Well, let's turn now to Psalm 72. As the final verse of this psalm makes clear, This is the last psalm written by David. It's not the last psalm in the book of Psalms, although if you read in the next book, you will notice that most of the psalms in the following book of Psalms, Book 3, are of Asaph and Korah, Moses and others. And this being the last Psalm of David, being placed at the end of Book 2, it also ends with a doxology, which doxology we have adopted for our own. And as far as the historical fulfillment of these psalm, or a prayer as David puts it. It refers to Solomon. But David, of course, was aware as a prophet himself that he spoke of greater things than Solomon and was speaking mainly of the kingship of the coming Messiah. Psalm 72. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. The mountain shall bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people He shall save the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him for he shall deliver the needy when he crieth. The poor also and him that hath no helper He shall spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. He shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of David, the son of Jessa, are ended. We read that far in God's holy and inspired word, and we turn now to Lord's Day 12, It sets forth the truth of Psalm 72 and many other places of Scripture. Why is he called Christ that is anointed? Because he is ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Holy Ghost to be our chief prophet and teacher, who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption, and to be our only high priest, who by the one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us, and makes continual intercession with the Father for us, and also to be our eternal King, who governs us by his word and spirit, and who defends and preserves us in the enjoyment of that salvation he has purchased for us. Why art thou called a Christian? because I am a member of Christ by faith and thus am partaker of his anointing so that I may confess his name and present myself a living sacrifice of thanksgiving to him and also that with a free and good conscience I may fight against sin and Satan in this life and afterwards reign with him eternally over all creatures. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, we continue our study of the Son of God according to His names, and this morning consider His title, which becomes part of His name, the Christ. And we should realize that there is a lot of material here. In fact, one could easily say that the subject material here of Christ is everything that is included in what we call Christology, the study of Christ, in our essentials catechism instruction. which goes on for many lessons, dealing with the covenant, and regeneration, and justification, and faith, and calling, and sanctification, and preservation, and all these grand subjects. So much material is here that often I myself have even used three Lord's Days to cover it, and in many instances have to pick and choose what we will concentrate upon, and this morning we're going to focus upon the threefold office itself, and we're going to make those the three points, the prophet, priest, and king. Those will be our three points. And then the part that we have often emphasized in the past, and we'll sort of leave behind this morning, We will simply look at by way of introduction, and that is the reality that that term title refers to the office that Christ holds. That term Christ, or in the Old Testament, the equivalent, the Messiah, had standing behind it the idea that the one who holds that title, is chosen by the triune God for an office and to that office is given tasks or work. And that the triune God then also authorizes, gives special authorization and then power, qualifications and power to carry out that work of that office. and that is worth noticing for us, especially today when the idea of office is being minimized and eroded and undermined and even outright rejected. It's becoming increasingly common in the church to not see office bearers, which are special outworkings of the office of Christ as not necessary or not having any special authority or power. If there are men appointed to offices, they're just leaders or really do the same thing that we do, just that we can't or won't. Even in the worship of the church today, you will hear many, many, many songs about Jesus, and Jesus this, and Jesus that, and very few about the Christ, and the real understanding, the biblical understanding of what that means. And all the material of Christology, which material really is salvation, We're studying how we are saved is put under that for a reason. We are saved by the Christ, not just Jesus as such, but the Christ. And that itself is significant, emphasizes there's no other name, person, being, no other office or officer by which we are saved. So much so that when we get to soteriology, which is the application of that salvation, or what's even mentioned here, the enjoyment of it, is simply the outworking or the application of what we have here. So we're going to look at this, the office of Christ, but also as it applies to us who are partakers of that anointing under the three points of prophet, priest, and king. So we consider, first of all, that office of prophet that Jesus holds as the Christ, and we have here a summary of what it means to be a prophet. what the office of prophet was in the Old Testament, we're going to look at, the office of prophet is with regard to us, and the special office of prophet, the minister. What is that job? What is that work? What is the task of the prophet? And the answer is to fully reveal the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption. That's what it is in Christ. Essentially, although it takes various forms and various messages and other aspects of the work, that's how you can summarize what it means to be a prophet, to reveal. And