Good morning church. Man, it's crowded in here, isn't it? That's cool. That's not a complaint.

That's a that's something to celebrate and very thankful for that. Yeah. But this is what happens whenever we go down to one service over the summertime, and it further highlights the need for us to have a new space to meet in. So just keep praying for that. And we'll talk about that a little bit at the family meeting.

For those of you who will be here tonight, I'll give you some a little bit more information of just where my head is with that. But God has been good to our church and I'm just glad to see all of you here. If anybody else wonders in late, you can just point them up here to the front row, which is, that's the spit row.

That's a, whenever I get excited, if I spit a little, that's a, they get a shower. My name is Michael. I am the lead pastor here and over the next a couple of weeks, we're still in the Psalms. We'll be in the Psalms this week and next week. Pastor Wade will preach a psalm, a sermon from the book of Mark, probably the week after that.

And then we're going to get into the book of Malachi for the rest of the summer. But for today, we are in the Psalms and we're going to be at Psalm 110. Psalm 110. This is a just preparing for the psalm this week has been so enriching because it's so powerful. There's so much here.

Psalm 110 is one of the most frequently cited psalms in the New Testament. Verse one appears 25 times in the New Testament. Just verse one alone. And Psalm 110 was important to the New Testament writers because of its messianic themes. So, it's a, it provides a vivid description of Jesus Christ, but it was written a thousand years before Jesus was born.

Even Jesus himself recognized Psalm 110 as having been written by him or written about him rather. And we'll look at that here in a moment. But at the time of Jesus, during his earthly ministry everybody agreed that Psalm 110 was a messianic psalm, that it addressed who the Messiah is. It describes the Messiah.

And that sparked a lot of speculation and debate. Who will the Messiah be? What will the Messiah be like? Whose family will he come from? What will the Messiah do? These are the sorts of things that Psalm 110 addresses. It addresses these questions, but it was also a riddle to them at the time because the Psalm teaches things that seem to be impossible.

And I'll show you this morning why it's not impossible. So, I'll show you four things this morning in Psalm 110. Four things about the Messiah. The Messiah is God, He is King, He is Priest, and He is Judge. The Messiah is God, King, Priest, and Judge. Now how one human man could fulfill all of those things is a mystery.

It was a mystery to them, but in light of what the New Testament teaches, it's not a mystery. It has been revealed to us as God's people in light of what Jesus accomplished. So, we got a lot of theological ground to cover, but we're just going to answer this question. Who is the Messiah? And let's dig in.

Psalm 110. I'll just read through the whole thing and then we'll go through it again, verse by verse. Psalm 110, a Psalm of David. 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 your 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. The word of the Lord. Okay, let's go through this a little bit at a time. Verse one, just the verse. First part of verse one, the Lord says to my Lord.

Now, let's just stop right there. We see that the word Lord appears two times, right? There's one time that's all caps and one time that is capital L and lowercase letters. These represent two different Hebrew words. Two Hebrew words are underneath those two translations, but both times it translates into English as the word Lord.

And so, our English translations distinguishes the two by putting one of them in all caps and the other one with a capital L and the rest lowercase. So, when you see the Lord in all caps, that doesn't mean angry. If you're texting your wife, it's I'm coming. All right. That's a, it's not like you're angry.

That's not, at least not here in the Bible. It doesn't mean angry. It means there is a specific Hebrew word that is here. And this first instance, the Lord, this is the divine name. So, in Hebrew, it is the word Yahweh YHWH it is the divine name. The second is Adonai,

two different Hebrew words. So, both of them refer to God. The Lord, all caps, Yahweh, that reverse to the divine name that is a very specific covenant name of God, the Lord with the lowercase letters, Adonai, that refers to God, but in a more general sense, more just like speaking of God, but not so much the covenant name of God.

And so, what we have here is two divine figures. You've got the Lord, which is Yahweh God, and then you've got the Lord, which is Adonai God in general. And this was a riddle to the Hebrews at the time of Christ. And so, it's because they're monotheistic, right? There's one God, and yet. We see God speaking to God here.

And there are other times in the Bible that does this, but it is odd. It's something that was strange to them. And what he's doing is the Lord says, so the word says here is a word I get the Hebrew word for that. It means an Oracle. So, it's not just, I'm talking, but it is a pronouncement of an Oracle.

Here's a divine edict of something that, that is a pronouncement of something of great substance. So, the Lord Yahweh. proclaims an oracle to the Lord Adonai. Now, in Jesus's day, all of the Hebrews and the rabbi, the scholars, the Bible scholars, and that sort of thing, they all acknowledged that this Lord here was the Messiah.

