Hebrews chapter 1, I'm going
to read this with you, but before I do, I want to point out a couple
of things. And I hope you, you know, there's
only a few verses here, so I hope that you get the intent of these
verses, the real meaning of them. The book of Hebrews was written
to the Hebrews. And you know that in the Bible,
the Hebrews are the Jews, and the Jews are those people God
used to teach, to show, to hold up as representative of His church. The elect of God, those redeemed
by the blood of Christ. So this book is written to the
church. Now we know that historically it was written to those who were
Jews, who believed on Christ, but it wasn't just written to
them, it was written to us. So first understand that. Secondly,
understand what is this book all about. We can understand what this book
is about in these three verses we're about to read, because
God takes the entire message of this book and condenses it
into three verses. And then he goes on in the rest
of the book and expands that and explains the details of it.
But if you were to look at Hebrews chapter 12, which is the end
of the book of Hebrews, And we'll do that, we'll just look at one
verse there, Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 24, he says this,
we're come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Whatever this book is about, it is about, it's coming to the
end of it, it's telling us we've come to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant. And his blood, which made that
covenant, good news. The sprinkling of that blood
means it was sprinkled in heaven. God received it and it's sprinkled
on our hearts and it applies it to us. And that's our life,
that's our everlasting life. But look over at chapter 13 and
verse 20. He says, Now the God of peace that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do His will, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. That's what the book of
Hebrews is about. It's about Jesus Christ, the
mediator of the new covenant, a covenant made in His blood,
an everlasting covenant, through which all the blessings of God
come to us. So now, when we look at these
first three verses, we'll see that. As I read through these
first three verses, I want you to not miss this important thing,
which was easy for us to miss. That God the Father here is described
in relation to His Son. He's really upholding the Lord
Jesus Christ, but He's not just upholding Him as the Son of God
in abstract, separate from all others. He's actually speaking
of His Son, and every time you read the word Son, you know there's
a Father. And every time we read these things here, we're going
to see that God is spoken by His Son. God the Father has spoken
by His Son. And God has appointed Him heir,
the inheritor of all things. And He made the world by Him.
And He is the brightness of God's glory. He's the express image
of His person. All these things are spoken in
relation between God the Father and God the Son. And God the
Father really is setting forth His Son before us in these verses. In His person, and in His office
as our mediator, and in His work as our mediator. And in so doing,
He's really telling us about Himself. And so don't miss that
here, is that God the Father is speaking of His Son, and when
we look at His Son, we see Him. And when we think about God,
we only know Him in His Son. And the way we know Him is in
His work as our mediator. So I want you to get those two
things. The book is about our mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood that made the everlasting
covenant fulfilled it because it was made with Him. And all
the blessings flow to us because of that. And secondly, in seeing
Christ in His work as our mediator, the Son of God, we see God the
Father. We see His will and His purpose
from eternity fulfilled in Him. So now let's read these verses
together with that as the introduction. God, and He's speaking of God
the Father, God who at sundry times, at different times, and
in divers manners, in various ways, 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, 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." So there's the introduction. That's the full message of the
book of Hebrews, all in three verses. And it's amazing how
much God has said in those three verses of Scripture. First, God
has spoken to us by His Son. Now, it's amazing that God would
speak to men. It says in Psalm 113, I think,
that he humbles himself to behold the things on earth. But if God
humbles himself to behold the things on earth, how much more
condescending is it for God to speak to men? We're sinners. God describes all flesh as grass. It just withers away, passes
away. We're worms in God's sight. We're nothing. compared to God. God has to humble Himself to
behold the things on earth, but yet He's spoken. And God has
spoken to us, it says, in these last days. And by that He means
in the end of the Old Testament era. The last days. There's not
another message coming. This is the last one. There's
no other salvation, there's no other Savior, there's no other
message that God is going to speak, except this message. And
he's spoken this message by his son. Now, when it says by his
son, you can see immediately the comparison he makes between
how God spoke in the past by the prophets to the fathers.
Now God has spoken to us, the church, his people, by his son. In the past he spoke by men.
