Christ Worshipped by Angels

He abhors not the Virgin’s womb. We ponder that—the Son of God accepting, embracing, submitting to the humility. It’s a scene that defies belief: the Lord of glory, and the womb of the Virgin.

Hebrews 1—please turn to Hebrews 1.

It’s been interesting. I was reflecting on the fact that even on the occasions over this year where I have moved away from our series in Hebrews, I’ve ended up in Hebrews anyway for one reason or another. And so it is the case this evening as we continue looking at the texts of Messiah.

I’m going to read all of Hebrews 1. The verses are verses 5 and 6. A selection, a little portion of each of these verses, is used in Handel’s Messiah, but we will look at them.

Let us read from verse 1, Hebrews 1 verse 1:

God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also we made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the sun, he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

But thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But the witch of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Amen. May the Lord bless the public reading of His Word. And what you have heard is the Word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, “Amen.”

Let’s pray.

Lord, help us tonight as we return to Thy Word. Amidst all that we go through in life, we’re thankful for the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. And as we come to consider Thy Word this evening, we simply ask that Thou wilt give that help necessary. I pray that the message comes across with clarity, that the Spirit of God will take the truth and cause it to find a place in every heart, or even in my own.

Let Thy Word find fresh power in my own soul. O God, I ask that here in this place there would be a frame of mind and heart in everyone here to worship the One who is worthy of our praise. So whatever reluctance remains in our flesh, whatever ignorance still burdens us, whatever challenges keep us from rendering to Christ the worship that He is due, we pray that even this evening Thou wilt draw near—to remove the scales, to illuminate our mind, to move our hearts—so that we are more further and deeply, profoundly and meaningfully engaged in worshiping the One whose name is Jesus.

So give the Holy Spirit, simply that He may be exalted, and the work extended, and lives changed. Hear prayer, and draw near, forgiving us all our sins. In Jesus’ name, amen.

It’s my hope that, with the emphasis over December, you will experience a certain heavenly gravity to the whole scene of the incarnation. The text that we will be looking at—as we’ve seen already today, and we will see over the course of days to come—will draw us to consider not only the exalted position of the Lord Jesus Christ and His place in heaven, but also what He is there to do, and the benefits that we receive from His position there in heaven itself.

That our minds would be lifted, rather than solely dwelling on the humility of the cradle, to see the glory of His throne and what that means to us here and now.

The scene of Handel’s Messiah moves from the text that we looked at this morning—the scene of Christ’s entrance into glory and the Father’s recognition of Him—to the appointment of His place and the call to angels to worship Him. That’s what we have in verses 5 and 6. He is appointed this particular position. He is the Son, and He is called then, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

We are to meditate on this. And it’s interesting, as you listen to Handel’s Messiah, that the reflection upon verse 5 is very short. It’s just the tenor expressing, almost in a spoken fashion—it’s not quite; it is sung, but it’s in this very clear… it’s almost like a cutting away of everything. And I think the harpsichord is maybe in the background a little bit, but it’s almost entire silence and just this voice that is to reflect the gravity of the Father recognizing who this One is, and His place, and His position.

And then it explodes into this chorus of the choir—“Let all the angels of God worship Him”—which continues for a period of time with the voices all mingling in together.

It’s quite the same. Hebrews 1 brings us into these celestial courts. We are brought to be taken further from what merely has happened during the earthly ministry of Christ. That, of course, is touched upon. We see the One who has, of course, laid down His life. It’s mentioned in verse 3 of chapter 1 that He had purged our sins. There He did that upon the cross. But it moves us. It moves us to consider the One who is worthy of all praise because He occupies a throne in heaven.

When I was preaching through this, I brought to your attention—of course, this is a number of years ago, so you won’t remember; I didn’t remember—but I did go on and just scan through my notes on that sermon. But I had mentioned there that verses 1 through 3 describe the superiority of Christ, and verse 4, that superiority is compared to that of the angels, and then verses 5 through 14 is the proving of that superiority, where there are seven Old Testament texts that come one after the other to prove that what the apostle argues here, in lifting up Jesus Christ, is—its foundation is in the Old Testament Scriptures.

That he’s not just pulling in an idea, he’s not just imagining that this One that he bowed before, he worshiped and recognized as the Savior of the world, and now he’s imagining Him up there in heaven holding this and occupying this position. He argues from the Old Testament Scriptures. And if the Hebrews had a mind to elevate the being of angels, what the apostle does is say, “Well, this Son is superior. He is elevated over all beings.”

