We have finished our series, at least our past sort of intermittent series of sermons in the Psalms as we concluded book three of the Psalter last week. And so we're moving into a New Testament book, although a New Testament book that in many ways is also an Old Testament book. And we're going to be looking at the book of Hebrews. probably for some time here, and so we'll begin that this morning. You can find the text for this morning on page 1187 of your Pew Bibles, although I'm not sure the page number shows on that page. I think it's one of those examples where both pages don't have the number on it. You have to look at one or the other, but it's there. right after Philemon, which I know you all can find. We'll be using the first four verses of this first chapter of Hebrews as our text for this morning, and as always, if you are able, would you stand with me out of reverence and respect for the reading of God's inerrant, inspired, and infallible Word. 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." This is the reading of God's word. May he bless it to our hearts this morning. Please be seated. So today we begin this series of messages looking into this book of Hebrews. And there are lots of questions about this book, but at least two of the questions that come up about this book is whether this book is a letter. You may see in the title to it in your Bible that may say the epistle or letters to the Hebrews. Is it a letter or is it a sermon? It is true. that you can see elements of both here. From what I can tell, if I were to have to answer that question, I would say that the answer to those two questions is yes to both of them. I believe it is a sermon that is delivered to these people in the form of a letter. The difficulty is that it isn't formatted exactly like the rest of the epistles in the New Testament. You know, you go to many of Paul's epistles or letters, and he says, from Paul the apostle to the saints who are in Ephesus, greetings to you, and all that kind of thing. You don't see any of that here in the beginning. We don't know who it's specifically being written to. We don't know where they are located. We don't know where it is being written from. We're not even told. who it is being written by. Many conclude, as they look at the title or name of the book, that it was written to a group or congregation of people who were of Jewish ethnicity, written to the Hebrews. Likely there would have been a strong element of that, although there are things that we will come across as we work our way through this sermon letter that will also indicate that there seem to be non-Jewish people who are being addressed in this letter and sermon as well. In terms of when it is written and sort of the context of what's going on historically, When we get to chapter 8, a couple of days, a couple of weeks, we get to chapter 8, the author does talk in this sermon, in this letter, about an old covenant that is passing away, that is becoming obsolete, that is about to be replaced. And that would seem to suggest that this was written before 70 AD when the Romans came and literally destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and God's judgment fell on the Old Testament nation and people of Israel for their continued unrepentant sin and that that old covenant was done away with and the new was being initiated. Now the question of who the author is is one of the great mysteries. Many historically have attributed this book to the Apostle Paul. There are many things in it and much of it that sounds a great deal like Paul, but there are also things that make it unlikely that Paul was the direct author of this letter. But it's so much like Paul and his doctrine and his teaching That as a result, most people have concluded that whoever wrote this must have been one of Paul's very close associates in ministry through the years when he was being an apostle and planting churches and writing all of his letters. Names that come up are names like Luke, Barnabas, Clement, Silas, Believe it or not, even Priscilla and Aquila have been suggested as possible authors of this book, and along with that, another name comes up, even Apollos, the one who was such a great preacher, but had been lacking some understanding of things, and Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and further instructed him in the Word. The truth is, we can't know who wrote this book. And in a real sense, that's not all that important, because we do know who wrote this book, and that is the Holy Spirit, regardless of what human agent the Spirit used in order to get that book written. What we do know is that as we work through this, it will become apparent that the author, whoever he is, seems to have known this congregation he's writing to well. And they seem to know him. The people he's writing to he addresses in this letter throughout as people who seem to be truly followers of God, followers of Jesus Christ, true believers. It would seem that at the time of the writing of this letter or sermon, he is separated from them, but he has some new or additional truth and teaching about Jesus that is really essential and important for them to understand, and he wants to make sure that they hear about it. And as we consider that, it is going to be important to also point out that as we work through this, we