A son with eternal love and you love us for his sake. And so Lord we are grateful to you and we pray that we would console ourselves this evening and that we rejoice this evening also. because we are heirs with Christ and joint heirs with him. We are members of your family. We have been cleansed from our sin. We have been justified. We have been adopted. We are members of your family and members one of another. We are grateful for your church, that you will have a church in all times, in every place. And sometimes our confession and your word teaches us That church is sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, sometimes more visible, and sometimes less. And yet, because Christ is the king and head of the church, and because he is the rock upon which it is built, it shall always abide. And there is no plan, there are no councils, no engines, no plots, no instrument on earth that can prevent you from building your kingdom on the rock which is Christ Jesus. And so, Lord, we are grateful for one another. It is a glorious thing to worship together, to blend our voices. What a blessing it is for me to stand at the front of the congregation this morning and this evening and to hear these voices raised in praise to you. in humble reliance upon you, to call upon you in our weakness and our frailty when we feel abandoned, that you are the one who hears our voices, and that you are exalted upon the praises of your people, you're enthroned thereon. And we're grateful, Lord, it was wonderful for me to just after the worship service to see the participation, the fellowship of one with another. And you have done this. For we know that in ourselves we are hateful and hating one another. And though we come from different backgrounds, from different cultures, from different experiences, yet you bind us together. We are bound together with one heart. one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all, and one Lord Jesus Christ who is our mediator. And so we bless you and praise you. But we pray this evening for the ongoing work of that kingdom. Luke reminds us that his gospel was the beginning of the good things which Jesus began to do and teach. And the book of Acts is the continuation of that, the things which Jesus continues to do by your spirit. And Lord, we thank you that we are yet in that season when Christ is building his church, bidding men to come to him. We thank you for the open declaration of the King to come unto him, and he will give us rest. And so, Lord, we pray that you'd make us attentive now as we pray for the kingdom. We pray that you would build it for the sake of Christ, for you have given to him the nations for his inheritance. You have told him, just ask of me and I will give you the nations. And we join with him, our head, in asking that you will give the nations to his inheritance. But as we were reminded this morning in the Sunday school hour that that's local, that means little by little by your people in every place. And so we pray that you would give us, first of all, a consciousness of your favor to us and an abiding knowledge of you and your will for us that we might know your favor and might rejoice in it. And then, Lord, that you would make us your instruments in living before you in a manner that commends the gospel of Christ, but also that you would enable us to speak the word, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. We do pray for the work of the gospel through the International Reformed Theological College, and we are grateful for the way that you have caused them to prosper. We pray that you'd provide the resources for them. We don't like to think about it often, but we know that there are financial and other personnel resources that are necessary for the progress of the gospel, and we pray that you will provide that for them, that you would that you would particularly stir up the congregations in Brazil that benefit probably most directly from that ministry, that you would stir up these churches to support this institution which seeks to train laborers to reach Portuguese-speaking people in Brazil and in every place. And as we've been asked to pray also for this pastor and teacher in Angola and for that land, we pray for him as well, strengthen his hand and restrain their enemies. cause your word to go forth triumphantly. Lord, we do bless you and praise you for the work that is accomplished in every place, and we would pray this day again that you would minister to those who labor in foreign lands for the missionaries that we support. We ask that you would bless the work of Westminster Presbytery and the congregations therein, and our Sister congregations that are all about us in the Tri-Cities area that preach the gospel, we pray that you would cause your word prevail. We pray for Princeton and Jason Roddy. And we would ask that you would bless that congregation as they are training officers, that you would provide faithful elders to stand with Jason, to counsel with him, and to encourage him, to direct him and to assume some of the duties that he bears. We're thankful for our session that has taken on that duty in a temporary way and for the gratitude which Jason and the congregation expresses to them, but also we thank you for the joy that you give to the session here as we get to see the work that you are doing there. We do pray for the members of our families and our friends who are yet apart from you and ask, O Lord, that you would yet open their ears to hear, that you would open their eyes to see, and that you would open all of these in order that they might