I doubt there's a greater passage,
greater in its spirituality than this. It reminds me so much of
the opening of the Gospel of John. But here's what Hebrews
said, chapter 1, 1 through 4. God, who at sundry times and
in divers or different or many manners, spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, 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, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Now, if one
is to understand how the old economy and the new relate one
to another, they're going to have to study diligently the
book of Hebrews. because here in the New Testament
is where it is all brought to bear. Here the author tells us
the meaning of many of those things that were typical, then
gives us the real substance of them in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in His blood, in His sacrifice, Him as a great High Priest and
Mediator of the Covenant. So let's begin by establishing
in the very beginning a premise. That is that God dwells according
to his own nature and his own essence, and he exists in a pure,
uncreated, eternal spirit essence. He is incomprehensible. None
can find out God in the fullest sense of the word. None except
one who shares the very same nature with God can know Him
and know Him fully. None except one who is himself
very and absolute God, none but he who is infinite can actually
comprehend the being and the essence, the nature of the great
God of heaven. None but one that came from God
can fully declare Him unto others. Let's look at that in the Scripture.
Job 11 and verse 7. None can find out the Almighty
to perfection. Who is there that can do that? None but Christ. In the New Testament,
John 1 verse 18, no man has seen God at any time because it said
none shall see Him and live. Back in Job 26 and verse 14 again,
how little a portion is heard of Him. What little we know is
but a small portion of God. That great text in Psalm 139
and verse 6, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot take
it in, the psalmist said. And yet, though that be true,
that God absolutely considered is incomprehensible, He is too
immense, He is past finding out, He is high above every creature
and the thought of any creature, still He is to a degree knowable
and has been pleased to make a revelation of himself to the
human family sufficient for them to know him spiritually and also
to be saved and to worship Him. God, however knowable, only in
measure, only by divine revelation. Knowledge of God is only possible
as He is pleased to reveal Himself under this one or under that
one in some way or in some measure or to a certain degree to mankind. Now, I want you to hear this
as we go on our way. that a revelation of God unto
man is indispensably necessary if any are to know Him savingly
and spiritually and to serve Him and to worship Him. For this
revelation that He makes unto man is necessary unto that end. The Christian religion is nothing
more and nothing less than God's revelation of himself to his
people as recorded in scripture and declared in the gospel. Salvation is in a very real way. the revelation of God, the revelation
of salvation and its way in Christ, which is revealed only to faith,
Romans 1 and verse 17. God saves His elect by revealing
unto them Himself and the Lord Jesus Christ, by imparting a
saving, justifying knowledge of His Son, unto them." Now during
this study, we will hear of some of the ways that God uses revelation
to make Himself known in a measure, in a limited sense, unto His
people. And we mention them only in passing
because we want to get back to our text in Hebrews chapter 1. One, God has revealed Himself
and has done so very powerfully in creation. Romans 1 tells us
about that. So that all are without excuse
because there is a revelation of the power of the Godhead in
creation. Secondly, God reveals himself
in another very powerful way and that is God reveals himself
in and to and through the human conscience, and the work of the
law that is written there in the natural heart. This you have
in Romans 2, 14 and 15, so that he keeps up a certain fear of
himself to them and an idea of right or wrong to some extent
by the work, the powerful work of conscience. It has been said
that if men could raise out the conscience, they could be free
from the conviction and the guilt that they often feel. But thirdly,
he reveals himself also in the law, the moral law that God has
given. which revelation is an expression
of his wrath. Romans 4.15, the law worketh
wrath. Fourthly, God reveals himself
in the sacred and divinely inspired scripture. where there in the
Word of God He declares His attributes, His power, His purpose, and all
things that He would have us to know. Fifthly, God revealed
Himself to men such as David, Moses, and Abraham. in the old
economy. And in those men, Abraham is
a picture of Christ as the head of the elect, Moses as a mediator,
an intercessor, and a lawgiver, and David as a royal king who
reigns forever, being typical of Christ. So, the revelation
that God has made has been progressive. since He began the revelation.
