Christ Is a Real King

Introduction: Christ as King in Redemption

0:01 Will you follow, please, in your own Bibles as I read from the 19th chapter of the book of the Revelation, Revelation chapter 19, and verses 11 through 16, Revelation 19, beginning with verse 11. And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And his eyes are as a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems, and he hath a name written which no one knoweth but he himself. And he is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood. And his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure.

1:09 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty. And he hath on his garment anointing. And on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

1:36 There are few things which give greater delight to the people of God than the contemplation of the person and work of their Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is just this delightful exercise that will again engage our minds on this Lord's Day morning, as in the continuance of our series of studies, under the general heading of the salvation we receive and proclaim, we further contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ in the majesty of his offices as the Redeemer of sinners. Having spent a number of weeks considering the biblical materials which set forth the Redeemer of sinners as our great priest, and then as our great prophet, we begin this morning a series of studies contemplating the Lord Jesus in his office as the great king of his people.

2:43 Now again, lest we approach this subject in detachment, I remind you that he is this prophet, this priest and king in pursuit of the redemption of his people. He is a king in redemption. He is a king in redemption because if you are to be saved from your sins, you need just such a king.

3:08 Furthermore, if he is not your king, delivering you by the reign of his grace, then there is no hope for you as a sinner who must give an account of your sins before the living God in the last day. If ever you and I are to be loosed from sins, guilt, and bondage, if we are to be delivered from sin and death and hell, it will be because this Redeemer, who is prophet, priest, and king, has become to us our personal prophet, our personal priest, and our personal king. In other words, if you do not reckon honestly and from the heart with his words as your prophet, his wounds as your priest, and his crown as your crown, and his crown as your king, it were better for you that you had never been born. And I want again and again to make that emphasis as we enter these studies. We are not sitting, as it were, in a classroom being fed a number of nice notions.

4:19 Christ as the Redeemer of his elect redeems as a prophet. And if your heart has not been brought to bow before his words, to receive them as the words of God, then the words of God are not the words of God. Then the words of God are not the words of God. Then the words of God are not the words of God.

4:32 If the words of Moses will be applicable to you, it shall come to pass that whosoever shall not hearken to that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. And if he is not your priest, if you have not had such a sight of your sin as to convince you that your sin must be forgiven and must be cleansed, the sight of Christ is the only one in whom they can be forgiven and cleansed, so that you fled to Christ as your only priest to forgive and cleanse you in the virtue, in the virtue of his blood. My friend, you are to be pitied as you sit here this morning, and likewise with his kingship. Now, what I propose to do as we embark upon this study that will occupy our meditations, Lord's Day mornings, for a number of weeks to come, I want first of all to establish the essential biblical idea of a king. That Jesus Christ is a king is set forth in many passages, such as the one I read in your hearing at the beginning of our study this morning. He hath a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. But now, what is bound up in the biblical idea of a king?

Establishing the Biblical Idea of a King

5:47 Well, it is accurate to say that from the earliest usages of the word king in the Old Testament, such as you have in Exodus 6-11, where Pharaoh is called king of Egypt, down to some of the last usages of the word king, down to some of the last usages of the word king, down to some of the last usages of the word king, down to some of the last usages of the word king, words such as you have in the passage read in your hearing, Christ is called king of kings, that biblical concept of king has the fixed idea of supreme ruling authority and power.

6:21 Kingship is synonymous with ruling with governing authority and with power. The king is the one who has both the right and the might to impose his, his will and his ways upon others. And there is no one of higher right or might to negate the exercise of that power. Now, this being so, you will find again and again in the scriptures, drawing from the imagery of what we would call royal life of the nations of that time and from the nation of Israel, that surrounding the concept of a king, you have these three items.

7:04 You have a throne, a scepter, and a kingdom.

7:11 And each of them, or considered together, point in the direction of this biblical concept, this essential biblical idea of a king, namely, supreme ruling authority and power. The throne is considered as the seat and the symbol of that power. The scepter is considered. The scepter is considered as the exercise or the symbol of the exercise of that power.

