Good morning. I don't mind telling
you that this is the hardest place for me to speak. And I'm thinking that that probably
is true for all of those of you who attend here and preach among
your peers. It's hard to preach among your
peers. I'm nonetheless relying on this simple fact that what
we do here this morning makes no sense. a sinner speaking to
other sinners, a message that none of us understand, by which
God saves sinners and reveals Christ to. And if the Lord will
be pleased this morning to grant me to speak the word that he's
given me, I trust he'll do that again today. Now speaking from
Hebrews chapter one, and my subject is the scepter of the king. Let's begin with verse 7 of Hebrews
chapter 1. And to the angels, he says, the
one making his angels' spirits and his servants a fiery flame. But with regard to the Son, your
throne, O God, is forever and forever. The rod, the scepter
of uprightness, is the scepter of his kingdom. You loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, anointed
you with oil of gladness above your fellows. Let's pray. Father, we would join our hearts
together this morning and fall at your feet and proclaim you
king. We regard ourselves, Lord, in
your side as nothing, creatures of but dust and ashes. Lord,
if we are in any way allowed to be elevated above our flesh
elevated Lord above its lusts, elevated above its pride, elevated
Lord above all of our imperfections and stains, it's because the
King has raised us up. And we pray, Lord, that you would
make him known this morning and that he would be among us this
morning and that he would bless his people and open our eyes
and cause us to worship at his feet. And may we rejoice that
we are privileged to do so. For it's in Christ's name we
pray, amen. The only Jesus, little J, the
only Jesus known through the false Christianity that's preached
everywhere these days is certainly a frail, a weak, a despicably
feeble Jesus. He's more one to be pitied, certainly
not to be worshiped. By their own admission, he's
one who cannot enter unless they're willing to let him into their
heart. That's a quote, I'm quoting them.
One who cannot lead unless they decide to let him have his way. I've heard that before. One who
cannot reign unless they agree to make him Lord of their lives. What a pitiful, what a pitiful
Jesus. The scepter of this one's pathetic
kingdom is promoted to be his love. But what a strange love
it is, for there's no saving power in it whatsoever. Jesus loves you is their message,
but by their own admission, he can't save you if you don't let
him. That's about like telling a corpse,
listen, I'll get you all the medical attention you need if
you'll just tell me where it hurts. A God of such futile love is
unknown in the scriptures. The Bible only knows one kind
of divine love, the kind that will not be denied, cannot be
quenched, cannot be rejected, The kind that has never failed
from the foundation of the world to save and redeem every single
sinner upon whom it has been set. Now that's the love of God. Now I want you to listen clearly
now as we focus in on what this passage teaches about the King.
Love alone, even divine love, is insufficient of itself to
save sinners. Though the psalmist says, and
I agree, that his banner over me is love, that is not the scepter
of his kingdom. Kings do not rule by their banners.
They rule by their might, of which their scepters are the
evidence. The invincible saving power which
guarantees that the love of Christ can never go unfulfilled That
scepter is his righteousness. The scepter of righteousness,
that verse said, is the scepter of his kingdom. And that word
translated righteousness is actually a different word than is normally
translated that in the scriptures. This is the word uprightness. The fact that it's immediately
followed, as you can see in verse nine, by that phrase, speaking
of the king, you loved righteousness, that shows that there is obviously
an intimate link between uprightness and righteousness. Don't turn
this morning, you can look that up this afternoon, but this verse
is taken from Psalm 45, six, and there it reads very clearly.
The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. a scepter of
rightness. Now, the relationship between
uprightness, uprightness is to righteousness as what one is
is to what one does. He who is right does righteousness
and does righteously. Here then is the absolute power
of the King's scepter, that Christ who is immaculately right, in
every aspect of his being cannot fail to execute his will in absolute
righteousness. He who is right will surely do
righteously. If salvation then is by the supposed
free will of a sinful human being, Christ's righteousness means
nothing in salvation and we reign. We reign by the sheer evidence
of our own self-determination. We reign by our own free will.
