The Sure Mercies of
David Part III
(a sequel to the
Christmas Lesson)
Luke
1:23-38
January 12, 2025
1d
1aa225
The Lord
God made a covenant with:
Adam
Noah
Abraham
David
You
Me
5 Although my house be not so with God; yet
He hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all
things, and sure: for this is
all my salvation, and all my desire, although
He make it not to
grow. (II Samuel 23:1-5) (I am with this statement, taking it persoally,
as I do all God’s Word, the
statement of Paul in II Timothy 4:8 - “Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous
Judge, shall give unto
me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them
also that love His
appearing.”
·
an
everlasting covenant,
·
ordered
in all things,
·
sure,
·
this
is all my salvation,
·
this is
all my desire.
What
is meant by “....although He make it
not to grow?”
In II Samuel 23:5, the Greek word translated as "sure" is "βεβαῖος" (bebaios),
which directly means "firm" or "certain" in
English.
In Hebrew the word translated as "sure" is "na'aman"
(נֶאֱמָן)
which literally
means "faithful" or "reliable."
sure; secure, security, He
kept it, in Hebrew
The Greek word for desire
is θέλημα - thelaema - will/want/wish.
Haggai 2:7 - “And I will shake all nations, and the
desire of all nations shall
come:
and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord
of Hosts."
חֶמְדַּ֣ת - to the desire ḥem-daṯ - covet – desire |
|
ἐκλεκτὰ - eklekta - chosen, selected,
________________________________________________________
These references are
to be inserted at the proper time when I come to them:
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ.
6
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion
a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and
he that believeth on Him
shall not be confounded.
I
Corinthians 1:26-27
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,
are called:
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
(καταισχύνῃ - kataischunae - down-shame",
hence humiliate, put-to-shame,
to utterly disgrace or
embarrass) the wise; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound (καταισχύνῃ) the things which are mighty;
(The Septuagint uses the word “demote” the wise; the strong - CY - 2022)
My Dad - confound - Uncle Frank - (shamed,
humiliated, embarrassed”)
I Peter 2:6 says: “Behold
I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on Him shall not be
confounded.” (same word as
above in I Corinthians 1:27 -
he/she/it-should-be-HUMILIATE-ed
Literally "down-shame", hence
humiliate, put-to-shame, utterly-disgrace/embarrass)
7 Unto
you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them
which stumble at the word, being disobedient:
whereunto also they
were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation,
a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who
hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
(I
Peter 2:5-9)
Inserted after vs. 6-8
above:
44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
broken:
but
on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
(Matthew 21:44)
______________________________________________________
Spurgeon Sermon 3442 The Desire of All Nations
Thursday evening - August 25, 1870
Haggai 2:7 - “And I will shake all nations, and the
desire of all nations shall
come:
and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord
of Hosts."
And now
observe that these persons, according to another rendering of the
text, when they come to build up the Church they
always bring their desire
with them — they bring with them the most desirable
thing. The desirable
things of all nations shall give the silver, and the
gold, and so on. He that
comes to Christ brings with
him all he has, and he has not come to Christ
who has left his true substance
behind him. What, now, is the desire of all
the nations when hearts are renewed? Well, silver and gold will
always be
desirable, and men who give their hearts to Christ will
bring what they have
of that to Christ. But the most desirable things of
manhood are not metals
— dirt, mere dross, hard materialisms — no, the desirable things of
manhood are things of the soul, the heart, the
spirit; and into the temple,
the great second temple, there shall come, not
masses of gold and silver
merely, that can adorn with outward splendor, but
also love, and faith, and
holy virtue, more priceless than gems, far richer
in value than rarest mines.
Oh! what a sight the
hear of
some of the first Spanish invaders going into the
and
seeing floors, roofs and walls made of slabs of gold, and standing
astonished. But oh! in the Church there are slabs of faith on the floor of
that great temple, and walls of love, of
Christian self-sacrifice, and roofs of
holy joy and Christian consolation. It is a
temple that makes spiritual eyes
flash with
gladness. What care they for the splendor of kings and princess.