The Messiah is the anointed one sometime, like whenever we say Jesus Christ, Christ was not his last name. His mother and father were not Joseph and Mary Christ. Christ is anointed one. It is a reference to the Messiah. And so, the Hebrews of the time, everybody knew, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, everybody would acknowledge this is who the Messiah is.

But the Messiah figure of Psalm 110 is more than just a king or a ruler. The Messiah is God. And Yahweh God says to God, the Messiah, sit at my right hand. So, Yahweh pronounces things in oracle to things that he would never pronounce over a mere man. God would never say to one of us in any man or woman in this room, sit at my right hand and I want to make all your enemies a footstool for your feet.

It's like that is something that would be that would be wrong for God to do that. But he would say that to somebody who is more than a mere man. And so, it is seen here that this is an acknowledgement that the second Lord is God, is a divine figure. And Jesus got into a debate with the Pharisees over this very question.

So, if you know the story, Matthew 22, the Pharisees had been testing Jesus and they'd been sparring back and forth. And finally, Jesus. Has this interaction with them. So, Matthew chapter 22 verse 41. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question and he's going to quote someone at her intent saying, what do you think about the Christ, which is the Messiah?

Whose son, is he? They said to him, the son of David. Why? David wrote this psalm. David was, there's a covenant God's covenant with David, the Davidic covenant was that the Messiah would come from his line. God would establish the throne of David forever. So, they said that the Messiah would be a son of David, a physical descendant of David.

So, he, Jesus, said to them, how is it then that David, in the spirit of Calls him Lord saying the Lord now in the New Testament, it doesn't do the capitalization here, but it's just quoting someone 10. The Lord said to my Lord, you have the Lord and my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word. Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. In other words, what Jesus does here was basically checkmate Pharisees. You can't answer this question because you don't know what the Bible says about the Messiah.

You don't understand what's going on in the scriptures. And it was a riddle. It was a riddle for them because they did not understand what the Messiah would be like. They were expecting a mere human ruler. Somebody like one of David's descendants. Somebody would be able to claim because he descended physically from David.

Because he's from the tribe of Judah as David was. They assumed that the Messiah would be just another king. And he would be a king that would be greater than all the others. And he would be, even greater than David, his throne would surpass David's. And yet, by the time it was in Jesus's day, like the nation had been destroyed.

It had been conquered by the Babylonians and the Assyrians. And then now they're conquered by and occupied by the Romans. So, it was a real mystery. God, what are you going to do about this? And so, there was a lot of speculation about who the Messiah would be, but nobody would have expected this to be a divine human.

And so that was the riddle. The Messiah was not a mere man. The Messiah was equal with God. And that was not something the Pharisees knew how to handle. Now, the Pharisees already believed that that the Messiah would be a man. And so, Jesus asked the question, if the Messiah was the son of God and was equal with God, how could he also be a son of David?

How could one of David's descendants be God? That doesn't make sense, right? So that was the question that Jesus asked them. How is it then that David in the spirit calls him, him meaning the Messiah calls him Lord. How is it that David would say to one of his descendants calls him that he was the Messiah?

How could David call him God? And the Pharisees are like, I don't know. You tell us. Yeah, we don't know. And that was the mystery. They couldn't figure it out. And so, Jesus himself solved the riddle. Jesus was a physical descendant of David in that he was born of the tribe of Judah. That's why we see the genealogies in the book of Matthew and the book of Luke trace his, the genealogy of Christ that he, in his human nature, he was descended from David.

So, he had a rightful claim to the throne of David as the Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament, the prophecy. But Jesus was not a mere man. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So, Jesus was also fully God. And that was not something they could see coming. Jesus was the God man as a son of David in his human nature, and Jesus was the son of God in his divine nature.

So, the Messiah is God. That's the first one. The second point is that the Messiah is a king. The Messiah is a king. So going back to our text, now we'll look at these three verses. 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 and holy garments from the womb of the morning. The due of your youth will be yours. Now what's going on here? The Messiah is a king. And we see this verse one, we've already seen this sit at my right hand.

So, the right hand is the hand of power, the place of prominence with God, the father, but also, he is a King who will make, and God the father will make his enemies into his footstool. That, and that was a common way that people in the ancient world would speak is a way of speaking of just totally defeating your enemies.

It's you're going to so thoroughly defeat them that they can just, their dead bodies will be piled up and you can literally rest your feet on them. It's a, a graphic picture, but that's what it meant. Your enemies will be made a footstool. So, the Messiah will have absolute rule over his enemies.

