Come in, if you would now please open up in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter one. I threw our pianist off there by telling you to remain seated right about the point where you're supposed to start singing. Now please stand. We're building this evening what we read earlier in Heidelberg that the Lord communicates His promises, the promises of the Gospel through His Word, particularly the relationship between the Old Testament and the New. So, we're going to read Hebrews 1, verses 1-4, this is the Word of the Living God. Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Lord and our God, we ask now that by the ministry of your Holy Spirit, that you would add your blessing, not only to the reading, but even to the preaching of your word. Please write faith into our hearts. Please help us to see not only that the promises of the gospel are yes and amen in Christ, but that those promises are revealed from the very earliest pages of scripture all the way throughout until your last word, even Jesus. We pray in his name, amen. If you would, please be seated. So, as I mentioned, we are picking up the theme from the Heidelberg Catechism that we looked at earlier, that the promises of God sending the God-man to redeem us from our sins is a promise that God makes throughout Scripture, but He punctuates in the sending of His Son. Tonight, we're going to look really at two, this is a two-point sermon, somewhat by design. God speaks His first word, prophets, and God speaks His final word in His Son. Now, I have a little bit of a confession to make, it'll be a bit embarrassing given present company, but much of my preaching style I actually learn from my mother, who used to say quite often when I was a kid, how many times do I have to tell you the same thing? Now I know that it's probably only my mother that had to use those words and not your own or you, but it is a fairly popular sentiment how often something has to be repeated in order for it to be understood or even obeyed. Well, this is not simply something taken from many moms. It's actually something that we see in Scripture itself. God says the same thing over and over and over, and He not only says it repeatedly, He says it in a lot of different ways. This is the point that Hebrews 1 is communicating to us that God spoke long ago. He spoke a variety of different ways, but in a certain sense, He was saying the same thing over and over and over. And what He was saying had to do with the gospel that would be fulfilled in His Son. So as we consider God's first word, there are a number of things that the author of Hebrews is breaking down for us. First is, when did God speak? Now, the idea of God speaking is a pretty popular idea. People today, Christians in particular, are very interested in the question of God speaking. Regrettably, there's probably more interest in the idea that God is still speaking in something of a charismatic sense, that is to say, He's whispering directly into your ear. There's probably more interest in the idea of God speaking now than what God has spoken in His Word, which is regrettable, because His Word is inspired and reliable, and much of what is sometimes referred to as God's Word today is actually not that at all. But the author of Hebrews says that God has indeed spoken and that He spoke long ago. Christians and people in general often have a troubled relationship with the past because it's not easy for us to walk back over the bridge of time and be there when certain things happen or when certain things were said. The author of Hebrews is showing us that Jesus is the bridge. God spoke in the past a certain word long ago, and He spoke indefinitely now in the present through His Son, who is the one who binds all things together. Jesus is our anchor to the past, and in a very pastoral way, the author's goal is not for us to say that the Old Testament has become irrelevant or unhelpful, but actually the opposite. To say rather, if you want to know what God is like, if you want to know what Jesus is like, if you want to know what God has to say, the Old Testament communicates a vital word. His goal is not for us to get rid of the Old Testament, but to appreciate how gospel-centered it actually was from beginning to end. So if God spoke long ago in the past, the question becomes how? Well, he spoke many times and in many ways. There again is that theme. He didn't just say the same thing the same way over and over and over. He was not a broken record that could not get unstuck. He said the same thing, but he said it a variety of different ways. If you're trying to have a conversation with a person at this age, you can speak this way, and use these words. If you're having the same sort of conversation, same subject, with a much smaller person this size, you change the words and you condescend to speak in their language. That is what the author of Hebrews is saying. God has been revealing His intention to bring about His Son in all kinds of ways so that all kinds of people could understand it. He gave the message in a form that was appropriate for that time. If you even think about what the author of Hebrews will say even later, he says that God spoke many times to the people of Israel. He refers back to the way in which God spoke to them when they were in the wilderness. He brought them out of Egypt He began by speaking after 400 years of silence, and then, when he had them there in the wilderness, he sat them down for a very long Bible study. And in the wilderness, God spoke. He spoke to the people, through the prophets, through Moses, through those whom the Lord had raised up. He spoke to them many times from Sinai, through Moses. He spoke to them in many ways. He even spoke to them with signs and wonders. He gave to them manna that fell from above. He'd brought them out of the land of Egypt through a mighty and strong hand. He delivered them from Pharaoh and all the things that were there, all the things that held them back. He gave them a bronze serpent