If you want to turn in your Bibles
to the book of Hebrews, chapter 1, we're going to continue there.
As you're turning there, I want to make a few comments about
this text of Scripture. There's no way that we can actually
visit every thought surrounding this scripture. And that's part
of the frustration I feel as I'm preparing these sermons.
First, I can't see every thought. And secondly, many times I'll
have thoughts that we're just unable to get it all in there.
Maybe the Lord, according to his grace, will actually give
you, as you meditate on these words of scripture, an understanding
of the significance of what God has said here. But with that
in mind, I want to read a couple of scriptures to you, because
these scriptures are background to what we're gonna read in Hebrews
chapter one. In Deuteronomy chapter 33 and
verse 27, we read these words and think about these things.
The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting
arms. Doesn't that just make your shoulders
relax? All the tension seems to leave when you, the eternal
God, is your refuge, is our refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. And now I wanna read this
one also to you in Psalm 119 and verse 89. It says this, forever, O Lord,
thy word is settled in heaven. That means it's established,
it's not moving. and it happened from eternity
forever. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. Thou hast
established the earth and it abideth. And then if we were
to read these words in Psalm 90, we would see a similar theme.
He says in Psalm 90 verse one, Lord, this is a Psalm Moses wrote,
Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. We were in the Lord. even before
we had a being. Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. The eternal God
is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Let's
turn to Hebrews chapter one. And I want to read these words
there with you, just two descriptions of the Lord Jesus that we're
going to consider this morning. Last week, we examined what we
could about this phrase that the Lord Jesus is appointed heir
or the inheritor of all things. He's the sole inheritor. He himself
is the only heir. of all things, so that anything
we have must be His. He has to give it to us, therefore
we must come to Him for it. And He will give it, He will
give what is His, and all that we have we must credit to Him.
And this is very, very significant. And the next phrase in this scripture,
in Hebrews chapter one, builds on that. Let me read from verse
one. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time, passed unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son,
or in his son, or just simply in son. That's a significant
phrase in and of itself. If I wanted to communicate something
to you, I might speak to you, I might write it down, I might
send a messenger to tell you. In some way, I have to audibly
speak it or write it down, or I might demonstrate it. But how
would God communicate who he is in his eternal nature and
character? his mind and his heart, what's
dear to him, what his purposes are. How would he do that? It's
too much to put in words. So how does he say it? His son. It's in his son. Here's my son,
the only one adequate to convey God himself, a person, the eternal
son of God in our nature as man. And then he says, he hath in
these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things. And so we're going to go on,
he says, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Here we have God's description
to us of his son. At the opening part, we see that
God is speaking to us through his son, which is a prophet's.
That's what God comes to men through the prophet and speaks
his word. The Lord Jesus Christ is our prophet, God's appointed
prophet. And he doesn't speak merely by
his words, although he does speak by his words. He also speaks
by his life. And in him we see the eternal
God, God the Father. He's the prophet. who discloses,
who discovers to us, who makes known to us God in his very nature,
his mind, his purpose, his will, his works. All that he is as
God, we see it in his son. There's a perfect revelation
of God in his son. And then he says, not only is
he a prophet, but he describes the majesty of the one who is
our prophet. He is the son of God. He made
the worlds. He's the brightness of God's
glory. He's the exact or expressed image of his person. And he upholds
everything by his word. So he lifts him up. He shows
his preeminence above everything as God, the son, and as the appointed
mediator. And now here he holds up his
son to us. And while holding him up to us,
In all these things which are phenomenal, incomprehensible,
how can God have such a glorious son as this? He then brings him
to this place of our high priest. because he says, when he had
by himself purged our sins. Now the Son, the glorious creator
of heaven and earth, is brought down to our level as our high
priest, and he himself purged our sins. So he's brought even
lower because he made himself an offering for sins of sinners. You see, but then he doesn't
stop there. He lifts him back up because
of his accomplishments as our mediator. He says he is sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. From heaven's throne
to Calvary's cross to heaven's throne. This is what the scriptures
do to the Lord Jesus Christ. They lay out over and over and
stack up, accolade upon accolade, to him. They ascribe to him one
