Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. All of mankind worships.
We're all captivated and defined by something or someone. The question is not whether or not we will worship, but what the object of our worship will be. In today's message, Pastor Rich lays out four reasons that Jesus is the only one who is worthy of our worship. He is the one worthy of our full surrender and devotion. Let's listen to this message from our Christmas series from the book of Hebrews chapter 1. Our passage for today is Psalm 2, so if you could please turn in your copy of the scripture to that. That's Psalm 2. We'll be reading all 12 verses.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them into region. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Let us bow our heads for prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this privilege we have together here today to worship and adore you and to learn from your word. Father, today's passage I find to be a very powerful passage and it sets forth clearly the problem and the solution. The problem is the continuing problem of mankind living in rebellion against you, against your son, and against the authority of your word, and what a futile proposition that is. It is absolute futility, but you and your grace and your mercy have provided a solution, and that is to kiss the son, to surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and be blessed.
It is hard for the natural mind of man to accept the fact that the only way, the only way to victory in this life is through complete surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Father, it is our responsibility that you have given to the church to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is you that can work in the hearts through the Holy Spirit to make men receptive to that message. So I pray today that we will be faithful to our responsibility, and that you will work mightily in the hearts of the unconverted, and that they will respond to the message of the gospel. Thank you, Father, for Pastor Rich. Thank you for how faithful he is in equipping us for the work of ministry. Please continue to bless him, be with him, and guide him now as he brings us your word today, and we ask all of this, Father, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Thank you, Vic. Good morning, church. So you can turn in your copy of the scriptures now to the book of Hebrews. We read Psalm 2 this morning because we'll find that the writer of Hebrews quotes a lot of scripture, and just to give you a heads up for the sermon today, I'm going to be having you turn to several places in scripture.
Don't normally do that because we want to just go right through the exposition of the text, but the writer of Hebrews quotes a lot of places in the Old Testament, and I think it'll be good for us to turn to them, many of them, some of them, and read them so that we have a good understanding of them. For these five Sundays in December, we're going through the first chapter of the book of Hebrews, the supremacy of the Son of God, the supremacy of the Son of God. This is part three, and the focus today is he is the one who is worthy of worship. He is the one who is worthy of worship, and there's four reasons that I find in the text here today. There are many more than that, obviously, but let's unpack four of them from the text here today. Four reasons Jesus is worthy of our worship.
Let's just read the text here to begin with. Long ago, and many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed there of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. The number one first reason we're going to look at today that Jesus is worthy of our worship is that he is the eternal fulfillment of a promise. The eternal fulfillment of a promise. How many of you have ever made a promise you can't keep?
Every one of our hands should be up right now. And Jesus, we often make promises, you know, I promise to do that, and it's, you know, when we were young, when our kids were young, and we were young too, there's a reason for that. But, you know, I would often, I, for some reason, I like checking the weather forecast.
I need to know what's how, you know, how to dress, go outside, and or can the kids play outside, and I would look at the forecast, and then I would communicate it to the family. And so many times they would treat me like I lied to them. Dad, what you said was going to happen today, that didn't happen. I'm like, it's not under my control, you know, not even the meteorologist, even though some of you do tend to, you know, be rough on them, you know, but it's easy for us to make promises that we can't keep. Sometimes it's difficult for us to keep the promises that we have made, even though we really, really want to keep them. But truthfully, it's impossible for us to ultimately, completely, and eternally keep promises. But Jesus is the one who does. He is the eternal fulfillment of a promise.
What is that promise? It's in Psalm chapter 2. It was just read, so you can turn back there with me to Psalm chapter 2. Why do the nations rage, and all the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.
Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in heaven laughs, and the Lord holds them in derision. And the Lord is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who in heaven laughs, and the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, You are my son today, I have begotten you. That's where this is taken from in Hebrews chapter 1. You are my son today, I have begotten you. We find in the context of Psalm chapter 2, there's a lot of things that are wrong with this world, isn't there?
Oppression, injustice, greed, division. Not only does it happen outside of us, it also happens within us. And this one, the anointed, the son, my king, said on a holy hill, he is the one who alone can make all things right. And he will. He makes all things right. All things that are wrong are made right. And then you can turn with me also to 2 Samuel chapter 7.
You have to go back to this one. 2 Samuel chapter 7, you're probably familiar with this. This is where we find the Davidic covenant. 2 Samuel chapter 7, and let's look at verses 13 to 16. The Lord is speaking. The Lord and David are having this conversation. David wants to build a temple. So up to this time, they had a tabernacle. A tabernacle is a tent.
You put it up, you take it down, fold it up, you know. David says, I want a permanent house. I want a big, glorious, beautiful, permanent house for God. And here's what the Lord is saying to David, verse 13, 2 Samuel 7. He shall build a house for my name and be a son, establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the cords of men, with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took from Saul, whom I put away from you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever.
For how long? Forever. Before me.
Your throne shall be established forever. Listen to me. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. Period.
Okay. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
