Let us turn again to God's Word. Turning now to the book of Psalms.
I'll read the second Psalm. Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine of anything? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together. against the Lord and against
His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His sword His
pleasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, I
will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a putter's
vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye
judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear. and rejoice with
trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. I'm sure many of us probably
all of us at some stage yesterday were watching something of the
pomp and ceremony of a coronation service and of course the word
coronation literally refers to the crowning of a monarch the
corona being put upon the head of that person who is to be the
king. But there is also another part
of the ceremony and probably the most important of all the
different aspects of the coronation and that that we do not witness. If you were watching it of course
you will have observed how when it came to the anointing The
sight was hid from the eyes of all those watching, be it through
the media or be it there in the Abbey. The solemn anointing of
the King. And in this psalm, of course,
we read of God's King as the anointed. And I want us tonight
to consider for our text the passage really from verse six
through eight. And those words in verse six
in particular, yet have I set my king, or as the margin indicates,
the Hebrew literally is anointed, yet have I anointed my king upon
my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The
Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son this day, have I begotten
thee? Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thine possession." These three verses, but in particular
the opening verse, those words in verse 6, is what I want us
to consider. And what do we have in this passage?
We have the proclamation of Christ's kingly office. The proclamation
of Christ's kingly office. The psalm is evidently a messianic
psalm. It's a prophecy of the Lord Jesus
Christ and there's no disputing that fact when we come to the
New Testament. There in the book of Acts in
chapter 4 At verses 25 through 28 we see how the Apostles in
their prayer to God make reference to this second Psalm in relation
to the Lord Jesus. Acts chapter 4 and verses 25
through 28. And then later again in the preaching. They mention
the Psalm in prayer but also in preaching in Acts chapter
13 and verses 32 and 33 where we have some detail of the sermon
that was preached by Paul at Antioch in Pisidia. He there
makes reference to Psalm 2 and applies it directly to the Lord
Jesus and so We know quite clearly who is being spoken of in the
psalm before us. We have the authority of God's
Word. The New Testament Scriptures
interpret for us the Old Testament. And I want to take up some three
headings, three points. First of all, to consider the
proclamation that God is making. and then to say something about
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and then finally to say
something about the people who are the subjects, the true subjects
of this King. First of all we have the proclamation
of God and that is said before us here in verse 6. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion. God himself is the speaker. It's the word of God. It's the
book of Psalms and many of the Psalms of course are Psalms of
David and it seems probable that this second Psalm is also one
of David's Psalms. And interestingly when we turn
to that passage that I referred to in the in the fort of Acts,
there in prayer the Apostle says, by the mouth of thy servant David. The Apostle then ascribes David
as the author of this psalm. It's what God said. God said
it but he said it by the mouth of his servant David. And remember
when we come to the end of David's life there, in 2 Samuel 23, we
have the last words. The last words of David, who
was a king in Israel, he was the sweet psalmist of Israel,
and he goes on to say, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and
his word was in my mouth. David quite specifically, directly
then reckons that he is one who has God's words in his mouth.
