and turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Let's remain standing for the reading of God's Word. Hebrews chapter 1, we'll look at the first four verses. The title of the sermon today, that Jesus is better. He's better. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 Again, this is God's Word, inerrant, without error, infallible, therefore authoritative. Hebrews chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. Long ago, at many times, And in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to it. Please be seated. Let's pray and ask God to bless our time in his word. Heavenly Father, this is your word. And we are so very thankful that you have given it to us. That we can study its contents and that we could benefit greatly from it. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to question. We can trust that this is indeed the word of God. And it is for us and it is true. We can live our lives by it. We can trust everything to it and to you. Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive, hands to apply, feet to walk it out. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, again, I said the title of the sermon today is Jesus is better. And I want to make the case this afternoon from these introductory verses in the book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ is better and you say better than what? And I say better than anything. Jesus Christ is better than everything. Jesus is better than anything you could ever conceive of. He is better than anything that you can ever run into in this world. If you were to pursue things for your entire life, you will never find anything better than Jesus Christ. That's a big statement, right? Some might say that that's a hot take. But it's true. But at the same time, we understand and realize that we don't always feel like that's the case. It doesn't always feel like Jesus is the answer, that that's the direction that we need to go. It's not always our experience. It's not our lived experience. It's not our own truth. And you hear this kind of terminology in our world today that, you know, you need to live your own truth and you need to have your own experiences. and live out your own reality. And all of these are, they're subjective. And the idea of subjective, right, means that it comes from me. It starts here, it starts here, and then it works its way out there. And what we have to think is the way that God thinks, the way that God wants us to think is different, is that God reveals his word from on high, from heaven. He reveals objective truth that is true no matter what we think about it. And our job is to lay hold of it and then apply it to our lives and then work out the implications of it every day of our life, the rest of the days that we live. It's not about what I feel. It's not about my feelings. It's about the truth. It's about having faith in what God reveals about himself and subjecting our feelings and bringing our feelings in line with our faith and the truth of God's word. And that's a hard thing. Because nobody does that anymore. Nobody wants to do that. You know, Carl Truman wrote a book not too long ago. He's a minister and a professor at the OPC. And he talked about it. It used to be that people would go to counselors or different kind of psychologists or whatever, and they would go to get counsel to try to help them as individuals fit in better with the culture, the society. Because they understood that they, as individuals, were made for something outside of themselves, bigger than themselves. But it's exactly the opposite today. Today, people go to counselors, psychologists, whatever, because they want to have someone help them subdue everything outside to their own will, to their own desire, to make it all about them. And we have to understand as Christians that that can be our tendency at times, to try to make other things outside of us line up with what we think and feel. And it's opposite of that. And I think in this introduction we see here what the writer to the Hebrews is saying is that you need to trust in something outside of yourself. You need to trust in someone that you can't even see because he's no longer in the world. He's in glory. He's seated on his throne and he is excellent. And instead of pursuing the other things that you're tempted to pursue, you need to pursue Him today and always. So this book is written 2,000 years ago, but it is still incredibly relevant today. It's written, we don't know exactly who wrote this book, but it's written by somebody that probably ran around with Paul the Apostle, probably one of his friends. The language is similar but different. The audience, we don't exactly know who the book was written to, but I'm of the persuasion that it's written to a small group of Christians in Rome that had come out of Judaism. They were formerly Jewish people that were, you know, worshiping in the temple and doing all the different things in Jerusalem, offering up the animal sacrifices, doing all the things with the high priest. And then they became Christians. And all the bells and whistles, all the smells and the different things associated, all the garments and the special things that they had in the Old Testament high priesthood were no longer for them. And as things become difficult, they're tempted to what? To go back. They're tempted to go back to the things that they could see, lay hold of, handle, smell. They were tempted to go back to those things and to those ways. And the author of Hebrews is saying, don't do it. Don't go back. Sometimes we're tempted to go back because life becomes hard. For these Hebrew Christians, life was hard. As we read through the