PSALM 110 FOLLOW JESUS BEYOND THE CROSS2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Psalm 110 Follow Jesus Beyond The Cross

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019.

This morning as we're here in Psalm 110, we have a sneak peek into a conversation that takes place between the Father and the Son. We get to have some kind of like behind the scenes, you know, some inside information about this conversation that takes place. Some things that the Father says to the Son when He enters into the

presence of God after his crucifixion and resurrection. The timing kind of placing the events that are laid out here. Of course, this psalm was written well before Jesus ever watched the face of the earth. It was a prophetic psalm written by David of the Messiah, of the Savior of Jesus Christ. And after Jesus was

here and lived the sinless life after he died upon the cross for the sins of all humanity. He was resurrected, of course, on the third day. And then he spent some time, you know, showing up here and there, here around the earth, showing up with the disciples for about 40 days.

But then on the Mount of Olives, he ascended into heaven. And you might remember the disciples, you know, stood there watching him and they watched him disappear into the clouds. And as he ascended into heaven, he was then seated at the right hand of the Father. And it's that moment,

It's that event that the psalmist has in mind here in Psalm 110. And as Jesus enters into the presence of the Lord and sits down at the right hand of the Father, there's this exchange that goes on, this conversation that happens. And through the intercession,

insight of the Holy Spirit. We get a little bit of a picture of what that went like, and there's a lot to learn from that. I've titled the message this morning, Follow Jesus Beyond the Cross.

follow Jesus beyond the cross. And there's a couple different aspects to consider in that. It's kind of a dual meaning. And one part of that is, well, we often focus on the life, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus. And rightly so, that is the gospel message, right? That's appropriate. But it's also important to understand that, well, there is more to the life and ministry than just those events. And so,

that there is still in the plans of God some crucial parts and roles that Jesus has to play in the plans of the Father. And so what we're looking at here in Psalm 110 is, you know, when Jesus is seated next to the Father and then the things that transpire after that, the role that he has after that is important for us to know and understand. And so beyond the cross,

We need to consider the life, the ministry, the work of Jesus Christ. But also I would ask you to consider it this morning and the idea of following Jesus beyond the cross is for us personally that we also need to not just understand the doctrine of what happens to Jesus after the cross and after the ascension, but we also need to progress in our relationship with God. That following Jesus doesn't just end at

the believing of the gospel message, at our conversion experience, at being born again, and then, you know, that's the limit of what we know about Jesus and our walk with the Lord. But instead, we need to follow Jesus beyond the cross. We start there at the cross, and then from there, we progress into a relationship with God, into a life of service unto God. And there is much for us

much room for us to grow and develop as followers of Jesus Christ as we have a greater understanding of Jesus and his ministry beyond the cross. And so I want to encourage you this morning to consider your own spiritual life and your walk with God and to press forward and follow Jesus beyond just that initial

conversion experience and beyond the initial gospel message. And so we're going to dive in. This passage here in Psalm 110 is an incredibly dense passage as far as doctrine is concerned. There's so much meat and meaning we're not going to get into it all. But it's one of those chapters that stands out amongst all of the Psalms. There's 150 Psalms, but

There's a few that really stand out. You might be familiar with Psalm 23 or Psalm 22. Some of these famous psalms. Psalm 110 is another one of those. It is really noteworthy and notable. You can see that demonstrated by the way that it's quoted throughout the New Testament. In fact, I was intrigued and interested to discover that Psalm 110 is...

the most quoted chapter of the Old Testament in the New Testament. That of all the chapters, right? You can go back through Genesis. You could go back through Deuteronomy. You could go back through the prophets. And, you know, there's a lot of quotations in the New Testament referring back to the Old Testament scriptures, right?

And there's a lot of concepts, you know, that are brought forth and reiterated and revisited. But here in Psalm 110, we have repeatedly over and over and over and over again, there's such solid doctrine and such important truths in here that it's repeated over and over again by a variety of different authors here in the New Testament. Here's a quick look at 20 references of Psalm 110 in the New Testament.

And, you know, quick write them all down because I'm going to change the slide. No, if you want the list, I can give you the list later on. But it's just to kind of give you an idea. Now, some commentators count as many as 33 references in the New Testament back to this Psalm 110. Some of them are direct quotations.

