Sit At My Right Hand

[0:00] Let's turn back to God's Word and back to the book of Psalms and Psalm 110. Book of Psalms and Psalm 110. I'm taking the whole Psalm really together today and for the sake of a text we could perhaps take the first verse. The Lord says to my Lord, sit that to my right hand until I make your enemies your foots to. According to friends I have a habit and some say a bad habit of repeating myself. I often find myself that it's true. I'm telling the same stories again and again and you know sometimes that story is just so good or what you heard is just so encouraging or so so worth hearing but I just can't help but say it again and tell the story or tell the good news again and again and this Psalm is a Psalm that the apostles of the early church repeated again and again and again that the writers of the New Testament repeated again and again. In the New Testament the book of Psalms is the most quoted Old Testament book and then from that book Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament from the Old

[1:18] Testament and from Psalm 110 this first verse of Psalm 110 either in part or in whole is the most quoted verse of the Old Testament in the New Testament. It's incredible that if the first Christians of the early church, if the apostles, they saw so much in the Psalm worth repeating then it means that for us today we should pay attention as we read the Psalm. If these early Christians saw so much of Jesus in the Psalm it means that we should take the time today to look at the Psalm and see what it tells us about Jesus, what it shows us about who he is and about what he has done and also about where he is. What I want to do today is quite simple as we look at the Psalm to see the Psalm in perhaps four different ways and four different ways that point to Jesus the Psalm has more than that in it but in general four broad ways the Psalm teaches us about Jesus but it tells us about him. First of all this Psalm talks about the place of Jesus, the place of Jesus and then the people of Jesus and the priesthood of Jesus and the power of Jesus. I shouldn't say this but as you see Murdoch Campbell dropping off on me his alliteration I realised this morning I'd managed to do four Ps here but the place of Jesus, the people of Jesus, the priesthood of Jesus and the power of Jesus and then these four simple headings I want us to dig into this and to be encouraged and to be filled with glory and full of joy and wonder as we see what this Psalm tells us about our Savior. The reality is this Psalm is happening right now. This Psalm of course written by David written many many years before Jesus was born hundreds of years before Jesus was born for us the Psalm which was written thousands of years ago is taking place right now.

[3:32] Psalm 110 is a Psalm that gives us an insight into heaven. That first verse of Psalm 110 we see something incredible taking place this first verse of Psalm 110 we actually see what it was said to our Savior as he returned back to glory. Jesus finished his work on earth he completed his task with respect he conquered the grave and as Jesus ascends back into glory what does he hear well this Psalm tells us what took place this Psalm then tells us what's taking place right now and what's going to take place in the future. So with that in mind and it's if you can please do have your babbles open in front of you as we go through this Psalm let's look first of all at the place of Jesus and we see that quite simply in the first verse. I was telling some of the folks before we started that going back to do Hebrew just now we're doing Hebrew the last few years and if

[4:39] I'm doing Hebrew then we all have to do some Hebrew together so for a short time today we're going to become Hebrew scholars and with that in mind let's look to the first few words of verse one the Lord says to my Lord this is not just some some interesting facts for us if we want to understand the rest of the Psalm we have to understand what this first phrase is saying to us we have to get this first the Lord says to my Lord we see that the two spillings of Lord are slightly different the first Lord is in all capitals L, O, R, D and the second Lord is capital L and the rest are all in lowercase letters. The question is who is speaking to who in this first verse? Well the first Lord is easy that first Lord all capitals that's Yahweh when we were together in the summer looking through Micah we saw Yahweh appeared again and again the covenant name of God God's personal name that he chose to reveal himself to his people the name that God uses to show himself as the

[5:44] God who is close to his people who loves his people who takes care of his people the God who is God of a nation so the covenant keeping God Yahweh says to my Lord that second Lord there is Adonai so it's Yahweh says to Adonai so the Lord says to my Lord Adonai is used to describe someone who's over you somehow in power it's used in the Old Testament to talk about God in various places the word is used it's fine it's also used to talk about Kings, earthly Kings it's someone over you in power it's the same way as we'd use the word Lord today actually a Lord in terms of in the house of Lords or Lord in terms of a King perhaps or Lord in terms of God. Yahweh says to the Lord who is over me that's all fine and well but when you stop and think well who's saying this well King David is saying this King David who reigns supreme over his land is writing this down and King David is saying that Yahweh said to my Lord. Wait a second who is King David talking about here. Yahweh said to the Lord who is over me well there's no one over a King David in Israel no one is above King David no one reigns over him no one is his Adonai no one is his Lord and if we don't take Jesus into this then we're going to get very confused very quickly because

