Born to Reign, Part 5

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Human history is a record of brokenness, oppression, conflict, and corruption. How we long for peace and justice, even as we see the violence and instability raging in our world today. The good news is that the great ruler Jesus will one day soon set up his reign. The government that he sets up will bring peace and justice as no earthly government has ever been able to do. So while we wait for that sure and beautiful day, we can surrender our hearts to the Prince of Peace himself and live life remembering what he has promised to do. Let's listen to this message titled, Born to Reign. This is part two of a Christmas study on Isaiah 9-7.

It was first preached on December 18th, 2022. The one who was born in Bethlehem that the shepherds heard about by the angels and went to the manger to see. And then later on, the Magi come because as they studied nature, they recognized that there would be one born King of the Jews and Herod was alarmed. And when Herod's alarmed, everyone's alarmed.

Because they knew the ramifications of that. But he was one who would, as verse seven says, on the throne of David. Do you realize the significance of that? That legitimizes all of the history of the Old Testament right there. The throne of David. Why do we value the Old Testament? Because it teaches us about God, it teaches us about ourselves, but it also teaches us how God has been moving history in the direction of reconciling man to himself. And that reconciliation happens through one person and that's this one right here.

And he will reign on the throne of David. The government that was promised and planned and prophesied the outworking of God's plan through history. And simply put, let me just put it this way, this is an apologetic statement, but to deny Christianity is to deny history. You cannot be honest and deny Christianity.

You can't. Because to deny Christianity, you'd have to deny so much history. And I'm not talking about Christians in history, I'm talking about Christ in history. I'm talking about God in history and the things that he did.

But if you deny Christianity, not only deny history, but you deny your future too. And judgment, he says, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, with justice and righteousness. The judgment there, he says, this kingdom will not be one of anarchy, the anarchy of autonomy.

That's what messed things up to begin with, right? But it will be a well-ordered system of governance and your liberty. We will enjoy that liberty and we understand that today your liberty is found in surrendering to this Prince of Peace. And then you can live with anticipation of this ultimate liberty and goodness and justice, he says. Boy, there's a cry for justice today, isn't there? And a lot of people are resorting to colossal injustice, demanding justice. Justice means conforming to a standard.

What is that standard? Well, it's his name. It's verse six. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. The child that is born, the son that is given, he is the standard.

He is the standard of justice. Everything and everyone as it ought to be. Imagine that. Now, you're going to have to confess something right here, because right now you're thinking about somebody else, aren't you?

Gotcha. When I say everything and everyone as it ought to be, look in the mirror, look right here. I will be as I ought to be. That's a hopeful statement, isn't it?

Yeah. And the things for which creation currently groans is just that, that righteousness that only God can give through this one who is the Prince of Peace. There's three things, if I could propose to you this morning, that come under the theme of righteousness and justice, three things that all of creation groans for. And Romans 8 tells us that the creation is groaning. And even we groan, even within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, for the redemption of the body, the created order. We're waiting for that.

We groan for that. We eagerly anticipate that. And it is this Prince of Peace who will bring that to be. All the attempts at utopia in world history have failed miserably with colossal amounts of bloodshed. It will not happen short of the Prince of Peace. So whatever movement you might think yourself being a part of, bringing in justice for the world and moving all of society into a utopia, if Christ is not the king and that's not where you're leading people, your cause will fail.

And it will fail miserably and very expensively at the cost of so much human life. We see it happening over and over again through history. But the things that creation longs for are three things. One, you and I long to be fully accepted. When was the last time you were completely honest with someone?

No pretense, no facade, you were completely honest with somebody, knowing that no matter what you did, no matter what you said, you were loved and accepted by that person. You see, that's what we find in Jesus Christ. That's why He's the Prince of Peace. Because you can't be good enough, but He will give you His righteousness.

Isn't that cool? That's the gospel of grace right there. He will give you His righteousness. And when you surrender yourself in faith to Him, He gives you His righteousness.

And therefore, I am fully accepted by Him. And here we see a glimpse of that in the church. That's what God designed the church to be, a people who are with each other, do life together, and they know each other well, and it's a community of grace.

And even though we have flaws and we know some of each other's flaws, we're willing to love each other and be gracious to each other and invest ourselves in each other, instead of every time we come together, we have to keep up appearances as if everything's okay. That's not how the church works. And if your church works that way, or if you're that way coming to church, I have two words for you.

Stop it. That's not grace. You need to know the Prince of Peace, because you are fully accepted in Him. And John makes it very clear, whoever loves God, loves whoever has been born of God. Did you know that was in the Bible? If God is your Father, you love His children.

So true. And Jesus prayed in the garden the night He was betrayed, the night before He died on the cross for you and me, that night He was praying to His Father. And what did He pray for? If you could encapsulate it in one phrase, what did He pray for more than anything? That you and I would be one as He is and the Father are one. He prayed for our unity.

And listen, it's only possible when we have His peace. When I am at peace with Him and I know I am fully accepted by Him, that brings so much peace to my life. Because I don't have to worry about protecting or affirming my own identity or definition or whatever. So fully accepted is something that all creations long for. Secondly, all creation longs to be fulfillingly productive. You and I do, every one of us does, doing good. And in this Kingdom, we will be doing good for the one who is good. And we will be righteous in heart and mind, where everything that we do will be good because we are good, not because we achieved our own goodness, but because we received His goodness. Isn't that hopeful? Some of you might be thinking right now, this is a bunch of wishful thinking. This is a promise of God. And we can count on it as much as we know the history that brought us to this point. God will do this.

We'll get into that here in a minute. But when we are with the Lord in His Kingdom of peace, we will be fulfillingly productive because nothing will hold you back. You will be like Christ. Remember when Christ rose from the dead in His glorified body? We will be like Him in glorified bodies. Because we are embodied spirits, so we will have a body.

You realize Christ has a body for eternity? Why? So we can hug Him. It's as simple as that.

Get in line. But nothing holds you back because you will be with Him, you will be like Him. Not God, because you're a created being. You can't be God.

Nothing created can be God. But also creation longs for not only to be fully accepted and fulfillingly productive, but to be finally satisfied. Ultimately satisfied. You know, so much of what we do in this world under the sun, all of our activity, time spent, energies, things we buy, so much of it goes towards the pursuit of a satisfaction. And let me just, let me just share, let me just spare you some time and expense, hopefully. You're not going to find it.

You're not going to find it. You and I were not designed to be satisfied by material things. Material things were not designed to satisfy us or define us. But we will be finally satisfied with that peace of heart and mind. We will be done searching for that peace. We will be done fearing anything that might rob that peace from us. We will not say, like Solomon said, all is vanity.

We will look back at our short, short life under the sun and look back at all the things that we chafed at, chased after and pursued and say, man, that was vanity. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.