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Hello then, and a very good morning once more to you all. It is a very great encouragement to see so many of you here gathered on this day of holiday. And for you who are here perhaps for the first time, just let me point out to you what the topic of our s- morning study sessions is. We have been in process of d- of studying together the first book of Chronicles, under the general title of Man's Pathway to the Coming Age of Peace and Glory. We have entitled it thus because the first book of Chronicles and then the second are notable for the delightful description they give of that magnificent age of peace and prosperity and wealth and glory that took place as a result of the double kingship, first of David and then of King Solomon.
The historian becomes quite animated as he goes into detail of all the wonderful, glorious experiences into which God brought Israel in that age of peace and wealth. Of course, it didn't last, but as Christians, we read those Old Testament descriptions of that golden age, and we immediately think in our hearts, led by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, of the glorious age yet to come, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come and bring his people to an age of eternal glory and wealth.
So then, as we have studied First Chronicles, we have tried to mark what are the major stages by which mankind, starting with Adam, shall eventually arrive at that glorious position described at the end of Chronicles in the term, then Solomon sat on the very throne of the law. And hitherto we have found that stage one was the rise of Israel from among the nations. Israel, that nation through whom God's purposes have been planned all down the centuries. The nation through whom Messiah himself has come.
That nation that still has a future in the plans of God. And then we notice that the fall of Israel was eventually followed by the rise of that special king, David. The disobedient king Saul was put aside, and in his place God instituted David, the man who himself learned to obey God, and the man under God given that genius to bring Israel as a nation to the point where they were in practice what in principle God had made them, a kingdom of priests to obey God and to conduct life as a great peon of praise and orchestra of worship to the living God.
Then we notice that with the rise of David as king, the next stage was the unification of the people of God. When David became king, the people of God were divided, and obviously there could be no age of peace and glory so long as God's people remained divided. So it was a very necessary and early stage in this pathway to glory, David united the people of God. And we have spent some longish time studying the means and the method that David used to unite, to unite his people. This morning we move on to another subject, and that is the subjugation of the enemies of God and the pacification of the nation.
And you might care, if you have your Bible with you, to see why I have called this third section of the book under those terms. Indeed, I have called it the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem and the question of the problem of evil and its solution. Uh, the section runs from chapter fourteen of First Chronicles and verse eight through to the end of chapter eighteen. This is the story of David in his relationship, not now to the people of God so much as to the nation.
And it begins in chapter fourteen verses eight to seventeen with a story of two raids, two attacks that the Philistines made to try and unseat David from being king of Israel. They had heard that the Lord had appointed him, and he was anointed king over all Israel. And the Philistines immediately sensed the threat. If David succeeded to sit on the throne of Israel and unite the nation, then their little empire, the Philistine empire, was doomed. So they sought to nip this thing in the bud, and before David could get firmly established on the throne of Israel, they sought to attack him and to destroy the Lord's anointing and stop his kingdom ever taking permanent shape.
And under God's leading, David on these two occasions went forth and overcame the Philistines, thus securing the first step in the security of his throne. As that section begins, so it ends in chapter eighteen. Two series of remarkable triumphs over the Gentile nations that lay around Israel. Nations who, from their very start, had been a threat to the very existence of Israel. And it was obvious that if ever Israel were to be brought to an age of peace and glory and settled, uh, circumstance, then these hostile nations would have to be put down and subdued and pacified.
Otherwise, Israel would never have any permanent peace. And so chapter eighteen tells us in summary of all the many local little Gentile nations that David went against, and the Lord gave him victory where so ever he went, and his kingdom was established, and the pathway cleared of obstacle so that Israel might proceed to their wonderful promised age of peace and glory. And that this section is concerned with God's, uh, triumph through David over the nations. We shall further see if we take a few moments to read from chapter sixteen, David's great prayer and praise to God.
