I've entitled this, In These
Last Days. Hebrews chapter one. God, who
at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. Now the writer of this epistle
begins this epistle with the name of the one who's worthy
to be praised, the one who is the source of all knowledge and
power, God. And that knowledge he chose to
disperse in times past in certain ways, diverse ways we're told. Now everything we know of God,
we're being told by him. We would not know that such a
place as heaven existed were it not for his word telling us
so. We would not know that such a place as hell existed had he
not warned us in his word and also told us that there is a
way that he has ordained for us to be saved from that place.
And the method that he chose to give this knowledge to the
human race in Old Testament days was to speak by prophets, as
we're told, in verse 1. These men are given the message
of God through the Spirit of God moving on them. We know that
from 2 Peter 1, verse 21. It says, for the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, the writer of Hebrews
makes it clear that God used different methods at different
ages to disperse this knowledge. The word sundry that we find
here in this first verse is simply another way of saying miscellaneous
or various. From Adam to Malachi, there were
times when God chose to speak and there were times when he
chose to remain silent. But when he did speak, he used
different methods to do so. And it was his sovereign choice
to speak through his prophets. And it's important to note that
you won't find an instance anywhere of these men taking this upon
themselves. And always, without exception,
these men that were chosen to deliver the message of God, balked at the fact that they
were even called upon to do so. Moses protested to the Lord,
which we read in Exodus 4.10. He said, Oh my Lord, I am not
eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue."
He was not interested in being God's prophet. And the Lord said
unto him, who hath made man's mouth, or who made the dumb,
or deaf, or seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now go therefore,
and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt
say. And in Isaiah 6, verse 1, we
read of the account of Isaiah, and it says that he saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And after he was given
this vision, we read of his reaction. In verse 5 of this sixth chapter
of Isaiah, he said these words, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips, and everybody that I know is exactly
like me. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. Yet Isaiah was used mightily
of the Lord to speak to his people, and he's still being used today
to speak to us. But this attitude of Isaiah is
the attitude of all the prophets of God. They knew themselves
to be highly unqualified for the work which they were called
to do. Now, you'll never find a single account in the Scriptures
of God telling a man that He was going to use him, and that
man replying, Lord, I was wondering when you were going to get around
to choosing me. I can't think of anybody higher
qualified than me. You'll never find that. Every
time you find these men astounded that the Lord would even consider
using them to speak to His people. And the same stands true of the
ministers of God today. You'll never find a man who thinks
himself to be qualified to stand in this place and speak to men
and women about things of eternity. Many of the men that we know,
in fact, all of the men that we know that have been preaching
the gospel for decades, I've spoken to them about this sort
of thing before, and there's not a one of them that yet feel
themselves qualified to stand in this place. They said that
they're more apprehensive now about standing to preach the
gospel than when they were young men, because God has taught them
the enormity of the task which they are undertaking, to speak
to men of eternal things, of damnation and suffering, for
eternal bliss in the presence of Christ. And the prophets of God knew
this to be true themselves. Now God chooses His ministers
today the same way that He chooses His elect people. The manner
of which we read of in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. It tells us, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty." I like this word, confound. I
looked up the meaning of this. So many times we read over these
words and we don't give them a lot of thought. But this word,
confound, it means to throw a person into confusion or perplexity,
to put to shame, to mix up, to make a bad situation even worse. And that's exactly what God's
Word does to lost men and women that are dead in their sins.
They have no understanding of the Word of God. They find it
confusing. They hear particularly the preaching of the sovereign
grace of God, how God chooses men and leaves others, and it
causes complete confusion in their minds. But it's always
been that way. And we're told Unless you're
given eyes to see, you will never know those mysteries that we're
told are hidden in Christ Jesus. Now, the first verse also tells
us that God spoke to the prophets in different ways. He sometimes
spoke in dreams or in visions, and sometimes in an audible voice,
as we read of in Numbers 12, starting in verse 6, he says,
if there be a prophet among you, he's speaking to the people of
Israel, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision
and will speak to them in a dream. He doesn't say, if there's a
prophet among you, they'll know it and they'll come to me and
we'll work out a deal. But he said, not so with my servant
Moses. With him, I will speak mouth
to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches. And sometimes
he spoke by his own handwriting. the things which he would have
his prophets to deliver to his people, such as when he wrote
the Ten Commandments on the tables of stone, or the account that
we find in Daniel chapter 5 of him doing the handwriting on
the wall. This chapter tells us of Belshazzar
the king making a great feast. He invited a bunch of people.
And he thought it'd be great to take the vessels that he had
stolen out of the Lord's temple in Jerusalem and use those for
drinking his wine. They were having a great time.
But in verse five of that chapter, we read this. In the same hour
came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of
the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was
changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his
loins were loosed, and his knees smote together." We're talking
about throwing cold water on a party. So King Belshazzar,
he summoned all his wise men and his soothsayers, and none
of these could read the words that were written on the wall.
