Revelation chapter 19 verse 7 the Lord said let us
be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage
of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready. May the Lord make us ready for
that wedding feast when the lamb meets his bride, gathers them
all together in glory. That's our hope this morning.
The Lord will prepare us for that day. Let's stand together,
Tom. You're gonna lead us in 186.
186 and I'll heart back to him. The church is one foundation.
186. That didn't work. Let's try this again. A church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. new creation by water and the
word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. Elect from every nation. ? Yet one o'er all the earth
? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord, one faith, one birth ?
One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one holy food And to one hope
she presses With every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation
and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union With
God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Please be seated. Good morning. Our call to worship
will be Psalm 145. We're going to look at Psalm
145. I will assault thee, my God,
O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day I will bless thee.
And I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy
works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. This is like
we saw in the first hour, from generation to generation, passing
on One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall
declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of thy glorious
honor, of thy majesty, and of thy wonderful works. Those wonderful works are many,
but the one that stands out, the one that's like no other
is his salvation, his wonderful work of salvation of the elect
in Christ. A man shall speak of thy might
and thy terrible acts. Terrible when the King James
was written meant awesome, awesome works, awesome acts. And I will
declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the
memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious. and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and great, of great mercy. And that's what we need, isn't
it? We need the Lord to be patient, we need the Lord to be compassionate,
and for him to have mercy on us. The Lord is good to all,
and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works
shall praise thee, O Lord, thy saints shall bless thee. They
shall speak of thy glory, of thy kingdom, and talk of thy
power. This is the gospel being preached.
When the gospel is being preached, we're speaking about God's glory
in the Lord Jesus Christ of the kingdom, and we're talking about
God's power, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. to make known
to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty
of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The
Lord upholdeth all that fall." Verse 14. and raise it up all
those that are bowed down. This is how we approach the Lord. Bow down. And he's the one that
makes it so. The eyes of all weigh upon thee. all thy giveth them their meat
in due season. Thou openeth thine hand and satisfy
the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh to all
that call upon him. This is a promise of God to call
upon him, that he will be close to all that call upon him. To
all that call upon him in truth. This means the right gospel,
the biblical gospel, the true gospel. He will fulfill the desire
of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them and know the promise here. The desire of the heart
are there to feed him. The desire of the heart of the
believer is to see Christ, to be with Christ. And he will hear
their cry and he will save them. The Lord preserve all of them
that love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord. and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. Father God, we come before you
the only way that we can. in the Lord Jesus Christ and
his works. We come to thank you for this
wonderful blessing that we do not deserve of being here to
listen to the gospel. We pray and we recognize and
we need your Holy Spirit both for the hearers and the speaker
of the gospel, Brother Greg. May we be filled with the Holy
Spirit that we may see Christ in his glory, Father. Help us.
That we need you more this hour than we Need the whole week father. We need the holy spirit to show
us to point us to christ We pray for the old the other churches
that preach the gospel. We preach the same blessing father
We also pray for the sick that are not among us father when
maybe you heal them soon and may be May be able to be with
us here again In jesus name we pray this amen Let's stand together again, the
hymn on the back of the bulletin. Great prophet, let us bless thy
name. By thee the joyful tidings came
of wrath appeased, of sins forgiven, of hell subdued, and peace with
heaven. I love my shepherd, he will keep
My wandering soul among his sheep He feeds his flock, he calls
their names And on his shoulder bears his lambs Jesus, my great
High Priest, has died. I need no sacrifice beside. His blood did once for sin atone,
and now it pleads before the throne. My lord, my conqueror,
and my king, thy scepter and thy throne I sing. Thine is the glory, and I sit
a joyful subject at thy feet. Please be seated. We're going to be in Zechariah
chapter 6, but by way of introduction, I'd like for you to turn with
me in your Bibles to Revelation 19. Revelation 19, as I've titled
this message, The Spirit of Prophecy. As you know, the book of Zechariah
has a lot of prophecies, as does the entire canon of scriptures. A lot of parables, and dark sayings,
and mysteries, but they all have one objective. They all have
one objective. I mentioned in the first hour
that I spoke to a man this week, and he was talking about the
book of Revelation, and he was impressed with the prophecies
that were in the book of Revelation, and I pointed out the very first
words in the book of Revelation. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the spirit of prophecy.
