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It's good to be back in God's
house this morning, and I ask that you would continue to pray
that God would be with us this morning, that the Word may minister
to your hearts, that it may bring forth fruit and grace from each
word that is spoken. If you have your Bibles, please
turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. The prophets have in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son. whom he hath 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, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Verse 10 And thou, Lord, in the
beginning has 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." The book of Hebrews
was written to a group of Jewish Christians. A group of struggling
Jewish Christians. Maybe some of these Christians
had been there in the time of Christ. And maybe they had even
witnessed His death. Maybe they had witnessed some
of His miracles. Maybe they had witnessed the resurrection. Maybe they had seen the glorified
body of Jesus Christ. And they had seen the holes in
His hands. They had seen the piercing through His side. They
had witnessed Jesus Christ. Like so many others who witnessed
Christ, they saw Him not with just only the natural eye, but
also God had given them faith, and they believed in Jesus Christ.
And they knew not just from their head, they knew in their hearts
that this is the true Messiah. For all these centuries, for
all these generations, our forefathers have looked for the Messiah,
and finally He has come, and His name is Jesus of Nazareth,
and He has died, and He has risen again, and now He sits on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. And oh, what an exciting
time that must have been to see the glorified Savior, to see
Jesus Christ walking among people on earth. But now a few years
have passed and Christ is gone. And they don't have the experience
of seeing Christ and walking with Christ and seeing the things
that Christ did and hearing His teaching and hearing His wisdom.
They don't have the privilege of having that anymore. And it's
not quite as exciting anymore. And times have grown difficult.
And although the gospel spread in some amazing ways, along with
the gospel being spread was intense persecution. As much as the gospel
spread, the obstacles increased. For every time they would try
to go and preach, there would be someone standing in their
path trying to stop them. People like Saul, breathing out
threatenings and slaughters, and his main motivation, his
one desire was to destroy Christians. Because if he could destroy Christians,
he would destroy Christ. He couldn't do it, could he?
Because as long as the hearts are changed, as long as life
is given, as long as Jesus speaks the Word of Life into the heart
of a dead soul, the story of Christ will go on. It won't stop. But it got difficult. You're in a community with other
Jews. People who you are friends with.
but they haven't been given the gift of faith. And although they
believe there will be a Messiah, and they believe in the Messiah,
they don't think that the Messiah was this One called Jesus of
Nazareth. And you've changed since you
believed in Jesus. You've changed. The things you
do have changed. The same sacrifices you used
to make, you're not making those anymore. You're not living according
to the law to please God anymore. Things have changed. You live
a life of faith in Jesus Christ now, and they don't like it.
They don't like it at all. Maybe you walk into a grocery
store and you see a person who you went to school with, the
grocer, and you grew up with, and your children have fled together,
and you walk in the door to buy groceries and he says, I'm sorry,
we don't serve your kind. We don't serve you. What pain,
what trouble they must have experienced as they experienced being ostracized,
as they experienced persecution. as they experienced criticism.
Maybe members of the same family, they gather for a meal, and yet
one family member refuses to sit with the other family member
because that family member has embraced Christ and said that he is a messiah
and is infidel. They've embraced him and said, we can't eat dinner
with you. I'm sorry. And so the pressure was great
upon the Hebrew Christians, upon these people that the writer
writes to. The pressure was great. The pressure
was intense. To what? To compromise. To compromise. Yes, you can still
serve Jesus. We can still believe in Jesus
as all of us are going through their minds. But let's keep it
on the hush hush. Let's not make it so evident.
