Good to be here with you this
morning. I looked forward to this for a few weeks when Don
called me. I've got to excuse my voice. I've got the same thing
everybody else has got. I guess I've around too many
of you. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. Let me read this chapter to us
before I start into it. God. Now we could just spend the rest
of the service right there. Well, we could spend the rest
of our lives right there. God. And this ought to get our
attention right from the beginning. The way it starts out. God, who
at sundry times and in diverse 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 expressed image of his person, and apporting
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins. There's the good news of the
gospel. He purged our sins. They're gone. The one thing that
keeps me from God, that keeps any fellowship between me and
God, is sin. Take that out of the way, and
there's perfect fellowship. When Adam was in the garden,
when God created Adam, God came into the garden, and before the
fall, He had fellowship with Adam. There was no sin. And when
Adam fell, he was cast out of the garden. And we need this
one that's spoken of here in this chapter to purge us from
our sins, that we might be able to have fellowship with God. And that's what salvation is
about. Salvation, it's not missing hell and going to heaven. Salvation,
really, truly, it has nothing to do with the place. It has
everything to do with being made one with God again in Christ. That's what salvation is. It's
to be made one with God. It's to be made one with my Creator.
It's to be made one with my Redeemer. It's not... Armenian has it at
a place. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? Well, anybody in a right mind doesn't want to go there. You
don't even want to go to jail. Let alone go to hell. It's about
being made one with God. And this is the way it's done.
Christ purged us from our sins, and He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high. Being made so much better than
the angels, no angel could ever accomplish this, as He hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said He at any time, Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when He bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, He saith, Let all the
angels of God worship Him. If Him were not God, the angels
would not be commanded to worship Him. This shows His equality. And of the angels, He said, Who
maketh His angel spirits and His ministers a flame of fire?
But to the Son, He says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. This tells us what our Lord loved. He loved righteousness. It says
over in the Psalms, the righteous Lord loves righteousness. That's
what he loves. Therefore, God, even thy God
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hand." They didn't
evolute. God made them. They shall perish,
everything you and I look at, except for the believer. But
everything on this earth, the stars, all of it, is going to
perish. It's all going to be gone. But thou remainest. He's not going to be gone. He's
eternal. And they all shall wax old as doth a garment. We see
that when we look in the mirror every day, don't we? His body is waxing old like a
garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold it up, and they shall
be changed, but thou art the same. Years' time has no effect
on God. It has no effect on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thy years shall not fail. He'll not grow old.
But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool? He didn't say
it to any angel. He said it to one. This is my
beloved son, whom I am well pleased. And he said to him, you sit down
here until I make all your enemies your footstool. You know that's
what's going on right now? You look at the world, you look
at what's going on, you say, I don't know what's going on.
Well, I don't know all that's going on, but I do know this.
He's bringing all his enemies to be his footstool. He's putting
down, it says over in 1 Corinthians 15, He's putting down all rule
and all authority. That's what's going on. And when
that's done, He's going to deliver the kingdom up to God, the Father.
And He's going to receive all the glory. Are they not all ministering
spirits? Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation? Let's pray. Bless Your Word that we have
read. Lord, give us an understanding. Without You giving us an understanding,
Lord, we will miss it. Forgive us our sins for Christ's
sake. Enable us to worship You this morning in spirit and in
truth. Enable me to rightly divide the Word of truth. Lord, make
Thy Word go out in power. Make me a blessing to these people
this morning. Bless Don as he preaches and all who are standing
to preach this morning, Father. Pray your blessing upon them.
We are not sufficient to handle these things. Our God is our
sufficiency. Thank you for the Bible lesson
we had this morning, Father. Thank you for that food. In Christ's
name we pray, and amen. I titled this message, God has
spoken. Now, I'm not talking about just
some important person, God. God has spoken. Watch the message. What was he saying? What does
he have to say? You know, the book of Hebrew
sets forth the excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ is full
of the excellencies of Christ, and we must see him in his excellency
if we are to give unto him the glory due unto his name. You cannot worship. You cannot
worship someone you don't know. You cannot give honor and glory
to someone that you have no concept of. Not at all. So let's look here in this chapter. I'm only going to cover the first
three verses. He starts out here and he says, God, God. Someone said true religion starts
here. If we're going to start right,
We have to start with God and come down. We don't start with
man and go up. We start with who God is. If
we never understand, if we're never really given an understanding
of who God is, we will get the rest of it wrong. If we get if
we get a right understanding of who God is, the rest of it
falls in place. If you have a real understanding
that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding.
