Well, I've said many times in
this kind of context that one of my spiritual gifts is introducing
Steve Lawson. I have probably introduced him
more times than anyone else I know. And there's a reason for that,
and that's because I keep inviting him back to places that I get
to hear him preach. As I said, all of you are along
for the ride. This is my conference where I
invited my favorite speakers, and they wouldn't have come for
me, so thanks for joining along. I'll send you a check later.
How do I introduce these speakers coming up in the next two days?
It's not an easy task, and so instead of giving the ordinary,
where they work, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church where he pastors
from Mobile, Alabama, where there are a few people who he's brought.
How many did you bring, Steve? How many? Twenty-five from Mobile,
Alabama. Steve is married to a lovely
bride, who I'll let him introduce to you later in the weekend.
He has four great children, who I've had the opportunity to pastor
three of. Steve is a dear friend. But to introduce him to you properly,
what I want to do with Steve and with each of our speakers
is read you a part of their heart. I've chosen a passage of their
writings, a selection, a paragraph from each of these men that has
had a deep, abiding impact on me, and I just want you to hear
who they are from their own pen, and then we'll welcome them up
together. Steve Lawson writes, with breathtaking grandeur and
jaw-dropping splendor. This is the great and awesome
God who the men of old have proclaimed. They thundered about a God so
sovereign that He cannot be resisted successfully, not by heaven,
or by hell, or Satan, or fallen demons, or by man, or by elect
angels. They reported a God who is maker,
controller, sustainer, and determiner of all. In short, they proclaimed
a God towering in supremacy, ruling over history, and ordaining
the end from the beginning. This is the God they upheld before
the watching eyes of the entire world. They faithfully fulfilled
the psalmist's urgent plea. Say among the nations, the Lord
reigns. is it any wonder that God so
wonderfully blessed their endeavors? It's no wonder to me that Steve
Lawson's endeavors have been blessed because this is the God
he believes in, this is the God he proclaims. On a personal note,
There are very few people who live like Steve Lawson. He has
two gears, sleep and 100 miles an hour. There's nothing in between. I've never seen any other gear.
I don't know, Ann, if there is another gear, but there's all
out. Instead of Whitfield, no one
ever really lived life like George Whitfield. I would say, yeah,
except my friend Steve Lawson. Let's give him a resolved welcome. Wow, no place I'd rather be than
right here with you this weekend and all that God has in store
and in plan for us. I think the first thing that
I want to do is thank Rick Holland for his invitation to be here. And for me, with Rick, this precedes
Resolved. This is our third Resolved. And
Rick first asked me to come out and do the college retreat some
six or seven years ago, maybe seven. We started out in a tiny...or
not tiny, but a much smaller place than this in a hotel banquet
And we've seen God year by year just open and enlarge and I told
Rick last year, I said, Rick, you are sitting on a volcano
and this volcano is just going to explode. And so you're a part
of this spiritual explosion that God has brought about and I pray
that God will use this for the raising up of a new generation
of men and women who are fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, as I have thought about
what I should speak to you today on, our focus is upon the gospel...the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And really the greatness of the
gospel is the greatness of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the gospel. Paul said,
we preach Christ and Him crucified. And really the very epicenter
of what our focus is, is the saving work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is Trinitarian, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. The Father has chosen His people
from before time and has commissioned His Son. And the Holy Spirit
of God is drawing people out of the world, but standing in
the very center of the Trinity is the person and work of Jesus
Christ. And so today I want to speak
to you on the unrivaled supremacy of Jesus Christ. The gospel is
unrivaled in its glory because Jesus Christ Himself is unrivaled. And so today what I'd like to
do is take you up...take you up and to have an extraordinarily
expanded vision of the greatness of Jesus Christ. So I invite
you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book of Hebrews,
Hebrews chapter 1. And today I want to bring you
a message entitled, The Unrivaled Supremacy of Jesus Christ. The gospel is what it is because
the Savior is who He is. I want to begin by reading the
first four verses of Hebrews chapter 1 and I want you to have
your Bible out because we're going to work our way through
this systematically, phrase by phrase, at time word by word.
