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  JESUS, THE PROPHET, THE PRIEST, THE KING
  by T.C. Horton
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A series of sermons presenting Jesus Christ in His threefold office as Prophet,
Priest, and King. Born out of a Spirit-filled series on 'The Real Christ,' these
messages reveal fresh dimensions of the Savior's person and work.

  Chapters: 5

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 0.4 INTRODUCTION
    2. 1 JESUS THE PROPHET
    3. 2 JESUS THE PRIEST
    4. 3 JESUS THE KING
    5. 4 JESUS THE WONDER

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  CHAPTER 1: 0.4 INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION

Three weeks ago, at the close of a series of ten sermons on “The Real Christ,”
as a deep hush still brooded over the audience, (for the Holy Spirit had given
all of us to see Jesus as we had never seen Him before), Mr. T. C. Horton, who
had been a constant and very appreciative attendant at all the services, stepped
up to me and, gently laying his hand upon my shoulder, said in a very tender
tone, “I think you ought to preach a sermon on ‘Jesus The Prophet.’ It would be
very timely.” I have seldom been able to speak on subjects others suggest; I am
compelled usually to get subjects directly from God; and furthermore, I had
never spoken or written a line directly upon this subject. Nevertheless, I said
“I will think about it.” That very afternoon I went alone with God and asked
Him, and I received a command from a Higher Authority than Mr. Horton or any
human authority: “Preach three sermons, one on Jesus The Prophet, one on Jesus
The Priest, and one on Jesus The King,” and I obeyed. Oh, the joy I have had in
preparing these sermons. Time and again I have had to stop in my preparation of
them, as God gave me to see things, or realize things, that I had never clearly
seen or realized before, and get down and bury my face in my hands and thank and
praise and worship God the Father and the Son, and in an overwhelming sense of
my inability to tell these things in any adequate way, implore God to preach
through me. And He has. Many people have said that they have been greatly
blessed, but I do not think that anyone has received the blessing the preacher
has, both in his preparation of the sermons and in his delivery of them. Oh, the
joy there is in my heart today, joy in Jesus, joy in Jesus The Prophet, Jesus
The Priest, Jesus The King. On the Sunday following the sermon on “Jesus The
King,” I was lead to preach a sermon on “Jesus The Wonder.” This sermon seemed
to fit into the three already delivered so perfectly that it was thought wise to
add it to this book as completing the study of our Lord Jesus from the
standpoint of this book.

God grant that the reading of these sermons may bring to many thousands in many
lands a joy and blessing like to that which the preparation of them has brought
to my own heart.

R. A. Torrey.


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  CHAPTER 2: 1 JESUS THE PROPHET
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JESUS THE PROPHET

My subject this morning is “Jesus THE Prophet.” I have three texts: Deu 18:15;
Deu 18:17-19 : “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst
of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken: . . . (17)
and Jehovah said unto me, they have well said that which they have spoken. (18)
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. (19) and it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken
unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”

Acts 3:22-23 : “Moses indeed said, a prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto
you from among your brethren, like unto me; to him shall ye hearken in all
things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. (23) and it shall be, that every soul
that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among
the people.”

John 7:46 : “Never man spake like this man.”

Moses predicted about fourteen hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus
of Nazareth that sometime in the future God would raise up for Israel from among
their own race a perfect and inerrant prophet into whose mouth God would put His
own Words, and who should speak all that God commanded Him. About fifteen
hundred years later, about thirty years after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth,
Peter, after he had been chosen to be an apostle and had been filled with the
Holy Ghost, and thus qualified to speak for God, declared that this prophecy
made through Moses had been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord Jesus
Himself claimed that He was such a prophet. In John 7:16 He says “my teaching is
not mine, but His that sent Me.” He further says in John 8:28, “When ye have
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing
of (Greek, from) myself, but AS THE FATHER TAUGHT ME, I SPEAK these things.”
Again in John 12:49-50 He says: “I speak not from myself; but the Father that
sent me, He hath given me a commandment. WHAT I SHOULD SAY, and what I should
speak. (50) And I know that His commandment is life eternal; THE THINGS
THEREFORE WHICH I SPEAK, EVEN AS THE FATHER HATH SAID UNTO ME, SO I SPEAK.” In
John 14:10 He says, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father
in Me? THE WORDS THAT I SAY UNTO YOU I speak not from Myself: but the Father
abiding in Me doeth His works.” And in the 24th verse of the same chapter He
says “He that loveth Me not keepeth not My words: AND THE WORD WHICH YE HEAR IS
NOT MINE, BUT THE FATHER’S who sent me.” In one of the most solemn utterances of
His life on the night before His crucifixion, speaking not to men, but to God
Himself, Jesus says in John 17:8, “FOR THE WORDS WHICH THOU GAVEST ME I HAVE
given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth
from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send me.” The meaning of these many
utterances of Jesus Christ is unmistakable. Jesus Christ claimed that God the
Father gave Him a commandment as to just “what He was to say” and that in
nothing “He spoke from” Himself, but that he spoke from the Father that sent
Him, that He spoke “just as the Father said unto” Him, that the very words He
spoke, He “spoke not from Himself,” that EVERY WORD HE SPOKE WAS NOT HIS BUT THE
FATHER’S, that the words which He gave to others were “the words which thou
(i.e. God) gavest me.” There are those today not avowedly infidels but
professors in theological seminaries alleged to be orthodox, and training men
for the evangelical ministry at home and to be instructors in the theological
seminaries in China and other lands emerging from the darkness of heathenism,
who unhesitatingly affirm that these statements and claims of Jesus Christ are
not true. They affirm that Jesus did not speak the words that God gave Him, the
very words of God, but that He spoke His own words which set forth His own ideas
and that THESE IDEAS WERE, IN PART, AT LEAST, DERIVED FROM THE ERRONEOUS NOTIONS
OF THE TIME IN WHICH HE LIVED. If these theological teachers are right, Jesus
Christ was a liar. But as God has set the stamp of His endorsement upon the
claims of Jesus Christ by raising Him from the dead, and as the evidence of His
resurrection is so overwhelmingly conclusive as to compel conviction of the fact
of His resurrection on the part of any sincere seeker after truth, I am
compelled by every consideration of sane logic to believe that these theological
professors are the liars and that Jesus Christ’s claim is true. Jesus Christ was
a prophet of God in whose mouth God put His own words, and His words therefore
are absolutely without error, and according to one of our texts, whoever will
not hearken unto God’s words which Jesus Christ spoke shall be visited with
overwhelming destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power (Cf. Acts 3:23; 2Th 1:9) even though he may be a university student or Y.
M. C. A. secretary or theological student or professor in some theological
seminary. Jesus Christ by God’s appointment holds three offices, Divinely
Appointed Prophet, Divinely Appointed Priest and Divinely Appointed King. Today
we look at Him as our texts set Him forth, as God’s Divinely Appointed Prophet.

I—WHAT IS A PROPHET? The first question that confronts us is, What is a Prophet?
The Hebrew word translated “prophet” in our text from the Old Testament (נָבִיא)
is derived from a verb (נָבָא) the primary meaning of which is “to boil up,” to
“pour forth (words)” and therefore, “to speak under Divine inspiration” because
the one Divinely inspired pours forth words “as he is borne along by the Holy
Ghost” (Cf. 2Pe 1:21 R.V. and Greek.) The Prophet is one who speaks not his own
words but the words he receives from God as he speaks. The Greek word translated
“prophet” in our New Testament text to mean primarily, “one who speaks forth,”
hence a “spokesman for God,” “one through whom God speaks.” This same Greek word
is used in the LXX rendering (or Greek translation) of the Hebrew in our Old
Testament text. A prophet then is one who speaks the words which God puts into
his mouth, one through whom God speaks. Every word he speaks as a prophet is
God’s own word just as much as if God spoke it directly from heaven, as He did
speak when He said to Jesus “Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well
pleased.” (Luk 3:22). The Biblical idea of a prophet is then not merely one who
FORETELLS but one who “FORTH TELLS” what God tells him. Nevertheless, prediction
constituted a large part of what the Old Testament prophets uttered for God and
prediction also constitutes a large part of what our Lord Jesus said as the
mouthpiece of God the Father. But the Lord Jesus was uttering God’s words and
only God’s words, not only when He was predicting but in every word He uttered.
His every word recorded in the New Testament was God’s own word; not one
syllable did He utter that was not God’s word. As one of our texts puts it,
Jehovah said, “I WILL PUT MY WORDS IN HIS MOUTH, and he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command Him.” And as He Himself put it, “The word which ye hear
is not mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John 14:24), and “My teaching is
not mine, but His that sent Me.” (John 7:16); and again “FOR THE WORDS WHICH
THOU GAVEST ME I have given unto them.” (John 17:8).

II—FULFILLED PREDICTIONS MADE BY JESUS CHRIST.

Let us now look at some of the predictions of Jesus Christ that have already
been fulfilled.

1. In the first place, He predicted His own death and resurrection and the exact
manner of his death and resurrection. The first prediction He made of His death
and resurrection we find in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.” John tells us that when He uttered these words, “He spake of
the temple of His body.” (John 2:21) These words were spoken at the very outset
of His ministry, He already knowing and declaring His coming death and
resurrection. He made a more explicit prediction of His death and resurrection
in Mat 16:21, “From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.” A little later His
prediction of His own death and resurrection becomes still more explicit and
detailed. We read in Mat 20:18-19, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son
of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes; and they shall
condemn him to death, (19) and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles to mock, and
to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day he shall be raised up.” Here we
have a prediction of the details of what He was to suffer and just how He was to
die as definite and explicit as the historical accounts of what actually took
place. These predictions regarding both the manner of His death and the fact of
His resurrection seemed preposterous and impossible of fulfillment when He made
them. Crucifixion was not a Jewish method of execution and resurrection was
entirely unknown. For centuries men had come and gone. They had lived and died
and that was the end of them as far as men could see. And so He declares that
His own experience was to be entirely different from that of the uniform course
of nature; that He was to die as other men died, but that on the third day the
body that was laid in the grave was to be raised from the grave. But as
preposterous and seemingly impossible of fulfillment as these predictions were,
in point of fact they were fulfilled in the most literal way, fulfilled to the
very letter. So we must conclude that His predictions which are as yet
unfulfilled, because the time for their fulfillment has not yet arrived, will be
literally fulfilled when the time does come, fulfilled to the very letter. There
is no room left for the spiritualizing interpretations of Shailer Matthews and
Prof. Case and all that thoroughly unscientific and entirely unhistorical school
of Biblical interpretation.