hear the invitation of wisdom to participate in the feast and that eternal life which is offered in Christ Jesus. We do pray for those who are in authority over us because you tell us to do that and ask that you deliver us from this present evil generation. We grieve, O Lord, at the open hostility and rebellion that there is. Indeed, that which Isaiah warned Judah about has come about in our own land. That men call good evil and call evil good and that which you hate is promoted and that which you love is penalized. And so Lord, we pray that we would not lose heart, but that you give us ever more boldness, recognizing that it is in this darkness that the light of the gospel shines even more brightly. We do pray that you administer to those who are afflicted for the elderly and the infirm that you administer to them. We pray that you would grant that our children would be attentive this day. We pray that you would draw them to yourself. You've made precious promises to them. And we ask, Lord, that they would not trample them underfoot by their indifference, but rather that they would recognize their great need of the Savior and the full provision in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you administer to Tim Carr today, as he rustles with back spasms. I know how difficult that can be, that you'd restore him. We pray for Babe, who is now bedridden, but how we thank you, Lord, that you have reached out and you have touched his heart and you've renewed him. As Lyle and Sandy and Arlene speak of his being a new man, we bless you and praise you and ask that you would repeat that good work again and again, that you would fill your churches with those who sing your praises having been delivered from this present evil generation and brought into the kingdom of light. We pray for our We pray for our expectant mothers again, that you would bear them up and preserve the children within them. We pray that you would bring them forth holy and healthy. And Lord, we have many things that are upon our hearts. Again, we ask that you preserve the unborn. It is upon our hearts, Lord, and we ask that you would give those who minister to the unborn by calling upon parents and even those involved in the the blood trade to repent and to preserve the lives of these children. We think, Lord, of the blood of Abel crying out from the ground, and we think of the blood of the millions crying out from the ground. Convict us, Father, and deliver us, we pray. And, Lord, we ask that you would You would strengthen us also that we might serve your glory. I confess, Lord, my own self-centeredness. So much of what I do is for my reputation and not yours. But Lord, we pray that you would give us humble hearts. We might rejoice that you own us for yourself and how ashamed we are when we think that we are ashamed of you when you should be ashamed of us, but you are not ashamed to call us brothers. So Lord, now we approach your word. We pray that you would give us reverent hearts that you would come and that you would bless the preaching of the Word. You know, Father, just the depth of your Word, which we will consider tonight, of which I am not equipped to speak adequately. Lord, we can even speak of the things of heaven, and yet you tell us that even in our clearest glimpses of heaven, we don't know the half of it. And that is the way it is with your word, O Lord. But we pray that what we can understand, what we can grasp, that you would enlarge our hearts and our minds, and that we would lay hold of it, and that you would lay hold of us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. If you would turn in your Bibles now, I'm going to do something a little bit different as I was thinking about it this evening. I'm going to read the passage that is published, but I want to also read some passages in Deuteronomy. So if you will turn in your Bibles first to Exodus chapter 34, we'll read beginning with verse 27, and read through the end of the chapter. So if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's inspired, infallible, inerrant, and sufficient word. The context for this passage is the people of God had sinned against him with the erection of the golden calf, while Moses was on the mountain, coming down from the mountain. He breaks the tablets. God is ready to cast Israel off. Moses intercedes and says, if you don't go with us, we're not going anywhere. And pleads with God. God forgives and takes him back up the mountain. And there he has Moses record in stone the Ten Commandments that had been broken. Verse 31. And I guess I'd better get out of 36 to 34. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him. And Moses spoke to them. And afterwards, all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out. Whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, the skin of Moses' face shown. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him. And now turn, if you will please, to the 18th chapter 2, brief passages from Deuteronomy. One from the 18th chapter and one from the last chapter, 34, but Deuteronomy chapter 18, beginning with verse 15. Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, and you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God. Let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him." And in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, the last few verses, beginning with verse 9. Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord commanded Moses. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. For all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land, and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. And now for our New Covenant reading, I turn to Hebrews, the first chapter. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through the first portion of verse 3. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, In these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. Thus far the reading of God's word, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. I don't know if you remember this, and maybe this isn't very helpful, but do you recall a number of years ago, There were things that were posted on the internet, which if you just, if you looked at it and stared at this, all of these little squiggles, if you looked at just the squiggles, you really couldn't tell what was going on. But if you step back from it and just kind of broadened your, what's the word, your view, your vision, that you could see a picture spring out at you. And sometimes you would, at least I would, I'd see it and then I'd come back to it and then I couldn't see it again and then I had to come back again. And I'll give you that illustration because that's sometimes the way we kind of look at the old covenant. We can look at all the particulars. Sometimes we look at the New Covenant that way. If you look at the details, sometimes they kind of look meaningless, like they're not connected. But if you step back, you see the picture. And I'm going to suggest to you that what Hebrews is about is drawing the attention of the Hebrew believers to that which makes sense out of all the details of the Old Covenant. And that's looking back and seeing that in all of the minute details, there's this picture of Christ, the prophet, like Moses. And in Christ and in Christ alone, the Old Covenant comes to make sense. Some observations about the book of Hebrews might be helpful, just general observations. Human authorship is uncertain. There's been debates over this. Its ultimate source, however, is not debated. This is the Word of God. If you're interested, and you may not be, I think it was the Apostle Paul for a lot of reasons, but there are people who disagree with me, and that's OK. We know the author ultimately is the Lord. It was written to Hebrew Christians, believers, trusting in Christ, but who were being tempted to return to the forms and the ceremonials of Judaism and to the traditions as well. And in that, you can understand something because the writer of the Hebrews is saying, don't go back. Don't go back, because if you do, you're going back to the unconnected squiggles and you're missing the whole message of the book. of Hebrews. And you can understand how this temptation would come along, because after all, they were tempted by their natural affection for their traditions. We all have a natural affection for our backgrounds. There's this natural affinity to it. And so they had been raised in these traditions, they'd lived them, and they had benefited by many of them as well. And then they were also being told that faith in Christ was opposed to God's law. And they had a high regard for God's law, but they were being told by the Judaizers is, no, no, no. If you hold to these things, you're rejecting Moses. You're rejecting the temple and all of those things. And of course, Christ is the fulfillment of those things. And then they were also tempted to return because they were being threatened by their persecutors. If you don't come back to the old ways, you're going to be persecuted. And so all of these things were bearing upon them. But the book of Hebrews presents Christ as fulfillment of the old covenant. And so I'm reminded of the book of Romans again. At the end of chapter nine, it says, Israel pursued a law of righteousness, but they failed to attain that righteousness. Why? Because they pursued it as though it were by works rather than by faith. They lost sight of that which was taught. They lost sight of what was actually taught in the old covenant. And so in the book of Hebrews, we're reminded of this, that the revelation of God is brought to its focus and its completion in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the living word. And so, first of all, let's just take just a moment and seek to understand that nature of God's revelation that we see here in verse 1. God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these days He has spoken to us in His Son. The nature of God's revelation. Just stepping back for a minute, I want you to notice something here. It is God speaking. And we know from scripture that God speaks in general revelation, the creation. The heavens are declaring the glory of God, the firmament is showing forth His handiwork, day unto day utter speech, and night unto night showeth forth knowledge. And then there is special revelation, and that's what we are talking about in particular. But as you look at this, I want you to notice something about the unity of God's Word. And what I'm speaking about there is the unity or the continuity between the two covenants. Here he says, God long ago to the fathers spoke in many portions and in many ways, but in these days he has spoken to us in his Son. But notice, it is God who is speaking. The same God is speaking. The old and new covenants have the same author, the triune God. All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be brought to completion. And the old and new covenants both have the same subject, and that subject is Jesus Christ himself. Search the scriptures, Jesus said, for they speak of me and God's plan of salvation from the very beginning in Genesis until the very end in Revelation. It