glorious attribute after another in his person. It's as if the
scriptures cannot say enough good about Christ. It's a never-ending
stream of honor that's paid to the Son of God. First, in his
person as son, second, in his role as our prophet and our priest,
and then also as our king, the one who made himself an offering
for sins, the sacrifice of God, the sacrifice for his people
to God for us. Amazing, amazing. So I want you
to see this in an overview way. He made the worlds. He can't
say enough good about Christ. He heaps up one great ascription
upon another. He gives us a never-ending explosion
and discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. And I want
you to look at this one with me here that we looked at last
week because I want to transition to the next one from there. He
says he was appointed heir of all things. Now as the son, the
only begotten son, by right he is the heir, the sole heir of
all things. He's the creator. He's the son
of God. Therefore, all that is God's
is his as an inheritance. But not only is it his by right
as the son, he says here that he has been appointed heir of
all things. And you don't appoint the son
to receive what's naturally by right his. So he has to be appointed
to be the heir of all things as our mediator. And therefore
a double honor is paid to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is
he worthy of this as the only begotten Son of God who alone
shares the very nature of God, the Father. But also he's worthy
of this because as our mediator, he's worthy because of the work
he accomplished, because of the love he had, because of all that
he did for his people. And those words that say, God
has spoken to us by or in son, or as it says in the King James,
by his son, they communicate something very important and
significant to us also. that all that God the Father
is, we see in His Son. When you look at the Son of God
in our nature, in the body of a man, you're looking, when you
see Him with God-given eyes of faith, you are seeing the very
heart of God the Father. And this is what we're going
to get into here in a minute. But as the heir of all things,
the next thing he says about him is that he made the worlds. You see that? The heir of all
things by whom also he made the worlds. So if he is the heir
of all things and he made the worlds, we see that he made the
worlds in order to inherit all things. He is the heir of all
things and therefore he made the worlds to inherit all things.
And because he made the world, he inherits all things. So there's
a connection, an intimate connection between these two things. He's
not only the heir, the one alone who is given everything by his
father, but he's also the one who made all things. And last
week, we looked at that briefly about the honor the heir has
and the esteem, the favor that he has. Remember Pharaoh and
Joseph? Pharaoh saw that Joseph was wise
and faithful and true, so much so that he committed to Joseph
all of his kingdom. And he put him in charge. He
gave him authority over all things. And he put this gold chain around
his neck and made him ride in his own chariot. He honored him.
So this is what God is saying about his son. And then there
was Mordecai. given by King Ahasuerus authority
over his entire kingdom, whatever Mordecai wrote. He said, put
my seal on it. That's what I want done. And
he arrayed him in his own splendor, the majesty of his own clothes,
and put him on his horse and set the crown on his head with
such honor, the honor of the king himself, given authority
over the king's kingdom. And these are all pictures to
show us the honor and the blessings and the authority and the power
God has given to his son. Daniel also, and Darius, remember?
He made him the president, the chief over all 120 presidents,
and because Daniel was so wise and so faithful and true, all
this honor. And God the Father has said to
his son, oh, son, I love you so much. You please me in everything
that you think and do and say. And so therefore he gave him
all things. And he says now, he assigned
this to his son before the foundation of the world and therefore the
Lord Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth. He's the
maker of the worlds. He made the worlds. And so we
learn something about this, the magnificence of the person, and
the honor that God has placed on him, and his authority, the
ruler of all things, the sovereign over all. No one could lift up
a hand or foot in Egypt without Joseph, and everyone had to go
to him for anything. Now, when we think about these
things, when we think about this phrase, that by whom also he
made the worlds, we have to realize something from scripture. Throughout
scripture, God has claimed that he created the worlds. It's not
just said once in a while. The very beginning, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. And then even in the book
of Revelation, Revelation chapter four and verse 11, he says this
about the Lord. This is the description given
to him by all the hosts of heaven. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power. And listen, for thou has created
all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. From
Genesis to Revelation, God reveals that he himself created the heavens
and the earth. And in Hebrews chapter one, we
see this, verse two, we see that this is what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. What does this mean about him?
