All right, Hebrews chapter one, and I think in this case, I wanna pray before reading rather than after reading, and so let's all seek the Lord's face together, let's pray. Gracious God and heavenly Father, we thank you that you gave us your only begotten Son, who is God the Son. And today, oh God, in Jesus' name, we thank you that he is victorious, and we today claim in his name that victory. We pray, Father, that you will indeed demonstrate to us by casting out the wicked one and all his devices and all his distractions and all his oppression from our midst this day in Jesus' name. We pray, O God, that you will demonstrate to us that he is the stronger than the strong man, that he was manifest to destroy the works of the devil, that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And so we ask you to exalt your Son this day, and we pray that the Spirit of God will feed us today as the people of Jesus. The shepherd, Lord, today will feed his sheep through the Spirit. For Father, we need it, we must have it. And so we ask you today, oh God, that you will overthrow the powers of darkness and that you will this day, oh God, minister to us that Jesus might be uplifted, Father, not only in our midst, not only in our lives, but Father, immediately in our hearts this day, we ask in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Hebrews chapter one, verse one. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through 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, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. But when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But to the son, he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. And they will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak you will fold them up, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not fail. But to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Well, we'll end the reading there at verse 14, and look to the Lord today to seal it to all our hearts. It's a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and may the Spirit enable us to see it today. Well, three Sundays ago, we began a series in this book of Hebrews. It is a book written to Jewish believers in Jesus. However, these were Jewish believers under attack, doubting, struggling, tempted for a number of reasons to keep the Jewish and jettison the Jesus. So as we saw, and this is the theme of the book and the title of this series, the author shows, mostly from the Old Testament, and we're gonna see that as it were in spades today, mostly from the Old Testament, he shows that Jesus is better. And we summarize that message this way. Jesus and all that his work in the new covenant involves is better than the old covenant. He is better than a dead Christianity of mere doctrines and practices because the letter kills but the spirit gives life. And when you're under attack and in temptation and the devil is telling you of many things you really need, the Holy Spirit says in this book, Jesus is better than anything and better than everything. So that's the reality behind this book. And the book begins by telling us that God has spoken. He is a communicating God. And whereas he spoke in the old covenant by the fathers and the prophets, we learn in verse one, in these last days, he has spoken unto us by his son, Jesus. But this is to the Hebrews, right? So since he's speaking to Hebrews that might might be placing more value on the fathers and the prophets than on Jesus, he goes on to show from the Old Testament, from the fathers and the prophets, that the superiority of Jesus is the very message and emphasis of that Old Covenant, of those fathers and those prophets. So as we saw the book, very similar to what the Apostle Paul does in books we've already studied, Galatians, Colossians, and almost all his epistles, it's doctrine and then it's practice, it's truth. And then it's answering the question, the so what question, or what does that truth mean? How is it lived out? How does it affect our lives? Well, the same with this book. So the doctrinal section. is the superiority of Christ and of Christianity over Judaism, over an old covenant that always looked forward to Christ. So we summarized it this way. It deals with the superiority of Christ who's worthy of your faith. So chapters one and two, he is as a revealer, he's greater. the prophets, greater than the angels. As a mediator, chapter 3, He's greater than Moses. Chapter 4, as a rest provider He's greater than Joshua. Ok, these are the household names of Judaism here, they all know this. And then from chapter 4 verse 14 to chapter 10 and verse 18, as the High Priest He is greater than Aaron, and the entire Aaronic priesthood, the entire His version, His, and we're gonna see this contrasted with Melchizedek, but His priestly order, Jesus Christ is better. So then we have in the end, chapter 10 and verse 19 to chapter 13, the practical, the application. And so basically His message is, if He is this, and if He is superior in all these senses, then fix your eyes and your heart on Him. have faith in Him, and don't give up, don't fall away. In other words, He's worthy to be loved, worshiped, and trusted. So believe in him because he's better than anything, better than everything. So this first section encompasses chapters one and two, and it's the superiority of Christ as we just saw as a revealer. He's greater than prophets and here especially greater than angels. So what he does is he gives us a series of Old Testament quotes to show us who he really is. And think about that, you know, these are the Hebrews and they're thinking, well, you know, let's just go back to what we're used to. Let's go back to what we're comfortable with. You know, that worked for all these generations. And