Dr Greg Bahnsen - God Sent His Son (Christmas): David's Son and Lord (Part 3)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We continue our consideration of the divine preparation for Christmas this morning, and I'd ask you to turn in your bibles to the 110th Sunday Psalm, Psalm 100n, which will be our reading in the Old Testament. And then we're going to be turning to Matthew, the 22nd chapter, for a short reading in the New Testament as well this morning. So you may want to get to both these places and keep a finger in the text. First, hear God's word in the Old Testament in Psalm 110. Jehovah saith unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill the places with dead bodies. He will strike through the head in many countries he will drink of the brook in the way, therefore will he.

Lift up the head.

And then our reading of God's Word in the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, beginning at verse 41. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, what think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the Son of David. He saith unto them, how then doth David in the Spirit call him Lord? Saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet. If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word. Neither dared any man from that day.

Forth ask him any more questions thus far?

The reading of God's Word what are our lives all about? Everyone faces that question at one time or another, though many people work very hard to avoid it. Many people try to, in a sense, numb themselves and not have to look at it. There are plenty of people who live for partying or for pleasure, for fame, plenty of people who get drunk, plenty of people who try to lose themselves in activity. But at one point or another, I think all of us in Our lives, be it very young or maybe when we're older, maybe when things are going well, maybe when things are going very poorly. At one point or another, we all want to know, well, why are we here? What's this all about?

In preparation for some who are making profession of faith to join our church.

I just recently was reminded of how we can get into a pattern of working. You know, and we work long hours and make money to be able to support ourselves, pay the rent, eat and so forth.

You go home and get ready to.

Go to bed and get up the next day and go to work so you have plenty of money, so you.

Can eat and pay the rent and go home and go to bed.

Isn't that right? We wonder, what is this vain cycle of life all about? If there's going to be meaning in our lives, we need to have some goal or purpose, something for which we are living, something that becomes, if you will, the target toward which everything in one way or another in our lives is directed. But it isn't enough simply to subjectively choose some goal for living. I think I'm going to give my life to the following cause or be the following kind of person. Because if there's going to be genuine meaning in our lives that satisfies us, the meaning of our lives has got to somehow be correlated with what is objectively the meaning of this world in which we live. What is history all about and where is it going? Why is the human race here? Why is the world here? Or I don't want to sound pseudo profound, but as some of the existentialist philosophers would say, why is there something rather than nothing? What's the point of it all? What's existence all about? And so the meaning of our lives needs to in some way be correlated to the context in which we live too. Where are we going? What's life all about? And I've been suggesting to you that the center of history, if you really want to know what life is all about, you need to know Jesus Christ. Because the center of history is the birth of God's promised Son, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, the one that God had been promising for years and years and years. In fact, all of the Old Testament is the divine preparation for Christmas Day. This is what we've been focusing on, is seeing how God has patiently through the years, given the promise and built up the expectation of his people that he would send a Savior. And I want you to understand who the Savior is. In the first lesson in this series, we read The Benedictus of Zacharias. Zacharias is the father of John the Baptist. And In Luke the first chapter, verses 69 to 73, we saw that Zacharias declared at the time of John's birth that the anticipated Messiah, for whom John would be the one that prepares the way the anticipated Messiah was expected from of all descent. This is the oldest of God's promises. And the coming of the Messiah fulfills the oath that God made to Abraham. It fulfills the covenant God made with David. And it was the promise that was spoken through the mouth of all the prophets. To put it very simply, Zacharias, the.

Entire Old Testament was about the coming of this one.

And who is this one that would come? I have encouraged you to, to try as best you can to put yourself in the shoes of Old Testament saints who heard the word of God. Don't simply read it from the end of the story backwards, but feel this anticipation and this developing expectation of who the Savior is going to be. First of all, the very first promise of the Gospel was that the Savior would be the seed of the woman, the Messiah, the promised seed who's going to be born to crush Satan's head. That's not a whole lot of detail. It doesn't tell us much about this one. Who will be the Savior, how he's going to accomplish this work, or what the meaning of this work is to destroy Satan's head. But it did give a lively hope to God's people as they kept genealogies and they wondered about one who was to be born, the coming seed. And the day came when God said to Abraham, and you are going to have this seed, and it's in your seed, Abraham, that all the nations will be blessed. So in Genesis 12 and 13 and 15 and 17 and 22, repeatedly we see that God has promised to Abraham a son, a seed. But of course, the difficulty, as comes to expression, the 18th chapter of Genesis is Abraham's too old to have a son. His wife is too old, and on.