But without doubt, God has made the fullest and He has made the
final and the greatest revelation of Himself in the person of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. the most complete, the most spiritual,
the most saving and redemptive revelation of Himself. Now, this
is the order of the author of the book of Hebrews, except that
in Hebrews it is the contrast between the Mosaic economy and
that of the Gospel economy. God, who in time past spoke unto
the fathers by the prophet hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son." Now in that noted some very clear contrast. God's revelation in time past
of old to those men and women of old. standing ago, was in
many ways, and it was in many instances, it was made to the
Father, generally made through the prophets, but sometimes by
angelic revelation as well. So let's point out some of the
contrast between the two economies, that of the Mosaic Law and that
of the Christian or the Gospel. First of all, in our text, time
past, of old, olden time. Farmer times. And contrast that
with last time. Now, as he says in Hebrews 9
and verse 26, in these last days, in the end of the world, or literally
the end of the ages. But notice another contrast.
by sundry times and divers manners unto the fathers in time past,
in many ways, in many parts, by various parts and by various
degrees. in all forms as pleased Him,
in many ways that God did make Himself and His will known unto
the fathers in olden times. But now, by and in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, concentrating the revelation of Himself in
His only begotten Son. Then thirdly, noticing the text
that we have read, by the prophets, by prophets of old, literally
in or by the prophet. He spake in the prophet. He spake
by the prophet. He inspired them. And they spake
the things of God unto the people. But now, in His very own Son. His very own Son comes forth
from the Father in the incarnation to speak unto us of the things
of God and to treat with the human family as the mediator
between God and man. Fourthly, we notice who they
were spoken to. And that is the father, their
ancestors, their predecessors, those influential in the Old
Testament economy, and who worship God under the old way, which
we might explain this way. God in other times, by various
ways and parts, did speak and communicate to our Father the
things of God, has now made in His Son an all-encompassing revelation,
concentrating the whole revelation of God to man in His Son, the
whole of His revelation, which He has willed to give as to the
new economy or the gospel time. Still, I think that I'm inclined
to agree with those who said that the contrast is not just
that God spoke many times in many prolonged ways by the prophets
and only once by Christ for a short time. Instead, the contrast is
the distribution of the former revelations among the prophets,
while the whole summation of the undivided fullness of the
revelation dwells in His blessed Son, whom He has sent forth,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a true prophet, having come from
God. Do you consider the one by whom
God has made this revelation unto us, the one by whom He has
spoken in the last day, for it is here that the excellency of
the one over the other appeared, the gospel over the law, by His
Son, or literally in His Son, hath in these last days the end
of the times or the end of the ages. May I pause long enough
that I might point out, that this is played out in the parable
of that vineyard that you have in Matthew chapter 21 from another
angle. The wickedness of the Jew is
seen there against God's servant and against God's prophet, and
then against the very own son of the owner of the vineyard. For the owner at the vineyard
at the time appointed when fruit should be ripe since servants,
one after another, one behind another, which were received
ill and were beaten and were stoned and even some of them
were killed. Finally, the owner of the vineyard
said, I will send my own son. Surely they will reverence him. And they did not. They seized
upon him and said, This is the heir, let's kill him and seize
upon the inheritance. He also treated with them lastly
in his son. That's the last way that he dealt
with them. So with the revelation of God,
the first sin unto the people who spoke in many parts, many
ways, and by many ages. But with the fullness of time
arriving, God sent forth His only begotten Son. He, after
having the prophets killed and stoned and beaten and all of
that, sent His only Son even as the owner of the vineyard. Of course, the leading factor
in this is the unique relationship that the son has to the father
or to the owner of the vineyard. His son, for the author, does
not put Christ in the category with an inspired prophet of old,
but He is the very eternally generated Son of the Almighty
God. But a divine One, the very Son
of God Himself, sharing the nature and the essence of the Father.