Now let's see a few things here. The Lord is the one who does it. The Lord is the one who goes out in power and the Messiah goes in the power of Yahweh. He is God. So, the Lord is the one who is sending forth from Zion. Now Zion, when you see that in the Bible, that is a reference to the city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the capital city. It's the city where this this interaction with the Pharisees was taking place. Jerusalem was David, King David made it his capital city, the city the capital of all of Israel. And so, the Lord is sending out in power from Jerusalem, this victorious victory. And he's going out with the power of God.

And then he's going out with a mighty scepter. The scepter is like a staff, and it indicates a King's rule, his authority, his representative. So, if you if you go back to Genesis chapter 49, there are there were, Jacob was blessing his sons. And one of the sons, Judah, he says, the scepter will not depart from Judah.

And that was taken as indicative of the line of kings of God's people will always come from that tribe because the tribe of Judah, the scepter shall not depart. So, the legitimate claim to the throne in Israel. Was from the tribe of Judah. David came from the tribe of Judah as to Jesus Christ. And he's going to rule in the midst of his enemies.

So, the Messiah's rule will extend outside beyond Zion, right? Zion is where it begins. Zion is the seat is the throne of his authority, but he's going to rule in the midst of his enemies. So, his rule will. be global, be a total conquest where there's not a single enemy that remains that has not been subdued by King Jesus.

And what nobody saw coming, and this is why it was such a riddle in the time of Christ, was that the Messiah's victory would be accomplished through his death and resurrection. Because one of the enemies is not human. His greatest, the greatest enemy of all mankind is death itself, right? The greatest enemy to be defeated is death.

And in order to defeat all of the enemies, the Messiah would himself have to conquer death. And the only way to conquer death is to die and rise again. And that's what Jesus did. He defeated his enemies in his death, burial, and resurrection, which took place in Zion, the city of David, and his rule then extended outward from there because whenever Jesus rose from the dead, the greatest enemy of man, death itself was defeated once and for all.

And now Jesus is indeed seated at the right hand of God. Matthew 28 says, he said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And then he ascended to be in the presence of the father where he sits at God's right hand. And from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. The apostles Creed says, so that's where he will remain until.

He has subdued every enemy. There will not be a single enemy that remains that will not be in one day subdued and conquered and defeated by the rule of King Jesus. And Israel extends outward from Zion because that's where he was crucified. That's where he was. He died and was buried. And that's where he rose again.

And that's where the church was sent out from was from the city of Jerusalem. And then we see here that God's people, verse three. Your people will offer themselves freely, meaning that God's people are now enlisted into the service of their king. God's people are now sent out and we conquer with him. We rule, we reign with Christ.

And that's what the scriptures promise us, but we do so freely. So, we're not a mercenary army. We're not doing it because we're paid. We're not doing it because there's some, we, there, there's some personal benefit and we're doing it because we're bribed, but we do it freely. We offer ourselves freely because we ourselves have been conquered by Christ and he reigns in our hearts.

And therefore, we gladly laid down our lives in service of our King to extend the rule of Christ wherever we go. Amen. So, we're not forced into battle against our will. We're willing servants. It's a volunteer army. And we are living sacrifices who lay down our lives out of love for our king. So, Jesus is God.

Jesus is king. Now number three, Jesus is priest. The Messiah is priest. Let's go on to verse four. The Lord has sworn. Now remember I told you in verse one, the Lord says to my Lord, that was word of an oracle. This is a different word that also means it's an oath. So, you have an oath, an oracle in verse one, and you have an oath in verse four.

And these two. The two pronouncements are the hinge points of the psalm. Everything kind of hangs on these two pronouncements of God. The Lord says to my Lord in verse one, that's an Oracle. The Lord swears an oath in verse four and everything that follows comes from this oath.

And so, the Lord has sworn, and it's doubled up. So, it's an oath and he will not change his mind. So, it's, it is absolutely certain because he will not change his mind. It's an oath that the Lord has sworn. And what is this oath? You, so here's the Lord speaking, that's Yahweh, you, here's the Messiah, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Who's that? You are a priest forever. Now, if you know the priest in the Bible, the Levitical priests. So, you have the Kings that come from Judah. We have a different tribe, the tribe of Levi. Moses was a Levite, his brother, Aaron and his sister, Miriam. They were both Levites and Aaron because he was a Levite.

He is the head of this priestly. And so, the Levites were not given a land allotment in Israel because the Lord was their portion. And then the tithes that the people of Israel paid was to provide for the priests. And so now you have this priestly tribe, but the Levitical tribe, they were human. So, the priest would, there, it's not a eternal priest because they all died eventually.

