The King Who Never Changes

They're excited. And for the rest of us, go ahead and grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 1. We're going to be looking at verses 8 through 14. Hebrews 1. We're going to be looking at verses 8 through 14.

And while you're turning there, let me ask you a question. Hands up. Who here has been a Christian for less than 30 years? That should be most of us. I'm sorry for those who have been longer than that. Um, I'm not sorry.

That's awesome. Um, 20 years or less. Keep your hands up. 20 years or less. 10 years or less. 10 years or less.

All right. All right. Five years or less. Anybody? Five years or less. Okay.

All right. All right. Right on the right on the cusp there. Before surrendering surrendering your life to the lordship of Christ, what was it that you lived for? I just think about that for a second. What was it that you lived for?

Like what were the goals in your life? What did you long for? Would you desire? What you want out of life? I want you to think about that for a moment. As you're thinking about that, I want to speak to the men for just a moment as far as what the world has told us to live for.

Most young men are chasing three things. Three things. Sex, success, and status. You can pretty much sum up the desire of every young man. almost every young man, they want a woman who desires them. They want a career that ultimately defines them.

And they want a world that admires them. That's what young men want. They want pleasure. They want power. They want prestige. And the world tells young men, culture tells young men that if you can make enough money, sleep with enough women, and earn enough respect, then you'll finally be somebody that is satisfied.

satisfied. That's what the world tells us. But again, we know for those who follow Jesus, we know that you can have all the money, you can have all the women, you have all the success, and in the world still wake up empty. Empty. Because you weren't created to live ultimately for those things. You weren't created to live for those things.

You were created to live for someone so much greater, so much greater than all of those things. And that's precisely what God wants us to understand in this book called Hebrews is that there's something that we grew up familiar with, comfortable with, desiring, and longing for it was never meant to satisfy us. And then we meet Jesus and we bend our knee to him. We submit to him. We surrender to the lordship of Christ. And as we start following him, we find satisfaction in him.

But then are tempted to go back to those things that we were following before we knew Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is reminding us, it ain't worth it. It's never worth it to go back. Don't go back. Jesus is worth it. Jesus is infinitely better.

He's not merely better than the angels. He's the God of the angels and he's the God of you and me. And so, he's going to continue telling us over and over and over what you're tempted to go back to, don't do it. This book is estimated, the book of Hebrews is estimated to be written sometime between 60 and 70 AD. So 70 AD is right around the time that Jerusalem gets ransacked by the the Roman Empire and they get wiped out. So it's written before then and it's probably written sometime after AD60 because they hadn't in the writing of this were experiencing the the incredible suffering that was coming from the Roman Empire from the inverse.

And so if if it's written sometime between 60 and 70 AD, that means there are Christians, this is about 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus. So this would be a group of Christians that were likely Christians sometime within the span of 10 to 30 years and yet are tempted to go back. So just because you've been a Christian for a long time doesn't mean you are not also tempted to go back to whatever it was that you were following before you knew Jesus. And so it's so important for us that even whether you've been a Christian for 5 years or 30 years or plus heed the warning that we're going to continue to see throughout this text, throughout this book that Jesus is better than anything and everything. every single day that you're tempted to put your trust in that you're tempted to take control over in your life. Don't do it.

Don't do it. Trust in Jesus and continue to do that. And today, what we're going to see as we close out the first chapter is that the author here continues to exalt the identity of Jesus so that you know exactly who you've bent your knee to and why he's more worthy of living for than whatever it was you lived for before you knew Jesus. So, let's look at the text this morning, verses 8 through 14, as we close it out. But of the Son, he says, "Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." You should already recognize that because I read it in the opening call to worship even though I was reading from Psalm 45. The author here is doing his own sermon and he's pulling from the psalms as his support. And you, Lord, verse 10, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe. You will roll them up like a garment. They will be changed, but you are the same, and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foottool for your feet?" Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. Father, I want you to right now just help us in this moment by your spirit understand what it is that you're pointing us to to know here.

