Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 1. Now this chapter
begins and two weekends ago we looked in this very chapter in
the first five verses and the Lord's given me two more messages
from the first five verses again this time it's the first three.
But it starts out here in Hebrews with the theme entire theme,
the entire theme of all of Scripture. It is the entire theme of all
of Scripture and that is what I've, the title that I've titled
it is, The Messenger and the Message. That is the theme of
the entire Scripture, The Messenger and the Message. Now let's read
here Hebrews 1 verse 1, 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 express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high. God's gospel starts with God
and it ends with God. And in the very beginning of
the book it said, in the beginning God. And the very last words
are in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
amen. It starts with the Lord and it ends with the Lord. And
here is no different. It starts with God speaks. God who at sundry
time and diverse manners spake. He spoke by the prophets, he
spoke by signs, by wonders. Now he's speaking by one way,
his son, his son. Understand that no one obligated
God to speak. No one obligated God to speak.
No one could bind him or force him to speak. This was a choice
that he made as God. No one can bribe God. What are
we going to bribe God with? I got to thinking about that.
I mean, you can be bribed. Everybody, well, you know, I
mean, I suppose at most can be bought. The price is right. I mean, you can buy somebody
with something, whatever their weakness is. You understand what
I'm saying? God can't be bought. He owns everything. What are
you going to bribe him with? Somebody said, well, I'm going
to give him my heart. He doesn't want your heart. The heart's deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Well, I'll give you my
life. It's already his. He created
it. He formed us in our mother's womb. He gave us life. Our life
is his, whether we want it to be or not. Well, I'm going to
make him Lord. He's already Lord. He's already he's God. That's
the good news of the gospel is he's God. Second part of the
good news. The gospel is God spoke. God
chose to speak. in diverse manners at sundry
times, but is now speaking through and by his son, by his Holy Spirit,
God chose to speak to some sinners, to some sinners about who he
is and about what he's done. You know, the very beginning
of the scripture says, God's first, well, of course, all of
scripture is God's words, and that's, I have no problem with
red letter Bibles, if that's what someone chooses to use,
but it says the words of Christ in red, and my, our thoughts
as believers, well, that should be Genesis 1 to Revelation, the
end of 22. I mean, that should be the whole
thing in red, right? It's all His, it's about Him, it's His
story, His story. It's about His word. At the very
beginning it says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. What's the first words the Lord
says here? Let there be light. And He commanded light to shine
out of darkness. It became so. Light shined forth
out of darkness. This is the same for every single,
this is the gospel. This is the gospel. It's the
same for every single person that God has elected unto salvation,
that Christ redeemed on the cross of Calvary. The spirit comes
forth and says, let there be light. And that light shines
out of darkness. And isn't it true that you and
I are just full of darkness? That's all we are. That's all
that we can produce. And yet the Lord chose to speak.
come forth. He chose to speak, let there
be light. And who's going to stop him?
Nobody can. Now here it's described how he
spoke in times past and in different ways. And he says by the prophets,
2 Peter 1 21 says, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, The prophecies of old didn't, and we're talking about
the messenger right now. Who's the messenger? Well, okay,
the prophets were the messenger, but God says here, prophecy came
not in old by the will of man, meaning they didn't will these
words to come to pass. They didn't will these words
to be expressed, but it says by holy men of God. How are they holy? God made them
so. They were in Christ Jesus. That's the only way they were
considered holy. And it says he moved them. Holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. See,
these prophets couldn't say anything unless God spoke to them first.
These prophets could only declare what God had given them to say.
These prophets were made to speak the truth. And who is the truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. God told
them And God moved them to do so. See, God is and always has
been the messenger. He always has been the messenger. From Genesis 1 all the way through
Revelation, for all time and eternity, He is the messenger. If He chooses to remain silent,
you and I will remain lost in darkness. If he doesn't say,
let there be light, we will have no light. If he doesn't say live,
we will have no life. This is his authority. This is
his sovereignty. This is his isness as God. This is who he is. He has all
the power. What a glorious message to hear. I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. He chose to have mercy. That's
his words, I will have mercy. I will choose to have mercy.
