Let's turn again in our Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 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. Being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. For unto which of the angels
said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, let all the
angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he saith,
who maketh his angels' spirits and his ministers a flame of
fire. But unto the Son, he saith, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands. They shall
perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth
the garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs
of salvation? Last week, we looked at the truth
that is stated in verse one and the first part of verse two that
tells us that God hath spoken. God hath spoken in times past
in the prophets, but now God hath spoken in His Son. And this clearly contrasts these
two eras, distinguishes these two eras. The time in which God
spoke in the prophets and the time now in which God spoke in
His Son. And I pointed this out, that
Christ was the message of the prophets. That's what the Apostle
Peter tells us, and that message he preached in the house of Cornelius,
he said to him, that is to Christ, give all the prophets witness. Their message of Christ was delivered
out as it were in parts. First it was the seed of the
woman, then it was the seed of Abraham, then it was the tribe
of Judah, then it was the son of David, then it was the child
born, the son given, the son born of a virgin, the place of
his birth, born in Bethlehem. the prophets giving out in part
the message. But when we read here, God hath
in these last days spoken in His Son, it's not like He spoke
in the prophets in part, but the whole will of God in Him
is revealed. Remember the Apostle Paul said
in 1 Timothy 3, the mystery of godliness, the mystery The mystery
of godliness, what is it? God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. the mystery of godliness. God
has spoken, not in part, but in whole, in His Son. Because
you see, Christ is the message. He was the message of the prophets,
and He is the message from God. God has spoken. Now tonight,
I want to point out to us five truths that the writer declares
about God's Son in whom God has spoken in these last days. We'll
just look at verses 2 and 3. And in these two verses, we have
one of the most glorious, most concise descriptions of the Lord
Jesus Christ found anywhere in the Word of God. First, this
Son in whom God has spoken is he that is appointed heir of
all things. Notice that in verse two. Whom
he hath appointed heir of all things. God is so well pleased
in his son that he has appointed him heir of all things. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse
18, the apostle Paul told us that it is God's will that he,
that is this son in whom God hath spoken, the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, it is God's will that he might have the preeminence
in all things. In all things. That's one reason
that we insist that salvation is of the Lord. It's not a joint
venture between God and man. Salvation is the work of God. He is the one who saves his people
because he is going to receive the preeminence in all things. God's work of salvation is wrought
in such a way that man cannot boast. He just can't do it, not
if He's truly saved by the grace of God. He has nothing to boast
in except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
Paul said, wasn't it? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, He is appointed
heir of all things. There's nothing, nothing that
is not included in the all things to which Christ is appointed
heir. Again, in Colossians 1 and verse
16, Paul declared all things created, all things created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible, that which you can see,
invisible, that which we cannot see with this eye, Whether they
be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, whether that's speaking
of the spirit beings, I assume, all things were created for Him. For Him. All things means the
heavens, the earth, the universe, and all therein. everything,
all things. One writer said, all things is
not limited to the earth. It embraces the universe and
particularly the world to come. All things. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the heir of all things. But as one writer pointed out,
that of all the things that he is heir to, which is everything,
that which means the most to him... What is it? It's you. It's his redeemed people. ...that which means the most
to him. He's heir of all things, but
as Paul said in Ephesians 1, the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. His chief joy. will be to possess
the redeemed and glorified church. When one day the scriptures tell
us he will present his church to himself without spot, wrinkle,
or any such thing, holy and without blemish. All things are his. And we saw that in the Psalm.
That's the reason I pointed that out to us when we read Psalm
16 just a few minutes ago. There's nothing, nothing among
the vast universe that Christ treasures more than the sinners
that he redeemed with his precious blood. The sheep which the Father
gave him, the members of his body, his bride. There's nothing that he esteems
more. To the believers in Corinth,
the Apostle Paul said, all things are yours. You remember, they
were divided up into different cliques and different groups
in that church. Some said they were of Peter,
some of Apollos, some of Paul, and then some, they were so self-righteous,
they said, will we be of Christ? You know. And Paul said, all
things are yours. Whether, he said, whether Apollos,
or whether Paul, rather, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours,
and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. He is heir of all things, and
he has made you and I, those of us who know him tonight, to
be joint heirs with Him. All things are yours, because
all things are His, and we're joint heirs with Him. So that's
the Son in whom God has spoken. He who He has appointed to be
the heir of all things. The second thing we are told
The Son in whom God has spoken is He by whom He made the worlds. That's also in verse two. This
Son in whom God has spoken is He by whom He made the worlds. By whom also He made the worlds. Now, the word translated worlds
is literally ages. There are two Greek words which
are both translated into the English word in the letter of
Hebrews, and as far as that goes into the New Testament. For instance,
in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5, it says, Wherefore, when he
cometh into the world, when Christ cometh into the world, but the
word that's translated world there is the word cosmos. The
word here in the text is the ages. He is the one by whom He
made the ages, or made the world. And by speaking of the world
in the sense of an age, it emphasizes this truth. Because sometimes
people will say, well, matter, matter is eternal. No, matter
isn't eternal. There's only one who is eternal.
