[0:00] we come to one of the most significant, one of the most important texts in all of Scripture. Psalm 110 is cited or quoted or referred to more often than any other book.
[0:21] Somebody's mocking me over here. So, by my count, Psalm 110 is quoted 25 times in the New Testament.
[0:39] I heard this morning that it's more like 33 perhaps, so I must have missed a few. In at least 10 different books of the New Testament, it's quoted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, also in Acts a couple of times.
[0:56] Paul quotes it in Romans and 1 Corinthians. Ephesians and Colossians. And Hebrews. The book of Hebrews cites it at least 12 times.
[1:12] So this is a very, very significant chapter and psalm. It's a psalm of David, and Jesus testifies as well as Peter testifies that David, in fact, was the author of this psalm.
[1:30] So, we want to read it and then ask the Lord to teach us, and then we'll dig in. So if you're able, please stand with me as I read Psalm 110.
[1:41] A psalm of David. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
[1:56] 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.
[2:11] 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.
[2:22] 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.
[2:35] He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
[2:46] He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, He will lift up His head. So reads Scripture.
[2:59] Let us pray for understanding. Father, we ask as always, Lord, that You would come to us by means of Your Spirit, that You would pierce our hearts, that You would renew our minds, revive our soul.
[3:19] Cause us, Lord, to see the great significance of David's words, of Your words through David, as they apply to our Lord Jesus.
[3:30] May we, Father, see more and more of His majesty. May we see, Father, more and more of His beauty. May we see, may we see as well His uniqueness as our King and Priest.
[3:46] This we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. So, names, names.
[4:01] Names are significant, aren't they? You know, as parents, we name children. We get to name them. Right? So, we pick names that maybe have had history in our own family.
[4:15] You know, we name them after Uncle So-and-So or Grandpa Hezekiah or whatever. I don't think that happens too often. So, when we adopted Zach, we got to name him.
[4:32] And we adopted Zach because of my previous cancer and inability to have children. So, God remembered us. We prayed and prayed and prayed and looked for ways.
[4:44] Lord, we wanted children. And so, we wanted to honor God in the naming of our son. His name is Zachariah. His name means what?
[4:59] God, well, you know. God remembers. Zachar, remember. Yah. Yahweh remembers. Then, a few years later, we got to adopt a little girl.
[5:13] Now, what will we call her? What will we call her? We looked at different names like Delilah. No, probably not. Beulah.
[5:25] No. We settled on Abigail. Abby, my dad. Gail, joy.
[5:37] Joy of her father. Joy, daddy's delight. Or something like that. So, when I got named, my dad always teased me that I was named because, you know, when I was born, there was hospital bills, doctor bills.
[5:50] There was a lot of bills. So, he just decided to call me Bill. I later found out I was named after one of his best friends. But, he liked to tell me that story.
[6:02] So, names are significant. You know, we delight in naming our children. Even, we like naming our dogs something like Fido, something significant.
[6:15] It's also significant, I think, when God names someone. God doesn't often name someone in the Bible. You know, Adam named Eve. He named the animals.
[6:28] Right? The parents named the children as they're born. But, every once in a while, God says, you shall name him this. So, my favorite name in the scriptures is Jedediah.
[6:42] Now, I wanted to name Zach Jedediah, but she vetoed it. Said, no, they're going to call him Jed. You know, Jed Clampett. You know, the Beverly Hills. I'm like, come on.
[6:53] Jedediah is a great name. It means beloved of Yahweh. And, it's a name. Does anybody know whose God name Jedediah? Solomon.
[7:05] God gave Solomon the name beloved of Yahweh. Now, of course, Matthew was told to name his son, not Matthew, excuse me, Joseph, was told to name his son Jesus, Yesu.
[7:24] The Lord saves. Jesus renamed Simon from a good Simon Hebrew name to a Greek name, Petros, the rock. Apparently, Jesus changed Levi's name to Matthew because he goes by both names.
[7:44] Levi's a good Hebrew name, but he got now a Greek name, Matthias, which means gift of God. Zachariah was told to name his new son who in his old age and his wife Elizabeth's old age, he was going to name him after some family name and then the angel told him, no, you should name him John, Johannes, grace of God.
