Episode Transcript
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do and will give our attention to
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psalm one hundred ten. Psalm one
ten, this is the psalm that Jesus
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quoted back in Mark Chapter Twelve,
and it speaks of the kingdom to come,
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who it is the Christ will be
and what he will do. Good
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reminders as we think about the birth
of the king. So Psalm one hundred
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ten, the Lord Yahweh says to
my Lord, sit at my right hand
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until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord Sends Forth From Zion,
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your mighty scepter rule in the midst
of your enemies. Your people will offer
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themselves freely on that day, on
the day of your power, in holy
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garments, from the womb of the
morning. The due of your youth will
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be yours. The Lord has sworn
and he will not change his mind.
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You are a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at
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your right hand. He will shatter
kings on the day of his wrath.
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He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will
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shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the
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way therefore, he will lift up
his head. Then you may be seated.
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In addition to this psalm, Psalm
one hundred and ten, we're also
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going to be considering the hymn that
we will sing after the sermon. This
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is once in Royal David City,
Him Two hundred and twenty five. So
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if you want to open that up, you may. Once in Royal David
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City begins by setting the setting.
All right, in if you open up
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a novel or an account of history, this is when way that writers will
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often bring us into a situation.
They'll introduce the setting, introduce the basic
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characters of the story and then develop
from there. This is true of both
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fiction and nonfiction, and that's what's
going on here in these historical accounts of
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Jesus's a birth and the hymn.
Once in Royal David City. We begin
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with this setting and instead of referring
to Bethlehem, first of all it's called
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Royal David City, Royal David City, and that birthplace of Jesus is very
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important. It's important because it's connected
to David. Want to begin this morning
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by thinking about that connection with David
as we think about who Jesus is in
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his incarnation. Who is Jesus in
his incarnation? What is it that he
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has come to do? Once in, Royal David's city is important because Bethlehem
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is important, and Bethlehem's important because
David's important, and that's why it's characterized
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in this way. Why is Bethlehem
called Royal David City? Well, it's
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not, because it's the capital from
which David ruled, but it was the
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humble place of his birth. Why
is David Important? David is important because
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to him Yah way the Lord God, Almighty, the Creator of Heavens and
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Earth, the God of Abraham,
of Isaac and Jacob. He promised to
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David that through that a son would
be born to him that would establish his
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kingdom forever. This is an amazing
promise, a promise which is not just
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for David but for all of Israel, and not just for Israel but for
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all the world, because the nations
of the world would be blessed through this
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kingdom. But there's this funny little
thing in scripture, paradox. We've find
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it here in Psalm one hundred ten. Jesus addresses it in Mark Twelve.
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And the question is this. How
can David the Great King David say to
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his son, my Lord? Fathers
don't call their sons Lord. If anything,
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it's the other way around, right. You Honor Your father, you
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honor your mother. Those that are
above you are the ones that have authority.
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But how is it that David Psalm
one hundred and tend says a psalm
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of David. He says the Lord, that is God, says to my
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Lord, sit at my right hand
and make your enemies your footstool? How
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is it that David's son, to
whom these promises have been given, will
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be David's Lord? This is an
amazing thing and something that was challenging to
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understand, but it's revealed in the
birth of Christ. It's revealed because we
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see that in the incarnation God takes
on humanity. He is born as a
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son of David, not just by
taking on humanity in general, but coming
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from David's lineage. He is a
son of David and there are genealogical records
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that show that. So he is
a son of David, but because he's
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not just a human, not just
one of the many kings and many people
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that have come from David's line,
but he is the incarnate God, the
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paradox is solved. He is at
the same time the son of David and
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also David's Lord, because he is
David's God. That's why it's remarkable when
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we ever we think about Bethlehem,
whenever we think about Christ and connection to
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David, and here is this him
begins once in Royal David's city. It's
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important because what we're doing is we're
seeing a paradox solved, and that's not
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just an interesting theological riddle that's helpful
to know, but it's our very salvation
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to know the connection between this promise
that God gave to David and Jesus,
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the son of David, the incarnate
God. It means that we have salvation.
