Hebrews chapter 1. Most, especially in our country,
has heard the name, I'd say a vast majority have heard the name
Jesus. But most treat it in religion,
in false religion, like he's a sports icon. And those of you
who know anything about sports, you keep up with the team, you
expect the team to do better because perhaps they acquired
a really good player, a five-star recruit. The MVP last year went
to a different team, whatever it may be. And men will say,
well, we believe he can get the job done this year. We have faith. We have faith in our new quarterback.
We have faith in our new pitcher. We have faith in this new player.
He's going to lead us to the championship. We're going to
get a championship because of this. He's going to get the victory.
They have confidence in their acquired player. This is how
most men view Jesus. view the Lord Jesus. They don't
know him as Lord, but they view Jesus this way or what they've
been told. They believe that as a team player, he's going
to get the job done. He's going to make a name for
himself. Even think about this. When teams
win a game, they'll take the most valuable player. Sometimes
they'll hoist him up on their shoulders. We did it together,
but he was the best one. We helped him out. You know,
he's the, he's obviously the best player. He's the MVP. but
we all did our part. You have the interviewers that
come up at the end of the game and they say to the MVP, how
was the game? Well, I couldn't have pulled
it off without my defense. I couldn't have pulled it off without my
offense. I couldn't have pulled it off except so-and-so got the great
hit or scored the goal or whatever it may be, whatever sport it
may be. That's not the way that it is
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not, this is not a, team
sport. This is not a team effort when
it comes to salvation. Now he's prophet, priest, and
king. He is sovereign. He is complete in and of himself. He obtained eternal redemption
by himself. Not without our participation,
or not with our participation, but without our participation.
Not because of us, but to the contrary, in spite of us, and
despite of what we are by nature, being dead in trespasses and
in sin, He accomplished salvation for his people. The Lord Jesus
Christ did it all. He didn't make a name for himself.
He inherited his name because of who he is. See, when we're born, we have
to make a name for ourself. We inherit our father's name,
our father's blood, and if our father was a poor man or a bad
man, as what men would say bad men are in society, then if we
do something wrong, what's the first thing people say? Well,
you know whose child that that is. You know whose son or daughter
that is. Well, it's just a reflection of his daddy or whatever like
that. You've heard those things before. Jesus Christ inherited
his father's name because of who he is. He's God. He's God. And that's what Paul begins this
with right here. Let's read our text here in Hebrews chapter
1 verse 1. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in times 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 sin." Do you see that?
By himself? When he had by himself, without
our participation, without our cooperation, without our input,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. Being made so much better than
the angels because of this, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels
saith he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again, I will be to him a
father and he shall be to me a son. I've titled this message,
The Name of the Lord. The Name of the Lord. He says
here, for he by inheritance obtained a much more excellent name than
they. The Name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is written
and recorded in that particular center, that way, the name of
the Lord in quotations, 108 times in the scripture. 108 times the
Lord is mentioned or his name is mentioned as the name of the
Lord. Now I have a simple question for us this morning. It's very
simple. The gospel is very simple. But
the simple question I have is are you trusting in the name
of the Lord or are you trusting in your name? This is a simple
question. Are you trusting in the name
of the Lord or are you trusting in your name? When you think
of a person's name, you think of their character. You think
of their attributes. And I already mentioned to us
we're born We have our father's name, our father's last name.
We have his blood in us. That's our inheritance, whether
we wanted it or not. Whether he gives us anything
else in life, that's what we obtain from our father. He gives
us his blood, he gives us his last name. What do I mean also
by inheritance? Well, everything he has, everything
that I possess, I leave behind to my children
for the most part. That's how it usually works.
Now there's exceptions to everything. The Lord Jesus Christ, he obtained
his inheritance. He received his inheritance the
same as you and I in that he received the father's name and
he received the father's blood, but the father owns everything.
