I'm reading from the book of Hebrews, once again, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 10 through 14. And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment. and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. May God bless the reading and the hearing of his word, and let's join together in prayer. Gracious and loving God, allow those who hear the preaching of this word to be able to hear not merely the words of men, but to hear the Word of God in the Scriptures revealed to us. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen and Amen. The focus of this first chapter of Hebrews is on the person, and the nature of Christ. Who is Christ? We've said this is the most foundational, fundamental question of Christianity. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? The theologians refer to this as Christology, the doctrine of Christ. And in Hebrews chapter one, the purpose is to tell us what is an orthodox or a right-thinking view of who Christ is. We have already read in Hebrews 1 verses 1 and 2 that Christ is greater than the prophets. In past times, in sundry times, in diverse manners, God spoke to the fathers, the patriarchs of Israel of old, through the prophets. But now, in these last days, the author of Hebrews says, God has spoken to us by His Son. And then we saw in Hebrews 1 how not only Jesus is greater than the greatest men, the prophets, but He's greater also than the angels. It says of Jesus in verse 4 of Hebrews 1 that He was made so much better than the angels. And certainly one of the early false views, the false teachings about Jesus, you'll recall, was that he was an exalted creature, or he was even an angel, like the archangel Michael, as it's held by Jehovah's Witnesses. Part of the fundamental misunderstandings that arose and that the early Christians faced regarding the doctrine of Christ I think had to do with misunderstandings that centered around the Incarnation. If Jesus was born in Bethlehem, then some believe that He must have had a definite beginning, a point of creation. That is, He must have been merely a creature. And they fundamentally misunderstood that before the incarnation was, the Son of God was, that God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from all eternity. And even before the Word was made flesh in Bethlehem, there was the second person of the Godhead, the Christ. Another related heresy or false teaching The first being that Jesus was a mere creature. A related one was the false teaching that Jesus had been an ordinary man who through his innate goodness and righteous actions was elevated to the status of being the Son of God. This is sometimes called adoptionism. That God the Father had adopted the man Jesus to be a Son of God or to be a Christ. It has been claimed that Jesus gained this status at different points along the way of his life and ministry. Some have said that he became the son of God at his baptism. When the Gospels record, the father said, this is my beloved son, or at the transfiguration where again, the voice of the father. was heard affirming the sonship of the Lord Jesus or even at his crucifixion or at his resurrection. Some had even taken passages and twisted them or distorted them to make them fit this scheme. So some have taken passages like Romans 1-4 where Paul said that he declared that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead as if he only became the Son of God after resurrection rather than, I think what Paul is actually saying, is that after resurrection there was a public identification of Jesus as the Son of God. So some have claimed that Jesus was not the Son of God from all time and eternity as the second person of the Godhead pre-incarnation. but that he only at some point during his life was elevated to the status of being the son of God. So again, we've talked about here two types of heretical views. One is Jesus is merely a creature. The other adoptionism, he was sort of promoted to the status of being the son of God. And one thing this is a reminder of to the young people here is that when you go seeking out a church, some of you are gonna grow up, you're gonna become fathers, mothers yourselves, you're gonna seek out a church, even if you never married, you're a single person. you're going to be seeking out a church. And one of the questions you should always ask of any church is, do you uphold the Trinity? Do you believe in the triune God? Do you believe in God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And if you have a church that hedges on that, it will not explicitly say that they believe in the Trinity. You should avoid that church. because those who reject the Trinity eventually fall into errors, and particularly errors about their view of Jesus. I believe Hebrews 1 10-14 was specifically written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God to combat false views of Christ, in particular by affirming what we could call the eternality of Christ and the immutability of Christ. The fact that the Christ has always been from everlasting to everlasting, who God is, one God in three persons, and that this one God is immutable, unchangeable, and that the son of God, The Christ shares also in this divine attribute of immutability with regard to his divine nature. Though there was a specific point in time in which the word was made flesh, as John says in John 1.14, there was that time when, as the gospels record it, Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, This