so, you know, do we really have to suffer for Jesus sake? Do we really have to have this change? And so what does he do? But he gives quote after quote after quote from the Old Testament, from the Old Covenant, from the Fathers and the Prophets. He quotes, as we're going to see, he quotes Psalm 2, 2 Samuel 7, Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 104, Psalm 45, Psalm 102, and Psalm 110. All right, so he's piling it on. He's just giving this great, powerful body a very strong evidence that, hey, If you want to jettison Jesus and cling to the fathers and the prophets, you just denied everything they taught and everything they live for. You're not getting it. You're not seeing it. And so this is how he works us through this first chapter. So what we have today in chapter one is a glorious portrait of a Jesus worthy to be believed, worthy to be trusted. He's that great and glorious. He's that big and that good. So he is exalted from every perspective as all you need and all we need. So today, let's consider a savior worth trusting. Now, Verses four to 14, which we're examining today, in other words, the rest of chapter one, beginning at verse four, I'm breaking it down into three sections because what we learn here is Jesus Christ is the Son. That's a unique thing. He is also, and that's verses four and five, but in verses six to 12, He is God the Son. And then in the last two verses, 13 and 14, He is God the Son who saves us from our sins and saves us from ourselves. So let's begin by looking at verses four and five and the fact that He is the Son. And you can see how the language is just saying, look, Beginning at verse 4, he has become so much better than the angels, better than angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Now what name does he obtain by inheritance? He's the son. You know, people who are peripheral, or even your servants in the sense, and that's what the angels are. They do the bidding of God. They sit and they do whatever it is he says for them to do. They then go and do his bidding. And yet Jesus is the inheritor. You see, it's only sons who inherit. And they inherit everything that the father owns, which in the case of this father, is everything. Absolutely everything. And so he has obtained a more excellent name. He's the son. He's the son. He doesn't have any others. He's the son. He is his only begotten. And then verse five adds this as the argument, for to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. So what are these? And this is gonna be true for the others too. Is they are passages in the Old Testament which are called messianic. And that's just a fancy word to say. They refer to the Messiah. They point to the Messiah. They reveal things about the Messiah. Or they're actually addressed specifically to the Messiah. And so they are descriptive of who the Messiah is. So we learn something. Now, this first of the two quotations here in verse five is from Psalm 2, verse seven. It says, you are my son, today have I begotten you. Now that in and of itself is a unique thing because when you're talking about the living God who is outside time, it's always today. It's always today. And so, when we talk about Him today, have I begotten you? He's begotten in two senses. So, in the first sense, He is, and this is an expression in theology that goes back to, I believe, what would that be, the fourth century, the third or the fourth century, that Jesus Christ is eternally begotten of the Father. eternally begotten, that His role, His part in the Godhead, He is the Son. God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son. He is the Son, so He's eternally begotten. And so, if He is eternally begotten, then He has to have deity, right? If He is God the Son, then we need to see the evidence of that, the true divine nature. Now, I don't need to tell you, but there are There are versions of religion and some of them claim to be Christian in some sense that deny or modify the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And from time to time, Christians ask the question, well, how do I prove the deity of Christ? How do I, if I'm questioned about that, I don't know where I would go. I don't know what verse might do that. Well, there's a whole array, and I'm just going to give you kind of a normal outline of how the deity of Christ is proved by the Word of God. First of all, it's the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son, is given divine names, names which only belong to God, and divine titles. He's actually called God. The name of Jehovah is applied to him. There are many titles that are given that can only be true of God. And so they are given to Jesus Christ. Secondly, there are divine attributes that are attributed to him. He's omniscient, he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent. He's the one, and we'll look at this again in a different context, but he's the one who, talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three, is speaking of the Son of Man who is in heaven. Even while he's standing there in bodily form speaking to Nicodemus in his deity, in his divinity, he is in heaven. That's true of him because he is omnipresent. Likewise, Jesus says at one point to his disciples, I saw Satan fall. He saw that because he was there. He had a pre-incarnate existence. I saw Satan fall. So he has divine names and titles. He has divine attributes. He does divine works. Right here in this passage, we learn that he's involved in creation. Right here in this passage, he upholds all things by the word of his power. He's upholding everything because he does the work of providence as well. The guarding, guiding, sustaining of all that was established in creation. But he also does the amazing, glorious divine work. of