David had just with Israel brought up the ark of the Lord into Jerusalem with tremendous joy and lifting up of the voice and shouting and trumpets. And in triumph, when the ark of the Lord was installed in Zion, city of the great king, David ordained that the Levites should daily sing the praise of God before the ark of God there in the city of God, that is Jerusalem. And this is what they had to say, verse eight of chapter sixteen: And on that day did David first ordain to give thanks unto the Lord by the hand of Asaph and his brethren.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his doings among the peoples, that is the nations. Sing unto him, sing praises unto him, talk ye of all his marvelous. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek ye the Lord and his strength, seek his face evermore. Remember his marvelous works that he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. O ye seed of Israel, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
He is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac. And in the following verses and stanzas, the Levites were to sing a wonderful story, how that God had originally made a covenant with Abraham to give them this land for possession. And now at last, says David, now at last, say the Levites, God has fulfilled his glorious covenant, and here we are installed with the Lord himself residing on the throne of God, established here in Jerusalem.
So says verse twenty three: sing unto the Lord, all the earth, show forth his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works amongst all the people. Verse twenty eight: give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the peoples, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. The world also is established that it cannot be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns.
Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field exult, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye, save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting. And all the people said, amen and praise the Lord.
God's way with the nations, the final subjugation and pacification of all the hostile nations, paving the way for Israel to arrive at her age of peace and glory. And so may God give us good understanding of his word. I don't know, ladies and gentlemen, whether you are much given to talking to Christian people about their spirit. If you're not, well, I could recommend the, uh, the, the, uh, occupation to you. If you should happen to talk to Christian people about their spiritual position, you'll find that they reply to you in terms that are a little puzzling, for at first they seem contradictory.
Try it after this session. Turn to the person next to you, if you happen to know that he or she is a Christian, and ask them, now what is your present spiritual position? And you mustn't be surprised if they'll say, my present spiritual position? Why, good friend, do you know what? I'm seated with Christ in the heavenly places. You say, really? You mean that literally? Can't be true, can it? Are you saying, uh, uh, uh, uh, you're in heaven where Christ is? You, you, they'll say, yes, precisely I am. Yes, you see, when God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, he set him at his own right hand, far above principalities and powers and every name that is named, na- both in this age and that which is to come.
And the scripture tells me that when God raised him from the dead and seated him there, he raised me too and seated me too. Isn't that marvelous? I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. You say, well, that is marvelous. So you're saying, are you, that you're not on earth, you're, you're not seated down here at all, you're in heaven already. No, no, they'll say, and they'll keep a straight face. Uh, no, no, no, I'm not in heaven. I'm seated on earth. In fact, I've been seated this last hour and a half on some very hard benches in, in the tent at Moorfield. Mm-hmm. Where gravity adds to the pain of my posterior. And you'll say, well, how do you make sense of that?
One minute they say they're in heaven, and the next minute they say they're on earth. I mean, what kind of people are these Christians? And it's not only when they talk of their spiritual experience they'll talk like that. But should you ask them, now tell us all those marvelous promises of the Old Testament that one day God would send the Messiah into the world. Um, what do you believe about that? Have they been fulfilled? And you'll find these Christians say, oh yes, of course, the Messiah has come. Rejoice and be glad, the Redeemer has come. Go look on his stable, his cross, and his tomb.
Oh yes, we know the Son of God has come. Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah has come. And you say, oh, is that so? Well, he must be here already. Oh no, they'll say, no, he hasn't come yet. Wait a minute, thought you said he had come? Well, he has come. But he hasn't come yet? No, he has not come yet. Oh. And if you've met Christianity for the first time, it sounds distinctly odd. Of course, believers find no trouble with it. They mightn't even bother to explain to you the apparent contradiction, for they're used to this idea that the scripture of the Old Testament that prophesied the coming of Messiah has not been fulfilled all at once. It has been fulfilled in part by the first coming.
It will be fulfilled in toto by the second coming. But you see, for many folks, that is a very big difficulty, and not least for our Jewish friends. You'll see, I perhaps have told you before, I had a fellow student one stage trying to learn Hebrew as I was. He happened to be a Jew. His parents had been eliminated by Hitler, and he himself has escaped. And he would say to me, but David, you say your Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah has come. It cannot be true.
For the Old Testament said that when the Messiah came, he would put down evil, and your Jesus hasn't put down evil, has he now? Of course, I had to agree. Evil has gone on unabated, hasn't it? Since our blessed Lord Jesus came and since he ascended. And if I tried to tell him that there were two comings, you'll see there was a first coming and a second coming. Oh, nonsense, he would say. You made that up. So Orthodox Jews to this day, with the Bible in their hand, believe in the prophecies that talk about the coming of Messiah. But they will say he hasn't come at all.
