Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.28 – July 1995

 

Our Saviour On The Throne

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Day 19

Scripture Readings: 2Thessalonians 2:1-17

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

What a magnificent Saviour we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.  And what a magnificent Lord is our Saviour Christ.  Think about this!  The Father rules all things through Jesus.  Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings.  How important it is for our Christian life and commitment to know and rejoice in this grand truth.  We need to believe this.  We need to live it.  That JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!

God has highly exalted his beloved Christ.  God has rewarded our Saviour’s obedience and suffering with the highest honours He could possibly bestow.  In His realm God has given our Saviour the highest position and the most important title there is.  God has given Jesus the Name that is greater than all other names.  At hearing the mention of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should say, Jesus Christ, He is LORD.  It is God’s will that Jesus shall be honoured with respect and obedience by all God’s creatures.

Now the Scriptures tell us that God has placed Jesus on the throne for the sake of the church (Eph.1).  God has given Jesus authority and the power over all men and angels and all events in heaven and on earth in such a way that He has complete control in working out God’s purposes.

That is surely what the apostle Paul means when he writes in 1Corinthians 15:25 that Jesus must reign (He must control all things) until He has put all His enemies under His feet.  The last enemy to be abolished will be death.

So Jesus is involved in the saving work of the kingdom of God at this very moment.  He is directing all things in such a way that all His enemies will in the end be overcome.  His kingdom is going to be victorious over all other kingdoms.  Jesus will finish up the winner, the Conqueror!  No doubt about it!  God Himself has given Jesus all power in heaven and on earth.

Yes: He is Lord, He is Lord.
            He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.
             Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess,
             that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now this truth is not very welcome in this world, which to such a large extent still lies under the influence and control of the prince of darkness.  The greater part of mankind is still living under the influence and power of the devil.  This is why, whenever the church of Christ rejoices in and proclaims the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, it will experience opposition.

Whenever members of the body of Christ proclaim that Jesus is the one to be believed and obeyed, they will be told to be quiet.  Wherever Christians openly state that Jesus Christ will wipe out all opposition, there will be persecution.  The devil and his people don’t want to hear that truth.  They don’t want to hear it themselves because it tells them that their days are numbered.  Their time of influence and power are just about up.  The devil is in principle already the loser.  And all those who follow the devil and his lies are on a downhill slide.

But the devil doesn’t want to hear that, either for himself or for anyone else.  He doesn’t want his followers to hear it yet, because they might believe the truth, repent of their blindness and change sides.

That’s why Christians who proclaim the lordship and the certain victory of Jesus will be persecuted.  The devil and his followers will do their level best to shut Christians up, in any way they can.  They want to keep their show together as long as they possibly can.  They want to drag as many with them as they can.

But the truth will out.  Even if Christians are gaoled, tortured and murdered to keep them quiet.  The blood of the martyrs has often proved to be the seed of the church.  The Lord Jesus has often used persecuted and suffering Christians to bring others to faith in Himself.  Christ and His people will prevail and triumph.

But, you may ask, if Christ Jesus is on the throne, and He has all the power of God at His disposal, why does He allow His people to suffer now?  Why does Jesus the Lord Omnipotent not destroy all His opposition and enemies now?  Well, the Bible gives us an answer to that question.  King Jesus, in the Name of God, is giving sinners time to repent, to change sides; to escape from the kingdom of darkness and death, from that awful kingdom which claims to be a realm of light and happiness, but which is all a lie and hell itself.

King Jesus allows his precious members to suffer so that sinners might still see the love of Christ and to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd through his suffering and loving servants.  Saints are allowed to suffer so that sinners might turn from their rebellion to God.

The Bible gives us a very telling example of this in the life of St Paul.  What a dreadful suffering Saul of Tarsus caused the Christian church before his conversion.  But by the mercy and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a tremendous blessing this same man has been to the church.

Paul himself wrote: “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called and apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect.  No, I worked harder then all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Imagine what a loss to the church and its missionary work it would have been if Christ had killed Saul the moment he touched the first Christian.  The Lord Jesus could have done that, but imagine that there would be no opportunity for repentance for any enemy of Christ or the church.  One of the glories of Christ’s powerful headship of the church is the way He overcomes His enemies with His suffering and love, while it is still the day of salvation.  Isn’t that what Paul means by filling up the suffering of Christ (Col.1:24)?

I say, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ is a magnificent Saviour, isn’t He?!  Still showing compassion, still using His power and His people to save the world to save sinners and rebels, reconciling them to Himself, to God and to each other.  What a beautiful thing it is to see former enemies caring for each other as friends.

And the devil?  He twists this truth of God’s patience and mercy and tries to make people believe that God and His Christ are powerless.  “If Christ is all powerful and so loving, how come all this suffering?” is one of the devil’s favourite lines.  Well, to be frank, all this suffering came because of the lies told by the devil and the foolishness of those who believed him.  That’s how disharmony, corruption and death came into this world.  It was the result of Adam and Eve believing the father of lies rather than the God of truth and love.