The Lord's not trying to inform us of future events. He's telling
us about His Son, who He is, and what He has accomplished.
And if the Lord's pleased to give us knowledge of Christ,
then the spirit of prophecy has been made known to our hearts
in the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the cause and the subject
and the result of everything. Christ is all. He's all and He
is in all. In Revelation chapter 19 After verse 7, which we read
a few moments ago, and to her was granted that she should be
arrayed in fine linen, to her was granted, the Lord granted
his bride to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the
fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. If we're going
to have righteousness before God, He's going to have to give
it to us. And if He gives it to us, He's going to give it
to us in Christ. Christ Jesus the Lord is our
righteousness. And He said unto me, Write, the
angel is speaking to John, he's saying, Write, blessed are they
which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said
unto me, these things are the true sayings of God. These things
are true. This is not speculation. The
apostles said, I did not bring unto you fables, things that
we imagined. We handled the Word of God. These
things are the true and faithful sayings of God. And I fell at
his feet to worship him. And John sees this glorious angel
And we can only imagine what they look like. And John falls
at the feet of this angel to worship the angel. And the angel
said unto me, See thou do it not? Thou worship me. I am thy fellow servant. I'm a servant of God, just like
you. And thy brethren that have the
testimony of Jesus, we're all the same. Worship God. Four, the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Just like the word law, refers
to all of scripture. So the word prophecy here refers
to all of scripture. It's the fourth telling of who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. The testimony of Jesus Christ. Who He is and what He's done
is the spirit of prophecy. So now turn with me to Zechariah
chapter 6 if you will please. As we have a prophecy here, and
like all prophecies and all scriptures, God is pointing us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, our High Priest. We begin in verse 9, and the
word of the Lord came unto me. I'm so thankful not have to stand
up here and say, well, you know, like it seems to me, or have
you considered, or what do you think about this? But rather
I can stand up here and say, thus saith the Lord. This is God's word. And God's
people, that's all they want to hear. They don't want to hear
speculation. They don't want to hear opinion.
They want to know what does God say. And whatever God says is
what they believe, is what they believe. Remember the Bereans
were more noble than the Thessalonians in that they received the word
of God with gladness and searched the scriptures to see if the
things that they were being told were true. God's people just
want to know what God says, but God has to speak. He has to speak. He has to open the areas of our
understanding. And so the word of the Lord came
unto me. It's got to come from God, doesn't
it? We can't force the hand of God. We can't manipulate God
or bargain with God. God's word coming to us is by
God's free grace. And what that will cause every
child of God to say is, Lord, speak to me, speak to me. Lord, cause your word to come
into my heart. I don't want to just be a person
who has ears but doesn't hear. I don't want to be a person who
has eyes but doesn't hear, doesn't see. Lord, I need for you to
make your word living and effectual to my heart. The word of the
Lord came unto me. When it comes, when the word
of God comes, we know it's come. because He has revealed to us
the glory of His Son, who is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Take of them, now the Lord is
telling Zachariah, He's saying, take of these children of Israel
that have come back with you from Babylon, remember they're
rebuilding the temple of God, which is the building up of the
church, and he says, take of them of the captivity, even Hilde. Now Hilde's name translated means
worldly, means worldly. And so the Lord's telling telling
Zachariah, take that one that came out of Babylon, that worldly
one, I'm going to show him something. I'm going to reveal to him the
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy. Lord, if you don't speak to me,
if you don't call me out of Babylon, that's all I've got is my worldliness,
my worldly nature. Lord, I'm just, I feel so bound
to this world and if I'm going to be delivered from this world,
you're going to have to deliver me." And so, he says, take even
of Helde of Tobagi and of which are come from Babylon and
come thou the same day and go into the house of Josiah, the
son of Zephaniah. He's telling Zachariah, take
these men that have come out of Babylon and go to Josiah's
house. Not just any Josiah, but the
son of Zephaniah. And in that house, I'm gonna
show you something. then take silver and gold and
make crowns and set them on the head of Joshua. Now again, this
is not the Joshua that led the children of Israel across the
Jordan into the promised land. This is many, many years later.
