Well, let's go to the book of
Hebrews again this evening, at least as a starting point. Look at Hebrews, and once again,
chapter 1. Hebrews, chapter 1. Alright, the book of Hebrews
chapter 1. Let me just read the first two
verses to you. And our subject is, I want to
talk to you about the promised prophet. He is the prophet who
was long ago promised in the Old Testament, promised by our
God. And God faithfully keeps His
promises. And so this is the one we want
to speak about, the promised prophet. All right, I know you're
there by now. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, God,
who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets. Well, this same God hath in these
last days, in this gospel day. How long have we been in the
last days? Ever since our Lord Jesus was
here. We're still in the last days.
Maybe we're in the last of the last days, but we don't know
that. Nobody knows that. But we're
in the last days, and in these last days, He's spoken unto us
by His Son. Well, who is his son? Well, he's
the one to whom he hath appointed or ordained heir of all things. What did he do? Well, by him
also he made the worlds. And then the next verse talks
about the greatness of who he is. He's
the brightness of the Father's glory. He's expressed image of
His person. And here's what He does. He upholds
all things by the word of His power. And this is what He accomplished
when He had by Himself purged our sins. He sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. But I want to focus on
the first and the second verses this evening as we talk about
this prophet that our God has promised. In the first chapter
of Hebrews, we find the writer setting the stage for the rest
of the book by introducing to us our Savior, our God. This is one who's greater than
the angels. He's greater than Moses, greater
than Aaron. His covenant of grace is greater
than the old covenant. His sacrifice is greater than
the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Though rivers of blood flowed
in the Old Testament, none of them put sin away. Not a single
sacrifice did. We read in Hebrews chapter 10
that the blood of bulls and goats, they could never put away sin.
But our Lord Jesus has come into the world, and by the sacrifice
of Himself, He has done that which needed to be done, our
sins had to be removed. And he's removed them. How far
has he removed them? Well, he's removed them from
us as far as east is from the west. How far has he removed
them from God? He's removed them from his memory. From his memory. That's how powerful
the blood of Christ is. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
has washed away all of our sins, and God says, therefore, their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Well, where are they? They're
buried in the depths of the deepest sea. They're behind God's back,
wherever that is. God's everywhere. God's omnipresent. But our sins are back behind
His back. And in the last day, in the final
day, the sins of God's people shall be sought for and they
shall not be found. They don't exist. God sees us
in Christ Jesus. He sees us in His beauties and
in His perfection. He is the Lord, our righteousness. You see, our righteousness is
right now seated at the right hand of God. God receives us,
God accepts us, God welcomes us, God delights in us, God takes
infinite pleasure in us. Not because of what He sees in
us. What have you got in you? Much
sin. Is that right? That's right.
And we don't even know the extent of that. But God sees us in His Son. The songwriter said, five bleeding
hands, five bleeding wounds he bears, received on the calvary. They always plead for us. God
sees us in Christ Jesus. And we're beautiful. We're beautiful. We're delightful to our God. Now, our Savior, we stand in
Him. We know that He's our mediator. We know that Mary is not a mediator. What is a mediator? It's somebody
who stands between two individuals or two groups or at least two
parties who have some difference or some disagreement between
them. We need a mediator between us and God. I know in Christ
Jesus we're perfect, but I've already said in ourselves we're
nothing but sin. We're full of iniquity. Isaiah
said of Israel, this is true of all of us, from the very top
of our head to the bottom of our feet, there's no soundness
in us. What are we full of? Wounds.
