Hebrews chapter 1. A very familiar portion of Scripture,
and I don't think I'm going to say anything you haven't already
heard a hundred times before. But these things bear repeating. Verses 1 through 3. God, who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times 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." I could stop right there, couldn't I? The first
three verses of this epistle to the Hebrews is the divine
preamble to the whole epistle. Paul will spend the next thirteen
chapters addressing the character here described in these first
three verses, and do so in contrast to all the elements of the old
covenant and its attendant worship. He will go on to show to the
Hebrew believer, to us who are the true Israel, that concerning
all things that are important and necessary in the matter of
knowing and worshiping God are met only in this person. All of it. One man said the sum
of this book can be expressed in three words. Christ is better. His betterness, His excellency,
resides in the fact that He is the complete fulfillment of all
that the Hebrew embraced in the Old Covenant, the complete fulfillment
of it. He is better because He has accomplished
all things that Old Covenant, by design, could never accomplish. He is better because He is unique. There has never been anyone like
Him who ever walked. on the face of the earth. He is singular. He is the One. He is the One, the Way, the Truth,
and the Life. He is better because He, unlike
any other individual who walked the earth, is effectual. He is effectual. And He is effectual
because of who He is. He is the One, effectual, High
Priest. He is the one and only effectual
sacrifice. He has actually put away our
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He has obtained eternal redemption
for all for whom He died. He has perfected forever those
whom God had sanctified. He's blotted out the memory of
their sin in the mind of God. He's satisfied the demands of
justice, law, and wrath. He's finished the work that he
was anointed and appointed to do. And having finished it, he
is sat down in resplendent glory of the repose afforded only to
pure and unqualified victory. He sat at the right hand of the
majesty on high. The right hand. The hand of power. The hand of entitlement. The
hand of salvation. He is the only fulfillment of
the law. How did he fulfill the law? Did
he fulfill the law by walking perfectly before God? No, because
the law is not for the righteous man. How did he fulfill the law? He died under its penalty. That's how you fulfill the law.
Why? Because laws don't exist where
transgression doesn't exist. Laws are made for one thing,
not to keep, not to make somebody better. Laws are made because
an infraction has occurred, and therefore something must be made
in order to assign blame, assign penalty, and carry out a sentence. That's why our Lord exists. How did Christ fulfill the law?
When did Christ fulfill the law? When he said, unto thy hands I commend my spirit,
he died. Our Lord Jesus Christ died, and
in that moment The law was utterly and completely satisfied for
all for whom he died. He is the only fulfillment of
the law. He is the one person who perfectly did God's will. He is the only mediator, the
designated daysman between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He's the one true and living
God, and at the same time, He's the one true and living man.
He is perfect humanity. He is what human beings ought
to be. When you think of His humanity,
don't start with you. Start with Him. Starting with
you will bring Him down in your mind. Starting with Him will
show you what you are in relation to perfection, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You want to know what humanity
is? Look to Christ. You know what it is to be a human
being? Do everything you do for someone
else. That's what humanity is. How do I know? The true human
being did that. The true human being. We are
mutants. We are not true human beings. He is worthy of an eternity
of consideration, meditation, glorification, and worship. And this glorious passage begins,
as all things must begin, with the beginner. He who was in the
beginning and was the beginning. This amazing book, the Bible,
commences with the words, In the beginning, God. He is the
first. and the first cause of all things."
He's the creator, the sustainer and consummator of all that is. And he inspires Paul. You say,
well, did Paul write the book of Hebrews? I don't know. But
it's easier to say Paul than the writer of Hebrews. It only
has one syllable as opposed to many others. So I'll say Paul
wrote the book of Hebrews. And God inspires Paul to pen
this name, God. God. It's a transliteration of
an English word. Good. God. That's how it all begins. And
even this single declaration is a reference to Christ. Because
this is about God speaking, God revealing Himself, God saying
words. And of Christ it is said in John
that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. No man has seen God at any time.
The Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him. What did God have to say? If
you listen to preachers today in this world of feckless religion,
you'll find them saying that God has a lot to say about a
lot of things. They seem to be able to get an
opinion from God about everything. Will God have political things
to say? Will God have some social instruction
for people? Will he declare a list of do's
and don'ts by which his creatures can obtain a merit and a righteousness
before him? Will his words become a volume
of mottos and mantras to repeat and rehearse so that one can
transcend the world in a kind of seraphic trance? No. And this is the wonder of it
all. God, who sees all, who knows all, who controls everything,
God, who is the repository of all that can be known, has but
one thing to say. He has but one thing to say,
one subject to inspire, one thought by whom he engages the minds
of his elect. And though in times past he spoke
to the fathers by the prophets in various ways, he gave them
all but one thing to say to his people. All the prophets said
the same thing. His word is about the Word, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said unto Moses, Tell my people. And I said, Let there be light
before I created the sun. He said, tell my people about
the beast slain to cover Adam's nakedness. Tell them about the
record of the ram provided, caught in the thicket, who substituted
for Isaac. Tell them about the tabernacle
and the sacrifice and the high priest of the day of atonement.