If, however, salvation is by His righteousness alone, He reigns. And we find ourselves at the
mercy of the King of Glory. Those who lay claim to salvation,
maybe some of you are here today, yet insist that Christ cannot
reign over them unless they let him, are mistaken as to the origin
of three spiritual essentials of which only our King is capable,
life, faith, and righteousness. He's the King of life, the King
of spiritual life. He's the King and the Lord of
faith. and He is the Lord of righteousness.
And that is the essence of my message this morning. Let's start
with Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1. Ephesians 2, 1 presents the Lord
of life. This is why you cannot believe
yourself into salvation. You cannot work yourself into
salvation. It's because we are dead. Look
in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. And you hath He quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Not maimed, not severely injured,
not someone who was not able to do everything but could do
something, but dead, dead in trespasses and sins. He goes
on to describe what the essence of that deadness is. Wherein
in time past you walked according to the course of this world.
accorded to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation, our behavior, our way of life
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, by nature,
children of wrath even as others. Dead in sins is not a decision. Dead in sins is not a lack of
knowledge. Dead in sins is not a lack of
desire. Dead in sins is being spiritually
dead. It's someone who is by nature. A dead in sins is a nature. It's what we are. It's how we're
born. It's the way we come into this world. It's what we received
generation by generation from Adam. The moment Adam sinned,
he died. He died. He became a dead man. He could
no longer comprehend God's word. He could no longer hear the voice
of the Holy Spirit. He no longer could walk with
God. He was dead. Being dead in sins is not a decision
you made. It's the nature you were born
with. It's what we are when we enter into this world. No, we
are dead. We have no capacity for spiritual
thought. That's why what we do here, week
in, week out, proclaiming the gospel, trusting that God will
save a sinner, is an absolute oxymoron. Because you can't hear. Our hearers can't hear. They're
dead. No, only God can do that. It's being incapable of spiritual
thought. It's being incapable of spiritual life. And it's being
incapable of works acceptable unto God. No, He is the Lord
of life. Only He can bring us out of that
state. Not only is He the Lord of life,
He's also the Lord of faith. I'd like for you to look with
me at Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Faith is a
decision? Never. No, not at all. Can a
dead person make a decision? I guess no. He can't even make
a decision whether or not to stink. He can't even make up
his mind about that. No. No, faith is not a decision. Faith is a revelation. Look with
me in Romans chapter 1 verse 16. Paul writes, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. for it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to
the Greek now look at this verse 17 for therein in the gospel
through the preaching of this message of the truth of Christ
therein is the righteousness of God revealed, and look at
how it's revealed, from faith to faith. Now those two prepositions,
isn't it amazing how so much meaning of God's word hangs on
such little words? Little words. That passage literally
says, the two prepositions there, revealed out of faith into faith. Now what's that mean? What is
this thing of faith? How is it I come by this? Well,
it's Paul says it's because of something he does that takes
us, that comes to us out of faith and leads us into faith. But
what is this out of faith revealed out of faith? I'll tell you exactly
what that is. Faith is the work of God. If you believe, if you
were here this morning and you believe that God saved you because
you chose to believe, you have absolutely no idea of the saving
grace of God. If you believe that because you
somehow got enough information in your head, you were able to
put the pieces together and that you've been able to arrive at
the correct answer, you figured it out, you knew nothing about
faith. That person, that soul who finds himself so absolutely
dead in sin as to be incapable even of believing the truth of
the gospel, trusting Christ, A loan for salvation is an absolute
impossibility for us. Our kind, our kind is not able
to perform those duties. We cannot come to the king and
bring him what he asks for, not even faith. Oh no. No, faith
comes out of a work of faith that God himself must do. Did
you find yourself believing a gospel that you've never heard before,
and when you heard it, you didn't think that could be right? And
yet somehow in a message somewhere, because that's the way God saves,
somehow in a message somewhere, God crossed your path with a
message that salvation is all of grace and none of you. And
you found yourself, not only could you not believe your way
in, you couldn't choose not to believe. You couldn't keep yourself
from believing. I remember those days. I remember
I heard Henry Mahan preach four questions for the thoughtful.
I must have listened to that tape a half a dozen times. And
I did not want it to be true because if it was true, all of
my salvation was nothing. All of my supposed ministry was
nothing. All of my missionary work was
nothing. Everything I believed was nothing. I didn't want it
to be true in my flesh. And yet he would not let me believe
anything else. My faith is in spite of myself.