Now he speaks by his son. This is astounding because the
Son is Himself God. So in the past the message was
carried with the authority of God by men. Now the message is
carried with the authority of God who sent God the Father,
who sent His Son into the world. The message therefore has the
highest authority. And it has the greatest certainty. It cannot fail. God has spoken
to us by His Son. He's the prophet. Deuteronomy
18, verses 15 through 19, Moses prophesied and said, A prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you. Like me, him shall
you hear. And if you don't hear him, you're
going to perish. So the importance is raised to
the very highest level. When someone speaks to us, their
message, the importance of their message is proportional to their
importance. The dignity of the person is
somehow is proportional to the importance of their message.
If the child next door speaks to me, it's not as significant
as if the parent next door speaks to me. If my brother or sister
tells me something, it's not nearly as important as if my
mom or dad tells me something. If your schoolmate tells you
something in school, it's not nearly as significant as if the
principal tells you. If your neighbor comes over and
tells you something, it's a lot less significant than if a black
limousine with men in black suits from the president's office come
to your door and escort you out. The dignity of the person is
proportional to the importance of the message they carry. There
is none higher than the Son of God. And God has not only spoken
by him, but he himself has spoken. God has spoken, and the message
of God is spoken by the Son of God. But not only did God speak
in time past by the prophets, because you know how prophets
speak, thus saith the Lord, and they tell you the words. They
tell you God's message. I'm sent from God with God's
message to you. And here's His message. And they
tell you that message. But God also speaks in the prophets. Remember how God has spoken in
prophets of old, men in Noah's day. Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
but he also built an ark, and God was speaking through his
words and through his actions, through what he did. So Noah
built an ark, Abraham offered his only begotten son. God spoke
to us by that action, didn't he? God spoke about his only
begotten son, how he would offer him as a sacrifice. And God spoke
by Hosea to the people. Remember Hosea spoke God's words,
but he also had to marry an adulterous wife and have children by her.
And so God speaks not only by the words of the prophets, but
by their lives. God has spoken not only by the
words of his son, but by his life. What he did, he went about
doing good. and His ultimate action when
He gave Himself for our sins, when He suffered the wrath of
God bearing our sins, God spoke by Him and in Him. And so God
has spoken in these last days by His Son. God has spoken His
Son. He is the Word of God. The message
God has spoken is His Son. He's not only the messenger,
but He's the message. And the message is about Him.
God has spoken to us. He's spoken by His Son, in His
Son. What is the message that God
has spoken? Well, He says, He speaks about redemption accomplished
by His blood. He speaks about justification
by His righteousness imputed by God the Father. And He speaks
of everlasting life. In John chapter 12, verse 49,
Jesus said, I have not spoken of myself. He says, 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 that His commandment
is life everlasting. Whosoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said to me, so I speak. So this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. God has spoken by Him, and He
has spoken only God's Word, and all of God's Word. In the past,
God spoke at various times. In these last days, God has spoken
to us once. In the past, God spoke His Word
line upon line, here a little, there a little. In these last
days, God has spoken the whole counsel of God in His Son. This
should make the small hair on the back of our neck stand up
and tingle, because God has spoken to us from Heaven, has sent His
Son into the world, and spoken to us by Him. Now, the question
is, though, how did the Son of God speak to us? Did He speak
from Heaven? Did He, who is God over all,
the Son of God over all, did He speak from Heaven Himself?
