but none are compared to Him.
He's superior to Moses. Remember what the Jews said to
Christ? They said, Moses gave us manna
from heaven. You know, they held Moses way
up here on his pedestal, and our Lord said, Moses gave you
not that bread. My Father, which is in heaven,
gave you that bread. Moses didn't have that kind of
power. That belongs to God. And then the Lord Jesus Christ's
priesthood is far superior than that of Aaron. Aaron never sat
down. All those years, and throughout
all the years of the priesthood that followed him, none of them
sat down because none of their work was finished. All those
offerings, all that bloodshed, Can you imagine if you could
gather together in a pool or in a pond all the blood that
was shed from Adam all the way up until the cross, until Christ,
and not one drop of it put away sin. Not one drop. All those
animals that died. The new covenant that was ratified
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to that Old
Testament That Old Covenant, that Old Covenant can never make
the comers, it says, thereunto perfect. It can never put away
sin. Never. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
through His blood and offering, hath put away sin once for all
by the sacrifice of Himself. Now the first verse starts out
with God. God has spoken. That's amazing
right there, that God would speak to this human race. But God has
spoken, God has never left Himself without a witness. He has spoken,
and He has spoken at various times and in various ways and
manners. But this means more, now listen,
this means more than God saying some words through some prophets.
It means more than that. Here it means this. It is God
revealing Himself. It's God revealing Himself. It's
God revealing His redemptive will and purpose at different
times and in different manners unto the fathers, He says, by
the prophets. God spoke by many portions in
many ways. You know, when Adam fell, God
spoke to Adam. He spoke to Adam and Ziv and
Satan. And He said, the seed of the
woman is going to bruise the serpent's head. And that's all
they had. It was like a flash of light,
a glimmer of light of the Messiah, of the Savior, that there's going
to be one Adam that's going to save from sin. Adam didn't know
this until God revealed it, until God spoke and made it known. He spoke to Abraham that the
seed was going to come through his loins. He spoke through Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel. He spoke to these prophets. And
he spoke at different times, and at different times he would
reveal a little here and a little there. He would reveal a type,
a picture, is what he would do. And these prophets, all of them,
they only knew in part, They didn't know the whole. There
are a lot of things they desired to look into. They spoke of things
that they didn't even quite understand. Listen to 1 Peter 1 verse 12,
"...unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels Even
the angels desire to look into these things that you and I now
understand. But those prophets, they spoke
in different times and in different pictures and tithes, but they
didn't completely comprehend what you and I have. We have
the complete revelation of God concerning the redemption of
our soul. We have it. God spoke through these men.
They were men chosen of God to speak. The prophets were... One
writer said this. He said they were the outspeakers.
They were the outspeakers. That means they were the mouthpiece
of God. And that's all they were. They
were inspired of God. The Holy Spirit used them and
spoke through them. Like John the Baptist said, I'm
just a voice. I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness. I'm a voice just like Isaiah
was a voice, Ezekiel was a voice. John said, I'm just a voice,
that's what I am, I'm just a voice crying out the message, telling
out the message that God has given me. But now, but now, God
has spoken by His Son or in Son, God has spoken in the person
of His Son. Hath in these last days, He says
in verse 2, spoken unto us by His Son. As I just said, the
prophets were men called of God, chosen of God, but listen, they
were men at best. They were men at best. Saved
by grace, but still men. Still sinners, saved by grace,
but still men. They were mouthpieces. And God
used several of them to reveal the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here a little, there a little. Bit by bit. They were instruments in God's
hand. But now here's the key. Here's the key. Jesus Christ
is God speaking. See, the prophets, God used them,
and God spoke through them. They were mouthpieces. But Jesus
Christ is not a mouthpiece like the prophets of old. Jesus Christ
is God in the flesh speaking. That's what He's saying. He's
God speaking. Christ is put into a different
category than the prophets. He is the Son. He is co-equal
with the Father. He is co-eternal with the Father.
He's of the exact substance of the Father. That's what He's
saying. This time, and I want you to
get this, this time it was not a revelation given through words.
