Turn in your Bibles, please,
to 1 Kings chapter 1. I want to read from verses 5 through
verse 31. The title of my message tonight
is, A Vain Thing, A Vain Thing. You will remember David is advanced
in years, worn out, 70 years old now. It says in verse 5,
Then Adonijah the son of Haggith, that's the brother of Absalom,
exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him
chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. And his
father had not displeased him at any time in saying, What hast
thou done so? And he also was a very goodly
man, and his mother bare him after Absalom. And he conferred
with Joab the son of Zariah, and Abiathar the priest, and
they, following Adonijah, helped him. But Zadok the priest, and
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei,
and Rav, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with
Adonijah. And Adonijah slew sheep, and
oxen, and fat cattle by the stone of Zolaheth, which is by Enrogel,
and called all his brethren, and the king's son, and all the
men of Judah, the king's servants. But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah,
and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. Wherefore
Nathan spake to Bathsheba his mother, the mother Solomon, saying,
Hast thou not heard that Adonijah, The Son of Haggath doth reign,
and David our Lord knoweth it not. Now therefore come, let
me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own
life, and the life of thy son Solomon. Go and get thee into
King David, and say to him, Didst not thou my Lord know Didst not my lord, O king, swear
unto thy handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after
me, and he shall sit upon my throne? Why, then doth Adonijah
reign. Behold, while thou yet talkest,
There with the king I also will come in after thee, said this
is Zadok speaking, and confirm thy words, or rather Nathan,
and confirm thy words. And Bathsheba went into the king
and the chamber. The king was very old, and Abishag
the Shunammite ministered unto the king. And Bathsheba bowed
and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said, What is thou? she said unto him, My lord, thou
swearest by the Lord thy God unto thy handmaid, saying, Assuredly
Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my
throne. And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth,
and now, my lord the king, thou knowest it not. And he hath slain
oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called
the sons of the king. And abitheth all the priests,
and Joab the captain of the host, but Solomon thy servant hath
he not called. And thou, my lord, O king, the
eyes of all Israel upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them
who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise
it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with
his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.
And lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet
also came in. And they told the king, saying,
Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come before the
king, he bowed himself before the kings with his face to the
ground. And Nathan said, O my lord, O
king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he
that sit upon my throne? For he is gone down this day,
and hath slain oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance,
and hath called all the king's sons, and the captains of the
host, and Abiathar the priest. And behold, they eat and drink
before thee, and they say, God save King Adonijah. But me, even thy servant, and
Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy
servant Solomon, hath he not called? Is this thing done by
my Lord the King? And thou hast not shewed it unto
thy servant, who should sit upon thy throne of my Lord the King
after them? Then David answered and said,
Call me by Sheba. And she came into the king's
presence and stood before the king. And the king squared and
said, As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of
all distress, even as I square unto thee by the Lord God of
Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me,
and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead, even so will I certainly
do this day. Then Bathsheba bowed with her
face to the earth, and did reverence to the King, and said, Let my
Lord the King, King David, live for ever." Let us pray. Our Father,
we bless Thee and thank Thee that we know that You are sovereign.
We know that You have taken Your power to Yourself and have reigned,
and do even now reign. holding the reigns of this universe
in utter control. We do rejoice to know and we
can rest in peace and knowledge that the judge of all the earth
shall do right and what thou doest thou doest doeth perfectly. All your judgments are right
and your work is perfect. And we praise you for that. We
thank You for Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly gave
Himself a sacrifice for our sins and put our sins away by that
sacrifice and satisfied Your justice and Your law, wherein
we are accepted in Him fully in Your presence. comfort them and strengthen them
and fix their hearts and minds upon Christ. Father, this life
is fleeting. It's here and gone. It's a vapor. It goes faster than a weaver's
shuttle and faster than a post. Father, we thank you for eternal
life through Jesus Christ. We pray also for the West family
at the loss of Bucky, that you might be with them. We pray for
brother mickey is he's in the hospital waiting this surgery
pray lord should be with him watch over those surgeons and
may they find what is necessary to bring circulation back to
his foot helping to recover quickly we continue to pray for those
others who requested prayer those who are going through different
trials tribulation those who are being treated for various
sicknesses wayne laverne Henry, Ralph, Jenny, we ask the Lord
your help upon them. And help us now as we look into
thy word to be comforted in the knowledge that no matter what
men may think or what men may try, that your counsel shall
stand, your purpose shall be accomplished, and it can never
be thwarted, and you'll never be disappointed. Help us to bow
to You for who You are, in Christ's name, Amen. Did any of y'all get one of these
on your door this week? The Jehovah's Witness came by the door. Jesus takes away the sin of the
world, is what it says. It says, how does He do so? Why is this necessary? How can
you benefit? Well, they didn't answer any
of those questions, but they asked them. But I was interested in
the first line of their little pamphlet here. It says, John
the baptizer stated that Jesus takes away the sin of the world,
John 1.29. This drew attention to Jesus'
role in saving obedient mankind. Saving obedient mankind. I thought He said He didn't come
to call the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance. But at
any rate, they came to my door, bless their hearts. I usually
open the door and say, who do you represent? And they'll say,
Jehovah's Witness. I'll say, well, see you later.
