Amen. All right, turn again with
me to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. Entitled this message, The Assurance
of Christ's Throne. The assurance of Christ's throne. My text will be found in verses
six and seven. He says, thy throne, O God, is
forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Assurance of Christ's throne. I've got Three things that I
want us to see this morning. I want us to see first of all
assurance. I want you who believe on Christ
to know how sure your salvation is. I want you to know because
it is entirely based upon the success of Jesus Christ. It's
not based on anything you can do or will do ever. It is totally based on his success. And the manifestation of his
success is what? His throne. His throne. Surely, a kingdom is only secure as its
king. If the king is dethroned, the
kingdom falls. If the king fails, the kingdom
dies. Christ is King. God is indicting
a good matter concerning things He made, He purposed, concerning
the King. Jesus Christ is the King. The King. And so our salvation is infinitely
tied to this throne. If this throne fails, we die. If this throne succeeds, We succeed. And I want you to know that this
throne is sure. Can't be moved. Now, then I'm
going to give you a little back. We're going to go back a little
bit, and we're going to see this after Christ, the appointed king. God gives him a mission. Gird
on thy sword, O Most Mighty. Ride prosperously. This is the
command of God concerning His King. Go and ride successfully. And so after Christ had come
into this world, after He had conquered all the enemies of
His Church, after He had suffered, in obedience to God upon Calvary's
tree, after He has shed His blood for the remission of sins, after
He was buried in a borrowed tomb for three days, and rose, He
rose again from the dead. The resurrection is vital because
it manifests the success of Christ. Had He not risen from the dead,
there would be no salvation. This is why it's necessary for
Him to manifest this to us. He rose again according to the
Scriptures, and because of this, therefore by His death, He conquered
death. By His death, He had put away
our sins forever, by the sacrifice of Himself. And God was so delighted, God was so delighted with His
work, that He not only raised Him from the dead, He sat Him
down on the throne of God. Christ is ascended to the throne
of God. And this is the manifestation
of the salvation of all His elect. So after Christ had done this,
God has now highly exalted His name. How high is the name of
Jesus Christ? Listen, it is above every authority. The name, when you read that
name, I want you to understand it's not just saying a name.
People say, in the name of Jesus, do this. No, that's not what
it is. It's not just a name. He's talking
about authority. His authority is above every
authority. He has given Him a name, He is
highly exalted, given Him a name above every name. That at the
authority, the name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Christ is set upon His throne.
It is above every throne. It is above every creature. It is above all principality
and powers. Our King rules everything. Think of a thing, he rules it. Anything, anything you think
of and everything you can't think of, he rules. There is nothing
that happens outside of his command and decree. You got that? Nothing. That's how sovereign he is. That's
how much he rules over all things. And He does this. He rules over
all things for this one purpose. The glory of God. That is His
purpose. And what is the glory of God?
It is this, the salvation of His people. The glory of God
is manifest in the success of Christ in saving His elect. that not one of them should perish,
but every one of them should come to faith and repentance.
Now we who believe on Christ have this testimony in our hearts.
His spirit, His spirit testifies with our spirit. What? That He's
Lord. He's Lord. He's God. We believe
on Christ. That verse just above our text,
thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies,
whereby thy people fall under thee. When his arrow of the gospel
struck my heart, I fell under his rule. I was struck by my
sin. I was struck by my need. And
I found in Christ all that I need. All that I had need of to stand
before God I found in Christ. And we bow before Him. We now
submit to Him as King. And at this point I must warn
everyone who will not submit, who will not bow, Everyone who seeks to share in
his glory. This is somebody who thinks that
salvation is a combination of something Christ has done, plus
something that I do. What you are doing is trying
to share in his glory. He will not have it. That's not
bowing. That's not bowing. Go to Romans. Romans 10. Go to
Romans 10. Look at verse 2. Now Paul's talking
about his brethren. He said this, these real religious
people. I tell you what, I've seen some religious people, but
I haven't really seen religious people like these Jews. Paul
said, I bear record that my brethren, they have a zeal of God. Religion in our day has a zeal.
