to turn back in your Bibles to
Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. And you may
also follow me in your pastor's commentary as we embark upon
what I trust to be a marvelous excursion and journey through
the book of Hebrews over the next several weeks and months. You know how we do it at Grace.
That brother quickly said, that's right. Weeks turn into months,
and months turn into years. But don't fret. Every day, our
salvation draws nearer than when we first began. I would love
for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back while I'm preaching.
And I would love for Him to come back while I am preaching in
the book of Hebrews. How be it? I'm being a bit selfish
there. There are still yet sinners to
be saved that we know and love and those we don't know and some
of them we don't love. They must be saved too. So not
my will be done, but thine. Isn't that a twixt? Isn't it
better to be with the Lord? But we are obliged to love sinners. So we've got to wait. Hebrews
chapter 1 is a magnificent, magnificent treaty and development of a recollection
of history concerning God's people in the Old Testament. The book
of Hebrews, as most scholars would assert, was written to
the Hebrew people. Sometimes they would question
whether or not this is to even the sacerdotal group, the Levites,
the priests, But we need not wonder about those specifications
because the book of Hebrews is written by God and is written
to all of God's people. The reality is I'm a Hebrew.
And if you're a believer in Christ, you're a Hebrew too. So the word
of God is written to the people of promise. The word of God is
written to the people of faith. The word of God is written to
the people who believe God's word and the word of God are
written to the people who look to Jesus Christ as their only
hope for glory. So when we are considering the
context of scripture, that's very important in dealing with
issues that may have a contemporaneous significance to it. But overall,
this word is to you and I, isn't it? And the Hebrew writer opens
up to the people by using the phrase theos. He says, God, who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets. What a way to start a conversation. Can you imagine picking the phone
up after calling someone and they get on the phone and they
go, God, God, You would think they're nuts, unless of course
you have been trained to realize that God is the first cause of
everything. You might think that they are
bizarre and weird, and I would be with you, particularly with
some folks today who like to, as it were, laud their peculiarities. But the Hebrew writer is writing
to a people who have been trained to understand that God is the
first cause of everything, that God is the ground of their being,
that God is the reason for their existence, and for them, God,
as the beginning of the conversation, is not all that unusual. Do you
remember, in the beginning, God? And do you remember that in the
beginning was the Word? And so the people of God are
used to God being featured at the beginning of the sentence.
And so the Hebrew writer is speaking to them about God because God
is indeed the subject. But what he's really about to
unfold and develop before their hearing and ours is the history
of God in his dealings with his people. Those of you who have
studied with us in biblical theology realize that Hebrews 1 verses
one and two are key texts that underscore what we call biblical
theology. Biblical theology is history
according to Jesus. Biblical theology is God's story
God's message concerning what God has done in bringing about
and bringing to pass every event every Circumstance in life like
all of the affairs of our world that we know to date was brought
to pass by God and he brought it to pass with a very specific
purpose in view. So when we think about Hebrews
1, in fact, the whole of the book of Hebrews is really God's
story, which brings us to our first point, and that is history
is important. I want you to think about that
for a moment now. History is important. You and I are part
of history. Everybody living and everybody dying and passing
from this earth is a part of history History is not something
that you and I make, you know, you've heard folks say now we're
getting ready to make history You don't make history God makes
history When we understand the truth of the Living God We understand
that known unto God are all his works from the foundation of
the world We also know that God is not as a world reacting to
anything that we do. I God's always responding because
he sees the end from the beginning and because he's in control of
everything. You and I might learn to discover that when we act,
we are actually acting according to the predetermined counsel
and foreknowledge of God. that you and I are never doing
anything or thinking any way in which God doesn't already
know. Doesn't he already know it? So if you and I do anything
that might be on a level of being epic or proportionately significant,
it had to correspond first with God's will. It had to be a part
of God's purpose and it had to be a part of God's plan. But
now the people of God would not be so audacious as to say we
make history. It's God that makes history.
It's God that created the world. It's God that sustains the world.
It's God that brings to pass everything. And in fact, this
may be profound to you, but God has spoken history into existence. This may be profound to you,
but you and I are a product of God's utterance. It may be profound
to you, but everything, including the universe, this massively
glorious universe of which we were just splendidly overwhelmed
a week before last with an observation of the universe from God's perspective
through Dr. Mulder, the universe was spoken
into existence by God. Your very presence is the consequence
of God having spoken us into existence. History therefore
is the product of God's fiat. It's the product of God's speaking
things into existence History is the process of the unfolding
revelation of God's Word God's Word is being fulfilled right
before your eyes God's Word is actually being fulfilled in your
life And when you follow the biblical narrative what you understand
in terms of the history and this is why the Hebrew writer starts
off God is who at sundry times and in different manners, what
did he do? He spoke. He spoke. He spoke. And it's in a verb form, which
means he has already spoken. I know you see these signs in
some of our liberal churches, which says God is speaking in
the present tense. We got problems with that. You
know that, right? We've got problems with God still
speaking, as it were, when the text says God has spoken. Now
I'm not going to get into the sufficiency and deficiency and
finality of the scriptures today, but we know we've got a problem
if God has already spoken and folks are saying God's still
speaking today. We've got a problem if we are
equating what they are alleging to be the divine utterance of
God at the present time over against that book, which has
said, if any man adds to this book, God will add to him the
plagues that are written therein. If any man takes away from this
book, God will take away from him the right to the tree of
life. This is a serious matter. Question
then is, has God spoken or is God still yet speaking? Well,
when we understand the text, if you understand the text, what's
taking place is the unfolding of what God has spoken. It's
the unfolding of what God has spoken. the unfolding of what
God has spoken, and that's very critical. So the first point
in our outline, history is important because it's an unfolding of
the revelation of God. Psalm 68, 11 tells us that God
gave us his word. As we argue for the authority
of scripture, people question whether or not the Bible is the
word of God. Have you ever heard folks say, well, the Bible was
written by men? Have you heard that? We go, so what? It was
written by men, but it was given by God. Where does it say that
at? Psalm 68 verse 11. As for those of you who need
to help people understand that you are not basing your eternal
hope on something frivolous or as we have been working through
in Friday study, assumptions. God gave us his word. He gave
us his word. And the Bible also says in the
Psalms, not only did he give us his word, but that he sent
his word. You can read it for yourself
in the Psalms. In the Psalms, he tells us he sent his word
over in Psalm 107, verse 20. So he gave it, that was a gift.