That's good news. He didn't say, I'm not gonna
have mercy. I'm not gonna have mercy. He said, I will have mercy
on whom I will. Thanks be to God, he willed to
have mercy on some. He willed to speak to some. He willed to write their names
in the Lamb's Book of Life. He willed to save them. This
is what the messenger clearly declares, the message of the
finished work of Christ. And when it comes to being the
messenger, God has always been the messenger. But some men want
glory. They want part of the message to be about them. Or
they want to be a messenger. They want to have some consideration
as being part of the messenger. Now understand what I'm saying
here. I've heard men say, and introduce themselves to me, I'm
God's messenger. I'm God's messenger. And some
men say, I'm just a servant of God. I'm just a servant of God.
Now understand something. If that's true, and you know
this to be true, who doesn't brag about being a servant or
being a messenger? God's servants and God's messengers.
We don't go around saying I'm anything. We go around saying
Christ is all. Is that not true? That's what
we say. We don't say I'm this or I'm
that like a like a false humility or false piety. We say Christ
is all. That's serving. That's what serving
means is pointing to him, not ourself in any way. That's being
a messenger is is pointing to him, not ourself. And that's
God's the messenger. He's the he's the one. You know
who doesn't draw attention to themselves? God's messengers
and God's servants, God's preachers and God's people. We don't draw
attention to ourself. There's nothing good, nothing
good in me. Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from this body of death? There's nothing good in me. I
don't want you to see me. I want you to see him. You remember
John in John chapter, turn with me to John chapter one, the gospel
of John chapter one. A good example of this, a man
not drawing attention to himself, is John the Baptist. If anybody
had the ability at an appointed time in history, they knew the
Messiah was coming and the time was fulfilled, he should be there,
and they were really looking for him. They were really looking
for him. And they had came to John the Baptist, who was baptizing,
And they asked him, are you whom, are you the Messiah? Are you
the Messiah? Now, first of all, I want to
point out something to you. He was clothed in camel skin,
and the scripture says he ate wild honey and locusts. That's
a picture of his complete dependency on the Lord. If you want to know
who the Lord's preachers are, if you want to know who the Lord's,
if you want to call them messengers, you understand the Lord's the
messenger. I don't want to get that I don't want that to be a mistake.
The Lord's a messenger. But he does call men to declare this
impossible task, or he does call men to this impossible task,
to declare this glorious gospel. That being said, you want to
know something that is evident in the Lord's pastors, the Lord's
preachers, they're completely dependent upon the Lord. Just
like John the Baptist, just like Peter, just like Paul, just like
Moses said, Lord, I can't go tell Pharaoh anything. I'm slow
of speech. The Lord said, go. Completely dependent upon the
Lord. Now, John the Baptist never said,
look at me. Never said, look at me. He always
pointed to another, the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, are
you him or should we seek another? Are you the Messiah? He said,
no. No, I'm not the Messiah. He said, well, are you Elijah?
No, no, I'm not Elijah. He said, are you Jeremiah? He
said, no. He said, well, then who are you?
Look in verse 23 at his answer. He said, I am the voice. of one
crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Isaiah. I am the voice, the same voice
that Isaiah had, the same voice that Jeremiah had, the same voice
of all the prophets. They're one There's one that
they prophesied about. It was the same voice. He didn't
say a voice. I've heard men actually misquote
that, and I thought that was glorious when I saw it. He doesn't
say a voice. He says the voice. Who is the
voice? Well, that's the Lord. He's the
Word of God. He's simply saying, I'm just declaring what's already
been declared. I'm just saying what God has
said. It's the same voice over and over. Doesn't matter the
clay vessel that we are, who's declaring it. It's the Lord.
That's who we declare. That's who gets all the glory,
all the attention. God has always been the messenger
and has always spoken the same thing, his word, his word, his
promise. Who's his word? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember the Lord told the
Pharisees, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which are written of me. What
was the Scriptures at that time? There was no New Testament. There
was just the Old Testament. Search the Scriptures. He was
more referring to the Torah where the children of Israel based
it, the first five books of the Bible where they got the law
from and all that and the ordinances and the ceremonies that you think
that you have eternal life and keeping that. He said that they're
written of me. The tabernacle is a picture of me becoming a
man and tabernacling, excuse me, among my people, tabernacling,
becoming a man in an earthen vessel. He said the sacrifices
were me needing, you need the blood sacrifice, I'm the blood,
that all represented, all that sacrificing, the atonement, the
holy place, you can't enter the holy place, it all is about me,
that's what the Lord was saying. It's all about him. Who is the word of God, who is
the message? Well, look in verse one, you're
in John. In the beginning was the word and the word was with
God and the word was God. That's what John was speaking
of, the word of God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and without him was not
anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not. There's that light we spoke
of just a few minutes ago where the Lord says, let there be light.