Tell them of the Passover lamb whose blood so filled the vision
of God that he forgot the sins of his people. Tell them of the
brazen altar, and the brass laver, and the altar of incense, and
the table of showbread, the ark of the covenant, and the mercy
seat where I will commune with my people. Tell them of the cloud
by day and the fiery pillar by night, the manna and the water
from the rock. Tell them of the serpent raised
upon a pole. Tell them that only Joshua can
lead them into the promised land." Moses, you tell them that in
the Judges. Tell them of one who appeared
and ascended in a flame of fire before Samson's mom and dad,
whose name was Wonderful and Secret. Ruth, tell them about
the kinsman Redeemer. Samuel, tell them about him who
kills and makes alive, who takes the beggar from the dunghill
and sets him among princes. Tell them of David's throne and
who will inherit it. Ezra, Nehemiah, tell of the temple
which will be destroyed and raised up in three days. Esther, tell
of how you approach the King by invitation only and by touching
the scepter which is his righteousness. Job, tell of the Redeemer that
you will see with your own eyes and the ransom that was paid
that delivered you from out of the pit. David, write poetry
about the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
about him who separates the sins of his people as far as the east
is from the west, who comes in the volume of the book to do
the will of God. Tell them of one who is a lamp
unto their feet and a light unto their path. Solomon, write of
him who is the wisdom of God and the only thing in the earth
that is not vanity. Isaiah, write of the child born
and the son given, the successful, suffering substitute, the travailer
who never miscarried, never lost a child, the justifier of many
who bear their iniquities. Jeremiah, write of Him who is
our righteousness and of the new covenant fulfilled by Him
so that God will remember the sins of His people no more. Write of the balm in Gilead and
the physician there. Lament. as one who says, ìIs
it nothing to you, ye who pass by?î Ezekiel, right of the beast
with four faces. Daniel, right of the fourth person
in the fiery furnace who was likened to the son of man, and
of the one before whom your comeliness melted into corruption. Right
of the Messiah who will finish the transgression, make an end
of sins. and bring in everlasting righteousness. Hosea, write of the husband who
loved his wife even though she was a whore. Joel, write of him
who is to come whose name is salvation, who saves all who
call upon his name. Amos, write about the Lord of
hosts whom all men must prepare to meet. Obadiah, tell of Him
who is the Savior come from Mount Zion to whom the kingdoms of
the world belong. Jonah, tell them that salvation
is of the Lord. Micah, tell them of Him who was
born in Bethlehem, the ruler whose goings forth have been
from everlasting. Nahum, write of Him who is good
and a stronghold in the time of trouble. Habakkuk, write of
the Holy One who comes with lightning flashing from his hands, and
that is the hiding of his power. Zephaniah, tell of him who is
of the pure language of God, who is mighty, who has taken
away thy judgments, who has fed you and made you to lie down
and rest and removed all fear from you. Haggai, write of him
who is the desire of all nations. Zechariah, tell of the cornerstone
and the head of the corner established with shoutings of grace, grace
unto it. The king of Zion, the one who
was pierced, the branch who will build the temple, who is both
king and priest. Malachi, tell of the messenger
of the covenant who will suddenly appear in his temple, who will
sit as a refiner and a purifier. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, and all the prophets spoke of Christ. All of them. The scriptures are about Jesus
Christ. God no longer speaks to the fathers
by the prophets, but the message has not altered one whit. God
speaks by his Son, or in Son. That's the pure language that
God will turn his people to in Zephaniah 3. The pure language
of God. What does God have to say to
you? Christ. That's what God has to say to
you. The remainder of this passage
is very interesting not only for what is spoken, but because
of the manner in which it is constructed. Let's read this
passage again. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom he also made the worlds, who, being the brightness
of his glory, and the expressed 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." Wonderfully constructed, this
sentence is. The subject of the passage is
the thing accomplished. and is centered in the accomplishment
that Christ procured on the cross, stated with these words, when
he by himself had purged our sins. That is the message here. When, combined with the past
tense of had, declares it both intent and past accomplishment. There is no future event discussed
in this passage, but rather a thing intended by God and then accomplished
by Him. And all that proceeds and follows
the wind is set as proof of the absolute accomplishment of that
which was intended. Our Lord speaks here of the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the hinge pin of all time and eternity,
the nail in a sure place. The very first thing that God
says about His Son, is that he is the sovereign owner of everything
and everyone. He is the sole proprietor of
the universe. You and I, as well as Osama bin
Laden, are the property of Almighty
God. We are his creation. We belong to Him. God has made His Son to have
authority over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to
as many as God has given Him. God said He is the heir of all
things. The Father loveth the Son, John
the Baptist said, and hath put all things in His hands." You
and I, and you ought to be thankful of this even if you don't know
Him. If you've not been brought to trust Him, you ought to be
thankful tonight that you're in His hands. That He has authority
over your flesh. Otherwise, you'd be in hell right
now. Because that's where you belong. And that's where I belong.