And that's God. And everything else He has created. Everything He has created. All
things are created with a purpose. Because that verse in Colossians
1 and verse 16 also tells us that all things were created
by Him or through Him as well as for Him. People say, What's
the purpose? What's the purpose of God's creation? Well, we know the purpose is
His own glory. His own glory. His glory in conforming
the many sons that He has chosen into the image of His Son. The one by whom God has spoken
is He by whom He made the worlds. The Son in whom God has spoken
is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person. We see that there in verse 3.
Now this declares in no uncertain terms the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know people say, well, you're
preaching to the choir. Well, that may be so. But my
friends, this is so important that we always remember this,
that Jesus Christ is God. He's God. Almighty God manifests
in the flesh. One with the Father and one with
the Holy Spirit. Every attribute that is true
of the Father is true of the Son. And He's the one who came
into this world. And He is the brightness of His
glory, the express image of His person. In Genesis 1 and verse
1, we read, In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth, and He did so by His Word. And His Word is His eternal Son. Look at that in John chapter
1. Very familiar passage to all of us, but let's turn here again
to John chapter 1. In the beginning, in the beginning,
whenever God created, in the beginning was the Word. He already was in existence.
He didn't come into existence in the beginning, no. He was
always the eternal Son of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We see that
there's a a person in the Godhead who is known as the Word, who
is the eternal Son of God. There's one God. This is very
important, isn't it? There's one God, and yet the
scriptures reveal, you say, well, I can't understand it. We don't
need to understand it. And how could we understand everything
about God? There's one God, and yet He exists
in a trinity of persons. There's one essence, but there
are three persons in that divine essence. He was with, the Word
was with God. He was with the Father, and the
Word was God. He was one with the Father. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
All things were made by Him. Now, if all things were made
by Him, it's obvious that He wasn't made. He wasn't created. He's the uncreated, eternal Son
of 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 man, and the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. That Word is Christ. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, and He did so by His Word,
and that Word is Christ. This sun, this text tells us
here in Hebrews, this sun is the brightness of His glory. And many believe that the writer
is making a comparison between Christ and that visible glory
that appeared when the tabernacle was set up. And the glory of
God filled the tabernacle. The same thing happened the day
that Solomon dedicated the temple. The glory of the Lord filled
the temple. But the glory of this new covenant
is superior to the glory that was manifested in that tent of
meeting. Christ is the glory of the Father. And John 1, where we just now
read, further down in that chapter, verse 14, it says, the word was
made flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us, and we beheld his glory
as of the only begotten of the Father. Now, when we read here,
who being the brightness of His glory, the shining forth, just
like we would think of the rays of the sun, the shining forth,
or the beams of a lighthouse that shine forth. So, just as
the sun illuminates and warms by its rays, so Christ reveals
in His person, God. The only God that we will ever
see is the Lord Jesus Christ. When the scriptures speak about
seeing God, we will see Him who is God, also is man, the God-man. Our Lord said this, He said,
no man has seen God at any time. No man, no man can see God and
live. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. When I say
no man can see God and live, no man can see God Almighty unless
he reveals himself through the Mediator. And this Mediator is
the Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Do you remember Philip's words?
when, in John chapter 14, he said, Lord, show us the Father.
Show us the Father and it sufficeth us. You show us the Father and
it'll be fine, it'll be plain. And our Lord mildly rebuked him,
didn't he? Philip, have I been so long time
with you and you have not seen me? You have not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. That's the way that we see God.
He said, I am in the Father and the Father in me. He's the Son in whom God has
spoken is the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person. Years ago, I remember reading
an illustration of this, and it was the king's seal. The way the kings would seal
a letter or any important document, they would take their ring and
they would press it down into the wax. And the wax, there was
an exact, perfect image of the king's seal that was on his ring. And that's Christ. He is the
express image of the Father. To see Him is to see God. To know Him is to know God. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. He's the only way to the Father.
He's the way, the truth, and the life. And no man cometh unto
the Father but by Him. The Son in whom God has spoken,
notice this, He upholds all things by the word of His power. Now, I don't know if you noticed
this, but in this passage, in these two verses, we see this,
we see that Christ in the past was the creator of all things.