I don't wish them a happy day or a nice day. Obedient sinners. I'm glad he didn't come to save
obedient sinners, because I would have never been saved if he had
done that. That's neither here nor there.
I just found that on the church door, as a matter of fact, as
I was coming in tonight to unlock the church. This account here is of men trying
to undo what God has purposed. And it is a vain thing. Centuries ago there was a mighty
warrior king, I think his name was Justin. And he despised,
utterly despised the name of Jesus Christ. and he hated those
who followed the Lord Jesus Christ. He made it his life's goal and
his political aim and he promised his kingdom that he would rid
the earth of the name of Jesus Christ. He promised them that.
He said, well, before I go to my grave, nobody will ever hear
of Jesus Christ again. Now he refused to even say the
name Christ or the name Jesus, but rather referred to our Lord
sarcastically as that Nazarene. That's how he referred to Him.
I'm going to wipe the name of that Nazarene off the face of the earth. Now
he had some reasonable success in persecuting Christians in
the church and striking fear in the hearts of those that loved
that Nazarene. But one day he was in the midst
of battle, and he was unhorsed when an enemy's javelin pierced
his bosom. And as he lay in the dirt, his
life's blood pouring out on the ground, he grabbed a handful
of mud, mud formed by a mixture of his own blood with the sand
that he was laying on. And he lifted up that handful
of earth toward the sky, and with his last breath he was heard
to say, O Nazarene, thou hast conquered. Thou hast conquered. The Lord said through the mouth
of David, Man is a lie, and he is lighter than vanity. Lighter than vanity. Solomon,
considering man and all his labors upon the earth, cried, All is
vanity. All is vanity. When the Lord
prophesied of the gathering of the men against Jesus Christ
in Psalm 2, He said, Why do the people imagine a vain thing,
an empty thing, an empty thing? And since our father and federal
head Adam did eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and
good and evil, the source of all natural rebellion and the
universal plague of the human character is vanity. empty pride or vanity. And religion spends its time
and its energy in a false premise. Not only is the premise false
and against scripture, religion actually deceived themselves
being false to themselves. They speak in terms of a cooperative
effort between men and God, but they don't believe that. They
don't believe that. The fact is that man cares not
for cooperation, He wants sovereignty for Himself. He wants sovereignty
for Himself. He wants a life where He is God. In Psalm 14, Our Lord looked
down from the heavens, and He saw that man was a fool, a fool,
and he stank, and he was altogether corrupt and unfiltered, and didn't
seek after God, and didn't know God, and didn't want to know
God. And he said, a fool has said in his heart, there is no
God. But the original reading of that
is, no God for me. No God for me. That's what a
fool says, no God for me. And no matter what form rebellion
takes, whether it's societal evil or criminal activity or
theological heresy or any myriad of sins, the core motive is this,
no God for me. All criminality. All sin, all
heresy, all evil comes from that premise, no God for me, no God
for me. Man does not merely want to be
God, he intrinsically thinks that he is God. And he spends
his life trying to manipulate events to prove his right to
that title, Adonijah. who was not prophesied to be
king, who was not promised to be king. He was one of David's
sons, born of one of David's wives or his concubines, one
or the other. Adonijah believed himself to
have a right to the throne. Look at verse 5, And Adonijah
the son of Haggath exalted himself, saying, I will be king. I will be king. And if you look
at it in a marginal reading, he said, I will reign. What those who despised the Lord
Jesus Christ said was, we will not have this man reign over
us. The good news of the gospel according
to Isaiah 52.7 is that thy God reigneth. What the saints in
Revelation cried in thanksgiving for was that God had taken power
to Himself and had reigned. And every child of God rejoices
in that fact. For we know that in a troubled
world that looks crazy and things seem to be going all kinds of
haywire, It's nice to know that nothing is off schedule. Nothing
is flying out of the will of God and operating on its own
power. Everything is exactly on schedule
and according to purpose. And this we do rejoice. Now the
passage we will consider tonight is a treatise on the utter stupidity
and gross vanity that is revealed when a potsherd strives against
his maker. Over in Psalm 33, David said
this in verses 10 and 11, The Lord bringeth the counsel of
the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." Men have their ideas, they propose,
yet they find that in the end God always disposes. Now Adonijah,
who is Absalom's brother, follows in his brother's footsteps. He
is the worm who would be king, He knows, as does all of Israel,
that God has purposed that Solomon would occupy David's throne when
David rested with the fathers. But just as Absalom had his own
design, so did Adonijah. Absalom said in 2 Samuel 15,
when you hear the trumpet sound, you'll know, I'm the king. I'm the king. And here in 1 Kings
we find that Adonijah says the same thing. I'm the king, I reign."
