If you will, turn with me in
your Bibles to the letter of Hebrews. Last Sunday morning we looked
at our Lord's promise to his disciples that is given in John
chapter 14 and verse 3. His promise is, I will come again
and receive you to myself. that where I am, there you may
be also. Since our Lord promised to come
again for us and to receive us, that we might be where He is,
I asked this question and answered it, where is Christ? His promise
is to come and receive us, that we might be where He is, where
is He? And of course the answer is,
He is on the right hand of God. And I made this statement. I
said that we are told this four times in the letter of Hebrews.
But this past week I looked a little closer and I have found five
references to this truth. And that's what I would like
for us to look at tonight. All five of these references
in Hebrews that speak to us of the fact that Jesus Christ God's
dear Son is on the right hand of the majesty on high. The first
one is in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3. And we see in this verse,
the Son of God is made flesh. Who, and this refers back to
the Son in verse 2, that God hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son. 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. And we are told in this verse
four truths about him before we read that he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. First of all, we read that
he is the brightness of his glory. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the brightness of the Father's
glory. Some have translated this, the
ray, R-A-Y, the ray of his glory. The idea is taken from the sun
the sun in our universe, and its ray. They both are of the
same nature, and one is not before the other, but the sun and the
ray are distinct. So the Father and the Son are
of the same nature, one is not before the other, they are both
eternal, They are of the same essence, and they cannot be divided
as to their nature, but they are distinct persons. That is,
the Father and the Son. John tells us, No man hath seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man, He has declared God. To see Him is to see God. He is the revelation of God. So that's the first thing we
read in this verse, that He is the brightness, He is the brightness
of His glory. Second, He is the express image
of His person. The word that is here translated
express is only used this one time in all of the scripture,
in all of the New Testament. And it literally means an engraving
tool. The express image, an engraving
tool. We get our English word character
from this word. And the idea is that as a character
or image is stamped or engraved upon coins or wax especially,
we think of the king who had his ring and when a document
was sealed, the wax was put on the document and then he pressed
his ring down on it, sealing it to make it authentic. But the image in the wax is the
express image of his reign. The exact image of his reign. And in Colossians, the Apostle
Paul tells us who is the image of the invisible God. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the image of the invisible God. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son hath declared
him. And then third, we read, he upholds
all things by the word of his power. He upholds all things
by the word of his power. I want you to look back into
the book of Genesis with the first chapter. We know from this
account of creation that God created all things, and that
is the eternal Son of God. Remember in John chapter 1, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and without Him was not anything made that was made. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. All things
he made, and all things he made by the word of his power. In other words, he spoke and
it was made, it was created. Here in Genesis chapter 1, I
want you to just go with me through this chapter. Let's read, beginning
with verse 1. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the water, and God said. He made all things by the word
of His power, and God said, Like be, and like was. He spoke and light was created. Look in verse 6, And God said,
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let
it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament,
and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. God
spoke, God said, God made. Verse 9, And God said, Let the
waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and
let the dry land appear. And it was so. Verse 11, And
God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding
seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed
is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. Verse 14, and
God said, do you see what the writer is telling us? That He
made all things by the Word of His power. The Word, the eternal
Son of God is the Word of God. He created all things by His
Son. And God said, Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night,
and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and
years. God spoke, and things came into
being. Verse 20, And God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
life and fowl. that may fly above the earth
in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales
and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought
forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after
his kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the waters in the sea, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning
were the fifth day. And God said, on the sixth day,
God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after
his kind. I'm so thankful tonight that
God has given us an account. We know all that we need to know
about the creation of the world. And by faith we understand. This
is what the writer of Hebrews tells us. But our text tells
us that He upholds all things. We have looked to see that He
has created all things by the word of His power. But our text
tells us tonight that He upholds all things by the word of His
power. Every living thing is sustained
