Let's open our Bibles again to
Hebrews chapter 1. I titled the message this morning,
Christ Better Than Angels. I reckon that tells you something
about us, that we've got to have a message entitled Christ Better
Than Angels. Now most times in the Old Testament
scriptures, when they speak of an angel or the angel of the
Lord, Usually that is referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, a pre-incarnate
appearance of him. The angel talked with Moses from
the burning bush and the angel appeared to Manoah and his wife
to announce the birth of Samson. Both of those were pre-incarnate
appearances of Christ. It wasn't a creative being, it
was Christ. And sometimes in scripture, in
the New Testament, when scripture refers to angels, it means God's
pastor. You know, the word angel means a messenger. That's what
God's pastors are. In the book of Revelation, the
seven angels are the pastors of the seven churches. And then
sometimes when scripture refers to angels, it means one of those
mighty created beings that we think of when we think of angels. And that's who we'll talk about
this morning by showing how Christ is so much better than them by
comparison. Now, men are fascinated with
angels. Men, this is our nature, the
nature we're born with. Men, oh, how they want to see
angels, and they want to hear about angels, but they've got
no interest in knowing Christ or seeing Christ by faith. I've
heard that it's common now, like mostly young girls or women or
whatever, getting these tattoos of angel wings on their back,
trying to make themselves an angel. But nobody's got any interest
in being made like Christ. If we'd advertised this morning
that an angel was going to be here in the congregation and
you'd be able to see him and talk to him, the place you couldn't
hold the people that would be here. Now, I'm convinced angels
are here this morning. You're not going to see them.
You're not going to hear from them. All that is, is Satan's trick to
fascinate us with something that impresses our flesh so that He
can cause us to look away from Christ alone. That's all that
anything that causes us to look away from Christ, to take any
of the smallest bit of our trust away from Christ is of Satan.
There's nothing more glorious. There's nothing more amazing.
There's nothing more needful to our souls than seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ and knowing him. Now, there's no doubt that
angels are glorious beings. You know, they're not these cute
little cherubs that everybody sees. Angels are mighty beings. The cherubim that we read about
in the Old Testament that were sewn into the veils of the tabernacle,
they're mighty beings. They're the mightiest of God's
created beings, much mightier than us. The chariot of fire
that came down and took Elijah to heaven, that probably was
angels. In our text here, the writer
says he's made his angels, in verse seven, a flame of fire. That flame of fire probably wasn't
a chariot, it was those angels come to take Elijah to glory.
It was angels who came, these created beings came and ministered
to our Lord after he was tempted of the devil, after he didn't
eat for those 40 days, he was tempted of the devil. Then in
Gethsemane, before he even went to the cross and he was praying
to his father, Sweat blood came out of his pores, his sweat,
his suffering, just the thought of being made sin for his people.
It was angels who came and ministered to him, strengthened him. And
we're told that angels will be the ones to come gather God's
elect from the four corners of this globe before God comes to
destroy this world with fire. Angels have to be real beings.
We know the names of two of them. We just sung about Gabriel. Gabriel
is the one who appeared to Daniel. And Gabriel is the one who came
and announced the conception of both John the Baptist and
our Lord Jesus. Michael, the archangel, we read
about contending with the devil over the body of Moses. Now hold
your place. I want to show you a couple of
scriptures. Psalm 91. God has given his angels some role in
protecting the lives of his people. Psalm 91 verse 11. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear
thee up in thy hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Look at Matthew chapter 18 verse 10. Take heed that you despise not
one, of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven
there are angels. Do always behold the face of
my Father which is in heaven." It sure makes it sound like God
has assigned angels at different times to watch over and protect
His people. And if I have ever seen the evidence
of an angel, I can tell you when it was, after Holly's sophomore
year of college, I went down there to load up all her stuff
with her and come home, and I was driving behind her Very, very
hard rainstorm. So here we are driving, it's
a rainstorm, and I'm thinking, okay. So I call her and tell
her to slow down and then distracted driving, which is worse, you
know, getting her distracted. While I was thinking that, two
cars, both lanes between me and her, and she hydroplaned. And that car spun twice around.