This is Joshua, the high priest who came with Zechariah out of
Babylon. But just like that other Joshua,
he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. For Joshua and Jesus
translated means exactly the same thing, you know that? Jehovah
saves, that's what his name means. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He what? Shall save His people from their
sins. And just like Joshua, who followed
in the footsteps of Moses, led the children of Israel across
the river of death, the Jordan River, into the promised land
to take possession of this land, so now this Joshua is going to
represent Christ as our priest who intercedes on our behalf
before God. He tells Zechariah, take these
men and go into the house of Josiah and take Joshua with you
and take silver and gold and make crowns and set them upon
the head of Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest. What do we see here? A picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king. He is the one
who himself came as the word of God. That's the spirit of
prophecy. The spirit of prophecy is that
Christ is that prophet who came in the likeness of Moses to bring
himself as the word of God that we might know God. We might find
forgiveness of our sins and hope of eternal life. He's the one
wearing the crown. He's the one who comes crowned
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's coming again. When he comes
again, his name is going to be written on his thigh. And that's
when that pale horse comes, the pale horse, which after him follows
death and hell, but upon his thigh will be written King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. Here's Christ Jesus, the Lord,
the son of God who has come as the prophet. And as our priest,
he's interceding for us. He is offering Himself to the
Father on behalf of His people, making the sacrifice of Himself
for the forgiveness of our sins. And He is crowned King. He reigns
sovereign. And notice what He says in verse
12, And speak unto Him, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts. I know you hear me say this a
lot, but you hear it in religion. People say, well, make Jesus
Lord of your life. You can't do something God's
already done. Jesus is Lord of your life. He's Lord of host.
He's Lord of the living. That's the spiritually alive.
That's the believer. And He's Lord of the dead. That's the unbeliever. He reigns
Lord, sovereign over the host of men. Scripture says over the
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. What
comfort we have. Believer, child of God, what
hope we have in knowing that our God reigns. He reigns and he hath done whatsoever
he wills. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him. So with all the tragedy and all
the troubles that we see in the world and that we suffer sometimes
in our own lives, we know that God is on his throne and he's
doing all things well for his glory and ultimately for the
salvation of his people. He's the Lord of hosts. The Lord
has spoken. Say, speak unto him. We got Joshua
now has golden crown, silver crown, and the other men are
wearing crowns as well. They're going to take off their
crowns and cast them at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
here we've got Joshua now and Zechariah is pointing to Joshua
and he says, say this to them, thus saith the Lord, this is
what God says, behold the man behold the man now in john chapter
19 after pilot in all of his attempts didn't want to crucify the Lord
I find no fault in him and yet in order to please the Jews he
had him He had him a crown of thorns put on his head, a purple
robe put on him. He had him beaten and flogged. And Pilate, not knowing that
he was fulfilling prophecy, brought the Lord Jesus Christ out in
front of the crowd and said, Behold the man. Behold the man. Turn to me to that passage of
Scripture. I want to show you something. John chapter 19. This is the message of every
message. Behold the man. Behold the man. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. What did John the Baptist say?
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.