[8:12] Then we come to a name like Melchizedek, Mel, Melky, Zed, I don't know, what do you call someone like, with that name, what kind of name is Melchizedek?
[8:28] It's got to be significant to have a name like that. It means king, Melky, king, Zedek of righteousness. King of righteousness.
[8:41] He appeared on the scene way back in Genesis 14. Abraham had just saved Lot and all the citizens of Sodom who had been captured and taken by the kings of the north and Abraham stirred up all his mighty men, apparently had quite a fighting force, went and rescued all of the inhabitants of Sodom, including Lot, his nephew.
[9:07] And as he's returning, he comes to a place where he rests and out comes the king of Salem. His name, Melchizedek.
[9:18] He was a priest of the God Most High and he brings out bread and wine. You ever heard of bread and wine brought out by a priest?
[9:32] Melchizedek. Who is this guy? Well, he's mentioned here in relation to, oh, we've already decided we're not going with that one? It's falling down. Okay.
[9:43] No, actually we are going with that one. Sorry. If you can't see that. He's mentioned here in Psalm 110 in relation to the Messiah's role.
[9:54] You will be a priest forever according to the order or pattern of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a king. He's the king of Salem and he's also a priest of the Most High God.
[10:06] He is a unique individual. He is the only king and priest. And so is Jesus. We'll see more about him in a few minutes.
[10:19] First, I wanted to call our minds to what was expected in the first century. What Messiah, what the Jews had expected the Messiah to be in the first century.
[10:33] And Jesus himself challenged this. We have it recorded for us in Matthew 22 where Jesus refers to this psalm and he's challenging the Pharisees.
[10:44] This is right after he'd been challenged by a number of different people and about taxes and about resurrection and about marriage and different issues. And Jesus had pretty much silenced everybody.
[10:58] So he turns the tables and he asks them a question. Matthew 22, 41, while the Pharisees were gathering together, Jesus asked them a question saying, what do you think about the Christ, the Messiah?
[11:14] Whose son is he? They said to him, well, he's the son of David, the descendant of David. He's the son of David.
[11:25] He said to them, how is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord? Saying, and he quotes now from Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
[11:44] Jesus then asks a fourth question. If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word.
[11:58] He had totally stumped them. These are the Bible scholars of the day and this is one of the most well-known Messiah texts of the Old Testament and they didn't have an answer.
[12:11] They hadn't thought of that. First line of the psalm. Already don't get it. If David is his son, why does he call, excuse me, if the Messiah is David's son, why would David call his son his Lord?
[12:33] Stump them. So why did that stump them? Because their expectation was for the Messiah to be like David. He's going to be a descendant of David, a son of David.
[12:44] Sit on David's throne. He will have an earthly kingdom. He will be an earthly savior. He will not suffer. He will conquer. He will bring peace on the earth and righteousness and justice.
[13:03] So what is the implication of all this? What is the implication of Psalm 110? It is that Christ is greater than David. He's not just a descendant of David.
[13:16] He is the God of David. He is the son of God. He is the Lord of Lords. How can this be? So Psalm 110 reveals much more.
[13:29] It's not just who Jesus is, who the Christ is, but what was his role. So why is Psalm 110 so significant?
[13:40] Why is it quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament reference? Because God makes two certain declarations to the Messiah in this text.
[13:56] David is writing what the Lord says to the Lord. Yahweh. So if you look in your text in Psalm 110, probably your translation, your text, has Lord, the first Lord in all caps.
[14:13] L-O-R-D in all caps, right? That's the translator's way of telling you that's the holy name of God. That's Yahweh. Whenever you see L-O-R-D in all caps, that's Yahweh.
[14:27] So Yahweh says to, now notice the next Lord is capital L and then small letters, O-R-D. That means it's referring to Adonai. So Yahweh says to Adonai.
[14:42] Adonai meaning my God. Sometimes Adonai is also applied to other people, to other humans, so my master. But it also refers to the Lord in heaven.
[14:55] So here we have Yahweh saying to Adonai. So he makes two declarations. There in verse 1, he declares him to sit at his right hand where he will rule.
[15:07] Verse 2, he will rule, he will have a mighty scepter, he is king, in other words. So he pronounces him king in verse 1, king in heaven, sitting at God's right hand and then again in verse 4, he makes a second declaration.
