have rejected God through His Son Jesus Christ), “with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” This is the time of the end which will be culminated in the battle of Armageddon. It is the end of the Tribulation preceding which time the Church will have been translated into the very presence of God. We earnestly and assuredly be lieve in the visible, bodily, physical return to this earth of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we see here shows the com plete subjugation and irreparable de struction to be brought upon man kind which has rejected God’s gift of love. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of breaking. In this age of grace we find that God is merci fully breaking men, rightly shatter ing our foolish pride, revealing our utter sinfulness apart from Jesus Christ. In a coming hour, during the Tribulation upon this earth, a terri ble breaking will be noted when the weight of Christ’s sceptre shall crush finally and completely all insurrec tion against God. In I Corinthians 15:25 we read the promise, “For he must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet.” No wonder we are exhorted in verse 10, “Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings : be instructed, ye judges of the earth.” It is a foregone conclu sion that our leaders are supposed to have wisdom. Yet, in these times Scripture points out that this is often the one commodity they are missing. If those in control of human events need understanding relative to these matters, certainly then none of us can escape from God’s suggestion that we too must have a grasp on the desperate plight of our souls apart from the Saviour. How foolish man is to worship everything and everyone except God! In the 17th chapter of Acts, verses 22 to 34, we have recorded a sermon by the Apostle Paul. There at the Acropolis, the high city, looking up 11
Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, establishes the fact of Christ’s superiority over the angels and again makes this state ment in the fifth verse of the first chapter. Then, later in the same book, he shows the contrast and superiority of Christ over Melchisedek in He brews 5 :5. So begotten doesn’t refer to a beginning of existence but rath er to the investiture with royalty which the Lord rightly received, to His rank. Christ is God’s final Word to a lost and dying world. It is the final act by which God declares His eternal relationship between Himself and His only begotten Son. Then, in verse eight, God speaks. Here we find our great Sovereign declaring to His Son and King, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the hea then for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” We remind ourselves that even as was true in verse one of this chapter, the word heathen rep resents the nations and peoples of all the world. This shows the uni versal dominion of Christ over all the earth. God’s supreme gift to our Lord Jesus Christ is universal con trol and allegiance. The old hymn- writer had it correct when he de clared: Jesus shall reign where’er the sun, Doth His successive journeys run. His kingdom spread from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. In a coming hour, every knee shall bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (We can further contrast this with our Lord’s last high priestly prayer recorded for us in the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel.) Now, because of the sinfulness of mankind, verse nine prophetically speaks of divine judgment, “Thou shalt break them” (that is, those who
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