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It means that the promises that were
given to David, the promises that
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were given to Israel, are for
us. Because what did David's son say?
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Why did David's son come into the
world, as Paul said, to
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save sinners, to save sinners.
Here we are seeing the steadfast love that
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we spoke about earlier in the introduction
of our service this morning, that steadfast
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love of God being proven yet again, faithful to his promises, faithful to
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the prophecies, faithful to carry out
his word. Let's think now about a
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little more about that place, because
there's more that we might understand about our
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salvation. As we think about it. Bethlehem was not a grand capital,
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but it was a humble place of
David's birth and when Jesus was born,
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nothing had changed in this very important
city. We are not directed in the
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scriptures to think about castles or grand
banquets fancy guests, but a cattle shed,
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as the hymn puts it in verse
one, as a place where animals
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are the main residence. But it's
not an animal story we read in the
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Gospel accounts and it's expressed in this
hymn as well, as we will see
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and sing. It's a story of
a a tired mother laying down her newborn
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son in the best place she could
find, a manger. What is a
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manger? A manger is simply an
open box where you put animal food.
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Kids, maybe at Home You have
the chore of Helping to Fill The dog
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food bull or the cat food bull. That's what a manger is, except
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it's for cows. It's a open
box, it's a bowl or a container
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in which you can put Hay and
and food for animals. That's where Mary
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laid him. We know that because
the scriptures tell us that the angel of
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the Lord Actually told the shepherds,
go and you will find this newborn king
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lying in a manger. After the
introduction of this scene, once in Royal
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David City stood a lowly cattle shed
where a mother, where a mother laid
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her baby in a manger for his
bed, were then introduced to the main
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people of this story. Mary was
that mother, Mild Jesus Christ. Her
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Little Child was Mary Mild, probably, but I suppose it depends on how
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we think about that. We don't
have a lot of details about Mary from
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scripture. We know from Luke One
hundred and twenty two that she was highly
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favored among women. I think it's
fair to say that among men too,
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she was highly favorite of God,
but the focus is on her gender because
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of the way she was about to
be blessed as a woman giving birth to
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this child. We also know from
Luke about her reaction to this promise that
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she would conceive and Boor bear a
son who would be the savior of the
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world. When Sarah was promised a
baby in the Old Testament, she didn't
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believe it, she laughed. Mary
instead simply asked how can this be so?
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But this question wasn't one of disbelieving, simply not understanding. And one
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good reason to believe this is that
when she was told how she would conceive
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this child by the overshadowings of the
Holy Spirit, which honestly doesn't explain a
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whole lot except that divine nature of
this child's birth, she doesn't respond with
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yet again, how can this be? So she's not incredulous. Instead,
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what is Mary say? She says, I am the Lord's servant, may
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it be to me, as you
have said. And then she responds with
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a beautiful hymn of praise, which
she says my soul magnet or glorifies the
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lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. Here we see an
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interesting parallel between David and his son
and Mary and her son. She calls
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her son her savior, her God, her Lord. There are lots of
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ways, of course, I think
we can describe this action. Mild might
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be one of them. How so, Mary seems to be mild in the
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way that she takes everything in,
in the way that she doesn't promote herself,
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but her lord she doesn't see herself
as the savior of the world,
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but God and the child she has
conceived, or will conceive and will bear.
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It's a good place to to ask. Why, then, do people
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worship Mary when Mary herself worships the
Savior? Why do people look to her
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for salvation when Mary herself finds it
in her son? If we esteem Mary
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as a blessed one of God,
which we ought to, if she is
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a model saint and an example to
follow, let's follow her in her actions,
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in Worshiping God, Not In worshiping
her. This is why the second
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verse of once in Royal David City
shifts our attention from this mother and child
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to the child. That's what the
Scriptures always do. They point us to
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Jesus over and over again. The
second verses He who came to Earth from
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heaven, who is God and Lord
of all, and his shelter was a
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stable and his cradle was a stall, with the poor and mean and lowly
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lived on earth. Our Savior Holy. Here, in this verse, we
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are reminded of his noble origins.
