The Angels Are Servants, The Son is God

Transcript

GR 1673
01/06/2013
The Angels Are Servants, the Son Is God
Hebrews 1:7-9
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Hebrews and the first chapter in your Bibles. The letter to the Hebrews is written to a congregation of Jewish believers. Seems clear this is not a scattered group like Peter or James wrote to, Jews of the Diaspora scattered abroad, but it seems to be a group of believers in a given location and they've been believers for a while. They are Jews, they've been believers long enough to have gone through some difficult times. And yet later in the book we find out some of them lost their jobs, their possessions, homes, been imprisoned and so on. So it's not been an easy life for them since they've trusted Jesus as their Messiah. And as often happens with the passing of time some of that initial enthusiasm begins to cool. Some of you have been believers a long time and you can look back on those early days when you trusted Christ, it didn't matter what came, what it cost you, who opposed you. You were committed to follow Christ and that was your greatest privilege. And after we've been believers a while we sort of settle in and would like more of a normal life. And if the opposition from friends and family and outsiders continues, it begins to wear us down. And basically that is what happened to this group of believers. They are Jews who are believers in Christ. Now the Gentiles never do like the Jews and the Jews will have nothing to do with the Jews who have trusted Christ as their Savior. So these Jewish believers have pressure from all sides. And what they've begun to think is, maybe returning to Judaism would be the best option. I mean, the God of the Old Testament, the God who gave the law to Moses, the God who revealed Himself through the prophets, we want to worship Him. And maybe that would be better. At least we would fit with fellow Jews, our family and friends and those closest to us, physically speaking. The letter to the Hebrews is written to tell them you can't turn back from Christ. What you really need to do is persevere on.

Interestingly this letter is called a word of exhortation as we saw in Hebrews 13:22. Some have described it as a sermon, some describe it as a letter, and it is somewhat of a written sermon. That's why there are no introductions, no personal greetings to start out. He just moves right in. But he's really writing to challenge them to continue to persevere, to endure.

Just look at two passages. Hebrews 10, and this is in the context where he reminds them of what they have already gone through in their walk with Christ. Verse 32, remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches, tribulations; partly by becoming sharers with fellow believers going through that. You showed sympathy to the prisoners, you accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. So these are believers who have paid a price. I remember visiting with an older man who had served the Lord in a variety of capacities, it was on the West coast and he said, I just don't want to fight anymore. I'm not a fighter, I just don't want to do it. What's the alternative? That's why these said, I'm going back to Judaism, things were better there. When he tells them in verse 36, you have need of endurance, the work is not done. So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while He who is coming will come. Don't give up, remember the goal was not to be faithful for a period of time. The goal was and is to be faithful until Christ comes. So you have need of endurance.

Turn over to Hebrews 12. After talking about all those from Old Testament history who persevered with faithfulness he tells them as the chapter opens up, “therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.” And note, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” And Jesus Christ is the One we set our eyes on, who “endured the cross, despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Him so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” We have to keep on. The battle is not over. The race is not done.

Now what interests me as you come back to Hebrews 1 that as a foundation for this exhortation, and he will break in as we'll see in Hebrews 2:1-4 with a specific challenge to them. And he'll do this periodically through the letter. But to lay a foundation that they can stand on and be encouraged and continue, he gives the clearest and fullest unfolding of the person and work of Christ that we have anywhere in Scripture. But the letter wasn't written as a doctrinal treatise, it was written to encourage and challenge these believers to continue on. And do you know what foundational to that is? Don't lose sight of who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished in His death and resurrection. And a good reminder for us as believers as the time passes, we keep our eyes fixed on Him, otherwise we begin to lose heart, we begin to get weary, we begin to think I just don't want to continue. We're more like these Jews than we sometimes consider.