One commentator points out that what follows from verses 5 through to the end is: first you have a declaration by God that He recognizes His Son as King—that’s verse 5. Then you have the presentation of the King to His people and His proclamation as King—verses 6 through 12. And then there is the enthronement in verse 13. It’s really a sense of a recognition of coronation. This Son is crowned, and He rules over all.

Now, I’m not going to get into the exegetical aspect in the way in which I did when I preached this. I literally scanned the introduction, and then I think I really quickly moved through it, and I thought, “I’m just going to leave that aside. I’m going to look at it fresh,” because my hope this evening is to distill the message of these verses in a way in which I intend to drive it home very clearly.

Because while there is, of course, the part of exegeting—of looking at, “What do these verses say?”—I want to spend more time driving it home to your heart. The implications of a text like this are not simply for us to look and say, “Well, there’s a truth,” and we put it on the shelf of our mind, understanding what it says. It is to come from the mind into the heart, penetrating and moving us to a certain response.

So tonight we’ll consider “Christ Worshipped by Angels.” Christ worshipped by angels. Very simply, we’ll see: the superior Son, the sovereign session, and the summoned submission.

Simple—the superior Son. If you look at verse 5: “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, and again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son?”

It begins with a rhetorical question: “Unto which of the angels said he at any time?” The implied answer is conclusive: none. This was never said to any angel. These words belong to the Son alone. They are the Father’s unassailable testimony of the superiority of His Son. No other being ever had these words uttered to him. You’re dealing with someone distinct.

That’s seen, first of all, we might say, in His deity. “Thou art my Son.” And the language there is not intended to communicate mere adoption. “The Son of God”—the implication is the fact that He has a relationship to the Godhead that proves Himself to be God. He has this standing.

And, of course, the Jews understood this. Part of the Jews’ horror of the Lord Jesus Christ were the times in which He spoke in such a way as to make the suggestion and reveal that He has this position of equality with the Father.

You’ll see that in John 5. It’s one of the earlier times when the Jews are riled up with anger. In fact, it may be the first time when their response to what He says is, “He needs to die.” That didn’t happen just at the end. That didn’t all crescendo leading up to the cross and suddenly they were overwhelmed by a feeling of, “Let’s put Him to death.” Early in His ministry, as early as John 5, you see it—because He made Himself, the language says, equal with God.

Now, the language of Him—“Thou art my Son”—is communicating that, and it’s confirming then, with clarity, His position. A few verses later, the tremendous argument for the position of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 8: “But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Let the Russellites get around that one. Let those who deny the deity of the Son get around that, where what is being spoken to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.”

This is His position. He stands as the One who is deity itself. He is the Word made flesh. He was there face to face with God in eternity past, dwelling in an inter-Trinitarian relationship of perfect harmony and love and glory.

And so that’s why He can be described in verse 3 of Hebrews 1: He is “the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person.” You want to see God? Look at the face of Jesus Christ.

We have to grasp this, because this is true not just in His exalted position at the Father’s right hand, but it’s true as you, this month, ponder on this condescension of the Son made flesh and scenes of nativity—whether in the manger, on the arms of Mary, or however He may be portrayed.

These images, of course, can never at all display anything of His glory. I would say to you indeed that in some way there should be a measure of… I am not against—let me be clear—I am not against the meditation upon the incarnation in December, not at all. What I am against is the pride of man believing that in any way he might reflect God. Images. And whether it be in December or Easter, whatever—the idea that we can… the only possible thing that can come out of portraying Jesus Christ is to lie to people. Is to lie to people. You cannot convey the truth of who this One is. It’s impossible. He is God.

And that should be kept close to our heart. Keep that in mind, even at this time of year. Even the idea of trying to make representation robs Him of His glory, robs Him of things that are not given to us. We’re not to so reduce Him down. Yes, He came in great humility. Yes, He assumed our nature. Yes, He was born of the virgin. Yes, all these things are true. But we are never then to try and paint that scene. Scripture forbids it.

But as you ponder it, as our minds are drawn to it, as we rightly reflect upon the fulfillment of prophecy in that the Son of David was born in David’s city, He came into this world for the purpose of being our Savior. He is nothing less than God in our nature.