He is that light. See, there's what the messenger
reveals is Christ Jesus, the message. And I want to be as
clear as I can be. There's the messenger and the
message is one in the same. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is all. There's no separating it. The
messenger is the Lord and the message is the Lord. It's him.
It's him. Look, look in verse 12. But as
many as received him. To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name. Now,
brethren, we know this to be true, but I want to point this
out just for a moment. He just got through saying a few verses
back, the light shined in the darkness and the darkness comprehended
it not. But to as many as received him, to them he gave power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his
name. Men will hear that and say, all I have to do is believe
and receive, never understanding that receiving is a gift. Believing
is a gift, that's the evidence of life. It's not, we don't believe
to live, that's silly, isn't it? No, if we're dead, how are
we gonna believe? Believing is the gift of life.
Receiving means we've been made able to receive. A dead man can't
receive anything. No, that's the gift of life that
the Lord gives, isn't it? Verse 13 is exactly what I'm
saying. They that believe were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace.
and full of truth. Here we have the messenger and
the message beautifully displayed. Beautifully displayed for you
and I to see. But only way we can see it is through the eyes
of faith. We have the Lord Jesus Christ as the messenger and the
message right here in John 1. And it doesn't change whether
we go to Genesis all the way to Revelation. He's the messenger
and he is the message. He's the author and he's the
finisher. Now, I've never noticed this
before. I actually, we looked at that
before the author and finisher, but did you know the root word
for authority is author? I never did hit me until I was
studying this. He has all the authority. Why?
Because he's the author. The root word for authority is
author. And somebody said, well, what do you mean? Well, I'm telling
you, he has all authority. If he has all, what does that
leave us with? If he's the messenger and the message, where does that
leave us? Well, hopefully we're on the receiving end of the message.
Hopefully we're on the hearing end of the message, but if he
has all authority and he has all power and it's not by the
will of man or the will of blood, it's gotta be by his will. It
has to be. That's our hope, isn't it? Lord,
cause me to hear the message. Cause me to hear your message. He has total authority, total
authority. Look in verse three again. All
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
You mean everything was made by him, that's what it says.
Now either he's God and he cannot lie, or he's not God and he lies. Which one is it? He's God, isn't
he? He cannot lie, he cannot lie. He made all things, and
without him not anything made that was made. That includes
you and me. everything. He owns it. That's why he has
all authority. Look in verse 10. He was in the
world and the world was made by him and the world knew him
not. Understand nothing was made unless
it was made by him. He is the creator. He is the
sustainer. And yet, he became a man and
the world knew him not. His own creation knew him not. They asked John, are you the
Messiah? And he said, no, I'm just the voice. He said, but
the one coming after me, I'm not worthy to unlatch his shoelaces,
his latchets. We don't have very many shoes
with latches, do we? He said, I'm unworthy to unloose
his shoes. Not worthy. Not worthy. He didn't
want any glory for himself. He said, no, he's the one with
all authority. He's the one with all power. He's the one with
salvation. He is salvation. That's the message. That's the
message. How can it be that the world
knew him not? Well, they knew not the messenger and therefore
they knew not the message. The question is, which comes
first? Which comes first? Knowing the message or the messenger? The answer is both. Both. They're simultaneous. He introduces
himself as the messenger and he introduces the message at
the exact same time. He is the message and he is the
messenger. He is salvation. He shines the
light of the truth of his gospel. And what does that gospel always
point to? What does faith always look to? What is our hope of
salvation? It's the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is the light in our life.
He is the Word of God. That's what it points to. He's
both the messenger and the message. Now, back to our text in Hebrews
1. I want to read this again. God
who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets. Now, I want to bring to our attention
just for a moment, all these Pharisees and scribes and all
the, they were looking for signs. And they even asked the Lord,
Lord, show us a sign. We'll believe if you'll show us a sign. They
had seen so many signs and it recorded in history, they saw
the Red Sea. They didn't, their ancestors had. They saw the Red
Sea part. They saw all these things happening. before them, the manna fall from
heaven, the water coming out of the rock. Lord, show us a
sign. We want something we can see, something we can grab a
hold of with our own eyes. And the Lord said, a wicked and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but no sign will
be given but that of the prophet Jonah. It's the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the sign that we look
to. We look to him. We're not looking for signs.
We're not looking for any type of wow factor. That's what they wanted was a
wow factor. And it was all based upon the miracles and things
that the Lord had shown in the Old Testament. What was missed
in all of that, and it's so important, was the message was missed. The
message cannot be seen with the natural eye. The message is a
hidden mystery that has to be received by faith alone. The
Lord has to give the revelation of that mystery. And the mystery
is always the same. Christ is all. Christ is the
burning bush that endured the wrath of God, but was not consumed.
Christ is he who went across with Part of the Red Sea, which
represents death. He died so that death could not
touch us as we cross the Red Sea on dry ground, not even getting
splattered by water. No wrath at all. Christ is the
ark that endured the wrath of God as it fell and brought the
Lord's people safely to Mount Ariac. Christ is all. Christ
is in every type. In every picture, Christ was
everything. And these men said, show us a
sign. But the sign standing right in front of them. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only sign given. You and I see the messenger and
the message all by his grace. God who at sundry times in diverse
manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath
in these last days. Now, if he says last days, that
means the end. Christ is the end, isn't he?
He's in the last days spoken to us by his son. whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,
who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. Now we see He is the messenger. We've seen that He is the messenger.
We've seen that He is the message. But right here, we have the fullness
of the gospel, right here in these verses. The Lord always
speaks the same thing, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
about the scripture points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't
point to man. Doesn't give us an opportunity
to have any glory. He gets all the glory. Salvation
is of the Lord. And right here, we have the fullness
of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ in seven different points. I actually, I got to this point
in the message, and I thought there is no way I can start seven
points at this moment. So either the Lord's gonna give
me a message for next Sunday on these seven points, and we're
gonna be exactly in this passage again, or we're just gonna be
able to take it for what it is right now, and the Lord blesses
it according to His will, and we'll just see what He does according
to His will. But what's the message spoken here? Now look, here's
the message. First thing, first thing, the
Lord appointed him heir of all things. That's one. Number two,
he made the worlds by him. Number three, Christ is the brightness
of his glory. Number four is the express image
of his person. Number five, he upheld all things
by the word of his power. Number six, he alone purged his
people's sins. Number seven, it is finished. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. That's the gospel. That's crystal
clear. He did it all. He did it all.
These seven things, that is the message. This is who he is. This
is what he has done. This is who he did it for. And
this is who gets all the glory for doing it. Christ is all.
That is the message that the messenger always declares. The
Lord Jesus Christ, understand this, brethren, he is the fulfillment
of all of the Old Testament prophecies. He's the fulfillment of all the
Old Testament ceremonies. He's the fulfillment of all the
Old Testament ordinances, everything, every picture, every shadow of
things unseen, every type. He shines his light through the
message of his gospel, revealing he is all from the beginning
to the end. He is alpha and omega. He is the glorious, singular
message of the entire volume of Scripture. The Old Testament
and the New. He is the singular message. There's
not multiple messages on how to have a prosperous life. You
want to have a prosperous life? Look to Christ. He'll prosper
according. There's nothing more prosperous
than being a believer in Him. having eternal life, having all
things, being an heir of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
Now, if you're looking for prosperity in the flesh, which we know each
other, we're not, we're survivors, aren't we? We're not out here
trying to become billionaires. We're looking to Christ. He's
all. There's nothing wrong with getting
money. I'm not saying that. Don't misunderstand. I'm saying when
you find yourself a sinner, you have one thing needful, the messenger
to tell you the message. Is that not true? Lord, I've
got to hear your message, how Christ saves sinners because
I'm the chief. That's the glorious news of the gospel. Christ says,
that's why I came into the world to save sinners. That's why I
came into the world to save sinners, to honor my father in the covenant
of grace, honor my father in redeeming all those who were
given to me, those who are his elect, written in the Lamb's
book of life to redeem them back to God. That's why I came into
the world to save sinners. Now, seeing all his glory as
revealed, we have the Old Testament, Christ concealed in the New Testament,
Christ revealed and seeing him in the New Testament. And think
about all the pipes and shadows that are now evident. In the
Old Testament, because of the New Testament that we have, we
can look and say, well, that brazing serpent, that represented
Christ on the cross, didn't it? Look upon the serpent and live.
It's that simple. Only those that are bitten had
the need to look. And if you weren't bitten, looking
didn't change anything, right? But if you were bitten, You had
a need to look, didn't you? That represents Christ making
his people sinners. They have to look to him in order
to be saved. Lord, give me sight that I may look. Every picture,
every type points to him. Now, seeing all his glory throughout
the Old Testament, I'm not going to Give us 10 different analogies. I'll give us one more. The cleft of the rock. Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. I want to see your glory. Now
think about that. Moses had been on Mount Sinai.
