Please turn with me again to Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7. Returning back to the text. And starting in verse 6, we see here what it says. It says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, And this morning we heard a sermon about the advent of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a parallel text to this. This goes in line with also in Isaiah 7 verse 14 where it says, "...for a virgin shall give birth, And these are, of course, prophecies of the prophet Isaiah, and this is what we wish to look at. And really, this text here is more of an expansion upon what we find in verse 7 in chapter 14. But as I was studying upon this, I found very quickly that among those scholars and those who had written commentaries about this, that there were some men who did not see this as being Christ. The child being talked about. as being the Son of God. And we can see where in these opening phrases here, it doesn't give us a lot of information. It's very vague. A child and a son. And they would say this would be applied to one of the kings of Israel or Judah, maybe even Hezekiah, the king who was king at this time. But what foolishness. Who is being discussed in these two verses of Isaiah? Is it an earthly king? Well, as we read on, we can see very quickly that this can't be an earthly king. It can't be a mere man. Yes, it is a man in the sense that it is a child being born, a son. But it's not just a man. Because then we go on to see in his name these wonderful titles of wonderful counselor. Yes, those things can be applied to kings, earthly kings. But what about the mighty God? What about the everlasting Father? These cannot be applied to just mere mortals. These are divine titles. And so we cannot agree with those men that this is just an earthly king like Hezekiah. And also at the end it says the Prince of Peace. If you read the account of Hezekiah, he was a man of war. He fought wars and he had wars brought into his borders. So it's not Hezekiah. But this has to be the Messiah. And we see the fulfillment of it in the gospel accounts. We see that it is the passing and the fulfillment of that great divinic covenants that the Lord promised to David, that there would be one to sit on his throne forever. And we see in verse 7, he talks about this, that there shall be no end upon the throne of David. Well, we know that wasn't talking to David because David passed away. It wasn't talking to Solomon, his seed, because he passed away. And we know it's not talking to any future lineage because they cannot trace the divinic line anymore. It has to be Christ. It has to be the Son of God, the One who came, who bore up this fleshly frame, but yet was divine. And so we see this, that we see that He is this, and the fulfillment of it is in the New Testament. And so we want to look at these things in that regard, but we also, you know, we see what? We are a people under authority. So the structure of having a king and a government and a kingdom, we are all familiar with such things. These are not foreign concepts to us. We have authorities on the job site. We have authorities in the government and in the world. We have authorities in the home. And if we have such authorities, and we're to have reverence to these authorities and to obey them and to be under them, How much more should we bear up these things under our King, our Eternal King, our Divine King, the One who sits at the right hand of His Father? If we're to give respect to these, how much more so should we to Him? Or do we live lives that act as if we're under no authority, no kingly authority? Do we look to Him as our King, as the One who's called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? Do we look to Him in all facets of our life as if He is the One in whom the government shall be upon His shoulders? Or do we go on through life without even respecting these things? We wish this morning to inspire you to a greater adoration of Christ our King, who is currently sitting at the right hand of His Father. For Christ warrants our adoration because He is a King unlike any other King. And we see this in His birth, we see this in His government, and we see this in His titles. And that's what we want to look at today in these two verses, in these short verses. Now, I do understand, friends, I'm trying to pack so much into this, and we're going to skim over a lot of it. There are a lot more greater men than I that have preached portions of this and done a wonderful, eloquent work to Christ. But we want to look at this as a whole, to see these things, and we want first to look at His birth. This, of course, as we think of Christ and the Son of God, the second person of Godhead, it says in verse 6, For unto us a child is born. In the connection with Christ, this is His humiliation. This is Him coming from the glories of heaven and coming down to earth. And we see the importance of this. This is spoken of in prophecy. This is not some mere king. This is not some mere prediction. I mean, if we think about predicting births, the time frame between Isaiah's writing here and the New Testament fulfillment is between six and seven hundred years. That's a long, that's many years, long years. But it still took place. It still happened. And it happened at the right moment of when it was to happen. And so this is what mere men see this. And we see that in this, we can't even hardly predict the day of birth for nine months later for a child. There's a lot of movement when you go in for a review or to look when a lady's pregnant, and they put an assumption, not an unwise assumption, but still, it can vary by several days, plus or minus. But yet here, God is saying, I'm going to send my