[15:21] The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek. So two declarations. One about a heavenly king sitting and ruling from heaven and secondly, he is an eternal priest and not according to Aaron or Levi or the law.
[15:46] He is a priest by a whole different order. Melchizedek. Okay, so two declarations here. So what is this role of God?
[15:58] First of all, the first declaration or decree in verse 1 is that the Messiah, Christ, is enthroned, triumphant king in heaven is how I'm putting it.
[16:10] He's king. He's king in heaven. He's enthroned. He's sitting now at the right hand of God most high. He is enthroned, triumphant king in heaven.
[16:22] So I want you to notice some things. First, his kingship. Sit at my right hand. At the right hand. What's the right hand? Why is that significant?
[16:33] Remember the disciples had asked Jesus, when you come in your glory, let us sit on your right and your left. Places of honor. Sit on the right is not only a place of honor but a place of power.
[16:46] So God talks about, and the Israelites talk about God's right hand when they talk about him delivering them from Egypt. With a mighty right hand, he delivers, he saves.
[16:57] He scatters and shatters the enemies with his right hand. We just read Psalm 40, was it 41 or 42? He upholds with his right hand.
[17:10] The right hand is the active hand, the powerful hand. So it's good if you're right-handed, right? I don't know what it means to be left. So it's a place of honor.
[17:22] And he says, until I make your enemies your footstool. So you sit and rule, you are enthroned in heaven until all your enemies are your footstool.
[17:37] Now Paul applies this to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, Christ must reign at the right hand of the Father. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
[17:49] So Jesus is reigning right now in heaven. He is slowly putting enemy after enemy after enemy under his feet. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians, the last enemy he will conquer is death.
[18:02] Not the death of his own death. He'd already conquered that death. But the death of all people. When he then finishes his kingdom and he resurrects all of us, then death has no sting.
[18:15] He's putting enemies under his feet. So where does he rule? Interesting, verse 2, the Lord, Yahweh, sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
[18:27] Rule in the midst of your enemies. Where does he rule? Interesting, where is his kingdom? His kingdom, according to verse 2, is in the midst of his enemies.
[18:38] Now wouldn't we think that he would wipe out his enemies? The enemies would have no place but here it says rule in the midst. His enemies are surrounding.
[18:50] Rule in the midst of his enemies. So I was thinking about this. How does this apply to Jesus? How did Jesus, because when Jesus came he started preaching the gospel of the kingdom, right?
[19:03] He preached the gospel of the kingdom. He gave parables of the kingdom. He talked about the kingdom is like this, the kingdom is like this, the kingdom is like this. Remember also that he said to Pilate, you know, who asked him, are you a king?
[19:21] Jesus says, yes, I am a king, but not like you think. My kingdom is not of this world. I'm a bigger king. I'm king of kings.
[19:33] I'm king of heaven and earth. As Jesus said before he was ascended, he said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
[19:47] And he goes and sits to the right of his father. Rule in the midst of your enemies. So I was thinking, I'm still struck. Remember when we were doing the gospel of Mark? And I think it's the first sermon, I think it's in chapter one of Mark where he's preaching.
[20:03] And remember one of the demon-possessed people speaks up while he's preaching in reaction to his preaching. And what does Jesus do with this demon?
[20:16] Shut up. Silence. He silences the demon. And then he sets the man free. He casts out the demon. He sets captives free, which is what he came to do.
[20:28] I think ruling in the midst of your enemies was what Jesus did as he came to earth and he preached. He is constantly setting people free from demons.
[20:39] He is doing works of physical healing. He is giving sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, giving the deaf ability to see, which are all signs of what he can do in a spiritual realm.
[20:57] He can cause us who are spiritually blind to see and to hear and to walk when we could not walk before. That's what I think Jesus is doing.
[21:08] It's the powerful word of his mouth. That's his kingdom. And then his kin. I had to come up with a K word for people. So, verse 3 talks about your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.
[21:23] Literally, they will be free will offerings. They will be free will offerings. They will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. They will give themselves to you freely.
[21:35] They will not serve under pressure. They will serve because they want to serve you. That free will offering. It reminds me of Romans 12.1. Right? According to the mercies of God, I urge you to what?
[21:48] Present yourselves a living sacrifice. Acceptable to God. They come in holy garments, he says in verse 3.
