Sometimes I get asked to speak at conferences by men like Scott, and they ask me to speak on things, and my first reaction is, I have a clue how to speak on that. I've never spoken on that text or on that subject, And so it's kind of, you know, your heart sinks when you get a request like that. But my heart did not sink and I have had nothing but gratitude to Scott for assigning me the text of Hebrews 1, 8 and 9 and the subject of the joy and gladness of Jesus Christ as it is affirmed there. So please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1 And I want you to notice, especially verse nine, along with verse eight, it's quoted from Psalm 45, but we're gonna read the entire first chapter of Hebrews as we begin our study of verse nine this evening. God, after He spoke long ago in the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us and His Son whom He appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the world.

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my God, today I have begotten you. And again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me." And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

But of the Son, He says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, and they will become old like a garment, And like a mantle you will roll them up, like a garment they will also be changed, but you are the same. And your years will not come to an end.

But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? Like I said, this is a wonderful text and I've had a wonderful time studying it, Scott, so thank you for assigning it to me. Notice several things by way of introduction to it. First of all, the theme of the verse before us specifically, verse 9, is the joy and gladness of Jesus Christ.

Notice how this theme takes center stage in the last part of that verse, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. Notice the way this verse is used, or the use of the verse in the argument of Hebrews as well. It is here to support the theme of the superiority of Jesus Christ, specifically in the way that the author of Hebrew uses this quotation from the Psalms. Its main purpose is to assert the deity of Jesus Christ and in this way his superiority to the angels. And you can notice particularly verse 8 and again verses 10 to 12 in this context.

But then I want you to see the backdrop of the verse as well in the Old Testament. Hebrews 1, 8 and 9 quotes Psalm 45, 6 to 7. But to understand the deep meaning of Hebrews 1, 9, we must examine Psalm 45, 7 in its context. And here immediately, we confront knots that need to be untied and need to be untangled if we are to fully understand and deeply appreciate the meaning of Hebrews 1.9. As we do this, I want to consider this text in its Old Testament context.

And finally, let me just tell you the outline that I'm going to be following as we try to penetrate this verse this evening. The outline of the verse seems straightforward to me. There are three subjects which it sets before us in connection with the gladness and joy of Jesus Christ. They are the glorious identity of the one addressed in the verse, the righteous activity of the one addressed, and then finally, the consequent joy of the one addressed here. First of all, notice the glorious identity of the one addressed.

It is perfectly clear in Hebrews 1 that the author is teaching that Jesus Christ is God. It's also clear that the quotation of Psalm 45 is brought forward to buttress that argument, to support it. The author here is through Psalm 45 verses 6 and 7 asserting the full deity of Jesus Christ. But the difficulty with this assertion is that to many, many modern exegetes, it is not so clear that this is actually what Psalm 45, 6, and 7 intends to teach in the Old Testament. Turn to Psalm 45.

Psalm 45. And I need again just to read the first seven verses of this Psalm to set the quotation to verses six and seven in context. My heart overflows with a good theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

You are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh. Oh mighty one in your splendor and in your majesty and in your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.

Let your right hand teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp. The peoples fall under you. Your arrows are in the heart of the king's enemies. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

A 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 joy above your fellows. Now not a few interpreters of the Old Testament understand these verses to refer to the Davidic King of Israel. They understand that the reference even in verse six to this king as God may use the term God as a reference to a human ruler who in a special way images the authority of God.

And in fact, I think it's indisputable that the term God can be and is used this way in the Old Testament and in fact in the Psalms. Look at Psalm 58 or Psalm 82 if you want proof of that. This way of taking the term God is also encouraged by another fact. In spite of the king being called God in verse 6, he is then distinguished from God in verse 7. The king in verse 6 is called God, but he is distinguished from God when it is said that God anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows or companions.

How should we solve this problem? There are supposed several reactions we can give to it. There's a reaction of refusing to think about it. But if we always refuse to think about things that kind of challenge us in the Bible, we'll actually never learn anything with our Bible study. We have to address our questions, address them with faith, address them with confidence in the Word, but the questions and the difficulties we find in the Scriptures must be addressed.

