May I direct your thoughts to the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. Verses 8 and 9. that unto the Son, He said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter of thy kingdom. There was no righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of thine hands." I'm sure you often notice that although this letter is referred to as the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, that very often the preacher may just refer to the letter to the Hebrews. The reason for that is that historically it can be shown that the heading is much later than the actual letter itself. That, of course, does not mean that therefore the title is inaccurate. But there is a difference. For example, Tertullian who lived from 150 A.D. to 230 A.D. was of the opinion that the letter was written by Apollos. And you get people at a later stage, like Martin Luther, who thought that the letter was written by Barnabas. You do have others, for example the Eastern Church, that always maintained that the letter was written by Paul. the western church for this had placed in Rome contended otherwise. But notwithstanding, at the end of the second century you find Clement of Alexandria defending strongly that it was written by Paul in Hebrew and probably translated by Luke into Greek. The point that can be made is that nobody is certain. But that does not take away from the reality of the inspiration of the word of God. When we refer to the Bible, we never refer to it as the word of Moses, or as the word of a certain prophet, or as the word of Paul. We always refer to it, as these men themselves refer to it, as the Word of God. And it is not the fact that Moses or the apostles wrote some of these writings, that men's credibility to the Bible as the Word of God. It is the fact that these men were inspired so that precisely and correctly they were enabled to communicate what God pleased, what God the Holy Spirit pleased to put in writing. So that When we think of these letters, it is good to know what the Holy Spirit has been pleased to clearly declare to us, but what we don't know ought not in any way to cause us any upset. It is the Word of God, and that is the important thing. Now, the main purpose of this letter is to show the supreme excellence of the Gospel revelation in Christ over the administration of the Old Testament. Now, that is not saying that the New Testament is superior in terms of being better than the Old Testament. That is not the way in which Scripture refers to it, to itself. It is further to say that the Old Testament set forth the pre-arrangement leading up to the ultimate fulfillment which we find in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And when we think of the times when this letter was written and those who look into these things suggest that in all probability it would appear that the letter was written before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And there was a preparation, as God always prepares for the next step, a preparation being made for the Church When the temple would be razed to the ground, and when Judaism, with all its trappings, would never be the same again, there was the teaching that the form of worship that was now being adopted by the Christian church which was very simple and very direct, based on the synagogue worship, that it had a body of substance unequaled in terms of sheer value. And we have to remember that The most profound things in this life are the simple things. When you look back, if you are older, to your family life, you don't recall the toys, if you had them, that may have been expensive, or whether there was carpet or linoleum on the floor, or whether there was no card in the house, no telephone. These things are very minor when you look back, but what brings a glow to your heart is when you recall the love of a mother, and the love of a father, and the love of brothers and sisters. Love is a wonderful thing. It is a self-giving, but in one sense it is an indescribable thing, although it's so simple. Any person is able to love. Many people are not able to do many things. People have a variety of gifts and a variety of abilities, but when it comes to love, it is uniting us in a bond that is unspeakably precious. And the Bible tells us that God is love, and the Bible also tells us that such is the love of God to the world that he sent Jesus Christ, as the writer to the Hebrew here speaks about it. Scientists speak of splitting the atom. I don't understand that. I don't know what it means. But what I do understand, that it is an attempt to get to the simplicity of what energy is made up of. And if you can get to the simplicity that these scientists are aiming at, you release tremendous energy. And so, when you reflect upon, for example, our own worship, compared to perhaps the Ornate and a very different way in which perhaps a service may be conducted in a cathedral. Let us not be confused as to where the reality lies. I remember when I was 25 years married, my wife and I and some of the family went down to England And we worshipped in various places, in the Church of England, in the Methodist Church, in what you would call, or they call, a three-church. And then when we came back, we went