[21:59] In holy garments. Ephesians 5 says that Jesus gave himself for his church that he might wash them and purify them and make them holy.
[22:12] What's the day of his power? What day is that? Well, I think it's the day that he speaks with power. I think it's the day that he raises from the dead.
[22:23] That's certainly power because that brings us redemption. It's also the day of his power is also the day that he will return. The day when he comes back. That's the day of his ultimate power.
[22:35] And Revelation 19 describes Jesus returning on a white horse and that those who will come with him, his people who come with him are in holy garments.
[22:47] on the day of your power they will give themselves freely. They'll come in holy garments. And I don't have a clue what the end of verse 3 means.
[23:00] I simply don't have a clue. From the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours. Okay? That's homework. You guys figure that out. I don't know what it means. I've read several scholars.
[23:12] I still don't know what it means. So that's a mystery to me. I'm just going to say that. I'm not even going to try to come up with something on that. Except that maybe there's some kind of renewal for these people in following Christ.
[23:25] I don't know. Wait till we get to Revelation and I say I can't explain that one either. I'm not even going there with that one. I'm excited though. We're going there.
[23:35] We're going there next week. I'm excited. I've been reading, reading, reading. In fact, I see overlap with this. With Revelation. Which is not surprising, is it?
[23:49] Peter at Pentecost preached from several Old Testament texts. Remember, the Holy Spirit was poured out on those people in the upper room and they began to speak with other tongues, remember?
[24:01] People were confused what's going on here and they think that the apostles and others are drunk because they're speaking in tongues. They don't understand them. And then they realize that those tongues were actually human languages that were for people that understood from other places.
[24:22] The apostles didn't know these languages. They were supernaturally speaking other languages. And so Peter's trying to explain what's going on. They're not drunk at all. They're actually fulfilling Scripture.
[24:32] Pentecost was actually fulfilling Scripture. So he speaks from Joel 2, he speaks from Psalm 16, and he speaks from Psalm 110 to explain what is going on.
[24:47] And here's what Peter says. Here's an excerpt of what Peter says in Acts chapter 2. He says,NINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNING about the resurrection of the Christ.
[25:24] So when David's writing Psalm 16 and Psalm 110, he knows he's prophesying. He may not know fully what he's saying, how it will apply, but he knows he's speaking about the Messiah to come because it's certainly not about him.
[25:42] Okay, so Peter gives us that insight. He's speaking about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades. Now he's referring to Psalm 16, nor did his flesh see corruption.
[25:52] This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted, here we come, at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, he's poured out the Holy Spirit that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
[26:13] So this is why people are speaking in tongues. He's poured out the Spirit from heaven. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, now he quotes Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
[26:33] Peter then says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him Jesus, both Lord and Christ.
[26:43] By the way, it's the same Jesus whom you crucified, is the Lord and the Messiah. So Psalm 110 is describing, first of all, Christ's enthronement in heaven.
[26:57] That as he was raised, he was raised and ascended up to heaven, and then he sat down at the Father's right hand and began to rule. All authority given to him on heaven and earth.
[27:09] He is controlling and ruling everything that is happening in history and at this time. Nothing outside of his domain. He was triumphant over death.
[27:26] His death was a sacrifice on a cross that was accepted as payment for our sins, and God then accepted his payment and glorified him by exalting him and setting him at his right hand.
[27:42] So the first declaration God makes about the Messiah is that he is a king. He is an enthroned king in heaven. He was a king when he came.
[27:53] He was a king. But now he is enthroned king in heaven. So verse 4, then we see a second declaration Yahweh makes to the Messiah.
[28:06] Now notice, most of these are quotes to the Messiah. So you sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. Again, verse 4, he swears and will not change his mind.
[28:19] You, Messiah, you, Christ, you, my son, are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So second declaration is Christ is the eternal high priest in heaven.
[28:37] He's not only a king, he's also a priest. This is entirely unique. No one else except for Melchizedek was a king and a priest.
[28:53] You are either, in the Old Testament, a king, if you are God's servant, you are either a king or you are a prophet or you are a priest. No one occupies the office of king and priest.
[29:10] You can be a king and a prophet, David was that. You can be a priest and a prophet. That happened as well. But no one was a king and a priest. Those are to be separate according to the law.
