Kingship of Christ in Ephesians 1:20-22

Introduction: The Kingship of Christ in the 'Here We Stand' Series

0:02 For well over a period of two years, interspersed with other briefer series of studies and unusual physical afflictions which have barred me from this pulpit, we've been engaged in our Lord's Day morning studies in unfolding some of the major doctrinal themes of the Word of God under the general title, Here We Stand. And this series is intended to be, as it were, a manifesto, an official declaration of what we understand the Word of God to teach concerning the great issues that are set forth in the Scriptures.

0:45 Having come in the course of this series to consider the salvation which we receive and proclaim, we have had a fixation, as it were, upon the person and upon the work of the Redeemer Himself. And in the contemplation of the central figure of our salvation, even our Lord Jesus Christ, we've examined what the Scriptures say concerning the mystery of His person and are presently occupied with examining what the Scriptures tell us concerning the majesty of His offices. For Christ is not set before us in the glory of His person merely to be admired as the angels might admire Him.

1:29 But to be the object of our deepest trust as the only Savior of needy sinners. And so for some months now we have been considering Him in the majesty of these offices, that is, the official capacities within which Christ accomplishes His saving work. We saw Him as our great priest, as our glorious prophet, and we are now considering Him as our exalted Savior. And in trying to open up some of the major biblical materials relative to the kingship of Christ, I have chosen to follow the pattern which is most natural in terms of the way

2:12 our Bible has been put together in the providence of God. We've been looking at those major portions as they come to us in the Scriptures themselves. We looked at the major portions in the Old Testament as the period of preparation, and we saw again and again that the prophetic announcements concerning the Messiah pointed to one who would come and save as a king. Then we turn to the Gospels, that section which I've called the period of manifestation.

2:45 And there again, from the opening words of the first Gospel author, the Gospel of Matthew, right on through, He is presented to us as a Savior who would save in the exorcism of the Holy Spirit. And so we have been considering Him as our great priest, as our glorious prophet, as our High Priest. And we should bear in mind that the Word of the Gospel alone was in the history of Christ and is the science of regal power and of royal grace. Well, when we turn to the book of Acts, we saw in the period of proclamation that the apostles proclaimed Christ as King in His saving work.

3:14 They did not proclaim one who was prophet and priest now and coming King, but they proclaimed one who saved as prophet, priest and reigning King and they summoned men to bow at His footstep, and they're sitting here in the middle of the Book of Acts, and they're saying, Jesus is the King of kings and glorified in the world. The same thing is true in the canon. stool to obtain mercy. Well, that briefly gathers together months of exposition, and we come now this morning to consider the third major passage in that section of the Scriptures which I have chosen to entitle the section of Confirmation and Explanation. For these

3:48 letters, these epistles, are precisely that. They are letters sent to real Christians, individuals or gathered as churches, in order to correct real problems, in order to confirm the people of God in the real truth concerning Christ and His salvation, concerning their duties as the people of God. And so it is proper to view the epistles as the section of the Word of God intended to explain and to confirm men in the Christian faith. We looked at Romans 14.9.

4:24 To this end Christ died and rose again, that He might be Lord of the dead and the living. Here the kingship of Christ is expressly stated as the end for which Christ died. Then we considered in our last study, 1 Corinthians 15.22 and 23, He must reign, He is reigning and will continue to reign until He has put the last enemy beneath His feet, and that last enemy is death.

4:53 So any thinking that He is reigning, He is reigning. It says, well He begins to reign in some new and marvelous dimension after He comes back again, is a total disruption of the perspective of 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 says He reigns until He destroys the last enemy, death, and that enemy is destroyed at His coming. And then there is an adjustment in the administration of the Trinitarian responsibilities and duties.

5:23 And there is, as it were, a giving up of certain aspects of mediatorial reign as we read in 1 Corinthians 15. Well, we come this morning to the third major portion in this section of explanation and confirmation pointing to the fact that Jesus Christ is now a king. And he is a king in the interest of the salvation of his people. Turn, please, to Ephesians chapter 1.