Top of it is barren. We have that sterling word that just rings through the ages when God said, is any word too hard for Jehovah? And he said, come this season, next year, Sarah will have a son. And she did. And we're reminded and given something of.

A quickened hope that God can do anything, and he's going to miraculously provide for the seed that's going to be a blessing to all the earth. Hannah herself, Samuel's mother, was barren, and yet she gave birth, and she praised the Lord in Song in First Samuel, chapter two. And when Mary, the mother of Jesus, delivers her magnificent. In response to the angel's promise that she will have a child and not even know a man, she recites Hannah's.

Song or alludes to Hannah's song.

You see, the Old Testament was helping God's people to look forward to the day when the seed would come miraculously provided. Last Lord's Day. We found out more about this seed.

That would be miraculously provided.

We found that the miracle would be so great that it would in fact not be a barren woman, not just an elderly woman who would give birth, but a virgin. Absolutely impossible from a human standpoint. From the natural perspective, there is not going to be a Savior born through a virgin. Right?

It's going to come by the supernatural power of God.

This is the sign that he will give. A virgin will be with child, and the child is going to be named.

Of all things, Immanuel God with us.

It's not just that a great miracle of a virgin birth will be performed, but even greater than that, the one who will be born will be called God. In Isaiah the ninth chapter, the prophet said, the promised Son is going to be called the mighty God, the everlasting.

Father, the Prince of Peace.

In Isaiah the 40th chapter, we have the prophecy that John the Baptist would fulfill, that there will be a word of preparation declared, make ready the ways of Jehovah. Jehovah is coming to visit his people. That's incredible because John the Baptist fulfills that function. And when John prepares the Jewish people for the coming of their Messiah, he declares it is the Lord who is coming. Not just a human being, not just the seed of the woman in any ordinary sense. And not just a virgin born, miraculous born person, but God himself. Jehovah is coming to save his people. Now, today, what I'd like to look at is what the Bible tells us further about the work of this promised seed who will be miraculously born when God himself comes, what will he do? And the Bible tells us. Now you know this if you've been.

Studying your confession and your catechism, I'm.

Just bringing you something and reminding you something of something that you already know. You know that the Bible looks at the work of Jesus the Anointed one of God in three ways.

As a prophet, as a priest and as a king.

I don't want to embarrass anybody. So no one needs to admit that.

They needed this reminder.

But it probably is good to get this standard remind you that Jesus Christ.

Is Not a name.

Jesus is a name. Christ is a title. And we say Jesus Christ because that's shortened from Jesus the Christ. He is the Christ, which is the Greek word for the Hebrew word from which we get Messiah. And both Christos and Messiah mean the same thing. Anointed. God has a specially chosen person that's coming into this world. And he is going to be anointed. That is to say, the oil of consecration will be placed upon him. And in the Old Testament, there were three offices that were anointed.

Offices. I've already told you what they are. Prophets were anointed of God.

Priests were anointed and consecrated to service.

And kings were anointed.

The Messiah, the one who will have the oil of gladness poured upon him. The one who will be chosen of God. The special elite one of God is going to be a prophet, a priest and a king. Turn in your Bibles, please, this morning to Deuteronomy, the 18th chapter. And I can expect this Lord's day. You all have your Bibles with you. We come to God's worship. We come to study his word. You need to have it in front of you, nothing else. You need to make sure what I'm telling you is really there. Deuteronomy, the 18th chapter. In verse 15, Jehovah, thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. And then verse 18. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all, that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak in my name. I will require it of him. Moses is a great prophet of God, a great leader of God's people. Moses had the great privilege of being on Mount Sinai and meeting with God personally. And because Moses was with God, his face shone with such glory and majesty that the people were afraid of him. And the people begged Moses to put a veil over his face. The people did not want to encounter God personally with that kind of intimacy and closeness. Moses had been there, and even his indirect reflection of the glory of God was too much for them. They said, speak to us, but put a veil on your face. Moses was a great prophet of God. The words of God were in his mouth. And we need a Moses, don't we? We need a Moses, if nothing else. In the 20th century. We've learned this because there's A plethora of opinions about religion out there. If you have any question about that, check with Mike. He's been teaching a course on comparative religion. Pick up a book on the subject. You can ask me about this. Just look around, turn on the tv. There's all kinds of opinions of God. Who knows what he's talking about, about who has the right to speak for God. And even those who don't have religious ideas feel confused and lost. Who is God? What's he like? How can we be right with God? What does he require of us? How should we live our lives? What is truly pleasing to God? What kind of worship does he want? Should we be swinging from the rafters? Is that what he likes? Does he like us to humble ourselves? Should we sit quietly and just kind of wait for the Spirit to move us? What kind of worship is pleasing to God? What kind of person? We can't answer these questions. We need a prophet of God who knows God intimately, has the word of God in his very mouth. We need a Moses. And then when God did this through Moses, the people said, oh, we're afraid.

