Okay, let's return to Hebrews
chapter 1 Brother Andy said my main text
is the first three verses of this chapter Concerning this
subject the glorious person and finished work of Christ. I Now,
if I were to, you know, as you go through the Bible, you see
various languages, and I'm not talking about foreign languages,
but I'm talking about words that we use to describe what we call
the fundamental pillars of the gospel. And so we could use different
words that mean the same thing. For example, This next book that's
coming out is, What is the Righteousness of God? Romans chapter one, verses
16 and 17, where Paul wrote, by inspiration of the spirit,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
to the Greek also, or the Gentile. Greek was a way of referring
to Gentiles in general, because it was a, what they call a Hellenistic
world, or a Greek world at that time. And he says in verse 17,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just or the justified shall live
by faith. And that term, the righteousness
of God, is a way of summarizing both the glorious person and
the finished work of Christ. And so this is the pillar of
the gospel. This is the heart of the gospel. The gospel message
is Wrapped up in who Jesus Christ is about salvation and his name
means salvation Jesus. That's what it means Matthew
121 his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins and So the glorious person who Jesus Christ is not
wrapped up in who you are or who I am You see it's not it's
you know people talk about who's they got it. They got a listing
who's who in religion and Well, I only know one who that we ought
to be concerned with, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He's it. Who is He? And that's why we
ought to trust Him. That's why we ought to listen
to Him. You remember that commercial back in the, what is it, the
70s or the 80s about the broker E.F. Hutton? And they had these
commercials, and people would be on a plane, and they'd be
talking about their brokerage and their stocks and bonds. And
the guy would say, well, my broker is E.F. Hutton. And everybody
would stop and turn around and listen. We want to hear what
E.F. Hutton has to say. Well, you know, that was just
hype. But I don't know E.F. Hutton from Adam's old fox. But here's the thing. This is
one name that's above every name. God has given him a name above
every name, the scripture says. that at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he's Lord
of all. He is our salvation. But in order to be our salvation,
he had to accomplish a great work which no other person could
accomplish. And that's the righteousness
of God. The glorious person and finished work of Christ. You
know, they say the whole book of Hebrews, the theme of it is
this, Christ is better. Christ is better. And I agree
with that because it speaks of how much better Christ is than
anything that the natural man could imagine as far as salvation
and a right relationship with God is concerned. His brother,
Randy, read there in Hebrews chapter one, he starts out saying,
Christ is better than angels. Remember that program, Touched
by an Angel? Well, I don't need to be touched by an angel. I
need to be touched by the power and the hand of Jesus Christ.
I thank God for attending angels, don't get me wrong, and I believe
in them. But you know what they are? They're servants, they're
ministers. They're not our salvation. Christ is better than angels.
Then it goes on to teach us Christ is better than Moses. Remember
Christ in John chapter five, he told the Pharisees, he said,
one will condemn you even Moses in whom you trust. Now, how did
they trust in Moses? Well, they were trusting in their
works of the law that God gave to Israel through Moses. And
he said, Moses didn't even think that way. Moses didn't act that
way. He says, Moses wrote of me. Christ
said this, Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's son, they say nothing
good can come out of Nazareth. Well, he came out of Nazareth,
born in a feed trough, all of that. He said, Moses wrote of
me. He's better than Aaron and the
Levitical priest. Aaron was the first high priest.
And then there was a succession for 1,500 years of high priest
and other priests. Well, Christ is better than them.
They were mere men, sinful men. When they went in to offer the
blood of animals, it was not only for the sins of the people,
but for their own sins. Christ had no sin. He knew no
sin. Oh, he's better than Aaron. He's
the great high priest. He's the culmination, the be-all
and the end-all of all high priest. That's the reason we can have
access and liberty to go to God in worship and prayer. Because
we have a great high priest who's passed through literally into
the heavens. That's what Hebrews 4 says. In
other words, he's the only one who made access to God a sure
thing for his people. And then he's a better mediator
of a better covenant. Think about that old covenant.
I've heard people say, actually, they wish they lived under the
time of the old covenant. I said, are you crazy? Boy, you must think highly of
yourself. You know what they're actually saying? Without expressing
it, they're saying, I would have done better than the rest of
that bunch. Good night. That law was a ministry. You know, Paul said it this way
in 2 Corinthians 3. It's a ministry of death. A ministry of condemnation. That's what he called it. Why
would you want to be under that instead of something that is
so much better? The everlasting covenant of grace. We live under the new covenant.