There is no doubt about it. They are zealous. They are zealous
in religion. But notice this, they are zealous
but not according to knowledge. Imagine you find yourself in
a room that's completely dark. You cannot see. And you're trying
to make it through the door. You are zealous to get to the
door. What are you going to do? If this room was dark and you
were zealous to find a door, you'd be running into everything.
That's what religion does. They just run into everything.
They don't know. They don't have any light. They're zealous, but
they're blind. To what? For they being ignorant
of the righteousness of God. Men are ignorant of how to be
righteous. So what do they do? They go about
to establish their own righteousness. They go about to be righteous
by what they do and how they say things and what they think. They seek to be righteous before
God by their obedience to some law or some works or some religious
creeds. They're ignorant of the righteousness
of God because you can't get the righteousness of God by these
things. They're ignorant of that. So
what's the result? Have not submitted themselves. to the righteousness of God.
They have not bowed to Jesus Christ, who is himself the righteousness
of God. If I'm going to be righteous,
it is only by his righteousness I'm going to be righteous. For
Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness. To who? To everyone who submits. To everyone who believes. That's
what it is to submit. It is to forsake your way. It is to forsake your thoughts. And it is to bow to Christ as
all your righteousness. To bow to His blood as all your
offering to God. That's what it is to submit. One day, all those who will not
confess Christ as Lord, they will. They will confess, but
not to salvation. They will confess in hell that
he is Lord. He that believeth not shall be
damned. I remember what Spurgeon said
about that. He said, it is as though it is written in hell,
shall be damned forever. shall be, shall be, shall be
constantly forever damned. But you that have bowed the knee
to Christ and submitted by faith to him, we have submitted to
him who is seated on the throne of God. The Scripture says in Revelation
22, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the
time is at hand. Remember at the beginning of
the book of Revelation, Jesus had opened the seals of the book.
He had loosed the seals of the book. By His works, by His obedience
to God, He has made salvation for His people. The door is open
today is the day of salvation. The book is not sealed. It's
open. And Christ has sent us to testify
of him that liveth and was dead, and now he is on the throne living
evermore. Behold, believers, our Savior
has subdued both the power of death and hell, and we who have
believed on him are to take great comfort that our Redeemer is
now living. When he says, Thy throne, O God,
is forever and ever, this secures this thought in our minds that
Christ is forever living. Our Redeemer liveth, and God
has set him over all things to make our salvation sure. His throne has been established,
and all who are saved by him shall be kept by him. Again, our salvation is only
secure as what? His throne. How secure is His throne? Look at Romans 8. Now, we who
have submitted, I want you to know how sure. I want you to be sure of this. That His throne is established,
therefore your salvation is established. Look at verse 33. The apostle
asked a series of questions here. You who are troubled. These are
good questions. Paul says this, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies it.
Now consider what He just said. Who shall make an accusation
of sin against any of God's elect? Who shall accuse me of sin? Now
wait a minute. You watch me just a minute and
you'll be able to just point out a bunch of them. If you just
give me a minute, you can point out a lot of my sins. How can
He possibly say that? But God says it. He justified
me. If you want to make an accusation
against me, then you got to deal with Him. He justified me. Look at this. Second question.
Who is He that condemneth? Now how can you condemn somebody
until you make an accusation? You can't make an accusation,
surely you can't condemn them. But we do it all the time. I
condemn myself often. Who is He that condemneth? Listen,
here is the hope. It is Christ that died. You see here, what God did is
He charged Christ with my sin. See, you can't accuse me of sin
because God already accused Him of my sin. God made Him to be
sin for us. Who knew no sin? He charged my
Savior with my sin. And not only did He charge Him,
He condemned Him. He condemned Christ for my sin. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me whiter than snow. How precious is that? When His
hands were pierced, and His side was pierced, and His crown of
thorns was placed upon His head, It was not a physical suffering
that tormented my Savior. It was hell itself. It is Christ that died for my
sins. But how do I know it was enough?