son. And by what means? That of a virgin, a virgin woman. But another thing we want to think about here is, what about this birth? Well, it's a child, right? It's a child and it's a son. And the beautiful thing of this is that our God, the second person of the Godhead, the King, the Messiah, Emmanuel, came into the world like all of us. Came in through the secret places of the earth to be born of a woman. And what an amazing thing to think that this great divine spirit, living spirit, came and came as a babe. What an amazing thought. This is not, the birth, of course, is special. It's not, it was a miracle. So it's unlike men in one sense. He came and being birthed, as all men do, into this world. But then, of course, there's that side that it was special. It was a miracle. It was a virgin. a woman who did not know a man. And so, well, why did He have to do this? Why was this significant? Why did it have to be a virgin birth? Well, of course, it all plays into His being the Savior of His people. If He came by the seed of a man, He couldn't be the second Adam, the perfect one. He would have been tainted in birth, as David says there in Psalm 51. In my birth, I was in iniquity. And so, this is it. This is the specialness of it. He can't be of the sinful seed of Adam. Let's think a little further of that. The fact that He was born, He came to this earth, but we think about God that has no beginning, had a beginning. He came and was contracted to the span, as it said. And think about this, friends. He left the glories of heaven, all that was in heaven, the adoration by the angels, the eternity, the immensity, which all these things are God. And He came to be what you could put in two hands, a babe, swaddled in cloth. the One who is eternal and immense, put into that frame of flesh and bone, held in the arms of His mother. And we think further about children. Oh, they're dear things to us. When there's a birth of a child, everybody is excited and they want to hold the baby, they want to talk to the baby. And if that's how we get with normal children, how much more so should be with the Son of God who came for our sakes? Who came and was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. How much more should our adoration be set upon Him? Because He was willing to do these things for us. Now let's think about His sonship. So we see here, it designates who He is. It's going to be what gender He is. He's going to be a son. Not a daughter. A son. And why is this significant? Well, it's significant because this signifies royalty. This signifies an heir to a kingdom. And we see this even in this world, do we not, friends? We see that so much is put upon in the monarchies of the world of the birth of sons. There was a king even in this land that had many wives so he could procure a son. Why? If the daughters were adequate, why did He have so many? Now, of course, we do acknowledge in His sin that He did bring forth the Reformation to these lands. But still, why did He need all the wives and why did He need the divorces? It was so He could have a direct heir. And so here we see the Son of God, the One who is signified and robed in royalty even as He came. He, of course, would be the image and authority of His Father. And in this also we see what? What are these sons that are heirs to the throne? They are the keeper and builders of the dynasty. That is what they were desirable for. That is what they were wanted. And this is the fulfillment of the second person of the Godhead. And as you think about his royalty, the beautiful thing of it, too, is he left the glories in the throne room of heaven, and where was he born? In a stable. He was not born in the palaces of the world or in the nation of Israel, in those kingly and stately palaces and the halls there. No. He was born to a very poor couple. that couldn't even pay the right price for the child, we learned this morning. They had to have two turtle doves instead of a lamb to pay the sacrifice. This is the one who is worthy of adoration. This is Him stooping to be a servant, to minister unto His people. And in this we see that there's the Son. He is the seed of a woman. And of course, this fulfills the divinic covenant. This means that that seed is being passed, it goes beyond and avoids that which is sinful in the man's seed, but it fulfills that promise given to David that there would always be one to sit on his throne. But we see also it fulfills the promise of the gospel in Genesis 3.15. The one where it says, the seed of a woman shall bruise the head of a serpent. And this is what we look to in this, the fulfillment of it, those promises made that God is now fulfilling and has fulfilled through the Messiah, His Anointed One. Now, take notice with me here. After it talks about Him being a child born, a son, we see He is given. There's so much in that rich, in that just short thing, is given. What does it mean by is given? It was a gift. And what it means by that is that this given is for our use and benefit. It's for our benefits, friends. What does it benefit us? It's the gift of grace. It's for our salvation. It has bought us. Not with silver and gold. Blood, but precious blood, innocent blood. And this, this is what this great gift of grace is. In Romans 5, it says, it talks about this great gift of grace, which abounds over that which was the sin. It is greater than that which was the transgression. And this is in our Lord and Savior. This, of course, is a display of His love. He came because the Father loved His people and sent His Savior. And this is our divine King. This is the One who came and was humiliated for our sakes, but then exalted when He goes and ascends to heaven. He descended and then ascended. And