And I thought, this is going to be a very, very bad wreck. And she spun, I saw her little
face, hang on that steering wheel, looking straight at me, that
car turned backward. And she spun in such a way, she
avoided both of those cars, stopped at the guardrail, about a foot
and a half from it, like she parallel parked there. I don't know if that was an angel
or not, could be, but I tell you this, I'm not caught up by
the angel. That was our God's purpose. I
thank him. Oh, thank you, Lord, for sparing
him. So I want to stress this, that we've not become fascinated
with angels. They're real. Let's not become
fascinated with them. Let's not be trying to see them
or learn about them. Let's make it our business to
see Christ and learn more of him. He's far better than angels. And I want to give you a few
reasons this morning from our text. First, Christ is better
than angels because he's made better than angels. in his person
and in his name. Verse four says, being made so
much better than angels, than the angels, as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is God. So how is it that he was made
better than the angel? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the God man. And for a little while, he was
made a little lower than the angels so that he could redeem
his people. Look there in Hebrews 2 verse
7. Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels for a little while. He was made a little lower
than the angels and thou crownest him with glory and honor and
to set him over the works of thy hands. In verse 9, but we
see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. We see him now crowned with glory
and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man or every son. Now what a glorious statement
of grace that is. Angels are higher creatures than
you and me. They're more glorious than us. But angels are not redeemed. God has elect angels that he
had kept from falling. We read that some say a whole
third of the heavenly host, angels, followed Lucifer in his rebellion
against God and they're the demons now. But those angels who did
not fall, you know why they didn't fall? They're God's elect angels. God kept them from falling. But
there's no redemption for fallen angels because they don't have
a sacrifice. They don't have a substitute
come in their nature. But there is redemption for fallen
sinful men because Christ came in their nature to be their substitute. Hebrews 2 verse 16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Christ came in the nature of
men, not angels, so there's no redemption for them. But Christ
came in the nature of a man, the seed of Abraham, the stem
of Jesse, the rod of Jesse. And as a man, the Lord Jesus
Christ produced a perfect righteousness. He obeyed God perfectly. And
then he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God for
all the sin of God's elect. And because he did that, he did
it so perfectly. The father is well pleased. Even the father couldn't stay
silent. He had to speak audibly from
heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
You trust him. You believe him. You look to
him because he's done that. The father has highly exalted
him and given him a name, which is above every name. He gave
him just exactly what he earned. So in his humanity, of course,
in his deity, Christ is better than the angels. He's God, but
in his humanity, Christ is made better than the angels. He made
himself better by his perfect obedience and by his perfect
sacrifice. This last Sunday morning, seven
days ago, this very hour, that's what brother Paul Mahan was preaching
to us. about Christ the self-made man. Everything that he did was
perfect. He made himself better than the
angels. See that verse 9 in our text,
Hebrews 1. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows. Now his fellows here, the word
means partakers or sharers. These are the partakers in Christ's
righteousness Those that he has made righteous in him. Now, those
people have a measure of the spirit, don't we, in the new
birth. But it's just a measure, not a very big measure. But Christ
has that without measure. He's so much better. Now, none
of the angels can say that, though. They can't even say like us,
we've got the spirit by measure. None of the angels can say that.
The angels are not righteous in their nature because they
can fall and have fallen. Some of them. Job 4 verse 18
says that God has charged his angels with folly. So they're
not righteous in their nature. He charges angels with folly,
but never did he ever charge Christ our Savior with folly.
He's the perfect man, the perfect Savior. And by his work of redemption,
the Lord Jesus Christ has earned a better name than any angel. The name. of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the best, highest, most glorious name there is. That's what Philippians
chapter 2 is all about. That's why every kneel bow, every
tongue will confess that he's Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Because in his humanity, he made
himself perfect and glorious. The name of Christ is the best
name. How I want us to know that name. Because there's salvation
in that name. Neither is there salvation in
any other name. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. If
we know His name, know Him, we will be saved. He's so much better,
He's glorious and perfect in His person. I'm asked this question
a few times this morning. Then why would we want to be
taken up with angels? No doubt they're glorious, but
I'd a whole lot rather be taken up with Christ, wouldn't you?
There's salvation in His name. There's salvation in His person.
All right, number two, Christ is better than the angels because
Christ is the Son. He's God. Angels are just created
beings. Verse five. For unto which 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 and he shall be to me a son. Now the Lord Jesus Christ
is the son of God. He's got the nature of his father.
So he is God. He's got his father's nature.
If you look at verse eight, the father calls Christ God, so he
must be. But under the son, he saith,
thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The father called him
God, so he's God. But angels, they're created beings. and they draw their life from
God just like we do. Christ is life. They get their
life from Him just like we do. Angels are sons of God by creation. God's elect are sons of God by
adoption, by grace. But Christ is the Son of God
by nature. So He is God. And as the Son,
He has all The Son inherits everything. He has it all. The Father's given
everything in His hand. What's He given the angels? Nothing. There's nothing left over. He's
given everything to His Son. The angels are allowed to be
in God's presence, to be in the presence of Christ our Savior.