will see that this is a congregation that has been experiencing and may be continuing to experience significant persecution against them for their faith in Christ and their following of him. There's no doubt, I don't think, that this word that is being given here in the letter to the Hebrews is intended to encourage them in this situation of persecution. One commentator even suggests that this is a word that is meant to be heard by them and not necessarily read. by them, understanding that many people didn't possess their own copies of these letters as they were being sent around. These would be sent to the pastor of a congregation, for instance, and he would share and read it to the people so that they would hear rather than read. It's also possible that the author deliberately chose to not identify himself because he doesn't want these people to hear him speaking. He wants them to hear their God speaking to them. As you can see, the title of the sermon I've given it, The God Who Speaks. And given the persecution that these people are facing, it's very likely that some at least, if not many of them, were likely struggling with whether faithfulness to God, to Christ, and to the gospel is really worth it or not. And so there is a sense in which the overall theology of this book of Hebrews is that God is ultimately, absolutely trustworthy and faithful. But there's a particular focus in that. He is absolutely trustworthy and faithful, particularly in and through his son, Jesus Christ. And in fact, there's even a deeper focus in that, in this book, in that the author particularly wants us to understand that he is trustworthy and faithful in and through Jesus Christ, who is not just a man, but the God-man. the one person who has two natures, both human and divine. And in fact, I am confident as we work through these first four verses, just these four initial short verses of this book, that we will see both of those natures of Jesus Christ being addressed by the author in those verses. Hebrews begins with God speaking. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers. I don't know if you've thought about it or not, but there's a real sense in which actually that's the way the scriptures as a whole begin. Right? The book of Genesis. Okay, I know it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but just a short while past that, how does it say he created the heavens and the earth? And God said, let there be light, and what? There was light. God spoke creation into existence. That's how the scriptures begin. You see, God's word is creative. God's Word is life-giving. And the truth is, although many in this world would not hear it, understand it, or receive it, the truth is that there is no true life at all outside of God and His Word. None. See, God speaks in general revelation. He speaks to all mankind, and He does that through creation. Right? What does Psalm 19.1 tell us? The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above claim and proclaim his handiwork. Paul in Romans chapter 1 verse 20, he says that creation from the beginning has made absolutely clear to everyone, even God's invisible attributes of his divine power and his eternity. You see, creation has been, God has been speaking through it to mankind at large from that very, very, very beginning. The fact that our God is a speaking God is critical to his nature and to his relationship with us. He is not a God who wants to remain hidden from us and unknown to us. He speaks. and he speaks we are going to find to us. We see this speaking of God as critically important in the story of the gospel all through scripture. Remember in the beginning as God placed Adam in the garden we are told that God came and walked with and spoke to Adam in the cool of the day. Later, as a man named Abram comes along, God approaches Abram in this idolatrous land of Ur of the Chaldees, and he does what? He speaks to Abraham. He calls him and says, Abraham, you are to leave here and go to the place I'm telling you to go to, and I'm going to give that to you and your descendants. God spoke the covenant promises to the patriarchs. Yes, Abraham, but also Isaac, Jacob. He continued to speak them even to David. He spoke the law and the covenant with Israel through Moses at Sinai. You see, God did not stop at general revelation for all through creation. But the author wants us to know how and why God speaks further than just creation. He says to us that long ago God spoke to our ancestors or our fathers. Now you might seem we could run right past that, but I don't think we should. We should stop for a minute and think about this man who's writing in the New Testament age talking about God speaking to our fathers. He's not part of the Old Testament Jewish church. That's passing. But God spoke to our fathers. You see, what he is showing here as he's writing to these New Testament believers is that there is a continuity between Old Testament Israel, the Old Testament church, and the New Testament church. There is something that continues through from one to the next. Those men, he says, were our fathers too. God spoke to our fathers. We are, in other words, as I say over and over again to you, not the replacement for Israel. We are the continuation of the true Israel that was present in the Old Testament. So he's stressing that