Yea, rather, is risen again. You see, God couldn't raise Him
from the dead if He had sin left. If there was still sin that He
did not pay for, He still would be in the grave. But because
there was no more sin, no more charge, no more condemnation,
God raised Him from the dead. And what did He do? He sat Him
on His throne. Look at that, sat Him on the
right hand of God. Exalted Christ to the throne,
who also maketh intercession for us. You see what the work
of my King is constantly? Because I know this, I still
have sin. I know that. My experience as
I walk through this life, I still have sin. I can only see this by faith.
I can't see this in the mirror. You can't see it by looking at
me walking in front of you. You can only see this by faith,
that He ever lived perpetually making intercession for me. He's standing between me and
God all the time. So then the next question is
this, if that's true, if His throne is established, His death
has taken away the charge of my sin and the condemnation of
my sin, and God raised Him from the dead and He's ever living,
constantly interceding for my constant sin, In our experience,
the question then arises, who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Yes, He saved us. Yes, His work
was perfect. But what about my experience? Look at my experience, my sin. Often we feel as though His love
will fail. I look in the mirror and I don't
love what I see. You? I don't. So I often put Him in my stead
and say, well surely He won't continue to love me. We say surely that His favor
will soon fail us. And notice He says this, shall
tribulation Distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sort. You get this? If I am totally
destitute of any money, if I am totally absolutely destitute,
if I am starving to death, if the government comes and takes
me and puts me in prison and executes me, If I'm depressed, if I have sickness,
if I have pain, if I have misery, does this mean his love is separated
from me? Look what it says, as it is written.
Every time you read that, I want you to understand that just means
it's so. There's no arguing this. God
wrote it. End of argument. Here it is.
For thy sake we are killed all the day long, and account as
sheep as for a slaughter. Isn't that how he looks for the
church? Churches always look this way, as sheep counted for
the slaughter. It appears as though we are the
weak ones. It appears as though we are losing.
That's how it appears. This morning, there are probably
about a I'd say about 70-80,000 people in a church building that
has no clue who Christ is this morning. 80,000! They seem like
they're winning! Oh boy, look at that! We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter, but what's the reality? No. Verse 37, no. It's not the
reality of it. In all things we are more than
conquerors through Him. that loved us. Because of His
throne, we are more than conquerors regardless of what happens to
us in this world. Regardless of our circumstance,
we who are in Christ are conquerors. Not in ourselves, but in Him who loved us. Therefore, Paul said, look, I'm
persuaded. I am totally sold out to this. Regardless of what happens to
me, neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities or powers,
nor things present nor things to come. nor height, nor depth,
and just in case I miss something, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus. Why? Thy throne, O God, is forever. How sure is your salvation? It
is as sure as the throne of Christ. The day that someone is able
to move him off of the throne. That's the day you should fear. Now tell me who's going to do
it. How do you know that that's sure? Because of the person sitting
on it. Listen what the text said. Thy
throne. That's our assurance. The throne
of Christ, the success of Christ is our assurance. Thy throne. Listen to the person. Oh, God. The person sitting on the throne
is Jesus Christ. God. When I speak of Jesus Christ,
I am speaking of God. Believer in Christ, this truth
of his deity is the root and anchor of our faith and salvation. It is our assurance and greatest
hope of our souls that Jesus Christ is God, very God. What I mean by this, of course,
is that there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father,
the Word, and the Spirit. These three are one. One God
in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. You understand that? Nope. I'm not going to wrap my mind
around it. I've read a lot of books about
it. And the more I read, the more
I confess that the person writing this book don't know any more
than I know. He's just reaching. We're just trying to grasp something
that we just can't get a handle on. We just simply bow to the
Word of God. We bow to the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word.