redemption, of salvation. He has authority on earth to forgive sins because he is God, because he has the power and the authority to forgive sin. So divine works, creation, providence, salvation, also divine honor and worship. And this is the kind of thing that maybe wouldn't come first to mind. It's a backdoor witness to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's a very clear one. Because you see, if the worship that was paid to him, the honor was given to him, every Jew would know that is blasphemy, unless he is God. but he is God. And so divine honor and worship are paid to him without penalty and with encouragement as opposed to discouragement. And then one final witness is the equality with the father that he proclaims. He says, I and my father are one. So if you wanna, and you can dig for all the particulars and I can help you with that to look at the various passages that show you divine names and titles, divine attributes, divine works, divine honor and worship, and then equality with the Father. That's just a quick outline that when God says today I have begotten you, he is the eternally begotten of the Father who always existed and always existed as God, God the Son. But then also there's a temporal sense. He is temporally begotten. There was added to his divinity a true humanity, a true human nature, that there came a day when he was born of a virgin in fulfillment of a host of old covenant prophecies and promises that he became God the Son in flesh, God incarnate. And so Jesus Christ has that true humanity. And by the way, just as an aside, there are passages in the Word of God that are speaking from the perspective of His deity, and other passages speaking from the perspective of His humanity. A couple of examples here. From the perspective of His deity, one I mentioned in John 3, where He can be talking to Nicodemus and say, the Son of Man, which is in Heaven, Another case in John's gospel is where he says, before Abraham was, I am. He couldn't say I was, he had to say I am, because he is the eternal one. He always exists. And again, he's saying that in reference to his deity. He preceded, even though the bodily form did not precede. He, God the Son, preceded Abraham. But then there are places where the humanity comes to the fore, where he says, I am exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. The physical issues at times where he was exhausted or where he hungered, those physical issues are part of that humanity. The sufferings leading to the cross, which the Bible recounts for us in four gospels, those were evidences of that humanity. And then he makes the expression at one point where he is asked, when is gonna be the fulfillment of all things? And he says, no man knows the hour. He says, not the son, but the father. So he is saying, in my humanity, I have this limitation. So there are a number of passages where you see the deity in some cases, the humanity in others. But right here, He does not say, this is what he says at the beginning of verse five, to which of the angels did he ever say, you're my son. This is for God, the son. This is Jesus Christ. This is the redeemer. Now I've just spent all the attention on the first of those two quotes, but look at the second one for just a minute. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. Now there's a series of statements like this about God's people. It begins in Genesis with Abraham. When God establishes a covenant with Abraham, he says, you know, I will be to you a father, you will be to me a son. It is repeated at various points in the Old Testament. This one from 2 Samuel chapter seven, and it comes then to Revelation 22, the very last chapter of the Bible, where it says, all will be fulfilled. And we, his people, we will be his sons, and he will be our father. His sons and daughters, we will be his children. So this is a passage when it is specifically emphasizing this is true of Christ. This is a passage that is saying where God, in an Old Testament context, is saying what the New Testament says again and again. You are united to Jesus Christ. You are in union with him. Everything that the Father delights to pour out on Him is yours by right because you are in Him. He is my well-beloved Son. You are my well-beloved sons and daughters because you're in union with Jesus Christ. This is a covenant relationship, a covenant by which God Jesus Christ stood in our place before the living God, fulfilled all righteousness, paid the outstanding debt on the cross, and took that righteousness, and took the promise of the Holy Spirit, which would be the reward of His work, and poured that all, attributed it to us so that we are righteous in the sight of God, and poured out the Spirit upon us to apply every last covenant blessing that Jesus lived and died to purchase. See, there's the picture. And so this is not just speaking of sonship. This is speaking of a huge covenant relationship between father and son where he spoke or where he stood in our stead. But that brings us then to the second section, because He's not only the Son emphasizing that unique relationship, but He's God the Son. And once again, just quote after quote after quote from the Old Testament to say, look, these are things that are never said of angels. This is what is said of Jesus. You can't throw him out. You don't want to jettison him because if you see, if you really look through those Old Testament lenses, you will see everything points to him. It is always about him and him only. So verse six, When he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. He's worthy of worship because he is God. Let them worship him. He's greater than the angels. He are what the angels are bidden, commanded to worship. That's who he is. So the angels worship the son, verse seven. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But by contrast to the sun, he says, verse eight, your throne. Oh, God is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You've loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. He's esteemed you greater than anyone else. And so think about those words there, verse eight, how it begins, your throne. The throne of God is the throne of Jesus. It's his throne. Christ is on a divine throne, but then think about the fact that he rules in righteousness. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Now let's stop there for just a second. That cannot be said of another human being. It just can't. Remember, we talked about this before, righteousness, the very concept means conformity to a standard. Nobody. who has ever lived apart from Jesus has ever perfectly been conformed to that standard. No one can truly have fulfilled the words, you loved righteousness and you hated lawlessness. Jesus is the only one of whom this can actually be said. And what is that righteousness? This is important in and of itself. If it's conformity to a standard, well, where did the standard come from? Well, the standard came from the very nature of God. You know, we talk about the summary of that whole standard being the Ten Commandments, right? And the Ten Commandments, Jesus summarizes in loving the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving your neighbor as yourself. They're the two tablets, the two tables of the law. But is that, you know, I've said it this way a few times here. It's not God thinking up 10 rules on an idle day. It is God expressing his very nature. What he loves on the one hand, what he hates on the other hand. And we see it from Jesus' summary to how it is written on the two tables of stone. We see the positive and the negative declaration of it. So when this says you loved righteousness, this is God saying, this is Jesus' standard. This is His righteousness. This is what He loves and what He hates. This is who He is because He's God. He is God the Son. So once again, from an Old Testament vantage point, these Jews having been instructed in these things would say, wow, you know, didn't see that. This is powerful. And this is Very, very important proof to them. And of course, Jesus, as he walked on the face of the earth, he proved these things. He's anointed and exalted as king and judge of all. In John chapter five, verse 22, Jesus said, the father commits all judgment to the son. commits it all to the Son, because you see the scepter of righteousness is His, because He will judge righteously because He loves righteousness and hated lawlessness. And I can't remember, a few weeks ago it seems to me that I was, it seems to me it was a Sunday evening, but I was just describing to you what first, I saw through a quote from one of the old systematic theologians, W.G.T. Shedd, where he says, you know, it's mercy. It's mercy. It's an amazing mercy when the judge will permit You know, mercy, the forgiveness of sins. It's greater mercy still when he will actually search for someone to do that. But it's greater mercy still when finding no one, he becomes that mercy. He stands in the place of the sinner. And so here is Jesus to whom is committed all judgment, leaving his throne to go and stand before the bar and to take the righteous wrath of God on his own head. So again, here are these Jews listening to this and marginalizing Jesus in some sense, not sure whether the opprobrium that's on his name, whether the things they're suffering because they believe in him are worth it. And here is the apostle saying look deeper, look at the witness of this word you claim to believe and you will say that all along you'll see he was the one to whom all glory was to be given. But then this final section verses 10 to 12, you Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth. This is Psalm 102 verses 25 to 27. The entire quote here in verses 11, 10, 11, 12. You Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, and they will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not fail." So what is his final argument then to show this deity but to go and to take a statement? And by the way, that's one of the key passages in the Word of God where we go to see the attribute, two attributes actually, the unchangeability or immutability of God and then the eternity of God or the fact that he is everlasting because as you see, It says the things that he created, they'll perish, they'll change, but he will not change. He is the unchanging God. And then your years will not fail. You will never end. You are the everlasting God. So here he is presented as creator, okay? You laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. And remember the witness of verse two, by the way, whom he, Oh, through whom he also made the worlds, all right? So here is this witness that he is the creator, but he also is the God who is eternal and unchangeable, and that can only be so if he's infinite. Only an infinite thing, by the way, can be totally unchangeable. And so he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. He's God. And Paul is challenging them. He builds to this. He builds to this to say, read this passage. If he's not God, this cannot be applied to him. But it is. It's who he is. He is God the Son. That brings us then to the final section, which is this. He is the Son, He is God the Son, but He is God the Son and the Savior. He is God the Son who took the humanity in order to represent us and in order to fulfill God's covenant mercy in redemption or salvation. He's God the Son and Savior. So what is it telling us? Verse 13, to which of the angels, these are series of questions, to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool? That's