We could just get along much better in our community if we
would just not be so outward and manifest with our worship
of Jesus. We can have Jesus, but maybe
we'll go ahead and participate in the ceremonial law too. Maybe
we'll participate in the synagogue. Maybe we'll participate in the
Jewish customs as well. The pressure must have been great
to do that. The pressure must have been great also, not just
to compromise, but just to turn completely from the faith. And
so the writer of Hebrews writes this book to establish the superiority
of Jesus Christ over everything else. He goes through the story
of Moses, the great one they look to. The great hero, the
one who had led them out of captivity, the one who had led them out
of bondage, their great hero, Moses. And he shows how Christ
is superior over Moses. How Christ is superior over the
angels. How Christ is superior over Joshua. How Christ is superior
over Abraham. How Christ is superior over everything. In an effort to fortify their
faith. In an effort to get them to not
compromise. In an effort to get them to not
turn away. In an effort to get them to see
Christ and through Christ to have boldness. To live and live
victoriously. You say, well, this is a story
to the Hebrews. This is a story to people who lived a long time
ago. We're not in that same culture anymore. We don't have the same
customs anymore. We don't have the same pressure anymore. My
friends, the message to the American church is the exact same message. It's the exact same situation.
The pressure is great. Maybe you only feel it yourself,
but the pressure is great to compromise. And we see compromised
lives all the time throughout Christendom. Well, let's look
at these first few verses of Hebrews and see how God paints
Christ as superior to everything else. And I pray that this will
not just be an exercise. You say, well, of course, we
know that Jesus is superior to everything else. We know He's God. We know
He's the God-man. We know He's the one that sits
on high. But let me tell you, my friends, let this be not just
an exercise where we establish Christ as being superior. Some
of you say, we believe in a superior God. But let this ring in your
heart that you may see Christ as more lovely, Christ as more
capable. Christ is more desirable than
anything else that tempts you and that tries you and that gets
you to turn aside in your life. He says here in verse 1, that
God who at sundry times and in daubers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers of the prophets. Just think about one
phrase there that says that God spake. That's pretty incredible
just in its own light. God speaks. The great God of
heaven. The great God who is a self-existent
One. The great God who needs nothing.
Who has all. He deigns. He condescends. In Psalm 113 it says that God
condescends. He humbles Himself. to behold
the things that are in the earth." That's not all it says, though.
It says that God humbles Himself to behold the things that are
in heaven and that are in the earth. My friends, Christianity,
the worship of God, the revelation of God, how we live, is not just
a set of principles. It's not just a set of standards.
It's not just an impersonal set of things that we do to please
some impersonal God. but it says here that God speaks.
The Holy God of Heaven speaks to His people. How humbling is
that? And in diverse manners and in
so many ways, a long time ago, before Christ came, God spake
to the fathers by the prophets. It's wonderful to turn to the
Old Testament and see the many diverse manners and the many
different ways that God would speak to His people. Remember
the story of the burning bush when Moses saw the burning bush? And God said, Moses, take off
your shoes from your feet, for the ground whereon you stand
is holy ground. God reveals a little bit of Himself
there in that story, doesn't He? In the story of the burning
bush, God shows that He is a holy God. Think of the story of the
plagues and the exodus from Egypt. God speaks through the flies.
God speaks to the lies. God speaks to the angel of death,
saying that I will not put up with sin. I will not put up with
stubbornness. I will not put up with those
who reject me. And I will deliver my people. See, the faithful God, faithful
to His promises, faithful to faithfully delivering. God spake
in many different ways, wonderful ways. But it was in bits. It
was in pieces. It was at sundry times. It wasn't
a constant revelation. He was revealing Himself little
by little, piece by piece, fragment by fragment. And there were wonderful
ways that He did it, but it was still only in bits and pieces.
They didn't see the full revelation of God. God would speak to the
prophets, men like Isaiah. We see the beautiful prophecies
of Christ, where He would reveal Himself to the prophets. He would
be called the Wonderful. He would be called the Counselor.
He would be called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Beautiful language that is, but
again, only in bits and pieces. He will be the rejected servant.
He will be the suffering servant. He will be bruised for our iniquities.
He will be wounded for our iniquities. He will be bruised for our diseases.