If you want to make something of suffering, don’t use it against God who lovingly warned, “don’t touch the forbidden fruit, for if you do, you will die.”  If you want to make something of suffering, then let it be a reminder to you of the foolishness of those who insist on ignoring warnings and doing the things they are advised not to do.  Let suffering be a lesson about the consequences of rebellion.  A lesson about the terrible stupidity of listening to the lies of the devil who promised happiness, but delivered horrible misery.

Instead of arguing with God, be reconciled to God.  That is top priority Number 1.  Be reconciled to God.  Repent of your sins, your arrogance, your rebellion.  Believe and obey Jesus.  He is Lord.  The Lord who by His Spirit rules and provides.

The Catechism reminds us that from heaven the Lord Jesus Christ pours out His gifts upon His members.  What sort of gifts? Well, there are really a whole range of them.  Starting with the most basic gift we need for salvation.  Through His Spirit the Lord Jesus gives has people faith and repentance.  Jesus still opens blind eyes and deaf ears to let in and grasp the truth in the heart.

The Lord, through His Spirit and the Word, gives life to the dead.  And through the same Spirit the Lord Jesus renews the hearts and lives of His people.  He works in us to will and to do what is pleasing to God.  Under His influence we begin to seek God’s honour above all else.  We begin to desire God’s rule, which is holy and good, to overcome the world in which everyone looks after their own interests rather than those of God or of the neighbour.

In Ephesians 4 the Scriptures mention that the Lord Jesus provides certain people to the church for the church’s growth in knowledge, harmony and effectiveness.  In 1Corinthians 12 we are told that the Lord, through His Spirit, provides all church members with gifts to be used for the whole body, not for personal boasting or influence.

So our glorious Lord provides His people with everything they need for life and godliness.  And He keeps us safe from all our enemies.  That means Jesus keeps his people in the faith, Jesus keeps them in touch with God.

Our real enemies are those who would drive a wedge between God and ourselves, who would try to draw us away from God.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd, promises his sheep: no one can snatch you out of my hand.  Whatever the devil or his cronies try, God and His Christ will hang on to their own.  Nothing will be able to separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The apostle Paul has a beautiful word on that in his letter to the Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39).

Finally, the victory of the Lord Jesus, who must rule till all His enemies are defeated, will be seen and acknowledged by all the world.  The Lord Jesus will return in glory, to judge the living and the dead.  The Catechism presents this truth as a comfort, an encouragement for the believers.

First of all, our judge will be our Saviour Jesus Christ.  The same Jesus who has already stood trial in our place before God.  The One who has taken our sins upon Himself and has made atonement for us by His one sacrifice in the cross.  The One by whose stripes we are made whole and whose righteousness is the basis of our everlasting reconciliation with God.

Jesus is the one who by His blood has removed the curse of sin and all its consequences from us.  We may be sure that He will recognise His own on the day that He will separate the sheep from the goats, His friends from His enemies.  He will recognise those for whom He laid down His life, and who as a consequence have heard His voice and followed Him in this world.

On the day of judgement we will not be confronted with a stranger.  Believers in Christ will meet their Saviour and their Lord face to face.  This gives Christians confidence and encouragement as they suffer distress and persecution in this world for Christ’s name.  Not only do we await His ‘well done’ to those who have persevered under trial.  We will also see justice done.

That is one great comfort which is often ignored or forgotten.  Justice will be done.  In this world God’s people are often called upon to suffer.  They are expected to be patient, kind, forgiving and caring, even towards their persecutors.  They must leave revenge to God.  We must not waste our time and energy on anger, on seeking justice.  We must get on with doing the will of God, loving our neighbours and holding forth the word of truth and life in a world of darkness and death.  We must be witnesses to God’s mercy, instruments of the gospel, which is God’s power for salvation to all who believe.

And we may do that, and be that, in the knowledge that God will do right.  Justice and goodness will prevail.  God’s holy love has a dark side.  Just like the cloud that led the Israelites out of Egypt.  It gave light to God’s people but it brought thick darkness to the enemies.

There is salvation in God’s saving work but also judgement.  And those who refuse to bow the knee before the Lord, who refuse to repent of their sins, and who continue in opposition to the church will one day reap the consequences of their pride and rebellion.  The Lord Jesus Christ will condemn them to everlasting punishment to the second death, which is everlasting hell.  Jesus will send His enemies (and the enemies of the church) who have not submitted to Him, into that place of suffering, which the just desert of all who have sinned – everlasting separation from God and His gracious love.

But to those who have confessed, loved and served the Lord below, He will say:
            Come near, ye blessed.
            See, the kingdom I bestow.
            You forever, shall my love and friendship know,

Amen.