It means he's absolutely almighty. His Word, the things that we
see, the things that are in this world, and the things we don't
see, the powers that we know in this world, and the powers
that are that we can't see and we're not really aware of, Christ
created all of them. And He did it by speaking. It
says in Psalm 33, Listen to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse six, by the word of the Lord. Actually, this is a reference
not only to his spoken word, but to himself as the word of
God. By the word of the Lord were
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of
his mouth, by his spirit. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as an heap. He layeth up the depths and storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done.
He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to nothing. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Do
you see what God is saying about his role as creator? Before him,
there was nothing. Everything that is was made by
him. Everything that is outside of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ created by his word. Such authority that
he could command the empty void and darkness and out of that
and into that he would bring light and all things. that are. Without Him, there's nothing
made that was made. John 1, it talks about His eternality,
because before there was any time, before there was any cycles
of the earth and the stars and the planets in this solar system
and throughout the universe, before all of that was, before
we had a being, The Lord Jesus Christ was, and He was the Word
of God, and He brought all things into existence by His Word. So
He's eternal, and He's almighty. Who but the Almighty could command
nothingness and out of it bring everything that now is? And it says here that His counsel
is the only counsel that's going to stand. He's going to bring
all the counsel of the heathen to nothing. All the thoughts
of his heart will forever stand. Nothing of all God thinks will
be left undone. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
But why did he create this world? What was the main purpose? Was
it just to create a world of people? And through the cycles
of time, those people would live and die, and others would be
born, and they would live and die, and so on? What was the
purpose? Was there no other purpose but
this? Well, he did it for his own pleasure, but he also created
this world to create a people for himself. He created this
world in order to redeem a people to himself. Remember when God
created the woman, Eve, in the beginning? How did he do that?
He had already created the man. Here Adam was living and breathing,
but he caused Adam to fall asleep and from his side he took a rib
and from that rib he formed a woman and brought her to the man. Who
did this? The Lord Jesus Christ. And in
doing that you can hear the eternal purpose of God and see the delight
of his soul that he would create the woman from the man looking
forward through that figure or type or picture to the fact that
he would create a people for himself, not just through his
spoken word. but through himself, the word,
laying down his life for them. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. You see, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also he made the world. He is the heir of
all things, therefore he created all things. Because he created
all things, they're all his, but he was appointed heir over
them as the mediator. And in creating those worlds,
The main purpose, the delight of his soul, was to bring redemption
to his people, to have them for himself. The pinnacle of his
work is what? His own life laid down for his
people. Now, keep this in mind. When we look at these things
and consider these things, we see that magnificence in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He who is God, he who upholds
the world, was made a servant in the world. He alone whose
right it is to rule made obedience his rule of life. The shepherd
for the sheep was offered. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
You see the paradox, the immensity, the just for the unjust. He died the just for the unjust
that He might bring us to God. Incredible. It just explodes
in our mind who the Lord Jesus Christ is and when we see Him,
This is the Father. This is the heart of our Father,
our God, our Father, who the Lord Jesus Christ is, just is
discovered to us, line upon line through the Scripture, and by
the Spirit of God made known to us in our hearts, so we see
that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only God Himself, but is
our Savior. He's not only our Judge. but
he's our justifier. He's the one who laid his life
down for us. And these things are meant to just set us back
in awe. If the one who created the world
is meant to cause all the peoples of the earth to stand in awe
of him and to reverence him, how much more what he had to
accomplish by his own life and death would make us stand in
awe of him? And when we so see him, we're
seeing the very heart of God the Father. So that when the
Lord Jesus Christ stoops, would a woman who was brought before
him, taken in adultery, and he himself stoops, and writes his
word on the ground, and silences her accusers, and then stoops
again, and sends them away, because he himself stoops to fulfill
his own word, in order to justify her. We're seeing the very heart
of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
to the woman of Samaria and he says, woman, give me to drink. And she goes back and forth with
him. And then at the end, he tells
his disciples, I have meat to eat that you know not of. He
asked her for a drink and finds drink in providing himself to
her as her salvation and making himself known. That was the drink
that she gave him. She didn't know. In this we see
the very heart of God. And when the leper comes to Jesus
and he says, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I will
be thou clean. That's the very heart of our