begins in a garden, it ends in a garden, and It is God walking among his people. And what's the promise? I will dwell in the midst of my people. And of course, that was the temple and the tabernacle and the old covenant. And then what does Christ say? What does the Word of God tell us about Christ? That He dwells in our midst. Now He dwells in us by the Spirit. And so the Old and New Covenants have the same subject. God's plan of salvation, God's work of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God's goal in salvation, that we should be holy and blameless before Him and live in communion with him. And so God's law is that which reveals to us the will of God. And the Apostle Paul tells us and prays, he says, since the day I heard of it, I do not cease to pray for you, asking that you might be filled with the knowledge of the will of God. and that you might increase in the knowledge of God. The Old and the New Covenants have the same authority. As you go through Scripture, of course you have to remember, and we often forget this, that when the Gospel was preached by Jesus, by John as he was the forerunner, by the apostles, and by the preachers of the Gospel throughout the Old and the New Covenant, what were they preaching? They were preaching the gospel from the Old Covenant. That was the written word that they had. And they would often and almost always go to the Old Covenant scriptures. How many times does the Lord Jesus say that it might be fulfilled? How many times do the gospels, particularly you think of Matthew and John also, where he says that it might be fulfilled? And so all of these things were taking place. And so I just want to say as we think about this, attempts to pit the new covenant against the old are terribly misguided. It's almost an evolutionary approach to scripture. Evolution has not only affected many people's view of the creation, but it's viewed, our view of the Christian faith as well. Well, yeah, those primitive people had the old covenant, but we have the new, and so the old passes away and we have something much better. And of course, we do have something better, but it is not in antithesis or in opposition to the old, but rather in the fulfillment of the old. And so, we see that the apostles used the old covenant to make their case. The Bible does not pit law and grace against each other. It pits the works of the law and grace against each other. And so we learn this lesson. So attempts to separate the gospel from its Old Testament foundation produces a truncated faith in life. And attempts to separate the law from Christ yields a dead legalism. And so it addresses both of those What's the word? Pits on each side of the Christian walk. We are not legalists and we're not antinomians. We are Christians. We believe that God speaks in his word. in the Old and the New Covenants, but also recognize the reality of progressive revelation that we see taught here. And here we see something of the discontinuity. There is a discontinuity between the Old and the New Covenants. One of the things that is implied in these opening verses of Hebrews is that the old covenant was, and we'll speak about this in a minute, not everything there was. There's something more. It was pointing to something, but it was incomplete. It was partial. It was something that needed completion. And we know that there's a way that we look at things. For instance, we look at the ceremonials, and I always like to emphasize this, the new covenant teaches very clearly that the ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant have been done away with. That's what Hebrews is arguing. We don't go back and offer bloody sacrifices on an altar because that's to deny the finished work of Christ. We don't have an Aaronic priesthood. We don't need an Aaronic priesthood because Christ is the priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is the priest. We don't have an earthly temple but rather the people of God. And you could say in another sense, the body of Christ was the temple. Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it up in three days. And the people of God, you are the temple of God. He dwells in your midst. And as we meet here together, God meets with us. But I always like to point out, I always like to point out that even though the form of those ceremonies are passed away, we don't do those things anymore, the substance of them remains, right? Let me explain. In the Old Covenant, in order to be acceptable to God, you had to offer a bloody sacrifice. In the New Covenant, in order to be acceptable to God, do you need a sacrifice of blood? Absolutely. But not the blood of bulls and goats. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that the blood of bulls and goats represented. In the Old Covenant, you could not approach God without the mediator of a priest. In the New Covenant, can you approach God without the mediation of a priest? No. The priest is Jesus after the order of Melchizedek. And on you go. Even in the old covenant, in those ceremonies, what you see is something of the substance. The form is done away with, but the substance remains. And so you can observe the description of the older covenant. The older revelation was made to the fathers, Adam to Malachi. the people of God. There were long periods of time in which there was no ongoing revelation that is recorded for us. There were times and seasons of that, but it was written long ago, as the writer of Hebrews tells us. He spoke to that generation of those prophets and of Moses. And it is recorded for us, the people of God. The older revelation came through prophets. And the interesting thing is the New Covenant tells us something about these prophets. They were inspired of God. It was the very word of God through them. They took what they heard or saw and they wrote it down and recorded it. And then you know what they did? They began to read what they'd written and said, what's it talking about? Listen to 1 Peter 1 verses 10 and 11. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiries seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow. Prophecy concerning the future is easier to understand in retrospect than it is in prospect. And we have the same thing today. But you see what they were doing. They said, we know God has spoken, and he's spoken about a salvation to come. But how and who is it? And for generations, that went on. The Older Covenant was partial in its content. Notice he says that long ago the fathers and the prophets in many portions and so there are various things, various things. One book doesn't give us everything that there is to know about that plan and so it was being revealed broader and broader and broader. I've always, I've always enjoyed Isaiah because Isaiah probably has the clearest declarations of Christ of any of the prophets. But they're all there. But Isaiah seemed to have this grip that God revealed to him. But even Isaiah's prophecy is partial, was varied. in its delivery in many ways, sometimes dreams, sometimes visions, sometimes by a spoken word, audible, sometimes a word spoken within the heart and the mind of the one who was to deliver it. Various deliveries were given. And to sum it all up, it was incomplete. It was incomplete because it was anticipating, not realized. But the characteristics of the newer covenant, we also see in these verses. In ancient times, he spoke to the fathers. In these days, he has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things. And the reason that I read the portion from Deuteronomy, I just thought it was It just dawned on me, that portion has resonated with me over the years, that Moses was talking about Christ. He says, God is going to raise up a prophet like you. And you come to the end of Deuteronomy, and it is written there that there's never been, of course that was the end of Deuteronomy, there was never a prophet like Moses who saw God face to face. And here we have Jesus. who not only saw God face to face, lived with God from eternity, but was God, and knows the mind of God, because he is God. Now here is the authority above all authorities. The newer revelation was given in the last days, not in the old days, the days in which we live, beginning with the first advent of Christ, and particularly his resurrection and ascension, and concluding at the end of the age. the days toward which the Old Covenant looked. It's been revealed to us, not to the fathers. It's been given to us. We have the benefits, and there are great benefits to those of us who live in this age. The old covenant saints were certainly favored, and they had all the blessings that were given to Abraham, those blessings which we have received through the faith of Abraham. But in many ways, they walked in tides and shadows, and we live in the brightness of the rising sun. The newer revelation is given in Christ. And of course, Christ was the subject of the old covenant. But he is the object of the old covenant, and he is the heir of all things. The newer revelation is complete in its content. It's the fulfillment. God has spoken definitively. in Christ. We need nothing else. And the newer revelation is singular in its delivery. You won't find God's Word apart from the revelation of Christ. There's nothing else. He is the one who is the full revelation of God. And so we must recognize the superiority of God's revelation in Christ. Superior because it's complete. Not because It is in opposition or changing, but because it is the full revelation of everything that was in the old. And so you'll find that superiority throughout the book of Hebrews, the superiority of Christ. But here is a superior revelation. And so we are called upon to contemplate the apex or the high point of God's revelation. And so he tells us something about this. He's revealed himself to us in his son, not through prophets, even prophets who saw God face to face. But Christ is the very son of God, God in the flesh. As we've been going through John in the mornings with Pastor Dykes, that is the repeated theme, isn't it? He is God. And everything that he did, he is God. And very much, however, very much like Moses, He was the one who did signs and wonders. He was the one who stood in the presence of God, whom God spoke to directly, face to face. He is the very Son of God. But you see how there's a reflection of Moses in that as well. He is the lawgiver as well, and he is the one who intercedes for us. After Israel had sinned in the golden calf, it was the intercession of Moses that turn God's anger away from them. And then he comes back with his law. He is the very embodiment of all the covenant promises. In your seed, God tells Abraham, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And then Paul tells us, it's not seeds of many, but seeds of one, that is Christ. And so he is the very embodiment of the covenant promises. We read in 1 Corinthians 1.20, for as many as are the promises of God in him, they are yes. Therefore, through him is our amen to the glory of God through us. All the covenant promises are focused and brought together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And apart from him and his revelation of the Father to us and his revelation of his will for us in the gospel, in him, apart from him, there are. There is no reception of any of the covenant promises. That's what the writer of the Hebrews is telling them. Apart from Christ, you have none. of the promises. And he's the creator of the universe. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And so he is not only the Redeemer, but he is the creator. He is the one who speaks, and at his voice things come into existence which had no existence before. Christ is the very Son of God. And as such, he is the perfect and complete revelation of the Father. And so we have this going throughout the New Covenant. Jesus said, he who has seen me has seen the Father. If you don't see and know Christ as God, you know nothing about God at all, because he is the perfect revelation of the Father. John 5, 24 says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death out of life. He who hears my word, why? Because the direct revelation of God and he is the full manifestation. He's the manifestation of God's glory. That's a concept that's very difficult But as I was thinking this morning, I think it was while we were praying before the morning worship service, I was thinking about how little I see of Christ's glory where the Father sees his glory and where Jesus sees his glory. And as he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he comes out of it, he says, in the high priestly prayer in John 17, Father, you have glorified me and you will glorify me. And what he was speaking about is not just the resurrection, but Jesus was glorified on the cross. Jesus was glorified with all the shame and the agony and the taunting and the disrespect and the hatred of men, Christ bearing that was never more glorious because he bore it for you and for me. He was glorious in his crucifixion, in his humiliation. And that's harder to see, isn't it? We behold it with the eye of faith. And so that was one of the things that the Hebrews were wrestling with. They wanted this glorious king, and what they had was a crucified Savior. but it was glorious. And He is the full manifestation of God's glory. In Christ's crucifixion, you see His love for us and God's love for us as well. The exact representation of the Father, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of the Godhead to dwell in Him. No one has seen God at any time, John 118, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. He has explained him. And that word explained is the word that we get exegesis from. When you take a passage, you read out of it what is there. And what Jesus did, he is reading out of who God is and explaining it in its fullness. So he has seen me, has seen the Father, Jesus says to Thomas. How can you say, show us the Father? You see, Moses' face only shown for a time, and he had to veil that face when he came down. Jesus reveals God to us with unveiled face, and we see his glory. We can't see God in his presence, but we see him in the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he sustains the universe by his word, and so he sustains us by his word. This is my beloved son, hear ye him. You and everything are created and are sustained by Christ. We have little dependence upon, we have little idea of our dependence upon Christ, but he is God's complete revelation. And so what can we say? Well, this being so, he's the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. Jesus said that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He tells us that anyone who does not build upon this word is like someone who builds a house upon sand that's going to come crashing down. And that's what the writer of the Hebrews is saying, too. It is the word that is in Christ and revealed fully and brought to completion in Christ. And so you are to build your life on God's revelation in Christ. God's revelation is necessary to understand all of life. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom and knowledge as well. We live in a culture that prides itself on its wisdom and its knowledge, which is really laughable since we now hear people who don't know what a woman is, can't define that yet, and there's a reason for that. Once you reject Christ, who is knowledge and wisdom, then you'll believe anything, or you'll believe nothing. It all becomes arbitrary. But you see, God's revelation is necessary to understand all of life. And I think when we are living in a culture where there was still something of a Christian mindset, if you will, a general understanding of the Christian worldview, we could get by with it. But now that Christ has been rejected, Particularly, then, as we see, and I almost preached on this, and I may yet, but I've been thinking about the portion in, I think it's 1 Thessalonians, because they would not receive the knowledge of the truth, God gave them over to believe the lie. Well, that's what we're experiencing. If you won't receive the knowledge of the truth that's being preached to you day by day and week by week in this pulpit, then you're going to be given over to believe the lie, and you'll believe anything. Even the things, the absurdities, and I'm not trying to be funny here, but I think people actually believe it. But I don't think that it's just, I think it's God's judgment. If you won't receive the knowledge of the truth in Christ, ultimately you will be delivered over to believe It's necessary to understand all of life. Since God spoke, we know about his world, creation. We're not left with questions about the origin of creation. We're not at liberty