And He has people say it too. There are some elements of truth
here in this passage that don't tell the whole story, but yet
are very important for our understanding. Some things that teach and admonish
us. The first is found in verse 6, speaking of David in reference
to Adonijah, not only in his behavior now, but his behavior
since he was a boy. He said that his father, that
is, David, had not displeased him at any time in saying, What
hast thou done? What hast thou done? This speaks
of bad parenting. That's what it's speaking of.
David didn't parent Adonijah very well, like Eli. Eli didn't
parent his two sons, Hopni and Phinehas, very well. But David
never said to this young man, What are you doing this for? Or why are you doing this? He
never displeased him. He never upset the young boy. I hear people say today, Well,
I just don't want to discipline my children. It hurts too bad.
Well, you love yourself more than you love your child. That's
that simple. And David did too. David was a human being. It gives
us some idea, with the ease at least, from which Adonijah made
his wretched choice. It is apparent that David did
not chastise him at all. His father did not displease
him at any time. It must have been pretty good
to be the king's son and never get disciplined. Regardless of
David's reading for the absence of discipline, the core principle
is that David did not love him as he ought. For our Lord said,
Despise not the chastening of the Lord. Because the Father
chastened every son whom He loveth. And if He doesn't chasten him,
he's a bastard and not a son. It's also evident that Adonijah
was probably a handful. Probably a handful of a kid.
We know some kids are a handful. But David had not said to him,
What hast thou done? The admonition is plain. Children
need correction. Why? Because they're children.
They're not little grown-ups. They're not our friends. They're
our children. They're our children. It's a
good parent who exercises discipline when it's needed. A loving parent
who exercises discipline when it's needed. Secondly, another
good principle is set forth. Nathan's plan to inform David
of Adonijah's insurrection and declare the urgency of getting
Solomon anointed was a cooperative effort between he and Bathsheba. He told Bathsheba, you go to
the king and you tell him what Adonijah is doing and while you're
there I'm going to come in right behind you and I'm going to tell
him too. It was a cooperative effort, Solomon's mother. Why
did Nathan do it this way? The reason that Nathan did it
that way was not because he believed that there was strength in numbers,
or because he feared that David would not believe him or Bathsheba
if they approached David with the news alone. Three or four
things here. First of all, Scripture says
an accusation against a brother shall not be received except
in the presence of two or three witnesses. So two witnesses showed
up for this accusation against Adonijah. That's a good principle
to always remember. It's a good practice for you
and I to always remember. Because sometimes people get
mad at our brothers and sisters or they hear something. They
hear something. I had a friend of mine call another
friend of mine not long ago and say, well, I heard. I heard that
you wouldn't have such and such a preacher in your pulpit ever
again. My friend said, told him, said, Where in the world did
you hear that? You've known me 35 years, where
would you even hear something like that? Where do you think
I'd say something like that? He said, that bell is welcome in
my pulpit anytime. Well, that's what I heard. That's
what I heard. One time a fellow called me with
an accusation against a brother along those lines, and I simply
said, well, okay, all right, I'll receive the accusation.