By his stripes we will be healed. Oh, it's a great hero coming
to the scene, but still only in bits and pieces. The prophets
could only tell what they were told. They didn't fully understand
even what they were saying. Only tell what they were told. It says that God has spoken in
diverse manners and in sundry times to us through the prophets. Then it says this, but now He
has spoken in another way. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son. Usually when we hear the term,
the last days, it makes us a little bit discouraged, a little bit
depressed. We see all the sin in the world
and all the iniquity that seems to abound and abound. And the
verse says, where iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold.
We see terrorism and we see evil and we see evil man-fishing itself
with much more boldness all the time. I think the last days were
a scary time, but we're in the last days, a time when evil seems
to wax worse and worse. My friends, this verse paints
the last days in a different light. The last days here are
spoken of as the time of Christ. This is a glorious time. My friends,
you and I live in a glorious day. We live in a day when God
has revealed Himself to us in the fullest way through His Son.
The Old Testament time was a wonderful time. It was a great time. But
I will tell you, you live in a better time today. There is
more reason for you to live a life of faithfulness. There is more
reason for you to live a life of confidence in Christ. There
is more reason for you to live a life drawing near to God Almighty,
because you have seen something that the Old Testament people
had never seen and could never see. These people hadn't seen
the promises, but they died in faith. What will you be? What
will you do? This is a glorious time. You live in a glorious
time. Be encouraged. You live in a good day, because
this is the time of Christ, when Christ has been revealed. God
has spoken unto us in these last days by his son. I might want to know something
about Brother Jimmy. And so I asked Brother Jimmy's
neighbor, what kind of a man is Brother Jimmy? He would say,
well, he seems to be a pretty decent fellow. Seems like he
goes to work every day and he leaves at the same time, so he
must be a punctual person. And he comes home every night, so
he's not out gallivanting with his buddies. And he goes to church,
so that's him in a suit and a tie on Sunday mornings. And he keeps
his yard in pretty good condition, so he's a pretty good fellow.
And I might see a little glimpse of Brother Jimmy through his
neighbor, but if I want to really know something about Brother
Jimmy, wouldn't I be better off to ask his son, Daniel, what's
your dad like? He would say, let me tell you
something. Every night he gives me a hug and he tells me that
he loves me twice as much. And every day he gets up even
when he's tired and he goes to work because he wants to provide
for my mother and provide for me. And when I'm hurting, when
I'm crying, when I fall down, He picks me up. And when I do
wrong, He's faithful to spank me because He loves me and wants
the very best for me. If I want the best for me, where do I go?
I go to someone who is close to Him. I go to His Son. My friends,
the prophets could say, this is what He said, so we'll write
it down. His Son can say, this is what
I know, because I know my Father. In these last days, He has spoken
unto us by His Son, the messenger that knows all, because He has
an intimate relationship, an intimate knowledge, a perfect
knowledge of His Father. You live in a good day. He has
spoken unto us by His Son. And Jesus Christ says in John
15, I think verse 24, somewhere in there, He says that all that
the Father has shown me have I made known unto you. Everything
that you need to know about God, you see it within Jesus Christ. He's made it all known unto you.
Well, Jesus Christ is not only the messenger, but He is also
the message. He's the messenger and He is
also the message. When He's revealing God, He is revealing what? He
is revealing Himself. God has spoken unto us in these
last days by His Son. And then in these next two verses,
he lists seven traits about Christ that make Christ superior to
everything else. I love how God does this. Remember
now, he's speaking to struggling Christians, people who are wavering
in the faith, people who may have already slipped somewhat,
who may have already had episodes where they knew that they were
ashamed of Christ. And yet, although they had great
grief about it, the next day they were ashamed of Christ again because of the
pressure, the outside pressure of the worldly influence and
the community influence and maybe even the family influence. And
so how does the writer, inspired by God, how does he work to motivate
them, to encourage them to turn their eyes back to Jesus Christ?
Well, it makes me think of a time that I played a game with my
children. It was a silly little game called Chutes and Ladders.