Some of them are just kind of repeating the concepts without really attributing it to, you know, the psalm that it's from, but it's clearly, you know, referring back to this, or it's a clear reference back to Psalm 110. And so this psalm provides for us

some really important truths and doctrines that we find further revealed later on in the New Testament. And so we'll be revisiting and considering a few New Testament passages along with Psalm 110 to help have a clear picture of what the Lord wants for us here in this passage. And so this morning as we consider these things, again the

Title is Follow Jesus Beyond the Cross. There's going to be five points that we'll work through. Beginning in verse one, we get point number one, and that is believe in the Lord Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Reading verse one again, it says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Here is the author David writing this psalm, and he begins saying, the Lord said to my Lord. Now there's a couple things to note here as we just get started in that first phrase of verse one. You might notice as you look at your Bible that the word Lord is used twice, but it's kind of spelled differently each time. The first time it's capital, all capitals, L-O-R-D. The second time it's capital L, but then lowercase O-R-D.

And that is for a purpose. There's a reason why the translators did it that way is because there's different Hebrew words being used. And so there's a distinction. There's a difference between the two words for Lord here in the first part of verse one. The first Lord, capital L-O-R-D, is actually in the Hebrew. It's the proper name for God.

And so it's the name Yahweh, or sometimes it's pronounced Jehovah. In the Hebrew, they actually only have consonants in the Hebrew scriptures. And so the vowels were understood or inserted later. And so sometimes people pronounce it Yahweh, sometimes people pronounce it Jehovah. But whenever people say Yahweh or Jehovah, it's the same name. It's this name.

Y-H-W-H. And the translators capitalize it all throughout the Old Testament scriptures for you to help you understand that that is the proper name for God. It was highly revered amongst the Jews. And so the scribes, when they would be writing out, copying out the scriptures, they would come to the name Lord

and they would pause, they would take a shower, they would change their clothes, they'd get a fresh pen, and then they would write the name Lord because it was, you know, the proper name for God. It was highly valued and special. Well, then you have the second word for Lord, and that one's just spelled regular, just with the capital L, Lord. And this, behind the English and the Hebrew is the word Adonai.

which Adonai could be translated Lord or Master. It's used throughout the scriptures of both God as well as humans because it really speaks to authority. So this was a word that you would use to address or to speak of anyone in authority over you, whether it be God or some other individual.

And so there is this distinction. It means similar things, but one is Lord Yahweh and one is Lord Adonai. And so you could write, you know, kind of in verse one, Adonai, or sorry, Yahweh said to my Adonai, my Lord, my master. And so there's a distinction here. There's a separation. And so who is David talking about? The Lord said to my Lord, there's two different Lords that he's referring to.

But referring to them both as Lord, one is the proper name for God, and the other is, well, a name that is often used for God out of respect for the authority of God, and that is Adonai. So Yahweh said to my Adonai. Well, to get a little bit of insight into this passage, we can actually refer to the time where Jesus referred to Psalm 110. And if you want to turn there with me, it's in Matthew chapter 22. We'll come back to Psalm 110 in just a moment. But

Turn over to Matthew chapter 22. And Jesus used this passage to say,

teach an important truth as he was dealing with and interacting with the religious leaders that were challenging him with questions. And you might remember the religious leaders always tried to challenge Jesus, to stump him, you know, to try to trick him into saying something wrong. And in one exchange here in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus ended that time with his own challenge. And he challenged them with the content of Psalm 110. And he said,

So jumping here to Matthew chapter 22, I want to read to you a few verses starting in verse 41. It says, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David. So they're asking Jesus questions. They're trying to stump him. And so now Jesus asked them a question. What do you think about the Christ? That is the Messiah, the Messiah, the promised savior.

Jesus says, whose son is he? What is the lineage of this promised savior? Who is he going to be a descendant of?

And so they responded correctly that he will be a son of David, that God gave David that promise that the Messiah would come from his descendants. He would be a descendant of David. And so he's referred to as the son of David throughout the scriptures. And so he asked them this question, where does he come from? Whose son is he? They say the son of David. And that is correct. Verse 43 says,

He said to them, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord? Saying the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. So here Jesus calls back to Psalm 110 verse one in interacting with these religious leaders and says, okay, you're right. He is the son of David. He is a descendant of David. But if that's the case, why then, how then does David call

Call him Lord. Now, Jesus points out that David is in the spirit. So David is writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is authenticating the message of Psalm 110, the authorship of Psalm 110 being David, but also that it's the actual words of the Holy Spirit. So this is the truth of God here as we are reading Psalm 110 and of course the rest of the scriptures as well. But Jesus, you know, points this out in particular. The Holy Spirit said this through David,

the Lord said to my Lord. Now, this was a challenge for them because of their culture. And it may not be that much of a challenge in our minds, but for them and their culture and the Hebrew culture, it was always the case that the elders were respected and called Lord, but they would never call their descendants Lord.