He launched right into the letter in the first four verses, showing the superiority of the Son to everything in Judaism. That's what the letter is about and we have a summary of it in the first four verses because Christ is shown to be superior to the Old Testament prophets and the revelation given through them, which will be all that's pertaining to Judaism—the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant and so on. God spoke in the Son. The Son is a more full and complete revelation than has ever been given. And furthermore the Son is the fulfillment of what was revealed to the prophets through Old Testament history.

So having shown superiority of the Son to Old Testament prophets and prior revelation, he transitions to angels. He's the One, verse 4, who has a more excellent name than the angels, He is Son. He's going to show the superiority of Christ to angels because remember angels were the intermediaries, as we have looked at, between God and the prophets in the Old Testament. Hebrews 2:2 makes mention of that, “for if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable.” He's talking about the Old Testament, particularly the Mosaic Law. Angels received the message from God, were sent to communicate it to God's spokesmen the prophets, and then the prophets gave it to the people. Christ is superior to angels. As glorious as these heavenly spirit beings are, Christ is superior.

So in verses Hebrews 1:5-2:18 the writer is showing the superiority of the Son to angels. There are going to be two divisions in this, the first division will go from Hebrews 1:5-2:4. That shows the Son is superior to angels in His deity. Then from Hebrews 2:5-18 he'll show the Son is superior to angels in His humanity. We've noted in these opening verses of Hebrews that you have the deity and the humanity of Christ being interwoven. And sometimes he'll talk about one and sometimes he'll talk about the other and sometimes they are just interwoven as he talks about the person and work of Christ.

As you can see in your Bibles in Hebrews 1:5-13 he has a series of quotations from the Old Testament because these are Jews who think maybe we can go back to the revelation given in the Old Testament. He is showing that the revelation of the Old Testament shows Christ is superior to angels who were associated with the giving of Old Testament revelation. There are seven quotations from the Old Testament in these verses through the rest of chapter 1.

Now some of you have commented to me and let me just clarify, the quotations given here are taken from what we call the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And so sometimes when you go back you will find they seem to be a little bit different than what you find in the Old Testament. In fact in one of these it doesn't even appear in you Hebrew Bible—Deuteronomy. The quote, verse 6, “when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, let all the angels of God worship Him.” Some of your Bibles have a reference to Deuteronomy, but if you go to Deuteronomy, that verse doesn't appear as you have it here. But in the Greek transition of the Old Testament it does. Our Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew. The writer to the Hebrews will be referring to and quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament under the inspiration of the Spirit. So we're not going to go back and talk about the variation between what we might have in our Old Testament. That's why Psalm 97:7 is another reference to verse 6, because it says basically the same thing, although if you go there he'll use the word gods, small “g”, with the Greek translation translating it angels. So just keep in mind there will be some variation if you go back and look at the Old Testament references, but we're talking about the inspiration of the Spirit. And there is a difference showing the correctness of it here.

This would make an impact. These Jewish believers recognized the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures and so he uses the Scriptures to show that revelation anticipated the coming of the One who is the Son of God and unfolds that He is not only many but He is God, and He is not only God but He is man. The remarkableness of this One.

We looked at the opening part of this section, beginning with verse 5 and noted the start of the reasons. The Son is superior to angels first because He is God's unique Son, verse 5. God never said to the angels, you are My Son, today I have begotten you. But He did say that to Christ. So the Son is superior because He is the Son, the unique Son.

Secondly, the Son is superior to angels, verse 6, because angels are commanded to worship Him. Two verses there that we've looked at, the second verse was from 1 Samuel 7:14 or the parallel verse in 1 Chronicles, “I will be a father to him, he will be a son to me.” Those two verses support the same point, He is God's unique Son. And then the second thing, His angels are commanded to worship Him. Verse 6, “when He brings the firstborn into the world He says, let all the angels of God worship Him.” And that's from Psalm 97:7. And that's where that reference in Deuteronomy 32:43, but this quote doesn't appear in your Old Testament because it's only in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

If the angels are to worship Him, He is greater than the angels. In fact, He is God. Turn over to Revelation 19, this is where we ended last time in our study. You see an example of angels being used to give revelation for John. God is revealing new material to him, angels are used to communicate the revelation. And in Revelation 19:10, overwhelmed by what God has revealed to him through the angel, verse 10, “then I,” referring to John, “fell at his feet to worship him. But he said, do not do that, I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” And God commands all the angels to worship the Son. There is only one who can be worshiped, that's God.