The Setting of the Text: Paul's Prayer for Illumination

5:55 Ephesians chapter 1. The words that we shall examine in detail are found in the middle of a rather lengthy sentence in verses 20 through 22. Speaking of the power which God exercised in Christ, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, made him to sit at his right hand. He made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion

6:35 and every name that is named, not only in this world or age, but in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him not to be head, but gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So, here in these words is one, if not the most profound assertions of the absolute, universal, unqualified kingship of Christ to be found anywhere in the word of God.

7:15 Now, if we are rightly to handle the passage, we must spend just a moment to catch the thread of the apostles' thought. And so, very briefly now, we shall attack the passage by considering the setting of the text. Some of you remember back some five years ago, and it was that long, I checked the dates on the notes, that I, we together studied Ephesians 1, and I sought to expound this profound chapter. And Ephesians chapter 1, after the introduction, is comprised basically of two things.

7:47 Verses 3 through 14 is a hymn of praise to the triune God for saving mercy. So, you have this great hymn of praise, bounded by verse 1, verses 3 and 14. Then, beginning with verse 15, to the end of the chapter, you have the apostles' prayer for the Ephesians, a prayer that focuses on this one great request for spiritual illumination. Notice the language of the passage.

8:18 He is praying, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom. And revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened. So, He prays for this grace of spiritual illumination to be given to these Ephesian believers. Now, that prayer breaks out into three streams.

8:46 He prays that God would give them a spirit of illumination with respect to three great Christian realities. Number one, that they would know, what is the hope of God's calling. Verse 18, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling. Secondly, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

9:11 Thirdly, what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. Now, when He comes to that third petition, follow the line of thought. Now, He says, for this cause I pray, convinced of God's continuing work in your midst and giving thanks to Him for it, I pray that the Spirit may come with power to illuminate your minds. Now, what I want you to know is this.

9:35 The hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to you who are believers. Now, as He prays concerning that third aspect of the request, that they may know the exceeding greatness of God's power towards them. He says, He says, The power which takes its measure from certain activities of the Father with respect to the Son. Now, look at it.

10:07 According to, that is, I'm praying that you may understand the power of God towards you. Power which accords with, is illustrated in, is exemplified by, and then He mentions four activities of God. Look at the text. According to the work of God.

10:28 The working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ when He, number one, raised Him from the dead, number two, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places. Then He describes some aspects of that heavenly session. Verse twenty-two, number three, and He put all things in subjection under His feet, number four, He gave Him as head over all things to the church. Now, remember.

10:58 This is the first part. This is not a theological treatise. This is a man praying for real Christians, living in the real world, with real problems and real difficulties, and he's pleading with God that the Holy Spirit would illuminate their minds concerning the vastness of the power of God towards them as believers. And he says that His power exemplified in these mighty acts of God in which He raised His Son, seated His Son, seated His Son, seated His Son, seated His Son, seated His Son, seated His Son, put everything beneath His Son, and gave His Son as head over all things to the church.

11:36 Now, do you see something of the flow of thought? Now it is in the midst of that general drift of concern and thought that we have these tremendous statements concerning the kingship of Christ. So as it was my purpose five years ago to expound this passage in terms of its overall intent. This morning, my purpose is to do only one thing.

12:02 To extract from the passage these profound statements concerning the kingship of Christ. That's all. We're not concerned to see how these things exemplify His power. That's a marvelous statement.

12:18 We're simply concerned to see what this passage says concerning the kingship of Christ, a power manifested in making His kingdom. Making Him king in terms of this language. Now I remind you that this is not detached. This is not impractical.

12:37 These were the real saints at Ephesus with their real problems in a real pagan world with real spiritual enemies. And the Apostle knows that their spiritual stability in great measure will be in direct proportion to their knowledge of these things. That's why he prays that the Spirit will help them to know them. Why?

12:59 That they might be everything he describes Christians as being in the latter chapters. That they might do what they are commanded to do. Well so much concerning the setting of the text, now we come to the substance of the text. And we have two major groupings of thought.

Christ's Exalted Position: Seated at God's Right Hand

13:17 We have first of all Christ in His exalted position. And then we have Christ in His exercised power. So the substance of our text then has two divisions. Christ in His exalted position.