was not, on the other hand, the beginning or the starting point as it were for the Christ, the second person, the Godhead. This is again where the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is necessary fully to understand who God is and to fully understand who Christ is. The point again is that God has always been a triune being, one God in three persons, the Muslim, misunderstands Christians. He says, Christians are tritheists. You believe in three gods. That's not true. We don't believe in three gods. The Muslim says, how could one plus one plus one not equal three? And we say with respect that one times one times one equals one. There's one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in one God. And we believe that second person of the Godhead, the son of God, of the Christ, has always been who God is. Now we have out in the Narthex, before you enter our meeting house here, a framed verse from the scriptures and a picture of the mountains. And the verse is Psalm 90, verse two, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." And, of course, it's not merely talking about God the Father, but it's talking about the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From everlasting to everlasting, the Father is God. From everlasting to everlasting, the Son is God. From everlasting to everlasting, the Spirit is God. Let's turn then and let's look at this passage again, which I'm suggesting has been particularly placed in the scriptures to affirm the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, including the eternality and the immutability of the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage begins in verse 10 and the author of The chapter, perhaps the Apostle Paul, as we discussed before, writes this, And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. Now, the first question we need to ask of this verse is, who is being spoken of here? Who is the Lord who is referred to here when it says, and thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundations of the earth? The Greek word for Lord here, of course, is kurios. That word sometimes in the New Testament simply means Sir or Master. but it's also a special term that is used to refer to God. And when they translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek, every time they came to the special name for God, it's often rendered Jehovah or Yahweh. They use this Greek word to render the Hebrew expression Adonai. They use the word kurios, which means Lord. And so on one hand, it's speaking of God, God, Almighty, the God of the Old Testament. But we also know that this term Lord was specifically used by Christians to refer to Jesus. And so the earliest Christian creed, we might call it, was Jesus is Lord. This is why Paul can say in Romans 10 9, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus or Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We've already seen in verse 8, we let our eyes go up to verse 8, how in citing Psalm 45 in verse 6, already Jesus, the Son of God, has been referred to using the title of God, or the description of God, or the name of God. Look at verse 8. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. So there, the Son is called, in Greek, Hathaos, God. And here, in a similar vein, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is called Lord, Kurios. Again, a title that is normally reserved for the God of the Bible. The thing that we see here is that when the name of God or Lord is used in reference to Jesus, the Son of God, what this is, is speaking of Jesus in a Trinitarian manner. He is one God, again, in three persons. Think of the description that is given here, and it is describing, once again, the Son of God as the Creator. Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundations of the earth. And it's saying that God, the triune God, is the one who made the world, who laid the foundations of the earth. In Greek, it uses a verb here that means to set up pillars. The earth is set on the familios, on the pillars or the foundations. Now, it doesn't mean literally that there are physical pillars holding up the earth, but they're invisible pillars. God is upholding the world and everything in it. And he's the one who set it initially upon its foundations. When we think about the triune God creating the world, of course, we go back immediately to Genesis 1. And in Genesis 1, One and following, it starts the account of creation. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. When we read this and we read about creation, we probably are prone to think of creation being the work of God the Father. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Or we think about God the Father as the God who decrees, issues commands and decrees. Here he says, let there be light and there is light. We also have a reference here in Genesis 1, though, to the Spirit of God. It says that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And so it seems there are direct references here in the opening to Genesis to the work of God the Father in His decretal decreeing work and the work of the Spirit and its hovering work and moving work upon the face of the deep. The great insight that is added now by the New Testament is that the work of creation was also performed by the second person of the Godhead, in the opening to the gospel of John. And John 1, 1 and following, it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. And so it was the Logos that was