7:42 It is with the scepter that the king would govern, would guide, or would punish. And the concept of the kingdom, of course, is the realm in which the rights of the throne are exercised by the scepter. Notice how all of those concepts are brought together in one verse in the 45th Psalm. Psalm 45.

8:05 Psalm 45, this wonderful hymn of praise celebrating the marriage of the king.

8:15 And in verse 6, we read Psalm 45, 6,

8:21 Thy throne, in the context, you see, of celebrating the marriage of the king, this ascription is addressed to that king, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, a scepter, a scepter of equity is the scepter of Thy kingdom. You have throne, scepter, kingdom, all brought together within the space of a very few words. The throne being the seat of authority and power. The scepter, the symbol of the activity of that authority and power, and the kingdom, the realm in which that power is exercised. I might direct your attention to Isaiah 14 for another passage which also underscores some of these principles. Isaiah 14. And remember what we're trying to do now.

9:21 We want simply to extract from the Bible the biblical notion of a king. We don't want to impose upon it any other notion. We want to extract the notion, the idea, the concept inherent in the word itself. We read in Isaiah, verse 14, perhaps we could begin with verse 5.

9:43 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that none restrained. Here is the picture you see of wicked rulers who are imposing their wicked reign upon others. Now, when they are in the kingdom, they are in the kingdom of God. They are in the kingdom of God.

10:07 They are in the kingdom of God. God breaks their reign, deposes them of power, He does so in this language. He has broken the scepter of the rulers. And the breaking of the scepter, you see, would be the symbol that all power to rule has been taken away. The scepter was the symbol of that authority in action with respect to men. Moreover, when we read in a passage such as Judges 17.6 that in those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes, we have a wonderful and helpful description of the biblical concept of a king. Now, there were judges. There were men who exercised authority in Israel, who gave leadership

10:58 in Israel. But the writer says, in those days there was no king in Israel. There was no one who sat upon a throne, who had a seat of supreme authority, who wielded a scepter, the symbol of that authority, and who exercised that authority in a realm that would be called the kingdom. And the result of this was you had a form of anarchy. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Well, do you begin to get the feel then of the biblical notion, the biblical concept, the biblical idea of a king. The king is that person in whom there is deposited supreme ruling authority and power. Now, you kids, listen. Never think of the present as a king.

The American Mentality vs. Biblical Kingship

11:49 This is one of the undergirding fallacies of the American mentality. They want to put a man in office, and then they want him to act like he was a king. Blame everything on the present. Anything wrong, blame it on the president.

12:02 As though he sat in a place of supreme ruling authority and he could do anything to adjust the economy, adjust international tensions, adjust your pocketbook, do anything he is conceived of in a kingly concept, but he doesn't have kingly rights. You see, the president's will can be overruled by Congress. He can sign a bill into law. It can be overruled by Congress.

12:28 Or he can attempt to put something into law. So there is the check upon his authority by Congress. Furthermore, he might wish to do something and the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional. We have a government where there is a system of checks and balances.

12:47 All of the authority and power is not resident in one seat, in one throne. It doesn't all issue from the oval room. So it's hard for us to think. We can't think in terms of true kingship and even the kings we know of.

13:02 The king and queen of England are kings and queens in a framework called a limited monarchy. The houses of parliament are a monument to the fact that the king or queen of England do not have supreme ruling authority and power. So we've got to go back into biblical concepts and think biblically or when we conceive of Christ as king, we will attach to that biblical concept. A concept something less than a biblical meaning.

13:33 So when you think king, you must think throne. And when you think throne, you think of the seat of absolute, of unrivaled authority and of power. You must think scepter. Not getting votes, not going around through the halls of Congress to see if you can get congressmen to support your project.

13:53 When the king puts forth his scepter as the extension and symbol of his will, you bow before the scepter or you'll be broken. Kiss the sun lest ye be angry and ye perish in the way. Then we must think in terms of a kingdom. A place where you are not to in any degree think of a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

14:23 Nothing done without the consent of the governed. Not so in a kingdom. When the king says, look, this is my legitimate realm of authority and power, he doesn't go around and get a consensus and wait for the approval. No, no.