It's a board, if you've never seen it, it's a board that has
numbers 1 through 100 written on there, and the goal is to
get from 1 all the way to 100. There's a little spinning wheel
that you spin, and if it lands on 5, you get to move 5 spaces.
If it lands on 3, you move 3 spaces. And you try to work your way
up the board. It's a rather dull little game sometimes. There's
ladders that, if you land on a ladder, the bottom of a ladder,
you can go all the way up to the top of the ladder. If you land on
the top of the chute, you go all the way down the bottom of
the chute, back to where you started at. And so sometimes it's kind
of frustrating. And in this game, Scarlett and Sophia, they're
quite competitive. And Scarlett was just, she was having absolute
perfect success. Every time she needed a three,
she would get a three. If she needed a five, she would get a five. And she
was making up her way steadily up the board. Sophia was the
exact opposite. Every time she needed a three,
she would get a two. And she would go right back down
the chute. And she could not win for anything. And Scarlett
was getting all over the board. And Scarlett was on about number
84. And Sophia was down about number two again. Finally Sophia
landed on that. I think it's number 11 and number
11 Has a ladder that goes all the way up from 11 I think it
is all the way up to number 9 or something like that and Sophia
landed on 11 and here she goes at 90 She is past scarlet and
she's almost certain of victory and she can't contain her excitement
And she says, ha, ha, ha, Scarlett, I'm going to beat you. She had
been full of tears and not tears, but she'd been full of just a
dour expression on her face the whole time. And now she's finally
so excited and she just holds it and says, ha, ha, ha, I'm
going to beat you. And I said, Sophia, don't do that. I said, Sophie, if you don't
do that, if you keep acting in that way, I know what's going
to happen. You're going to land on that chute that next one over
and you're going to go all the way back down. And then I thought
about what I said. I thought, what am I telling
her? It's not that you don't want to do it for the consequences
that you might get. It's that you don't want to do
it because it's not the right thing to do. And you want to
do the right thing. You want to love your sister and be sweet
to your sister. God could have told us, listen,
don't turn from me. Don't compromise because of the
consequences. Although sometimes He does that.
And there are consequences. And you know what He says here?
He says, don't turn from me because of how great my Son is. Don't turn from me because of
how awesome my Son is and how glorious my Son is and how much
more desirable my Son is if you can only see the right comparison
and the right light. And so he puts before us seven
beautiful, glorious traits of Christ that make Christ more
excellent than everything else in all the world. After these
last days spoken to us by His Son, I'm going to remove my coat
if you don't mind. I'll feel at home that way. The first trait,
he says, is whom he hath appointed the heir of all things. Whom he hath appointed the heir
of all things. This speaks of Christ and His
role as the Son of God, where He voluntarily submitted Himself
to the Father and came down to earth to pay for sin in the flesh. And as a reward for His voluntary
humiliation, God has appointed him as the heir of all things. He says in Matthew 28, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. In Psalm 2, he says
it this way. He says in Psalm 2, verse 7,
I will declare the decree. Oh, let's read verse 6. Yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou
art my Son. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It
all belongs to Christ. Everything, earth, heaven, sea,
it all belongs to Him. For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things. My friends, because Christ is
the heir of all things, He is superior to everything else.