He sent it, that is he commissioned it. He sent his word. And then
in Psalm 147, verse 15, you know what it says? And his word runs
swiftly. Now right now you may be contemplating
the Word of God in all of these various perspectives, but really
what I am talking to you about is God's Son. I am talking to
you about Jesus Christ. I am talking to you about the
Word made flesh and dwelling among us. But what I am telling
you is that God in the creation of the world and in the unfolding
of history as we know it, was really giving us a biography
of his son, Jesus Christ. And if you interpret history
correctly, you interpret this world as actually having its
purpose for existence in the exaltation of God's son, Jesus
Christ. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Do you guys
see that? So when you study your Bible
and when you consider history, try to connect history with God's
story and then you've got theology. If you are merely comprehending
history apart from scripture, you are missing the main theme
of history. And what the Hebrew writer is
saying to the people of the Hebrews is that God spoke in time past
in a very emphatic way and he spoke in a peculiar fashion of
which the opening verses says at sundry times. I am more keen
as I get older to want to have a translation of the King James
be kind of modified because we have drifted a little bit too
far in our culture away from some of these old archaic phrases.
And unfortunately, because we don't live in the 16th century,
when was the last time you used the word sundry? Your grandmama
used it? You see what I'm getting at?
So how many of you understand what the word sundry means? 10
people. And so it's very unfortunate
in the sense that to read it in its plain writing requires
you to think it through and then you have to do some lexical investigation. You have to look the term up,
right? The word sundry here really I don't think is a good term
even in our present vernacular because the word actually means
fragments or many portions. We have some polymerous hills
right over the freeway here over by Castro Valley. And what polymerous
means is many little hills. And what the writer is saying
is that God, who in different portions, different segments
in a fragmentary way, in a fragmentary way, we can use the word dispensation
as well. He carved out throughout human
history, Epics, times in history wherein he spoke specifically
to his people with a specific word at that specific time. You
guys got that? They were fragments, like pieces
of cloth that you have to attach together to make a whole garment.
This is how God spoke. He did it intentionally. In fact,
your Bible is sort of circumscribed together like that as well. Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, are all given by one man, Moses.
But subsequent to Moses is Joshua. Subsequent to Joshua are judges.
Subsequent to judges, and so on, right? Until we have the
collection of 39 books in the old, 27 in the new, and we have
the whole of our canon of scripture. This here is a perfect example
of the fragmentation of God speaking. Now we have it collectively.
But this is also history in front of you. History in front of did
I help you with that right there? And so he spoke in sundry times
And the author is using the term times because it's chronological
in nature and in diverse manners in diverse manners And what that
means ladies and gentlemen is god is artful. He's colorful
and he has an imagination Yes, he does. I say that in the most
reverential way He spoke in times past through different methods,
a variety of expressions. How did he speak in the early
days? He spoke by the voice of his word. He spoke to Noah and
the word of the Lord came to Noah. But at times he spoke by
angels, like he spoke by angels to Abraham and Lot. Remember
three angels to Abraham, two to Lot. Frequently he spoke by
the angels in the book of Judges, and there was a reason for that.
But he spoke by angels, he spoke by theophanies. You know what
a theophany is? It's an appearance of God in
the form of men, as he was with Abraham when Abraham sat with
him before they went on to Sodom and Gomorrah. He spoke to God's
people in dreams, didn't he? Jacob's ladder Jacob sees his
ladders extending to heaven and he sees at the top of heaven
One who seeks so he was seated on the throne as it were ruling
the universe and Jacob knew that he had met God He spoke to his
people in the Old Testament envisions He spoke to his Old Testament
people in metaphors and analogies. You will never forget the burning
bush scenario with Moses. That was a phenomenal manifestation
of Yahweh, Jehovah God, and the person of Christ speaking to
Moses concerning his covenant purposes. He spoke to the people
of God in different images, pillars of fires, clouds. He spoke through
the celestial soldier, that is, the captain of the Lord's army,
to Joshua when Joshua crossed over into the promised land.
Remember that? That was the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, conquering
his foes, going before Joshua to make Joshua successful. He
was a warrior type. And so Daniel sees the same thing
in the book of Daniel chapter 10 and 11. You remember that?