God and Savior. And when the disciples are sitting
in the room just before he goes to the cross and he stoops down,
he lays aside his garments and takes a towel and girds himself
with the towel and then he takes a basin of water and washes their
filthy feet. because he had already cleansed
them by his own blood in the purposes of God. That's the Father,
you see, in our Savior. So that we now have the barrier
removed in our own minds and by our own wicked works to see
God's true nature and character in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes,
he is just. Yes, he is holy. Yes, he is righteous. but He's also the one who made
the worlds and made them to have a people and have them that He
might save them in order that He might make the glories of
His perfections in their salvation known, His everlasting love to
them, His grace, His mercy, and His pure holiness in doing so. If God made the worlds and He's
outside the world, He doesn't depend on the world. If God made
the world and all things that are in it, then he is before
all things. And if God made the worlds, then
he endures beyond the world. He says later on in Hebrews 1
that he's going to fold them up as a garment. He's going to
take like a vesture, like your clothing. You take it off, you
fold it up, and you put it away. That's what he's going to do
with the world that he created first. He's going to fold it up and
put it away. And then he's going to create it new. And that world,
that heaven, and that earth will never fail. Because that's why
he created it first, to be a prototype, an exemplar. a pattern of everything
that would follow. And that's why we see in the
book of Hebrews that we look for the world to come, you see,
in which our Savior reigns and nothing in it shall fail. So
he hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
He made the worlds. Is there anything too hard for
him? If God made the worlds out of nothing, can he create me
new as a dead sinner? Can he bring me back to life
from my own spiritual deadness? Yes, he can, but it's not just
by his spoken word. It's by the living word made
flesh dwelling among us and being made sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him and therefore might
be forgiven and given all things even created in Christ Jesus
as the work of God himself. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. So you see the parallelism in
scripture. First, we can understand something,
at least a little bit, of the immensity of God's power and
His magnificence, His eternality, in the fact that He created the
world out of nothing and upholds them too. We can see that. But
God is telling us these things in order to enable us to step
beyond that, to see that He created a people for Himself, thy maker.
is thy husband and thy redeemer. In Isaiah 54, verse seven, you
see. So he made the worlds. And he
goes on. He says, by whom also he made
the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory. The brightness. of His glory. Now the word brightness
here, we think of it as intense brightness, right? And there's
nothing wrong with that. It means that. when you understand
the other part of its meaning. But it also means the rays or
the outshining of the light as the rays of the sun. You can't
separate the rays of the sun and the sun itself because they
emanate from the sun. Without the rays, the sun would
have no value. and there would be no rays without
the sun. So they're intricately the same in that sense. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the outshining, the discovery of, the revelation
of the Father. He's the brightness of his glory. Not just a little bit of him,
but all of him. His glory, that which we think
of as the very, the highest, most magnificent part of God,
if you could think of it that way, the aspects of God. There's
nothing about God that's not magnificent, but if you could
think about the thing about God that most attracts you, that
causes you to most worship Him, Christ is the brightness of that.
And what is it that gives us the greatest pause when we think
about God the Father, or God in general, God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Well, we think about His power,
don't we? We think about His wisdom, don't we? But isn't it
his grace, isn't it his everlasting love for sinners that sent his
son into the world, that gives us the greatest, that makes us
bow in our heart, in sobriety of mind, awestruck in reverence
before him, that he would look upon such one as I am, that he
would consider us the brightness of his glory, In Isaiah chapter
six, Isaiah saw the Lord, it says. I saw the King, the Lord
of hosts. Look at this in Isaiah chapter
six. He says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train
filled the temple. In other words, His person, his
glory, his beauty just filled, edge to edge and top to bottom,
the place that he occupies, where all of his worship is. Above
it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings, with twain he
covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with
twain he did fly. These beings, whatever they are,
these seraphims, which are not God, and yet they're flying in
the midst of heaven in the temple where God is, seeing his glory,
and they're crying, holy, holy, holy, he says. One cried to another
in verse three and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. He just fills the entire space with his glory. And these
beings which are able to praise God in this way and be in his
presence without being like us, we couldn't bear the presence
of God. No man has seen God at any time. No man can approach
to the light of God. As one hymn writer wrote a long
time ago, he says, eternal light, eternal light, how pure that
soul must be, which placed within thy burning light shrinks not,
but with calm delight can live and look on thee. The angels
that surround thy throne may bear that burning bliss, for
surely they have never, never known a fallen world like this.