That was not something that would be done. In fact, you know, as they were a family, the eldest father in the family was the ruler of the family. It was, you know, a patriarchal society that they had. And so, you know, the oldest dad that was alive in their family, that was the boss. You know, what dad said, what that grandpa said, what great grandpa said, you know, he was the Lord of the family in that way. He was the master and he had that authority.

Now, it would never be the case that a dad would call his son Lord. It would never be the case where a grandpa would call his grandchild Lord. It would never be the case where a great-grandpa would call his great-grandchild Lord. It would never be the case that in their culture, in their society, that David would call any of his descendants Lord, except for here in Psalm 110, verse 1, David says, "'The Lord said to my Lord.'"

And so that's why it's a challenge for them. Going on into verse 45 and 46 here, Jesus says, What Jesus is doing here is he's highlighting the reality that David understood by the Holy Spirit that this descendant would be more than just a man.

more than just a good man, more than just a perfect man, more than just a savior, more than just a sinless man, that this man would in fact be God. And it may not hit us square in the face like it did for them. Like we may not be like, wow, that is a really convincing point, right? Because our culture is different. Our background is different. We come at it from a little bit different perspective as Americans, but we

For them, it was something that really hit home and they understood. And you can see that in verse 46, where it says, no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare question him anymore. They understood exactly what Jesus was saying and pointing out. That David here is declaring, the Lord said to my Lord, that his descendant would be greater than him, that his descendant would in fact be greater.

God himself who became man to be the savior for humanity. And it shut them up. They had no argument afterwards and they didn't dare question him again because of the truthfulness and the forcefulness of this point that Jesus makes. And so Jesus, looking back to this says, look, this is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to let us know in advance that

That there was something more to this Savior, to this Messiah, than just a good man or a great man or a good prophet or someone who lived a good life. This, in fact, was going to be the presence of God dwelling amongst us. Well, jumping back to Psalm 110, again, David says, "'The Lord said to my Lord.'"

And so to put it in a little bit different words to help us kind of understand the picture here, the Father said to the Son. What we're seeing here is a hint at the triune nature of God. We have one God, but we also have a distinction within the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it's a complex distinction.

idea, concept for us to wrap our minds around. The theology is throughout the scriptures. It's something that's clearly taught in the scriptures and yet hard for us to understand and piece together and wrap our minds around all at once. There is one God and yet there is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit who are that one God.

And here we see a distinction between the father and the son. So sometimes, especially when you're dealing with other religious groups, when we say that Jesus is God, their reading of that, their interpretation or what they think we're saying is that Jesus is the father.

But that's not what it means when we say that Jesus is God. We mean that Jesus is a member of the Godhead, that he has the nature of God. He is equal to the Father, but he's not the Father in the same way that the Father is not the Holy Spirit. They're distinct and separate and yet one God. And so we have this illustrated here by the Father speaking to the Son. The

They are one God, but there's this conversation that happens between them. The father said to the son, again, alluding to revealing, illustrating the triune nature of God. Pastor Charles Spurgeon puts it this way. Though David was a firm believer in the unity of the Godhead, yet he spiritually discerns the two persons, distinguishes between them and perceives that in the second, he has a peculiar interest for he calls him my Lord.

The Lord, speaking of the Father, said to my Lord. One God, distinctions between them, different parts of the Godhead, and yet David has a special relationship with the Son, referring to him as my Lord.

So it speaks to us of the deity of Jesus Christ. It speaks to us of that personal relationship with God that we have through Jesus Christ. And here Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. He says, sit at my right hand. And it

Again, without getting into too much of the details, the concept of sitting at the right hand of the Father speaks to the equality of Jesus with the Father. It was a place of equality, a place that would only be allowed for someone who is equal to God. And so Jesus is God. He's equal to God. He is part of the triune nature of God. And here we see the Father says to the Son, Amen.

And so here as we look at this, just this first line of Psalm 110, verse 1, we get some important truths about the nature and character of God and his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us this in John 8. He says...

Jesus himself declared, But Jesus says, I'm not from here. I'm from above. Jesus being God has always existed. He was in the beginning with God.

John chapter 1 tells us. And yet, miracle of miracles, he became man. He added humanity to his deity. And he said, look, if you don't believe that I am he, if you don't believe this truth about me, he says, you will die in your sins. If you don't believe that I, being God, became man to be the Savior, you will die in your sins. This is the way of salvation. And so again, I make the point, believe in the Lord Jesus.

