Okay, good evening everybody. Thank you again to Pastor Mark as well as Nadia as well. It's truly a privilege to be able to bring the word of God in any form, whether it be on the streets of Dublin or here. And I really wanted to say that it's an absolute privilege. It is to know the Risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be His servants. We see so many pictures of these things, the privileges that we have, and they just pray by the grace of God that they come here trembling before. It's so easy. Because this is the fourth message and this is the second message on the book of Hebrews. To come here and to get confidence. I pray that the Lord will continue to show me my weaknesses and show me how much I really need to know. It was tremendously blessed to go through this study. which I'm going to do today. This is the second message in the book of Hebrews. This is from Hebrews chapter one, verses two and three. In the last message, we're dealing with Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two, where we saw that the, just a brief introduction in the book of Hebrews, and also dealing with how it is a book that exalts the priesthood and the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is achieved for us like I mentioned the last day, you can see why, I don't know how many translations the book of Hebrews has been butchered in, but you can see why that is one of the books that they will go to in order to prove a lot of doctrines. Now, the person of Christ is the name of this message. The person of Christ. And we're gonna be looking, I'm gonna read from Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 for context, but we're going to look at probably what you would call 2B and 3A in terms of the verses in this sermon. But I'll just read for context. God, with sundry times and in diverse matters, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, having these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom he had appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, in verse three, we're going to deal with up to where it says, upholding all things by the word of his power. We're gonna look at some of who is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is such a, often we can, there's attacks on the Holy Spirit in our day through the charismatic movement. There's attacks on God the Father through things like atheism, et cetera. But, in the Lord Jesus Christ, I think one of the, I guess, probably dangers that we can all fall into is this, Jesus is my buddy. As in, don't worry about me and God, we got this thing working out. They don't know God if they're saying that. The truths of who God is, God the Son, and this is bound up in the Trinity. Often we can think of the Trinity in such a, a careless way that we don't realize that it was the triune God who was there from the beginning and created the worlds. The verses we're gonna look at, just to read it one more time, we're gonna deal with his son, who he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he had made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power. So that's what we're going to deal with in this message. This passage deals with who the Son is. It uses the term like whom and who. The passage deals with the glory and power of Christ. And of course there are other attributes, but we'll just concentrate on this. I think that the power of in our day if we are to ever see revival. Often a person, again just mentioning, he's dealt with our body in time of need or some kind of psychologist who cannot wait to knock on your heart and come in. As Brother Richard Bennett so adequately put, salvation is not found in the human heart. Salvation is in Christ and in Christ alone. It's almost like he's some kind of psychotic waiting to heal all our hurting. We're victims of our lack of self-esteem. And lack of self-esteem is the problem in all the world. But the problem is, it is a world that is sin-cursed, a rejected God, that is God-hating. A man's problem is not that he's a lack of self-esteem. If anything, he thinks too much of himself. It is hard to be disappointed if you don't expect much. But the scriptures, from the scriptures, that lack of self-esteem is not a problem. As Jeremiah 17, 9 states, a deceitful heart we have. We lie not only to others, but also to ourselves. Christ is idolatry, the idolatry that goes on in the evangelical service today is astonishing with regards to images of Christ. I don't think this can be overestimated enough. He is, and we look at him in the express image of God the Father. There's a lack of true knowledge of God. If you wanna know why there is no true worship in the churches, if you want to know why everything's become so carnal, it is because there's a shallowness in the word of God. Everything is so, we want quick answers, we want microwavable theology, I always call it sometimes, as in we want it quick, or we don't want it at all. If you look at John Calvin's book, his institutes that he wrote on the Christian religion, that was a huge work, but that was itself an introduction to the Christian faith. I keep hearing people say, ah, it's so difficult, it's so complicated. It's the basics of the faith. But we think that it's so complicated. It is astonishing. If you, the knowledge of God, when that fills the church, the power that goes forth is astonishing. In the last message we looked at, God, in the Old Testament times, spoke in diverse ways by the prophets unto the fathers. But now, and this is the important message from that last message, is in these last days, these last days, since the time of Christ, up until his return, has spoken unto us by his son. which means we are to seek no other revelation. And to reject that is to reject the word in any of our lives. It's like saying to the sun, you don't rule here. You don't rule here. We don't know who he is when we do that. I'm not sure if I can get all this message in today, but These are the titles that I'll be using. In the first part, it will be talking about the heir and his inheritance. The heir and his inheritance. The second part, the creator and his creation. The third part is the glory and the express image of the father and the son. And finally, number four, the