But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is
dim, before thee ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the
uncreated being? There is a way. The hymn writer
continues, there is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode,
an offering and a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit's energies and
advocate with God. These, these, by these we, the
sons of ignorance in night may bear, may dwell with the eternal
light through the eternal love. So these seraphims were crying,
holy, holy, holy, but they themselves covered their feet and their
faces as they flew to cry, holy, holy, holy. Who is the one they're
singing here of? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says in John 12, 41, that when Isaiah saw his glory, he spoke
of him. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the glory of the Lord Jesus. He's the brightness of God's
glory. We can't see God, but we see
him in the Son. And we can't know God in his
glory, but we see his glory in his Son. And so Isaiah says,
it says here in verse four of Isaiah six, and the post of the
door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was
filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone. That's what the hymn writer was
saying. How shall I whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is
dim before the ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the
uncreated being? He goes on, he says, because
I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts, you see. Now, in Hebrews chapter 1, where
it says he's the brightness of his glory, understand that he
says this at that great divide in history, when all that had
been revealed of God that came before by the prophets was fragmented
and partial and spoken by mere men. And now, at this divide
in history, At the appointed time, in the fullness of time,
the Lord Jesus Christ comes, who is the brightness of God's
glory. You know what it's like at night?
The moon is shining, the stars are out, and then in the morning,
what happens? The sun rises. And what happens to the moon
and the stars? You don't see them anymore, do
you? Why? Because of the intense brightness
of the sun. The sun has risen. The sun has
risen on the night of Earth's history. And even though God
spoke in these representative lights, the reflective lights
of the moon, and these smaller lights, the lesser lights of
the stars, Now he's speaking as it were in the sun and the
rest of these other lights just fade away because of the full
revelation of God in his son, the brightness of his glory,
the brightness of his holiness and righteousness and the brightness
of his truth and his grace met together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see here the just and
the justifier. The just because he will not
look over sin, and the justifier because even though in his holiness
he can't look upon sin, he has found in himself a way to justify
the ungodly. This is amazing. You see, this
is what, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, take you there. This
is the message of scripture. Christ has come. The wisdom of
God has come. The one in whom the fullness
of the Godhead bodily dwells has come. And we're complete
in him now. We don't need another. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, he says, In verse 1, do we begin again
to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of
commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Do
we need you to send us a resume and boast up what we've done?
You see that on TV all the time. We were watching something the
other night about someone who was helping these people build
a house. And I don't know how these programs are designed.