to reveal, of course, by teaching, which is why we have in the Lord's Day that he is prophet and teacher, or prophet that is a teacher, and a teacher because they reveal something, reveal something secret, something otherwise hidden, something that we otherwise would not know at all. So we may see this was the primary calling of the Old Testament prophets, the prophets that were rejected, the prophets that were stoned, and see how wicked it was that that was done to the prophets. What was their function? What was their function even when they foretold The future. Future events and future happenings and circumstances. Future judgments. They were teaching the hidden will of God. They were revealing the will of God about salvation. Notice that too, even when they revealed God's judgments, the terrible overthrow of the city of Jerusalem, for example, they were revealing the gospel of salvation. And that's what their telling of the future entailed. They were really revealing in a very striking way the salvation of the people of God right in time. And all of the names and aspects of that work boil over in the Old Testament, or simply to speak forth, show that that was their work. Now what we must understand is this, that a prophet, of course, to carry out his office, to carry out his function, and that which essentially separated a true prophet from a false prophet is they must first know that will of God. They must know what is in the mind of God. They must know what God's own purpose and desires are. And of course, they can know that only if God reveals that to them. And God did that in the Old Testament by visions, by actually appearing and speaking to certain Old Testament prophets. And that is why The work of prophecy is referred to so often in Scripture as a great mystery. The prophetic office is a great mystery because it reveals the otherwise hidden mind of God. That's Ephesians 1, 9, and 10. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ. And God reveals this. God reveals what salvation is, what this salvation is from. God reveals through the prophet how exactly God is going to work that salvation and accomplish salvation. God speaks through the prophet about the nature of that salvation. Is it a salvation that's dependent upon those who are saved? Or is it a salvation of those who are utterly helpless to save themselves? Is it a salvation by grace or a salvation by works? Is it a salvation that comes from above or something that originates in the earth or with us? God reveals all those things. In fact, God reveals, even through the prophet, who exactly God will save. The Bible indicates exactly who God saves. It reveals what they look like, what the effect of that salvation upon them is, and how God preserves them in that salvation. All that God reveals to the prophet. Scripture reveals that Jesus is the prophet, that all other prophets are simply manifestations of him, as types and shadows, are agents of him. Over all the prophets is the prophet. That's why when Jesus came, God himself spoke from heaven. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. The book of Hebrews even begins that way when it speaks about God, who at different times and different manners spoke in times past by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, by whom also He made the worlds. That's why the question put to the disciples or to John the Baptist by others, is he the prophet? They all knew that the Messiah would come as a prophet. Now what qualifies Christ to be the prophet as opposed to us as prophets or the minister as a prophet is that God must reveal his will to us, but does that through the Christ. And that's because Christ has a qualification for that office in a unique way. If now the prophet must first know the will of God, consider that Jesus is uniquely qualified for that because he is, according to Scripture, the very truth and wisdom of God himself and has been that and is that from eternity. That's why Jesus could come claiming, I am the truth, the way, and the life. This is why his disciples essentially confessed he was the Christ when they said, Master, we know that thou art true. and that thou teachest the way of God in truth. And this is why the great name given to him is the Word. The Son of God, the person of the Son of God has always been the Word that the Father speaks by the power of His Spirit. That's always what He is. In other words, He is that which God speaks, which reveals Him. When God speaks, He reveals Himself. And Jesus, as the Son of God, is that revelation, which is why the Scriptures also teach us that He is the full revelation of God. Anything that may be known and can be known of God is known only through the Christ. And the Christ specifically revealing Him by speaking. And speaking in words and thoughts and statements. And not just the Word as He is seen or visible. We must understand also that Jesus' work as prophet is to refute and thus destroy false prophecy and false prophets. This is why the gospel ministry and the ministry of the prophet and the ministry of the minister, both in the Old and the New Testament, was always antithetical, as we say, or polemical. Not only is there a truth, but there exists the lie. A lie that is of the devil, and a lie that revealed itself at the very beginning of history. And why in the first revelation of the Christ in the mother promise, there is an antithetical message about who will be victorious. and how that victory comes through the destruction of Satan and his lies. So there's false prophecy. Go through the Scriptures, and time and time again, Ephesians talks about the winds of false doctrine that blow. 2 Peter talks about the false prophets among the people who come in. Or you read about in Acts the grievous wolves. They are the agents of the Satan. And they too come to manifestation. That too has agents that speak it. And we'll also have a manifestation, not now in the true