They are still waiting for the coming of Messiah. Jesus isn't the Messiah, they say, because look how he suffered. No, we wait still for the Messiah. Messiah hasn't come yet. If you, on on the other hand, go to the liberal Jews and say, do you believe in those Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Messiah, and the Messiah is still to come? They'll say, of course not. Oh, we believed in them, but you shouldn't have taken those prophecies literally. They were metaphorical prophecies, so to speak, and all those prophecies about the coming of Messiah have already been fulfilled long in the past, and none of them awaits fulfillment in the future.
And if you try to tell them, oh yes, but uh, there is a future, and Messiah hasn't come in that sense yet, of course they find it difficult. So now, summing up what the Christians think and the way they interpret the Old Testament, you could put it like this. That's how some of the theologians put it. Christians, on the one hand, know and have experience that the Lord has already come. And a great part of the prophecies that were given of him have already been fulfilled.
And as a result, Christians will say to you that they already have eternal life. And they already have access into the holiest of all. And already are they seated with Christ in heavenly places. Absolutely sure of the already part of their salvation. Yet at the same time, they will frankly admit that there are many aspects of salvation that they haven't yet got. There are the not yet promises, promises as valid as any of the others, but have not yet been fulfilled, for the fulfillment of which we must wait.
And normally, you know, believers find that no difficulty to them. They've been taught to argue that if God has fulfilled the prophecies about Messiah, about his suffering, his death and resurrection, if those parts have been fulfilled, then it is absolutely certain that God will go on and fulfill the next bit. And the not yet will one day become the now achieved. But you see, for sometimes, sometimes for some believers, it's the not yet bit that proves difficult. It did for our early fellow believers, didn't it?
The he- Hebrew Christians. They had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They had professed faith in the Lord Jesus and thought to experience a marvelous reign of the Messiah of peace and glory and plenty, the end of suffering, and found that faith in the Lord Jesus as Messiah didn't put an end to their suffering, it increased it. And when they found their homes broken into, or when they found themselves facing the hungry jaws of a lion in the Roman Colosseum, then their faith began to wobble.
It's understandable, isn't it? How does it come that believing in Christ means more suffering than before? Then the insidious thing would come into their hearts. Can it be true? Is Jesus the Messiah after all? It doesn't always take severe persecution to do that for believers. Sometimes believers run into long periods of physical and emotional suffering, and they plead to the Lord to heal, and he doesn't.
And as the weary years go by, they begin to wonder, is it true? Or is Christianity merely a psychological self-deception? That's where scripture comes in, doesn't it? And where God in his mercy has given us in his Old Testament many a picture, many a type, many a prototype, that going back and reading those pictures and those prototypes, we may have comfort from the Holy Spirit and from the Holy Scriptures of God's past ways with his people.
And that is what we shall do this morning. We're going back to King David and his ma- his experiences of God. And we shall find he too had this same kind of experience. In the first chapters that we are to read, we shall find David overflowing with joy and triumph. The Lord has come, says he. The Lord has come to Jerusalem, and all his ancient promises, the covenant that he made with Abraham, they've all been fulfilled. We have arrived. Marvelous. The Lord has come. The Lord is in our midst. And as we listen to David, we shall share some of his joy and enthusiasm.
And as we come to the second half of the passage, we shall find David in his not yet experience. And God saying to him, David, you want to build me a house? Thank you very much, but not yet, not yet. You haven't arrived quite as far as you thought you had. And I have plans for you, large, great, vast plans, stretching out into the distant future, David. And I must ask you to wait with my not yet. And as we see David in that experience, we shall learn, uh, of God's ways, and through the comfort of the scripture have hope.
We've not followed cunningly devised fables. This pattern of things, the already and the not yet, has long since been laid down by God in scripture, that we may grasp it and not lose our nerve and faith when the not yet period seems to last so long. So first of all, David's already. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king and was now sitting on the throne of a united nations, the Israel of God being joined together, the Philistines decided that they must nip this thing in the bud.
If they let David get established in his roots deep and his throne secure, they could see that that spelled the end of their Philistine dominion in those parts, and one of these days they would have to bow the knee to David and own him not only king of Israel, but emperor of their world, and that they were not prepared to do. And so, when this anointed king was, so to speak, young and on his throne, they rose up against the Lord and against his anointed, to do their very utmost to unseat David and to destroy his kingdom before it came to advance.
