Psalm 24 for our scripture reading
this morning. And I know most of you haven't
met Trey and Brandy Roger, who've been coming up here from McCoy.
Works on a tugboat 10 days and off 10 days. He called yesterday,
and him and his wife want to be baptized and confess their
faith in Christ on August the 12th. Said he made profession
when he was seven. I don't know when she made hers.
They're very grateful, looking for a place to move up here.
So on the day, the 12th, the day that we have our dinner,
we'll baptize them. And I hope the Lord's pleased
to enable somebody else to confess their faith in Christ by Believer's
Baptism. That's called Believer's Baptism.
You know, there's two ways that two things God gave us, Christ
gave us. He gave us baptism as a means
of confessing our faith in Him. And you go through the Acts,
and everyone there that confessed faith in Christ, every single
one of them was baptized. And the second one is taking
the Lord's Table. They're both for believers. They're
both for people who believe. If you're not a believer, but
if you are a believer and never have been baptized, God enable
you to do that. Obey the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
an obedience to Him. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. And so we're looking forward
to that. I really am. It's been a long
time since we've put water in that baptistry. I'm looking forward
to it. All right, Psalm 24. The earth
is the Lord and the fullness thereof. The world and they that
dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the
seas, and established it upon the flood. Who shall ascend into
the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands, and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitful." Now there's only one person in this world
that's ever done that, only one person. receive the blessing
from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of His salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy
face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads. This is He
that hath, He's going to ascend to the hill of the Lord, going
to stand in God's holy place. 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. Lift
up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King
of Glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of glory. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 6. Now, if
you went to Malachi, it's the last book in the Old Testament.
Zechariah is the book before Malachi. It's the next to the
last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 6, Malachi
is the last and Zechariah is right before Malachi. Alright,
I want to start reading here in verse 9 down through verse
13. And hopefully by God's grace bring a message. And the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Take them of the captivity, even
of Hildiah of Tobeha, and of Jediah, which are come from Babylon,
and cometh thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah
the son of Zephaniah. Then take silver and gold, and
make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of
Jehozadek the high priest. And speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the brand. He shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build
the temple of the Lord, he shall bear the glory, and shall sit
and rule upon his throne. And the counsel of peace shall
be between them both." There you see in verse 12 it
says, Behold the man whose name is the branch, the branch. I
mentioned a week or two ago about Christ being the branch. The
historical setting here is this. The Jews had been in captivity
for 70 years. Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar took
them into captivity for their sin. And only the poorest people
were left. And then they started letting
some of them come back. And here is some Jews of the
captivity. They came back with an offering.
for the building of the Temple. They had to rebuild the Temple
in Jerusalem. And they were rebuilding this
Temple under Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel, and Joshua. And they
tell us their names there in verse 10, you know, Hedayah and
Jediah and Josiah. And the Lord told Zechariah,
Zechariah the prophet here, to go the same day and meet these
Jews. You go meet these Jews. And when
you meet these Jews, you take the silver and you take the gold
that they've brought. You go and take it. You take
what they've brought. Come thou the same day and then
make silver, says in verse 11, then take silver and gold and
make crowns. Not crown, crowns. One out of
silver, one out of gold. And set them, two crowns, and
set them upon the head of Joshua. the son of Jehoshaphat, the priest. Now, this wasn't done as an honor
upon Joshua, but here is a prophetic symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who was to come. On his head are going to set
many crowns, is what the scripture. And let me just say something
about the silver and the gold. If I understand the scriptures
right, silver represents redemption under the Old Testament. Redemption. We're not redeemed with such
things as silver. and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ. And gold represents the deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you got his redemption and
you got his deity, and they're both in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wears the crown of redemption.
He wears the crown of deity. Silver to save us, gold to reign
over us. And what a glorious master he
is. And I want to, it says here,
behold the man, behold the man whose name is the branch. Of
course, this branch David. But this branch is of course
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Behold the man. Look over here
in Zechariah 3, in verse 8. God said, Behold, I'll set up
a branch out of the root of Jesse. But look what it says here in
verse 8. Now this is God speaking to Joshua. Hear now, O Joshua
the high priest, thou and thy fellows are set before thee,
for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth
My Servant, My Servant and the man. The branch, the branch. And behold the man, that's what
it says. This is one of the names of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the branch. And when I talk of in the scriptures
talks about a branch, what he's talking about is one, a branch
bears fruit. And our Lord Jesus Christ bears
fruit. And the fruit reveals the character
of the tree. It don't, you know, that's why
our Lord Jesus said, you know, either make the tree good and
his fruit good. If you know the tree, the fruit
that comes off of the tree. And our Lord Jesus Christ bears
fruit, and fruit reveals the character of the tree. If it's
good fruit, it's a good tree. If it's sorry fruit, it's a bad
tree. And our Lord Jesus Christ as the branch, He bears fruit.