And I want us to really lock in on this text that stands on
the front porch of this book that is written to give the superiority
of Christ. Hebrews chapter 1 beginning in
verse 1, the Word of God reads, after He spoke long ago to the
fathers, in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed
heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He,
referring to Christ, is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation
of His nature. and upholds all things by the
word of His power. When He had made purification
of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,
having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited
a more excellent name." I want to begin by asking a very fundamental
question and it is this, why Jonathan Edwards? Why did God
use Jonathan Edwards so mightily? Edwards was, after all, considered
the greatest pastor America has ever known. And he is considered
by most church historians to be the greatest preacher ever
of all men born on American soil. What is more, Edwards is considered
to be the most distinguished theologian that America has ever
seen. And arguably, Edwards preached
the greatest sermon that has ever been preached in America.
We heard about it last night, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God. What is more, Edwards has written
what many feel is the greatest book to ever be written in America. R.C. Sproul has said the most
profound book ever written in America is Edwards' book, The
Freedom of the Will. And who can say the impact of
Edward's book when he took the diary of David Brainerd and wrote
it and edited it and put it out. It was used by God to launch
the modern missions movement. Perhaps no book has ever been
used for the cause of missions to reach the ends of the earth
as Edward's treatment of David Brainerd's diary. And so, we
ask the question, what made Edwards so great? What made him so used
by God? Others may have been stronger
in the delivery of the sermon, and others may have been more
lively and engaging. After all, Edwards was a very
shy person. He was socially awkward. Edwards was a man who really
was a bit stiff and somewhat clumsy socially. And certainly
it wasn't his interpersonal skills that propelled him to the platform
that he assumed. Why Edwards? And I think the
answer is found very simply in this, that Jonathan Edwards had
a supremely high view of God and of his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and Jonathan Edwards was radically committed and abandoned
to following Jesus Christ no matter what. In fact, it could
be argued that Jonathan Edwards had the highest view in his generation
of the absolute holiness of God and the unrivaled supremacy of
Jesus Christ. I want to make this statement.
No one will ever live higher than their view of God and their
view of Jesus Christ. Those with a lofty and transcendent
view of God live on a higher plane. They breathe heaven's
air and consequently their whole life because of their understanding
of the exalted, transcendent, majestic sovereignty and holiness
of God, they are caught up in the greatness of this God and
that was the case with Jonathan Edwards. If I could give you
anything today from the Word of God, it would be for you to
see the Lord Jesus Christ in ways that are grander and far
more majestic perhaps than you have ever understood Him to be.
If I could do anything for you today, it would be to unveil
the supremacy of Jesus Christ and for us to see again the height
and the depth and the breadth and the length of this Savior,
Jesus Christ. It's really the theme of the
whole book of Hebrews, the superiority of Jesus Christ. It was written
to Jews who were standing at the crossroads of life. And they
had been raised in their Judaism. And they had been raised in dead
religion. They had been raised in empty
rituals. And they had come to hear in
the first century of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. and their interest was piqued
and they took steps toward hearing more about the Lord Jesus Christ. But as they were caught midstream,
in between their background and having not yet come all the way
to Christ, many of them were in danger of going back to their
dead religion and to come short of a full commitment to Jesus
Christ. And so the author of Hebrews
takes pen in hand and under the impulse of the Holy Spirit of
God writes this book to show the absolute unrivaled supremacy
and superiority of Jesus Christ, to hold it before His readers,
such that they would see they must commit their life entirely
to this extraordinary Savior. And how wrong it would be for
them to go back to their old way of life and to go back to
their empty religion when Christ, the greatness of Christ, the
glory of Christ, the grandeur of Christ, is being set before
them. And so, that is what the author
of Hebrews is doing and we want to get in on this at the very
outset as he makes this dramatic unveiling of the greatness of
Jesus Christ. I want to remind you again that
the greatness of the gospel is found in the greatness of the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so today, as many of you
are standing at the crossroads of life, as many of you have
come here today and your interest is piqued and you are being drawn
