Good morning, everyone. Only
a believer can sing that psalm the way it's supposed to be sung.
We believe. Therefore, we sing praises unto
God. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 1. I told Donnie and Dave last night
after they preached all around this subject, I said, I've said
everything they ought to say on this one. We can just go on
home and be alright. I want to look at three verses
here in Hebrews chapter 1. God speaks. God speaks. And how does He speak? How does
God speak to His people? Well, Hebrews chapter 1 tells
us how He does it. He says, God, who at sundry times
in diverse manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has
appointed heir over all things. And then He goes down and tells
us who He is, who this Son is. But as we look at these three
verses, I want you to remember four things. Four things. Everything
our Lord Jesus Christ did, As our substitute and our Savior,
He did by Himself alone. There was no one to help Him.
When the High Priest went into the Holiest of Holies to make
this sacrifice, He went in there alone. The other priests stood
outside and waited for Him. But He went in there alone, which
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ doing what He did by Himself
alone. The second thing I want you to
remember is everything our Lord Jesus Christ did as our substitute
and our Savior, He did one time. One time. He didn't come back. He's not going to come back and
offer another sacrifice. He offered the supreme sacrifice. He offered Himself a sacrifice
for sin. The third thing I want you to
remember The Son of God, the God-Man, our Savior, our Substitute,
everything He did in the salvation of our souls, He did for all
of us alike. Now, not the whole world. It's
us. This is who we are. This is what He's done for us.
The world says, oh, He died for everybody. The Scripture don't
tell us that. He died for a particular people
and God said, they're mine. I am their God and they shall
be my people. And the children of Israel was
only a type and a picture of them. The fourth thing I want
you to remember. Everything that our Savior did
as our substitute, securing our salvation, He did perfectly. Perfectly. Nothing can, nothing
needs to be added to it. He finished the work God gave
Him to do. The first recorded words that
we see in Scripture of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking, He said,
I must be about my Father's business. The last recorded word we have
in Holy Scripture, it's finished. He gave up the ghost. What's
He talking about? the work that the Father gave
Him to do in redeeming His people from their sin, He finished it.
He's not going to come back and do it again. He offered one sacrifice
for sin forever and He sat down. He sat down, His work finished
and acceptable. And the great design of this
whole book, from Genesis through Revelation, especially here in
the book of Hebrews, is to show the superiority of our Lord Jesus
Christ over the prophets, over Aaron, the priest, over the sacrifices
that the priest offered. The superiority of Christ runs
through the book of Hebrews from cover to cover. He is so much
better. And we are so much better off
than we were as an Adam. Adam was a man I've heard men
say he had a potential to sin. I don't know exactly what he
had, but he sinned. He failed. You and I who are
in Christ cannot fall. Oh, we fail daily, but we cannot
fall from Christ. He has put us in Him, and there
we shall be forever. The folks around our place accuse us of preaching What they
call once in Christ, always in Christ. That's so. That's so. We'll take that blame if that's
what they want to put on us. That's the only hope we have.
We must be in Christ. As David said last night, we're
needy sinners. We need a salvation. And a salvation
is only good for us because God brought it in us. We only have
it because He gave it to us. So God, who at sundry times,
in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets. We read in Numbers 12, verse
6, and He said, Here now, My words, if there be a prophet
among you, I the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision,
and will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful in all his house. With him, with Moses, which is
a type of Christ, with Moses I will speak mouth to mouth.
Can you imagine when Moses stood there at the burning bush And
God spoke to him. Mouth to mouth. Moses, take off
your shoe. You're on holy ground. And there
he stood. And God spoke to him all through
his life. He spoke to him. He said, go
down to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And oh,
every time. Moses said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. I'm not worthy. I'm not able. And he said, when I go down there,
who am I going to say sent me? He said, you tell them I am sent
you. And that's all he needed to say.
The children of Israel knew who he represented. The children
of Israel knew who sent him down there. What God did speak to his prophets. He spoke concerning his son.
all through the Old Testament, we see a sacrifice, which is
a picture, a type, and a shadow of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We see the Old Testament prophets
saying, there's one coming, there's one coming, and these sacrifices
that we offer only stays sin for a season. We've got to come
back next season and offer this same sacrifice. They offered
a sacrifice of the morning and of the evening Hundreds of years. And oh, not one of those sacrifices
could ever put away one sin. But this man. That's the superiority
that Christ has over the Old Testament prophets and the Old
Testament sacrifices. This man, this man, offered himself
a sacrifice. And we see Christ here in prophecy,
in Genesis chapter 3. The Lord spoke after Adam sinned.