No. He who is above all came from
heaven to earth and spoke to us as a man. He took our nature
and spoke to us in our nature. So, like the people in the book
of Acts, they heard the men preaching there in their own tongue, wherein
they were born, their mother tongue. Christ comes in human
nature to us and speaks to us man to man. He's the mediator,
God and man, through whom God speaks. He does all God requires
for God's glory, to do God's will, to satisfy God. And He
does all that we require for our salvation. He reveals God
to us. Look at Luke chapter 10, verse
21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father. Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father. And no man knoweth who the Son
is, but the Father. And who the Father is, but the
Son. And he to whom the Son will reveal
Him. So God the Father is unknown
to us, unless He's revealed. And the only one who reveals
Him to us is the Son. He doesn't speak to us with words
from His own mouth now, because He spoke in those days, but He
speaks to us in the same way He spoke to His disciples. He
speaks to our heart. He gives us faith to see with
eyes of faith. Remember when Jesus had gone
to the cross and died, and they buried Him, and He rose again,
came back to His disciples and showed Himself to them? And some
of them believed, and they had a hard time with it. Jesus has
risen from the dead. And Thomas said, I'm not going
to believe unless I see the nail prints in his hands actually
touch his side where the spear had pierced him. and see the
nail prints in his feet. I want to see these things. That's
the only way I'm going to believe. He was looking with his physical
eyes, thinking that when he saw with physical eyes, he would
believe. That's not how we believe. God gives us eyes of faith. We
don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. And so Thomas shows
us and teaches us that we hear and see by God giving us those
eyes and ears. And Jesus said, I'm the one that
does that. God has spoken to us by his Son. Now, it goes on
in the book of Hebrews in chapter 1. He says, not only has God
spoken to us at the end of the Old Testament era and these last
days, the days when God's not going to speak anymore, but by
this message about this Son and this salvation. He says, "...whom
he hath appointed heir of all things." Now the heir is the
one who inherits all things. And we can gain some insight
into what this means when we look at how scripture gives illustrations
from men and prophets, things God has spoken, what the heir
means, the one who's the inheritor. Abraham had one son of promise. Remember, God promised him, I'm
going to give you a son and through him all the nations of the world
will be blessed. And Abraham, he was old, he was
75, he didn't have a son, he kept waiting and waiting and
it didn't seem like anything was going to happen with him
and Sarah. So Sarah suggested, why don't you take my servant,
Hagar, and have a child by her. And Abraham thought, I guess
he must have thought that that seems like a reasonable thing
to do. We must have to figure this out ourselves and do something
about it ourselves because nothing's happening. And so he had a child
by Hagar. That child's name is Ishmael.
And God said, that's not the one. That's not the promised
son. I haven't given the promise through Ishmael. But then, The
age of 99, and Sarah was 90, Abraham had a son, Isaac. But
anyway, God gave Abraham this son, and he was a son of two
things. He was a son of promise. He was
the only son of promise that Abraham had. later in Abraham's
life after Sarah died, he took another wife and actually had
other sons, but they weren't the sons of promise either. Ishmael
wasn't, neither were they, and Isaac was the son of promise,
but also in Genesis 25 verse 5, God tells Abraham, take your
only son Isaac. Let's look at that with with
me. Genesis chapter 25, 5. Listen to what God says about
this and how this helps us understand how God has made Christ the heir
of all things. Well, it says here in Genesis
25.5, it says, And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. Do you see that? Abraham gave
all that he had to Isaac. And Abraham was rich. He had
gold and silver and servants and all these animals, sheep
and oxen and camels and so on. But Abraham gave everything he
had to Isaac. Then, in Genesis chapter 22,
if you look at that also, It says in verse 1, it came to pass
after these things God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham,
and he said, behold, here I am. And verse 2 of Genesis 22, and
he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there a
burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I shall tell
thee of. God tells Abraham, take your only son, Isaac, the son
you love, and offer him as a burnt offering. Now that also causes
us to pause, doesn't it? And think, God the Father said,
take your only son, the one you love. The one you're going to
give everything to and offer him up. That's what this means
in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2. God has made him heir. What does
it mean? It means he's his only son. He's
the son of his love. The son of promise. The son of
promise. And he's the one God is therefore
giving all things. When God spoke to Abraham in
Genesis 12, we've gone over this in a couple of sermons now, God
said, In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. But in Galatians 3 verse 16 and
verse 19, God says that the seed was Christ. And the promise was
given to Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 3. I want you to see that for yourself.
