Ephesians 4:3-6; One Lord – The Mediatorial King.
length: 65:53 - taught on Mar, 16 2021
Class Outline:
Tuesday March 16, 2021
The one Lord is the Mediatorial Ruler of the Kingdom of God.
There can be no Kingdom of God without a King, nor a Theocracy without the rule of God, nor a perpetual Davidic Kingdom without an eternal Son of David.
When describing the Kingdom of God, the prophets give first place to the Ruler Himself rather than laws or organization.
His kingdom was revealed in type from the beginning through Adam, Seth, Noah, and more distinctly through Abraham and Moses, and then in more detail in the prophets. In their description of the coming Kingdom, the prophets give first place to the Ruler. This might be otherwise if this Kingdom were merely the consummation of human attempts at social improvement and political organization; for in that case the most important things would be principles, laws, and systems.
Here and now, the ideal of government is by laws and not by men. In human kingdoms, kings are not the most important factors. This is shown by the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, as well as the Law of Moses.
There is, we like to think at least, no indispensable man. It is not so in that future kingdom portrayed by the prophets. There the Ruler Himself is the indispensable figure.
The prophets depict the Kingdom of God as depending completely upon the King Himself. He is God’s Mediatorial government.
Satan is on to this, and his modern, liberal theology, rejects all the miracles of the OT and of Jesus in the Gospels as myth, even denying the resurrection. They who argue for a non-literal method of interpretation state that it is actually detrimental to interpret things literally, as this will take away from “typical” or “spiritual” interpretations. Yet, spiritual is the wrong word to describe what they do. What they do should be called mystical self-determination. This approach to the scriptures removes from God’s Kingdom the magnificence of the King who has power over all matter, to alter it as He so chooses, and to therefore act in sovereignty over His domain, which is the entire universe.
The Lord is sovereign over the universe - the Universal Kingdom of God.
In Psa 29, David sees God’s voice as a mighty storm.
Psa 8 and 19 also has to do with the glory of God as revealed in the heavens, but with the tranquility of the silent sun roaming across the sky touching everything with light, also the moon and the stars showing their magnificence and splendor. Psa 29 is all tumult and noise.
It is a highly elaborate and vivid picture of a thunderstorm, such as must often have broken over the shepherd-psalmist as he crouched under some shelf of limestone, and gathered his trembling charge about him. Its very structure reproduces in sound an echo of the rolling peals reverberating among the hills.
Psa 29
A Psalm of David.
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty [likely angels],
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in holy array [dress of the priest].
3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders,
The Lord is over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful,
The voice of the Lord is majestic.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 And He makes Lebanon skip like a calf [shake],
And Sirion [Mt. Hermon] like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve,
And strips the forests bare,
And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"
10 The Lord sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.
11 The Lord will give strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.
But the Lord is the true God;
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
Thou, O Lord, dost rule forever;
Thy throne is from generation to generation.
Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone.
“Though they dig into Sheol,
From there shall My hand take them;
And though they ascend to heaven,
From there will I bring them down.”
And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Then, after they remove the significance of the King, the liberal theologians claim the Bible is only a method of making man moral, and example for man to follow. The pope recently said that “The biblical flood, according to experts, is a mythical tale. But myth is a form of knowledge.” He doesn’t attempt to claim the historical reality of the flood based on the inerrant authority of the scripture.
Liberal theology has attempted to dethrone the King, but they cannot change the scripture, though they try to rewrite it or redefine it.
[C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.]
“For when you get down to it, is not the popular idea of Christianity simply this: that Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher and that if only we took his advice we might be able to establish a better social order and avoid another war? Now, mind you, that is quite true. But it tells you much less than the whole truth about Christianity and it has no practical importance at all.
It is quite true that if we took Christ's advice we should soon be living in a happier world. You need not even go as far as Christ. If we did all that Plato or Aristotle or Confucius told us, we should get on a great deal better than we do. And so what? We never have followed the advice of the great teachers. Why are we likely to begin now? Why are we more likely to follow Christ than any of the others? Because he is the best moral teacher? But that makes it even less likely that we shall follow him. If we cannot take the elementary lessons, is it likely we are going to take the most advanced one? If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack of good advice for the last four thousand years. A bit more makes no difference.
But as soon as you look at any real Christian writings, you find that they are talking about something quite different from this popular religion. They say that Christ is the Son of God (whatever that means). They say that those who give Him their confidence can also become Sons of God (whatever that means). They say that His death saved us from our sins (whatever that means).
There is no good complaining that these statements are difficult. Christianity claims to be telling us about another world, about something behind the world we can touch and hear and see. You may think the claim false; but if it were true, what it tells us would be bound to be difficult — at least as difficult as modern Physics, and for the same reason.” [end quote]
A God/Man must stand between God and man and not merely an organization.
What the world needs, as the prophets saw clearly, is not primarily a better philosophy of government or a more perfect system of legislation, but a Person who has the character, wisdom, and power needed to rule for God among men. This is the central theme of prophecy from first to last.
The restoration of man’s lost dominion must come through a Person - for He shall bruise the serpents head (GEN 3:15). On His shoulder the government will rest (ISA 9:6).
Many have tried to take the words of the prophets about the King and reduce them to meaning a nation, the church, a principle, movement, or an ideal, and all have proven to be failures since the King’s features are so clearly and completely delineated by the prophets.
The prophets see one indivisible Kingdom of God.