What about yours? He made me a believer because
I know I didn't choose him, he chose me. No, it's out of a work
of faith that he must do, and yet into a work of faith that
becomes my own. It's his work. It's his faith. We can talk in those terms. It
is his faith. It's his gift of faith, and yet
he gives it to us. It's our faith. I believe, Bob,
don't you? I really do. I really do. I can
claim no glory for it. I don't have anything to do with
it coming about, but I believe with all my heart that Jesus
is the Son of God and by His life and death and righteousness
alone I'm saved. I believe that with all my heart.
I have no other hope. No, He's the Lord of faith. You
can't produce it and I can't produce it. Look over in Romans
chapter 4. Here we find again in the story of Abraham. We see
again that it's not of us this thing of faith. Look at verse
19. And being not weak in faith,
he's talking about Abraham when God had promised him a child.
He did not become weak in faith. He considered not his own body
now dead. Now, what that says is it says that he considered
his body to have already died, to be incapable of having children,
but yet he didn't pay any attention to that. He looked beyond that.
And when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but look at this, but he was strong. I wish the translators
had translated that tense correctly because it's a passive tense.
Passive tense is that verb where you have something happen to
you but you don't do it. He was not strong in faith. To
translate it strong in faith makes it sound like Abraham was
different than us. He was no different than us.
But the word is he was strengthened in faith. Where's your faith
come from? When you get it all straight
in your head, or you get yourself all pumped up and feeling good,
or you hear the right song, or listen to the right message preacher,
you're feeling good. Oh no, our faith does not come
from within us. It starts as a gift and it continues
as a gift. And if we are strong in faith,
it's because he strengthened us in faith, just like Abraham.
Oh no, he was strengthened in faith. Here's the evidence of
the fact that he claimed it not as his own, he gave the glory
to God. And being fully persuaded, there's another passive verb.
He didn't figure it out, God persuaded him of it. Being fully
persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform,
and therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now
it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also. to whom it shall be imputed if
we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our offenses, was raised again for our justification.
Let me pause there for just a minute in verse 25. That preposition
for is also translated about the same amount of times in the
New Testament as because. And I think because serves the
meaning much better here. Christ who was delivered because
of our offenses, it certainly wasn't because of any of his
own. He was delivered because of our offenses, and he was raised
again because, because he put those sins away. He was raised
again because he was successful in his work. Now listen, he was
raised, he was delivered because of our offenses, was raised because
he successfully put them away, and therefore, verse five, or
chapter five, verse one, therefore being justified. Commas, as you
know, were not a part of the language of the original scriptures.
Those were placed by translators sometime later to try to help
make the passage read smoother. I believe they absolutely put
this one in the wrong place. I think they absolutely missed
it on where they put this comma. Therefore being justified, comma. Why for? Why for? Because he
was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification,
therefore being justified. That's all of our justification.
When you hear people, you know, and I always, I always feel a
little tense when people start talking about the grand old doctrine
of justification by faith. And I believe that doctrine,
but most of the people I hear who talk about being justified
by faith, believe they were justified because they believed. That has
nothing to do with the grand old doctrine of justification
by faith. If you're justified this morning
because you believe, then how can you be looking to Christ?
How can you be trusting in him alone if it's because you believe? Oh, no. No, because he was delivered
for our offenses and because he was raised successfully for
our justification, therefore being justified. That's all of
our justification. And look what comes after that.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. No, our justification, this faith
that brings us into a justified relationship and keeps us into
a justified relationship with God is of His doing, entirely
His doing. Look at one last passage with
me back in the Gospel of John, chapter one. The Gospel of John chapter 1,
verse 10. Speaking of Christ, John 1.10,
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not. He came unto His own, that is,
He came into His own creation, and His own, that is, His own
people received Him not. But as many as received him,
now that sounds like a contradiction. We did or we didn't? We didn't,
but then we did. We didn't by nature, but then
we did by his divine grace. No, but as many as received him,
to them gave he power. The word there is authority. He authorized them, that's what
kings do. Kings give the authority to do
or to not to do. He authorized them to become the sons of God, even
to them who believe on his name. How did they arrive at that? Did they arrive at that by a
decision? Did they arrive at that by a work of faith that
they produced? Did they arrive because they were smart enough
to figure it out? They listened more intently to the preacher?