If He's given you an understanding of who God is, you'll have no
problem with the doctrine of election. You know if God didn't
choose you, you wouldn't choose Him. You know that. If you have
a right understanding of who God is, you'll begin to have
a right understanding of who and what you are. You can't have
an... If you have a wrong understanding
of who God is, You have a warped sense of who you are. The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding. And He's given us an understanding
of who God is. God is eternal. God is holy. God is just. I can go on and
on with this. But here's the fact. God is. God is. He's real. He's real. He's the Creator. You know, when
the prophets spoke of Him, often in the Old Testament, they spoke
of Him as the Creator of heaven and earth. Now, He has spoken. It says this, God, who at sundry
times, at different times and in different manners, spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets. You know, in the book of Genesis,
God spoke. And when He spoke, something
happened. There was creation. One day it
would be this, the next day it would be that. Each day would
reveal something a little differently when God spoke. Well, in times
past, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets. And every time
He spoke, there would be a little bit more revealed. A little bit
more revealed about the Redeemer. There would be another type,
another picture, and all this would come together to reveal
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what was given. God never
gave a type or a picture for anyone to be saved by. No woman
has ever been saved by one of those old lambs that were slain
in the Old Testament. No one's ever saved by that. Saved by the Lamb of God. The
one it pointed to. The Passover. The Passover that
they offer so many times throughout the Old Testament. That Passover
never saved anyone. I had a, back years ago, someone
I went to school with, we were talking about the gospel. And
he said, well, the people in the Old Testament were saved
by the Passover lambs that were slain back then, and now we're
saved by Christ. I said, no, no, no, no. We are
saved, they are saved by Christ, and we are saved by Christ, and
everyone whom God saves from here on will be saved by Christ. He's the message, and He's the
messenger, and He's the Savior, and He's the Redeemer. As we
heard this morning, He's all we need. He's all. But every
time God spoke back in the Old Testament through those prophets,
there's a little more revealed about the Lord Jesus Christ,
which shows also that the Old Testament was the Word of God.
It's the Word of God. It's as much the Word of God
as the New Testament. Now, how does He speak now here
in verse 2? We have the Redeemer. He's going
to tell us here, He speaks to us now through the Redeemer.
This prophet. 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 world. The final spokesman. God used
these prophets, a lot of these prophets in the Old Testament.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. God used these men. God spoke
through them. Moses, but half of these last
days spoken to us by that prophet that Moses said should come.
Christ is that prophet that Moses said should come. And He said,
and when He comes, you hear Him. You listen to Him. You give heed
to what He says. Christ said, I take heed to what
I tell you. Christ said this, as I hear, I speak. The words
I speak are not mine, but he is the sent man. He is that prophet
that Moses said should come. He is God incarnate. That's who
he is. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's
the, he's the living God. Two years. Not only has he come
and he's spoken, but he's also the messenger of that new covenant. That's what he came to tell us
about that new covenant. As a messenger, He revealed the
new covenant. The prophets knew parts of it. Just like, you know, we preach
in part, we know in part, we don't really know a lot, do we?
Christ knew it all. He knew it all. The old prophets preached in
part, but our Lord, He knew the fullness of it. And He revealed
unto us what the types meant, I understand what the Passover
is. I understand what that Passover lamb was back in Israel. I understand
that. I understand the priesthood.
Do you understand that? That's because the Son of God
has come and He's revealed these things. And He not only revealed
the types, but they were just that. Types. They were just that. They were types. He's the real.
Christ came to reveal, to dedicate and to enforce that new covenant
and do away with the old. That old economy is gone. We
don't try to resurrect that in any way, shape or form. It's
gone. But not only is He the messenger,
but He's the message. He's the message of the new covenant,
which is the gospel. What is our message? Our message is Christ and Him
crucified. We don't complicate it. We keep
it simple. It's Christ and Him crucified.
