I invite you this morning to
open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1. I want to read the first three
verses. And I'll give you the title for
this message. I've called it, The Last Word
for the Last Days. The Last Word for the Last Days. The Apostle begins, God, who
at sundry times and in diverse 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, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high." As I've told you quite a number of times, the theme
of this book of Hebrews might be said to be better things. It is a contrast between the
things of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Not a contradiction
to them, but a showing of the superiority of the things that
God in grace has given His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a better priest. His is
a better sacrifice, better blood, a better covenant, and also better
promises. But not only that, he's speaking
here of a better revelation. He speaks here of these last
days. Now, the one thing that seems
to always characterize man-made systems of eschatology, or end
times, is that everything is always put to what they called
the last days. But the truth is, the last days
are not future, they are present. If you notice his language, these
last days. Those days between the first
coming, of Christ and His second coming, they are the last days. And they're characterized by
a number of sobering things. If you'll turn over to II Timothy,
look with me in II Timothy and the third chapter. Listen to
Paul's language when he writes to Timothy. He says, "...this
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." We
ought not expect ease. We ought not to expect any absence
of danger or all these things, he'll list. He says, "...for
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent,
fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn
away." He characterizes the last days or the last times by all
these things that we see everywhere around us. Turn over also to
2 Peter. In 2 Peter chapter 3, look at
what he says in verse 3 also, that in the face of what we know,
what God has said about the destruction of this world the first time
in the flood. He says this, "...knowing this
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking
after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise
of His coming? Characterized by scoffers and
those who scoff at the notion of the first judgment of God
on this world, and therefore seem to have no fear of the coming
judgment of God. But by those Old Testament prophets,
God had given them a word to speak that has now come to pass. He said, "...and it shall come,"
this being in Isaiah 2, "...and it shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house," now what
is that referring to? Well, it's referring to that
spiritual mountain, Mount Zion. That spiritual house, His church,
Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the
last days that the mountain of the Lord's host shall be established
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." In other words,
something will take place in this spiritual realm that has
to do with the Lord's people, that people out of every nation,
kindred, and tongue. And they are pictured here as
even in the midst of all that is going on, they shall every
one be brought forth, and brought out, and brought to Christ, confess
Him, and join together with the Lord's people." In other words,
what Paul is saying here is that the Old Testament was characterized
by many prophets. God used many prophets. And when it says that they spoke
in diverse manners and in sundry times, it means that they spoke
in many parts. They didn't all have the same
revelation in degree. Some had this much revelation
of Christ. Some had that much revelation
of Christ. They all spoke in these various
parts and portions concerning Him. But in these last days,
there is one prophet. One prophet. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Because He is the one that Moses
spoke of when God commanded him to write down these words. God
says, I will raise them up a prophet, capital P. I will raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, using
Moses as a type and a picture of." And I will put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name." Now, what did they do to the Old Testament prophets?
It says, they slew the Old Testament prophets. They blinded their
ears to his message. But he says, I'm sending a prophet. That's one who speaks for God. I'm sending a prophet, and whosoever
will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name,
I will require it. of Him. I will require it of
Him." In other words, you and I can never hear the gospel of
Christ. We can never hear the Word of
God and ever remain the same. It is not a take it or leave
it message. It will be to everyone who hears
it, either, as Paul says in another place, a savor or fragrance of
life unto life, or a savor of death unto death. You see, and
the gospel is only preached, and we are only hearing the gospel. when that which God has said
and set forth and revealed concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is spoken." Now you think about this. What if God, what would
have happened if God had remained silent? Well, number one, we
would not have this world. Because the Bible says that He
spoke. That is, He commanded it to be
all things, and it was simply because He spoke it. That divine fiat from God. Or what if God had kept silent
whenever Adam and Eve, our family, Our family, my wife just says,
had her genealogy through her dad traced and 99% British Isles. 99%. I told her I thought I had
a pure anglophile maybe or something. But what if God, we know we can
all trace our family tree back to Adam and Eve. But what if
God, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and went and hid
themselves in the garden, what would have happened if God hadn't
said a word? But you see, it says that He
spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. And all that has to happen for
you and me and every person in our race to perish is for God
to leave us under His silence. All that has to happen is for
God to leave the sinner to him or herself. But what he says
here is that God, He hath in these last days spoken unto us
by His Son." Actually, it says, by Son. Not just by His Son,
but He has spoken unto us by Son. And what God says in Christ,
in His coming, and in His gospel, is a better and a clearer revelation
of the triune God. You want to find out how God
is? God is as He is in Christ. It is a clearer and better revelation
of the mind of God, and the character of God, and the will of God. But if all these things alone
had been revealed or spoken to this race of ours, in Christ,
if that was all, we'd still perish. If we found out that God is holy,
that God is just, that God is righteous, that God is almighty,
that God is sovereign, if we find out those things apart from
Christ in His saving glory, we'll still perish. I could stand up
here years on end and preach on the sovereignty of God. But
if I don't have something to say about the sovereignty of
God's grace in Christ, you just perish. I could stand up here
and talk about the glorious holiness of God, and surely He's absolutely
that, and it could be spoken of for all eternity, and never
tell it out. But if that's all, That holiness,
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, leaves God simply to be a consuming
fire. You see, this is a clearer and
a better revelation of God's purpose of grace and salvation
in Christ. And my friend, that's what we
need to hear about. That's what we've got to know
something about. And he shows us here in these
words that this is a singular message about a singular person
compared to all those types and all those shadows and all those
pictures in the Old Testament. All these things are now brought
to light and in a sense we have one spiritual photograph. And it's His Son. It's the Son
of God. So God will speak to sinners. I remember hearing Brother Richardson
say this lots of times. He said, God will not speak to,
nor will He be spoken to by any sinner outside of Christ. There's just one mediator between
God and man, and that is His Son. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. But who is Jesus Christ? I hear a lot of people use that
name, and you can talk to them for five minutes, and it becomes
blatantly obvious that they don't really know anything about Him. Who is Jesus Christ? Because it never sets Him forth
in this book as simply a name, but there is always associated
with Him something about Him that distinguishes Him. Do you know how many people have
been named Jesus in this world? Just lots and lots and lots. And so if somebody walked in
today and his name was Jesus Jones or whatever it might be,
what's to keep us from thinking that this is the one that God
is talking about and calling His Son? No, there is a description
always in this book about who He is so that He might be distinguished
from every false Christ. Paul warned those Corinthians,
he said, I fear that you would so quickly, left to yourself,
you would believe on another Jesus. You would be led by another
spirit. You would believe another gospel. But there's only one. Who is
he? Well, the apostle says here in
that second verse, he's the one that God appointed. I don't care
what place of authority or what role anyone in this world occupies,
they do so only because they are appointed by God. But this it says, He's appointed
the heir of all things. Now, if you're one of those who
likes those universal statements, that is a universal statement. He is the heir of all things. As a matter of fact, in John
17, he says to the Father, You have given me power over all
flesh, all things. He is the absolute sovereign
Lord over all things. That isn't that God has most
things and He's given His Son? And He's also given you a few
things? It says He's the heir of all
things. I always think what Abraham's
servant said to Rebekah when he went down to fetch a wife
for Isaac. Here is the claim to fame of
Isaac whom she'd never seen. He said, God has made my Master
great. He's given Him all these things,
cattle and sheep and land and all these things. And He has
one Son, and He's given Him everything He has. God has appointed the
Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, the heir of all things. And he's talking about particularly
to the Lord's people, to those who'd have anything from God
in grace. He is the heir of all things. And we only have things, these
blessings of grace, by virtue of being one with Him. Listen to what Paul writes in
Romans 8. He says, if we be children, He
just got through saying, as many as be led by the Spirit of God,
they're the children of God. And everyone who's led by the
Spirit of God is led to the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is. But if
they're children, he says, then heirs. What is the basis of being
able to receive any of these blessings from God? It's by virtue
of this relationship wherein if they're children, they're
heirs. God doesn't have any children
that He's going to write out of the will. God doesn't have
any children that will receive anything from Him on the basis
of what they do. If they're children, He says,
then heirs. If children, then heirs, heirs
of God. Here we are scrambling around
here, fighting amongst ourselves over a handful of money or land
or something like that, when in the end we will not have anything
of those things. God says, all things are mine. But what about to be an heir
of God? What a sad state to get down
to the end of your life and have a big bank account. only to find
that you have nothing from God but wrath and judgment. He said, if children, then heirs,
and not just simply heirs of an earthly kind, but heirs of
God, and joint heirs with Christ. Now you think about that. If
God has made Christ the heir of all things, And if He has