He is a great king, but not
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only a son of David, but
he is the son of God. He
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has come from the highest places,
from heaven itself, from the eternal generation
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of God. He is God,
he is God of all, and the
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contrast between the Glory of Heaven and
the humility of Earth is made here and
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is made often in our Christmas hymns. Why? Because it is one of
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the most remarkable things about this story
that he is David's Lord. Is because
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he is David's God, that this
God would be borne a son of a
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man and of a woman. It's
one of the most remarkable things about the
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story of the incarnation of God and
there are many lessons in it. One
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is found in the third verse of
this Hymn, in the third verse we
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read, and through his wondrous childhood
he would honor and obey, love and
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watch the lowly maiden in whomse gentle
arms he lay. Christian children almost be
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my old obedient good as he.
Every time I hear this verse it always
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sounds like a little bit of scolding
to the kids that are listening. Be
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Good like Jesus, and maybe that
is how it was written. I'm not
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entirely sure, but when I sing
it I like to try to extend it
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a little further than just the little
ones among us, because we're all children
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of the Lord. We're all called
to follow after Jesus, aren't we?
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We're all called to be obedient as
he was, as good as he was,
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as humble and as lowly as he
was. If this these words were
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originally meant for children, fine,
but I think they should apply to us
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all. When we think about our
savior and the example that he sets before
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us, we should be careful to
follow it. We should desire to follow
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it and look to him. We
are his disciples, after all, those
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who follow after him. As a
child, he would honor and obey his
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father as much, and his mother, and throughout his whole life he would
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do this as well, especially in
his obedience to his heavenly father. This
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shows us what true obedience is.
It's not by doing what we want when
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we want it, it's by doing
what God wants when he wants it.
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This is the path that all of
God's children must follow. It's a journey
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that we are on. It's a
walk that Jesus walked and we must learn
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to walk it. Of course,
that's not easy, is it? Obedience
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to the Lord is hard stuff.
Humility, suffering, weakness, shame,
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these are often the markers of obedience
to God, but they're grounded in something
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big. They're grounded in the steadfast
love of God, in the grace that
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he has brought into the world.
Our obedience to him is grounded in our
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trusting that his kingdom has come and
he is doing something wonderful. We are
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trusting that it will end well,
that God's promises are sure as even as
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they were to David, that his
is that the end of the journey will
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be worth the journey itself. The
end of the journey is expressed in verse
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four, and our eyes at last
shall see him through his own redeeming love
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for that child. So, dear
and gentle it is our Lord in heaven
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above and he leads his children on
to the place where he has gone.
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While the beginning of our walk as
citizens of this heavenly kingdom is people under
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the Great King Jesus is indeed humble
and inquire and require suffering and shame,
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the end we are promised in the
scriptures is glorious. The Glorious and and
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strength of that end is expressed in
many places, including in Psalm one hundred
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and ten. The Lord Sends Forth
From Zion, your mighty scepter, rule
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in the midst of your enemies.
Your people will offer themselves freely on the
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day of your power in holy garments, in the womb of the morning,
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and the due of your youth will
be the do of the youth will be
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yours. or in Verse Five,
the Lord is at your right hand.
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He will shatter kings on the day
of his wrath. He will execute judgment
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among the nation's filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide
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earth. This strength of God,
when he comes in judgment, is a
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kind of glory, but it's only
a beginning in which he is bringing about
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he is purifying the world to bring
about a new heavens and a new earth.
