Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 110:5-7 | Date: September 16, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

I don’t know why our hymnal doesn’t have the last stanza to that hymn: “Then in a nobler, sweeter song, and on all the rest. When this poor tongue lies silent in the grave, we’ll sing his power to save.” Wonderful singing this morning.

I ask that you turn in your Bibles now to Psalm 110. We are looking at the Bible’s story of salvation. We are trying to track it out in its many different dimensions, showing that the Bible is, in fact, a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. And we are now, within that series, looking at the theme of Messiah. And then within that section, we’re looking at some particular Psalms and prophecies in the Old Testament that bring out that theme for us. We have spent two weeks together in Psalm 110 already. First of all, looking at verses 1 to 3, and then verse 4. And now today, I hope to finish with verses 5 to 7.

Psalm 110, I’ll begin reading with verse one. We’ll read through the entire Psalm.

The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of the youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, this is a wonderful psalm, as we have already seen. As we continue to work through it this morning, we pray that you will give us a right understanding of it. And through it, we pray that you’d encourage our hearts with great thoughts of our great God. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

As I’ve mentioned, this psalm is one that was very popular to the early church. We know that because it is cited in the New Testament scriptures more than any other psalm. It is quoted, or at least parts of it quoted, about a dozen times in the New Testament. And then it is alluded to at least a dozen or a little more than a dozen more times in the New Testament as well. As we saw last time, verse four, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” That verse alone is expounded at length in Hebrews chapter 7. Very important psalm depicting for us the reign of Messiah and God’s whole saving purpose.

I wish we had time to look at it a little bit further, but in the immediate context of the Psalms itself, in the Psalter, it has an interesting place as well. I’ve mentioned this a few times along the way in our studies on Wednesday evening as we look through the Psalms, and you’ll see it many times in your Bibles marked out that there are five books of the Psalms. Psalm 1 to 41 is book one, and 42 to 89 I think is the second book of the Psalms, and so on. Well, this we have here, Psalm 107 to 150, is Book 5 of the Psalter. And the first seven of those psalms in Book 5 of the Psalter are a discernible unit of their own.

And it’s interesting how Psalm 110 fits within that. In Psalm 107 through 109, we have a plea for deliverance. And then in Psalm 111 to 113, we have praise for deliverance. And then in the middle, we have Psalm 110, which is a presentation of the Deliverer himself, which is the point of reference in that unit of the Psalms, and this is the warrior king-priest who comes to deliver God’s people.

We have seen in verses 1 to 3 that David here presents the Messiah as the divine king. “The Lord says to my Lord,” this one who is coming was David’s Lord. And Jesus, you remember, picks up on that to point up the deity of Messiah. So he is divine king in verses one to three. In verse four, he is a priest king, which we saw at length then last time as well as it’s expounded in Hebrews chapter 11.

Now we noticed in verses 1 to 3 that Messiah’s rule is presented in a rather complex way. In verse 1, he is enthroned. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool.” It’s an enthronement proclamation, which obviously we saw comes to pass in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, where he has taken his throne and now reigns as king at God’s right hand, having achieved lordship—a mediatorial lordship. And that is why after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, it is not until after that that Jesus then proclaims, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” All authority has been given to me. That is, he achieved it in his saving work, and because of his saving work now he has become king of the universe, King of kings, Lord of lords, with the right now, because of his mediatorial work, with the right to rule. And so God goes to work on his behalf and says, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Verse 2, then it says his scepter is sent into the midst of his enemies. That is, Messiah is not just guarding the borders. He’s on the advance. God has sent out his scepter to do the work and to establish rule. But then in verse three, it is in fact by means of a voluntary army, a volunteer army, that Messiah carries out his advance. And that we saw, these people offering themselves freely on the day of his power. That is the gospel advance then making its advance through men and women who themselves are effectually called by the gospel and freely enlist with joy into the cause of Christ. And so at this point in history at least, the scepter is the gospel. Then verse 4 highlights the nature of that gospel, where we have the priesthood of the king, the king-priest, with a new and better order of priesthood, a better hope, a better covenant, and the nature of the gospel that we saw last time.

Warrior King

Now in verse 1, when he says, “I will make your enemies your footstool,” and then in verse 2, where he says, “you rule with your mighty scepter,” that’s very militaristic kind of language. The metaphors there are very military-oriented, and it seems to imply a more active engagement. “And make your enemies your footstool. Send forth your scepter to rule in the midst of your enemies.” It sounds like more than just gospel advance. That is, it sounds like the Messiah defeating and destroying his enemies.