letter, and we'll continue to go through for the year when we come over every month or so and I preach through Hebrews, we'll see that they went through difficult times. They went through hardship. They had their things taken. People were losing their lives eventually. And they're tempted to go back and do something different, do something other, do something that can be seen and felt and touched and experienced. And the author says, don't do that. Don't go back. This has present day implications. Because one of the questions that I ask myself is, why don't people go to church in our day? Why don't professing Christians go to church in our day? Why don't people who call themselves Christians attend church a lot of times? And I know I'm preaching to the choir because you're in church. But the answers are here. The answers are in this book. This is a book that's greatly needed in today's church, in today's climate. It's written in a way to overcome discouragement, to displace people that are apathetic. in their worship of the triune God. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the manner of son, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, but come together all the more as you see the day of Christ drawing near. And the preacher, the author is committed. He's a committed believer, not only to Christ and to God, but to the church of Jesus Christ. And he desperately wants other people to be committed as well. And he knows what's at stake. And so the author writes this word of exhortation, chapter 13, verse 22, to be read in public worship, probably. To be read in a service. I think it's a sermon. It reads like a sermon. And it's probably read in a public setting. And so, again, Hebrews makes the case that Christ is better. The idea is to look to Him, to think on Him, to dwell upon who He is, what He's done, and where He is even now at the right hand of God the Father. Michael Kruger says this, there's nothing grander, there's nothing more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying, or more extraordinary than Him. Speaking of Jesus, do you believe that? Do you know that to be true? Sinclair Ferguson says, there's no letter in the New Testament that tells us more about Christ and his work than Hebrews. Again and again, Hebrews points us back to Christ, back to Jesus as it should be. And I think it's important for us as we delve in here that Jesus Christ isn't the place that we begin, that we simply begin our Christian life. We don't start with Jesus. and move on to something deeper or better or different, we continue again and again and again to look to Jesus Christ. We look to the face, to the glory of Christ and are transformed as we do that from one degree of glory to another. He's not the foyer of our Christian faith and then we move into another room to go deeper. He is not the ABCs of our Christian faith, it's been said. He's the A to Z. And all of our growing, all of our discipleship, all of our maturity that are all very important. And Hebrews makes the case that holiness is very important for the Christian believer, but it's all done in and through and around Jesus Christ. And so the way forward is toward Christ, to focus on Christ, never back. Press into Christ, press onto maturity with Christ as Christian believers. And as we look to him, we are indeed So the author calls on us to hold fast our confession of hope without wavering, 1023, and he does so by giving us a doctrinal anchor. Christ is that anchor, and he will give us the doctrine that goes along with this. He endeavors to show us over and over in a myriad of ways, Christ is enough. Listen, let me ask you that question. I really want you to hear me. And I want to ask you this question, and I want you to be honest between you and God. Is Christ enough? Could you honestly say, if you had Christ and nothing else, that you would have everything that you need? Is Christ enough? Is He sufficient? The Lord by His Holy Spirit wants to show us, wants to help us to understand that to have Christ is to have everything that we need. And listen, if there's anybody in this room that isn't yet a believer, if there's anybody watching, listening at some point in time, I just want to say this, that it's absolutely true. You can have everything. I say this a lot, but it doesn't change the reality. You can have everything. But if you don't have Christ, you have nothing that you ultimately need. You can chase, you can pursue, you can grab and lay hold of thing after thing, possession after million after billion. And if you don't have Christ, You don't have the one thing that you ultimately need. And if you have Christ and you lose everything else in life, you have the only thing that you ultimately need. Because Christ is what will get you to the eternal presence of God and the blessings that are yours that will last forever and ever, world without end, in increasing enjoyment and just ongoing blessing forevermore? But do we think that way? Do we live our lives in that way, that Christ is enough, that he is sufficient, and everything else is just a blessing on top? And so that's the goal of Hebrews. And perhaps you can see why Calvin, John Calvin, would call Hebrews an invaluable treasure for the church. And so quickly, I'm going to go through this rapidly today because we have so much that we're doing in our service. But number one, God has spoken. Number two, God has spoken in his son. And then third, we're going to talk about the superiority of Jesus Christ over all things, over everything. First, that God has spoken. Sometimes people criticize, why doesn't God speak? You know, why doesn't God reveal himself? Other people want to say that God speaks