If He were only perfect man, then His death could not save us. If He was God without our nature, then He could never die for our sins. It is in this unique arrangement, planned in eternity past, in which God takes on our nature and stands in the position as our Mediator—it is only through that that the problem of sin can be dealt with and sinners can be reconciled to God.

So what we’re dealing with here—“Thou art my Son”—is One who is God. You’re called upon, when it says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him”—they’re called to worship Him because He is God. It would be wrong for them to worship Him if He was not worthy of it.

This is what we then have to wrestle with, in a world that wants to reduce Him to nothing more than a prophet, an historical figure—that we have to come to terms with the fact that He was much more than that. And we have to recognize that what He is revealed to be is what we are to embrace. If we come lower than that, if we diminish that, if we imagine there is some piety or there’s some redeeming qualities to saying, “He was a good man,” or “He was a prophet”—again, we rob Him of His glory.

In John 5:23 we are told, “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father.” That strikes at the heart of any idea that Christianity is just one way, that all the Abrahamic religions lead to the same God. If you do not honor the Son, you’re not honoring the Father. There has to be that recognition. There has to be within our hearts an agreement and submission to whom He is revealed to be, without detracting, without deleting, without in any way robbing Him of His position. He is God—seen in His deity.

It’s also seen in the declaration here, “this day have I begotten thee.” The day mentioned here does not suggest a point in time in which He began to exist. He is without end. Again, He’s the focus of verse 12. Speaking of this world, this created order, the cosmos, “as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same. Thy years shall not fail.” And so we’re not talking about One who just came into existence at a point in time. It’s One that is beyond time in His existence, without end.

But “this day”—of course, there’s some dispute as to what it refers to. In Psalm 2, it is referring to the day in which He is installed, proclaimed to be the King. And we understand this to refer to the resurrection and the ascension, putting our arms around that event, as here He is. Here He is now in His exalted position. He has conquered death in His resurrection. He ascends into heaven, received up there, taking our nature, occupying a throne. And so, in that, He is declared to be the Son of God with power.

On that day, through that event, through that time, there is this recognition of His unique position. So this is settling the matter. This is settling the matter that we were thinking upon this morning—that heaven is to open up to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the whole end of it: that He would accomplish His work and then be received in a position of glory and power.

Now this is not what men conclude. This is not the position that men take. You’re listening to that language of Him being… “all the angels of God called to worship Him.” That is not how men naturally respond. What is the natural response of men? I mean, even as you listen to Messiah, as you go through, as you get to this juncture, you’ve just come on the heels of the cross—the expressions of text where He is being mocked and despised: “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him if He delight in Him,” and all these expressions to show, to show that man does not by nature recognize this One.

The declaration of men is to say, “Crucify Him.” He’s nothing more than one who should be viewed as a criminal. “Crucify Him.”

But God says, “Thou art my Son. This day you take this unique position. You take this role. You are the set-apart One, the One occupying the throne of heaven.” This verdict is different.

And really, when it comes down to it, every single person on this planet—though there be a spectrum of expressions—ultimately you lean into one side or the other, how you view Jesus Christ. You align yourself with the crowd—you may not say, “Crucify Him,” but you have no desire that He reign over you. You have no interest in Him being governor of your life. You’re not interested in calling Him Lord. There’s a detachment—at best, there is a detachment from Him, just like the crowds around the cross. Some of them walked past, maybe didn’t pay much attention. Some of them, of course, entered into the railing against Him, but they’re all part of the same group. They don’t recognize this One.

You have, then, the whole gulf, the whole vast number of humanity, and they’re all either there or on the side with the Father—in agreeing with the Father: “This is the Son. This is the unique One, the coronated One, the glorified One. He is God. I bow before Him.”

His superiority is also seen in the design. What I mean is the intention. What was the whole plan? “And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son,” says the text. And this, of course, draws—without getting into detail—it draws on the promise given to David in 2 Samuel 7. Yes, it has an immediate context, looking to Solomon, but it stretches to Jesus Christ.

The language of 2 Samuel 7:13 talks about His kingdom being established forever. Evidently, that’s not Solomon. It’s looking beyond. It’s looking to Jesus Christ. So He takes that language, that covenant language, and He ties it not just to ason of David but to the Son of David, the Son of God.

When the angel Gabriel comes, in Luke 1 verse 32, “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign,” it says, “forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” So here we have the eternal Son taking on our flesh and entering into this royal line where there are real covenant promises, but elevates the whole thing—sees a fulfillment beyond what could be fathomed.