13:34 Christ in His exercised power. Now how does the Apostle describe Christ's exalted position? Well first of all he employs a figure. Look at verse 20.

13:46 It is power wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at the right hand, at His right hand, in the heavenlies. Now this is a very important point. Now when you read of Christ being seated at the right hand of God, you are reading a figure of speech. Now it is obvious that this is figurative language since God is Spirit, He has no hands right nor left.

14:19 Since God is Spirit there is no literal throne that could contain Him. This is figurative language. But the figures of the Bible inspired by the Spirit are given literally. They are given not to obscure truth or to set forth fancy.

14:38 They are given to illustrate and to make clear the great realities of God and His relationship to His world and to His people. And the Bible makes it very plain that we must not press again a wooden kind of literalism upon the figures of the Bible. You'd have real problems then if you say, well it says seated at God's right hand, that means Christ must be seated at His right hand. Well what will happen then when you find in other passages that He is standing?

15:07 Can He be both sitting and standing at the same time? You remember in Acts 7.55, Stephen said, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing. In the book of the Revelation, John says, I saw one like unto the Son of Man walking in the midst of the candlesticks.

15:28 The writer to Hebrews says, our great high priest, Hebrews chapter 8, is ministering in the true sanctuary. Well is he walking, is he standing, is he sitting? Well he's doing all those things. And each one sets forth a different dimension of the activity and the posture and spiritual position of our Lord.

15:50 So it is a figure of speech. And what does the figure convey? We don't have time to trace this out, it's a fascinating study in the Scriptures. But suffice it to say that the figure employed concerning Christ being seated at the right hand of God is a figure that has its roots way back into the Old Testament and in the entirety of Eastern culture.

16:14 For a monarch to seat someone at his right hand was to indicate in a visible, as it were, in an object lesson manner, that he was sharing his dominion and the authority of his throne with that person. In the book of the Revelation, you remember Jesus gives this promise to the overcomers in Revelation 3 and in verse 21, To him that overcometh I will grant to sit down with Me in My throne even as I overcame and am set down in My Father's throne. So the position of the Lord Jesus in His present exaltation is set forth in this figure, verse

16:57 20, seated at the right hand in the heavenlies, which means nothing less than the position of the Lord Jesus. And that Jesus Christ has a position of shared authority and dominion with the Father. Then He moves from a figure to an expanded description of that position of power. Look at the language.

17:21 He is seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is known. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is known. Each and every question of His name is mentioned and presented in ascetic undertones and bateric comp protector and patriarch. Hence, God is exalted to His figurative name—Detective, In the right hand of the Father, in the

18:04 every name or title attached to that place of dominion and lordship. And he says concerning Christ, He is not equal to or merely above, but look at the language of the text, He is far above all rule, authority, lordship, dominion, and every name that is attached with such a position. So here in plain language, he expands this description of Christ exaltation. Now you ask, well is there some fine technical significance to each of these terms?

18:43 Well, some expositors have taken that position. One old Puritan gives us six to eight pages of fine print and spins out a very elaborate system of angeology attempting to show that there are all various ranks of angels and archangels and archangels and archangels and archangels and archangels and archangels and all the rest. And what Paul is saying is that Christ is supreme above all of them. Well, I don't fall to man for trying to go to great lengths to show Christ great supremacy above the angels, because that's a wonderful truth.

19:15 It's stated more simply in Hebrews, unto which of the angels said he at any time, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. I rather believe that what the apostle is doing here is we study the parallel passages in which similar passages of the gospel and the language he's using. He is using a rhetorical device. He's taking every word that signifies anything to do with constituted authority and the exercise of that authority and the names attached to it and he brings all that language together and says take any name signifying any authority, any power, and Jesus Christ is high above all of it together.

19:58 Now, there is some progression, of course. He's not just being redundant. He's not just piling up words with no shades of meaning. And if there is significance in the language used, it's probably this.

20:10 He is far above all rule or government. That's the governing power. With that, there is authority, the right to exercise that power. Then there is the actual implementation of that right.

