Douglas Wilson

Have Yourself a Merry Little Postmill – Christmas Eve Service (Doug Wilson)

Grace Sensing on December 24, 2023

The point this evening is not to load your Christmas down with any exegetical postmill work, which has been done elsewhere. This is just intended as a simple word of Christmas encouragement—I do not seek to persuade you in these few minutes, but rather to embolden you.

It may well be that you even call yourself postmill and are happy to say that it is your doctrinal stance. You certainly live in a community that is characterized by postmill teaching and expectations. Well and good, but it may still be possible that this goon show of a century has gotten you down a time or two.

Your eschatology may say that the name of the Lord will be great among the Gentiles, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same (Mal. 1:11 ). Your doctrinal commitments may well affirm that the earth is going to be filled up with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14 ). The books on your shelf may well argue that the root of Jesse will be raised up as a standard, and all the Gentiles shall seek Him (Is. 11:10 ). Yes, certainly.

But the last time you checked, dudes could marry dudes, teens were being legally mutilated in the name of pronoun madness, and half the population believes that if we raise our taxes and give more power to the EPA, the government promises to fix the weather.

It is easy, in other words, to come to feel like a thick fog can somehow erase the sun, moon and stars. This is a possible discouragement even in our postmill circles. And so this message of Christmas grace is that our sovereign God has stooped down to us in order to remind us how transient evil is, and how permanent His goodness is. Christmas is a stiff breeze that demonstrates that a fog is a lot easier to scrub than the sun, moon and stars are.

But when you look for God to move, remember that He doesn’t do things the way we would have predicted. Take, for example, how He established the first beachhead of His everlasting kingdom in an animal’s food trough. Who among us would have called that move beforehand?

“Of the increase of his government there will be no end.” But we should know by now that we do not define increase the same way that He does. John the Baptist said that he was going to decrease, while the Lord was going to increase. But then what did that increase look like? It looked like agony in the Garden, and a flogging, and spittle in the face, and a crown of thorns. He will increase, but you must read all the way through to the end.

After God had spoken all His raw materials into existence, speaking to a darkness that was nothing at all, that created matter was still shrouded in darkness. And so at that point, what was the first thing God ever said in this world? “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3 ). He simply said light, and there it was. And so when the earth was an inchoate and shapeless mass of dark matter, when darkness was over the face of the deep (Gen. 1:2 ), all He did was simply speak.

This created darkness was His raw material, and it provided the apostle Paul with a marvelous illustration for God’s power over a different sort of darkness—the darkness of our rebellious iniquity.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

2 Corinthians 4:6–7 (KJV)

The created darkness of the shapeless void and the rebellious darkness of mankind’s sin and rebellion have this one thing in common. Neither one can resist the voice of God’s authority when that authority says anything like, “Let there be light.”

Tiglath-pileser, Caesar Augustus, Herod, Pilate, Sanballat, Shalmaneser, Pharaoh, Bismarck, Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Woodrow Wilson, Genghis Khan, what are they? They are all of them principalities and powers who breath through the nose. Let there be light.

Pornography, propaganda, pandemics, police states, what are they? Let there be light.

Darwinism, socialism, feminism, egalitarianism, fascism, environmentalism, mysticism, what are they? Let there be light.

The God who spoke the cosmos out of nothing is certainly capable of speaking a new cosmos out of the old one. He can make sons of Abraham out of rocks, remember.

So when you look around at all the black rock of man’s iniquitous folly, you should certainly look straight at it without flinching. You should confess that it is in fact an enormous amount of iniquitous folly, all of it dark, bent, and twisted rock. But never forget that you are also looking at God’s own quarry, from which He is going to speak into existence a cathedral of light, built entirely out of living stones, and the pavers all made from transparent gold.

So the Christmas message is much more than the fact that God conquers and overcomes evil. He does do that, but there is a greater mystery involved. The Christmas message is that God is in the process of creating something marvelous, using evil as His raw material. All the laws, and conspiracies, and plans, and movements, and resolutions, and plots . . . all the things that have us so worried . . . are nothing but scraps on His workshop floor.

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Luke 12:32 (KJV)

And what a glorious kingdom that will be. That kingdom of light, inhabited by children of light (Eph. 5:8 ) . . . where did it start? That kingdom of light began in those pitch-black nights that enveloped Bethlehem, and the shepherds, and the sheep, and the wise men.