This glorious warrior type individual. So when the writer says in chapter
1 that he spoke in diverse manners and in different ways, according
to a fragmentation or a portioning out of history. He's talking
about God speaking to a specific people group with a particular
revelation at that time, then another people group subsequent
to that with another revelation at that time. And those revelations
may have been given in different forms. They were all independent
revelations, but they were also interdependent, meaning not one
revelation was complete in itself. It was a partial revelation that
would be followed up by another revelation that would be connected
to the previous revelation, but it would expand the revelation
so that the revelation, according to theology, is called progressive
unfolding of divine truth. It was interdependent. In other
words, every dispensation, every group of people who received
the word of the Lord only had a portion of the truth. Their
portion of the truth would have to be attached to the next group
and on and on and on until we come to the final messenger of
the covenant, of which he says in the second part of chapter
one, when he says, and he spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, but has in these last days spoken unto us by whom? His son. Now we need to consider
briefly, just for the sake of the context, because the writer
to the Hebrews is reminding the people of God of the acts of
God. And because God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore,
there are things for us to learn. Not only did God speak in these
different segments and these fragmentary ways to the people
of God, not only did He give them specific and relevant revelations
that were culturally relevant at the time but they were interdependent
and so they were progressive so that the people of God, now
I want you to mark this because this is going to apply to you
and I today, every people group that got called out of darkness
from Genesis to Malachi were forward-thinking people. These
were people who were not locked merely into the paradigm or the
matrix of their present culture. Every people group where God
spoke he spoke to them about things to come He had them he
had them viewing things down the line They were forward-thinking
people and if God comes to you by way of a revelation of his
word You know what? He's calling you to forward thinking
He's calling you to think things in terms of the future He never
gave a word to his people that didn't have a prophetic emphasis
in it The word of the Lord is prophetic by nature. God sees
the end from the beginning and then he allows his people in
on it. You know what that means for you and I? That means that
you and I are not settlers down here. God doesn't give us a revelation
so that we can settle down here. His word is not for us to find
those secret wells so we can unpack them and as it were live
life right here. He gives us a revelation of his
truth to affirm our being strangers and pilgrims and travelers to
another city. You got that? And when he gives
us that revelation, it is for us to live life well and properly
here, but also to understand here, we have no continuing city. We look for a city whose builder
and maker is God. And if you don't have that kind
of theology running through your veins, you don't have a biblical
theology. Biblical theology is leading
you somewhere. It's teleological in nature.
It puts a chain on you, a rope on you, and pulls you to where
God is, but we're not there yet. And you will get somewhere down
the line that if in God's providence and purpose you have to die here,
you know what your job is? To pass this message on to the
next generation so they can get on board and progress as well. Because we don't sit here as
if this is our hope. And in fact, you guys know that
if you've read the book of Hebrews, the Hebrews is all about a journey.
And see, to be a Hebrew is to be somebody who knows where they're
going. To be a Hebrew is to be someone
who is convinced that this is not my home. And I am affirmed
that this is not my home because the God of glory has revealed
himself to me and he has shown me where he wants me to be. So
there is a sense in which biblical truth is designed to untatch,
detach you, extricate, liberate you from a sense that down here
is all there is. And you and I have talked about
worldviews, haven't we? Christians must never fall prey
to a secular ideology. If you do, you will sell the
gospel out. Pastor, what is secularism? Worldliness. Worldliness. It's the idea that
the only thing that matters is down here. And that was Esau's
problem. Remember? The mighty hunter.
He was a great hunter. He could go out in the field
and catch deer and catch bull and bring it home and cook it. Cooked him up some venison. He
could cook some gumbo. Boy, he was... But he fell prey
to thinking that that was the inheritance. And he had the real
inheritance in his back pocket. and he sold it for a pot of stew
because his brother could cook. You understand what I'm getting
at? He was secular, even though he had an eternal and a heavenly
inheritance. And the people of God are never
to fall prey. How do I know God has spoken
to me? Because he has told me that my life is not my own. That
I have been bought with the price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
And that my life is hid in Christ. And Christ is in heaven. And
when Christ comes, then I will appear with him. Until then,
I am on my journey. The objects of this revelation
in time past, he says in verse 1, is to the fathers. I want
you to see that. God who at sundry times and in
different manners spoke in time past unto the what? Fathers. Unto the fathers. You just need
to know that as a fundamental rule. What do we mean by that?
That was the initial manifestation and expression of the kingdom
of God. We talked about the kingdom of God being manifested in different
phases. The patriarchal phase, then the
monarchial phase or the national monarchial phase, and then the
ecclesiastical phase. You and I are in the ecclesiastical
phase. You are here in church today.
because the dragnet of the gospel for the last 2,000 years has
been dragging sinners out of the muck and mire of that dark,
topsy-turvy sea and bringing them into the kingdom. The expression
of the kingdom today is the church of the living God. It is no accident
that you're here. The only question is, are you
a good fish or a bad fish? But the dragnet has gotten you
and brought you to this place. as has been the purpose of the
great king. We've got one more dispensation
to go. But the first dispensation was
the patriarchal dispensation. I wanna affirm that by going
to Acts chapter seven and listen to how Stephen put it as he gives
us an historiography of the same thing in Acts chapter seven. Worth our marking as well. He's speaking to the same people
in almost on the same subject, the history of Israel, with regards
to reprimanding them to also adhere to what the Hebrew writer
is saying. In Acts chapter seven, verse
two, he said, men and brethren and fathers, listen to me. Now
notice how he describes God. This will be some of our closing
consideration. The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham got it the God of glory the God of dark
sauce the God of emanating revelation the God of effulgent beauty this
magnificent blistering brilliant entity exclusively to himself
revealed himself to our father Abraham Isaac Jacob David, Hannah,
Ruth, Naomi, and so on, all the way down the line. As that patriarchal
period was unfolding, God revealed himself to them in those fashions.
