I intended to preach on verses
1-4 tonight, but probably, Lord willing, I'll preach on verses
1-1, because I just couldn't get out of verse 1. Thus saith
the Lord. You know, it's easy to pass over
that, and we probably usually will without much comment. But
this is why we're here tonight. This is why we have worship services
because God has condescended to speak to sinners. God has
spoken. God spoke in time past in diverse
manners unto the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son. And we have his recorded word
in the Bible that we hold. and read and study from, but
God still speaks. He speaks by this gospel to the
hearts of his people. He'll speak tonight. I trust,
I pray he's been gracious to do that as we meet together.
I believe when his gospel is preached faithfully and his spirit
is present and I believe that the Word of God goes forth, thus
saith the Lord, not me, not you. I have no opinions on God's Word. It's not thus is what the Lord
meant. It's thus is what He said. This is what God said. He doesn't speak everywhere.
He doesn't speak to everybody. But God has a message for His
anointed. He says, I say this to my anointed. And in his anointed,
he speaks to all those in him. And his message is the gospel.
We call it the gospel. It's good news. What God has
for sinners is good news. He came not into this world to
condemn the world. We were already condemned. And
he sends his book. His word not to condemn us, although
our condemnation is clearly spelled out in the word because of our
sin before God. But we're condemned whether God
speaks to us or not. I'm grateful to not that he speaks
because it's a message of mercy. For a sitter like me, it's a
message concerning his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything
about Christ is good news. That God sent his son, that God
in human flesh came and dwelt among us, that's good news. The
first words out of his mouth recorded the beatitudes. He didn't
come down here and say, curse it, are you all? He said, bless
it. Blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness blessed are the poor in spirit
Good news. I want to look at with you tonight
Hebrews chapter 3. Let's look at it together Hebrews 3 Verse 16. I want to read through right through
the end of this chapter into the next chapter a little bit.
Look at Hebrews 3.16. For some, when they had heard,
did provoke. How be it not all that came out
of Egypt by Moses, but With whom was he grieved forty years? Was
it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they
should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? They heard good news. God said,
I've prepared a land for you, flowing with milk and honey.
And all they heard the message, they heard the gospel that we
hear. that God has blessed his people
in Christ. But look at verse 19, so we see
that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore
fear. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. The gospel was preached to the
Israelites in the Old Testament, of course it was. God's never
saved sinners but one way. There can't be any salvation
without the gospel. Please God through the foolishness
of preaching to save him, I believe. They heard the gospel just like
us, but it didn't profit them, those Israelites. Generally speaking
there was that remnant in there not all remember he said we first
started reading there Hebrews 3 16 not all of them now, but
most of them for the most part they Didn't believe God they
provoked God they murmured against God And they couldn't enter into
his rest But the word pre the gospel didn't
profit them not being mixed with faith and and them that heard
it. That's how God saves a sinner.
He speaks, and then He gives you faith to believe what He
said. To lay hold of Christ, who is the message. Everything
that God... He's spoken. God, who in sundry
times and diverse manners spake in time, passed unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son. But He has always spoken unto
us of His Son. Everything the prophet said concerned
his son. It's the gospel concerning his
son, which he spake from the beginning, Romans chapter one,
verses one through three. It's not new. Thus saith the
Lord. So God speaks, he speaks good
news. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. Good news that there's
salvation for sinners in Christ, salvations of the Lord. And it's always been a message
of free grace by the precious blood of God's
Son. And every true gospel preacher
Preaches this way, thus saith the Lord. We're just finding
out what God said. Together, that's what we do here.
We just want to know what God said. If I can find out what
he said, I'll know what he meant. Because he means what he said.
And it's clear, isn't it? Paul said, seeing that we have
such hope, Seeing that this is eternal life and eternal death
And that there's such hope for sinners such glorious Salvation
in Christ. We use great plainness of speech.
I don't want to muddy that up. I Don't want to muddy that up Here's what God said and he doesn't
say it to everybody But here's who he speaks to to his anointed
To Cyrus Now Cyrus was the king of Persia who God used to conquer
Babylon Darius and Cyrus there's a little ambiguity as to the
timing of their reign but Cyrus was involved in the overthrow
of Babylon which resulted in God bringing his people Israel
back to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity back to Jerusalem. But spiritually speaking, when
the scripture speaks of God's anointed, there's only one that
it can be speaking of. And you just have to see why
it's referring to Cyrus as God's anointed here, because God's
anointed is Christ. Why is it using the name Cyrus,
though, to speak of God's anointed? Because spiritually, what did
Christ do? What did God send his son to
do? To conquer his enemies, his people's enemies, and bring his
people home. He was made a curse for us. How
does that scripture go? That he might bring us to God.