to learn more about the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that
as the Word of God would unveil before your watching eyes who
He is and what He has come to do, it would be spiritual insanity
for you to go back to a mediocre life and to go back and live
the way that you have been living. This is the time in your life
for you to go all the way with Jesus Christ. This is the time
for you to see who He is and to go forward by faith and to
embrace Christ completely and to be sold out to Him and to
live for Him. To see who Jesus Christ is and
not to be radically committed to Him is completely incongruent
and it makes absolutely no sense to see His supremacy and then
not to be sold out to Him. So today I have the joy, the
absolute joy of setting before you from these verses the majesty
and the might and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now as we look at these first
four verses, and that will be all the time that we'll have
to look at today, There are seven compelling aspects of the superiority
of Jesus Christ. And I want you to write these
down. I want you to write them down in your Bible or write them
down in your conference program so that you will have these ever
before you. All right, number one, I want
us to look at verse 1 and the first part of verse 2, and this
is where this whole presentation begins. Number one, I want you
to see that Jesus Christ is superior in His proclamation...superior
in His proclamation. Notice how verse 1 begins, This
verse begins with God. The book begins with God. I want
you to know, everything begins with God. This is divine initiative. God is in the emphatic position. God is standing here at the very
outset of the motion that will be put into effect...God. after he spoke." God is a speaking
God. God is a God who reveals Himself
to men and to women. Francis Schaeffer was right when
he wrote a book many years ago, God is there and He is not silent. It is the mercy of God that He
speaks to us because we could never find Him, we could never
know Him, we could never be saved if God did not take the initiative
and if God did not speak up and if God was not directional with
us. And this speaking by God takes
place in...really in two major categories. And I want you to
write this down. Theologians have told us of general
revelation and general revelation is God speaking to man through
creation. Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens
declare the glory of God. And when we look at creation
all around, it is God speaking to us and He is speaking of His
existence, He is speaking of His greatness, And God has spoken
through history and providence and God has spoken through conscience
and that is called general revelation in that it goes out generally
to all men wherever they are on the planet, whether they ever
hear the name of Christ or not, God is speaking to them and God
is revealing Himself to them. But it is not enough of a message
for people to be saved. There must be more. And so there
is special revelation which is God speaking to man through His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the Word of God, through
the living Word and through the written Word and what we see
referenced here in verse 1, God, after He spoke. This is not general
revelation. This is special revelation and
it is necessary in order for there to be salvation in the
heart of man. Now note, God, after He spoke
long ago, listen, God has been speaking for a long time to man
in special revelation. And this puts its arms around
the Old Testament in verse 1. God spoke to the fathers. to
the forefathers in the faith, refers to Old Testament believers. And God was speaking to them
all the way back then. In fact, in the very beginning,
when God came after Adam in the garden and said, Adam, where
are you? It is the speaking of God that
is going out to men. And He says, in the prophets
The prophets were the mouthpiece of God who brought, thus says
the Lord. And it was God speaking to man
through the prophets. And the first prophet was Moses. And the latter was Malachi. And for a thousand years, God
was speaking through His mouthpieces and the prophets were those who
represented God before man. And notice how God spoke, in
many portions and in many ways. God spoke in many portions, meaning
there were many installments and there were many stages. This
speaks of progressive revelation. that as God began to speak, God
spoke in very basic terms and in very elementary ways that
would be preparatory for the fullness of what He would have
to say later. God spoke in many portions. He spoke through the law. He
spoke through ceremonies. He spoke through institutions
and through kings and through judges. And then it says, and
in many ways, sometimes it was the direct voice of God. And sometimes God would appear
on the mountain and give tablets of stone. Sometimes God would
speak with the hand of God. on the wall in Babylon, many,
many tickle you farson. And other times God would speak
through dreams and through visions and there was such a plethora
of ways that God was communicating and God was revealing Himself
to man. And yet it was all to lay a foundation
of entry level revelation And it all was pointing to something