The patriarchs were the ones to whom he did it. And notice
what he says over in verse 52, 51 and 52, as we go back now
to deal with our second point. The God of glory appeared unto
them, and here's what he says in admonishing them, he says,
In verse 51, you stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you always do resist the Holy Ghost. Now let me help you understand
that in relationship to the whole doctrine of Scripture. For those
of you who don't know, the Holy Ghost does not speak outside
of the Scripture. For those of you who hear the
voice of the Holy Ghost, if you hear His voice, you hear it through
His Word. You're resisting the Holy Ghost
as your fathers did watch this which of the what? prophets prophets
How does the Holy Ghost speak through the prophets? He spoke
through the prophets in that what Hebrews 1 1 says God at
sundry times in diverse manners spoken to our fathers through
the what? Through the prophets the prophets were the vehicle
and mouthpiece for the revelation of God were they not? He spoke
and the Holy Ghost spoke through the prophets and Stephen is saying
you guys heard him the Spirit of God spoke specifically to
you But he spoke through the prophets now watch this of which
your fathers have persecuted and they have slain Them which
now what is the message of the prophet which have shown before? the coming of the just one who
is that just one and of whom you have now been the betrayer
and murderers. Let me say verse 53, this will
be touched on in our text too in Hebrews, who have received
the law by the dispensation of angels and you guys have not
kept it. You know how folks talk about
keeping the law? The very first people who got the law didn't
keep the law. You don't keep the law. We're in trouble if
we think that we can be saved by keeping the law. But let me
tell you what, the law was designed to be a schoolmaster to lead
you to Christ, and the prophets are in the law. So the Spirit
of God works through the law, which came out of the mouth of
the prophets. And how do we know that these were real prophets
of God? Because they preached Jesus Christ. Notice what the
text says, they showed you the coming of the just one. They
showed you the coming of the just one. So we have right here
a qualification for legitimate prophets. What are legitimate
prophets? Preachers of Christ. They are
people who preach the person and work of Jesus Christ. Otherwise,
you are not a legitimate prophet. Very important, isn't it? Very
clear, the historiography here. Going back to our text there,
as we finish contemplating the importance of history, and I
do want to make that application to you and me as well, the importance
of history. We look back sometimes when we
think about how dynamic God was working in the days of the people
of God under that old system. Well, God is still working that
dynamically today. God's still working powerfully
in the life of His people today. And in a real sense, all of the
mechanisms are still in place today. They just take on a different
form. What? Has God diminished in His
capacity to reveal Himself to us today? Has God diminished
in His efficacy to save us by a revelation of Himself today?
Is God want to have a people who are willing to do exploits
today? And the answer is no. This is what the Hebrew writer
is going to demonstrate. That as you and I contemplate
the Old Testament saints, those Hebrews then, well, we're Hebrews
now. You guys got that? You say sometimes,
well, you know, man, I just, there is no way I could be like
those folks in the Old Testament. Let me help you understand something.
You are just like them. Put some clean glasses on and
read this book. And what will cause you to marvel
is the God of glory hanging out with knuckleheads like them.
You are just like them. That's the point I want to drive
home. He spoke to them and he spake
to us. Notice that I didn't say he is
speaking because I want to make sure you get it. He spoke to
them and he has spoken to us. You just have to ask the question,
are you a Hebrew? or an Egyptian. And so the object
and targets for the prophecy were the fathers of old. And
as I said, they weren't making history. God was making history
and they were part of it. And the proposition to you and
me is we should long to understand our place in history. You and I ought to long to understand
what time is taking place right now. And what is God doing? And how is God working today?
And what is my mission in God's purpose today? In other words,
what I don't want the people of God at grace to do is to think
that you are kind of drifting along aimlessly without a purpose
or a mission. See, salvation is just, it's
not a cruise ship. You didn't get a ticket and you
just partying on the ship and just hope it hit the dock one
day. No, it is an excursion where everyone on board has an assignment
and they already know what time it is. You and I want to make
the same impact that the forefathers made by hearing God's voice and
by knowing God's will. We don't want to drift saints.
We don't want to drift. We want to seek God earnestly
by his grace. We want to understand what God's
will is so that we can honor him by our own contribution to
history. Is that true? We want to leave
a clear and unambiguous legacy that we fully understood what
and who this time was all about. When our children rise up 30,
40, 50 years from now, will they know that you knew what time
it was? when they are given the blessed,
blessed, blessed insight by more faithful people in their generation
while they open up the scriptures and open up history and consider
the year 2013, 12, 11, the year 1999, 98, 97, and the
whole of the era in which it has encompassed our life. Will
they be able to detect that my mother and my father and my brother
and my sister were very clear on the will of God in their time?
And they weren't a wall. They were present and they were
intentional and they were clear and they contributed to the glory
of God and the advancement of Christ in their generation. My
parents, my grandparents, my auntie, my uncle, my kooky uncle
understood God's will in that generation. He kept telling me
Christ is all, Christ is all, Christ is all. I didn't get it,
but I got it now. I got it now. I got it now. I got it now. Or are you drifting
along in this culture and ball of confusion with every idea
and every concept you can imagine? It's not new, but it's all of
these different ideas, these fangled ideas that are taking
place now, getting you distracted from what God has called you
to do. In other words, child of God, are you a Hebrew? See,
because they knew what they were up to. They had an inheritance.
They had a map. They had a guide. And they knew
where they were going. You and I should as well. The
people of God ought to know where we're going. We shouldn't be
drifting. Drifters don't know where they're going. By the way,
to be a person who's kind of drifting willy-nilly in the wind
is to be a person without faith. We aren't there. We're in chapter
1, but we're headed there, chapter 11. Faith is the substance of
things future. The evidence of things spiritual. So believers have a spiritual
reality in which they operate. That's their worldview. And believers
also are clear and convicted about the future. Do you know
what that means? We walk in the light. I know
where I'm going. I know exactly where I'm going.
And sometimes I know how I'm getting there. The path of the
just is as a shining light that shines more and more and more
until the perfect day. Am I making some sense? It shines
more and more. And see, God doesn't give us
too much light because we, you know, we're really bad people.