Another thing you could do is deny the authority of Hebrews and simply say that the author was wrong in citing this text to prove this doctrine. This is of course the solution of unbelief and no solution at all for a Bible believer. One might suggest that the author of Hebrews was merely accommodating an Old Testament text for his purpose and not saying that this was actually what the Old Testament text meant. In this view, the author of Hebrews really doesn't intend to tell us anything at all about what Psalm 45 really means, He's just borrowing the language for his own purposes. But against this view, against this view is that we must learn how to interpret the Bible from the Bible and the clear fact that The author of Hebrews does seem to think that this is what Psalm 45 actually says and is relevant to his proving the superiority of Jesus Christ.

Against this solution to the problem is the truth that we are to learn from Scripture how we too are to interpret Christians. If we are to be apostolic Christians, we must interpret the Bible the way the apostles did. This view appears to deny this. So I reject each of these solutions. What is my view?

Well, let me give it to you as simply as I know how. Psalm 45 is speaking of the Davidic King of Israel, but this Davidic King is indisputably spoken of and very exalted. One might even say idealized terms. This is because a great and immense mystery was hidden in the covenant made with David and his sons. At the end of the long, dark tunnel that was the line of the Davidic kings in Israel, at the end of the darkness and trial and struggle through which those kings reigned, and in which that line of kings seemed to come to an end at the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon.

At the end of that covenant there was an immense mystery hidden. At the end of it, the eternal Son of God would become the historical Son of David. And so it is not wrong for the author of Hebrews to see in the exalted Davidic king of Psalm 45 a reference to the eternal son of God. Now let me explain this just a bit. You must understand the significance of the Davidic Covenant, I think, to understand what I'm saying.

Let me give you the key idea. The Davidic king of Israel was appointed as God's son in order that he might legitimately rule Israel, Because the only true and legitimate king of Israel was God himself. Let me unpack this just a bit. Do you remember what God and Samuel said when Israel asked the king and asked for Saul to be their king. The reaction was Yahweh said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." Or in 1 Samuel 10, 19, but you have today rejected your God who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses, yet you have said no, but set a king over us." And so the desire to have a king was seen by Samuel and by God himself as a rejection of God as king.

Well, that raises the question, how is it legitimate then if Saul violated the royal prerogatives of King Yahweh, how is it right for David and his sons to rule Israel? And the answer to that question comes in the Davidic Covenant. The answer to that question comes in the fact that God adopts the sons of David as his own sons and so their rule of Israel is actually the extension of Yahweh's rule. They rule as the sons of God. This is why 2 Samuel 7 says, I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me." One of the terms of the Davidic Covenant.

It's why Psalm 89 verses 26 and 27 say with regard to the covenant made with David, he will cry to me, You are my Father. So this is why David and his sons could rule Israel. They were adopted, appointed as the sons of God. And this was set in motion, a line of Davidic kings that would issue finally in the incarnation of the last and great son of David, who would also be the eternal son of God. And this is the backdrop of the language of Psalm 45, end of Hebrews 1.

This is a Psalm addressed to the Davidic king of Israel, who was by God, appointed to be God's kingly son. In the appointment of David's son as God's son, there was a deep mystery concealed. The last and greatest son of David would be God's Son in a much greater sense. The eternal Son of God would become incarnate as the Son of David Only in the our incarnation of the eternal Son as the historical Son of David could the purposes of God be fulfilled. And thus the historical sonship of Jesus as the Son of David would reflect the eternal sonship of Jesus as the one who was the eternal word of God.

That's the glorious identity of the one of dress. That's why the author to Hebrews was right in quoting this text and to buttress his argument that Jesus Christ is superior to the angels. But now we come to the righteous activity of the one addressed. Here I have reference to the first part of verse nine. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Now in these words are three things I want you to notice. The process assumed, the virtue expressed, and the character perfected. First of all, the process assumed. These words assume a process, what I think we may even call a probation, to which the Son of God was subjected. Throughout the book of Hebrews, we are informed of a process of development that took place in the being of the mediator.

Now obviously when I speak of development in the being of the mediator, I am not talking about his divine nature. That divine nature is immutable, unchangeable, and therefore undevelopable, if that's a word. The eternal sonship of the mediator is however reflected in the historical sonship and thus in his human nature. It is this human nature that undergoes a process of development. Now this change, this maturation, this development is assumed and reflected at many places in Hebrews.

