in his message in the previous
hour where the Lindsay dealt with the fact that Moses said,
and said repeatedly really, their God is not as our God. Speaking of the heathen all around
them in the wilderness, in Egypt, and later in the land of Canaan,
their God is not like our God. Moses said, their rock is not
as our rock. And when he said that, he is
simply repeating their own words. This one that the children of
Israel called God, he's not like our God. Their rock is not like
our rock and never were truer words spoken. Everywhere you
go in this generation, both in the secular world and the religious
world, where the folks are cussing in his name, using his name as
a byword, or speaking in religious terms of his name, you hear about
God and Jesus. You can't hardly turn the television
on without somebody mentioning the name. But the Jesus of this
age, the savior of this age, The Christ of this age, the one
that's commonly known among men, he is not at all like the Christ
of God. For that reason, I've been trying
in these recent messages on Sunday mornings to identify for you
the Christ of God. Who is the Christ? There's only one. and whosoever
believeth that Jesus is that Christ, he is born of God. And any other Christ is no God
and no Savior at all. If you worship a false God, if
you worship a false Christ, you may as well bow down and dance
around a totem pole like some barbarian. He who is the Christ
of God, he alone is our Savior. With that in mind, turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 1. More than 700 years before he
came into this world, the prophet Isaiah wrote about the greatness,
the superiority, and the excellence of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government, that is all government, shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no
end. upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. And then the prophet
concluded that prophecy by saying the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. This is what God has said, this
is what God shall do. And then when the angel 700 years
later appeared to Mary and announced that though she was a virgin,
having never known a man, that virgin woman would conceive and
bring forth a son by the power of God, the Holy Ghost, and that
her child would be the son of God, the savior of his people,
Jesus. The angel said, he shall be great.
and shall be called the son of the highest, the son of the most
excellent, the highest God, and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. That is, there shall be no limit
to the to his kingdom in its size and no limit to his kingdom
in its endurance. Then we read in Colossians chapter
1, listen carefully, that it is the will, it is the purpose
of the triune God that in all things he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God-man, our mediator, It is the will and purpose of God
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now that
which was spoken by the prophet, announced by the angels, and
declared by his apostles has come to pass. Read it with me
in the first four verses of Hebrews 1. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners, that is in different times in different
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,
being made so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. In these four verses
of Holy Scripture, God the Holy Ghost informs us that our Lord
Jesus Christ, our God and our Savior, is superior to, greater
than, and exalted above all things. He is superior to, greater than
and exalted above all things. In fact, a key word in the book
of Hebrews is the word better. One purpose of this book is to
show us that Christ is better than all who came before him.
Particularly, the apostle is telling the Jewish believers,
Christ is indescribably better than everything that prefigured
and typified him in the Old Testament, in the ceremonial worship of
the children of Israel, and in the events of Old Testament history.
He's better than the prophets, better than the angels, better
than Moses, better than Joshua, and a priest better than Aaron.
He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is a surety
of a better covenant, established upon better promises, giving
a better hope to needy sinners. Christ our Savior is better than
the tabernacle, the altar, the temple, and the mercy seat. He
is a better sacrifice, offering better blood giving us better
access to and a better standing before the Holy Lord God. For
by Him, we are made the righteousness of God, the holiness of God. We are made to be the very wisdom
of God and the redemption of God, accepted in the beloved. In all things, Christ is better
than all others, infinitely better. He's the best. The title of my
message this morning is The Unrivaled Excellence of Our Lord Jesus
Christ. the unrivaled excellence of our
Lord Jesus Christ. I choose the words unrivaled
and excellence because I can't think of any better way, any
more extravagant way to speak of our Savior's glory and dignity
as the God-man, our Savior, and I can't imagine anything that
would express his excellence, his glory, his majesty, and his
dignity. So I try to use superlative words,
the unrivaled excellence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen carefully. If you're ever tempted to imagine
that there might be some similarity between the weak, frustrated,
helpless Jesus of this idolatrous generation and the exalted Lord
of glory, read these four verses again. Here we have the Christ
of God revealed to us, the real Christ, our all-glorious Savior. And if the Christ you worship
is not this Christ, the Christ you worship is antichrist, a
false Christ, and you will perish when God casts the beast and
the false prophet into outer darkness. In these four verses
of Holy Scripture, God the Holy Ghost shows us that our Savior
is unrivaled in his excellence in nine ways. I'm going to give
you each of them with great brevity, but I want you to get them. First,