It was truly dark. But the star wasn’t.

Gold In the Genealogies (By Prophet Bards Foretold #3)

Grace Sensing on December 17, 2023

INTRODUCTION

The texts we are going to look at today are the genealogies of Christ, and other passages related to them, but the theme of this message will be on the promises of God. The fact of genealogies in Scripture are often nothing more than an obstacle to Christians in their Bible reading, but this is not the way to think of them. The genealogies are vast and intimidating mountain ranges, but what we need to realize is that there are actually rich veins of gold there. Like the land of Havilah, the gold is good there (Gen. 2:12).

THE TEXT

“THE book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren . . .” (Matthew 1:1–2).

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli . . .” (Luke 3:23).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One of the more obvious facts about the genealogies of Matthew and Luke is that they are different. A common solution is to say that one of them is the line of Joseph, and the other the line of Mary. But this doesn’t really solve the problem because the lines are not entirely different. And besides, both claim to be the line of Joseph (Matt. 1:16; Luke 3:23). And because we don’t examine the problem closely, what God gave as a testimony to the fact that He is a covenant-keeping God is used by us as a way of rattling our faith instead of establishing it.

A genealogical line is called a stirp. Luke traces the Lord’s descent all the way back to Adam. Matthew gives us His line from the time of Abraham. We know that Matthew relied on a written account because in verse 1 he mentions the book. Luke follows Genesis 5 and 10, including Canaan between Arphaxad and Shelah, in line with the Septuagint. The stirps in Luke and Matthew run basically the same from Abraham to David. They then diverge from David to the Exile. Matthew goes through Solomon, and Luke goes through someone named Nathan (1 Chron. 3:5). They join up again in Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, before splitting up again. Then they both arrive at Joseph of Nazareth. So that is our central problem. There are some other very minor glitches which can be easily resolved, and so we won’t bother with those here.

But we should face the problem. It is not normal for the patrilineal lines of two brothers, Solomon and Nathan, to land on one individual, Joseph, a millennium later. Still less can distinct stirps converge, diverge, and then converge again. And if we try to solve the problem with a Joseph/Mary division, we just flip the problem over to the other side. Do we want to explain the divergences or the convergences? We have to explain either way.

EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE LINE

Matthew omits four ancestors of Christ from his account—Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah, and Jehoiakim. This is not arbitrary or capricious. The first three of these were removed because of the curse pronounced by Elijah. Ahab’s line, to the fourth generation, were expunged, as Moses said. (Ex. 20:3-6).

“‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free” (1 Kings 21:21, NKJV).

And Jehoiakim was a really bad actor, and he fell under Jeremiah’s curse:

“Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (Jeremiah 36:30).

So Matthew excludes illegitimate kings or kings who disqualified themselves and were cursed.

THE VARIABLE OF ADOPTION

According to Matthew, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. According to Luke, Neri was the father of Shealtiel. Which was it? Again, a prophetic curse pronounced on Jeconiah helps us out.

“Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30).

We are told in 1 Chron. 3:16 that Jeconiah had a son, Zedekiah (likely named after his great-uncle). But the very next verse (1 Chron. 3:17) lists seven sons of Jeconiah, none of whom were Zedekiah. While captive in Babylon, according to an ancient source, Jeconiah had married a woman named Tamar, and their son Zedekiah died young and without issue. Jeconiah then adopted her sons by a previous marriage, from the time when she was married to Neri, and Shealtiel becomes the crown prince. Neri was descended from Nathan, that mysterious son of David. Thus Jeremiah’s curse is fulfilled, and Matthew and Luke are both right.

JOSEPH’S FATHER?

Was Joseph’s father Jacob or Heli? The best explanation comes from a second century source (Sextus Julius Africanus) who knew descendants of the Lord’s brother James. He said that the discrepancy was the result of a levirate marriage. Heli had died without issue, and so his brother Jacob raised up seed for him—by law a child of Heli, and biologically a son of Jacob.

HOW TO MINE FOR GOLD

At the risk of causing your eyes to glaze over a little bit more, I will conclude with just a little bit more. For the ancients, they used to keep careful track of the genealogies. They did this because they were looking intently for the way in which God would fulfill His promises. At the end of Ruth, this blessing is pronounced by the elders of Bethlehem.

“And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.” (Ruth 4:12, 18-22).