continuity, but we also need to see that he also, in these verses, stresses the discontinuity, the difference between that Old Testament church and the New Testament church. Notice he stresses that God spoke to them long ago, and he did so, uses two phrases, that many times and in many ways. Both of those point to a great variety and diversity in what God is doing. And when they're put together, it's trying to say that God spoke many different times and in many different ways, and it's going to make a very pointed contrast, which we'll get to in just a minute. How about those many different ways? Well, God spoke to some people like Abraham, like Moses, face-to-face, direct communication. He spoke directly to them. Moses, he even said to people, you're not like Moses. Moses, I speak to face-to-face. But God also spoke in visions. and in dreams. Remember Joseph having dreams that God gave to him, and Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel having dreams that they see. And visions are part of the prophetic experience as well. See, God has a variety of ways that he spoke in those long ago times to our fathers. And, of course, he did this at many times. It was throughout biblical history, from Adam all the way up through to that end book of Malachi. I think it also, though, here points toward the different styles that God used to speak to his people. The author here obviously is talking about the Old Testament scriptures as he's talking about God writing to, speaking to the people and doing it through the prophets. When you look at the Old Testament scriptures, you find God speaking in historical narrative. the Genesis accounts, and books like Samuel, and Chronicles, and Judges, and so on. But you also find him speaking in poetic, right? In Proverbs, and Psalms, and wisdom literature as well. You see, in a real sense, we're told in the New Testament that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is breathed out by Him. It is His Word. And there's a sense in which what the author is telling us here is that all scripture is prophetic in the sense of speaking God's word to God's people. God has been speaking from the beginning to our fathers at many times and in many ways. And amazingly, this great, amazing God chooses to use humanity, the prophets, to speak to humanity. He chooses to work through men, fallen men, to reveal himself and his will. Now, the real discontinuity that I'm pointing you to is made clear in the first part of verse 2. Notice, long ago, in many ways, at many times, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets, but notice how verse 2 begins. But, there's going to be a big change pointed out here, but, God has changed his style and manner and mode of speaking. He uses the word these now to show that he's no longer talking about those long ago times. He's now talking about these times, the times that you and I are living in, and he's saying to the people that he's writing. See, there's Old Testament prophets of long ago as they were writing what God spoke. wrote about God's promises that there was going to be a glorious time in the future, which again, in a variety of ways, they referred to as the last days, the latter days, the end times. But in those last latter days or end times, God promised that he was going to finally fulfill all the great and gracious promises that he had spoken to his people through all the prophets. And God told them that in those days, they would come when he would send to them a particular, a singular representative of him. One who would be known, again, spoken by God through those prophets in a variety of ways, in a variety of titles. The seed of the woman. The seed of Abraham. My servant in Isaiah. The shepherd. Like David, the king, the anointed one, my son. The point that the author of the book is making here now when he says, but, is that God is no longer now speaking at many times and in many ways as he did long ago. And by the way, I would suggest to you that might have some reference to how we look at the charismatic movement and others like that who feel that God is still giving true, real prophecy to people today, that it is real, new knowledge revealed from God. God is no longer speaking at many times and in many different ways. How do we know that? Because now, notice what the author says. He has spoken. He's already spoken now. but he has spoken this one time and in this one way by his Son. Well, who is this Son? How will we know this Son? How will we know to listen to the words of any particular person and know that they're the words of this Son of God that he has spoken through? Well, the author tells us that he is the one that God has appointed, and that word means he's the one that God has set in place at a particular time to be the heir of all things, all things. But notice, he's not just the heir of all things, he is also the one through whom God created all things, the universe. Now, we read and said earlier that it is God who created the heavens and the earth. Keep that in mind because scripture doesn't lie. God is the one who creates the heaven and the earth, but here the author says that God through his son created the universe, all things. That would suggest to you that this son is what? God. Since God is the one who created, The fact is that the way he is appointed comes before he used