14:39 A kingdom is a realm where the power and will of the king or the will and power of the king are exercised. Now, do you think you have at least the beginnings of a biblical concept of the king? Now that's fundamental. You miss that, everything else, I've failed.

14:55 Now I don't want to treat you as though you were second graders, but I find if I preach as though you were all sixth graders, for the most part, you're a second grader. You're a second grader. For the most part, we get it. Now that's not an insult.

15:07 It's simply the fact that years of experience have taught me that we can't assume that when our minds are bombarded by unbiblical concepts, we can latch on quickly to a biblical notion. So I'm not going over this ground for filler. I've got enough material to preach for three hours this morning, and I assure you I'm not going to do that. All right?

Christ's Kingship: Universal vs. Redemptive

15:28 Now then, the next concern we have. Having. Just gleaned from the scriptures something of the biblical concept of a king, we want to establish the fact that the redeemer of God's elect is indeed a king. We want to establish from the word of God that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the redeemer of sinners, has been constituted a king, that he has a real throne, that he exercises rights with a real scepter.

16:01 And that he has a real kingdom. Now as we do, a word of caution, a word of explanation, is absolutely essential. And it is this. If the concept of a king implies absolute authority to govern, to rule, then God always has been and ever shall be the king of His universe.

16:27 We read in Psalm 103 and verse 19,

16:33 Concerning the universal kingship of Jehovah. Psalm 103 and verse 19. Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens. And his kingdom ruleth over all.

16:51 Or Psalm 47 verses 2 and 8. A parallel passage. O clap your hands all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

17:02 For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. Verse 8. God reigneth over the nations.

17:14 God sitteth upon his holy throne. Now think with me. If the scriptures assert and they do. That God is the absolute sovereign of the universe.

17:28 Ever has been and ever shall be. And if that God. Is God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Then in a very real sense.

17:39 The second person of the Godhead. Always has been and ever shall be. The unqualified sovereign of the universe. As the eternal word.

17:50 As Jehovah our Lord. Always was king. With a kingship eternal. Underived and undiminished.

18:00 But we are not studying together. The pre-temporal. The pre-incarnate. The word some of you will recognize.

18:11 The ontological kingship of Christ. What are we studying? We are studying the salvation we receive and proclaim. Salvation that comes to us in the person of a redeemer.

18:23 Who is God and who is man. And who is a king as the God man.

18:34 So we are not studying. We are not concerning ourselves with that kingship that is our Lord's by virtue of his being eternal God.

18:46 Rather we are studying that kingship which is an expression of his mighty power in the work of redemption. As one man of God has said this kingship of redemption. Is his original kingship invested with a new form. Wearing a new aspect and administered for a new end.

19:11 Now you say pastor that is a distinction for theologians. And I want to rear back in my hind legs and say no it isn't. If you are to worship your Lord aright you must make that distinction. If you are rightly to think of your savior and therefore properly to worship your savior you must make that distinction.

19:36 If you are rightly to think of your savior and therefore properly to worship your savior you must make that distinction. If you think of your savior as someone who does not have the right and power to rule. Who does not actually exercise rule until after the resurrection. After his ascension.

19:50 After his being seated at the right hand of God. You are worshiping a Christ not of scriptural revelation. Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead has had an everlasting throne. And he is to be worshiped and adored.

20:08 And magnified as the one who with the father and the spirit ever was and ever shall be the unrivaled sovereign of the universe. But we are also to know him and to worship him as the one who has a special kind of kingship. One which he took one which he exercises to get you and me out of hell and into heaven. And he is to be known.

20:42 And loved and worshiped. In terms of that biblical distinction furthermore. If you do not understand that distinction. There are some apparent contradictions which could be used of the devil in a moment of weakness.

20:58 Or often in the mouths of those who would undermine biblical religion. And you will have no answer. How can you bring together statements such as first Timothy one seventeen. Unto the king eternal.

21:11 Immortal. Here it speaks of a king who is a king eternally. And yet we read in Daniel seven thirteen and fourteen. Of one like unto the son of man to whom is given a kingdom.

21:28 Well if he is the king eternal how is a kingdom given? How do you bring these two things together? You will read in first Corinthians fifteen at that point hope that the doorbell rings. When you read about Christ.