2. In the second place, Jesus the Prophet predicted that there would be a great
outward growth of His kingdom and at the same time a thoroughgoing corruption of
its inward life and doctrine. This we see in the twin parables of the mustard
seed and the leaven in Mat 13:31-33, “Another parable set He before them,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man
took, and sowed in his field: (32) which indeed is less than all seeds; but when
it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the
birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof. (33) Another parable
spake He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.” The meaning
of these parables is evident. The first parable sets forth great growth from
insignificant beginnings. Interpreted in the light of Eze 17:22-24; Eze 31:3-9,
the birds of the air represent the nations coming and taking shelter under the
protecting shadow of the visible Church, a most unlikely, yes, apparently
preposterous, prediction when Jesus made it, but history tells us that it was
literally fulfilled. The parable of the leaven represents the inward, secret,
but all pervading corruption of the visible church. This many interpreters would
deny but God Himself has given us an inspired interpretation of the leaven in
1Co 5:6-8, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? (7) Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed,
even Christ (8) Wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This
inspired reference to Christ’s own parable leaves no room for doubt that the
growth of the leaven refers to the growth of error and corruption, which the
woman, an apostate church, mixes in the “three measures of meal,” i.e. the
children’s bread. So we see that Jesus predicted that while the visible church
would grow marvelously outwardly, it would also be completely corrupted
inwardly, in life and doctrine, by the leaven of false doctrine which the
apostate church would mix in the children’s bread, the Word of God. What a
strange prediction for the Founder of the Church to make concerning His own
Church (in its outward manifestation), but it was fulfilled, as history tells
us, to the very letter in the outward growth and inward corruption of the Church
under Rome’s domination in the middle ages. This even taken alone would prove
the truth of Jesus’ claim to be the Prophet of God.

3. In the third place, Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the
character and details of that destruction forty years before its destruction.
This we find in Mat 24:1-2, “And Jesus went out from the temple, and was going
on his way; and his disciples came to show him the buildings of the temple. (2)
But he answered and said unto them, see ye not all these things? verily I say
unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down.” And again in Luk 19:41-44, “And when he drew nigh, he saw the city
and wept over it, (42) saying, if thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the
things which belong unto peace: but now they are hid from thine eyes. (43) For
the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about
thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, (44) and shall
dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave
in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation.” When Jesus made these predictions, in A.D. 30, there seemed no
probability or even possibility, of their fulfillment and yet as we all know
they were fulfilled to the very letter when Jerusalem was visited with such an
overthrow of desolation and siege of agony and destruction, under Titus and
Vespasian in 70 A. D., as was never visited upon any other city.

4. In the fourth place, Jesus predicted the centuries long subjection of
Jerusalem and the Jew to Gentile domination, to be ended when the times of the
Gentiles were fulfilled. This we see in Luk 21:20-24, “But when ye see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand. (21) Then let
them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains; and let them that are in the
midst of her depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter therein.
(22) For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be
fulfilled. (23) Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in
those days! For there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this
people. (24) And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led
captive into all the nations: And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Nineteen centuries of
history have confirmed the truth and literal accuracy of the first part of this
prediction, that the subjection of Jerusalem and the Jew to Gentile domination
would last throughout the centuries until God’s purposes concerning the Gentile
nations were fulfilled: and we seem to be on the eve of the fulfillment of the
second part of it, that “when the times of the Gentiles” were “fulfilled,”
Jerusalem’s subjection to Gentile domination would end. I say we seem on the eve
of the fulfillment of the second part of this prediction, since Jerusalem was
taken by General Allenby and since the League of Nations decided for Jewish
control of Jerusalem. Attempts have been made in the past by mighty enemies of
Jesus Christ to bring about conditions that would prove the first part of this
prediction untrue, but they have failed utterly. The apostate emperor of Rome,
Julian, in 361-363 A.D. brought all the political, military and financial
resources of the Roman Empire to bear in order to rebuild the temple at
Jerusalem, but he was utterly discomfited by forces that seemed supernatural,
even as recorded by an infidel historian (Gibbon), and perished ignominiously on
the field of battle despairingly shrieking, “Oh, Galilean, Thou hast conquered.”
So also some day these apostate professors in “Christian” colleges and
theological seminaries who seek to discredit the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to
be a Prophet who spoke without error the very words of God and infallible
predictions of God, will be forced to cry in despair, if they do not do it soon
in repentance and shame. “O, Galilean Thou has conquered”!

5. In the fifth place, Jesus predicted that the Jews, though crushed and
scattered throughout the earth, subjected to a tyranny such as no other people
ever suffered, would preserve their race identity until He Himself should come
again to deliver them. Centuries have rolled on since our Lord made these
predictions. Nations have risen and fallen, been obliterated and forgotten. In
all these centuries the Jew has not had a foothold anywhere, yet to this day the
Jew retains his race identity as perfectly as he possessed it in the first
century. The Jew is always a Jew. He cannot be absorbed. Even in the melting pot
of America the Jew won’t melt. He is the miracle of history and the words of
Christ stand.

6. In the sixth place, Jesus predicted that His words would prove imperishable
amid the wreck not only of philosophies and religions, kingdoms and empires, but
even in the passing away of the heavens and earth. His amazing words were
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Mat
24:35). This was a most astounding prediction and claim to make under the
circumstances under which He made it. He was an obscure member of a
circumscribed, subject and despised people, an uneducated artisan of that
decadent, contemned and hated race. In less than a week He was to be the butt of
the scorn and ridicule of jeering mobs as He ended His life as a condemned felon
on the gibbet, only a short walk from here He was now speaking. He had no
following of any account as to numbers or character. And yet he had the audacity
to say that for centuries to come, when the great philosophies were proved false
and inadequate, when the mighty cities were over-overthrown and buried, when the
all-conquering kingdoms and empires had crumbled, His words would stand. How
absurd, how ludicrous, how ridiculous, how preposterous, how impossible! But His
words have already stood for nineteen hundred years, while everything else of
that day has passed away, and stand they will when “the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and
the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2Pe 3:12). When
the puny critics who are “vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind” because they
have attained to a few meaningless university degrees, and who are intoxicated
by the fumes of their own supposed superior wisdom, because they have learned
how to ring the changes on the spell-binding word “evolution,” with callow young
men and maidens in our high schools and colleges and universities, and with the
dominant type of twentieth century so-called “scientists” who build their
“science falsely so-called,” upon the tenuous filaments of their own dreams,
that result from an unscientific use of the imagination, rather than upon the
carefully observed and substantial and rugged facts of nature and, therefore,
assume to demand that we give up our belief in the infallibility and inerrancy
of Jesus Christ and put our faith in their infallibility and inerrancy instead;
when these nauseating products of a philosophy that is as unreliable and
transitory as the self-confident philosophies of the past, that have had their
day of boasting and then burst like the saponaceous bubbles that they were, when
these self-styled “scholarly critics” are utterly forgotten, the words of Jesus,
the infallible Prophet of God will stand.

III—UNFULFILLED PREDICTIONS MADE BY JESUS CHRIST. As every prediction of Jesus,
the Prophet of God, who poured forth the very words of God that had to do with
the past and present, has been fulfilled to the very letter through nineteen
centuries, the inexorable logic of facts demands that we believe that His
predictions which refer to the times still future, will also be fulfilled to the
very letter. What are these predictions? They are many and we have time for but
a few.

1. In the first place, and most important and including much besides, that He
Himself is coming again. On the night of His crucifixion when the hearts of the
disciples were rent and torn and crushed and despairing because of the
announcement He had just made of His fast approaching death He said to them,
“Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. (2) In my
Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you: for
I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also.” (John 14:1-3). These words of His clearly indicate a personal, visible,
bodily coming back from a place, Heaven, to which He was now going, to a place
that He was just about to leave, this earth. Furthermore, God has not left the
Divinely inspired words of Jesus without a Divinely inspired interpretation.
This interpretation we find in 1Th 4:16-18, “For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (17) then we that are alive,
that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (18) Wherefore comfort
one another with these words.” Why do I say this is a Divinely inspired
interpretation of Jesus’ own words? Because there are just the same four points
in each utterance. (1) Jesus said, “I come again.” Paul’s inspired comment as He
spoke the words which God put into his mouth is “The Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven.” (2) Jesus said. “And I will receive you into Myself.” Paul’s
inspired comment is, “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air.” (3) Jesus said, “That where I am, there ye may be also.” Paul’s
inspired comment is, “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” (4) Jesus said, “Let
not your heart be troubled.” Paul’s inspired comment is, “Wherefore comfort one
another with these words.”

2. In the second place, Jesus predicted that the time of His coming will be a
time when human society is totally absorbed in worldly pursuits, profiteering
and pleasure seeking and reeking with sin. Listen to His words as they are
recorded in Luk 17:26-30, “And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so
shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (27) They ate, they drank, they
married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the
ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (28) Likewise even as it came
to pass in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they
planted, they builded: (29) But in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it
rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: (30) AFTER THE
SAME MANNER shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed.” He has
predicted, that when He comes His professing church will have so far apostatized
that faith will be hard to find. His words are “When the Son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luk 18:8) He has declared that His coming
will take even His faithful disciples by surprise, “Therefore be ye also ready;
for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Mat 24:44). He has
declared that His coming will overtake “All them that dwell on the face of the
whole earth ‘as a snare’ ” (Luk 21:35).

3. In the third place, Jesus, the proven Prophet of God, has predicted that the
time immediately preceding His coming will be a time when human society is
totally unsettled in its politics, its business and its international affairs in
utter confusion.

These are His words, “And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and
the billows; (26) Men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things which
are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. (27) And
then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory.” (Luk 21:25-27.) But when these “perilous,” “grievous” (2Ti 3:1) and
disturbing times come, those who believe on Jesus Christ are not to be
overwhelmed or even disturbed, but radiant, jubilant and full of loftiest hope.
Read the next verse (Luk 21:28), “But when these things begin to come to pass,
look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.”

4. In the fourth place, Jesus, the One Supreme Prophet of God, has predicted
that as a result of His coming, He is to take the reins of government. All the
evils of society are to be corrected and there is to be a reign of universal
righteousness throughout the world. Hear what He says in Mat 25:31-32; Mat
25:34; Mat 25:46 : “But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the
angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of His glory (32) and before
Him shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall separate them one from
another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; . . . . (34) then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of ‘the world: . . .
(46) and the righteous shall go away into eternal life.” In Mat 19:28-30, He has
predicted that as the direct result of His coming there is to be a new birth of
society and of the physical universe, “And Jesus said unto them, verily I say
unto you, that ye who have followed me, IN THE REGENERATION when the Son of man
shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (29) And everyone that hath left houses, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for My name’s
sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. (30) But many
that are last shall be first, and first that are last.”

Oh, all the brightest and loftiest dreams of the world’s best poets and social
philosophers will be more than realized then. They will not be realized by any
big drives for Four Hundred Million Dollars by men who have become dizzy and
lost their heads by watching the wild whirligig of big business and war
extravagance. They will be realized when His words find their fulfillment in His
own personal return to this earth and not till then.

IV. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD JESUS THE PROPHET.

One question remains and it is the all-important, practical question,—What
should be our attitude toward God’s One Supreme and Final Prophet? Listen to my
text again, Deu 18:15, “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; UNTO HIM YE SHALL HEARKEN.”
Notice who the speaker is, not Moses, but Jehovah God. Listen to Deu 18:18-19,
“I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I
will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall
command Him. (19) And it shall come to pass, that WHOSOEVER WILL NOT HEARKEN TO
MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME, I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM.”