He died the just for the unjust. Why? To bring us back to God. Bring us back into communion
and fellowship with God. To restore unto us all that was
lost in Adam and much more. So that's why he's called Cyrus
here. He's anointed. To conquer and
to bring. That's what our Savior did. To
conquer sin. To conquer Satan. To conquer
every enemy. To accomplish salvation as our
champion, our David. Our Cyrus to bring God's people
back to Jerusalem. What's Jerusalem? The city of
peace. He made peace by the blood of his cross. I live in Jerusalem.
You didn't know that, did you? Yeah, you did. You knew that. We live in the city of peace. There's one place where peace
with God can be had, and that's in Christ. Into the kingdom,
into himself. So God speaks to his son here. He speaks to his anointed. And
what I thought he spoke to us, he does through his son. What he says to his son is his
message to us. He speaks through and by his
son. I just quoted it from Hebrew.
He hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Remember
what the Lord Jesus was he said several times I believe John
14 10 listen to this Believest thou not that I am in the father
and the father in me the words that I speak unto you I speak
not of myself God gave his son his message And sent him to give
it to us. He is our great prophet Speaks
for God. He said I don't speak it of myself.
I Not as a man, but as God. As the messenger of God. As the
Christ of God. The anointed. The very word Christ
means anointed. So we know who he's speaking
to here. We just had to find out why he's calling him Cyrus.
And that's why. Because Cyrus is the one who
conquered the enemy and brought the people home. Brought his
children home. The Father that dwelleth in me,
he said, he doeth the works, in that verse there. So the first
mention of anointing in the Word of God is in Exodus 28, 40. Let
me read it to you. And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt
make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets
shalt thou make for them for glory and for beauty. You see, these men are going
to picture, they are going to be the priesthood, the earthly
priesthood. because again they represent Christ our great high
priest who offered sacrifice who represented the people of
God and listen and you'll put these clothing this these things
upon them for glory and for beauty and thou shalt put them upon
Aaron thy brother and his sons with him and shalt anoint them
that's the first use of the word and consecrate them and sanctify
them. That's what the anointing signified.
The holiness, the set-apartness of the priest that they may minister
unto me in the priest's office. So Cyrus here is mentioned in
the same way that Aaron represented Christ in Exodus 28 as our great
high priest. Who represented the people in
the most holy place only the high priest could go into the
holy of holies Only a day of atonement once a year not without
blood And Aaron went in there and clearly Is a picture and
a type and and by him god reveals to us the significance and the
glory and the beauty of christ our great high priest who represented
us in that holy of holies not made with hands. And he had somewhat
to offer, just like Aaron did. But it wasn't the blood of bulls
and goats. It was his own precious, sin-atoning blood. By the blood
of bulls and goats, no man can be justified before God. But
by the blood represented by that blood, all whom he shed it for
will be justified. So Cyrus is mentioned here in
that sense, the anointed, my anointed. Cyrus is the king who vanquishes
Israel's enemy and brings all of the people of Israel home.
God says, that's my anointed. That's who that represents. And
I, thus saith the Lord to him, Cyrus means possess thou the
furnace. Possessor of the furnace and
that's who our Lord is In Revelation 1 18 he said I
am he that liveth and was dead and Behold, I'm alive forevermore
and have the keys of hell and of death He is the possessor
of the furnace. I And the Lord said to his disciples
in Matthew 1028, fear not them which kill the body but are not
able to kill the soul, but fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. Fear him. He's the possessor
of the furnace. And of course you remember when
the three Hebrew children were thrown into the fiery furnace. There was a fourth in there with
them. They came out without even the
smell of smoke on them, but he didn't come out. And that picture's
how our Lord went into the furnace. And he had to bear the heat of
that furnace, the furnace of God's wrath alone. We get out
scot-free. We don't even smell like a furnace. But he was the burnt offering.