People, dealt with a few people that used this to try to disprove
the deity of Christ. They'd say, well, see, that word
Logos, and they'll start talking about, you know, this is the
Greek of that, and they'll start, and the word was made flesh.
What do you do with that? Who is he talking about? John
is always, when he says the word, you know he's talking about the
Son of God. And the word was with God. And
the Word was God. How's that possible? I don't
know. Right there. Just so. He was with God. Separate. And He was God. One. Okay. That settles it for me. I believe
that completely 100%. The same was in the beginning
with God and all things were made by Him and without Him not
anything was made that was made. Well that just means this, He
wasn't made. If He made all things and He
Himself didn't make Himself, He wasn't made, He always was. And Paul says in Colossians that
all things were created by Him and for Him. You know why everything's
made? It's made by Him and it's made for Him. Men don't like that. They like
it to be made for themselves. Why is this so? Because it's
for Christ. It's for His glory, whatever
it is. I can't see it. Doesn't matter, it is. For He is before all things.
You got that? When did he exist? Before all
things. And by him all things consist. You see the power of this one
I'm talking about? That chair you're sitting in
requires a lot of matter and physical atoms and materials
and who's keeping all that together? Why don't they just expand out
into the ether? Why is there consistent seasons? Who's doing all this? By Him
all things consist. Keeps it together. What I'm talking about is God,
Jesus Himself confessed it. He got to the end of those Pharisees
and he said before Abraham was, I am. You know what? It's the same thing that Jesus
said at the burning bush. He's telling them, I was there
telling Moses who I was. I am. That's who I am. I am. So the one on the throne, I want
you to be sure of this, it's sure because he's God. Sure because
he's God. And I want you to see the necessity
of knowing and believing he is deity. In that same chapter in
John eight, the Lord says this to those Pharisees, he said,
if you believe not that I am. You shall die in your sins. If you do not believe that I
am God, very God, you shall die in your sins. Therefore, we have
great hope because God Only God, our Savior, could execute
a perfect salvation. Only God could purpose a salvation,
and only God could execute that salvation. Therefore, if Christ
had failed, then He could not be God. Let me just ask you,
what has God failed? Is there anything God has purpose
to do that He failed to do? If you can name one thing, I
want you to know your God is not God. If your God can fail
in one thing, your God is not God. My God cannot fail. He tells us this, that He, our
God, sits in the heavens and does what? Whatsoever He believes. Therefore, our hope is this,
because Christ is God, He cannot fail. Secondly, I want you to
see this, He is man. The one sitting on the throne
is a man. Go back to your text. Look at
this. Thy throne, our hope and security is that throne. The
person is, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God. Oh, wait a second. A second ago,
he called him God. And now he said, God has a God. What does he mean? God, thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above, who? Thy fellows. Thy fellows. The root and ground
of hope of our salvation is not only that Jesus is God, but that
he's man, because it was necessary, necessary for our salvation to
know that God was manifest in the flesh. Paul said this, without controversy. There's no debating this, and
I won't debate it with you. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. Isn't it a mystery how God can
be just and justify the ungodly? It's a mystery that religion
can't solve. It's a mystery. But here's the
key to that mystery. God was manifest in the flesh. How did sin come into the world? Did Satan bring sin into the
world? Satan is the father of lies, surely. But when Satan
came into the world as the serpent, the world was still perfect.
Nothing was wrong. Satan did not bring sin into
the world. Man did. Adam was a representative
man of all his race. You were represented by this
man, Adam. You were. And the day Adam fell and sinned,
darkness and death fell on all he represented as a man. Therefore, the scripture says,
to be carnally minded is death. That mind that we were born with
is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace, but we don't have a spiritual mind by nature. Here's
our mind. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh, they that have a natural mind, cannot please God. They
cannot do it. The natural man thinks the law
is something physical. that if I stop doing this and
I start doing this, then I'm obeying the law. Well, God said
not to lie. So they think if I don't lie
with my mouth, then I'm not lying. If I don't commit fornication
with my body, then I'm not committing fornication. If I don't actually
take something from my neighbor, then I'm not a thief. That's
what natural man thinks about the law. The natural man thinks
the law is something by which he may obtain righteousness.