the Lord Jesus Christ is unrivaled in his excellence as the Word
of God, the revelation of the invisible God. God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son. In the Old Testament, God spoke
to men and women in the types and shadows, ceremonies and pictures
of the law. And he spoke to men and women
by the visions that he gave to faithful prophets revealing his
will and his purpose, his word and his law. All of those types,
all of those pictures, all the messages of those prophets pointed
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when you read the types,
prophecies, and pictures of the Old Testament, you can see their
fulfillment in only one person. Only one person. And that one
person who fulfills it all is the Christ of God. And if the
Christ you worship does not fulfill every type, every picture, every
prophecy of the Old Testament scriptures, you worship a false
Christ. Now, in these last days, God
has spoken one time with finality by his Son. He hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. But what about the writings
of the apostles and those who wrote the four gospels and the
epistles of the New Testament and the book of Revelation? What
about those things? Those things are but the writings of men recording
for us by divine inspiration, giving explanation of the things
which our Savior taught while he walked on this earth and as
he walked among men, revealing himself as God, the God-man,
mediator the Christ. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament
epistles in the four Gospels in the book of Acts takes the
things of Christ, the things revealed and spoken and taught
by the Lord Jesus Christ and shows them to us causing the
inspired Apostles to give us a precise revelation of the fact
that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed fulfill everything written in
the Old Testament Scripture. He is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is that
One who is God, manifest. He is God manifest. So that when Christ came in his
humanity, came as one of us, and lived and obeyed God in our
stead, and died upon the cursed tree, and rose from the dead,
and ascended on high as the King of kings and Lord of lords, he
manifest God in all his character. Benjy was talking to us earlier
about God's holiness. I said to him how inadequate
we are when we think about much less try to teach or preach about
God's holiness. What is that holiness? It is
everything about God that makes him different from everything
and everyone else. It is the whole character of
the excellent God, and that is Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. It
is that which separates God from all his creatures. He is God
manifest in the flesh. John tells us, no man hath seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. He has taken all that God is
and opened Him up and showed Him to you. He's taken all that
God is and opened him up and showed him to you. The word from
which that word declared is translated is the word exegeted. He is the
exegesis of God. The Lord Jesus takes all the
fullness of God into humanity. And here is the word, the revelation
of God. Jesus Christ is God and He is
the Word of God. And the only way you can know
God or come to God, the only way we can be accepted of God
is through Jesus Christ the Lord. God will not speak to, nor will
he be spoken to by any man except through Christ the Mediator.
God will not make himself known to any man but by Christ the
Mediator. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. Someone rightly said, Christ
is the way. Without him, there's no going.
Christ is the truth. Without him, there's no knowing.
Christ is the life. Without him, there's no living.
There is no prophet like Christ, our prophet. He is unrivaled
in his excellence as the revelation of the invisible God. Second,
look at verse two. The Lord Jesus Christ is unrivaled
in his excellence as the heir of God, the appointed heir of
all things. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things. We're told in John 3.35, the
Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. Now, how can that be? If Jesus
Christ is God the Son in all things equal with God, fully
himself God, he possesses all things as God. That's exactly
right. But because of his obedience unto God, the triune Jehovah
as our surety, as our mediator, as our savior, as our substitute,
the father has given the son all things, putting all things
in his hands. He who is our savior by rightful
lawful possession holds everything. He's the heir of all things. What does that mean? That means
that he has the right, the absolute right, to do what he will with
all things, you and me included. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Who dares think about calling
God into judgment? Who dares think it's not right
for God? If God does it, it's right because
God did it. I recall years ago, listening,
I forgot whether it was hurricane or tornado or flood or earthquake,
I forgot what it was, but listening to the news reporters, of course,
they always get some religious fool to talk to them because
he's got a degree of some kind or another. And he said, I don't
know what to say except when one of these days God's gonna
have to answer for a lot. God's gonna have to answer, to
who? To who? None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? If God wipes the world clean
of humanity in the flood of his wrath, it's right. It's right. All that God is is right. And all that God does is right. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
is the unrivaled sovereign of the universe. He sent his disciples
out, sends you and I out with this word. All power is given
to me in heaven and in earth. All power. I have been asked
a long time ago, folks don't argue with me much anymore because
I don't argue very good. I just state things plainly. If I believed in God's sovereignty
like you do, why do you go preach? If you didn't, why would you?