also making all things. And nothing that is, was not made, but through Him, through the Word of God, through the second person of the Godhead. And we've already seen this affirmed in Hebrews as well. If you look back at Hebrews 1 and verse 2 there, it had said of Jesus, the son, that he is not only the heir of all things, but also by whom he made the worlds. that the worlds were made by the Son of God. And not only that, but in verse three, it also says that He's the sustainer, the provider. He not only is the creator, but He's the sustainer provider. When it says that He upholds all things by the word of His power. The obvious point here is that in the beginning, as it says in verse 10, the Lord laid the foundations of the earth And this means that Christ did not begin at Bethlehem, but Christ was there at creation. And in fact, the Christ or the Son of God has always been who God is. We might notice as well here in verse 10, the emphasis upon what we could call the expansiveness and the totality of creation. Not only does it say in Hebrews 110 that the Lord has laid the foundations of the earth, but also goes on to say the second half of verse 10, that the heavens are the works of thine hands. So the triune God is responsible for creating the earth, setting it on its pillars, And the Triune God is also responsible for making the vast expanse of the heavens. Don't you see now, here it's saying, from the bottom of things, from the earth, to the heights, to the heavens, that the Triune God, and particularly the Son, has made all of these things, and He's made everything in between. Matthew Poole in his commentary adds an interesting insight here. He says, If the heavens were the works of His hands, and all in them, then He was the Creator of angels, and therefore must be, for person, name, and office, more excellent than they. the totality of creation, all its expansiveness, from the setting the earth on its pillars to the heights of the heavens, it means he also created the angels. And if he's the creator of the angels, he is greater than the angels, going back to this theme of the greatness of Christ and his superiority to the angels. Verse 10 is yet another quotation that comes from the Psalms. It's actually a quotation from Psalm 102, and the quotation continues in verses 11 and 12 of Hebrews 1. And the quotation here from the Psalm, let me just read Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27. where the psalmist writes, Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. Notice how Hebrews 1 has repeatedly appealed to the scriptures. When the author of Hebrews, perhaps the apostle Paul, wants to cinch his point about who Jesus is, about his person and nature and his works, he doesn't appeal to tradition. He doesn't say you should believe this because we've always held it, although tradition can be source of authority. It's not an ultimate source of authority. He doesn't say you should believe this because it is the most reasonable deduction. Although it's a very logical and reasonable deduction, reason is not the ultimate authority. He doesn't say you should believe this because of the way it makes you feel. Feelings can be deceiving. Experiences can be deceiving. But the reason he says you should believe is this about who Jesus is, that he is the creator of all things, and that he has been there from everlasting to everlasting. The reason you should believe this is because it is affirmed in the scriptures. This was the Reformation call, sola scriptura, that scripture alone is our ultimate foundation for knowledge, for knowing things that are right and true. And not only does he appeal generally to the scriptures, but specifically here in Hebrews 1, we see the emphasis being laid upon the citations from the Psalms. It has been said that the first Christians made the most use of three books in particular in the Old Testament. They went back again and again to Genesis, to the prophet Isaiah, and to the Psalms. And it's interesting, each one of those would represent one part of the tripartite Hebrew Bible, the law, the prophets and the writings. From the law of the book of Genesis, from the prophets, the book of Isaiah, from the writings, the Psalms. And it was from the Psalms in particular that they described and they defended their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some folk have criticized sometimes the the use of Psalms particularly the exclusive use of psalms in the corporate praise and the singing of the church. But that criticism sometimes is misplaced. They will say, how could we only sing psalms? If we only sing psalms, we'll never use directly the name of the Lord Jesus. Although that might be true, that the explicit name Jesus might not be mentioned. The truth is that Christ is shot throughout the Psalms. The Psalms speak of Christ. And when the first Christians wanted to read of Christ and read prophecies of Christ and read about the life of Christ, they turned to the Psalms. And again, here in this first chapter of Hebrews, I don't know if you've noticed this, but there has been a consistent emphasis upon the citation of the Psalms. In Hebrews 1.5, there is a citation of Psalm 2.7, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee as the Father speaks to the Son of God on the day of his incarnation. In Psalm, chapter 1, verse 7, there is a citation from Psalm 97.7, which says, And let the angels of God worship him. In chapter 1 and verse 7 as well, there is a citation from