You see, that's what we think when we read that, that when
God spoke, it's a revelation given through words. When Jesus
Christ came, it's a revelation given through a personality.
It's a revelation given through a person. He said, He that has
seen Me has seen the Father. You're looking at the Father.
There's no difference. There's no difference. Jesus
Christ is the final revelation to this human race. You know, when the prophets wrote,
you can go back through here and look, and you've got the
prophets, you've got the judges, you've got Samuel, you've got
Job, you've got the Psalms of David. When's the last time something's
been written? Around 2,000 years ago? the scriptures,
the apostles, after about 50, 60 years or something like that,
after the Lord has sent it back to glory, we ended up with the
New Testament, and that's it. There's not been any more. There's
no more epistles being written. There's no more prophets. Jesus
Christ is the final revelation. That's what He's saying. And
in these last days, this is the end of it. I don't know when
the very last day will be, but He said, in these last days,
and you and I are in the end of it. We're at the end. And
Jesus Christ is the final revelation. All other revelations pointed
to Him. The whole Old Testament pointed
to Him. And here He is. He's come. God's not going to
give us anymore, and He's already given us. I used to work for
a Mormon. And he and I got into some good
discussions. And I gave him some tapes of
Henry's. I made him listen to one. Made him so mad he couldn't
stand it. They even called me in the office
and told me, don't ever talk about that again. Don't bring
it up. Because he was so upset, he went
to one of the head guys. But anyway, he said, you mean
to tell me... See, they have their prophet.
They have their prophet there in Utah. He has these revelations. He said, you mean to tell me
that God has nothing else to say that there's no new revelations?"
I said, exactly. Jesus Christ, who came in the
flesh, God manifested in the flesh, is the last revelation.
He's it. He's all this book is about.
He's all that it's about. And I think I've told you that
story before, but I told him, I said, why would He give us
any more revelations if you don't understand what He's already
given? If you don't read what He's given, I said, do you know
what He said? And I said this to Him, I said, do you know what
this says? Do you know what all this here says? Then why would
He give us any more? But Jesus Christ is the final
revelation because He is God. He comes into this world and
said, here I am. I am that I am. I am the bread of life. I am
the life. I am light. I am... is the light, and the light is
standing in front of you. Life is standing in front of
you. Redemption is standing in front of you. The promise seed
of the woman, the Messiah, is standing in front of you. He
is the final revelation. The prophets The prophets, they
were created and used of God, but Jesus Christ, the Son, because
that's who is speaking here is of His Sonship. He's not created. The Son was given. The Son is
eternal. Christ is the eternal Son of
God come in the flesh. He is the final revelation. God has revealed Himself in the
second person of the Trinity. That's what he's done. He's revealed
himself in the second person of the Trinity. Now here's another
point of his superiority. "...whom he hath appointed heir
of all things." That was not said of any prophet
that God used, that God spoke through. That's only said of Jesus Christ. He is the heir of all things,
all things seen and unseen. That new earth, that new heaven
and new earth, the angels, all that will dwell on that new
earth, they're all His. All are His. Even right now,
right now, all are His. Even the unbelievers are His. Those who don't believe Him are
His. The devil is His. The fallen angels are His. Everything
has been put into the hands of Jesus Christ to do with as He
will. He's the sovereign Christ because
He's God. He will inherit everything. He
reigns over everything. We'll see this in just a minute
here. That was not promised to anybody but Him. It all belongs
to Him. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. It's all His. It says the kingdoms, the kingdoms of this world have
become the kingdoms of our Lord. They're all His. All of it. Now
here's another point of His superiority. By whom also He made the worlds.
He's superior in that He's the Creator. That word world means
ages. He made the ages. Not just as
an instrument, but now listen, as the agent. He's the agent. God used to create the world.
In the beginning, God... We just looked at this a few
weeks ago. In the beginning, God... Do you know who that God is? Jesus
Christ. He is that God. All things, it
says, were made by Him and for Him. And not anything that was
made was made without Him. He made everything. He's the Creator. All the laws
and purposes that guide creation, day by day, reside in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It says, over Colossians, by
Him all things consist. That means all things are held
together. All things are held together.