They read the Bible more often? No, no. These were people who
arrived at faith because it says in the very next word, they were
born. They were born. What did you
have to do with your birth? I remember we used to tell a
joke at the house. People would talk about, I know
where I was born, know when I was born, because I was right there
when it happened. That's about like the foolishness
of religion. But the truth of the matter is, we had nothing
to do with our birth. Not physical, and certainly not
spiritual. If you've been born again because
you, and you can fill in that blank check any way you want
to, but you can't cash it anywhere where it counts. No. Who were born Birth is something
that we are so absolutely passive in, get no choice. Did the Lord
ask you who you want to be born to? No. Did he ask you where
you wanted to be born? What nationality you wanted to
be? Did he give you a choice? No, you are who you are by divine
providence. And you're saved if you are by
divine providence. He births whom He's pleased to
birth, when He's pleased to birth them into this spirit, into this
world. He's pleased to make new creations in Christ Jesus at
His own discretion. He's not only the Lord of life
then, but He's the Lord of faith. Don't let this foolish world
deceive you. The very moment you hear someone preaching an
if-you salvation, an if-you gospel, if you'll believe, if you'll
just believe, it'll all be okay, turn that mess off. Turn that
mess off. That is the opposite of the gospel
of Lord Jesus Christ. It does not honor Christ. That's
that weak, despicable Jesus who's counting on you to win. He can't
win without you. My Lord won without me a long
time ago. And I'm just riding in his train.
I'm just riding in his train, giving him all the glory, giving
him all the praise. I'm so proud of him. He's everything
in my salvation. He's the Lord of life. You can't
produce it yourself. He's the Lord of faith. We can't
work it up. And he is the Lord of righteousness without which
no man shall see the Lord. Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter
18. God will not receive human imitations
of righteousness. He will not tolerate in His courts,
He will not tolerate a man or a woman's personal righteousness.
This world speaks a lot of righteousness, most of the time they add that
word to it, they talk about personal righteousness. personal righteousness. And what they mean by that is
that's something that they've worked up. Something that by virtue
of working and trying to control their lusts and their habits
incurred their appetites and somehow they feel like they've
gotten a little better and better. God will tolerate none of that
in his courts. Fastest way to hell is to come before God with
your righteousness. Look at verse 9. He spoke this
parable unto certain who trusted in themselves. That ought to
tell us enough that this is the wrong kind of righteousness.
They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And they
despised others, obviously, that they considered weren't righteous.
Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee,
one of these self-made righteous people, and the other a publican. most despised in the country
because of their thieving, dirty, conniving ways. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself. The Holy Spirit is so wonderful
in his revelation of the truth. Isn't that such an insight into
this person? He prayed with himself. God,
I thank you. I'll give you the praise, even
though I'm the one who did it. God, I thank you that I'm not
as other men are. And I can almost see him turn
around and look at this guy standing behind him. Not as other men
are. Extortioners, I don't take other people's money like he
does. Unjust, I don't charge more for tax than I ought to
like he does. He said, oh, I've lost my place.
Adulterers, like he is, no doubt he takes all the extra money
that he extorts from people and he probably shacks up with women.
or even as this publican, that's who I'm talking about, Lord,
I'm not like this man. I, on the other hand, fast two
times a week. I give 10% of everything that
I have. He said, I'm a righteous man.
And obviously he was making his case before the King of glory. Lord, surely you ought to receive
me. Surely you ought to be thankful
to have someone like me in your kingdom. No, no, it won't stand. It won't stand. Probably my greatest fear as
I go through this world, my greatest fear is that that very same spirit
that was in that man, resides in me and I cannot get rid of
it. I can't. I try. Wish it would
go away. Can't. I've not been able to
pray it away. I've not been able to convince it away. It's there. It's there. I'm ashamed to admit before you,
but it'd be a lie for me not to. I never bit the Pharisee
this man was. I have things that my flesh holds
on to and clings to that I feel at times that if my flesh were
to have its way, it would walk right up to the very courts of
heaven and present them before the king and say, what about
these? What about these? I've done this and that and the
other. I've got this and that. Aren't they, isn't this decent?