Here He is, seated not merely upon some earthly throne, but seated on the throne of all thrones, even in heaven itself. This is the One of whom David spoke in Psalm 2: “yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” There again He is expressed to be in this exalted position—to reign and to rule.

This was always the design: for Him to fulfill what God promised to David, and to step in as that “greater than Solomon,” and have a kingdom that was without fault in terms of how it’s ruled; and to stand over them without all the flaws and the lamentable aspects of Solomon’s reign—here we have One in total purity and absolute perfect righteousness, rules and reigns.

Think also with me of the sovereign session. He is called then to reign. Again, back in verse 3, when He had purged our sins, we are told, “He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.” And then verse 6 has Him being formally seated: “when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

And so He’s brought in—this image of the Father bringing in the Son, victorious. You might read the word “world”—“into the world.” I dwelt on this more when I was looking at this text. I’m not going to deal with it now. But it—brought into the cosmos, it’s been brought in, this sense of the heavenly glory of all that that world inhabits. And He’s bringing Him into this position and saying, “Now, let all the angels of God worship Him.”

Bring Him into this heavenly place. Welcome Him in. And then call the inhabitants of that place to worship Him.

Now, He then is to be worshiped because He is ruling and reigning. I want you to note, first, His rule is over the universe. It’s over all—over everything. Again, Psalm 110 plays a key role here. These things are going to be under Him. Everything. He is set at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, “far above all principality and power,” says Ephesians 1. And all things are under His feet.

So you think of this position—set at the right hand—as an image of authority, of absolute rule and power. And this is where Christ is exercising His dominion: not over part of the universe, but over all of the universe. Every single thing is under Him. He has won this right. He has conquered everything so that He rules, standing in this position uniquely to, yes, govern over demons, to govern over all aspects of this world. As Sproul would often say, there’s not one maverick molecule in the universe—because He governs over it all. Every single thing is under His dominion. Everything.

And this means we must recognize this, because it changes everything. We are not cruising through the world as lords of our own life. There is One who governs over all. We are to recognize that government, submit to that government, embrace that government, and obey it.

We come to this time of the year, and there’s a certain sentimentality that dawns over people. And partly I’m glad for it. I mean, I’m glad. I’m glad for an element of Christianization—that people still find themselves drawn to consider these things at least once in a year. But they need to be informed. This is not for us merely, in some sentimental way, to ponder a story. This is God on a mission—sending His Son, bearing our guilt and shame, taking our nature, suffering on our behalf, dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and occupying a throne to be worshiped.

For the child of God, it brings great comfort. I mentioned it this morning—it may be, I don’t know, you can’t have a favorite of the details of the birth of Jesus Christ in Luke and Matthew—but there’s something about those wise men traveling so far to see, in one sense, humanly speaking, so little. Traveling across such a distance, at such a cost, to come and look at just a little child and worship Him.

There had been no miracles, no evidence. This isn’t during His ministry where you can obviously see the grounds for which people would come from afar and say, “My hope might be there.” You know, blind Bartimaeus at the side of the road, crying out to the Son of David to have mercy on him—I mean, there’s a lot that precedes that, that would give hope to someone like that. The woman of Canaan who comes and travels to come to the coasts and meet with the Lord Jesus Christ because her daughter is grievously vexed with a devil—you can understand. She’s heard something. She makes that journey to try and get in touch with the One. Having exhausted every other opportunity or any other hope to deliver her daughter, she makes that journey because she had heard. She had heard the stories.

What had the wise men heard? None of that. Nothing of how He can still the winds and drive out disease and send out the demons—none of that. And yet they come, not just to see, but to worship. To worship. And there’s where we must be.

And the comfort, that One born rules and governs over all. And when you’re going through a trying season, it’s good to remember that. When you’re trying to make sense of what’s happening, and you inevitably come to the question, “Why?”—and there isn’t a voice from heaven that gives a nice, concise revelation of the reasons and all the peculiar aspects that are at play in the thing that’s happening in your life; and your mind tends to start, “Maybe it’s for this reason, and that reason, and the other reason,” and ultimately you don’t know.

Does it test your faith and strengthen your faith? No doubt. Can it show you something about God that otherwise you may not see or learn? Many times. But the bottom line is you can come to this rock-solid knowledge where there is no doubt: He is governing over it all.