The motive, the inspiration for all evangelistic effort is all
power belongs to Christ the Son, who is God our Savior. Thou has
given him power over all flesh for this purpose, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. He who
is God our Savior does as he will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth. This is what that means. He makes one vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor. One a vessel of mercy and another
a vessel of wrath. One to show forth the riches
of his grace and another to show the severity of his justice. and he does so exactly as it
pleases him. Christ is the appointed heir
of all things. Personally, the father said to
the son, ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance.
And he is the appointed heir of all things for us representatively. He is the forerunner who has
entered into heaven for us, taking possession of the inheritance
in the name of his redeemed. And he is the heir of all things,
being himself also the dispenser of all things. Everything that
comes to pass, he brings to pass. Everything that comes to pass,
he brings to pass. He's beautifully pictured by
Joseph when Joseph was exalted by Pharaoh to be prime minister
in Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph control over
all the land. All the corn and wheat in the
land. All the cattle in the land. Joseph held everything. And if you wanted anything from
Pharaoh, folks would say, go see Joseph. He's the man in charge. Will you hear me? Jesus Christ,
the God-man is the God-man in charge of everything. Behold
your God in the unrivaled excellence of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the
appointed heir of all things. Here's the third thing. By whom
also he made the worlds. The Lord Jesus is unrivaled in
His excellence as God, our Creator, the Creator of the worlds. I like the way that's stated.
Now some folks would read that and say, well, he said worlds,
there must be a bunch of them, at least more than one. No, no,
not at all. There's a reference obviously
here to the distinct divinity and personality of our Lord Jesus
Christ as God the Son. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. And yet it
is equally obvious that our text speaks of Christ as our divine
mediator, the one by whom the triune God performs all his will. Everything that God does, everything
God has done in time, and everything that God will do in whatever
tomorrows yet remain, He does through the mediation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. so that the measurements of the
universe were laid down by our Savior. The power of the sun
and the brilliance of every star is energized by His sovereign,
almighty, irresistible will. We were in Alaska, as you know,
this past week. This time of the year there,
they have about six hours of what they call daylight. Several
years ago, Shelby and I made a list of things because we were
forever leaving something we needed and had to go get it.
So she has a checklist and she checks things off. And she always
asked me, have you got your glasses? Have you got your sunglasses?
My eyes always stay dilated, sun bothers me a good bit. So
I pack my sunglasses, usually keep a pair in my briefcase.
And we got to Alaska, didn't need them at all. even with the
bright sunshine, because the sun doesn't shine up there this
time of year. It's just a kind of cloudy haze for about six
hours, what they call daylight. But we live here where the sun
shines with its brilliance and it glistens off of the snow. Christ Jesus is he who energizes
the sun. gives brilliance to the stars
at night. It is Christ, our savior, the
great mediator and surety of his people who laid the foundations
of the earth. He's the creator of all things. He's not the great spectator,
but the great creator. He's not the great evolver, but
the great creator. When the Holy Ghost tells us
that Christ is the creator of the worlds, He's not suggesting
that there might be more than one inhabited planet, but rather
he's telling us that Christ holds the existence of every realm
of existence in his hand as the creator. The heavenly world he
created, the habitation of God and the holy angels. the upper
world, the vast expanse of space, the lower world, the habitation
of man, the world beneath, the prison of the dam, all created
by him. You might be asking, Pastor,
why is this so important? Why do you so vehemently insist
on declaring that Christ made all things and rules all things
in absolute sovereignty? Well, I'm glad you asked. To
deny that Christ created all things and that he rules all
things is to deny that he is God. God Almighty is the creator,
and the creator is the mighty God, Christ Jesus, our God, man,
Savior. To deny that he is God is to
mock him, blaspheme him, and deny his glory. To deny that
Christ is God, sovereign upon his throne, is to deny hope to
needy sinners who look to him alone for grace, salvation, and
eternal life. We trust him. We trust him who is the mighty
God. Creator, ruler of all things. That means our trust is well
grounded. We trust one who is mighty to
save. To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. You see, none but an absolute
sovereign can save. None but an absolute sovereign
can be trusted implicitly, no one else. These two ladies here,
and I presume you, trust me. I thank God that you do. I have,
in measure, earned their trust. They know they can rely on me.