Galatians chapter 3. He says in verse 16, Now to Abraham
and his seed, singular, were the promises made, he saith not,
and to seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed,
which is Christ. The Apostle Paul had the wisdom
of God when he unraveled that promise God made to Abraham in
saying it was actually made by God to Abraham to Abraham's seed,
his son after the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse
19. Wherefore then serveth the law. Why did God give the law?
It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. So God gave the law until the
seed, Abraham's son after the flesh, would come to whom the
promise was made. That through him all the nations
would be blessed. look at second corinthians chapter
one he says in second corinthians chapter one verse twenty for
all the promises of god in him in christ are yes and amen are
in him amen unto the glory of god by us In other words, God
has said in Hebrews 1-2, He has appointed Him heir of all things,
to inherit all things. What does that mean? He's the
Son, His only Son, the Son of His love, the Son of promise,
to whom He has given all promises. And what did He make Him the
inheritor of? What did Abraham inherit in Hebrews
1-2? He says, He is the heir of all
things. Look at John chapter 3 in verse
35. This is brought out here about
the Lord Jesus Christ, just like it is in Hebrews 1-3. We can
connect these things together. He says in John chapter 3 verse
35, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into
his hand. It's exactly what Hebrews 1-2
says. He has appointed him heir of all things. He loves his son. He's promised everything to his
son. He's the son of promise, the son of his love. And so he
has given him, he's his only begotten son, so he's given him
all things. But look back at Hebrews chapter 1. I ask this
question now. of us, did God give the Lord
Jesus Christ all these things as God the Son? Or did He give
it to Him as man, as the Son of Man? Did He make all these
promises to Him as God, as God's Son, or as the Son of Man? It says that He has spoken to
us by His Son. Did He speak to us by Him as
God or by Him as man? And did He appoint Him to be
heir over all things as the Son of God or as the Son of man?
Well, the answer to this is that it is both as God and man, as
our mediator. This one person, the Lord Jesus,
was appointed by God. He didn't appoint Him to be the
Son of God. He declared Him to be the Son
of God, but He appointed Him to be the heir of all things,
and He's spoken to us by this One who is both God and man.
and so he's given him all things as both God and man our mediator
and this is important because God gives everything all the
promises God made to Abraham he gave to our mediator all the
promises God has everything he says God has given him everything
all things what does that include it includes everything all of
creation and there's nothing There's nothing that existed
that wasn't created, so that means God's given him everything.
God himself is the only thing that's excluded. Because God
is uncreated. So everything. Angels, good and
bad. Men, good and bad. All things
in heaven and earth. All power, all authority. Jesus
said in John 13, verse 3, it says that when Jesus, knowing
that God had put all things into his hand, he rose from supper.
And he laid aside his garments and he took a towel and he washed
his disciples' feet. That seems contradictory in our
times, doesn't it? The one God has given everything,
laid aside his garments, and took up a towel and washed his
disciples' feet as the lowest servant? Those filthy feet that
had been in the streets and the sewage and everything, walking
through town under their toenails, and he washed their feet, the
servant. The one who is high made himself
low to serve us in order to save us. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the image of the invisible
God. We can't know God apart from Him. God has given everything
to His Son. We can't see God, we can't hear
from God, we can't know God without Him, apart from Him. God has
given Him everything. God loves Him. He's the Son of
Promise. And we can see this in other
illustrations too. Remember Joseph in Genesis 41? Because he interpreted Pharaoh's
dream, because God had given him wisdom, because he used that
wisdom in a way that showed practical benefit to the king and to his
people, Pharaoh made him ruler over all of his house. He made
him ruler over all of his people. He made him ruler over everything
he had. He said, no one can lift a hand
or foot in Egypt without Joseph. And he took off his ring and
he put it on Joseph's hand. That means whatever he says is
the way things are. Whatever he wants, he gets it. And whatever he does, he entrusted
him with all of that because he was wise for the benefit of
the king. He said, I can trust this man.
He's a wise man, he understands things, and he uses them for
the sake of the king and his kingdom. And that's what he did. Later, in Genesis 41, when the
people were hungry after the famine came, do you know what
Pharaoh told them? Go to Joseph. He's the One. Everything's in
His hand. I don't do anything except by
Him. You have to look to Him. And
that's what God the Father has done. He says, God has spoken
to us by His Son. God made Him heir of all things. God made the worlds by Him, in
the next part here. He says, "...by whom also He
made the worlds." And then later He says, verse 3, "...upholding
all things by the word of His power." So God created everything
by Him. God the Father upholds everything
by Him. God speaks by Him alone. God
has given Him everything. What does it all mean? And if
it means nothing else, it means this, God has bestowed the highest
honor possible on His Son. God has esteemed Him above everything
and giving Him everything and all things, but not as the Son
of God only. And here's where the rich mercy
of God comes through. as our mediator. Because God
didn't give these things to him as God. Because as God he had
all things. He created all things as God.
But he gave them to him as our mediator in order to give them
to us in him. So when we know that he has all
things, what do we do? We go to Joseph. We go to Jesus.
For everything. And what do we have? What do
we bring? Nothing. It's a famine apart
from Him. We have nothing. So we go to Him for everything.
And we find that God has given us everything in Him. So that's
what He's saying here. The one God is highly esteemed.