All the ages through time are arranged and controlled by Him. They're controlled by Him. There's a man in glory who is
God, who controls everything second by second. Second by second. Whatever's going on in Africa,
whatever's going on in China, whatever's going on in America,
whatever's going on all over this world, He's making it happen. He's making it happen in order
to bring to pass His eternal purpose, which God purposed in
Christ before the world began. He's making all these things... all these things come together. You know, I was over one little
old business. Just one little old business.
He's over the universe. I was watching a program last
night and it was showing this desert, but they showed all these
stars at night. You can see in the desert where
there's none of these city lights, but it was just like pinholes
in a blanket. Just trillions. And that's just what we can see.
He's over all that. He controls all of that and makes
them do according to His will. And whatever effect they have
on us is the reason they exist. It's their effect on this earth. And He's over it. That's our
Lord. That's the captain. That is the
captain of our salvation. That's who He is. And here's
another point of His superiority. who be in the brightness of His
glory." The outshining, the outraise is what it's called. They call
it the effulgence. I can't even say that word. But
it's the outshining of God. Jesus Christ is the exact stamp. It's like an engraver. He's the
exact stamp. He is the exact image of God. That's why He could say, He that
has seen me has seen the Father. That's why He could say that. It's not like just seeing...
One writer I was reading, he said, it's not like just seeing
the rays coming from the sun, but it's like the rays coming
from the sun and becoming that same light body. It's the same. It's the same. It's like looking at the sun.
And then you turn, and there the sun is standing in front
of your face. He's God. If you'd know God,
study Jesus Christ. You could study any one of the
prophets now. I'm telling you, take any one
of the prophets. Study them. Study their lives. And you wouldn't
come to know God. You would not come to know God.
But if you study Jesus Christ, If you take my yoke upon you
and learn of Me, you'll come to know God Almighty. If you
take Him in the Gospels, in the four Gospels, and watch Him move,
and watch how He handles sinners, and watch how He deals with those
Pharisees, what you are watching is God Almighty. That's what
you're observing. You're observing God in action. You're observing God in the flesh.
That's what you're doing. Jesus Christ is the full expression
of God. You cannot see or know any more
of God than you can know and see in Jesus Christ. Every attribute of God is fully
and perfectly, perfectly expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, Pink has a book on the attributes of God. And you can
go through that book and read it, and then apply every one
of them to Jesus Christ. Every one of them. He is the
perfect expression of the attributes of God. It is written in Colossians,
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him. But all that God is, is Christ. It's Him. And here's another expression
of His superiority. And upholding all things by the
word of His power. That means more than someone just holding up
a weight. That means more than just by
His Word, He's just holding up the weight of everything. It
has more of a meaning than that. But right now, as well as in
ages past, all things, all things are working together. All things,
and it might be a better way to put it like this, all things
right now are being maintained and moved forward by Jesus Christ. Right now. Like a well-oiled
machine. Under His control, under His
authority, and it's working. It's working exactly like it's
supposed to be working. Now to the world, and sometimes
to us, it looks like chaos, doesn't it? You look at things and you
say, my, this thing just looks so crazy. No. It's right under his thumb. And
like a well-oiled machine, it's moving in the right direction.
It's moving in the direction of God's purpose before He created
all of this. Christ is maintaining all things
as He moves them toward their desired end and designed end. He's moving them forward. But
here is His chief glory, here is His chief superiority over
all, and that's His redemptive glory. Christ the Substitute. God standing in our place. God. and all that He is standing
in our place. God is the only one who could
put away my sins. He's the one I've sinned against.