The same thing we saw in Revelation 22:8, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.” Angels are servants, that's going to come up in Hebrews 1 in a little bit. What are we to do? Worship God. So back in Hebrews 1, when God commanded the angels to worship the Son, He would be declaring the deity of the Son and His complete superiority over any angels.

Then we come to verse 7. A third reason why the Son is superior to angels is because the angels are servants. We saw the angel remind John of that in the book of Revelation. Verse 7 is quoted from Psalm 104:4 in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Of the angels he says. We're going back and forth here. He'll say what God said about the Son, then what God says about angels, then what God says about the Son, then what God says about angels, drawing the contrast between them.

Verse 7, “of the angels he says, who makes His angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire.” That word translated ministers is the word that basically means servant, one who serves, often used of religious service. We get the English word liturgy from this word and later in the book of Hebrews it will be used of religious service. It can be used of service generally, but it is often used of a religious servant. And angels are serving God. That is a religious, spiritual service. It's used of them in Hebrews 1:14 as well. “Are they not all ministering, serving spirits?” We misunderstand what the word translated ministering is, it's serving, often in a spiritual religious realm, but it is serving. So of the angels he says, who makes His angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire. And the angels and the ministers here, servants, referring to the same group, the angels, they are angels. He will refer to them as servants, he'll refer to them again that way in verse 14, they are “ministering, serving spirits.”

They are like the winds and the flames of fire. They are created by God to accomplish what He wants done. That's what they are made for, that's what they are made to do. So it's not saying they are winds or they are fire, but they are like that. In other words they are part of the creation God made to serve Him. That's the point. So they ought to be recognized as such. Now they are glorious beings, they serve in the presence of God. But don't misunderstand, they are created beings to carry out the will of God.

That's going to contrast. But of the Son, he says, your throne, oh God is forever and ever. So the contrast in the fourth demonstration of the superiority of the Son to angels is because He is God and has an eternal throne. That will be verses 8-9. And they are quoted from Psalm 45:6-7. “He says to the Son, your throne, oh God is forever and ever. The righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.” Verse 8 comes from Psalm 45:6, then verse 9 will come from Psalm 45:7.

Now we've seen the deity of Christ brought out clearly already in Hebrews 1. In verse 3 we were told “He is the radiance of His glory,” so the Son is the radiance of the Father's glory, “the exact representation of His nature.” He Himself is God. Then when the angels were commanded to worship Him in verse 6, that would be an evidence of His deity. But here is a remarkably clear statement. God the Father says to God the Son, your throne, oh God is forever and ever.

There is a book, Jesus Is God, written by Murray Harris. You would have to have a fairly decent knowledge of Greek to benefit from it. I say that so you don't run out and buy it and then be disappointed. But he has worked through in some detail the passages in the New Testament that seem to indicate and directly address Jesus as God or give Him the title God. He narrowed down that there are seven passages that are firm, basically, that declare or call Jesus God. Hebrews 1:8 is one of those seven. And what I want to do is just read through these other six passages with you. Keep in mind what we're doing here, these are not all the times where Jesus would be addressed in ways that would indicate He is God, but this is where He is called God, like here. “Your throne, oh God,” addressing the Son.

Come back to John 1. Perhaps one of the most familiar of the verses, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” It's what He was and what He is. He is God and we're talking about Christ. Verse 14 tells us, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” So a clear statement of the deity of Christ—the Word was God. And the way that is put grammatically here is the only way it can be put. It's not God was the Word, that might indicate that all there was to God was the Word, the Son, Christ. But the Father is God, the Spirit is God as well as the Word or the Son. So the Word was God.