when I receive it in the face of two or three witnesses. Bring
me the witnesses. Let me face them face to face
and let them tell me and I'll believe the accusation because
that's how it's to be done. Nathan and Bathsheba came as two to
establish that what they were saying was true. Adonijah was
trying to overtake the kingdom. I'll tell you, this will stop
the mouth of rumor mongers and gossipers if you just ask this
simple question next time somebody says something against one of
your brethren, say, show me the witnesses. I have to have the
witnesses. I can't accept it. I can't receive
it unless I have witnesses. And you'll be all right because
you'll be following the scriptures. Secondly, the use of two witnesses
was to establish the severity of Adonijah's rebellion. This was a severe thing. He said,
I'm going to be king. The king was still alive. David
was still alive. And the one anointed after David's
death was to be Solomon. And Adonijah comes up and said,
I'm going to be king. Well, this meant something to Bathsheba
and Solomon. She says, we're going to appear like offenders.
And what she really meant was that if he becomes king, me and
Solomon are going to get killed. being Solomon. So this matter
of two or three witnesses becomes very important to establish the
severity of Adonijah's rebellion. Look back at Deuteronomy 17. In Deuteronomy 17, at verse 6,
At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that
is worthy of death be put to death. But at the mouth of one
witness he shall not be put to death. The mouth of one witness
he shall not be put to death. I think that should be practiced
in our judicial system today. One eyewitness ought not cut
it. It never should cut it. Never should cut it. But in the
mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established that is
worthy of death and that's what these two did. You see what Adonijah
did was not just set forth an opinion and decided he was going
to run in a political race. There was no politic, there was
no election to be had here. There was already one anointed
to be king in the place of David. So he was rebelling against,
not only against David and against Solomon, primarily he was rebelling,
as all rebellion is, against God. He was saying, I'm going
to reign, God doesn't reign. And that's worthy of death. It's no small thing, also that
in the Gospel age, In the end times, the Lord speaks of two
witnesses being raised up. Two witnesses being raised up,
and that represents the gospel in His church. And those witnesses
are here today. And they speak out honestly and
straightforwardly against Babylon the whore, even if it costs them
their life for doing so. But this entire episode is about
one thing. There's much to be gleaned from
this in a practical manner, but this episode is about one thing
and one thing only. It is about the singular exaltation
of the King that God has chosen and anointed. That's what this
is about. And we know that the King that
He has chosen and anointed is the King of kings and the Lord
of lords who rightfully is heir to the throne of God. And that's
where He sits right now at the right hand of the Father. You
see, it's about the singular exaltation of the Son of God.
This is the battle of the ages. This is the war of all time and
the outcome has never been in question. We ought not worry. and fret, because men speak wrong
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to say we shouldn't get jealous
for His glory, but we ought not worry as to think it's going
to somehow affect the outcome of anything. Solomon's gonna
sit on that throne. God has said Solomon's gonna
sit on that throne, and Solomon's gonna sit on that throne. It's
the battle of the ages, but it's never been in question. Since
Adam, who was undeceived, Eve was deceived by the serpent.
He made her to think that she could be God if she ate of the
tree of this life. And sure, she was willing to be deceived,
but she was nonetheless deceived. But Adam wasn't deceived when
he took of that fruit. All it says of Adam was that
he did eat. And he did eat. He did. That's
what he did. And he was a deceased. He willfully
ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, knowing that
he would die and his progeny would die. All that come out
of his loins would die. They would be born dead. He knew
that. Because God had said, in the
day you eat of it, dying you shall die. You're going to die. And everybody that comes out
of you is going to die. You're going to die physically. You're going
to die spiritually. He knew that. So that was a willful
act of our father and our federal head, Adam. Since he ate of the fruit. Since
Lucifer wantonly and presumptuously eyed the throne of God as his
rightful place. Since every son of Adam has vied
for his place in the Son. The end has always been and always
will be the same. God's Son is on the throne. That's not going to change. You
can't do a thing about that. I know what we by nature want
to do. We want to be God. We want to sit on that throne.
We want to occupy that place of fame and greatness. The Son of God will not have
a rival in this world, and He has no rival in this world. In
all the course of history, there is not one like Him. Not one
like Jesus Christ. Here was a man who was fully
God and fully man. In him dwelt the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. How can that be? It was, without
controversy, a great mystery, Paul said. God manifests in the
flesh. It's a wonder. It's amazing.