and we read in verse 2 the fulfillment now of what God has to say to
us. And there is nothing more important
in life than to hear what God is saying to you in what we see
in verse 2. And so we read, in these last
days, This refers to the time of the coming of Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it extends all the way to
the time of His second coming. And this entire age in which
we find ourselves is identified here as the last days. He says, in these last days,
God has spoken to us. It is the same speaker in the
Old Testament. It was God who was speaking in
the Old Testament through His prophets. And now it is the same
speaker, God. And God now speaking in a much
fuller way and in a final way, God has spoken to us in His Son. You see, the Old Testament could
be summarized by this word, promise. It was a looking ahead to the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every prophet was pointing
to the future, to the coming of Jesus Christ. But now in the
New Testament, there is fulfillment. In the Old Testament, there was
shadow. But in the New Testament, substance. And in Jesus Christ, God has
come to this earth in human flesh that God Himself in the person
of His Son, Jesus Christ, might speak directly and pointedly
to each and every one of us. And you need to understand, this
is the full revelation of God. This is everything that God has
to say. He has said it in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that
He is the final revelation of God. God has nothing else to
say to us beyond what He has already said in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so I want to tell you that
there is nothing more important in any of our lives than to hear
what God is saying to us and His Son, Jesus Christ. If the
entire Old Testament was simply saying this, Christ is coming.
The four gospels say Christ is here, listen to Him. The book
of Acts and the book of Epistles describe this Christ who has
come. And the book of Revelation says
that Christ is coming again. All of the lines of the Bible,
all of the lines of special revelation, they intersect in the person
and work of Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, the
entirety, the apex of what God has to say to us is He has spoken
to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. When God spoke, God did not mutter,
God did not stutter, He did not whisper. God has spoken up loud
and clear and He has raised His voice and through His Son, Jesus
Christ, All who hear the Word of God, that is the voice of
God speaking through His Son, Jesus Christ. This weekend as
you are here, and as the Word of God is open no matter what
the text is, Every text is God speaking to our hearts and at
the very epicenter of that message is the glory of Jesus Christ. It is a cross-centered, Christ-centered
revelation and God has spoken to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the first aspect of the
superiority of Christ. He drowns out every other voice. He is the one who speaks with
the sound of many waters and how we must hear Christ. Now,
second, I want you to note, not only the superiority of Christ
in His proclamation, but He is superior in His possessions. And the author of Hebrew now
looks far ahead to the end of time, to the consummation of
the ages and he sees the superiority of Christ. Notice what he goes
on to say in verse 2, whom he appointed, whom God the Father
has sovereignly decreed by divine will. whom He appointed heir
of all things." This is the Savior of whom we speak. And this dramatic
statement says that Jesus Christ is the sole rightful heir of
all things." Sometimes people say, well, I wonder what the
world's coming to. I'll tell you what the world's going to,
Jesus Christ. He alone is the one who will
inherit all things. This is a statement of monumental
implications. Look at it again. He appointed
Him heir of all things. It is only right for a father
to want to give an inheritance to his son. It is a part of a
father giving of himself and giving of his love to his son,
to want to pass down to his son something of value, something
of prominence. And in a sense, a father is giving
himself as he gives an inheritance to a son. God the Father looking
ahead to the end of the age. This is exactly what is in the
heart of the Father. He wants to give to His Son,
Jesus Christ, all things. And the day is coming when Christ
will inherit the entire universe. Listen to Psalm 2 verse 8. Ask
of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance
and the very ends of the earth as your possession." The father
is so willing and desirous to give an inheritance to his son,
he says, just ask me. And there is coming a day, my
friend, at the end of this age when Jesus Christ will inherit
everything. He will inherit His people and
He will bestow upon them their eternal reward. And He will bestow
upon them eternal glorification. but He will also inherit all
unbelievers as well. And He will distribute to them
divine wrath forever and ever, but the entire world will be
reconciled to Jesus Christ in that final day of accountability. And in that day, the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." This is the superiority
of the gospel, because of the superiority of Jesus Christ,