And in fact, that is the theme now that is picked up in verses 5 to 7, where we have the Messiah presented here, not just as a divine king, not just as a priest king, but now as a warrior king. Now we have to be careful in verses 5 and 6 to notice exactly who is being spoken of. Notice all the “he’s.” “He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head.”

At the beginning, because it says the Lord is at your right hand, who is the Lord here? Well, I think it again is a reminder of the deity of Messiah that he is a divine king because he, the Lord, is at your right hand and he, it is he, the one at the Lord’s right hand. This is Adonai at the right hand of Yahweh, who will shatter kings on the day of his wrath and execute judgment among the nations. It is the Messiah who will shatter chiefs. And of course, by the time we get to verse 7, it’s very evident that it’s Messiah being spoken of in human terms. He will drink by the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head—a refreshment metaphor.

So we have the Messiah then spoken of here as divine at the right hand of God and yet now going on the advance with his hosts of armies to carry out the destruction of his enemies. It’s graphic kinds of imagery here, speaking of his absolute rule, complete subjugation of his enemies. Worldwide, all the enemies of God being brought under subjection and being defeated, and not just a subjection but defeat and complete devastation of the armies. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.

So it is speaking of a complete devastation of all of the enemies of God. God will come in the person of his Messiah. He’ll execute his wrath. He’ll go to war, as it were, against his enemies, and he’ll establish his anointed one, the Messiah, as universal king, and God’s rule, God’s kingdom, will be established over the whole earth, and all of his enemies will be put aside.

I also wish we had time here to compare this with Psalm 2, but I’ll make the mention of it so that you can pursue that on your own if you would like. But Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 have an extensive correspondence. If you compare them, we have the rebelling nations, and we have them opposing the anointed one, and we have the nations given as the inheritance, and we even have the military imagery of the Messiah coming and shattering the nations with his rod, like shattering a piece of pottery. That’s Psalm 2. And how that corresponds to Psalm 110 is very obvious, and there’s extensive comparison like that.

And in fact, it is not just Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, but this is a long-standing biblical theme. It’s a familiar theme of God’s final defeat of all of the wicked. God will come and God will destroy his enemies. All of opposition will be put down and the whole world will be brought to bow before God. Of course, there’s an archenemy behind it all, and that is Satan himself. And we’re brought back here into the atmosphere of Genesis chapter 3, where Satan came against humanity with temptation. And with that round, at least it seems, he has won. He has tempted Adam and Eve; they fell into sin. They rebelled. And humanity’s kingship, as we’ve seen, was relinquished. Satan now is god of this world. He rules over it. And there is this enmity now between Satan and the woman, between Satan’s followers, his seed, and her seed. And we have that theme of this conflict running throughout the Bible. We have it here coming at a high point. And of course, it’s something that goes through the whole Bible—this conflict, opposing kingdoms idea, and this champion against the serpent, and the champion coming to defeat the serpent and reestablish God’s rule over the world.

Now notice in verse 1, or verse 2, his scepter is what is mentioned here. That’s brought up again in verses five and six when he uses that scepter as a rod to shatter the kings on the day of his wrath and execute judgments among the nation and leave corpses behind. A scepter with which he will rule against his enemies and destroy those who have opposed God. That imagery now in turn, this imagery of the scepter, is something we’ve seen before in the series as well. If you can think of Genesis chapter 49 and verse 10, “The scepter will not depart from Judah nor a ruler’s staff from between his feet until he to whom it belongs will come and the obedience of the nations will be his.” Also in Numbers 24 verses 17 to 19, where Balaam says, “I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed. Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly. And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of the cities.”

This is a long-standing theme in the scriptures going way back, not only of God exercising his rule and enforcing his rule and then eventually winning back the kingdom of God over all of the earth, but God going to war against his enemies and through this champion who is promised, he will establish God’s rule and destroy all opposition. Well, that’s the larger background of this Messiah as king, or in our passage, Messiah as warrior king that we find very often in the scriptures.

Psalm 72 is another one. We have praise and anticipation of the coming Davidic king. It’s the psalm through which Isaac Watts gave us “Jesus Shall Reign,” the hymn that we sang. And there he tells us, “may desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.” There’s an echo of Genesis 3:15, isn’t it? “May his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him and all nations serve him.”

Well, this is a familiar theme to anyone who’s read the scriptures, particularly in the prophets and in many of the Psalms. The famous Christmas prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9: “the government will be upon his shoulders.” He will carry about God’s kingdom in the earth. This is Daniel chapter 2, where we find the arrival of the kingdom of God destroying all of the previous kingdoms of the earth. This is Daniel chapter 7, where the thrones are set and the Ancient of Days stands in judgment over the nations and brings them all to nothing.