It's more than just an honorary title, the Lord Jesus. It is his role, his place. He is God. He is creator. He is master. And we need to believe his message and we need to follow his ways. Well, continuing to consider verse one for a little bit longer, we get point number two, and that is rest in the father's plan like Jesus. Rest in the father's plan.

Again, verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The timing here, Jesus, he's gone through the cross. He's been resurrected. He has ascended to the Father. As he enters into the presence of the Father, the Father says, well done. Have a seat and I'll take it from here. Have a seat while I make your enemies your footstool.

This position, this posture of being seated speaks to us some important things about, well, the plan of God and the purposes of God. Here we see Jesus having gone through the cross and ascended to the Father. He is seated, which indicates to us that his work is completed. Jesus is seated there because his work upon the cross has completed his

Well, what he set out to do in providing the opportunity for salvation to all humanity. The full and complete work of salvation is done.

There is no more sacrifices needed. Jesus doesn't have to work hard, you know, from the cross until today and on into eternity to get us saved or to give us opportunity to be saved. He is not like, you know, wrestling and trying to figure out how he's going to get it all done in time for the second coming. Like he is seated because the work is completed. There upon the cross, Jesus declared, John chapter 19, verse 32,

After receiving the sour wine, he says, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. There upon the cross, the full payment and penalty for sin is taken care of. It's done. It's cleared the deck for those who believe in him so that all sin is paid for and the way is opened for people to believe in Jesus and

to be forgiven of their sins, and to have right fellowship with God and access to the Father. This is something we've been considering for some time now on Wednesday nights, working our way through Galatians and the grace of God, now working our way through Ephesians. There's this incredible access to God, the incredible work of God, and you can spend a lot of time understanding the completed work of Jesus and the impacts for what it means for us are huge.

His work is completed. So Jesus is there seated next to the father. But that doesn't mean that work is not going on. His work is completed. The son, Jesus, his work is completed. But the father, well, he is at work.

Notice what the Lord says. He says, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. So the father says to the son, have a seat, son. Now I'm going to step in and I'm going to work out my plans to make your enemies your footstool. The father is about the business of putting into subjection the enemies of Jesus.

The Father has his plans for defeating all the enemies of Jesus.

And you can look at that on the human level for every individual who is against Jesus and rejects Jesus. You can look at it on the worldwide political level, the governments and agencies that are fighting against the plans and the purposes of the Lord. You can look at that in the spiritual plane as Satan and his demons are fighting against the plan of God. All of that is encompassed when the Father tells the Son, have a seat.

I'm going to make all of your enemies your footstool. They're going to bow down before you and you'll be able to kick up your feet and put them right on. They are going to be submitted to you, subjected to you. They are going to bow before you. Paul the Apostle reminds us of this as well in Philippians 2.

He says that God has highly exalted him, Jesus. So the Father highly exalted Jesus and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The work of Jesus is completed.

completed well, completed fully, so that the Father has given him a name which is above every name. So that there is no creature who does not bow to the name of Jesus. So that there is no tongue that does not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Paul makes sure to, you know, kind of cover the bases. Those in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth, you know, you want to talk human, you

or you want to talk spiritual creatures, whatever kind of creatures you want to refer to, they're included in this. They will bow before Jesus. The Father is at work executing his plan to bring about this subjection to this bowing down before Jesus. And then he says at the end of verse 11 there, to the glory of God the Father. The Father will be glorified through Jesus.

The exaltation of Jesus over every enemy against him. And so we see here this plan that the father has in place. And Jesus is sitting there next to the father while the father does this work. He is making sure that victory is accomplished. This is the plans of the father for Jesus.

I like what Charles Spurgeon says about this. He says, he sits, okay? Talking about Jesus. Jesus sits because all is safe. Therefore, there is no cause for alarm. Whatever may happen in this lower world, the sight of Jesus enthroned in divine glory is the sure guarantee that all things are moving onward towards ultimate victory. It's something important for us to consider and to remind ourselves of.

All things are moving onward towards ultimate victory. Nobody is going to defeat the plans of the Father. And the Father's plans are to subject all to the authority of Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And the fact that Jesus is seated there speaks to us. His rest in the Father's plan speaks to us.

about our need and our opportunity to rest in the Father's plan. You know, we can look around at the world around us and start to be, well, not resting. We can be given to unrest.

and stressed and worried and perplexed as we look at the society around us and we go, well, how can we, you know, be practicing these wicked things? And we can look at, you know, the leaders that are in place in our nation and our government and our communities around the world. We can start to get all worked up and get all twisted up because of the things that are transpiring around us.