Christ, but in the false Christ, the Antichrist. And why the Antichrist, when he appears, will be a false prophet. He must be. He must speak that which is against Christ and against the kingdom of Christ. He must present another salvation than the salvation of Jesus Christ. And why he tries to, because this is what the prophets serve, which is the advancement of the kingdom of God, because that's the great will of God, they present an alternate kingdom and erect another kingdom. And that false prophecy is always known by the same characteristics. Lies, as I said, which has more the idea of subtle corruption of the truth, also is always manifest by blasphemy. In Revelation, the Antichrist is presented as the blasphemous one. He has that name, blasphemy, which are more direct attacks and contradictions of God's revelation through Christ. also has the characteristic that this false prophecy always divides. It's schismatic. It tries to separate the church from Christ himself as its head and thus destroy that body. And it always appeals to the natural man. It always appeals to the flesh. It always appeals to lust. It always appeals to that which is natural, the old man. Now, if we look more closely at Christ's work in the office, we should be able to see how he exercised that office already in the Old Testament. And here, too, we're dealing with somewhat a mystery. Because when we talk about Christ, we're talking about Christ specifically in the man Jesus, the man Jesus who was incarnate. And yet, exactly because Jesus the Christ is the eternal Son of God, there is an exercise of that office already before He's incarnate in the Old Testament. And you can see it. Proverbs 8 speaks of Jesus as the wisdom of God. We're told that this Word, this Word which is the great prophet of God, was with God in the beginning, the Word by which God made all things. That's an amazing thing. It is an amazing thing that in our day, in the church, by so-called prophets, the very truth that reveals Jesus as prophet is denied, namely the creation. The Bible is very clear who made the creation and how God made the creation. And today we're told it's not done that way. And it's not salvation-related. It's not salvic at all. You can safely deny the accounts of Genesis. It really has nothing to do with the Christ whatsoever, and it's not true. It's the very first revelation of Christ as the Word by which God made all things. Not only that, but you see Christ as prophet preserving that word, long before Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. There was much, much, much history, and God preserved that, word for word, orally, so that it could be written down without error. Christ functioned in the Old Testament as prophet when He spake by holy men of old, so that what they spoke was the Word of God. And then He had that spoken Word committed to writing. Writing without error. Writing which the miracle is that Christ so spoke by and used men. Sinful men. that what they wrote was not their own word, but His Word. That's the great miracle. But that's His work in the Old Testament as prophet, even when you have the angel of the Lord appear in very remarkable ways at certain times in the history of the church. That was Christ functioning as prophet. But then when He comes, What is the office that you really see first? Is it priest? Is it king? Well, we all know when he was born, you didn't see the office of king. The wise men were shocked that he wasn't in Jerusalem, born in the palace, shocked that they found him in little Bethlehem in a manger. And you certainly don't see the priestly office. until really, as it were, he dies, then it comes into all of its clarity. No, he comes as a prophet. He comes with his ministry. He comes, as we read, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Why, Jesus' first sermon is, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to those in prison and those who are blind and deaf. And why, over and over again, you read the people The people who had been raised on all the false prophecy of the Pharisees and the Sadducees were amazed at how He spoke with one having authority, not as the scribes. Never man spake like this man, they testified, and all wondered at his gracious words. Even the miracles that he performed, like miracles that were performed by the Old Testament prophets, which display the power and authority of a king, nevertheless, were used specifically to confirm the truth of the prophet and the prophecy, and so also with Christ also. But here, too, we see that when we speak about the perfect work of Christ or the complete work of Christ, we need to be careful Careful not to have the idea that the Christ still is not working because he still holds the office and he still speaks as prophet, even after his resurrection and ascension into heaven. He calls the apostles. He even instructs the apostles in a way so that they said things and prophesied things that they really didn't understand before his death and resurrection. Then he took. What they had spoken confirmed it again by miracles and preserves it in the Holy Scriptures as it was spoken and written so that it was not corrupted and preserved that word. And he functions especially through the office of the minister. Jesus speaks through the office of prophet, and when the prophet speaks, He speaks as one who is called and qualified by Christ himself. No man may be a prophet, that is, a minister of the Holy Gospel, simply with what he thinks or a call that he issues to himself. Or in just any way, he may not seize the office because it's the office of Christ. And so when Christ calls a minister and brings a minister into being and speaks through him, that's Christ's work. And this is why, too, in the Reformed faith, we always emphasize, you don't hear me. You don't hear a particular minister. And it shows forth the evil of flocking to certain ministers because of how we feel about