The one who did all this work for these people kept asking
the people, how did I do? How did I do? What do you think
of what I've done? Wasn't that an excellent idea I had? Commending
themselves, asking the people for commendation for them. Paul says, I don't need letters
from you. I don't need others to write
letters about me. You know why? Because the Spirit
of God has written on your hearts and you are a living letter of
commendation of his work. He says in verse two, you are
our epistles. written in our hearts, known and read of all
men, forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of
Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart. And such trust have we through
Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who hath also made us able ministers of the New Testament. Not of
the letter, not of the Old Testament, but of the spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the spirit gives life. You see the Old Covenant,
it kills. What gives life? The new Christ,
the spirit of God. Jesus said, the words that I
speak to you, they are spirit, they are life. The words of Christ,
the gospel. Verse seven, but if the ministration
of death, which is the law, written and engraven on stones was glorious,
so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold
the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory
was to be done away. All right, Moses' face shone. He went up to the mountain, he
met with God, he came down. The people saw his face, they
were afraid, because his whole face was glowing. He had been
with God. What made his face glow? The
giving of God's law. That was a glorious thing, wasn't
it? But he says, oh, but wait, I have something to say. How
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? The Spirit is given because the
redeeming blood of Christ was shed and Christ was risen and
sits on the throne and gives his Spirit to his people for
whom he shed his blood, to whom he gives eternal life. And he
goes on, he says, He contrasts the two. If the law was glorious,
how much more is the giving of God's Spirit in the New Testament
glorious? Verse 9, For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, how much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory? God is giving us the righteousness
of His Son. How much more glorious is that
since the law required righteousness from us and condemned us for
not providing it? For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect. The law had no glory
in this respect. Why? By reason of the glory that
excelleth. Like the sun at noonday, everything
else fades into insignificance. He's the brightness of God's
glory. Do you see? He's the brightness. They had
a glory in the Old Testament. In the tabernacle, the Shekinah
glory of God shone. What shines now? the glory, the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. which it says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 6. He says, God who commanded the
light. He's drawing the analogy now
for us between creation and the spiritual creation and the gospel. He says, God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, you see. Where is God's glory seen? In
the face of Jesus Christ. How do we know it? Through the
gospel. He preaches the gospel to us.
And by his spirit, he shines the light on Christ, in whom
we see the glory of God. He's the brightness of God's
glory. Now, turn with me to 1 Timothy,
1 Timothy chapter 6. I want you to see this. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, He's speaking about a time coming
when the Lord Jesus Christ would come again. And when he comes,
he's going to make known his father. He says in verse 13,
he says, Paul writing to Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, verse 13, I give
thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things. And
before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good
confession. that thou keep this commandment
without spot unrebukable unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ." When the Lord Jesus Christ appears is what he's speaking
about, that time. which in his times he shall show
who is the blessed and only potentate, that word potentate means governor
over all, the king of kings and the Lord of lords, who only hath
immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power
everlasting, amen. What's going to happen when the
Lord Jesus appears? Then God the Father will be made
known in His appearing. When we see Christ, we'll see
the Father. We can't approach to God the Father. We can't see
God the Father. No man has seen Him. No man can
see Him. What do we see then? How do we
know Him? The Lord Jesus Christ will appear.
One more text of scripture. Look at 1 John. 1 John. These things, as I was thinking
about this, came to mind, and I think that this is what this
is helping us understand. 1 John, chapter 1, in verse 5. 1 John, chapter 1. This then
is the message which we have heard of him, and declaring to
you that God is light. God is light. And in him is no
darkness at all. So what does this mean that God
is light? Well, first of all, it means
that you know what light does. I do this all the time. If I
want to see something, I grab a flashlight and I turn it on.
What does it do? It lets me see things that were
otherwise hidden, doesn't it? What does the light of God do?
It discovers things to us, doesn't it? When the sun comes up, you
see things clearly. At nighttime, try walking around
outside without any lights. You're going to stub your toe.
You're going to bump into things. You won't be able to tell the
colors of things. You can't see the animals. They might be there,
but you can't see them. You can't see other people. There's
so many things you can't see because it's nighttime, there's
no light. But when the light shines, everything seems to be
clear now, right? So God as light, first of all,
discovers things to us, doesn't he? He makes them known. But
also the thing about light is that there's no darkness in it,
as he says here in 1 John 1.5. There's no darkness in him at
all. In other words, he is holy. There's no taint of sin. No deviation
from the pure holiness of his character at all. Never is there
a time when God is anything less than absolutely holy in his character. And what does it say about him
that God is? He is light. And when Jesus comes, what is
he going to do? He's going to make known him who is the light. But Jesus himself said, I am,
what? The light of the world, right? He's the light of the world.