But they
care much for the true, desirable things of nations — holy
emotions, holy desires,
ascriptions of gratitude, and devout acts of service
for the Lord God. Oh! how glorious is the second temple then, when
the
desirable men come to it, and bring with them all
the desirable things to
make it glorious in the sight of God.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And then
this temple, thus built and thus adorned, will continue. The text
implies
that “I will shake all nations.” The apostle says that this signifies the
things that
can be shaken; that the things that cannot be shaken will remain,
and that the desire of all nations
must be put down as a thing that cannot
be shaken. The
Church, then, shall never be shaken, and the precious things
that the
Church gives to her God shall not be shaken. Time will change
many things. Great
princes will be considered mere beggars by-and-by in
the esteem
of men who know how to judge by character. Great men will
shrivel
into very small things — when they come to be tried, even by
posterity.
And the judgment-day — ah! how will that try the great ones of
this earth?
But the Christian Church — the very gates of hell shall not
prevail
against her. Time shall not be able so much as to chip one of her
polished
stones. Her treasures of faith, and what not, the rich things that
God hath
given her — these things shall never be
stolen: they can never be
shaken. And then the crown of all is, “I will fill this house with
my glory,
saith the Lord.” This is the reason, the great charm of it all. God
Himself
dwells,
as He dwells nowhere else, in His glory. The Church, which we
think two,
and call militant and triumphant, is but one, after all, and GOD
DWELLETH IN IT!
Oh! if we had but eyes to see it, the glory of God on earth
is
not much
less than the glory of God in heaven, for the glory of a king in
peace is
one thing, but the glory of a conqueror in war is another thing,
though I
know which I prefer; yet if I transfer the figure, I have no
preference between the glory of the God of peace in the
midst of His
obedient servants in His ivory palaces, and the glory of
the Lord of Hosts in
the thick of this heavenly war, as He conflicts with human
evil, and brings
forth glory
to His saints out of all the mischief that Satan seeks to do to His
throne and,
to His scepter. God is known in the
in the
perfection of beauty, God hath
shined. God is in the midst of her: she shall
not be moved; and though the
kings gather together for her destruction, yet
His presence is the river, the
streams whereof make glad the city of
Yes,
glorious things may well be spoken of
as precious men, such gifts as precious graces,
such abiding character as
God gives, and such A PRESENCE AS THE PRESENCE OF GOD
HIMSELF !
II. THE GLORY OF THE
INCARNATION OF CHRIST.
“I will shake all nations,” and He who is the desire of
all nations shall come
a rendering which is not incorrect, and is established by a
great mass of
theologians, though, according to some of the ablest
critics, a rendering
scarcely to be sustained by the original. He who is the
desire of all nations
shall come, and that shall be the glory of the second
spiritual temple. Jesus
Christ,
then, is the desire of all nations, if so we read the text,
and this is
doubtless true. All nations have a dark and dim desire
for Him. I say a dark
desire, for without that adjective I could scarcely
speak the truth. Most
interesting chapters have been written by students of the
history of
mankind upon the preparedness of men’s hearts for the
coming of Christ at
His incarnation. It is very certain that almost all nations have
a tradition of
the coming one. The Jews, of course, expected the Messiah.
There were
persons instructed according to the culture of various
nations, which,
though they do not expect the Messiah quite so
clearly as the Jews, had
almost as shrewd a guess as to what He might be and
do as the mere
ritualistic and Pharisaic Jews had. There was a notion all over the world at
that time of Christ’s coming, that some great one
was to descend from
heaven, and to come into this world for this world’s
good. He was in that
respect darkly and dimly the desire of all nations. But
in all nations there
have been some persons more instructed to whom
Christ has really been
the object of desire with much more of intelligence. Job was a
Gentile and
a fearer of God. We have no reason to believe that Job was a solitary
specimen of enlightened persons: we have reason rather to
hope that in all
countries all over the world God has had a chosen people, who
have
known and feared Him, who have not had all the light which
has been given
to us, but who better used what light they had, and
were guided by his
secret Spirit to much more of light, perhaps, than we think
it right, with
our little knowledge, to credit them with. These, then, as representatives of
all the nations, were desiring the coming of the
great Deliverer, the
incarnate God; and in this sense, representatively, the
whole of the world
was desiring Christ in that higher sense, and He
was the desire of all
nations. But, my brethren, does this mean, or does it
not mean, that Christ
is exactly what all the nations need? If they did
but know, if they could but
understand Him, He is just what they would desire and should
desire. Were
their reason taught rightly, and were their minds
instructed by the Spirit to
desire the best in all the world, Christ is just what
they want. All the world
desire a way to God. Hence men set up priests and
anoint them with oil,
and smear them with I know not what, only that they may be
mediators
between them and God. They must have something to come between their
guilt and God’s glorious holiness. Oh; if they
knew it, WHAT THEY WANT
IS CHRIST! You want no
priest, but the great “Apostle and High Priest of
our
profession.” You want
no mediator with God, but the one
Mediator, the
man Christ Jesus, who is also equal with God. Oh! world, why wilt thou go
about to seek this priest and that other deceiver,
when HE WHO THOU
WANTEST IS
APPOINTED BY THE MOST HIGH! He whom Jacob saw in
his dream as the ladder which reached from earth to heaven is
the only means —
the Son of Man and yet the Son of God. The world
wants a peacemaker; oh!