And the Lord guided David with his divine special providence, and David went out against the Philistines, and they were defeated. And then the wonderful thing happened. The Lord himself came to Jerusalem. For David and the elders of Israel and the Levites all went to the house of Obed-Edom, and with great solemnity and overflowing joy, they brought up the ark of God out of the ho- ho- home of Obed-Edom and brought it into the city of David and put it in a tent that David had prepared.
It was a spectacular day in Israel. You can use your holy imagination for a moment. Consider yourself standing at the gates of the city of Jerusalem, watching this fair, fine morning, and in the distance comes this procession, a marvelous procession. There come the Levites in their solid white garments, in stately measured steps, and on their shoulders the throne and footstool of God with its overarching cherubim. And seated on the cherubim, though they could not see him with their literal eye, face I saw, the God of the whole earth, the Lord of heaven, earth, and sea, seated upon the cherubim, and here he was coming.
Oh, what a thrill went through the crowd. As the boy asked his parent and the girl asked her mother, what's happening, mum? Her mum would say, the Lord is coming, my dear. Fancy being there and see it happen. Watch the Lord come to Jerusalem and received up and placed in the place of eminence that David had prepared for him, and the throne of God established, and the Lord reigning. Even as I speak, you Christians are thinking of other things, aren't you?
Ah, one day you'll see him. I can't resist the temptation to say it already. One day you will see him, my brother, my sister, not on some golden box, on some metallic cherubim, but oh, you will see him. Oh, I shall see him descending the sky, coming in the very clouds of heaven to establish his throne eternally. Oh, what joy there will be, what ecstatic shouting, what praises of God, what hallelujahs, when the Lord comes.
And we see him come. And the throne of God is established. Long centuries of God's people been taught to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. One day, the prayer shall be answered. The Lord shall come. So the ark was received. And you can see the significance it had for David and for Israel at large by what happened next. David organized and orchestrated the Levites so that every day they should, on behalf of the nation, surround the throne of God, now established in Jerusalem, and sing their praise for God and make known the great judgments of God and the marvelous things that he had done.
What had he done? What filled their hearts with such joy and wonder? Let the priests tell you. You see, they say centuries ago, God made a covenant with Abraham and with his seed to give us this land, many, many centuries ago. And it's been long years and sometimes dreary years since that first promise was made. Yes, there were times when we thought it never would be come to be fulfilled, when the nation was taken down to Egypt and were in bondage. Four hundred long years they were in bondage. Many of them had given up hope that ever the promise would be fulfilled, and then God sent to Moses, and he brought us out of o- o- of Egypt, and he brought us to the verge of the Promised Land, and then poor old Moses could get us no further, and we thought it was the end of things, but God raised up a Joshua, and he brought us in.
And that seemed marvelous at the time, but it turned out to be not the final thing. For though the nation was in the Promised Land, they were constantly attacked by their enemies and troubled and tried and destroyed and cut to pieces. Much troubled by the Gentile nations around. Some thought there would never come a day when Israel would possess their land that God had promised them. And then with exalting joy, they would tell you, it's happened. The Lord has come and established his throne in Jerusalem, and we're in possession of the land, and all the enemies shall be subdued. Tell the nations that, say the Levites, heralded abroad, let the nations know the Lord has come.
This is the beginning of his reign. Already arrived. You can understand his fervor, can't you? Wouldn't satisfy you, I know, because you are so spiritually minded, but uh, uh, uh, you can understand his fervor, the feeling that God has fulfilled his promise. Well, he said, you see, here am I dwelling in a beautiful mansion and sealed pine wood ceiling and all that, you see, when the ark and throne of the Lord is just, uh, in a tent up the road, you see, with a flip, flap, flap, flip tent thing. But that's hardly, uh, that's hardly dignified enough for the Lord of the whole earth, is it, and for have his throne in a tent.
So Nathan, he said, uh, uh, uh, I think the Lord is, uh, I think the Lord would have me anyway. I've decided to do it. I- I'm going to, uh, I- I- I- I'm going to build him a permanent house, a really good permanent house, temple of stone. You'll see. None of this temporary affair anymore. We've arrived. I'm going to build him a temple and put the ark and the throne of the Lord in this permanent temple. And Nathan said, what a jolly good idea, David, do go ahead with me. And that night the Lord spoke to Nathan, and he had to eat his words and come back to David the next morning and say, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. The Lord has been talking to me. And David, the Lord doesn't care too much for your scheme.
