Turn to Hebrews chapter one.
I'm gonna read this chapter. I'm gonna preach from verse four
through the rest of this chapter. I preached verse one through
three here not long ago. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past 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. From the wits of the
angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten to the world, he saith, let all the angels
of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, who
maketh his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the son he saith, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. and they all shall wax old as
doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. Are they not all ministering
spirits, the angels? sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation. Our Father, once again we thank
You for Your Word. Our Father, we look to You for
help in worship. Help us to pay attention, help
us to listen. Lord, make Thy Word come alive
in our hearts. Help us to love Thee more. We
know that if we love thee more, we will love one another more.
Help us to know and to do thy will. Bless your word, send it
forth in power. In Christ's name we pray, and
amen. Oh. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me? Who caused His pain for me? Who Him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, couldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Dismiss'd from all the modes
of all lives, Who can explore his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph
tries To sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all, let earth adore,
Let angels my eyes inquire no more. Tis mercy all, Let earth
adore, let angel minds inquire no more. He left his Father's throne of
love, so freely so infinite is grace. Emptied himself of all
but love, and lived for all his chosen race. Tis mercy all, immense and free! For O my God, if Thou wilt be,
Tis mercy all, immense and free! For O my God, it found out me,
On my embrace that spirit may play. that's found in sin and
nature's light. Thy nightly views are quickly
gray. I woke the dungeons late with
light. My chains fell off, my heart
was free. I knew those men bore and followed
me. My chains fell off, my heart
was free. No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine. Lord I approach the eternal throne
and claim the cross for Christ my own Lord I approach the eternal
throne Well, I knew we had some singers
in this group. I'll tell you what though, it
would thrill my soul if God would raise up somebody out of this
congregation to preach the gospel. What a blessing that'd be. Come
back to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter one. The title
of the message is Christ the King. I thought, my, the song
just went right with it this morning. High King of Heaven. Isn't that, I love that. I love
that title, High King of Heaven. Your majesty. That's who he is. He's the High King Jesus. Paul
Rothbard called him all the time, King Jesus. We have a king. We have, the last time I preached
from here, from this book, it's only been, I think it might have
been last week, we learned that Christ is the final spokesman, that he is the one who created
all things. He even created the angels that
are to worship him. He's their creator. All things
were created by him and for him. And he is the heir of all things. All things belong to him. And by himself, he purged our
sins. They're gone. They are gone. The sins that I have not even
committed yet are gone. When he died on the cross, all
my sins were future. I wasn't living. They were all
future. In one swipe, he put them all
away, took them all away. That number which no man can
number, all their sins were laid on that one man. And that one
man bore all their sins in his body on the tree and put them
away. They don't even exist no more.
I know, I feel them, I mourn over them, I weep over them,
but I also know this by the word of God, they're gone. They're gone. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. We sing
this song. Gone. And right now, this man is seated at God's right hand. He is seated in heaven right now. As we sit here, I
stand here, he sits there. He sits there. And he is declared
to be the only begotten son of God. He is the only begotten son of
God. You and I are sons of God by
adoption, by election. He's a son of God by nature. He is God. And the angels are commanded
to worship him. The angels, they used to worship
angels back in those days. They would worship angels and
all kinds of stuff. They'd worship. And he says,
here, let all the angels. He takes the highest of God's
creation. And he says, let them bow down to him. The elect angels, the fallen
angels, they're all under the authority of the King of Glory. They're under His authority.
Now verse 7 and verse 14, the Father speaks to the angels. And He tells us that the angels
are created spirits. They are not eternal spirit,
as God is, as the Son is, as the Holy Spirit is. They are
created spirits, and they are sent forth They are sent forth,
it says, to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
Angels have the charge over you. If you are a child of God, you
believe the gospel. God has given angels a charge
over you to watch you. I heard Henry say in a message
one time, he said, they're riding on your hood, going down the
road, you don't even know it. They protect us. They keep harm
away from us. We have no idea what is against
us in this world. The world is against you. That's
what the word of God teaches. It's the natural mind, it's enmity
against God, and it's against you also, if you believe the
gospel. And they protect the hedge, the protection that God
puts around his children, are angels. And you have any idea
the power of an angel? If you go over and read the book
of Revelation, just one angel destroys one third of the earth,
just one. We can't even begin to comprehend
the power. And they are subject to him.