how badly it wants it now! I seem as I walk my garden, as I
go to my
pulpit, as I go to my bed, to hear the distant cries and moans
of wounded
and dying men. We are so familiarized each day with
horrible details of
slaughter, that if we give our minds to the thought, I am sure we
must feel
a nausea, a perpetual sickness creeping over us. The reek
and steam of
those murderous fields, the smell of the warm blood of men
flowing out on
the soil, must come to us and vex our spirits Earth wants a
peacemaker,
and it is He,
Jesus of
Gentiles, the
Prince of Peace, who will make war to cease unto the ends of
the earth. Man wants
a purifier. Very many nations feel, somehow or other,
that political affairs do not go as one could wish.
There are great
excellences in personal government, but great disadvantages.
There are
great excellences in republican government, but
remarkable difficulties too.
There are
supreme excellences, as we think, in our own form of
government, but a great many things to be amended, for all
that; and this
world is altogether out of joint; it is a crazy old
concern, and does not
seem as if it could be amended with all the
tinkering of our reformers in the
lapse of years. The fact is, it wants the Maker, who
made it, to come in and
put it to rights. It needs the Hercules that is to turn the
stream right
through the Augean stable; it wants the Christ of God
to turn the stream of
His atoning
sacrifice right through the whole earth, to sweep away
the
whole filth of
ages, and it never
will be done unless HE DOETH IT!
He is
the one, the true Reformer, the true rectifier of all wrong, and in
this respect the desire of all nations. Oh! if the world could gather up all her
right desire; if she could condense in one cry all her wild
wishes; if all true
lovers of mankind could condense their theories and extract
the true wine of
wisdom from them; it would just come to this, WE WANT AN
INCARNATE
GOD, and you have got
the INCARNATE GOD! Oh! nations, but ye know it not!
Ye, in the
dark, are groping after Him, and know not that He is there.
Brethren, I
may add, Christ is certainly the desire of all nations in this
respect, that we desire Him for all nations. Oh! that the world were
encompassed in His gospel! Would God the sacred fire would
run along the
ground, that the little handful of corn on the top of
the mountains would
soon make its fruit to shake like
will it come that all the nations shall know Him?
Let us pray for it: let us
labor for it.
And one
other meaning I may give to this: He is the desirable one of all
nations, bringing back the former translation of this
text. He is the choice
one of all nations. He is the chief among ten thousand,
and the altogether
lovely. He, whom we love, is such an one that He can never be
matched by
another, His rival could not be found amongst the sons of men.
There is
none like Him; there is none like Him amongst the angels of
light; there is
none that can stand in comparison with Him. The desire, the one that ought
to be desired, the most desirable of all the nations, is Jesus
Christ, and it is
the glory of the Christian Church, which is the second temple
that Christ is
in her, her head, her Lord. It is never her glory that she
condescends to
make an iniquitous union with the
State. It is her glory that Christ
is her
sole King, it is her glory that He is her sole
Prophet, and that He is her sole
Priest, and that He then gives to all His
people to be kings and priests with
Him, Himself the center and
source of all their glory and their power.