Bruises. Then he says, putrefying sores. And they hadn't been bound up
nor mollified either. We're a mess. We're a mess. We're filthy in our sin. That's
us. That's you. And that's me, by
nature. And then there's God. We can't even begin to commence
to get started to understanding how holy God is. But the angels have some concept
of His holiness. And they bow before Him and say,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. How holy is God? The heavens
aren't even pure in His sight. He charges His angels with folly. Here's God. Here's us. Is there a mediator? Is there
somebody? You know, Job said, Is there
not a daysman? He said, I want a daisman who
can lay his hand upon God and lay his hand on me. Lay his hand
on God and God will accept him. God will receive him. Lay his hand on God because he
is holy. He is qualified to do business
with God. Did you ever hear anybody say,
you know, you need to make your peace with God? Do you think
you can do business with God? Who in the world are we to think
that we can make our peace with God? The only one who can make
our peace with God has got to be at peace with God already. And he's got to be equal with
God Almighty. That's our mediator. That's Christ
Jesus, who lays his hand upon God. All right, Job, you want
a daisman? You want somebody to stand between
you and God? Here he is. He can lay his hand
on God Almighty and satisfy every one of God's demands. The demand
of perfection, righteousness, holiness, purity. That's our
Savior. He lays his hand on God and he
lays his hand on us. He touches us. He came down here,
born of a virgin, lived a life of immaculate perfection. Bone of our bones and flesh of
our flesh. Look how we marvel at that passage. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Why was that? Because that one
who lays his hand upon God must lay his hand upon us. He must
stand in the middle. He must be the daysman. If I'm
to be brought to God Almighty, this filthy, dead dog sinner,
if I'm to be brought to God Almighty, somebody else must bring me.
He must satisfy every one of God's demands and meet every
one of my needs. And He must establish righteousness
for me. He must wash my sins away. Somebody says, oh, how preacher
can that ever happen? Lo, he who is life died. He died. And in his death we
see the death of sin, we see the death of death itself, we
see him satisfying all of God's demands. and meeting all of our
needs. Here's all we need, and here's
our message. We preach Christ crucified. That what it said? That's what
the apostle said. He didn't just say we preach Christ. Many people
preach him as an example, as a martyr, as the starter of a
new religion. Can't save us that way. And I
know there are a few folks who ignorantly say, and foolishly
say, God could save sinners any way they wanted, any way He wanted
to, but this is the way He chose. They don't know anything about
the character of God. The wisdom of God? Oh, how you
impugn the very wisdom of God when you say that God could have
saved a sinner some other way than by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So what you're saying is God
killed His Son needlessly. He could have saved us some other
way. You need to get back to the Gospel. That's the only way we could
be saved. That's the only way God could be a just God, Aaron,
and a righteous God and a Savior to us. He's the Mediator who
accomplished our redemption by His death upon the cross. He's
the Mediator. Go back to that passage in Galatians
chapter 3. And I had Ron stop his reading
there just a bit early because I wanted to read this to you.
Drop down to verse number 20 in Galatians chapter 3. And it's a real short verse.
But it is quite powerful. Galatians chapter 3 verse 20. Now a mediator, a go-between,
one who stands in the middle, You've got two parties who have
an issue or who have a disagreement, and they can't get the issue
settled. A mediator. Now, a mediator, he's not a mediator
of one, because it takes two people to have a quarrel. If you haven't quarreled with
yourself, then that's your problem. I remember Nancy's daddy, he
talked to himself all the time. And Nanny would say to him, Duval,
why do you talk to yourself all the time? He said, because there's
nobody else around intelligent enough to have a good conversation
with. But you don't need a mediator
when you just got one. You need a mediator when you
got two people that, for whatever reason, they have a falling out.
They have a falling out. A mediator is not a mediator
of one. But God is one. God is one. Now, that last phrase, God is
one. There is but one God who's the
God of Jews and Gentiles. This one God has a people out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. This God is of one
mind concerning those people. He is of one purpose concerning
those people. He has one covenant for those
people. He saves those people by one
method, by grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. We're said to be, in Romans chapter
3, justified freely by His grace. That word freely. I don't like
to throw around Greek words, and I don't know a lot of Greek.
I read some fellows who do, but that word freely is dorion. Freely. And simply means without
a cause. It's the same idea. You remember
when it was said of our Lord, our Lord said, they hated me
without a cause. In other words, there isn't any
reason in me as to why people should hate me. Listen, there
is every reason in Christ Jesus why you should love Him and believe
Him and adore Him and worship Him. Those who hate Him, they
hate Him without a cause. There is no good reason. There
is no valid reason. Listen, you and I are justified
freely by His grace. There is no reason in us as to
why He would justify us. Well, where is the reason found?