to Old Bay, and the service was conducted there by Mr. Wilford Weave. He was a student at the time. But I still remember sitting in the congregation, wondering at the beautiful heritage that we have inherited in the simplicity of the way that we seek to worship God. And so, when we reflect upon the things of life, we come ultimately to the basis where indeed we find that God was in Christ reconciling the Word to himself. It's an extraordinary statement. It's a statement that we cannot interpret, accept in a very small way. We come to the conclusion that because of the doctrine of the remnant, which is purposefully set forth in the development of God's purpose for this world, that you only have a little group here and a little group there. But the Bible tells us, when the ultimate reckoning is made, that there will be multitudes that no man can number, redeemed, all whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But the interpretation of that doesn't belong to us. It belongs to the judge who knows exactly from the beginning to the end what he has purposed and what will be fulfilled. Now there are three things very quickly that perhaps we can look at this evening. It is with respect to Christ. Christ is the center of the church. He is the glory of the church. He is the savior of the church. And he reigns and will continue to reign till all his enemies are brought into subjection to him. The scepter is in his hand. And we will look first of all at his kinship And then we will look at his character, and last of all we shall look at his joy. It's referring to the anointing wherewith our Lord is anointed. First of all, then, the kingship of Christ. And you all know how the shorter Catechism, in its own inimitable way, expresses the great doctrines so clearly and so simply. And if we turn to the offices of Christ as the Catechism sets them forth, we read that Christ as our Redeemer executes the offices of our prophet, of our priest and of our king, both in his state of humiliation of humiliation and exaltation. When Christ was born and the men from the east came to worship him, they worshipped him as king. He was born king. He wasn't born to us still at a later stage, kingship at a certain time. He was born again. And when we come to his exodus, at his death, we hear these wonderful words from Christ, And the context tells us very clearly that he is fulfilling to the worth of the Father prescribed upon him. The will in which Christ took such delight and which he fulfilled in such a perfect manner. And so, when we think of the Kingdom of Christ, we have to think also of his priesthood and of his prophetic office. And you cannot take the one office from the other, although the scripture does it, in order to show us certain stones that make up the pattern. Now, Christ as priest came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was his purpose in coming into the world. He didn't come to be lauded by kings or by emperors, or to take a place of distinction among the schools of charism that pried in themselves on that great earth He didn't come to be born in a parish, but he was, as Scripture foretold, the man of solace and acquainted with grief. And we see how throughout his life It came to an ultimate development when we see him, with loud cries of tears, entering into an experience that only he was able to enter. Peter, James, and John, acquainted as they were in measure, with the teaching of the Lord were not able to follow Him into that area, nor was anyone able to identify with Him as He cried on the cross, My God, My God, my Husband, forsake me. It is an extraordinary thing that the person who has the greatest understanding of your difficulties and of your problems and of other people's sufferings is the Lord himself. It's an extraordinary thing, and it's a beautiful thing. He shed tears, he sweated blood, he knew what it was to enter into the depth of rejection. Rejection's a hard thing, and he entered into it, why? First of all, to do his father's will, in which he took. Delight, constant delight. You know how he spoke to the woman of Samaria, and the disciples came along, they were very, very surprised that he should be talking to this Samaritan woman. They knew that he was hungry, and they had food. Christ knew their thoughts, and you remember how he said to them, My meat and my drink is to do the will of my Father in heaven." So as he spoke to this Samaritan woman, he was fulfilling the will of his Father. There is a glorious interaction in the Trinity between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father speaks of the Son, the Son speaks of the Father, the Father and the Son speak of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaks of the Son and of the Father. A holy interaction and glorious glory that is indescribable. We see in the case of the priesthood of Christ, it would be impossible to forgive sin apart from what Christ achieved. Our words are often cheap, they don't cost us a thing, and sometimes we can be very insincere with our words. We say things, they may sound all right, but there's no heart in them. And when the ghost comes to a shun, the emptiness of the words becomes evident. When the pining begins, we step back, and we let