[29:27] So, notice the decree, first of all, verse 4, the Lord has sworn. Now, why does the Lord have to swear? Does he ever lie? No, but the book of Hebrews makes a point of this that he swore because he's trying, he's, he's doing something he doesn't need to do but he's kind of going beyond to make a point to say, I am never, ever, ever, ever going to change my mind about this.
[29:53] Not that I ever do. But, but I just want you to know, so for your encouragement, and, and, and so Hebrews, the book of Hebrews talks about that, that we look at that as, oh, that's a sure thing for us.
[30:08] This is God's irrevocable promise. He makes an oath about it. He doesn't need to, but he makes an oath. So, Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. This, and what is it about his oath here?
[30:22] That the Messiah is a priest forever. He's an eternal priest. But not after the order of Levi. Not after the order of Aaron.
[30:32] Like every other priest. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. That guy.
[30:45] He is an eternal priest. Unending. He's permanent. He is a priest in the sense that he offers a sacrifice. What does a priest do? Remember, what did the priest do in the Old Testament?
[30:55] They offered sacrifices. They prepared the sacrifices. They were mediators between Israel and God. They were the ones that came into the temple. They did the temple things.
[31:06] They lit the candles. They put the bread on the table. Right? They did the incense. They prepared the lambs and the bulls for sacrifices. Once a year, the high priest would enter into not just the holy place, but through the veil, through the curtain.
[31:23] The holy of holies where the ark sat, the presence of God, the mercy seat, once a year, they would enter. They would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat.
[31:36] And then what'd they do? Get out. And if they died in there, there's a rope to pull them out because nobody's going in after them.
[31:49] It's a holy, holy, holy place. It's a presence of God. So Jesus is a priest. Now, he never went into the holy place, the earthly temple.
[32:01] He never did. He was from the wrong tribe. He wasn't a Levite. He's from Judah. Now, kings come from Judah, but not priests. So, how is he a priest?
[32:15] Well, not according to Levi, not according to the law, but he did act as priest in the sense that he brought an offering to God. And the difference is that he was the offering.
[32:28] He's the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And when he made an offering of himself for the sins of the people, God accepted that offering.
[32:39] God then exalted him and raised him up and seated at his right hand. So the book of Hebrews talks about after Jesus made an offering, he went into the holy place. Now, he didn't go into the earthly holy of holies.
[32:51] He went into the real holy of holies. He went into the real temple. He went there into the real presence of God. And when he got there, what did he do?
[33:03] He sat down. Which means he was done. Earthly priests go in, sprinkle the blood, get out. They don't sit down.
[33:14] And by the way, where do you sit in the holy of holies? There's only one seat in there. The mercy seat. The top of the ark. The presence of God.
[33:26] Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? You don't mess with that, right? So, holy place. Symbolically, that is the, God says I will be right there in the mercy seat between the cherubim with the wings over, right?
[33:41] That's where I am. Under that lid of that is where the law is, right? And Aaron's budded staff and the manna, a little jar of manna, all those significant things that remind you I provide for you and I have a covenant with you.
[34:01] So, symbolically, Jesus goes and sits down on the ark in the very presence of God. But he wasn't in the earthly temple.
[34:11] He went to the real temple where he sat down at the Father's right hand. So, here, see, we're mixing things now.
[34:23] See, it says king in verse 1, he's told, sit at my right hand as a king. But now we have him as a priest doing the same thing. The book of Hebrews pulls these two connected together.
[34:35] He's not only priest, or he's not only king, he's a priest. And he's a priest who sits at the right hand of the Father. How big is that? And because it was not according to Aaron or to the Levites or according to law, because remember, Melchizedek came way before the law and way before the priests.
[35:02] This is not according to the old covenant. This is now according to a better covenant, a new covenant. It's actually connected to the covenant that Abraham had, which was an eternal covenant.
[35:15] because we enter into Abraham, we become his children in his covenant. Jesus is fulfilling that. So then look at verses five and six.
[35:29] It describes his power, but it's odd. Remember, this is a priest. Now it says, verse five, the Lord is at your right hand. Wait a minute. Back in verse one, it was, Yahweh says to Adonai, sit at my right hand.
[35:44] Now in verse five, it says, Adonai, notice it's small letters there, not caps. Adonai is at your right hand. So what's being switched here?