What it is that your revealed word is teaching and instructing us to know more about your son, Jesus. Help us see that he has a throne where he rules in righteousness. Help us to see that he is a king who remains forever. And help us to see that ultimately he is a king that reigns and rules over everything. Everything, including every detail of our lives. And help us to see that he's not left us alone, but that he sends ministers to come alongside and strengthen us for our own salvation.

Help us see, Lord, the goodness of what it is that you're doing. And as we see that, we trust it. We obey it. We rest in it. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. These first couple of verses, there's a couple of things I want you to see here. And the first thing that I want you to ultimately see is that the king rules in righteousness. Jesus rules in righteousness. It says, "Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. If anyone ever says that Jesus is just loving and doesn't hate anything, that ain't true. That ain't true. Jesus hates sin. Jesus hates wickedness. It's just true.

It's what the Bible says. So that should for us help us do something in our lives. create two categories. There are decisions we make that are good and righteous and there are decisions we make that are bad and unrighteous called wickedness. There are things that we participate in that are good and righteous and there are things that we participate in that are not good and righteous. We should create two categories for everything that is involved in our lives.

And of those categories, we should love one and we should hate the other. This is what it's talking about here. But before I get a little bit more to that, what I want you to see here is the author is quoting again as I already mentioned Psalm 45 6 and 7. And that psalm was originally a royal psalm celebrating a Davidic king that's now being applied to Jesus. And so in that day when that psalm is being written and they're all thinking, is this David or is this David's son or is this David's grandson? Ultimately, it's saying yes.

It's just you got to look a little bit further. You got to wait a little bit longer. This is actually ultimately talking about the son of David that will come through his lineage, but will ultimately be Jesus. And what's great is in Psalm 45, as it's being written by a man at the time, now as the author of Hebrews is expounding upon that, he is saying this is what God has said. This is what God is declaring. Again, this is going back to um the beginning here when you look at verse five.

For to which of the angels did God ever say? And so he's saying as he's talking about each of these psalms, this is ultimately what God has said. And one of the cool things that God does here is God refers to the son as God, your throne. Oh God. So the father is saying to the son that his throne is as God. This is what one of those statements where we say this is a christoologgical moment where God is ascribing to Jesus more than just humanity.

He is also ascribing to him deity, eternal deity. And so if there's ever anyone who is like Jesus was just a good man who lived 2,000 years ago who had some good thoughts and he put together a good startup and it has somehow lasted for 2,000 years. No, he's more than that of God. He says that his throne lasts forever and that he is actually God himself. His throne is eternal. It's unlike earthly kings.

His reign will never end. In this room, we have teachers, we have realators, we have doctors and so on. And here's the truth. When you're gone, guess what? There will be new teachers and there will be new realators and there will be new doctors because your current quote unquote kingdom will not last forever. But when talking about Jesus and his kingdom and his throne, it says there's only one.

There's only one. There will be no one who came before him. There will be no one who comes after him. There is no one who replaces him. His throne is his throne and it remains and lasts forever. And it also says here that the scepter is upright, which is just another way of saying it represents God's right or represents his right to govern.

The scepter is essentially a sign of authority. And it's saying that his authority that he exercises, his right to govern is always righteous. The way in which he exacts justice is always righteous. So he's never bending rules. He's never misappropriating money in order to try to solve something. Like he's never doing anything that is not above reproach.

His scepter, his authority, the way he rules is always the right way. And this isn't just a scepter of power. Again, it's a scepter of uprightness. Jesus exercises his authority with perfect perfect righteousness and justice right now. I don't know if you all have realized this or not, but who gets texts almost every day telling you who to vote for? Just me?

Yeah. No, we're all getting I'm like, first of all, who gave you the right to just text me? I didn't give you my number. And if that's not enough, if you actually watch live TV and see commercials, every other commercial right now is a campaign. And it's not a campaign where someone gets up and says, "Hey, just so you know, if you vote for me, I'm going to do everything the right way." Rather, what the campaign is is, "Hey, don't vote for that other guy because they are so morally corrupt and evil and wrong, and I'm not."

We're seeing all the commercials where candidates are just exposing why other candidates are not righteous. But it's not so with Jesus. There's no one who can campaign against Jesus and say he's done something wrong or that you should vote against him. There's actually absolutely nothing bad to say about it. And I know that's like a simple truth, but it's a truth we need to know because it moves us. It moves us.