so this is that which we look to, our divine King. He was not just a mere man. That's what the Israelites wanted. That's what the Israelites, the Jews, still look for today. They look for the Messiah to come, a physical kingdom, a physical Messiah. But He wasn't that. He did all this for our sake, for compassion on us. Now what should be our reaction, friends? What's one of deep reverence and love and regard and thanksgiving also? Are you thankful today? Do you thank Him for the sacrifice He made, for His humiliation that He came in your stead, that He did that which you cannot do? This also strengthens our devotion to Him, to a God that would do such things for us, that would purchase us with precious blood. This is what we're thinking of here. And of course, this is a season where there are ample gifts given. But what greater gift do we have here? Do we esteem this gift greater than anything that we can get in this world? Do you esteem it? Is this gift of grace, of your salvation and liberty and freedom from bondage, is it something you hold dear, more dear than all the money and trappings of this world? There are some that do not. There are some that would gain this whole world and lose their souls over it. Don't be that way. Let this inflame your heart. Draw it close. Esteem it. Now let us look now to the second point. So we see his adoration, he's not a king like any other, and he's worthy and warrants our adoration in his birth, but now we see in his government. And the next phrase is, "...and the government shall be upon his shoulders." Now what I'm going to do here is incorporate verse 7. for sake of time, just to kind of, because all of that comes together with that. And so it talks about the increase of his government in verse 7, the kingdom itself. And so we want to look at this together, and we want to consider first the nature of his rule. And so this increase and the government being upon his shoulders, well, the shoulders there is where one carries a load, right? We put it upon our shoulders when it's a heavy load. You load it up on your shoulders and carry it. And so we think in the manner of what authorities have. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a king or a queen or even the prime minister or a president? The decisions you have to make. And with all the considerations of those decisions and the consequences, I mean, these things, if you ever daydream about those things, you often tremble. And rightly so. Because these are men's lives and livelihoods. And so, this is what it's talking about with him. He has all manner of authority upon his shoulders. All the kingdoms are at His hand to take up or take down. And we know this from Daniel chapter 2 verse 21. It says there, it talks about how He is the great God, the one who sets up kings and takes them down. And so, we know this, we understand this from various scriptures. None have power or authority in this world unless He has given it to them. This is Christ. This is our King. And so we see throughout the examples given to us of the kingdoms in the Old Testament. You can just read through the book of Daniel. We see over and over again what? How he's even the great Babylonian kings and how he makes them falter and fall. And then he sets up others. And then going forward from there all the way up to the Roman days, he's working in these things. But what else do we think about this and this authority? Well, we know from the end in Revelation what will happen. When the great day comes and He returns in glory, all men will bow unto Him. All will give consent that He is this great King, that He is the One that came. But what else do we think about this? Not only in the earthly realm, in the earthly authorities and principalities and powers, what about His church? He is the head of the church. He is our head, friends. If you call Him Lord and Savior, those are always coupled together, Lord and Savior. Unfortunately, many men want to say He's just a Savior, not Lord. but he's both. And so he is the head, the leader. He determines the path of the church. He also determines where we serve. He has given us gifts, friends, and those gifts are to be used for the propagation of the gospel and the advancement of his kingdom. And he puts us where in providence he will have us to serve. He is the great commander, the commander-in-chief, as you can say. And then what do we also think about this kingdom? We see in verse 7, of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end. His kingdom will continue to advance. It's not contained within small borders. It's borderless. Because it's not physical. It's spiritual. This is the kingdom we belong to. It will all have, as we learn from Revelation chapter 5, there will be all of every nation, tongue, and tribe there in heaven praising Him. And so, He's not confined to a single space. He's not confined to a little nation in the Middle East. He is worldwide because this is His universe and His creation. He's not bound. Now, further to His rule, what do we see? It's an order. There will be an ordering of His kingdom. It'll be set in order. It'll be stood up and made right and established. And this nature of this kingdom will be peace. Oh, how we long for peace. There's conflict in the Eastern Europe and most all men clamor. If you watch the news about it, they wish they would just come to a peaceful resolution and they want a peaceful resolution for the most sake. And rightly so. Even in the Middle East, we talk about all the turmoil and tumult and how there should be peace. But then we know that true peace can only come from And as we learn from one of his titles later, he is the Prince of Peace. And his kingdom will mirror that. It will