Pharez had a twin, Zarah, who was the first born twin who came out second. He was marked by a scarlet thread around his wrist. Generations later, Zarah had a descendent, a man named Achan, who stole some things in the battle of Jericho. He and his whole royal line were wiped out as a result. Rahab, who had marked her house with a scarlet rope, came out into Israel, and married a man named Salmon. Their son was Boaz, who later married Ruth. The thing that this illustrates is that these men and women of faith were tracking with the genealogies carefully. They were looking for the Christ.

“And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,” (Luke 3:23).

So always look for the Christ. Always look to the Christ. He is the desire of nations. He is risen with healing in His wings. He is the gold in the land of Havilah.

By Prophet Bards Foretold 2: Virgin Born

Christ Church on December 10, 2023

INTRODUCTION

Scripture is quite clear that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. But what was the point? Why is this important?

THE TEXT

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:22–23).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We learn from the scriptural narrative in several places that our Lord’s mother was a true virgin. In the gospel of Luke, we are told that the angel Gabriel was sent with a message to a virgin named Mary (Luke 1:27). She is called a virgin twice in that one verse (parthenos). When the angel tells her that she will conceive a child who will have a never-ending kingdom, she asks a most reasonable question. How can she conceive when she does not know a man (Luke 1:34)? In short, how can she become a mother as she is a virgin? Gabriel replies that the thing will happen as the result of a miracle wrought by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35).

In our text, when Joseph found out that Mary was “with child,” he drew the natural and obvious conclusion, which was that Mary must not be a virgin. But because he was a righteous man, resolved to put her away quietly. But an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to marry her because her pregnancy was the result of a miracle. The name to be given to the child was Jesus, because He was going to save His people from their sins. Remember this. And then the thing is summed up by our text. The prophet Isaiah had predicted this when he prophesied that a virgin would conceive a child, and bear a son, and that son would be called Emmanuel. Matthew adds the gloss that Emmanuel means “God with us.”

YOUNG WOMAN OR VIRGIN?

The prophecy is found in Isaiah 7, and the context is this. In the days of Ahaz, the king of Syria and the king of the northern kingdom of Israel came up against Jerusalem. They could not prevail against the city (Is. 7:1), but the heart of the king was still badly shaken, along with the hearts of the people (Is. 7: 2). They trembled like trees in a stiff wind. But God in His kindness sent the prophet Isaiah to give a word of encouragement to the king (Is. 7:3-9). Within one lifetime, the powers that the king was so worried about would be out of the picture. Don’t worry about them. Ahaz—not a man of faith—was apparently still troubled, and so God graciously tells him to ask for a sign (Is. 7:10-11). But Ahaz still holds back (Is 7:12), although he made it sound pious. And so Isaiah insists upon giving him a sign anyway, and the words of our prophecy are taken from that sign (Is. 7:14-16).

There are two layers to this sign. In the Hebrew, the word for virgin here is almah, which can mean virgin, but it can also mean young woman. The meaning is not exclusively virgin. A young woman will conceive and bear a son, and before that son has grown to the maturity that can refuse evil and choose evil—within just a few years—the kings that Ahaz was so worried about would no longer a threat. That was the sign. The young woman concerned was herself a prophetess (Is. 8:3), and she was married to Isaiah. And the prophet went to the prophetess, and she conceived a son. His name was Mahershalalhashbaz, and the prophecy of the previous chapter was in the first instance fulfilled in him (Is. 8:4). Damascus and Samaria would be a spent force before young Maher (let us call him) could say mama or papa.

PROPHECY & TYPE

So this was an explicit prophecy, for the benefit of Ahaz, but it was also a type . . . for the benefit of all the sons of men. Let us not be like Ahaz, and disbelieve the sign. In addition to being the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction, the prophetess was also a type. She was a type of Mary, and Mary was the antitype. And here is where it gets interesting.

Isaiah’s ministry was around 700 B.C. The Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, was translated several centuries before Christ. And in the LXX, the word almah in Isaiah 7:14 is rendered as parthenos, and parthenos means virgin, only virgin, and nothing but virgin. There was therefore a widespread expectation among the Jews that there was an aspect of this prophecy that was yet to be fulfilled, and that expectation was not the result of interactions with Christians—because they would not arrive for a century or two more.

WHY HIS NAME WAS EMMANUEL

Everything in the gospel comes down to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was this Jesus, and what did this Jesus do? He was God in the flesh, and He died on the cross as a perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins of all His people. The person and work of Christ.