What is the new covenant? It's the fulfillment in time
of a covenant that's eternal and everlasting made before time.
Because Christ was set up before time ever began, before this
world ever was created. to be the mediator of that covenant
and to be the redeemer, to be the surety of that covenant.
And so he's a better surety of a better covenant. The only surety
that existed in the old covenant according to its terms now, and
you understand now that old covenant was not a covenant of salvation. It was a covenant that told them
that they needed salvation. by grace through Christ, the
promised one. But the only surety under that
covenant was the surety of death and condemnation. But Christ
is the surety of a better covenant based on better promises because
he's the author of a better salvation and the finisher of that salvation. Now, here's the question. The
whole book of Hebrews, as you go through, it's 13 chapters,
is working on that truth, the glorious person and finished
work of Christ, the better Christ, in every way, and showing details
of that, but it's all summarized right here in the first three
verses. So I ask this question, why is he so much better? Well,
here's the first thing. because he is the eternal son
of God. Verse one, God, who at sundry,
various times, and in diverse, different manners, spoke in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets. God spoke in many ways. He spoke through his word. He
spoke in type, in picture, He spoke in providence, through
miracles, he spoke many ways, but his message was always the
same. You're a sinner, you cannot save yourself, you cannot make
yourself righteous, but I'm sending one who is to come. who is my
son, the son of God. You know, that speaks of his
deity. You know, when I was in seminary, I had several professors
who claimed to be Christian, but did not believe in the deity
of Christ. And here's what they would always
say. He said, well, he's the son of God. But he said, aren't
we all sons of God? Well, we're sons of God by grace,
by adoption, by redemption, but not by nature like he is. That's why I read that Psalm
110, this is my son, God said. He says, verse two, hath in these
last days, that's the new covenant days, spoken unto us by his son. You see that? His son, that speaks
of his deity, that's who he is, that's why he's so much better,
he is God. The second person of the Trinity.
Now I cannot explain to you the Trinity and I don't even try
to illustrate it. I think every illustration just
brings it down. I really do. There's no illustration
that we can give in the physical realm that would explain the
Trinity. But you know what? Doesn't it make sense to you
that we can't explain something about God? That he's so high
above us? He's one God. We don't worship
three gods. We're not polytheistic. We're
monotheistic. We worship one God, but he subsists
in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that's
good for us because that means salvation for his people. But
he's spoken by his Son. How did he speak? Well, we know
that Christ preached. We know he spoke words to people. You can go back and read in the
Gospels, the four Gospels. We know also that the whole Word
of God from Genesis to Revelation is the Word of Christ. He's the
embodiment of the Word. He is the Word that existed before
the world began, John chapter 1. And He's the Word made flesh
and dwelt among us. This book is about him. We'll talk about that in a minute.
But look what it says here in Hebrews chapter one. It says
that in verse two, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, look at it, by
whom also he made the worlds. Now that's God. In beginning
was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were made by him and
for him. Colossians one speaks of his
preeminence in that he's the creator. You know what that is
saying? He created the world and the world was created for
him. And the only reason this world exists is because of him. Did you know that? If it weren't
for God's purpose to save his chosen people by his grace in
Christ, the moment Adam failed, this world would have been obliterated. But God had in mind his own glory
that would be manifested through his son. This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. He says in verse three that he's
the bright one, who being the brightness of his glory, that
word's the effulgence. In other words, if you wanna
see the greatest manifestation of the glory of God, here's where
you're gonna find it. It's not gonna be by looking
at some mountain or a beautiful day. Those things do reflect
the glory of God. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare
the glory of God. But if you wanna see the brightness
of his glory, and he goes on, the express image of his person,
That's one who's equal to God. Where are you gonna find that?