Jehovah Witnesses, since they come to your door some of you may have been exposed to them. They say there is no definite article with the name God here, therefore it should be a small “g”, the Word was a god. But that just demonstrates a total lack of the Greek language and you don't have that in any of the translations, I don't think, but the New World translation which is their own translation. So it's a clear statement of the deity of Christ. The Word was God. He is God but he is talking about Christ and His coming. So to bring it down to verse 14, “He became flesh.” But before He became flesh He was God. Now He still is God because God is eternal. Statement of His deity.

The second time that this title is given to Christ, His name, is in John 1:18. “No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God was in the bosom of the Father. He has explained Him.” Now some translations may have Son, the only begotten Son, but that was done to change it because it seemed like only begotten put together with God should be Son, but the stronger manuscripts' evidence is that it's God here. And probably we're talking about the only begotten Son who is God. The only begotten refers to Him as God's Son and He is God. So the only begotten here would refer to the Son. We say the only begotten Son who is God who is in the bosom of the Father. So a clear statement of the deity of Christ.

In John 20:28 Thomas, remember Christ after His resurrection appeared to the disciples but Thomas was absent on that occasion. And he said, I won't believe it unless I see Him myself. So in verse 28 after being confronted with the resurrected Christ, “Thomas answered and said to Him, my Lord and my God.” A declaration of His deity. Literally, the Lord of me and the God of me. My Lord and my God. We see Lord as a title for Christ in Hebrews as we continue our study. But here clearly, my God. Some say, this was just an emotional response of Thomas. Well, what did the angel say when John in the book of the Revelation had an emotional response to the angel and fell down to worship him? He said, don't do that, you must worship God. Here Christ accepts the worship. Thomas says, My Lord, you are the One who has absolute sovereignty over me. You are my God. Christ accepts it. He said blessed are those who don't see Me but believe this truth. So rather than rejecting it, He promises a blessing for those who won't have the privilege of seeing Him in bodily form on earth as Thomas has had, but they still believe. So rather than saying Thomas, don't make that mistake, He encourages it. So clear statement of the deity of Christ where He is called God.

Over in Romans 9, and here Paul is talking about his love for the Jews and desire for their salvation. Romans 9:3, “I wish I could be myself accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren and my kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites, to whom belong all the promises given in the Old Testament.” Down to verse 5, “whose are the fathers, from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever.” So he acknowledges He is the Christ according to the flesh. To fulfill the prophecies to be the Messiah of Israel and the Savior, He had to become a man. So according to the flesh, He is the anointed One. But He is God blessed forever, the Christ, God blessed forever. So another passage that calls Christ God.

Come to Titus 2:11, “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” And that grace is Christ coming and bringing salvation. Instructing us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, live sensibly, righteously, godly in the now age. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Here He is called the great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. A clear statement calling Christ God.

The next one would be in Hebrews 1:8, if we're taking them in order, but we're in there so we'll go past that. There is one more, 2 Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, but the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The righteousness of God provided for us in Christ Jesus. The righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So those seven passages, those six plus the one we're in in Hebrews 1:8, come back to Hebrews 1:8, give Christ the title Theos, God. Again we could do a series on passages that we are going to see unfolded, and that we have already seen in verse 3, “He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation.” That would clearly declare His deity but those were just the passages that call Him God, give Him that name, that title.

So back in Hebrews 1:8, “But of the Son He says, your throne, oh God.“ The angels are servants, verse 7, but the Son is God. I mean, we're not even comparing like creatures. Who is greatest or superior among the angels? Or who is greatest and superior among men? I mean, we are in a totally different realm—angels are created beings to serve God, and God. Who created the angels? And we saw in Hebrews 1:2 that the Son is the One “through whom the Father made the world.” Incidentally, that word made in verse 2 is the same word translated makes in verse 7, who makes His angels winds. You talk about the superiority of the Son, He is God. Is He superior to angels? Of course, He is the God who created angels.