But not absolutely. Not absolutely. Oh no. Because I don't have any power.
I don't have any ability. I don't possess anything. My
next breath isn't mine yet. I may make promises I can't fulfill
because God prevents it. I may have good intentions I
cannot accomplish because of a lack of ability. I may even
go back on my word in dishonesty because of my poor character.
That could happen, but not God. He can be trusted implicitly
with everything, with everything. I pray for that girl and her
brother every day, throughout the day. And I tell you what
I always do. I thank you, my God, I can commit
them to you. That's good enough, isn't it?
You tell me what's better. He who is God our Savior ought
to be trusted implicitly. He's God. Only one who is an
absolute sovereign can save and be trusted implicitly. And I'll
tell you something else. Only one who is an absolute sovereign
will be worshiped by his creatures. Men these days, women these days,
go to church and do everything on this earth except worship
God. They play games and they entertain themselves with one
another, and they have a big time and throw a party, but they
don't worship God. Only an absolute sovereign demands
worship. and only an absolute sovereign
will be worshiped. You don't make bargains with
him. You don't try to work out a deal with him. You bow and
you worship like the leper of old. Lord, if you will, you can
make me whole. Fourth, look at verse three.
Who being the brightness of his glory. Now there's more there
than I can get said in a long time. But that certainly declares
to us that the Lord Jesus Christ is unrivaled in his excellence
as the brightness of the glory of the triune God. Christ is
the glory of his glory who is glory. Christ is the glory of
his glory who is glory. He is God in all the fullness
of Godhead. In him resides permanently. In him dwelleth all that God
is in a body. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Who can talk about that? Mark
Henson, the Lord Jesus, is seated in glory in a body I reckon about
the size you are. I reckon about the size he is.
Just average size man. Just average size man. Just a
body, a real human body. But in the body of that man,
resides all the fullness of the infinite incomprehensible Jehovah. Oh, what a God. What a Savior. The brightness of the Father's
glory. He who is the glory of God. The brightness of the glory of
God. certainly must have some illusion
to the sun and its rays. They are of the same nature as
Christ and the Father are one. As the sun and its rays are distinct
and yet coexistence, so God the Father and God the Son are distinct
and yet coexist. As the sun and its rays can never
be separated, the Father and the Son are forever united. As
the rays of the sun radiate the glory of the sun, so Christ the
son, the son of righteousness, radiates the glory of the invisible
God. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is
God in all the brightness of his glory as God. Now, as Brother
L.R. Shelton used to say, hang on
to your seat, we're fixing to jump a creek. As Christ is one
with and inseparable from the Father, so we are one with and
inseparable from Him. That's exactly what he tells
us in John 17. As He is one with and inseparable from the Father.
We are one with and inseparable from him who is the God-man,
our mediator. Number five, look at verse three
again. The express image of his person. The Lord Jesus is unrivaled
in his excellence as the express image of the triune God. Not only does Christ reveal the
brightness of God's glory, he is one with the Father. The same
in substance with the Father. So that there's no inferiority
in Christ, and there's no sequence whereby Christ follows behind
the Father. John Gill suggested this description
of Christ implies three things. Equality with the Father and
the Son. sameness of essence in the Godhead,
and the distinct persons in the Godhead. Those things we all
recognize, but there's something else here that is commonly missed
by men, I think. When the Apostle here says that
Christ is the express image of his person, I cannot help but
to be convinced there is a direct reference to Genesis chapter
1 verse 26 when God said, let us make man in our image and
after our likeness. And so God made Adam in his own
image. What does that mean? The Lord
God, having accepted Christ, his son, as our surety, our God-man
mediator before the world was, before ever he assumed our nature,
he stood before the Father as the God-man mediator, accepted
of him. And the triune Jehovah said,
let's make Adam look just like him. So he made him in the physical
image of Christ, our God. And he made him in the moral
image of Christ, our God, intellect, emotion, and will. So that Adam
walked up rightly from the beginning, created in the full beauty and
glory of perfect manhood. Our children, as we have been
taught, it started a long time before this generation. We've