God highly favors Him. God has entrusted Him with everything. Pharaoh, if Joseph said something
contrary to Pharaoh's word, then it would bring dishonor to Pharaoh,
wouldn't it? If Joseph tried to create an
insurrection in the country, opposed to Pharaoh to exalt himself,
that would have divided Pharaoh's kingdom. But Pharaoh trusted
Joseph to uphold his own purpose and his own word. All that he
wanted done, he said, Joseph's going to take care of it. That's
what God the Father has done to his son. Everything that needs
to be done, he's going to do it. So He not only gave Him all
material things, but He gave Him His will to do. He's going
to faithfully execute My will. And He gave Him His Word, not
only to speak to us, but to fulfill His Word. His will and His Word
Christ fulfilled. And that's what He says here
in the next part. He says in Hebrews 1, verse 2, "...by whom
also He made the worlds." The purpose of God. He says in Ephesians
3.9, God created all things by Jesus Christ. So we see that
there's an inseparable connection between God the Father and God
the Son. That He's made everything. He does everything through His
Son. And when we see what God has done, we say, well it was
the Lord Jesus that did that. But it was God who did it by
Him and through Him. So it was God who did it. So
who did it? Is it God the Father or God the
Son? God only works through His Son. God the Father does nothing but
what He does by His Son. God the Father has no revelation
but what He gives in His Son. God the Father has no grace but
the grace He's given us in His Son. He has no forgiveness, no
acceptance, but what He accepts us in His Son. So you can see
in these things that God the Father is acting always through
His Son. What has God the Father done
through His Son? What does Scripture say? Well, He says here, He made
the worlds. Why? In order to fulfill His
eternal purpose. Romans chapter 5 verse 10 says,
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. So God reconciled us to Himself
by His Son. In 2 Corinthians 5.21 it says,
God the Father has made him to be sin. For us, he who knew no sin, that
we who knew no righteousness might be made the righteousness
of God in him." So God, that's a key thing. God the Father gives
to us in His Son, through His Son, by His Son, and He fulfills
God's Word. He Himself took it upon Himself
in order to fulfill it. In Matthew, chapter 5, verse
17, Jesus said, think not that I'm come to destroy the law and
the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. And that's exactly what he did. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of God. Let's look
at this together. So God made the worlds by Him. God does everything
by His Son. And the thing He's done here
most of all is what He does in the next part here. He speaks
about His Son as our mediator, the one He's given all things
to in order to accomplish His will and make known His glory.
He made the worlds by Him. If He made the worlds by Him,
is there anything He can't do? If Jesus Christ created all things
out of nothing by His Word, is there anything He can't create?
He can create me when I'm nothing. If He gives life to all living
things, He can give life to me from the dead, can't He? So what
does that cause us to do? To look to the Lord Jesus Christ
as the All-Powerful One, the Almighty God. who is man, that
we go to and hear of God from him. We see God in him. So he says here in verse 3, "...who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power." The
brightness of his glory? What does that mean? Well, the
word brightness means the outshining. The sun has rays. And if you
didn't have these rays emanating from the sun, you wouldn't have
any light. You couldn't see the sun. You wouldn't know there
was a sun in the sky without the rays from the sun. The heat
from the sun comes through the rays of the sun. And so God is
saying here, all that the sun, S-U-N, accomplishes through its
rays, God accomplishes through his sun, S-O-N, God does. You can't see God, but you can
see His Son. You don't see His work, but you
see the work of His Son. You see what God accomplishes
in what God has done in His Son. He's the brightness of God's
glory. And think about this. God the
Father has honor and glory surpassing all. Doesn't he? And yet he has given his son
his own honor as our mediator. This blows our minds. That God
the Father would bestow upon his own son as our mediator his
own glory. Look at John chapter 5. His own
glory. Not only has He given him all
things, but He's given him His own honor, just like Pharaoh
took his ring off and said, Joseph's the guy. I'm just going to step
back and watch him work. I'm going to let you talk to
him, and I'm going to be magnified in all that he does by his wisdom,
because I've made him the guy. Look at John 5, verse 21. For
as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, the
word quicken means to make alive, as the Father raiseth up the
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will. Wow. Christ gives life as it
pleases Him to whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment to the Son. That's amazing. The
Lord Jesus Christ is going to judge all. And then he says,
this is why he did that, in verse 23, that all men should honor
the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not
the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. If you don't
honor Christ, you don't honor God. If you honor the Son, you
honor the Father that sent him. And God wants us to honor Him
with the same honor we give to God the Father. There's no blasphemy
here, because Jesus is the Son of God, but He's also the Son
of Man. Read on in verse 24, "...verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death to life." no more condemned,
justified before God, already passed from death to life, the
one believing Christ's Word." That's what He's saying. If you
believe Him, you have been justified. You already are alive. You've
already passed from death to life. Verse 25, "...verily, verily,
I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live." There's no possibility that they're not going to live.