And our Lord Jesus as the Jehovah's branch, and here's the fruit
that He bears. Let me give you a few things
about it. He revealed the character first and foremost His Father. That's the character of Him.
And how did He reveal the character of His Father? And how He revealed
the character and blessedness of His Father? You know, one
of the greatest, the greatest mystery, the greatest mystery
known in this universe is this. Great is the mystery. God was
manifest in the flesh. When Jesus Christ came into this
world, He was God manifest in the flesh. And and so he came
down here to manifest to character. If you've seen the Lord Jesus
Christ, you've seen God. If you heard him speak, you heard
God speak. If you've seen him do anything,
you've seen God do it because he was God himself manifest in
the flesh. Everything that God is, Christ
is. Everything that God did, Christ
did. And so I, Lord Jesus Christ,
He manifest the character of His Father first and foremost
by His words. He said by His words. He said,
I and my Father are one. Now, I tell you, you know, me
and my father are not one. Me and my son are not one. He's
from my loins. He's a different personality.
He got different desires, does different things, but God the
Father, God the Son, are identical in nature, in character, in righteousness,
in power, in glory, in sovereignty, in works, in word, in everything
they do, they're one. Now I want you to show you that.
Look with me over, keep Zechariah here, and look with me back over
in John 7, 14. Look in John 7, 14. Look what our Master said
here in John 7, 14. You know, He manifested the revealed
character, the fruit, of the character of his father. He said,
he was that true bread which came down from heaven. They said,
you know, Moses gave them bread from heaven. He says, no, Moses
didn't give you that bread from heaven. My father gave you that
bread. But I'm that true bread that
came down from heaven. Said, your fathers ate that bread
back there in the wilderness and they're dead. But he eateth
of this bread, he shall never die. Do you believe this? That's
what our master said. Look what he said here in verse
14. Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple
and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying,
How knoweth this man letters, or learning, having never learned? Jesus answered them and says,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of myself." Now if you know, you
know, when you hear me speak, you're hearing God speak. When
you hear what I teach, you're hearing what God teaches. And
look what he goes on to say in verse 18. He that speaketh of
himself. seeketh his own glory." A man
brags about himself, brags about his ministry, brags about his
accomplishments, brags about how many souls have been saved,
brags about what a great church he has, brags about how much
he's accomplished in his life and how many degrees he's got.
He starts speaking about himself, he seeks his own glory. But he
that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true. And in
Christ there's no unrighteous. And oh, and look there in John
18. Excuse me, not John 18, but John 8. Go right on over to John
chapter 8 and look in verse 13. Oh, our master, I tell you, his
words, oh, his fruit revealed the character of his father.
Behold the man. And it says down here in verse
13, The Pharisees therefore said unto him, There barest record
of thyself, thy record's not true. Jesus answered and said
unto them, Though I bare record of myself, yet my record is true. What I say about myself is true. For I know whence I came, and
I know where I'm going. But you can't tell where I come
from, and you can't tell where I'm going. You judge after the
flesh. I judge no man. And yet, if I
judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone. I am the Father.
That's it. It is written in your law. that
the testimony of two men is true. And listen to what our master
said, I am one that bears witness of myself, and the father that
sent me bears witness of me. So you see by his words, oh listen,
you want to hear from God, hear from me, hear from me. And then
by his deeds, not only by his words did he reveal the character,
but by his deeds. Nicodemus came to him and says,
no man, no man, can do these things that you do except God
be with you. It's impossibility. Nobody can
do the miracles that you do except God be with you. And you know,
when our Lord Jesus seen that man that was born blind, and
nobody said not since the beginning of the world is anyone that was
born blind ever had their sight restored but our lord jesus christ
he opened that blind man's eyes and since the beginning of the
world and never had been hunted but our lord jesus christ he
who can give life our lord jesus says this as the father hath
life in himself even so the son life in himself. He, the Father,
gives life, the Son quickeneth whom He will. And nobody could
ever raise the dead or open a blind man's eyes but the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nobody else ever did it. And
our Lord Jesus Christ to show you that He was God gives life
from the dead. He gave life to three different
people. He gave life to Lazarus, stinking,
called him by name and told him to come out of the grave and
he came and he's seen a 12 year old girl and he said oh listen
he put everybody listen she's just asleep i'm gonna wake her
up and then there's that young man he just stopped the casket
he was coming into town the funeral was going out and our lord jesus
stopped that funeral and took that young man out of that grave
out of that at that casket wrench and got his hands and he's a
cold dead lifeless body laying there But when Christ rests in
God, His hands, when life touched death, life has to come out of
death. And when Christ reaches and touch
one of His people, life is going to happen. You mark it down.