to look at when they sinned, that they might be healed and live and survive His judgment. He gave them commandments, that they might understand not only what God wanted them to do, but ultimately what God Himself was like. The commandments became a very mirror of the character and person of God. But the author's point is that God was speaking back then to them through His prophets. And this moves us on then down the trail. To whom was He speaking? He was speaking to those that the author of Hebrews refers to as our fathers. This is the wilderness generation. The wilderness generation is very important in the book of Hebrews because on the one hand, they were the people of God that God rescued out of Egypt and for whom he did great things. At the same time, that our fathers refers to people who did not make it into the promised land. And so the author of Hebrews uses them as a test case of those who heard and saw God do great things, but they were not faithful, and therefore they perished. People often say things like, seeing is believing. I want you to think about this. You know the phrase, seeing is believing. Did anybody ever in history see God do more than the first generation of the Israelites? The answer is no. Did anybody ever in human history ever hear God speak more than the first generation of the Israelites coming out of Egypt? The answer again is no. becomes a remarkable thing that those who heard and those who saw yet perished in unbelief, because seeing is not believing. It's not enough to be externally exposed to the Word of God, it must be written upon our hearts with a song of faith. But the author of Hebrews is not interested in saying God spoke to them. He's saying that God spoke to them by the prophets, but he has spoken ultimately to us. In other words, the word that he gave to them was not just for them. They were like skipping stones across the pond, God's real intention being to communicate to us as well. That generation, in some ways, holds up a mirror to our hearts, to our lives. It encourages us to, in a certain sense, not be like them. It encourages us to cling to the promises even more faithfully than they did. God spoke to them by the prophets, but so many of them perished. So the question becomes, what was wrong? Was there something broken with the word of God? Did he not say enough? Did he not do enough? Or was the problem actually with them? The author's point is that though God was speaking to them, He was ultimately as well speaking through them for our sakes. But what was the message? What was it that God was saying? What was it that the people of Israel were to learn while they were in the wilderness, but they were to learn who God is? That the God who created them is also the God who redeemed them. This is the great burden of Israel's theology. You've probably heard this before. It was often the case people thought that gods couldn't travel. So if you had a god in a certain land, you can trust that god while you're there, but he can't travel across the county line. If you go across the county line, if you go to a different state, you need a different god to begin helping you out. So Israel had a measure of faith in one region, but then as they traveled, they became faithless and began turning to other gods. Ironically, they would rebuild the gods of Egypt while living in the wilderness, as they were supposed to be, depending upon God alone and His word. So God was speaking to them, telling them who He is as the one true God, but also what He has done, that God had been faithful not only to create. God had been faithful to make promises to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph. God had fulfilled all that He had promised to do. The years were fulfilled. And God did what he said he would do. He redeemed his people. But here again, remember that even though God had spoken, they fell away. And it's stunning that that entire first generation fell away. And the amazing thing becomes that God continues to speak afterwards at all. In other words, it's an amazing thing that God continues to speak to us. If you think about it, we all have that point of no return where you might say, finally, I've had it up to here. You know what that means? It means we're done talking. Judgment is coming. Your life is on the line. You know that phrase, you know that sentiment. Pause and think about how amazing it is. After Adam and Eve's sin, God could have just shut them down and said, end of story, and taken off, left them to judgment. But instead, He continued to speak, and He spoke a word of promise. After Israel fell miserably in the wilderness, once again, God had every right reason, if you will, to say, that's it, I'm done. No more. He even says to Moses that he contemplates such a thing. And yet, because of his grace and the promises that he had made, he did not do it. Many times in history, we've given God an occasion to abandon us to judgment, and yet instead of doing that, God speaks a better word, a better promise, and gives us a better hope. This is the point the author of Hebrews is making. God has been saying the same thing over and over and over, and ultimately, what he has been saying culminates in the gospel itself. He spoke the word to the fathers through the prophets, and that word was good, be with me here, but it was also incomplete. A good word can be an incomplete word. A good word can be hindered by smoke or veils. or sacrifices, or threatenings. The promise that God would dwell in his people was a great promise, except there was a tent that said, you can't go here. The promise that God would bring Israel out of Egypt was a great promise, except they got to the bottom of Mount Sinai, wrapped with smoke, saying, you cannot touch this. A better word was needed, not simply a word that would enable them to live a little longer, but to live eternally and happily in His presence. What the people of God needed was the perfect Word. The perfect revelation of who God is and His holiness, righteousness, but also His justice and His grace. A perfect message of peace that would satisfy the longing of our souls by bringing us into sweet communion with God apart from veils, apart from temples, and apart from sacrifices. So all the promises that were made in the Old Testament were like a little breadcrumb trail leading us the way home to Jesus. The Word of God has been spoken and perfectly spoken in His Son. This is our second point and our final point. I feel like I should get an amen. It's only a two-point sermon, but I won't beg. God's final word. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his sermon collection on Romans, does a rather extended series on the phrase, but God. But God. But God. But God. Here, in the author, in Hebrews chapter 1, there is, in a certain sense, a but that is also pretty working. Pretty important. God has spoken in the past to our fathers by the prophets, verse one, but verse two begins literally with the word but. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Important questions come out of this text. When are these last days? A debated question, a nonetheless important question. The author of Hebrews clearly locates the church who receives this letter as living in the last days. In other words, the last days, according to the author of Hebrews, are now. We live in the last days. We are in the fulfillment, time of fulfillment, of God's promises He made through the Old Testament. The last days language is remarkably important from the Old Testament perspective. Hosea 3, afterwards the son of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days. Micah 4.1, and it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it. Acts 2, and it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth my spirit upon all mankind. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall see dream dreams. And finally, 1 Peter 1, for he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last days for your sake. Here's the point. The Bible wants us to see, even be compelled by the notion, that we are in the last days even if those last days last for a long time. Now, according to the author of Hebrews, is the age of the Spirit in which God is working all of the promises that He made in the Old Testament. It's not simply a time of setting the stage. It's a time when the main actor in history has come, even Jesus, who gives sight to the spiritually blind, who raises the spiritually dead. This is the time of the end. This is the time Ezekiel foresaw when God would breathe new life into this valley of dry bones. These are the last days where all that needs to happen for Jesus to return is now set in motion and in place. I've always found it a little bit interesting, if not slightly puzzling and frustrating, the infatuation Christians seem to have with signs and wonders as though we needed to see certain things happen in order for Jesus to return. Following the newspaper, looking for particular events, Waiting for A, B, or C to happen before Jesus can return, when even from the New Testament early books, God has been saying, we are in the last days. This was clearly one of the problems that the early church had. It was a problem in the book of Hebrews. They were underappreciating what God had done. They were underappreciating what God had said in the past. And the effect of this was to underappreciate what God was saying and doing through Jesus in these last days. In other words, they wanted to see more signs. They needed to see more wonders. They needed to be relieved of more pressures. They were in many ways like the modern charismatic movement. They will follow God as long as God is doing things we can see, because somehow seeing is believing. And the author of Hebrews counteracts that by saying, is not the power of the gospel enough? is the power of God that miraculously converts sinners, not impressive enough that we must look for more arms to be healed, more wheelchairs to be emptied, more sight to be restored. Even Jesus said a point would come in His ministry where there would be no more miracles. And from the time of the raising of Lazarus to His own resurrection, He does not do another miracle. Even Jesus put a stamp at the end of His miracles. For the author of Hebrews, the bodily resurrection of Jesus was God's final word. If God had spoken climactically and finally in Jesus, the exclamation point is the resurrection of Jesus. Through Him, we understand all the promises that God made. Without Him, we misunderstand all the promises that God has made. So how is it, beloved, that God continues to speak? He continues to speak through His Word, in and through which we find that all the promises are yes and amen through Christ. Do you find it interesting that he doesn't say that God continues to speak even through the apostles or through prophets, but that God has spoken through his son? His point is that the Son is the final revelation of Himself. There's no more need for signs. There's no more need for wonders. Israel already played this broken record. They kept demanding more signs of God, and finally God said, I've had it up to here, and no more signs were done. It is through the Son that He made the world. We're told in the next couple of verses, it is by the power of the Son that He upholds all things. One of my former seminary professors had a nice way of saying it. God preached the world into existence. And by that same word through which God preached the world into existence, God continues to uphold all things. The author of Hebrews now lays a beautiful hue of color and says, God who preached the world into existence by his word, who upholds the world by his word, he has also communicated promises to his people through his word that go all the way back to the very beginning, promises that center upon the gospel and are yes and amen and the son. And if God has spoken his final and climactic word through his son, this becomes then the big question, what else are you looking for? What else are you looking for God to