Why ever not, said David. And then the Lord broke through the prophet's voice and talked to him. David, said he, this scheme of yours to build me a permanent house, did I ask for it, David? Was that my suggestion? Well, no, Lord, he said, but you can't object, can you? Because, I mean, it's a jolly good idea. Now listen, said the Lord. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, but wait a minute, David. Who, who is manager here? Whose plan is this?
David said, uh, David, said the Lord, I've never asked anybody all these years to build me a permanent house. From the time of your ancestors and I brought them out of Egypt, I've been content with a tabernacle. I've been content with a moving tabernacle because the people were not yet arrived at the destination I had in view for them. And David, I walked in the tent all those years, and even since they got into the land, I was prepared to walk in the tent with them, and I walked every mile, David, with the people to bring them to the goal I had in mind for them. And I'm not yet arrived yet, David.
Are I not for settling down, David? You may think it wonderful what I've already done, but that's only a beginning, David. I've got plans for you that go over the edge of the most distant time you could think of and into eternity, David, and I'm not settling down, David, until I get you there. And that wasn't God being stingy and jealous. That was God adhering to his purpose. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, but according to whose plan?
Said God to David, David, tell me something. Did you think up this scheme? Was it you one day when you were shepherding a few sheep and you had an idea, this is a miserable business here, seeing after a few smelly old sheep in a meadow? Uh, I think I could have better things to do than this. Was it you who came to me and said, look here, God, I've had a scheme. I wonder if you would take me from being a shepherd boy and make me the king of Israel and set me the head of a big empire. It wasn't, was it, David? Who raised that wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest? David says, God, that was my idea.
I thought of it first. And you never dreamed of it, did you? You would never have dreamed that from being a little shepherd boy you would rise to sit on the throne of Israel. That was my idea, David. And now you think you've arrived. Oh, but David, I've ideas for you that stretch into eternity. One of these days, David, you say I'm going to build you a house. You don't need to talk about building me a house. I'm going to build you a house. I'm going to build you a royal dynasty. A whole succession of kings will come from you. I'm telling you now, David, take it in. One of your descendants, I shall be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
I'm asking you to wait, David, until I'm finished with you. I wonder how much David understood. Did he realize what God meant? He was building a dynasty, a succession of kings. Some of them would be poor enough and have to be disciplined, as God said they would. But one day there would be born of the line of David, in David's own city of Bethlehem, a savior of the seed of David according to the flesh. But hear the wonder of it, that God already had in his mind. One day there would be born to David a savior, which is Christ the Lord.
God would not merely father him and be a kindly fatherly guide to him, the one that should be born to be the eternal Son of God, become flesh, dwell among us. All ideas God had for him. I wonder, did David begin to realize it at the time? For had he done so, that, uh, Jerusalem business would have faded a bit, wouldn't it? Compared to the glory of this. One day, God's own son, son of the Father, heir of the universe, will come to Jerusalem in the line of King David and one day set up his throne.
He left. When did he know? He knows now, doesn't he? He knows now, and how grateful David is that he didn't get building that house of the Lord himself, and David was content to wait for the not yet, and embraced the marvelous and glorious promises of God and purposes of God yet to be fulfilled. And when David understood it in part, gave up his notion of building a permanent house at that juncture, and he went in and sat before the Lord. Oh Lord, he said, what shall I say?
Such humble origins was I, and of your grace and purpose you elevated me to the throne, and not only to this little throne in Jerusalem, but thou hast spoken of thy servant for a great while yet to come. Oh God, said he, all I can say is this, thanks be to God for it. God, since it was your idea, please fulfill what you have promised and execute your plan to the full. David, with the already and with the not yet.
You see the pattern in Holy Scripture itself? That was the ways of God with Israel. The ways of God with us, isn't it? From all those early historical events, we turn now, using them as a prototype for ourselves. And sure, with us, as the centuries have rolled by, God has unraveled his plan. We're far more advanced than David ever was, are we not? You'll see one day the Ark of the Lord came to Jerusalem in another sense, didn't it? Oh, marvelous story. The Word was made flesh and tabernacle of money.
