Well, imagine my surprise, my
joyful surprise, the other night in sitting in a restaurant and
hearing over the speakers the song, Thy Mercy, My God, is the
theme of my song. And, you know, you don't often
You sometimes hear, and it was sung to a different tune than
we would sing it to, and I sat there as I thought about it.
I said, I know that song, and then it rang a bell. I mean,
I realized what the song was, but it is a glorious thing when
we are about, out and about in the world, and the Lord is pleased
to bring us a word of comfort and help in the most unusual
of places and by the most unusual means in which he's pleased to
do it. But he will have praise in the
earth and the name of Jesus Christ will be exalted. in all things
by those willing to praise Him and those who are not. He will indeed get glory from
all things. And we rejoice that He does minister
to us often in such times as we are not expecting such to
be the case. We've been looking in the book
of Hebrews and we read the first chapter of Hebrews last week
and made a few comments upon it. I'd like to begin again and
read some of the same verses that we read last week and perhaps make a few comments further into
the chapter of God. who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time 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 he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory, 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,
that's an important word there, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. Now, One thing as we read this
book of Hebrews, we need to pay close attention to who it is
that the book is written to. It's written to the Hebrews.
Of course, the Jews have a long heritage. The Lord called Abraham
out of Ur of the Chaldees as a man who wasn't seeking the
Lord, but the Lord sought him, called him out. And Abraham came
out. Now, how do we know that a man
is gonna come out of a place? When the Lord calls him, he'll
come out. Just like when the Lord called
Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah didn't plan to go to Nineveh.
In fact, he did everything within his power to go the other way,
but the Lord called him to Nineveh. And guess what? He went to Nineveh. And so it is, when the Lord called
Abraham out of the bar of the Caldes, He didn't say, now Abraham,
if you would, I'm asking you, won't you please come out? No,
the Lord called him out, and he came out. And so it is that
the people of the Lord will be made willing in the day of His
power. And thankfully, He is that God of great power. And
He has in time passed, He raised up Israel as a nation for his
purpose. And you know, as you look down
through history, even in the present time, one
has to hide his head in the sand to think that Israel as a nation,
as a people, are not somehow a peculiar people set apart by
God. Now, the mistake that people
make often is thinking that they are the chosen people of God
in a spiritual manner. And so that's the mistake that
people make, but I think it's also equally an egregious mistake
to think that the Lord is made Israel as a nation not in
any wise useful in his purpose in the earth. Paul said as much.
What advantage then hath the Jew? Chiefly unto them were given
the oracles of God. Now God blessed Israel. Now at the present time, Israel
as a nation, as a people in general, are under great darkness. There's reason to believe in
the scripture that that darkness will not always be upon them.
Now I know we get into all these prophetic things and all of these
things. And I believe this is a true thing. He which is a true
Jew is he which is in Christ. That's the true Jews. That's
the true house of Israel. But to say that there's not a
people in the earth known as Jews, the nation of Israel. And I'm not saying necessarily
that that nation that was formed in 1948 is the nation of Israel,
don't get me wrong on this. But at the same time, one has
to hide his head in the sand to believe that the Lord didn't
promise this land wherein these people dwell at the present time
to Isaac, to Jacob, to all of the
children of Israel as a nation. He did do that. And they have
occupied it. Now I don't know how all that
plays out. I know a lot of people really get caught all up in,
you know, Israel as a nation. I'm not caught up in Israel as
a nation, but I don't disregard the fact that there is a nation
of Israel. And the Lord has in time past
dealt with them. And it is to the Hebrews that
this book is specifically written. Now we know that the book, the
scriptures written to the people of God, but he does have a book
in the scriptures that's written in the New Testament to the Hebrews. And so Paul, I believe, was a
writer of Hebrews. We don't know that for a fact,
but I think that he was. He was mindful, you know, that
these people had this heritage. Now they were there in darkness.
And apart from the Lord revealing the gospel to them, they were
surely perished. I mean, that's just the truth
of the matter. But Paul was knowledgeable of
the fact that the Lord had raised up many of them. And of course,
many of the early believers, in fact, most of the early believers
were indeed Jews. But this is written to the Jews
in the sense of considering their heritage, considering those things
that they have believed. In other words, what Paul is
doing here in the writing of this book is he's taking those
things that these Hebrews were raised on, those things that
they were knowledgeable of, and he's showing them how that Christ
is the fulfillment. of all of those things that they
believed and that the reason for the giving of those things
in the Old Testament was for this very reason. Now the Jews
had a clear understanding though they departed from it many times
and served many gods and idols just like all peoples in the
earth have. But they did have a clear revelation
from God that the Lord our God is one God. that he will not
be, that you can't have multiple gods, that you can't have gods,
other gods. You know, when the Lord said,
thou shalt have no other god before me, he wasn't setting
up a pecking order. Some people seem to think like,
well, you know, as long as you worship God up here, you can
have these other gods down here. No, that wasn't what he was saying
at all. He said, thou shalt have no other gods before my face.