But I like what he says here. There is no cause for alarm, whatever may happen in this lower world. No matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens in this life, we don't have to get alarmed. Maybe you picture Jesus kind of like stressed out, like, who's going to win the next election? I don't know. You know, I got to work hard on this one. Okay, roll up my sleeves. And like, this is going to be a tough one. Okay, we got to battle it out. You know, like Jesus is seated. He's

He's not stressed about that. He's resting. The Father's got all that worked out. He's got it taken care of. They will all bow before Jesus. It's distressful for us to watch some of these things for sure. And in some ways that's okay, but we also have to be careful that we're not being stressed and without rest because we don't really trust the Father like Jesus does.

I think it's a little bit like what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians regarding those who had died who knew the Lord. Paul wrote to them in 1 Thessalonians 4 and said, look, for those who have gone on before us, they've died. We don't sorrow as those who have no hope. We have the hope because we know we will see them again. We still sorrow, but it's a different kind of sorrow because we also have that promise. We know we will see them again. I think in a similar way, it's appropriate for us to

To have some care and concern for the world around us. But at the same time, it's not a care and concern that comes from

well, what if the plans of God are defeated, you know, or God didn't know this was going to happen or, you know, it's not that panic of, I can't believe this, but, but it's that rest of, Hey, God's got it in control. And, and at the same time, we care for the people, the individuals and recognize that, well, there is a need for people to come to the Lord at, at the same time, we're trusting in the father. He's got all this worked out. We know how it ends and,

We know what he's working towards and none of it thwarts the victory of Jesus over. We need to learn to rest in the Father's plan like Jesus. For individual things that happen in our lives, yeah, there's crises. There's things that pop up and oh man, it can keep us up at night where we don't have much rest. Let's learn from the example of Jesus. He's seated there. There's lots of enemies. There's lots of opposition to the work of Jesus.

But he's not stressed. He's not up at night trying to figure out like what's going to happen. What are we going to do? The father knows. The father says, this is my job. This is my responsibility. I'll take care of these things. In a similar way, we're his children. For our lives individually, personally, we can rest in the father's plan just like Jesus does. For our nation, for our society, for our community, we can rest in the father's plan.

We can trust. That doesn't mean we don't serve or do anything or care, but we also do those things with the recognition, with the understanding. God has it worked out. It's not a hopeless situation because God is at work in the midst of it. And so here's Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father because his work is completed and he's just resting in the Father's promise to work out his plan in this world, in this church, and in our lives.

Rest in the Father's plan like Jesus. Well, moving on to verses two and three, we get point number three, and that is obey King Jesus willingly. Obey King Jesus willingly. Verse two says...

The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness. From the womb of the morning you have the due of your youth. Now again, I would call your attention to who is speaking or who is interacting in these verses. In verse 2, the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, that's Yahweh, the Father says,

So the father is saying or speaking to the son or speaking about the son. The father will send out the rod of Jesus out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Jesus, you will rule in the midst of, you will rule over your enemies. The father is going to do this work. Have a seat. I'm going to complete it. Your rod will go out and you will rule over those who oppose you. The rod there is a symbol of authority, like a scepter. It was that symbol of authority, of kingship. And so here we're looking at Jesus as king, right?

coming out of Zion, and he will rule. And so the father's plan is for Jesus to be king because he is king of kings and lord of lords. He will rule over his enemies. But I like verse three. I think it's interesting to consider. He says,

We have the enemies. Every knee will bow, right? We understand that, okay? We've covered that looking at these verses thus far. Every enemy will bow down to Jesus and Jesus will rule in the midst of them. But not everybody is an enemy of Jesus. There are those who are his people, his followers. And of that group, of us, the Holy Spirit says, your people shall be volunteers in the day of

of your power. There's two groups of people. Those who oppose Jesus, his authority, his role, his salvation. And those who receive. Those who volunteer and those who reject. Your people shall be volunteers.

In the day of your power. Now, in the day of your power is speaking about the coming kingdom where Jesus will return in great power and establish his kingdom here upon the earth for a thousand years. The millennial reign of Jesus will take place. It's yet to take place. After that, we enter into the rest of eternity and what God has in store for us. But although it's speaking about that time where all of this is ultimately fulfilled, I would also ask you to consider that

The day of his power is today for those who believe these things. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, if you believe that the Father is working out his plan and you're resting in that like Jesus, if you believe that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then for you, today is the day of his power. Today is the day of his power at work in your life and today

Today is the day that we, well, we get to be volunteers in his kingdom. We get to sign up and say, yes, include me, you know, put me in place, whatever you want. I volunteer to be part of your work. This is something that David did. As you can see reflected in verse one, where David says, the Lord said to my Lord,

Not just referring to the fact of the deity of Jesus, but referring to the fact of David's submission to the lordship of Jesus, the kingship of Jesus. He volunteered. He said, yes, I want to volunteer for your kingdom. I want to be part of your work and your plans. I want to obey you, my king. We saw Philippians chapter two a few moments ago. Every knee will bow, and that is true.