But everything's been given in the hand of Christ. He owns it
all and He rules over all. The Father has put His elect
into the Son of His hand for redemption. Son promised, Father,
I'll redeem them. I'll be surety for them. You
can require them in my hand if I don't bring them back. And
that's just exactly what he did. He went and appeared as a man
for a little while. He was made a little lower than
angels, and he got the job done. He redeemed his people from their
sin. The Father has given his Son
All power. He has power to give eternal
life to as many as the Father has given him. And right now,
as he sits upon the throne in glory, waiting to his enemies
be made his footstool, that's exactly what he's doing. He's
not wondering what you and me are going to do. He's not wondering,
well, will they accept me or not? No, he's not wondering that.
He sits there ruling and reigning, giving life to all of his elect. Because the Father has given
it to him to give. The father has given all judgment to the
son and how one day he will delight to pronounce his people. Angels don't have any of that.
The angels can't do anything without God's permission, but
the son does as he will. He's the master over his own
all the serpents can do is obey. Now, why would we want to see
an angel? I'd a whole lot rather see Christ,
the Lord of glory, wouldn't you? All right, third, Christ is better
than angels because Christ is the only object of worship, verse
six. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels
of God worship him. I look over at Revelation chapter
19. We're never to worship angels. Here an angel is speaking with
John. We don't know, well, is this
one of God's pastors, one of his preachers, one of the elders,
or is this a created being? We don't know, but either way,
it will serve our purpose for this, that Christ is the only
object of worship. If we did see an angel, we're
never to worship him. Revelation 19, verse 9. And he saith unto
me, Right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings
of God. And just like I said about Brother
Paul's message last week, a week ago today, Brother Darwin preached
on this, the marriage supper of the Lamb. After all those
glorious things that God had showed John, How wonderful, glorious
those things were. And he told him that right. And
what was John's reaction to that? Verse 10. And I bowed his feet
to worship him. And he said unto me, see thou
do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. You worship God for
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You worship
God. Now, an angel must be something
else. I mean, if we saw an angel, we would be awestruck. We've
never seen anything like it. But only God is to be worshipped.
And he is to be worshipped in Christ. God can only be worshipped
by worshipping him in Christ. Even the angels were told, you
worship the man, Christ Jesus. And that's what they did, didn't
they? They didn't understand what was going on. But they worshiped,
God told them to worship Him, so they did. And they came and
they sang in worship. What a chorus that was. They
sang worship in praise to announce His birth. They sang salvation
is now on earth. This man, this one formed in
Mary's womb, born of her, salvation is now on earth. He will bring
salvation to His people. They sang peace has now come
to earth. because this man will make peace
with God by the blood of his sacrifice. And they were so overcome,
they said, glory to God in the highest. That's worshiping God
by worshiping him and praising him in his son. Now, if the angels
who are higher, better, smarter creatures than we are, if they
worship Christ, how much more should we worship him? How much
more should we forget about everything else but Him, but Christ? Because Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the only manifestation of God, the only sight of God
we will ever have, both now and through eternity. The only thing
we'll ever see of God is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's worship Him. Worship
Him by coming to God by Him, by Christ. Worship God by trusting
the Savior that he sent. Worship God by bowing before
Christ and admitting, Lord, I'm in your hand to do with as you
will. I don't have any say in the matter.
There's nothing I can do to get you to do what I want. I am in
your hand to do with as you will. That's worshiping God. And I
can make good on that. You remember the leper. He must
have been off somewhere. He couldn't come too close to
people. He must have snuck close enough. He could hear what we
call our Lord's sermon on a mount. And when that sermon was over,
the leper came to the Lord and worshiped him. That's what scripture
says, worshiped him. And said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. If you will. He bowed his sovereignty. I don't know if you will, but
I do know you can, and I'm in your hand. Owning his sovereignty
is worshiping him. Nobody will ever worship before
anybody except the sovereign. That poor Syrophoenician woman. The Lord just insulted her, didn't
he? Except he didn't. You can't insult a dog by calling
him a dog. He says not right for me. They're
not right for me doing. I've come to the children, not
a dog. And she what did she do when
she's confronted with God's sovereignty, with his sovereignty and election?