It says “your throne, oh God is forever and ever.” We have to take a little bit of time here. We want to be clear on what he is talking about when he talks about His throne is forever and ever. There is some confusion among commentators and it is widespread. One writes this, commenting on passages in Hebrews, that Christ inaugurated the Davidic kingdom by His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. This is not the throne of David, this is the Father's throne.

Turn over to Revelation 3, we're going to the end of the chapter at the conclusion of this letter from Christ to the church at Laodicea. He gives the promise to the overcomers. Verse 21, “he who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Now what has been the emphasis on where Christ has been seated? Come back to Hebrews 1:3, “when He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.” That's the Father's throne. In other words the Son as God shares the throne with the Father as God. God is sovereign, He rules over all. We look back in Isaiah 6 where there you have a vision given to Isaiah of Christ and the glory that was His as the enthroned God before He became man. “I saw the Lord lofty and exalted sitting upon His throne.” That means, He is enthroned. He shares the Father's throne because He is God, the throne depicting authority, rule, sovereignty. So He sat down with the Father on His throne, sat at His right hand. As God, He shares His authority. We're talking about His deity here. “Your throne oh God is forever and ever.”

We've talked in previous studies on the kingdom in Scripture and noted the importance of distinguishing between the universal kingdom that has always existed. God has always been ruler, been sovereign. Christ has always been King of kings and Lord of lords in that sense. God has always ruled. That's the universal kingdom. There is what is sometimes called the mediatorial kingdom. We want to just focus on the aspect of the future promised Messianic kingdom, the throne of David promised in the Davidic covenant in 1 Samuel, the kingdom the Messiah would establish. That is not the same thing as the universal kingdom. What we're talking about in Hebrews 1:8, “your throne oh God is forever and ever,” we're talking about His throne as God. He is sovereign. Always has been, always will.

Come back to Daniel for a little review, Daniel 2. And I just limit it because we've studied the universal kingdom and the mediatorial kingdom or the Davidic kingdom more thoroughly in other studies. But remind you of these passages. In Daniel 2 Daniel interprets a vision that God gave to Nebuchadnezzar which unfolds the coming kingdoms of the world, beginning with Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon, that was the kingdom in existence. Then followed by the Medo-Persian Empire, then the Greek Empire, then the Roman Empire. So in Daniel 2 as Daniel gives the interpretation, verse 40, there is a fourth kingdom as strong as iron. And that's Rome. Then in verse 41, and between verses 40 and 41 there is a long time because the feet and toes partly of iron and partly of clay represent a yet future form of what we sometimes call the revived Roman Empire. Ten nations or kingdoms joined together, so joined together they have the strength of iron but since they are ten individual entities, they have the brittleness of clay. That's yet future. That has not even yet happened.

Then you'll note in verse 44, in the days of those kings, the kings represented by the toes of the feet in verse 42, the toes and feet partly of iron and partly of clay. “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed.” That's a kingdom that is yet future, that has not yet been set up. That's the Davidic kingdom, that will be a fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David, that He would put His Son on the throne forever.

Come over to Daniel 4, and Nebuchadnezzar talking here about the insight he has as a result of God bringing judgment on him and making him insane for a period of time. Verse 2, “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon says, it seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, His dominion is from generation to generation.” What's he saying? I recognize God rules over all. There is really one ultimate kingdom, the kingdom that God rules because all the other kingdoms of the earth are under His ultimate authority. Great insight here.

Then you come down to verse 17, we're just going to pick up the portions of verses that pertain. The last part of verse 17, “in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind.” That's what He is, He is the sovereign, He is enthroned. He bestows it on whom He wishes. In other words Nebuchadnezzar realizes I am king and Babylon is the nation in power because God bestowed it upon us. He is sovereign. Down in verse 25, probably portions you have marked in your Bible from other studies. The end of verse 25, “until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it upon whomever He wishes.” The end of verse 26, “your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is heaven that rules.” Verse 32, “until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it upon whomever He wishes.” Down to verse 34, “I blessed the Most High, praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. No one can ward off His hand or say to Him, what have you done.”