others take the flight. But not so our Lord and Savior, He was man, truly man, in every sense of the term. And yet, in an extraordinary way, he continued to be God and man in two distinct natures, and one person forever. Now, the priesthood nobody took to himself, except the person that was appointed by God. And aren't you pleased that that's the way it is? Wouldn't you be afraid if the choosing of the priesthood was left to one of the tribes? It wasn't left to any of the tribes. It wasn't left to anybody within the tribes. The tribe of Levi was set apart, no other tribe. would dare to sever in a such way, but those of the sons of Levi, the sons of Aaron. Ah, my dear friends, the older I get, the greater my comfort in reflecting, not what our feeble hands attempt to do, But what his omnipotent hands are doing, still trusting God. The people caricature that observation by saying that it is a recipe for pouring one's hands. Have you ever seen a man, woman, or child who fears God? holding his hands and saying, I have no responsibility in this world. It is a caricature and just a caricature. God of us, of mine will be, and he will bless us still. And Christ says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. They haven't prevailed, and they won't prevail. And that is our great comfort. But the words of Christ are not a joke. They are a personification, or a setting forth in substance, of himself, of the great noble Trinity, a certain form. And it's a beautiful thing when you see him on the cross, addressed by a thief who knew very well that he deserved to die. but in some sense recognizing the person on the central cross. He addressed these words, Lord, remember me when thou comest into my kingdom. He never attended a prayer meeting. He never sat at a communion table. He lived a way of life that brought him to that swift punishment where he was crucified. What does Christ say to him? Today, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Beautiful thing. I can't recall, but I'm sure many of you will recall, two men in England that were going to be burned to death, and one was encouraging the other. And he said something to the effect, to be of good cheer, we shall suffer merrily with Christ, if when it is done, something to that effect. Christ has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. And he is true to his word. Whatever your circumstances may be, you may not recognize him. Like the footprints in the sand, you see an area where it would appear that Christ is not by your side. But at that very moment, The reason for the footprints in the sand, being the footprints of wonder, was that Christ was carrying them, for that person could not walk. And so it is, how, blessed Lord, let us worship Him and recognize Him for who He is, the Head and the Saviour of the Church. Now, the Catechism goes on to say, Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in destroying and conquering all his and our enemies. Now, you listen to these words. Christ executes the orders of a king, first in subduing us to himself, then in ruling and depending on us, and then in persuading and conquering all his and our enemies. It's such a wonderful teaching that I have to watch my time. Let us try to say a little about his character, the character of Christ. And it is described here in terms of the scepter of righteousness. Now, the scepter is the symbol of authority, and righteousness referred to right living. Now, the Jews would have to think that if they had lived in the days of the former prophets and heard them delivering their message from God, they would have received it with cheerful obedience. Now there were four principal times when God spoke to the Jews. First of all to Adam in the promise of the seed. Then to Noah and after the flood. Thirdly to Abraham in the affirming of the promise to his seed, Isaac. And fourthly to Moses in the giving of the law. they garnished the sepulchres of the prophets as if they were full of admiration and totally in agreement with their communication from God. But Christ reminds them how The very thing that they desired was the person that they were rejecting. Christ confirmed the law of the prophets, not only by word, but by his actual deeds, his actions. It is not that he spoke of what it was to love God with all your faculties and to love your neighbour as yourself, but he actually did that. And so, as Christ was pointing out to them, He showed, in some measure, how the laws of the kingdom were fulfilled in his way of living. And he could say and did say, but not one of them could fight him in these areas of breaking the law. And the laws of Christ's kingdom are such beautiful laws. I remind particularly the young persons present, don't believe it when Satan suggests to you or the enemies of the Bible tell you that the Bible is a whole lot of talks. You don't do this, you don't do that. It's a book for killing joy. It's a book for taking from you the real experience of living. It's not, not true. You think of it for a moment. Some youngsters, and it's very sad in our days how many young people commit suicide, you would think that boys and girls wouldn't have such stresses in their lives, that they would come to this irrational stage, but