In Christ. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He
says upholding the world, upholding all things by the word of his
power. That's God. So he is better because he's
the eternal son of God who has no beginning, he's the alpha
and the omega. The beginning and the end. I hear these people talking about
their new nature now, and don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna go
into all this, but some people, you know, I know that when we're
born again, we're given a new heart, new life, and we have
a struggle with the flesh inwardly. I know guys now who define the
new nature this way. They say we're given a new, the
Holy Spirit creates in us a new divine nature that cannot sin
and cannot be contaminated. Now let me tell you something,
folks, that's heresy. First of all, a new divine nature, something
that is by nature divine that's created, divinity cannot be created. If something is by nature divine,
there's no beginning and no end for it. There's nothing divine,
we have divine life from the divine. God created, it's the
resurrection life of Christ. But I'm a sinful human being,
I'm a born again human, I'm a spiritual human being, but I'm not divine.
Are you? Because if you are, we better
start bowing down to you. No, that's not the way it is,
is it? You see, there's no one like Christ. There's nothing
like him. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Nothing like him. He's the reason
this world was made, and he's the one through whom God made
the world, and he's the reason this world carries on. Here's
the second thing. He's better because he's the
surety of his people. Now look down there in Hebrews
1. where it says in verse two, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. That speaks of his surety ship.
Christ was appointed to be the surety of the covenant that he
would be heir based on his sonship. He is the heir of God because
he's the son of God because of who he is. And for another reason,
based upon his accomplishing all the conditions of the covenant,
the salvation of his people as God in human flesh. Now, we'll
speak next more of his humanity, his holy sinless humanity. But
his being the heir of all things, that means all things are put
into his hands because of who he is as God, but also who he
is as man doing the work that God sent him to do. Turn over
to Hebrews chapter two, just over the page. Look at verse seven of Hebrews chapter two. He says, thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels. That's speaking of his humanity.
Thou crowns him with glory and honor and did set him over the
works of thy hands. Now that's because of what he
accomplished, but hold on, verse eight, thou has put all things
in subjection under his feet. And you know what that means,
it's not just that he's king in control, he is. But that means
that he, all of the salvation of his people is conditioned
on him. He's responsible for us, just
like you're responsible for your children. until they get a certain
age? Well, Christ is responsible for
his brethren, his children, for all the time. Subjection under
his feet, for in that he hath put all things in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. He's in
control. He's a sovereign surety. He's
a sovereign savior. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. Now here's what he's talking
about. When you look around this world, You don't actually see with the
physical eye that God's in control. Sometimes it looks like things
are just running amok, aren't they? Chaos. Somebody used the
illustration of a tapestry. One time, he said, when somebody
is weaving a tapestry, if you look at the bottom of it and
you see all the different colored threads, you see no pattern.
It looks like a mess. But when that tapestry is through,
and you look at the top of it, and you see the beautiful pattern.
And that's the way it is. Somebody said, well, and I heard
a preacher say this on TV one time. He said, he said, many
Christians have been fooled and deceived to think that God's
in control, but he's not. And I thought, well, you fool.
God was in control of what you just said. Yes, he is. But look here, here's
what we see. He said, we see not yet all things
put on in verse nine, but we see Jesus. who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor, and he by the grace of God should taste death
for every man, that should be every son. That's not talking
about all without exception, read the rest of it. But that's
what he is, he's a better surety. Why can I have assurance of salvation? Is that possible? Some of the
old Puritans said, no, you shouldn't have, that's presumption, oh
no. It's faith. If it's based on the right ground,
and what is the ground? Christ performing the duties,
the work that God sent him to do, and that's the third thing.
Look back at Hebrews one. Because he is the Savior, he's
better because he is the Savior. He's the Redeemer, he's the mediator. He is the righteousness of his
people. Moses wasn't. Moses interceded
for the people on several occasions, but he couldn't bring eternal
salvation. And you know what? He could not change their heart.
But Christ He's everything to his people, and this speaks of
his holy humanity united with his deity. Who is he? God in
human flesh without sin. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God with us. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. You see the righteousness that
we stand before God, we who are saved stand before God and are
counted, not guilty. Righteous in His sight is not
the righteousness of a mere man. It's the righteousness of God,
God-man. It says here in Hebrews 1 and
verse 3, who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person, That's one who is God himself. And upholding
all things by the word of his power. Look at, when he had by
himself, nobody was, he walked that winepress of the wrath of
his father alone. What did he do? He purged our
sins. That's cleansing. The washing
away of our sins. That's a metaphor. for the fact
that he died and paid the full price of redemption for his people. Everything that was required.