This is blessed good news to those whom Christ has saved.
He's the heir of all things. And Scripture says, if children,
then we are heirs. Heirs of God. And joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Whatever
He's got is ours. Whatever it is. You say, well,
what about what we got? We ain't got nothing. This is
a one-sided deal. What can we give him? Oh, please.
But whatever he's got is ours. And he can't have it unless we
have it. Because we're joint heirs with
him. Christ is the Creator of all
things because He is God. Scripture declares, "...by whom
He also made the worlds." Nothing that is made was not made by
Him, John said in John 1 through 3. He's the Creator. That's the first thing God says
about His Son, this God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse
3 is a very descriptive phrase or sentence. The first part of
the declaration of Christ reveals the power that backs up the second
part. Who He is. gives power and success
to what he did. God, in describing His Son, does
not separate the person from the work. That's like trying
to separate Christ from doctrine. You can't do it. Not true doctrine. You can have all the false doctrine
you want. But true doctrine cannot be separated from Christ. Tell
me anything about Christ. Anything. I'll give you plenty of time.
I'll tell you what. Tell me anything about God. Tell me anything about
sin. Tell me anything about salvation.
Tell me anything about holiness. Anything about righteousness.
But don't use doctrine to do it. A long time coming, won't it? You can't separate Christ from
His doctrine. You can't separate doctrine from Christ. You can't
separate Christ from His work. His name, Christ, the Anointed. For what? The salvation of His people.
Jesus, why call Him that? For He shall save His people
from their sins. You can't say anything about
Christ. You can't even say His name without applying His work
to that name. His work and Himself are inseparable. Why did He come? Why did He come? To be a martyr? To set an example? To express the love of God, as
so many people say? Why did He come? He came to save
His people. He came to die in the room instead
of His people. It's who He is that gives greatness
to His work and the accomplishment of what he did is assured by
who he is. And this verse is spoken in continuum
with that which proceeds. It begins with Christ who being,
who being. Now this is not about who he
was. This is about who he is. He is
the being, the I am, the ego I may. This also is relative
to the fact that he was all this. And this is important to understand
because our Lord here is relating. All of this goes into this last
phrase, when he had purged our sins. And all of it relates to
that. Who being. And then our Lord
says, when, at the precise time he purged our sins, he was all
these things that God lists here. That's important to understand.
Most people have such a dim view. of Christ on the cross. They think somehow that he just
wasn't quite up to the job. Somehow he was overpowered by
men. They pity him. They talk about
him that way like he's pitiful. He was humiliated, no doubt.
He was covered in blood, no doubt. He wasn't wearing a cannon tea
towel, neither. He was naked. He was buck naked hanging on
that tree for everybody to laugh at and to mock. What was going
on there? Who was He? Who being? While He was on the cross, when
He was purging our sins, who being the brightness of God's
glory. Right there, on that cross. When he was on the cross, his
visions marred more than the sons of men, drenched in blood,
naked and humiliated. He was being the brightness of
God's glory. My brother talked about it last
night so wonderfully and eloquently. He said, you go into the Holy
of Holies, what you're going to encounter is vengeance and
blood. It's going to look like a slaughterhouse there. And if
you want to see the glory of God, you're going to see it in
a slaughterhouse. You're going to see it on the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This speaks of effulgence. You think of Him, and people
talk of Him as hanging down and all beat up, and He was. There's
no doubt He suffered like no man had ever suffered physically.