And they come, they are there, they minister to us. And we don't
even realize it. We'll go throughout this day
and we will not realize the charge and the ministry that the angels
have been taking care of us every day. This is true, this is so. And God commands these angels
to worship Him and do His bidding. He said in the garden, He said,
I can call 12 legions of angels right now if I wanted to. I could call 12 legions and come
in here and wipe this group. He can just call one and wipe
that group out. But what He's saying is I have
command. I have command of the heavenly host. The angels are greater in power
and might than we are. They are said to be holy. They
are said to be the elect angels. The only reason that all the angels did not fall
is because God chose some of them not to. That's the only
reason they didn't fall. They are elect. chosen of God to keep their first
position. In verse 7 it says, And of the
angels he sent, who maketh his angel spirits, and his ministers
a flame of fire? Who made them? Christ did. Jesus Christ made them. He's
the one who created them. But the writer here is quoting
from Psalm 104. And he's showing us here that
the angels are just a part of creation. Anything less than
God is not to be worshipped in any way, shape, or form. Only
God's to be worshipped. But now when the father speaks
to the son, he identifies him under three names. He identifies
him as his son. He identifies him as God. He identifies him as king. But unto the Son he saith, in
verse eight, he's speaking to the Son, God's speaking to the
Son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. This has got to be one of the
strongest statements in the word of God concerning the deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's God. He is God the King. In Psalm 47.7, I'm gonna read
a lot of scriptures to you. We won't turn to a lot of them
because it would take too long, but I've written them down. But
it says in Psalm 47.7, for God is King. God is King. Of all the earth, sing ye praises
with understanding. We're not just singing just to
be singing. The songs we sing, we sing with
understanding, with understanding of the one we're singing to and
what we're doing. He's the man. He's the man whom
God has set up to be king over heaven and earth. He has absolute sway right now
over that storm that's coming up through Florida. The Lord
Jesus Christ has absolute sway over that storm. That's His storm. That's His. What we have here in verse 8 is God speaking to God. That's what we have. And what
we have before us is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, enthroned
in heaven, ruling over all. But what does a throne represent?
What does a throne represent? The first thing a throne represents,
his throne anyway, his throne, it represents sovereignty. Sovereignty. Sovereignty means this. Sovereignty
means dignity. It means royal power. It means
supremacy in rule and in power. And it means to govern without
external control. It is to govern without anybody
controlling you. Anybody. Christ, what it's saying
here, Christ has absolute power to rule all things in heaven
and earth. It's all turned over to Him.
All power and all authority. He says in Matthew 28, 18, and
Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power. We can't comprehend this now.
We can't comprehend what power, what real power is. And he says,
all power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Written over in Daniel four,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? We worship. We worship, and worship only
happens, now listen, worship only happens at a sovereign throne. A.W. Pink said, all others we
bargain with. All others you'll bargain with.
But at a sovereign throne, you will bow down, and you will,
for the first time, when you realize where you are, that you,
for the first time, that you are going to worship God. We
first worship Him in His sovereign rule over all. He has the right
to save me. He has the right to damn me.
Whichever He chooses. Whichever best fits His glory. Really. Is that alright? That's alright. He's the sovereign.
He can do no wrong. This sovereign can do no wrong.
Now all the other sovereigns that have been on this earth,
what little bit of sovereignty has been given to them, they've
always done something wrong. Look at David. He messed up,
didn't he? Sower never left his house. Never
left his house. Worship only happens at a sovereign
throne. If we don't get that right, you
can forget about worship. This thing of Jesus wanting you
to let Him save you, there ain't no worship going on there. You'll
never, that Christ, that kind of Jesus, will never ever be
worshiped. Never. You'll bargain with Him. Lord, if you get me out of this
trouble, I'll do this or I'll do that. How many times has that
been said? You start bargaining with Him.