He is excellent above everything else. But let me tell you, it's
not just possessions. It's not just things. It's not
just tangible things that have been given to Christ. He's the
heir that He is the heir of. He is the heir of the unfolding
of all of history. All of history is for what? It
was for Christ. Let's just think about a few
events in history. Think about the man Pharaoh. Pharaoh, he
wanted those Israelites, he wanted those children of Israel because
he could make some money off those people. If he could work
them and he would stay subservient to him, they would produce great
things for him. He would be a great ruler. And
yet, when they began to turn, it made him angry because his
empire was at stake. He would get scared that they would overtake
him and he would no longer be in charge. And so you know the
story of Pharaoh and the bondage and the cruelty and the heaviness
that he wreaked upon the children of Israel. What a mean, horrible
person. What an evil person. And you
know what it says in Romans 9? It says in Romans 9 of Pharaoh,
God speaking to Pharaoh, for the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
verse 17, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might
be declared throughout all the earth. Why was Pharaoh raised
up so he could be a great ruler? No, he was raised up, my friends,
so that the name of God might be declared throughout all the
earth and that the power of God might be shown in Pharaoh. Oh,
what a beautiful thing. All things are for Christ. And
so today, even today, we rejoice. Our children rejoice to read
about it. We rejoice to read that. Oh, that as God split the Red
Sea and they went across on dry ground and Pharaoh and his hosts
were drowned in the mist. All things. or for Christ, His
power, His name still spread abroad throughout the earth because
of Pharaoh. Alexander the Great, he was going
to be the great ruler, the great conqueror. He had conquered all
the known world. He was an ambitious fellow, conquering,
cruel fellow. What did he do though? He spread
the language of Greek. And guess what? Guess what? That's
the language that our New Testament is written in. He had no intentions
of working for Christ. He had no intentions of helping
Christ. His intentions were purely selfish.
I'll make my name great. What happened? He was just working
on behalf of Christ. The Polish Romano, the peace
of Rome, where Rome ruled all the world. Making a way where
you could freely move from place to place and drive from place
to place. Building, this expression says, all roads lead to Rome.
Building a highway system. Building a way where people could
move and traverse about. What? For the glory of Rome.
No, for the glory of God. So that the men of God, Paul
and Peter and these evangelists could go and spread the gospel
throughout all the world. Telling people about Jesus Christ. Again,
all things for Christ. Herod says, I hear there's a
king of the Jews and he was jealous. This baby that had been born
had been called King of the Jews. He thought, oh no, if this is
really a king, he will turn the Jews away from me and we will
have a divided kingdom and they may overcome me. And he's jealous
and he says, I want every male child under two years old, I
want them to be killed. So what happens? Joseph and Mary
and Jesus go to Egypt. Herod is working against Christ,
right? His one goal is to destroy this
one called the King of the Jews, right? That's not what the Scripture
says. The Scripture says the reason he did that was so that
he could be fulfilled the prophecy which said, out of Egypt shall
he come. Caesar thinks, you know what?
I need some more money. If I had some more money, I could
have built some greater things. So Caesar makes a decree that
there should be a tax go throughout all the world. Wow, so Caesar
could get more money so he could get richer? That's what he thought,
but not really. Why did He go? Why did He make
the decree? So that Jesus could be born from
Bethlehem, so that the prophecy again would be fulfilled, that
He would come out of Bethlehem of Ephrathah. All things for
Jesus Christ. Head and Pontius Pilate. Enemies,
and yet they became friends for one goal. To destroy Christ. Right? To destroy Christ. To
hurt Christ. To foil Christ. to stop the name
of this One called Jesus of Nazareth. They will destroy Him. They will
defeat Him. They will defeat Him if they
can only kill Him. Right? Herod, Pilate wants to
please the people. Herod, an evil man. And so they
meet together and they agree together to destroy, to defeat
this One called Christ. But is that what happened? Not
at all. In Acts 4, the preacher says,
Who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why do the heathen
rage? Why were these Jews so angry?