[35:56] So it's still Adonai, my Lord, is still sitting at the right hand, but who's being addressed is changed. So now we're speaking to Yahweh.
[36:10] Now we're speaking to the Father. See, the Lord is at your right hand. Yeah, Adonai is at Yahweh's right hand, the Father's right hand. What will he do?
[36:22] What will this Messiah do? Verse five, he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. Verse six, he will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.
[36:33] He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. Okay, so I don't know what your view of priest is, but a priest who shatters, executes judgment, not what I think of as a priest.
[36:50] Leaving corpses, I thought priests were more gentle than that. What are you supposed to bring us to God? Well, remember, this is a different priest.
[37:03] He is a priest who offers himself, he brings us to God, he gives us access to the Father in heaven, but he's also a priest that will shatter and judge.
[37:17] Here's my influence from the book of Revelation again. See, the book of Revelation is about another image, about a lamb, a lamb, and it's about the wrath of the lamb.
[37:33] Now, there's an odd image. the wrath of a lamb. See, a lamb, like a priest, is a gentle creature. It's an offering. And yet, the book of Revelation describes, here's this lamb.
[37:48] He's also the lion of Judah, but he's a lamb. So, John's told, he's the lion of Judah. He turns around to look at this magnificent lion, and it's a lamb, slain, bloody, beaten.
[38:04] And that's the one who's worthy to open the scrolls. That's the one who will take wrath on enemies. And so, the rest of the book of Revelation is about the wrath of the lamb.
[38:16] The wrath of the lamb. It is the lamb who will conquer, according to Revelation 17, 14. He's conquering them. In fact, the lamb title is 29 times in the book of Revelation.
[38:30] Jesus is also the lamb of God. He was slain to take away sins. He was that priest who offered himself. He's a lamb, but he's also a lion.
[38:41] And let me just read one section from Revelation just to wet your taste buds, wet your appetite. That's what it is. That's what you're supposed to say. Sorry, I get myself in these tangles.
[38:57] Here's how Revelation describes Jesus' return. Right? Very symbolic, but watch carefully how he's described. This is one of the very last visions.
[39:11] Revelation 19, 11. And then I saw heaven opened. And behold, a white horse and the one sitting on it called faithful and true.
[39:22] And in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire. And on his head are many diadems.
[39:34] And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood.
[39:46] Ooh. Okay, who's that? Okay, I think we're zeroing in on who this is. And the name by which he is called is the Word of God.
[39:57] The Word was with God. And the Word was God. And the Word became flesh. And the Word came back.
[40:11] And armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen white and pure were following on white horses. That's us. We get to go along to watch. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nation.
[40:27] And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
[40:45] Then I saw an angel sitting in the sun. Just sitting in the sun. Angels. And with they're strange creatures. They just say, I'm going to sit in the sun.
[40:58] Oh, sorry. Standing. Standing in the sun. And with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead. Come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.
[41:20] And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth. Remember, this priest is shattering kings and enemies and nations.
[41:33] And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured.
[41:44] This is a very short war. The beast was captured. And with it, the false prophet who was in his presence who had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image.
[41:57] I'm giving away the end of the story, by the way, of Revelation, but that's okay. I think you already know. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came out of the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds gorged on their flesh.
[42:18] That's the end. This is what I believe Psalm 110 is describing. He will shatter the kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.
[42:31] He will scatter chiefs or heads or rulers over the wide earth. This is not just a local. This is a universal thing. And then he makes one more statement in verse 7.
[42:43] He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. He will drink from the brook by the way. Again, what?
[42:55] And every commentary I read is like, pfft, maybe this. Maybe it's about refreshment. Maybe it's, I don't know, different ideas.
[43:06] But they all admitted they don't know. I know. I figured it out. No, I don't know. But this is what I think perhaps it means.
[43:17] Because this applies to Messiah. And the last line says, therefore he will lift up his head. So that's victory. He's lifting up his head. He's exalted, right? He's victorious. What did Jesus do right before he was victorious?
[43:31] What did he drink? What did he drink? In the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, I don't want to drink this. Let this cup pass from me but by thy will I will.
[43:50] The cup. Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? To the sons of thunder who want to sit on his right and left. This word brook.