Therefore he owns everything. This is what he's talking about
here with his inheritance. Our inheritance was through Adam's
blood, meaning we had an earthly inheritance. Nothing spiritual
could come from Adam's blood. He died in the garden. We know
in the garden man fell by disobeying the Lord's one rule that he gave
to them, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil for in the day that you eat thereof you shall die. Well,
being in his loins that long ago, being born of his physical
seed thousands of years later, We are still guilty of the same
sin that's found in our Father Adam, but not Christ. Christ
was born of the Father, having no sin, because the Father's
perfect. He was the perfect man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God incarnate, being robed
in sinful flesh, being robed in the dirt and dust that we
are, and yet, being perfect as God, sinless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, put away the sin of his people. That's our hope. All that I can give my children
is what I own. I can't will what I don't own. And I wrote this down because
I thought it was kind of a, it sounds kind of funny, but really
this is a lot what men believe in religion. I can't will for
my daughters to have your possessions when I die. I can't will them
to have your possessions when you die. I don't have that power. I don't have that authority.
That would be a kind of a scary situation, wouldn't it? Everything
you've worked for in your life, everything that you've accomplished,
and all of a sudden you get a piece of paper that says, well, John
Smith just wheeled away your entire inheritance you were gonna
give to your children to his children, and it's gone. That
doesn't make any sense, does it? Because that's not the way
the law works, is it? That's not the way the law works. I
can't give away something that I don't have, something that's
not mine. I can wheel all the money in Fort Knox to my kids.
but it don't do him any good. They ain't gonna give him the
money that's in Fort Knox. I don't own it. It's not my possession.
It's not in my power to do so. Yet, this may sound foolish,
but men say they will for God to save them. They will for God
to save them. That's being presumptuous because
God already owns them. He made them. He's God. God formed
man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils.
Man became a living soul. And every single person that's
walked the face of this earth since, born of a woman, is owned
by God. He owns it all. All things were
created by Him. And without Him, not anything
made that was made. So His will, when He wills something,
it's going to happen. How do we know that? Well, the
one that wrote the will was the one that died on the cross of
Calvary and was resurrected to make certain that that will is
going to be enacted. That will is going to come to
pass. It's different than you and I. When we die, we're expecting
on. our benefactors or the one that we've placed in the position
of authority to disperse the inheritance for it to come to
pass, not the Lord. He's going to see to it himself.
When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of God. He's going to make sure that
will comes to pass and say they will, but that's
being presumptuous. Look in verse two, What does
he say about the Lord hath in these last days spoken to us
by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things? What does
all things mean? So often we read the scripture
and we overlook precious words such as all. Well, I love that
word all. He's heir of all things. What
is omitted from all? There's no exceptions to all,
is there? What does all mean? All. Everything. Without exception. My simple mind can understand
that. Can't yours? He is heir to all. He is heir
to all. You and I are created, therefore
God owns us. I understand something about
your and your in mind, our name, our inheritance, our whether
we're heir to royalty, whatever in this life, it may mean something
in this life. Somebody says, you ever heard
the expression, you don't have any idea who you're messing with.
You have no idea. What they mean by that is I'm
somebody. I have power. I have authority. Men don't understand
that they have no idea who they're trying to mess with when it comes
to God, because my name doesn't mean anything when it comes to
salvation. It doesn't accomplish anything
when it comes to salvation, but his does. His does. His name is salvation. His name is the Lord, our righteousness. His name is salvation. He hath by inheritance obtained
a much more excellent name than they. Who's the they? He obtained
a more excellent name than they. Who's the they? Well, the angels,
Satan, mankind, all of creation, everything and anything. He has
the highest name. The Lord's given him a name that's
above every name. What does that mean, above every
name? That means everything's below that name. that at the
name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess he's Lord. He's God. He's not just the son
of God. He's not baby Jesus, meek and
mild. He's God, the complete sovereign creator of this universe. Jesus Christ is God. He was not
born to make a name for himself. He was born Because of who he
already was, he was God. He was born robed in flesh. He
was God in that manger just as much as he was God on the cross,
just as much as he's God seated in the heavenlies right now.
He was not because he was not born to become something. He
was born because of who he is. The God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah six, I'm sorry, Isaiah
nine tells us for unto us, a child is born unto us, a son is given.
and the government shall be upon his shoulder." That's what we
see here in our text. He upheld all things by the word
of his power. He was the only one that had
power to uphold all things by the word of His power. You and
I don't have the power to uphold anything by the word of our power.
We have no power to do so, but He by Himself upheld all things
given to Him by the Father. He upheld all things in salvation
by the word of His power. What does that mean? That means
if He promises, He cannot lie, it will be upheld. And what was
promised? Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sin. He's the sovereign judge of everything
created. He's Emmanuel, God with us, this
is some of his names. He's God robed in flesh. He's
Lord of Lords, the scripture says. He's King of Kings. He's
the Ancient of Days. This is who Jesus Christ is.