So that when He came, He is actually God manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse
16. He came or is in the bosom of
the Father, John 1 and verse 18. In the case of the owner
of the vineyard, and here in Hebrews chapter 1, Sonship is
not only identity, but it is a derivation of the very being
of their father. But in the sonship of Christ,
it is the sameness of nature. His sonship is such that constitutes
him one one with the Father, equal in every way. Though prophets
were inspired persons, inspired by God, led by the Spirit of
God, yet Christ is and was much more. Though God spoke through
the prophet, yet Christ Himself is the very Word of God made
flesh. So that Christ alone is capable,
Christ alone is qualified to speak the mind of God unto the
people and make known the things of God. For as one put it, and
I quote, He now has spoken by one who as equal partaker of
His own infinite nature and all of its excellencies and most
intimately related to Him, inconceivably dear unto Him." That's the Son
of God. Now that being true, this is
the thing set forth here in our text. in Hebrews 1, that in the
person of the Son, Jesus Christ, God has made a very real revelation
of the glories of His divine nature but also of the purpose
and the counsel of God. But let us be a little more specific
and separately consider two things even further related under this
matter. One, that in the incarnate Christ
there is made, has been made, or there is given, the fullest
revelation of the divine nature possible to mortal beings possible
at all. A real representation of the
nature and the being and the essence of God has been made
in the Son. What else are we to understand
from the words that Christ spoke? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. John 14 and verse 9. I and my
Father are one. John chapter 10 and verse 30. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Colossians 2 and verse 9. But God as He dwells in His own
heavenly throne is the invisible God. 1 Timothy 1 and 17. Dwells in an inapproachable light,
a light that no man can approach. So Christ is the image of the
invisible God. Colossians 115. He brings a revelation
of the nature of God to man. as such as can be tolerated by
man, as much as man is able to tolerate, as much as seems good
to the Father to make a revelation known of Himself, and as much
as is necessary in order to establish and maintain worship of God among
the people of God in the world. Now may I argue from the actions
of mankind that most people of earth seek a fuller or clearer
representation of God than is visible or evident in creation. For they constantly, constantly
make them material gods. constantly making something with
their own hands to be their object of worship. That they would create
something visible for some kind of representation of the invisible
deity. And that this revelation of Himself
in creation, though it shows to all the power of His Godhead,
Romans 1 in verse 20, contains no revelation and no knowledge
how they may worship Him in spirit and in truth and there is no
way of the revelation of salvation in that revelation that is made
in creation. Please don't misunderstand this,
but not even the doctoral doctrinal revelation of the Holy Scripture,
especially the Old Testament. They do not give us as real a
representation of God's nature and will and purpose as we have
in the person of the Son of God Himself. For Scripture indeed
takes the position that the revelation that God has made unto us by
and in the Son of God incarnate, that He bears the exact likeness
and image of God. Our text said that. So that we
can only know God by the revelation that Christ makes of His nature
unto us in relation unto this. Note the words Hebrews 1 and
verse 3, who that is Christ is in view, being the brightness
of His glory, the express image of His person, or as some have
rendered it, the glorious affluence of God, the glorious outshining
of the glory of God, the bright outshining, the brilliant light
that word refers unto, the shining out of the inward brilliance
or light. He is the brightness of God's
glory, Jesus Christ is. The only way to understand this
is that Christ in his theanthropic incarnate person is an exact
and true representation of the nature of God, the complete image
of God containing all the perfection, all of the excellencies of God's
very nature and essence dwelt in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
to the extent that Christ could say, He that has seen me hath
actually seen the Father. Just as the King's image and
The likeness is stamped there on the coin, or upon the token,
though it falls short in that it is of the same nature and
essence of the king. But I read an illustration, I
think, that might come closer to making it clear in our mind,
that the light from the sun which shines down upon us, and that
light shines out from the sun that it might sustain life, that
it might give heat and light upon the earth, but it is an
emanation of the sun itself, yet not in the fullness of the
sun's power, or of the sun's heat, lest all would be consumed
by that power. But it is a direct outshining
of the sun's essence and what it consists in. Even so, we must
remember that Christ is the image and the likeness of God to the
human family so that he might enable us to know the Father
to the point that we might know him savingly and that we might
worship him in spirit and in truth. That brings us to a second
thing with regard to this text, and that is that Christ is the
revelation of God's will and God's counsel unto man. The truth of God resides fully
in Christ. For grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. John 1 and verse 14. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life, John 14 and verse
6. But our text said this, has spoken
unto us in His Son. And while the revelation of the
Law came chiefly by and through Moses and the Prophet, that of
the Gospel has come principally in and through Jesus Christ. God's revelation of redemptive
truth is stored up in Christ and is revealed unto us through