The reason is found in the heart of God Himself. Justified freely,
freely. We are just, we're declared to
be righteous. Think about that. We are. We drink iniquity like water. And God says, you're justified. You justify. God declares us
to be righteous through the blood of the Lord Jesus. We're justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. It's all traced back to the free love and favor of our
God. Grace given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And this justification was conditioned
solely upon the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't trace your justification
to anything else. We're justified, declared by
God to be forgiven, yeah, and righteous. We stand accepted
before God. Now, this one God, This one God
that we can't do business with, He has set forth in His Word
that there is a mediator. 1 Timothy chapter 2, there is
one God. That's what it says here. God is one. 1 Timothy chapter
1, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, and that's
the man, Christ Jesus. He's our go-between. Now, a mediator is only needed
when there's a disagreement. As long as you're getting along
fine with somebody, you don't need a mediator. But we're not getting along fine
with God. We fell. It was an act of rebellion
on our father Adam's part. We died. There's no question
as to our guilt. to our sinfulness. You see, we
are sinners, not because we feel like it. I've had people tell
me, preacher, I don't feel my sin like I should. You never
will. We're sinners not because we
acknowledge our guilt. We're sinners because God says
we're sinners. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The law has pronounced us guilty. We are guilty as the law has
charged us. In Romans 3, Therefore whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. The law is not an alternative
way of salvation. The law was given to pronounce
us guilty and to shut our mouths. To back us up in a corner and
we got no way out. I know people love to put the
Ten Commandments. Let's put the Ten Commandments
on a wall and they adorn their houses with that. The law, the
law of God, the Ten Commandments, they slay us. When you look at
the law of God, you should just feel, I'm the worst of the worst. I've broken this law to pieces. And Moses indicated that when
he came down from the mountain and saw the Israelites dancing
around a golden calf. And he threw those two tablets
of stone written on the front and on the back side with the
very finger of God. He threw them on the ground and
broke them. That's what we've done. And the law curses. That's
what you read. The law curses. There's no life
in the law. There's no happiness in the law. There's no delight in the law.
Not in the sense of, well, it's a wonderful thing and let's all
live by it and if we'll all live by it, you know, God will accept
us all. Impossible. Impossible. But Christ Jesus, he's the end
of the law, for righteousness to everybody that believeth.
Everybody that believeth. He's our mediator. He's our advocate. Here's a passage I want you to
look at. Look at 1 Samuel, the second chapter. Interesting Sunday
night, I guess it was, we looked at a passage in 1 Samuel 3. I want you to look at 1 Samuel
chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2, and here Eli
is talking to his two sons. Later the Lord will tell Samuel,
who will then tell Eli what God is going to do with these two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But before that, Eli spoke with
his sons. First Samuel chapter 2, look
at verse 22. Now Eli was very old and heard
all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And he said unto them, Why do
you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by all these people. Nay, my sons, For it is no good
report that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgress."
Now watch what he says. If one man sinned against another,
the judge shall judge him. A judge will step in the middle
of them and make a ruling on the case. But, we're not talking about you and
me having a disagreement. We're talking about there being
a disagreement between a holy God and sinful men. But if a
man sinned against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Now,
who's going to speak to God for you about that? Who's going to be your advocate? Who's going to say a word on
your behalf? Pray, tell me, who can step before
God Almighty in His strict, stern, unbending, unyielding holiness? Who can step before God Almighty
and say a word on your behalf? A dead saint? Mary? The Pope? An angel? Who is it that's qualified to
enter into the very presence of God Himself and stay there? Who's going to entreat for you? Look at the latter part of that
verse. Notwithstanding, they hearken not unto the voice of
their Father. And here's why. Because the Lord
had purposed to slay them. There's God's coordination. God
had already determined what he's going to do with these fellows,
and that was determined before the world began. Who's going to stand between
us and God? Who's going to speak to God for
us, and who's going to speak to us for God? In the next message,
the Lord willing, maybe next Wednesday, I'll talk about Christ
being our priest, who deals with God, who speaks with God on our
behalf. I want to talk about Him being
our prophet, who speaks to us for God. There in our text in Hebrews
chapter 1, our Lord Our God, who spoke in
times past by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us in or by His Son. Christ Jesus speaks to us for
God. I'll give you an illustration
of this and how wonderful this is. You know, when God did give
the law back in Exodus chapter 20, Israel, they saw the lightnings,
the thunderings, The storm, the mountain shaking, belching forth
smoke. You know what they said to Moses?