Along with that, in the Old Testament, we find this “God as warrior” theme. God as a warrior, which is not something you hear about a lot today, but it is something that is a dominant theme in the scriptures themselves, that God presents himself as a warrior going to war against Satan, going to war against all who follow him, and destroying all that is evil. We find it in a big way beginning in Exodus chapter 15, after the exodus where the Israelites sing their victory song and extol, not their victory, but God’s victory over the Egyptians. We find it in Joshua and Judges, where the victory over Jericho and the Canaanites—this is God gone to battle against the enemies of his people. We find the same thing in the conquests of David, where he goes out to defeat the enemies of God’s people. It is God who goes to war for David and defeats the enemies.

And of course we find it in the prophets, particularly associated with the Day of the Lord that we’ve seen, where God comes in judgment against all peoples and against the nations and all who rebel. And very often the Day of the Lord is presented in militaristic kinds of terms as well, and the language of warfare is used, where God will come in a day of war and do battle against the nations. Like in Isaiah chapter 13 and verse 4: “The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude, the sound of an uproar of kingdoms of nations gathering together. The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle.” The Lord of hosts—there’s that name for God, the Lord of hosts. The Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, of hosts being his armies, and he pictures God as a warrior going with all of his armies against his enemies to do battle and to execute wrath and vengeance and defeat all of those who have opposed him. That’s a common theme in the prophets, of course, and even a quick reading of the prophets will remind us that there’s a day coming when God will say, “That’s enough.” And he will come and he’ll destroy all opposition.

Conflict And Warfare In The New Testament

Well, that in some sense is an overview of verses five to seven here as it’s presented in the rest of the Bible. But God’s purpose in coming is not only to destroy the nations that oppose him. God’s purpose in coming is also to save. And it’s fascinating to see how all of that plays out in the New Testament. It’s not at all surprising that the arrival of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, in the Gospels, is often depicted in terms of conflict and warfare. He is presented already as a champion—a champion in disguise to be sure, and he ends up being crucified, of course, but then rising from the dead as the champion conquering sin.

But it’s not surprising at all that the coming of Jesus in the Gospels is sometimes depicted in this warfare and conflict kind of terms. We have that immediately at the outset of his ministry with the temptation as he goes to battle against Satan as our representative. We find it in many of the miracles, particularly the miracles of Jesus where he casts out demons and goes to battle against them. In fact, Jesus himself interprets it in those terms where he has come to ransack the kingdom of Satan and to establish the kingdom of God. Jesus brings up this warrior theme at his trial as well before Pilate when he says, “from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power.” There, by the way, is a reference to Psalm 110: “seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” There’s a reference to Daniel chapter 7. He combines them to say, “this is what I’ve come to do, and the king will be established over all.”

We find it picked up in the epistles as well in this conflict theme. It’s interesting. We’ll see this in some detail later on in the series. In the preaching of the early church, one of the dominant themes in their preaching—and I’m speaking in the early centuries of the church—one of the dominant themes in their preaching regarding the death of Christ is this Christus Victor theme. Christ as victor, as triumph, triumphing over Satan. We don’t hear a lot about that today, but it is a dominant theme in the New Testament itself. In 1 John 3 verse 8, for example, “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil,” that he has come to establish God’s rule. He has come to throw out Satan and restore God’s rule over the world. Colossians chapter 2, Paul says that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them into open shame, triumphing over them in the cross. The idea there is that by his death he has made expiation for sin, removed sin, forgiven us, and because sin has been removed, Satan’s right to rule has been removed as well, and he thereby has triumphed over Satan and his demons.

We have it again in Hebrews chapter 2, where it is told that he came to destroy him who has power of death, that is the devil, and that is through making propitiation to God, satisfying the wrath of God against sin. He has destroyed Satan’s right to rule and established God’s kingdom. And we have then this theme of God’s victory, or specifically, Jesus’ victory through defeat. It’s wonderful irony in the New Testament. Victory through defeat, strength through weakness, Christ coming, succumbing to arrest, the passion, the whippings, the trials, and finally the crucifixion, and in his defeat, establishes the kingdom of God.

And we find reminders of the kingdom theme throughout the passion narratives with the crown of thorns and the reed put in his hand and the purple robe and all. And then the sign over his head: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” The kingship theme cropping up again at the death of Jesus, reminding us that it is through his death and then his resurrection and his ascension that Christ has established God’s rule. He has made a sacrifice for sin, and by making sacrifice for sin and satisfying God’s wrath, he has destroyed Satan because he has taken away that right or that reason by which Satan rules.