Listen to my other text, Acts 3:22-23, “Moses indeed said, a prophet shall the
Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; TO HIM SHALL
YE HEARKEN IN ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER HE SHALL SPEAK UNTO YOU. (23) and it shall
be, THAT EVERY SOUL THAT SHALL NOT HEARKEN TO THAT PROPHET, SHALL BE UTTERLY
DESTROYED FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE.” Hearken unto Him intently, believe Him
absolutely and obey Him unhesitatingly. Do this and you will get eternal life.
Refuse to do it, neglect to do it, fail to do it for any reason whatsoever and
you will perish utterly and forever. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal
life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him.” (John 3:36) “Every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet,
shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23).


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  CHAPTER 3: 2 JESUS THE PRIEST
========================================================================

JESUS THE PRIEST

Last Sunday, we considered Jesus as THE Prophet, the One who spoke for God, the
One who spoke the words God put into His mouth, the One who spoke God’s words
and only God’s words. We saw that He did not speak a syllable that was not God’s
word.

Today, we are to consider Jesus as THE Priest. Next Lord’s Day, we shall
consider Him as THE King. Our subject then today is “Jesus THE Priest.” I have
been embarrassed by the large number of texts that have come to mind as
absolutely necessary, and I have been unable to reduce them to less than seven.
Even so we shall have occasion to consider many others before this sermon is
finished. The seven texts are:

Heb 3:1: “Wherefore, Holy Brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.”

Heb 4:14-16: “Having then a great High Priest, who hath passed through the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (15) For we have
not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
(16) Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we
may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.”

Heb 5:4-6: “And no man taketh the honor unto himself, but when he is called of
God, even as was Aaron. (5) So Christ also glorified not Himself to be made a
High Priest, but He that spake unto Him, Thou art My Son, this day have I
begotten Thee: (6) As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”

Heb 7:22-25: “By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.
(23) And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because that by
death they are hindered from continuing: (24) But He, because He abideth
forever, hath His priesthood unchangeable. (25) Wherefore also He is able to
save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them.”

Heb 8:4(part of the verse): “Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest
at all.”

Heb 9:24: “For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in
pattern to the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear before the face of
God for us.”

1Ti 2:5: “For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, Himself
man, Christ Jesus.”

You will note that six of the seven texts are from the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is the great New Testament book on the subject of the
Priesthood of Christ, as Leviticus is the great Old Testament book on
priesthood. Leviticus has been called “The Priests’ Guide Book” (C. H. M. Lev.,
p. 204), but the Epistle to the Hebrews is the book that pre-eminently sets
forth Jesus Christ as the One High Priest of whom Aaron was but the type and
shadow. I wish each of you would carefully read the Epistle to the Hebrews when
you go home, especially Chapters three to ten. In our first text, God commands
us to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus” and
we shall endeavor to obey that commandment this morning. The word translated
“consider” is a very strong word. It means “to consider attentively” or “to
consider studiously,” “to fix one’s eyes or mind upon.” That is just what we
propose to do this morning; to fix the eyes of our mind very intently upon Jesus
as our High Priest of God’s own appointment, the One Divinely appointed and
Divinely anointed Priest of God. Our text says, “Consider the APOSTLE AND HIGH
PRIEST of our confession, even Jesus.” But last Sunday we considered Him as The
Apostle, the One sent of God to speak for Him; for that is what Apostle means.
Today we consider Him as the High Priest. As Apostle or Prophet He represents
God before us; as High Priest He represents us before God; but He is both
Apostle to represent God before us and High Priest to represent us before God,
by God’s own appointment. Jesus is both our Moses and our Aaron. Like Moses (Deu
18:15; Deu 18:18-19), He pleads God’s cause with us, by God’s own appointment;
like Aaron, He pleads our cause with God, by God’s own appointment. The Old
Testament High Priest, type of Jesus, our High Priest, came before Israel with
the name of JEHOVAH on the golden plate of his mitre (Exo 39:30-31): but He came
before God with the name of the twelve tribes graven on his twelve-jeweled
breast-plate, over his heart (Exo 39:8-14). We are then today to consider Jesus
as the Priest of God’s own appointment, the One and Only real Priest of whom
Aaron and his successors were but types and shadows.

I.—WHAT IS A PRIEST? The first question that confronted us last week was, “What
is a Prophet”? The first question that confronts us today is, “What is a
Priest?” A true priest, (as is evident from a study of both the Old Testament
and the New Testament use of the word), is one who represents sinful people
before a Holy God, one who makes it possible for penitent sinners to stand in
God’s Holy presence and to have joyous communion with Him. The priest represents
God’s people before God and makes communion with God possible in two ways:

1. In the first place, the priest represents God’s people before God by making
propitiation for their sins by the slaying of their substitute sacrifice and by
the offering of the blood to God. This we see in Heb 2:17, “Wherefore it
behooved Him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God TO MAKE
PROPITIATION for the sins of the people.” In the Authorized Version it reads,
“to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,” but this is an incorrect
translation. “To make propitiation” is the right rendering. In the Greek the
three words “to make propitiation” are represented by one word, a verb. The part
of the Greek verb used here which is translated “propitiation” signifies “a
means of appeasing.” The thought is: God is Holy, infinitely Holy. Because He is
infinitely Holy, He must infinitely hate sin. As everything in God is real, His
Holy hatred of sin is real, and, therefore, must manifest itself. It must
manifest itself by striking either upon the sinner or upon a lawful substitute,
and the Holy wrath of God manifested itself in falling upon the substitute
sacrifice rather than upon you and me, the sinners. Now it is the priest who
offers up the sacrificial victim and thus “makes propitiation.” The Old
Testament priest offered up calves and goats and lambs, but they were only types
and shadows, not the reality. They could never “make perfect them that drew
nigh,” they needed to be offered again and again (Heb 10:1-2). But Jesus our
High Priest must have “somewhat to offer” (Heb 8:3). That “somewhat” was Himself
by the shedding of His own blood on Calvary. He was both Priest and sacrifice.
(Heb 10:4-10.) By coming to do the will of God, in the offering of His own body
and shedding of His own blood (Heb 10:4-9), and by carrying that blood into the
very presence of God when He ascended up into heaven, the real Holy place,—of
which the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle made “after the pattern God showed
Moses in the mount” was only a type,—Jesus, our High Priest, made a perfect
propitiation for sin and by it “perfected forever,” as far as their standing
before God is concerned, all those who believe on Him (Heb 10:14). And so there
needs to be no more sacrifices here on earth and no earthly priest to offer
them. The Roman Catholic priest claims that in the mass, in which they say that
the bread is turned into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of
Christ, there is a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ. But in so saying they
fly in the face of God’s plain Word (Heb 10:10-14), “By which will we have been
sacrificed through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL. (11)
And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins: (12) But He, when He
had offered ONE sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God;
(13) Henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet.
(14) For By ONE OFFERING He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

2. In the second place, the Priest represents the redeemed people of God before
God by interceding for them. This we see in Heb 7:23-25 : “And they indeed have
been made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from
continuing: (24) But He, because He abideth forever, hath His priesthood
unchangeable. (25) Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that
draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for
them.” In two points of great importance our High Priest, Jesus, excels the Old
Testament high priests who were simply types and shadows of Him:

(1) In the first place they were many because they were “hindered from
continuing by death”: He is One and “ever liveth (literally “is always living”)
to make intercession.” So He cannot only begin our salvation by bringing us
pardon and justification by the offering of His own blood, but can also carry on
our salvation “unto entire perfection” (“unto entire perfection” is the exact
force of the Greek words translated “unto the uttermost,”) by interceding for us
daily every time we are tempted, thus daily preventing our fall and bringing us
restoration to fellowship even if we do fall.

2. In the second place, our High Priest is infinitely more excellent than the
old Aaronic priesthood because they were permitted to come into the Holy of
Holies only once a year, but our High Priest is in the true Holy of Holies,
Heaven itself, all the time. Furthermore, the Old Testament priests had to stand
in the Holy of Holies, but our High Priest “sat down on the right hand of God,”
“on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Heb 10:11-12;
Heb 8:1), because He belongs there. Oh, precious, oh glorious thought! Jesus,
our High Priest, has made perfect atonement for our sins forever, and,
therefore, there is not a cloud between God and the believer in Christ, no
matter how many and how great the believer’s sins may have been; and He is in
God’s presence today, all the time, to intercede for us, knowing all Satan’s
wiles, and thus He can save us from falling a prey to the wiles of Satan and can
also take up our case if we do fall. As John puts it in 1Jn 2:1, “If any man
sin, we (i.e., believers in Christ,) have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Righteous.” Let us praise God today for our perfect, ever living High
Priest, Jesus, who “Is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto
God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

II.—WHERE IS JESUS, OUR HIGH PRIEST? The next question that confronts us is,
Where is Jesus, our High Priest; i.e., where does He act as High Priest? The
Bible very plainly answers that question. Jesus is our High Priest not on earth,
but in heaven. This we see in our fifth text, Heb 8:4, “Now if He were on earth,
He would not be a priest at all,” and in our sixth text, Heb 9:24, “For Christ
entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but
INTO HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear before the face of God for us” (literally “in
behalf of us”). Christ began to exercise His High-priestly functions when He
ascended into heaven. When He was here on earth, He acted as God’s prophet. When
He entered heaven and carried His blood in there, He began His work as Priest.
When He comes again He will assume His place as King though He will continue as
priest and therefore be a Priest-King (Psa 110:1-6). We see here the folly of
the Roman Catholic priesthood. They have no right to act as priests. The only
priesthood of Divine appointment on earth is the Aaronic priesthood, and they
are not of the family of Aaron, nor even of the tribe of Levi. The Bible tells
us that even the Lord Jesus could not be a Priest on earth because He was of the
tribe of Judah, of which God said nothing about Priesthood but of Kingship.
Listen to Heb 9:24, “For Christ entered NOT INTO A HOLY PLACE MADE WITH HANDS,
like in pattern to the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear before the
face of God for us.” Listen again, Heb 8:4, “Now if He were on earth, He would
not be a priest at all.” Again, Heb 7:14, “For it is evident that our Lord hath
sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests.”
Oh, that the Pope and his cardinals and his archbishops and his bishops and all
his subordinates would study the Bible. Then they might approach more nearly to
“infallibility” and not constantly fall into monstrous and ludicrous errors. It
will not help the Romish priests any to claim to be successors of the Apostles,
or even to be successors of Peter, even if they could establish the claim, which
they cannot; for neither the other Apostles nor Peter made any claim to
priesthood, except as all believers are priests in that God has committed to us
all a ministry of intercession. It was Peter himself who said to all believers,
and not merely a priestly caste nor to ministers, (1Pe 2:7-9), “For you
therefore that believe is the preciousness: But for such as disbelieve, the
stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner: (8)
And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word,
being disobedient: Whereunto also they were appointed. (9) But ye (i.e., “You
that believe”,) are an elect race, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a Holy Nation, a people
for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1Pe 2:7-9.) Into the
position of priest, as a mediator between God and men, no other than Jesus has
any right to attempt to come; for God Himself has declared in words, the meaning
of which is unmistakable, “There is one God, ONE MEDIATOR also between God and
men, Himself man, Christ Jesus.” (1Ti 2:5.) By God’s Word then the Romish
priesthood vanishes and saints and angels vanish as mediators, and even “the
Blessed Virgin” herself vanishes as a mediator. There is but one
Priest-mediator, Jesus Christ, and He is enough. He is all-sufficient. We need
no other. If any purely human priest, Roman Catholic or other, comes to me, I
will say, “Get out, I don’t want you, I have Jesus.” Oh, Lord Jesus, thou art my
sole and all-sufficient Priest, “made priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek.” Our versions render these words, which occur three times in this
Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 5:6; Heb 7:17; Heb 7:21), “Thou art a Priest
forever,” but there is no article in the Greek. Indeed, there is no indefinite
article (“a” or “an”) in the Greek language. When it ought to be inserted it has
to be supplied; and often-times in Greek literature, biblical or classical, a
noun is used without the definite article when it is even more emphatic as the
expression of the only one of the class than if a definite article were used.
The words thrice repeated in Hebrews, “Thou art priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek,” are a quotation from an Old Testament prophecy and undoubtedly
mean that the coming Messiah, a Divinely appointed and Divinely anointed
Priest-King, was to be the One and Only Priest forever (Psa 110:4, note the
context, Psa 110:1, etc.). Jesus Christ Himself quoted this Old Testament
prophecy as applying to Himself and as a proof of His Deity (Mat 22:41-46).