It's not who he came to become. It's not who he tried to be. You and I may have role models
in life where we, especially kids, I've got, you all know
I have kids and you that have young kids also, you see them,
maybe they'll watch something on TV and they'll start quoting
that and acting kind of like this and getting more of an attitude
because they're reflecting this character or whatever else. Lord
never reflected anybody but the Father because he was God in
flesh. Think about that. He never tried
to be anything. He was God. He never attempted
to please anybody by doing it. He pleased the Father. That's
who he pleased. And it was an attempt. Lord said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Whom I am
well pleased. Lord Jesus Christ is the self-existing
one, one that created all things. He is the eternal. Here's some, I think you call them, a pronoun
describes a noun. That's right, isn't it, Wendy?
Pronoun describes a noun. These are some pronouns of our
Lord. He is the eternal, immutable, successful redeemer. of his people. Eternal means everlasting, he
never had a beginning or end. Immutable, he can't change. He's
the eternal, immutable. Successful means he's seated,
it's finished. He's the redeemer, he redeemed
us back to God. Isaiah 9, 6 continued says, His
name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. What makes His name
different than others? Well, there's no salvation in
any other. There's no salvation in any other, neither is there
any name given among men whereby we must be saved. There's no
other name that ever has been or ever will be given that whereby
we must be saved. There's no other name that's
given that is salvation, but the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no salvation in my name. There's no salvation in your
name. There's no salvation in any other name, but the name,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who gave him that name? Who gave
him that name? Men say he doesn't become Lord
and Savior until we allow him to. That's not what my Bible
says. My Bible says he was born Lord
and Savior, doesn't yours? He was born Lord and Savior. By inheritance, he had obtained
a better name. He was born Lord and Savior.
It'd be like me looking, or you coming up to me and say, well,
Your daughter's name isn't Lacey. I didn't allow it to be. I didn't
choose for her name to be Lacey. That's my daughter. I get to
pick that. That sounds really silly, doesn't
it? But isn't that what men do when they say we're going to
let him be Lord? No, that's his name, Lord. He
already has the title. He's already the sovereign king.
He's already the sovereign conqueror. We don't let him do anything.
God said, this is my son. And he appointed him heir of
all things. By him, all the worlds were created. By him, he purged our sin. This is who he is. This is what
he's done. By inheritance, he obtained a
much better name than all. He's God. Now my simple question
this morning remains, are you trusting in your name or are
you trusting in the name of the Lord? It's a simple question
only you can answer. We can understand the question, but unless He reveals it, we
can't believe. Unless He gives us faith, we can't believe. He's
got to do that. The disciples even said, Lord,
we believe. Help our unbelief. We're not looking to how much
we believe. Men talk about how great faith
they have. That's not faith. Faith doesn't
boast in itself, faith doesn't look to itself, faith looks to
Christ. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, because if it's
based upon how much I believe, I know, I know that it's, if
it's based upon me examining and measuring out how much I
believe, I'm never gonna see it. Help my unbelief just calls
me to look to Christ, calls me to not look to self, calls me
not to trust in my name. How much does Caleb Hickman believe?
That's not the question. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? That's the question. Do you believe in the name of
yourself or his name? We can't trust his name unless
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks life. And he says that very clearly. Verse two, hath in these last
days spoken to us by son. The word his is in italics. That's
how he speaks. It's the only way God speaks.
Jesus Christ being the word of God, that's the only way he speaks
is through and by his son. This is the only salvation. This
is the only name given is the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless he reveals it, we'll never
see it. Did Moses choose to see God or did God choose to reveal
himself to Moses? Do you remember Moses whenever
he fled Egypt because he had committed murder? And he had
been herding sheep on the backside of a desert for 40 years. This
is his father-in-law Jethro's sheep. And he's out, it's just
another day in the 40 years he was there. He's out there herding
sheep. And what happened? Did Moses say, today I think I'm gonna
seek the Lord. Is that what happened? No. What happened? The Lord appeared
in a burning bush and gave Moses the desire to see what that meant
because the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I'll set aside
to see this great thing. and the Lord revealed himself
to Moses. Do you remember what Moses asked
the Lord? The Lord said, Moses, you're going to go down to Egypt.