And he who is the Son of the Father, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, took flesh and blood, and as the Lord came riding on the back of a donkey and came to Jerusalem. What a tremendous moment that was, wasn't it? When the thousands that had followed him from Galilee and the thousands more at the gates of the Jerusalem watched to see what was happening, and there came over the crest of the Mount of Olives this great crowd, and in its center, one sitting on an ass. And the cry went out to the thousands that were following, the Lord is coming. The long prophecies of scripture, given, for instance, by Zechariah, thy king shall come to thee lowly, sitting on an ass and upon the pole of an ass.
And now it's happening in front of our eyes. You can imagine the ecstatic excitement of the crowd, can you not, as they watched the king coming, and they shouted, Hosanna, hallelujah, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. It was a coming of the Lord, wasn't it? And what happened then? Well, the Gentiles got to hear of it. Or some of them did, but not only Gentiles, but if you please, enemies of yours in Israel itself. And surely in this very city, said the apostles a while after, the nations raved, and the people imagined a vain thing, and they gathered themselves together against the Lord and against his Messiah in this very city of Jerusalem, they did it.
And Herod and Pilate and the leaders of the nation, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, gathered together, and they were determined to nip this thing in the bud. Before this idea of Jesus being the Messiah and planting his kingdom, they would destroy him. Let's exau- see. And like those old Philistines at the first, they came against the Messiah to cast his bands asunder from them and put an end to his reign before it began. What happened then? He that sitteth in the heaven laughed. Laughed at man's puny ideas.
And replied, yet have I set my holy king upon my hill of Zion, and raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. The Lord come to Zion. You say, isn't that a bit of a cop-out? That's what you Christians talk about. You say he was the Messiah come to set up his reign in Jerusalem, and then when he didn't do that, you imagine that, uh, oh well, it wasn't the earthly Jerusalem God had in mind, it was the heavenly Jerusalem. And that's a bit of a cop-out. Oh no, it isn't. The Lord's coming, his first coming, what would it involve?
It would involve his coming to Jerusalem. It would involve his sacrifice at Calvary, but that wouldn't finish it. To finish the first phase of his coming, he must die and ascend and go into heaven, mustn't he? That isn't a cop-out, that's a fulfillment. You see it in the question of his sacrifice, don't you? He came to fulfill all those long sacrifices of the Old Testament, and when he died on the cross, he said, it is finished. That couldn't be the end of it. To complete that first coming, once in the end of the ages as he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he must not only die and rise again, to complete the very ceremony, he must ascend into the very presence of God, and that he has done.
Oh, the marvelous triumph of the Lord. Yes, have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. What a fulfillment it is, far beyond anything David would have ever envisaged. The Lord coming to Jerusalem, being rejected and crucified, risen, and now seated on the hill of Zion, the very presence of God itself. Already, my son, I bid you rejoice. You just think of the things that you have already been achieved for you by his first coming.
Can you count them on your fingers? You say, well now, would that be so already? Already. We have access into the holiest of all. The work is finished, the sacrifice done, redemption's cost paid. By a one sacrifice for sin forever, at the end, the consummation of the ages, he has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and he's entered in and sat down at the right hand of God. Oh, marvelous fulfillment. And already because of it, my dear friend, those Christians we talked of at the beginning were not talking nonsense.
Already, you have access, don't you? Into the holiest of all, into the very hill of Zion. Wow. Then, there's the not yet for us as well, isn't it? And this is where some of the early believers were in difficulty. Take the two on the road to Emmaus. Their difficulty was this, they thought that at our Lord's first coming, he would put down all rule and authority, and all the enemies of the people of God should be destroyed, and Christ would reign, and he didn't do it.
And they said to the stranger on the road who came aside them, they said, we had hoped that this Jesus would, uh, be proved to be the liberator of Israel, and he hasn't done it. And their hopes were almost smashed. And our Lord came aside and had to explain to them the difference between the already and the not yet. And the plan of scripture was that first he must suffer these things and only then enter into the glory of his coming reign. So much has been fulfilled.
For the rest, we wait. Sometimes you feel it so, that the waiting period is long. You watch the evil of the world increase. You watch the persecution of your fellow believers in many parts of the world as terrible as it ever has been. You watch the daily sorrows, griefs, illnesses, and diseases that afflict your loved ones. Our loved ones are taken. Still the Lord doesn't come.