You know, David said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done evil in thy sight. And God is the only one that
can put it away. No one else. No one else. When he had by Himself purged
our sins. This is what He came to do. He
came to magnify the law, make it honorable. He came to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He came to die. He didn't come into this world
to live. He came to die. That's why He
came. But here's what he's saying here,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, He carried out a cleansing. He effectually, Jesus Christ
effectually carried out a cleansing. He cleansed us from our sins. He cleansed us from our sins
by putting away our sins. They are no more. They're gone. Goats and calves couldn't do
this, but He did. And it says He did this by Himself. He did this by Himself. The Scripture
says He tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. No one else could step into that
winepress. No one else had the credentials
to step into that wine press and help him. None. None. He possessed all the credentials
that he needed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
God. It's written over in Acts 20,
that we were redeemed by the... Paul speaks of being redeemed,
that our sins were put away by the blood of God. By the blood of God. And the
proof of His superiority is this. After He put away our sins, after
He purged our sins, He did something for the first time no other priest
ever did. or whatever could do. He sat
down. He sat down. This was a solemn and a formal
act. He walked up. When He went into
heaven, He walks up and He just sits right down. That's what
it says. "...sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high." Oh, can you imagine that event?
Can you imagine when He entered into glory, when He ascended
on high, and He walked over and sat down? No other priest ever
did that. They couldn't. They couldn't.
When He cried, it is finished, the redemption of God's people
on the cross The sin issue has been dealt
with and put away successfully. Successfully. My sins won't come
back and haunt me. You know, there's thoughts I'm
sure we all have of our past. There's things we wish we hadn't
done. You know, those thoughts will never arise. The Scripture
says these things, the former things, it says the former things
will not come into remembrance. You won't even remember. They
won't come into remembrance. Not in a way that it disturbs
you, bothers you, like it does now. It won't bother you. Because that's how complete it
is. And note where He sat down. On the right hand of the Majesty,
Well, that just has a name, doesn't it? Your Majesty, not on this earth, but in heaven.
In heaven. It is a position of dignity and
authority. And then I'll close with this,
verse 4. We begin to see here His superiority. We've seen it over the prophets. He's superior in who He is, in
His power, He's the Creator, He's the Redeemer, He put away
sins, His superiority over all the Old Testament sacrifices.
And here it's over the angels. The Jews, and I think primarily
to whom this is being written to, because he talks about there
in verse 1, "...who has sundry times and diverse manners spake
in time past unto the fathers." He's speaking about those Jewish
fathers. But they made a lot out of the angels, more than
any of us would ever even think about doing. But they did. But
know this, he says, "...being made so much better than the
angels, as yet by inheritance, obtained a more excellent name
than they. The angels were created. Every
one of them. Who created His angel spirits
and His ministers of flame and fire? God. I'll tell you who
did. Christ did. That's who created the angels. That's why He has a more excellent
name, because of who He is. He's their Creator. He's the
one who created Satan. He was the angel of light. He
created Michael and Gabriel and that whole innumerable host of
angels. He created them. The Son was not created. He's eternal and He's the Creator. And His name sets Him apart from
all others. Son of God. The only begotten
of the Father. Full, John says, full of grace
and truth. The Jews saw man. That's what
they saw. They said, we know you, you're
the carpenter's son. But he's more than a man. He's more than
an angel. He is the living God. What the writer is saying is
Jesus Christ is more than a man, He is God, He's the Creator of
heaven and earth, and He's our Redeemer. He's our Redeemer. Jesus Christ is superior to all
before Him and after Him, and none shall ever rival Him. None. And nothing can rival our love
to Him. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother, son or daughter is not worthy of me. He's not worthy of me. But our
Lord, right in the beginning of the book of Hebrews, It's
just like a flash of lightning coming out. It's like the sun
rising with healing in His wings, the sun of righteousness. It
just flashes out. His superiority just jumps out
right off the bat, right from the get-go of this epistle. You
know, in the other epistles, you know, Paul writes to Peter. They introduce themselves to
the church, and they're the apostles, and they're writing. But this
one just jumps out with God. It starts out with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then the rest of the book,
this book, goes from there on the greatness, the glory, the
excellency of this man whom we worship and is our God. Jesus Christ is my God. And He's
my Savior. That's why David could say in
the Psalm, God has become my salvation. God's become my salvation. In the person of His Son, God's
become my salvation.