The Lord spoke unto Satan, the serpent. And He said, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. And her seed is Christ. Her seed
is Christ. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. What is Christ going to do? He's
going to brew the head of Satan. His power, His authority. There's
no power in Satan except that which God allows him to have.
He is ruling. He is over all. God blessed forever. He is supreme over Satan. Satan
is His Satan. I don't understand all that took
place here. But everything that Satan did,
God allowed him to do it. And every temptation that you
and I have, every temptation that comes our way, God allows
it to come our way. You say, explain that. I just
did. That's as far as you can go. You say, well, this happened
because God directed it to happen. And if God did not direct it,
it will not happen. Oh, the Scripture is so clear. I never was raised in religion,
but later on in life, I came to religion and made a profession
and all this junk that people are going through right now.
And I remember they had a preacher came to the church that we're
at now. It was a free will Baptist organization. And this was a renowned preacher
that, you know, hellfire and brimstone, you know. And he came
and preached, well, I don't know if you can call it preaching
or not. But anyhow, he came. And he said what he said. And for some reason, I don't
know why, I made a profession. And there was a, in our church,
there was a, we have a pulpit, standing like this, and he's
got a place around the front of it. They called it the altar. And that's where you went to
when you made a profession. And I remember the night that
I came down to the altar. And at that time there was, I
don't know, 20 or 30 men in the church. And they all gathered
around, and they all began to pray out loud. I mean it was
a roar. Nobody understood what anybody
was saying. And I thought within myself, kneeling there, standing,
I don't remember now what it was. What in the world am I doing? I knew there was something wrong,
but I didn't know what was right. I knew that I was, to some degree,
not a real good person. But I never knew the depth of
sin that will shear. I never knew that until the gospel
came. Until God was pleased to send
a minister and declare unto us, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And thanks be unto God. That
was several years ago. And who would have thunk that
I'd be in Arkansas standing before a congregation and telling them
about Christ? Who would have thunk it? But
we see Christ in prophecy all through the Scripture. And this
is how God spoke to His people. He spoke to the prophet, and
the prophet would speak to the people. We see Christ in sacrifice. I think one of the, David Floquant
last night, I believe. The Children of Israel was in
Egypt in bondage. And as well as I understand,
I've heard men say and I've read things that they said there was
some three million people, estimate, Children of Israel in Egypt.
When they went down there, they were 70 souls went into Egypt. And they stayed there a long
time. And when they began to come out, after God sent plague
after plague after plague, and Pharaoh would harden his heart,
God said, I'm going to send one last plague. And this plague
was the plague that He was going to kill the firstborn of every
creature in the land of Egypt. Man and beast. Man and beast. And He told the children of Israel,
where he told Moses, he said, this is what you do. You kill
your lamb, and you put the blood over the doorpost and on the
windows. And when I see the blood, here he is in sacrifice. When
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And that's what he
tells every one of his people. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. For by the shedding of blood,
there is remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. There is no sin sacrifice. There
is no sin offering without the blood being shed. And the blood
of bulls and goats, he plainly tells us, it can never take away
sin. But this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
to sin forever, sat down. Oh, that we may see and understand
the goodness and the grace of our God towards his people. What
he did for a sinful, wretched, vile creature such as I. If I
was the only one in all the world that was to be saved, he must
do the same thing. He must do the same thing. For
years, I thought, and I believed here, that it just took a little bit
of blood to save me. I've done some bad things. But
when you actually see what sin is, and who sin is, and what
sin is, and where it's at, It takes the whole sacrifice of
Christ to save one sinner. But He does it completely. He
does it completely. In John chapter 3, we see Christ
in type. Again, the children of Israel
are a type in a picture of the spiritual children of Israel,
or the spiritual child of God. They were the most sinful people
that could be. Every time God would bring them
out of one trouble, they'd go right into another. And that's
our nature by sin. That's who we are in this old
sinful nature. Every time we come out of one
trouble, we get into another. Does Christ have to come again
and shed His blood? No. No. But in the wilderness,
The children of Israel sinned against God. They murmured against
God. And he told Moses, he said, I'm
going to send among them fiery serpents. And when the serpent
bit the people, the scripture said much people died. I don't
know how many of them died, but there was a bunch of them. And
the people began to cry out unto Moses. Lord, Moses, go before
the Lord and we're sorry for what we've done and we won't
do this as, you know, what professions does. We won't do that no more. And God told Moses, He said,
you make a serpent out of brass and you put it up on a pole.