20:24 That's power. And wherever the power is exercised, you have a dominion or a lordship. And wherever you have all of those things, you usually have a name to describe that rule or authority, such as king, such as prime minister, such as president. And it may be that the apostle has those facets of expressed rule in mind, but be that as it may, he brings together this marvelous concoction of language to set before us not only in figurative language that Christ has been seated, but in, in plain language now tells us he is seated far above

21:06 all of these expressions of might and of rule. Then not only does he employ a figure, use plain language, but he gives us some very clear language as to the time span of this position. Describing the present position of Christ in this place of exaltation and shared dominion, note again the language, not only in this age, but in that which is to come. Not only in this age, but surely in this age.

21:44 Now you see, it's one of the most powerful assertions of the present place of Christ's dominion. It doesn't say he is presently above some rule and some lordship and some dominion, but in the age to come, he will be above. He will be above every sphere of rule and dominion. No, no.

22:05 It says right now he's in that position. Isn't that what the text says? If you're reading the same Bible I'm reading, not only in this age, assuming that reality, that in this age, Jesus Christ is in this position. An age where sin, evil, death, and ignorance still stalk through the earth.

22:31 These dear Ephesian believers had no dreams that the world would be anything other than a mixed state. Yet he says in the midst of this, you Ephesians are to understand that your Lord is presently seated in the place of shared dominion. He is presently far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age, but surely in this age. And then he says in the coming age, the age of the consummation, when all is restored at his coming.

Christ's Exercised Power: All Things Subjected to Him

23:13 And surely we must square 1 Corinthians 15, 24, and 28 with this passage. Whatever adjustments there will be in Trinitarian administration in the age to come, when the new heavens and the new earth are brought by the return of our Lord, it will not be one that negates his place of authority and rule. Well, then I say the text sets before us Christ in his exalted position, but then there's a second major grouping of thought. Christ in his exercised power.

23:49 He not only has a position, but he has the exercise of power presently realized. And that's stated in two ways. First of all, all things are ranged beneath his feet. Look at the language of the text.

24:08 Verse 22. He put all things in subjection under his feet. Not he shall put. He will eventually put.

24:19 He has. And the form of the verbs in this passage point to decisive, accomplished action. All things have been subjected to him would be a literal translation. Translation.

24:33 The verb used is the one found everywhere in the New Testament for submission. The demons are subject unto us. Wives, be subject to your husbands. That's the word used.

24:45 He hath put everything, subjection, under his feet. Here he points to Christ in his exercised power. Thus all things are authority hath been delivered unto me in heaven and in earth. Thus all things have been delivered unto me of my Father.

25:11 Surely at times, secretly and mysteriously, that subjection is worked out under the veil of the apparent triumph of the very thing that's beneath his feet. Did we not have a marvelous exposition of that last week? When it appeared that God had, as it were, a battle to do His worst, as though God for a moment in history took His hands off and said, Devil, I will exercise no restraints over you. And the devil instigated the crucifixion of Christ.

25:43 Surely if there was ever a time when it seemed that something had gotten out of control, it was then. But as Mr. Seton so wonderfully opened unto us from the Scriptures last week, never was God more in control in fulfilling all His eternal designs to save a people through the death of His incarnate Son. And so Paul prays for the Ephesians.

26:06 Oh, that God by the Spirit would open your eyes to see the tremendous measure of His power towards you as believers. Power expressed and manifested not only in raising His Son and seating Him at His right hand, but in putting everything beneath His feet. And of course, this is a quote from Psalm 8-7, a verse used in 1 Corinthians 15 and again in Hebrews 2. But Christ in His exercised power is set before us not only in the language of everything put beneath His feet, but now notice, He gave Him as head over all to the church.

26:49 Now our concern is not to expound the concept in what sense is Christ given to the church, but the capacity in which He is given. And look at the language. He is given as head over all.

27:06 Not as one who will eventually be head, but one who is presently head. The parallel passage expounds this collectively. Colossians 2 and verse 10. You are complete in Him, the Apostle says, who is the head, right now, of all principality and power.