And so as I say after it is all over, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The illustration we’ve used many times is that the cross and the resurrection of Jesus is like D-Day compared to VE Day. The decisive battle has been won. The victory is sure. All that’s left is the mopping up of the rest. And with that in the background then we have this warfare mentality, this warfare theme going through the New Testament of not only God going to war and the Messiah going to war against the enemies of God, but the people of God carrying out the advance and the gospel at this point in history so that we will, Paul says, God will trample Satan under our feet. We have it in Ephesians chapter 6 where we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. This warfare theme just permeates everywhere.

But as I say, in verses 1 and 2, and then in verses 5 to 7, the idea is much more than advancing the gospel to establish God’s kingdom. The idea there is of destroying Satan’s rule over God’s people, and destroying Satan himself, and destroying those who have sided with Satan. Now there’s a hint of this in the gospels. I think it’s a fascinating one. And that is when Jesus goes to cast out demons from the man in Gadara. Mark and Luke record that for us. And it records, you remember when Jesus arrives on the scenes, the demons cry out, “Have you come to destroy us?” Matthew records it a little more fully: “Have you come to destroy us before the time?” They know the time is coming. God has appointed a time when Christ, his Messiah, will come and destroy all of his enemies.

Well, Satan’s followers also. Paul talks about that in 2 Thessalonians 1, where he assures the persecuted believers that God will come and persecute their tormentors in due time. God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That day is coming when he will come to defeat all enemies.

And of course, all of that comes to climax in the Bible’s story in the book of Revelation. John describes that for us graphically—picturesque language. The dragon, the beast, the false prophet coming against God’s people, putting the mark of the beast on all those who follow the beast; those who don’t have the mark having very much difficulty functioning in society because of the opposition of the beast. But the backdrop of the entire book of Revelation is found in chapters four and five. Chapter four, we have God reigning on the throne in quiet security, reigning over all that he has created. In chapter 5, we have that same scene, the throne room of heaven, God reigning over all. But then history wondering, where are we going to find someone who is worthy to carry out God’s purposes of salvation and judgment? And then we have the lion of the tribe of Judah who steps forward, and it turns out he’s the lamb who has been slain. And because he has been slain, and because by his death he’s redeemed people to God out of every nation and kindred and tongue, then he is worthy to carry out God’s purposes of salvation and judgment in all of the earth. That’s Revelation 4 and 5.

In Revelation 6 and following then, we have the Lord Jesus exercising his kingly rights and carrying out God’s purpose for salvation and for judgment. Of course, the culminating judgments come at the end. But meanwhile, throughout this period of tribulation and of great tribulation, we have anticipatory judgments coming, reminding us of what will come in full in the end. We have reminders of that through Revelation. In Revelation 6, verses 12 to 17, we have the sixth seal. Remember, we have the different judgments. We have the seal judgments. The seals are peeled off of the scroll, and each one marks a time of judgment. And then we have the trumpet judgments, each announcing, trumpeting a new judgment to come. And then we have the bowl judgments, where the bowls of God’s wrath are being poured out upon the earth.

In Revelation chapter 6, we have the sixth seal, which is called the great day of the wrath of the Lamb. Fascinating expression. You don’t typically associate wrath with a lamb, but the great day of the wrath of the lamb, and we’re told nature itself convulses and writhes on a cosmic level. Military leaders and others will seek refuge from the mighty lamb who has gone to war against them. Revelation chapter 11, we find the seventh trumpet brings us to the beginning of that final great battle. In verse 19 of chapter 11, we have the revelation of the divine warrior. “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and earthquake and heavy hail.”

And then in chapter 14 of Revelation, we have one like the son of man descending, seated on a cloud with a sickle in his hand. Graphic imagery again, with a sickle in his hand to pull up his enemies. Joel chapter 3 is the reference there, by the way, where it speaks of a harvest and vintage imagery, metaphors of God’s coming to war against the nations. Revelation chapter 16, we have the bowl judgments and the bowls of God’s wrath are poured out over all of the earth and it culminates in the kings of the earth gathering for battle on the great day of God Almighty. Another fascinating expression: “the great day of God Almighty” and God coming to war. Once again, nature convulses and it joins in the attack. And then in Revelation chapter 17 and 18 we have the collapse of Babylon the Great, the great city Babylon falling.