But there is two ways for that to happen. One way is for us to reject and oppose and resist and not listen to what God says and not obey God. And we will bow in the end for sure. It will be a forced, it will be a bowing down in judgment, acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord, contrary to how we've lived and what we've received. Or there's a voluntary bowing before Jesus.

willingly, bowing down before him and submitting our lives to him and saying, yes, you be my Lord. You be the master. You have the authority. You get to tell me how to live my life, what to do, what to say, where to go, how to go. You get full reign and authority in my life. It's a voluntary thing. Jesus will not force anybody into his kingdom.

He doesn't force anybody to be a follower of him and to receive what he has to offer. It is something we must willingly volunteer for. And that includes the beginning, again, the conversion, the believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. But we also need to follow Jesus beyond the cross and continue that heart and that attitude in obeying Jesus in all things willingly.

Think about the challenge that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 7. It's really a warning. He says,

Jesus says there's a group of people who say, Lord, Lord. They know the truth about Jesus. They claim to be part of his kingdom. They use the word, Lord. They have works that they can point to. And look what I did for you, Jesus. There's this, on the surface, it looks like good relationship with God. But at the same time, Jesus says, I don't know you. And the truth

thing that stands out about this group of people, Jesus says in verse 21, it's not the people who say Lord, Lord, but it's the people who do Lord, Lord. That is, who does the will of my Father in heaven. So it's not about just saying the words Lord. It's not about declaring a faith or a belief in Jesus. It's not about knowing the truth about Jesus or understanding the doctrine of Jesus. It's about then taking those things and willingly saying,

being obedient and submitted to the plans of God, the purposes of the Father, the will of God. In verse 23, he says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So these people in this group, they don't do Lord, Lord. They just say it. But what they practice is lawlessness. And for you and I as followers of Jesus, what we need to practice is obedience to the King, continually giving of ourselves,

to be submitted to the Lord, to be obedient to what God says. And I think it's interesting to consider as you continue to look at verse three, it says, in the beauties of holiness. So he says, your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power in the beauties of holiness. I think it's a good indicator for us.

How do you know that you're not one of those who are deceived and you say, Lord, Lord, but you don't actually do Lord, Lord. How can we discern for ourselves? Because sometimes we trick ourselves, we fool ourselves and we think we're right on and we're really far off that that happens pretty regularly. So how can we kind of check ourselves and make sure that our perspective, our view of ourselves is accurate? Well, I think that beauties of holiness is a good indicator for us to consider. The beauty of holiness is evidence that,

of that willing submission to Jesus. Not beauty of holiness in the sense of perfection, because none of us will be perfect this side of eternity. But there is the process of sanctification. There is the work of the Holy Spirit. As we willingly volunteer to obey Jesus, here's what's going to happen.

The Holy Spirit is going to be washing and purging the sin from our hearts, from our activities, from our minds, from our attitudes. The Holy Spirit is going to be, well, working out the beauties of holiness. Are you seeing a progression of holiness in your life? Is there a beauty of holiness in your life? I think if you will consider that, it will help you to evaluate a little bit

Where are you at? Are you obeying King Jesus willingly? That's where we need to be. Again, it's following Jesus beyond the cross, more than just believing the gospel message for salvation, but now moving on and walking in obedience to the Father and seeking out the plans of God, the purposes of God, and living according to what he says and what he desires for us. And as you submit yourself to Jesus, as you give yourselves and volunteer yourself

He will be working in you the beauty of holiness. There will be a sanctification. Again, not perfection, not without failure, not without sin, not without issue. No, no, no. But that progression, that moving forward, it's often been said, you know, Christians are not sinless, but they do sin less.

And that needs to be the case for us. As we volunteer, the Holy Spirit will be working out that sanctification and that holiness within us. Well, moving on to verse four, we get point number four, and that is drawn near to the Father by Jesus. Verse four says, Here in verse four says,

It's one of those verses that we could spend a really long time talking about. There is so much depth and meat and great things to uncover here. But we're just going to kind of scratch the surface a little bit. If you're not familiar with Melchizedek, I would encourage you later on, go and check out Genesis chapter 14 and spend some time there.