21:41 Then come at the end. And he shall deliver up the kingdom. How can he be an eternal king when he gives up the kingdom? Scratch your head.

21:52 Does God intend for you to understand those portions of the word? Yes, this is not for theologians. This is not for people who sit around having nothing else to do but make fine distinctions. Dear people of God.

22:04 As we enter stand as it were up on the threshold of opening up the scriptures concerning this glorious office of christ. That distinction must be made. and must be kept in mind, and you must understand that in opening up the subject, I am not concerned with focusing upon that eternal kingship, but upon the kingship he exercises as the Redeemer of sinners. All right, so much for the word of caution.

Methodology for Studying Christ's Kingship

22:33 Now, what will be our method? How can we even hope to begin to bring together all of the major lines of biblical truth concerning the kingship of Christ? Well, let me suggest that this framework is the one that I believe will be most helpful, and I propose to follow it unless I get further light as we move along in the study. We will begin this morning to establish, first of all, the fact that he is a king.

23:03 Having done that, after several expositions, we will then examine the ways in which he functions as a king. Is he a king? Yes. Yes. Having resolved that, then we'll ask the second question, what does he do as a king?

23:16 And then we'll resolve that, and then the third area will be, what does all that say to me? The implications of his kingship, both to me as an individual and to us as the people of God, and, there is a third dimension, the implications of that kingship to the world at large. So, God willing, over the next weeks, this is the framework within which, I hope, we will profitably exercise ourselves as we meditate upon the kingship of Christ. Well, today, then, we begin that first major area.

23:52 We want to establish the fact that he is a king. Now, suppose I just called you out by name and said, would you please give me ten scriptures from the Old Testament that demonstrate that Christ is a redeemer king? Could you come up with ten?

24:12 Well, how about five?

24:17 Well, I think five. All right, what are they? Think of them now. Can you begin to pull up the references?

24:21 Well, there's that, well, you know, there's that. How about three?

24:30 Well, you see, I'm doing this again, not to be facetious, but I hope to press home the fact that as the people of God, though it's good for us to have general biblical notions and to believe them, it's much better. We have notions that are rooted in specific text of Scripture so that we've seen the truth with our own eyes in the Word of God. And that's what I hope to do over the next couple of Lord's Day mornings, establish the fact that Christ is king. And my method is going to be the method of going through the Scriptures in the pattern or form in which the Scriptures come to us.

25:07 We start in the Old Testament, the period of preparation, as God was preparing the world, in particular through the Jewish nation, preparing. Preparing them to think of the coming Redeemer. What were the concepts that God was distilling in their minds through the ministry of the prophets, by the very establishment of the kingdom, by the raising up of great kings? Well, we're going to see that God was constantly setting before them that His great work of redemption was to be accomplished in a singularly different person, a singularly glorious person, who would be, a king in pursuit of the work of redemption.

25:50 Then we'll move on from the period of preparation into the Gospels, the period of manifestation. When He comes, in what form does He come? And we shall see from His conception, right on through His ministry until His death and resurrection, He is set before us as a king. Then we'll move into the period of proclamation and expansion, the book of Acts.

26:11 And there we will see that the kingship of Christ, formed a dominant note in the apostolic preaching. And then we'll move into the period of explanation and consolidation, the epistles. And there, as letters are written to the churches, and Christ is set before His people, we shall see that again He is set before them as a king. And then we'll look briefly into that book of anticipation, the book of the Revelation.

26:36 And there again we shall see Him as the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which is a reference going back to a passage we'll study this morning. And I hope in that way we'll have this overview from Genesis to Revelation of the key passages which set before us the glory of our Redeemer as the great King of His people. Well, you say, Pastor, that's been an awful lot of introduction and setting the field. Well, dear people, I don't know any other way to teach you.

27:10 And the only rationale for my living of the Gospel is to teach you. And the only rationale for my living of the Gospel is to teach you. And the only rationale for my living of the Gospel is to teach you. And so I've tried to strip it down and get it together in the simplest way possible.