It's implied in our text. You notice that when it says you loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, it's in the past tense. The past tense here is used, as it can be used, to speak of something that is completed. You have loved righteousness. You hated lawlessness.

It is a loving righteousness and hating lawlessness that is passed and completed. It is assumed also this process of development, which where in Hebrews 2.7 which speaks of the mediator having been for a little while made lower than the angels. He is not now, but he was once lower than the angels. This process is reflected in Hebrews 2, 17 and 18, which speaks of the mediator having been tempted in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. There's a process of becoming here.

And it is intimated also in Hebrews 4.15, where we have spoken the mediator, having been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. He was not now, but he was in a condition of being tempted, which he endured without sinning. But it is stated, perhaps most clearly, this process of development in Hebrews 5 7. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death and he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, notice the paradox, the author is aware of the paradox, although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered and having been made perfect, having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

It was in the crucible and in the fire of the testing process that the Son of God loved righteousness and hated evil. It is this fiery trial which is assumed in the past tense of our text. That brings me to my second subheading, The Virtue Expressed. How are we to conceive of this process? What kind of process can it be?

Was not Jesus' human nature, even from birth, perfectly innocent? Yes, it was. He was, according to Luke 1 35, that holy child to be born of Mary. But then what can this process be? It's not a process from sin to righteousness.

How is it to be conceived? Well let me give you two closely related answers to that important question. First this process must be understood in terms of Jesus being the second Adam, obliged to fulfill for his people a kind of second covenant of works. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was placed under a covenant of works. This was a divine administration in which by his keeping the condition of the covenant, he was to attain eternal life for himself and all his posterity.

Remember that as it turned out, he had to fulfill this condition while being tempted by Satan. Similarly, Jesus as the second and last Adam had to fulfill the condition laid upon him in order to attain eternal life for himself and all his seed. He also had to do this in the context of fierce temptation which had to be resisted. That condition was of course that he had to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It is to his fulfillment of this condition that our text points when it says that he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

All this is the outward administration within which we understand the process of which Hebrew speaks and which is implied in our text. But This outward administration implies an inward development. This process must be understood in terms of the maturation of Jesus' original innocence into mature and hardened righteousness. The soft cement of innocence had to become the hardened cement of matured righteousness. There is a difference in the scriptures between the innocence of undefiled purity and the righteousness of the one who has passed through the crucible and testing of fierce temptation and come forth.

There was a difference between, or there would have been a difference between, the innocent Adam and the Adam who by resisting temptation and obeying the requirements of the covenant would have come forth with the knowledge of good and evil which belonged to the tree of testing. Even so, the Son of God in his human nature was in the language of Hebrews to learn obedience from the things which he suffered. This obedience which he was to learn if spoken of in Hebrews 1-9 in the words, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. But then notice not only the process assumed the virtue expressed, but the character perfected. Two things about the perfected character of the Messiah are spoken of in our text.

First you will notice that the character has been perfected. It's spoken of in the past tens, as I've pointed out a number of times. Reflecting on this terrible testing through which the mediator had passed, the text says, you loved righteousness and hated lawlessness through all the awful ordeal through which Jesus passed. Jesus loved righteousness in the wilderness. He loved righteousness In the temptations that met him through those three and a half years, he hated lawlessness.

In the great temptation of the hour and power of darkness, as the cross was set before him, He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. But notice this perfected character of the Messiah is two-sided. It is both loving righteousness and hating evil. Such matured righteousness must have this two-sided character. For righteousness really to be loved, There must be more than a naive and easy admiration of goodness.

There must be more than an untroubled and kind of natural keeping of the work of the law written on the heart. There must be a loving of righteousness that has been tested and tempted and hardened in the crucible of fierce temptation and opposition. Such righteousness must look lawlessness straight in its seductive face and resist it. Such righteousness must count the cost and sorrow that may accompany hating lawlessness. Such righteousness must pay the price for loving righteousness in that fierce temptation.

This is the loving righteousness and the hating evil which is here attributed to the Savior. This and nothing less than this was the righteousness by which our redemption had to be claimed. This is the glory of Emmanuel. He is the one who has loved righteousness and hated evil. He is the one who has become obedient even to the death of the cross.

Can you conceive of this transition from perfect innocence to hardened righteousness? Let me try to illustrate it for you. Think of the recruits brought in to one of our national military academies.