Well, we're reading from Psalm 110. We'll read the whole psalm here together. A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, you have the due of your youth. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore, He shall lift up the head. Amen. Father, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we pray that as we study it, that it would not just be an academic exercise, but that our lives would be transformed by the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I think that Psalm 110 is an underrated and underappreciated psalm because so many Christians put Christ's kingship way off in our future. But we're going to be seeing a number of scriptures that say that Jesus Christ is king right now and he is extending his kingdom. And since the New Testament quotes this psalm as being partially fulfilled on Palm Sunday, partially being fulfilled in the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to take two Sundays to try to fully develop some of the themes in this. and show what an incredibly foundational psalm it is. It is very foundational. Many commentators point out that this psalm is quoted by the New Testament more than any other psalm. In fact, several commentators say it's actually quoted more than any other Old Testament passage. And as usual, I want to encourage you to Let these doctrines change you. God is not just interested in you gaining knowledge in your head. As important as knowledge is, doctrine is always intended to transform us. For example, if Jesus is God, as this psalm says that he is, well, it ought to lead us to worship him and depend upon him and to believe that he can do everything that he has promised to do. He's not stymied by the leaders of our movement, not at all. A second, if he really is king, it ought to make us want to bow before him and obey him. It ought to make us confident that the things in this wacky world are not outside of his control. He has our elections, for example, just where he wants them, probably in judgment. And speaking of judgment, if he really is a judge who judges in history, then we ought to have confidence that there is a rhyme and reason to all of the disasters as well as the blessings that come upon nations. I think some people doubt that, but our theology demands it. If Jesus really is a king priest, that ought to affect our lives. Fifth, if bloody wars are part of his plan for history, which the last two verses indicate that they are, then we ought not to be discouraged when we see bloody wars. God is doing something through them. On the other hand, if this psalm rebukes passivity and it calls us to be volunteers who extend his kingdom, then we ought to do what we can to make a difference in this world, even in the political arena. And you know, several of you are involved in that. I've actually got a little project that somebody put a bee into my bonnet on yesterday afternoon. And if you're interested in being volunteers in the next week or two to advance something, you can talk to me about it afterwards. If he really does rule in the midst of his enemies, as this psalm says that he does, well, then it shouldn't surprise us that there's still enemies all around us. Eighth, if he wins in history and not just after history has ended, then it ought to stir up our faith to expect great things from him and to attempt great things for him. Now, I will admit that there are some puzzling things in this psalm, especially people in the first century were puzzled by it, but there's a lot of Christians are still puzzled by this psalm. And so I'm going to mainly focus on the first half of the psalm this week, though it's impossible to interpret that properly without looking at the whole psalm. But the first puzzle of this psalm is that the Messiah was declared to be God and therefore Lord by divine right. Now we understand that, but there were many in the first century who were somewhat confused by that. Verse one says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Now let's break this down a little bit. On verse one says, Yehoah said to my Lord, who is the speaker? Okay, who's represented by the word my? And the answer is that it's the writer. And the heading of the Psalm tells us who the writer is. It's the Psalm of David. And so Messiah would be David's Lord. This is the first hint that the Messiah would be divine as well as human. And Jesus knew that this was going to be a stumper for the Pharisees because the Pharisees rightly saw the Adonai. which is translated as Lord here, the Adonai being the coming Messiah. They knew that. So literally it says, Jehovah said to my Adonai. Now when Jesus cleansed the temple, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were outraged and they were wondering, by what authority are you doing these things? And he gives some parables, they're pretty powerful parables, that talk about him owning the temple, owning Israel, and that he would soon come to judge both of them. But then he quotes this psalm and uses it to settle that issue of authority. And here's how Matthew words it in Matthew 22, verses 41 through 46. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. He said to them, how then does David in the Spirit, in other words, David is saying that, Christ is saying that this is the Holy Spirit's information, how then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemy your footstool. If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question him anymore. Now the riddle for the Pharisees was how could the Messiah be both the Lord of David and the Son of David, or to use a different expression in Isaiah, how could he be both the root of David and the branch of David? Being the Lord and the Son, being the root and the branch are quite different things. How was that possible? to be, if Messiah is the root, then David came from Messiah. In other words, David grows from, he was created by the Messiah. How is that possible? But if the Messiah is also the branch of David, then Messiah also came from David and must be a descendant of David. How could that be? Unless Jesus was both God and man, that would be impossible. And so there's the first puzzle is how can he be the son of David and also the Lord? Second, there was the puzzle of how any human could possibly sit at God's right hand. Now the Pharisees actually believed that the Messiah would be a human. a human king, but this text clearly says the Messiah would sit at Yehovah's right hand. By the way, all capital letters LORD is the name of God. I pronounce it Yehovah, some people pronounce it Jehovah, some people pronounce it Yahweh. It's the same Hebrew word of his name. Hebrews 1.13 says that not even an angel could have these words said about him. It would be blasphemy to ascribe these words to an angel. No human could have them said about him. And so when Jesus told his trial court that from now on he himself would sit at the right hand of God and come on the clouds of heaven, that's Matthew 26, verse 64, The Pharisees said, that's blasphemy because you're claiming to be God. Of course, Jesus was claiming to be God. That's exactly right. You would have to be divine to be in that position. The third puzzle for the Pharisees, at least might have been a puzzle in verse 1, is that this therefore means that God was speaking to God. Now, it wouldn't have had to have been a puzzle because there were Jewish believers who already had figured out the doctrine of the Trinity prior to the time of Christ. And I've got some of them on my computer. For example, Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonatan are two commentaries, ancient, ancient commentaries that many people believe precede the time of Christ. And both of those commentaries on Genesis talk about Elohim, the Word and the Spirit all being called Yehovah, and all being equally the one true God, and yet these three are speaking to each other as if they are different persons, right? So they had this idea even before the time of Christ. So there's a sense in which it should not have been a puzzle. But for the unbelieving Pharisees, I think it would have been a puzzle. But here's the bottom line for us, and we need to always apply the text to us, right? Since the Messiah is God, He is up to the job of being king, which is what Palm Sunday is all about. What kind of a king was he? Well, he's the almighty. He is the creator. He is the sustainer of all things. The Bible says that all things in this universe are held together by the word of his power. As William Hendrickson says about this verse, David is promising the mediator such preeminence, power, authority, and majesty as would be proper only for one who as to person from all eternity was, is, now, and forever will be God. And I say amen. Both Christ and the Apostles used this verse to prove the deity of Jesus, especially Hebrews chapter 1. Now, we've already begun thinking about the next puzzle, that this divine Messiah is also a man. But to some people, being God and man seem like they would be mutually exclusive. In hindsight, we obviously know how God did that. But back then it might have been hard to reconcile those two clear facts. And yet this is one of many Old Testament passages that prophesied that the Messiah would be a God-man mediator who would have to be God in order to represent God to us, would have to be man in order to represent us to God. Now the first hint of his manhood, and it's only a hint, is that even though he was already Lord at the time that David wrote this psalm, David calls him my Lord. In other words, he was already in existence as the second person of the Trinity. There was coming a time in history when the same person would be made a king by God's appointment at a specific time when he's seated at the right hand of the father. Okay, that's not pointing to the second coming, that's pointing to his ascension. And so that clause hints at two kinds of kingship. There is an inherent kingship as God the Son, and there is an inherited kingship. kingship as man. And that this hint is properly being drawn out of the text can be seen by the fact that Peter has exactly the same interpretation in Acts 2, verses 32 through 36. After quoting this verse, Peter says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. God made him Lord over the earth. Now God is not made Lord. It is Jesus as man that is made Lord over the earth. The second hint is that this divine person will be a priest similar to Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek was a figure in the book of Genesis that Abraham had dealings with, who was the king of Salem, but he was also called a priest. at the same time, so he was kind of like a type of the Lord Jesus. A priest was somebody who mediated between God and man. So verse four says, the Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Angels are not priests. God the Father is not a priest, but the God-man Jesus was. Well, all of this means Jesus is up to the job. Only a person who was both God and man would be sufficient to convert the world, which is his goal. He had to be fully God to have an infinite sacrifice. and to represent God to man, and he had to be man in order to be a substitute for us, and in order to represent us to the Father. And so Jesus was definitely up to the job of converting the world to Christianity. We can bank on this, we can step out in faith on this, and we can worship Him