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Those who are true to him will
suffer under the cross, but coming
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is the crown. This is the
promise for all those that are under the
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Great King Jesus. So how does
this apply to you? How does it
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not apply to you? Jesus became
human to die for humans. The son
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of God became man to die for
men. The this birth and this death
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were necessary if you and I were
to be saved from our sins, that
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we might not become one of the
many corpses when he comes on the Day
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of Judgment in his glory and in
his power. That should matter to you.
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When the Great King Jesus comes at
the end of time to bring thout
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all righteousness, to in strength,
establish his rule and final victory over all
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the nations forever and ever, you
should want to be on his side,
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because not only is the threat of
judgment so great, but the promise of
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Heaven is so wonderful. Jesus is
birth and death were necessary if we were
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to if we are to be saved
from judgment for all of our sins,
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if we are to be saved from
all of our brokenness, all of our
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loss, all of our pain.
Some of you have faced almost unimaginable pain.
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Some of you may be facing that
kind of struggle and pain right now.
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And if I'm to describing you,
you know better than anyone how impossible
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it is to fix a broken world, a broken heart, even if you
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try really, really, really hard. You know how little of a difference
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that you can make in your human
power. Sure, the next day might
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be better than the last, but
it only goes so far. And even
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the greatest victories that any single person, or even any collective group of people,
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be they a community organization or a
great empire or whatever. The best
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that we have ever been able to
do still never comes close to satisfying all
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of our needs, to eradicating sin
and death and brokenness and pain. But
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the Scriptures prophesied that one is to
come, and indeed has come, who
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takes everything to the highest level and
finally brings completion to all that we need.
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Jesus came into the world to take
away our sin, to conquer over
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Satan, to rule over the grave, to take pain and heal it,
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to take war and make it peace, to take sinners like you and me
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and turn them into the Saints of
Heaven. This World Wide Conquest over sin
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and its consequences extends to every nook
and cranny of creation, from the greatest
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canyons in the oceans to the highest
heights of Heaven, from the deepest parts
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of your souls to the tips of
your finger nails. Jesus promises to fix
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everything, glorify everything and place you
in an eternal, unmovable, unshakable state
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of life and light and love.
That's how it applies, Paul says in
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First Corinthians fifteen forty two and forty
three, that Jesus is resurrection from the
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dead, promises hope for us.
He says that we who believe and trust
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in him will experience the same new
and glorious life when he rose in his
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human body from the dead. He
says, so it is with the resurrection
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of the dead. What is sown
is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.
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What is sown in dishonor is raised
in glory. It is sown in
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weakness, it is raised in power. This is what verse five gets at
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of the hymn. Now, in
that poor, lowly stable with the oxen
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standing by, or sorry, not
in that poor, lowly stable with the
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oxen standing by, we shall see
him, but in heaven, set it
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God's right hand on high, when, like stars, his children crowned all
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in White, shall wait around.
That language about stars comes from First Corinthians
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Fifteen, where Paul talks about the
various glorious things which we will experience in
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our resurrection resurrected bodies as a people
of God. If you have ever desired
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to go back to that Nativity scene, what would have been like to see
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the Lord Jesus the that would have
been wonderful and amazing. But promise to
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you is to see him in a
much greater and more wonderful way than even
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Mary and the shepherds and the others
who were there that day saw him,
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to see him in his eternal glory
as the resurrected son of David, and
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not just to see him in all
that power and glory, but to see
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him and know him according to his
love and His grace, to not to
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stand in heaven as an impostor wondering
if you're about to be found out,
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but one who has been vindicated by
God himself, declared justified by God himself,
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declared one who is forever forgiven.
What a great day that will be.
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Will you share in this resurrection?
Will you exchange the cross of this
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world for the Crown of Heaven?
You will if you belong to the king,
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if you are one of his.
How can you belong to him?
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How can you be one of his? Simply by receiving the news he tells
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us and trusting in him, repenting
of your sins and following him. They
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God have mercy on us, and
May he draw each of you into his
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heavenly kingdom. Amen. Let us
pray