be a kingdom of peace. It will not be harassed by its enemies. And thankfully so. We don't have to worry. We have no fear of conquering armies or another ruler taking over. We'll not be overtaken. not by any in this world, or even the demonic forces that fight against it, or even the gates of hell, as we're told elsewhere. That's the beauty of this kingdom. This is the beauty of His rule. It is a peaceful rule. And so He has established it that way. What else do we see in the ordering of this? It allows His people to keep the law. He comes in and makes their souls peaceful. Those souls that were once armed and fighting against Him as enemies, contrary to His law, the leopard spots become changed. The wolf lies down with the lamb. The lion lies down with the calf. These are all symbols of what happens in the nature of a man when Christ comes in and puts peace upon that soul, that soul that was tumultuously stirred up. against Him and His law, and He subdues it. And then what do we find also in that subduing? He continues to subdue the sinful nature. He continues to give that soul power over their iniquities. This is a wonderful thing. Do you think often? Think of these things. As you're reading through the Scripture, let's think of these things and be thankful and adore Him for them, that He has done these things and He continues to do these things. Now what else do we see about this kingdom? It will be a kingdom of justice and righteousness. And this kind of goes back to the ordering of it and allowing His people to keep the law. There will be law and order. And it's justice and righteousness because that's a character of God. He is righteous and holy. He is not one that bears iniquity. And so, we see and are thankful within His kingdom and the establishment of these things that it's not like men's faulty law and order. that we see in this day where men are allowed to, they call good bad and bad good. And we see all these laws being put into place and the freedom of the lawbreakers. It is mass chaos and societies cannot continue without law and order. But the heavenly one is one of justice and righteousness, true justice and righteousness. And so this is a beautiful thing because He subdues His people and brings them in and makes them holy and sanctifies them. And so He justifies them by giving them a new heart. This is the gospel restoration of a man. So they're given a new heart, new nature. This is all enacted by His Spirit. And they're allowed now to keep His law. They're pronounced pardoned and justified. And then, of course, that sanctification comes in, which, of course, is progressively mortifying our sin, putting to death our sin. And so, this is what our great divine King does. This is the ordering and establishing of His kingdom in the hearts of His people and making them a part of this kingdom. Now, what else do we see of this kingdom? We see that it will be in surety established. There's no maybe, there's no it might be or maybe not, or maybe if the people really want it. No, there's none of that. We know for sure it will be, because at the end of verse 7 it says, "...the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it." That means in His desire, He has a burning desire, and that is for His own glory, because this establishment of His kingdom is for His glory. It has nothing to do with us, except for we are now citizens in it, but it has to do with the continuance of it and the establishing of it, and this is because He is the great King. And this will continue to take in citizens until He returns, and that happens through the preaching of the gospel. That happens through this change, the conversion, a new birth, bringing them into this kingdom. And so this is our King's kingdom. And so we know, friends, that the Scriptures tell us in the New Testament that we are to be respectful to authorities as much as we can be in this life. We do know that we're to revere them in the godly fashion, as we're told from the Scriptures. But in these things, there are limits because they're earthly authorities. They're sinful authorities. But if we give such reverence and respect to those over us in even this world, how much more so should we be devoted to our own God, who the government is upon His shoulders? We should be devoted to Him wholeheartedly, not just in some aspects, not just on the Lord's Day, but in all aspects of our life, because He is our King. And the expectation is our fidelity. And why would we not? If these things are on His shoulders and He controls all these things, why would we not put our hope and trust in Him in all things? This is what we should be doing. We should submit without question. When you read of something in the Scriptures that's contrary to what you're doing, you should submit. This is the king's law and his rule, and this is what is expected of us. Not that we just like certain portions of it because it benefits us, or it's desirable or easy. No. We submit without question. Earthly kings expect that much. Earthly authorities expect that much. Why do we not give the same to our own Heavenly Father and King? And so, we see these things, and we want to think further about these things. Now, thirdly, we see in His titles, even the names of Christ show how Christ is not a king like any other, and He warrants our adoration. Now, what is in a name? Names are special. We heard that this morning in the sermon. They are special and they have meaning, and especially those when we see the names of God, they have a very special meaning. They tell us more of His nature. And with names, we see also they're for distinguishment and to entitle. And this is what we find with these names of Christ. They're a title to Him. And so, we see what? There are several here. Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And we want to look at these very quickly to end. But we see, what about wonderful? Well, the word wonderful is, it means wonder. You can say it's wonder. It's a miracle. And so, this is miraculous. And what does this mean? Well, it means that He's set apart. All that He does is wonderful. We can't say that about earthly authorities, can we? Oh, we moan very quickly at our earthly authorities because they're not perfect. And so we shouldn't expect them to be perfect. But our heavenly King is perfect. And even in His earthly ministry, He was perfect. Even when He walked in this earth, we see that He was set apart. He was anointed of God, the Messiah, the Emmanuel. And we see that in His love and activities and perfections and person and nature, all these things were perfect. And that's why we should adore Him. And if we didn't believe these things or that He wasn't wonderful and perfect, well, why would we trust in His salvation? Because He had to be a perfect sacrifice. So He has to be perfect. All of it has to be beyond criticizing. He had to be perfect. Now what about our next name here? Counselor. This means one who gives wise advice, an advisor. And so this is often used parallel with kings. signifies, it means one who makes wise plans. And we see with kingdoms and those over kingdoms and authorities and governments, they have to think wisely. They have to plan and have structure and organization or things fall apart very quickly. And so, he has established his kingdom and he is working these things out and it's all perfect. From the matter and from when you are called by the gospel unto Him, to when you're called home and into glory, all in between, He is structured and organized from where churches are pioneered to where churches diminish. All these things are in His hands, and He's wisely operating these things. But we see also in this, He reveals His Word as the wise counselor, the prophet, as one of His offices, as the great prophet. And of course, this is to give counsel from God's Word. And so He does that to us through His Word, through His Spirit. We find wisdom in His Word because He is the wisest of all beings. And so He is this wise counselor. Now, when we're thinking about these things for personal application, when you're perplexed, when there are some circumstances or plans or things that you are not sure of, do you go first to Him? Do you seek Him in prayer? Do we just go to family or friends or some earthly authority on the matter? Or do we go to Him and His Word? In the Psalms, it says His Word is a lamp unto our feet. It guides us along the way. And really, it's silly for us not to go first to Him, because He's not like earthly authorities, is He? He is a King of kings and Lord of lords. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and so we should go to Him first. And we also think in this matter what? As in earthly authorities, how easy are they to gain access to? You can't just ring the prime minister up and say, hey, I got a problem. You need to fix it and fix it now. You can't go into the king's presence and say, I've got a problem. No, you have to have an audience and be invited in, but not our king. You pray, and he listens earnestly. And so this is a great thing, friends. We should go to him when we need direction. Every time. Now that's not saying we just go to prayer and we don't go to doctors or those who are elites in their field. No, but we do seek Him and His Word first. And then we go see earthly authorities. And so, this is what we want to instill. We want to use Him as this wonderful, wise counselor. And so, the One who knows all things and is directing all things for the good of His people and for His glory, this is why He should be adored. Now, our next title is The Mighty God. This is what we were talking about earlier in the introduction, that this couldn't have meant Hezekiah or any other earthly king, because he's the mighty God. And this, in Hebrew here, is El. This is not a title that is ever used anywhere else for anything other than God when it's being written in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew. And so, this is not one of those that could possibly mean men, but sometimes God. No. This is always a title of God. And so, He is the mighty God. He is the one who is divine, deity. And so, we see first in the opening of this verse, what? He's unto us, a child, a son is born, is given. So, that's the humanity of Christ. But now we see His divinity, the God-man. And so, this is bringing us to a heightened understanding of the complete person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not, as others who say, He's just a mere man. He was a special prophet? No, we believe that He was man, but then He also had the divine, and He was both. And so this is the complete package of what we have to see in Him. Because without one, if He was just a mere man, He couldn't have saved us. He couldn't have saved us by going to the cross. And so He had to have, and without the divine nature, He couldn't keep the law. And so He had to be both. And so in this mighty God name, we see that He'll conquer all enemies. He'll set them all at His feet, as it says in Psalm 2. And so we do not have to fear. We do not have to worry. We don't have to hide in our houses because we don't want to go out. Even when there's days of persecutions, we don't have to fear, friends, because He's our God. But what do we see of this? We see that when we are weak, He is strong. Do you go to Him in your weakness? When sickness has laid you low, when circumstances have laid you low, when you don't have enough strength or vitality to take