I cannot
stay longer, though the theme tempts me, but must just give you
the last word, which is this, the visible glory of the true second
temple will
be Christ’s second coming. He,
Himself, is her glory, whether at His first
coming, or at His second coming. The Church will be no
more glorious at
the second coming than now. “What!” say you, “no more
glorious!” No;
but more apparently glorious. Christ is as glorious on the cross as He is on
the throne; it is the appearance only that shall alter. “Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father, but they
evermore are brightness itself, in the person of Jesus
Christ. Now, brethren,
we are to expect, as long as this world lasts, that all things
will shake that
are to be moved. They will go on shaking. We call the world
sometimes
“terra firma”; it is not this world, surely, that deserves
such a name as that;
there is nothing stable beneath the stars; all things
else will shake, and as
the shaking goes on, Jesus Christ will, to those who
know Him, become
more and more their desire. I suppose, if the world went on, in some
things
mending and improving, and were to go up to a point,
we should not want
Christ to come in a hurry, we would rather
that things should be
perpetuated; but the shaking will make Christ more and
more the desire of
the nations. (Do you not think that the
is a
shaking? CY - 2025) “The whole
creation groaneth,” is groaning up to now,
but it will groan more and more “in pain
together travailing” — the apostle saith
— “even until now.” (Romans
8:22) The travailing pains grow worse
and
worse, and worse, and it will be so with this world;
it will travail till at
last it
must come to the consummation of her desire. The Church
will say, “Come,
Lord Jesus.” She will say it with gathering earnestness; she
will continue
still to say it, though there are intervals in which
she will forget her Lord,
but still her heart’s desire will be that He will come; and at
last He will
surely come and bring to this world not only Himself, the desire of all
nations but all that can be desired, for those days of
His, when He
appeareth, shall be to His people as the days of heaven
upon earth, the days
of their honor, the days of their rest — the day in
which the kingdoms shall
belong unto Christ.
Revelation 11:15 tells us the time is coming when “....the
kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His
Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” CY - 2025) Oh! brethren,
it is not for me to go into details on a subject which would require many discourses,
and which could not be brought out
in the few last words of a discourse. But here
is the great hope of that
splendid building, the Church, which is desired. Her glory
essentially lies in the Incarnate God, who has come into her
midst. Her
glory manifestly will lie in the second coming of that
Incarnate God, when
He shall
be revealed from heaven to those that look and are waiting for and
hasting unto the coming of the Son of God — looking for Him
with
gladsome expectation. And this is the joy of the
Church. He has gone, but
He has left
word, “I will come again, and will receive you unto
myself, that
where I am, ye may
be also.” Remember the words that were spoken of the
angels to the Church, “Ye men of
into heaven? This
same Jesus who is gone up from you into heaven shall so
come in like manner
as ye have seen Him go up into heaven.” In propria
persona — in very deed and truth, He shall come: —
“These eyes shall see Him in that
day,
The God that died for me;
And all my rising bones shall say,
Lord,
who is like to thee?”
Then shall
come the adoption, the raising of the body, the reception of a
glory to that body reunited to the soul, such as we
have not dreamed of,
for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
into the heart of
man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love Him.
Though
He hath
revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth
all
things, yea, the deep things of God, yet have our ears
heard but little
thereof, and we have not
received the full discovery of the things that shall
be hereafter. The Lord bless you! May you all be parts of His Church, have
a share in His glory, and a share in the manifestation
of that glory at theH
last.
Dear
hearer, I would send thee away with this one query in thine
ear — Is
Christ thy
desire, Couldest thou say, with David, “He is all my salvation
and all my
desire”? Could you gather up your feet in the bed, with dying
Jacob, and say, “I have waited for thy will,
O God”? By your desire shall
you be known. The desire of the righteous shall be granted. Delight thyself
also in the Lord,
and He shall give thee the desire of thine heart.
But the
desire of many is a groveling desire: it is a sinful desire: it is a
disgraceful desire — a desire which, if it be attained, the
attainment of it
will afford very brief pleasure. Oh! sinner, let thy
desires go after Christ.
Remember if thou wouldest
have Him, thou hast not to earn Him — fight
for Him — win Him — but HE IS TO BE HAD FOR THE
ASKING!
“Lay
hold,” says he apostle, “on eternal life.” As if it
were ours, if we did but
grip it. God give us grace to lay hold on eternal life, for
Jesus from the cross is
saying, “Look unto me, and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth,” and from His
throne of glory He still is saying, “Come unto me,” exalted on high, “to give
repentance and remission
of sin,” and He will give them both to those who
seek Him. Seek
Him, then, this night. God grant
it for His Son’s sake.