because the Son of God spoke. He called all things out of nothing,
and they obeyed Him by the power of His Word. And now He calls
sinners to life by the power of His Word. And look on, He
says, verse 26, For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Verse 27, and listen
to this, very important. "...and hath given him authority
to execute judgment also." Also meaning not only has he given
him life, but also judgment because he is the son of man. Now that's
amazing. What we see here is that the
Lord Jesus Christ, as the mediator, the Son of God and Son of Man,
has been given authority and judgment and life to give to
whomever He will, and God's own glory. So God's glory is not
only upheld by Christ, but is given to Christ. Did God the
Father give it away? No, He retains that glory. All
that the Father has, He gave to His Son, but it's also His
still. Jesus said in John 17, verse
10, He says, All that the Father hath are Mine, and all that are
Mine are His. And I'm glorified in them. Christ
is glorified in these. So God shows the brightness of
His glory. And how do we see? How do you
and I see the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we said by faith. But faith
in what? How do we see Him? How do we
know Him? Only in what follows. Look at it. He says, the express
image of His person. Seeing Christ, we see God Himself.
Knowing Christ, we know the Father. Jesus told his disciples, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the Father but
by me. Doesn't that sound like Joseph?
No man goes to Pharaoh. You go to Christ. Then he said
also in John 14, he said, not only am I the way, the truth,
and the life, but if you've seen me, you have seen the Father. And so he goes on. How is this
glory made known to us? How do we see Christ and therefore
know Him? He says in the next part, when
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. This is the way we see the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the prophet by whom God
speaks. He speaks of his death, life, and resurrection, and his
reign as God, the Son, as the Son of Man, our mediator. But
we see and hear him when he speaks to us about what he did on the
cross. He, by himself, purged our sins. And this teaches us
something very important here. The one to whom God gave all
the promises, entrusted with His word and His authority and
His power and all things, actually fulfilled and brought that will
to pass in His own death. When He who is God became man
and offered Himself to God in order to take our sins from us.
Purging them from us. Because that's what the word
purge means. It means to remove from us. To clean us from them. Look at this in Zechariah chapter
3 and verse 4. There was this man named Joshua
who stood before the Lord and he was dressed in filthy garments.
It says in chapter 3, verse 3, Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel, and he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, Listen, this is
how God speaks about his people, because of what Christ has done.
This is what it means to purge our sins. Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. Christ purges our sins. He makes
us whiter than snow. Isaiah 118. He takes away the
filthy garment so that when God himself searches, he finds no
sin in us. Jeremiah 50, verse 20. The Lord
sees no iniquity in Israel, Numbers 23, 21. And here, God says, by
himself, the Lord Jesus Christ purged our sins. He went deeper
than the stain has gone with his blood and removed them from
us. There's a fountain, Zechariah 13, verse 1. There's a fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. And we're washed in that fountain,
the fountain of Christ's blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, 1
John 1.7, cleanseth us from all sin. In Revelation 1.5 it says,
unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
unto him all dominion and power and glory belong. God has set
his Son upon the throne of glory, the throne of his own majesty,
because he purged our sins. because he's the heir of all
things, because he fulfilled the everlasting covenant of God
with his own blood. He gave us the promises that
God made in him, God gave them to him. Now here's the amazing
thing. Not only did the Lord make Christ
the heir of all things, and what do you think he would value most
in all of that infinite treasure that God gave to his son? What
would the Lord Jesus consider the most precious treasure of
all that God has given to Him? What is His inheritance? What
is the Lord's inheritance? The Lord Jesus Christ to whom
God has given all things that He considers this, this is mine. This is worth shedding my own
life's blood. He says in Deuteronomy 32 verse
9, for the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance. God's inheritance is his people. That's a phenomenal thing, isn't
it? Look at Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 23, For the husband
is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church. And He, Christ, is the Savior of the body. The body
is His body. The people who believe Him are
His body. They are connected to Him. Their
life comes from Him as their head. And all that he does and
is, they're connected to in his body. Verse 24, Therefore, as
the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. Verse 25, listen carefully. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also hath loved the church and
gave himself for it. In Song of Solomon 2.16 it says,
I am my beloved's and he is mine. We are His and He is ours. His inheritance is us. Look at
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18. Paul prays that the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of His calling And what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. Christ's inheritance is in the
saints. And that's His treasure. How do we know? Because He bought
the field. He sold all that He had and bought
the field in order to have that pearl of great price. He bought
the church with His own blood. And that's everything, isn't
it? He gave Himself. He gave all that He had in order
to have that treasure. God's gift to Him, of all things,
was not a gift without price. It was a covenant promise that
had to be fulfilled in His own blood. So that the promise to
Christ, all the promises given to Christ, He actually paid for
and secured when he laid down his life in obedience to God
the Father. God the Father loves the Son. Why? Because he lays
down his life for the sheep. So God's love for him and his
favor of him was because he was so wise and prudent. Because
he was the son of promise. Because he did all the Father's
will. And so God has given him everything. That's what he says
in Hebrews 1.3. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. Everything was given to Him.