Psalm 104 and verse 4. In Hebrews 1 verses 8 and 9, there is a citation of Psalm 45 verses 6 and 7. And here, as I've already pointed out, in Hebrews 1 verses 10 through 12, there is a citation of Psalm 102 verses 25 through 27. Again, this speaks not only to the authority of the Scriptures, But it also speaks in particular to the authority of the Psalms. The first Christians found the Psalms to be sufficient to speak of Christ. And perhaps this is why that there are two explicit commands in the New Testament that Christians sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in Ephesians 519 and Colossians 316. Well, if the description of Creation in verse 10 places Christ in eternity past, pre-existing the creation. In verse 11, the focus turns to the future, as it says of the created order, the earth and the heavens, they shall perish. but thou remainest." And then it repeats that in verse 11, using the metaphor of old clothing. And they all shall wax old, as doth a garment. Continuing in verse 12, And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But then, in contrast to that, it says of God, second half of verse 12, But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." The description here reminds me somewhat of what the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 40, verse 8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Not only does the word of God remain, though all else passes away, but God Himself The author of Hebrews is telling us, drawing upon the Psalm, Psalm 102, God himself abides and will abide even in that day when the entire creation is undone. Again, this is a look to the future. And it's an account of the day when this world, this physical world will collapse and it will come to an end. I love the metaphor that's there, particularly at the end of verse 11 and the beginning of verse 12, that of the skies or the heavens being like a garment that becomes old and threadbare, and it eventually has to be folded up and put away. And I think of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 34, verse four, he said, and all the host of heaven shall be dissolved and the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll. There, the image is not of clothing being folded up, but like a scroll being folded up. We might say like a book being closed. And he continues, the prophet Isaiah does. second half of Isaiah 34 4 and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine and as a falling fig from the fig tree and he's using the image here that we can relate to especially in this fall season of the year of the leaves falling from the trees and the last ripened fruit falling from the branch and he's saying one day this created world is going to collapse and it's going to end. What is being described here is the end again of the of the present heavens and the present earth, as they will be replaced by the coming of the new heavens and the new earth." The Apostle Peter writes of this in 2 Peter 3.10 and following, when he says, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with of fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." And so he says at the end of the ages, at the day of the Lord, at the second coming of Christ, the present heavens and the present earth will dissolve. And then in Revelation 21.1, John the Revelator says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. Now, I remember hearing descriptions like this when I was a child, and frankly, being very frightened. The world, the heavens and the earth dissolving, being consumed with fire, that seemed like a fearful thing. We generally have a dread of the end of this age, certainly non-believers do. I think about people talking about global warming, in some ways it's kind of like a secular eschatology, a secular doctrine of the last times or the end of this age. But the thing we should remember that for Christians, this is not a fearful thing. Yes, this world will come to an end. It will be worn out like an old piece of clothing, like a scroll. It will be rolled up. But God is preparing a new heavens and a new earth. And for believers, the day of Christ's coming will not be something to dread, but it will be a day of glory, a day of bliss, a day of joy. The contrast though, that I think is the main focus of the citation of Psalm 102 here, is the contrast between the world which is passing away, the changing creation we might call it, and the constancy of God. Notice the repetition in verse 11, but thou remainest and in verse 12, but thou are the same and thy years shall not fail. Again, the focus here is on the eternality of God. He was there in the long distant past. in pre-existence, even before the world was ever created. And he will also be there in the distant future when the old earth and the old heavens collapse to make room for the new heavens and the new earth. And he's there at every point along the way. He is from everlasting to everlasting. And again, the point is not merely to say that God is the same, But it is to say that the Triune God is the same. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Christ has always been the same. He was there in pre-existence and He will be there after this world collapses. One of my favorite verses when I was a child, one of the first verses I memorized was Hebrews 13.8. And I still have my childhood Bible that my parents gave me. one Christmas and on the flyleaf, inside flyleaf of that Bible, I have written Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Now you might say it's appropriate to say God is the same yesterday, today and forever. But the inspired author of Hebrews specifically said Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today and forever. And here that same affirmation is being made as Jesus referred to in verse 10 as the Lord who laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens and It is said of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 11, but thou remainest, it's said of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 12, but thou art the same. What is being affirmed here is the eternality of Christ and the immutability of Christ. These, of course, are divine attributes, but the author here, perhaps the Apostle Paul, sees no contradiction in saying this of the Lord Jesus Christ. The theologians talk about the attributes of God and they make lists of the attributes of God. And some of the attributes of God they say are communicable. That is, they communicate or there are analogies that can be drawn between the attributes of God and the attributes of men. We say that God is merciful and loving. And we also, to some dim degree at least, know how to be merciful and loving. Again, on a much more primitive and immature manner, we know how to be loving and merciful. Of course, the way God is loving and merciful swallows up the way that we are loving and merciful, but those attributes communicate. There is an analogy that can be drawn. But when it comes to these attributes of eternality, Or when it comes to the attribute of immutability, those are what the theologians call incommunicable attributes. That is, they're not attributes that we as human beings share. We each had a definite beginning point. We began at the point of creation. This is where, again, Mormons are wrong in their theologies. They believe in pre-existing eternal souls. That's not the biblical view. You do not come into being until you were conceived in the womb of your mother. Look at Psalm 139. That's when you were formed by God. That's when your spirit or your soul was formed by God. And of course it will continue to exist for eternity. Given the miracle of the resurrection, we will inhabit our bodies. The wicked will experience the resurrection to condemnation. The redeemed will experience the resurrection to life. But we were not here from pre-existence. We were not here at creation. We were created at a particular point in time. We had a beginning, but God did not have a beginning. Also, we change. We experience passions and moods and we go through cycles of change, but God does not change. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And as Hebrews 13, eight says, the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Would you say such things? Would you say such things of someone who was merely a man? Would you say such things of someone who merely came into existence at Bethlehem? Or would you say such things of one who was merely only supposedly adopted to the status of the son of God at his baptism or at his crucifixion or at his resurrection? Of course not. These things are too high to say of someone who is merely a good man. You can only say that God alone is eternal and immutable. Well, in verse 13 of Hebrews 1, we return to the related theme of the greatness of Christ over against the angels. Again, a theme that really dominated verses four through nine, but he's gonna return to that theme in verse 13, as he says, but to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. We have yet another quotation from the Psalms here. This comes from Psalm 110 and verse one. And once again, it is speaking of Christ in his office as the King. God the Father said to the Son in eternity past, sit on my right hand and I will make thine enemies thy footstool. And we've already seen the emphasis in Hebrews 1 on Christ, the exalted Christ, exercising His office as King and being exalted and seated in session, ruling with authority. We see this in Hebrews 1, the end of verse 3, where it says of Christ that He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, or where it says of Him in verse 8 of Hebrews 1, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom." And this psalm is being drawn upon again to contrast the role of the Son of God and the essence of the Son of God and the appointment of the Son of God in contrast to who the angels are. Psalm 110.1 was one of the most popular verses of passages to preach among the early Christians. We see it preached in Acts 2 when Peter rises to preach the sermon at Pentecost. And he says in Acts 2.32, this Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear, for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool." The early Christians love preaching this passage and interpreting it as speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ because they wanted, I think, to convey something in essence about who Jesus is. No angel, no mere creature, no matter how bright and mighty, has ever been told to sit at the right hand of God the Father. That is a place that is reserved only for the Son of God. In verse 14 of Hebrews 1, he proceeds to describe the angels as ministering spirits. He says, are they not all ministering spirits? sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Perhaps in the background of this verse is another psalm, Psalm 103 verse 20, which says, Bless the Lord, ye His angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word. And in verse 21 of