I'm going to speak to you today
from the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 1 now I'd like to make
a few comments before beginning to read the scriptures and the
first comment is this this is one of the most important passages
of scripture in the word of God and this book of Hebrews brings
together the Old Testament and the New Testament better than
any other book or any other epistle. If you would enter into the treasures
of God's promises in the Old Testament, the prophecies of
the Old Testament, the types and pictures and stories of the
Old Testament, if you would enter into what they mean, As they
point to our redemption, as they have reference to the New Testament.
You need to read the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews
brings together the Old Testament and the New Testament. You see,
the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. Everything
in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John to the book of Revelation, everything
in the New Testament is in the Old Testament. It's in the Old
Testament. Christ is in the Old Testament.
In picture, in promise, in prophecy, in pattern, in type, in story,
shadows. Christ, that's what the Old Testament's
about. It says someone's coming and
this is what he'll be like. This is what he'll do. This is
how you'll save sinners. That's what the Old Testament's
saying. Someone's coming. Someone's coming. He'll be a
prophet like Moses, and a priest like Abel, and a Melchizedek,
and a king like David, and he'll be the Passover lamb, and the
brazen serpent lifted up, and the bread from heaven, and all
these things. And then Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John says, Behold the Lamb of God. He's here. He's here. And the epistles tell us what
manner of men we ought to be waiting for His return. That's
right. So here in Hebrews, let's look
at chapter 1 of Hebrews. Just a few verses now and you
follow along and I'll read it here and make some comments.
In verse 1, Hebrews 1, it says, God, who at different times,
sundry times, many times, and in diverse manners or different
ways, spake to our fathers by the prophets. In other words,
there were years of silence. There were years of silence.
But there were times when God did speak. When God spoke from
heaven, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets. God spoke through
the prophets. He gave his word and his message
and his gospel to the prophets. And the prophets spoke to the
people. They took God's word to the people. In other words,
Our Lord Jesus said, Abraham saw my day. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw my day and was glad. God
spoke to Abraham. God spoke to Abraham when he
took him out under the stars and said, look up, count the
stars. Abraham said, they're innumerable. And God said, so
shall thy seed be. I'm going to send the Son for
you, Isaac. And that seed through Isaac is
Christ. And your people, those like you,
believers, children of God, who are the sons of Abraham, there'll
be as many as the stars of the sky, the sands of the seashore. God said that to Abraham, and
Abraham told that to his son, and to the people. These are
God's people. And then God one day took Abraham
up on Mount Moriah, and he spoke to him there. He said, Abraham
take that son, that promised son, that miracle boy that I
gave you through Sarah in your old age, take him up on the mountain
and sacrifice him to me as a burnt offering. And Abraham took a
three day journey and went to Mount Moriah and he took that
son up on the mountain, bound him and put him on an altar,
pretty good sized boy. and he was going to do as God
commanded him because he believed God and he believed God would
raise him from the dead because he said he knew God told him
in Isaac shall thy seed be called and he knew Isaac couldn't stay
dead if his seed was going to be in Isaac because he wasn't
going to have another son and so he would have sacrificed Isaac's
life but God stopped him God said Abraham don't touch the
land and Abraham turned and there was a ram caught by his horns
in the thicket and God told him to take that ram put it on the
altar in Isaac's place and sacrifice the blood of the ram and burn
its body as a sin offering and Abraham saw the day of Christ
right there when our Lord God took us off the altar of sin
off the cross of Calvary and put his son in our place the
Lord Jesus Christ is our lamb slain He's the ram who took our
place. He took our sins. You see that?
God showed Abraham. And then Christ said, Moses wrote
of me. Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, first five books of the Bible.
They're just full of Christ. God took Moses one day and he
said, now Moses, Pharaoh will not let the people go. I've brought
plague upon plague. I'm going to come through the
land of Egypt tonight at midnight I'm coming through and I'm going
to destroy the firstborn in every home from the cattle on the hillside
to the house of Pharaoh the firstborn in every house of that now Moses
you and the people of Israel take a lamb one for each house
the first thing of the flock Put it up four days and observe
it. Can't be a sick lamb. It's got
to be without spot or blemish. And then you slay that lamb and
roast its body and eat the flesh and put the blood on the door.