in its being by the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I and every other
person on the face of God's earth, in Him we live, we move, we have
our being. He Himself giveth life to all
things. Life and breath to all things. Colossians 1 17, He is before
all things and by Him all things consist. Apart from the word
of His power, all of creation would just disintegrate. He's upholding you tonight. He's upholding me. And you will
not have the power to get up out of your place and go through
that door or through that other door unless He gives it to you. And I will not have the power
to leave this place and go to our homes except God the Lord
Jesus Christ. He upholds all things by the
word of his power. In him we live, we move, we have
our being. But then the fourth thing that
we see Not only is He the brightness of God's glory, the express image
of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power,
but wonder of wonders, He by Himself purged our sins. Can you? This great God that we've just
spoken about, the God of creation, the God of providence, that upholds
all things by the word of His power, that He loved His people
so much that He came into this world as a man. And He by Himself
alone, by the sacrifice of Himself, He made atonement for the sins
of His people. This is His work. His work that
none but He could do, all the angels in heaven and all mankind
together, could not have removed one sin. Yet He, by Himself,
purged our sins. That word purged means to wash,
doesn't it? We sing the hymn sometimes, What
Can Wash Away My Sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. God opened up a fountain for
sin and for uncleanness and that fountain is filled with Emmanuel's
blood. He by himself purged our sins
by his one sacrifice, by his one offering. This was a mighty
work. It was a great work. In Psalm
89 and verse 19, God said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. It was only after this mighty
work was done that is purging us from our sins that we read,
he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Now,
the right hand, of course, we know God doesn't have hands.
He's a spirit. But it is a place. The right
hand is a place and speaks to us of His power. All power is
given unto me, both in heaven and in earth. And we know when
He spoke that, He's speaking as the God-man. As God, He's
always had all power. He created all things. But as
the God-man, who was made flesh and came into this world and
purged our sins by His death, by His sacrifice. Upon His obedience,
He is ascended unto the Father and sat down in that highest
place, King of kings and Lord of lords. Place of power, place
of authority, place of honor. The Lamb upon His throne. Now, the second place, I said
five times here in the letter of Hebrews we see that Jesus
Christ is set down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
That's the first place. And that's a message just in
itself, isn't it? If we just look at those five
things. Alright, here's the second place. Still in chapter 1, verse
13, the Son, the Son is distinguished. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, set on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. The word angel we know means
messenger. We have seven letters in Revelation
chapter 2 and chapter 3 to the seven churches of Asia and each
one is directed to the pastor, to the messenger, to the angel.
of the church at Pergamos, at Sardis, at Philadelphia, and
Laodicea, and so on. The angel, the messenger. Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the messenger, the angel of the
covenant. In Malachi, chapter 3 and verse
1, God said, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me. That's John the Baptist, my messenger. He came before the Lord to make
the way straight, to fill in the valleys, and to lower the
mountains. Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom
you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger,
that is the angel, of the covenant, whom you delight in. Behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, he came suddenly, unexpectedly to his temple. No one was looking
for him. No one was looking for him. The
angel, the messenger of this everlasting covenant. The Lord
Jesus Christ, we know, he appeared many times in the Old Testament.
in his pre-incarnate state, that is before he actually joined
himself to that body that was prepared him from the Virgin
Mary. He appeared many times through
the Old Testament and he appeared quite often as the angel of the
Lord, the messenger of the Lord. When Moses turned aside to see
that bush that burned but was not consumed, remember he asked
the Lord's name whom shall I say sent me and God told him I am
Jehovah Yahweh and we're told that was the angel
of the Lord it was Christ in that bush but here's the point
God never said to any angel sit thou at my right hand Angels,
created beings, have a lot of power, power given to them. One angel, we know, destroyed
185,000 men one night. But as great and mighty and as
glorious as those angels of God are, principalities and powers,
God never said to one of them, Set thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. But he did say it to his son. He did say it to this messenger,
this angel. Now the third place in Hebrews
chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8 and verses
1 and 2, the son is our high priest. Now, of the things which
we have spoken, this is the psalm. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens. There it is. We have such a high
priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. In the tabernacle,
God gave Moses the instructions to that tabernacle when they
were in the wilderness, the tent of meeting. And it is so full
of pictures and types and shadows of Christ and his work. Again, we know that all of the
scripture is given to reveal Christ. And we see him in that
tabernacle. But there were two parts of the
tabernacle. In the first part, and it was
a very small tent, that's what it was, a tent. Really it was
a very small tent. But there were two parts in it.