That's why our Lord said in Matthew, take my yoke upon you and learn
of what? Me. He's the messenger and He's
the message. He's the teacher and He's the
lesson. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me." To learn of Christ is to learn the gospel. To learn
of Christ is to learn of God. To learn Christ is to know God. That's what it is. It's to know
God. Christ is God's message to sinners. It's who He is and what He did,
not who I am and what I can do. It's who He is and what He did,
what He accomplished. He's the way that God can be
a just God and a Savior. There is no other way for God
to have anything to do with me apart from Christ. There's just no way. I don't
care how much you and I straighten up. We try to fly right, do right,
live right. It ain't gonna work. We can't
get right right. We can't get it right. If you don't even know what right
is, how can you get it right? Christ is God's Savior. He is
my sanctification. He's my righteousness. He's my
wisdom. He's my redemption. Everything,
absolutely everything that I need to stand in God's presence, accepted,
God has provided in Jesus Christ. And I don't have to bring anything
or do anything. But I do have to receive, is to bow and submit
and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And God makes us willing to do
that in the day of His power. That's not of us either. That's
not of us. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of His power. Not when someone convinces me.
But when He gives a new birth, a new life, A new will. Someone said, God saved me against
my will with my full consent. That's what he does. He's everything. He's the way of satisfaction.
He's the way of justification. He's the way of sanctification.
Christ is that way. And you and I don't look for
any other way. Now, I'd like to think that I'd
never do that. Peter would have liked to think
that he would have never denied the Lord. I realize as I get older how
much more I need Christ than I did 35 years ago. I need Him
to keep me on the way. I need Him to make the path plain.
I need Him to do that. Every day. Every day. In Him, the Scripture says, dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, And you are complete
in Him. Now, if you're complete, it would
really be stupid to try and provide something else, wouldn't it?
It would just be the height of ignorance to try and provide
something that God has already completed. And salvation is complete
in Him. And notice here, God has spoken. He has spoken
to us in His Son. who is our Redeemer, who is also
now, he says here, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Everything has been put under
the authority, the rule, the control of Jesus Christ. Right now, the president's not
running the country. And these other men, high officials
on these other nations, they're not running things. They're running
things, but they're not running things. Christ is running things. There
is a man seated right now at God's right hand that's running
this whole thing. I mean, he's commanding. Moment
by moment, we'll see this in a minute, moment by moment, he's
commanding everything. He's marshalling everything to
the to the to fulfill the purpose of God. In the salvation of his
people. This whole world's been running
for you. He's running it for you, for your good. He said,
well, it's not going too good right now. What depends on which
end you're looking at it from? If he's looking at it from where
he's sitting, that better be a different view. If you're looking at it
from where you're sitting, then yeah, it don't always look so
good. But he says here, "...whom He
hath appointed heir of all things." Jesus Christ is the appointed
heir of everything that is seen, everything that moves, everything
created, and everything unseen. All the principalities and the
powers, Everything He's heir to. It's all His. Turned over
to Him. It turned over to Him. Think of what He will inherit.
Heaven, earth, that new earth. It's His. It's His. He's the
King of glory. It's His. But you know what His most precious
inheritance is? You know what it is? Listen to Ephesians 1, 18. 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. It's you. It's you. You who believe. All the redeemed. You are his richest inheritance. It's just hard for me to grasp
that I would be called the richest of his inheritance. But here, notice this also. Our
Redeemer is the one who inherits all things, owns all things,
runs all things. And our Redeemer is the one who
made all things, who created all things. By whom also He made
the world, the ages. Listen to Colossians 1.16. For
by Him, that is by Jesus Christ, were all things created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions. Principalities or powers. All
things were created by Him and for Him. It's all for Him. This earth is not for me, it's
for Him. Everything that exists is for
the glory of Jesus Christ. Everything. He who is the heir
of all things is also the creator of all things. He created all
the things that He's heir to. Everything that God does, He
does through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made Him heir of it all,
Creator of it all, the mediator of it all. Do you know anyone
better? Absolutely not. Anyone wiser? Absolutely not. Then it gets better. It gets
better here. Our Redeemer, it tells us here,
is God, who being the brightness of His glory. Jesus Christ is the outshining
of God's glory. He's the outshining of God's
glory. If you'll remember that in the
tabernacle in the wilderness, you had that shekinah glory that
just filled that room. Christ is that Shekinah glory. He is the visible of the invisible. No one else can say that. No
other prophet could say that. No one could make that claim.
Angels could not make that claim. But Jesus Christ is the only
one who could say, He that has seen me has seen the Father. He's the only one who could who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He's the only
one who could pray and say, Father, I will. Here in John 17, I will. We always say, what? Father,
thy will? Now, he said that also, but here
in John 17, he says, Father, I will. Why could he do that? How could he do that? Because
he's God. He's the living God. who have
been the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person. You want to know God? Do you
want to know... You know, you would think, and
this is how depraved the human race is, that men and women can
go throughout their whole lifetime and never want to know God. Never
want to know the Creator. Think about that. To never worship
God? To never seek after Him who made
all things? To never seek after Him who gave
you your existence? That's amazing. How depraved
we are. And we seek our own all the time. We're always seeking our well-being
and the best for our family. I mean, it's pretty well around
self. It's just around self. But here we have one. who has
the express image of God, the express image of His person.