Moses said, but I tell you what, There's a greater prophet who's going to.

Come, one like unto me and from among the people. He's going to be a human being.

Just like you, and he's going to be an Israelite.

But he's the one about whom God.

Will require complete obedience.

We know that the Jews looked upon this as a messianic prediction in John 1:25. You want to look at that? In the New Testament we have this interesting expression about the prophet. And when John the Baptist was inquired by the Jews, they asked him, verse 25 says, and said unto him, why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ? Neither Elijah, neither the prophet. Jews were looking forward to Elijah coming.

Malachi had promised that they were looking.

Forward to the Messiah coming. Another one they knew that was coming, although they didn't know the relationship between all these figures necessarily was the prophet. And that goes back to Deuteronomy, the 18th chapter. In Acts 3:20, 24. The early church proclaimed this coming prophet was in fact Jesus the anointed one. Jesus the Christ. Acts 3:20, and Peter says, and that he may send the Christ the Anointed one of God, who hath been appointed for you. Even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old Moses indeed said a prophet, shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me to him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. And it shall be that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. See, that was the great faith of the early Church, that everything that had been spoken in the Old Testament had now come to fulfillment in this one Jesus. And in particular, this Jesus is the prophet that Moses looked forward to. He was the great coming one who would declare the will of God to God's people. And so the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says in chapter one of his Epistle, at the very beginning in verse one, God having of old time spoken unto the fathers by the prophets, in different portions and in different manners, has at the end of these days spoken unto us by his Son.

Whom he appointed heir of all things.

And so the one that the Old Testament would have us look forward to, who would be the promised seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the virgin born, miraculous Emmanuel, with us, Messiah, God himself. This one would come to be the promised prophet that Moses looked forward to in all of the Old Testament look forward to those days. Moreover, he would be a priest, this.

One who was coming.

Not only were prophets anointed of God, but priests had the oil placed upon them to consecrate them to their service as well. So let's turn to Psalm 110, which we read in our Scripture reading this morning, Psalm 110. And I want to jump down into the midst of it and look first of all at verse four, where David wrote, jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, but thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Notice that David is speaking about somebody. He addresses him as you, or in the Old English, thou. Thou art a priest. The one about whom this psalm is speaking is going to be a priest. Not a Levitical priest, in fact, a priest of greater heritage, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, to whom Abraham paid tithes. He's going to be a great priest to accomplish what the Levitical temporary priesthood was looking forward to. And in the New Testament we have the declaration that the anointed one of God, Jesus, is that anticipated priest. Look first at Hebrews 5, at the fifth verse, Hebrews 5. So Christ the anointed one also glorified not himself to be made a high priest. But he that spake unto him, thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another place. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him, the author of eternal salvation, named of God, a high priest.

After the order of Melchizedek.

These are wondrous words. The author of Hebrews says that in the Old Testament God spoke of a son.

That's Psalm 2.

This day have I begotten thee. God's Son is the one to whom the promise is made. You are a priest, an eternal priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And it's because of his work that.

He'S become the author of eternal salvation for us. A couple of other references in Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 17. Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the.

Sins of the people. It behooved him to be like his brethren.

He came into this world as a.

Human being, and yet God's Son.

And he came into this world to.

Do the work of the priests, to.

Make us right with God, to bring about propitiation.

One more.

Hebrews 7:25. Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever.

Lives, to make intercession for them.

A few moments ago I said, who can tell us what God is like? We need a prophet. We need someone who has the word of God in his very mouth. God has provided the great anointed prophet to show us the way, to tell us the truth.