Unlike a father or a mother may say to the child, “I’m just asking you to trust me. It will be okay,” and in ways maybe where it seems so innocent and non-threatening—a child’s maybe afraid of the dentist—and you’re trying to reassure them, “It will be okay.” And what you’re leaning into is, in part, your awareness of what’s going on or what will happen to some degree, but you’re also leaning into the fact that they will trust you.

Now, we do that as parents, and that’s so limited. But the sovereign One, who has absolute control, calls you as His child: “Trust Me. I know it does not make sense to you. I know you cannot get your head around what is happening. I’m not asking you to understand. I’m asking you to trust.”

He rules over the universe. Everything is under His domain. He sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. His throne is forever and forever. And His realm is over all things. Not only His rule is over the universe, but His realm is over all things. Every single thing. Name what it is—He governs over it all.

Hebrews 1 verse 2: “He hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things.” As we said this morning, it’s the summation of the confidence of the Christian as they go to disciple the nations, is that He is all power both in heaven and on earth. And so we go in that.

His realm is over everything. I can’t go anywhere where He does not rule. I can’t face anything where He has not power. I can’t speak to any person that is beyond His reach. I can’t share the gospel with anyone that He does not have the power to invade and convert.

It’s so encouraging when you hear of God and the ways in which He converts. I had a conversation very recently with someone who was sharing with me their conversion, and it’s only happened in the last two months. And they were denying the existence of God, rejecting God, and then something triggered in them, and they began to read the Bible. They start reading Matthew’s gospel. Halfway through Matthew’s gospel, just fell down on their knees to pray, confess their sins, cry out to the Lord—just reading the Word.

We think it takes something that we have to say or we have to do. It’s just the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit.

When an uncle of mine was converted, it was the same thing. He was in a relationship—had been for nine years in a relationship with a Roman Catholic. And when he was converted, he knew that there was going to be an immediate tension. And so instead of trying to batter her with arguments and show her, “This is the gospel, and this is what you need to believe,” he shared what happened to himself, and then he just handed her a Bible. And he said, “Just read that.”

A few months later, she was converted—reading the Word. Roman Catholic, family all Roman Catholic. And then she finds herself sitting—perhaps, of all churches that would be most difficult for a Roman Catholic in Northern Ireland to sit in, it would be a Free Presbyterian church. There she was, sitting. There was no doubt some difficulty and tension in the family. I’ve never asked her about it, but I don’t have to. I would know. But God does. Because He rules. His realm is over everything. Everything. And He is head over all things to the church—acting on our behalf, ruling and reigning.

And so, even as you go into the world and you mingle with people, you have a few days here, beloved. You have a few days leading up to Christmas. And people’s minds, they start turning to the holidays and hearing the carols. They can’t escape it. And it can be a softening time. It’s certainly an opportune time. And I encourage you: forget the arguments, just put the gospel in front of people. Invite them under the means of grace. Pray for them, and see what the Lord might do. See Christ ruling and reigning, commissioning you and sending: “Go. My realm is over all things. Go. Go and share about Me. Tell about Me. I’m not asking you to convert them. I’m not asking you to defeat them in arguments. I’m just telling you, be a witness.”

When you’re in a courtroom and you’re called to be a witness, you just tell your story. You’re not there to win the argument—not directly. You’re there just to bear a witness. And that’s what the Lord Jesus calls you to be: be a witness.

You can talk—bring it back to your own testimony. Find a way. Think about it. “How can I approach this person? How can I share the gospel with them? What way can I angle it? How can I get them under the sound of the Word? How can I get a copy of the Scriptures in their hand? How can I communicate the truth to their heart? How? How can I do it?”

Think about it. Pray about it. Seek the face of the King who has power over it, and see what might happen.

Finally, the summoned submission: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” The Father not only has the Son seated in His rightful position, He commands a response: “Worship Him.”

Two things before we close.

The call to submit is ultimate. The call to submit is ultimate. For the angels, it was non-negotiable—“Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Now again, worship belongs to God alone. I don’t know how you get around this, ignoring or twisting and distorting all the claims of Scripture that show that only God is worthy of worship.

So when you argue with someone, if you find yourself down the street with a Jehovah’s Witness or someone of that nature, bring them to a passage like this. Speak to them: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” God, whose glory He will not give to another, says, “Worship the Son.” And so these lofty angelic beings are called to worship Him.