He speaks the very words of God and he speaks them here in the
psalm, in all of his psalms. It's not so much the words of
David, it's the word of God. He's one of those holy men of
God who speak as they were moved by the Spirit of God. He's not
then uttering his own thoughts, his own ideas. What is he doing? He's speaking God's words. And
how emphatic it is here in this verse. Yet have I set my King
upon my holy hill of Zion. There's really a repetition here. More literally, the Hebrew is,
I, even I, have set or have anointed my King upon Zion. Well this is the word of God
concerning one whom he refers to as my king. Observe in the passage something
of the power and the authority of God. He is that one who is
said to sit in the heavens. Again in another psalm we read
how God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. But it's interesting to observe
the context here. What do we see in these verses,
the opening verses of the Psalm? We read of all the heathen in
their rage, in their vain imaginations, the kings of the earth setting
themselves, the rulers taking counsel together against the
Lord, it says, and against His anointed. Let us break their
bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. This is the attitude
of the sinners of the world. When the Lord Jesus, the one
who is being spoken of in the psalm comes, he comes unto his
own, his own receive him not. He's a man of sorrows, he's acquainted
with grief, he's rejected of the people. And that's what we're
reading of here in the opening part of the psalm. But then the
contrast. We have all those ragings, those
vain ragings of men and it all sets over against God and the
purpose of God. Verse 4, He that sitteth in the
heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them
in His wrath and vex them in His hot displeasure. Oh, here
we see something of the power of God and the authority of God. What does it matter what men
may say? All the ravings of the unbelievers. God's Word stands. God's purpose
is to be accomplished. He says, the heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool. Yes! have I set my king. It matters not that they dispute
God, that they dispute the truth of the sovereignty of God and
God's absolute sovereignty. Why we read in verse 7 of his
decree, I will declare the decree. God is that one who has appointed
all things. He is that one who is sovereign
over all the affairs of men, all the inhabitants of the earth
are accounted as nothing. and he doeth among the armies
of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth that that is pleasing
in his sight and it's a proud ancient emperor Nebuchadnezzar
who is brought to make that acknowledgement and that confession there in
Daniel chapter 4 though all is settled and the
interesting thing here in our text is the opening word that
we have yet and there's a certain force in
that very word it emphasizes the fact that what God does cannot
be under he does according to his pleasure He accomplishes
all His goodwill and pleasure. His decree, His determinate counsel
can never be overturned. Yet, have I said my King, anointed
my King upon my holy hill of Zion. It is God who is speaking. And who is the God who speaks?
Well, it's the triune God. It's the only living and true
God. The great pity, of course, in
the coronation yesterday was that there had to be that ecumenical
aspect, there had to be even that multi-faith aspect. The
monarch is one, of course, who some say
is a convinced Christian. He's no Christian at all, really.
He will embrace all faiths and every faith and wants to be the
defender of all faiths. and doesn't see the uniqueness
of the Christian faith that has to do with the only living and
true God. It is this God who is speaking
here in verse 6, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That's not the
God of the Jews, that's not the God of the Muslims, That's not
the God of the Hindus, but this is the God who is speaking throughout
the scriptures and certainly speaking in this particular text. And the proclamation that God
is making in the text concerns a certain person. And who is
the person? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the amazing thing. It concerns the Eternal Son of
God, But it concerns the Eternal Son of God in His mediatorial
office. It concerns Him as that One who
has humbled Himself and taken upon Him the form of a servant
who is made a little lower than the angels. He has not taken
upon Him the nature of angels. He has taken upon Him the seed
of Abram. It's the mediator. It's the God-man. that is being spoken of. The
anointed King who rules and reigns in His grace. And then what follows,
of course, in verse 7 is the response of this mediator, this
King in Zion. And what does he say? I will
declare the decree The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee. And so we have to consider the
person of this particular individual who is anointed king. And what
do we see? We see here certainly something
of his deity. We see that he is in fact God's
Eternal Son. We've considered this 7th verse
on previous occasions. And remember the significance
of the language that is being used. He says, This day have I begotten thee. Oh, this
is what the Lord God says concerning Him who is the Eternal Son of
God. He is the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. This day,
not yesterday, not tomorrow, but this present day, this present
time, it's the eternal day that is being spoken of. Because He
is that One who is the eternally begotten Son of the Father. He is the Son of the Father in
truth and in love. And the interesting thing is
that this verse is taken up in that remarkable passage that
we have in the opening verses of the epistle to the Hebrews. There are a number of scriptures