There's none like him. No one ever spake like this man
spake. He spoke the truth. And the religious
powers of the day were considered as kindergarten teachers compared
to him as a college professor. He spake as one in having authority,
not as the scribes and the Pharisees who people looked to to get what
the Bible meant. He was different. Nobody like
him. No one ever died like he died.
He didn't die of any outside force. He didn't die of an inward
sickness. He didn't die because God killed
him. Jesus Christ died because he
willed himself to die. He said, I'll die now. And he
died. I can't imagine what kind of
power resided in that, that he who is life, and the sustainer
and consummator of all life on the earth, the holder of every
creature's breath in his hand, he could will himself, of himself,
to say, I'll not live any longer. And three days later, while laying
dead in the tomb, say, I'll live again. Nobody ever liked this
man in all of history. No one ever lived like Him. No
man's ever lived like that. I know we have people who are
philanthropic, who are generous, and we're thankful for those
who are. We're thankful for those who are. But no man ever lived
totally selflessly in this world except for Jesus Christ, the
God of all the earth, the Creator, Sustainer and Consummator of
all things, the Creator of you and me. Jesus Christ came down
to this earth not for any other reason than to serve God and
save His people. That was it. Everything He did,
He did for someone else. He pleased not Himself. It says
that twice in the New Testament. He pleased not Himself. What does that mean? He didn't
do what He did for Himself. He did it for someone else. This
is what true humanity is supposed to be, and it shows us how far
we've followed. We don't do anything exclusively
for somebody else. You know that's true, and I know
that's true, and if somebody else won't pat us on the back,
we'll stand in front of a mirror and pat ourselves on the back.
Because that's what we are. But Jesus Christ wasn't like
that. Everything He did, He did not to please Himself, but to
please God and for the good of His people. everything. He said, not my will but thine
be done. Was his will in contrast to God's
will? No. He was set in on God's will. He was God himself. But he was
saying as a human being, I submit wholly to what God has declared
a human being ought to be. I submit completely, not my will
but thine be done. As for his work, it was perfect. We can't, any of us say that.
We can say we hit a pretty good lick at it. We can say we've
done a fairly good job, but I guarantee if it's perfect, it'll last forever.
Malcolm's a good carpenter. He builds houses. Those houses
are great, and they look good. And when he turns the key, you're
ready to walk in. But those houses are going to
rot and fall down someday. So it ain't a perfect work. No
matter what we do, we fall short always. Jesus Christ didn't.
Can you imagine that? Every step he took, every breath
he breathed, every thought he had, every deed he intended to
do, he did. And when he did it, nothing could
be added to it, nothing could be taken from it, and it goes
on forever. A billion, billion centuries,
millenniums from now, nothing will be changed. Why? Because
his work is perfect. And he perfected forever all
those who were sanctified, those whom he gave his life for on
Calvary Street. Men talk about their own righteousness.
Our righteousness will not rival His. He was the only really righteous
man that ever lived on the face of the earth. That's why He had
nothing to do with the law except to die under it. Because He was
totally and completely righteous. Men talk about our personal righteousness
as if it would somehow aid His righteousness. No, it would diminish
His righteousness. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. And there's
no rival to Him. Nobody like Him. He's alone. He's alone as the author and
finisher of the faith. That don't mean He only started
it. He finishes it. He finishes it. How are you going
to end up? You're going to end up okay because the author of
your faith is also the finisher of your faith. You didn't start
it. You ain't going to end it. He's going to end it just as
He started it. Nobody like that on the face
of the earth. He is the Word, the Word made
flesh that dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. He is only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the
Word made flesh. But He is also the written Word.