And then we see Christ in the future, He's the heir of all
things. But Christ in the present, He
is the upholder of all things by the word of His power. There used to be, of course,
many of you will remember it, He has the whole world in His
hands. He does. He has the whole world,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. He has the whole world in His
hand. By Him, the Apostle tells us,
all things consist. It is by Him, by the word of
His command, that all things consist and stay together. Apart
from His power, everything would come apart. It would come apart. Now, you know, the Scriptures
usually attribute providence to the Father. For instance,
in Matthew, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Are not two sparrows sold
for a farthing? And one of them, one small bird,
shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But you
see, this is the same as it is in creation, Him upholding all
things by the word of His power. The Father has created all things
through the Son. And the Father upholds and rules
in all providence through His Son. In Colossians 1, verse 17,
in Him all things consist. All things hold together. The
atoms would come apart. if it were not for Christ and
His power." Notice how He upholds all things by the word of His
power. In other words, by the word of
His command. You know, there's a verse, I
believe it's in Ecclesiastes, which tells us, the word of a
king hath power. And here we have the king of
kings. And He upholds all things by
the word of His power. He does according to his will.
Remember Nebuchadnezzar, after God had sent him to school, the
school of hard knocks, someone said. It certainly was. And his
reason returned to him. He confessed, he worketh among
the, his will rather, according to his will in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say, what doest thou? Man has no right to question
God and his actions and his providential ruling of all things. You know,
people talk about the laws of nature, and no doubt there are
laws of nature. There's a law of gravity. drop
this right now, it'd fall down, wouldn't it? But whose laws are
those? They're Christ's laws. They're
His laws. And just like it's against the
law of nature for iron to swim, when that man lost his axe head,
remember, They went out to cut down trees to build a larger
house, and he borrowed an axe and carried it out there, and
he lost it. It flew off the handle and it fell into the river. And
he went to Elisha. Elisha was there with him, and
Elisha took a stick and put it in there where that axe head
had gone down, and the axe head swam up. Whose law was that? It's God's. It's His law. These
are His laws. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. And the last thing, the fifth
thing, the Son in whom God has spoken is He who by Himself purged
our sins and sat down on the right hand of God. You know, this is what God purposed
and this is what God accomplished in the death of his son. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered.
He bled, he died, but it was not without purpose. It was purposed
from before the foundation of the world. The scripture speaks
of him as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, from
the beginning of the world. In God's purpose, in God's decree,
And he came into this world, and he suffered and died, and
he accomplished. He accomplished everything that
he intended to accomplish, everything that the Father ordained. I heard a man, he's a pastor
of one of the largest Baptist churches here in Houston. I won't
call his name. I could. But I heard him one
day preaching, and he said that while those men were gambling
at the feet of the cross for the garments of the Lord Jesus,
that Christ on the cross was gambling for the souls of men. What blasphemy. What a lie from
Satan, my friends. The Lord Jesus Christ, He purged
us from our sins. He washed us from our sins. He
did exactly by His death what He came into this world to do.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. The shedding of His precious
blood removed the stain of sin from His people, so that those
of us here tonight who know Him, before God we stand before Him
in absolute purity. the purity of his son. He opened up a fountain, and
that fountain is for iniquity and for sin. And sinners plunged
in that fountain, we lose all our guilty stain. Now the Hebrews
to whom the apostle wrote this letter, they were believers,
but they were by nationality Hebrews. And they were being
tempted, no doubt, to turn back because of persecution that they
were experiencing. And when they read this letter,
and they read that this one sat down on the right hand of God,
it would remind them that in that old covenant, which had
a priest, but he never sat down. When he went into the tabernacle
on the great day of atonement, or any other day, He never sat
down. There was no chair in that place.
Why? Because his work was never finished. Those animal sacrifices pictured
the coming one, the coming work of Jesus Christ. It could never
take away sin, the blood of those animals, but his precious blood
has purged us from our sin. who loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests
unto God. That's what the scripture says.
He's set down, and the fact that he is set down on the right hand
of God, he's at the highest place of honor, place of acceptance,
place of power. And isn't it wonderful, beloved,
tonight to know that as He is seated there in the heavenlies,
that we too are there in Him. That's what Ephesians 2 and verse
6. Look over here and I'll close. But in Ephesians 2 and verse
6. Well, let me just begin in verse
1 and read down to it. Ephesians 2 and verse 1. And
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Have you been quickened? Have
you been made alive in Christ? Do you have an interest in the
things of God? Are you still like a dead fish
just being carried down by the current? Dead, that's the way
we are when we come into this world, dead, spiritually dead. Thank God at the appointed time,
he quickens us, quickens his people. In time past, you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past and the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, By grace
you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We tonight were
crucified with Christ, we were raised with Christ, we ascended,
and we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. The union that exists
between Christ, the head, and those of us who are members of
his body. I want to sing a hymn. Well,
I want us to sing a hymn. Let me rephrase it. I'm going to choose this
one out, Bill. I think you'll be comfortable
reading it. The Cleansing Wave. The Cleansing
Wave. Let's sing that hymn tonight.
One of you find that number for us, and we'll stand and sing
that.