If I do all of these things and stop doing these other things,
I can be righteous. Look at my life and see my righteousness. I stopped doing this, I started
doing this, and so therefore I am righteous. That's what men
think. They think that if they obey
the law good enough and just well enough then they can be
righteous. A natural man, he sees the law as a means of salvation. He thinks the law is some type
of ladder to heaven, some type of stairway by which he climbs
to glory. The scriptures are plain. Romans
3, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh Be justified. Listen in the sight
of God. Oh sure, you can get a lot of
men to think you're just. You can get a lot of men to think
you're righteous. What does that matter? God's your judge. The law has one purpose, not
to save, to condemn. That's all the law can do, is
condemn me. The only hope then for sinful
men is this, that another man represent us. God dealt with us all in Adam. We all died. If there's any hope
of life, we must be dealt with in another man. This is the comfort
of Jesus. He who is God came into the world. God cannot sin. Therefore, the
God-man, as he came into the world, could not and would not
sin. He was doing this so that he
might make a righteousness for us. Only by the shedding of blood
is remission of sin, but God could not die. Therefore God
himself must become a man so that he might offer his blood
as a sacrifice for sin and accomplish both righteousness and die in
the place of sinners. In Hebrews 2 it says, For as
much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also of
himself took part of the same. Here's the reason. That through
death he might destroy him that hath the power of death. That
is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. Believer, Jesus Christ,
our God, condescended to become a man so that he might save us. So as we see the throne, it is
our hope and security that he has accomplished our salvation.
But who did it? The God-man. The God-man. I remember what Job said. Job
said, oh, that there would be a daisman, a daisman to lay his
hand on me and God, someone to stand between me and God. Christ is that mediator. There is only one mediator between
God and man. Who? The man. The man, Christ Jesus. So as
we see the throne, we see he is God and man. Now then, I want
you to notice the character of this one. Go back to your text,
the character of the one on the throne, the person, the throne
is secure, salvation's accomplished. Who did it? The God-man. He did
it. And notice verse 7, thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Oh, consider this. Our representative
man loved righteousness. Why is this good for me? Because
he had to obtain my righteousness. Consider this. He was not born
of Adam's fallen race. When he was born, he was born
of the Holy Spirit. He was conceived in the virgin's
womb. He did not come by the line of our father, Adam. Even in his childhood, he was
submissive to the law of God. He loved righteousness. Remember,
he was teaching the doctors at 12 years old. And his parents
come up there, his sinful parents, and said, where were you? Imagine
them yelling at the Son of God. Where were you? Get over here,
boy. You know what he did? He humbled
himself. Had to, to make my righteousness,
because I didn't do that, but he did. His ministry and death
were righteous. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? Who else could say that? Could you say that? Could
you stand in front of a crowd and say, which of you convinces
me of sin? Well, let me tell you. I got a book. I've been watching
you for a long time. I got a book. Christ stood up
and said, which of you convinces me of sin? Ain't nobody raised
their hand. He said, even the devil, he said,
the prince of this world has found nothing in me, no sin. He was the only man that really
loved righteousness. I know you believe. I know you want to be righteous. But do you really love righteousness? We love righteousness. And that's good for me because
of this. He's all mine. And he hated wickedness. Can you not imagine the torments
of his soul when he said that night, Father, if it be possible,
Let this cup pass from me. He hated sin so much and yet
he knew he must be made sin. He must drink the dregs of our
sin and be crucified. And because he loved righteousness
and hated wickedness, listen to this, this is my confidence
in him because of his character. He will never forsake His covenant. He will never forsake His covenant,
His oath. His oath. What's His oath? His
oath is to God. The covenant was between God
and God. The Father said, Son, here are
my people. Save them. And the Son says,
I take them, I'll save them. I often think when I hear that,
I think about Judah being the surety for Benjamin. You remember
that Joseph required Benjamin, the only son left of the wife
that he loved. Jacob would not let Benjamin
go. And Judah came and said, I will
be surety for the lad. If I don't bring him again, let
me bear the blame. You see, that's what Christ did.