There was ever no other gods and do not worship any other
god. And of course we know that all cultures, races of peoples
in the earth, they've all down through the years had all sorts
of gods. And of course, a lot of those
who would like to bring everybody together and we all sing kumbaya
and hug one another and whatnot, they say, well, you know, it
doesn't matter what God you serve. We're all trying to get to the
same place and we're all serving God. Well, that's not true. Because
if men do not bow down and worship at the feet of Jesus Christ,
they cannot worship God. That's all there is to it. And
that's the thing that this book of Hebrews begins with. That's
what is being taught here. He said, God, who at sundry times,
that is various times, and in different ways, different manners,
spake in time past unto our fathers by the prophets. He has spoken
to the Jews, by the prophets. Chiefly unto them were committed
the oracles of God. The oracles of God, the prophets
of God. That is the spokesman of God.
He didn't go to the Philistines. He didn't go to the Amorites,
Perizzites. He went to Israel, did he not? And he brought them the truth
of the word of God. Now that's not to say that he
did not from time to time, as the Lord pointed out. to the
Pharisees, much to their dismay, like the widow of Zarephath,
to Naaman the Syrian. Those were not Jews, but the
Lord came to them, did he not? And he ministered to them. And
so it is that he would have them to understand that this God of
whom he's speaking about is not some new entity. He's not speaking,
when he said God, he's talking about God. There can be but one
God. He's the beginning. He's the
end. He's all things in between. And
so this God, who at sundry times diverse manner spake in time,
passed unto the fathers by the prophets. This is He of whom
you've always believed. Same one that spoke to Moses.
He hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. He has spoken. When Jesus Christ spoke in the
earth, he was the one speaking, was
he not? God has spoken. The mouthpiece through which
he spoke was out of that child born of a virgin's womb and brought
forth as the Redeemer of Israel. And he spoke unto men, this same
one, God. who at sundry times hath spoken
unto us by his Son." Now, the Hebrews had no knowledge of the
Son of God, did they? No, they knew of one God, and
they're still speaking about this same one. Now, he plainly
told them in the book of Isaiah, but they didn't know what he
was talking about. He said this one would come, he'd be called
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is He of whom God has spoken
through. It's the same God. It's not another
God. He didn't send some emissary
that was not God. Now the Jews, when they saw Jesus
Christ walking among men, Some of them believed he was a prophet.
Even his disciples believed he was a prophet sent from God.
But they didn't have any real clear understanding of who he
was as we see in his testimony to Philip. when Philip said,
well, Lord, you know, show us the Father. I mean, you've been
with us, you've taught us all these things, we've received
all these things, and we've been taught, we believe that you're
sent from God, but we won't see the Father. He said, Philip,
if I've been so long time with you and you have not known who
I am, he that has seen me has seen the Father. And this is
that one of whom he's speaking about here. This is the spokesman
of God. God doesn't have a secondary
spokesman. He spoke the world into existence. And this is that one of whom
he speaks of here. Whom he hath appointed heir of
all things. It belongs to him. by whom also He made the world,
by His hand. In the beginning was the Word,
you read it a moment ago, and the Word was with God, and what?
The Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Now, you know, I've said this, and you probably get
tired of me saying this, those are mysterious words. And any
man that says he just got a complete grasp on that is a fool. Now, when I read that in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, same was in the beginning with God. My brain just, you
know, it just kind of goes haywire. I just, I can't comprehend it. Well, it's supposed to be that
way. If you read that and you're just
confident you've got the complete knowledge of that, then you don't
see it. Because there's a glory there
that's not meant for men to be able to grasp. He dwells in the
light to which no man can approach. He only hath immortality. Who being the brightness of His
glory. He didn't say He was part of
His glory. He didn't say He was a glorious
one. He said He is the brightness of God's glory. He is the preeminent
one. He has a name which is above
every name that is named. The brightness of His glory.
The express image of his person. Of whose person? God. God the Father. He's express
image of God the Father. You'll never see God apart from
seeing Jesus Christ. Impossible. He's immortal, he's invisible,
the only wise God. No man has seen God at any time,
isn't that what the scriptures say? And yet, and yet, he's shown us the express image
of his person. Upholding all things by the word
of his power, he's sovereign. And while he upheld the world
with his own power, while he did that, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. You know, when Isaac Watts wrote,
Alas, and did my savior bleed, and did my sovereign die, would
he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? And there's a verse in that that
says, when God the mighty maker died, for man the creature's
sin. Now that's been changed in a
lot of hymnals nowadays. And it says, when Christ the
mighty maker died, man the creature's sin, because they was afraid
to say that God died. Now listen to me. I can't explain that. But I can
tell you this, Jesus Christ is God, was God, has always been
God, and will ever be God. And yet when He came, walked
among men, as God and as man, He did indeed die. And yet God has never been dead,
because He's life itself. Now I can't explain that. I don't
attempt to. But I do attempt and hope to
believe everything that the scripture says concerning that very one. When he had by himself purged
our sins, by himself, he cleaned it out. He purged it. Now when you purge something,
it's clean. That is, that's taken away. Now, we don't eat crawfish around
here very much. I mean, we do if we get them,
but we don't have them very much. But one of the things that you
have to do with crawfish before you cook them is purge them.