for this. We have an awesome Savior. Now, the third major puzzle was that this Messiah would exercise the rod of His power from heaven, or Zion, not from the earth. And the reason I know it's from the heavenly Zion, not the earthly Zion, is because He exercises His rod of power from the right hand of the Father. Verses one and five make that very clear. Jesus was prophesied to be advancing His rule during the whole time that He sits at the right hand of the Father. Now, there are a lot of people who have no faith that Jesus can extend His kingdom unless He's visible here on earth. But this whole psalm insists that His powerful reign is while He is in heaven. The fourth puzzle presented in the psalm is that the promised Messiah was said to reign over a disputed empire and that there would continue to be enemies who would dispute his reign long after he was made king. Okay, verse 2 calls him to rule in the midst of his enemies. So this is not the kind of reign that the Pharisees had in view. They had a view that when the Messiah came, he would destroy all of his enemies and then his entire reign would be without any enemies. Now sadly, the eschatology of many Christians today comes closer to that of the Pharisees than it does to this psalm. For example, I've had dispensationalists tell me, Phil, the very fact that there is evil in this world is proof positive that Jesus is not reigning. And I say, no, no, no. Psalm 110 verse 2 contradicts that. It says, rule in the midst of your enemies. You see, the dispensationalist idea is that we're waiting for the kingdom to come. And when he comes back at the second coming in a very short period of time, he's going to create a kingdom that has peace and prosperity. But you could not get a more explicit statement that even after Christ sits at the right hand of God, there will still be enemies. Furthermore, the word till in verse one implies a process of time before the enemies are subdued, and that's exactly the way Paul interprets it. First Corinthians 15 quotes this verse and concludes, he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. Verse 5 indicates that while he remains in heaven at the right hand of the Father, the Messiah is going to continue to execute kings in the day of his wrath. And if we cannot get this doctrine straight in our heads, it's going to mess us up in even what we think is possible during our age. Psalm 2 deals with the same subject at great length when it says this, Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold him into vision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. So he is calling President Biden to kiss the sun and to submit to him, to bow before him, or President Biden will face God's wrath. That's exactly what he's saying. He's not just saying for the president. He's saying it for governors. He's saying it to both parties. He's saying it to anyone who rebels against God's law, that they're going to face the wrath of King Jesus. And by the way, the New Testament says that Christ's judgments against rebellious kings began in his first century. first century AD. For example, Acts 4 applies this psalm to the Jewish political leaders, to Pontius Pilate, to Herod, and to the Gentiles opposing the gospel during the time of the apostles. And based on this psalm, they asked Jesus to intervene. Based on this psalm, they asked for his kingly power to be manifested, and how did Jesus respond? Well, verse 31 of Acts 4 says, when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. And as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit and their witness, The kingdom of Christ grew exponentially. The point is that Jesus was ruling by gradually converting people to himself, subduing them under his feet. while punishing other people through historical judgments. And the judgment that he brought in A.D. 70 against Israel, and the judgments he brought against the Roman Empire that we looked at in our Revelation series, was the pattern of this psalm, the beginning of what he's going to be doing throughout a long period of history. It sets a pattern for history. Has the kingdom grown? Absolutely. Just this past week, I think it was on Friday, I received an email that was saying that just the persecuted portion of the Church of Jesus Christ worldwide numbers 360 million Christians. That's just the persecuted section. The church of Jesus Christ has grown enormously, and as these persecuted believers cry out to the Lord for justice, there has been an increase of judgments that the King Jesus has been bringing. Psalm 110 verses 5 through 7 gives a summary of ongoing judgments from the first century on when it says this, the Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he shall lift up the head. This means we should not be surprised when Christ's current reign is resisted. This psalm predicted it would be resisted, but eventually Jesus would lift up his head in victory. Now currently, there are enemies who are disputing every square inch of planet Earth. They are disputing his reign. They want control of the same planet, Earth, that Jesus is destined to control. But this psalm and hundreds of other passages affirm that Jesus is very confident in his kingship, and he's not going to be discouraged, and he's not going to give up his reign until all enemies are subdued beneath his feet. Praise God. I love this psalm. It's a wonderful psalm. They're either going to be taken out or redeemed, one or the other. But this psalm brings conviction as well. Did you know that there are enemies of Christ in your own life that need to be placed under the feet of King Jesus? Before you can be the kind of volunteer that verse 3 talks about, you need to quit