in all these myriad, many, many different ways. And, you know, through this kind of person and that kind of person and this kind of revelation and that kind of revelation. But the fact of the matter is that God has indeed spoken. And it's revealed to us here in His word, look at verse one. Once again, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke. This is a glorious reality, brothers and sisters, that God speaks. That our God is a speaking God. From the very beginning, God spoke the world into existence. He spoke and it was so. And then he said, let us make man in our image. In the image of God, he created them male and female, created us. And so God speaks. And I think it's really important for us to understand that God speaks differently at different times in history. I remember when I was a new believer many years ago, that I used to think like the way that God spoke to these guys in the Old Testament is the way that he must surely speak to me today. And it was really important for me to understand and realize that God speaks differently at speak at different periods of of time, but the fact of the matter is that God does speak. Now God speaks differently now than He ever has on this side of Christ, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but the fact is that God spoke clearly in the Old Testament. You know, think about it, God spoke, it talks about with Adam and Eve, God showed up and hung out with them. Surely God communicated with his people there before the fall in the garden. God was a speaking God. God communicated to them, and they communicated back to God. And then there was the rebellion, sin, the fall, judgment came. And God spoke judgment in Genesis 3 into the world. He spoke the curse. And he could have left it at that, couldn't he? That's it. You guys are done. I set up all this for you, the pinnacle of creation. You're judged, you're condemned, you're doomed. But in Genesis 3, he spoke the curse, but he also spoke blessing. He also spoke promise. He also spoke gospel words in Genesis 3.15. And there are these two lines that developed as God spoke, there are these two lines, the believing and unbelieving line that run parallel through scripture. And God would speak to Noah. And God would speak to Moses, and Elijah, and Isaiah in a vision in the temple, and Hosea in family circumstances, and Amos in a basket of summer fruit. And he would speak through visions, and dreams, and angels, and Urim, and Thummim. And maybe you've not heard of these things. That's OK. The point is that he was speaking in all these different ways. He spoke through natural events. He spoke through pillars of fire, and of smoke, and on and on. You get the idea. He spoke through a donkey. But he spoke. in the Old Testament scripture long ago. He spoke in many times in many ways, which speaks also of limitations. It was in part, you know, as you read the Old Testament scriptures, there's this little nugget of truth that you get about Jesus. And there's this little nugget of truth and you're kind of building in this, what we call progressive revelation. It progresses over time. As you go through the Old Testament scripture, you're building this picture of what ultimately matters. And then it comes to a finish. And our Jewish friends will say, hey, that's what we need. That's all that we need. And we say, who live on this side of the cross and believe in Jesus, no, that was all pointing up to, but it stopped short of being enough. It's like having a play that has five acts and you've only got four of them. And you're like, well, that's good. That's all great. And you're like, no, where's the fifth? Where's the final one? And that's what Jesus came to do. He came to finish the picture. Long ago, many times in many ways, in parts and bits and pieces, God did speak to our fathers, the Old Testament believers. He did it through the prophets that spoke. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. I remember when I was in seminary, and this is point number two. That was a quick point one, if you're tracking with me. Point number two, I remember hearing in prophet's class and just being blown away by the fact that in Isaiah, as you see the prophet Isaiah, he's called up into the heavenly, kind of the throne room there. And like everything's shaking in Isaiah 6 and it's just an overwhelming scene. And I remember just thinking about that idea that prophets of God in the Old Testament time were kind of, as it were, called up into the presence of God, and then God would reveal His truth to them, and then those prophets would go to man and speak on behalf of God. And you have to say, that's amazing that the God of heaven would call people up to receive communication, and they'd come down and speak to man. What condescension of God. But that's not enough, that's not everything, because it goes still further. Not only did God call men up into heaven and then send them down to mankind, but God himself came down in the person of Jesus Christ with more revelation, with final revelation. That gets me every time. It should boggle the mind to think that God would send prophets to us. with His truth, but the fact that God would take on humanity, the triune God from all eternity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What's existed eternally? God. Like that's a mind bender for me. As you think about eternity, like before the world was created, before what we read about in Genesis 1.1, what was there? You ever think about that? What was there? There was God. There was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Perfect fellowship, perfect unity, perfect love and service, and whatever was necessary and needed, they were there together. And the fact that one of the members of that Godhead would take on humanity and come down here to reveal truth to us, to reveal God to us, it's amazing. And really it speaks to the fact that, and we see this in the introduction here, that Jesus Christ is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. All the Old Testament prophets pointed forward to this ultimate prophet. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 to 18, Moses, who was this prophet par excellence in the Old Testament, says God is going to raise up the ultimate prophet. He'll be like me, but better is the idea, him you shall hear. And here comes Jesus, the ultimate, not a servant of God, although he was that, but a son. And so Jesus comes down in the last days. And this is kind of the, this is kind of the, the marker of the last days. When Jesus comes, he ushers in the last days. I was in a bookstore many years ago, and I was around the corner from the cash register, and I heard a guy, lots of crazy stuff was going on in the world, and some guy comes in and he goes, man, says to the cashier, I think we're in the last days. Man, the stuff that's going on, I think we're in the last days. I think the rapture's gonna happen, whatever. It's imminent. And the brother behind the books, the brother behind the cash register said, man, we've been in the last days for 2,000 years. We've been in the last days for 2,000 years. From the coming of Christ, the scriptures make the point over and over again in the New Testament that it's not about necessarily how much time we have. Like, this stuff's crazy. Jesus must be coming back right now. But it's more about the kind of time that we're living in. this final period of time. The Old Testament revelation, then Jesus came in the last days. There is no next season, friends. There is no third level of revelation. Jesus is the final word. He brings the final revelation. And this is a blessed time and a real privilege for us to be living, to know what we know Previous generations would have been so excited to see what we see, to hear what we've heard. Think about what Jesus said in Luke 10. He turned to his disciples and said privately, verse 23, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it and to hear what you hear and have not heard it. Now, we've seen and heard more than these guys because we have the rest of the New Testament revelation. We have the epistles. We have the book of Revelation. We have more than even his own disciples knew. To be able to be part of what we're a part of, the Great Commission, as Jesus sends his people, his church to the ends of the earth to gather his people from the four corners, the highways and the byways. This is a glorious time for us to be alive as the scriptures have been finalized. Nothing's to be added, nothing's to be taken away. Jesus fulfills all the types, the shadows, the illusions, the illustrations. It all finds its fulfillment in him. Remember on the road to Emmaus, as those disciples were like, ah, we're going back home. And Jesus shows up, they don't recognize him. And they're like, what's wrong, guys? And they're like, are you the only one that doesn't know that this Jesus was crucified? We thought he was the Messiah. We thought he was the Savior. And it says there in multiple places that he opened up the scriptures, the law and the prophets to show the things that were about him. Can you imagine being a part of that Bible studies? He just takes you through the Old Testament scriptures and says, all these stories ultimately find their fulfillment in me. And so Jesus is the fulfillment of the scriptures. Jesus comes and God speaks in and through his son. And quickly, the superiority of Christ. Remember, the author is writing to a people that wants to go back. They say being a Christian is too hard. This is not worth it. And I want us to think about these things briefly. Six things, maybe seven, about the superiority of Christ as we wrap it up here. First of all, Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. His is a perfect inheritance. Sometimes people have inheritance and it's this piddly little sum, it's nothing. Sometimes it's significant and life-changing. His inheritance is everything. He is the heir of all things. Secondly, Jesus Christ is the agent that created the world. He's the creator. God created all things through Him. So everything is His. He's the Creator along with the Father, along with the Spirit. He's the radiance of the glory of God, number three. Speaks of sharing in the divine nature, manifesting the person and character of God. The brightness that shines forth, like the brightness of the sun that comes from the sun, that's what Christ is like. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration when He was He was shining brighter than the sun. It wasn't something that was shining on him from without. It was the glory that was shining through him. It was though he took the outer veil away and allowed his true glory to shine. This is the one that we worship and serve. Remember on the road to Damascus when Paul was struck down off his high horse, so to speak. the glory of Christ was there. He's the exact imprint of God's nature, perfectly representing the Father. He's the spittin' image of the Father. Remember when one of his disciples said, show us the Father and it will suffice us. And Jesus said what? He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So there's one God in three distinct persons. Remember John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is with God, and Jesus is God. Goes on to say, He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. He holds it all together. Think