made you or I a joint heir with Christ, then in Christ we're
the heir of all things. That is, if we receive any spiritual,
any eternal blessings from God, it has to come through and by
and in Christ Jesus. Not because I deserve it. Not
because God's obligated to do it, but because we're made heirs
of His grace and called even heirs of salvation. That's what
the angels are described as being helpers to. They are ministering
spirits to the heirs of salvation. And here is Christ. Here is this
Son. Here is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And who is He? He is the heir
of all things. That means you and I don't have
a thing except our sin. That means if we get anything
from God that is eternal and lasting, any of His mercies or
His grace has got to come by our being a joint heir with Christ,
one with Him. Not only that, but it says here
also, He's the Creator of all things. He's nothing less, none
less than the Creator Himself by whom also He made the world. It says not only that He made
the world, it says that everything that was made was made by Him
and for Him. by Him and for Him. And that's why men labor so hard
to try to do away of any notion of God being our Creator. Because whoever made us, we're
responsible to Him. He's the Creator of all things. In John's Gospel, before we get
Out of the first 10 verses, we're told, it says, "...and all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made." Who do you think I'm talking about this morning? Sometimes
I feel like people just think I'm talking about a historical
figure, or maybe a mythological or legendary character, or something
like that. I'm talking about the One whose
holds in our hands our very existence, our very breath, and our very
destination. He created all things. And then
it says this, it says, He's the brightness of God's glory. Now
you just imagine that. I read years and years ago where
a writer was talking about this One who's the brightness of His
glory and the express image of God's person. He said, He said
there's a sense in which if you were to look at those coins in
the day of Caesar, you could see Caesar's image on the coins. But he said if you wanted to
see the express image of Caesar, you had to look in the face of
his sons. This isn't a lesser God. But He is the brightness of God's
glory. He is the very brightness being
God Himself manifest in the flesh. But He is the brightness of the
glory of His grace. That's what we need to see. Paul
writes to the Corinthians and he says it like this, he says,
for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." He's the glory
of God. He's the glory of God. The brightness of His glory. And most especially as He is
to us, the brightness of God's grace. We've been going through
this period of rain and cloudy weather. And I told my wife yesterday,
I'd just be so glad to see the sun shine. And the only time
that the sun shines on poor sinners like we are, who are born in
this darkness and who, if left to ourselves, live in this darkness,
the only time we can ever see any hope, any light, any mercy,
any grace, is when God enables us to see it in the face of His
Son or in the person of His Son. Now, I'm telling you, it's a
dark day for a sinner all the days of his life unless God gives
him a little light, gives him a little reflection of His grace
as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the brightness of God's
glory. And He is God's glory, not only
in grace in some abstract way, but He's the brightness of God's
glory in that God is glorified as a just God and a Savior in
Christ. I want to ask people sometimes,
you know, if Christ is the way you say He is, if God is the
way you say He is, and the way you say He is is by virtue of
what you say He's done, If He's done what you say He is, He sure
has left an awful lot of contradiction. He sure has showed Himself unjust
and unwise. Number one, unjust. to turn and
take those that Christ died for, if He died for everybody, and
cast them into hell, and unwise, to entrust the greatest glory
of His whole throne, which is the salvation of His people,
to entrust that into the hands of fallen sinners and their wills. No, God has a glory. And He has
a particular glory and wisdom to His people. And that glory
and that wisdom is in His Son that He has appointed the Mediator
between God and men. That one Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. You see God. The only God you'll
see is the man Christ Jesus. Oh, you say, well now, I'm looking
for this Wizard of Oz type fella. No. Great is the mystery of godliness
that God was manifest in the flesh. He's the God-man. And then he says he's the sustainer
of all things. I think right now there are a
lot of people, even some of the Lord's people, We're a little
bit shaky on what's going to take place in this world. And
I think that one of the reasons why so many young people are
driven almost to despair at such a young age, to have suicidal
notions and such as that, is that they've heard this steady
diet of what man is doing to destroy everything. He's polluting
the air all up, soon we won't have any air. He's polluted the
water and soon we won't have any water. He's polluted all
the energy, so we won't have any energy and all that kind
of stuff. Let me tell you how long we'll have it. We'll have
it as long as the One who upholds all things by the Word of His
power wants us to have it. He has a purpose on this earth. and He will save all His people,
and He will raise to power, He will keep in this earth everything. I'm satisfied if we could know
right now what this earth, even in its fallen state, holds that
man has not discovered, we would just Take these idiots who spout
this stuff, read their statistics and that, and never listen to
them again. He's the upholder of all things. We like to think it's in our
hands. That's the whole thing behind it. Men want to think
that they're the ones in control of all this, but they're not.