fighting against him. And so this is a warning that Christ's kingdom can expect opposition from the world, from the devil, and from our flesh. And unless we are resisting all three enemies, we're part of the problem. And we cannot resist Christ's reign without losing. We cannot. But on the other hand, you shouldn't be surprised when the church receives backlash from satanically controlled organizations in our country and the woke movement and both political parties. It's almost guaranteed. And yet who is the winner? It is not Satan. It is Jesus. Christ rules over a disputed empire, and I urge you to not be one of the people who disputes his right to subdue every area of your life to him. You're either one of His volunteers or you're a part of the problem. Now next week we're going to be looking at some of the remarkable ways that this psalm applies to the resurrection and to the ascension of Christ. But let me finish this sermon by making some applications regarding the nature of His kingship and then giving some hints on how we can be involved in extending His kingdom. First application, I think, is pretty obvious. I've already mentioned it. You must not see the presence of enemies as a reason to be discouraged. On the first Palm Sunday, there were both enemies and there were volunteers operating side by side. So you got all of these children who are singing his praises, and you got other Pharisees who are plotting to kill Jesus, right? Right, side by side. To put off the kingdom of Christ until all enemies are ended is to turn this psalm upside down. Christ defended the praises of those children and the faith of those children on Palm Sunday, and he wants us to have a childlike faith that Jesus is currently king and will advance his cause invincibly. Next, and this is an important one, the kingdom requires patience since it will start small and gradually grow. The phrase womb of the morning And verse three compares the growth of the kingdom to the development of a child from conception in the womb and to growing up. And by linking womb together with mourning, it's indicating that in the first century, it's a very small start. It's a start of the kingdom. It's not the end of the kingdom. It must start small and gradually grow over time. The kingdom of Christ is antithetical to the instant generation that wants everything instant. The whole Psalm speaks to sacrificial work over time, and it calls us to have patience. Third, we need to realize that there are theological enemies of Christ's kingship today, just as there were on the first Palm Sunday. Pharisees had very bad theology, everybody knows that. But sadly, the church of today has developed some very bad theology. that keeps the church from having faith in Christ's kingship. And let me list some of these theological enemies that are found within the church. I failed to write them into your bulletin, but I think I've given you enough space to write them down. The first theological enemy is a short-term vision that results from thinking we're at the very end of history. In his book, The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsay gives the following statement that I believe completely robs people of a long-term vision. He said, we should live like people who don't expect to be around much longer. Now he said that in 1973, okay? Look at all of the decades, 50 years that he wasted by expecting an any moment rapture. His followers were consistent and not expecting to be around anymore and they didn't do anything in this world and the world was going to pot. It's been a disastrous result. In 1987, a decade and a half after Hal Lindsay wrote that book, One of his followers by the name of Wisenant wrote a book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. It was a bestseller book, and in terms of embarrassment, a best loser book. He was majorly embarrassed, but he rewrote the book and said, oh, it's going to be the next year. And he rewrote it again. Anyway, since many of his followers were convinced that Jesus was just about to come, And that there's no point in having a long-term vision. They really were not concerned about paying off their debts, much to the chagrin of the banks, or being salt and light in society, or impacting politics, or even having children. They were just putting that all off. And we're seeing the disastrous results. The culture went to pot. Here's the problem. Jesus guaranteed that when the church stops acting like salt and light, society will go to pot. He guarantees it. Our king will not honor such short-term vision. He will not. Failing to be driven by the long-term vision of this psalm has been disastrous. And so that's the first theological enemy of Christ's reign, an eschatology that produces short-term vision. A related attitude is thinking that it's hopeless to win. Hopeless. Forget about whether we're in the last days or not. Some people think it's hopeless at any time, but let's start with the last days theology. In 1977, Salem Kerbin wrote a book called Countdown to Rapture, in which he said, we have reached the point of no return. We are on an irreversible course for world disaster. Wow, talk about pessimism. If it is irreversible, why even try reversing things in this world? And he didn't. And most of the Christians who followed him didn't try to reverse anything in America. That was back in 1977. So to me, it's no wonder that we've had so many problems since then. People do indeed feel hopeless in a task when they think that the task is going to be futile. And so his premillennial theology robbed him of hope. Well, that makes that theology an enemy of what Christ is doing. Continuing with the same theological error, I want to