word of his power. The word, always power. Let's deal with the first statement. His son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. I was often thinking, so many of us, myself included, we get offended so easily if somebody says anything against us, and we often think in our minds, and we don't say it out loud, but we think, do they know who I am? Do they know how long I've done this? Do they, we often think, I'm so important, you've got to take my opinion on this. Because we think we're really important. We think, oh, I've been studying this subject for 20 years. It's probably one of the things that blinds Bible commentators, especially when they, you could study something for 30 years and you may not have much to add on the subject. We deserve the best retreatment. Let's apply that to Christus. Who is Christ? The word, and I've heard people say it, the word buddy or some sort of heater, he is the sovereign lord of all the universe. The reason why you're breathing right now is because Christ allows it. Have you ever imagined that? Have you ever read the word and tears start filling your eyes because of he is holding your heart beating right now? It's astonishing. Even when we go out on Thursday nights and we're giving the word, and those people who blaspheme God, the reason they can do that is because the sovereign Lord, the one they hate, allows him to do that. The one they, everything that they have good in this world comes from him, and they hate him. He's the king that sits at the right hand of the Father. Let us not reduce him down to human terms. Yes, He is 100% man. Yes, He is 100% God. He is 100% man so He can intercede for us between the Father. Today He reigns. His Kingdom is everlasting. We are not waiting for Him to reign in the future, He reigns today. Hebrews 1.8 states, but unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Jesus is Lord regardless whether you bow to him or not. There's often a debate whether you make Jesus Lord or Savior and all this kind of, no one makes Jesus Lord, he is. Whether you bow and eat Him or not, whether you hate Him or not, He is Lord and He is Savior. The world knows no other Savior. Before the foundations of the world, God, let's deal with the term heir for a minute. We're skipping on a bit too much here. He is the heir of all things. Let's deal with that. What does it mean to be the heir of all things? John Brown of Edinburgh states the following on the comment of heir. It is not uncommon he deals firstly what heir normally means. Heir normally means you are going to come into property once the person of significance passes away and the properties pass on to you. But John Brown makes the point of Edinburgh Estates that it is not uncommon, however, to use the word as equivalent to possessor or proprietor. He is the possessor of all things. This is clearly what it means here. Without reference to the manner in which the property is acquired. And he says this is plainly its meaning here. And he adds a little later, he hath given all things into the hand of his son, all things. Before the foundations of the world, the, what theologians call the covenant of redemption, where the father calls out the following, in Psalm 2, verses 7 to 9, I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son this day, Have I begotten thee? Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. The heir has an inheritance. I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. If you are Christ today, he owns you. And what a wonderful privilege that is. and the ultimate parts of the world for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. They will be utterly changed. We are Christ's inheritance. He lived a perfect, sinless life, and died for those, not for those who are pleasing in and of themselves, and God cannot live without you. Relies, as Hebrews 11, 6 states, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Who had faith before they were saved? No one. He died for those, He bought us, and He owns us. The irreverence that is in most evangelical churches today, it will lead to many, many things, and mostly the judgment of God, mainly with false converts. We have to tremble before who the person of Christ is. We cannot treat Him like someone we just go to when everything else fails. He owns us, he bought us, and if he is our master, we will serve him. Psalm 28, nine states, save thy people and bless thy inheritance. Feed them also, lift them up forever. John 17, 9, verses 9 to 10 states, because Jesus is praying to the Father, this heir has an inheritance. Why are they saved? And primarily, if you don't understand something of Scripture, begin with the glory of God. He does everything primarily for the glory of himself, because it pleases him. No other reason, he needs no other reason for that than that. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am glorified in them. In Ephesians 1, 18 to 23, we look at, again, his inheritance, the glories, have we trifling treated the Son of God in our behavior, in our speech, in our thought life? The eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling. I want the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. I want the exceeding greatness of His power to us, for it's who believe according to the work of His mighty power, which He wrought, again, in Christ. Remember, this Father said to His Son, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. In nothing else is he well pleased. Everything we do in and of ourselves is wrought with sin. We are radically depraved, coming from the Latin radix, which means from root. Everything we do is tinted, is tainted with sin. And he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in heavenly places. He is a proprietor. He is a possessor. He owns everything. Everything is in His power. This is what it means to be heir of all things. Everything that is the Father is the Son's. The next part, the Creator and His creation. God is not just the Redeemer of the elect. And in that is glorious. but he's also the creator. By whom, Hebrews 1, 2 says, by whom also he made the worlds. The worlds here is not normally what worlds translate, cosmos, it is aeon. Aeon basically means, in very simplistic terms, as the Geneva