And Moses, when I come through that night and I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. Christ, our
Passover, is sacrificed for us. That's what Paul said over there
in 1 Corinthians. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. When our Lord Jesus met with
his apostles, that's what they call the Last Supper, that was
the Passover. They were observing that Passover
that had been observed clear back to Moses, back to Egypt.
And this was the last one because Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed
on that cross outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and that's the
end of the Passover. He's the Passover. See, God spoke
to the people through Moses, and God spoke to Israel through
the brazen serpent. You remember they murmured against
God, and Moses prayed for them. God sent the fiery serpents among
the people. They'd bitten the people, and
they were dying. And God said, Moses, take a serpent of brass,
just like those serpents that have bitten the people, and put
it on a pole. And whoever looks will live.
And when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, he said
this, he said, as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see,
that serpent of brass was made in the likeness of those serpents
that have bitten the people. And when Christ came, he was
made in the likeness of our flesh. That's our problem, is flesh.
That's where sin comes from, is flesh. Flesh shall not enter
the kingdom of God. So Christ was made flesh for
us and died in the flesh on the cross, bearing our sins. And
we look to Him. When Moses smoked the rock and
water came out, that's Christ. The Bible says that in the New
Testament. Christ is that rock. God spake unto Jonah. What was Jonah all about? The
fish swallowed him. He was in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights, and then he was out on dry land. He died in that fish's belly.
Death was about him, on him, and God raised him. And Christ
said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly
of the fish, so shall the Son of Man. be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth and resurrected someday you're
going to die and I'm going to die and Jonah tells us we're
going to be raised as Christ was raised you see that God spake
to the fathers of the prophets and he always spake to them spoke
to them about Christ the gospel how God saves sinners now look
at verse 2 God who spake to our fathers by these prophets Moses
and Abraham, and Jonah, and Elijah, and all these men, hath in these
last days, hath in these last days, hath in these last days,
spoken to us by His Son, the Son, Jesus Christ, He is the
fulfillment of all the promises. God now speaks to us through
the fulfillment of the promises, from the woman's seed, to Emmanuel,
to the messenger of the covenant, to the babe in the manger, to
the Christ of the cross, to the ascended victorious Lord. He
speaks to us by his Son. The Son fulfills all these promises,
and all these types, and all these ceremonies, and all these
sacrifices, and all of these patterns. He fulfills every one
of them, and puts them away, abolishes them. Because he's
the fulfillment of them. Christ is our Sabbath. We no
longer keep the seventh day. Christ laid in the tomb during
the whole seventh day. He arose on the first day of
the week. Every day is the Lord's day. He fulfilled it. He's our
rest. We don't sacrifice animals. We don't keep these certain days
anymore. Christ is the fulfillment of
all these things. Listen. Listen. We don't have
a priest on this earth that goes about through ceremonies and
burning incense and smoking flax and sweet odors and all this
sort of thing and Christ is our high priest at the right hand
of God listen to this this hymn by one of the old writers the
true Messiah now appears the types are all withdrawn so flies
the shadows and the stars before a rising sun you know when the
sun comes up in the morning The stars are still there, but you
can't see them. The moon's still there, but you can't see it.
The sun is so bright, so brilliant. And when Christ comes, all the
types and the shadows and the pictures and the patterns and
all these things just fade away. These holy days and special days
and Sabbath days and touch not, taste not, handle not, diets
and so forth, fulfilled in Christ. There's no need for them now.
The sun shines. No more types. No more bleeding
lambs, nor goats, nor bullocks slain. Incense and spices of
costly name, they'd all be burnt in vain. Aaron must lay his robes
away, his miter and his rest, when God himself comes to be
our offering and our priest. We don't need Aaron, we've got
the great high priest. We don't need Aaron's robes,
we've got the robe of his righteousness. When God himself comes to be
our offering and our priest, he took our mortal flesh to show
the wonders of his love, for us he gave his life below, he
prays for us above. You see, God, who at sundry times,
many times, not all the time, there were years of silence and
years of revelation times of revelation hath in these last
days spoken to us by his son who is this son now you watch
these next verses I tell you this is loaded who is this son
by whom he speaks it says he has spoken to us by his son he
said this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased This is
my son, hear ye him. His son, listen to verse 3, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things. God loves the son. And hath given all things into
his hand. That's what I said last week.