been taught since we were knee-high to grasshoppers about cavemen. When I was just a little boy
before starting in school, I can remember playing caveman. That
means you get a club, beat somebody, drag them around. Well, we didn't
usually beat them too hard, but we tried to get somebody to drag
them by the hair. I'm the caveman. Adam was not a caveman. Adam
was created with intelligence like no man has ever had since
the fall. Adam was created with uprightness
like no man by nature has had since the fall. Adam was created
in the image of him who is the image of God. And far more importantly,
according to Romans chapter 5, Adam was made in the covenant
image of him who is the image of God. Romans 5 tells us that
Adam was the figure of him that was to come. Not a figure, but
the figure. He was the type. So that when
God said, let's make man in our image and after our likeness,
he said, let's make a man to represent the man who is God
and the image of God. And he made Adam to be the covenant
head of all humanity. So that Adam stood as the representative
of Eve and of all the rest of humanity in the garden. And when
Eve transgressed God's law and broke the law, nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. She's just the same as she was
before. Because God didn't make the covenant with Eve, He made
it with Adam. And when Adam saw what Eve had
done, rather than being separated from the woman he loved forever,
he took the forbidden fruit and willingly plunged himself into
sin and death and damnation because of his love for Eve. and the
whole human race was fallen and dead and corrupt and sinful by
Adam's transgression. And there is another Adam, the
last Adam, the last man, Jesus Christ the Lord. Now understand
this and you're gonna understand the word of God. If you don't
understand this, you will never understand the word of God. Understand
this and you will understand grace and salvation. If you don't
understand this, you will never understand grace and salvation.
God deals with all men through two men. Just two men. Just two men. The first Adam
and the last Adam. The last Adam represents all
God's elect. And he, because of his love for
his people, took on himself our sin and was made what we are
and plunged himself under the wrath of God and the judgment
of God into death that he might redeem us from the fall. And by one man's disobedience,
we were made sinners. And by the obedience of this
one man, Jesus Christ the Lord, we are made righteous. Here's
the sixth thing. upholding all things by the word
of his power. Christ is unrivaled in his excellence
in the fact that he is the upholder of all things. By him all things
consist. It is he who holds the universe
in his hand. It is He who holds the universe
in His hands. People talk about laws of nature
and laws of science. Laws of nature are the laws of
God. Laws of science are the laws
of God. He upholds all things. It is He, Christ, our God and
Savior, who upholds all things and determines all the affairs
of providence. He preserves and he destroys. He kills and he makes alive. He enables and he disenables. Not by force of arms, but by
the mere word of his power. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, the psalmist says. And the remainder of wrath wilt
thou restrain. Our God is in the heaven. he
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased in heaven, in earth,
in the sea, and in all deep places. Brother Don, where's that found?
Psalm 135 verse six. That sounds like God always has
his way in heaven, in earth, and hell, among angels, men,
and devils, always. No exception. The preparations
of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. That means that no event takes
God by surprise. Nothing ever happens without
his explicit direction. From the election of his people
to salvation and everlasting glory to the election of magistrates
to the consummation of the universe. Everything in the universe happens
or not exactly at the will, decree and order of Christ our God. One time there was a rogue who
thought David was done for and he came out just jumping up and
down like a fool and screaming and hollering and cussing David.
And David's servant said, let me go over and take his head
off his shoulders. And David being the man he was,
believing God as he did, he said, leave him alone. Leave him alone. Shemai could not cuss me, except
the Lord said, Shemai, go cuss David. And perhaps the Lord will
requite me good for his cursing this day. Everything is ruled
by our God. Everything comes to pass by the
direction of our God. I just caught Mark and Donna,
they've been through so much, Teresa and David, Darvin and
Kathy have gone through so much. How come? Because God set his
heart on you from eternity. That's how it goes. And the good
and the evil is all good for those who love God, who are the
called according to his purpose. When the Jews cried, crucify
him, crucify him, and Pilate delivered Jesus to their will.