them. Now when the minister speaks, Christ speaks. Jesus said in John 7, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. If we follow Christ, it's only because we have heard him speak with his own voice. And we recognize that voice. Or Romans 10, which speaks about the call of the Holy Gospel. and asks the question, how shall ye believe in him of whom they have not heard? And literally is, whom they have not heard. Or the Apostle Paul, speaking to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 4, says to them, you have so learned Christ because you've been taught by him. And you all know Jesus was well ascended into heaven by the time the church at Ephesus came into being. They heard Christ and were taught by Christ because Paul was there. Now, we hold that office. We also share in that office by an anointing. Now, the catechism puts it this way. Why are you called a Christian? Now, let's keep this in mind because there's all kinds of people that call themselves Christian. There's all people that claim they are Christians, or others consider Christians, but we have described here what a real Christian is. And when it asks the question, why are you called a Christian, the idea is, not by others, But why does God consider you a Christian? Why are you called a Christian? And why do you delight in that name? And the answer is because I'm a member of Christ by faith. So first of all, I believe in Christ. Well, if you believe in Christ, that means you've been anointed. You've been baptized into Christ. There's something that happened. You were joined to Christ. You were baptized into Christ. And what was the essence of that baptism? What was that baptism? What were you baptized with? Even like the Old Testament officers, the prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil. Oil was poured on their head. They could say, I'm a prophet because I was anointed by God to this office. The answer is the Christian is anointed by the Holy Spirit. That's the spirit that qualifies Christ. God's own spirit is given to him. And that spirit is a threefold spirit, and thus he holds a threefold office, so also with the Christian. That means that someone who claims to be baptized by the Spirit, and someone who is baptized by the Spirit, will be in the first place a prophet. And the Scriptures speak of this. John 6.45, it is written in the Prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me. Notice they're taught by Christ. They hear Christ, and they come to Christ, and they become themselves prophet. Jesus said that just a few chapters later. Same book, John 10. If you believe, you believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. So every believer is a prophet. even in the Old Testament, Moses said, would be to God that all the Lord's people were prophets. Well, they are. This work of the chief prophet making us a prophet, we must understand, is the work of Jesus Christ establishing the covenant of God And that work begins with the prophetic office. It's amazing why we begin here and how we begin here. Understand that. Even when we get to the work of Christ as priest, and we recognize how fundamental that is, it's redemption, it's where Christ bought it all, where He paid the ultimate price, all these things. That office cannot function without the office of prophet. The office of prophet must prophesy it, reveal it, bring us unto it. And that's true even with regard to us, why the order of salvation begins with calling after regeneration. We must be shown this, we must be taught this. Well, when we become prophets, we take on a certain characteristic then. How do you know a prophet of God? How do we know we're functioning as prophets of God? Well, number one, we believe the truth of God. No true prophet believes a lie, believes false revelation. There is an utter belief, an adherence to the truth of the Word of God. That's the only revelation that you can prophesy. Not only that, but there is opposition to the opposite. Opposition to the lie. That is adherence to the ninth commandment. Or opposition to blasphemy, which is adherence to the third commandment. Those are all characteristics of a true prophet of Jesus Christ. And then not simply believe the truth, but as we're going to be reminded of tonight, also confess that truth. That's essential to a prophet. A prophet who is a Christian doesn't just simply live with his mouth shut. Oh yes, his life also does speak and is a testimony, just as with Christ and just as with the Old Testament prophets. But have you ever heard of a silent prophet, a mute prophet? Not really. And how do we do that? This is important to recognize. because otherwise we get into trouble there too. Do we all need to hold the office of minister to prophesy? And the answer, of course, is no. So how do we do this? Well, consider that a prophet is a teacher. Not only is it my chief calling to teach, it is to teach, to teach, to teach, to teach. Well, that's how you carry it out. Husbands teach their wives. Wives teach the children. School teachers teach the children. We all teach one another. Imagine how wonderful the church would be if rather than tearing down each other and we, instead of talking about one another and telling everybody what everybody else is doing, we instead exhorted and comforted and brought the word to one another as prophets. Now, priest. Jesus is priest. God showed abundantly clear in the Old Testament how important this office was to the Christ, and that should be evident. It's really amazing that the whole notion of sacrifice and the need for priest and sacrifice was brought out, too, already in the garden when God sacrificed an animal, killed an animal, the first death to make clothing for Adam and Eve, who had tried to cover themselves up with their own works. How the whole story of Cain and Abel revolved around sacrifices. Then you have the whole institution of an entire tribe that was dedicated to be priests