He said, if I fail to bring any one of your children to yourself,
let me bear the blame. Will he fail? No. No. He who loves righteousness
and hates wickedness is God, manifest in the flesh, sitting
on his throne. And I want you to see the joy of Christ. Look
at this. He said, Now love is righteousness, hate is wickedness.
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows. Jesus had been anointed above
all men, but his happiness is not in all men, only his fellows, only his people. Christ is happy. I want you to know that. Is there ever a time that he
is not glad? What I mean by that is not this hee-haw we think
about. I'm talking about fully content joy. You know why? Because he never fails. Why are
you unhappy? If you're unhappy, I guarantee
you there's failure in there somewhere. You failed to do something
or somebody else failed to do something. You didn't get what
you wanted. You didn't get what you thought you deserve. You're
not happy. Christ always gets what he wants. He always gets
what he deserves. He's always happy. And he's happy in this that everyone
he saves. None of them shall perish. Go to John 10. I'll close with
this. John 10. Look what the joy of Christ is.
It is the full, complete salvation of his people. Verse 26. He's telling these Pharisees,
he said, you believe not. Now, I want to ask you, why will
men not believe? A lot of people's not going to
believe. Why? Look what Christ said, because
you are not of my sheep. As I said to you, I already told
you, you don't believe because you're not my sheep. Listen,
my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Notice
what he is king. He is the sovereign ruler gives.
I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never, what? Perish. Never perish. Why? Thy throne, O God, is forever. And my king said this, you shall
never perish. Neither shall any man pluck you
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Have you heard the voice of Christ? Perhaps someone may be convicted
of sin, and surely they feel like they have no right to ask. Rachel, I believe everything
you just said, but I have no right to come. That little phrase in there,
thy scepter is a right scepter. That means that this kingdom
is rightly yours. justly yours. You know what a
scepter was for? Not just show. Over in Esther,
remember Esther was debating whether she should come before
the king and there was a law saying, look, if you weren't,
you didn't have an appointment, you didn't have an appointment,
you weren't going to be accepted and more than that, you were
going to be killed if you tried to come up. And there was one
exception, if the king yield his scepter to you. You had a right. And she came
in, and he saw her, and his love for her was so overwhelming,
he immediately, what do you want? What do you want? I'll tell you
what, I'll give you half of everything I have. What is it? Anybody want to come to Christ,
his scepter is a right scepter. If you come in need of salvation,
there is not one you will refuse. If you come with something, you'll
be refused. If you come with nothing, you have a scepter. You have
a right. Come and ask what you will. What
do you ask of the king when you came? What was it that you wanted?
Man, I need a new house. Not what I wanted. New car. I didn't want anything in this
world. You know what I wanted? I wanted him. Take everything else. I need
you. Yield that scepter to me and
my hope. is built on his throne. My acceptance is built on his
person, his character, his righteousness. And my continued acceptance is
dependent upon his mercy. And I know this. Everyone he
purposed to save, he saves. And everyone he saves, he continues
to save until he saves. That's the assurance of Christ's
throne. My hope is sure. It's as sure as His throne. Thy
throne, O God, is forever. May God bless us. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing and mercy. Pour out your Spirit upon us.
Give us peace and faith and hope only in Jesus Christ. And I ask you to do this for
Christ's sake. Amen.