Moses, you be in between us. You speak to us for God and speak
to God for us. We need a mediator. We need a
mediator. Christ is our prophet. He speaks
to us for God. back in our text there in Hebrews
chapter 1. I want to read this for you in
the amplified. At least verses 1 and the first
part of the second verse. In many separate revelations,
each of which set forth a portion of the truth, and in different
ways, God spake of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets,
but in these last days, He has spoken to us in the person of
His Son. What was the purpose of an Old
Testament prophet? Well, I've just simply put it
this way. He was the mouthpiece for God
to the people. He stood between God and men
to communicate the mind of God, the will of God, The Word of
God to men. But he didn't fully know the
mind of God. And he didn't fully know the
will of God. He didn't fully know all the
purposes of God. He knew in part, just a little
part. And those men, when they spoke,
when God gave them utterance, they spoke by divine inspiration. But everything that the Old Testament
prophets said in life was not inspired. Only when God gave
them utterance. When an Old Testament prophet,
his wife and his children, told one of his boys to take out the
garbage, that wasn't inspired. And not every time that he preached. It's only when the Spirit of
God He gave them utterance. Let me read you this. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1. We are not to understand that
every single word that they ever spoke in life was inspired of
the Lord. They knew in part. They testified
in part. They were inspired to write the
Word of God, to speak the Word of God, but not all the time. You see what I'm saying? Not
all the time. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1. Look at just verses 20 and 21. Knowing this first, 2 Peter 1.20,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man. They didn't just decide, well,
I'm going to be inspired today. I'll speak by the leadership
of the Spirit of God today. It didn't happen that way. The thing about inspiration,
it was so mysterious. They spoke as they were born
along by the Spirit of God. And only when that happened.
Not every time that they got up to preach. Now, we might loosely
say every once in a while, well, I feel inspired to tell you this. But nobody is inspired today,
right? There is no divine inspiration.
Nobody is being divinely inspired today. Not me, not you, not any
other preacher. That is the reason I said, Sonny,
if any preacher ever says, God just told me to tell you, well,
you can just tell him, well, you are not divinely inspired. These men were, but not all the
time. Not every single word that came
out of their mouths was the Word of God. That's impossible. It says, look at verse 21, But
holy men of God spake as they were moved only when they were
moved by the Spirit of God. That's the only time they were
inspired. Those were the Old Testament prophets. But listen,
we have a greater prophet. Because every single word that
came out of his mouth was the Word of God. He always spoke those things
God would have him to speak. In the book of John, he said,
my doctrine is not mine, but him that sent me. He fully knew the mind of God.
Those Old Testament prophets, they gave forth the Word of God
in bits and pieces. Because they didn't have a full
grasp of all the truth. But our Lord Jesus is the supreme
prophet. He is the truth. He is the truth
of God embodied. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him. So that every word that He spoke
was literally and really and fully the Word of God. So it could rightly be said,
never a man spake like this man. Never a man spake like this man. Not Isaiah, not David, not Jeremiah,
not Daniel. You can rule out all the prophets. Though they were from time to
time inspired to set forth the Word of God, everything that
they said wasn't inspired. But our Lord Jesus, as a man,
was filled with the Holy Ghost. And all that He said, you can
go to the bank on it. It's sure. It's settled. It's unbending. It's without
error. It's dependable. We stake our
very lives on what He said. He can only speak that which
is the truth. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. And no man cometh to the Father
but by me. He's the prophet promised in
the Old Testament. He's better than all those Old
Testament prophets. For you see, those men didn't
write of themselves, they wrote of Him. They wrote of Him. Moses said back in the book of
Deuteronomy, he said, the Lord thy God is going to raise up
a prophet. He is going to raise up a prophet
from the midst of thee. Unto Him shall you hearken. And our Lord Jesus came out of
the people. Psalm 89, He was chosen out of
the people. Born of Mary. of the tribe of
Judah. And many hundreds of years later,
a delegation was sent by the Sanhedrin to John the Baptist.