He is also the written Word. And He is the author and finisher
of that also. And it is all about Him. This
Word is about Him. This Word is about Him from beginning
to end. He said that. All the Scriptures
speak of Him. And that's how we have understanding
of the Scriptures. If you don't know Christ, you don't understand
this book. That don't mean you can't put two ducks in a row
and come up with some theological idea or system. Man, this book
is so full of stuff that is intended to snare people and put them
out of business and yet keep them religious. That men through
the ages have come up with every fathomable notion in the world. People over in Haywood County
still handle snakes. Some of them do. The sheriff
died not long ago, well, a pretty good while ago, because he was
a snake handler. Why did he do that? Well, the Bible says we've
got to do it. The Bible don't say you've got
to do that. The Bible says what he was saying
was that if you get bit by a snake, if it's God's will, you'll live,
you'll live, that snake won't hurt you. And that was proven
when Paul was shipwrecked and came on that island at Melita
and a man was building a fire and Paul started to put a stick
in the fire and a snake latched on to his hand, an asp, a very
poisonous snake. Should have died in about three
steps. He shook it off and went on. Why? God was fulfilling what
Christ had said. You shall tread on serpents and
they shall not poison you. You drink poison, you will not
die. Well, that's what we all do then. Let's go drink some
arsenic. That's just stupid. But it's a viable religious idea
from the Bible if that's the way you want to go. You can take
it. The devil uses the Scripture for his own purpose. These Jehovah's
Witnesses, their whole religion was started by a man named Charles
Taz Russell. who believed that 144,000, that
number, 144,000 federation, that's how many God was going to save.
And then their group passed 144,000, so he came up with a second idea
about how they were going to be saved. So they had too many. But he took one verse. The Campbellites,
the Church of Christ is based on Acts 2.32, that were baptized
for the remissions of sin. They say if you're not baptized,
sin is not remitted, that those baptismal waters wash away sin.
That's the Bible. But it's not what the Bible means.
The Bible is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And if we
get away from that, we come up with all strange ideas. He's
the Word. He's the Word. And the Word is
about Him. There are no extra-biblical revelations. I know men say, well, God told
me. No, He didn't just tell me. He's a liar. God didn't tell
him nothing. God's already said what He's
going to say. This is a finished book. It's a finished book. It is finished. Nothing's going
to be added to it or taken away from it. The Lord said, don't
you dare do it or you'll get in trouble. To add to this book
and take away from it. He's the revelation of God Almighty. In Him dwelleth the fulness of
the Godhead bodily. All the law and the prophets gave witness
of Him. Moses spoke of Him. David in the Psalms spoke of
Him. Moses in the Psalms spoke of Him. Elijah spoke of Him. Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Maka, Nahum, all of them spoke
of Him. They all spoke of Christ. If
you don't believe me, just pick up the book sometime and read.
Read who he is. You'll see him there. If you
know him, you'll say, oh, that's what Hosea said about him. Hosea
said of Christ, he went out and married a whore, and made her
his own, and loved her though she was unlovely and unworthy
of love. Ezekiel saw a wheel within a
wheel, speaking of the providence of God, saw a beast with four
faces, the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an
ox. Can't remember what the other phase was, but the four phases
speaking in four aspects of Christ's person. Genesis chapter 1, in
the beginning God. John chapter 1, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God, the
same was in the beginning of God. It's all about Jesus Christ.
There are no extra biblical revelations. And preachers who know that will
honestly tell you, I have nothing new to tell you today. It's the
same old story over and over again. All the prophets gave
witness to Him. Paul said, that's the way men
called heresy. That's how I worship God, believing
all that the Law and the Prophets said about Jesus Christ. When
Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration sought to put the Law and the
Prophets on equal footing with Christ, when he said, Lord, it's
been a great day we've had here. You've shone like the sun. It's
been an amazing day. We saw men come from the past
and fly through time and land in front of us. Moses and Elijah
were here too, and they were talking with each other about
your death, which you should accomplish in Jerusalem. Boy,
what a great day this has been, Lord. Let's have a celebration.
Let's build a theme park. Let's build a tabernacle to you
and a tabernacle to Moses and a tabernacle to to Elijah, to
the law, and to the prophets, and to Jesus, too. God opened
up heaven and said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. You hear Him. He's the one we
hear, the Lord Jesus Christ. "...Adonijah thought to thwart
the purpose of God, but his rebellious insurrections changed nothing
one wit." and neither will I rebel." They're not going to change anything. God's purpose shall stand. Now
the world is populated by Ursat's kings. How many? However many
people there are on the face of the earth. They're all Ursat's
kings. They all want to be God. They
are being born in droves who will seek the throne as if it
were rightfully theirs, and their efforts will meet with the same
utter failure that Adonijah's did. God has anointed Christ
king of kings. There is no king but Jesus. There
is no king but Jesus. And right now, and happy for
every child of God to think, this king reigns, and his reign,
like that of old Mordecai, is for the good and for the welfare
of his people. That's how God's sovereignty
is exercised in this world, for His glory and for your good. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.