point to people on the opposite side of the spectrum, the amillennialists, because many of them are just as pessimistic. Let me quote from Herman Hanco. He's an amillennialist. He said, forgotten is the fact that sin and the curse made it forever impossible for the cultural mandate to be fulfilled in this present world. And with that attitude, it's no wonder why he and his followers didn't even bother fulfilling the cultural mandate. And it is a mandate, so we should. In another place, he said, the world is filled with sin and getting worse, a hopeless situation beyond repair and impossible to salvage. Can you see why I'm saying these are indeed theological enemies to the current reign of the Lord Jesus Christ? They may be sincere believers, and they are, but their bad theology is still at enmity with Christ's kingship. The bottom line is we must never say impossible for God. Jonah's message of repentance may have seemed impossible when God sent him to preach to Nineveh. And yet, what happened? When he preached in Nineveh, the entire city converted. You know, at least he did it with bad attitude, but at least he obeyed the Lord there, right? And Christ said that Nineveh had a genuine repentance. Can God do the same today in America? Absolutely. He can. He can. His hand is not too short that it cannot save. The only question is, do we have the faith to really believe it? Hebrews 11 verse 6 says, Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He only rewards those who have the diligence that springs from faith. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. Well, that means that Christ opposes theologies that kill faith. And he opposes theologies that kill diligence. And we should oppose them, too. Do not treat eschatology as being an unimportant doctrine. It is not. Our view of the kingdom and our view of the future is critical to success. And by the way, I might as well throw hyper-preterism under the bus, too. It has no biblical promises. They believe they're all fulfilled, and so they have no basis for faith for the future. They simply do not. They think everything was fulfilled in AD 70. So it robs people of faith. Jeremiah 18, 7 through 9 says that we should not give up on a nation as being too far gone. It says, the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. He's saying, don't give up on a nation. Call it to repentance. Do something. There's always hope if there's still time for repentance. These pessimistic eschatologies paralyze the church, and Psalm 110, I think, is a great antidote to that paralysis because it explains the true nature of Messiah's kingship. Unlike full preterism, it says he must continue to reign until there are no enemies left on the earth. Full preterists claim that that was fulfilled. I'm sorry, there's still plenty of enemies. Here's another theological belief that is an enemy to Christ's current kingship. Wolvard said, perhaps Christians are not as concerned about social, political, and moral conditions in the world as they should be. But on the other hand, it is not God's purpose in our present age to have social justice. It's not God's purpose. And my answer is, excuse me, Jesus was indeed concerned about justice. The parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 is about a widow seeking justice. And Christ's conclusion is this. Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night? And will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily." Well, if that's the case, why are we not seeing justice in America? It's because the church is not crying out for justice like that widow is with a faith that God will bring it. Now, we have an antidote to such a discouragement because we believe that Jesus is interested in our seeking justice. And there are many scriptures that show that. Isaiah 42 is quoted by the New Testament as beginning to be fulfilled in the first century. And it says of Jesus, he will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. So bringing justice is one of the central purposes and goals of his kingdom. Now granted, that verse acknowledges there's going to be a long time of resistance to Christ's purposes, just like Psalm 110 predicts that there will be. But Isaiah 42 guarantees he will not be discouraged until he establishes justice in the earth. And Christ's lack of discouragement, I think, should be encouraging to us. Okay, escapism is another theological enemy that fights against the advancement of Christ's kingship. One kind of escapism was given by J. Vernon McGee. By the way, I love J. Vernon McGee. I love all of these guys that I've been talking about. They're sincere believers before the Lord. It's their theology that I'm coming against. Anyway, he said, you don't polish brass on a sinking ship. And in context, when you read that chapter, you will see that he says that the ship of this world is sinking, and it's about to be destroyed, and our only goal is to save souls from drowning. That's his analogy. That's the only goal. But was John the Baptist polishing brass on a sinking ship when he sought to bring reforms to politics in Luke 3.19? No. He was doing what all of the prophets in the Old Testament did, confronting evils in society and seeking to make a difference. If the world is not important, if it's just an abandoned sinking ship, why does 2 Corinthians 5 19 say that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself? Not sinking the ship, but reconciling the world to Christ. And many times he uses judgments to bring that reconciliation. If the world was not important to save, why would Jesus promise the meek shall inherit the earth? Matthew five verse five. Why would Jesus be given all authority in heaven? and on