27:28 You see, as is so often the case in Scripture, great doctrinal truths are assumed and almost casually asserted in the pursuit of some very practical goal. That's the amazing thing with the Scriptures. Rarely do you find a Scriptural author giving any hint that his purpose is to set out some profound doctrinal truth in what he writes. Often in the pursuit of the very most practical concerns, profound truths are casually assumed or asserted, not even stopping to prove them.

28:03 And such is the case here. Here the Apostle is praying, praying that God would give the spirit of wisdom and revelation to these Ephesian believers and in the midst of it, outburst this profound assertion concerning the kingship of Christ.

The Ephesian Context: Christ's Kingship in a Hostile World

28:22 Well then, how are these Ephesians to think of the Lord Jesus after receiving this letter? Can you put yourself backwards now almost 2,000 years? For a while we know they met in the school of Tyrannus. I always feel a little bit more apostolic in New Testament when we're renting a school.

28:42 It wasn't quite a school after this sort, but we read in the book of Acts that the church met for a while, at least two years, in the school of Tyrannus. Well, maybe they're still renting that school. Picture now what it would be like, some Lord's Day morning or evening, and the people of God are gathered together. And one of the elders looks especially bright and cheery that day, as though he has a secret he just longs to disclose.

29:08 And in due course he stands and says, Brothers, sisters, we have an epistle from our beloved Apostle Paul. And everyone's on the edge of his seat, all the ears straining forward, and he begins to read the epistle.

29:24 Greetings are brought, and then he launches into that great hymn of praise, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he records his prayer, and they say, Now, what is he praying for us? Is he praying for us in terms of our economic need, our physical? No.

29:39 He says, And this is what I pray. You should be apprised of the things for which I pray, so that you may make them the object of your prayers. And what is he praying? They listen as the elder reads this letter, I pray that you may know the exceeding greatness of his power to you who are believers.

29:57 Power manifested when he raised his son, seated him in his right hand, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. He ranged all things beneath his feet, gave him his head over all things to the church. Now sitting there, what would your concept of Christ be if you took the words of the Apostle, seriously?

30:25 Your concept of Christ would be one in which you could view him in no other light than that of supreme kingship and power presently realized and presently active for the salvation of believers. Now think of their circumstances. Had they seen what some call the latter-day glory? Had they seen such triumphs of the gospel that caused Nero, to run from his throne and invite a Christian to take over the reigns of Roman rule?

31:03 Had they seen the worship of the pagan goddess Diana dissolved before the gospel? No. At the very writing of this letter, Nero was on his throne and Paul was his prisoner at Rome. Head over all things?

31:19 With a wicked Nero on the throne? With all of the animosity to believers building in his heart until it will break forth in this mighty, mighty tide of persecution, Christ is above all rule and all authority and every name of power? That's what he wants them to believe. Perhaps on the way to church that morning they had walked by the temples to the goddess Diana and had seen the majority of their countrymen flowing into those heathen temples and their hearts are discouraged and they seem to feel, what is the use?

31:55 We preach, we pray, the Apostle has left us, the church has been established, but every sight of a heathen temple and a heathen worshipper walking in caused pain to the heart. Perhaps some were wondering, is Christ really enthroned? Does he really have a scepter? Does he really wield it?

32:13 And they sit there that morning and they hear the Apostle's letter read and it says, far above all rule and all authority and all things are beneath his feet.

32:25 Nero on his throne, Paul in Nero's prison, Diana worshiped still rife, well, what about society at large? It was far from, quote, Christianized. You read the rest of this epistle. He says in chapter 4 and verse 17, don't walk like your fellow Gentiles who being past healing, given themselves up to work all forms of uncleanness.

32:51 Sound pretty contemporary? Hmm?

32:55 Sure does. Now that's the state of society. He goes on in chapter 5 and says, for these very sins concerning which I warn you, the wrath of God, comes upon the sons of disobedience. You see, the circumstances were the same as ours.

33:13 Men in places of rule who seem to have no regard to the law of God, heathen worship abounding,

33:24 wickedness inundating entire societies.