It is highly relevant to observe that when we observe the OT material concerning God’s Kingdom, there is one Kingdom and not two. This one Kingdom has various aspects, but these aspects must not be pluralized into different kingdoms, the one spiritual and the other earthly. As we have seen briefly, there are some references to a Universal Kingdom of God, but in their predictions of a future Mediatorial Kingdom of God, which is the main burden of their message, the contemplate but one indivisible Kingdom.
As to the origin of the King, according to the prophets, the Ruler of the future Mediatorial Kingdom will be a member of the human race (GEN 3:15); the “seed” of Abraham (GEN 17:8); of the tribe of Judah (GEN 49:10); a “rod” from the family of Jesse (ISA 11:1); a branch out of the royal line of David (JER 23:5); born at the village of Bethlehem (MIC 5:2); of a mother who is a Jewish virgin (ISA 7:14). Thus on His human side, the coming King could not be dissociated from historical persons, places, or processes. He would be a Person and not an event.
Moreover, lest there be some question raised as to the historical connection between the kingdom of David and the future Kingdom of Christ, the prophet Amos is meticulously careful to establish this very connection:
“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David,
And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;”
This Kingdom will also be on earth.
In writing about the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Adolph Saphir, a godly Christian Jew observed “On earth, where God has been denied and forgotten; where His honor has been disregarded and His commandments have been transgressed; where nations and kingdoms, instead of seeking His glory and showing forth His praise - have not bowed to His authority and reverenced His law; it is on earth that the Lord shall reign; injustice, cruelty and war shall be banished; and instead of idolatry, selfishness and sin, the fear and love and beauty of God will be manifest … We may not be able clearly to conceive the fulfilment of the predictions concerning this earth during the Christocracy, but our danger does not lie in believing too implicitly or too literally what is written.”
1. The Nature of the Coming Ruler.
Certain names and titles applied to this future Ruler indicate that He will be both human and divine in nature.
Hindsight is clearer than prophecy, though it was expected of Israel that they would recognize and receive their Messiah, and many of them did. The leadership and, we gather from the gospels, the majority of the population rejected Jesus as the Son of God.
Upon witnessing the miracle of feeding the 5,000 the crowd present had a mind to make Him king.
When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world."
15 Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Jesus not only heals disease, a picture of His healing our sin, but Jesus also strengthens us out of our starvation. Every man is starved of the truth until the Lord fills him. Everyone in the crowd, despite their many personal differences, ate of the same plain food. Only He has what man hungers and thirsts for, and it is the same food that was given in the Middle East 2,000 years ago as it is anywhere in the world today. The greatest preservative against any definite form of sin is a strong spiritual life, a healthy condition not easily fatigued in duty, and not easily overcome by temptation. The scriptures are not only a remedial scheme, but more so a means of maintaining spiritual health. It is a common thought that true religion is not essential but a luxury.
Christ has perfectly reconciled us to God, given us the purpose in life for God’s will, and cleansed us to its qualification. These are essential for us, so that until we attain them, we are only nibbling at the very gate of life. God is not giving us more than we can bare. Our old natures try to convince us that this is so, but God is summoning us to His joy. It is not a joy too high for us, and that we can never rejoice in, but rather He has called us to a condition that alone is where we find comfort and health, in in which we can permanently delight. All it takes is faith to fully step into it, immerse yourself, knowing that you have already been baptized, or immersed, into it.
Despite our sinfulness, without a daily relationship with Christ life lacks the element which gives reality, meaning, and zest to the whole. As we walk closer to Him, we will discover more of our sinfulness, but Christ bids us to keep walking with Him and by strengthening us He will heal us.
The miracle of Him walking on the water happens that very night, the timing of which is as impeccable as usual. This man is something far more than a good candidate for earthly king.
To them He said that they sought Him because they ate and were filled but not because they saw miracles; meaning that they still did not see Him as the promised Messiah.
And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?" 26 Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. 27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal."
What Jesus especially emphasizes in the conversation that arises out of the miracle is that the food that He gives is Himself.
Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." 34 They said therefore to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
He then said that He was the bread that had come down from heaven, and that anyone who ate of this bread would never hunger. If He used His ability to establish a solid government with national security, they would all still die in their sins. They needed to receive into themselves the Son of God. He made it clear that the eating of the bread from heaven was equivalent to believing in Him. “He who eats this bread will live forever. … the bread that I give for the life of the world is My flesh,” to which they said, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus brought it to a head, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself.”
As a Man He would sacrifice Himself and as God He came from heaven and a man must receive Him in order to live.
Behold, a king will reign righteously,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
Christ is God. He is Divine. In Him we touch the source of all life. In Him we have the one thing which our reach which is not earth-grown, the one uncorrupted source of life to which we can turn from the inadequacy, impurity, and emptiness of a sin-sick world. He, the bread of life is sweet and satisfying, never shall we hunger, never shall sweetness turn to bitterness. Christ is the bread from heaven, because in Christ God gives Himself to us, that by His life we may live.
Many of His experiences, outlined particularly in Isa 53 and Psa 22, are those of a Man. He is taken out of the womb and feeds at His mother’s breasts. He is acquainted with grief, wounded, bruised; suffers from thirst; and at last comes down “into the dust of death.” He is truly a human King.
On the other hand, it is equally certain that the coming King is more than a man. He is named Immanuel, “God with us,” ISA 7:14, quoted by the apostle Matthew:
Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."
In Isaiah’s ninth chapter, the prophet endows Him with a string of titles that could only apply to the fullness of Deity.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Still, in a later chapter that is devoted wholly to a description of idyllic conditions which will exist under the future Kingdom, the people who have fearful hearts have waited so long for its coming are assured:
Say to those with anxious heart,
"Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you."
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