Not just to tell us the truth.

But to be the truth, the way, the truth and the life. Because if we want to come to God, we need him to make intercession for us. Because we need more than a prophet. Because once the prophet has declared the will of God, you're. You realize you also need a priest, don't you? You can't come to God on your own. I want to remind you of that. It's not the main point of today's.

Sermon, but I don't Want you to miss this.

Don't ever forget this.

You have no right to come to God.

There is nothing in you that makes.

You worthy to come to God. There's everything in you that would make.

God say, stay away.

And the only way in which we can come to God is clothed in the righteousness of Christ and through the intercession and the mercy of Jesus himself. If Jesus didn't pray for you day and night, you couldn't pray at all. Well, you might utter words, but they'd bounce right off the ceiling.

Your prayers will not be heard by.

God if you don't have a great high priest that has entered in before you. You need someone that's chosen of God, selected by him to do that. And the anointed, the messianic priest, according to the declaration of God's word, is Jesus.

So God's people in the Old Testament looked for a prophet to come. They also looked for a priest who would finally do the work that the Levitical priests went through the rituals day after day, week after week, month after month, he year after year, but never could put an end to the sacrifice. Look forward to the great high priest.

Who would come and accomplish propitiation with.

God so that his wrath would be turned away and we'd be able to.

Come into his presence and pray to him through this priest that he has provided.

But then thirdly, the Old Testament looks.

Forward to an anointed one who would be the king. And that's why the title of this morning's message is David's Lord, yet David's son.

In Psalm 110, we looked at the fourth verse that said, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But who's the you here who's being pointed to, who's being addressed as a priest? Now you have to be able to answer that question. Because you see, Jesus is going to interrogate his opponents many years later with this very question. And when Jesus gets done interrogating the Pharisees over this, Matthew says they didn't dare ask him anything else. He really stumped them here. But do you understand? Can you figure this out? Psalm 110 says, Jehovah saith unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies. Thy footstool. Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Here we're talking about a king.

A.

Great king who was going to rule over his enemies. And he's going to be Blessed of Jehovah. Keep your finger in Psalm 110. Turn for a minute. Psalm 45. Because David also spoke of the promised king there. Psalm 45, verses 6 and 7. Let me read from the beginning. I want you to see this in context. My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter. I speak the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one. Thy glory in thy majesty, and in thy majesty. Ride on prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp. The peoples fall under thee. They are in the heart of the king's enemies.

All right.

So David here is speaking of a king that is going to come, and he is going to be a great victorious king. His enemies will fall, the arrows will go through them. All the nations are going to have to submit to him. God had promised David that there would be a king who would come to sit upon the throne of David, who would be victorious, who would accomplish these things. Psalm 45 tells us who this king is. Let's read. On thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Notice, verse seven speaks of the anointing of this one. This is the messianic king. He's the Messiah, because he's the anointed one. Therefore God thy God, hath anointed thee. Look at that expression. Thy God hath anointed thee. This should trouble you if you know the context, because the Messiah is being referred to here. And what's being said is, the God of the Messiah anointed him, chose him to be this ruling victorious king. But notice, verse 6. Speaking to this one who is the Lord's anointed, David says, thy throne, O God, is forever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore thy God hath anointed thee. He's already addressed him as God. And then he says to the Messiah, thy God will anoint thee. He will give you the victory. And so David here is speaking to somebody who is simultaneously the king, the anointed king, for whom there is a God that anoints him, and yet he is called God. Now this is very confusing, isn't it? Especially if you don't have the advantage of New Testament faith. We know that God had promised David a son who would rule as the King. Psalm 72:1. We could read the whole thing, but let me just get you started on it. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. David says, the king will have a son, and he will have the laws of God, and he will enforce them. Look at Psalm 89. We can't read all of it but verses 3 and 4. Psalm 89. 3, I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David, my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. Are some of these strands of thought that we've been studying now coming together? God says, I will give you a seed, David. He already said that to Abraham. He said it to Adam and Eve. The promised seed is going to be David's son, and he's going to be given a kingdom. He'll build up his throne for all generations. Look at verse 20. I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed him. This is the Messianic line that we're talking about, verse 29. His seed also will I make to endure forever. His throne is the days of heaven. Well, already David has got to be mystified. How can David be the Messiah? How can the Davidic line be Messianic? How can his throne be forever? Well, the answer is found in Psalm 110, where David says, with great fervency and devotion, Jehovah saith unto my Lord.

Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. David said, the one who is going to rule as this Messianic king is my Lord. Jehovah said to my Lord in Hebrew, Yahweh said to Adonai, my Adonai. Well, the name Adonai is the name of God. Jehovah said to God, to the Lord, sit at my right hand.

And so already in the Old Testament, if the people had been given a heart for it, they pulled these things together. They would have said, well, the seed.

That is coming is going to be the seed of Abraham.

It's going to be the seed of David. He's going to be a prophet, he's going to be a priest, he's going to be a king. But above all, he is going to be God himself. David's son is David's Lord, how can that be? Especially remember the Jewish outlook and the patriarchal attitude that they had. How could a son of David be greater than David? How could David bow down to one that is his son, his great great grandson, and not just bow down to him, but call him God? See, the whole Old Testament was looking.

Forward to the birth of the God man himself. You just can't avoid that.

The cults today try to get rid of that. Most people don't even understand that Christianity proclaims such a wondrous faith. The religions of the world have nothing to compare to that kind of thing. But the Bible shows us that God has laid in through the generations that promise after promise, expectation and hint. After expectation and hint, God said, I'm going to come. My own son is going to come and be your Messiah. And he will be human and yet he will be God. He will be David's son, and yet David's Lord. Let's turn to Matthew 22 as we conclude these thoughts today, because this is what Jesus stumped his opponents with. Matthew 22:41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question. I love that. Because the Pharisees loved to ask Jesus questions. They were always trying to bring him down, trip him up, show that he didn't know what he was talking about, that he contradicted the Bible. So Jesus said, well, I have a question for you. This doesn't arise from anything that I've said. You consider yourself experts in the Old Testament. I just want you to explain something to me from the Old Testament. Now, given my exposition already, this won't be a great stumper for you. But you can understand how Jesus had them because they should have realized, we got a problem. How can the Old Testament promise a son to David who will rule forever and yet call him God? What's that going to mean? So Jesus asked him this question. He says, now, what do you think of the Anointed One?

Whose son is.

Hey, everybody knew. You notice, Jesus didn't have to give them the lesson that I've been giving.

You over these years.

Everyone knew that the Messiah was one. The seed, the promised seed. Eve.

Seed. Seed of the woman. The seed of Abraham. The seed. Seed of David. And so Jesus said, whose seed is he?

Whose son is the Messiah, the Anointed One. Well, they knew their Bibles.

They said, well, he's the son of David.

That's the one we're looking for. We're looking for the great Davidic King. The Anointed King. And Jesus answered. And said to them, how then does David in the spirit? And there's a whole lesson on biblical.

Inspiration in that little expression right there.

I'm not going to give it to you, but I want you to notice this. You know, Jesus says, don't try to worm out of this thing. Well, of course, David was just a human being. He was doing his best.

He got messed up here.

He says, how then does David in the spirit? David speaks with inspiration. That is to say, the very Spirit of God said these words through David. How then does the inspired word of David say, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet.

And here's the punchline. Jesus says, if David called him Lord, how can he be his son? Boy, can you imagine the gnawing of the tongues? Then as the Pharisees, they wanted to put Jesus down, but what are they going to say?

The Old Testament, the inspired word of.

God had taught what Jesus said, that he was the God man, that the.

Messiah would have to be God himself as well as someone that is born. The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, David's very son, a human being, and yet no less than David's Lord. The coming king, the coming priest, the.

Coming prophet is nothing less than the God man himself.

You know, when I see these kind.

Of texts from a human standpoint, I cannot understand how the Jews missed it.

I don't see how they missed it if they read their Old Testaments. But after the light came into the world to scatter the darkness, after Jesus was there as the prophet to explain these things and to present himself as the eternal priest who would intercede to the Father as Jesus came declaring his kingdom and all that the Old Testament looked forward to, you wonder, how could the Jews have missed it? He came unto his own and his own received him.

Not.

Well, theologically.

Maybe you know the answer to that.

You know how they missed it?

Because it isn't in human strength and insight that people come to faith. The Jews had all the evidence they needed.

Jesus stumped them.