Melchizedek, we don't know a whole lot about him. He only appears a few times in the scriptures. Genesis chapter 14 is one time. Psalm 110, where we're at, is another time. And then the author of Hebrews goes into great detail about the life and ministry of Melchizedek in Hebrews chapters 7 through 10. What we know about him is that Melchizedek was a king and Melchizedek was also a priest. Now in

the law, what God established, the Levitical law, it was not possible for the king to be the priest. But this was before that. Abraham encountered this guy named Melchizedek on the way back from a battle. And as Abraham had the spoils of this battle, as he went to recover his nephew Lot that had been taken, he also recovered all the things that that army had taken from everybody else. And so he's coming back with all these spoils. He meets Melchizedek,

And he pays Melchizedek a tithe of what he earned, what he received in the battle. So he tithes to Melchizedek and Melchizedek meets him with bread and wine. Now,

Interesting elements, right? As you consider communion, the bread and the cup that Jesus gave us as reminders of his covenant that we would be mindful of what he did for us. And so there's this incredible picture here in Melchizedek of Jesus. Many commentators and Bible scholars believe that is actually an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament there in Genesis chapter 14.

But here we have this reference to Melchizedek, and here the Lord, pay attention to who's speaking here, the Father has sworn, right? The Lord, Yahweh, has sworn and will not relent. You, the Son, Jesus, are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. You are a priest forever. Jesus is king, but he's also priest. And again, under Levitical law, this was not going to happen. This wasn't allowed, but

But this is a different type of priesthood. That's why he says the order of Melchizedek. Now, sometimes my mind gets stuck on the words, and I super analyze them to a fault, right? So I think of order, and immediately my mind gets stuck. I'm in line at Jack in the Box, and what am I going to get to eat, right? I'm going to order. Not that kind of order. I think of order, and I think of, okay, first, and then second, and then third, you know, that succession thing.

But that's not what this word order is talking about either. This is talking about a different class of priest. It's not the Levitical type of priest. Aaron and his sons in the Levitical law, God established Aaron as the high priest. His sons were the priests. And every priest after him in the Old Testament scene was a descendant of Aaron who was of the tribe of Levi. Okay?

All priests in that order were descendants of Aaron. They were descendants of Levi. They were priests limited to the tabernacle and the temple. It was temporary. It was not permanent. It was a different type of priesthood than the type of priesthood that Jesus has. Jesus is a priest of the same type as Melchizedek. One of the unique factors about this priesthood is that it's unending.

Now the author of Hebrews goes into that in great detail in Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10. And we don't have time to work our way through all of those details. But let me just give you a little snippet, kind of a summary here in Hebrews 10. Right before this passage I'm about to read in Hebrews 10, verse 11, the author of Hebrews says, The Levitical priesthood says,

They go through the process of sacrifices, but they're limited. They can't actually take away sins. But in contrast, verse 12, but this man, referring to Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. So the priesthood of Jesus is a superior priesthood

to the Levitical priesthood. That's the point here of the author of Hebrews. The Levitical priesthood, they offer sacrifices. It's a temporary thing. They can't actually take away sin. But Jesus, with one sacrifice, he took care of sins forever. And he sat down at the right hand of God. Sound familiar? That's Psalm 110.

Here he is at the right hand of the father. From that time he's waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. So he's there, he's waiting, he's done his part and now the father is at work with his part. But with this one offering, he perfected forever those who are being sanctified. He opened the way, he dealt with the issue of sin, all sin, past, present, future, with one offering there himself upon the cross.

And so for that reason, I make the point, draw near to the Father by Jesus. He is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. It's an unending priesthood. He ever lives to make intercession for us. The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 7. He has opened the way permanently for those who believe in Jesus to have access to the Father. He can actually take away sin. He actually deals with sin in a permanent way so that

Well, we are washed and we are cleansed and we have right standing before God as if we had never sinned. Now, this is not crazy, unheard of doctrine that we've never known before. In fact, many believe this doctrine, but I would suggest to you that many times we fail to act on it. And so I would encourage you this morning to draw near to the Father. Again, as we went through Galatians on Wednesday nights, we talked about the subject of grace, but

The doctrine of grace, it's huge, it's important, it's amazing, but then we also need to do grace. That is, approach God and call out to him and ask him for help and get to know him. Let me ask you, how well do you know the Father? How often do you hear God?