He'd received the law from God. When he came down, they actually
had to put a veil over his face because it said his faith shined
forth so great they couldn't look upon him. Moses was in the
presence of God, but the scripture says a smoke covered the mountain. But even that veil of smoke,
still he came down. They couldn't look upon Moses.
That's a picture of the law. We know that it is. We know that's
a picture of we can't look upon the Lord's law for our justification.
We know that's the picture there. But that being said, he was standing
in his presence and yet he says, Lord, show me your glory. I want
to see your glory. The Lord says, no man can look
upon me and live. But he says, there is a place. There is a place nigh unto me.
If you desire to see the Lord's glory, there is a place nigh
unto him. And it's called the cleft of
the rock. He says, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put you in that
cleft. You're not gonna put yourself
there. We don't even know where it's at. We can't find it. His
ways are past finding out. But He's going to put His people
in that cliff and as the Lord passes by He'll show us His hinder
parts. That's the picture. He shows us what has already
been done in the covenant of grace before time, what's been
done in time on the cross of Calvary, and what's going to
come to pass that's already finished because the Lord said so. That's
what His glory is. It's the messenger and the message. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. So seeing His glory, How could
anyone contest him as both the messenger and the message? Yet
some men want glory of some kind. They want to add to or take away.
They want to have part in some way. Boy, we are, by nature,
we're power hungry. We're glory hungry. We desire
to be seen. We desire to be heard. I have
multiple children, as you all know. And any of you that's had
multiple children, they fight for attention. You give one attention
too much, the other one gets irritated at them. They'll start
picking on each other. And they kind of do it maybe off to the
side a bit, and they think mom and dad don't notice. And you
see them, and you call them out for it. What are you doing? Oh,
nothing. No, you're wanting daddy and mommy's attention. You're
desiring that attention. Or one of them picks something
up, you say, who did that? I did. That was me. I want the
glory for that. I want to be recognized. I'm the one that
picked that up. I've never heard one of my daughters say, you
know, my sister did that. I'm not teaching my kids anything
right now. I'm just saying, they're not, whenever one of them says,
uh, what I say, who, who cleaned that up? I've never heard one
of them say she did that whenever she really didn't. They always
say, I did that. That's just us by nature. They're
my children. Where do you think they got it from? It's me in
them. You know, it's our father, Adam, all the way back. Men won't
glory, but when it comes to this gospel, there is no glory for
man. Who did that? Christ. Who saved his people? Christ. Who is salvation? Christ. What's left up to you and I?
Nothing. It is finished. That's the message.
There's no glory for you and I. There's no glory. Hear the message, brethren, that
God speaks. And it's always the same message.
He speaks by his son. You'll see in verse two where
it says, had in these last days spoken to us by his son, that
word his is in italics. He speaks by son. That's his name. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. And hear the message. Hear the
message of what the Lord speaks of his son because of who he
is. He purged his people from their
sin by the sacrifice of himself. By his own blood, he entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Now, what part of that do we get glory in? Paul said, all
glory in nothing but the cross. Why? Because that is my only
hope in salvation, that he hath obtained eternal redemption for
his people. I love the word hath. That's
past tense, isn't it? Doesn't mean it might. It's not
contingent. We don't preach a gospel that's
contingent upon you and I. We preach that it is finished.
Christ Jesus hath obtained eternal redemption for his people, for
all that he died for. Everyone given to him by his
father he redeemed. He accomplished salvation. Do you believe that?
We say those words and I I never want to grow desensitized
to the glorious news of the gospel. Christ accomplished salvation.
Just let that sink in. Just soak that in. Christ accomplished
salvation. Yeah, he really accomplished
it. It's not based upon you and I. It's not. It's not dangling
there waiting for us to do something. Christ Jesus secured, accomplished
salvation, obtained salvation for his people. It's not an offer
that's contingent. It belongs to him. Salvation
is all about the messenger and it's all about the message, brethren.
The messenger is the Lord Jesus Christ. The message is the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a simple message, isn't
it? It's a simple message. Who's the messenger? Who's the
message? Well, to sum it up in one, we could just about always
sum up the gospel to this, Christ is all. Christ is all, amen? Let's pray. Father, cause us
to bow to the messenger and to the message, cause us to see
Christ Jesus as all. Lord, if we do, it's because
you did it. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.