He gives us too much and we mess it up. But he gives us, I'm being
nice when I use that phrase, really bad. He gives us enough
to make it clear how to put one foot in front of the other. Are
y'all hearing what I'm saying? He gives us enough clarity how
to put one foot in front of the other as we walk with Him and
trust Him and trust Him. And that's what the Hebrew writer
is unfolding in terms of what God did in time past and what
He is doing now. Now, we move now into a, I'm
sure is the ultimate objective of the writer in verses 1 and
2. He said, God spoke to us in different
manners, at different times, partial and portioned and fragmented
ways, and in diverse fashions with a variation of expressions. He did that in time past, in
time past. And he spoke primarily to our fathers through the prophets
at that time. But he hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his what? And I know that that's where
the Hebrew writer is going. He wants you and I to understand
that the manner in which God has spoken to us, the manner
in which God has spoken to you and me, is at the highest level
of authoritative representation that God could ever render. The
manner in which God has spoken to us today cannot have a higher
authority, nor can it have a greater clarity. nor can it produce a
greater impact. The revelation of God in His
Word, having spoken to us, is at its highest level. It's at
its greatest clarity. And there is no greater impact
to be had than that which is now. And what are you saying,
Pastor? Don't look for anything other than what God has revealed
to us in His Son. Don't look for a greater impact.
There's none coming. You have folks talk about, and
I, you know, we're in an age where I tell you the psychologists
make a lot of money. The psychologists make a lot
of money. Folks are, folks are unhinged from reality today.
I don't know how frequently I hear about people talking about having
a conversation with Jesus last night, but I don't buy it for
five seconds. I know maybe some of you do.
Pastor, what you talking about? I just talked to him a couple
hours ago. Sorry, we've got problems. We've got problems in our present
generation with a lack of recognition of the Word of God. We've got
problems with this present religious culture, particularly Western
Christianity, not understanding the supremacy of Scripture. nor
the authority of Christ in the Scriptures, nor the efficacy
and power of Christ in the Scriptures to the people of God. This is
where we're going to have the great divide over the next decade. The great divide. There will
be a divide between the people who know God according to His
Word. And there will be a divide between
them and those who pretend they know God by some other special
revelation. And what we say is, if what you
are saying is true, God is a liar. God's a liar. Because the text
plainly tells us God has spoken to us with the highest authority
God can speak to people. The highest authority with which
God can speak to people. Point number two, Christ is the
subject of God's oration. Christ is the subject God's Word. Christ is the subject and total
message of all that God has to say to the human race. If we
wanted to sum up all of God's revelation in one word, do you
know what that word is? Christ! Christ! If you weren't one of those people
that had, you know, hyper ADHD and you just couldn't sit for
five seconds and pass it, just give it to me in one word. Christ!
Christ! Christ! I mean, if you're going to slip
off the edge because you know you just can't handle more than
five words, Christ! He's so precious to me. I'm talking about the Father.
He's so precious to me. And so the Hebrew writer says,
He hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. I'm not going to get into the
technicalities of the language here. The nuances are wonderful,
but I would bore you with that. I want to drive home the very
clear point, however, that Christ is the subject, Christ is the
total message, and Christ is the final messenger. Not Mohammed. Christ. Christ is the final messenger. Did you guys get that? The only
messenger that can deliver your soul from death is Christ. He is the highest authority in
the universe. We call him the final messenger
because the text tells us he hath in these last days spoken
to us. The Hebrew writer wants you and
I to understand we're almost at the end. We're almost at the
end. He wants you and I to understand
that there are no major other dispensations coming. We're almost
at the end. Are you guys hearing me? We're
almost at the end. He has spoken to us in these
last days. You know what he did? He grabbed
ahold of history past and future present, and he told them in
AD 56-57, at that time when the book was written, and he's telling
us now in the year 2013, we are in the last days. There are no whole bunch of days
coming in the future. We are in the last days. Christ
is the last messenger to speak authoritatively, inherently,
infallibly, perfectly for God to us. You guys got that? That
is the revelation. That is the revelation. It is
a glorious revelation. I'd spend another two hours just
sitting here contemplating the person of Christ in all of his
splendor and his beauty. We just want to taste a little
bit of it. What do we mean by the last days?
We mean the closing out of that Old Testament era. Christ came
in the end of the Old Testament era. According to the book of
Malachi, he was the messenger that came. The pre-messenger
was John the Baptist. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant. He came suddenly to his temple and he purged the
sons of Levi, didn't he? Don't y'all remember how he did
it? He did it both by his word, by his doctrine, by miracles,
by switches. That's that old school stuff.
You young people don't know nothing about that. But Christ cleaned
the temple, cleaned it and let him know this thing coming down
because I am the messenger of the covenant. He came, He came,
and the end of that old age, the word is age, age, eons is
the Greek term, that old dispensation is over with in Christ. It was
fading away. The Hebrew writer will help us
understand this when we get to chapter eight. He's letting the
Hebrew people know and understand you need not to be, as it were,
romantically connected to the past. You know how folks get,
and this is one of the signs we're getting older, You know
how you love to talk about the good old days. What you fail
to remember is how hard those good old days were. My wife reminds
me frequently when I go to talking about how easy it was for her
to have eight children for me. She says, stop telling people
that it was easy. You didn't have them. There was
nothing easy about having them. There was nothing easy about
raising them. Don't you remember, my husband, how you had to work
two jobs to raise those? Oh, now I remember. Now I remember.