You're going to tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Of course,
Moses made every excuse about Moses. He said, I can't because
I'm slow of speech. One of these people, they won't
hear me. You know, this and that. The Lord said, who made the dumb
to speak? Who made the lame to walk? Who
calls the dead to rise? Go. Moses didn't have anything
else to say. He can't argue with God. He tried
to say a few more things, but the Lord proved himself to Moses,
and Moses went. But before he left, he asked
the Lord, they're going to ask me what name? What is your name
that I may tell them? Because they're going to ask
me what your name is. And what did God say to him? I am that
I am. I am that I am. Now, to grasp that our minds
can't wrap around, that sounds like a simple statement. He is
what he is. That's not what he means, though.
He's everything. He's all and in all. And he's
the first cause of all. I am that he's, he's everything. And that's, we can't wrap our
mind around that. Faith just believes that. When he went down
to talk to Pharaoh, he said, Pharaoh, the Lord commands that
you let his people go. And what did Pharaoh say? I know
not his name, nor will I let your people go. You can imagine
Moses says, you're fixing to find out. You're gonna learn
when the Lord sends down the plagues upon you, you're gonna
learn who God is. You'll know his name then, you'll
never forget it. Do never forget it. Everything wrought in Egypt
was wrought in the name of the Lord. Moses went out, you remember
over the, who did he call upon every time a plague was about
to happen? Did he say, I am great Moses and I'm going to do this
plague? Called upon the name of the Lord, didn't he? He called
upon the name of the Lord. See, There's the power is in
the name of the Lord, not in us, not in anything we do. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. His name.
The scripture says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart, God hath raised
him from the dead, you shall be saved. Well, how can I believe
unless I hear? A dead man can't believe. Lord,
you're gonna have to give me ears to hear. How can my heart believe
being dead and trespassing and sin, being deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked? Lord, you're gonna have to give
me a new heart to believe. he does to his people, he does. His name is salvation and everything
required he provides. His name, his name is power. Turn with me to the book of Acts
chapter three. Peter and John went to pray in
the temple and they saw a lame man begging for alms on the way
there. And the lame man begging for alms, you can imagine that
was a daily thing. And Peter and John looked upon
him and called unto him and he turned around expecting to receive
money from him. But Peter says this, silver and gold have I
none. But such as I have, give I thee
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he rose. He gained strength through his
legs. Now look in verse 11. And as the lame man, which was
healed, hailed Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.
When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? or while looking so earnestly
on us, as though by our power or holiness, we have made this
man walk. See, there's the confession of
the believer, isn't it? By some holiness of ours or by
some power of ours, that's not how we were saved. It's by his
holiness. It's by his power this was done. Then he confesses that
in verse 13, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the
God of our fathers hath glorified his son, Jesus, whom you delivered
up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and
the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed
the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong. And his name, through
faith in his name, hath made this man strong. Whom ye see
and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this
perfect soundness in the presence of you all. It's not by our power. It's not by our holiness, but
by his name through faith in his name. I love that. It's by
his name that we're given faith to have faith in his name. That's
glorious, isn't it? It's by his name through the
faith in his name that he hath made this man strong. He hath
given him perfect soundness. You know, the scripture says,
he shall keep him at perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee. And I remember in religion, if I could just keep my mind
stayed upon him, I had a perfect peace all the time. Well, yeah,
that's true, but we can't keep our mind on him for one second,
can we? The very moment, the very moment we have peace and
we look to the dove of peace and we look to that feeling,
the dove of peace flies away. It says, no, look to Christ.
Don't look to emotion. Don't look to feeling. The reason
this man had soundness was by faith. in His name, by His name,
by the faith in His name, this man had perfect soundness. You
and I have perfect soundness before God by the faith of Jesus
Christ given to us because of His great name. His name is the
Prince of Peace, isn't it? Now, do you believe and trust
in your name? Do you believe and trust in your name? No, I
don't. Not before God. Not as a righteousness, not as
hope of eternal life. Lord, don't look at my name,
look at his name. Lord, my only hope is that I
was in Christ Jesus when he died upon the cross of Calvary, that
he bore my sin, that he became my substitute, that he became
my surety. If he didn't become my substitute,
if he didn't change places with me on the cross of Calvary, I
have no hope. If my name is not the Lord, our
righteousness, Jehovah sit in you as the Old Testament talks
about. If our name is not literally the Lord Jesus Christ, we have
no hope. but thanks be to God we are heirs
of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ because he by inheritance
obtained a much better name than them and by himself he purged
our sin and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
Do you believe and trust in your name or in the name of the Lord?