There's been polls lately, just again because we are in an election season, there's been polls where people ask like, "How much confidence do you have in whoever's elected?" And it's it's so low. It's so low. When we look at Jesus, we need to see that the one that we are bending our knee to and surrendering our lives to and obeying and trusting and doing whatever it is he tells us to do, we can have 100% confidence that he is always going to rule and reign righteously. Whatever justice he enacts is always going to be perfect and holy and good. There's no one on this earth right now that you can put that kind of trust in, that you can put that kind of confidence in.

It says Jesus loves righteousness and hates wickedness. Again, he doesn't just merely practice righteousness. He loves it. He loves it. He doesn't merely avoid wickedness or hide wickedness. He hates it.

He hates it. The son is anointed, it says, with gladness above his companions. The oil of gladness communicates the joy and honor associated with his royal anointing. Again, companions means like associates uh means or or sharers that are around him. And in Psalm 45, the royal setting here is that the king is exalted above his associates. There's no one greater to sit on the throne.

He is the one that is exalted above everyone else. And Hebrews applies this scripture, this supreme royal distinction to Jesus himself. He is the only one for the throne. He is the exalted and joyful king. And if true, the only response from us is to obey him. Is to obey him.

You're like, "Hold up a second. I don't like the word obey." I say, "My kids don't like the word obey." And probably, to be honest with you, some of the reasons why they don't like the word obey is because I don't rule and reign perfectly in my household. But it also is because they haven't fully grown to love righteousness and to hate wickedness. And so therefore, they don't want to obey.

But when Jesus is who he says he is and he reveals himself to us as who he is, perfect, holy, good, righteous, and just, he's the only one that we should obey. He's the only one that we should obey because as I've always talked about when you look at the Garden of Eden, the only thing in that moment that is leading to life or providing life for Adam and Eve is obedience to the word God's already spoke to them. It's obedience. So like when God says to them and gives them a rule, hey, eat and drink of any tree in the garden that you want. Like go and eat and drink your fill you lovers. Go and enjoy all that I've created for you.

And then in addition to that he gives one rule. He says don't eat of this tree. So there's a rule. So them obeying God is leading them to have life and enjoyment with him and relationship with him for eternity. So obedience is a good thing. It's a wonderful thing, especially when it's obedience to what God has commanded of us and we listen and follow it.

It leads to life. But disobedience always leads to death and destruction. What did they do in the garden? They disobeyed. And what did it do? It brought death and destruction and despair and guilt and shame, sin, all of it.

It fractured everything. It ruined everything. And so we need to redeem that term obedience. We need to redeem it to see that it is one of the institutions that God put in play in order for us to obey what it is that he is calling of us and where he is leading us. And we bend our knee. We submit to the lordship of Christ.

And we say, "Yes, I will follow you. I will surrender to you. Whatever you tell me to do is what I'm going to do. Whatever you tell me to believe is what I'm going to believe. Whatever you tell me to trust in is what I'm going to trust in. We obey.

If Jesus is your Lord, you should then in obedience to him increasingly love what he loves and hate what he hates. You should increasingly love what he loves and hates what he hates. We often think of obedience again as simply just doing what we're told. But Christian maturity goes deeper than that. God is not merely changing our behavior. He's transforming our affections.

He's transforming our affections. So cre Christianity is not that I now begrudgingly submit to whatever it is that God tells me to do. Even though secretly behind the scenes I still love to do all the things I used to do. That ain't Christianity. That's not a heart that's transformed by the love of Jesus. So, so just giving lip service to him, but behind the scenes I still love all the things that I was again serving and giving myself over to before I knew Jesus.

That's not Christianity. That that that's that's you putting on the jersey even though secretly you still love the other team. And to be honest with you, I think in all like those are the most miserable pe people I've ever met in my life. Christians who are actually not and they're still following the ways of this world. Most miserable people you will ever meet. Why?

