THE GREATNESS OF THE PROMISED MESSIAH

Part II

“He shall be great, and he shall be called the Son of the Highest.” To God’s poor people He becomes ever greater and more glorious. They themselves become less and less in their own estimation; and what John the Baptist said one time concerning Christ must also be experienced and confessed by them: “ He must increase and I must decrease.” We always try to become “ somebody” , but God’s way is to get us down. We want to be built up, but God tries to break us down, to raze us to the foundations, so that our souls may rest alone on that foundation which is Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Christ has trodden the winepress alone and none of the people was with Him. He has merited and obtained everything for His people, and He it is who applies salvation by His Spirit.

In the tribunal of God’s justice He acts as our Advocate and demands, on the basis of His merits, the release of His people. And He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He is all and in all for them. He keeps them and protects them from all their enemies. He pleads their cause and defends them at their trial.

How great He will be in the hour of their death, when He, as the greater Joshua, will lead them through the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan. For these people there is none left but Christ, and so they magnify His greatness. They call Him “the Son of the Highest.” They acknowledge Him as the fruit of God’s eternal good pleasure.

They acknowledge Him as the Anointed of the Father. With Peter they confess: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What blessed times they are when they may do so! At such times they may with great freedom empty their hearts before God and men. There are so many other times, when all is so lukewarm, so cold. They are not satisfied with that, but alas, they do not always sigh on account of it, either. For our flesh does not want to see God have all the glory. Such sighing takes place only when the true spiritual life is active. There is so much in our hearts that must be conquered and put down. There are so many heights and strongholds within us that rise up against the knowledge of Christ; and we have no strength to level one mountain or to raze one stronghold.

For that reason it is such a blessing not only that this Christ is the Son of the Highest but also that “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.” With these words the angel Gabriel addresses the daughter of David. He thereby clearly affirms that she is a descendant of David --for in a context in which definitely is denied that Joseph is the father of Jesus, the expression “of his father David” can only point out the natural relation with David through Mary. It is to the daughter of David that Gabriel announces the restoration of the throne of her father. God gives her a Son, and to Him He will give the throne of David. David’s throne will not remain unoccupied; it shall again be occupied! What a glorious message!

It is very clear that this has reference to the kingly ministry of the Mediator of the covenant. David was a man after God’s own heart. He was the elect of the Lord. Hence David himself did not grab this power or usurp the throne by all manner of crooked ways, but God Himself called him to this office and placed him on the throne. It was God who did these things.

What opposition and enmity David had to face! For many years Saul tried to defeat the purpose of God. And even his closest kin envied him his position. But God Himself opened the way to the throne and in spite of all the enmity and opposition, He established David’s throne. The house of Saul became weaker and weaker, and the house of David became continually stronger. After David’s death, his son Solomon, who loved the Lord, ascended the throne; and after him many kings reigned over Judah who all descended from David.

There were times when this throne shone like the sun, but the time came when it was cast to the ground. Nebuchadnezzar carried the tribe of Judah and the royal house of David to Babylon. On account of their sin, this nation was brought very low. Nevertheless God remembered His covenant in spite of His anger. After seventy years the Church returned to its own place.

God Himself took care that Judah would remain, and that the house of David would not die out. To be sure, it was a cut-off stump, but it was not an unrooted stump. Through all the ages, also during the four hundred years after Malachi, God kept this house of David alive. And in Nazareth there was a virgin who was of the house and lineage of David. She would conceive and bear a Son and the government would be upon His shoulders. All the powers of hell would try to prevent this, as it had done ever since God had made the promise of His coming into the world. However, God’s promises never fail. Christ was anointed from eternity as King of Zion, the mountain of God’s holiness. David was but a type, but David’s great Son would ascend the throne, from which no one could ever remove Him.

Oh, what comfort and strength this is for God’s poor people, for all who by a precious faith are united with Him and who in Him may find all their joy and salvation! Christ’s throne stands firm and immovable, and therefore all instruments that are prepared against the Church shall not prevail. The Church stands fast in Christ. The enemy will continue to fight against it, but never conquer it. Christ sits at the right hand of His Father until He shall have made all His enemies His footstool.