The Triumphant Return Of Jesus

We come to chapter 19 of Revelation where it comes to a climax. And at the beginning of Revelation 19 we have the saints of God, the redeemed, standing over the smoldering ashes of Babylon and praising God as its smoke arises. “Amen,” they say, and “hallelujah.” And then finally, Revelation 19 verses 11 and following, the triumphant return of Jesus. He comes, it says, with a robe dipped in blood, coming with the armies of heaven. Lord Sabaoth, coming with the hosts of heaven, and his name is King of kings, and his name is Lord of lords. We’re told that he has a sword coming from his mouth. And again, we have the scepter imagery. He has a rod in his hand. And we have another imagery: he treads the winepress of God’s wrath. Just awful imagery. He treads the winepress of God’s wrath. You understand the metaphor? Takes all of his enemies and throws them in a vat like grapes and stomps them out. Utter destruction, complete subjugation of all of God’s enemies.

And that then is in brief survey what David tells us here in Psalm 110 verses 5 and 6. “The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.” And then we have finally verse seven: a refreshment metaphor. “He will drink from the brook by the way, therefore he will lift up his head.” Lift up his head, that is, in victory, having carried out God’s purpose for judgment, and ultimately then this takes us to the final success of his reign when every enemy is destroyed.

In verse 1, “The Lord says to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” And now in verse 7, it’s done. He’s carried out the victory and he refreshes himself. David’s greater son will conquer and he will reign over all the nations. The Apostle Paul makes a brief mention of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Following Jesus’ return, it says, he will reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. Again, a link back here to Psalm 110. He will reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. And then it tells us in verse 28, 1 Corinthians 15, he will deliver the kingdom over to the Father. The mediator has come. He’s carried out his work. He’s established his rule. He has destroyed the enemies. Every last enemy is put down—the last enemy being death. And then he hands it over to the Father. Mission accomplished.

Revelation 20 through 22, of course, describes that for us in terms of a new world order—the reign of the triumphant king. And so Psalm 110 then is a psalm of this exalted ruler: a divine king, a priest king, and a warrior king. He’s in a position of honor in the throne room of God, awaiting victory over the enemies who will become his footstool. A day of anger, a day of wrath is coming. And in that last battle, he will descend from his heavenly throne and destroy all of God’s enemies and carry out God’s universal rule.

And so Psalm 110 then is a summary of the whole Bible. The world has fallen and it is in rebellion. But the Lord God himself rules and he’s established his king, and he will carry out God’s rule. He first secures his kingdom by the most unlikely means. He offers himself in sacrifice for sin. And having borne the penalty of sin successfully, God raises him from the dead and he’s established as universal king. And then he goes out through the gospel, claiming men and women for himself and transferring them into his kingdom. And his people, for their part, go willingly and take their part in his army, advancing his kingdom through the gospel until finally that one day his reign will be fully exercised when he comes and all of his enemies are destroyed and he takes the government of the world on his shoulders and finally at last, every last knee will bow before him. Evil will not triumph. God will.

And that’s the long and short of Psalm 110. And that in turn shapes the gospel message. Jesus is God’s appointed king. He will come as judge. He has dethroned Satan. He’s established himself as king, but he’s offered peace. If you’ll come to him and acknowledge him as Lord and bow before him, he’ll have you. But know this, you will acknowledge him as Lord. You may do so now willingly, in which case he will have you and save you. Or you may wait and do it forcibly, but you will acknowledge Jesus as King.

One fascinating thing to mention before we close, one fascinating thing about one of the features of Psalm 110 that I think is that it’s cast as a conversation between God the Father and God the Son. “The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” It’s a conversation between God the Father and God the Son, and we’re allowed, as it were, to listen in. The Lord says to my Lord; the Father says to the Son, “sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” Wouldn’t you love to sit in on some strategy session for some of the world’s leaders’ battles? Imagine being in the war room in the White House with President Lincoln during the Civil War, or maybe the headquarters in London with General Eisenhower during World War II with General Montgomery and all the other generals gathered around: “Here’s what we’ll do. Here’s what we’ll plan.” Well, here’s the war room of all war rooms, the headquarters of all headquarters, where the Lord says to my Lord, “you sit here until I make your enemies your footstool.” The outcome is settled. We’ll do this. And today we sing of Christ’s Lordship in anticipation of that day when everyone will recognize his Lordship when he comes to reign. Amen.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we’re thankful for this revelation of your great purpose. We are thankful that you have made us yours, that you have made us willing to be on the side of Jesus. We’re thankful that you have come and conquered our sin and brought us to yourself. Lord, how we look forward to the great day when Jesus will come again and establish the kingdom of God throughout the earth. Lord, hasten that day, we pray. In his name we ask, amen.