Everything God has for this whole sinful world is in the hands
of Christ. Everything that God has for you
or for me is in Christ. That's right. It says, He hath
appointed him the heir of all things. And we're joint heirs
with Christ, but He's the heir. His Son, by whom He made the
world. John wrote, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. And we beheld His glory. His
Son by whom He made the world. Look at that next verse. His
Son who's the brightness of His glory. 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 truth. Do you
know where a man sees the glory of God? Do you know? Can you
quote the scripture? God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. Back yonder when God created
the worlds, the world was in darkness. Darkness was upon the
face of the deep. I mean darkness. Darkness. And God said, let there be light. And the same God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, listen,
to reveal unto us His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. That's where it is. The glory
of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the Son I'm talking
about. His Son who's the brightness
of His glory. His Son, listen, who is the exact
image of His person. The disciple said, well show
us the Father. Show us the Father. We'll be
satisfied. Show us the Father. Ah, he said,
have I been so long time with you? And you don't know me? Philip,
he that hath seen me, hath seen my Father. I am the Father of
one. His name is called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. That's right, he's the exact
expressed image of God's person, Jesus Christ. And He's spoken
to us by His Son. Listen, His Son who upholds all
things by the word of His power. I hear preachers who sound like
Jesus Christ is some little feminine, weak sister, some little failure,
some little fella that can't get the job done. Listen to me. Jesus Christ owns everything. He has all authority and power
over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as the father had given him he said to his disciples
all authority in heaven and earth is given to me now you go preach
the gospel our lord is the king of kings and lord of lords and
the sword of his word goes out of his mouth and he has on his
vesture king of kings and lord of lords and he has on his side
the keys of hell and death he's the conquering king he upholds
everything by the word of his power Jesus Christ he said don't
wait for me that's when he was going to Calvary bearing that
awful cross and the women were weeping and lamenting and he
turned and said don't weep for me weep for yourselves and for
your children that's where the tears need to be shed not over
the remedy over the disease not over the cure over the cause
not over the king over those who will feel his wrath all authority
when he had listened by himself By himself, purged our sins. Who purged our sins? He did.
How did he do it? By himself. Alone, without any
help from you or me or anybody else. By himself. And by himself,
by the sacrifice of himself, he put away sin. By himself,
purged them. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins. In Christ there is no sin. The moment a person believes
totally, completely on Christ, looks to Him, receives Him, rests
in Him, trusts Him, that moment his sins are all, without exception,
put away. He stands before God as if he
had never, never sinned. Actually, he's better off than
if he had sinned, not sinned. Because if he had not sinned,
he sooner or later would. But now he has a righteousness
which he cannot lose, which cannot be forfeited, which cannot be
taken away. It's Christ's righteousness.
You can't lose what's not yours. It's His. Not mine. It's His righteousness. His faithfulness. His blood. His holiness. His intercession. His salvation. That's what it is. It's His.