say? What more could he do than he's already done in Jesus? What more can he say than has already been said through his son and through the word of the son? He is the heir of all things. He is the redeemer of all his people. It is by his finished work that the promises of the gospel find their yes and amen. It is only because of Christ that God continues to speak to us, and it is heartily and happily through Christ that God does indeed continue to speak. The point is not that God is not speaking anymore, it's that God speaks through His Son and through His Word. And what does He say? As we spend a few moments working towards the end, what does God have to say to you? This is the point that the author of Hebrews intends to make. Unlike Mount Sinai that shouted down not simply commands, but threats, God now speaks to you who have embraced the promises of the gospel, a word of invitation that you may ascend the hill of the Lord, Psalm 24. You may enter the Holy Zion, Hebrews 12. God speaks to you, not the threatening word of Mount Sinai, but the refreshing word of Mount Zion. He speaks to you, beloved, not as a threatening judge, but as a loving father who has not had it up to here with you, but whose arms are open wide for you. He is a Lord and a King. He does not simply deliver His people from a distance, but He cares for them and provides for them closely and tenderly. There is no silent treatment from God. He does not run out of patience as so many of us often do, but rather He continues over and over and over to speak words of love, consolation, comfort, and encouragement. As the old hymn goes, what more can he say to you than he has already said? What more can he say to you than Jesus? God's climactic word. Finally, in some ways returning to where we begin, who is it that God is speaking to? Well, he is speaking to you. He is speaking to you through His Word, even as you read through the pages of the Old Testament. That is not time trapped for Israel. The gospel is there. That is the author's point. That is even what the Heidelberg is trying to say, that the promises of the gospel that are fulfilled in the New Testament grow out of the very rich soil of the Old Testament. The Bible is one book. one story, Jesus is its main actor. The beginning tells us that someone is coming, the end tells us that he has come, and it is finished. There is a great mystery here as the beginning pages of the Bible begin to unfold the seed of the gospel, and there is no mystery here as the end of the Bible explains the beautiful rose of the gospel itself. He who is hidden before the eyes of his enemies is now exalted in your sight, not simply as creator, but Redeemer, Lord, but also friend. God is exalting his son before your eyes as the perfect revelation of himself and his climactic word. Jesus, who was appointed heir of all things, has inherited the church. Jesus, who reigns over all things, reigns over and protects his church. He who was given a great gift by the Father will not lose even a single one of us. And that's what the author of Hebrews is trying to tell us. He will not lose a single one of us. When the Heidelberg Catechism was written, it was written in a time of great persecution. And the promise being made is that He who created you and saved you continues to uphold you even through this dark and difficult season. He has poured out His Spirit upon us, that we might know and believe the certainty of the Word of God in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God's final Word, and nothing is lacking in Him. So you, beloved, guess when you live. It's a strange way to put it. You live in the last days. where God's punctuation point in His Son has been made. You are in the last chapter of history with the church that was then started, continuing to say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, waiting for the great amen of history where all things are complete. The story of those who received the book of Hebrews is your story. The burden of them struggling to continue to trust God when what we see does not always confirm our faith causes us to return to the word of God to hear over and over the great story of the gospel. the greatest story ever told, and in that story, Jesus is God's first word, and Jesus is God's last and climactic word. He declares to you who God is in Himself. He declares to you what God has done for us in Himself. He declares to us what God expects of us as we are conformed to His image. He declares to us who we are as the people of God. So it might be the case that our mothers sometimes make the point, how many times must I say to you the same thing over and over and over? But how sweet it is, isn't it? That God actually is pleased to say to us the same thing over and over and over, a word of comfort a word of consolation, a word of mercy, a word of hope. And he says it over and over in the gospel of his son. What more can he say than to you, he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you. that as there have been moments in history where the people of God have needed to be assured and comforted, and they've needed to hear your voice, like a child in the night who has grown afraid needs to hear the voice of a father or mother to rest again. So also, Lord, do we need to hear your word. And we thank you that while it comes to us over and over and over, it does not come to us with exasperation, frustration, or even judgment. But rather, it comes to us with the sweet consolation of an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God who holds us tenderly and safely in the palm of His hand. Lord, we marvel that after Adam sinned, that You continued to speak. We marvel that after Israel rebelled, You continued to speak. And we marvel the most, O Lord, that through Your Son, You have spoke climactically, and through Him, you continue to speak to us. Lord, give us those ears to hear that we asked for this morning. Lord, help us to walk by faith in the power of your word. In Christ's name we pray, amen.