Because Christianity is not a fun hobby. Right? It's a if you're not a a a surrendered follower of Jesus Christ who your life has been bought by him by his blood and you are sold out in love with him. If if if if that has not happened to you and you're just putting on the clothes and just going through the motions, it is awful. Honestly, it's probably the worst thing you could do. It's awful because you're going to experience all the same similar suffering that Christians experience except you don't have the source to pull you through it.

Instead, you're just still trying to take control. You're just still trying to like satisfy yourself through all these different things and it's and honestly you're just lying to yourself and you're actually not not being satisfied by the one who can satisfy you. You're still trying to satisfy yourself through your own control, your own way. And it's awful. You love what he loves and you hate what he hates. Romans 12:9 puts it this way.

Abore what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Abhore what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. That's what he calls us to do. If we belong to Jesus, we cannot continue celebrating the things he condemns or despising the things he calls good. There's a big change that happens.

So the world, the culture right now, what they want to do is they want to celebrate what God calls evil. They celebrate what God calls evil. And then they despise what God calls good. And the temptation for Christians is to jump back into that old way of thinking. So when we meet someone, say you know someone in our family, someone next door, someone at our work, someone in our in our spheres of influence, wherever you are, you will meet someone who celebrates what God calls evil and they despise what God calls good. And what you're going to be tempted to do in that moment in quote unquote loving them is not rebuking, not correcting, not teaching, not sharing the good news.

You're going to be tempted to be silent and in your silence be complicit with whatever it is that they are affirming. That's the temptation for us. Why? Because we don't want this person to um yell at us. We don't want this person to view us in a negative way. We don't want this person to call us evil.

But the Bible has told us over and over and over again that this is exactly what's going to happen. This is exactly what's going to happen. Don't be surprised by it. So don't be surprised. Let's just say for example, if you have a neighbor who um I always pick on certain sins, so let me try to find one that's maybe a little bit different. You have a neighbor that absolutely loves food to the point to where they worship it, to the point to where they exceed how much they should be eating, and in both in food and drink.

So you're looking at this person, you're thinking, "This person is not healthy at all when it comes to just how much they are consuming in food. At the same time, they are uh they hate themselves even though they're not willing to admit it. And so they're trying to numb it. They're trying to satisfy themselves. And so they're also going to turn to alcohol and they're going to say, "I need to get to a point to where I am not aware of my condition." And so they keep consuming and consuming and consuming.

And if you just go over and your conversation with them all the time is, man, that is some good tasting food you got there. I'll enjoy it with you. But you never actually say, "Hey, do you think it's possible that maybe you're turning to this as a vice to satisfy you when there's actually something way deeper going on in you? Do you think you might be loving this more than maybe you should? And instead, maybe there's like you're trying to take a square and put it in a circle hole and it's never going to fit. And so maybe there's something else that's actually meant to satisfy you.

Would you be open to me sharing with you the thing that I used to put my trust in and realize that it was never going to satisfy and then I met Jesus and Jesus actually satisfied me? And now I'm able to rightly steward all of those things that he's given us when it comes to food and when it comes to drink, when it comes to relationships. I can now steward those things and manage those things because he's giving me a thing called self-control. One of the fruit of the spirit. Again, we love what he loves and we hate what he hates. But that should also not only does it transform us but what you ought to be as salt and light of the earth is in your transformed presence you are then a transforming presence in the world around you.

So, do people in your relationships, are they now engaging with transformation because you are bringing Christ into it? That's a good question for us to ask because if we truly love what he loves and we hate what he hates, the goal is to get others to also understand and start doing the same thing. Start believing the same thing. Start loving what God loves and hating what God hates instead of right now they love what God hates and they hate what God loves. We need to transform the world by living this out. our obedience to Christ and loving what he loves and hating what he hates.

Now, how do we know ultimately what God loves and what God hates? Because again, that's kind of one of the things. I was having a conversation this last week with some pastors um down in Florida just suffering suffering with Jesus. I've had a good three weeks as far as locations. Um but we were having a conversation this week where um part of the issue with scripture or back in the day when this book was written, it wasn't that the world was looking at the scriptures and then trying to kind of decide what what it was. It was just I mean they were believing all kinds of polytheistic ridiculous ideologies and worldviews and and sins and so forth.