Old Testament Prophecies: The Broad Outline

27:23 And I hope you've not found this too tedious. All right then, let's begin this morning considering a few verses from the Old Testament, the period of preparation which point forward to the coming of Messiah as the one who would be a king. Now, what is the first recorded prediction of the coming of Christ in the Old Testament? Do you know what the verse is?

27:46 You ought to by now. Genesis 3 and verse 15. And in that verse, when God speaks in the garden, He makes it known that the serpent is going to receive his death blow through the seed of the woman. God is dealing now with the intrusion of sin into the Garden of Eden.

28:10 And He says, I will put enmity, verse 15 of Genesis 3, between thee and the woman, that is, between the serpent and the woman. Between thy seed and her seed, he shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. And here in this first gospel promise, God indicates, as we've seen in another connection, that the Redeemer, the one who would deliver men from those terrible influences of the serpent, was Himself to be a man. He would be seed of the woman.

28:43 He would be a seed brought by divine initiative. In this great struggle between evil and good. Well, what God does is what an artist does. When he's going to draw his picture, he will first of all etch on his canvas the broad outline of what he proposes to do.

29:04 And then by degrees, he will fill in with sharper and more definitive lines the details of his picture. Well, this is what God does. And the first stroke of his brush in Genesis says, The Redeemer, the Deliverer, will be a man. Seed of the woman.

29:22 The second bold stroke says, He will ultimately crush the very head of the serpent. In other words, he will deal a death blow to him. But that's all we're told. Well, then as we move on, we are led to believe from a passage such as Genesis chapter 12, that that seed of the woman is going to come not through any family of the earth, but through a particular family.

29:48 And God speaks to Abraham and says in verse 2, I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless them that bless thee, and make thy name great, and be thou a blessing. Bless them that bless thee. Curse him that curses thee.

30:03 In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. You see what God does? He adds another stroke. Not just the seed of the woman.

30:10 Not just the seed that will destroy the serpent. But a seed of the woman coming through the family of Abraham. In thee shall all the nations be blessed. God adds another stroke.

Old Testament Prophecies: Judah's Scepter (Genesis 49)

30:23 Until we come to Genesis 49. This is the passage to which I direct your attention. As pointing to the Redeemer as a king. Whoever the Redeemer is to be, he must be one who rules.

30:40 Here in Genesis 49, we have old Jacob about to go the way of all flesh. We read in verse 1, Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. Assemble yourselves in here, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. And then he begins to give these prophecies which are a synopsis of the entire future history of these tribes in the purposes of God.

31:17 Jacob at this point becomes a prophet. And God gives him the ability to look as it were down through the corridors of time and to speak of the future destiny of these tribes that will come from his sons. When he comes to the fourth son, Judah, he says beginning in verse 8 these words, Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise. Thy hand shall be upon the neck of thine enemies.

31:46 Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp, that is a young lion. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him up?

32:04 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. Judah was the first of the sons to receive an unmixed blessing. The other sons do impart in some instances to their sin.

32:31 The prediction involves future judgments and chastisements of God. But when he comes to Judah, Judah is the one who shall be praised by his brethren. Judah shall be the one who will be in the posture of a conqueror, and his own brothers will be found bowing down to him. He shall be given a place of supremacy and of power.

32:55 And then this prophecy, verse 10. The scepter. Now what is the scepter? It's the symbol of the exercise of authority.

33:05 It is not just an empty symbol. Here we have the symbol signifying that which is symbolized. The authority and power to rule shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff, another figure of speech, the oriental leader would have a staff that was also the symbol of his rule. And when he was sitting upon his throne, it would often be placed between his knees and come up and rest over his shoulders.

33:31 At least those who know of these things write in this line, and I must trust their accuracy. And he says that this posture of rule will continue until Shiloh come. Now this is one of the most difficult phrases in the entire passage to exegete. And I'm not going to wield it.

33:50 I'm going to bury you with all of the various possibilities. But when someone who knows the Hebrew language and is soaked in the Old Testament scriptures as thoroughly as our messengers Kyle and Dalish give what I think is a powerful and convincing argument that there can be no legitimate use of this passage except that which points to the Lord Jesus Christ as God's Shiloh. Shiloh was the place where the people of God gathered to worship. And Jesus Christ is the ultimate embodiment of all that surrounds the concept of Shiloh.