something. Did he ever say that to any angel? He, and remember we saw in chapter, or verse three, excuse me, a few weeks ago when we were looking at this, that the end of verse three goes like this. When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now fast forward to verse 13, what did God say? Sit at my right hand. "'It is your place. "'You have finished the work I required of you "'for my people and sit there "'till I make your enemies your footstool. "'I will work that and your enemies shall all be overcome.'" So he sat down because his work was finished and he sat down because all his enemies, their overthrow had been secured. If you will take your finger and put it here in Hebrews and let's turn for just a minute to Ephesians. Because Ephesians, to some degree, spells this out for us. Ephesians chapter one, beginning at verse 15. All right, Ephesians chapter one, in verse 15. All right, Paul says, therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. I want you to understand some things. So he's gonna list three things. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know, and here come the three things, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above, excuse me, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet. gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So we are that church, we're his body, we're connected to him, and he has been exalted above everything, rules over everything. He's our king to see the defeat of every last one of our enemies. So this is the picture here is that he's exalted. And so sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And so he is conquering all his and our enemies. But then verse 14, The author says this, are they, speaking of those angels he keeps addressing throughout this passage, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? So in other words, isn't their work, work that is under Christ to take the very work of Christ the people he redeemed, and serve them, minister to them. And so he concludes by saying, look, the place of the angels, scripture tells us, is a place to minister to us, is a place that, a job that was created by the finished work of Jesus Christ. They're our servants, but our servants for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what's the conclusion of all of this? He's somebody. He is somebody. He's not one you can afford to marginalize because he is what you need and all you need. He's worthy of all your worship. He's worthy of all your praise. He's worthy of all your trust. And what does this underscore in the beginning? Verses two and three, and then in verse 13, he did it for you. He did it for you. You want him. You need him. He's God. So he represents God. He's man. He represents you. He is the only mediator between God and man. And so now he's your present companion. He's your shepherd. He's your bridegroom. He's your head. He's everything to you. He's the one who constantly is taking it upon himself to secure all your welfare. So his message, and we're gonna see this increasingly through the book, beginning next week by the way, when we begin to see this idea that they were struggling and how he addresses it. But his message is if he's that, then trust him, love him, worship him, enjoy him, see that God did a greater, better thing than just giving you a system of sacrifices that you can feel like you're checked off for the time being. He did an eternal work that makes you smile at your God and know He smiles at you. This is what He did. Folks, we need to be reminded, and I try to do it often because it's what I need, but we need to be reminded of the love, the compassion, the grace, the faithfulness of Jesus because we need Him to be that for us every day. But we also should never forget that He is almighty, that He is the all-powerful God of the universe, whose presence, whose name make all the powers of darkness tremble. That's His name, the name exalted above every other name. You know, we sang earlier, When morning gilds the skies, and one of the verses said this, the powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear, may Jesus Christ be praised. That name makes them tremble. That name secures their doom. And they know it more clearly than you and I do. So let us praise the name of Jesus but let us also trust the name of Jesus. Pray in the name of Jesus and resist the devil and all the powers of darkness in the mighty, conquering, victorious name of Jesus because it's ours. We're in him and he in us. Let's bow in prayer, let's all pray. O Father, we do thank you today that our Lord Jesus is the conquering King. We praise you, O God, that none shall ever overthrow him. We thank you that he has this sharp sword in his mouth with which he shall vanquish all his enemies and ours. So Father, we praise you today that he's our exalted king. Father, we thank you that he is such a tender shepherd, but we pray that we will not lose sight of his exalted, powerful, glorious, majestic, divine nature. Father, thank you today, oh God, that he is worthy of our trust. because there's nothing greater than Him. And His sweet purposes secured for us by His love on the cross, Lord, shall never be overthrown. There's no enemy greater than Him. So we thank you for that, O God. And we pray that His sweet presence will be our portion as we know, Father, that He is overcoming all His and our enemies. As we know, Father, the afflictions, the difficulties, the trials through which we are going are His enemies as well that He will use and then vanquish. in all His people. So, Father, thank You for Your greatness and goodness. Thank You for giving us Your precious Son, and Lord, enable us to walk with Him in these coming days. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.