Every time we preach, we are lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said, and I, if
I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. And so we're pointing
men to Christ and saying, behold, the man Pilate did it. Pilate
did it in fulfillment of the prophecy that Zechariah had written
some 450 years earlier. 500 years earlier, Zechariah, Pilate
now stands with the bloody Christ. Look at John chapter 19, verse
1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple
robe. So what are they doing? They're mocking the Lord Jesus
Christ as king. He's got a crown on his head,
and he's got purple robe, royalty, sovereignty. He says he's king
of the Jews. Look at your king now. They're mocking Christ. and said, hail, king of the Jews. And they smote him with their
hands. Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto him,
behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I
find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them,
behold the man. And the chief priest therefore,
the officer saw him and they cried saying, crucify him, crucify
him. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Men mock
the Lord Jesus Christ as much today and particularly in religion
as they did 2,000 years ago when Pilate presented him with a crown
of thorns and a purple robe and he said, behold, the man. He
was king then. He's king now. So how is it that men mock him? Well, what did that crown of
thorns What did that crown of thorns represent? Go back to
Zechariah chapter six. It was the crown that they put
on Joshua. It was his kingly reign. And
what do men say? What do men say today? Oh, they
may not verbalize it, but in their refusal to bow to the Lord
Jesus Christ, they say in their hearts, we will not have this
man reign over us. And they mock the Lord Jesus
Christ, though he wears the crown, though he reigns as king, they
will not submit to his authority. What about the purple robe? Same
thing. Shows His sovereignty, doesn't
it? And what do men say? What do men say? Are you telling
me that you think that God chose a particular people before the
world began? And that those are the only ones
that are going to be saved? And that God's love is only for
His elect? And they mock that God. And then
they turn around and say things like, well, we're gonna let Jesus
be Lord of our life. Nothing's changed. The world
mocks our God as much today as the Jews did 2,000 years ago
when they said, crucify him, crucify him. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the spirit of all prophecy and he reigns sovereign and he
wears his royal robe and his crown has been placed upon his
head and men will bow now or they will bow then. But that's
the spirit that men have when we say behold the man. Behold
the man. Look. Look at him. Look who he
is. Look what he's accomplished.
And they turn around and they mock him. The second thing we
see here, notice that Joshua didn't, that Zechariah didn't
say behold a man. He said behold the man. The man. There is one man between God
and men. One mediator. The man, Jesus
Christ. There's only one man. There's
only one man who satisfied the demands of God's holy law. There's
only one man that can bear the shame and guilt of our sin before
God. There's only one man that can
satisfy God's holy justice. And God is saying to me and you,
just like he said through Zachariah and just like Pilate, though
ignorant of what he was doing, God is saying to us, behold the
man. Look, look to Him, God's perfect
man. And He is a man. He had to be
a man. A body thou hast prepared for
me. For lo, I have come to do thy
will, O God. and the scepter shall not depart
from his hand. He's the man. He's the man that
was sended back into glory. He's the man who bore in his
body on the tree all the sins of all of God's people. He's
God's perfect man, and he's man's perfect God. The God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all prophecy, all prophecy
points to him. Behold the man. Oh, we don't. We don't mock him. Oh no. No, we bow to his absolute
sovereign mercy. His sovereign grace. Thankful
that he reigns as God. Thankful that we are completely
dependent upon him for all our salvation. and for all our life. That's what faith is. Faith is
beholding the man. The world does exactly what those
Jews did and exactly what the Romans did. They mock the Lord
Jesus Christ. We bow in humble worship and
submission beholding the man, the man. And notice he's called
the branch. The branch. This is a picture
of a tree that's been cut down and a new sprout comes out of
its stump. and uh... it's a picture of the
resurrection of the lord jesus christ it's also a picture of
of of the route that has sprung forth from the from the route
of jesse uh... the lord jesus christ be in the
fulfillment of that prophecy being the son of david being
the savior of israel and uh... and though he was cut down uh... life is still in the root. What did Job say? The root of the matter is in
me, is in me. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
root and he's the one who springs forth out of the root in order
to bring life and apart from him there is no life. There is
no life. He's called the branch. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
4. Isaiah chapter 4. beginning in verse 1. And in
that day, seven women, seven is a number of completion. The seventh day, God rested. Why? Because He was finished.
When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed His head on Calvary's cross,
He said, It is finished. All seven of my brides have been
saved. I'm using that number symbolically.
It's a picture of the whole church, the whole church. The Lord Jesus
Christ actually accomplished the salvation of all his bride
when he said it is finished. And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man. Now who's that man? The seven women of the church.
Who's the man? Behold the man. The Lord Jesus
Christ and all of his bride take hold of the same man. You see,
we don't have a... Paul asked this question in Corinthians. He said, is Christ divided? Is
Christ divided? All these differences of opinions
that men have in religion about salvation and about Christ? Could
it be that what they say is true? Everybody's got a little bit
of truth? Or is it that they're not part of the body of Christ?