Instead of bowing down, say, Lord, thy will be done. And you leave it there. Now, it's a throne of sovereignty,
but it's also a throne of power. What would sovereignty be if
you didn't have the power to back it up? It'd be a mockery. It would just be a mockery, is
all it would be. In Luke 22, in verse 69, hereafter
shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God. It says in Daniel 7, that there
was given him dominion. What you talking about there,
Daniel? He's talking about Christ. He's talking about Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. That's what he's talking about.
There was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that
all people, nations, languages should serve him. Should serve
him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Kings come on this earth and
kings go. Nations come and nations go. Nations rise up and they're strong
And then they're weak. Look at history. Look at history. But His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, which shall not pass away. There'll be no end to it. There's gonna be an end to this
one. Look over here in verse 10, in Hebrews chapter
one, verse 10. And thy Lord in the beginning
hath laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thy hand. They shall perish. All the kingdoms
of this earth shall perish, but thou remainest. And they all
shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up when his purpose is accomplished, and they shall be changed. But
thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. He's not growing
old. He's eternal. He's eternal life. Yeah, it says there in Daniel
7, 14, it's an everlasting dominion. It'll not pass away in his kingdom,
that which shall not be destroyed. Satan can't destroy it. Men can't
destroy it. It cannot be destroyed. All you have to do is leave us
alone long enough, we destroy ourselves. Just leave us alone
long enough and that'll happen. We see a lot of that going on
now. He said over Zechariah 9, 10,
and I'll cut off the cherry from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem
and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace
to the heathen and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, from
sea to shining sea. That will be the dominion of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And from the river, even to the
ends of the earth, there is no place on this earth where He
does not reign. Even over there in the Middle
East, where they absolutely despise Him, He's reigning right now,
and they don't even know it. They don't even know it. But it doesn't matter, does it?
It doesn't matter if they don't know it or not. It doesn't matter.
He's reigning anyway. God made him king whether anybody
likes it or not. He's not gonna ask us, what do
you think about this one? He set him up as king before
he created the first thing. And then it's also, it's a throne
of sovereignty, it's a throne of power, and it's a throne of
glory. I don't have the vocabulary to
get into this. But it says in Jeremiah 17, 12,
a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our
sanctuary, our rest, which is Christ. It's Christ. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw this. This is in Isaiah
6, 1 and 3. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne, high and lifted up, and His train, His glory filled
the temple. Above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings with twine or two. He covered His face. You know why He covered His face?
Even that holy seraphim couldn't look upon God. He couldn't even
look upon God. And with two he covered his feet,
and with two he did fly. And one cried to another, and
he said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. It is, whether you and I can
see it or not. It's full of his glory. Do you know what wisdom it takes
to make such variety work in such harmony? When you take the
universe, you take creation, you take all that is, and you
take how all of it is working together, you know what kind
of wisdom that is. That's infinite wisdom. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Now whose glory did Isaiah see
when he saw this? Well, it says in John chapter
12, verse 39, therefore they could not believe because that
Isaiah said again, he hath blinded their eyes, hardened their heart,
that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with
their heart and be converted and I should heal them. These
things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. Whose glory did he see? The glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so glad, I'm so thankful
that I'm not a part of that, what I just read to you. God put up with them long enough,
and it says he hath blinded their eyes, hardened their heart. Who hardened
Pharaoh's heart? It says Pharaoh hardened his
heart, but it also says God hardened his heart. Those are things I can't even
begin to touch. I just know the ones that are
doing it. I know the ones doing it. I know He's holy. He can
do no wrong. He's infinite in wisdom, infinite
in knowledge, and I trust Him. I trust Him. And the things I
can't understand, I'm just not gonna worry about it. If He wanted me to know it, tell
me, wouldn't He? You and I are on a need-to-know
basis. That's what we're on. And then his throne is a throne
of judgment. Right, a throne of judgment.
How many times has God given us a glimpse of judgment? He gave us one with the flood.
This whole earth was flooded one time. The whole earth was
flooded. He burned Sodom and Gomorrah
up. How many times has God over the millenniums given example
of his judgment? That there is gonna be a final
judgment. It says in Psalm 9, seven, but
the Lord shall endure forever. He had prepared his throne for
judgment. Now turn over to Revelation chapter
20. Revelations chapter 20. Let me start reading in verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and
in that sat on it, who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ. and from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. Couldn't bear his presence. And
there was found no place for them. You know what? What did the Lord say to his
disciples and to every one of you who believe in John 14? I go and prepare a place for
you. And if I go prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you to myself, that where I am,
there you may be also." He says here, there was no place found
for them. And the reason he had to go and
prepare a place for us is because we lost our place in Adam. We lost it. But in Christ, it's
restored. And now I have a place in God's
presence. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. I know we can't comprehend this.