This is a type of Christ and a picture of Christ. And when
you're bitten, when you're bitten, and you look at that serpent,
you shall not die. Now, if that be the case of 3
million people coming out of the land of Egypt, a great number,
I don't know how many it was, but I've read that there was
an estimated 3 million people. Moses took that serpent made
out of brass and put it up on a pole. I don't know how tall
the pole was, but I know if you look at 3 million people spread
out over the countryside, it's a large group of people. And
they could not see that serpent with the natural eye. Not all
of them could. And that's a picture of us looking
unto Christ by faith. When they were bitten, they looked
towards that serpent, wherever it was, in the middle of the
camp. And so it is with you and I. When sin is revealed to us,
We look to Christ by faith. We don't naturally see Him. Our
natural eyes have not laid upon the Son of God. We've not seen
Him in the flesh. But faith says there He is. Look unto Him and be ye saved.
Look unto Him and you will find rest for your soul. Look unto
Him and this thing of sin will be taken care of. Because He
has made this supreme sacrifice for our sins. So this is how
God spoke to His people in Old Testament times. In verse 2 it
says, "...hath now, hath in these last days, spoken unto us by
His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom He
made the world." This is declaring who He is. He is the Son of God. who spoke and the world came
into existence. You say, well, God did that.
God is Spirit. God is Spirit. The Lord Jesus
Christ is flesh. He's God and man in one supreme
being. And He said, let there be light.
And there was light. And when God speaks to the soul
through the preaching of the Gospel, He tells that soul that
lost, dead, consecrated soul, let there be light. And there's
light. Oh, we see through a glass dimly
or darkly, but we see. By the grace of God, we do see. We understand something about
Holy Scripture. We understand something about
who Christ is and what He did. And we look. Brother Donnie said,
faith is that empty hand that reaches out and takes hold of
Christ. Has God spoken to you through
the gospel? That's what the gospel does.
It sends forth, it proclaims. What was it Paul said? We are
ambassadors of Christ. As though Christ did beseech
you by us, do you reconcile to God? That's what the gospel is. It's telling men and women the
good things Christ has done for His people. And the response
to that is God giving them faith to look. and say, Lord, I believe. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. God has in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things,
by whom also He made the world. All that the Father has belongs
to Christ. He says, I and my Father are
one. When you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. And men said, who was it? Philip
said, Lord, show us the Father and it suffith us. And our Lord
said, Philip, have I been so long with you and you've not
known me? When you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I and
my Father are one. The work that I do, they are
done in the Father's name. The things that I say, I say
concerning Him. For in the end of the world, for this is the reason, for to
this end Christ both died and rose and revived that He might
be Lord both of the dead and the living. You and I who were
dead in trespasses and sin, you and I who have sinned against
God, broke His holy law continually, day after day after day. He's
Lord. He's Lord. The living that is
still here upon the earth, He's the King of kings and Lord of
lords. He rules over all things. For by Him were all things created
that were created. Everything that there was, everything
that there are, the heavens, the earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all
things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist. He holds all things
in His hand. Men worry about what's going
to happen to the stock market tomorrow, what's going to happen
in the Middle East. God's in control of these things.
Whatever He's determined to do before the foundation of the
world, He's going to bring to pass. And He is the Head of the
Body, the Church. Oh, I'm glad He didn't leave
that part out. He's the Head of the Body, the
Church, who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. Now verse 3. Brother Darwin quoted this last
night. I said, well, I need to find me a new message. It's the
same one that Brother Donny spoke of, Brother David spoke of. I'm sure Brother Darwin speaks
of it every week. We have but one message. 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 sin, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high." This tells us three things. This tells
us who He is. He is the brightness of His glory.
Explain that. He explains it Himself. He said,
that's who I am. I am the brightness of the glory
of God. I am the expressed image of His
person. When you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. This man is the brightness of
God's glory, the expressed image of His person. Christ is both
God Himself and the revelation of God concerning Himself. Recently, we went through the
book of Revelation at home, and I told the folks there that when
we began the study of the book of Revelation, I said the first
verse, men talk, oh, this is too mysterious, this is talking
about things that are going to happen in the future, this is
going to talk about all different things. The first verse, is the
key to understanding revelation. This is the revelation of Christ
that God gave unto him. What's he talking about? He's
talking about Christ is victorious over all. He rules over all. God gave him this revelation.