that all things, all people, all places will be brought into
subjection to Jesus Christ. And He will inherit them for
salvation, or He will inherit them for damnation. But He is
supreme and superior in this inheritance that He shall receive. Everything that you own, everything
that you are, it will not remain yours, it will be inherited by
the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of this age. Number three. Not only have we seen that Christ
is superior in His proclamation and in His possessions, but number
three, He is superior in His power. The author now looks back
to the beginning of time. In the previous phrase, he took
us to the end of time. He now looks completely in the
other direction and he goes back to the beginning. He goes back
to the beginning of time and he writes this, "...through whom
also He made the world." It would be through Jesus Christ that
God would make everything out of nothing. Christ, the great
agent used by God to bring about creation effortlessly. Jesus Christ spoke everything
into existence and into being out of nothing. John 1 verse
3, all things came into being through Him. And apart from Him,
nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1 verse
10, the world was made through Him. What an extraordinary Savior
we have. He is the one who stood at the
beginning. And as Psalm 33 verse 6 says,
by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. And by the
breath of His mouth, all their host. He gathers the waters of
the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses,
for He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast."
Listen, Evolution is nothing but a lie. The Bible says that
Jesus Christ on six consecutive days spoke into being everything
out of nothing. Listen, we are living on His
planet. We are breathing His air. We are drinking His water. We are eating His food. And we
are living the days that He has appointed for each and every
one of us. And there is this sense of accountability
to this Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who has made you
in the image of God. He is the one who has shaped
you and formed you in your mother's womb. He is the one who has designed
you as you are and we are all accountable to Him. But number
four, as we continue to work our way through this. I want
you to see number four, that Jesus Christ is superior in His
person. Listen, we need to understand
before we even look at this, as it reads, He is the radiance
of His glory and the exact representation of His nature. Listen, there
is no one else even in His class, there is no one else playing
in His league. Jesus Christ is all by Himself. He is Jesus Christ, the one and
only. He is God in human flesh. And so we read now in verse 3
this staggering statement of the absolute deity of Jesus Christ
and why this is important. is only one who is fully God
could entirely save us from our sins. No one else who is mere
man could ever reconcile us to God. No angel could placate the
righteous anger of God toward our sin. Jesus Christ, the God-man,
in order to be our mediator, Jesus Christ to stand between
holy God and sinful man. He must be equal to both sides. In order to represent us before
God, He must be fully man. But in order to represent God
to us and to reconcile us, Jesus must be fully God. And if Jesus
Christ is not fully God, then He is like a bridge that is broken
on the far side. We cannot come all the way to
God unless Christ is fully God and therefore able to die an
infinite death upon the cross for us. So what we see here in
verse 3 is extremely important because a Savior who is not God
is a Savior who cannot save. And so we read in verse 3, notice
what this says. And He, referring to Christ,
is the radiance of His glory. This word radiance means the
outshining of bright light. The word means the sending forth
of light. That is what Jesus Christ is. He is the radiance of the Father's
glory." Notice, not a mere reflection, like the moon merely reflects
the light of the sun. No, Jesus Christ is no mere secondary,
lesser reflection, a God of lesser glory. No, He is the full and
perfect radiance of the Father's glory. Now when we say glory,
this is a reference to the entirety of deity. glory here refers to
the intrinsic glory of God, all of the attributes of God, all
of the essence of God, the sum total of all that God is, all
of His holiness, all of His sovereignty, all of His righteousness, all
of His omnipotence, all of the divine perfections of God, every
inch and every ounce of the infinite, insurmountable God. is radiated
through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says
that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. And the entirety of deity is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the radiance of His
glory. You remember when Philip in the
upper room in John 14 verse 8 said to Christ, Lord, show us the
Father and it is enough for us. And Jesus said to him, have I
been so long with you and yet you have not come to know Me,
Philip? And then He said this, he who has seen Me has seen the
Father. And by that he was not saying
he is the Father, what he is saying is, when you look at me,
all of the radiance of the Father's glory is in me and is shining