that are quoted in that particular passage. We'll just turn for
a while to the manner in which the Apostle opens that great
epistle addressed to Hebrew believers. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in time passed unto the fathers by the
prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high. being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. For unto which of the angels
said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee." There's the quotation you see from Psalm 2. And that's
7th verse. And again, I will be to him a
father and he shall be to me a God. Quoting 2nd Samuel 7 verse
14. And scripture after scripture
is being quoted here. Verse 6 again, When he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all
the angels of God worship him. Deuteronomy 32, 43. And of the
angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits,
and his ministers a flame of fire, that Psalm 104 verse 4,
but under the sun he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever. The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of Thy kingdom. And that's a quote from Psalm
45 verses 6 and 7. Now if you've got Bibles with
marginal references, you can look up all those various quotations. But how Paul is clearly establishing
to these Hebrew believers, these Christian believers who are Hebrews,
the truth that this Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the eternal
Son of God. He is the Christ, the Son of
the Living God. And when he brings him into the
world, what does God say? Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. He holds a scepter. Yesterday
of course there were very different aspects
to the coronation service but amongst them there is a presentation
of a scepter that speaks of kingly authority and the Lord Jesus
as a scepter of righteousness. He is the One who is being spoken
of, and He is the One who is speaking here in the seventh
verse, and here He is declaring the blessed truth of His eternal
Sonship. You shall declare His generation. No, it's an eternal generation,
eternally begotten of the Father, whose goings forth have been
from of old, from everlasting, If there is an eternal Father,
there must of necessity be an eternal Son. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. The eternal Father
must have an eternal Son, and this is Christ. He is there in
the beginning. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. You're familiar, again,
the tremendous opening passage of John's Gospel. How striking
are these opening words there, and the opening words that we've
referred to already in the epistle to the Hebrews, setting before
us the wonder of the person. of the Savior, God's King. I have set my King, He says. And the King responds, I will
declare the decree, the Lord has said unto me, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten Thee. But as He is the Eternal
Son of God, so in His coming into this world
we see Him as the Son of Man. the word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten
of the father full of grace and truth well this is the great mystery
of godliness that is the mystery of religion the mystery of real
religion God was manifest in the flesh who being in the form
of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of man. He becomes a man. And as you know it's all the
the wondrous outworking of the eternal covenant. that great council of peace between
them both, between the Father and the Son, witnessed by the
Spirit, that in the fullness of the time God would send forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. He comes as God's
King, but He comes to serve. I came not to be ministered unto,
He says, but to minister, and to give my life a ransom for
many. Oh, he's the Lord's servant. God calls him my servant, behold
my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighted,
I have put my spirit upon him. This one who is anointed as king
is also anointed as servant. He comes to serve the Lord God. How strange is this. He's my
servant, says God, and then here in verse 6 He says, He is my
King. And He is King here in a singular
manner really. We know that God is King over
all things. He is Sovereign. And that is
God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. But here we're reading, in Scripture,
of the Lord Jesus. He is God, yes, but this is the
God-Man. This is the Mediator. And He is that One who is appointed
as Saviour. And what does God say to him?
He goes on, verse 8, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth,
for thy possession who is appointed to be the Saviour of sinners
and appointed to be the Saviour of sinners of the Gentiles he
comes unto his own that is the Jews, his own receive him not
and you know how it is in the Acts of the Apostles how Paul
and his associates They turn from the Jews and they turn to
the Gentiles. Well, this is that great mystery
that God reveals with the coming of the Gospel that salvation
is for those who are at the outermost part of the earth. Even those
who are the heathen ones can have an interest in this great
salvation. that is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
is appointed to be Saviour. Ask of me, says the Lord God,
and I will give thee, I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
How does Christ come into the possession of these people? He
lays down His life, and He does it at the command of God. He lays down His life to be the
Saviour of these sinners. And this is what God has commanded.
Therefore does my Father love me, He says, because I lay down
my life that I may take it again. No man takes it from me. I lay
it down of myself. I have power, I have authority
to lay it down. I have authority to take it again.
This commandment. Oh, this is what God commanded.