[44:05] Now we think of a brook we think, oh gentle flowing brook. We just read that in Isaiah, right? Gentle flowing brook. The men are stuttering the life, stuttering, studying the life of Elijah and it starts out with him sitting by a brook.
[44:19] Nice gentle brook. Well brooks aren't always gentle. It just depends on the time the rain comes. Because a brook is a ravine, a wadi.
[44:30] Ever heard that term? Right? So in a dry season it's all dried up. There's nothing there. When the storm comes and fills it up it's a flood. It's a torrent.
[44:42] And that's what this word also means. It can be a brook or a torrent. I don't think Jesus is drinking from a gentle brook.
[44:54] I think he's drinking from a raging torrent. He drinks this cup. And because he drinks the cup that is the death on a cross he's then he lifts up his head.
[45:08] He is exalted and raised to sit at the right hand. So why is this so significant? This great psalm that describes Jesus as king in heaven and priest forever.
[45:24] How is this relevant to us? Well the book of Hebrews makes it quite clear for us. It is a great encouragement. Hebrews 6 and through chapter 7 describes it this way.
[45:40] He said when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose he guaranteed it with an oath.
[45:52] He didn't need to put an oath but he wanted to absolutely convince us so he guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things the oath and his word in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have fled for refuge might have what?
[46:08] What does all this mean? We might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us. Then he says it this way I love this verse we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.
[46:26] Oh does my soul need an anchor? My soul is all over the place I need to steady that puppy I need to tie that down with an anchor as I love he uses this image the steadfast anchor of the soul to hold the soul in place.
[46:43] A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain here we have the temple image here. It's a hope that enters into the holy of holies where God is behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as forerunner on our behalf because he went in we can go in having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek for this Melchizedek now he's going to explain this Melchizedek who is this guy this Melchizedek king of Salem priest of the most high guy high God met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything by the way this is before tithing and the law Abraham just gave him a tenth of everything why I don't know just did it wasn't a law yet just did it so that's kind of significant father Abraham in his loins are all the tribes of Israel right
[47:50] Levi's still in his loins and so through Abraham all the tribes are paying tribute to Melchizedek that's how big this guy is that's how great this guy is he is first by translation of his name Melchizedek king of righteousness and then he is also king of Salem that is king of peace by the way king of Salem Salem was the former name of Jerusalem Salem Shalom peace king of peace king of Salem Jesus Abraham went to Salem Jerusalem we are going to hear about that place a lot it's all coming together here's the interesting part he is without father or mother or genealogy where did he come from he just showed up having neither beginning of days nor end of life he just showed up who is this guy well he came again he doesn't have the name Melchizedek but he is a king of righteousness and he is a king of peace he is a king of kings he shows up in the Old Testament and then he comes for real for real and flesh in the first century see how great a man this man was to whom
[49:27] Abraham the patriot gave a tenth of the spoils because here is a man Melchizedek who was before the twelve tribes before the law before the priesthood before the Sinai covenant he is the original king and priest this text of Psalm 110 is significant because it is it points to a steadfast anchor of our soul that Jesus himself entered the holy place gave access to God cleared away for us to have access to God without jumping through any hoops he reconciles us he establishes peace he intercedes and hears our prayers he gives us grace and mercy from his throne remember we approach the throne of mercy we approach the throne of grace where's the throne the throne is at the right hand he intercedes with the father for us he doesn't have to go far to intercede with the father he just turns to his left daddy
[50:32] Billy needs you again I got it I got it he did not just enter the holy place he sat down his work was finished he offered himself once for all the one sacrifice was enough to make us holy and in his name we have immediate bold access to the father let me close with this from from Hebrews 10 12 which puts both of these roles together when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins there he is as the lamb offering himself when he did that he sat down at the right hand of God and now he is king let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for this great psalm which so many of your apostles and new testament writers draw from because it points to our lord jesus we thank you that you have made him king that he is sitting at your right hand father ruling in the midst of his enemies we thank you father that you made him a priest who could offer a sacrifice acceptable to you that would remove our sin and stain which would pay for our rebellion and transgressions and iniquities we thank you oh father and we want to celebrate that today as we come to your table we remember this great offering that
[52:20] Christ brought revive our hearts with this father create for us in this an anchor for our soul we pray in Christ's name amen forNING for