depression or struggles with children, your great high priest is advocating for you, okay? Jesus is ruling the cosmos. in a cosmic sense, and he cares enough about you to be pleading your case on behalf of the Father. No wonder David could say, why are you downcast, my soul? I experience this, I know the feeling, but why? This makes no sense. The priest-king is ruling from heaven. Why would my soul be downcast? That doesn't even make sense. Self, maybe I need to start preaching to myself rather than listening to these intrusive thoughts in my head. We serve the priest-king. We need to be joyful, we need to remember the way scripture describes Jesus. So our battle, as we walk through this earthly life, our battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, need never be desperate, angry, or impatient. God's got lots of time. We have a priest king who provides us a foundation of joy, even when he calls us to do difficult things, and he frequently does, but he does not leave us. Verse five says, the Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. And here we have another picture of the king reclaiming his kingdom. We're about to hit a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew about the wicked servants in the vineyard and what the vineyard owner is going to do with them when they kill his son. We're going to have similar language. This will not go well for those of you who are engaged in death spasm guerrilla attacks against my son. History will not treat you kindly. When we get threatened that we are on the wrong side of history, keep reading the Bible. Anyone who is Antichrist, anyone who is opposed to the Kingdom of God is on the wrong side of history. The Father will not deal with this. He will not be patient forever. And so this work is ongoing and progressive through history, and it's culminating, it's going to culminate in Christ's bodily return at the end of history. And we can read about that in the resurrection passage in 1 Corinthians 15, 20-28, where Paul makes repeated reference back to this psalm as well. Where it says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, Then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Okay, so you see how this works? Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us how this goes. He agrees with David. The ascended Christ is sitting at his throne until all his enemies are put under his feet. Once that mop-up operation has happened, then the Son returns and destroys death. Death is the final enemy. And that's an enemy we still experience to this day. Even on this side of the cross, we still experience death because that new earth and new heaven reality has not yet been consummated. Yes, it's underway. Yes, it's established. Yes, it's working its way out, but it has not been established. Isaiah also agrees with this understanding where he describes the new covenant. So this is Isaiah describing the new heaven and the new earth. Okay? And he sees, in Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 25, guess what's one of the things that still keeps happening in the new heavens and new earth? People keep dying. People keep dying in the new heaven and the new earth. So he's clearly not talking about eternity. He's not talking about the consummated new heaven and earth, because he says, in verse 20 there, it describes a man living a long and peaceful life. So if you die at 100, it says in Isaiah 65, if you die at 100 years old, everyone's gonna say, boy, that guy was snake bitten. Okay, gone too soon. He only lived to 100. That's life in the new heavens and new earth. That is this chapter in history now. It's inaugurated, not yet consummated. So death is still an enemy. Sin is still an enemy, even on this side of the cross until Christ returns in final victory to wrap history up and consummate that reality. Death is the last enemy, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. So verse 25 picks up on this psalm and reminds us that the resurrected Christ, who is ascended, he is reigning until all of this has happened, and then he returns. Then comes the end. The ascended son has completed his work. He has subjected everything to the father, it says, and then he takes his completed work, gives it to the father. The father says, well done. And the son is once again subjected to his father and they have perfect eternal bliss knowing that they have glorified one another. And that is the final picture in verse 7 here. This peaceful resolution after this has all played itself out. He will drink from the brook by the way, therefore he will lift up his head. And so here we have a picture of peace and refreshing, even amidst the suffering and difficulty that the son must endure. John Gill commenting on this says that I think the clause is rather expressive of the solace, joy, and comfort which Christ as a man has in the presence of God and at his right hand. Having finished the work of our salvation, Then he drank to his refreshment of the river of divine pleasure when God showed him the path of life and raised him from the dead. and gave him glory and introduced him into his presence where our fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16, 11 says exactly that. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And this is a suitable closing to the psalm. At the end of Christ's ascended reign from heaven, Christ is honored, he is vindicated, and he is lifted up yet again as the father receives this completed work, this completed kingdom from his son. And all there is left is to see the glory and the perfection of Christ as he has fully claimed heaven and earth as his. This is fitting with the great Dutch theologian Abram Kuyper, who I couldn't agree with more, when he says that the risen, ascended Christ, there is not one square inch over all creation over which the ascended Christ does not cry, mine! It's mine. I own it all. Every square inch belongs to me and now everyone can see it. And those of you who wage your little guerrilla attacks are going to the lake of fire forever. Well, you will not get away from it. The lake of fire is not separation from God. It's an eternal recognition that you fought this all the way. And you will not escape it. You are going to see the Lamb standing over you for the rest of your days. That is hell. That is the lake of fire. It's for those people who refuse to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's all His. All mine. Jesus says, mine. Come peacefully with us. Bend your knee to King Jesus. Okay? Don't do this the hard way. Don't do this the hard way. You will. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Please, do it willingly. Do it now. Do it on Christ's terms. And so what are the practical implications of this in our life? Well, one, we can be patient, and we can be joyous, knowing who Christ is, knowing the nature of the Christ that we serve. When world salvation, or your salvation, or your sanctification, or your child's sanctification, or your parent's sanctification is going slower than you want, and you cry out, how long, God? There can be joy even in that because we serve an ascended king. We serve a high priest who is mediating for us. So the first thing we can learn here is patience. God seemingly is not in a rush to get this all done. Secondly, as we've discussed much at men's night, in our pursuit of holiness, describes this battle against temptation in exactly these terms. These are little guerrilla attacks. The outcome is settled. This war has already been fought. It's been won. It's been lost by the other side. These guerrilla attacks are futile. So if there was a civil war that had been fought on this earth, the capital city has been claimed. It's over. You can hold out, you can deny the outcome of the war as long as you want, but it will not change the reality. And so when we fight sin, we are fighting in ascended power. We are fighting with victory already having been promised to us. And sometimes this change is slow to reach the far outposts of the globe or to reach the far outposts of your own behavior. And so the fight rages on. Perhaps people in your life still refuse to accept the results of this battle. And that is tough. But again, we can be patient. We can know that we are fighting from victory, not for it. And I think we have here a great description of the Christian life in this chapter of history. Satan is no longer the ruler of this world. Christ has deposed him utterly. The capital city has fallen, and Christ has claimed his inheritance. He has sat on his throne. He is holding session even as we speak this morning. And yet Satan, the accuser of the brethren, refuses to accept this outcome. He continues to wage his little guerrilla attacks. And when these battles come your way, and they will, we need to remember that our war is against an already defeated foe. And we'll close with some encouragement from Paul as he looks back at this event and gives us future hope for how we fight our own sanctification and how we understand the Great Commission in our time. In Colossians 2 he says, And you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing past tense over them. The old world order fell. That old world doesn't exist anymore. It's a little gorilla campaign. And then Paul moves the ascension logic further into Colossians 3, 1 through 4, where he says, if then you have been raised with Christ, past tense, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Okay? Christ is reigning. Keep your mind there. Keep your mind on the big picture. Don't get caught up in the weeds. Keep looking from 30,000 feet so you have proper perspective of your life. And again, in Ephesians 1, where he talks about having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And so this new life in Christ should give us the confidence of obedience, and it should become contagious. I was reminded of the words of the hymn, that once this is all wrapped up, once we can see on the other side of eternity, The line from the hymn, that the heavenly anthem drowns out all music but its own. We will see fully and finally. There is nothing else. No distractions. It is all the glory of God and no remainder. No distractions. No sin clinging to the flesh. And this new life ought to become contagious. It ought to be joyful. It ought to be happy. It has every reason to be happy and joyful. And Jesus bases the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew on exactly this. Notice closely that the Great Commission does not say, go and make disciples of all nations. Try to get Jesus to 51%. He doesn't say that. He says, therefore go. Therefore go. Why therefore? Well, because right before that it says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Not will come to me when I take my throne. It was given to me when I did take my throne. Therefore go because this is a fact already. It's a settled reality Therefore on that basis that I own all the nations of the earth and I am Lord over everyone whether they acknowledge it or not therefore Go and make them disciples so they can come along on this mission or knowingly reject it But it's to make it clear therefore go is the Great Commission. I And next week we're going to see how Pentecost is the finishing touch on this Great Commission, on this ascension power, when we are given the Holy Spirit to do exactly what Christ has commanded us. And we do this all in the power of the Helper that the Father and Son have sent us. And this is how we ought to think as we make disciples of the nations through evangelism, as the Gospel goes out to the far reaches. or maybe close at home to our unbelieving neighbors. This is how we tear down strongholds. And this is also how we put sin to death in our lives. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your son's ascended power. We thank you that he has taken his seat at your right hand. Lord, he has accomplished the work that you gave him to do on earth. And now he is sitting and ruling and reigning as it plays out. as we take our part in doing on earth what your will is in heaven. Lord, and I pray that that would become more and more manifest wherever we go, whether that's in our own sanctification, whether that is in the culture that we are, by your grace, attempting to build in this church fellowship, whether that's within our families, whether that's in our workplace, or when we think about global missions in the far corners of the world. Lord, I pray that we would see that we are not trying to create a reality, but that we are announcing a settled reality. It's finished. Lord, we are announcing your victory to the people, to the nations, and I pray that by your spirit, many of them would have their eyes opened, that the scales of their ears and their hearts would fall away, that they would see and come happily and bend the knee to you willingly. Lord, and as many of us know loved ones that we care deeply about, who have not acknowledged that, they have not repented of their sins, they're still waging war against you. Lord, I pray that by your Spirit, you would penetrate into the dark recesses of those hearts, regenerate them, make them alive, help them to see the things of you that they too would know the joy and the victory and the ultimate peace that comes with serving the Ascended Priest-King. Be with us as we go. We pray this all in the strong name of our Ascended Lord, and amen. Please stand. ♪ Crown Him the Lord of life ♪ ♪ Who triumphed o'er the grave ♪ space. Ascension Day reminds us that Christ has defeated the dragon and cast him down from the heavenly places. The war rages on, however, since the fallen dragon continues to attack the saints on earth. Jesus' reign is a reality which is already fully acknowledged in heaven and which must be increasingly acknowledged on earth. The ascended priest-king is taking his earthly claim through the work of his church as we conquer sin, tear down strongholds, and disciple the nations. Ascension means that Jesus has cast the dragon down and allowed us to share his heavenly victory on earth. He is trampling Satan under our feet. And I will leave you with the benediction from 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ and go in ascended joy.