of this. Your Savior, your Redeemer, in a managerial sense, holds the world together. continually organizing, carrying things forward to their desired end, to their designed end. This is a dynamic, ongoing reality moment by moment. Let me ask you a question. Can he handle the details of your life if he holds the universe together? Can he handle what's going on in your life today? The question answers itself. He knows where he's going. He knows where the entire universe, the entire creation is going. He has the wisdom and power to get it there, to get us there. But let me ask you a question. Let me back up a little bit. What if all of this was true about Jesus Christ? What if he was the heir of all things, an agent that created the world, and he was the radiance of the Father's glory, and he was the exact imprint of God's nature, and he upheld everything by the word of his power, his powerful word, but your sin was still upon you. What if all those things were true, but you were still dead in your sin, under the judgment and wrath of God, then what? And what he says next makes all the difference, doesn't it? He made purification for sins. Speaks of him as a great high priest. He's the prophet who speaks. He's the high priest who deals with our sins. And the book of Hebrews, like no other book in the Bible, talks about Jesus as being our heavenly high priest. Not even so much about what he does on the earth, although that's magnificent, but what he continues to do in heavenly glory. Where is Jesus? How come I can't see anything? How come I can't sense anything? How come I don't know anything? Because everything you do, you do by faith. Read Hebrews 11. the hall of faith, you believe in the one that's already purified you from your sins, the one who's made purification for your sins, past tense. Listen, your sins have been separated from you as far as the East is from the West, if you believe in Jesus. Your sins have been dealt with. Your sins were done away 2,000 years ago, and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And the rest of the book of Hebrews will cover the fact that Jesus, as the great high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, has made purification for sins, past tense, finished, and done. And it says he sat down at God's right hand. One of the things about the priestly ministry, no place to sit down. There was no chair in the tabernacle or the temple because your work was never done. You were constantly offering sacrifices. You were constantly shedding blood. You were constantly doing work. You were here. You were there. You were doing this. You were doing that. But it says that Jesus, after he purified you from your sins, he sat down. Tetelestai, it is finished, paid in full. It's done. And He sits down where? At the Father's right hand, the place of ultimate authority, the place of ultimate status, the place of ultimate power. Listen, can your Savior deal with what you're going through? Does He know where you are? Does He know what you're going through? Does He know what you need? Absolutely yes and amen. He knows where He made you. He knows how to sustain you. He knows where He's taking you. He's paid for your sins one time in the past, and you will be with Him in His presence forever. And He's asking you to stay focused on Him. He's asking you to trust Him. He's asking you to believe Him. And I'm convinced that one of the things that glorifies and honors our Lord the most is just believing Him and taking Him at His word. Just saying, I believe you. Just saying, I know this is hard right now, but I know you're with me, I know you're for me, and I can sit down in this and trust you. So he sat down at the father's right hand, the majesty on high. Speaks of Christ as king, by the way. He's our prophet, he's our priest, and he's our king. And the question is, why would you want to leave this one? Why would you want to turn away from this one? Yeah, subjectively, I don't quite feel a certain way, but I need to bring my feelings into subjection, and faith needs to rule, and Christ needs to be my Lord and my king. Where are you going to go? What's better? What out there is better? What's going to see you through? What's going to fulfill you? What's going to get you to glory? What's going to give you the world without end, life forevermore, and the presence of the triune God and all the believers for all time? What is better for you out there? Do you know Him? Do you trust Him? Do you treasure Him? Are you growing in these areas? I know none of us do it perfectly. We all need to grow. I need to grow a ton in this myself. Just in conclusion, Hebrews teaches us about a better seven things we'll see over the next few months. Teaches us a better revelation in Christ the Son. Hebrews teaches us a better mediator, stands between God and men. Hebrews teaches us a better rest, an eternal rest in the new heavens and the new earth. It teaches us about a better high priest, more glorious in the order of Melchizedek. It teaches us about a better covenant, the new covenant that Christ initiates and ushers in. It teaches us about a better sacrifice that's final and complete once and for all. And it teaches us about better worship. New Testament worship is what we're doing here today. Christ, dear friends, is better. He really is. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your Word. Thank you so much for our Savior. Help us to bring all of our thoughts, all of our ideas, all of our feelings into subjection, to trust Him more, to focus on Him more with the help that you provide by your Holy Spirit. We love you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Well, let's take our hymnals.