When the soldiers nailed him to the cursed tree and the mob
spit in his face, he who was crucified was in absolute control
of his crucifiers. When Judas came to betray him
with a kiss, Judas was but fulfilling the decree of God, the will of
God and the purpose of God for the saving of his people. I can
almost hear our savior as he hangs upon the cursed tree, covered
in his own blood and the excrement of their vile throats. I can
hear him declare, therefore doth my father love me because I laid
down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Jesus Christ, the
God-man who redeemed me, is the great King of the universe, upholding
all things by the word of his power. Now, we come to the best
of the text. He has by himself purged our
sins. Our Lord Jesus is unrivaled in
his excellence as the Redeemer of his people. O glorious Word,
He hath by Himself purged our sins. Now, once in the end of
the world, hath He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
He purged our sins. He purged our sins. All our sins,
past, present, and future. He's taken them away by his blood,
washed them away one time and one day forever purged our sins
so that they are no more. I don't know a better way to
illustrate it than to brag on my wife like I like to do. If
you go out to dinner with me, I embarrass my wife and daughter
and granddaughter all the time, especially if we get chips and
salsa at a Mexican restaurant, because I'm going to get it on
me. I'm going to get it on me. Hey, look here. Nothing there. Sometimes I'll
make the mistake of leaving one of these rollerball pins out
and stick it in my pocket. And after about five minutes,
you got a big black circle right here. And I don't have one on
any of my shirts. You know how come? This dear
lady will go downstairs in the laundry room, and she'll soak
those eggs, and she'll soak them in Clorox, and then she'll take
Clorox and that granite stain remover stuff, and scrub them,
and scrub them, and dip them, and scrub them, and scrub them,
and dip them, and scrub them, and scrub them, until her hands
are raw, and it's gone. Look here. Look here. Look here
as God looks here. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you're
free. They're all taken away. Christ has forever put away our
sins so that the Lord God hath not beheld iniquity in Israel
or transgression in Jacob. Now look at the next thing. When
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. Our savior is unrivaled in his
glorious exaltation. He who died for us sat down in
heaven. That means his work is finished.
He has entered into his rest. He who is the Lord, our Sabbath,
is himself entered into his Sabbath, and his Sabbath, his rest, is
his glory. Now he bids us enter into his
rest. Rest in him. That's what it is
to keep the Sabbath. We don't observe a physical Sabbath
day. Now I was raised in the South
in the days when we had what they called blue laws. That meant
that you couldn't buy anything on Sunday except a hamburger,
that's it. You go out to the restaurant
and eat your meal, that's it, you couldn't buy anything else.
In an emergency, you could call a pharmacist and buy drugs. because
folks were keeping a Sabbath. Well, I'm not in favor of Sabbath
keeping. I would like to see blue laws.
I wish you couldn't do anything on Sunday except come here. That
kind of forced folks to be here. But I'd love that, but not Sabbath
keeping. No, no. If you try to keep a
physical Sabbath, you will never rest in the Sabbath. You will
never find rest in him who is our Sabbath. This is what it
is to believe on the Son of God. It is to enter into His rest.
Quit working. Quit working. Quit trying to
win God's favor. Quit trying to make it into God's
approval, but rather rest in Christ Jesus the Lord. One more
thing. Our Lord Jesus is unrivaled in
His excellence by reason of His excellent name which He's obtained. Being made so much better than
the angels, as he hath obtained a more excellent name than they. What is his name? What is his
name? Some folks still do. There was
a day when people named children for a reason. Their name meant
something. I had no idea why my folks named me Donald Stewart.
I got Fortner because that was my daddy's name. But Don either
means a mighty ruler or a little brown stranger. I'm not either
one. And I'm sure not much of a Stewart. But the Lord Jesus
bears his name. Jesus Christ the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. because it represents all that
he is, all that he does, all that he gives, his person, his
performance, his perfection, and his promises. His name is
the name, the only name by which sinners are saved. He gives life
eternal to as many as believe on his name, his name. is the
only name that has power with God. Mark, Daniel, you have power
with God. Did you know that? Power, he
chose you. That whatsoever you ask in my
name, my father will give it you. Power with God. The name that prevails with God. Oh, that means we can get God
in an arm lock Make him do what we want him to. No, no, no, no,
no, no, no. That means God gives us a heart
to seek his will and his glory and we get from God everything
we want. His will, his glory. Was there
something else you wanted? Was there something else you
wanted? No, just his will. just his glory, that's all. His
name is the name that must be acknowledged and confessed. And
one day, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
Jesus the Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And he sent us into this world
to preach his name among all nations. Preach his name among
all nations. I appreciate people being kind,
expressing gratitude for labor, for preaching the gospel. I appreciate
it more than I can tell you. I appreciate your encouragement,
but oh my soul, unto me, who am the less than the least of
all human beings, God's given this grace. that I should preach
to this generation the unsearchable riches of God, the unsearchable
riches of God's grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Trust in his
name and go home rejoicing in the Christ of God. Amen.