They're not part of the bride of Christ? Christ is not divided. All of God's, all of Christ's
brides take hold of the same man. They believe the same thing. And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat of our own bread
and wear of our own apparel. We'll be responsible to take
care of our needs. Only let us be called by thy
name. Oh, we just want you to put your
name on us. We want to be called by your name to take away our
reproach. Jacob was a name to be reproached. He was a, he was a, he was a
supplanter. He was a deceiver. And yet God
took away his reproach when he changed his name to Israel. Israel. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel. God hath provided for us a way
of escape. a way of escape. Christ is that
way of escape and he's called the branch. And all of his brides
take hold of the same man and say to him, oh Lord give us your
name that our name, the reproach of our name might be taken away. Jeremiah chapter 23, turn with
me there. Jeremiah chapter 23 This is a significant name that
the Lord has given for us to understand who he is. The branch. The branch. He's the one who
takes away the reproach of the name that we have by nature. He's the one who's come forth
out of the root of Jesse. He's the spirit of prophecy.
He's the one who has fulfilled everything that God requires
from me and you. And now here in Jeremiah chapter
23 in verse five, behold, the days come sayeth the Lord that
I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign
and prosper. Oh, the Jesus that's worshipped
in religion today is not a prosperous king. He's not even a king. He's
dependent upon you to let him have his way. But this branch is a king and
he shall prosper and he shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. He prospered in establishing
righteousness. He prospered in satisfying God's
holy justice. He prospered in putting away
our sin. And in His days, Judah shall
be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name
whereby He shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah
Sidkenu. He's the branch. That's what
Zachariah is seeing. That's what the Lord is speaking
to him about. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the spirit of prophecy. And he is our life. Turn with
me back to Zachariah chapter 6. So they put these crowns on Joshua. And the Lord tells Zechariah,
point to Joshua and say this, behold the man, he's the branch
and he shall grow out of his place and he shall build the
temple of the Lord. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. Whom do you say that I am? Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. My Father which is in heaven has made that known
unto you, and upon this rock. the confession that you just
made that I am the anointed one, I'm the Messiah, I'm the Christ,
I'm the one who came in the full power of the Spirit of God in
order to fulfill all prophecy and in order to accomplish the
salvation of my people, I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. Oh, what hope we have. The building of the church is
not up to you or to me, it's His church. And he builds one
living stone upon another living stone, all built on that foundation
stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the branch. He's the rock. He's the capstone. He's the foundation
stone. He's the builder of the church.
He's the completer of all things except the Lord build the house.
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build
it. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Believed. I told you I was talking to a
man one time about that verse of scripture. It was on a Sunday
afternoon. I was trying to share with him
the gospel and I brought that up. I said, well, what do you
do with that verse? And he was a Sunday school teacher in a
Baptist church. And he looked at me and he said,
that's amazing. He said, that's the very verse
that we spent an hour in Sunday school class this morning discussing
and we never could understand what it meant. They which were ordained to eternal
life believed. And I said, Howard, it means
what it says. But it doesn't fit what I believe.
Well, then get rid of what you believe. The Lord adds to his church such
as should be saved. And he increases us in love and
in faith and in wisdom and in knowledge and understanding.
He grows us in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the Tower of Babel, everything
that man builds eventually falls apart. Everything. You know, I bet you see signs
for businesses established in 1972, like, you know, so what? I mean, that's good, but, you
know, my point is that a business isn't going to last forever.
Countries don't last forever. Everything that man builds eventually
comes tumbling down. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is built by God and it's the only thing that's going to
stand when everything else falls. When God shakes this earth and
your business and your family and your heritage and all the
things that man has built and it's all going to come to naught.