33:30 And then surely they may, perhaps one of the very elders who read the letter remembered the very words that rung in his ears just, three or four years before when Paul last talked to them there at Miletus. I know that from your very ranks,

33:47 evil men are going to rise up and draw disciples after them. Wolves are without who are going to come with him. My friends, put yourself in that real world and realize that it was God's will that those Christians in that real world should regard their Lord as an apostle, a posture of unrivaled supremacy and power. Now, what's your real world?

Application for Believers: Comfort and Direction

34:20 Two thousand years have made very little difference. Their world is your world and my world and it's in that very world that God would have us each to know that Christ is indeed King. And so I want to say very briefly now by way of application, having looked at the setting of the text, having looked at the substance of the text pointing to Christ's exalted position, His exercised power, what does all this say to us? Oh, dear children of God, do you see that herein lies your comfort?

35:01 This is God's power in establishing Christ as King with respect to believers, that you may know the power to us who believe.

35:13 And it is, as we saw in our study of 1 Corinthians, a scepter wielded in the hand of our Redeemer to accomplish our salvation. He looks, as it were, from that posture at the right hand of the Father and every one of your enemies in mind, He puts a mark upon that enemy as His. And He will wield that scepter with power until every last enemy of ours which is considered His enemy is utterly destroyed. And the people of the world and the people of God now as then, living in a hostile society, living in the midst of abounding wickedness, living within a framework in which paganism seems to exert

35:58 its wicked and foul influence from the thrones of power and authority, we need to see beyond all of this and to know that far above every rule and every dominion and every name that is named sits our exalted Lord as the King, of the universe. Not only will this bring comfort to us if believingly appropriated, but it brings direction to us. I read through the chapters in which the Apostle lays out practical exhortations in this very epistle to the Ephesians and it's very interesting to notice beginning with chapter 4 through chapter 6

36:40 how he picks up this theme of Christ's headship, His kingship, His place of exaltation and makes it the basis, of some very practical exhortations to the people of God. So you see, dear children of God, not only do I need this realization for my comfort, but for my direction as well. I am to live in the light of the fact that He is King, that He is upon His throne, that He has been given as head over all things to the church and surely part of the all things over which He is head is the church as the church is subject to Christ. So let the wise, wise be to their husbands in everything.

37:19 Ye masters, remember, you have a master in heaven. You have your little throne of influence with your slaves, with your employees. Remember, He has His vast throne of influence to which you are accountable. So it stands there is a truth from which we are to derive comfort, from which we are to derive direction.

Application for Believers: A Warning Against Carnal Weapons

37:40 And may I append, from which we are to derive a warning, a warning sounded two Lord's days ago, I would sound it again. Paul never moves from this doctrine of the present Lordship of Christ to any exhortation to combined Christian activity at the social or at the political level. You will look in vain through the book of Ephesians for any such exhortation. He does not reason since Christ is King, go out in His name and force men to bow to the implications of His kingship in politics.

38:21 He says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, rulers in heavenly places. Take unto you what?

38:39 Righteousness, holiness, gospel.

38:44 And if God will give such power to that gospel as to subdue multitudes, then we'll see the structures of society radically overhauled and influenced. But it will be not with the carnal weapons that men, men can forge, but by these spiritual weapons given by the great head of the church. But I would say in closing, this perspective not only speaks comfort and direction and warning to the people of God. My dear unconverted friend, it ought to strike terror to your heart.

Application for Unconverted: Terror and Urgency

39:21 Because in a sense, you know what your unconverted life is? It's one continual effort to deny that Christ is on the throne.

39:31 That's what your unconverted life is. It is, a perpetual commentary on your effort to live indifferent to this reality.

39:45 If Jesus Christ occupies the throne of the universe, is the rightful heir of the entire universe, you owe allegiance to Him. He made you. He sustains you. He upholds all things by the word of His power.

40:02 And the language of your heart is, I will not have this man to reign over me. Isn't it an amazing thing? The very ability to think in those words is an ability given by Him and sustained by Him.

40:20 By an exercise of His sovereign power, He could withdraw your sanity in the next moment. You couldn't put one rational thought on top of another till the day of your death.