It wasn't that easy. See, there is a sense in which
we can look back in thankfulness of God's providence on things
past. But don't lie as if the past
was the best because you would be denying God his glory. You
would be denying God his glory since he has told us to be people
of the future. And since the end of a thing
is better than the beginning thereof, you and I are called
to make sure that we don't over romanticize the past. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
close out the past and to establish the future, but all of it is
the end time. You guys got that? He came to
close out the old covenant established the new covenant, but all of
it is part of an end time scenario So I want to just give you a
few verses with regards to that in Acts chapter 2 verse 16 the
apostle peter as we are going through the book of acts unfolds
that truth for us he tells us with regards to the phenomena
of the gift of languages of which we are Developing in our friday
study. He says that these things were
to take place as they were prophesied in the mouth of Joel at the end
of the age in the last days. Acts chapter 2 verse 16. Listen
to what he says. But this is that which the prophet
Joel spoke or this was that which was spoken by the prophet Joel
and it shall come to pass when ladies and gentlemen in the last
days said God. Now he spoke that several hundred
years before Christ came. What was he saying? Christ would
come in the last days. Go with me in your Bible now
to Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26. Sorry, stop at 1 Corinthians
10 on your way there. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11 to
acquire it one more time. What is my exercise at this present
point? To help you and I understand
that New Testament thinking has always been with a view that
we are right on the cusp of the end of time. It has never been
with a view of us, as it were, preparing for some undefined
length of time in which the world is going to get better and better
and better and better. It's not. We are winding down,
things are becoming more difficult, and that by design. But the Apostle
Paul, speaking to this matter, said in verse 11, Now all these
things, referring to the difficulty of Israel in the wilderness,
all these things happened unto them for an example, and they
are written for our admonition, upon whom the what? Ends of the
world are come. Now go with me in your Bible
to Hebrews chapter 9, 26. Hebrews 9, 26, because the writer
says the same thing here in Hebrews 9, 26, to underscore that when
Jesus came, something seismic occurred Shift was radically
placed of which it would now begin a process of culmination
That God views as the end of our present world as we know
it the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 9 26 for then must he
that is Christ have suffered often since the foundation of
the world but now once the end of the world hath he appeared.
When did he appear? At the end of the world. Why
did he appear? To put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Go back to our text. We have
just done a little exegesis on Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 and
Hebrews 1 verse 2 part 8. The Son has come in these last
days. He's the subject, he's the total
message, he's the final messenger. You and I are fully persuaded
that Christ is really the true prophet, isn't he? He's the prophet
that Moses talked about in Deuteronomy chapter 18, around verse 15,
when he says, A prophet like unto me from among your brethren
shall the Lord your God raise up. Him shall you hear. Him shall you hear. And what that teaches us is this,
that all of the prophets subsequent to Jesus Christ, every one of
them who played a role in the fragmentation and the division
and the portioning of revelations to their different cultures,
the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth, they all
had a prophetic word either given to them by virtue of the Spirit
and they were prophets. Abraham was a prophet, Isaac
and Jacob were prophets, and then all the prophets too. All
those prophets pointed to the one great prophet, And that prophet
was Christ. And in fact, I need to reinforce
this because we are dealing with an aberrant theology around prophets
and prophetesses and bishops and apostles today. How do I
know that you are an authentic prophet? Because the spirit of
Christ is in you. The spirit of Christ is the spirit
of prophecy. Revelation 1910, the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. First Peter chapter 1 verse 10,
all the prophets of old who pointed to that just one, they had the
spirit of Christ in them. What are we saying? Throughout
history, Jesus Christ came in the prophets. He spoke through
Samuel. He spoke through David. He spoke
through Solomon. He spoke through Elijah. He spoke
through Jeremiah. They didn't speak of themselves.
It was Christ in them. Christ was the prophet that spoke
through the prophets, and Christ was the prophet that spoke about
himself, and God finally sent the true prophet. He is the final
prophet. There is no other prophet since
him. And even his apostles, and those
of you and I who are administrators of the gospel, and those who
believe the gospel and are able to utter the gospel, you and
I are simply vehicles through which this prophet speaks to
men and women in the world and that through his words. You guys
got that? We know how to identify prophets, whether they're true
or not. Cat came in here, we call him a cat, came in here
about eight months ago and he said, I'm a prophet from God.
I said, you are? He says, yes. And the Lord told
me to tell you to give me $1,500. And because I felt like entertaining
the brethren, I said, do me a favor. Would you come to our Saturday
men's meeting? Because I didn't want the ladies
around because it can get a little messy with men. So would you
come to the Saturday men's meeting and show us that you are a prophet? Watch this. Give us a sign that
you are a prophet. Brother, am I telling the truth,
brother? I told you I don't lie from the pulpit. So he came and
we were waiting for him. Now, I knew Already knew but
I needed to test my brethren Because we are supposed to be
people who test everything don't just blow it off test it Sometimes
you can blow it off if you've already tested it, but I wanted
to test my brother and I didn't need to test him I knew that
he wasn't playing with a full deck, but I wanted to share something
with the brethren So he came and we gave him an opportunity
to stand up and preach Because that's how we gonna know No,
he didn't come up here. He was down there in the row.
This is how you're gonna know. We're gonna know. We're all sitting
there. So demonstrate for us, sir, whether
or not you're an authentic, true prophet of God. So he got up
and he started talking about how several years ago the Lord
spoke to him and gave him insight into the criminal behavior of
the FBI. And that's why right now they're
hunting him down. And that's why the Lord told
him to tell Pastor Jesse to give him $1,500 so he could run from
the FBI. After about two minutes into
his diatribe, I said, sir, sit down. He sat down and I said
to the brethren, I said, brethren, is he a true prophet to a man? They said, no. We said, why? Because as they said, the first
thing that came out of his mouth was about Him and not Christ. When you are a true prophet,
it's not about you. It's about Christ from start
to finish and the content in between is about Christ. Had he opened his Bible, which
he didn't have one, he would have started from Genesis all
the way to Revelation and he would have preached to us Christ
and Him crucified and we would have blessed him. I wouldn't
have given him $1,500 just in case you think blessing
meant $1,500. Get that straight. We would have
acknowledged him as a true prophet, but he would have still needed
to go to John George for a few weeks. The text is very clear.
Let me make my way through. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. This is the preeminent, sovereign,
exalted, none higher, none better, None clearer than his own darling
son Jesus Christ in the Hebrew writer says he has spoken to
us By his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things By whom also
he made the world Apparently the Hebrew writer needed to now
embellish upon not only the person of this prophet who has come,
but to give us some of his resume and some of his qualifications.
He's not just a son, he's the heir. He's not just a son, he's
the heir. And the Hebrew people would have
understood that when he said he's the son, he's the heir,
they would have now immediately adopted what you and I have learned,
that there are only three covenant models in the scripture. The
three covenant models are what? Father, son. That's the model
here, isn't it? And then husband, wife. And the
third one is what? King, servant. These are the
only models in the scripture. These are the only models that
operate our world. Either we are servants or kings.
Either we are husbands and wives or we're fathers and sons. Is
that true? That's how the Bible is circumscribed
and here we're being told that Jesus Christ is the final revelation
of God, the final prophet of God, as the heir appointed of
all things. Again, It's a magnificent concept
under point three in your outline, the air and consummation. Now
let me just sum it up by referring again to Matthew 21, the parable
of the vineyard. Remember the husbandman lent
out his vineyard to certain individuals, the owner of the vineyard, and
they were supposed to labor, and the husbandman or the owner
of the vineyard desired fruit from the vineyard, and they were
acting unprincipled with him, and so he sent his servants to
go get fruit, And those servants were the prophets of the Old
Testament. He came to national Israel to get fruit. And they
beat some, and they maligned others, and they killed yet others.
And the text says in Matthew 21, and finally, at the last,
he sent his what? And the text says, and they said,
this is the heir. Listen to it in verse 38. But
when the husbandmen saw the son, when those who were laborers
in the field saw the son, they said among themselves, this is
the what? This is the one that possesses
the right to the whole of the inheritance. Come, let us kill
him and let us seize on his inheritance. The diabolical agenda of false
religion in Jesus' day who saw him for who he was, but in their
covetousness would kill him so that they could take the kingdom.
Ladies and gentlemen, just as an aside, please be careful. because you could fall prey to
the same group. There is one gospel, and there
is one message in one gospel, and that is Christ is all. And the spirit that is in you,
if it is in hostility to Christ, getting all the preeminence,
all the glory, all the honor, all the dominion, if it is hostile
towards, antipathetic towards Jesus Christ being the heir of
the world, you've got a problem. And your problem is you are merely
religious. You have not experienced the
adoption of sons. See, because the Hebrew writer
is going to take all 13 chapters, all 13 chapters, and talk 13
times about the Son of God, who is the heir of the world. All
13 chapters are going to deal with the Son of God, who is the
heir of the world. That's the message of this book.
He is the heir. The account tells us, our points
tell us, he is the heir by position appointed, and he was appointed
heir before the world began. He didn't merely obtain his heirship
in time. Christ was the heir before the
world began. How do we know that? We'll be
celebrating his birth in a month and a half. But Isaiah chapter
9 verse 6 says, unto us what? A child is born. Unto us what? A son. A son. A son. A son. A son is given. Why is he a son? Because he is
the heir. And upon his shoulders shall
be the government. And I love the language. I love
the language of Proverbs chapter 8. Speaking metaphorically about
wisdom just go there bear with me for a verse 22 and 23 see
it for yourself this Proverbs chapter 8 I Wisdom dwell with
prudence says the Lord Jesus is Jesus wisdom and listen to
the language I want you to see how he speaks of his position
as heir before the world began Proverbs chapter 8 verse 23,
22 and 23. Here it is. Listen to the language,
ladies and gentlemen. Proverbs 8, 22. The Lord possessed
me in the beginning of His ways. Who's speaking here? The Lord
Jesus. Who is the Lord in this context?
The Father. The Father possessed me, watch
this, in the beginning of His ways before His works of old. When there was no doubt. I was
brought forth. Do you see that? When there was
no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I was what? Brought forth. While as yet he
had not made the earth, nor the field, nor the highest parts
of the dust, when he prepared the heavens, I was what? There. When he set a compass
upon the face of the depth. When he established the clouds
above. When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he
gave to the sea its decree that the water should not pass its
command. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Watch
this. Then I was by him. If you understand the construction
of the language. Here's what he was saying. Before
any of those things were made, I already was. In the beginning
the Word was. The Word was God and the Word
was with God. The same was in the beginning
with God. You guys understand that? Do
you understand that before time, before things made, there was
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? They were before
all things. And He was always the Son. Always
the son he didn't become the son. He was always the son this
is why we put the predicate and the the Adjective eternal in
front of the son. He is the eternal son of God
He didn't come into being he was begotten of the father in
eternity past an eternal generation Which means as long as the father
was so was the son How long was the father? eternally How long
is a son? Eternally! He was the heir before
he created anything. How do we know this? Because
in the typical picture of Abraham, remember, God gave Abraham a
promise that he would own the world. Abraham was struggling
in Genesis 15 verse 4 when he said in verse 3, I don't have
a son. Remember that? He said that only
Eliezer is my servant and I guess I'm about to give him everything.
You know what God says? Eliezer is not the heir. You
have an heir. He just hasn't shown up yet.
And what we understand is that Jesus is the heir from before
the foundation of the world. He showed up in prophecy, patterns,
pictures, and finally he showed up in person. He's the heir of
the universe. He's not only the great and quintessential
prophet of God, he's the heir being the son. Go back, my time
is up for this portion. It's important for you and I
to understand the supremacy, the authority, the arc authority
of Jesus Christ. He's the heir in consummation
of all things. Christ will close out this universe, but he's also
recognized in our text as having dignity bestowed upon him as
it was at his birth. This is what's so wonderful about
that Christmas season for people who believe the gospel. The gospel
account tells us that when Jesus was born, the angels worshipped
him. The angels praised him. They
adored him. And everybody that understood
anything about the gospel bowed before his highness and gave
gifts unto the king. Why would you do that unless
he was the heir of the world? Do you understand that? The heir,
a parent. He was the heir of the world
then. Listen to what the Hebrew writer says in verse 6 and 7.