It's all going to come to naught. The only thing that's going to
remain standing is the church. I want to be a part of that that's
going to stand when God shakes this earth. And everything that
can fall will fall. And the only thing that will
be left standing is that which cannot fall. And the only thing
that cannot fall is what God's built. And so the Lord says, behold
the man. He's the branch. He's the one
that's going to build my church. He shall build, go back with
me to Zechariah chapter six. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. Even he shall build the temple of the Lord. Don't miss the next phrase. Oh
brethren, and he shall bear the glory. You try to discern the truth
from error. There's a lot of error in this
world. All you have to ask is one question. Based on what you're
saying, who gets all the glory? Who bears the glory? All the
glory. Who bears the glory in election? Did God, as some men say, look
down through the quarters of time and see who was going to
choose Him and therefore He chose them? Did God see who was going
to believe and that was His measurement of election? Who gets a glory
for that? Or did God, according to His own will and purpose,
choose a people without any consideration of who they were or what they
would ever do? Who gets the glory? Who gets
the glory? What about in redemption? Who bore all the guilt and all
the shame? Who put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself? Who gets all the glory in paying
the redemption price for his people? Did Christ do it all
by himself? Or does he need me to do something
in order to make what he did work for me? Who gets all the
glory? The scripture says, behold the
man, he's the branch. He's going to bear all the glory. What about in calling? If God
opens my ears and opens my eyes and takes out the heart of stone
and puts in a heart of flesh, if he gives me faith and he makes
me willing in the day of his power, who gets the glory for
that? Did he depend upon me to cooperate with him in order for
him to be able to get that done? He shall bear all the glory. Regeneration, who gets all the
glory? Who causes the dead to live? Who got the glory for Lazarus'
resuscitation? Did Lazarus have anything to
do with that? Lazarus, come forth. Come forth. He got all the glory,
didn't he? Even then, the scripture says
in John chapter 11 that some of those people who knew Lazarus
and saw the Lord Jesus Christ raise him from the dead went
back to Jerusalem and did not believe. No amount of miracle is going
to cause a person to believe. You remember the rich man and
Lazarus? The rich man went to hell. Oh, Father Abraham sent
Lazarus with a drop of water on his finger. Now, there's a
great gulf fix between us. A great gulf fix between us.
What did he say? What did the rich man say? Well,
at least send someone back to tell my brothers. What did the Lord say? They have
Moses and the prophets. If they believe not them, neither
will they believe, even though one is raised from the dead. They've got the word of God.
They're not going to believe. Who gets all the glory for you
believing? Who gets all the credit for you
being able to believe? What about sanctification? People
say, well, sanctification, that's a cooperative effort. Who makes
you willing? Who works in you, causing you
to will and to do after his good pleasure? Who grows you in his
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Who puts
the hatred for your sin in your heart? Who causes you to want
to follow after Christ? Who causes you to love him and
love his word and love his people? You see, he gets all the glory.
If he didn't do that for you, you'd have no interest. You'd
have no interest. Behold the man. He's the branch. He's going to
be the builder of his church. And he's going to bear all the
glory. All the glory. Stand before him in heaven. dressed in that white robe of
righteousness. Where'd that robe come from?
Who gets the glory? All the glory. People talk about there being
rewards in heaven. All that is, is an attempt to
rob Christ of his glory and give some of it to man. If there are
rewards in heaven, other than the reward of seeing Him and
being made like Him. If there are degrees of rewards
in heaven, what is the basis of those degrees? What is the
basis of those rewards? It's based on something you do,
isn't it? I'm going to have a bigger mansion. I'm going to have a
more prominent place in glory. No, the Lord Jesus Christ bears
all the glory. He gets all the glory. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord and he shall bear the glory. And notice, notice,
I liken religion to a team sport. you know, in a team sport, they're
generally a star that really stands out and, you know, he
or she usually accomplishes the play that, whether basketball
or football or whatever, accomplishes the play that causes the team
to win. And when the game's over, who gets all the glory? Who gets
the glory? The star player is lifted up.
But he couldn't have done it without the rest of the team,
could he? She couldn't have accomplished it without the rest of the team.
And that's the way, that's the way a man made religion is. They
point to Jesus. They say he's the star player,
but he couldn't do it without us. He couldn't have won without
us. We had to, he needed the whole team behind him. No. Salvation is not a team sport.