Psalm 103, it continues, bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. The angels are indeed exalted servants of God, but they are not sons of God. And here, the author of Hebrews makes the point that The angels serve the needs of the saints. They serve the needs of those who are the heirs of salvation. But here in the background, we come to the realization that Christ has a greater place in the angels because he's not only the servant of the saints, but he is the savior of the saints. As it says in Hebrews one and verse three, by himself, he purged our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the heirs of salvation. He has made us co-heirs with Him of God the Father. Matthew Poole, reflecting on this verse, wrote the following. He said, the apostle, and he assumes Pauline authorship of Hebrews, here proves that the angels are but ministers to the great gospel minister and to the members of his body, the church, and so must be meaner than him for state, nature, and name. And when he says that the angels are but ministers, he uses the lowercase m, And then when he talks about Jesus, he calls him the great gospel minister or the capital M. The angels are but ministers to the great gospel minister, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I hope you will agree with me having looked through this chapter that the Lord has sovereignly placed. I think this chapter in the scriptures as a firewall, as a safeguard for the people of God against having a defective or a deformed view of who Jesus is. This is something that has plagued the church from the very beginning. It was here before the New Testament canon was even completed. The author of Hebrews is having to combat people who are holding out a lesser view of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that this was held later on in church history. There was a man named Arius. who taught that Jesus was just an exalted creature, and his followers were called Arians, and there was a great battle in the early church over whether or not Jesus is divine, and Athanasius led the fight against Arius to uphold an orthodox view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even after the time of the Reformation, there was a Polish man, a philosopher, named Sosinus, and he also taught that Jesus was merely a man. and his followers were called Socinians. And this was the beginning of what was called the Unitarian Movement. Those who said they believed in one God, they were monotheists, but they rejected the Bible's witness to the deity of Christ. And as we've already noted in this series, in our own modern day, we have the Jehovah's Witnesses who are somewhat like modern day Arians. And so, There have always been, from the very beginning, challenges to the person, the nature, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we come to draw some application, I just want to point to five affirmations, maybe five challenges, that we should take away from this passage. First of all, We find out from this passage that if we want to know who Christ is, we must turn to the scriptures and especially to the Psalms. If we want to know who Christ is, we can't turn to tradition, to reason, to experience, but we must turn to the scriptures first. And we want to see what do the scriptures say about Christ, and in particular, what do the Psalms say about Christ? That's why in our worship here, we try to read the Psalms and sing the Psalms because we believe the Psalms speak of Christ. Secondly, from this passage, we are challenged never to think that Christ is less than he is. Brothers and sisters, never think that Christ is less than He is. Third, we have affirmed in this passage that Christ is from everlasting to everlasting. We have affirmed what we could call the eternality of Christ. Christ is eternal. There never has been a time when Christ was not, and there never will be a time when Christ is not. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Fourth, we learned that our challenge here to affirm that Christ is immutable. Christ does not change. Matthew Poole remarks, how transcendently excellent is he who is immutable and eternal for state and name above angels. And then the fifth and final affirmation challenge that comes to us from this passage is that Christ is not a mere creation of God. But Christ is who God is, who God has been, and who God always will be. We must not confuse the fact that the Word became flesh. We must not confuse the fact that there was a time of the incarnation of Christ with any notion of the creation of Christ merely at Bethlehem. Matthew Poole again is helpful. He says, the assumption of the humanity to his person made no alteration in him being still the same most excellent person as ever. And we must not confuse scriptural language that praises Christ for his mighty acts like his resurrection with any notion that he only became the Son of God or was promoted to the status of Son of God or was adopted as the Son of God at some point in time. The scandalous confession of Christians has always been the same from the very beginning, from the time the book of Hebrews writing in an unbroken line down to this present day, true believers have always stood and said, Jesus is Lord. They have said like Thomas did when he saw the risen Jesus in John 20, 28, my Lord and my God and brother and sister. We stand here today once again to make that same affirmation being taught here directly by the word of God. Jesus is Lord. Amen.