You may be dead as a dead, dead, dead dog. sinner. But when Christ
reaches down and touches you and that life that blessed life-giving
power touches you, you're going to have life. If you're as corrupt
as Lazarus is, he's going to give you life. If you're not
as corrupt as that 12-year-old girl was, he's the only one give
you life. Or if you're just a young man
starting out life, he's the only one to give you life. And I'll
tell you what, you cannot, you reckon, let me ask you, let me
ask you something. You reckon Lazarus knew he had been, he'd
known he'd been dead, but when he, you know what? He knew when
he got life too. You reckon a man, God could give
a man life and him not know that he's got it? We know we've passed
from where? Death unto life. How do we know? We love the bread. Lord Jesus Christ, He delivered
us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. And so He manifested the character
bearing fruit of His Father by words, by deeds. And let me tell
you some branch from this, the fruit from this branch. Behold
the man. You know what else he bears is
God. And as the man, he come and manifested God's love. Oh,
the love of God. How rich and pure, how measureless
and strong. There's the angels and angel
song and all my grace. Law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. And then the fullness of grace
was in him. Grace for grace. He gives you
grace today, and he'll give you grace in the middle of the day.
He'll give you grace in the evening, gives you grace at night. There's
never a moment that God don't give grace in Christ. Compassion? Compassion, you know what compassion
means? Compassion means you have the
ability to enter in to the situation that somebody's in. Well, our
Lord Jesus Christ has the ability to actually enter in to the thing
that we're going through. Holiness. Oh, holy, holy, holy. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
was when he was here. He said, which of you, which
of you can convince me of sin and pity? Oh, he would see a
multitude hungry, and he'd have compassion on them. He said,
set them down. I need to feed these people.
Oh, my. Mercy? Oh, he said, I'll not
have sacrifices, but I'll have mercy. Don't bring me no sacrifice
and try to buy something. Don't bring me any of your sacrifices.
Don't bring me any of your works. I don't want you. I don't want
what you got. What I do is I show mercy. I
give mercy. And out of him comes truth. Out
of him comes life. Philip told him, said, Lord,
show us the Father. Show us the Father. Make us see
the Father. And we'll be satisfied. That'll
be sufficient. And our Lord Jesus looked him
in the eye and said, Philip, Philip, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. Oh, the blessings for our life
right now and the life to come come from behold the man. The
fruit that we have comes from. And then the branch as a person.
Look back over here in Zechariah 6 with me. Then it says, behold
the man. A branch has fruit, but he says,
behold the man. Behold the branch as a person. Let's see this branch as a person.
Behold the man. His name is the branch. And then
look what it says about him. He shall grow up out of his place. So as a man, he grows up. Where
did he grow up? He grew up exactly where God
placed him, in Bethlehem. He grew up out of his place. He grew up out of God. He grew
up as a root out of dry ground. He grew up as a root out of Jesse. He grew up out of the place that
God gave him to grow up in. God had a time. God had a place. God had a person. God had everything
for our Lord Jesus Christ was set before he got into this.