But His exaltation, His glory, lies in what He as the Savior,
He as the Mediator accomplished. Now, men like to talk about what
Christ made possible, what He made available, What he did in
part, that is not the gospel. That is not the Son of God. And that is not any ground of
hope for any sinner like me. His exaltation is because of
what He accomplished, and He accomplished it because of who
He was and is. It's because He purged our sins. What did God do? He exalted Him
in this humanity, in this sinless, risen, glorified humanity. He raised up to the right hand
of the Majesty on high." Now, there's only one way you can
sit on that throne, and that's to be God. And what he says here
is that this One, this Man Christ Jesus, because of what He accomplished,
He is exalted. But what did He accomplish? Well,
it says He purged our sins. And what I want you to see this
morning is this, that God, of all things, is not silent to
the greatest need that a sinner has. I know how we are in this
flesh, and I'm the world's worst, maybe. When we get under this
pressure, or this situation, or this problem, that becomes
our greatest need. We're so drawn to it, worried
about it, fretful over it, that that's all we can think about.
But let me tell you something, that's not our greatest problem.
Our sin is our greatest problem. If you spend a few brief years
here in this world, and you have perfect health, and you have
that perfect family, and you have that perfect job, and you
have that perfect retirement, and you have that perfect nation,
and perfect world, and you die in your sins, you're going to
spend eternity separated from God, and everything that is good,
and under His unending wrath forever, and justly so. Though the greatest problem we
have, the greatest need that we have, it could never be dealt
with by anybody other than this unique person. This is the one
He's been talking about through all the prophets, though they
spoke in part. But now He's come in human flesh,
He's accomplished this work in our humanity, but sin excluded. He's done something. God has
done something, but He won't speak to you, and He has no good
news for you, or me, or anybody else, except in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, number one, does He need
your help? He's talking about the matter of salvation. These
preachers make God so dependent, His glory so dependent, His success
so dependent on whatever it is that He tells people to do. You
look at verse 3. It said, "...he by himself."
By himself. And we ought to remember that
God has given us all this other information here preceding this
statement to let us know that He could do it because of who
He was, who He is. You see, this is something that
He did alone, and we have no part in it, and have no part
in doing it. It's actually the work described
as being given to Him in old eternity. What was it? To cleanse, to put away, to wash
away the sins, all the sins of all God's elect. that would ever
live on this earth, every one of their sins, whether they consider
them that great sin, you remember when you did that, you can't
get it out of your mind, it haunts you to this day, or even those
things that they don't even know that they committed, sins of
omission as well as commission, all their sins. He purged them.
He washed them. He cleansed them off that record
book of divine justice, the only way that it could be done, which
is by full payment. All this won. This is what God
is showing His people, revealing in His people. Some say, well,
I wish I'd have lived back Centuries and centuries ago, God says,
don't you say that the former day is better than this. The
psalmist said, this is the day that the Lord hath made. He wasn't
just talking about a day of the week. This is the day which the
Lord hath made. Let us be glad and rejoice in
it. We live in the last days, but
God has in these last days, He's spoken. to us by His Son. What's He telling us? That He
has purged our sins. You say, what is the distinction
there, preacher? Well, the distinction is this. When we look at our hope, when
we look at the basis of the peace we believe we have with God,
when we look to the future, look toward eternity, it's all based
on what He's already done. He didn't say, if you'll do this
and that and the other, I'll purge your sins. He by Himself
purged, past tense, our sins. And that's why He's sitting at
the right hand of the Majesty on high. That's why God exalted
Him. Because of His glorious accomplishment
of this work given to Him that would not only save all His people,
but glorify God. Turn over to Hebrews 9. Hebrews
9 and look down at verse 12. Now those prophets had instruction
about the offering of bulls and goats and all this kind of stuff.