34:27 For he is the temple of God. He who said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. God says that until this one comes and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. And I'm fully aware that this finds, as it were, some premonition in the fact that David becomes a great leader and the kings rise out of the seed of David.

34:57 But it seems that this passage is surely pointing beyond David and beyond Solomon to that son of Judah who would be the lion of the tribe of Judah who would prevail and who would take that scepter of might and power and would reign in the pursuit of the purposes of the God of redemption. And so God adds, as it were, another stroke to the picture. The Redeemer shall be seed of the woman. He must come through the family of Abraham.

Old Testament Prophecies: The Star and Scepter (Numbers 24)

35:31 Ah, but in a special way the scepter will be found in the hands of Judah. The scepter shall be found in the hands of one who comes out of that tribe. Now then we move on to Numbers chapter 24. The book of Numbers.

35:51 For you who are new to the Bible and new to the general content of Scripture, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. The fourth book of Moses. We turn to chapter 24. Here you have this strange incident of this strange man called Balaam and another man whose name begins with B called Balak.

36:23 Now Balak was king of Moab. What happened was this. He saw God's blessing upon Israel in defeating some of the heathen nations and he got scared. He says, man, if they're running this bunch all around us out of business and we're in line, something better happen or we've had it.

36:43 So he approaches this man Balaam, this strange prophet. He is called that in the New Testament. Not in a very complimentary way. It speaks of God staying the madness of the prophet.

37:00 But this man Balaam, whoever he was, whatever his peculiar position was, this much is clear. That Balaak desperately wanted him to pronounce a curse upon the people of Israel and to do it before Israel dispossessed Moab which at that time was under the direction and rule of Balaak. So he calls for Balaam and says in essence, curse these Israelites for me. But Balaam finds he can't do it.

37:32 He is, as it were, constrained and overpowered and instead we find him pronouncing blessing. Genesis 24, I'm sorry, Numbers 24, verses 8 and 9. Numbers 24, verses 8 and 9. God bringeth him forth out of Egypt.

37:57 He hath, as it were, the strength of a wild ox. He shall eat up the nations, his adversaries. He shall break their bones in pieces and smite them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion and as a lioness.

38:10 Who shall rouse him up? Blessed be everyone that blesseth thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee. Well, you see, Balaak doesn't like this.

38:20 And Balaak's anger was kindled against Balaam and he smote his hands together. And Balaak said unto Balaam, I call thee to curse mine enemies and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. I'll give you honor. I'll give you all of this.

38:34 But you've got to curse them and not bless them. And so Balaam responds. And what does he respond with? Another blessing.

38:42 And it's in this blessing at verses 17 and 18 that we have another stroke with God's brush with respect to the coming Messiah. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not nigh. There shall come forth a star out of Jacob.

39:05 And again, the oriental imagery, the star was a notorious leader. And we're not just left to conjecture on that for notice the next words. And a scepter shall rise out of Israel. The scepter being authority exercised.

39:24 One who shall not only have a throne and a name, but who will actually exercise the authority and power of that throne. There shall come forth a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite through the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Tumah. Now if you can imagine how this sounded on the ears of this man. He says, look, I've brought you to curse them that we might be blessed, at least with a negative blessing of non-dispossession and not being conscious.

39:57 Not being conquered. And now you turn, he says, and you promise just the opposite. And that work of destruction of the heathen nation by the people of God is to come to pass through a peculiar leader. I see him, but not now.

40:16 I behold him, but not nigh. You see, the prophet is given some sense that there's going to be a time span before this passage comes to its fulfillment. But it will come to its fulfillment in the scepter rising out of Israel. So the godly Jew who meditates upon all of those promises that God would destroy her enemies, that God would bring a deliverer to his people, would not only know from Genesis, seed of the woman, not only know from Genesis 49, tribe of Judah, but he would also know that this scepter would be exercised and all the enemies would be smitten by one who would have the posture of a conquering king. Well, time is getting away from us so quickly and I had so many other passages that I wanted to bring to your attention. I think I'll just have to cut it off at this juncture and try to bring this to some kind of a practical conclusion for this morning. So you forgive me if I do a little composing on my feet because there was much more I wanted to go through another six passages in the Old Testament, not perhaps in the same detail but we'll have to hold off on them.