That's why they walked out. Because he didn't. Of course,
he arose and arose victorious, but we had to bear the full wrath
of God for our sin, pictured by that firmness. So in listen
to this, whose right hand I have holden, whose right hand, my
anointed, whose right hand I have holden. If you look up that word
holden in the original Hebrew, you'll see a continuation of
what we're saying, the clear message of what This teaches
it means simply to give power to Whose right hand I have given
power to That's God's anointed the Lord Jesus said in Matthew
28 18 all power is given unto me The father gave all power
into the right hand of his son In heaven and in earth this is
the one who speaks to us he brought the word from the father God
said thus saith the Lord to mine anointed and he sent his anointed
and he came saying thus saith the Lord he speaks to us by his
son and he's the one who has all power and he said you go
and preach in my name that you know what that means he gave
me Commission to go and say thus saith the Lord. That's what it
is to preach in his name to preach what he preached and To get up
and say, you know, not not here's what I think but thus saith the
Lord That's speaking in his name And when he did he said all power
is given unto me the one in whose right hand God's anointed all
power is given unto Speaks and sends us to speak and still speaks
tonight as we've said already in John 17 to What's the what? Why does he speak? Why would
he speak to sinners? Well, you remember what John
said about that? He said many things that are written in this
book that our Lord Jesus did The whole world couldn't contain
the books that should be written if we wrote everything but these
are written that you might believe And does that agree with what
our Lord said in John 17 2 as thou has given him power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life To as many as thou
has given him We believe unto life eternal by the hearing of
this word From him who has all power from God. That's what our
text is teaching just as clear as a bell we know That it that
that's what that word means by what's said next All power Whose
right hand I have given power to What's the next phrase to
subdue nations before him? Now our Lord subdues now you
say well, that's the That's the defeat of all of his enemies.
Yes But I'll tell you what it what more that is. I'm glad that's
not all it is. He subdued me, too He subdues
his friends, too Everybody's bowing Everybody's getting down
in the dust He's also do friends and enemies and they did one
of the differences is the friends are gonna be happy about it They're
gonna rejoice. Thank you Lord for breaking me
and putting me in the dust and showing me Yourself in your glory
as my king my sovereign and my Savior a just God and a Savior
To subdue nations before him. He's gonna subdue everybody before
him The Lord Jesus Christ is the
King of Kings. Every king has a king. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Lord of Lords. Every knee bows sooner or later
at his throne, and every tongue shall confess, I'm not Lord. He is. And the reason we have to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, that's what we denied in the garden.
We denied his sovereign right to tell us what to do. I'll be
his God. I'll decide what's good and evil.
No, you won't. You're gonna act like God. If
you're reprobate, you're gonna thank your God for 60 or 70 years,
and then you're gonna find out you're not, and the one who is
is gonna put you in hell. But bless His name. He delights
to show mercy to sinners. And if you're an eternal object
of His mercy in Christ, you're going to act like you're God
and think you're God for a little while. But one day, He's going
to show you before you die that you're not and that He is. And
you're going to bow. And you're going to say, Lord,
what would you have me do? What would you have me do? Have you bowed to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you realize that that's what
salvation is? It's not some kind of a cooperative
effort between you and God or his son. It is a submission. Remember what Paul said about
the Jews? They have not submitted to the
righteousness of God. And what did that cause Paul
to say? My heart's desire and prayer
to God is that he would save them. Salvation is submission
to God's Christ, God's righteousness in Him alone. Do we acknowledge
Him as sovereign? Most people will at least to
some extent acknowledge Him as sovereign over creation. He created
all things. He teaches the hens to calve.
You ever think about that? Just the little things that happen
that we're not even aware of. We talk about this every once
in a while. You know, man says if a tree falls in the forest
and there's nobody there to hear it, does it still make a sound?
Of course it does. God's there. Man being there
is not the be-all end-all of what happens. There's a whole
lot happening where I'm not and that I don't know anything about.
And God is directing the course of everything, the ant and the
whale. The stars hang at his command. He's sovereign in creation. He made everything. Without him
was not anything made that was made. And it does what he tells
them to do. Animate and inanimate. Not a
pair of dice can be rolled, but what he is not the disposer thereof. The one who decides what numbers
come up. I'm glad of that, aren't you?
I say, you know, most people will will admit that he's sovereign
over creation, but they don't admit that, do they? They'll say it's written in the
stars and things like that, but they won't give God the glory
for determining everything in his earth, will they? They won't.
And then providence. He's sovereign in providence.
Every contingency, every circumstance, everything that happens. You
know why you're here tonight? Because God is sovereign in his
providence. He brought you here. And then,
of course, God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners. He
said, I'll have mercy on whom I will. Now, if you want mercy,
you don't have to get it from the one who has mercy on whom
he will. You're not going to get it by
chance or by you fanning the spark into a flame. You don't
get it from the sovereign God who bestows mercy upon whom he
will. And he'll harden whom he will. He'll withhold it from
whom he will. to subdue nations before him.