unto God. And over and over again, the sacrifices played an important role. That was God teaching how the Messiah would be priest. And there too, God had a way of pointing out how unique, again, Christ would be. The very repetition of the sacrifices where you had all these innumerable priests, generation after generation, slaughtering hundreds of thousands, if not millions of animals. the bloody, stinky, smelly mess that was made there in the temple, and it never took away one single sin. It was the animal of bloods and goats. They can't take away the sins of human beings. And then the priests making the sacrifice, they were sinful men who must die themselves. They couldn't pay for the sins of others. And time and time again by their own failures, their own inability to keep out idolatry, so that sooner or later idols were found in the temple themselves and the priests corrupted the office, especially at the time of Christ, all pointed out that there has to be someone special. And here, too, we should see that Christ functioned as priest in the Old Testament. We can go right to the New, obviously, and see how He functioned as Christ. But already in the Old Testament, Jesus was functioning as priest in that He consecrated the people to God. That's what priests do. It's where the work of mediatorship really comes to the foreground. that in himself he represents the people before God and in him he brings to them the blessings of God to them. That's what priests really do. It's the idea of holiness, consecration. And it sets forth especially the mercy and the grace of God. And this really comes to the foreground in the atonement. And we may be brief here because it's coming back up again. But we remind you of two things. First of all, Jesus functioned as the priest that brings the sacrifice, but also the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. that He functions again very uniquely. There's no one else who can do this. There is no one else who can both present Himself, a perfect sacrifice, and then die the atoning death that the payment of sins requires, and then live again. That's what Christ does, and why always when we focus on the work of Christ, You must see centrally the atonement and then the result of it, which the Catechism presents simply as one word, redemption. That is the purchase of us, the purchase of the right even to administer the blessings of God, that even the grace and mercy of God must be rooted in something, which is the atonement of Jesus Christ. And then we should see he still functions that way, even when it comes to the atonement, which is the one sacrifice. And here too, it's worth pointing out how this also is corrupted, not just the office of prophecy by false prophets and false teachings, but the priesthood of Jesus Christ is also corrupted. And here we may simply set forth the Roman Catholic Church as the preeminent venue where that is done, where there is no office of prophet. It's been replaced by the office of priests, and priests who continually sacrifice Jesus Christ on an altar, not a table. The denial of the one sacrifice of Christ and the real atonement so that there is no payment due for any sin now or in the future. But it's not over. Even when we talk about the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ and do honor to His Word, it is finished. Be careful what you mean, because He's still priest. In fact, the idea is that having made the sacrifice, he is raised up from the dead and enters into the Holy of Holies and heaven itself, and there presents the people to God already in him. And the Bible talks about continual intercession. Even though the sacrifice has been made, the atonement is finished, the work is over, he continually makes prayer before God on our behalf. You think to yourself, that's not necessary, but it is. And then He applies all of that to us. He brings it to us. He preaches it to us. He prophesies to us that that will of God concerning those things is all accomplished. He doesn't leave it up to you to try to figure it out somehow on your own. The sacraments, the administration of the sacraments is still the work of Christ functioning in and among us. And He assures us of that by His Holy Spirit as Comforter. And that too is played out in our own lives. We become priests. It's amazing that the Bible would even speak that way, because so much of the priesthood revolved around a sacrifice of burnt offerings, an atoning sacrifice, the shedding of blood. But then we forget that there were all kinds of sacrifices that were those of thanksgiving, free will offerings. not as payment, but as gratitude. And the catechism shows that our office is that we present ourselves a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him. We too are priests, and we too make a sacrifice. We sacrifice our lives. We sacrifice a life of ease and pleasure. sacrifices of money and time, but especially sacrifices of our own will and own desires, the own lusts of the flesh. But they're not made to atone, to present to God to take away our sins, and they may be, otherwise they damn us. We present them exactly to God because he has paid for our sins. And we're returning unto him exactly what he has given to us. It's really amazing how that comes to the foreground and even think about how that's denied if we say, we don't have to live that way. We don't have to live in obedience to God. None of that really matters at all anymore. You're saying we deny the office of priest. You're denying that you are priests. In fact, there's a denial of that even in the special office of deacon, which is where that is manifest. That too is quite amazing. How the office of ministry of mercy and grace is administered by the diaconate, and their care for the poor and their care for the sick. We forget that. That of all the offices in the church, it's not my office, which you would think it might be. There's a teaching of it. but the