Conclusion: The Unity of Prediction and Fulfillment

41:38 But now what do we glean from just this beginning of the study? Well, I hope we're at least beginning to see something with fresh appreciation that if the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, if there is any continuity between the Old and the New Testaments, then the Redeemer, the Savior of the New Testament must fit all of those predictions of the Old. Now we've looked at just a couple of them this morning which clearly and unmistakably say that the Deliverer of God's people must assume the posture of a king. He must have a scepter.

42:21 He must have a throne. And from that posture he must be able to destroy his enemies. Now do you see then what happens when we think of Christ as something other than a king? Or if we think of him in terms of a kingship that is primarily something future for some kingdom age and does not apply here and now to his great work of redemption?

42:50 We fracture this beautiful unity, this God-ordained pattern of prediction and fulfillment with respect to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is the Christ of the Old Testament Scriptures, then a throne, a scepter, and a kingdom must of necessity be part and parcel of his work of redemption. Now child of God, even with just this initial treatment of a few passages, your heart ought to rejoice that what Jacob prophesied and what this strange man Balaam prophesied and what as we shall see next week Isaiah and Jeremiah and Zechariah prophesied and what Daniel saw in vision, all of that is come to pass in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That he is the promised King, that he does reign, that he is subduing all of his and our enemies, and that the hour is coming in which he will utterly break the back of everything and everyone that opposes him.

Pastoral Application: Comfort for Believers, Terror for Unbelievers

44:16 If you sit here this morning as someone a stranger to the grace of God, my friend, you ought to be sobered by the fact that Jesus Christ is King, because part of his kingship, part of his kingship is exercised in holding your very life in his hands, holding your very life in his hands, holding your very destiny in his hands. And if he chooses to, he can take that life and consult with no one. He doesn't need to consult with you and say, say, would you like to die? Would you like to be summoned to judgment?

44:55 No, no, my friend. He's absolute King. He holds your life in his hands. He holds your destiny in his hands.

45:06 And in the exercise of his kingship, he will bring you to glory in a way consistent with God's holiness and justice, or he'll damn you in a manner perfectly consistent with his justice, his holiness, and his love. And it's that King that holds your destiny in his hands. That's serious business. So whether you be a child of God, and God knows we need every single fiber and every single element of comfort and consolation we can glean from the scriptures to live as we ought, I trust in the coming days you will meditate much upon the fact that Christ is King and find great consolation. And you who are yet in your sins, that God will strike terror to your heart on the one hand, to realize you're trifling with a King of whom God himself has said, kiss the Son with the kiss of homage and submission, the kiss of obedience, kiss the Son, his scepter is stretched out in mercy, bow and kiss it in faith, lest you be angry and ye perish in the way. Blessed, perfectly happy are all they who trust in him. You see, it's the same King who will crush, who stands as a refuge for needy sinners.

Prayer

46:35 Oh, may God grant that you will find the mercy that is promised to all who seek him and who trust in him. Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank you that Jesus Christ is King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We thank you that your sending him was no afterthought.

47:09 We're amazed when we see that through all of the intricate details of the Old Testament history, involving strange, people such as this man, Balaam, involving the old patriarch, Jacob, involving the visions and the night visitations of the holy man of God, Daniel, involving that man after your own heart, David, and all of these individuals and all of the various pressures that molded them and shaped them. How we thank you that through all of that we see your care for your people, drawing one after another of lines upon the canvas, encouraging your people to believe that a mighty King would come, a King who would deliver his people, subdue his enemies. Oh, we ask that our hearts may be filled with joy in the knowledge that that King has come, that he does reign, and we bless you that he is the King Priest upon his throne, that he reigns not only to restrain and crush his enemies, but to show mercy to the neediest of sinners who will have him. Oh, our Father, write these things upon our hearts and grant us a new measure

48:36 of appreciation for him who is our prophet, our priest, and our King. Hear our prayer and be with us as we leave this place that your name may be heard and may be praised through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.