III.—WHEN IS JESUS PRIEST? The next question that arises is, “When is Jesus
Priest?” This question has really been answered by answering the preceding
question as to where Jesus should act as Priest. We have seen that it is in
Heaven that He acts as Priest in the true sanctuary which “the Lord pitched, not
man.” (Heb 8:2.) So it is since His ascension to Heaven that He acts as Priest.
He was Prophet when on earth and is Priest now in heaven and He will be King
when He comes back, but He will continue Priest for it is repeatedly declared
“Thou art Priest forever.” So He will be a Priest-King.

IV.—THE CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR PRIEST.

Just a few words on the characteristics of our Priest:

1. In the first place, He is a Priest by Divine appointment. This is strongly
emphasized in our third text, Heb 5:4-6, “And no man taketh the honor unto
himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron. (5) So Christ also
glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He that spake unto Him, Thou
art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. (6) As He saith also in another
place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” We have
priests, many today. We meet them on every hand, in secret societies, in heathen
religions, in Roman Catholicism, and many Protestant preachers assume priestly
airs and claim priestly honors; but these are all self-made priests, or man-made
priests. Jesus is a God-appointed Priest, and the only God-appointed Priest.

2. In the second place, He is a Perfect Priest in His Moral Character. This
comes out in Heb 7:26-28, “For such a High Priest became us, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (27) Who
needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for
his own sins, and then for the sins of the people: For this He did ONCE FOR ALL,
when He offered up Himself. (28) For the law appointed men high priests, having
infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointed a Son,
perfected for evermore.” The One Priest, Jesus, can make a perfect atonement for
us because He needed none whatever for Himself, and such atonement He has made.
As Heb 7:27 puts it, “Who needeth not daily, like those High Priests, to offer
up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people: For
this He did ONCE FOR ALL, when He offered up Himself.” How unlike to Him are the
priests of the Roman Catholic Church, to say nothing of the priests of heathen
religions. Who ever knew a human priest, even the best of them, of whom it could
be said that he was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens”? It could be far better said of many of them that they
are “unholy, harmful, defiled, mixed up with sinners and made lower than the
average man.” But such a Priest who is “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” “became us” (or, fitted us) and,
thank God, we have Him in Jesus Christ and we want none of the other sort.

3. In the third place, He is a merciful and faithful High Priest in things
pertaining to God. This we see in Heb 2:17, “Wherefore it behooved him in all
things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God.” The word translated
“Faithful” means “one who can be depended upon,” “one in whom you can put your
trust.” That is one great trouble with these man-made priests and self-made
priests, you cannot depend upon them, and if you put your trust in them you are
lost.

4. In the fourth place, Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest. This comes out in
Heb 4:14-16, “Having then a great High Priest, who hath passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (15) For we
have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin. (16) Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of
grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of
need.” We get precious little sympathy from man-made priests. We ought to get
it; for they are not only tempted as we are, but sin as we do and worse. But
sympathy? No. So many prayers, so many masses, yes, even so many funerals, and
even so many words of consolation, for so many dollars. We do not need them. We
have a High Priest who knows our every temptation, sympathizes with our every
sorrow and He does not ask a cent. Let us go right to Him. Oh, that some of you
sorrowing ones and tempted ones would go right to Him and tell it all. You do
come to me and I am glad you do, but I cannot help as He can. You do not need
me. Go right to Him. Alas, I am often too busy to listen, He never is. “Let us
therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need” (Heb 4:16).

5. In the fifth place, He is an everlasting Priest. Other priests die, He
continues. This is beautifully put in Heb 7:23-25, “And they indeed have been
made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from
continuing: (24) But He, BECAUSE HE ABIDETH FOREVER, hath His Priesthood
unchangeable. (25) WHEREFORE also He is able to save to the uttermost them that
draw near unto God THROUGH HIM, seeing HE EVER LIVETH to make intercession for
them.” Therefore He can comfort and help and save, not for a day, but forever,
and “unto entire perfectness.” (That is the meaning of the words translated “to
the uttermost.”)

V.—PRACTICAL INFERENCES FROM THE PERFECT PRIESTHOOD OF JESUS.

Now just a few minutes for some practical inferences that the Bible draws from
the perfect Priesthood of our Lord Jesus. We have drawn some as we went along,
but I wish to emphasize three:

1. In the first place, let us have done with manmade and self-made priests. That
is the message of whole chapters in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

2. In the second place, “let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of
need.” This is what God tells us to do in Heb 4:16. A similar thought is found
put in another way in Heb 10:19-22, “Having therefore, Brethren, boldness to
enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, (20) by the way which He
dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh; (21) and having a great priest over the House of God; (22) let us draw
near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience: And having our body washed with pure water.” With such a High
Priest in heaven, we can come into God’s presence without fear, indeed, with the
utmost confidence no matter how vile we may have been in the past or even how
weak we may be in the present. Oh, when I pray and my sins of the past come up,
and my unworthiness in the present comes up, I think of the perfect sacrifice
that has been made that covers all my sins and of my perfect Priest up there,
whom the Holy Father always hears, and I become very confident and dare ask
great things and I know I am going to get them.

3. In the third place, having gone into the Holy of Holies, Heaven itself, and
presented there the blood and completed His intercession, He is coming back to
bless and save, to perfect our salvation. This we see in Heb 9:28, “So Christ
also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second
time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.” Have you ever
noticed that these words are found right in the midst of a section of the
Epistle taken up entirely with Christ’s Priesthood, and that His return is
stated to be the direct outcome of His priestly work? The High Priest, under the
old dispensation, went into the Holy place and offered the blood and made
intercession and then came out and blessed the people. So Jesus, our High
Priest, has made atonement by the sacrifice of Himself and has taken His blood
up into the real Holy of Holies, Heaven itself, and made His intercession and
then what, listen to Heb 6:17-20, “Wherein God, being minded to show more
abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel,
interposed with an oath; (18) that by two immutable things, in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: (19) Which we have as an anchor of
the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within
the veil; (20) whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a
High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Is not the meaning plain?
Our High Priest having come out from the Holy place to bless us who believe in
Him, and, therefore, “wait for Him,” is going to take us back with Him. The
verses tell us that Jesus entered heaven “as a forerunner” (note, please, the
word “forerunner”), having become a High Priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek,” and we are the followers of the “forerunner.” We are to go with
Him into that same unutterably glorious place, the real Holy of Holies, the
highest heavens. He does for us what no Aaron nor any possible successors could
do for Israel, not even in type. The Aaronic High Priest went into the Holy
place alone, and only once a year, and only for a short stay. Our High Priest
when He comes, will take us back with Him into the Holy of Holies, and to stay.
Hallelujah!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: 3 JESUS THE KING
========================================================================

JESUS THE KING

Two weeks ago, we considered Jesus as the Prophet, the One who spoke for God,
the One who spoke the words God put into His mouth, the One who spoke God’s
words and only God’s words. We saw He did not speak one syllable that was not
God’s word. Last week we considered Him as the Priest, the One who represents
God’s people before God, making propitiation for the sins of the people and thus
securing pardon and justification for them, no matter how great and how many
their sins may have been, and “ever living to make intercession for them” and
thus making them secure against all the wiles of the Devil, keeping them from
falling and even when they do fall, restoring them by His intercession with the
Father to communion with God.

Today we are to consider Him as THE King, not as A King, but THE King, “King of
Kings,” and “Lord of Lords,” the King of whom all earthly Kings, even the wisest
and best and most potent are but faint symbols and shadows. Again I have seven
texts:

Psa 2:6-12: “Yet I HAVE SET MY KING UPON MY HOLY HILL OF ZION. (7) I will tell
of the decree: Jehovah said unto Me, THOU ART MY SON; THIS DAY HAVE I BEGOTTEN
THEE. (8) Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. (9) Thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (10)
Now therefore be wise, O ye Kings: Be instructed, ye Judges of the earth. (11)
SERVE JEHOVAH with fear, and rejoice with trembling. (12) KISS THE SON, lest He
be angry, and ye perish in the way, for His wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed
are all they that take refuge in Him.”

Psa 72:7-8: “In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace,
till the moon be no more. (8) He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and
from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

Jer 23:5-6: “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I WILL RAISE UNTO DAVID
a righteous branch, and HE SHALL REIGN AS KING and deal wisely, and shall
execute justice and righteousness in the land. (6) In His days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and THIS IS HIS NAME whereby He shall be
called: JEHOVAH, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Dan 7:13-14: “I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, THERE CAME WITH THE
CLOUDS OF HEAVEN one like unto (the) SON OF MAN, and He came even to the ancient
of days, and they brought Him near before Him. (14) And THERE WAS GIVEN HIM
DOMINION, and glory, and A KINGDOM, that all the peoples, nations, and languages
should serve Him: HIS DOMINION IS AN EVERLASTING DOMINION, which shall not pass
away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

Mat 26:63-64: “But Jesus held His peace. And the High Priest said unto Him, I
adjure Thee by the Living God, that Thou TELL US WHETHER THOU ART THE CHRIST,
THE SON OF GOD. (64) Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said: Nevertheless I say
unto you, henceforth ye shall see THE SON OF MAN sitting at the right hand of
power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Luk 19:12: “He said therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country, TO
RECEIVE FOR HIMSELF A KINGDOM, AND TO RETURN.”

Rev 19:11-16: “And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He
that sat thereon CALLED FAITHFUL AND TRUE; and in righteousness He doth judge
and make war. (12) And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many
diadems; and He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself. (13)
And He is ARRAYED IN A GARMENT SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD: AND HIS NAME IS CALLED THE
WORD OF GOD. (14) And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white
horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. (15) And out of His mouth
proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: And HE SHALL
RULE THEM with a rod of iron: And He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of
the wrath of God, the Almighty. (16) And He hath on His garment and on His thigh
a name written, KING OF KINGS, and Lord of Lords.”