through me. If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. And then he adds this line in
verse 3, that Jesus Christ, this is a staggering statement for
deity, and it is this that undergirds the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the exact representation
of His nature. This word exact means precisely
the same. And nature, His nature refers
to the divine nature, the eternal being of God. All of the properties
of God, the essential substance of God, the internal character
of God. Jesus Christ is precisely the
same representation of His nature. Now this word representation
is a Greek word, icon, that is carried over into the English
language. And we understand today an icon,
for example, in the corporate world. A corporation will have
an icon or called a logo. And that logo represents the
entirety of what that corporation is and stands for, reduced down
to that tiny little icon. It represents all that the corporation
is and standing behind that icon are all of the assets of the
corporation, all of the personnel of the corporation, all that
is at the disposal of that corporation stands behind and is represented
by that tiny little icon. That's what Jesus Christ was
in the Incarnation and is forever to be. And spatially, Jesus Christ
was reduced down to a human body. And in that human body is the
totality of all deity, the second member of the Godhead, Jesus
Christ. It is in that human body and
He is the exact representation of God. It's a staggering statement. C.S. Lewis was right when he
said, listen, there are only three options with Jesus Christ.
Either He is a liar, one who claimed to be God and knew that
He was not God, but was a deceiver of men. That's option number
one. Or Jesus Christ is a lunatic, someone with a Napoleonic complex,
someone who just goes around thinking He is God and in reality
is not and He is self-deceived and deluded. Or number three,
He is Lord. He is exactly who He claims to
be, fully God, fully man, the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ
is either deceiver, deceived, or deity. He is either Lord,
liar, or lunatic. And the Scripture sets forth
in unmistakable language the full and absolute deity of Jesus
Christ And it is stated in the face even of every cult and every
false religion that would attempt to take away the deity of Christ. No, when you take away the deity
of Christ, you take away the gospel of Jesus Christ. Titus
2 verse 13, listen to this, our great God and Savior, comma,
Jesus Christ. Is Christ God and Savior? Yes. First John 5 verse 20, Jesus
Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Philippians
2 verse 5 and 6, Christ Jesus existed in the form of God and
did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. Colossians 2 verse 9, for in
Christ...now listen to this. All the fullness of deity dwells
in bodily form. My friend, this is the absolute
superiority of Jesus Christ. He is superior to every other
religious leader. He is superior to anyone else
who has ever attempted to have found some religious movement. He is superior to any man because
He is God in human flesh. Therefore, He and He alone is
able to save us from our sins. There's a fifth dimension of
this superiority that I want you to see. Not only is He superior
in His person, But fifth, He is superior in His preservation. We continue to read in verse
3, and this is staggering in its implications. Jesus Christ upholds all things
by the word of His power. Now, we've got to see this in
context. He has already looked to the
future and He has said, Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. Everything is coming into the
hands of Jesus Christ and He will inherit everything and He
will hold it in His hands. We have looked back to the beginning
of time, that Christ is the Creator and everything has come from
the hands of Christ. At the beginning of time, He
has created it all by His hands. At the end of time, everything
is coming to His hands, this says, and everything in between
remains in His hands. the entirety of all things, He
by Himself upholds the universe. Look what it says. Look at it
again. and upholds all things by the word of His power." Would
you note this is present tense? He does continually, every moment
of every day, uphold the universe. This means He undergirds, that
He sustains. Listen. There is absolutely nothing
up for grabs in the universe. There is nothing randomly floating
out there. Nothing is on its own. Nothing
is autonomous. Nothing is independent of Jesus
Christ. There is nothing outside of His
hands. And as He upholds it, He directs
it, and He is the one that is directing all of the affairs
of providence, and He is the one who is directing the entire
course of world history, not only in the macro, but also in
the micro. That is what the author of Hebrews
is saying. It has all come from His hands,
it is all going to His hands and everything in between remains
in His hands as He upholds everything. All things here refers to the
entire universe and all that it contains. And He does so effortlessly
by the Word of His power. Listen, Christ is the mighty
atlas who upholds all things and is keeping everything in
its rightful place. He is upholding all the atoms.