What we actually struggle with now and today is everybody's using this but interpreting it the wrong way. And we're now trying to have to help people figure out what God actually loves and what God actually hates because they're trying to use this in order to say what God actually loves and what God actually hates and they're misinterpreting it. So for example, the sexual revolution right now, the sexual revolution is trying to use this to affirm what it is that they are following when they're just misinterpreting it and not reading it correctly. And so it does make it a little bit harder for us to understand what does God actually love and what does God actually hate. But I'm still always going to say what you got to do is you got to get to the book. You got to know the word.

You got to read it. You can't just cherrypick little verses here and there and then build a whole doctrine around one verse. I spent two weeks in Rome around an entire system of belief based on one verse. One verse. So you can't just pick one verse and build a whole system. You got to know what the whole council of God is declaring, then build a doctrine around it.

then understand what it's actually preaching and proclaiming to us. Where should I start? Fruit of the spirit. God loves it. Galatians 5 22 and 23. God loves the fruit of the spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Want to know what God loves? That's what God loves. God loves a person who's like that. How do you become like that? You trust and follow Jesus.

You trust that he's transforming you to become love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. He loves that. What else does he love? God loves marriage and children. God loves that. He loves marriage and he loves children.

Why? Because it's scriptural. It's biblical. God loves working hard. You know what he doesn't love? He doesn't love laziness.

Scriptures call it being a sloth or a um yeah, what's the I can't remember. Anyways, you're like a sloth. Sluggish. Slugger. Is that the word? I'm looking at Mike back there.

Our resident exeetical theologian. God loves stewardship and generosity. You know what he hates? He hates greed. He hates greed. He hates mismanagement.

God loves making disciples in evangelism. You know what he hates? He hates someone who professes to love Jesus and never shares them. He hates it. He hates it. We can obey this king because his ways are perfectly righteous.

But let me ask you a question. Can we trust him when everything around us is ever changing? Can we trust him? We can obey him because he rules righteously. But can we trust him when everything around us is ever changing? Is he always going to be righteous?

Is he always going to be just? Look at the next verses. You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. Like a robe, you will roll them up like a garment.

They will be changed, but you are the same, and your years will have no end. First thing I want you to see here is that the son is the creator of everything. He's just reinforcing what he's already said in Hebrews 1 um at the beginning of the chapter where through him all things were created. Through him everything in the world was created. The psalm here is 102 verses 25- 27 which is a passage originally addressed to Yahweh and now is being dep applied directly to Jesus. And so if if you have people say well I just like the Jesus of the New Testament.

And I would say well if you didn't know he's also in the Old. Okay. Because that's what people like to say right now. They look at the Old Testament they say God was really angry in the Old Testament. I would say, yeah, he was also pretty angry in the New Testament, too, because he's never changing. He's always the same.

So, the anger he has in the Old Testament, he also has in the New Testament. The love he has in the New Testament, he also has in the Old Testament because he's always loving and he's always angry. Why? Because he loves what he loves and he hates what he hates. He loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. So, as long as there's wickedness that is present, guess what?

God's angry. God's angry. Now, he's never angry like we are sometimes angry and do not practice self-control and become out of control and we rage. He's always patient in his anger and it's a righteous anger that he has towards wickedness. But the same Jesus in the New Testament is the same Jesus in the Old Testament. Yahweh, who laid the foundation of the earth, is Jesus.

Is Jesus. The heavens are the work of his hands. And Jesus isn't just a part of creation. Jesus is the creator of creation. That's what he's saying here. That's what he's drawing us back to.

Because what he's ultimately pointing out and highlighting here is that creation is ever changing. But guess what? The creator who created it is not. And the one who created it is Jesus. And so, not only can you obey Jesus because he is righteous, but you can trust Jesus because he's never changing. He's never changing.

We struggle with relationships in humanity because we change. We change. We change. That's why, and you're going to hear me say this, and it's probably going to create some fear in some people. That's fine. some anxiety maybe.

But the person sitting next to you, you can never 100% fully know. You can't. I even heard this last week. The fact that we are still being sanctified means simply that we can never be fully known this side of glory. Now, that's why trusting in the one who is never changing is so important. Because the reason why I can have confidence in my spouse, I can have confidence in my friendships and relationships is because if I know they're trusting the one who is never changing and he is changing and transforming them, I'm going to trust in that.