And there's some other scriptures that teach us this thing about
God being the discoverer. Look at Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
Let's know what God says about the word of God, who is the living
word, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, for the word of God
is quick, or living, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." So what does the Word of God do? It makes known
what's inside of us, what we're thinking, our intent, our motives,
why we do the things we do, who we truly are. This is God who
is light. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God. And His Word opens
up who we are. Remember in John chapter 2 when
there was those who said they believed on Jesus, and He said,
but He didn't commit Himself to them? Because He knew all
men, and He knew what was in man, and He did not need anyone
to testify to Him about what was in man. So the Lord Jesus
is the searcher and the discerner of the thoughts and intents of
our heart. He makes known, he discovers, because he is the
light of the world. And he says this in scripture. He says in Psalm 14, something
that may leave us feel completely barren and naked before God.
He says in Psalm 14 that he has searched. The Lord looked down
from heaven to see if there were any that did understand." And
he testifies, he says, there's none that understandeth. They've
all gone aside. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. God searched my heart. He searched your heart. He searched
the heart of every man, and he concluded, there's none that
understands, none that does good, none that seek after God. They've
all gone aside. They've all together become filthy. He's the searcher and the discerner.
There's nothing you can hide from God. And at first this is
unnerving, isn't it? Doesn't it give you pause? Doesn't
it make you feel uncomfortable to think that God knows you? You don't even know your own
intentions because we hide ourselves like Adam hid his sin from God
when he tried to, or he thought he did, hiding behind the trees.
But all is not lost. All is not lost because the light,
the same light that discovers our sin does what? The same light
that discovers our sin justifies the ungodly. And this is the
glory of God that we see in the scriptures. He says this. In Psalm 130, if thou, Lord,
shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. You see, we're
terrified to think that God knows us and holds us to account for
every thought and intention and motive. We know that our very
best things that we consider best or others consider best
are really full of pride and sinful motives, and God knows
them. And so we are, afraid to stand
before God because he knows everything about us. We wouldn't even dare
speak to try to clear ourselves. We wouldn't rely on our own defenses
at all before God. He knows us before we even think
it. He knew all of our thoughts before he made us. And yet all
is not lost. Though nothing passes God's all-seeing
and all-knowing eyes, yet there is hope for sinners. In fact,
in the very truth that he is light, there's the greatest hope
for sinners. Remember, the Lord Jesus is what? The brightness of his glory. The one who discerns and discovers
and searches and makes known all things and divides between
the soul and spirit and the thoughts and intents of our heart, who
knows all things, what did he do? Look at Leviticus chapter
16. What did he do? The one who knows
us. Before we know our own mind and
heart, we can't see what he knows, but he tells us. In Leviticus
chapter 16, look at this in verse 21. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
as our high priest, the one who is light itself. Nothing hides
from his all-seeing eye who discerns the very motives of our heart.
He says this in verse 21, and Aaron shall lay both his hands
upon the head of the live goat. And what does he do? He's gonna
confess over that goat what? He's gonna confess over him all. the iniquities of the children
of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them,
transferring them upon the head of the goat and shall send him,
the goat, away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a
land not inhabited. And look at verse 30, on that
day, shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse
you, that you may be clean from all your sins, before who? The light, the ineffable light. The one who cannot bear to look
upon sin is going to look upon his people, and he's going to
say, Thou art all fair, my love, I see no spot in thee. The one
who sees us as we are took what we are and confessed it over
his own head as our high priest, and now as the eternal light
looks upon us by his work and he finds no spot in us. You see how God's truth about
himself as our light in the Lord Jesus Christ takes on a whole
new revelation and discovers to us the very heart of God.
and the truth of his holiness, that he, though he is holy and
just and his word cannot lie, yet he has justified in the open
court of heaven before all the onlooking universe to say, I
see no spot in thee. Let me read these words to you
from Numbers chapter 23. He says, In Numbers 23, 21, he
has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness
in Israel. Amazing. Isn't that amazing? Look at Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter
50. Well, actually, look at Jeremiah
chapter 23. Jeremiah 23. He says in verse five, behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David
a righteous branch. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, and he's gonna be David's son. And a king shall
reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. What does the king do? He administers
justice. You stand before the king. The
king has nothing to gain here. He doesn't have to please anybody. He's the king. And he has one
goal if he's a just king. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns
in righteousness. He loves righteousness. He hates
iniquity. What is he going to do as the
king? He's going to judge according to strict justice. And what does
he do? He judges all men and he rewards
the evildoer according to his wickedness and he rewards his
people according to his own righteousness. Look at the next verse. In his
days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in safety
and this is his name whereby he shall be called The King,
the Lord, our righteousness. You see? That's why he saw no
iniquity in Jacob. Look at chapter 33 of the same
book, Jeremiah 33, 16. He goes on, he says, in those
days, same words, Jeremiah 33, 16, in those days shall Judah
be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the
name whereby she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So
God looks upon his people and what does he see? He sees his
own righteousness. And what is that righteousness?