I am subdued. And look, you know, this flesh doesn't
want to bow still. But as a whole, as a person,
I am subdued before the Son of God, and I'm glad of it. He is
my king. I can't do anything without him.
And if I could, I wouldn't want to, by his grace. I wouldn't
want to. And I will loose the loins of
kings. Now this happened literally when Cyrus conquered Babylon.
This actually happened. The event that took place in
Daniel chapter 5. I don't want to be brief tonight. I really do. I say that a lot
and then I'm not able to. But I want to be. It's important
for you to know that I want to be brief. But you remember that
God wrote on the wall. The king of Babylon was boasting
and they had a big party and they used the cups and the implements
that God had or that were consecrated and sanctified to be used in
the service of God in the temple. And they took those things and
they were drinking wine and getting drunk and partying with them
and and God wrote on the wall And the king, you know, he's
trying to find somebody that'll Let's turn over there. I can't
tell the story right let's turn over there Daniel chapter 5. I want to read at least part
of it to you Daniel chapter 5 Verses well, let's just read
verses 1 through 6 Because it said in our text there I will
loose the loins of kings and he's talking about Cyrus and
he's talking about this event of the overthrow of Babylon by
Darius and Cyrus And listen chapter 5 verse 1 Belshazzar the king
made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before
the thousand Belshazzar Whilst he tasted the wine, commanded
to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar
had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king
and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein."
Now they were already drinking wine. Why in the world did they
need those vessels from the temple? People just deliberately just
go out of their way to blaspheme God, don't they? Just no reason
for it. No reason whatsoever for it except
the depravity of our wretched hearts. They could have gotten
drunk just as well without that. And then they brought the golden
vessels, verse 3, that were taken out of the temple of the house
of God, which was at Jerusalem. And the king and his princes,
his wives, and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine
and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron,
of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers
of a man's hand, and roped over against the candlestick upon
the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw
the part of the hand that roped. And then the king's countenance
was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints
of his loins were loosed, and his knees smoked one against
another." So it can't be a coincidence that Cyrus is mentioned here,
and that he said, I'll loose the loins of kings. But listen
to this. Notice that it doesn't say, I
will loose the loins of a king. He's not referring just to Belshazzar
here. Not just Belshazzar because this
is a picture. This is a picture of God putting
fear into the hearts of all who defy his Christ. That's what
those vessels represented. Those were consecrated to the
service of God in picturing and honoring and revealing and in
the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about that
temple was Christ. And that's why anything that
defiled, any fleshly use of anything, it was consecrated. It was made
holy, separated for that purpose only because it represented Christ
in His glory. And when man blatantly sinned
against that, God took it very personally.
When Belshazzar died, I believe that very night, Daniel was able
to interpret what God had written on the wall. You've been weighed
in the balances. And you came up short. You came
up short. All who defy God's King God's
gonna loose their loins Their knees are gonna crack together
like Belshazzar's did Sooner or later remember Psalm 2 I was
gonna read Psalm 2 to you tonight and you know, we may we may do
that anyway, but let's let's God has set his king upon his
holy hill of Zion. Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? You know, Satan whispered that vain thing in our ear in
the garden. You shall be as gods. You're
going to be somebody. You're going to be a big shot.
You're going to call the shots. Why would you think that's true
when God is still on his throne? He was on his throne the day
Satan whispered that. And he's on his throne today.
And he's still going to be on his throne the day that every
knee that ever walked this earth bows at that throne. So the people
imagine a vain thing. And they rise up against God's
holy child, Jesus. And they rebel against the king
rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says that God in that
chapter, Psalm 2, it says that God's going to laugh at them.
He's going to laugh at them. And then when he's had a good
laugh, he's going to bring them down.
He's going to bring them down. And then he gives some very good
advice at the end of the chapter, doesn't he? Oh, you kings of
this earth. And we all think we're the king,
don't we? We're all the kings of our little
realm walking around until we find out who the real king is.