earth in the Great Commission. Why would Romans 13 say that civil magistrate is God's servant, a minister of justice? Why would the New Testament say so much about employers, employees, economics, stewardship of the earth? To me, it's pretty obvious that the world was important to God. In fact, the world is so important that God plans to redeem it, and he has sent us to claim every square inch of planet earth for King Jesus. As the hymn writer wrote, Joy to the World, words it, God's grace goes far as the curse is found. That's pretty far. Now I'll just mention one more theological enemy of Christ's kingship, and that's the idea that the Bible doesn't provide any solutions to the world's problems. And it's astounding to me how many Christians believe this, and I'll just pick on one Theologian, same one, Wolvard said, Christians have no immediate solutions to the problems of our day. The only solution is that Jesus Christ himself is coming back to bring peace and rest to the world. But that flies in the face of what Paul said when he said that the Bible is sufficient to thoroughly equip the man of God to be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. That's 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17. So the Bible is filled with solutions. One of the projects that I've been working on over the last couple of years is the Great Axioms Project and showing how the Bible gives the foundations, which unbelievers can't prove. They cannot prove the axioms for mathematics. We can because God gave them to us. But it has the foundations for mathematics, physics, logic, economics, hermeneutics, over 50 other disciplines. So yeah, the Bible has answers. 2 Peter 1.3 says that the Bible gives to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Sounds like a solution to me. Now there's a lot of other theologies that I think rob people, two kingdom, radical two kingdom theory. There's any number of things that I think rob people of a kingdom attitude. So the bottom line is we need to make sure we don't have attitudes or theologies that make Christ fight against us. But I'm going to end today's message by looking very briefly at how this psalm says that Christ will extend His kingdom. It is completely different than all futurist versions of the kingdom. First, verse 3 says that Jesus would begin to advance His kingdom through the day of His power. Now, futurist eschatologies often take that as the final day of history. In other words, it's the power of destruction, not the power of redemption. But in context of these verses, what is the day of His power? Look at verse 3. Verse 3 ties the day of His power with the gathering of volunteers who will extend His kingdom, and the broader context ties it to His ascension. And that's what the New Testament does as well. Mark 9, verse 1 says that His disciples would not die before they saw the kingdom of God coming with power. They would not die. Well, that means that the day of His power is in the past. It's not in our future. Luke 24, 49 gives more details about this promise of power. It says this, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. So there was one day when the church was perpetually, throughout this age, given all the power it would need to achieve its mission, and that day was Pentecost. In Acts 1.8, Jesus said, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Well, it sounds very much like verse 3. Verse 3 says, your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. Pentecost empowered the church to volunteer to preach the good news of the kingdom to the ends of the earth. In Acts 2, the power of the Spirit comes upon them. And Peter quotes Psalm 110. It says, the shedding forth of the Holy Spirit is a sign that Christ is at the right hand of God. So his interpretation of this psalm was that the day of Christ's power was Pentecost. If you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything you need to advance the kingdom of Jesus. And we need to daily be filled with the Holy Spirit to maintain this power. Second, Psalm 110, verse 3 says that Jesus would advance His kingdom through volunteers. Volunteers like you and me. It's not specialists or elite people or pastors alone who advance His kingdom. It says, your people shall be volunteers in the day of judgment. The whole people, right? The volunteers are simply those who receive the Holy Spirit. After being filled with the Spirit, we sign up as volunteers and say, Lord, I'm a volunteer. Here, use me. Use me. But it really is cool that Christ intends to reign through His people. He's not going to do it while we watch on the grandstands and do nothing. As long as the church remains passive, Christ is going to allow the church to suffer. It is critical to realize he has chosen to advance his kingdom through volunteers. Now think about this. For the Almighty God, He doesn't need us. For the Almighty God to accomplish all this through volunteers is absolutely staggering. It's not just that divine sovereignty and human responsibility are consistent, they obviously are. But there's more to it than that. Many passages like this one indicate that God has ordained that His sovereign kingdom must be established through the weakness of human volunteers. In his book, An All-Around Ministry, Charles Spurgeon speaks in awe and wonder that God would choose to use the foolishness of our speech and of our actions to bring about this new creation. He says, So he's speaking of the wonder that God brings conversion through the preaching and through the lay witnessing of people. And he goes on, he says, I don't know about you, but that absolutely blows me away. It humbles me, but it also excites me. I want you to lay