him to create, seems to suggest that he was appointed to be heir of all things before he brought all those things that he would be the heir of into existence even, in eternity past. Before one of them existed, he was appointed to be the heir of all those things. Again, you might think of correlation in scripture when you go to the Gospel of John in that prologue again in chapter 1 verses 1 to 3. In the beginning was, now he doesn't say the Son, but in this keeping with this theme of God speaking, he says in the beginning was the Word, the Logos, the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things, he says, were created by him. Without him, nothing was made that was made. Sounds like exactly what the author of the Hebrews is telling us right now, isn't it? We see in verse 2 that God acts through the Son. He creates everything through the Son. We see in the last part of verse 3 and in verse 4 that the Son himself is acting. The Son himself is doing things. But when you look at the beginning of verse 3, it's different. It isn't God acting, and it isn't the Son acting. The verb that is there in the beginning of verse 3 is not what we would think of as an action verb. Notice the author doesn't say that the Son manifested. the radiance of the glory of God or the exact imprint of his image. He doesn't say that he reflected those things. Do you see what he does say? The Son is the radiance of the glory of God. The son is the exact impress of his image. That word impress is used when you had a die to make coins and it had an image on it and when you stamped it into the metal, it left on the metal the very exact same image that was on the die. The son is that of the father. You see, the verb is, it's what we call a state of being verb. I hate to take you all back to English class again. I didn't do all that well in English in those early days. It's a state of being verb. It just talks about the state of existence. Do you remember when Moses said to God, if you're going to send me to these people down in Egypt, how are they going to know who sent me? What should I tell them? What does God say to them? Tell them I am. has sent you. It's the same bird. A state of being. I just am. That's the one who sent you. And the author here exalts the sun by saying that the sun doesn't reflect or manifest or try to duplicate the glory and nature of God. He is. You see, The Son can't do what God does without being God. Does that make sense? God is the one who creates. If the Son creates, what does that mean about the Son? He must be God. And we also shouldn't pass on too quickly here without noting another essential truth that the author of this book shares in sort of a almost passing kind of way about our God who speaks. Our God who speaks is and eternally has been, essentially according to his nature, a father. How do we know that? Because he has a son. That's the definition of a father, right? Father has a son or daughter, children. Our speaking God is and has eternally been a father. But we need to notice along with that that that means that his son has eternally been his son. It's a definition, an explanation of their relationship within the Trinity. There isn't a point in time when God had a female God that he got together with and then she birthed this new God. The Son, He's eternally begotten by the Father, the scriptures tell us. What does that mean? Maybe God will help us understand better when we get there. You're talking about God. How can you expect to understand every detail about Him? Right? If you understand that He's not God fully. Now we're not going to dig really very much deeper in this idea because the text doesn't do that here. As I said, he sort of passes by this, but it's critical here for us to recognize that as the father and the son exist together in this familial relationship through all eternity, Notice that that father-son relationship doesn't make the son lesser than the father or inferior to the father. You see, this is important for us today. There is a heresy that is running rampant in Christian circles today. ESS, the eternal subordination of the son. That the son has been for all eternity in a position inferior to and subordinate to the father. It's a lie from scripture. It is not true. It's Satan trying to lead you astray from the truth. We saw that the son is the glory of God. The son is the exact imprint of his nature. God's glory is his glory. God's nature is his nature. There's no eternal subordination of the son. The Father, Son, and we'll add in the Spirit, though he's not referenced in this text, are, as the Westminster Confession of Faith says in Chapter 2 about God in Paragraph 3, they are of one substance, power, and eternity. One substance, one power, one eternity. That's why the Shema in the Old Testament says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, but he exists in three persons. equal in power and glory and substance, essence. That's important. Don't give that up. Don't fall into heresy. Now he tells us that the Son not only does what God does in creating the world, all things, the universe, but he continues to do what only God can do by upholding. The word means bearing, carrying, but it has the idea, not just carrying, but sort of carrying forward, moving it forward. In a sense, what we're talking about here is providence. The