But this priest, the Messiah is a priest forever. Amen. but not after the order of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek, this makes the riddle of Psalm 110 even weirder. And it is why the Pharisees just couldn't answer it because it was a mystery. God did not reveal it to them, but this was a mystery.

You have these two tribes- Judah and Levi, and they represented two offices: kings and priests, right? Prophets were not limited to any tribe, but kings and priests, Levi and Judah. That was the original idea of a separation of powers. You did not have all power concentrated in one tribe, but you had powers that were separated and distributed amongst different tribes as a means of accountability and balance.

But the Old Testament has rules. And the rules say, kings come from Judah, priests come from Levi, but the Messiah seems to break the rules. How could you have a Messiah who's king while he's from the tribe of Judah? We have established that. But how could he also be a priest? Because we don't do that. If he's going to be a priest, he needs to be a Levitical priest because that's all the only kind of priesthood that they would have known.

And yet we have a king and a priest. You have all this power concentrated in one person. This is the Messiah. How could that be? He's breaking the rules. He can't do that. And that's why the Pharisees were so confused. But the Messiah is both king and priest, and the fact that the Messiah is king, and priest is doubled.

The Lord swore it, and the Lord's not going to change his mind about it. He is a priest forever. It's not going to change. That's who he is, but he's not the kind of priest you're expecting. Like the guys in the temple that slaughter the animals, but a priest after a higher, more noble, a greater, more, it's an eternal order.

And it is the order of Melchizedek. So how can this happen? Presumably the Messiah would not be qualified to be a priest if he, but if he from the tribe of Levi, and so David says he's after this other kind of order. So, we need to talk about that. The Messiah's priesthood of Melchizedek, it was not a mere human priesthood in the tribe of Levi.

They were ordained into the priesthood by fellow priests and God ordained the tribe as a priestly tribe. But Melchizedek was ordained by God himself. And I'll tell you about Melchizedek here. But it is an eternal priesthood because he's a priest forever. He's a priest forever. So, who is this guy? There's a discipline in Christian theology called typology.

And typology means that there's a type and an anti-type of Christ. So, the type is something that is like a pattern or a human figure. That in some way is an Old Testament foreshadowing or anticipation of who Jesus would be. Melchizedek is one of the clearest. But you also have David was a type of Christ.

You have Abraham was a type of Christ. Moses was a type of Christ. These men in some way embodied something that would be true and perfected and universalized in the Messiah. But some human man prefigured Christ in some way. So, the human man was a type, and then Jesus was the anti-type. He was the fulfillment.

So Melchizedek is a type of Christ. And he's one of the most important and interesting types in the Bible because he is explicitly named as a type in Hebrews chapter 7. And if we had more time, we would read it, but I'm just going to have to summarize what Hebrews 7 teaches. But if you would want to look it up later, look up Hebrews chapter 7 and read it for yourself.

It's fascinating and wonderful. Melchizedek appears three times in the Bible. You have him once in Genesis 14, all the way back at the very beginning. And then he appears in the middle of the Old Testament in Psalm 110. That's where we are today. And then he appears one more time in the book of Hebrews.

Whenever the author of Hebrews is telling us who Melchizedek is and why it matters in terms of the redemption that we have in Christ and Melchizedek stands out because he is both a king and a priest. The only other man in the Bible that, that did this, Jesus being the other one, which is why Melchizedek is a type.

So, here's the story. Genesis chapter 14. So, we're all the way back at the beginning. In Abraham, God had just called Abraham. And so, we're very early in the story of God's people. It was before Moses, before the 10 commandments, before the Red Sea party, all that stuff is way back at the beginning.

And Abraham fought this battle against the kings. There were five kings, and he defeated those kings with an alliance of other kings. And then after the battle is over, they all come together. And because of Abraham's power, these other kings tried to bribe Abraham. They said, hey, you're a pretty powerful guy and we don't want you on our bad side.

So, we're going to offer you money to buy your loyalty. And Abraham refused it because Abraham can't be bought. He's a man that's you're not going to buy me with money. I don't want, I don't want your money. Keep it. Just give me the prisoners of war that belong to my family, and we'll call it a day.

But there was another guy that came out along with these other kings and this king was Melchizedek. He's coming along with the king of Sodom of all places. And Melchizedek comes out and instead of trying to bribe Abraham with money, Abraham paid money to Melchizedek. No, Abraham's the father of the faith, this great Titan of our, of the, of our Christian heritage.