He said, "...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us." He did what? Well, in a way that
was pictured by those Old Testament offerings and sacrifices, and
only pictured by them. He, by His own blood, entered
in once into the holy place. having obtained eternal redemption
for us." You see it in the messages of, if you'll do this, God will
redeem you. Do you not know what Christ was
doing on that cross? He was redeeming His people from
the curse of the law, redeeming them from all their sin. Turn
over to 1 John, just a few more pages over in 1 John, and look
down in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7. He said, but if we walk in the
light, now where is any light? Well, in one sense, it's in the
face of Jesus Christ. He is the light. But in another
sense, it's in His gospel. You won't find any basis for
anything here, anywhere else but in the light. All right,
listen. If we walk in the light, as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. I don't know about you, but if
Christ died for half of my sins, I'd still... I'd still have a
multitude. Not only that, but if He didn't
die for all my sins, if one was left unpaid, that would be enough
to separate me from God for all eternity. I don't understand
that. It's because you don't understand who God is. Holy.
Perfect. Look over in chapter 3 of 1 John.
Verse 5 says, And you know that He was manifested to take away
our sins. And in Him is no sin, even when
the sins of His people were imputed to Him, laid on Him, as Isaiah
says. Since He went to that cross and
died, they're neither on Him or us, because He put them away. What was He manifested for? That
means revealed displayed, brought into the open to take away our
sins. And this He did. This He finished
as He stated Himself on that cross. And there was only one
way that He could do this. in a just and God-honoring, justice-satisfying
way, and that was to die that death of the cross, to die in
the place of His people, and to offer this sacrifice, to do
and accomplish this work by Himself. He by Himself purged our sins. You could say, He by Himself,
with Himself, purged our sins. The picture to me is always of
David. Do you remember David? David
stood before Goliath, who's a picture of the devil and everything that's
against the Lord's people. And David took his sling, put
a stone in that sling, and slung that sling. That stone hit Goliath and brought
him to his knees. Well, David's a type of Christ.
We know that. But Christ is also that living
stone. So He by Himself, with Himself,
purged our sins. In Galatians, the Apostle says,
He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Again to the Galatians he says,
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. To the Ephesians he said, Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it. To Titus, He speaks of Christ
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. All that God had to do for every
person in Adam's race to perish was be silent. I'm sure that
at the time Adam and Eve did not recognize it. With that very
voice of God speaking to them in that garden when they hid
themselves, that was the voice of mercy and grace. All they
had to do was be quiet. Leave them to the just desert
of their sin. Now the question is this, and
it's a very personal one. Is what Christ did enough for
you? Is that enough? Can you lay down
your head at night and rest in that? Have you been just going
so long trying to figure out how you could do something to
make your way into heaven? Do something to please God? Do
something to be accepted by God? And you just keep making these
blunders. Two steps forward and three steps
back. You know it. A lady asked a preacher
friend of mine once, she said, Is Christ really enough? He's
wise. He said, if He's all you got,
He is. Because He alone, by Himself, purged the sins of His people. And we glory not in our flesh. We glory not in anything we do. But we glory in Christ. And we
trust what He finished. Paul said, for after that in
the wisdom of God, The world, by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. And that's twofold there. Number
one, the foolishness of the thing preached, which is the gospel
of a crucified Christ, the cross. And the second thing is the means
or manner by which God sends out His message for a preacher
like myself. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Do you believe? And
do you rest all your soul's hope on Him? Can you hear what he's
saying? Revelation 3 says to the churches,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth.
May God give us an ear, the ear of faith. Give us understanding
to know that in its entirety, salvation is the work of Christ.
He came and He met the greatest need that His people had. That is to by Himself purge our
sins. How can I know God forgave my
sins? His work was accomplished because
He seated Him at the right hand of the Majesty on high. That's
the last word for the last days. Father, we thank You that You've
given us such a wonderful, clear revelation of Your grace, of
how You save sinners, how You, as a just God, can declare them
righteous, show mercy, all through the doing and the dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Be pleased, Father, this day,
By this Word, to speak to a heart, to speak peace through the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is some sinner in a great
need of rest this day. Speak it again afresh to all
your people, that we might rejoice and rest in Him. For we ask it
all and pray that Your Word would go forth to honor You and to
comfort Your people. For we pray and ask it in Christ's
name, Amen.