He grew up as an infant from his mother's womb. He grew up
as God the Son. He grew up as the eternal Son
of God. And his place, where does his
place say? You go through our Lord Jesus
Christ's life and the first thing you hear about him is that he's
going to be born. And that he's going to be the
Lord. He's begotten of the Holy One. Then when he's born, second
thing you know about him, that he was played in a manger. That
was the first place God put him. In the womb of a virgin, second
place when he's born. They had a place where they fed
the cattle and they fed the donkeys. They fed the things. They had
a little old, you know, they throw hay in there and stuff
in there and they stand and eat it. Well, they took our Lord
Jesus Christ when he was born. They wrapped him up like everybody
babies do. You know, you go when a baby's
born, they wrap it up tight. It can't move. Wrap it up tight. Well, that's the way they done
our master. They wrapped him up tight. And him and his mother
and his daddy went out to the stable and laid him in a manger. and stayed there with him until
they went back to Jerusalem to make an offering for it. He was
lowly, placed lowly, meek and lowly of heart, born of poor
parents, born in a poor place, And his whole life was one of
humility, one of sorrow, one of shame, one of rejection. In fact, he started out here
in the lowest place and he ended up treated as a common criminal
upon a cross. He was never treated good all
of his life. And then they accused him and
set him on a cross. And then when they took him down,
he never even had a grave of his own. Joseph said, put him
in my grave. You know why he was put in somebody
else's grave? Because he wasn't going to stay
there. So Joseph's going to be able to have his grave, too. You know, Joseph got to be buried
in his own grave because Christ wasn't going to stay there. Oh, Joseph said, well, listen,
he was in my tomb, but he's not there anymore. So I'll be able
to be, oh, listen, I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ, ah, we
just, we cannot thank highly enough of him, speak highly enough
of him, love him enough, just to thank of who he is. Oh, as
a person. As a person. But he grew up.
He grew up. Started out as a baby on his
mother's breast. The infant of days was the ancient
of days. And he grew up. And he worked
for a living. And then he went into his ministry.
And they hated him without a cause. He was to be despised. He was
to be rejected. He was to be crucified. He came
into this world to become the Lamb of God. Become the one who
would take our place. Become the one. He grew up so
that He could die. He grew up so He could bear our
sin. He grew up so He could be a sinner. He grew up so He could die. He grew up so he could hang on
a cross and carry all our sins in his own body. And then, as
a person, they went out there. I was looking at it this morning.
They went out there. We cannot imagine this happening.
We just can't. We can't get our mind around
it. But they went out to the grave early Sunday morning. Christ
was put in the grave Thursday, Friday afternoon. And they put
Christ in the grave. Went out there early Sunday morning,
first day of the week. And they went down there, and
Mary was down there crying. And she went to looking, and
she saw two men sitting outside that grave, outside that tomb.
He said, where have you taken my master? Where have you laid
my Lord? She said, oh, he's not here. Where's he at? Well, he's
risen. And you know what he's going
to do? He's going to go up to Galilee, where he told me to
see his disciples after his resurrection. That's where he's on his way
to. Can you imagine going to a grave? You know, people dig
up people, and they do exhumations and all that. And down in Mexico,
they'll, you know, when you get a tomb down there, you get a
grave down there, they only bury you so deep because they don't
involve down there. The heat's so bad. They only bury you so
deep. And every two or three years, they got to dig up a body,
put the bones in something, and then put another body in there.
And so you go down there and go to some of those graveyards,
and they got little old pagodas around, and they got to, they
got their bones stacked up there because you know that's so you
know but they just do that but our Lord Jesus Christ you know
we we can't imagine they digging people up people do that all
the time but how would you like to go to the grave one of these
days and you look down there and the graves open and ain't
nobody dug from it and it's busted open and ain't nobody in it you
look down in there and oh my where they wonder where they
went But our Lord Jesus Christ, he went to meet his disciples.
And that's why he rose again from the dead, because he accomplished
our salvation. And he arose from the dead so
he could meet every one of his disciples. Has he met you? Oh, my. Then look what it says again.
Not only is he named the branch, the old man, he grew up. But
look what it says here. And he shall build the temple
of the Lord. He shall build the temple of the Lord. You know,
God gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle, and he built
it according to the pattern. Solomon built the most glorious
temple. You read about Solomon's temple.
Oh, it was so good. And the temple in the tabernacle
was the place where God put his name. That's where he put his
name. The temple and the tabernacle was the place where God revealed
himself. This is the place you come to
worship. This is the place of sacrifice. This is the place
that I'll meet with you. This is the place where I'll
place my name. This is the place where the priest
will come into my presence. This was the place of worship.
This was the place where the sin offering was made and the
thank offering was made in the tabernacle. Well, our Lord Jesus
Christ is where God dwells now, where God is worshiped now. where
God has put his name now. Christ himself was the sinner.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, he builds his church. People say,
boy, you know, they have what they call these church planters.
They want to go along and plant a church, and then somebody else
comes along, and then they build a church. There ain't been but
one church ever built on the face of this earth in Christ's
building. This building's not a church. It's a meeting house. The church is you and me and
everybody that's in the body of Christ. You're no longer foreigners,
strangers, aliens from the Commonwealth of Arkansas, but built upon the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone,
a building who's fitly framed together and groweth unto a holy
temple. Unto who? Unto the Lord. whose
spirit dwells in it. You know, and I tell you, this
is a spiritual temple. Christ built a spiritual building.