But I'm not going to trust in who they are or who they were before they knew Jesus. I'm not going to trust in that. That's why it's so important when you get married, you're looking for a spouse to be equally yolked with married with someone, two people who are following Jesus because honestly, that's the only hope they got. That's the only hope they got to have a marriage that will last forever. At least this side of earth, this side of glory, that's the only hope. Without that, what do you have to trust?

We're ever changing. I say it all the time. She's not in here, so I can say it. I've been married to five different women. Now, don't pull that specific thing out and like run a real on social media or whatever, but what I mean by that is when I first married Kelsey, who I married was the girl that grew up in Middle Tennessee who was studying to be a teacher who had just graduated college and and that's pretty much who I married. And then as we get married within about 18 months, I said, "Hey, let's uproot you from your familiarity, from your family, and from your friends.

I'm going to move you to Miami, Florida, and let's go plant a church down there." And when we got down there, completely different ground because she was no longer in her context of familiarity, friends, and family. And so we're navigating a new life. No longer is she a teacher. No longer is she a volunteer. That's what we were in the Tennessee State.

Now I don't like the Tennessee volunteers, but side note. Now we're talking about having a family while we're down there. It's a different it. There was change that happened when we went through our first miscarriage. There was change that happened when she became a mother. Now I'm married to a mother.

Change happens. And so we have to understand that we don't put our trust in humans. We put our trust in the one who is transforming humans. Who is changing humans but he himself is unchanging. Creation changes but the creator remains. The psalm compares the entire created universe to a garment.

Clothing that wears out eventually. Again, you replace it or for the husbands in here, your wife will replace it. At least that's what happens in my house. There's so many times I'm like, man, there used to be a shirt that I wore a lot and I have no idea where it ended up. I think about that often. I think about and especially Hold on.

Yeah, she hasn't got a hold of this one yet. So, there's I like those like pearl snap buttons because there's just something kind of country about them. I don't know. I mean, you can take the boy out of Tennessee, but you can't take Tennessee out of the boy. So, there's certain things that I like to wear and they just keep disappearing. I keep buying them, they keep disappearing.

Clothing doesn't last forever. And that's what he's saying here. Creation doesn't last forever. He's going to roll it up like a garment and discard of it. But Christ remains forever unchanging. Unchanging.

This is the doctrine of divine immutability. And according to his divine nature, he's eternally unchanging. So the same Jesus, the same Jesus that was communing with the Holy Spirit and the Father two million years ago is the same Jesus that was in that cradle in the manger. The same Jesus that hung on that cross. The same Jesus that resurrected three days later. The same Jesus that appeared to them through walls.

Again, I believe he's teleportant and I'm looking forward to that day one day. The same Jesus that right now is sitting on the throne ruling and reigning. The same Jesus that two million years from now will still be sitting there ruling and reigning. He's unchanging. He's unchanging. And therefore, we can trust in him when everything in our life is ever changing.

Again, don't put your trust in politicians. Don't put your trust in honestly, don't put your trust in your spouse. Don't put your trust in your children. Don't put your trust in your job. How many people have here How many people here start like graduated college, started a career, and are no longer doing that career? Most of us in this room.

Okay, I gotta put my hand down because it's I have been doing the same thing, but not in the same church. It's ever changing. All right. Life is ever changing, but Christ is not. Hebrews 13:8 will eventually tell us at the end of the book, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. I just like spoiled the ending of the entire sermon series.

He's the same yesterday and today and forever. What would it look like to wholeheartedly surrender your changing circumstances to an unchanging savior? What would that look like? I think for most of us in this room, it would look like you would be restful, less anxious. And I'm not saying that there aren't things that are going on in our heads because we're in a fallen, broken world where anxiety fears. I'm not saying that's just going to eradicate all of it.

But I'm saying that it has the potential to move you in a direction of rest. rest, stability, confidence in what Christ is doing behind the scenes that we can't see. Again, we tend to trust God when life is predictable, but when our circumstances change, our confidence often changes with them. When things get hard, what do we do? Where you at, God? What are you doing?