Abraham is the father of the faith. And yet Abraham sees Melchizedek and he's I'm not taking money from these guys. In fact, I'm giving you money. So, Abraham recognizes the superiority of Melchizedek. Even though there's just a few verses in the Bible that tells us anything about him. He really is a, an enigma of a man in the Bible.

And the tribute that Abraham paid to him was a tie that was 10 percent of the spoils of war. So, Abraham recognized Melchizedek was greater than him. Now, David, He's writing Psalm 110, which we're studying today. David knows this story, right? So, David knows Genesis 14. He probably didn't have the numbers then, but he knew the story of Melchizedek and David recognized something weird about Melchizedek.

David was a king. Melchizedek was a king. Melchizedek was a priest. David was not a priest. How did Melchizedek get to be priest whenever David wasn't priest? Melchizedek predated. the Levitical priesthood because Moses and Aaron and the Levites hadn't come along yet. So, God himself had ordained Melchizedek into the priesthood.

Now, how do we know this? The story in Genesis 14, there's just a few verses. They'll tell you that, but I want to read you one verse from Genesis 14 that kind of captures it all. Genesis 14, verse 18. This is in the middle of the story, but I'm going to just show you a few details here. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.

He was priest of God most high. There's a lot of action in these words.

Hebrews chapter seven unpacks this, but I'll explain it to you here, Melek. So, his name, it's actually a compound name you take melch. So maleek or maleek, that is Hebrew for king. So maleek, that means king Zedek that is Hebrew and that means righteous or righteousness. So melek would mean righteous king or king of righteousness.

I'll write it in here.

Now it tells us again, he's a king, but he's king of this place called Salem. If what do what are Hebrews Jewish people? What do they say? How do they say hello to each other? What did they say? Shalom. Shalom is a, another way to say Salem. It's just Salem is a translated peace.

Shalom means peace. It's like peace to you. It's a warm greeting. King of Salem means like king of peace. So, we have a king of righteousness by his name. Shalom. We have king of peace by the name of the city, but not only king of peace, but also some debate this, but I think it's a good conjecture that Salem was the pre, it was like a Jerusalem before it became Jerusalem.

So, if you just take Salem and then you add a Jeru at the beginning, Jeru Salem, Jeru Shalom. So, a king of righteousness and king of peace, he comes out, he meets Abraham, Abraham recognizes that Melchizedek is greater than he. Enigmatic figure though he is. Now Melchizedek brings out two items, bread and wine.

Isn't that interesting? But then we, then there's this parenthetical remark that Melchizedek was not only a king here, he's also a priest. He's a priest. Priest of who? Who is priest of God most high? Who's that? The divine name Yahweh wasn't revealed until he revealed it to Moses. If you know the story of the burning bush, Moses says, who are you?

He says, I am that I am, which is Yahweh. Basically, it's his name. So, in the chronology of the Genesis story, the divine name had not been revealed yet, but he was God. Most high is how people outside of God's covenant. People would have recognized the God of Israel. He was known as God most high, even if they did not know him by the covenant name Yahweh, they would have known him as God most high.

So Melchizedek is a priest of the same God that Abraham worships. So, Abraham fights this battle, he comes along, the kings of Sodom and these other places try to bribe him. He's nah, I don't want to deal with you guys. Then Melchizedek comes along and Abraham's whoa, you're important because not only are you a king of righteousness, you're a king of peace.

And also, you're a priest of the same God that I worship. The same God that just called me out of Ur of the Chaldees and into this land. And so, Abraham recognized something great about Melchizedek. Melchizedek breaks the rules in that he's a king and priest, but he's not a priest like the Levites were.

He's a priest directly ordained into the priesthood by God himself. A couple of the things Melchizedek has no genealogy. So, there is no Melchizedek, the son of what's his face, son of what's his name, son of Frank, son of whoever. There is no genealogy of Melchizedek in the Bible. He just appears into the Bible. And that's very odd because if you read through the Bible, if you're doing a Bible reading plan this year, there’s probably lots of times when you're like, oh boy, here comes another one.

Cause you're, it's like you're reading the phone book. You've got so and so son of so and so son of so and on. And it's, it can be really laborious, but that's important because it creates a chain. It's like a map. You ever go into a mall, and you see the map. It says you are here.

Plink. A genealogy is like all of history from creation of God creating the earth and creating Adam and Eve all the way till the time of Jesus, somewhere in the middle there, you are here plink because you are son of so and son of so and son of so and son of so and who was from the tribe of Naphtali.