But look at this in Hebrews 1, 2, 3. Look at this just briefly
here. He says, "...when He by Himself
purged our sins, sat down." By Himself. In Leviticus 16, the
high priest went into the tabernacle once a year. And he went in by
himself. No man was with him. until he
came out and had made atonement." You can read that in Leviticus
16, verse 17. There was no man with him when
he went into the tabernacle. And then in verse 30 of Leviticus
16, it says that, "...on that day shall the high priest make
an atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before
the Lord." In one day, that high priest, by himself, made atonement
for all the sins of all the people. And that's teaching us that in
one day the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself removed our sins from
us because He made satisfaction for those sins before God, bearing
those sins in Himself and offering Himself to God in His death.
Now, it wasn't what the people did. They were outside when the
priest went into that tabernacle. It wasn't what the people did.
They weren't with him. It wasn't what the people thought
about what he did. It's what the high priest did
and what God thought of the blood that he offered that made atonement
for the people outside. And this is showing us here,
by himself, he purged our sins. We contributed nothing. To add
or attempt to add anything to what Christ did is to disobey
the gospel. And so he says here, that when
he had done that, he sat down because the work was finished.
It was all perfect. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10, 14. And that's the
fulfillment of the covenant. God says so in Hebrews 10. When
he did this, it was the fulfillment. This is my covenant unto them
when I shall take away their sins. God has given him everything
and he has done it all. And now he has all and he sits
on God's right hand. He says, I've sat down on the
throne of my father. And when we see him there in
the book of Revelation, he says he is the lamb on his throne.
Because the Son of God, as Son of Man, offered Himself as our
Mediator, as our High Priest, to make atonement for our sins.
The Lamb on His throne. We know Him as the One who died,
who purged our sins, who washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Jesus, who saved us from our sins. And that's the way we worship
God. We can't even worship God right.
Our worship doesn't actually do anything for God. We can't
even worship Him according to how He ought to be worshipped.
He goes so far beyond our ability to worship that it's incomprehensible. But the Son of God worshiped
Him in His own obedience, and we worship God in Him. We come
to God in Him that our worship now might be accepted through
Him. Everything we come to Christ for, that it might be accepted
by God for His sake. All the promises are given to
Him, and they're not just given to Him by Himself, but given
to Him as the Head of the Covenant. And this is what the promises
to Abraham are really talking about. Summarized here in these
first three verses of Hebrews, explained throughout the book,
explaining all the Old Testament to us. It's amazing. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that
you've given everything to your son, worked out everything by
your son, and now exalted your son and his exaltation in his
work. In what you've given Him and
your purpose, we see you. We see His heart for His people
in His work. And we see your heart to exalt
your Son and to save your people and bring them to yourself in
grace unspeakable, incomprehensible. We pray, Lord, that we would
know this grace. We would know you in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We would know that our sins have
been forgiven. For his sake, we contributed nothing. He did
it all in that one day. It was done in history. It's
proclaimed to us now, even in these last days. We hear about
what he did from the gospel that he gave to his apostles to bring
to us. Thank you, Lord, for this message.
Use these words from your word as the power of God to our salvation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.