He is upholding all the planets. He is upholding all the physical
laws, everything. And He is carrying it forward
as He upholds it to its appointed end. Let me tell you. Let me
make this very personal. He is the one who is upholding
you as well. He is the one undergirding you.
He is the one who causes your faith to continue to be active
and to move forward. He is sustaining your life. He
is undergirding you. The psalmist says the steps of
a righteous man are established by the Lord, and He delights
in His way. Though he falls, he shall not
be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his
hand. I have been young, and now I
am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread." Listen, the Lord will never let go of you, and
He does continually, moment by moment, uphold you by His sheer
superiority. And this is His superiority and
His preservation. There's two more that I want
you to see. And this speaks so directly to the gospel. You will note in the middle of
verse 3 that the writer of Hebrews now advances this to the focus
that he will take through the rest of the book. that Christ
is superior in His pardon. After all that He has said to
us, now we can understand why Christ is able to do for us what
no high priest can do, what no animal sacrifice can do, what
we cannot do for ourselves, what no angel can do for us, only
one who is this infinitely superior could make purification of sins. Notice what he says, when he
had made purification of sins. This word purification means
to remove impurities by washing. It means to cleanse from dirt. It means to purify. And this
presupposes that every one of our souls and every one of our
lives have been deeply stained by sin. That the soul of man
is totally depraved. and inwardly corrupt. That the heart of the human problem
is the problem of the human heart. And we are defiled on the inside. We are dirty. We are corrupted. And in order for us to enter
into the presence of a holy God, there has to be a change that
would take place. There has to be the purification
of the inward corruption of our soul. God is infinitely holy. And He demands that we be as
holy as He is holy to enter into His presence. And there is only
one way for us to be made pure and to be made clean, and it
is through the infinite death of Jesus Christ, for sinners."
Notice sins is in the plural. All of the sins of all of His
people who would ever believe upon Him were transferred to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, as the High
Priest of His people, entered into the Holy of Holies. Our
names were written upon the palm of His hand. Our names were written
upon His heart. And as He went into the Holy
of Holies upon that cross, He gave Himself on our behalf. And through the shedding of His
own blood, He has sprinkled the mercy seat. And He has made the
only atonement for our sins. And this is the unfolding message
of the entire book of Hebrews, the superiority of Christ to
do for us what we could never do for ourselves, what religion
could never do to make purification of our sins. God says through
the prophet Isaiah, come, let us reason together, says the
Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white
as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be white
as wool. First John 1 verse 7, the blood
of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. Titus 2 verse 14
says that this Christ has given Himself to purify for Himself
a people for His own possession. Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding
of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Hebrews 9.14, how much
more will the blood of Christ cleanse your Listen, we all must
have our soul purified from the blemish of sin and there is only
one way for that defilement to be purged from us and it is through
the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Only one
as perfect as Christ could make a perfect atonement. Only one
as superior to Christ could make this superior sacrifice for our
sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes
me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood
of Jesus. There's a final aspect of his
superiority that I want you to see. At the end of verse 3, the
writer makes this extraordinary claim for Christ. He is superior
in his position. Notice it says, when he had made
purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. Following Christ's death, burial
and resurrection, he ascended back to heaven where he is enthroned
at the right hand of God the Father. It is the place of highest
honor, greatest authority and supreme power. The fact that
he sat down speaks to the finished work of Christ upon the cross. The Old Testament priest could
never sit down because his sacrifice was never a perfect sacrifice. And in his own person, he was
not a superior priest. But Jesus Christ, because of
the perfection of His sacrifice, when He died upon the cross,
He said, it is finished. And when He ascended back to
the right hand of God the Father, He is now seated at the Father's
right hand. No more sacrifice to be made,
absolutely perfect in what He has accomplished for us upon
the cross. And also that He has sat down
means that He is exalted, that all authority in heaven and earth
have been given unto Him and that God has highly exalted Him