Do you ever feel it in your heart, my brother, my sister, that the Lord is slow concerning his promises? Do you ever find your heart crying, oh Lord, how long? How long, Lord? How long before you rise up and smite the evil and put down wicked men. How long, Lord? You leave me to undergo the suffering that I undergo. How long? Ere we hear the glad song, Christ returneth. Hallelujah. But how long, Lord? There's a cure for that kind of feeling, isn't it?
We could do what David did. As he heard God expound the wonderful future he had in store for him, he went and sat in the presence of the Lord and surveyed the situation. We could do the same. Let the Lord talk to our hearts in these closing moments. You, my dear sister, you, my brother, saved, on your way to glory, seated with Christ in the heavenly, access into the very presence of God, redeemed, at peace with God, but going through all sorts of trials and tribulations while you wait for his coming again.
Now think, tell me, by whose design is all this being carried out for you? Was it your idea? Would you think up a better pla- uh, plan and program than God has? Was it you that came to God and said, look here, God, you are supposed to be a God of mercy. Would you not, uh, one of these days consider sending your son to bear my sin instead of me? That wasn't your idea, was it? Oh, who raised that wondrous thought? And as we sit down and think it, the wonder begins to fill our hearts.
It wasn't my thought. I never imagined any such thing. Of his own will he chose it. Of his own will he designed to send his son, and even while I was his enemy, while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Ah, but part of it was your idea, wasn't it? You went to the Lord one day and you said, Lord, thank you very much. I'm not criticizing you, but thank you very much that you have, uh, redeemed me and you've forgiven my sins through the death of Christ, and I'm justified and reconciled with God, uh, do you see? And marvelous, Lord. Uh, may I make a suggestion?
You could improve on that a little bit. Uh, one of these days you could think of, um, uh, making a mansion for me in glory. Would you consider that, Lord? Was that your idea? It wasn't your idea either, was it? No, says God, I found you, miserable little wretch of a sinner that you were, and I've raised you up and already seated you with Christ in heavenly places in spirit, and one day the blessed Savior who's engaged on preparing a place for you will come again and receive you to himself. Can you say, well, Lord, if that's your, if that's going to happen, then I've got a suggestion to make.
Now, listen to this, Lord. Would you ever consider, when I get home to heaven, uh, letting me share the throne of your son along with him? That wasn't your idea either, was it? No. Who raised that wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest? A blood-bought saint to glory brought should with a son be blessed. Father, the thought was thine, thine only it could be, fruit of that wisdom, power divine, peculiar unto thee. God himself has mapped out a salvation and redemption and a future of glory that goes staggeringly far beyond anything we could possibly have.
He's already set us a long way on the road to its fulfillment. It's taken a long while before it happens in full, you say, Lord, how long have I got to wait still? I think he might come back to you and say, my dear, how long do you think I've spent planning it for you? This wasn't a di- an idea that suddenly came into my mind one day. Can I tell you, you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. I watched over your conception in your mother's womb.
I wrote all your members in my book, and when you wandered from me, I followed you patiently and tracked you down and brought you to myself. I've had this plan in mind for all eternity, and I want to tell you, says God, every step of your journey, I've walked it with you. Whatever life feels like to you, I've not left you down here and sat in my glorious heaven, letting you find your way to heaven the best you can. Let me tell you, I've come down from heaven and tracked you and walked with you all the footslog way through the wilderness, and I'm walking with you still, and I give my guarantee I shall not forsake you until I land you in that heavenly realm of glory.
It's my scheme. I've done so much already. Can you not trust me with the timing of his final... What do can you say to God when he talks to you like that? All you can do is to go humbly into his presence and sit before the Lord, absolutely astounded and overwhelmed by the purposes of the eternal God for us, his creatures, and now his son, and humbly say to the Lord, well, Lord, your promises have me open-mouthed and altogether confused with their glory.
But Lord, you said it. Do what you yourself have promised. So may God encourage us as we wait this little while. We have already so much of the already. Let us grasp firmly the promises of God that are not yet fulfilled. And in the face that he has fulfilled the past, he will fulfill the future. Humbly thank him for his glorious prayer and pray that he will fulfill his word in us to his eternal glory.