Him. In him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and of knowledge." Colossians 2 and verse 3. The Samaritan woman said that
they lived in an expectation. John 4, 25, she said, When Messiah
is come, when Christ is come, He will tell us all things. We know that. He will take the
things of God. He will show them unto us. He
will open them to us. He will explain them. He will
make them clear. she probably had in mind, text
like that one back in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15, the
Lord thy God, raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee,
unto him shall ye hearken, Moses wrote, which is Christ according
to Acts 3 and 22. Verse 18 of Deuteronomy, I will
raise them up a prophet. I will put my words in his mouth. He shall speak unto them all
that I shall command him." Peter said, you have the words of eternal
life. John 6 and verse 68. Christ himself said in John 17
and verse 8, I have given them the words which Thou hast given
unto Me." John the Baptist said in John chapter 3 and verse 34,
For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, speaking of
our Lord. So let's admit the obvious meaning
of the text. Has spoken unto us in His Son
by realizing that Christ as the incarnate Son of God, the God-Man,
had a full and perfect knowledge of the will, of the purpose of
the Father. He had it not by revelation,
not by learning, but he had it because he is of one and the
same essence with the Father. By union and unity with the Father,
He is privy to all that the Father does know. Let's come from another
angle to make a strong point. Christ said, He that has seen
Me has seen the Father. He could have as truthfully said,
He that has heard Me has heard the Father. For the words that I speak, they
are the words of the Father. In fact, God testified of Christ. This is my Son. Hear Him on several
occasions. That's because all truth is and
must be related unto Christ. It is but empty intellectualism
if it is sought apart from Christ, which point can be proved in
the case of the Jews. They claim the inspiration of
the Old Testament oracles. They read them, they heard them,
they searched them. They read them every Sabbath
day in the synagogue and yet they were lost because they separated
Christ from their scripture. They did not see Christ in all
those places where he was to be found. They did not own Christ
to be the leading subject of the Old Testament, the embodiment
of truth when he appeared in the image and the likeness of
God. Thus Christ once said, Search
the scripture, for they testify of me, John chapter 5 and verse
39. Thus Paul speaks of the truth
as it was in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 4 and 21, for he is the embodiment
of all of God's truth unto men. God has made His fullest and
again I say His final revelation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has spoken unto us in His Son all divine truth, that is all
redemptive truth. All truth relative to knowing
God, to being saved, to worshiping Him is in and through and about
Jesus Christ. That's why you can't come to
God except by the Lord Jesus Christ. For God has put all things
into His hand. He it is that brings us unto
God. The Son reveals the Father. He
speaks to us in the name and the authority of God. so that
Scripture is nothing else but the record of such truth as is
in Jesus Christ. Scripture is a testimony of what
God has spoken unto us in and through His Son. God has spoken
to us in His Son. Now, it is time to make some
closing application concerning the text and the truth that is
here. Number one, God's Son came forth
among men. by the wonder of the virgin birth,
by the incarnation. Whether you believe that or not,
it still is the Word of God. He was supernaturally conceived
in a virgin by the Spirit of God. And the Scripture said so. Matthew 1, 18-21. Luke 1, 31-35. It produced the impeccable humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The humanity of our Lord was
conceived in the womb of the chosen virgin by the Spirit of
God. That impeccable humanity of Christ,
He assumed flesh, He assumed human nature without sin. Now He is the God-man. He is very God and He is very,
very man. This is necessary for the saving
work of our Lord that He be true God, that He be true man, that
He be both of them at one and the same time and in one and
the same person. Secondly, the speaking in the
Son, whose person and work comprises the written New Testament Scripture,
is God's fullest and final revelation. He has spoken unto man. There will be no more inspired
revelation from God. These wacky dodos that come up
here and tell us they've received new revelation, they saw God,
they were caught up into heaven, we brand them as liars because
the revelation is completed in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Revelation is closed with Him. That's God's full final revelation
and you must prepare to the scripture for what you want to know. There's
nothing outside of it and beyond it. Thirdly, there is no knowing
God without or apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot come to God are going
around Christ. That's an impossibility. You
must come to God through Him. None can come, none can know,
none can be saved, none can come to know the Father except by
and through Jesus Christ. That revelation made in Him. All of those who toss out Christ
out of the equation have no way, no way to get to the Father,
no way to come to God. He is the revelation. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. The Lord said, John 14, as he
spoke to Thomas there in that place. God, who in olden times
raised up many prophets at many different times, inspired them
and spake to the people by them, hath in these last days, in the
end of the ages, spoken to us in his Son. the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the record of the New Testament Scripture contains that, and
this is the revelation of God unto us, full and complete in
Christ, the blessed Son of God, who came from the Father, being
one in nature and essence with the Father.