We're a spiritual building. God don't dwell in temples made
by hands. He said that. And so God's a
spirit, and if He ever gonna worship Him, we gotta worship
Him by spirit. If we ever gonna have a spiritual
worship, we gotta have the spirit. And so our worship is a spiritual
worship. Our Lord Jesus Christ says this,
upon this rock, what rock? The foundation of God. This is
the foundation that God has set, a sure foundation, a triad stone,
a precious cornerstone. And upon this rock, I will build
my church. AND THE GATES OF HELL, AND I'LL
TELL YOU WHAT, THE GATES OF HELL'S BEEN TURNED LOOSE ON CHRIST,
THE GATES OF HELL'S BEEN TURNED LOOSE ON HIS PEOPLE, THE GATES
OF HELL'S BEEN TURNED LOOSE ON HIS WORD, BUT THE GATES OF HELL
HAS NOT EVER STOPPED ONE SOUL FROM ENTERING INTO GLORY, NOT
KEPT ONE SOUL FROM BELIEVING THE GOSPEL, NOT KEPT ONE SOUL
OUT OF HEAVEN. I TOLD YOU THIS THE OTHER DAY,
THERE'S A LITTLE PLACE OUT THERE, THEY JUST OPENED IT UP AGAIN,
A couple of months ago, it had been closed down for a long time,
and a new preacher come in there, and they started meeting in it
again, and one side of the sign says this, if you're willing,
God is able. God's able whether you're willing
or not. But I do know this, that if God
don't make you willing, you'll never be willing. In the day
of His power, His people. are made willing, huh? And I
tell you what, as Eve came from the side of Adam, the church
come from the side of Christ. Through that blood and water,
through that blood and water, we are purchased with the, he
purchased the church of God with his own blood. And I tell you,
beloved, what a, listen, If you're built on Christ, and no other
foundation can be laid other than that which is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. And I tell you, beloved, if you're
built on Christ, I don't care what happens in this world, you
will stay on that foundation. Ain't that right? He has picked
my feet up out of a horrible pit and set them on what? A rock! You know, she didn't
say put a ladder down there and you try your best to get your
feet up out of there. And then if you get on the ladder,
start climbing and I'll reach and get you by the hands and
I'll pull you the rest away. And some of these fellas, they've
done this when you've got a bunch of cows and it gets really bad
in the winter and you put on their boots and you'll get in
some mud and the boots will pull right off you. And you're standing
there trying, what am I going to do? You have to get out on
one foot and try to pull it out by your hands. But I tell you
what, when you're in this miry clay, Christ comes and he says
he has picked me up, turned me around, set me on a song. Oh, if you don't Christ, and
then look what else it says about him here. Even he shall build
the temple in verse 13. And look what he says here. And
he shall bear the glory. He's going to bear the glory
of this temple. Not only is he going to build it, but he's going
to get all the glory. He bears the glory of it. Oh,
listen. He looks at that temple, Solomon
looked at that temple, and people came from all over the known
world to look at that temple. And behold his wisdom. But our Lord Jesus Christ, he
built the temple, and he gets to bear all the glory of it. He built his church. And He bears
all the glory. Anybody here want to take from
the glory of Christ? Anybody here don't like that
Christ gets all the glory? He done all the saving. He does
all the keeping. He done all the suffering. He
done all the blood shedding. The glory of the temple will
be himself. And when we get to glory, you
know what it says there? It said they won't need no sun,
they won't need no moon, because the Lamb himself shall be the
light of that place. You know, here we have to have
a sun to keep us warm, to let us know it's daytime. We have
a moon, stars, let us know it's night. But our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we get to glory, there won't be no sun, won't be no moon,
won't be no stars. He's gonna be the light. He's
got such a glory about him, he's gonna light up the whole new
heavens and earth. Oh my, he gonna have the temple
and I said, who is this King of glory that shall come in?
Oh, he bears all the glory of our salvation. He did it all,
all to him I owe. He did everything in our salvation.
Salvation's of the Lord. He redeemed us by himself. He tread the fierceness of the
winepress of God by himself. Huh? Oh my. He's the only mediator
between us and God. If you want to speak to God,
our Lord Jesus says, no man comes unto the Father but by me. You want to go to the Father?