From the father. How often does the Lord speak to you. And lead you. And guide you. What's your relationship like with the father. Jesus has made the way. He is that perfect high priest. Who opens the door. Who ushers us in. Who gives us opportunity to know the father. To walk with him. To have a relationship with him. It's one thing to know the truths. It's one thing to understand the doctrine. To get it. But we also then need to take it a step further. And follow Jesus beyond that.

to the actual practicing of it. Draw near to the Father by Jesus. There's no other way. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is the only way. When we start trying to approach God and draw near to God on the basis of our efforts, we're off base. We're not drawing near to the Father. When we start staying away because of our failures, we're off base because we don't understand that

Jesus has taken care of the issue of sin. Yes, we fail. Yes, we mess up. But draw near to the Father. Believe these things to the degree that you actually walk in them and that you practice a relationship with the Father through faith in Jesus Christ.

Well, finishing up, we'll go through this quickly in verses five through seven, we get point number five, and that is prepare for Jesus to return. Verse five says, the Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he shall lift up the head. Speaking about Jesus, he describes Jesus

Probably things that we don't typically associate with Jesus. He will judge among the nations. He will fill the places with dead bodies. Do you ever picture Jesus filling the places with dead bodies? Probably not on the top of our list in the things, you know, that we think about regarding Jesus. But this is an important aspect to the life and the ministry of Jesus beyond the cross. The first coming, he came to deal with our sin, to provide a way of salvation and

But the father is at work now bringing everything into alignment and everything into subjection to Jesus. And when Jesus returns, he will come with full authority as king of kings and Lord of Lords to execute judgment on all of those enemies that the father has brought into subjection again unto him. And so the psalmist here is recording this return of Jesus and this execution of judgment upon the enemies of the Lord.

Jesus says in John chapter 5, the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son. Jesus is loving. He provided the way to take care of sin, but he is also holy, and he is going to execute judgment on those who reject him, all those who fight against him and oppose him. And so when Jesus returns, you can read about it in Revelation chapter 19.

There the apostle John says, I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true. This is talking about Jesus. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. There is going to be the war, the wrath of the lamb that comes upon those who oppose Jesus. And at his return, he will set all of these things in order. If you will not believe in Jesus,

then you will face the judgment of Jesus. If you will not rest in the Father's plan and accept the Father's will, then you're going to deal with the judgment and the wrath of Jesus. If you refuse to obey Jesus, then you will face his correction, his judgment. He will come in the end in this way.

Charles Spurgeon says, when he passed this way before, talking about his first coming on the earth, he was burdened and had stern work laid upon him. But in his second advent, in his second coming, he will win an easy victory. A four time he was the man of sorrows, but when he comes a second time, his head will be lifted in triumph.

He will have the victory when he comes again. He will not be spat upon. Nobody's gonna rip out his beard. Nobody's gonna treat him that way. Everybody who opposes will be put down and dealt with in the judgment and wrath of God. So how do we prepare for this? Well, we go back to the first four points. Here's how you prepare. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Believe the truth about him. He is God who became man to sacrifice himself for you.

and deal with our sin, to receive the penalty of our sin. How do we prepare for the return of Jesus? Well, rest in the Father's plan, just like Jesus is. He did his work. He cares significantly. He cares about all the things going on and all the, you know, injustices. He cares about all that stuff, but he's able to sit and rest in the Father's plan, knowing the Father's working on all these things and that he will bring all things into subjection to Jesus.

How do you prepare for Jesus to return? Obey King Jesus willingly. Understand he's in power now if you allow him to be. For you, for me, it's the truth. He is in power. Let's willingly volunteer and submit ourselves to walk with him, to obey him, to do what he requires. And let's draw near to the Father by Jesus. That's the best thing for us to do is to get to know the Father, to develop a relationship with God, to know him, to love him, to walk with him.

And these things, we prepare ourselves for his return. We'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air as that glorious, spotless bride of Christ to be with him for all eternity. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the opportunities that you have given to us. Lord, we are unworthy and undeserving of them all. And yet, Lord, you are so gracious and good to us that you are willing to pay great price yourself.

on our behalf. Help us, Lord, to not despise that, to not think little of it, but to appreciate it and respond to you by walking with you, by giving ourselves to you willingly and surrendering our lives and our hearts and our minds to you. Help us, Lord, to obey you. And Lord, if there's any area that we're out of line or that we've deceived ourselves and we're saying, Lord, Lord, but we're not doing, Lord, Lord, I pray that you would show us

Bring revelation, Lord, of our own hearts and minds that, Lord, we might turn back to seek after you and pursue you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. Lord, that we would be ready as your bride for your return. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.