confession will also tell you that God has his decrees, by which he's decreed everything that comes to pass, and he works out those decrees in his works of creation and providence. And the author here seems to be following the confession exactly on that. Firstly, he has Christ creating all things, and then he has Christ working out the providence of God's creation through the rest of history, upholding it, carrying it forward. And how does he do that? Again, think about this in the light of the God who speaks and the Son is the one through whom God is speaking. He upholds the universe how? By the Word. The Word of His power. You see the Son is also the God who speaks. Now in at least one sense God has always spoken through the Son. I don't know if that's occurred to you as we've been talking through this, but if the Son is the one who created everything and Scripture tells us that creation declares the glory of God, that God is speaking about His glory through creation, then God has been speaking through the Son through creation from the beginning. But as the author continues to focus on this, that God is now speaking in only one way in this one time through this one Son, It helps us understand that it has always been the father's purpose to speak through his son. This isn't something that God got partway through his plan of the world and then ran up against the difficulty and said, oh, all right, they're not listening to all those different ways and different times. Let me try speaking one time through a son and see if that works better. This is always God's purpose and intent, to speak through the son, through his son. I said to you earlier that Hebrews is all about God's trustworthiness and his faithfulness, and especially, particularly in and through his son. And I even said to you that these early verses are focused on Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, and his two natures, human and divine. So far, what we've been looking at in these verses seems, at least for the most part, to have been focused on his divine nature, the eternal son. But that's about the change in the second full sentence we find in verse 3 that carries over into verse 4 as we conclude in the text. In those lines, the author speaks about actions of the Son, the Son of God, not outside of time in eternity past, but within time. Historical action of the Son. He tells us that at some definite point in history the Son made purification for sin. Made, provided cleansing for removal of sins. Now the difficulty with that, if you think about it scripturally enough, is that one of the many things that God spoke long ago was that if man sins, then man must die. Isn't that what he said to Adam in the beginning? The very day that you eat of it and disobey me, you're going to die. And by the way, not only you, but all of your descendants who descend from you by ordinary generation are all going to die because of your sin. Why are they going to die? Because they're going to be fallen just like Adam is. They're going to be sinful just like he is. You see, fallen man can never achieve or obtain righteousness before God. For himself, let alone for anyone else. Remember what Paul says in Romans 3, there is none who is righteous, no not one. There isn't even one that seeks after God. And when God spoke in those long ago times through the prophets, through Moses, he granted animal sacrifices in those long ago times to purify from sin. But it was clear, and we'll see this as we work through the book, it was clear that those animal sacrifices didn't really remove sin. Why? Because they had to keep doing them over and over again. Even the ones who were given the purification, the priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sin first. It was a representative system. It pointed to the fact that there needed to be a sacrifice that would be made that would truly, fully, for all time, once and for all, purify, cleanse, remove sin. The author says that the Son has done that. Now he's not going to go into all that detail. But again, John in chapter 1 of his gospel covers much of the same ground we've seen in these verses. He talks about the Son, the Word, the Logos, who is with God and was God. He talks about how he created. But in chapter 1, verse 14, John goes on to say something really remarkable. And the Word that was with God and was God became flesh, he says. Became flesh. How can the Word become flesh? And he dwelled among us. How do we know that it's the Word who became flesh and blood among us? Because he says, we have seen his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Somehow the Son, divine, became flesh. His glory was still present in that flesh, but he became flesh. And that is because in the incarnation, the divine son took to himself a truly human body and nature, united it to himself, so that he is now one person, the Christ, with two natures, divine and human. Jesus was the perfect man who took our sins as his own, though he was sinless, and suffered God's wrath and judgment on those sins so that he could grant us atonement and propitiation, purification, removal of sin. He did that on the cross. And at creation, when God finished his labor of creating, we were told that he rested. Right? And so here, the author tells us that when Jesus finished his atoning labor for his