[7:21] David is now talking nonsense. Should we stop and think what is taking place when David is saying he is seeing he is hearing what took place when David is saying Yahweh says to my Lord and hear David how much he is saying we don't know but he is clearly saying there is one over him there's a Lord who is a greater King than David there's a Lord who is better than David there's a King over him who Yahweh is speaking to in this first wonderful verse we see David saying God spoke to the King God spoke to my King David here is seeing something incredible David saw the return of our Savior as he returned back to the Father and David acknowledges that there is a King over him but he is King he is Adonai to his people but above him there's a greater Adonai there is another King and in this Psalm we see that clearly shown to us the Lord says to my Lord

[8:30] Yahweh says to Jesus God the Father says to the Son what does the Father say to the Son on his return from him what did Jesus hear as he completed his mission and returned to the Father God says to him sit at my right hand you've returned home miss and sit at my right hand of course that means a place of approval a place for the King those on the right hand of the King are those who the King is satisfied with who the King is pleased with of course we know that that God of course was more than pleased with the work of Jesus but all that Jesus went through to secure a people for himself to to save his people to suffer and to die and to live again for his people God is pleased with that but there's more than that taking place to sit at the right hand of a King and these days meant to take part in the King's plans it wasn't just a place of approval it was a place it's a practical place it meant that you were now involved in the work of the King and the idea is that Jesus is there in approval Jesus is also there and he is fully and still fully involved in all that's taking place under Yahweh the place of our Savior is at the right hand of the Father a place of our

[10:11] Savior today is at the right hand of the Father they are being approved his work on earth was done yes he's completed his task but Jesus is still as we'll see in a second fully involved in the work that's taking place fully involved in the will and the plan of the Father in Matthew chapter 22 the Pharisees have come to Jesus and they've asked him questions about the Messiah and who the Messiah is and it's actually in that chapter Matthew 22 verses 41 to 45 that Jesus defends for us the reality that this Psalm Jesus quotes the Psalm and points out this Sam was in fact written by David and Jesus tells the Pharisees that who is David talking to here if David is King who is a king he's talking to but in Matthew 22 Jesus asks the Pharisees a very interesting question what do you think of the Messiah what do you think of the king what do you think of a one who's come to save his people as they were face to face with Jesus himself he asked him what do you think of me so I can stand here for next half hour hour two hours and I can rant and rave and try and just express in my poor words the wonder and glory what it means that Jesus is now the right hand of the Father at the end of the day it means nothing unless you actually care do you care the question I wanted to leave you with as we leave this first point is the question

[11:56] Jesus asked the Pharisees what do you think of the Messiah what do you think of a one who's now the right hand of God what does that mean to you the Christians here it's a glorious reality it means that right now our Savior but when we worship when we love that he is reigning that he is king that he is in a place of power that he reigns and rules and is in full control and full charge of our lives and of the universe itself what does it mean to you if as of yet you don't know him as your Savior what does it mean to you what does Jesus mean to you who is he to you and the encouragement is that come to know him as king come to know him as king come to see him as a one who is truly at the right hand of the Father because the reality is if you believe it or not if you care or not it's still true Jesus still reigns Jesus is still king regardless of what you think about it regardless of what you think about him he still reigns supreme anyway come and see him as king come and know him as king come and serve him as king and he will lead your life in ways you can't begin to imagine he'll walk alongside you he will guide you he'll protect you he will be king to you so the place of Jesus right now the right hand of the Father as verse one tells us he is there what is taking place was enemies slowly but surely are being made to bow before and we sang that earlier on we sang that also from Sam to earlier on that Sam and Sam too which talks about the same thing taking place the enemies of a king are being made to bow that brings us to our second point we have here we have the place of Jesus Jesus is king he's at the right hand of the father fair enough then a king of course needs people a king needs people to to to reign and rule over and we have these people for us in verse three in verse three we see described for us the people of the king verse three your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments so verse three of course is talking about the coming day of his power but when the day the king comes back to take his people home he will find his people there waiting for him the day Jesus comes back the day when all things end the day of his power his people will be there and how are the people of king Jesus described there are those who offer themselves freely how do earthly kings extend their power how do earthly kings extend their reign by force and by threat how do many earth religions extend their power extend their reign by force and by threat believe or lose your head believe or lose your life believe or lose your business believe or we're going to burn your house through your village down how does our king in this Sam how does his kingdom spread what is people like are they a forced people are they are they unwilling servants well no we see that in verse three when Jesus comes back he will find people who are freely offering themselves free people I'm sure we said this before over the summer but we all serve our master each one of us today we all serve a master of some sort we might think we're free but we're not this day we all either serve Jesus or we serve the enemy we have an infusion structure too we either serve Jesus or we serve Satan and we hear that and we know that but it's so simple and it is that simple this morning we are the people of verse three here who freely worship Jesus or the people in verse three who are not here who as of yet do not worship

[16:26] Jesus who as of yet don't know Jesus who as of yet are still slaves and who are still serving an ever king a king who is not Jesus and a king who will not save and who cannot save I wonder of verse three is that the king is still gathering up his people see verse three like I said verse three talks about the final day the day of the power of Jesus the day when Jesus returns that that day when it's all done but that day has not come yet but right now we are working towards that day yes but right now this very second we're still here the chance to come and to serve and the chance to come and to join these people it's still open for us it's very hard to translate verse three and we see that if your bible has as we notes to the bottom verse three is quite hard to understand what's happening in the second half of the verse but I have a way all the companyders agree that verse three in somehow some way describes the the beauty and wonder of these people that the people who worship this king are clothed in what in holy garments the people here today who know Jesus those of us here today who serve Jesus who are his people that we've perhaps had a bad week perhaps a tough week a week where we know ourselves we've just messed up completely messed up but this week we've done that thing we've said that thing we've thought that thing definitely at least I've made a mess of it I've made an absolute mess of it I'm supposed to be a servant of Jesus and I've failed to serve him yet again another day and every week we're just messed it up and verse three reminds us about our place as a people of

[18:22] Jesus are just as the people on the final day are clothed in holy garments so are we today and we know that to be true but right now we are clothed in his perfection but right now Jesus in his work and sacrifice has bought us with his precious blood and that blood has cleansed us from our wrath due to us or right now we appear before God as a free people but we can worship God just now freely we can pray to him freely knowing that he hears us knowing that if we are his if we know Jesus said you're that he hears us but also he cares for us he loves us he cares for our praise he cares for our service he cares for who we are as people because we're washed in the blood of his son because we are clothed in these holy garments the people of the king are serving people but a free people too we freely love Jesus we freely serve Jesus we freely do all that we can do to glorify his name the people of our risen lord we should be a people who are free and we are a people who are free we should be a people who are full of joy you are full of gratitude as we are reminded even in this verse here I still wonder what it means to be to be saved to be free the goal of the king is not to destroy his people the goal of the king is to uplift his people but every king fails every earthly king will let his people down every earthly kingdom will one day come to nothing the people of even the best of the kings in history have faced an end of the kingdom eventually have faced bad and tough times under the king's reign and rule under the reign and rule of Jesus his people face none of that under the reign of rule of Jesus his people are people who are free who serve him willingly who serve him with love but our king is a perfect king he loves us perfectly and he leads us perfectly and he looks after us perfectly and again I have to ask the question are you serving this king can you say that this king is your your question is not do you know your bible the question is not do you know at all the question is not even are you a member the question is do you know king jesus do you serve him as your king if not why you've heard this thousand times you hear this every week but please the question is still real the question is still to you if you as of yet do not serve him why not how many excuses do you have left how many reasons can you give not to come and bow down with a one who has done all things for you come and serve king jesus come and join the people in verse three come and join his people here today we're a mess of a people we're a people who who managed to get most things wrong but yet we know that before our king that he calls us holy he calls us perfect he calls us his own a raid were clothed in holy and perfect garments so we even heard in our prayer points today the people of jesus come from all over the world not bound by language color culture or anything else but jesus gathers his people across the world he's doing it right now across all the nations the people of jesus are being gathered up and gathered up and the kingdom is growing come and join it come and join the wonderful kingdom of jesus come and serve him as king come and know him as saviour don't stay outside in the cold any longer come in to his kingdom cry out to be saved the place of jesus the right hand of the father king jesus has a people here in verse three and in in verse four if we look with the place to verse four we have this beautiful beautiful verse it tells us about the priesthood of jesus and before we see this character this mysterious character machhizadek being being talked about we first meet machhizadek in jesus chapter 14 in that chapter we we see machhizadek as a priest but also as a king and see machhizadek blessing god's people as priests and as king machhizadek was a shadow just a a hint as to what was going to come machhizadek served as a priest and a king which was unusual and unique for the rest of of israel's history the priests were priests and the kings were kings and god never told them to mingle the jobs together it could not be done it would not be allowed to be done the machhizadek we saw something a glimmer of someone to come who'd be much greater than machhizadek who wouldn't be an earthly king or an earthly priest but who'd be something more glorious we worship this day jesus who is our king and our high priest as we read in our chapter there in Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 5 and if you have time today read chapter 4 and chapter 5 together and see more it means that jesus is high priest the question is right now where is jesus right hand of the favares king yes but also the right hand of the favares as a eternal high priest what does that mean why do we care why should we care the means are right now however jesus he's not far away he's not distant he's not uncaring he's not very reigning and rolling of the right hand of the favares through a turn one day and that's it he's there right now as the one who knows his people who cares for his people see we read in

[25:27] Hebrews the high priest the the the earthly high priests the men who did that job but they themselves were sinners they themselves had to sacrifice for themselves but jesus is high priest he has made the final sacrifice but he reigns as high priest because he sacrificed himself and that final perfect sacrifice guarantees for us a place in his kingdom see he reigns as king because he gave his life for his people he reigns as king now because he humbled himself to come down to earth to live and to die for his people my friends we have a jesus a king a savior who is close to his people a jesus who is close to every one of us right now who knows us who knows everything about us who knows his people intimately that's not to say in some some way that's that that's heavy but no that gives such relief to his people doesn't it i don't know how your week's been i don't know how your year so far has been i don't know your situation your private life i don't know what what troubles you're you're facing as a passing public supply it's a very good example of a pastor i don't know but jesus does if you're here today as a as a believer then he is your high priest he is the one who has done all he has done for you who right now as high priest is carrying your name on his lips to the fava who is continually intercessing for you always offering up prayer for you yes he is king yes he reigns in power but also he is personal he is close he cares as high priest this is not just some theology for us to understand this is the one that what it means to be a christian but we can know that he cares for us we can know that our jesus that he knows us he knows us that he walks alongside us but we have a king who has conquered death and who now reigns yes but also we have a king who right now is praying for us who knows us who's walking alongside us that's the comfort this sam offers us and the wonderful thing is that this priest in verse four that this is a role that he has forever you are a priest forever after the order of machesedic the lord has sworn and will not change his mind to phrase it there too but very similar phrases which just pointed the fact that the role of this king as high priest will go on forever and ever and ever but jesus will always be our high priest but jesus will always care for us as his people but jesus will always bring us to a fiver jesus will always be the one who has done the work for us it's a glorious reality for christians here today isn't it but right now we can know our jesus reigns but also right now we know that our jesus is with us but he has not gone and left us but he now he reigns and he rules but also he now has even our names as he carries us in prayer to the fowl a sure promise an eternal promise rabbi duncan one of the famous early ministers of the free church a lecturer of free church college he had a famous phrase and this rabbi duncan students would always ask him about the place of jesus where is jesus now and what does that mean for us and rabbi duncan had a simple and short phrase he would say that the dust of the earth is now in the throne of heaven the dust of the earth is now in the throne of heaven meaning that but jesus reigns jesus king yet but he reigns forever with the marks on his body he reigns forever with the marks on his hands and his side and his feet a jesus reigns now of course yes and his his new body but he also reigns eternally god eternally a man forever he will always know what it is to have suffered he will always know what it is to have been on earth he will always know what it is to have been the one who has suffered and died for his people come and know this jesus know him as king yes know him as king who reigns come and be one of his people come and join the kingdom come and know him as the one who died and rose again for you as the one who right now is is there waiting forever as a friend of his people as the elder brother of his people the priest of jesus and then finally we have the power of jesus we say that from verses five to verse seven but really the whole sam speaks about the power of jesus if you were listening and reading we you'll note we've skipped past verse two in verse two we see something incredible the power of jesus verse two was the favorite verse of both martin loufra the reformer and also john calvin martin loufra and his deathbed uh was quoting the last the second half of the second part of verse two martin loufra a man who spent his life surrounded by enemies held special for reality he held true for reality that in jesus in this king we have someone who is who is ruling in the midst of his enemies who is ruling in the midst of his enemies we had that in our prayer points we we hear so often of the persecution of our dear friends our dear brothers and sisters we we have the darkness in the world the sadness and pain in the world but the darkness and sadness and pain in our villages in our island and in our own personal perhaps situations and to the christians here we're often perhaps led to say well where is what is happening here where is the where's the gospel in the situation what's taking place here why is this so dark why is this all so bad why i look like the enemy is conquering you see here the wonderful reality that where does jesus rule where does a king rule well an earthly king can rule at the front of his kingdom that the battle lines of his kingdom as far as he can rule but jesus rules even in the midst of his enemies even in the midst of the darkness even in the midst of the hopeless situations even in the midst of the countries and parts of the world where his gospel and where he and where his people are hated even they are jesus rules in the midst of his enemies even there he is there and all his might and all his power and he is building his kingdom as we pray for our our dear friends across the world who are being persecuted as we pray for our own perhaps situations as we pray for situations we know about in our our our villages and our area and our island we pray that understanding that even there jesus is king that even the darkest of places are not beyond his power not beyond his reach because in the midst of his enemies he rules that's a power of our king that's a power of jesus we think about that person perhaps who we think is so far away from the gospel that person having our minds who wouldn't even come near this building the person having our minds who we perhaps love so dearly but we think they have no one who will never have a gospel interest our good news is that even there even there in that darkness in that ignorance that our savior can have his kingdom that should influence our prayers which influence our view of life our view of of our own witnessing as we try and share the gospel in our in our homes in our places of work in our places of study and wherever we are that even there even most hopeless of situations for us that jesus reigns and jesus will rule in the midst of his enemies versus five and verse seven we see in if we're honest a graphic way the extent of the power of the king in this sand he will shatter on the day of his wrath the kings he will execute judgment among the nations filling them with corpses he will shatter chiefs of the wider and we read that we think wow that's a lot going on there a lot going on these verses graphic grim details I think why do we have to have these details well they have to be there because it's a reality see we have Jesus as savior we have Jesus as high priest we have Jesus as the one who is our elder brother yes but Jesus is also the king who will return and who will conquer all his enemies

[36:11] Jesus king who will return one day and he will rule supreme overall he will return one day and make all things new that is the king we serve see verses five to verse seven are our good news the Christians here today wonderful news but one day justice will be done for one day all evil all sin all pain will be swept away but one day Jesus will return and he will shatter his enemies and he will reign perfectly forever with us as his people verses five to verse seven should also terrify us as if as of yet we don't know Jesus because verses five to seven tell us that the day is coming and the day is soon and he will return he will return and he will reign and he will rule and that will be it that'll be the end the chance will have passed you by to have come to him that's the bad news that's the grim news that's a terrifying news but the good news is that verses five to verse seven have not yet taken place but right now we are still here in verse four but right now Jesus is reigning and ruling but right now Jesus is still there as high priest for right now you can still know Jesus as the one who has saved you for right now you can still know

[37:45] Jesus as the one who has set his love on you you can know him as your savior if only you would come and believe in him if only you would come and trust in him only you would come and take him as your king and take him as your savior and again we can say this again and again and I cannot save you I can save us a thousand different ways I can spend hours trying to craft the best word of sermon and it will not save you come and believe come and trust come and take God's word for God's word come and believe in the Savior we see in this Psalm my word you can take her leave him but God's word you cannot ignore and our humble prayer is that you would come and know this king come and serve a king in this psalm who reigns and who rules and who loves his people who cares for his people who right now is praying for his people who serves his people even as king come and know him now before he returns as a king to conquer all his enemies as our prayer here for you is to come to know him for the Christians here as we read this

[39:08] Salmond as we go home perhaps and read it again to ourselves let's be filled with wonder filled with joy filled with hope as we're reminded again and again we worship our risen Savior we worship a savior who is king right now a savior who who is gathering up his people across the world right now a savior who is hearing our prayers right now a savior who is carrying our prayers to the Father right now a savior who is ruling and reigning right now that is the Jesus we worship this day let's bow our heads in that a word of prayer Lord God we we come before you we thank you again for your word Lord you're forgiven me for anything I said that was incorrect anything I said it was not an accordance to Lord we give you praise the power is not in the the poor jars of clay you stand here Lord the power is in your living word because you are living God or working through it we ask today that you would impress on all our hearts and all our minds the reality that we worship our risen Savior we worship a savior who now rules and and reigns as king a savior who's now our high priest who carries our prayers to you a savior who cares for us as his people and who loves us as his people we ask would encourage your people here today encourage your people as we think about these things as we hear these things again as we're reminded of a great wonder of what it is to worship Jesus as savior Lord encourages build us up we pray again for any here who has of yet don't know Jesus this way Lord encourage them encourage them to come to you to come to know you to come to love you they come and to have Jesus as their savior Lord you would open their eyes and open their hearts to see the need they have for you or help us the rest of this day to praise you to honor you to take time to rest as we take time to glorify you to praise you help us again even in our final item of praise just now to to sing our hearts and to sing to you knowing that you're the God who hears our praises and who loves to hear our praises how was to leave this place transformed how was to leave this place changed by your word encouraged by it and challenged by it too it's always things in Christ's precious name