The virgin birth is important to the identity of Jesus. Our text in Matthew links the virgin birth to the fact that the one so born was going to be called Emmanuel. The sacrificial body of Christ had to be spotless in order for it to be any good as a sacrifice, as we shall see in a moment. But it also had to be spotless in order for the most holy Word of God to be united to it. How can a holy God become a true man without also becoming a false and sinful man. Because sin is passed down covenantally through the fathers, the problem was solved through the virgin birth.

WHY HIS NAME WAS JESUS

The angel of the Lord told Joseph in his dream that the baby was to be named Jesus. The reason for this is that He was going to save His people from their sins. Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” But in order to accomplish that salvation, He had to be a sacrifice, He had to be a spotless sacrifice, and He had to be a representative sacrifice.

A sacrifice: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

A spotless sacrifice: “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

A representative sacrifice: “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15).

The birth of the baby Jesus was truly remarkable. In that day, on that day, your salvation and mine was born into the world.

By Prophet Bards Foretold Part 1: Places

Christ Church on December 3, 2023

INTRODUCTION

What we are going to do in this season of Advent is take a closer look at a number of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the bith of the Messiah. We are going to look first at the geographical predictions. What places are involved? After that, we will take up other aspects of His nativity, week to week. Remember that all of God’s promises were wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger.

THE TEXT

“But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

BETHLEHEM

Bethlehem was known as a little town (Micah 5:2). Nevertheless, despite the small size, it was a town that was going to produce a son that was to become a ruler in Israel (v. 2). This son is going to be from two apparently inconsistent places. He was going to be from Bethlehem, a small town in Judah. He was also going to be from of old, from everlasting. He was to be from Bethlehem without in any way being contained by Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was a little town, but one that figured largely in the history of Israel. Rachel died there (Gen. 35:19; 48:7). In the book of Judges, we are told the story of a Levite from Bethlehem who became a compromised priest for some freebooting Danites (Judg. 18:20). The murdered concubine—whose death started the war that almost wiped out the tribe of Benjamin—was from Bethlehem (Judg. 19:1). Ruth, the Moabitess ancestor of David and Christ, followed her mother-in-law Naomi to settle in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:19). This is what anchored the ancestry of Christ to this particular town. Samuel anointed David as the future king there in Bethlehem (1 Sam. 16:13).

With regard to Bethlehem, we have something of an intersection of prophecies. Balaam prophesied that a star would arise out of Jacob and that a scepter would rise out of Israel (Num. 24:17). Remember that the wife of Jacob died at Bethlehem, and it was she who would not be comforted after the slaughter of the innocents (Matt. 2:18). The star that was predicted by Balaam, in combination with our text, led the wise men to Bethlehem. Balaam also mentioned a scepter, which should make us think of Jacob final blessing of his sons. “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen. 49:10).

Now we know from Scripture that Balaam was a wicked man (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11), but at the same time he was a true prophet—meaning he had a true prophetic gift. He would not curse Israel while using his prophetic gifts because he could not (Num. 24:13), but he was willing to give Balak some carnal and cynical advice on how to use the Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14). Because of this, the Israelites killed Balaam with the sword (Josh. 13:22)

EGYPT

Joseph was warned in a dream about the murderous intent of Herod, and so he gathered up Mary and the baby, and they fled to Egypt.

“And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:15).

There are two lessons we can gather from this, and we can see in both of them how typology works. A type is an enacted prophecy, and the fulfillment of a type is called the antitype. Thus Adam is a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14), and Christ is the antitype of Adam (John 19:34). Noah’s ark was a type of Christian baptism, which made baptism the antitype (1 Pet. 3: 20-21).

The Exodus from Egypt was the type with two layers. God led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. That was the type. But then when the baby Jesus was called out of Egypt, that was the prophesied antitype. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1). This is fulfilled in two directions. When Herod died, Joseph brought his family back, coming up out of Egypt. But when they fled in the first place, they were running from Herod, who had become a new Pharaoh, killing Jewish babies, and so Israel had become a new Egypt.

But we must not forget the next layer. When Jesus communed with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, what were they talking about? In Luke 9:31, it says they were speaking of the Lord’s decease, but the word used there is exodos. His death was our spiritual Exodus from sin and bondage.

GALILEE

When Nicodemus objected to the attitude of the Pharisees, their retort had to do with the place where Jesus had grown up. “They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52).