The scene of Isaiah 6 comes to mind, of course, where those seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” But it goes beyond angels. It’s not just angels. All are called to worship Him. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth,” and that “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” So it reaches. This call to worship Him extends beyond here and now. It is ultimate in its extent. Worship Him. Worship Him.

That begins, of course, with a recognition of your sin. You can’t worship God without recognizing that which hinders your relationship to God. And so, when the apostle stands to preach the gospel to the Athenians in Acts 17, he distills it into this idea that “God now commandeth all men every where to repent.” He calls the world to repent. He calls the world to repent now.

Now respond. Now bow the knee. Now confess your sin. Now get right with God. Don’t delay.

So we think of this time of the year, and we’re surrounded by people who don’t know the Lord. They have a call. There’s a call going to them, and you’re to carry that call, Christian. You’re to carry that call. I’m to carry that call. “This is the One who calls you to worship Him. Don’t just think upon Him. Don’t just give lip service to Him, but actually worship Him.” So we’re not just to listen to messages and join in the carol singing and so on. It’s to worship Him.

And these angels, who never sinned, never needed forgiveness, yet they are filled with wonder and amazement, and they’re called to worship Him. And perhaps they might have thought to themselves, “Well, there’s no way these sinners can ever worship Him,” and maybe that gets into what Peter argues in 1 Peter 1—that they inquire into the things pertaining to salvation. “How is it that these who are imperfect and fallen and sinful also may worship Him through the glory of the gospel?”

Worship Him. He comes down here to earth. He comes unto His own, and His own receive Him not. I mean, it’s very possible—it’s more than possible—to sing, “O come, let us adore Him,” and never do it. Never have any adoration. Many people do it. I hope it’s not true of any of us.

We like to experience what John—or rather what Thomas—experienced, John records for us, when Thomas, realizing who was before him, falls down and says, “My Lord and my God.” And maybe that’s the problem—you haven’t seen Him. You have not seen Him, really.

Thomas had heard. Thomas had been told, informed, “He’s risen from the dead. We’ve seen Him, Thomas.” But it wasn’t until there was a special meeting with the Lord Jesus, and he sees—oh, he sees. And in that seeing, his heart swells in worship.

Isn’t it fascinating that his initial thought about inquiry into the wounds—his idea that he would plunge his hand into His wounds—but he doesn’t need to. When he gets there before Him, there’s no need to do that. He sees them. And his heart is filled with adoration and worship.

And that’s really what we need, regularly—a sense of meeting with this One, and seeing Him for who He is, and having this natural draw.

I’m sure it happens to you at times, as we’re singing in the Psalms and the hymns, and all of a sudden it’s no longer just words that we are expressing through melody, but, in a way that’s more profound, all of a sudden your heart begins to mesh with those words, and you’re moved into worship.

Early this morning, as I was listening to Handel’s Messiah—and I was listening to the portion of Psalm 24—and I’d listened through the week, and a number of times I’d gone and I’d listened to it and made notes and so on, listening to it. But I listened to it again this morning, and all the other times through the week, it never happened what happened this morning. I was listening again. I just began to sob. I felt this—my heart moved to tears.

“Who is this King of Glory?” Worship—that’s what He’s looking for. Worship. The heart posture of worship.

If all the angels worship Him, you must worship Him. I must worship Him. And you can’t do that by holding on to pet sins. You can’t do that by negotiating how the Christian life should look.

Worship means submission. He will not have, He will not accept, that form of worship that is merely with the mouth and the lip. It is, “This people draw near to Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” And He sees it. He sees it. He sees us when we are all mechanical in our expressions, but empty in the soul.

Those angels put us to shame, because when they worship, they do so without sin. They don’t even have—they don’t even have the ground of Christ’s redemptive work to motivate them in the way we have, in the peculiar application of His redemptive work to the sinner, distinct as to how the angels may experience it.

The call to submit is not only ultimate, it is urgent. It is urgent—“that all the angels of God worship Him.”

Can you imagine the scene? These innumerable beings gathered there around the throne, immediately launched. And, again, I think Handel sort of creates that sense of contrast—that single voice of the Father giving recognition to the Son, and then that volume of the choir just bursting, simulating something of the sound of heaven.

Can you imagine someone resisting it? Can you imagine one of those beings, in some way, holding out and not engaging? No, it can never be. It is immediate: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

“Gladly,” says their heart. The whole being says, “Gladly. You could not call us to a higher duty or responsibility. What a thing it is that we should worship Him. It is an honor—an honor of all honors—to worship Him.”