Christ came down from heaven to this cursed earth, and although He was born as a human being in a stable, nevertheless the wise men from the Orient asked this question: Where is the newborn King of the Jews? Of course, we, too, would knock at the gate of a palace, for natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. The nature of Christ’s Kingdom is not material but spiritual. His Kingdom is not of this world. We must end up in a stable, in the deepest humility, to behold Zion’s King. His way to glory was through suffering; His way led from the cross to the throne, through death to life, from the greatest shame to the most glorious victory and greatest honor, from the crown of thorns to the crown of the finest gold, which is unperishable and which shall flourish forever (Ps. 132:18).

God the Father would establish the Kingdom of Christ, as He had promised David, and which had comforted this king of Israel so wonderfully. And this remains the comfort of the inheritance of the Lord throughout all ages. We must come down from our thrones and as guilty sinners end up at the footstool of His throne, confessing with sorrow and humility of heart: “The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!” Such people may accept God’s justice; they agree with it and embrace it, indeed, they love it more than their own life.

God lifts up the poor and humble

Who in dust and ashes lie....

From this throne descend blessings for a rebellious people. Righteousness and justice are the habitations of His throne. This throne is accessible to all those who by God’s Spirit have become dethroned and deposed kings. Such people may through the blood of Christ and emboldened by the Holy Spirit have access to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, and to find grace to be helped in due season. They experience, too, however, that with Esther they sometimes do not have access to the King for thirty days. Indeed, there are many souls who say: “ If it only would take place after thirty days, so that often I must sigh: ‘Will it ever happen again?’!”

This King is a merciful King, and He will not always leave His own in sorrow. He will certainly come and not tarry. May this encourage your soul, all of you who have found your life in Christ, and for whom Christ is the hope of glory. All other things forsake you, but Christ remains from generation to generation. May Christ, by faith, live in our hearts, and may He take on stature in beginning or by continuation. It is so necessary to know Him and to be reconciled with God by Him. And not only is it necessary to know Him unto justification, but also to sanctification, so that He may become more and more our only life. He is the life of His people. We must continually, indeed always, be delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake. Then the old man of sin with all his stirrings will die more and more and the new man will be renewed more and more after the image of God. We may have an appearance of godliness and yet deny the power thereof; and how terrible this is! God looks for truth in the inward parts, and where it is true, He will make it true by confirming it. On the other hand, He will lay bare all hes and deceit. Examine yourselves thoroughly, indeed very thoroughly! It is a sad sign indeed if we think we no longer need such self-examination. Wherever there is true self-knowledge and knowledge of God, there will be a heartfelt need always to present ourselves to this One who knows the heart and tests the inward parts. God’s true people are ever afraid of self-deceit. That is why they let the Lord look into their hearts.

For these poor people it will be such a wonder that, when death comes, it will be proven to have been true in their lives. And whereas they had ever to complain about themselves here below, and about their little knowledge of Christ, about their instability, about their barren and unproductive lives, about their senselessness to their need and their unfruitfulness -- these complaints will no longer exist in heaven. There we shall, delivered from ourselves, rejoice eternally in a triune God. There the battle will be over forever. There they will not only receive a place in the house of the Father with its many mansions, but they will also conquer with Christ and with Him sit in His throne, and reign with Him everlastingly. There they will say: “ Thou, O Lamb of God, art worthy to receive all praise, thanksgiving, and adoration, for Thou hast bought us unto God with Thy blood!”

What a terrible thought, however, to be strangers of these things, and soon to be cast out into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Young and old, big and small, just as there will come an end to this year, so there will come an end to your life someday. Many were cut off from the land of the living this past year, and their destiny is sealed. Soon it will be our turn, for it has been decreed for man to die, and after that to face judgment. And if we never learned to die and always lived our own lives, without God and outside of Christ, without any concern regarding the coming judgment and never having sought to flee the wrath of God -- what will that be terrible, for then there is nothing left but an endless woe! And this will be irrevokable. What I wish to beseech you is: Learn as yet to realize what is expedient to your eternal peace! Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with you, and you perish in your way when His anger will burn but a little. You are still living in the day of grace and the precious day of salvation. Innumerable have been the calls that came to you in your life, not to mention the special dealings God had with you. And remember that God will come back to these things. He will demand an account of what you did with them.

May God’s precious Spirit convince you of sin, righteousness, and judgment! May He cause you to come to Him as a beggar and a penitent at the foot of His throne! May Christ as yet become great to you and also by you be called “ the Son of the Highest” ! For then it will become also your joy that “ the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David!”

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