You look at the youngsters that can do anything. They live in homes that are well-pleased. They have quite a bit of money to spend, and they can buy their drinks, and they can buy their drugs. Have you ever seen an alcoholic? But have you ever known the tragedy in the home of the person that is given to God? Or have you seen the tragic mess that drug addiction brings? There is nothing in God's Word that is good in itself. If you fall sick and you are wracked with pain, and you're taken into the hospital and you're given an injection, you are thankful to God when you begin to feel the pain easing off. And drugs are wonderful things. And I must say it, Alcohol in itself is what has its own proper use, if it is properly used. Let us not forget that in remembering Christ, we remember Him in accordance with His own appointment. in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine. But we abuse everything, don't we? We abuse our food. We get over it, and you see it in myself, the way that one over-eats. We can abuse clothes to the point that we lose all modesty. We can abuse language, but we move away from the Queen's English and we allow ourselves to use uncouth, unclean and blasphemous language. There is nothing in this world that we cannot abuse, but the word in itself is the creation of God. Now then, I hope I'm not encouraging anybody, and especially the young people, training can become not difficult, very, very quick. But it can bring you to the place where you become unnatural and uncaring and you become unkempt and your brain becomes adamant. Perhaps it is rightly spoken of as the curse of Scotland. The very framework of the nation is breaking up. and drink is half the fruit of it. Anyway, let's leave that just now. But when we come back to the righteousness of Christ, we see how he lived all the laws of the kingdom, and they're beautiful laws. Is it such an awful thing to love? I'm not talking of a pure love that can be lost and it can't be destroyed. A pure love, love that is holy, love that will not hurt anybody, love that would recognize that all goodness resides in Christ. But truth is a wonderful thing. If you are dealing with a person who is truthful, then you can trust that person in what he says. But if you're dealing with a liar, beware. He'll trip you up somewhere along the line. But all of these graces that we speak in terms of the Lord, Christ fulfilled it. And He fulfilled it. Now, I'm just going to close with a few words about the joy of our Lord. I'm sorry, at the moment, I'm almost guilty of this. Why did Christ do all this? He did it so that you and I would become free, free to love, free to walk in the way that he has set out for us, free to hope, free to die. Freedom, a wonderful, wonderful concept. How many Christians, in situations that were quite bad, were not afraid, and are not afraid. And the true Christian will stand discouraged, no matter the problem. Of course, Christians have their weaknesses. Peter had his weaknesses. And if we were standing in the shoes of Peter, we would have done the same thing exactly. The same thing. But, there is a little steel into our cross's boards, and it's a wonderful thing when you recall some of the great men of the past, We salute their memory and thank God for the heritage that comes to us through the lives of these men that were fearless in the day of the test. Now, what gives yourself, what do you do to give yourself the greatest joy? I think the greatest joy that a parent has when he is able to give to his son or daughter what brings great happiness into their experience. To see the joy of the one that you love is not in the giving itself, but the fact And that is, something that you have given them brings this lovely experience into their lives. And you know, Christ said that it's more a blessing to give than to receive, and that can only be said of himself in reality. But it's a wonderful thing, and The Bible tells us that Christ suffered looking to the joy that was set before him. And the joy consisted in the self-giving of God that reached out to sinners to make them princes and princesses. to receive life, life immeasurable, life of potential, life of joy, life of activity, life of development. What would heaven be like? Ah, well, I'm sure it would be a matter of just sitting and gazing about. But there will be a tremendous industry of a kind where the creation of God is continually rising to its full potential. You know, it's wonderful what man can do in this work. I take a simple telephone and it's a miracle to me. how the lines of communication run in the air and how you tap into them. These converge and you pick up the phone and you speak to somebody in America or Australia and you hear them as if they were sitting beside you. What will the potential of the new creation be? Do you love music? Ah, well. Wait till you hear the angels sing. Better still, wait till you hear the redeemed sing. Wait till you hear the music that will rise above what we are able even to imagine in this life. Shared, shared ecstasy. While Christ died, in order a synergy, like yourselves and myself, should be united to Him, not such an ordinary, united to Christ. and he died in order that we might live. Let us pray.