But the queen said, there's a man named Daniel. that sometimes
can interpret these things. So the king speedily called Daniel,
summoned him, and he interpreted the writing for the king. But
like so many times that we read of in the Old Testament of God
revealing his will to men, it was not good news. He told the
king that the God in whose hand thy breath is, thou has not glorified. And in verse 30 of this fifth
chapter of Daniel, it tells us that in that very night was Belshazzar
the king of the Chaldeans slain. Now the last thing we see in
this first verse is who it was it was spoken to by the prophets.
We're told it was the fathers. It simply means the leaders,
the Jewish leaders and the kings in the Old Testament. Those whom
God chose to reveal his will and many times his judgment.
the fathers, or as we call them nowadays, the forefathers, those
that have lived before us. Then in verse two here in Hebrews
1, we read that God who previously spoke through the prophets, it
tells us, 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. Now many in our day are looking
for a new sign, of the Lord's coming. I call them prophecy
junkies. They're always looking for something
new. They like to tell you that they've discovered that we're
living in the last days. As if that were some sort of
divine revelation. And it is a divine revelation
because it's revealed right here in Hebrews. We've been living
in the last days since Christ ascended into heaven. But rather
than look for a new sign of the Lord's return, they should be,
as Christ instructed, searching the Scriptures. They are looking
for a Lord to return that they don't even know. They're looking
for His return, not knowing that when He returns, He will set
in judgment of them. The only way God will communicate
with men and women is by His Son. He's not going to give any
new revelations. Christ spoke in the plainest
terms possible when He told Philip in John 14. He said, He that
has seen Me has seen the Father. There will be no new revelations
from God. As the old saying goes, if it's
new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new. And notice the wording here.
It doesn't say that God has spoken unto us through His Son. It says
that God has spoken to us by His Son. Now that was not the
case when Christ walked this earth, because he told us at
that time that he spoke the words of the Father. In John chapter
12, verse 49 and 50, Christ speaks these words. He says, for I have
not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave
me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know this commandment is
everlasting life. Whatsoever I speak, therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. But this all
changed when Christ ascended into heaven. God ceased to speak
through his prophets and began to speak by his son. The son who is a more excellent
spokesman than the prophets ever could be. That son who knows
the mind of God because he is God in human flesh. He knows
the mind of God in all its fullness. And he's far superior to the
prophets, because with their limited human intellect, they
can only understand minute parts of God's plan. Not so with his
son. He literally has the mind of
God being the third person of the Trinity. The scriptures tell us, and it
pleased the Father that in him In Christ should all fullness
dwell. God Almighty has turned over
the reigns of this universe to his son. Christ told his disciples
in Matthew 28, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. It's like when a son takes over
a company, his father ceases to be the spokesman because the
son is the new CEO. And I know that's a poor illustration,
but you get my point. The Father has given control
of this universe over to his Son, including setting in judgment
over this world. John 5.22, For the Father judgeth
no man. These are the words of Christ.
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son. Further, verse 2 tells us that
God the Father has appointed Christ to be the heir of all
things. In John 13, 3, we read, Jesus
knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand. And a similar text is found in
John 3, 35, where he says, the Father loveth the Son and has
given all things into his hand. He is the disposer of all that
God has to disperse onto his children, all the blessings that
God has for his people. And that's only right since we're
told in this same verse that Christ is the one who made the
world. Hence, it's only fitting that he should own it and rule
over it. And in this verse, we find a
miraculous truth. If Christ has been appointed
heir of all things and we are in Christ, then we are, as declared
in Romans 8, 17, joint heirs with Christ. That's an amazing
thing. What he has is ours. to be in
joy forever in His holy presence. Now were it not for God's Word
stating this, it would be ridiculously too good to be true. It would
be enough for wretched, undone sinners to be brought out of
darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. But God goes beyond
our wildest hopes and expectations and makes us joint heirs with
His blessed Son, that Son that possesses and disposes of every
blessing of God. This is the amazing grace of
which John Newton wrote. Then in the third part of verse
two, we read this, by whom also he made the world. This is speaking
of Christ, his son. John 1.3 describes this occurrence. We're all familiar with this,
but let me read it anyway. It says, in the beginning, was
the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. And that same Word, who verse
14 tells us, was made flesh and dwelt among us. Colossians the
first chapter reiterates this when it says for by him were
all things created that are in heaven that are in earth Visible
and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers All things were created by him and for him and he is
before all things and by him all things consist Revelation
411 states, this is the saints singing to the Lord. Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou
hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they were created. And there's one more thing that
we're told was created by the Savior in Ephesians 2.10. For we are His workmanship, Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So in these first two verses
we find some extremely good news that God chooses to speak to
lost men and women and to save men and women and to give unto
him knowledge of himself whereby they can believe by the spirit
given to them. I think we'll go ahead and conclude
there.