I know there's been billions upon billions of people lived
on this earth, but not one will be absent. I saw all the dead,
small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened,
and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the
dead, all those who'd been dumped in the sea, coming out, which
were in it. And death and hell delivered
up, death and the grave delivered up the dead, which were in them.
and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. His throne is also a throne of
judgment where all matters will finally be settled. And every
person will get just what they deserve. And no more. No more. And then it's the throne of holiness.
It says in Psalm 47, God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth
upon the throne of his holiness. Aren't you glad God's holy? You'd
have another devil on your hands if he wasn't. God is holy. That's how Abraham
could say the judge of the earth will do right. He will do right. He's holy. And his throne is
forever. It's an everlasting throne. He
will never abdicate his throne. He'll never run off. Never. Psalm 89, 29, his seed
also will I make to endure forever in his throne as the days of
heaven. It's written in Luke chapter
one, verse 30, 33, and the angel said unto her, fear not Mary,
don't be afraid, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the son of the house. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign, he
shall rule over the house of Jacob." That's us. That's us. God's elect. God's elect. He shall reign over the house
of Jacob forever. Ever. In his kingdom, and of
his kingdom, there shall be no end. Never come to an end. My, what
we have to look forward to. What we have to look forward
to. You come in from work at the end of the day, you're tired,
you wore out, you gotta go back tomorrow. You think, when's this
gonna end? And there's sometimes God puts
you through a trial, a hard trial, and you think, when's this gonna
end? Well, in a little while, this
is gonna end. He's gonna fold it up. He's gonna fold it up,
put it away. And the kingdom that you and
I are going to enjoy, he says, is forever and ever, and it has
no end. That's something to look forward
to, isn't it? That's something to look forward to now. Well,
that'll wake you up. And his throne is a throne of
righteousness. It says in Psalm 97, clouds and
darkness around about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation
of his throne. That's where it dwells. Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness. The rule of that kingdom is righteousness. Rightness. Everybody will be
treating each other right. exactly the way you ought to
do it. You'll love each other exactly the way you ought to
love each other. His rule will be one of righteousness. A scepter of righteousness best
describes his kingdom. This ensures that his power will
be exercised in a right manner. That's good news. When he has
all power, this ensures us that his power will be exercised in
the right manner. The judge of the earth would
always do right. I may not understand why he does
what he does, but I know it's right. I know it's right. Now, what does he love? What
does our king love? And I'll close. The king of glory
is very passionate, passionate about righteousness. Righteousness. And he hates, he hates, he says
in Nicodemus, he hates lawlessness. He hates it. The unconverted, they see righteousness,
and I know this, it's the way I saw it. They see righteousness
as something cold, unpleasant, no fun, boring. And part of the reason is, is
because of people like the Pharisees who's self-righteous, they make
it boring. You can't do this, you can't
do that, you gotta go, and our sinful nature. We don't
like righteousness because of our sinfulness. We love darkness.
We love darkness rather than light. But if we love Christ,
we love righteousness, and we have a genuine hunger and thirst
after righteousness, His. His. After righteousness, His
righteousness. After rightness, being right
with God. Peter said to Simon Magus, when
he tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit laying on the hand,
he said, your heart is not right with God. David said, Lord, give
me a clean heart and a right spirit. That's what I want. That's what God's children want.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows. This is our king. This is our
king. He rules. He's sovereign. He's holy. He has all power. His kingdom shall never come
to an end. All things belong to Him. We are under, first, a theocracy,
Christ the King. We live in a democracy, and I
thank Him for it. But I realize, I realize that
my existence, my life, is in the hands of King Jesus. And I'm glad it's so. I'm glad
it's so. All right, Greg. Now, let me say this, I
forgot. I'm not gonna be here Thursday.
We're still gonna have