Beloved, that’s where we’re to be too—the honor of worshiping God, and to sense the urgency of it. And this is the thing. This is what I want us here to ponder just before we close—that in that worship, to see that submissive heart, for you and for me, requires a full embracing of the gospel.

Now, if you’re here tonight and you’re not yet converted, I want you to sense the urgency that the angels felt in that call to worship, where their response would have been immediate. And I want you to see that that call to worship is a form of gospel call to your heart that is looking for an immediate response from you—to turn unto Jesus Christ now.

To not hold back. And there’s reasons why you should never hold back. God’s Word says, “Prepare to meet thy God.” Not later—now. Jesus says, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

The wisdom of Solomon calls us to recognize that we should not “boast… of to morrow.” He argues in Ecclesiastes, “man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”

There’s a sense of—things can happen to you you never knew were going to occur. The immediacy of things falling upon your life—even death itself. And so the gospel call is to push you into a response now, because the only time you have is now.

What is your life? A vapor, James says—that which rises from the kettle or from the saucepan on the stove. Before long, it’s disappeared. That’s your life.

So even for the young people, there is a need to feel this, young person, because you imagine you have all these years. The sense of urgency is not innate to you, and yet the gospel should come to you. The Lord Jesus—one of those that He raised from the dead—was but a child.

So, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to worship Him. Now—today, tonight—begin to worship Him. “Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,” in this very book.

You can’t be neutral about this. “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Let all of creation worship Him. Let you worship Him now.

Oh, will you not, here and now, worship Him?

“Why, preacher? Why should I worship Him?” Because of who He is, and what He has done.

God took our nature and lived on our behalf, and died upon the cross in the most incomprehensible agony. There, nailed to that Roman cross, made out to be as a criminal for sinners like you and me. And in that agony He purchased our eternal redemption, rose from the dead in triumph and victory, and bestows eternal life to those who believe, so that you can have the gift of eternal life by simple, childlike faith in His finished work. You can have it.

You say, “What is the benefit of worshiping Him?” Oh, the benefits. You can have your sins forgiven. You can be a child of God. You can be secure in your position before God. You can have a place in heaven, your name written there. You can have what this world can never take from you—security in Jesus Christ.

It is urgent. It must be now. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” You will not see it.

So this very night, the application I’m driving home to you is: yes, the angels are called to worship Him, but so are you. So are you. And that’s for us all. That’s you and me—every one of us—called to worship Him.

Oh, the need for a little reviving—a real enlivening of the heart in the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there not a need for it in your life? I mean, are you at the pinnacle of a life of worship and praise? A life handed over to Him—a life presented, a life consecrated, a heart open to His will, without reservation, giving Him all your faculties?

You say, “I don’t have much to offer.” It doesn’t matter whether you assess you have much or little. He just asks for all. Just give all. Give it to Him. Give it to Him. Stop withholding back. Let all in this church worship Him.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

As we still ourselves before the Lord, maybe you are backslidden. Maybe you’ve been traversing days and weeks of deadness and coldness—maybe even months, perhaps even years—where your Christianity has been at a very low ebb. He bids you come and worship Him afresh. If you confess your sin, if you name it and you bring it to Him, He’ll forgive it. He’ll pardon. If you ask Him for life and for the power of His Spirit, He will bestow it. He is not reluctant. He is not, in any way, holding you to your failures in such a way—“Well, you’ve crossed the line; you can never know the joy of the Lord ever again.”

No, no. You can come with the confidence of David, Psalm 51: “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways.” “Then will I live as I ought.” But the Lord will do the restoring.

Lord, help us to ask for what we need. Help us to be honest about where we are, and help us to get to where we need to be. I pray that, should there be anyone here—even one—still in their sin and lost, I pray tonight would be the very night that they will forever remember as the occasion when they started out in that journey and pilgrimage as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I pray that Thou wilt give deciding grace and bestow upon them genuine repentance and faith.

O God, call us all to worship Thee, and send us out as worshipers, that we may impact our community, our families, for Thy glory and honor. Take us to our homes in the joy of the Lord. Grant us Thy peace that passes all understanding. Fill us with Thy gracious Spirit and presence. Encourage us in our fellowship with fellow saints. And hear our prayers.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God, now and evermore. Amen.