on the challenge in front of you, do you look to His strength? Do you seek Him? Do you go to the mighty God, the One who can help? I'd put it another way. Do you rejoice when you see big problems? Do you think when there's something unconquerable in your life that you revel in that? That now you can go to Him and see God work? Or do you just shrink away from such challenges? This is where walking with Him closely and seeking Him when we are weak comes in. Now as we hasten on, everlasting Father, Another divine title. This is not an earthly title, but a divine title. It means Father of Eternity. This shows Him not to be just a mere mortal king. In this is that He is the first of eternity, the first of everlasting life, that which He gives to His people through His sacrifice. He is the author and finisher of our faith, as you can say. And so, in this, is that granting spiritual life as the Father? And so he was that second Adam, the firstborn. And so this is that. And then also in that fatherly title, he's one who cares for his people. He disciplines them as a father does children. And so he cares and he listens and he takes care of the needs of his people. And this is the everlasting father. And he can so because he is the almighty God. He is not hindered or hampered. He doesn't grow tired or go on holiday or need to sleep or slumber. And so this is whom we put our trust in. This is whom we adore because of His care and concern for His people. Now, lastly, let's look at the Prince of Peace. And here's another monarchy term, prince. He is so by birth, being the king's son, a prince is the heir to the throne. And in Christ's sake, he, or in the situation, he is the son of God. And this is by, it's his office and his power and authority. This is the prince of peace. Now, what about this peace? It is a peace that He is the source of that peace. Not just a mere portion of it. No, He is the complete source of it. As a spring is a river. And in this peace, He has procured it by His blood, by His sacrifice. We are at odds with God before salvation, and so there's a great gulf fixed upon us that we're at odds. And in this peace, He brings us back together. Procuring peace means taking two parties at odds and bringing them back together, and bringing them in close communion together. And this is what He does through His sacrifice. And he sets at peace between God and men. And of course, this is true peace. It's not the fabricated peace that men clamor after. that we say of wars, oh, we need a peace treaty, they get a peace treaty, and then what do we find? 10, 20, 30 years, things fester again, and they go back to war. No, this is true and lasting peace. This is spiritual peace, eternal peace, because we are now at peace with God, our Father in heaven, our Creator. And the beautiful thing of this peace, friends, is that it surpasses all knowledge. And it does so because men cannot fabricate it in their own strength. And we see this, that He is a benevolent ruler and this is our Prince. And so we find in this thankfulness for the bestowal of this peace upon us, upon the peace that He grants as the Prince of Peace. And so as we think about Him and think about His kingship and this establishment of this peace, which it says in verse 7 that there will be no end to it, that it's established in peace, there should be no end, and it goes on into eternity. And the beautiful thing is when we're in troubles and tribulations, friends, do we look to Him for peace? Do we let Him settle our souls? Do we concentrate upon Him and let it flow through that? Yes. It's not going to miraculously cause the troubles and tribulations to go away. but we can have peace in our soul that we have given it to our Lord and put it at His feet, and that He is the director of these things, the wise counselor, the Almighty God. And so this is what brings peace. This is what causes it to pour down upon our souls. Have you ever had that experience where you've had troubles, and you go to prayer, and you get up from prayer, and you all of a sudden have a feeling of calm? despite what's going on outside or what's going on with the circumstances or situation, you have a feeling of calm. That's this peace. It's not some miracle to take away all of our troubles right then and there, but it is one that fixes us and allows us to lay our burdens upon Him. This is why we are thankful and adore Him, because He is this King. He is Christ, our King, and He holds no earthly comparisons, none at all. And as we look at earthly authorities, how often do we lose confidence? We see the negligence. We see the faults and the failings. But Christ is perfect, and He deserves all our adoration. And though we pay earthly reverence to these, and we rightly so, but we know that we have a King in heaven that is over all these things. And He deserves all of our adoration, everything. And so He is the mighty God, our benevolent ruler, who sits on the eternal throne, who is there at the right hand of the Father right now. And in doing so, He is granting peace unto His people. His kingdom is that kingdom of peace. Not even the gates of hell will stand against it. And so we have a great King who is accessible through prayer and loves to hear from His people. He's not like earthly kings that get fed up with having people come into their presence. He's not like those who get tired of hearing the lamentations of the people when times are tough. He readily hears. He readily sees and walks with His people and does not forsake them. When in need, go first to your king. When in weakness, go to your king. When troubled, go to your King. When needing direction, go to your King. And in this, you grant Him the adoration that He deserves. Amen.