I'm not coming except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I came for a specific people. When faced with his sovereignty
in election, with his sovereignty In salvation, she came and worshipped
him, saying, true, you're exactly right. And I'm begging you for
mercy, because you're the sovereign. That is worshipping God. It's
bowing to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Worshipping
God is to acknowledge that everything that God does, and I'm not talking
about everything just, I'm gonna get real personal here. Everything
God does with me in mind, is right. Even though I don't understand
it, it's right. Worshipping God is acknowledging
God doesn't owe me anything. He owes me nothing but wrath.
That's why I beg him for mercy in Christ Jesus. God be merciful
to me because you gave Christ my substitute, the wrath I deserve.
That's worshipping God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who's the only object of worship. Now, why would we want to worship
anyone or anything less? We won't if we see Him. If He
gives us a sight of Him, we won't. Christ is better than angels
because Christ is the King. And angels are just His servants.
Verse 7, And of the angels He saith, who maketh His angels
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. The Lord Jesus Christ is king. King over all. I love to think
about that. I love to say that Christ is
king. There's no rival to his sovereign
power. Nobody can ever do anything that's
outside of His express will. That gives me such comfort. God
is King. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to sit upon His throne forever and ever. Nobody is ever going to have
the power to take it away from Him. Never. That happens to earthly
kings. I'm not a big fan of The NBA,
I watched like the last two minutes of some playoff games sometimes
or something. But every year about this time the playoffs
start, you know what happens? Oh, somebody's going to take us off
our throne. We're not going to be able to defend our throne anymore.
Well, you're right, you won't. That happens to earthly kings,
presidents, kings, whatever. I mean, there's been kings who
said they were sovereign, and the day they were taken from
the throne by a mob and had their head cut off. They weren't king
no more. Somebody else stood in their place because somebody
else had more power than they did. That would never happen
to Christ, our King. Nobody has more power than him.
They're no rival to his throne. He's the king of kings and he
will always be sovereign over everything. Nothing will ever
happen that's against his will. All right, what's his will? His
will is the salvation of his people. That his people shall
be saved from their sin. Because His will is always done. Now aren't you glad Christ is
King? Do you love to say it? Do you love to hear it? Do you
love to think about it? Christ is King. God reigneth. Let the
earth rejoice. God's King. And everything our
King does is holy and right. Earthly kings might start out
with good intentions, but they never end that way. They always
just become a wicked despot who's just interested in serving themselves. Not our king. His scepter is
a scepter of righteousness. The scepter is a symbol of his
power. The scepter is a symbol of his
right to rule. Well, Christ's scepter is a scepter
of righteousness. The word is right. It means straight
and upright. Thank goodness. Everything Christ
our King does is right. He wouldn't do anything wrong.
But more than that, it's right just because He does it. It's
always right. It's always righteous. It's holy
without any sin. Everything Christ our King does
is good. Even when it's painful to our
flesh. I believe that even when I can't feel it. even when I
can't see it. Everything he does is good. And he never gives an account
of any of his matters to the likes of you and me. My dear
friend, Marvin Stoniker, I've become very close friends with
Marvin since his children were grown. But I've heard from many
people that Marvin and his wife Linda were outstanding parents. I've heard that from many people.
And we talk about our children. Marvin has told me on more than
one occasion, he said, when my kids were little, he said, I'd
tell them, do something, and they'd say, why? And he said,
because I said so. I mean, he didn't, he just, because
I said so. And he said, it would have been
a waste of time to explain to them why I was thinking. They
couldn't understand. And what they learned is, because dad
said so, is good enough reason. They learn to trust him. They
learn to trust him. He's a good father, a loving
father. He's sovereign in his own. Marvin would hate me confusing
him with an illustration of this. Christ our King is the sovereign. He doesn't give an account of
his matters. He does as he will. And our only relationship is
to bow. Yes, sir. Because he's good. Because he's right. Because he's
loving, faithful, proven father. The king is our father. And our
sovereign king saves whom he will, when he will. And somebody
says, why? And he said, because I said so.