And what do you know? I'm from the tribe of Naphtali, so I know where I fit. Melchizedek has no genealogy. He just emerges, erupts onto the scene here. And so, the author of Hebrews says he has no father or mother. And so, he has this appearance of eternality. He looks like he's an eternal figure.

He just shows up. And because of that, the author of Hebrews and David and Jesus Christ recognizes that Melchizedek is an eternal figure. Thus, the Messiah is a priest forever, not just a priest until he dies. But he has an eternal priesthood that will never end. God swore. He made an oath. God's not going to change his mind.

The Messiah will be a priest and his priesthood lasts forever. Will never end. And that's different from the Levitical priests. He's a priest forever. And so, David wrote this as a prophecy. Recapping where we've been so far. The Messiah will be divine. He's God. Yahweh himself declares the Messiah will be seated at God's right hand until all of his enemies are defeated.

The Messiah will be a king who is greater than David and the King David himself called him his Lord. And then the Messiah will be a priest, but not a Levitical priest, but a Melchizedekian priest because he is a priest forever. Now why does it matter that Jesus the Messiah is an eternal priest?

It matters because of what the priests did. The priest mediated the relationship between God and man. You didn't offer your own sacrifices. It's not you had your buddies over for a barbecue. It's ah, grab that ox. We'll do a barbecue, and we'll call it a sacrifice and it'll atone for our sins. No, you needed to go to a priest in a particular place.

You went to the temple and these priests offered sacrifices on your behalf in order to atone for your sin. And the priest mediated. The blood of sacrifice between you and God, Jesus Christ comes along. He is a greater priest than Melchizedek. He offers a greater sacrifice than any animal because the blood of bulls and goats will not take away the sins of man.

Ultimately, we need a greater sacrifice. We need a sacrifice of a human, one who is like us, and that's who Jesus is. Jesus is God, which qualifies him to be a priest. He's eternal. And Jesus is man. Just like one of us. And Jesus laid down his own life as a sacrifice, and he was the priest who mediates our relationship with God, and he does so forever.

So, if you're a Christian, I pray that you are most hopefully all of us are but Christians. That is the importance of Jesus' Melchizadekian priesthood. It means that you're his forever. 'cause he always intercedes for you because he loves you.

Lastly, we've seen so far, he is a God. He's Messiah's God, he's king, he's priest. Finally, the Messiah is judge. The Messiah is Judge. Verse 5 7 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. The first four verses that we read are like an enthronement scene. Where the priest king, the God man is being enthroned and God is declaring here is, here's the scope of your domain. And so that enthronement scene is a prelude to what comes next, which is here, and that is world conquest.

The Messiah will rule the world. I've already quoted this before, Matthew 18. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus said, because he is the Messiah. And he's going to reign until all enemies are subdued. And that's, so that is his ministry. And that means world conquest is the scope.

There will not be an enemy that remains by the time Jesus has done, because the Messiah will subdue all of his enemies and will bring justice on the earth. And so just as verse one promised, Yahweh will not stop. The Messiah will not stop until every last enemy has made his footstool, right? And so, Jesus will destroy everything that opposes the universal spread of his dominion until all is accomplished.

Just four quick observations of what the Messiah will do. One, he will shatter kings. The Messiah will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. Two, he will execute judgment on the nations. Three, he will fill the nations with corpses. And finally, this one's a little odd. Number four, he will drink from the brook by the way.

There's some debate about what that means, but I find it persuasive that this is a reference to getting refreshed at a brook on the site from a, on a military campaign. I've just defeated this town. I'm going to go on to the next town. It's an image, but it's I'm going to the next town, and it's so effortless and easy.

I'm just gonna stop and get a drink from this brook here before I move on to my next campaign. But I think it indicates something effortless in his dominion. Now, this this same idea is echoed in Psalm two, and you probably are familiar with it because we just sang it a few minutes ago. Psalm 2 verses 8 and 9 says, ask of me, this is Yahweh speaking, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage.

He's speaking to the Messiah again. And the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Let's talk about this idea for a second, because if you're, if you're used to doing devotions in the book of Philippians, this kind of language is uncomfortable and I imagine it's uncomfortable for a lot of modern evangelical Christianity, because this image of Jesus as a conquering judge, a warrior, a King that smashes his enemies, that doesn't fit with our sentimental idea of gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

And so, we think of Jesus wearing a pretty white. Robe, petting a little baby lamb out in the field as he walks through the tulips or something. And that's, that, that's the idea of Jesus. That is very common in our culture. And it's very strong in modern evangelicalism.