We saw two weeks ago that God has a great deal to say in His Book, the Bible,
about Jesus, the Prophet. A week ago we saw that God has a great deal to say in
His Book, the Bible, about Jesus as the Priest. But God has a great deal more to
say in His Book, the Bible, about Jesus as King than about Jesus as either
Prophet or Priest. The Hebrew words, “The Messiah,” and the Greek words, “The
Christ,” alike mean “The Anointed One.” Priests and prophets and kings were all
anointed in the Jewish economy and therefore the title, “The Messiah” (or, “The
Christ”) may be taken to refer to Jesus as Prophet, Priest and King. But the
thought of His kingly office is the predominant thought in His most frequently
occurring title, “Messiah” or “Christ.” This title is used of Jesus 571 times in
the New Testament. (I counted them last Monday night.) Five Hundred and
Seventy-one times! Oh, yes, Jesus the Christ is a Prophet, Jesus the Christ is a
Priest, but He is pre-eminently THE KING. Yet the average believer knows very
little about the Bible teaching regarding the Kingship of Jesus. God grant that
we all may know more about it before the close of this service.

I.—WHERE JESUS, THE KING, IS TO REIGN. The first question that arises is, Where
is Jesus, the King, to reign? It is upon that point that there is much confusion
and much error, but the Bible answers the question with the utmost plainness.

1. In the first place, He is to reign on this earth. This almost every one of
our texts declares. Take, for example, our second text, Psa 72:7-8 : “In His
days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, till the moon be no
more. (8) He shall have dominion also FROM SEA TO SEA, and from the river unto
the ends of THE EARTH.” There can be no doubt where that glorious kingdom that
Psalms 72 describes is to be. It says in so many words it is on “the earth.”
Take our third text, Jer 23:5 : “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I
will raise unto David a righteous branch, and He shall REIGN AS KING and deal
wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness IN THE LAND.” This passage
leaves no doubt where His kingdom is to be. It says explicitly that “He shall
reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness IN
THE LAND.” The Authorized Version says “in the earth,” which would prove our
point, but the Revised Version is more specific and says “in the land,” i.e., in
the land of Israel. We see the same thing in Dan 7:13-14 : “I saw in the
night-visions, and, behold, there CAME WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN one like unto
(the) Son of Man, and He came even to the ancient of days, and they brought Him
near before Him. (14) And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that ALL THE PEOPLES, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES should serve Him: His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.” Here we are distinctly told that the reign
of the Son of Man who is to come “with the clouds of heaven” (cf. Mat 26:64), is
to be over “All the peoples, nations, and languages,” which leaves no doubt that
it is to be here on the earth. But turning to the New Testament we read these
words of our Lord Himself in Luk 19:12 : “He said therefore, a certain nobleman
went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and TO RETURN.” This
represents our Lord Jesus going to heaven to receive His Kingdom, but when He
gets it, “to return” and exercise it here on earth, just as the Palestinian
kings of Jesus’ time on earth went to Rome to get their kingdom, but came back
to Palestine to exercise their kingship. Listen to our seventh text in Rev
19:11-16 : “And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that
sat thereon called faithful and true; and in righteousness He doth judge and
make war. (12) And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many
diadems; and He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself. (13)
And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: And His name is called the
Word of God. (14) And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white
horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. (15) And out of His mouth
proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should SMITE THE NATIONS: And He shall
RULE THEM with a rod of iron: And He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of
the wrath of God, the Almighty. (16) And He hath on His garment and on His thigh
a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of lords.” These words clearly represent
Heaven opened and the King, Jesus, “The Word of God,” coming out of Heaven with
His armies, to this earth to rule “the nations.” It is, therefore, clear as day
that His kingdom is not a heavenly kingdom, but an earthly kingdom. It is
heavenly in its character, but earthly in its location. Therefore, it is called
“the Kingdom of Heaven,” i.e., the kingdom of heavenly character existing here
on earth. Jesus Christ is Priest in Heaven. He is King on earth.

2. In the second place, Jerusalem is to be the center of His reign. This we see
in our first text, Psa 2:6, “Yet I have set my King UPON MY HOLY HILL OF ZION.”
When God says, “Zion,” He means Zion. He does not mean the Dowie Zion near
Chicago, and He does not mean the Zion of some writers of silly hymns such as
“We’re Marching to Zion,” by which I suppose they meant Heaven. The name Zion
(spelled with a “Z”) is found 150 times in the Bible and not in one single
instance does it refer to anything but a location in Jerusalem. Last week I read
and examined every passage in which the word occurs. Jerusalem then is to be the
centre and seat, the throne city, of King Jesus. We find this same fact that
Zion in Jerusalem, is to be the seat of the kingdom of King Jesus in the New
Testament in Rom 11:26, “There shall come out OF ZION the Deliverer; He shall
turn away ungodliness FROM JACOB.”

3. In the third place, while the throne of Jesus’ kingdom is located in
Jerusalem, the extent of that kingdom is the whole earth. This we see in Psa
72:6-11 : “He will come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that
water the earth. (7) In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of
peace, till the moon be no more. (8) He shall HAVE DOMINION also from sea to
sea, and FROM THE RIVER UNTO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. (9) They that dwell in the
wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust. (10) The
kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall render tribute: The kings of Sheba and
Seba shall offer gifts. (11) Yea, ALL KINGS SHALL FALL DOWN BEFORE HIM; ALL
NATIONS SHALL SERVE HIM.” The same thought is found in Isa 2:2-3 : “And it shall
come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be
established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and ALL NATIONS SHALL FLOW UNTO IT. (3) And MANY PEOPLE shall go and say, come
ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: For out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.” The
same explicit and unmistakable teaching is found in Zec 8:20-23 : “Thus saith
Jehovah of Hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come peoples, and
the inhabitants of many cities; (21) And the inhabitants of one city shall go to
another, saying, let us go speedily to entreat the favor of Jehovah, and to seek
Jehovah of Hosts: I will go also. (22) Yea, MANY PEOPLES AND STRONG NATIONS
shall come to seek Jehovah of Hosts IN JERUSALEM, and to entreat the favor of
Jehovah. (23) Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: In those days it shall come to pass,
that ten men shall take hold, OUT OF ALL THE LANGUAGES OF THE NATIONS, they
shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you,
for we have heard that God is with you.” The universal, world-wide extent of the
kingdom of our Lord Jesus which centers at Jerusalem is also seen in Dan 7:13-14
: “I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven
one like unto (a) Son of Man, and He came even to the ancient of days, and they
brought Him near before Him. (14) And there was given Him dominion, and glory,
and a kingdom, that ALL THE PEOPLES, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES SHOULD SERVE HIM:
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

Let me call your attention in passing, to the unity of the prophetic message,
the unity of the different books of the Bible, though written at such widely
separated intervals of time, upon this subject, as upon every other subject. The
unrealized dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Xerxes, Alexander the Great,
Augustus, Diocletian, Napoleon and Kaiser Wilhelm of a world-wide empire will be
realized at last in One who is fit to exercise such power, King Jesus.

II.—WHEN JESUS SHALL REIGN AS KING. The next question is, When shall Jesus reign
as King? This question is answered with unmistakable plainness and explicitness
in the Word of God.

1. In the first place, Jesus shall reign as King when He comes again. His own
words settle this in Luk 19:11-12 : “And as they heard these things, He added
and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they supposed
that THE KINGDOM OF GOD WAS IMMEDIATELY to appear. (12) He said therefore, a
certain nobleman went into A FAR COUNTRY, to receive for himself a kingdom, AND
TO RETURN.” No one doubts that the nobleman of this Parable of the Pounds refers
to Jesus Christ Himself, and in it He tells us that He is going to “a far
country,” i.e., Heaven, to get His kingdom from the Father and “to return” when
He gets it, and to exercise it when He gets back. The last book in the Bible
tells us the same thing in Rev 19:11-16 : “And I saw the heaven opened; and
behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon called faithful and true; and in
righteousness He doth judge and make war. (12) And His eyes are a flame of fire,
and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written which no one
knoweth but He Himself. (13) And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with
blood; and His name is called the Word of God. (14) And THE ARMIES WHICH ARE IN
HEAVEN FOLLOWED HIM upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure.
(15) And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should SMITE
THE NATIONS: AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A rod of iron: And He treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. (16) And He hath
on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of
Lords.”

Any sane interpretation of this passage must make it refer to the return of our
Lord Jesus to reign over “the nations” of the earth. Jesus will be King when He
comes back to the earth. He was The Prophet when He was here on earth in His
humiliation: He is now The Priest at the right hand of the “Throne of the
Majesty in the Heavens”: He will be King when He comes back again. The Priest
who has atoned for our sins and now intercedes for us in Heaven will rule as
King on earth then: and not till then. It is true He reigns in the hearts of His
obedient people now, but anyone who will carefully and candidly consider all
that the Word of God has to say upon this subject will see that this is not what
God’s Word has in mind when it calls Jesus “King.” No, plainly what God’s Word
has in mind when it calls Jesus “King,” is His coming reign on earth. “Make
Jesus King,” is a favorite phrase with many. Years ago, some Christian young man
in Japan sent a cablegram to a convention of students in this country and used
three words, these three words, “Make Jesus King.” A thrilling message. But the
only way to really make Jesus King is by hastening His kingdom by gathering His
people out of all the nations by getting them to accept Jesus as their Saviour
and Lord, until His body is complete, and then He will come and then He will
reign: and not till then.

2 In the second place, Jesus’ reign will begin when Israel’s sorrows culminate
in the Great Tribulation that is coming upon Israel, and the nations are
gathered together against Jerusalem and King Jesus comes to deliver His earthly
people. This is very plainly stated in Zec 14:1-4; Zec 14:9 : “Behold, a day of
Jehovah cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. (2) For I
will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be
taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall
go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from
the city. (3) THEN shall Jehovah go forth, and fight against those nations, as
when He fought in the day of battle. (4) And His feet shall stand in that day
upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount
of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the
west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall
remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. . . . (9) And Jehovah
shall be King OVER ALL THE EARTH: IN THAT DAY shall Jehovah be one, and His name
one.” The Jehovah that this prophecy tells us shall be “King over all the earth”
in that day shall be Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah the Christ. This we are plainly told
in Jer 23:5-6 : “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto
David a righteous branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and He
shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. (6) In His days Judah shall
be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and THIS IS HIS NAME whereby He shall
be called: JEHOVAH, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

III.—THE CHARACTER OF JESUS’ REIGN.

Now we come to the very best part of this very glad subject, the character of
the reign of our glorious Lord. The Bible has very much to say on that all
important subject.