Bible states, this is everything what ever has been at any time is or shall be. Eternity, the worlds, the universe, The entire time, everything that was, is, or shall be was created by Christ. By whom also he made the worlds. Colossians 116, for by him were all things created. Nothing was created without him. that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him, and I think one of the things that the evangelical church of today misses, and for Him. For Him. They were created for Him. If we could take one thing away from this, everything's for Him. The reason you breathe is for Him. The reason the wicked, those vessels fit for destruction are allowed to live as long as they do is to demonstrate His justice, to demonstrate His wrath. In Revelation 14 it talks about the wrath of the Lamb. While a person has their breath in their lungs, he is with a stretched out arm, calling all to repentance. Not just inviting them, but commanding all people everywhere to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But, what wakes those who ignore that mercy? It is the wrath of the Lamb. In the beginning was the Word, John 1, 1 to 3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He is the very Word made flesh, and the Word was with God. And 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 to make all men see, Ephesians 3, 9, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hidden Christ, or hidden God, sorry, who created all things by Jesus Christ. And I want you to just picture this. Before we go on, before we rush through a load of verses and say, okay, yes, he's the creator, the creator entered his own sin-cursed world. Made himself of no reputation. He did not empty himself of his glory. He emptied himself of the symbols or the manifestations of his glory. He suffered and died in a world he created. A world that rejected him. on a horrific death on a hill, a hill He created Himself. Ended the perfect sinless life, tempted in all ways in which we've been tempted, while not stopping for one moment to love the Father as He ought to be loved. And the thing about it is, the truth is, we have never loved the Father like Christ did, not for one moment. Christian, do you know what's been done for you? If your life has not been changed by the cross, you have no comprehension of who this God is. He's not just your buddy. Yes, he's a friend to those who are meek. to those who are weighed down by their sin, come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, rest in Christ, rest from your dead works, rest from the works of the law, rest, so that you may give proper place to God's works. Sinners divide of hope and divide of anything that could, we couldn't please God in ourselves, there's nothing that we can work up with the wrath of God. Do we realize what's been done for us, what has been, the creator of the world enters into this sin-cursed world. We may never, ever reduce that down to trivialness. Unfortunately, most of the professing church today doesn't know the Savior. And it's by their works they demonstrate that. He's the glorious Lord. Is he precious to you? Even the very breath in your lungs, your heart beating, the fact that you can walk. This God is glorious. You may have problems today in various areas. You may have, I'll give you an example, you may have a foot problem. Praise the Lord you've got a foot. Who gave it to you? Have you ever given the Lord thanks for that? Or have you moaned all day that you've had a foot problem? It puts things in perspective, doesn't it? We are so quick to go to the things we've been deprived of. So quick to do that. The next point, the glory and express image of the Father in the Son. This is from verse three. Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, Calvin, John Calvin and his institute commented on how God would remain concealed from us if Christ does not irradiate or shine on them by the brightness of his person. He is the very person of the beauty of holiness. Calvin states that, all that the father had he deposited with his only begotten son in order that he might manifest himself in him. And thus, by the communication of blessings expressed the true image of God. Philip when dealing with this, the glory and the express image of the Father in the Son. There's so much in these verses. What does it mean, express the true image of His glory? Christ is the image and the express image of His glory. He reveals the Father. When Philip didn't understand this, in John 14, verses 7 to 10, Philip's saying to us, Jesus starts off by saying, if you had known me, you should have known my father also. For from henceforth, you know him and have seen him. So he's saying you've seen him. People want pictures, people want actual drawings. Philip's saying to him, The current line straight away kind of goes, well, can we see him, please? Reveal. And it's sufficeless. And Jesus said unto him, I have been with you so long, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? And he said, and he had seen me, had seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. The Son reveals the Father. He is the image of the Father. He's the supreme revelation of the Father. Colossians 2.9. For in him, Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This demonstrates why no pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ should ever be used in evangelism. It leads to this irreverent triviality of who God the Son is. we have an idol for Christ rather than the word of God. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. How often do we skip over these verses and think, that's quite interesting. When we look at when Christ came before people, when God was before people, it inspired It did not inspire Queen's children's stories. The Word of God is how we reach people. No other way. Images of Christ steal from His glory. Imagine we're saying, this is a representation of our King. I say, how dare we? It's an idol. The only pictures allowed in scripture, and this is in baptism, the Lord's Supper. Baptism, the death, burial, and resurrection. We are showing our newness of life as a symbol to the world we follow Christ. And the Lord's Supper, which is to represent his death. and to remember Him until He comes again. This is all that Scripture allows. To allow anything else is a vain imagination. Where does this come from? What are vain imaginations? We must guard what we believe and represent our precious Savior. If He is precious, we will represent Him to the world in the way He wants, not the way we want. If something is truly amazing and you will do anything for it, you will guard it. Guard what you think about it. You'll guard it from error. The best illustration I could probably give about this is my niece. You know, I don't get to spend that much time with her, but I mean, when I'm with her, I kind of want to protect her from everything. She means everything to me. And those of us who are parents realize how precious that person is. You want to shield them from every danger, from every error. But we're so trivial with what there isn't sometimes. Does it tell the world what we believe about it? Is he precious to you? I won't go into it here because we don't really have time, but Deuteronomy chapter 4, 12 to 16 says, no similitude, no likeness of the Father, no representations of the Godhead. Christianity for the first couple hundred years understood this. The final point. And upholding all things by the word of his power. Hebrews 1.3. I wanna finish up here. Upholding all things by the word of his power. Christian, do you realize what you have here? The most incredible thing in the entire world. The word of God. Christ is the word of God. This is the revelation of who he is. Colossians 117 says, by him all things consist. The one who keeps everything together, the word consists there, in Colossians, is hold together. He sustains all things. Without him you cannot breathe, without him you cannot move, even if you hate him. He is the very embodiment of love, the word of his power. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Oh, that the church, the professing church, would truly believe that. Then you wouldn't have gimmicks anymore. Then you would preach the word boldly because you realize that it's the power of God unto salvation, not the power of the human will, and not the power of the flesh. His attributes, He maintains, sustains, endures the mocking to demonstrate his attributes. Why does he do anything to glorify himself? Yes, he has done all these things to demonstrate who he is to a lost and sin-cursed world. The world is without excuse. Playing through nature, it is demonstrated that there is a creator. Romans 11 36 for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever often through him to him do we do we wonder why this is the most hated book This word is so powerful. It takes, when heard spiritually by a man, it takes him from a God-hating creature, changes his will by the sovereign power of God, and changes him from someone who hates God to loves God. That same word that spoke creation into existence, ex nihilo, out of nothing. Christ is the Word of God, the Word of His power. Do we really believe how powerful He is? If we did, I don't think we'd ever stop witnessing to people. Nothing prevents or forsakes the will of God. We have to realize that. God is glorified in even if we witness to somebody and they absolutely reject it. This is the God of the Christian church, the true Christian church, the church that is confessional, that is broken, that longs for God, that seeks after God, a church that produces good fruit. Unfortunately, what is called the church today is not the church by and large. To question his power, let's look at this. Upholding all things by the word of his, he's upholding all things by the word of his power. To question his power is to question his word, which is to question the precious son of God. If the son of God, the person of Christ, is precious to you, surely his word is precious. He's the king of kings, and he's not the body of modern evangelicalism. We can give out, and I think I just want to, we can give out a modern evangelicalism all we want, but if we have the same errors ourselves in this church, we are no better than them, actually we're probably worse than them. Because we are scarred with the pain of hypocrisy. By saying what I'm saying, how we live our lives, how we demonstrate this power, more is expected of us. More judgment will come upon us if we do not truly live these truths that we proclaim. We have to be so careful. He doesn't demand some of you. He doesn't demand just one moment of your time to say a prayer. He doesn't demand all these things that so often is told in the gospel message. Just make your decision. He wants all of it. To follow Christ is to make a complete 180 turn from everything. It's the most radical thing anybody can ever say to you. It is the core of your being being completely changed. And you say, I can't do that. Isn't that the point? Isn't that what scripture tells us? Isn't that what the Jews absolutely wanted to kill Jesus? I don't believe in hard believerism, I believe in impossible believerism, but nothing is impossible to God. Maybe cry out to Him. If we believe that, then we realize we must intercede for the law. We must pray for this city. We must have the heart of John Knox who said, give me Solomon or I die. If you take away one thing from this message, all things are for Him. For Him. For Him. If you take away nothing else, just take away that. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord in Heaven, I just thank you Lord for your precious words. Lord, may it be more precious to us today than it ever was. Oh Lord, may you continue to challenge us daily, Lord. Oh Father, Lord in Heaven, may we more reverently treat your name, may we more reverently love thy son in whom you are well pleased, in whom and by whom by your son is the only way, anything that we ever do is any way acceptable to you, Lord. Lord, I just pray you would make us tremble each morning. May we crawl out of bed each morning just desiring to have the ear of God, to have the power of God in our lives. Oh Lord, chastise me, chastise all of us who are not doing these things. Lord, May we see how precious your son is, the king of glory. Lord, I just pray you bless also our other freshmen in the fellowship afterwards. Thank you, Lord, for all the people who are here this evening. In Jesus' name I now pray. Amen.