As if we're like lowering our trust of him in the moment. Again, God's powerful enough and big enough to be able to receive that whining that we bring. Hey, guess what? That David was so comfortable in half the Psalms literally telling God, "Where are you? Here's what you promised and I don't see it." But then he's reminded that God is faithful and that God is good.

And then he'll write another psalm and it says, "Everywhere I turn, God, there you are. you're faithful. Listen, church, the goodness of Jesus is not determined by the goodness of our circumstances. The goodness of Jesus is determined by the fact that Jesus is good. Period. He's perfect.

He's holy. He's righteous. Our finances may change, but his provision does not cease. Our health may change, but his goodness does not diminish. Our plans may fail, but his purposes never do. never do.

So trust him. Here's the question. Are you trusting Jesus because life is going according to your plan or because you believe he is Lord even when it isn't? Do you trust him because he's Lord? It's important. So we obey the King because he's righteous.

We trust the King because he's unchanging. Hebrews has one more truth for suffering Christians. The king is not struggling to maintain control. He is not struggling to maintain control. So the thing I want you to see here is that the king reigns over everything. He reigns over everything.

Look the last couple of verses here. He's already won. He's seated on his throne. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foottool for your feet. The son is seated at the father's right hand. The author here is quoting Psalm 110.

Psalm 110. [snorts] And it's returning to the language of Hebrews 1:3. Hebrews 1:3. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. And after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Sitting at God's right hand signifies royal authority, exaltation, but also victory. victory. The fight's won. The battle's won. He's done. He's finished.

That's why he proclaimed on the cross to Telsty, it is finished. It is finished. So, there's no battle that you have to fight anymore. There's nothing you have to We're not like on the hill wondering whether or not those on the other side are going to defeat us. They're already defeated. Sin, Satan, and death are already defeated.

Period. And it says his enemies will then become his foottool. In the ancient world, placing enemies beneath the king's feet symbolized conquest and complete subjugation. And so if I'm looking for someone to trust in, to obey, and to rest in, I'm looking for the king that has all of his enemies under his feet as a foottool. That's who I'm putting my trust in. No one else.

Again, 1 Corinthians 15:25 echoes this when it says, "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." This is just the theme of scripture is that Christ is coming to defeat sin, Satan, and death so that those who are bound to it can place trust in Christ in his accomplished work and therefore be freed from the bondage of sin, Satan, and death. That's the good news of the gospel. That's the good news for us in this room this morning. This is why we get to believe in Jesus and trust in him because of what he has accomplished that you do not have to accomplish yourself and because you can accomplish it by yourself. Not only is he in control of everything, but he's also sending helpers to help us out with this.

Look at the last verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? He's pulling angels back into the mix here. We've talked about angels over the last couple of months. They're not beings that we are to worship. They're not beings that we are to fear.

Even though every time you see one, you're terrified of it. But they say, "Fear not." And then we are that we were tempted to bow down and worship them and they say, "Nope, get up. We're just like you. There is someone above us that we worship and honor and his name is Jesus and he is king over everything. So, what are the angels doing?

The angels are sent to help you out. The angels are sent to help you believe, to help you see Jesus for who he is, to be able to fight off things that are behind the scenes that you can't see that are going on. Again, magnificent heavenly beings, but they're not seated on the throne. They're sent by the one who is. What are some of the things that they do? Just to give you a snapshot, Psalm 91:11, God commands his angels concerning his people, "Go and help them."

Daniel 6:22, God sends an angel to shut the lion's mouth. Like, that's again, I I just when I get to heaven, I want to see just because again, I want to honor Jesus. I want to be like, "All right, you're the king who sent these magnificent beings to do all these things, but I want to almost watch it like a binge watching of a series on Netflix." Like, if I could just put all of these like events into a s like I want to see it played out. I want to see an angel go and shut a lion's mouth and say, "Man, how how glorious is that?" But how glorious is the one who created that angel and created that ma that that lion and then created this whole situation going on and it saved one of God's own people.