Now, how they do it, I'm not all that up on it, but I know
that they put salt in water or something, and this causes the
things to regurgitate the stuff that's in them and cleans them
out. there's really all they are is bugs, I mean, you know,
people talk about eating insects, that's what crawfish are, really
just bugs. But nonetheless, that's cleaning them out. He had purged our sins, and when
he had purged our sins, he sat down where? At the right hand
of the majesty on high. Now does that mean that There
was a throne here, there's a three-sided throne and here's the father
sitting on the throne and the son came in and he sat down beside
him. No, it means he is the right
hand of God. He sat down on the right hand
of God because he is the right hand of God. He's the power of
God, the strength of God. And it was he alone who could
purge our sins. Nobody else could. Now the Jews
had no problem whatsoever believing that Jesus Christ was a man sent
from God. They didn't have any problem
with that. Where their problem was, was in believing that he
was God. Remember what the Pharisee said
when he said, I and my father are one? And they said, ah, we're
gonna stone you because you being a man make yourself to be God.
Well, they had it backwards. They didn't understand it. He
wasn't a man trying to make himself God. He was God who came as a
man. And he walked among them, and
they could see him with their own eyes. And they knew he was,
they couldn't deny it. As Nicodemus, when he came to
them, and this was the common thought among the Pharisees,
though they didn't want it to be known or out there. But he said, but we know that
you are a prophet sent from God. The Pharisees knew that. You
see, they sinned against the light. The Lord gave them understanding
that he was a prophet sent from God, but they said, we will not
hear you. See, they weren't just carried
along and just ignorant. They knew who he was. They hated
him because they knew that he would overturn their apple cart,
that their realm of power would be done. Very much, in many cases,
like the political scene today. You know, they'd do anything.
They'd do things they know good and well is not a good thing
to do, but in order to maintain power, they will destroy the
world, the nation, in order to keep power. That's the same way
they were. And so they knew he was a prophet
sent from God, but what they did not know was that he was
God himself. That's the one thing they did,
and that's what the book of Hebrews, this chapter in the book of Hebrews
is written to begin where it needs to begin. Jesus Christ
is God. He's the preeminent one who's
come into the world, God in the flesh. being made so much better than
the angels as he hath by experience and by inheritance obtained a
more excellent name than they. Now, they believed in angels
and well we should. Now the Sadducees, of course
they didn't believe in angels and spirits. They were kind of
like the liberals of today. They were just intellectually
involved in the religion. It was kind of a thing that they
followed, but they weren't really caught up in it too much. The
Pharisees on the other hand, they believed in angels, they
believed in spirit, they believed in the resurrection, they believed
in a lot of things that we believe in. But they did not embrace this one
who came as that one who was the heir of all things. Now,
see here, it says here, being made so much better than the
angels. And when it says being made, that doesn't mean he was
created. Now, a lot of people go off the
deep end, some of these cultic denominations and whatnot, try
to say, well, Jesus Christ was created. Some of them even say
that God himself was not always God, that he became God. A lot of them's over there in Utah,
if you don't know who I'm talking about. But they say, you know,
that God was just a man. Just like you, but he just became
God. Well, when it says he being made
so much better than the angels, it doesn't mean that he was created. It just means he occupies a place
much better than the angels, because you see, the angels are
created beings. But what does it say here? He
hath by what? Inheritance, that is, it belongs
to him. It's His. And so He didn't gain
His place of preeminence by being appointed to it or created to
it like the angels, because He's better than the angels. He made
the angels. And He has by inheritance, that
is, it belongs to Him. It's His. He can do with it as
He pleases. What a glorious one He is. He
hath obtained a more excellent name than they. Now we don't
fall down and worship angels. We do have the names of some
of the angels in the scriptures. I think most of the time when
the angels were named, they're speaking about Christ. That he
is that one who came. He is that messenger of God.
He's always been the messenger of God. He just didn't reveal
himself as such. When Melchizedek met Abraham
coming from the slaughter of the kings, who do we think Melchizedek
was? I believe he was Christ. When
Nebuchadnezzar looked in that fiery furnace and he saw those
Hebrew boys walking around and he said, didn't we put three
boys into this fire? He said, behold, I see four,
and one of them is likened to the Son of God. Now how did he
know that? He didn't know it, except that
the Lord showed it to him. Just like later on, he showed
him who God was. And he ate grass like an ox in
the field. And the Lord appeared to him,
and he said, when my reason return to me, he said, I know that the
most high ruleth in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. And there is none that can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? This is that one
of whom Paul's writing to the Hebrews. God, who at sundry times
died as man, and spake in time past by the prophets, he spoke
to us by his son. There's not another prophet coming.
There's not gonna be another prophet. Because he is the spokesman
of God. Always has been. But he's been
pleased to use underlings in time past. He no longer uses
underlings. Now he does indeed send men into
the harvest that he empowers by the work of his spirit. But
they're not prophets in the sense in which he's the prophet of
God. They're merely telling the things that he's shown them.
You see, Christ is coming telling the truth. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Oh, that the Lord might teach
us today who he is, and we might fall down and worship him. He's
worthy of praise.