I sent out commandment. They're brought to Christ. They're
given faith in life. That's good. Can you think of
anything more good than that? God saving a sinner? Good thing
He does. Because if He didn't use His
sovereign power to save His elect in righteousness and save them
against their will with their full consent, no sinner would
ever be saved. The only way it's possible for
a sinner like us to be saved is God's sovereign power and
right to save. And that's good. It's good And
it's right for God to save His elect that way. It's right because
Christ made them righteous. Christ made them holy. It's right
that they be saved. And the flip side of that is
true too. The flip side of that coin is true. It's right for
Him to sovereignly pass by whom He will. That's right. Let's be honest. They don't deserve
His mercy to do that. Nobody does. It's only right. Now, while we're being honest,
let's be honest about this. We can't always love that right
now in our flesh. We can't do that. Especially
concerning our loved ones who don't know the Lord. We cannot
rejoice in that right now. We will one day, but you ought
not rejoice in that right now. If we're rejoicing in it, we
wouldn't pray for them. We ought to be praying for them. We ought
to be sending the gospel to them, doing what we can so they hear
the gospel. But one day we will. One day we will. We'll be made
just like Christ. Because God's throne is a just
throne. Everything done from that throne
is right. Everybody in hell will be there
because that's exactly what they deserve. And that day, everybody
there will tell you that's true. God's given me just exactly what
I deserve. And everybody who's in heaven will be there because
they received exactly what they deserve. They'll receive exactly
what Christ earned for them. They will be in heaven because
Christ their head is there and they have union with him and
they will be there with him where he is beholding his glory. This is a sovereign form of rightness,
justice and truth. But you want some real good news?
You want some sweet news for a sinner? Christ, the sovereign
of the whole universe, sits upon a throne. It's just, it's right,
it's the throne of truth. Oh, thank God. It is a throne
of grace. He sits on his throne, sovereignly,
freely, giving grace to the guilty, saving them to the uttermost
by his grace. And he says, our king is not someone we can
ever see. Our king's not someone we can never talk to. He doesn't
always be surrounded by security keeping everybody away from him.
No, he opens the way and says, come. Now I want you, you who
do not know the Lord, I want you to listen to me very carefully
right now. If you're here this morning and
you do not have grace for your soul, it's because you haven't
come begging for it. Not so. I'll show you that. I'll
make good on that. Turn over one page, Hebrews chapter
4. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Now Christ our King is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. I'm very, very, very confident
that our president and all the men and women in Congress, in
the Senate, in the House. I'm very, very confident of this.
They cannot identify with my life. They can't. It's just an utter impossibility.
Christ our King does. He's touched with the feeling
of the infirmities of his people. He knows what it's like to be
made sinful. He knows the guilt of sin, the
shame of sin a whole lot better than we do. He knows what it
is to suffer and die for sin. And he feels compassion for his
people. Now come to him, why would you
stay away? Verse 16, let us therefore come boldly under the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Come boldly to the throne of
grace. How can I, a sinner like me,
how can I come boldly into the presence of God before this throne
of grace? Well, I'll give you a couple
of reasons. Come boldly, because Christ opened the way. He removed
all the obstacles. Come boldly, confidently. Come
confidently, you're not going to trip over anything. Come confidently,
because He's commanded us to come. This is not an invitation,
you can come to my party if you want to. No, he's commanded us
to come. Then come with all confidence
that you'll be accepted into him. Sinners can come confidently
to the throne of grace, of grace. This isn't the throne of merit.
You know, the throne of merit, the self-righteous might mistakenly
think they can come boldly before that. The throne of grace is
a throne that sinners and only sinners can come to confidently
because it's There's grace for sinners. There's grace for the
guilty at this throne. You come confidently to this
throne if you need help. You need help? I'm not talking
about a helping hand that just kind of boosts you up. I'm talking
about you need someone to do it all for you because you can't
do anything. If you're so guilty that you
have no hope in marriage, That you must have grace or you're
going to die. That you come confidently to
this throne. This throne is for you. It's a throne of grace. Come boldly to the throne of
grace because we're accepted in the beloved. Not because of
anything about us. If our coming to Christ depended
upon us in any way, there'd be no confidence there would be.
There can be confidence in coming to the throne of grace because
we're accepted by grace, not by merit. We're accepted by the
merit of Christ, the person of Christ, not our merit and not
our person. Come confidently, boldly, because
of who Christ is. And come reverently because of
who Christ is. But you come because of who he
is. Christ the King sits on the throne, the father, yea, because
of your survival on this throne. Well, the angels are servants,
just like the priest in the Old Testament tabernacle. The priest
never sat down because there's always work to do. Well, the
father's never told an angel sit down. There's something for
you to do. You're a servant. He never gave them a seat, much
less a throne. Verse 13, our text, Hebrews 1.