That's amazing. Acts 12 7-11, God sends an angel to deliver Peter from prison. That's awesome. Again, we don't command angels. They're not like, you know, not everyone has this personal little angel who we're just like, hey, this is my assistant, you know, just, hey, go do this, go do that. That's not how it works.

We don't pray to them. We don't ask them to do things for us. God is commanding them. Jesus is commanding them, and they're ministering to us. I'm sorry, that's my son. I don't know why he's crying, but just ignore him for a moment.

We do worship the one who sends them, though. So, what do we do with all this? Let's close this out so I can go parent. You don't have to control everything when you belong to the one who's in control of everything. Guys, that's probably the best thing you can hear today. I mean, how many things went wrong this week?

Just think about it. How many things went wrong this week? And how many of us jump to our control solving gifts when we should have just started at the feet of Jesus. Hey God, here's something going on. Don't know what's going on, but I could really use your help right now. If you want this to play out this way, let it play out this way.

But I'm also asking for you to step in and help this situation. It's out of my control. I could use your help. He is the one that is in control. Are we coming to his feet first before we put it into our own hands? The king is righteous, therefore obey him.

The king is unchanging, therefore trust him. The king reigns over everything. Therefore, rest. Rest in him. rest in him and the one whose enemies will become his foottool willingly die to reconcile his enemies to himself. I think that's one of the most beautiful things that we'll see here is the one who has enemies as a foottool also went and died for his enemies to make them friends to reconcile them in relationship to him.

Listen to this. Romans 5 6-11. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us. says, "Therefore, we have now been justified by his blood." That means the only way that you've been made righteous is by the blood of Jesus, not your own. Now that we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Again, God hates wickedness.

Guess what? We were wicked. Wait, does that mean at one time God hated us? Yes. But he also loves us and is willing to send his son Jesus to die for us and it saves us from the wrath of God. Like you getting saved doesn't save you from Satan.

I don't know why people always think that. You getting saved is not like an eternal punishment where Satan's trying to punish you for eternity. You're saved from the wrath of God. That's what the Bible actually preaches. You're saved by God from God. It's just which category are you in?

Are you under the love of God or are you under the hatred of God? And Jesus comes in and helps you get to one of the categories. By receiving and believing in Jesus for who he is, we get to be loved by God for eternity. But if we reject Jesus, then we will be hated by God for eternity, and we will receive the wrath of God in that place. It's not where you want to be. How much more will we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. Not by you, by his life, by his thoughts, by his actions, by his word, by his deeds, by all of his goodness. We call that the gospel, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That's what we're saved by. And therefore, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. Reconciliation.

And so, do you obey? Have you received reconciliation by believing in the work of Jesus Christ? And therefore, now instead of being tempted to go back to whatever it was that we were living for, do you now obey Jesus, trust in him, and rest in him? Do you do that? Because when you wake up every single morning, guess what? It's a new morning, new mercies every morning, new day.

Temptation to go back to the old way or obey, trust, and rest in what you are already surrendered to and you submit to. You got to do it every single day. You're not doing it for your salvation every single day. That's locked and secure. But every single day you have an opportunity to rob yourself of the joy of the day by going back to whatever it was. Don't do that.

Trust Jesus. Obey him and follow him. The King who died for you now reigns over you. And that's why you can surrender to him. When we take the bread, we're remembering the body of this broken king. When we take the cup, we're remembering the blood of the king poured out, shed for unrighteous sinners.

When you think about kings of old and they would have banquetss and feasts, they would have it for the the the noblemen. They would have it for the other associates of the king. They would have like the feast were for everyone who had success and status. This meal that the king provides for us is the only time that we've seen where it's not for those who believe that they have success and status, but it's for those who are, as we used to say, out in the highways and the hedges. They're the ones furthest off. They're the enemies of the king.

And the king sacrificed himself in order to bring the enemies close so that they could feast, have eternal life, have satisfaction forever more. That's what makes Jesus so much, one of the reasons that makes Jesus so much greater than any earthly king that's ever lived is because it's an upside down kingdom. If you don't know what that means, just read the whole book of Ephesians. It's an upside down kingdom. There's no greater work. There's no greater story to ever be told than what Jesus Christ has done.

So trust him. Let's stand together.