That's the question. Turn back just a couple pages
to John 20. The very last verse of the Gospel of John, he says
this, oh, I'm sorry, it's the last to last chapter,
it's chapter 20, I'm sorry. John 20, verse 31. But these
are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. Believing you might have life
through his name. Now that might there, somebody
texted me the other day like, what does he mean might? Is that
like a maybe? That's not what might means. It's a sure thing.
That means he's the only one that could have made it possible.
If he hadn't done it, there would have never been a might there.
The contingency was upon him, not upon us. and he successfully
redeemed his people. Even to say it was contingent
is unbelief because he could not fail because of who he was.
We believe that, don't we? But believing on his name, him
giving the faith to believe on his name, it says we might have
life through his name. Our life is through his name,
not through your and my name. Think about your first birth. What part of your first birth
did you have to do with? I mean, we obviously cause great
distress for our mothers. We obviously were present. We
have no recollection of it. We had no power in the doing
of it. We're completely dependent upon
the mother. That's not wrong, is it? Completely
dependent upon the doctor to deliver. You understand what
I'm saying? What part did we have in the
first birth? What makes us think we have any part in the second
birth? Being dead and trespasses and in sin, spiritually speaking.
Not a bit. So what is our hope? That in
the name of Jesus Christ, we would rise up and walk. That
in the name of Jesus Christ, we would be born again. That
in the name of Jesus Christ, we would be saved. That's our
only hope. That he did it all. That he did
it all. Our life is through his name,
not through our name. Men say, I chose Jesus, but that's
based upon a choice that I make, based upon my name, I. And when
we say I, anytime we say I, make sure, think about saying your
full name when you do that, because whenever you read an article
in the law, if I'm writing something that has to be, it's gonna go
into court, it says I, Caleb Hickman, being of sound mind
and sound body, I have to sign my name to it, I have to put
I and who I am. I can be anybody until you put the name there.
Men say, I chose Jesus. That's based upon who we are
and what we've done. But the believer's plea is this,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, have mercy. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy
on me, the sinner. the sinner. See, that's not a
plea that he would consider anything that we are or anything that
we've done based upon our name. Nothing that we've merited based
upon our name. It has to do everything with who he is and what he's
done. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in
closing, I want to bring these few points to you. The Lord Jesus
Christ is his name. The Lord Jesus Christ. The name
Lord because he's God. He has the name Lord because
he's God. He created all things. Therefore, all things are subject
to him. The scripture says he is the first cause of all things.
He is Lord. He is absolute sovereign. He
is the Lord of Lords. He's over all. That's his title. That's his name, Lord. His name
is Jesus because he is a man, the successful redeemer of God's
elect, the successful redeemer of his people. Everybody that
he shed his precious blood for has been redeemed when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of God.
His name is Jesus because he's a man, the God man. His name is Christ because he's
the only mediator between God and man. His name is Christ because
He's the only mediator between God and man. Without Him, there
is no mediation. There is no other way to God
but by Him, by His will, by His choosing, by His redemption,
by His salvation. There is no other hope but in
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Do you believe on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ or are you trusting in your name? As
far as salvation concerned, or do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ or you to believe on self? It's one or the other. It can't
be both. It cannot be both. The good news is this. If you
say, I don't know, you say, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Well, the scripture says in Romans
10 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. See, the command goes forth, not the invitation. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe. That believing is not
contingent upon you. That believing is completely
based upon him by his grace, giving faith that says believe. And we just believe, and he gets
all the glory. Only by faith can the command,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, be obeyed. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They'll
confess his name. They'll confess his name to the
glory of God. Lord, give us the grace to confess that right now.
Give us the grace to confess it right now and believe on the
name of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, if we've never believed
on your glorious name, the only name given whereby we must be
saved calls us to right now. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. In closing, let's turn
to number 70. Holy.