We're more comfortable with a weak kind of docile messiah. And the idea of Jesus as a conquering king can challenge us. It can be uncomfortable; it can be even disturbing. And I just wanna challenge you, if it is disturbing to think of your Messiah in this way, take that to God in prayer. God's not afraid of what you think or what you feel, and you can, you could just tell God, this is weird for me.

This is uncomfortable. And just let the Lord challenge you and ask the Lord, show me who you are. Let me see who you are as you truly are and not let my own modern 21st century American, Western, Cincinnati, and evangelical sentiments dictate who you are. But let who you are truly be what I see and worship in my heart.

Because it's possible that we worship a Jesus of our own imagination that is quite different than the Jesus that will actually be reigning for eternity. Modern Christianity really does have a problem with this. We have a one-dimensional understanding of Jesus. And recalibrate our minds. And let scripture like adjust and tweak and fill in some of the gaps.

Because if you believe in worship at Jesus, that never makes you uncomfortable, I can assure you that's not the right Jesus. The real Jesus will make you uncomfortable. He will confront you because he demands that we bend the knee to him. He's not some weak little child. He is God. He created the universe.

He created the stars and the heavens and the sun that if we were to approach it, we would be incinerated in a nanosecond. And we think that it is a mere trifle to walk into his presence as though he's just some senile old grandpa. That's not who he is. He is God, and we have to treat him as such, revere him as such, worship him as such, and not let these weak ideas fill our minds, because that's not who he is.

So let the real Jesus be Jesus that is Lord over your heart, and over your mind, and over your affections, and over your feelings, and anytime you come across a scripture that makes you uncomfortable, pay attention to that, because chances are the discomfort is because of you, not because of. The text. Let us worship the God who actually is right.

He's king. He died to save us from our sin, and that's not all he died for. And this is where it gets uncomfortable. Jesus died to secure an eternal victory and from which he will crush his enemies. We don't like talking about that. We sing Psalm 2. And I'll bet you most of you don't like that song because of the words in it.

It's awkward. It's awkward when I sing it. Man, that's weird. That sounds harsh. But I'm like, we are literally singing the words of scripture, a messianic song that tells us who God is. And so, we have to let God's word tell us who he is. He's not going to lie to us. He's not going to deceive us or mislead us.

He wants to be known by his people. And so, he is king. And at this moment, there are enemies, both human and non-human who are plotting against God and against his people. Have you noticed this? Have you noticed this? Have you noticed the explicit hatred of God that is a growing phenomenon in our society? The mocking and the blasphemy against God, against Christ?

Have you noticed the open rebellion against God's design for sexuality that is parading itself through our streets every June and throughout the rest of the year too, in our schools, in our libraries, in our government? Have you noticed this? In case you haven't noticed, Satanism, witchcraft, paganism, occultism are all on the rise in our society.

These are enemies of God's people. Psalm 110 tells us, one way or another, they will be crushed and defeated by the Messiah because he will not suffer any opposition when his reign is complete. Sit at my feet or sit at my right hand until I make all of your enemies your footstool. That's what Psalm 110 promises.

So, God has enemies. God's enemies are our enemies. And Jesus is the judge who will conquer every last one of them. And the fact that we have so many Christians that refuse to acknowledge us, not acknowledge us, is a function of our Western affluent, indulgent luxury. We live in so much comfort and ease, we can't imagine that there's actually an enemy.

We live in an anomaly. What we experience in our time is not the way the world has always been. Throughout all of world history, people have lived in a time where there are threats all around them. The danger of war, the threat of war, of all these different kinds of things we might experience are all around them all the time.

But the comfort and ease and affluence that we now enjoy was provided for us and handed down to us by previous generations of Christians who did not ignore the fact that they have enemies.

So, what do we do with all this? Obviously, there's a lot here to teach us. Psalm 110 has a lot to teach us. So, what do we do with it? The Psalm addresses two groups of people and I want to address two points of application to these two different groups of people. People are God's enemies and God's people.

God's enemies and God's people and so we'll apply it both. God's Like I said, the promise of verse one is that every human being will be conquered by King Jesus one way or another. And so, the question that we all need to settle is, which way will you be conquered? I can assure you, Philippians 2 promises this, every knee shall do what?

Every tongue will do what? And what will all of them say? Jesus is Lord. There's not a tongue. There's not a knee. Amen. Amen. in all of human existence or on all the spiritual realm that will not one day in some form or fashion bend the knee to King Jesus and confess with their mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord.

So, you will be conquered. The question is, how will you be conquered? And we know there's two ways to be conquered.