This commandment have I received of God. He is doing the work
of God, the bidding of God. God has anointed Him as His King
and put the scepter in His hand. The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of Thy Kingdom. What does He do? He rules in
the hearts of His people and He rules with that scepter of
grace. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's the promise that the Father
has given to him. Oh, he comes and he accomplishes
a great work, a remarkable work. The glories that belong to his
person. We're to fear God and we're to honor the
King. We must remember that. We're to honor the King. We honor
the office. the man who occupies that office might not be a very
morally upright man but we're still to honor the office that
that man holds but when he comes to the Lord
Jesus the person who is occupying the office of king is such an
honorable person such an honorable man remember the language that
we have In another psalm, in Psalm 24, where we read of the
ascension of the King, and the glory of the King, you know the
language there at the end of the 24th Psalm, Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. repetition
lift up your heads over your gates even lift them up you everlasting
doors and the king of glory shall come he who is this king of glory
the lord of hosts he is the king of glory sealer time and time
and time and time again we have this name given to him he is
the king of glory and here we read of his glorification Who
He is, He is ascending. And the question is put there
in verse 3, isn't it? Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? But who shall stand in His holy
place? And the answer, He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, and hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. How honorable this person is.
who can ascend into the hill of the Lord. This is a man who
is a sinless man. He hath not sworn deceitfully.
Remember how at the coronation the monarch takes oaths, makes
promises to uphold the Protestant and Reformed religion in every
part of Israel. But does he mean what he says?
Does he mean what he says? Well, as they say, the proof
of the pudding is in the eating. We'll see what happens. But he
does not bode well. For the first time since the
Reformation, a papist was taking part in the coronation yesterday.
So it's an immediate denial of the oath he's already made. The
confusion, you see, of the day in which we live. But, oh, this
one who is the king of glory he hath not sworn deceitfully
or there was no descent in his mouth he had entered into a solemn
covenant with the father and what does he do? he comes not
to do his own will but the will of him who had sent him to finish
his work and he comes and is obedient and He's obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross, the accursed death of
the cross. He didn't swear deceitfully at
all. He's true to His word. He's this
King. But then also we're told concerning
this King He has a pure heart and has not
lifted up His soul unto vanity. Oh, Christ reminds us, doesn't
he, it's out of the heart that the mouth speaketh. And his heart was a pure heart.
His was a sinless human nature. Adam, Eve, they were both created
sinless. They were made in the image created
after the likeness of God but both Adam and his wife Eve, they
sinned, they transgressed. And who can bring a clean thing
out of a non-clean? We're all conceived in sin, we're
all shaped in iniquity. We're all born dead in trespasses
and sins. And so, this one who is the King
of Glory, when he is born, must be born by a miracle, to preserve
him from every taint of that original sin. And so what does
the angel say to the Virgin Mary? The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore
also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. That human nature that was joined
to the eternal Son of God was a holy, sinless human nature. Who can ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Who can stand in His holy presence? He must have a pure heart and
not lift up his soul unto vanity, as well as being one who is faithful
to His words, true to His promise. He has not sworn deceitfully.
He has a pure heart. But He also has clean hands.
When we think of hands, well, hands is what we use to do things.
And what did the Lord Jesus Christ do? Well, doesn't Peter, when
he's preaching there in the house of Cornelius, the Pentecost of
the Gentiles really, the giving of the Spirit, the coming of
the Spirit to the Gentiles. And Peter speaks of Christ, of
course. That's a subject matter of his
ministry. And he speaks about Christ going about doing good. Oh, he did good. He was holy,
he was harmless, he was undefiled, he was separate from sinners,
he was made higher than the heavens. He was a good man who did good
things. And isn't that the character
of God as we read in Psalm 119? Thou art good, says the Psalmist,
and thou doest good. And we see God manifest in the
flesh doing nothing but good, doing good to men. Oh, He has
a scepter of righteousness, and it's a scepter of grace, and
He comes to reign in the hearts of His people. And when he has
accomplished all that work that the Father has given to him,
what does he say? All power, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you, and though I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. Oh, he has all power. He is that one who was ascended
now into the heavens. And what does the Apostle say?