and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name so that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth. that every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is kurios, is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. This, my friend, is the superiority
of Jesus Christ. This is our confidence. This
is our hope. This is the object of our faith. One so infinitely superior in
every dimension, He is able to save us. He is able to save us
forever because of His infinite deity and His matchless glory. Now listen. The most important
thing in your life. Everything else is secondary. This alone is primary. that you hear God speaking to
you through His Word in His Son this day. This very moment, the
God of the universe is speaking to you and He is speaking to
you in His Son. He has nothing more important
to say to you than what He is saying to you in His Son. And
the most important thing for every one of us is to hear and
to heed the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Turn the page
just for a moment and I'm finished. Hebrews 2 and verse 1. For this reason, we must pay
much closer attention to what we have heard. Listen, that is
for every one of us here today. We need to pay much more closer
attention to what God has said to us in His Word. Look at verse 3, in His Son,
after it was at the first spoken through the Lord. It was confirmed
to us by those who heard. God is a speaking God and He
is speaking to you today. And if you are not yet saved,
if you have not yet come all the way to Christ, if you are
standing at the crossroads of life, You have seen that He alone
is supreme and superior. I call upon you, I urge you to
hear what He is saying and to commit your life to Christ. Look at chapter 3, turn the page.
Chapter 3 verse 7, listen, this God is speaking today to you
and His Son Chapter 3 verse 7, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit
says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as
when He provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness.
Listen, when God speaks and when His people turn a deaf ear, it
provokes God. Look, if you would, at verse
15, He repeats it. while it is said today, if you
hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked
Me." Turn all the way to the end of the book, Hebrews 12 verse
25, it's the last verse that I want you to see. I want you
to see how critically important it is that you hear by faith
What God is saying to you, that you would believe upon His Son,
that you would commit your life to His Son, that you would follow
His Son every step of your life's journey, that you would enter
in through the narrow gate, that you would walk the narrow path,
that you would deny yourself, take up a cross and follow after
Christ, that you would turn away from the world, that you would
give yourself completely and totally to Christ, and that you
would be a fully devoted follower of Christ. Hebrews 12 verse 25,
and he in essence concludes this book by saying, see to it that
you do not refuse Him who is speaking. The greatest sin in
all of the world is the sin of unbelief. It is the sin of refusing
Him who is speaking. And God has spoken throughout
the annals of time in the Old Testament to the fathers and
the prophets in many ways and in many portions. But in these
last days, He has spoken to us in His Son. And this is God's
final revelation. It is God's fullest revelation. To respond to what He says to
you and His Son is the greatest and most important thing that
you will ever do. And if you fail to respond to
God speaking to you and His Son, and you refuse Him who is speaking,
you will be utterly cast out forever and ever. May this be
an hour. May this be a moment. in which
you hear the Father speaking through the Word to your heart.
May you believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the heir of all
things and through whom the world has been made, who upholds all
things by the Word of His power, who is the exact representation
of His nature, who is the radiance of His glory, and who alone has
made purification for our sins. He is seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high and He says, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. He who has ears to hear,
let him hear what the Lord is saying in His Son. Let us pray. Father, You have spoken to us.
as you have spoken to people for the last 2,000 years. You
have spoken in full revelation. You have spoken in final revelation as God has come to this earth
in a human body. And God Himself has spoken to
us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. You gave Him what
to say and how to say it. And He has declared to us, I
am the way, the truth and the life. Father, I pray that You
will open our ears this day to hear Your voice speaking in Your
Son that we would come to fully embrace the Son, to believe upon
Him And for those of us who have believed upon Him that we give
ourselves daily to the following of this Son, that You would be
honored and that You would be glorified. Lord, I pray that
You would circumcise hearts even here today and that You would
draw many to the Savior. and that Your glory would be
put on display as yet even more would hear and heed what You
say in Your Son. We pray this in the name that
is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and
Savior. Amen.