He that has seen me has seen the Father. Would you know God? Study Christ. Study the Lord
Jesus Christ. Watch Him in the Gospel. Read
about Him in the Gospels and watch how He handles sinners.
That's God handling the sinner. Watch how He handles His Pharisees.
Watch his... He said, Come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. For I am
meek and lowly of heart. Have you ever thought of God
as being meek and lowly of heart? Have you ever thought of God
that way? We think of God, we think of
Him as holy. He is. God is holy. God is love. God
is just. But you know that God is meek
and lowly? And sinners like you and me can approach Him? That's
God standing there saying, Come to Me. Come to Me. Are you laboring and heavy laden
under sin? Is it bothering you? Guilt? Someone
said you could empty half the mental hospitals if you just
get rid of guilt. He said, Come to Me. This is
God speaking now. This is God speaking. And He
said, come to Me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Now listen to this. And He upholds
all things by the Word of His power. Why is this earth not reeling
to and fro? Why is there not utter, utter
chaos everywhere? Because all things, all things,
now listen, that's pretty comprehensive, isn't it? All? I think it's all. All things. And upholding all
things by the word of His power. Does that not help you sleep
at night? What really enables you to go
to sleep at night? With a good conscience. With a sense of safety. Is it
not this? Is it not that our Lord is on
the throne and all things are upheld by His word? By His word. Now, brethren, that's power. Power is not when you can pick
something up and move it over from point A to point B. Power is when you say, go, and
he goes. Power is when you say, come,
and he comes. That centurion recognized that. Power is when
the Lord speaks to a demon and says, get out of here. And you
don't hear that demon fussing and fighting and saying, I'm
not coming out. No, this is mine. You don't see no arguments going
on there, do you? There's no arguments going on there. The
king, where the word of a king is, there's power. And the king
just said, come out. And if a stronger man takes over
the house, the strong man has to leave. Upholding all things by the word
of his power. That's present tense. That's
going on right now. God didn't just wind this thing
up like a spinning top and just let it roll. No. No, God didn't create the world
like a wind-up toy and let it go. God created all things by
His Word. And His Word is Jesus Christ. And God created all things and
gave them to Him as the Mediator. And now, moment by moment, second
by second, Like someone said, like a general commands his troops.
So the Lord Jesus commands the universe to do as he will. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wither
so ever he will. Daniel 435. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, What are
you doing? What doest thou? None can say
that to him. None. I know some try, but they're
not going to get anywhere. But Job said he gives no account
of any of his matters. He's not going to answer to me
and you. He's pleased to give us an answer. He's pleased to
do so. But he's not obligated to. Not obligated to. What men
call the laws of nature. You can hear this on the Weather
Channel. Mother Nature. Nature doesn't have a mother,
it has a God. And Jesus Christ is that God. What men call the laws of nature
is really Christ commanding everything to work together for our good. You say, well, it doesn't work
together for everybody. Some of them get killed in those
storms. Exactly the ones he intended to get killed. He hath his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. He has his way in it. The instrument
of our death is already fixed. My dad, he won't fly on an airplane. And I'm sure that's, you know,
fine. But he would not fly on an airplane,
he's afraid of crashing. And I told him, I said, well, Dad,
if it's the Lord's will, you'll get on that airplane if you ever get sick
or something. Fly, He transports you somewhere, and then crash.
But if that's the way God has intended for you to go, you're
going to go that way. If He's intended for me to go by a sickness,
I'll go that way. I might die in an accident, but
it won't be an accident that I died. That's already fixed. There's a point when a man wants
to die after that judgment. One writer said this, the universe
derives its integrity from the Lord Jesus Christ. I like that. And then when he had by himself,
now you notice he only took him three verses to get to the cross.
And He says, when He had by Himself purged our sins. God has spoken
to us through Him. He's the heir of all things.
He's the creator of all things. He's the upholder of all things.