1. In the first place, His reign will be a reign of absolutely perfect
righteousness and justice. This we see in many passages in the Bible. Perhaps
Psa 72:2-7 will answer as an illustration as well as any: “He will judge thy
people WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS, and thy poor with justice. (3) The mountains shall
bring peace to the people, and the hills, IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. (4) He will judge
the poor of the people, He will save the children of the needy, and will break
in pieces the oppressor. (5) They shall fear Thee while the sun endureth, and so
long as the moon, throughout all generations. (6) He will come down like rain
upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. (7) IN HIS DAYS SHALL THE
RIGHTEOUS FLOURISH, and abundance of peace, till the moon be no more.”
Righteousness and justice shall have a complete triumph when Jesus comes to
reign. There shall be no injustice, no oppression of any kind whatever anywhere
on the earth. “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters
cover the sea.” (Isa 11:9.)

2. In the second place, His reign shall be a reign of universal and everlasting
peace. This we find in the verses just read. Let me read again two of them, Psa
72:3, “The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the hills, in
righteousness. (7) In His days shall the righteous flourish, and ABUNDANCE OF
PEACE, till the moon be no more.” There shall be no more war. There shall be not
merely the form and pretense of peace, but real, abiding and abounding peace
between all nations. This is beautifully described in Isa 2:4, “And He will
judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY
MORE.” We find this fast coming universal and everlasting peace described in
almost the same words in Mic 4:2-3 : “And many nations shall go and say, Come
ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of
Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; (3) And
He will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations
afar off: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, NEITHER SHALL
THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE.” Six years ago we flattered ourselves that we had
established universal peace by Hague Conferences and by Peace Palaces. We
believed, at least those who did not know their Bibles believed, that there
would never be another war, at least another great war. Then this most awful war
of history broke. Today some are flattering themselves that shrewd politicians
and diplomats can form a League of Nations that will end war. Indeed, when we
went into the present war, we were told it was “a war to end war.” But no
thinking man is as sure of that as he was even a year ago and no one who studies
his Bible believes it for a moment. He knows that God’s Word says that, “even
unto the end” of this dispensation “shall be war” and that “desolations are
determined” (Dan 9:26). He knows that the most awful war of this world’s history
is not just behind us but just ahead of us; that Kaiser Wilhelm is nothing
either in power or “frightfulness” to Kaiser Anti-Christ, “the Prince that shall
come” (Dan 9:26); that The Beast of Berlin is nothing to The Beast of
Revelation. But, thank God, he also knows that when God’s own King comes, King
Jesus, not President Wilson, President Wood, President Johnson, President
Hoover, President Lowden, or President Anybody, but King, KING Jesus,—that war
shall be no more. A little while before the beginning of the late war, the
Christian Herald of New York wrote to men in different parts of America and
England asking them if they believed there would ever be another great war and
what they thought of the Hague Peace Conferences and efforts of a similar
character. One of these letters of inquiry was sent to me. I replied that I was
in favor of anything that made for peace even temporarily, but that I knew my
Bible too well to believe there would never be another great war; that I knew
from my Bible that the greatest war of history was ahead of us and not behind
us. A great many people thought at the time that I was a crank and a pessimist.
But here we are, and some people that criticized then have since taken to
studying their Bibles. And so today I know from the plain declarations of the
Bible that no League of Nations that can be devised by men, no matter how lofty
their purposes may be in their attempt to devise it, will end war. No! War will
not end until the Prince of Peace comes, King Jesus, to take the reins of
government. God grant He may come quickly.

3. In the third place, the reign of King Jesus will be a reign of universal
plenty. This we see in the verses immediately following those we have just read,
Mic 4:4-7 : “But they shall sit EVERY MAN UNDER HIS VINE and UNDER HIS FIG TREE;
and none shall make them afraid: For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken
it. (5) For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will
walk in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever. (6) In that day, saith
Jehovah, will I assemble that which is driven away, and that which I have
afflicted; (7) And I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was
cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion
from henceforth even forever.” The significance of these words, especially the
fourth verse, is plain. No man will be at the mercy of a landlord, “They shall
sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” All the loftiest dreams of
social philosophers and philanthropists and all other “men of vision,” will be
realized in the reign of King Jesus.

4. In the fourth place, it will be a reign that has a special regard for the
rights and the interests of the poor and the oppressed. This we see in Psa 72:2;
Psa 72:4; Psa 72:12-14 : “He will judge thy people with righteousness, and THY
POOR with justice. . . . (4) He will judge THE POOR OF THE PEOPLE, He will SAVE
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEEDY, and WILL BREAK IN PIECES THE OPPRESSOR. . . . (12)
For HE WILL DELIVER THE NEEDY when he crieth, and THE POOR, THAT HATH NO HELPER.
(13) He WILL HAVE PITY ON THE POOR and NEEDY, and the SOULS OF THE NEEDY He will
save. (14) He will redeem their Soul FROM OPPRESSION AND VIOLENCE; and precious
will their blood be in His sight.” The good end for which the Soviets in Russia
are so blindly and futility striving, the rights and welfare of the poor, will
then be perfectly secured; and they will not be secured until then.

5. In the fifth place, it will be a universal, worldwide reign. This we have
already seen in speaking of “Where Jesus the King is to Reign,” so we need not
dwell on it now. But let me read again Psa 72:6-8, “He will come down like rain
upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. (7) In His days shall the
righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, till the moon be no more. (8) HE
SHALL HAVE DOMINION ALSO FROM SEA TO SEA, and FROM THE RIVER UNTO THE ENDS OF
THE EARTH.” The final form of Government in every part of this earth is not to
be a Democracy, but an Autocracy. No part of the earth in that day is to be
ruled by a President, or by a Senate, or by a Parliament, or even by a
constitutional monarch, but by an absolute monarch, by a King; but a King who is
perfectly fit to reign, which no earthly monarch ever has been; a King who shall
reign in infinite wisdom and infinite righteousness and infinite love; the One
who died to save all mankind, ruling over all mankind.

6. In the sixth place, the reign of King Jesus will be a glorious reign. Much
that has already been said shows that. In addition to that read Psa 72:17-19,
“His name shall endure forever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun:
and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him happy. (18) Blessed
be Jehovah God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things: (19) And
blessed be His glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with His
glory. Amen, and amen.”

7. In the seventh place, the reign of King Jesus will be an everlasting reign.
This we see in the verses just read and we are told it again and again in the
Scriptures. For example, in Dan 7:13-14 : “I saw in the night visions, and,
behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto (the) Son of Man, and
He came even to the ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. (14)
And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the
peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is AN EVERLASTING
DOMINION, which shall NOT PASS AWAY, and His kingdom that which SHALL NOT BE
DESTROYED.” If possible, the everlasting character of the reign of Jesus is even
more explicitly proclaimed in Rev 11:15 : “And the seventh angel sounded; and
there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, the kingdom of the world
is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER
AND EVER.” It is even more plainly stated in Luk 1:32-33, by the angel Gabriel
speaking unto the Virgin Mary about her Son who was to be born, “He shall be
great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give
unto Him the throne of His father David: (33) AND HE SHALL REIGN OVER THE HOUSE
OF JACOB FOREVER; and OF HIS KINGDOM THERE SHALL BE NO END.” There is absolutely
no escape from the force of these words. But someone will say, what shall we do
with 1Co 15:24-25, “Then cometh the end, when HE SHALL DELIVER UP THE KINGDOM TO
GOD, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority
and power. (25) For He must reign, TILL HE HATH PUT ALL HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS
FEET.” The answer to this puzzling question, like the answer to most puzzling
questions in the Bible, is found in the context. Read the immediately following
verses, 1Co 15:25-28 : “For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies
under His feet. (26) The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. (27) For,
He put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He saith, all things
are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted who did subject all
things unto Him. (28) And when all things have been subjected unto Him, THEN
SHALL THE SON also HIMSELF BE SUBJECTED to Him that did subject all things unto
Him, THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL.” The millennial reign of Christ will come to an
end when at the end of the One Thousand Years, the Great White Throne is seen
and the last enemy, Death, is abolished, as we are told in 1Co 15:26. This comes
out by a comparison of 1Co 15:24-25, with Rev 20:7; Rev 20:11-14 : (7) And when
the thousand years are expired . . . (11) . . . I saw a great White Throne, and
Him that sat on it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them. (12) And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand BEFORE GOD; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which
is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. (13) And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it; and death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in
them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (14) And death
and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.” It is then
the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Father “who did subject all things
(including the last great enemy, Death) UNTO HIM,” and then the eternal reign of
the Son begins in eternal subordination to the Father, “that God may be all in
all.” (1Co 15:28.) A somewhat well-known teacher of error in trying to explain
away the force of the words, “Forever and ever” in Rev 11:15 appealed to 1Co
15:24 to show that the reign of Christ would have an end. But in a distant part
of his same essay, he had occasion himself to quote Luk 1:33, “Of His kingdom
THERE SHALL BE NO END,” and then in an underhanded way he explained away and
sought to cover up all he had tried to show in commenting on Rev 11:15. Ah,
there is no getting around Rev 11:15, “The Kingdom of the World is become the
Kingdom of Our Lord, and of His Christ: and HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER.”
Neither is there any way of getting around Luk 1:33, “OF HIS KINGDOM THERE SHALL
BE NO END.” I am glad there is not. I am glad that “the kingdom of this world is
to become the kingdom of King Jesus” and that “He shall reign forever and ever.”
I am glad that “Of His kingdom there shall be no end.”

One night, many years ago, during my first winter in Chicago, I reached home
between eleven and twelve o’clock at night after a very hard day’s work. In
order that I might get quieted and fitted to sleep, I sat down and read my
Bible. I was reading it through in course (as I always am). I was reading in the
last book in the Bible. That book did not mean so much to me then as it does
now. Sometimes I almost wished it were not in the Bible. But that is where I
was, and, therefore, that is where I read; and as I read, I came to Rev 11:15
and these words loomed before me, “The kingdom of the world is become the
kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign forever and ever.” Do
you know what I did? As you know, I am not a man over-given to emotion or noise,
but that night, as I saw that verse and its wondrous message, “The kingdom of
the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall
reign forever and ever,” I shouted, “Hallelujah!” Ah, but how much more it means
today than it did in that day; today, after this awful war, after this collapse
of human kings and human government, after this complete failure of human
diplomacy, autocratic or democratic, in this time when thoughtful men are
wondering what shall come next, this time when “men’s hearts are fainting for
fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world” (Luk
21:26). Oh, the joy; oh, the radiant, unconquerable optimism that results from
believing these precious words, “The Kingdom of the World is become the Kingdom
of Our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign forever and ever.”

What shall we say to the coming King? Ah, there is only one thing we can say,
and that cry should rise today from our hearts in a loud, swelling chorus “Amen:
Come, Lord Jesus.” “Come quickly.” (Rev 22:20.)