They're not like they used to be. Oh my. God will not receive
human imitations of righteousness. He will not tolerate them. But
look at what he said. He went on down after he had
made his spiel, the publican. The publican standing afar off. I believe the publican heard
that Pharisee talking about him. I believe he saw him looking
at him. I believe he heard his description of him, and I believe
it killed him. I believe it killed him. I believe
so much it killed him that he was afraid to come close to the
altar. I can see that Pharisee, but he's right up there, just
right at the altar, just right there, proud, strong, receivable,
acceptable. Here's a guy way back in the
back, and he says every time that Pharisee would say something
about him, he said, that's right. You're a cheat, I am. You're
a liar. I am. You rob people. I do. I do. You're an adulterer. I
am. He stood back there, and he wouldn't
dare come close. And it says all that he could
do. Wouldn't even look up to pray, but he just beat upon his
chest. Lord, it's true. God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. Isn't it interesting that in
God's word, only sinners are made righteous and the righteous
are proven to be sinners. I tell you this man, this man
who brought nothing before the king, this man who made no pretense
before the king, this man who knew what he was and asked for
mercy, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other for everyone who exalts himself shall be abased, and
he that humbles himself shall be exalted." What about you? What about me? Where does your
righteousness come from? Is it of your own making? Is
it of your own production? Is it one that maybe you think
Christ gave you, but you've done a lot of polishing on it? And
you've done a lot of enhancements to it? Oh my. May God rid us
all today of all of our vain and foolish religious attempts
at presenting a righteousness to God that's better than Christ.
If you need more than what He provides, it's like one old lady
used to say, I knew back early in my life, you're crippled way
too high for crutches. There's no help for you, no help
for you. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four. Ephesians chapter four, verse
20, but you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you've heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that you
put off concerning the former conversation, your former behavior,
the old man. who's corrupt according to the
deceitful lust, that's our natural flesh, and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man. Now here is how a person comes
by a new righteous man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Two things, there's two things
then that we've seen so far today that we have no power of. Birth
and creation. We might take what is and modify
it somewhat or try to shuffle things around and make it look
to be better. That's the religion of this world. We may try to
turn over a new leaf and try to become a different person,
but that's birth and we can't do that. But neither birth nor
creation is within our grasp. We cannot do either. No, where
does righteousness come from? Righteousness is a divine creation. What a miracle is that? What
a miracle is that, that a man who walked this earth 2,000 years
ago somehow could so bear my sins in his body on the tree.
That the Bible says of Him that He was made sin for us and that
He actually made us the righteousness of God in Him and that He created
in us, made us new creations in Christ Jesus. There's our
righteousness. That's the only righteousness
this world will ever know, is the righteousness that He brought
to it and makes sinners righteous. Righteousness is a work of creation.
And finally, I'd like for us to look at one last verse in
1 John chapter 2. Just like life, just like faith,
the same is true of righteousness. You've got to be born to it.
Look at verse 29. If you know that he, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is righteous, and we do, You know that everyone
who does righteousness, everyone who has been made righteous and
who clings to righteousness as their only hope, every one of
them is born of Him. Born of Him. You know, when God elected a
people before the foundation of the world, it was a righteous
act to do that. A lot of people argue with it.
A lot of people say, God can't do that. That would be unfair.
But it was a righteous act. Do you know why it was a righteous
act for God to choose his people? Because he chose us in him who
is right. It could not be wrong for him
to choose us in him because he is absolutely upright. Not only
that, when it was the father's goodwill to predetermine the
events of the lives of his elect in such a manner that not a single
one can fail to be saved, that was a righteous act. because
it was predestined through that one who reigns by his own flawless
righteousness. It was right. You can argue with
all you want to, but it was right for God to do that. When the
Holy Spirit sought us out from among our peers, saving us and
leaving them in their sins, giving us the knowledge of the truth
and leaving them in their error. It was righteous. It was righteous
because we were quickened through union with him who is gloriously
and wonderfully upright. It was right for the Holy Spirit
to move and save his own and pass by others. It was right.
Whatever he does is righteous because he is wonderfully upright. It is the scepter of his kingdom.
and the guarantee of our salvation. May today we be made to worship
at the feet of our King. Let's pray.