Come to me. You want the Father to come to
you? Come to me. Huh? Oh my. God made Christ unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And the scripture
says here, make crowns, silver crown, gold crown, put them upon
his head. He's the one who wears the crown. You know, and it talks about
us having a crown of righteousness and having a crown of life. But
here's one thing that they also say about that new heaven, new
earth. When we see Christ, you know what the first thing you
do? Is you see him and you worship him and you glory in him and
that's who you want to see. But the thing is, if you got
a crown of life or a crown of righteousness, Christ is our
life. Christ is our righteousness,
and you take those crowns and throw them right back at him.
He gave us life, so this crown belongs to you. You gave us righteousness,
and you're our righteousness, so your righteousness goes right
back to you. People want to get there and,
you know, talk about their starry crowns and all that rigmarole.
Welcome to them. Christ, crown him Lord of all. Oh, my. And then look what it
says here. Not only shall he bear the glory, and listen to
what it says, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne. He's
going to not only bear the glory and build the temple, but then
he's going to go and sit on his throne. You know who? Kings sit
on the throne. And priests never had a seat
to sit on in the tabernacle or in the temple either one. They
were always labor. and he shall sit and rule upon
his throne. He had his cross but he'll also
have his throne. He said in first Corinthians
15 25 he must reign so every enemy is put under. He by himself purged our sin
and then what did he set down? The right hand, the throne of
And there as he sits upon his throne and rules, rules upon
his throne. You know why he rules? Because
he's got the power to rule. He's got the right to rule. He's
got the authority to rule. He's got the wisdom to rule.
There's lots of people that sit on thrones and they don't have
any sense whatsoever. When Christ sits on His throne,
He rules in power, authority, wisdom, and grace, and love,
and mercy, and justice, and righteousness. He's wise. He's a wise ruler,
wise king. And I tell you what, every decision
and every judgment He makes on His throne is perfect and right. Perfect and right. And then look
what it says. And he shall rule upon his throne,
again there in verse 13, he shall rule upon his throne, and he
shall be a priest upon his throne. Who in the world ever heard of
a priest having a throne? Well, if you're a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek, I didn't do that. Oh my, he is
our priest, he is our king. And oh, he sits down there as
a king, he sits down there as a priest. And he's both for us. The priest under the law never
ever had a place to sit inside the tabernacle. Never. Or inside
the temple. Christ as our high priest sits
on his throne. Now let me tell you a thing or
two here. A king provides the power and authority and a king
provides his subjects clothing. A king made a marriage for his
son and he gave everybody coming in there a wedding garment. And
then there's one fellow in there says, how come you in here without
a wedding garment? So he gave away the garment,
the righteousness of Christ. He clothed us. Then not only
that, but he feeds us. A king's responsible to feed
his subjects. And then a king is the one who
fights all the people's battles and wins all the battles. That's
how he got to his throne. He protects them. No enemy is
going to come in and destroy his people. It's not going to
happen. And then as a priest, as a priest, he offers sacrifice.
One sacrifice put away sin forever. And as a priest, he provides
for our spiritual needs. He provides as a king, he rules
and reigns and provides for us. As a priest, he provides for
our spiritual part. He provides for our man that
is saved by his blessed grace. He's crowned king. to provide
for us in this world and everything that's necessary to bear our
needs for the fathers, our great high person. And then look what
it says here in the very last line, very last line of this
first verse. And the counsel of peace shall
be between them. Why does he talk about the council
of peace between them both? Between the king and the... Huh?
Oh my, the council of peace gonna be between them. You know, I
read it to you at Psalm 20. Who shall ascend into the hills?
First thing it said, he that hath clean hands. Clean hands.
He that hath a pure heart. He's never lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor has he ever sworn deceitfully. And then who
was it? He said, lift up your heads,
O ye everlasting gates. and the king of glory shall come
in." Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, mighty in
battle. And I tell you what, beloved,
that's counsel between the king and the priest. As king, subdues
us, makes us feel the guilt and the burden of our sin. And as
a priest, he atones by his blood. By his sacrifice, he took his
blood and applied it to our conscience and took our guilt away. And
then when he rules over us and then makes a sacrifice for us
and atones for us by his blood, then he takes that blood and
sprinkles it on our conscience and the guilt's gone, the burden's
gone, and the acceptance is sure. And then you know what it says?
We shall know peace. We'll know what peace is then.
We have peace and we have rest in our hearts. And as the old
hymn writer said, bring forth the royal diet and crown him. Crown him, Lord of all. That's
42, ain't it? I believe that's 42. Let's turn.