They said, are you Elijah? He said, no. Are you that prophet? Are you that prophet? He said, no. I'm not that prophet." When our
Lord fed the 5,000 men plus women and children, many then determined
He was the prophet. Scripture says, then those men,
when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, this is in John
6, they said, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come
into the world. Peter spoke of Him in Acts chapter
3. Stephen spoke of Him in Acts
chapter 7. You remember when our Lord raised
from the dead the widow of Nain's son? On His way to the cemetery
to be buried. And our Lord raised that young
lad from the dead. Here's what the people said in
Luke 7, verse 16. It says, there came great fear
on all. They glorified God and they said,
A great prophet has risen up among us. The Lord hath visited
His people. See, God has spoken to us in
or by His Son. He's the very prophet of God
who came and spoke nothing but the Word of God because He is
God in the flesh. Those men of the Word of God we could say,
they would say, here a little and there a little. But all that
he said was the Word of God. Ah, never a man spake like this
man. No wonder then, when our Lord began His prophetic ministry,
okay, when He began His prophetic ministry, when He began His public
ministry, at His baptism, This is what God the Father said.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That wasn't
the end of it. You know what He said? He said, Hear ye Him. Why? He's the prophet. He's the
prophet of God. Hear what He says about God.
He knows what God's like. Because He's been with God forever.
And He is God. It's what we read there in John
chapter 1. Hear ye Him. That's what the Father said.
Hear what He says about God. Hear what He says about us. Will
you hear what He says about us? He's the prophet. He knows what
we are. Hear what He says about the necessity
of Him being offered up to die. Lord Jesus said on one occasion,
He said in the book of Revelation, speaking to the churches, He
says, He that hath an ear, an ear given by God, He that hath
an ear, an ear that has been touched by His miraculous grace
to hear the gospel and rejoice in the gospel of free and sovereign
grace, of satisfaction and substitution, of redemption accomplished, of
reconciliation, of righteousness brought in, of sins put away.
He that hath an ear that's been given by God, here's what it
says, let him hear. Let him hear. Let him hear my
voice. Satan, he doesn't want us to
hear. But here's a divine command from
the prophet. Let him hear. Let him hear. You and me in our dead state
of sinfulness, we don't want to hear. But the prophet says,
let him hear. And I tell you, if He says, let
him hear, you're going to hear. If He says to you, dear lady,
let her hear, you'll hear. There's nobody else that can
open the ear. There's nobody else that can
give understanding. There's nobody else that can
give perception but He alone. But if the prophet speaks and
says, I say, let him hear, boy, you'll hear. You'll hear the
gospel of free grace. You'll hear the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You'll hear the gospel of blood,
blood redemption, of righteousness brought in by Jesus Christ. And
you won't ever want to hear anything else again. That's all you'll
want to hear. Because He gives the ear. And
that ear is attuned to the message. And that ear can perceive the
difference between truth An Eric, ain't it? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let him hear. Let him hear. He's the prophet. He's the prophet. Oh, Lord, speak to me and let
me hear what you have to say. Let me hear words of life. Let
me hear words of instruction. Oh, great prophet! Speak through
your word to my heart. You don't have to. And you don't
owe me anything. But oh God, if you will, show
me mercy. Speak the word. Speak the word. You only have to speak it. And
then I'll turn into a receiver. I'll turn into a hearer. He's our prophet. I don't want
to learn from anybody else. I'll learn from Him. I learn
from him. I listen to his voice, and his
voice goes out through his word, through the declaration of his
preachers. This voice that goes forth is
all powerful and effectual to the bringing forth of life in
the objects of his grace. And he's never spoken a word
in vain, because he can't fail. He can't
fail. He's the great promised prophet. Oh God, speak the word of life
to all of us. For your glory, for our good. Amen.