And in the first part, all of the priests, all of Aaron's sons
were priests. Only one son was a high priest.
Aaron was the first high priest, and then Eliezer and so forth.
But into the first part of the temple, the tabernacle, the priests
went every day. The lamps had to be trimmed,
showbread had to be changed every week. There was work to be done
in that first part every day of the year. But remember into
that second part, Only once a year the high priest, the great high
priest, no I take that back, not the great high priest, the
high priest, there's only one great high priest, the high priest,
he went in behind that veil. Now this word here, which is
translated sanctuary in this verse, a minister of the sanctuary,
that is Christ, the one who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary. If you look in the next chapter,
chapter 9 and verse 3, we see that this same word is here translated
the holiest of all. Now that was that That inner
part of the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept
and the mercy seat. But the same word is here translated
the holiest. This is where Christ today is
in the holiest. Minister in the holiest, our
high priest is. In chapter 9 verse 3 it says,
and after the second veil, that is after that veil that divided
the two compartments, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of
all. That's where Christ is. That mercy seat, remember the
cherubim, was the throne. It was the throne of God. The
manifested presence of God with Israel was that Shekinah that
was above the mercy seat between the cherubim. The cherubim were
part of the mercy seat. But it was in that area that
the high priest went once a year, not without blood. But that's
where our high priest is today. That's where Christ is today
in the holiest of all. He sat down. on the right hand
of the majesty on high. Christ our high priest is set
on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens,
and the holiest of all. And there he ministers. He ministers to us. In his office
as priest, he intercedes for us. And in his office as king,
he protects, defends, and he governs us. Now here's the fourth
place, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12. The Son is our all-sufficient
sacrifice. Hebrews 10 and verse 12. But
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. Christ sacrificed himself
once for the sins of his people. God's law demanded satisfaction. Now, to every person here tonight,
every person, I want you to realize that God's law demands satisfaction
from you. You've broken it, I've broken
it, we've all broken it. God's law demands satisfaction. Do not trust in Christ as your
Lord and Savior. If you do not come to know Him
as your Savior, you will go out into eternity and God's law demands
of you satisfaction. And eternity in hell you will
never be able to satisfy God's law, God's justice. You just
can't do that. No finite person can satisfy
infinite justice. Hell is eternal just as heaven
is eternal. God's law demanded satisfaction
before all of us who have violated it could be released. There had
to be a ransom paid. Sometimes people say, why do
you folks talk about the blood? Why do you sing about the blood
so much? Because the blood, God said,
I have given thee the blood to make an atonement. The ransom
had to be paid to secure our release. And Christ spoke of
His death, not as an example, but as a ransom. Scripture, he said, for the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. Now if a ransom doesn't ransom,
it's not a ransom. Isn't that so? If it doesn't
ransom, it's not a ransom. He gave himself a ransom for
many. And everyone for whom he gave
himself, he paid for our sins, our sin debt, he ransomed us. And God's justice is not going
to demand payment twice. First at our surety's hand, and
then again at ours. We believe in substitution, don't
we? We know that's the heart of the
gospel. Substitution. Christ in the place
of the guilty. The innocent dying in the place
of the guilty. He taking our sins, your sins,
if you trust in Him. He took your sins and made them
His sins. And He became responsible for
them. And He answered for them. Solomon,
in the book of Proverbs, warns his son. You know, so much of
Proverbs is given in a father instructing his son. But he warns
him about becoming surety for a stranger. And he tells his
son that if you become surety for a stranger, you will smart
for it. In other words, you don't know
that person, and you become a surety for him, and then he just leaves
you holding the bag. You've got to pay it. Christ
knew. When He became our surety, He
knew what we were. And yet He still became our surety. The old writers used to speak
of Him as an undertaker. I don't know, you folks probably
recognize what that means, but an undertaker, when a person
dies, the body is taken to the undertaker. The undertaker does
something for that body that that body cannot do for itself. Washes it, dresses it, embalms
it, all of that. Whatever. Why? Because the body is lifeless. Christ as our surety, as our
undertaker. He took us as helpless, hopeless,
dead in trespasses and sins and said, I'll be the surety. I'll
be the surety. Put that on my account. I'll
pay. I'll satisfy. Now here's the last place, Hebrews
chapter 12. The Son is our joyful Savior. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
2, the scripture says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. I say our joyful Savior, for
we read here that He endured the cross, despising the shame. Oh, what shame He took upon Himself. You say those men spitting on
Him? Yes, that was part of the shame.