It's the righteousness of Christ our Savior, the Lord, the brightness
of his glory, the righteousness of God. provided, worked out,
given, and seen, so that God finds no spot in his people.
And now look at Jeremiah 50 and verse 20, where he says this,
in those days and at that time, in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
be none. And the sins of Judah, And they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. For
Lord Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. He made the worlds,
and he's the brightness of God's glory. Look at one more text
of scripture in Jeremiah 32, and I'll close with this. In
Jeremiah 32, the account is given of Jeremiah the prophet. God
commanded him, now I want you to do this. It was just at the
end of the history of the people then in Jerusalem. They were
about to be carried away by God through the wicked Babylonians.
They were going to be taken away from Jerusalem and taken to Babylon
by the wicked king, Nebuchadnezzar. God was going to use Nebuchadnezzar
as his servant to bring the punishment on Israel for their sins. Okay, so you understand the context
here? He's about to bring the punishment
on them. In fact, look at Jeremiah 32
and 22. In verse 21, he says, thou hast
brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with
signs and wonders and with a strong hand and with a stretched out
arm and with great terror, and has given them this land which
thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing
with milk and honey. Listen to what they did, the
ones God gave the land to. And they came in, and they possessed
it. But they obeyed not thy voice,
neither walked in thy law. They have done nothing of all
that thou has commanded them to do. Therefore, thou has caused
all this evil to come upon them." Do you see that? Why were the
Babylonians gonna come and take away Jerusalem so that there
was none left, take them away to Babylon? Because they didn't
do anything God commanded them to do. And they agreed to this
covenant. And so, God tells Jeremiah, now before they were taken away,
he says, I want you to do this. Jeremiah, you go to your cousin,
your uncle's son, Hanamel, and I want you to buy his land, and
then take witnesses, so that when you do this, when you pay
Hanamel, you take evidences and you put them in a clay earthen
jar, so that the evidences are gonna be preserved for a long
time. So that when I bring you back, you'll be able to look
at those evidences. Well, he won't be there. Jeremiah
will be dead by then. But they'll come back and they'll look at
those evidences and they'll say, you see this? God not only determined
to carry us away because of our sins, but he brought us back. And so God tells Jeremiah to
do this. It says in verse 16, Jeremiah 32, 16. Now, when I
had delivered the evidence of the purchase to Baruch, the son
of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord saying, listen, Lord God,
behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power
and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
You see, he's the brightness of God's glory. He created the
world in order to have a people, in order to redeem them by himself. He who is God was made flesh
and dwelt among us and bore our sins and took away our sins.
And as the light of the world sees no sin in us, because as
the light of the world, he took all the sins he knew of and he
confessed them on his own head and bore them away and cleansed
us and made atonement on that day. Amazing grace, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word, how great our Lord Jesus is, how great you are, because
he is the express image of your person, the brightness of your
glory, and you have assigned such honor and authority and
power to him as man and God, our mediator, because he's worthy,
because in his heart your will was from eternity, and he worked
it out and finished it too, and saved your people and made sure
your glory and kingdom and your name, because you swore to save
a people for yourself and have fulfilled it. And help us, Lord,
to stand as Jeremiah in open-mouth wonder and say, ah, Lord God,
you have made heaven and earth, and there's nothing too hard
for you. You who see our sin and should bring upon us the
condemnation our sins deserve, have found a way in your grace
to lay what we deserved upon our Savior, so that our great
God and judge has become our Savior. What mercy, what grace,
make it true to us in our heart, Lord. and turn us again by Him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.