hold of this. It's an absolutely life-transforming thought. How does Christ extend his kingdom? He won't extend his kingdom one single inch except as he does throw through volunteers. Why are things in such a mess today? Because we don't have the volunteers of Gideon's army, okay? And how do we get those volunteers? It's only as they experience the day of his power. Not all Christians experience that power of the Holy Spirit. Some Christians just act like the bulk of Israel did in the day of Gideon, and they just let others do it. And they only got involved when things got really exciting. Then, yeah, they want to be in on the action themselves. They were, until that time, blithely preoccupied with their own agendas. They were not consumed with a passion for Christ. So it takes the power of God's grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit to give us the boldness of Christians at Pentecost. But really, there is no other life that is worth living. And if you're one of the Gideon volunteers, don't be discouraged by the fact that, you know, others criticize you. It only takes a tiny minority to turn the world upside down. And while it takes great dedication, it will bring you fulfillment in life and treasures in heaven. Third, Christ advances His kingdom as believers acknowledge Christ's Lordship and His reign. Just as David calls Jesus, my Lord, in verse 1, the two Hebrew words that translate to one English word, volunteers, indicates people who give their hearts as a free will offering. And it takes God's power to accomplish this willing submission within us. When Peter quoted this psalm, he called on the people to do what? To repent and acknowledge Christ as Lord and Savior, right? And then it says the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. And by the way, this is why God had Gideon narrow his army down. You know, it's way too big and he keeps narrowing it, narrowing, narrowing. He wanted a dedicated group of people who trusted God with an unconditional surrender, unconditional submission to God. How do we get there? Well, there's a book I want to recommend that you read. It's a book written by Buddy Hanson, and the title is It's Time to Unquote the Status. I know it's out of print. I shouldn't recommend books that are out of print, but you can still occasionally find copies of it. It's pretty cool. Now, you all know about the status quo. Well, he says it's time to unquote that status quo. This book highlights the missing ingredients that are keeping Christians from being effective volunteers. These are the missing ingredients that keep them from living out the connection between Christ's priestly kingship and their status as powerful volunteers. Every Christian has a role to play in God's kingdom if they will embrace it. And the weakness of us volunteers is immaterial to our success. It doesn't matter how weak we are. It does not. It's our radical commitment to his powerful kingship that makes the difference. We must be sold out Gideon's army. So let me list some of the chapters that he unquotes. First unquo, identity theft. He shows how our identity must be in Christ, not in what other people think about us. And when that identity is stolen by our culture, we become impotent. We become wrapped up in the wrong things. The second unquo flows from this, reclaiming our identity in Christ. And there are practical steps for doing this that I won't go over, but it's gonna cost you. It'll cost you time and energy. It'll cost you reputation. It'll cost you names calling. It'll cost you slander against you because part of the part of Gideon's army that didn't qualify, you know, the ones that lapped with their, their tongues, they get very uncomfortable when they see Christians who are too radical, you know, too radical for their liking. Hardcore people make the average Christian a bit uncomfortable. Third unquote, Satan's devices to distort our worldview. And we've touched on that a little bit, but Buddy Hanson shows what to do about it. And there are some fantastic worldview books out there that you can read, Robert Fugate, Dr. Fugate has written one on worldview. There's some other books out there, but it's very important. We have got a solid worldview. Fourth unquote, your vision for the future. A faith building eschatology is so important. And you know, we, We try to be nice, and it's so tempting for the sake of peacemaking to make post-millennialism an unimportant doctrine. But it undergirds faith in Christ's kingship, undergirds hope for the future, it gives energy to the volunteers. And anyway, he gives several other ways to unquo the status quo and to begin to be a revolutionary army that has the potential for turning the world upside down once again, instead of being conformed to the world. Bottom line for Palm Sunday is that God calls us to celebrate Christ's kingship with joy and faith that if he is for us, who could be against us? Our job is not to be strong in ourselves, that's backwards. Our job is to receive the Holy Spirit, to be strong in the power that flows from the heavenly Zion. Jesus is King and we have a tremendous privilege of being His foot soldiers. So let's embrace that privilege and advance the Lordship of Christ over all of life. Amen. Thank you, Father, for the challenges of your word, and I pray that even on those times where we are uncomfortable, that we would challenge ourselves to have faith in you, to have boldness, to be identified with you, and to not worry what others and what the world thinks about us. Help us, Father, to be a sold-out army of volunteers who spread the good news of your kingdom to the ends of the earth, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.