You know, the Messiah has to be divine. That's what the Old Testament promised. He has to be a man, and yet he has to be God. And still the Jews plotted to kill him. Does that make any sense to you?

Rationally?

Does that make any sense? Kill the one who is God himself?

You know what the Bible tells us? That after Jesus raised Lazarus from the.

Dead, his opponents went away and plotted to kill him.

That has got to be the most.

Bizarre verse in all the Bible. They just saw that Jesus has power over life and death, and they thought they'd try to kill him. Why did the Jews miss it? Because their hearts weren't right with God. The Spirit hadn't opened their hearts to receive these things. Now has the Spirit opened your heart to receive them? Don't give me the easy answer. You're saying, well, Dr. Bonson, we wouldn't be sitting here if we didn't believe this. Well, there's some truth in that.

But has the Spirit opened your heart in the first place?

Do you rejoice to hear these things? Does it just thrill you to say God was making preparation for the Messiah to come and as we'll see next week, and to come to suffer for my sins? He must have cared a lot about this.

There are plenty of children who look.

Forward to Christmas Day because they know their parents have made preparation. You know, they've saved their money, they've gone out and bought these wonderful gifts and wrapped them and so forth. The greatest gift of all as God giving his own son. And if that doesn't make you excited, if somehow you can sit there and say, oh, yeah, we know all this. Please humble yourself before God and say, open my heart. There's something wrong with me. Because there is.

And I wonder if you really do.

Have a heart for this Messiah. Because, you know, it's one thing to name Jesus as the prophet, priest and king of God, the anointed of God, and your very Savior, and it's another thing to live your life as though that were true.

In these messages.

I have begun every Lord's day by trying to ask you, what is the meaning of life? What's it all about? And I said, it's got to tie into the meaning of history and what reality is all about, if it's going to have any validity and objectivity.

But if Jesus is the very center.

Of history, how can he not be the center of your life? Moments for eternity the reason Jesus came into this world is so that there would be a new heaven and a new earth one day wherein righteousness dwells. And of all things, you too, that you would dwell in the new heaven and new earth, and life would go.

On forever and ever.

Without sin and without sorrow, without misery, without violence and without death, without tears, without broken hearts. Jesus came into this world to be the Savior of those who are lost in a world that will one day die and come under the judgment of God. He's the very meaning of history, and he's what's going to give eternal life to his people. He's the one who's going to make that eternal life possible. But it concerns me that though eternity has been won for us by Jesus, we can't give him moments of our lives. And so you continue week after week to hear me tell you, read your Bibles, but you don't. And to give time to prayer, but you don't. And to reach out to people who need to hear of the Savior, but you don't. You hear the word of God proclaimed that says you need to make, really at the beginning, small changes to redirect your life, just little things so that you might worship God in the way that pleases him, so you might live a life that shows honor to Him. And we always say, well, there's time later for that. How can Jesus be the center of history? And you can say that, and yet he's not the center yet of your life. Don't think that the Jews of the Old Testament thought they were bad people. Don't think that the Jews of Jesus, they thought that they weren't looking for the Messiah. If you taught them a theological truth, they thought they would all be willing to say Amen. I guess what I'm saying, and it's dreadful, is that the Jews in Jesus Day probably didn't think of themselves much different than you think of yourselves. And he came into his own, and they didn't even recognize him. I trust that you do recognize who Jesus is. You have all the advantage of living in the New Testament era. You've seen the light come into the world. You've seen the fulfillment of these promises. You've had it expounded for you by.

Me, probably by others as well.

There can be no doubt about who this Jesus is. And if there's no doubt about it.

Why don't we live like that?

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into this world and being the very center of history. Thank you for coming into this world and displaying your great glory. You do overwhelm us by the miracle of your birth. You overwhelm us that God could become man. And you overwhelm us that you can become man for the sake of saving us and granting to us eternity eternal life where there is no more sorrow and misery and pain, no more sin and all that which is filthy and disreputable and falls short of your glory. But you offer us a life that is true joy indeed, who will glorify you forever. Lord Jesus, help us to give more than moments of our lives to you. Help us to live like you're the center of everything, that you mean everything to us. And we thank you for coming to save us, even from ourselves, from our sin and our selfishness. Truly make us by the power of your spirit, willing in the day of your power to serve you in the beauty of holiness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonsen Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonseninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.