He suffered spiritually like none but God can suffer. While He was there, He was shining. He was shining. He was the brightness
of God's glory, the effulgence, the outshining, the radiance
of God. Christ is the only full display
of the glory of God, and that in a particular way. It is on
the cross that God in all His attributes as a just God and
a Savior are fully illuminated, fully radiated. They glow. They glow. Scripture declares,
Out of Zion our God has shined. Our God has shined. God's glory
cannot truly be referred to except as He is seen in His redemptive
glory. There is a glory in nature to
be seen for sure that clearly establishes that God is God according
to Romans 21. The only problem with that is
that it leaves you without excuse. There is no mercy in nature. There is no mercy there. God
said His glory is, Make my goodness pass before
you. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy, and I will be gracious
unto whom I will be gracious." Some say, well, God didn't have
to show mercy. I beg to differ. God's going
to glorify Himself, isn't He? He said, I'm going to do it.
He's going to do it. He said, I'm going to show it.
It's going to be shown. I know men speaking that kind
of language because they want to express the fact that if they
are saved, it is totally by sovereign mercy. And they are. But they're
saved by sovereign mercy because God culminated with Himself to
show mercy. And that's why they're saved.
He said, I will show mercy and I will have compassion. I will have compassion. My, what God has wrought in His
Son. He has most gloriously saved His people from their sins. He
has most gloriously made them holy, sanctified, and justified
them from all things. Christ was the brightness of
God's glory while He hung on the cross. And when He was on the cross,
Christ was being the express image of the person of God. That's
what it said. The express image. What does
that mean? On the cross is where you see
God. It's where you see God. He's the only way God is seen.
If you would see God, you must see Christ crucified. If you
would know the character of God, you must see Christ crucified.
If you have seen Christ by the gift of faith, you have seen
God. God is Spirit and no man can see Him and live, yet He
has revealed Himself in His Son. who is the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. Paul says it this way, the image
of the invisible God. Now just waddle that around in
your little old head for a little bit. How can anything invisible
even have an image? Christ is God. That's what they
say. He lifted his head one day and
cried unto heaven, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, for thou hast hid these things from the wise and the
prudent, and revealed them unto babes. For even so, Father, for
it seemed good in thy sight. No man knoweth the Father but
the Son, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him." You want to know God. Christ
must reveal him to you. He is the revelation of God.
John said, We handled him. We handle it. We handle the Word
of Life. And that's who I'm telling you
about in 1 John 1, verses 1 through 3. Christ is the very God of
very God. On the cross, in agonies and
blood, He was God of very God. He was being God. He was being
God. Who being the brightness of His
glory, the express image of His person. And when He was crucified,
He was upholding all things by the Word of His power. There
on that cross, with His hands nailed down and His feet nailed
down, having took the worst that man could do, looking indeed
like a lamb brought to the slaughter, He was running the show. He was
dictating what was going on around Him. He was telling the gnats
where to fly and land. He was. When humanity seemed at its weakest,
he was controlling the whole scene, moving every actor to
his place on redemption stage, giving breath to those who mocked
him, putting words in their mouth, for no word is upon the tongue
that the Lord does not know according to Scripture. He was perfecting forever them
that are sanctified. He on the cross was the sovereign
substitute. The sovereign substitute. And
being all this, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,
and in doing so, alone, by Himself, purged our sins. What does that mean? just exactly
what it says. He did away with the sins of
His people. He purged them and purified His
people. He did not make purging possible. Nothing about the gospel message
has to do with probability or possibility. Nothing! It's all about absolutes. He
purged our sins. He hath appeared once into the
end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
He made an end of sin. When He had purged our sins,
He declares that in no uncertain terms that our sins were purged. What does that mean? Before God you don't have them.
Before God they don't exist, they've been annihilated, put
out of business, behind God's back in the bottom of the sea.
However you want to say it, they're gone, they're clean gone. Before
God you have no sin. He'd forgotten them. Because God was being God on
that cross. And only God can forgive sins.
But how can you be sure? Two bookends enclose his purging
work on the cross. First, when he had purged our
sins, he was the testimony of God. He was the heir of all things. He was the creator of all things.
He was being the brightness of God's glory and being the express
image of God, and he was upholding all things by the word of his
own power. That's one bookend. That's how
you can be sure that our sins are purged. The second is this. At the other end, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. It is finished. There's the place to put the
emphasis. It is finished. My salvation,
my redemption. My standing before God is finished. Now he sits as an old lion who
shall rouse him up. He rests in the glory that he
has duly earned as the Savior of his people. Behold your God,
your just God, and your Savior. God bless you.