God gave him this authority, this power, and all that he has,
he got what he got from God. which is His Father, because
they're one. Because they're one. I read something Brother Henry
wrote, talking about the express image and the brightness of God's
glory. He said, this is referring to the Son, S-U-N, and its race. The Father and the Son are the
same as the Son, S-U-N, and the race. One is not before the other,
and they cannot be divided or separated. Christ the Son is
a perfect revelation, the exact image and the character of God,
and when you've seen Him, you've seen the Father. When you go
out on a sunlit day, you look into the sun, what do you see?
You see the sun and the power of the sun, the rays that come
from it. You don't see the rays and then
see the sun. When you see one, you see the other. And so it
is in Scripture. When you see Christ, you see
the Father. This is who He is. This is who
He is. The second thing, we see what
He did. When He had by Himself purged
our sins. That's what he did. We could
stay here for eternity and never scratch the surface of what he
did. But he paid the sin debt for
his people once and for all. It's finished. It's finished. You remember what I asked you
to remember. Let me run through it one more time before I close. Everything that the Son of God
did as our substitute and our Savior, He did by Himself alone. And that's what He says right
here. When He had by Himself purged our sins. The second thing
was everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did for us as our
substitute and Savior, He did just one time. One time. The
third thing, everything the Son of God did as the God-man, our
Savior, our substitute, everything that He did for our salvation,
He did for all of us alike. There's no big I's and little
U's. We're all sinners, dead and trespassing the sin until
Christ says, let there be light. That's who we are. And without
Him, we would remain there. Some stooped in false religion.
Some stooped in simple rebellion. But we would all be right there
together. But our Lord Jesus Christ took
our sin away. He was made sin for us that we
might be made in righteousness of God in Him. Everything that
our Lord Jesus Christ did as our substitute, our Savior, He
did perfectly. That's a rejoicing thing. To
know there's nothing left for me to do. Do we work as what good work
is? I have no idea. I believe faith's
a good work because it's a gift of God. But we believe. We're sure. We're comforted. We're steadfast in this thing.
Not in our own strength, but the strength that He gives us.
He tells us, your sins and your iniquities will I remember no
more. I have cast them behind my back.
They're gone. Brother Mike Morton sings a song. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? Your sins are all taken away. What a blessed thought
that is. What a blessed thought it is
to know something about who we are by our so sinful nature,
but yet say, I stand before God in perfection. I'm justified
as Brother Donnie preached last night. God himself has justified
me, although I'm still in this old sinful flesh. He took our sin upon himself. and bore them away, just as that
scapegoat. When Aaron laid hold of that
scapegoat, he put his hands upon the horns of this goat, and he
confessed the sins of the people. Now, can you imagine standing
and confessing the sins of three million people? Adam didn't have
the power to do this. It was typifying. It was a picture
of our sins being put upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him led
away, let go in the wilderness, never to see those sins again,
never to remember not one sin against me. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you, O and you, that were sometimes aliens and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in the very sight of God. You
and I stand in the very presence of God, and we hear Him say,
well done. Surely He's not talking about
me. What have I ever done for the Lord? He's not looking at
what I did. He's not looking at what I can
do. He's looking to the finished work of Christ. And He says,
well done. Oh, well done. Where is he now? He sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. He's yonder somewhere. The scripture tells us that he
ascended up into the skies. Well, that's where he's at. We
look up. Years ago, I was taking, at work,
I was taking a first aid class. And I know very little about
first aid. I know if you got cut, you wrapped it up with black
tape. That's about all I knew about first aid. But this instructor
told me something that it stayed with me for a long time. He said,
when you get cut or injured, where do you put the tourniquet
to stop the bleed? He said, well, if it's dark blood, you put it
below. If it's bright blood, you put
it above. And that's what it is. When you look down, it's
dark. Looking to yourself, it's dark.
Oh, but when we look up. Oh, when we look up. The brightness. The express image of His glory.
The majesty of His power. That's what we see. We see this
by faith. And we rest right there. And
we can sing the old song. It is well with my soul. It is
well with my soul.