But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right
hand until I make thine enemies, I footstool. He never said it. because they're servants. They're
always serving Him. But Christ the King, He's the
one who rules and reigns. And He sends those angels out
at His servants, following His commandment, doing what He sends
them to do. Those angels are sent out to minister to God's
elect, like we talked about earlier, to keep them safe or do something. I don't know what all that entails,
but that's what they're sent to do. And like I said, who cares
that an angel is the one doing it for me? I care about Christ
the King who gave them commandment. They're just doing what He told
them to do. Christ is the one who's done something for my soul.
I want to come worship Him. I want to worship Him. Do you
want to do that? You want to come worship Him?
Then do what God commands and come to Christ and repent of
your sin and believe on Him. He's the King. Why would we ever
want to bow before anyone, see anyone, but the king. Jan and
I went and saw this movie Chappaquiddick last night. Oh, she was feisty
on the way home. Just these politicians and just
how full of self they are. Who do they think they are, you
know? But everybody tells them that's what they are. When the
senator walks in the room, everybody stops what they're doing. Oh,
senator. Oh, senator. Oh, senator. Just falling all over themselves.
And they forgot everybody else in the room. God would just give us a sight.
God the Son, sitting on the throne, we forget about everybody else
in the room. We do business alone with him.
That's what we do. All right, lastly, Christ is
better than the angels because Christ is the creator. Verse
10. Thou, Lord, in the beginning
has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the
works of thine hands. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who spoke everything into existence. When God said, let
there be light, and there was light, that was Christ speaking.
And he uses that same power to create new spiritual life in
his people. He speaks, let there be light,
and there's light in the soul. Angels are powerful, but they
can't do that, can they? Read on verse 11. And they shall
perish, all their creation, they shall perish. But thou remainest,
and they all shall wax old as doth the 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. Christ does not change. Christ the creator. He said,
I change not. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Because this eternal covenant
of grace that was made and ratified long before you came on the scene.
Now angels can change, they have changed and they will change
unless God stops them from doing it. And men change, I got my
notes here, we change from minute to minute, we change from second
to second. Only Christ never changes. Now what does that mean? That means this, if God loves
you now, he's always loved you. There's never been a time he
has not loved you and there'll never be a time he kicks you
out. His love is unchanging. And his unchanging perfection,
Christ rules over his creation, holding it all together by the
power of his will. It's going to hold it together
until he's done with it. Right now, all he's doing is
waiting for his enemies to be put under his feet and he destroys
He's just waiting till he accomplishes his will, bring all of his elect
to him. And when the last one of them
is called in and they're called to faith in Christ, then Christ
is going to stand up and revelations showed us this. He's going to
say, it's done. A calvary's tree, he cried, is
finished. At the end of time, he's going to say, it's done. And this creation is going to
be wrapped up. It's going to be put away. It's
like Janet does a change of every season. She folds up those clothes
that are of no use anymore because now it's too cold to wear or
too hot or too cold or too whatever to wear those clothes. Can't
wear them anymore. She folds them up and puts them away. Those
things are not useful in the springtime, not useful in the
summer. She puts them away. And that's exactly what Christ
is going to do. When he's done with this creation, when he's
caught all of his elect out of it, he's not going to be any
use for it anymore. The only use he has for this creation
right now is his elect live in it. And he's calling them out
of it. And when he's calling them all out of it, he's gonna
be done with it. He's gonna wrap it up, put it away, and everything's
gonna be changed. All men and women, everybody's
gonna be changed into bodies that'll live forever somewhere.
Somewhere, whether it's heaven or hell. So they're gonna live
somewhere. And creation's gonna be changed. God's gonna burn
it up. He's going to create new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwells righteousness and sin will never enter into it. And
in all, everything's going to change with one exception. Christ
the Savior will never change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever and throughout eternity. He's not going to change. Nothing's
going to change. He'll still be God. He'll still
be the only manifestation of God we'll see. He'll still be
the only object of worship we have. So why would we want to
see and be fascinated with angels right now? This ought to tell
us something. That in that day, in eternity,
when we do see him, we're not going to be fascinated with him.
We're not going to be looking at him. We'll be taken up with
Christ. We won't be able to take our
eyes off of him. And it is my earnest prayer that
God be pleased to do that in our hearts this morning. that
we leave here this morning not looking to, not trusting in,
not having any hope in anyone, anything except the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's worthy of you. He's better.
Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for
this blessed instruction from your word. As we see the instruction,
how we see our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he's better. He's better
than anything the heart can imagine. Father, I pray that you glorify
the name and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts
of your people this morning. Bless your word that it go forth
in power, that it cut away all the deadness of the flesh and
gives us a heart of faith that believes and loves the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, it's in his precious
name for the glory of his name. We pray and give thanks.