actual example of it is found in the diakonet. And we could say in our own giving and helping, insisting of one another. Now king, here too we'll be brief, not only for time's sake, but we're going to come back to this in various ways, the kingdom of God. But it is also striking how in the Old Testament, God made clear, even when Israel didn't have a king, that their safety and their preservation and justice all depended on that office, and how even God brought them to that office through the judges, and that even though they lusted after a king wrongfully, they wanted a king like the world, and these kings were wicked and oppressive, God nevertheless told them that they needed a king, and they needed a king because Christ is king, always was. And how did he manifest that in the Old Testament? Just amazing. Every display of God's power and authority and rule over all things revealed Jesus as the Christ. And then in the offices, God giving them first a very wicked king who God rejects because he made the people serve him. And gave them a man after his own heart who instead used his office to serve the people. And then another king, his son, to show the peace that comes when the king does his labor. Also we should see, especially from Psalm 72, that the rule of the king is of a very important flavor or characteristics. One, is it is a rule of service. Jesus showed that the king must serve. He doesn't take, that's what the ungodly kings, Instead, gives, and he gives, and he gives, which is why you have the great irony that, especially when Jesus is born, and you look around and you say, where's the king? Where's his kingship? The people who had faith and were given faith could still see it, and they could see it in his very humility. They could see it in his very giving of himself to them. And that, of course, comes to blazing glory and revelation after Jesus ascends. But notice that in that part that we often forget, but in Psalm 72 it's highlighted, it's His justice. Why did the people need a king? Because they needed a judge. They needed a judge who would say, this is wrong and this is right. And even what you're doing to that person is wrong. You've wronged that person. You're oppressing that person. And the amazing thing about the godly kings, especially King David, and certainly Christ, who is the epitome of it all, the relief of the poor and the oppressed, and the putting down of the rich who oppressed them, those that didn't care, And again, that shouldn't surprise us if we understand who it is whom he saves. Does he save the rich and the mighty of the world, those who are held up and honored and given millions and millions of dollars for their economic prowess and their athletic abilities? And the answer is no. In fact, we're reminded time and time again, are we not? that Christ reigns in heaven, and that though it might seem like he is not in control and in charge, because after all, we suffer many weaknesses and infirmities, we go through many trials and tribulations, there's even persecution of the church. There's times when one can look around and say, is there even a church? He still is Lord. And he is saving the same way that he has always saved, in a way that reveals the will of God, to glorify himself by lifting up to the highest heavens those who are despised and rejected of men. And so this office especially comes to the foreground. and the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And it is the office that really is the fulfillment of the others. It is the one through which the others operate so that Jesus, when he speaks as prophet, is the king also. And when he did his work as priest, he accomplished that work because he is king also. But time and time we are again reminded that his kingly work is not that of human beings, not that as we would have it, that on the cross, when it seemed all was lost and he actually suffered unto death, he was king, he was victor, he is Lord. And it's amazing too that this is the great office that we look for. The prophets still speak, look, Look, look for his return. Look for his coming. This great priest who sacrificed himself for us, who has given us these white robes of salvation, is coming again to judge, to judge rightly, to judge every man according to his works, to dispense both the righteousness and the mercy of God before all. And when he comes, he will come as a king. A king like the world has never seen. A king like David and Solomon could only be mere shadows of. And why do we look? Because he's made us kings. In fact, this is the great, great manifestation of that in the earth. When you look over the earth and you see who's in charge, who rules the great kingdoms of the earth, where is the church? The only real way you're going to see it is if you realize it's a rule of righteousness. Christ is victorious where you find little boys and girls and fathers and mothers and churches that are obedient to the word of Jesus Christ. that faithfully proclaim his word, that offer up themselves as sacrifices of thanksgiving. There he rules. There he is king. Doesn't mean there isn't any rule elsewhere, but it's a rule to their destruction. It is a rule that leads up to their judgment, their eternal condemnation. And that's how we are prophets, priests, and kings. Notice that with a free and good conscience, free and good because he is atoned, I may fight against sin and Satan in this life. And then notice, and afterwards reign with him eternally over all creatures. Amen, let us pray. Our Father which art in heaven, O Lord, we thank thee. that thou art our God, and in Jesus Christ, our King, our Prophet, and the Great Priest. We thank thee for making us prophets, priests, and kings. And oh Lord, forgive our sin in that office and sanctify us and empower us, qualify us in that office more and more so that we are faithful unto our Lord Jesus, who is the Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.