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and
a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins. Oh do you want repentance tonight? You feel sin is such an awful
burden. You want to be rid of this sin. How can you be rid of it? You
have no strength of yourself to repent. He gives repentance.
He gives repentance. And with it He gives the forgiveness
of sins. But you say, well, yes, but what
about faith? How can I ask in faith? He that
cometh to God must believe that He is, says the Bible. and I
haven't got any faith to ask for repentance." Well, he doesn't
just give repentance, he gives faith, doesn't he? He's the author
and finisher of faith. And for the joy that was said
before him endured the cross despising the shame and he sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He has authority
and ability to give faith, to give repentance. And he's that
one who has been appointed as a Saviour. Or this king in Zion,
he's the Saviour of sinners. He has the scepter of grace. But then also, he is one who
rules over his enemies. And he rules over his enemies
with a rod of iron. Verse 9, Thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a putter's vessel. Again, it's similar to the language
that we find in the 110th Psalm. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. He doesn't just rule in Zion. He rules over all his enemies.
He's the head over all things to the church. You think of that. He is over
all things for His Church. Every single individual believer
in His Church is over everything for you if you are a true child
of God, a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. No enemies
can prevail against you. And you see He is not only appointed
to be the Saviour He is also appointed to be the Judge. What
a King is this! He is able to save to the uttermost.
And He does that in this Day of Grace. But there won't always
be a Day of Grace. There is another day coming.
There is a Day of Judgment. And He tells us, doesn't He,
in John 5, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment to the Son. and hath given him authority
to execute judgment, it says, because he is the son of man. It's because of who he is as
a man. It's Christ you see as the God-man.
It's Christ in his mediatorial office. He is to sit on the great
throne of his judgment at the end of time and make that final
separation between the sheep and the goats. and send each
to their appointed place. Oh, this is the person who is the king, God's
king. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. He is God's. And as God, of course,
he was always king, but now he's also man. and He has ascended
heaven as the God-man and He is now ruling and reigning as
God and man. That's the wonder of it. That's
the wonder of it. Christ in His mediatorial offices. God's proclamation. The person
of God's King. I have anointed my King, He says.
Where? Upon my holy hill of Zion. Or do we not here see who his
people are? You know, you read about Zion,
don't we, in the earlier part of scripture when the children
of Israel go into the Promised Land, they had to rid that land
of all the nations that were there, the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites. And one of the great bastions
of Jebusite rule was the Mount Zion. And Israel could never
quite take Mount Zion. And it was not taken until the
days of King David. And when David took Zion, he
made Zion his capital. There are the two mounts, of
course, there in Jerusalem, Mount Zion and Mount Moriah. We read that passage about the
building of the Temple of the Lord. Solomon's Temple was built
on Mount Moriah, that was the very mount of course which in
Genesis 22 was the place where Abraham took his son, his only
son Isaac, and took him at God's command to offer him upon that
mount. And that was where the temple stood, Mount Moriah,
but Zion was the city of David. The city of David. But what is
the significance of that city of David? It's the place where
God has said He's King. My holy hill of Zion. And of course it's typical. It
speaks of the people of God. And where is it that this King
really demonstrates His power? He demonstrates His power in
the lives of these people they brought to submit to Him. They
are made willing people in the day of His power. We know there's no such thing
as free will as the Armenian understands it. Because God's
will is always sovereign. But God doesn't save His people
when they're unwilling, He makes them a willing people. You're a Christian, why? Because
you want to be a Christian. You've not been forced against
your will in a sense, you've been made a willing subject of
this King Jesus. This is what he does, he makes
his people a willing people. And who are these people? Well, they're born in a state of alienation
to God, they're enemies of God. They are separated from God by
their wicked works. But Christ has been ascended,
has been raised to the right hand of God in order to minister
to these people. Again, the language of Psalm
68. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive.
Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for thee rebellious
also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. And again,
we know that that psalm is messianic because those words in verse
18 are quoted by the Apostle in Ephesians 4 and verse 8. He refers to that very verse
in the psalm concerning the ascension of Christ. He's ascended on high
for a purpose. He's received gifts and to whom
does he bestow the gifts? to rebels, those in a state of
terrible rebellion against God. Sinners, sinners. And people
who oftentimes feel themselves to be so utterly outcast. He will bring them to Zion. Look at the language, for example,
that we have in Isaiah. There in chapter 56, Isaiah 56 and verses 7 and 8. Even them will I bring to my
holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted
upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for
all people. The Lord God which gathereth
the outcasts of Israel saith yet will I gather others to him
beside those that are gathered unto him. Another language of
course is it's Old Testament language, it's an Old Testament
prophecy Isaiah. So it speaks in language of the
time but it's speaking of the gospel day. Christ himself said
my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people, for
all nations. And who are those that the Lord
gathers, the outcasts? Oh, it's those who are the far
off, the heathen, those at the uttermost
part of the earth, as we have it here in verse 8. These are
the ones whom he calls to be his willing subjects. It's sinners, and it's sinners
of the Gentiles. And it's the greatest sinners.
The greatest sinners probably the world has ever known. These
are the very ones that the Lord is pleased to save, such is His
grace. And what does God do with these
people? Well, here we learn they are constituted a holy people. They are constituted a holy people. He has anointed, He has set His
King upon, He says, My holy hill. It's the holy hill of Zion. As He which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is
written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Lord, you want to be holy. Wasn't that the prayer of that
dear, gracious man, Robert Murray McShane? He would pray to God,
Make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. I want to be as
holy as a pardoned sinner can be. We're always carrying about
with us this body of sin and death, we feel this old nature,
this old man, the good that I would I do, not the evil that I would,
not that I do, but do we want to be holy? We sometimes sing
those words of dear Joseph Hart, reign o'er us as kings, accomplish
thy will. and powerfully bring us forth
from all ill. Or do we mean it when we sing
it? We want Him to reign over us as King and deliver us from
all our sins and deliver us from ourselves. And this is the one
who can do it, of Him, i.e., in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that as it is written, let Him glory in the Lord. they're a holy people and you
say well I'm not very holy but he makes them holy you see he sanctifies them doesn't the
Lord pray for them? sanctify them through thy truth
thy words is truth but they're also the heirs of
God these people You remember how in Hebrews 12
we have the two mounts? We have Mount Sinai and we have
Mount Zion. And under that imagery the Apostle
speaks of the two covenants, one from Sinai, one from Zion. One is the law and the other
is the gospel. And what does he say? Look at
the marks that he speaks of with regards to those who come to
Manzion. Hebrews 12, 22. Ye are come unto
Manzion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirit of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. Oh, amongst the Mark you see,
he speaks of them coming to the General Assembly and Church of
the Firstborn. All of them are born again, born
of the Spirit of God, and all of them are treated as the Firstborn.
Now, what is the right of the firstborn? The firstborn has
the inheritance. They are heirs, these people.
Heirs of God. They are joint heirs with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the Lord Jesus is the Son
of the Father in truth and in love. He is the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. But God has other
sons. There are adopted sons. And because you are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son in your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a Son, and an heir of God through Christ. All to
be those who are subject to this King. Because all His subjects
are heirs. They're heirs of all that glory
but belongs to Him who is the King. God says, God makes a proclamation,
Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zioth. Oh, and the
King responds, I will declare the decree the Lord hath set
unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask
of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Oh
will we, will I, will you have this king to rule over us? Would
you have this king to rule over your hearts and submit to all
his kingly authority and to bow to his scepter? Oh God grant
grace that we might be those who would be the willing subjects
of him who is the king of kings. and the Lord of Lords. Lord be
pleased to bless to us his word. Amen.