An Evening Song
in Perilous Times, Showing Us the Secret of Happiness
(Psalm 4:6-8)
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift
thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
7 Thou
hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased.
8 I
will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only
makest me dwell in safety
It is not
difficult to be cheerful when we have everything we desire.
But
when life seems to be a series of catastrophes,
disappointments, and
vexations, buoyancy of spirit is not so easily attained.
If our lives were in
peril every moment through rebellion at home and
plots and snares around,
few of us would be found capable, under such
circumstances, of writing
morning and evening hymns. Yet such were the
circumstances under which
David wrote
this psalm and the one which precedes it. Both of them
belong, in all probability, to the time of Ahithophel’s conspiracy, of
Absalom’s rebellion, when the king was a fugitive, camping
out with a few
of his followers. Such reverses, moreover, were
none the easier to bear,
when he had the reflection that because of his own sin
the sword was in his
house, and was piercing his own soul Yet even
thus, as he had “a heart at
leisure from itself to write his song of morning
praise, so does he also pen
his evening prayer.f1 We picture
him thus: Any moment a fatal stroke may
fall on him. His adversaries prowl around. They have
rich stores of
provisions and of gold, while he himself has to depend for
the means of
subsistence on supplies brought to his camp from without. Unscrupulous
rebels were in power, while
David and his host were like a band of men
who are dependent on begging or on plunder. But it was precisely this
combination of ills that
brought out some of the finest traits in his
character. (Adversity
will make you bitter or better -
calendar during the Joe B. Hall era) Even then he can take up his pen and write,
“Thou hast put gladness in my heart”, I will both lay
me down in peace, and sleep:
for
thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” Here,
then, we have one of God’s
people, who has seen calmer days, writing in his tent
and telling
of a secret
of peace and joy which
nothing can disturb. It is a secret worth knowing.
Let us
ascertain what it is.
I. HERE IS AN
INQUIRY PUT. “Who will show us good?” By which
is
meant, not so much What is good in itself? as — What will make us happy,
and bring us a
sense of satisfaction? Over and
above our intellectual, we
have emotional faculties. The emotions are to the spiritual part
of us what
the (physical)
sensations are to the bodily part.
Among the various fallacies of
some wise men of this world, one of the wildest is
that emotion has no place in
the search after, and in the ascertainment of, truth. It would
be quite safe
to reverse that, and to say that unless the emotions have their rightful play,
few truths can be rightly sought or found. An equilibrium of absolute
indifference concerning truth or error would be a guilty carelessness. Our
craving after happiness is God’s lesson to us through the emotions,
that we
are dependent for satisfaction on something outside us;
and when such
satisfaction is actually reached, it is so far the sign that the
higher life is
being healthfully sustained. Our nature is too complex to be satisfied with
supply in any one department. Our intellectual nature craves the true. Our
moral nature
craves the right. Our sympathetic nature
calls for love. (thus the
basic emotional needs love/security/recognition contrasted with our known
physical needs of food/clothing/shelter!
Our conscious weakness and
dependence call for
strength from another. Our
powers of action demand a sphere of service which
shall neither corrupt
nor exhaust. Our spiritual nature cries
out for God, life, and immortality.
Who can show
us “good” that will meet all these wants? Such is
the inquiry.
II. THERE ARE
THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THE INQUIRY.
(v. 7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart,) The psalmist shows us:
1. The
source of his joy. God — God Himself. How often
do the psalmists
luxuriate in telling what God was to
them:
o Rock,
o Shield,
o Sun,
o
o Fortress,
o Refuge,
o Strength,
o Salvation,
o their Exceeding Joy!
Much more is this the case
now as we know God in Christ. In Him we have
revealed to us through the Spirit nobler heights, deeper depths, larger
embraces, and mightier triumphs of divinely revealed love than
Old Testament saints could possibly conceive.
2. One excellent feature of this joy is the sense of security it brings with it
in the most perilous surroundings (see last
verse). (Let the Hebrew student
closely examine this verse. He will
gain thereby precious glimpses of a
meaning deeper than any bare
translation can give.) The psalmist discloses
and suggests further:
3. The quality and degree of the joy. “ More than… when
their corn and
their wine increaseth.”
(a) The gladness is of
a far higher quality. A filial
son’s joy in the best of
fathers is vastly superior to the delight a child has
in his toys. So joy in God
Himself for what He is, is
infinitely higher than delight in what He gives.