And He's the Redeemer of God's elect. He purged our sins. When He had by Himself purged
our sins. He literally carried out a cleansing. A cleansing. He literally cleansed
me. In Jesus Christ, I have no sin. In Jesus Christ, you who believe
the gospel, you are as holy as God's Son is. You are as holy
as God is. He carried out a real cleansing. That leper said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me what? Clean. He said, you can make
me clean. Now, brethren, Jesus Christ can
make me clean. I mean, He can make me so clean
that there's not a spot or blemish in me. Not a spot or blemish. Now, brethren, that's clean.
And that is a work, that's effectual work and that's effectual redemption.
Because I know, I know just a little, listen, I know just a little
bit about how dirty I am. You think you're bad? You think
you say, I feel so bad about myself. Well, you're a lot worse
than you've ever felt. I promise you, you're a lot worse
than you've ever felt in your life about yourself. You and
I can never feel that. Christ felt that at Calvary.
He felt the filth of my filthiness. He felt it. He experienced it.
When God made him to be sin, he felt the fullness of my vileness
that I've never been able to feel and can't. I can't. But he felt it. He was holy. He was pure. He knew no sin. But when God made him to be sin,
he felt the vileness of me. He felt the vileness of being
my substitute, of taking my place, of being me. He felt it. He knew it by experience. Oh, what a cleansing. What a
clemency. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. They're gone. Only a sinner can
appreciate what I'm saying. Only a sinner who's been quickened
by God, been awakened, and you have some understanding of sin,
God's given you an understanding of who He is, who Christ is,
what you are. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am. He said that after God saved
him. He would have never said that before God saved him. He thought he was right on top
of it all. He thought he was the most righteous man ever walked
on this earth. He said, above many my equals.
But when God saved the man, He said, O wretched man that I am. O wretched man that I am. That explains us. The effect of the work of Christ
was to remove all sin from us and present us before God spotless. Spotless. That's His responsibility,
not mine. It's his responsibility. And I love this thought. I love
this thought when I sit down and I meditate on the Word of
God. I am his responsibility. He's my surety. I'm his responsibility. You think he's going to fail?
Isaiah 42 said, My servant shall not fail. Cannot, shall not,
will not fail. Will not. Christ could not cleanse His
people without becoming their substitute and His blood be shed
for their sins. Couldn't do it. Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. If it's possible to cleanse my people from their
sins any other way, let this cup pass. Did it pass? No. No. He drank it dry. Hebrews 9.22, and almost all
things are by the law purged with blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. And it's not just any blood either.
It's His blood. It's the blood of God, as it
says over in the book of Acts. And He did this by Himself. He is the one who cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He purged us from our sins by
Himself. He is a sufficient Savior. He didn't need anybody else.
He didn't need anybody else. He must tread the winepress of
God's wrath alone. Augustus Toplady wrote this.
Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could
my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no respite know?
All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. Now let me close. And he sat down. Now this is
how you close. This is how you close the message.
He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Sit down, my son. So I'll make
you enemies of your footstool. He finished his work. He was
sent to do. And then he sat down. Enthroned. Enthroned. I mean, we're not talking about
just sitting down over here on a pew. He sat down enthroned
at the right hand of God. That's the right hand of power.
That's the place of acceptance. And where he is seated. And you
and I need to get a hold of this now. We need to live in the reality
of this. Where He is seated, we are seated.
I'm already there. I'm there. Is my Lord there? I'm there. My body's here, and
I know I'm standing here, but I'm there too. I'm seated with
Him. I'm in Him. If you're in Him,
I'm in Him, we're never separated from Him at any time ever again.
There'll be no separation. The one who humbled himself to
become a servant, even to the death of the cross, is now seated. The Lamb of God. Behold, the
Lamb of God. I tell you what, I say to you
this morning, behold, the Lamb of God again, where He's seated.
John, when he was taking third heaven, said, I saw a lamb in
the midst of what? The throne, as it had been slain. Christ said in John 17 verse
4, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. He achieved what he came to do,
and now it's done. Now it's done. If we can get a hold of this,
if we can get a hold of this, it will comfort our hearts. If
you and I could live in the reality of this, if we could live in
the reality of God's presence, of the Lord's presence, and get
a hold of what our Lord has accomplished, it will assist us in worship.
Worship will become worship. It will assist us in our singing
praises to His name. Instead of singing about God,
we'll start singing to God. Singing to the Lord, not about
Him. We sing to Him. We worship and
we trust and enthrone Christ who's worthy to be praised forever
and ever and ever. Revelations 5.12, same with a
loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And this is our God. This is
our Redeemer. I pray God we live in the reality
of it every day. Amen.