But my friends, when He took our sin, when He took our sin,
that thing which God hates, despising the shame for the joy
that was set before him he endured the cross what was the joy that
was set before him well let me just say I think
it's at least twofold the joy that he has now as he sits on
the right hand of the throne of God the majesty of God I believe
it's twofold. First, his joy in perfectly finishing
the work his father gave him to do. It gives us joy, you and
I. It gives us joy when we please
someone that we love, someone that we care for and love and
they asked us to do something and we're able to do it and do
a good job at it. It gives us joy. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He was given a work to do. Remember when He was speaking
to that woman in Samaria, the woman at the well. And His disciples
went off to buy some food for them to eat. And when they came
back, they wondered that He was talking to this woman of Samaria. And they asked Him, Eat, Master. They wanted Him to eat. They
knew He was weary from His journey, the Scripture said. He told them,
I have meat to eat that you know not of. Did someone bring him some food? Someone else go to the store
while we were gone? I have meat to eat that you know
not of. And then he explained to them,
my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish
His work. I believe that his joy is now
sitting at the father's right hand knowing that he has perfectly
finished the work that his father gave him to do. I believe it
gives him joy, joy in knowing that he pleased his father whom
he loves. And second, His joy in seeing
the travail of his soul and the salvation of his elect. If you might rescue someone,
I noticed on the news yesterday evening of a woman in a car over
in Louisiana in Baton Rouge. You may have seen it. And her
car was going under. These three men came up in a
boat. And she couldn't get out. And finally one man, he just
jumped in. and got in front of her car and somehow they got
the top open or the window open and he got her out of there.
The first thing she said when she got some air is, my dog's
in there. She was concerned about her dog.
Oh, people love their animals, don't we? But he rescued her
dog too. Now I think, as I said, I believe
there were three men in that boat, a fishing boat, All of
them, I'm sure, were joyful, but that man that got in that
water and got her out, don't you know that his heart was joyful? Saving someone from drowning.
Saving someone from a burning building. A medical doctor who,
I've always thought, if you were to be a doctor, you'd want to
be one that actually helped people, you know? I mean, really helped
them. Not just made them look better,
but helped them. But can you imagine saving someone's
life? They're brought into the ER and,
you know, they're not going to make it. And then some heroic
measures. What joy that must be. But can
you imagine the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ each time one of
his sheep is found and brought home? the joy that he experiences. He sees of the travail of his
soul and he's satisfied. In that parable that he told
in Luke chapter 15, you remember he said there's joy in the presence. He didn't say that angels are
joyful, though I'm sure they are. But he said there's joy
in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. What joy he must have to see
his sheep that are brought into the fold and saved from everlasting
hell. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to all of us here tonight. We sang that hymn just a few
minutes ago. Ring the bells of heaven. There
is joy today. What joy there must be in heaven.
And maybe right now, maybe there's someone here. Someone here. And you're looking to Christ
for the first time. You're committing yourself unto
Him. By His grace, you see Him as your only Savior. Oh, what
joy there must be among the angels even now. I pray the Lord bless
his word. Let's sing a few verses, David.