But notice what these students of the law were doing. They were insulting Nicodemus over his lack of scriptural knowledge when their own obtuseness in this department was glaring and apparent

“When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:1–2).

This is declared by Matthew to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Remember that Christ grew up in Galilee, and Matthew says that His return home (Galilee) and ministry in Capernaum (Zebulun and Naphtali) was the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah.

Isaiah tells us that this the place where the light dawned. But as the sun rises to its zenith, the thing to remember is that Christ is the light that shines on every man. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). What then is our Christmas message?

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14).

The Authority of Gratitude

Christ Church on November 26, 2023

INTRODUCTION

As we have all enjoyed the blessings of a Thanksgiving holiday just a few days ago, I thought it appropriate to spend some time on a little understood aspect of gratitude or thanksgiving. We of course understand how pleasant gratitude is. In addition, we readily grasp the duty of expressing our thanksgiving to God. We grasp that gratitude is something that is critical in keeping our faith renewing and constantly growing. The spiritual food we partake of every Lord’s Day is called the Eucharist, from the Greek word for giving thanks, which is eucharisto. But what I want to focus on this morning is what might be called the authority of gratitude.

THE TEXT

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Philippians 2:14–16).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The opposite of thanksgiving is grumbling or complaining. The carping, critical voice is one that repeatedly came under the judgment of God in Scripture, and being under the heavy hand of God is the opposite of entering into an authoritative position. Paul here instructs believers to do everything without complaining (v. 14) The result of this is that it will not be possible to assign blame or fault to such a one—“blameless and harmless” (v. 15). It is fitting that there be no blame or rebuke because we are the sons of God, and we are to contrast sharply against the backdrop of a crooked and perverse generation. It is as though they are the pitch black sky, and we are the stars arrayed across that sky. Such non-complaining Christians are privileged to hold forth the word of life, and this is a cause of great rejoicing for Paul. His race was not run in vain, and his work was not conducted in vain (v. 16).

WITHOUT COMPLAINING

Paul requires that we do everything without complaining or grumbling. That word everything encompasses quite a lot, realize. No complaints about the weather, or the food, or the traffic, or the husband, or the wife, or the children, or the economy, or the administration, or the tool that just broke.

Now there is a tightrope to walk here. This is a very imperfect world, and many things in it require correction. Many professions are correcting professions, and they are lawful professions—coaches, teachers, copyeditors, judges, policemen, reformers, guitar instructors, driving instructors, pastors, parents, and so on. Now with so much correction being required, what we to do with this requirement to do everything without complaining or grumbling? We are to enter into the task of helping others without exuding the sense that we are personally aggrieved. Those in positions of authority over others must banish from their lives all traces of self interest.

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).

THREE MARKERS OF AUTHORITY

In this short passage, Paul gives us three phrases that we can tie into the gift of authority. Those phrases are sons of God, lights in the world, and holding forth the word of life.

Sons of God: There is authority involved in becoming a son of God. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power [authority, exousia] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). There is authority in putting to death the sins of the flesh. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14). And there is an authority that is building to a crescendo. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Lights in the world: Shining as lights in the world is something that the world knows how to link back to the Father in heaven. “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16).

Holding forth the word of life: A messenger or a sent one always brings with him the authority of the sender. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; That bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; That saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth!” (Isaiah 52:7).

When our lives are characterized by gratitude, and we are freed from the whining spirit that affects us so easily, what does this do? It proclaims that we are living out the message that we are holding in our hands. It means that we shine like an array of stars against a very dark night. It means that we are the adopted sons of God, and that when the world comes into its rights, we will be manifested as the sons of God. And all of this, taken together, means that authority will come to you naturally. It is not something you will need to raise your voice in order to get. In fact, just the opposite.

Gratitude is one of the basic foundation stones of all true authority.

THE THANKFUL CHRIST

In this, as in everything else, our task is to look to Christ. We look to Him first as our Savior, and then, having received the gift of a full and complete salvation, we look to Him as our example. If you look to Him as your example first, there will be nothing for you there but despair. You can’t jump that high.

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

We look to His suffering first. And then, after that, we follow in His steps. And what does Christ do after His great triumph. He praises God in the midst of the congregation (Ps. 22:22, 25). He sees the travail of His soul, and is satisfied (Is. 53:11). He did what He did because of the joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2). And He, with the most gratitude, has been granted all authority (Matt. 28:18-20).