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  CHAPTER 5: 4 JESUS THE WONDER
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JESUS THE WONDER

Our subject this morning is Jesus THE Wonder. You will find the text in Isa 9:6
: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall
be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The prophet Isaiah with a mind
illumined by the Holy Spirit, looked down 740 years and saw the coming of Jesus
of Nazareth and uttered the sublime words of our text. In them is wrapped up a
world of meaning concerning the Divine glory, the matchless character, and
wonderful offices of our Lord Jesus, but this morning we must limit our thought
to one clause in the great verse, “His name shall be called wonderful.” To get
the full significance of the name in this connection we must compare the verse
with another deeply significant Bible verse, Jdg 13:18, “And the angel of
Jehovah said unto him, wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is
wonderful?” In the Authorized Version this reads, “And the Angel of the Lord
said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is SECRET?” But in
the Hebrew, the word translated “Secret” in the Authorized Version and
“Wonderful” in the Revised Version, is the same word as the word translated
“Wonderful” in our text only it has an adjective ending of one letter, the word
translated “Wonderful” in our text being, as we shall see later, a noun and not
an adjective. So the name given in our text to the coming Messiah here is the
same as that announced by the “Angel of Jehovah” in Jdg 13:18 as being His own
name. It could be shown, were there time, that the “Angel of Jehovah” was a
Divine person, the second person of the Triune Jehovah, our Lord before His
incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The name “Wonderful” then in our
text was another Divine name besides the two Divine names that follow “Mighty
God,” and “Everlasting Father.” It has been suggested by many that this verse
should be translated, “And his name shall be called “Wonderful Counsellor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” making “Wonderful” an
adjective qualifying “Counsellor.” But “wonderful” in the Hebrew is not an
adjective but a noun, so that translation is a grammatical impossibility. The
translation of this verse given by Leeser, the unchristian Jew, is interesting.
It is. “For a child is born unto us, a Son hath been given unto us, and the
government is placed upon His shoulders; and His name is called, Wonderful,
counsellor of the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.” The
purpose of this change of translation is obvious. Leeser, as an unbelieving Jew,
is aiming to get around the force of the Christian argument based upon this
verse that the calling of the coming Messiah by the two Divine names, “Mighty
God” and “Everlasting Father,” shows that by the plain teaching of their own
Jewish Scriptures that the Messiah was to be a Divine person. Unfortunately for
Leeser, and other Jewish translators of his type, there is absolutely nothing in
the Hebrew text to warrant the insertion of either the word “of” or the word
“the”; “of” inserted twice and “the” inserted three times. Furthermore, if there
were anything in the text to warrant the insertion of “of,” it must be inserted
before “Prince of Peace” as well as before “Mighty God” and “Everlasting
Father,” and of course that would make nonsense, for the coming Messiah, by the
unbelieving Jews’ own conception of Him, was not to be “counsellor of the Prince
of Peace” but to be “Prince of Peace” Himself. This is only one of the many
instances in which the wily Leeser corrupts the text of the Hebrew Bible which
the Jews themselves admit to be correct, in order to read out of it what God has
put into it. God through the prophet Isaiah said, “His name shall be called
Wonder, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” not, as
Leeser reads and unconverted Jews generally would like to read, “Wonderful,
counsellor of the mighty God, of the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
The word translated “Wonderful” is a very significant word. As I said a few
moments ago it is a noun, not an adjective and would be more accurately rendered
“Wonder” or “Marvel.” So translated this part of the verse would read “His name
shall be called Wonder, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace.” The derivation of the noun is interesting and suggestive. It comes from
a verb, the primary meaning of which is “to separate,” “to distinguish,” and
then “to make distinguished, extraordinary, wonderful,” and “to be wonderful,”
“to be marvelous.” The plural participle is used as a substantive in a large
number of places in the Old Testament as descriptive of God’s wonderful works or
marvelous deeds or miracles in creating and sustaining the world (Job 5:9; Job
37:14; Psa 72:18), and preserving and aiding and delivering His people in Egypt,
(Exo 3:20; Exo 34:10; Jdg 6:13; Psa 106:22), and in the wilderness (Jos 3:5; Neh
9:9-17), and God’s wonderful works in general (Psa 9:2; Psa 26:7). The usage of
the exact word found in our text is also interesting. It is used of the wonders
God alone does in six places, Exo 15:11; Psa 77:11; Psa 77:14; Psa 78:12; Psa
88:10; Isa 25:1. On the whole it seems that the most adequate translation of the
words used here would be “His name shall be called “Wonder” (the Wonder of
wonders, the most wonderful of all God’s wondrous doings), or “His name shall be
called “Marvel” (the Marvel of marvels, the most marvelous of all God’s
marvelous doings), or “His name shall be called “Miracle” (the Miracle of
miracles, the most miraculous of all God’s miraculous doings). In the Bible
names have a meaning, especially the names given to God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit. The name is a revelation of what one is. Jesus is
called “Wonder” because He is the Wonder, the Wonder of wonders, the most
wonderful of all God’s wondrous doings. Jesus is the “Wonder” of Wonders, the
“Marvel” of marvels, the most marvelous of all God’s marvelous doings, the
“Miracle” of miracles, the most miraculous of all God’s miraculous doings.

I—JESUS IS THE WONDER, THE MARVEL, THE MIRACLE IN HIS NATURE.

First of all, Jesus is the “Wonder,” the Wonder of wonders, in His nature.

1. In the first place, He is a Divine Being. He is Divine in a sense in which no
other man is Divine. The Bible (the Old Testament as well as the New Testament)
is full of this great truth. Our Lord Jesus Himself most unhesitatingly made
this claim. In Mark 12:6, after speaking of the Old Testament prophets even the
greatest, as servants, He speaks of Himself as the “beloved Son” of God and the
“one” (i.e., the only) Son of God. In John 10:30 He says, “I and my Father are
one.” In John 14:9 He goes so far as to say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father,” and in John 5:23 He says, “All men should honor the Son even as they
honor the Father.” The Apostle John said of Jesus in the opening verses of His
Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made.” (John 1:1-3).
And further down in the chapter, in the 14th verse he says, “And the Word (that
is, this Word that was in the beginning and that was with God and was God)
became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only
begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” The Apostle Thomas after the
resurrection of our Lord, fell at the feet of Jesus and cried to Him, “My Lord
and my God” (John 20:28). The Apostle Paul said of Him that “In Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9), and he says of Him again in Rom
9:5, “Who is over all, God blessed forever.” The Apostle Peter says of Him in
Acts 10:36 “He is Lord of all.” The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews said of
Him, “He is the effulgence of His (i.e., God’s) glory, and the very image of His
(that is, God’s) substance,” and that He “upholds all things by the Word of His
power” (Heb 1:3) Paul in Php 2:6 says that before He became man He “existed
originally in the form of God.” If the Bible makes anything as plain as day, it
makes it as plain as day that our Lord Jesus is a Divine Being with all the
attributes, glory, majesty, authority and rights that belong to God and to God
alone. By the use of numerous Divine names, by the ascription of all the
distinctively Divine attributes, by the predication of several unmistakably
Divine offices, by referring statements which in the Old Testament distinctly
name Jehovah God as their subject to Jesus Christ in the New Testament, by
coupling the name of Jesus Christ with that of God the Father in a way in which
it would be impossible to couple that of any finite being with that of the
Deity, and by the clear teaching that Jesus Christ should be worshipped, even as
God the Father is worshipped—in all these unmistakable ways, God in His own Word
distinctly proclaims that Jesus Christ is a Divine Being, is God. Well then
might the prophet Isaiah as in this inspired vision he looked down the future
centuries and saw the coming Messiah, Jesus, cry “His name shall be called
Wonder!”

If Jesus was not “very God of very God,” then John was mistaken, and Paul was
mistaken, and Jesus Himself was mistaken, and only that denomination that has
never been noted for its prayerfulness, its spirituality, its clearness of
spiritual vision, its devotion, its self-sacrifice, its missionary enterprise,
that denomination which has only a history of building churches to see them die,
that denomination alone is right! And John and Peter and Paul and Jesus Himself
are wrong, and Jesus Himself was not even a good man but a rank and blasphemous
impostor. Do you believe that? Can you believe that? No, a thousand times, no.
No man who is thoroughly sane in his head and thoroughly sound in his heart can
believe that. Then Jesus is a Divine Being, God manifest in the flesh. He is
wonderful, most wonderful, beyond description, wonderful beyond conception. He
is infinitely wonderful. He is Jesus, the “Wonder,” the Wonder of Wonders; Jesus
the “marvelous,” the Marvel of Marvels; Jesus the “Miracle,” the Miracle of
Miracles. The wonderfulness of His being and nature will be the object of our
glad and adoring contemplation and the theme of our highest praises throughout
the endless aeons that are to come. “A great multitude which no man can number,
out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues,” shall stand
“before the throne (of God) and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes and
palms in their hands:” and they shall “cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation
unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels .
. . standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living
creatures,” and shall fall “before the throne on their faces,” and shall worship
“God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and
honour, and power, and might, he unto our God forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev
7:9-11)

2. But there is another wonderful thing about the nature of Jesus, While He is
Divine He is at the same time a real man. “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” but “the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us.” (John 1:1; John 1:14). Jesus of Nazareth was indeed “the only
begotten Son of God” but He was at the same time, the “Son of man.” He is, as
Paul tells us in 1Ti 2:5 the “mediator between God and men, Himself man, Christ
Jesus.” Do you ask how are the perfect Deity and the perfect humanity united in
Jesus? I do not know. Neither do I know how spirit and body are united in myself
but I know that they are. I do not know how the Divine nature I received in the
New Birth is united with the physical and intellectual and moral nature that I
received by my natural birth, but I know that it is. And so also I know that
Jesus is perfectly Divine and perfectly human. I know that a perfect Divine
nature and a real human nature coexist in the one person, Jesus of Nazareth.
This perfect union of complete Deity and complete humanity in Jesus is one of
the most wonderful things about Him, one of the most incomprehensible things
about Him, one of the things that makes Him the “Wonder,” the Wonder of Wonders,
the “Marvel,” the Marvel of Marvels. But as incomprehensible as it is, it is a
fact, and it is a fact that makes it necessary to call Him “Wonder” or “Marvel”
or “Miracle.” Well then might the prophet say, or rather God say through the
prophet, “His name shall be called Wonder.”

II—JESUS IS THE WONDER THE MARVEL, THE MIRACLE IN HIS CHARACTER. In the second
place, Jesus is the “Wonder,” the “Marvel,” the “Miracle,” in His character.
While Jesus is wonderful in His nature, in His Divine glory and perfect humanity
and in the union of the two, He is not wonderful in His nature alone, He is
wonderful in His character. His character was absolutely perfect. He was
absolutely without blemish and without spot. He was not only faultless, but
every possible perfection of character was incarnated in Him. There is not a
perfection of character of which we can think that is not to be found in Him and
found in Him in its fulness. As the years go by and we study Him more and more
carefully and come to see Him as He was and is more and more fully, the more the
absolute and infinite perfection of His character stands forth. For thirty-four
years He lived in a hostile world that sought to find some imperfection in Him
but they could find none. For eighteen centuries since infidels have been
hunting for some flaw in the character of Jesus and they cannot find it. What
would not the infidels give if they could only put their finger upon one single
flaw, even one little defect in that character, but they cannot. Even the
bitterest and boldest and most unscrupulous infidel of his day was forced to
say, “I wish to say once for all that to that great and serene man, I pay, I
gladly pay, the homage of my admiration and of my tears.” Jesus in the
perfection of His character is indeed wonderful. He is the “Wonder,” the Wonder
of wonders. He is the Wonder of the ages. He stands out absolutely peerless and
alone. When any man ventures to put anyone else alongside of Jesus Christ he at
once loses the confidence and the respect of all candid and fair-minded men.