people, he sat down. Now, in one sense, that sitting down is an indication that his work was complete. As he said on the cross, it is finished. There's nothing more to be done. It does, in a sense, point to rest as God's resting did at creation, but it points to much more than that. Notice where he sits. He sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, God himself. He sits on God's throne. Who can sit on God's throne, by the way? It's God's throne. God sits on God's throne. You see, this is Jesus in his humanity, united to the divine nature, that one person, the Christ, God is once again using humanity to speak his word, but now that humanity is the perfect man. The perfect humanity, Jesus the Christ, the anointed one. As God, the divine son, he always possessed all things. He didn't have to be appointed to inherit them. He was God. He always possessed all things and he always sat on the throne of God. But you see, in taking on humanity, he was made, as Psalm 8 says, a little lower than the angels. He was made human. And yet, Psalm 8 says in verse 5, you've crowned him with glory and honor. Well, first of all, he made us in his image, but this psalm also speaks to Christ. Because of his faithful obedience on the cross and accomplishing the work of redemption God set before him, he became the God who sits on the throne. He was rewarded for that. The author says that he was given a name. He became superior to the angels, as much superior to them as his name was superior to theirs. What name is that? Well, again, Paul gives us a hint in Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 to 11. Before we hit that though, I want to remind you of something Jesus himself said on earth. When we think about Jesus as this divine son, always sitting on the throne of God, and now Jesus in his humanity ascends to heaven and is sitting on the throne as the Christ. In John 17, in a high priestly prayer, verse 5, just early, right at the beginning of that prayer, Jesus prays to his father and says, restore to me the glory that I had with you. in your presence before the world existed. Wait, he's a man standing on earth. Once the glory he had with the Father before the world ever came into being restored to him. Glorify me with that. He was God sitting on the throne, but his humanity is now part of that God, and he will sit on the throne physically in his humanity. That's why he is that much superior to the angels. He's God. And the name he has is more superior to theirs because what is the name? Well, let's think about what Paul says. Because of his faithfulness on the cross, therefore God has highly exalted him and has given him a name. Name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Who does every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth have to bow to? God. What is the name that Jesus is given? He's God. Now again, you might wonder about that, but once again, one of those things that God long ago spoke to our fathers by the prophets, the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9 verse 6 said this, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called what? Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Do you ever meet a child who had those names? Well, you've met one if you're a Christian. It's Christ himself. He is God himself. You see, God is absolutely faithful, absolutely trustworthy. He has spoken. He has revealed himself. He wants us not to, we ran from him in the garden. He doesn't want to run from us. He wants us to know him and to be in fellowship with him. The father speaks, the son speaks, but they have one message because there's one source, God. They are both God. God has done and he will continue to do what he has promised. He speaks and has revealed himself through his son. That is the assurance that his word is true and that he has done and will continue to do everything he said. And if you're facing difficult times in your life as these believers were, they're being written to here in this book, you don't have to think, is it worth it? Am I making the wrong decision here? Can God be trusted? He is absolutely trustworthy and faithful, and his son is the proof of that, and his son has spoken and continues to speak through the scriptures. One commentator said this as we finish. In his purpose, the image of God, as God is revealing himself, the image of God was to be perfectly revealed in a man who was willing to die on a cross for our sins. Do you want to know who God is? That's God. Do you want to know if he cares for you and is faithful to you? That's how much he cares for you and how faithful he is to you. Let's pray. Father we thank you for all of your promises, for all that you have spoken to us, particularly in and through your son in these last days. These days when the Messiah has come and his kingdom has been established, when the end is becoming more and more imminent, when those last day will come, when judgment will occur, and we will enter into the new heaven and new earth to know the full consummation of our blessings in Christ. We look forward to that day and we pray that you would help us to be confident in your trustworthiness and your faithfulness because we see it in your Son. and because we see Him in us by Your Spirit. We pray these things in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen.