Turn back with me now to Hebrews
chapter 1. Unlike all the writings of theologians
and all the recorders of history, the Bible doesn't give any reason. It doesn't give any foundation.
It doesn't begin with some scientific formula. It just says, in the
beginning, God. In the beginning, God. When man goes to declare some
ideas that they have about God, he first begins by laying out
the foundation. about what he's going to say.
Paul, in dealing with this thing about the living God, writes
to his own people and simply begins the book, God. God. And if we don't get any further
than that this morning, I want you to dwell on just that. God begins his testimony. I want you to think about this.
It says over in 1 John chapter 5, there's three that bears record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit. These three are one. Three that
bear witness in the earth. And he said this is the testimony. This is the record. This is the
witness of God. He that believeth not the record. This is the record. Makes God a liar. Wives don't believe what they
preach down at that church. You make God a liar if it's according
to this record. God, that's what Paul, he cuts
through 6,000 years of ceremonies and superstitions and and rituals
and all these things and he just tells these people, here's where
he starts, God. God. Everything has its beginning
in God. He's his own explanation. When
he revealed himself to Moses, you know what he told him? I
am. Moses said, I'm going down here
to confront one of the greatest nations on the face of the earth,
the place where I grew up. And I know that man. And when
I go down there, who am I going to tell him sent me? He said,
you tell him I am, sent you. I am. Creation, time, providence, life,
death, principalities, power, Follow them all back. When you
get to the beginning, it's God. God. No explanation. No beginning. No evolution. Just God. God in the mystery of the Trinity. Think about that. and all the
majesty of His omnipotence." David said, our God dwells in
the heavens. What's He like, David? He does
what He pleases. He dwells in the majesty of His
omnipotence. God, in all the beauty of His
glorious character, ruling and reigning over everything that
is without so much as one saying to Him, what are you doing? None
can stay His hand. God. Filling up eternity. Look as far back as you can see. Go back, clear back. There's not a beginning. It's
just God. Go forward as far as the prophecies
of Scripture will take you. There's just God. He fills eternity. Every void, every space spanning
through time, filling every empty void. A fullness, Paul said. He couldn't describe it any other
way. He said a fullness of him that filleth all in all. He just
fills up everything. God everywhere and at all times
present. You can't find a place anywhere
between these two covers where there's not God. Knowing all things, no surprises,
no accidents, no unseen incidents. Unchangeable. He's never changed,
Lindsey, never has, never will. I'm the same yesterday, today,
and forever. James said, not even so much
as a shadow of turning. He's not going to turn. He's
not going to change. Self-existing, self-sufficient. He doesn't need any. He said,
if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. It's all mine. It's all at my
hand, at my disposal. I'm God. He said, I'm God. Beside me, there's none other.
There is no other God. I'm God. That's what Paul's talking
about here. God. No definitions, no scientific
formulas. Unexplainable. And one man said
this. The last thing you need is a
God you can explain. That'd make you God, wouldn't
it? That'd make you God. A God you
can comprehend and understand. He's no God at all. Let me read
you some scriptures. I'll just give you the text and
I'll read them to help with the time a little bit. Over in Job
chapter 11. And in verse 7, the question
is raised. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Can you do it? Can you just open
this book up or open up the books of history or study creation
and go out and look at the mountains and the clouds and all the recorded
history of man and dig up the old dinosaur bone? Can you find
out God? That's the question. Religion says you can't. Can
you find out the Almighty unto perfection? He said it's high
as heaven, what can you do? What are you gonna do? Our Lord
told Nicodemus, this is a man schooled as far as you could
get schooled in religion. Went away babbling to himself
about climbing back into his mother's womb and being born
again and the Lord said, if I told you earthly things and you don't
understand What would you do if I just told you? What would
you do if I just told you in the language of heaven what's
going on? What would you do? You talk about
going away with a blank expression. It's high as heaven. What canst
thou do? It's deeper than hell. What can
you know? The measure thereof, he said,
is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Listen
to this in Psalm 139. Here's the man after God's own
heart. And here's what he said. He said, O Lord, thou hast searched
me and known me. He said, you know my down sitting
and my up rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassionate my path and
my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there's
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all
together. You know what I'm going to say
before I say it. You know what I'm going to think
before I think it. You know my path before I walk it. You beset me behind and before
and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high, he said, and I cannot
attain unto it. Solomon, wisest man on this earth,
here's what he said. He said, I set my mind, my determination,
and I examined everything on this earth that I could see with
these eyes. And here's what he said, listen
to this. He said, I beheld all these things. I beheld how that in Ecclesiastes
chapter 8, I beheld all the work of God that a man cannot find
out the work that is done under the sun. Because though a man
labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it, yea, further.
Though a wise man think to know it, yet he shall not be able
to find it. He can't explain God. He can't
comprehend God. And then in Romans chapter 11,
Paul was writing this letter to the Roman church. And he was
dealing with this thing of justification by faith. He was dealing with
these things over the... I was talking to Larry this week
about the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, how patient
God was laying this foundation in the Old Testament. And Paul's
going through these things and he's talking about how God, there
in Romans chapter 8, He just makes everything work together
for your good and His glory. And you look back through that
maze of twisted, turning events, how in the world Can God bring
all those things together and be for your good and be for His
glory at the same time and men be held in account for what they
do? What a twisted, gnarled mess
it is. And he's looking at those things
and he gets over to chapter 11 and pretty soon he just can't
even talk about it anymore. goes off into praise and he said,
oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past
finding out. God, God, mysterious, glorious,
fearful. Moses, you go talk to him. You
go talk to him. We don't want to go unless we
die. Fearful. Fearful. Almighty God. All right, now consider this.
Here's where I'm coming from. The heathen builds a shrine.
We saw him going up Michigan the other day. He builds a shrine. And he melts down some precious
metal and he pours it into a mold and he creates an image or he
carves one out of wood, the scripture says. He gets an artisan. He
carves this thing out. And it's beautiful. I'll give
him that. It's beautiful. And then he gives it a name.
And he gives it a history. And he gives it a high position.
And he said, here's God. Here's God. Come bow down, this
is God. And the Catholics, he builds
an empire. Like a chameleon, he just melts
in with the royalty of his day, and he feeds himself with the
money and the praise of men, and he builds an empire. He builds a Vatican city, and
he builds a huge cathedral, and he hires the greatest artists
of his day to paint the ceilings, and the greatest artisans of
his day to do the glass windows and all the things that are inside.
And he encompasses the world with these cathedrals that reach
up into the sky. And he appoints a government
of people there and appoints a vicar, a pope, one who stands
between God and the holy church. And he structures a government
of archbishops and bishops and all these things and priests
and nuns and altar boys and all these things. And he just shrouds
these things in pomp and pageantry and the candlelight and the music
and all these things and he says, come, come on down, here's God. Here's God. Here's God. And the rituals. He got his holy
days and feast days. God just shows up at certain
times. At certain times. I was talking to you the other
day about that pool of Bethesda. You know what it says about that?
In a certain season, God got off the showers. He just shows
up nine to five on a Saturday. He's got his days and seasons,
all these things. Everything he does centered around
these days, centered around these things. And by those actions,
he says, Larry, here's God. Here's God. You want to meet
God, show up on the Sabbath day. Don't come on Sunday, he won't
be here. Sabbath day. And then the legalist, he draws
up a code of conduct and rules and regulations. He tells the
ladies how long they can wear their dresses and the men how
long they can wear their hair. He tells you where you can go
and can't go. He tells the ladies to cover their heads or not cover
their heads. Tells you who to vote for, what
you can drink, whether or not you should smoke. And he said,
here's God. Come on down. And our rules and
regulations, here's God. Go with us or go without God.
Ain't that what they're saying? Exactly what they're saying.
And then the old theologian, he surrounds himself with his
dusty old books and charts and graphs. Brother Mahan said one
time he's got flames pointing up and flames going down and
arrows and all. And he's got everything all figured
out. Here's the succession. Here's
the dispensation. This is going to happen. And
then on the 9th of March, 1995, this is going to happen. And
then down here, this is going to happen. And then these people
are going here. He's got it all figured out. He said, come on
in with the dusty books. Come on in my office. Here it
is. Here's God. Here's God. And experientialist,
he points back to a day. I can give you the day and the
hour. I can give you the time. I had a feeling. I had a dream.
I saw a vision. I spoke in tongues. I live above
sin now. Supernatural power. I can heal. Here's God. Come on down. Here's
God. And the fundamentalist, he points
to some Bible facts and presses them into a decision. You don't
want to go to hell, do you? I don't know anybody who wants
to go to heaven. You want to go to heaven, don't
you? Well, sure I want to go to heaven. Well, you believe
Christ came into the world, don't you? Well, yeah. You believe
he died, huh? You believe he died for your
sins? Well, yeah. Well, you're saved. You're saved. Come on
down. Join the church. Be baptized.
You're saved. Here's God. Here's God. Let me tell you something. One
of these days, you and I are going to die. We're going to die. Let that sink in for a minute.
We're going to die. We live in crowds, but we die
alone. And when we die, the very next
thing you're going to do, the very next thing you're going
to see is the living God. Believe in God. That's what Paul
preached. God. Let this other rubbish go
to the side. God, he said. God's faith. That's who you got to deal with.
You don't have to deal with me. You got to deal with God. No more
games, no more hiding, no more pretending, no more assurance
from the crowd. Me and this love get together
and put the arms around one another and talk about what they believe.
There won't be no they there, just you. Just you. No more about what you thought,
just you and God. Well now wait a minute, wait
a minute, I prophesied in your name. I don't know you. Well, I preached, I cast out
demons in your name. I don't know you. And you can't know him if he
don't know you. That's where it begins. See,
everything has its beginning in God. You see where Paul's
coming from? God's fault. Why don't we lay this other stuff
aside? Why don't we just push aside
our differences and push aside our backgrounds and push aside
all these things and listen to what God said? That's what Paul
said. God spoke. God spoke. Brethren, I can't think of a
more horrible thing. than to wake up one day and find
out I've been serving the wrong God. Paul wandered those streets of
Athens, and he looked around at all those monuments and all
those things. He said, when I passed by, he
said, I beheld your devotion. I don't think he was talking
about just walking down through the city and seeing the statues.
That's enough. That's enough. But I don't think
that's all he's seen. I think he's seen folks over
there with the canvas on the tripod and they were sitting
there and they were painting pictures of these things and
they were over here writing poetry about these things. He said,
when I saw your devotion, admiring people walking by like they do
through the cemetery up there in Washington, D.C. in Arlington.
And they just pull in there by crowds and they look at all these
things. That's what Paul saw. They was
wandering through there looking at these gods and making pictures
of them and writing poetry about them and writing history books
about them. And there was devotions going
on. And he said, I saw your devotions
when I walked by. And he said, I noticed on one
of your altars there, said the unknown God. He said, that's
who I'm going to tell you about. That's who I'm going to tell
you about, the unknown God. We drove up to Michigan, and
I'd never seen so many cathedrals and monuments and mosques in
all my life, along I-75, going up through there. And I guess
the reality of it just overwhelmed me because I was stirred like
Paul was in my heart to see that the whole outfit is given to
idolatry. It's idolatry. I know we like to make pretty
names for it. It's idolatry. That's what it is. And ain't
just the ones going to church. It's those folks. He said covetousness,
which is what? Idolatry. And I see men and women, I know,
and some of them relatives and some of them friends going through
this life at ease, just at ease in their religion, at ease in
their church going. They're just at ease in their
life, no fear of God before their eyes. That seems to be the impact
to me of Paul's message to these Hebrews. I know the theme is
something better, but what he's telling them is this, God spoke. Didn't you hear him? God spoke. We've got Moses to know. God
spoke through Moses. Moses wasn't anybody before God
spoke. God spoke. Just because some deluded preacher
told him to walk down an aisle, join this denomination or that
one, accept some facts, Give some mental assist. I watched
my mother-in-law go out to meet God, confident. Only went to
church maybe five times in her life that I know of. One of those
five times, her friend talked her into walking down an aisle,
making a profession of faith. And she went out to meet God.
That's the only thing she was alarmed with. I did what they told me to do. And that's what religion does.
It gives you something to do. Gives you something to do. Gives
you some laws to keep, some days to honor, some services to attend,
some ordinances and ceremonies and duties. Well, we're all fixed
up. We're at peace with God. We've got a Bible study in our
home every week. Well, a friend of mine told me
not too long ago. My wife and I get up earlier
every morning. We have a devotional reading
and prayer. I witness, I go to church, I pay my tithes, I order
my conduct and arrange my life and all my affairs around the
church. Yes, but do you know God? Eternal life is to know
God. Paul said to those of Israel,
his own people, and he knew them inside out, he was a Pharisee
himself. He said, I bear them witness,
they've got a zeal of God. But they're ignorant of God.
They don't know anything about His righteousness. I want you to listen to this
over in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He said in verse 13. This is about these men. Somehow, I don't know, over the
years I used to look back and try to apply these things, try
to picture in my mind what a Jewish synagogue was and how these Pharisees
dressed in their robes and their broad phylacteries and all these
things and going in. This is talking about preachers
today. That's what it's all about. It's
talking about this priest down here at this Catholic cathedral.
It's talking about that Baptist minister downtown. He said, for
such are false apostles, deceitful workers, deceive themselves. Listen to this. Transforming
themselves. That's what men do. That's what
we do. By their own decisions, by their
own will, by their own ideas, their own understanding. Transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And he said that's
no marvel. Satan himself. What's he do? He transforms himself
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no big deal if
his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end should be according to the Word. Here's God. We worship God. It's my God loves
you. Teaching our children, Jesus
loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. You know, I shocked out of my
socks one day. Brother Mahan got up and made
this statement. He said, do you know in the book
of Acts is the recorded history of the beginning of the New Testament
saints? The recorded history, all the
churches. You read in here, Paul saw that
church at Thessalonica and he said, I know your election of
God. Well, it tells you how Paul came and what he said. And I'm
going to preach about that maybe Tuesday evening. All this stuff is recorded. Do
you know the word love, loves, and love doesn't even appear
in the book of Acts? Not anywhere, not even brought
up. What I'm saying, as plain as
I know how to say it, is that this world doesn't know God.
The only way for you to know the living God is for God to
speak. God has to speak. You know, there
was a time in the Old Testament where God just shut up. There
was no open visions. He didn't have a man out here
on the corner declaring his name. He just shut up. He didn't say
anything. What happened? The whole white thing went to
pieces. They went to pieces. He dug up
the scrolls, and the scribes came and read it to him, and
he fell down and sat clothed in ashes. And he said, we're
in trouble. We're in trouble. How come? Because I just found
out who God is. God spoke. Holy men of God, Peter
said, spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What'd they
say? Well, it says over in Acts chapter 10, verse 43, to him
give all the prophets witness. That all spoke of Christ. That
through his name, here's what they said about him, through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sin. It lays a foundation. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid. It lays a foundation
through the patience Through the forbearance and long-suffering
of God, He calls these men, calls these nations, calls these people
over ages and ages and ages to lay a foundation for everything
that Christ would come into this world and do. And it's there. The whole portrait is there. That's what Paul's telling them.
God, but these aren't just religious ceremonies. They're not just
superstitious ideas. This thing has not evolved through
the years. He said this is God speaking. God laying the foundation and
this man here. That's what the book of Hebrews
is. This man here fulfilled all these things. The Old Testament declares the
way, the way of substitution. In Acts chapter 7, verse 52,
it says, you slew them, talking about the prophets, which showed
before the coming of the just one. He spake to our fathers
through the prophets, laying the foundation of his temple,
laying the foundation for the coming of the just one. In the Old Testament, God spoke
and he taught us something about covenants. I'm telling you, I
was raised in religion and I didn't know what a covenant was. I never
heard one time anything about a covenant. He teaches us about covenants,
mediators, advocates, testators, how God can and cannot be approached,
worshipped, communed with, how God will and will not be sought. There must be a lamb slain. There
must be a sacrifice consumed, a life given, a substitute. There
must be a righteousness established and a law obeyed. There must
be a priest to serve and a high priest to intercede. There must
be an enemy cast out and a kingdom established. Every detail of
redemption sent forth, every detail of substitution declared. They were figures, he says, for
the time then present. Patterns of things in the heavens,
shadows of good things to come. Listen to this over in Galatians
chapter 4. It said Abraham had two children. He had two children. He had one by a bondwoman and
he had one by Sarah. He that was of the bondwoman,
Paul says, was born after the flesh. human reasoning, human
logic. The only way they could figure
out how to accomplish the purpose of God. Helping God, works, religion,
born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was
by the promise, the promise of God, the work of God, the grace
of God. Now listen, he said, which things
are an allegory. That's why these two kids were
born. why they were born. And then in Romans chapter 9,
Paul declares that they are not all Israel, which are of Israel,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children, but in Isaac, he said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are of the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise accounted for the seed, God's
faith. How did he speak? By the prophets.
by the prophets. What did he say? What did these
prophets, these holy men of God, inspired, moved by the Holy Ghost,
what did they preach? Well, they said something about
the woman's seed. Where in the world do you reckon
Moses come up with that idea? Moses wasn't around when this
world was created. Who gave him his information? What caused him to write about
the woman's seed? He wasn't even there when Abel
offered that lamb. How does he know about Abel?
Where did he get his information? In Genesis, he's the woman's
seed. In Exodus, the smitten rock. Leviticus, the lamb slain. Numbers, he's the high priest.
Deuteronomy, he's the promised rest. In Joshua, he's the son
of the everlasting father. And so on throughout the Old
Testament. Even the pigs in the tabernacle
pictured him. Years and years down the road,
old Isaiah looked back on that tabernacle and he said, I will
fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And I'll hang on him all
the glory, my father's house. God spoke. But in these last
days, he's spoken unto us by his son. By his son. God spoke. God laid the foundation. He laid it out so clear. He laid it out in the language
that men can understand in pictures, in allegories, in figures, in
shadows. Ceremonies, laws, history. Deliverance of nations, conquering
of nations, he laid it out as clear as it can be. And then,
in the fullness of time, God's Son came into this world and
God spoke again. What'd he say? Well, he says in Christ, justice
is satisfied. Remember that justice I told
you about back there? It's satisfied in Christ. Satisfied. infinite, eternal, unalterable
justice. Everything justice demands, Christ
has given. Everything justice requires,
Christ has provided. He says in Isaiah 53 and 11,
I shall see the travail of his soul and I'll be satisfied. Secondly, he says by his son,
here's the righteousness I require. You remember back under that
law? I said the soul that sinneth shall surely die. You remember
that righteousness? You remember how many people
died trying to fulfill that righteousness? Here's my righteousness. Here
it is. Fulfilled. Fulfilled. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth sees
in the obedience of Christ the only righteousness God will Quits
looking to his deeds and duties and determinations and he sees
himself clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You saying that there's nothing
I can do or say or feel that God will approve? That's exactly
what I'm saying. Exactly. This is my beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. Can you hear? Third thing God says in Christ,
He says the war is over. The war is over. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
18 it said, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ, given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
to which that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. You know, back during the Civil
War, there come a time when the war was over, but it wasn't like
it is today. They didn't have communications
like we have. They didn't have radios and computers
and all these things. And these bands of men that fought
these wars were often separated from one another and out here
in isolated areas. And there was just such a thing
going on. And this company of men was all
dug into the trenches and down in the little wooded line behind
the wood fences. And they were preparing for battle.
They were getting ready to go to war. And they had their guns
all cleaned, and it was early morning, and they were preparing
for battle. And the watch that they had, the sentry that they
had, he looked out through the woods and he saw in that misty
morning twilight, that dust, you've been there, you've squirrel
hunted, you've looked out there and seen that kind of, just almost
looks like dust filtering down as the sun comes up. And he looked
out there and he saw the shadow of a man on a horse. And he picked
up that telescope and he looked out there and he said, One man
on a horse, he said, he's a rider, and he's got a white flag. And
the rider comes in, and the colonel comes up to the front to meet
him. And he said, well, this is a dispatch. And he said, I'll
hear you in a little while. He said, we're getting ready
to go to battle. We're getting ready to go to war. He said, we ain't
got time for you. He said, we're not going to ruin
the element of surprise. And they had their guns ready,
and they were just ready to charge at any minute. And the dispatch
said, well, you go ahead and do whatever you got to do. He
said, there's nobody out there. He said, they all went home. What do you mean they went home?
He said, the war is over. The war is over. Oh, I wish I had the words. God sent his son into this world. And he fulfilled everything God
required. He fulfilled his justice. He
honored his law. He manifested his righteousness. He manifested his grace. He loved
righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore God raised him
up. He took him home. And he said,
sit right here. Sit right here. See what those men didn't know,
their commander-in-chief surrendered. He surrendered. Satan surrendered. Yeah, he did. He took the weapon. God overcome him. God is not
at war with us. We're at war with him. We're
getting ready to charge. The boy said, you want to run
down there and jump over the fences and drag your cannons
and yell and wave your flag and do everything you want to do?
He said, ain't nobody out there. And I thought about that when
I prepared this message this morning, how religion, they're
jumping up and down and going to war and going to battle. They're
just dragging their cannons and doing all this stuff. The war's
over. Come to him. Come to him. Our Father, give us in our hearts and in our minds a sense of the
reality of who it is before we stand. And give us a sense about who Christ
is and who stands between God and us. Do these things for Christ's
sake. Yes, sir.