40:33 There you sit with a rationality that is His gift, initially given and sustained by Him, and with it you reason, I'll not yield to Him. He'll do this, and He'll spoil this, and I can't pursue. My friend, what a fool you are!

40:52 For there will come a time when His long-suffering and His patience will give way to His just anger. Is not that the language of that great psalm of the kingship of Christ in Psalm 2?

41:08 The Lord has set His King at His right hand. He has set Him there in Zion. And now He says concerning Him, kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way. One of the greatest tragedies of God's long-suffering is that men misinterpret it and think it's indulgence and indifference.

41:32 If God were not long-suffering, there'd be no hope for any of us. We'd be cut off in our sins. And yet the very long-suffering which is to us-ward for our good, we turn upon ourselves as our greatest enemy. Oh, my unconverted friend, young or old, Jesus Christ is seated far above every principality and power and might and dominion.

41:56 And if you do not repent, you know what the crowning act of His kingship will be. Read it in Matthew 25. Then shall the King sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him will be gathered all the nations. Then shall the King say to those on His left hand, depart from Me, I never knew you.

42:22 And the damnation and the damnation and the damnation of a sinner will be the crowning act of the kingship of Christ in the renewal of His universe. And He'll banish you with the devil and all the imps of hell to a place of outer darkness.

42:40 According to Revelation chapter 19, all of the redeemed and the pure spirits will worship God as you sink into the pit. And when the smoke of your burning ascends as a monument, God will be praised. You say, that God's a fiend. No, that's the God of the Bible.

43:02 And I've merely quoted the language of the Bible. Oh, my unconverted friend, aren't you terrified that Christ is on a throne? And that from that throne you feel the destiny of every man, woman, boy or girl in the universe? Doesn't that strike terror to you?

43:22 When you leave a service like today and go back and fill your mind with little inconsequential nothings, don't you have any sleepless nights? Don't you have any terror of soul? Have you become like a beast?

43:44 My friend, He's on a throne.

Application for Unconverted: Hope in the Pierced King

43:47 But there is hope because the one on the throne has scars in His hands and a scar in His side. He'll bear forever according to the Scriptures those, as it were, monumental witnesses that in time He died. My friend, the one upon a throne still receives Him. Sinners, sinners who deserve nothing but to be crushed by the rod of His judgment can come under the rod of His gracious government because the hand that holds the scepter was pierced for sinners.

44:29 Oh, my unconverted friend, will you not flee to such a Savior? How long will He bear with you? You say, I don't know why He's born this long, Pastor. Why has He born this long?

44:44 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

44:44 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

44:44 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

44:44 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The long-suffering of God is salvation.

44:49 Oh, my friend, flee to this Christ for He sits upon that throne according to the prophecy of the Old Testament as a priest upon His throne that He might show mercy to sinners who come. Oh, come. Fall at His feet. Seek an interest in that which He did for sinners.

45:13 You have every promise of God to pave the way to Him. And the very atmosphere, as it were, is just permeated with gracious overtures and with promises sealed in the blood of the everlasting covenant. Oh, that you might come and find this King to be what many of us have found Him to be, a gracious Savior and a King whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. Let us pray.

Prayer

45:55 Oh, our Father, we thank You for Your grace. Oh, our Father, we thank You for Your grace. Father, we render thanks and praise to You that as the reward of His obedience even unto death, You have raised Your Son and seated Him at Your right hand far above all principality and power and might and dominion. And every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come, we thank You that You've ranged all things beneath His feet, good and evil, and that You've given to Him given him as head over all things to the church.

46:32 Oh, that we as your people may derive constant refreshment from the knowledge that our Savior is enthroned. Strike terror to the hearts of impenitent men and women, boys and girls in this place. Oh, Lord Jesus, put forth the scepter of your mighty power. May there be some willing even this day because you have made it a day of your power.

46:58 Oh, Lord, bring people broken and believing to the footstool of that throne. Hear the cries that we offer this morning. Seal the word to our prophet and above all to your praise. Bless us with your continued presence throughout this day.

47:19 We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.