1. In the first place, Jesus was perfect in Holiness. Peter spoke of Him as “The
Holy One and the Just” (Acts 3:14). John spoke of Him as “the Holy One” (1Jn
2:20). Even the unclean spirits when they met Him were forced to cry out to Him,
“I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). The Epistle to the
Hebrews speaks about Him as “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from
sinners.” He passed through all our experiences of conflict and temptation, yet
“without sin.” (Heb 4:15). The dazzling white light that glorified the face and
garments of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration was the outshining of the
moral purity within.

2. In the second place, He was perfect in Love. He was not only perfect in His
holiness, but He was also perfect in His love. His love to God was perfect and
so was His love to man. His love to God revealed itself in His unhesitating
obedience to every command of God and in His unreserved surrender to God’s will,
whatever that will might be; in His drawing back from no sacrifice that God
demanded, and rejoicing to do His will even when that will meant His own shame
and agony and death; in His delight in doing God’s will, a delight so great that
forgetting the long-denied demands of bodily hunger, He could triumphantly say,
“My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work” (John
4:34 R.V.). His love to God was absolutely perfect but so was His love to man.
His love to man took in all men; it took in the good, but it took in also the
vilest. It took in men like John, the beloved disciple, and Nathanael, “an
Israelite indeed in whom was no guile”; but it took in also the demoniac of
Gadara, the thief on the cross, the woman possessed of seven demons, and the
woman “who was a sinner,” an outcast of the streets. It took in even His most
relentless enemies for whom He prayed even as He endured the agonies and the
reproaches and the shame they heaped upon Him, “Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do.” (Luk 23:34). His love hesitated at no sacrifice: “Though
He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might
become rich” (2Co 8:9, R.V.), “Being in the form of God, He counted not the
being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, even
the death of the cross.” (Php 2:6-8). Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful love!
that, seeing full equality in honor and glory with God Himself within His grasp,
turned His back upon all this and chose the cow stable for His birthplace, the
poor carpenter shop for His school, the contempt and rejection of men for His
reward, the agony of Gethsemane, and the shame and ignominy and torture of death
upon the cross of Calvary for its consummation, because by these things He could
save the vile and worthless and outcast. Well might Isaiah say that Jesus’ name
should be called “Wonder,” Wonder of all wonders.

Much more could be said of the wonders of His character. We have recently
considered in our studies of “The Real Christ,” the perfection of His
Compassion, the perfection of His Meekness, the perfection of His Gentleness,
the perfection of His Humility, the perfection of His Manliness, of His
Imperturbable Peace, His Constant Joyfulness and His Unconquerable Optimism. We
cannot recount, or even summarize, now the things which we have seen, but as we
look even as hastily as we have today at the manifold perfection of His
character, we must cry with the prophet of 2600 years ago “His name shall be
called ‘Wonder!’ ”

III—JESUS IS THE WONDER, THE MARVEL, THE MIRACLE IN HIS WORK.

Jesus is also the “Wonder,” the “Marvel,” the “Miracle” in His work. As
wonderful as Jesus is in His nature and in His character, He is not wonderful in
His nature and character alone, He is also wonderful in His work.

1. In the first place, He made a perfect atonement for sin. “All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
made to strike on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:6). Every sin of ours was
settled by the death of Jesus upon the cross, “Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth upon a tree.” (Gal 3:13). The death of Christ so
perfectly atoned for sin that the moment I believe on Jesus Christ and thus
accept the atonement He has made for me, every sin of mine is blotted out from
God’s account and God reckons me as perfectly righteous in Him. “Him who knew no
sin He made to be sin in our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him.” (2Co 5:21, R.V.). Is not this wonderful? Is it not amazing that the
vilest sinner in Los Angeles, or anywhere else on this earth, the liar, the
thief, the blasphemer, the murderer, the harlot, may come into this place this
morning all crimson with the sins they have committed and yet the death of
Christ has so perfectly atoned for them all that the moment they accept that
atonement all their sins are blotted out and they become as white as snow? Oh,
when the sins I have committed come up before me and they have been very great
(indeed, the sins of everyone here today have been very great, though we may not
realize it), but when they come up, as many and great and black as they are, I
look away at the cross and I see Jesus hanging there and I hear that cry that
burst from his lips as the weight of my guilt crushes Him, “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me,” and I hear His other cry, “It is finished,” and I can
see the Roman soldier draw back his spear, and I can see it go crashing into
that side, I see the life blood pouring out and I know that all my sins are
atoned for, my every sin atoned for. I know that “Jesus paid my debt, All the
debt I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

Oh, it is wonderful! the sin of the whole race atoned for at Calvary, and all
that any man has to do to enjoy the fruits of that atonement is just to accept
Him that made it.

2. In the second place, Jesus not only made an atonement for sin, He also saves
from sin’s power. He not only died and thus made perfect atonement for sin, but
He also rose again and is a living Saviour and has “all power in heaven and on
earth” (Mat 28:18) and therefore, “He is able to save to the uttermost (all)
them that come unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them.” (Heb 7:25). Jesus Christ has power to do what no one else can do, to
set any man who will put his trust in Him free from any sin and from the power
of all sin. He Himself said “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed” (John 8:36), and eighteen centuries of history have proved it true. Is
it not wonderful that there is not a man on earth so completely in sin’s power
but that Jesus Christ can set him free? Is He not the “Wonder,” the Wonder of
wonders? As I speak what an army of men and women that I have known to be saved
from sin’s power come before me. One night many years ago, I met a man who had
been a wanderer on the face of the earth for many years. He had come of a good
family, had been well educated, had moved in good society, but had turned his
back on all this and had given himself up to a life of sin and now at the age of
perhaps 45 he was completely in sin’s power. He was a large, powerful man, but
he approached me with much hesitation, drew me to one side and leaning over,
whispered in my ear this question, “Do you think Jesus Christ can save me?” I
replied, “I know He can.” Then I sat down beside Him and reasoned with him out
of the Scriptures and he listened, believed and was saved that night. For years
he was a happy Christian and enslaving sins were things of the past. Tonight he
is with Christ in the glory. That is but one case out of thousands and tens of
thousands. I have known many, many such personally. I have seen Jesus Christ set
men free from sin in pretty much every state in the Union. I have seen Him do it
in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand,
Tasmania, China, Japan and India. I have seen Him set men free from pretty much
every known form of sin. There is a sin that a wise man of wide experience, who
is in this audience, once told me that experience proved there was no
deliverance from, but I have known a man delivered from that very sin by the
power of Jesus Christ. There are right in this audience this morning many men
and women whom Jesus hath set free from an awful slavery that once held them
utterly captive. Indeed, Jesus completely transforms men. The man who once was a
blasphemer now prays. The man who once loved the vile book now loves the Bible.
The man who once loved to look at vile pictures now loves to look into the face
of Jesus. The man who once told questionable stories now sings hymns of praise.
The men and women who once gave themselves over to sin and vice are now working
with all their might for the salvation of their fellow-men. “If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, they are
become new.” (2Co 5:17.) Oh, the work of Jesus is wonderful, indeed,
transforming demons into angels. One Sunday night I heard a man, who, a few
years before, had been a ruffian, a drunken, profane, cruel brute, speaking to
the best people of one of our eastern cities with great tenderness and pleading
that they, too, would accept the same Jesus who had so wonderfully transformed
his life and that of his wife. Jesus is, indeed, wonderful in His work, the
“Wonder,” the Wonder of wonders.

3. But Jesus will do even more wonderful things in the future, when He comes
again. He will raise the dead with His voice and He shall change also the
living. As God puts it through the Apostle Paul, “Our citizenship is in heaven;
from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (21) who shall
fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body
of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all
things unto Himself” (Php 3:20-21), and He will catch us up together with those
who have been raised to meet Him in the air (1Th 4:16-17). He will transform us
into His own perfect likeness physically, mentally, morally and spiritually.
This old weak, sickly, pain-racked body will be changed into the likeness of His
own glorious body, free from every ache and pain, free from every weakness, free
from every limitation, resplendent with a beauty never seen on earth, capable of
unlimited activity. And He will transform us morally also so that in our inmost
character we shall be made just like Him (1Jn 3:2). He will bring us fully into
our glorious inheritance as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Himself, heirs of
all God is and all God has, heirs of His wisdom, His power, His holiness. Oh, it
is wonderful! Jesus is indeed the “Wonder,” the Wonder of wonders, the “Marvel,”
the Marvel of marvels, the “Miracle,” the Miracle of miracles. Jesus is the
“Wonder” in the infinite glory of His Divine nature. Jesus is the “Wonder” in
the manifold, matchless, marvelous and infinite perfection of His moral
character. Jesus is the “Wonder” in His work, making perfect atonement for all
our sins by His death, delivering us from all the power of sin by His
resurrection life and His all prevailing intercession, transforming us from all
imperfection of spirit, soul and body, into the full glory,—physical, mental and
spiritual glory—of absolutely perfect sons of God, by His coming again. Jesus is
the “Wonder,” the Wonder of wonders, the most wonderful of all the wondrous
doings of the Infinite God. Jesus is the “Marvel,” the Marvel of marvels, the
most marvelous of all the marvelous doings of the infinite God. Jesus is the
“Miracle,” the Miracle of miracles, the most miraculous of all the miraculous
doings of the infinite God. The creation of the heavens and the earth, the
creation of the angels and principalities and powers in the heavenlies, are
nothing to the eternal begetting of God’s only begotten and eternally existent
Son and His incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.

Now what will you do with Jesus the “Wonder”? Your answer to that question will
determine your character, determine your life and determine your eternity. Will
you accept Him as your Saviour or will you reject Him? Will you surrender gladly
and whole-heartedly to His absolute Lordship, or will you say, “I will not have
this man to rule over me”? Will you confess Him as your Lord openly before men
and constantly, as often as you have opportunity, or will you deny Him by
positive denial or by negative silence? Will you serve Him day and night with
all the strength God will give you or will you live for self and the paltry
ambitions and pleasures of the world? Will you work with all the powers that lie
in you to bring others, at home and abroad, to know Jesus the “Wonder,” the
Wonder of wonders, the “Marvel,” the Marvel of marvels, or will you let others
go on in the barrenness that comes now through ignorance of Him and the eternal
death that comes hereafter through ignorance of Him? Oh, the wisdom and the
blessedness and the glory of those who accept Jesus the “Wonder” as their
Saviour; surrender gladly and whole-heartedly to the absolute Lordship of Jesus
the “Wonder”; confess unfalteringly and unwearyingly before men Jesus the
“Wonder”; serve day and night with every God-given power Jesus the “Wonder”;
work with all their power of spirit and soul and body to bring others to know
Jesus the “Wonder”! Lord Jesus, the Wonder, the Wonder of wonders, we praise
Thee, we adore Thee, we worship Thee!


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/jesus-the-prophet-the-priest-the-king/
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