That's the universal kingdom, that's the throne that the Son of God shared with God the Father before the incarnation. That's the throne that has always been His. During the incarnation He sets aside the independent use of His attributes, as Philippians 2 says, the kenosis, “He emptied Himself.” But that's what He is as God. And so in John 17:3 as we saw when He prayed to the Father, “restore to Me the glory I had with you before the world was,” that happens when He is seated at the right hand of the Father, sharing the Father's throne. That's the throne of God, that's in existence today. That's different from the kingdom that would be established at a future time.

Come over to Daniel 7:13. And in Daniel 7 you have the same unfolding with a different vision. In Daniel 2 the coming empires of the world were in the form of a majestic man, in Daniel 7 they are in the form of ravenous beasts. And the fourth beast depicting Rome, verse 7, is the “dreadful and terrifying fourth beast,” which depicts the Roman Empire. And then verse 8, contemplating the horns, the end of verse 7, “there were ten horns, then out of the ten horns comes a little horn.” So you see they have the ten horns, in Daniel 2 it was the ten toes. That's the coming kingdom of the revived Roman Empire, ten nations federated together. Then you come, until, verse 13, “I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of Man was coming.” Jesus' favorite name for Himself, Son of Man. And He came up to the Ancient of Days. So here you have the Son of God as the Son of Man coming before God the Father, the Ancient of Days, presented before Him. “To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away.” It's given to Him then. All the nations aren't serving Him now. This takes place after He returns and crushes His enemies and establishes His kingdom on earth. So we're talking about the Davidic kingdom here, it is yet future.

Come over to Matthew 25. I realize this is review for most of you. When you get confused on the kingdom, McClain in his book The Greatness of the Kingdom makes a good point. If you are confused and think the kingdom has begun, then you get into all kinds of political and social issues that you see associated with the kingdom. So we have to be clear on what we are talking about. That's why I said when you talk about it you have to be clear. Christ is God the Son for eternity, He was before the incarnation. At the incarnation He is now the Son of God who has become man as well as God. Then following the incarnation He is exalted as the God/Man and restored to His position that He had with the Father before the world was, sharing the Father's throne. But He will come to earth again because He is the Son of David to establish a kingdom.

In Matthew 24 we have the unfolding of events related to the coming of Christ. And we're told that “He will come like the lightning flashing across the sky” and so on in Matthew 24:27. So Matthew 25 He talks about matters related to this. Look at Matthew 25:31. “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory,” Revelation 19 unfolds that glorious event, “and all the angels with Him,” then He will sit on His glorious throne. That's not the same throne that He shares with the Father. This is one that He will sit on at a future time. He sits on the universal throne over all creation because He is God, He shares that with the Father, with the Spirit. He will sit on the promised throne of David at a future time. When He comes in His glory, then He will sit on His glorious throne. To say that He has been enthroned on the throne of David and the majority of commentators that I read because I go through Hebrews, this is why we are taking this diversion, talk about the Davidic kingdom has been established. Like this writer says, He inaugurated the Davidic kingdom by His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. It didn't say He was placed on the throne of David. It says He was exalted to the right hand of the Father.

In Revelation 3:21 He says, I will allow you who are overcomers, I will give you the privilege of sitting with Me on My throne as I sat down with My Father on His throne. The throne that I sat on with My Father is the throne that we share as God, one God eternally existing in three persons. The throne that we will sit on with Him is the throne that He will establish on the earth when He establishes His kingdom, the Davidic throne.
So we don't want to get confused on this just because the word throne is used. In Matthew 25:34, “then the king,” referring to Christ, “will say to those on His right, come you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom.” That's when the kingdom starts. The Son of God, the Messiah of Israel is on the earth, He is establishing His kingdom, He is sorting out those who will not be part of His kingdom and inviting those who will be part of it to come, now, into the inheritance that was promised to them.