He purged our sins. And then what did he do? It says
he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. What
does it mean, he said? That means he finished the work.
It's finished, he said. Christ is the end, the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. We
look to him as the author and the finisher of our faith. Daniel
spoke of it. In Daniel chapter nine, he said
that the Messiah was going to come and he was gonna make an
end of sin. I'm still a sinner, but for me,
Christ has made an end of sin. What does that mean? It means
sin cannot condemn me. Sin cannot even be charged to
me. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It says that he finished the
transgression. That's Adam's transgression.
Everything that I have because of Adam. I fell in Adam. Ruined
by the fall. Born spiritually dead in trespasses
of sin. Come forth from the womb speaking
lies. I'm a sinner. I deserve nothing
but wrath and condemnation. But he finished it all. By his
obedience unto death as my surety, as my substitute, my redeemer.
And he is God-man. Moses couldn't do that because
Moses was a sinner himself. All of this was finished by Christ.
It says that he made reconciliation for iniquity. What does that
mean? That means that Christ set forth
all that was required to make peace between God and sinners.
all for whom he died, and it says he brought in everlasting
righteousness. That's what it takes to save
us from our sins. Righteousness, what is righteousness? It's satisfaction to the justice
of God. Not a partial satisfaction, not
an attempt to satisfy, but a real satisfaction. In the Bible, in
the New Testament, it's called a propitiation. Justice satisfied. There's not one person who can
perish for whom Christ lived and died was buried in a rose
again That's why he's so much better he's so much better than
this counterfeit that's being preached around the world today All of this and he was exalted
above all and then fourthly He's so much better because he's the
main subject of God's revelation and the object of our faith.
Look at it again, verse one. God, who at sundry times in diverse
manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. You remember,
look over at Matthew chapter three. You know, when John the
Baptist was preaching, And then all of a sudden, look
at verse 13, Matthew chapter 3. And of course, John was preaching
the baptism of repentance. He's pointing sinners to the
Messiah to come. He was told that there's one
coming who would do this great work. And it says, look at verse
13 of Matthew 3. It says, then comes Jesus from
Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John
forbade him. saying, I have need to be baptized
of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said, now
listen to this, said unto him, suffer it to be so, allow this
to take place, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And then he suffered. You know,
there's a lot of different speculations about why Jesus Christ was baptized. We know that our baptism is a
confession of our identification with Christ and our faith in
him. That's what water baptism is. We baptize by immersion.
Anybody who baptizes babies or pours or sprinkles, my friend,
that's not biblical baptism. The word means immersion. The
word means placed into. That's what it means. And when
we are baptized, we identify with Christ in his death, burial,
and resurrection. That's why we go down into the
water. But why was he baptized? I'll tell you exactly why. He
was showing forth in that symbolic act the work that he would do
for his people. He would die. He would be buried,
he would rise, he would be raised again the third day. And all
of that, he would be fulfilling all righteousness for his people.
All right, now look at verse 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon him. There's the testimony of the
Spirit. We have the testimony of the Son in his baptism. This
is what he would accomplish. I have the testimony of the Holy
Spirit who descended in the form of a dove and lighted upon him.
And then verse 17, and a voice from heaven saying, this is my
beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. There's the testimony
of the Father. The glory of the triune Godhead
in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Godhead speaks by
his Son. by the Son, and all the prophets
spoke of and pointed to Christ. There's no other salvation. And
all the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures
are about Christ and what he, his glorious person, who he is,
and his redemptive work, his finished work, the righteousness
which he brought forth in his obedience unto death to secure
the salvation. of every sinner whom the Father
gave him before the foundation of the world. Didn't he say,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out? Didn't he say, this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day? Do you doubt him? Well, think about who he is.
You might listen to E.F. Hunt about your money, but you
better listen to Jesus Christ about your soul. He's the only
one worth listening to. That's right. And any preacher
who speaks these words, you better check him out with this word.
Who does he preach? What does he say? What's our
worship all about? Who's our worship all about today?
Huh? Is it about you and me honoring
men? No, it's about Christ in his glorious person and his finished
work, which is his righteousness. God charged him with our sins. charges us with His righteousness.
Isn't that something? All right.