(b) It is a gladness of
greater zest. No joy in
worldly things that a carnal
man ever reached can approximate to the believer’s joy in God. It is a joy
“unspeakable, and full of glory.” (I Peter 1:8)
(c) It is a gladness remarkable for its persistency. The worldling’s joy is
for the bright days of life. Joy in God is for every day, and comes out most
strikingly in
the darkest ones — David, Daniel; Shadrach, Meshach,
and
Abednego; Peter,
John, Stephen, Paul and Silas, etc. We never know all
that God is to us until He takes away all our earthly props, and makes us
lean with all our weight on Him.
(d) The believer’s joy in God surpasses the worldling’s gladness in the
effects of it. It not only satisfies, but sanctifies the mind.
(e) This joy never
palls upon the taste. “The world passeth away, and the
lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
(I John 2:17)
III. THE
PSALMIST SHOWS US HOW THIS JOY IN GOD WAS ATTAINED.
After his
delights the worldling has many a weary chase. To
ensure his, the psalmist sends up a prayer, “Lord, lift thou up thou up the light of
thy countenance upon us.” (v. 6) This prayer had
been taught him of old. It was
a part of the priestly benediction “The Lord Bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord
make His face shine
upon thee, and be gracious to
there. The Lord lift
up His
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”
(Numbers 6:24-26) Its meaning is,
“Give us
the sign and seal of thy favor, and it is enough.” Truly in this all else is
ensured. Forgiveness
from God and peace with Him prepare the way for
the fullness of joy. Nothing
is right with a sinful man till there is peace
between him and God. If our view of the chronology of the Psalms be correct,
Psalm 51. and 32, preceded this. If it be
true that the believer attains the highes
heights of joy, it is also true that he has first
gone down into the deep vale of
penitential sorrow. As in Christian toil, so in personal religion, “They that
sow in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring his sheaves
with him.” (ch.
126:5-6 - Doubtless, the origin of the Hymn Bringing in the
Sheaves - CY - 2025) Let the sinner “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world,” (John
1:29) and then his hope, his joy, will begin.
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, Counselor, The mighty
God, The everlasting
Father,
The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and
peace there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon his
kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even
for
ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
(Isaiah 9:6-7)
“The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform
this!” (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Inter-biblical
period - Church Age
Thus
Luke 1:26 - Here - the angel
Gabriel is sent to start
the process
that God planned from the
beginning of the world.
Revelation 14 is
tied in to my 24 lessons on The Danger of Being
Dissatisfied with One’s Lot in Life and the four so far on Non-inclusion
in
the
Revelation 7
Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel
fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
earth, and
to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the
Him an
hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name
written in their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the
voice of many waters, and
as the voice of a great thunder: and I
heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps:
3 And they sung as it were a new song before
the throne, and before
the four beasts, and the elders: and no man
could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four
thousand, which were redeemed
from the earth.
4 These are they which were not defiled with
women; for they are
virgins. These are they which follow the
Lamb whithersoever he
goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being
the firstfruits
unto God and to the Lamb.
5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for
they are without fault
before the throne of God.
6 And I saw another angel fly in the
midst of heaven, having the
everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and
to every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and
give glory to Him; for the
hour of His judgment is come: and worship
Him that made heaven,
and earth, and the sea, and the fountains
of waters.
8 And there followed another angel, saying,
fallen, that great city, because she made
all nations drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication.
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with
a loud voice, If any
man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his
forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the
wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of
his indignation; and he
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the
holy angels, and in the presence of the
Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and
they have
no rest day nor night, who
worship the beast and his
image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
12 Here is the patience of the saints:
here are they that keep the
commandments
of God, and the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are
the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.
See Rev. 13:8 mentions “....the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.”
The previous seven verses are associated
with the beast (anti-christ)
and the first part of this eighth
verse tells of those whose names are not
written in that Book of Life of
this Lamb, worship the anti-christ!
Gabriel
sent. Christ, the Sent of God! You/me are sent.
Whose side are you
on? ch. 11:23
Nazareth, a city of Galilee,
hidden in the hills. A rendez-
vous for the worst of people, a
proverbial place out of
which no good thing was expected. John 1:46
Gal. 4:4-5 - "....when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem
them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." -
Rev. 3:14 - Christ, "the
Beginning of the creation of God"
A deeper interest should
gather around Jesus coming into
the world to save mankind from their sins, than that of
the beginning of the material universe.