He gave it to us. You see that? By himself he purged
our sins, and he sat down. Where is he? He sat down at the
right hand of the majesty on high. Oh my soul! And God said, let all the angels
of God worship him. And God has given him a name
above every name, that is the name of Jesus, every knee will
bow. and evertongh confess that he's
Lord to the glory of God the Father now I want you to look
at verse 4 and here's the key to this book of Hebrews I'm going
to just hand you the key I just got a few more minutes but I'm
going to hand you a key that you can go through here and unlock
the treasures of this book it says here in verse 4 this is
the key look at it this Son, this Christ, this Redeemer being
so much better than the angels he hath a more excellent name
than they to which of the angels said God at any time thou art
my son this day have I forgotten thee no to the son he's more
excellent and better than all the angels of God you know we
read in the scriptures about the angels of God and we're in
awe and we're in fear in regard to these angels. If an angel
walked in, you would be in awe and in fear, wouldn't you? Most
people would. In fact, John on the Isle of Patmos said, when
the angel spoke to him, he said, I fell down at his feet to worship
him. And the angel said, see that
you do it not. I am a fellow servant. Worship
God. And that's what this is saying.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is better than all the angels, and all
the heavenly hosts, and all the seraphims, and all the cherubims. You know a lot of people say,
oh if I could just see a vision, if I could just have a dream,
if I could just see an angel. Let me tell you something, Christ
is better. He has, that's right, being made
so much better than the angels. Now what's this? Hebrews 7. It
says, now the law of Moses made nothing perfect. Made nothing
perfect. You know, all those sacrifices
never put away sin. They were just types. That's
right. That blood, all the blood on
Jewish altars slain, cannot take away one spot, one sin, or one
stain. They were pictures of the Lamb
of God. They were types of the Lamb of
God. And nothing was ever perfected
under the law. But listen, the bringing in of
a better hope did. Because Jesus Christ is the surety
of a better covenant. Oh, we have an altar. It's Christ. We have a high priest. It's Christ. We have a sin offering. It's
Christ. We have an atonement. It's Christ. And it's the better hope, and
a better covenant, and better promises in our Lord Jesus Christ. Something better! You go back
to that old tabernacle in the wilderness, and there's Aaron
with his mitre, and with his hat, and with his breastplate,
and with his white linen, and all of these robes. and the people
are in awe as he takes the blood of the animal and goes there
into the holy of holies and sprinkles it on the mercy seat and the
Shekinah glory of God overshadows the mercy seat and in a few moments
Aaron comes out and the cheer goes up and the people the atonement
has been accepted one more year but wait a minute our high priest
there were many of those priests he's one they lived and died
he lives forever They were men. He's the God man. They offered
the blood of an animal. He offered his own blood. They
ministered in a tabernacle made with hands. He ministers in heaven.
Our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, by one offering,
by one sacrifice, brought in a better hope, a better covenant
with better promises. That's what that says. Christ
is the mediator of a better covenant which is established on better
promises what did God promise Israel the nation Israel you
can go back to the Old Testament now think a moment what did he
promise Canaan a land flowing with milk and honey peace with
their neighbors prosperity a vineyard and plenty of olive trees all
of these are material things If Israel obeyed God, did what
he said to do, he blessed them materially, he blessed them physically,
he blessed them with a long life, he blessed them with peace, and
he blessed them with a good nation and a good land. But when they
sinned, they lost it all, went into captivity. But we have in
Christ better promises. Our Lord promises us eternal
life, forgiveness of sin, joy, glory forever. You see that? Better than the angels. a better
hope, a better covenant, a better promise, and a better sacrifice. Oh, I'll tell you, we have a
better, a priest that's better than the angels, we have a covenant
that's better than the covenant with Israel, upon better promises,
a better hope, and a better sacrifice, and then it says this, now watch
Hebrews 9. Let me show you this as I close. Our great high priest
made three appearances for us. Three special appearances. First of all, in Hebrews 9 verse
24, it says that Christ is entered, not the holy place made with
hands, but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of
God for us. As our surety, as our high priest,
as our mediator, he appears. in the presence of God. He's
our forerunner. We're in Him. We're seated with
Christ at the right hand of God. He appears there for us. He's
our representative. We have an advocate. We have
a high priest with God. Now look at verse 26. Once in
the end of the world hath He appeared on this earth to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Our Lord came down here
into this world made of a woman took on himself flesh and blood
and bones made in the likeness of sinful flesh walked this earth
obeyed the law took our sin went to the cross paid this debt was
buried rose again he appeared and by one offering he perfected
forever them that are sanctified put away our sin now watch this
the last appearance so Christ was once offered verse 28 to
bear the sin of many And unto them that look for him will he
appear again the second time without sin unto salvation. Oh,
something better. God spoke to the prophet within
these days by his son of something better.