Now don't get confused, Jesus Christ is King of the Jews. He was born King of the Jews. When He talks with Pilate as Pilate interviews Him in anticipation of His crucifixion, he asks Jesus, ”are you a king? Jesus says, you said correctly, I was born to be king. I am a king.” I mean, there is no doubt about that. The issue is, is He sitting on the throne of David today and has the kingdom begun, the promised Messianic kingdom. No. There is a kingdom in existence, that has always been in existence. But obviously there is something different here. Christ is sitting enthroned at the right hand of the Father, but Matthew 25:31 says “He will sit at the time after He comes on His glorious throne.” So we want to keep clear on this.

Let's come back to Hebrews 1:8, “Your throne oh God is forever and ever.” He can never cease being God; He always was, He always will be. The manifestation of His glory as God was veiled, “all the fullness of deity dwelled in Him in bodily form.” Something of that glory showed through in the transfiguration in Matthew 17 for example. The righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. Righteousness characterizes the throne of God, He is the righteous God. So as God sharing the throne of the Father is God, righteousness is the scepter of His kingdom. That's the problem in the kingdom of this earth, men are unrighteous, ungodly. Romans 3:10 says, “there is none righteous.” That's the problem we have. That's why Romans 3:21 ff goes on to tell us how we can have the righteousness of God because God enthroned is a righteous God and we are not righteous. So we need the righteousness of God credited to us so that the righteous God might accept us as His people.

Verse 9, and we'll end here and pick up here. “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” Now we've moved. “Your throne oh God is forever and ever.” Now “you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness,” that's talking about how He functioned on earth. And He functioned consistently with His character as God. He loved righteousness, He hated lawlessness. He was the perfect Son of God as He walked the earth as Son of Man.

Therefore your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. Wait a minute, the Father called the Son, God in verse 8 and now He says your God, talking to the Son, has anointed you. But we are now in the context of the eternal Son of God became a man and He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. He was the sinless Son of God who became the Lamb of God. And so He perfectly manifested the desire and character of God in His righteousness.

So God the Father, and remember Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” And here you have God the Father calling God the Son, God, and then you have God the Son calling God the Father, God. Your God has anointed you. They both partake of the same nature. During His humanity Christ prayed to the Father, referred to Him as His God. He is functioning as a man. But He is God as well. He never ceased being God, but He chose to function fully as man while He was on this earth.

He has anointed you above your companions. And we'll tell you about that word companion when we pick up. Fellow believers, I think, from the use of the word in other portions of Hebrews.

So you have brought here the exaltation of the Son of God above angels. He is God, His throne is characterized by righteousness. And that was manifest when the Son of God became Son of Man without ceasing to be Son of God. He loved righteousness, He is revealing God to us. “The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory, glories of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” His love of righteousness which characterizes the throne of God characterized the Son of God when He walked this earth as the God/Man. And He hated sin, He hated lawlessness. Nothing had changed in that. Some of you have studied theology, the peccability and impeccability of Christ. It was not possible for Christ to sin because He is not only man, He is God and He lived a perfect life. So God has bestowed on Him blessing and joy and so He has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His companions.

This is the Savior that we have, this is the One who loved us and died for us. This is the eternal Son of God who became man. You see how the writer to the Hebrews is building so carefully his case on who Christ is. How can you talk about turning back from Him? Where are you going to go? The angels worship Him, He is the righteous God and God the Father has bestowed His approval and blessing on Him for the accomplishing of the work of redemption. He is the only Savior, there is no other place to go.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your amazing work in Your creation, truths that go beyond what these finite minds can comprehend with any fullness. The One who was Your Son through eternity, Himself God, shared Your throne, sovereign over all became a man so that in Your plan He could provide redemption and the time when He would come to rule and reign in a kingdom established on this earth so that all You have promised might come to fruition. Lord, may we be encouraged and strengthened in our commitment and resolve to continue to endure and persevere in our faithfulness to You until Christ comes. We pray in His name, amen