He's not just talking to people that were Crowned king literally in this
earth. That's all of us all of us haughty
proud self-righteous sinners He said be wise take counsel
now kiss the Sun Kiss the Sun lest he be angry And then he
closes it with this Everybody that puts his truck their trust
in the key and the king everybody who pledges allegiance to the
king of heaven and earth who God anointed and raised and crowned
and It's going to be just fine with you. You're going to be
fine. So every king will tremble before God's king. And that's
everybody that considers themselves kings in their pride and rebellion
against God's true king. If you rebel against the king,
what does that say about you? You think you have more authority
than the king. And that's every blasted sinner by nature. All
of the bluster and opposition and rebellion of man is just
the accomplishing of the will of the King. Remember Acts 4,
23, 30? Everybody, Jew, Gentile, Pilate,
Herod, all of them stood up against thy holy child, Jesus. And everything
they did, all that Brother Moose talked about this morning, as
they spat upon him and ripped his beard out and plowed his
back and punched him in the face. Just every possible way that
they could show their contempt toward him. What else could you
do? Besides punch somebody? Just
rip their back open and their face and their brow and mock
them and spit on them. They were doing exactly what
God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done. When they
were mocking him as king, They had no idea. They were mocking
the king. They wrote it above his head,
didn't they? They couldn't help themselves. They told Pilate,
don't put that, take that down and put up there that he said
he was king. I'll say what I have written, I have written. God arranged everything that
happened that day. today and today But on that day that was the
day of days That was the hour the hour came to pass And then it will close with this
thought to open before him the two leaved gates When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and The gates are going to swing open. And this may again have
direct reference to the gates of Babylon being opened. And
if you read that story and a little bit of history and in the scriptures
about how that happened by the trickery, by the ingenuity, by
the logistic, the tactics of the king of Persia and the army
of Persians, they tricked him into opening the gate. and the
one who would kill Bashazar and that army was able to just march
right through that gate. So he may be talking again making
a literal reference to Cyrus but this is spiritual language
still and this may refer to the gates of Jerusalem being opened
which are open to receive the Jews home because that was the
result of that other gate being open. But here's the truth of
it. Everywhere the Lord Jesus Christ
goes, the gates are going to fly open. He opens and no man
can shut. And when he shuts, no man can
open. And Jerusalem, again, the city
of peace, that represents the church. I believe this is talking
about the gates, the leaved gates of the city of Jerusalem that
are flung open and the people are able to come home. Old Jerusalem,
the city of peace, represents the church, the presence of Christ.
Old Jerusalem represents New Jerusalem. Revelation chapter
21. Let's turn there together. And
we'll close with this. The gates are going to open.
And they're not going to be shut. They're not going to be shut.
Revelation 21. Revelation 21 and I saw a new
heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away and there was no more sea and I John saw the
holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men
and he will dwell with men. He will dwell with them and they
shall be his people and God himself shall be with them. That's stressed. He says that twice, doesn't he?
He'll be with them. He's going to tabernacle with
them. He really said it three times, didn't he? and he shall
be with them, and the God, God himself shall be with them. God is with us now. He sent his son, his very name
is God with us. And yet, Paul said in a sense
to be present in this body, to be at home in this body is to
be absent from the Lord. So this is stressing that this
is not talking about in a sense in some We're not gonna see him
then through a glass darkly, but face to face. We're gonna
be with him. He's gonna be with us, that's
the way it puts it. He's gonna be with us. And God,
verse four, shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne, the anointed, the one who subdues
all nations before him, said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto
him that is a thirst of the fountain. of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. I
will give him that's thirsty of the fountain of the water
of life freely. I wanted to stress that part
of the passage because of what I'm going to read next in Revelation
22, 17. And the spirit and the bride
say come. And let him that heareth say
come. And let him that's thirsty come.
He just said I'm gonna give everybody that's thirsty. Are you thirsty? Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after Christ. Are you thirsty? I'm gonna give everybody that's
thirsty a drink of that river of water of life. Talking about
Jerusalem now remember our text Jerusalem the gates, you know
what it means when he says come and drink come the gates are
open They're open before him He's
the one that opened he's the way he's the reason they're open.
The gates are still open Our Lord Jesus Christ by the death
that he accomplished at Calvary. There's a river inside those
gates now And the Spirit and the bride
say come and drink freely from that river. By the death that
our Lord Jesus accomplished at Calvary, and by virtue of all
power being given unto him, I will give power into his right hand,
our text said. He has all power in heaven and
in earth, and by virtue of that power and that precious blood,
he hath opened the gates of heaven. That's what this is a picture
of. To all for whom he died. He was
given power. Why that he might give eternal
life to as many as thou has given him And he did He accomplished
it on calvary. The gates are swung open wide
There's a river inside there and he says come and drink and
the bride says the same thing And let him that's thirsty come
And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.
That's our Lord Jesus Christ. The gates are still open tonight. Nobody can shut them except Him.
And by His grace, He hadn't done that yet. He hadn't done that
yet. Let's pray together.