He bears all the glory. He did it all by Himself. And He's not dependent upon any
other member of the team for winning. He got the victory by
Himself. Notice in verse 13, And He shall
sit and rule upon His throne. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ
right now? Well, the Father said, sit thou here at My right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. When the Lord Jesus
Christ ascended back into glory, he took his rightful place. And
when the word of God returned unto God, he did not return void. He returned with the names of
those for whom he lived and died. And he seated at the right hand
of God, waiting for those who are at enmity with him. That's you and I by nature, to
be made to sit at his footstool. And so the scripture says, and
he shall sit and rule upon his throne. It's amazing. The one piece of
furniture that is conspicuously missing in the physical temple
that the Jews had to worship in is the only piece of furniture
mentioned in glory. The only piece. It's a throne,
a chair. The Old Testament priest could
never sit down because their work was never finished. And
we have a high priest who offered himself once to God. and took his rightful place and
now he's seated. What did Isaiah say? When Isaiah
saw the Lord high and lifted up and he was seated upon his
throne and his train filled the temple and the seraphim hovered
over him and cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
The one piece of furniture missing under the law is the one piece,
the only piece, that's going to be in glory. Verse 13, even he shall build
the temple of the Lord, he shall bear the glory, he shall sit,
he's sitting because his work's finished, It's finished. You know, you work hard all day,
it's nice to be able to sit down, isn't it? Finish the work. "...and shall rule upon His throne." Men, in their rebellion against
God, shake their fists towards heaven. And they say, we'll not
have this man reign over us. Truth is, he does. He rules. He rules over creation. I get amused by the radical left-wing
environmentalists who are so concerned about man-made global
warming and all the effects of that. Ought we to be responsible
with with the creation that God's given us, of course. But man's
not in charge of this world. God is. God is. He rules in creation. He rules
in providence. in Providence. That means all
the circumstances of your life and my life are being ordered
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And most importantly, He rules
in salvation. He has mercy upon whom He will
have mercy and whom He will He hardeneth. And He shall be a priest upon
His throne You need a priest. And it is
blasphemy to refer to a man, a man, as a priest. I grew up calling a man dressed
in a robe father, who'd never had children. And we thought
that he was our intercessor, he was our priest. That's blasphemy. There is one priest and it's
not a man, it is the man. And he intercedes on behalf of
his people. And what a high priest he is.
What a high priest he is. Able to sympathize with our infirmities. And the council of peace. shall be between them both. What
both? Me and God. Me and God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prince of Peace. Everybody wants to, you know,
you ask somebody, well if you could have one thing in the world,
what would it be? World peace. I want world peace. That's not
going to happen. There's going to be wars and rumors of wars
until the end of time. World peace is not going to happen. But you can have peace with God. You got peace with God, you got
peace with everything. You know what? Everything's well. I have the man, the branch, the
builder of the church, the only thing that's going to survive
time and eternity, my righteousness. who is also my peace with God,
who has bore my sins and satisfied God's justice and presented himself
on my behalf as my righteousness before God." I can rest there. He's reigning as king, seated
upon his throne. You don't want to change that.
Rebellion against God doesn't threaten God at all, does it?
Why do the heathen rage? Why do they say, let us break
his bands asunder? Why do men resist the rule of
God in their lives? And the Lord says in Psalm 2,
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them. He shall
hold them in derision. He's not threatened by man's
unbelief. He's not threatened by man's
rebellion. The wrath of man, we saw that
Wednesday night in Psalm 77. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. And the remainder thou shalt
restrain. What that means, all the rebellion
and all the wrath of man, God allows, He's going to use for
His glory. And what He can't use for His
glory, He's not going to allow to happen. Now that's our God. Behold the
man. The testimony of Jesus. is the spirit of all prophecy. To know Him is to have life. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. If we're going to know Him, we're going to have
to lift Him up, aren't we? He's going to have to lift Himself up in our hearts.
Alright, let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father.
Thank you for your word and Lord give us ears to hear. Call us
by your grace. Enable us to believe on Christ
to rest all the hope of our lives and our salvation in him. The
Prince of Peace. Or it's in his name we ask it. Amen. All right, number 18, let's
stand together, number 18. We sing the refrain just as if
it was verse two. ? God gave his holy inspired word
? For only one great end ? The prophets and apostles too ? Reveal
the sin The Bible is a book of Christ. It only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record,
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth the woman's seed. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types, the great redemptions
show Christ's blood and grace Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's unasked man has come. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. th th