If you are God's enemy, here's the way you can be conquered because you want to be conquered by faith. You want to be conquered by surrendering to Jesus now. You can submit to him now. And listen, if you're not a Christian, you need to hear this, please. If you're not a Christian, if you're not sure, if you're wrestling with your faith, if you don't know what you think, listen here, anybody who is not a committed Christian, anybody that is not a committed follower of Jesus Christ, if you're not saved, then you are an enemy of God.

I don't say that with joy or glee or delight. I just say that because that's what scripture tells us. You are opposed to God and God's against you, but you don't have to be God's enemy. We have options. At least we have an option. You can submit to Jesus now and let him conquer you in your heart by confessing now, not later at the judgment, but confessing now. Jesus Christ is Lord. Bend the knee. Jesus Christ is Lord. And you can surrender to him now and be conquered now.

And then you can join God's people, be part of God's army, his willing volunteer army. The most beautiful thing that you could ever do in your life is to surrender to Jesus and be conquered. So that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Jesus Christ was God, the great king, the great high priest. He can reign in your heart right this minute as your savior and as your Lord.

That's what baptism is. Baptism is like a coronation. It's like a, it's a symbol that says this person has been conquered. So, they're going to die and be raised again just as their Lord was. It's a loyalty oath that you now belong to Jesus, and he is now your King and your priest. And the way that we are conquered is through confessing our sin, turning away from it in repentance and through faith in Christ.

So that's number one, if you're God's enemy, but if you're God's child, we've already seen in the text here that you are, verse three says you are one of the Lord's people. You're enlisted in his army and God's people offer themselves freely. And Christians, we are now on the side of expanding the rule of Christ wherever we go.

So, we join our King and wage war at his side in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is at work within us. And there's, I have a few thoughts here, four, but there's a number of them. You can wage war with God, with Christ by sharing the gospel with people. You tell them to repent of their sins so that they can no longer be enemies of God but become his sons and daughters and find life in Christ.

Or you can wage war by praying for your friends and family and coworkers who don't know Jesus to come to know Christ and pray that God will give you opportunities to share Christ with them. You can also do this by you can wage war by opposing darkness. There's a lot of darkness out there and we can shine the light of Christ.

We could say, this is Jesus. Christ has dominion over Cincinnati. This is his. And so, we can declare the victory of Christ and the rule of Christ here in our town. And you can do this also. You can wage spiritual war by pursuing true justice in the world. And that's different from evangelism.

Evangelism is inviting people to be conquered in their heart through surrendering to Jesus through faith and repentance. So, evangelism is telling people about Jesus so they can repent of their sins. But pursuing true justice is about promoting the conditions in our society that best correspond to the rule of Christ.

And so that means wherever you are in your work, and in your education and raising your children and your family, you demonstrate the reign of Christ in everything that you do because you carry his victory everywhere you go. And regardless of the circumstances that we may find ourselves in, we represent the reign of Christ wherever we go.

And we want to promote that outside of just our own lives. But as societies become increasingly rebellious against God, they do invite the judgment of God, and we don't want that. We want to work to oppose that by pursuing true justice in the world and promote the best conditions for people to respond to the gospel.

So yes, God has enemies and God will certainly subdue his enemies and God will execute his judgment on them. And yet God also in the Messiah died for his enemies. Jesus suffered the wrath of God as though he were God's enemy. So that we can be in Christ, adopted into his family as sons and daughters through faith in Christ.

And I urge all of us to do that this morning. If you're a Christian, worship King Jesus and live your life fully on fire for him. And if you're not a Christian, bend the knee today to Jesus. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we give you all praise and thanks. Amen. You show us in your word who you are God even at times that it just as the Pharisees were a little confused by the riddle of who the Messiah was, Lord, there are things in the Bible that, that may be uncomfortable or difficult for us.

And, but Lord, I pray that you'll show us who you are, help us to see you as you are and acknowledge and worship you as you are, because you truly are God and King and priest and judge. And Lord, I pray for anyone here that doesn't know Christ. I ask you, God, that by your spirit, you will prompt them. To confess their sin and repent and fall on their knees and surrender and be conquered now through faith in Christ rather than conquered later at the judgment when you return.

Thank you, Jesus, that your priesthood was enabled by your own death and resurrection that you conquered death, and you mediate our relationship, a better covenant so that we can be your sons and daughters. Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. And now just as Melchizedek prepared a table. We thank you that you prepare a table before us.

You feed us with bread and wine. And may we now feast on the victory of our King. We pray this in the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.