to redefine his creation. And that's why I am distressed that even in the evangelical church, I was speaking with Patrick, not speaking, but yeah, I was speaking along with him on a panel, and Patrick Hines, I believe, went to Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson. He said in his class a number of years ago, when they're speaking about the creation, the professor asked him a question of what their views of creation were. Well, he said, out of 37 students, three of them believe that God created the earth in six days, literal 24-hour days. All the others were framework hypothesis and things like that. That's not what God says. We need to understand it the way it was written and if you can't understand the creation account as it's written, then we can twist all manner of things. But we understand about the creation and who we are and what we are because God has spoken in Christ. And since God has spoken, we know the source of man's problems. Sin has entered the world, and death by sin. We have seen the enemy, as Pogro said, and he is us. It's not out there. We are our own worst enemies. within us and sin about us is our enemy. And since God has spoken, we know the remedy for man's problems, and that is faith in Christ, the full revelation of God. Without Christ, you do not understand any of scripture. And that was the problem with the Hebrews that wanted to go back. They wanted to go back to a Christless old covenant. They wanted to go back to the types and symbols, and in doing so, they were leaving behind the full revelation of Christ, and God's revelation in Christ is necessary to know God. Necessary to know God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. And remember, knowing God is eternal life. This is eternal life that you may know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." Now, you can know something of God through general revelation. We've already spoken about that. You can know more of God through special revelation. But notice, you can know of God through special revelation. But you can know God intimately, really know him in communion with him only through his Son, Jesus Christ. resting in Him, in participating in His life, death, and resurrection, the benefits thereof. And so this is what the Lord spoke to us at the very beginning of Christ's ministry at His baptism and then later on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. We see that in Matthew and Luke And then in Mark, we have this at the transfiguration. Then a cloud formed overshadowing them and a voice came out of the cloud, this is my beloved son, listen to him. And at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone. Now, as I was thinking about that, I was wondering, you'll recall I didn't read the passage, but who else was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration that those three disciples saw? Two, right? Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets were meeting with him, conversing with him. And then the voice from heaven comes and speaks and says, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. And the disciples were enveloped with a cloud and when everything cleared up, they looked around them and guess what? No one was there. Now, this is just my thinking, and you can take it for what it's worth. It is not because the Law and the Prophets became irrelevant. It's just that the Law and the Prophets were realized in the person of Jesus Christ. But we understand Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, as they are brought to their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. A better revelation, the Lord Jesus himself. Now you cannot understand the new covenant without the old. One of the years ago, and I'm certain that I was very much a novice, but I think I learned more about the atoning work of Christ by preaching through Leviticus than I did by preaching through the Gospels. just looking at those sacrifices and the satisfaction that there was in them. I learned of Christ's atonement by understanding the atonement in light of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you can't understand the old covenant fully without the new either, as we've already pointed out. And you cannot know God unto eternal life without knowing Christ. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. In the Lord Jesus Christ, you see your God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He reveals Him perfectly. This is God's beloved Son. Hear Him. Hear Him even this evening as He bids you come, worship Him, and submit your life to Him, who is the creator and redeemer of a lost world. Let's pray together. Father, this portion is very deep and profound and we only scratched the surface. But we do ask that you would remind us that you have sent that prophet like Moses, the one who did signs and wonders, the one who spoke directly to you and revealed everything that you said to him perfectly. But Moses was not able to bring his people into the promised land. Joshua, Jesus in the Old Covenant was the one who brought them into the promised land and that shows us something that as great as that revelation of the Old Covenant was and sufficient to reveal Christ, sufficient to bring us to glory through faith in the one of whom the Old Covenant speaks, yet we have that fuller revelation. And how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? If those perished in the old covenant by failing to listen, how shall we neglect? Lord, convict us, convince us, and give us that living faith, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.