This is clearly alluding to the dignity of his position. He's
saying concerning Jesus being, verse 6, and again when he bring
it, the first begotten into the world, he said, and let all the
angels of God, what? Worship him. and the angels,
he said, who make of his angels spirits and his ministers a flame
of fire, but unto the Son, he said, thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. What is he doing? He's affirming,
God is affirming, the Father is affirming the dignity of his
Son, Jesus Christ. He's affirming his heirship.
Even before Jesus comes into the world and then the Hebrew
writer says not only is he the heir of all things But he's the
one by whom the father made the world got that this is what we
call personal agency I know I'm getting deep in theology here,
but you got to go there someday. This is what we call personal
personal Agency get this now because we don't believe for
one moment That Jesus is some kind of little God Not for one
moment We don't have in our bones the ability to diminish the significance
of His divine nature and make Him some little bitty God. He
is, in His own right, God. He possesses the divine nature
right along with His Father. Listen to me now, otherwise He
could not have made the world. Only God can make the world. Only God can make the world and
God the Father through the agency of his son made all things. You guys got that? He made all
things by Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 9, John
chapter 1 verses 1 through 4, and Colossians chapter 1 verses
14 through 19. We are very careful to maintain
distinction between the Father and the Son. And there are other
technical things that go with it, but we will never deny the
Son, His right as God, possessing the divine nature, for this is
what the Father has done. He has exalted His Son. He has
exalted his son and he says if you're gonna honor me you better
honor the son whom I have given all things So that if you're
gonna honor the father the only way you can honor the father
is through the son Now am I making some sense? And this is the way
God has purposed it before though In fact, if you were really to
get into the language, he actually made the universe for his son
He made you for his son The father has chosen to be glorified through
his son not around his son Not circumventing his son Through
his son through his son is the father exalted and glorified
This is so critical to the gospel, too See if we let men and women
diminish christ ministry, in word, in theology, in doctrine,
in philosophy. We are going to fall prey to
heresy. The battle today is who is Christ. That's the battle today. That's
the battle today. And the other battle today is,
is he sufficiently made known in the text of Scripture? Can
we trust this revelation to be the vehicle by which God makes
known unto men and women in a saving, sanctifying, glorifying way? Can the Holy Ghost get a hold
to a dead sinner by the Word of God, raise him from the dead? Give him life and faith in Christ
Revealed to God through this book the glories and dignity
and preeminence and eternal status of the Son of God Can the father
do that? No man's coming to the father
but through the son I am the way the truth in the life and
no one gets to him but through the son and if we don't hear
the son through the word We don't hear the son We don't hit the
son We don't hit the son And so the Hebrew writer wants you
to know this by verse 3, which requires, again, his own exegetical
labors, who, that is Christ, he's the subject, being the brightness
of his, that is the Father, glory. Do you see that? Who being the
brightness of his glory. Christ is the revelation of the
invisible God. There is no knowledge of God,
no contemplation of God, no speculation of God, no theorizing of God
apart from Christ. God is invisible, incomprehensible,
unattainable until Christ reveals Him. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? There is no knowledge of the Father apart from the
Son. No contemplation of the Father apart from the Son. For
as soon as there is no Son, there is no Father. Did you get that?
And so it's very important for us to understand while the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost are uniquely distinct persons, they are tied
together in such a way as to never be comprehended as separated. For if you get a right revelation
of the Son, guess who gave it to you? The Holy Ghost, the Holy
Spirit. And when He, the Spirit of Truth,
has come, He will take the things of mine and show them unto you. He will not glorify Himself.
He will not talk about Himself. You won't find the Holy Ghost
going, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Ghost is clearly understood by the exaltation and revelation
and impregnation of Christ into the soul as the incorruptible
seed. He makes Christ known to you. That's how you know you
are hearing from the Spirit of God. His job is to point to the
Son. And the Son's job is to point
to the Father. And the Father is the ground
and contact and being of all things. And we love the Father.
Through the Son, by the Holy Ghost, because of the Word of
God. Point number three, He's the
highest authority that has spoken. Spoken to us in the Son. Point
eight, He's the full revelation of the invisible God. You believe
that. He's the full and complete truth of God revealed. He's the
full and complete truth of God revealed. Do you believe that?
See, I have argued that if he is the exact representation of
his father, representatively, then Jesus Christ must bear,
in his own nature, all of the attributes of God, all of the
predicates of God, essential for him to be a representation.
For a thing to be a right representative, it cannot be distorted or diminished
at one point. If an authentic thing has a representation
of it, by which that representation now can give you an adequate
insight into the authentic thing, that representation better be
exactly like that authentic thing. Am I making some sense to you?
He is called the exact representation of his father's nature, his father's
being, not his person, but his nature, his being. So that as
Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 9, if you have seen me,
you've seen the father. Peter, have you been with me?
Phillip, have you been with me so long and have not seen the
father? Do you not know that I am in the father and the father
in me? Did you get that? I am in the
father and the father in me. profound, worthy of a lot of
consideration. But he's simply saying my union
with the father is such that if you comprehend me, you comprehend
him. My father's union with me is
such that the father is pleased by his own prerogative to only
make himself known through the son. What a unity of the persons. What love of the two that the
father has chosen not to be comprehended by anyone apart from the son. You got that? The father loveth
the son and hath given all things into his hand. See, ladies and
gentlemen, see for us this is not a trite battle over theology. This is because we understand
that God has only and exclusively made himself known to us in a
saving way through one glorious person. And should you deny him,
In any way, you miss the glory of God and you cannot be saved. You cannot be saved. And should
you fail to hear the final authority who has already spoken to us
as the ultimate and quintessential revelation of the invisible God,
you cannot be saved. Christ is the end. He is the end. He is the end
of all of God's revelation for our salvation and for our comfort
and for our hope. Listen to me now. God has spoken.
Are you listening to him? Amen.