Genesis gives to us the
account of the mysterious origin
of the material world - Luke gives us the account of the
mysterious origin of the new creation and the salvation
of man!
vs. 27-28 - Warning against worshipping Mary - the Lord
Jesus
is the one to be magnified - not Mary.
I would like to ask the women
folk, if you had lived in that
generation, would you have qualified to be the mother of
the Son of God?
Isaiah 7:14
We are living in a very evil
age - we count God's
commandment as nothing and commit fornication or adultery
as if eating a piece of bread or taking a sip of water. Mary
is
the original madonna (a title of
respect)- today you have a
cult star by the same name of which she is not
worthy. It is
alarming when more young people know more about Madonna
than democracy.
v. 29 - Receive what is written - being assured that the
same
power
of the Highest by which the crucified Jesus
was
raised from the tomb where He had lain for three
days,
was able to overshadow the virgin of Nazereth,
was
able to cause to be born of her "that holy thing"
which
was called the Son of God!
vs. 32-33 - "house of David" - a sure house - I
Sam. 2:35
Isaiah 9:6-7
"He shall be called the
Son of the Highest" -
A new king - an everlasting
Monarch!
"the throne of his father David"
Yet unfulfilled -
speaks of a restoration of
It has been 2000 years
since Gabriel spoke of a
kingdom that would have no end!
1948 -
This thing was not
done in a corner!
"This thing was not done in a
corner" is a phrase from the Bible, specifically
Acts 26:26, where the Apostle Paul
is telling King Agrippa that the Christian
message was not spread in secret or
hidden away, but was openly proclaimed
to many people; essentially
meaning it was not done in a secluded place,
but was widely known. (Google)
Today the Jews are looking in all
the wrong places -
It is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and Him
Only!
The Jews have been
kept distinct even though
intermingled with the nations of
the world and today
are waiting His coming - “Who hath herd such a thing?
Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one
day? Or shall
a
nation be born at once? for as soon as
brought
forth her children.” (Isaiah 66:8)
v. 33 - the dignity and power
that Christ shall attain -
its duration - "forever" -
its extent - "no end"
9 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name
which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the
glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
That
in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might
gather
together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and
which
are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)
11And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white
horse; and He that sat
upon him was called Faithful and True, and
in righteousness He
doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on
His head were many
crowns; and He had a name written, that no
man knew, but He
Himself.
13 And He was clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood: and His name is
called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven
followed Him upon white
horses, clothed in fine linen, white and
clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth
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 and wrath
of Almighty God.
16 And
He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING
OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16)
v. 35 - In Christ we have the humanity and the
Divinity
in
one, each perfect and complete. What ever can be
said
of man, it can be said of Christ (except sin),
what
can be said of God can be said of Him.
"I and my Father are
one"
Psalm
118:22-23 Matt.
21:42
"This is the Lord's
doing, it is marvelous in our eyes"
Reminds one of the opening
words of Genesis at the
dawn of creation - "The Spirit moved (brooded) over
the face of the deep".
The Word was conceived in the
womb of a woman,
not after the manner of men, but by the operation of
the Holy Ghost, whereby a virgin was, beyond the law
of nature, enabled to conceive, and that which was
conceived in her was originally and completely
sanctified!
Holiness is not a mere
attainment, obedience to the
moral law - it is a new supernatural being - "born of
the Spirit" - "not born of blood, nor of the will
of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"
v. 37 - "with God nothing shall be impossible"
v. 38 - No demands made on Mary - just her consent.
Notice the
attitude of Mary - "Behold the hand-maiden
of the Lord, be it unto me according to
thy word"
She accepts the sacrifice - she
submitted herself of her
own free will to what she felt was the will & wish of
God!
Her innocence was vindicated -
Matt. 1:20
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF MARY'S
JOY!
Surely in all the world's
creation, His might had never
been shown as it was now about to be manifest in her!
In the Incarnation, God was
sending real help to His
people. It was the crowning act of mercy, and the
fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and his
seed. Mary thus began with God's holiness and
passed
in review His power, His mercy, and finally His
faithfulness. All these are illustrated eminently
in the Incarnation.
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