Why was Herod so angry? Why did Pilate agree to kill
Christ? It was clear that Barabbas was
the one that should have been taken. It was clear that Barabbas was
the evil one. Christ was the innocent one. It was clear. Why
were the heathen raised then? Why do people imagine these vain
things? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. For the truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both head and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
to defeat Christ." Right? That's not what it says. For
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. It was just played into Christ's
hands. They had no idea. Their goal
was to defeat Christ. What did they do? They glorified
Christ by fulfilling what God had determined before to be done,
and Christ would come as a lamb slain, and the sins of His people
would be placed upon Christ, and He would be glorified by
carrying the sins of His people away from them, paid for, and
He would be able to bring His possession back and present them
before the Father saying, Behold, I am the children which thou
hast given Me. All things For Christ, he's the heir of all
things. He's excellent, my friends. The second phrase that he gives,
by whom also he made the worlds, it says of Christ that by him
all things consist. All things were made by him and
for him, it says in Colossians 1 verse 16. He made the worlds. This presents Christ, His excellence,
His brilliance, His brilliance and wisdom as the great designer
and the creator of all the world. This establishes the deity of
Christ. Let me tell you, my friends,
only God, only God can create. Only God has the power to create.
We can mess up things. We can build things. We can put
things together. But we cannot create, can we? Only God can
create. And there's two things that always
happen when you think about creation. When you acknowledge the Creator,
there's two things that always happen. It tells us what happened
in Psalm 8. It says, When I consider thy
heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained. When you really consider those
things, consider their majesty, consider their beauty, consider
their consistency, consider their glory. But if you consider the
heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon, the stars, which thou
hast ordained, two things happen, right? The first thing that happens
is you say, what is man? What is man that thou art mindful
of him? You're humbled before the excellency
and the glory of Christ. And the second thing that happens
is this, you utter, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Christ is established as being
superior by his role. as a Creator of all the worlds.
In Psalm 19, it says it this way, The heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Listen to these next words. Day
into day uttereth speech, and night into night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through
all the earth, and their words are the end of the world. In
them he has set a tabernacle for the sun. Let me tell you
something, my friends. I can't go to China and tell
people by myself about the glory of God. By the same token, a
Chinese man can't come to me and tell me about the glory of
God. Do you know why? I don't speak Chinese. He doesn't speak
English. I can't go to Africa. I can't go anywhere and by myself
without an interpreter tell people about the glory of God, about
the excellency of God, about the design, the brilliance and
the wisdom of God. You know what, though? I don't need to. I'm
not saying I don't need to spread the gospel. But I'm telling you
this. It says here that every single
day, day into day and night into night, the creation screams out
to people in any language. There is no speech. There is
no language where the voice of the excellency and the glory
of God is not heard. You say, I didn't know. My friends, look at the hour.
Look at the creation, look at the water that's always there,
look at the sun that always rises, look at the rain that always
comes, look at the seasons, look at the times, look at the sustenance
of life. There is no speech, there is
no language where the voice of the excellency of the glory of
God is not proclaimed, the heavens declare it, and the earth showeth
forth his handiwork. By the way, I am not saying I
don't need to go to China. I need to go to China and spread
the gospel. I need to find me an interpreter or learn the language,
but I'm telling you the excellence of God, the glory of God is shown
through creation. He's the creator of all the world.
Number three, it says, who being the brightness, who
being the brightness of His glory. The sun is the brightness of
the glory of God. Look at the sun outside, and you cannot distinguish the
essence of the sun from its brightness, can you? When you see the sun,
what do you see? You see its brightness. And although
the sun and its brightness are distinct, yet all you can really
see is the brightness. You see, the glory of the sun
is the brightness of the sun, right? The glory of the sun is
the brightness of the sun. Distinct things, but you still
see, when you see the sun, you notice the brightness. Of Christ
it is said, He is the brightness of the glory of God. What is
glory? Glory is value. Glory speaks
of value. How valuable is God? And it says the Son, Jesus Christ,
reveals the value. He reveals the excellency of
God. The brightness of the glory is
like saying He is the excellency of the excellency. The glory
of God is all the straits together that show His full and complete
value. We sang the song last night,
The Love of God. We all know that third verse.
Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade? to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky." What is that person
saying? He's saying if every single blade
of grass was a pen, and every single drop of water, which is
the earth, which is 97%, was ink, And every single person,
not just in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but every person in the whole
world, in every generation, in every age, if there were one
duty in life, was to sit down there and inscribe the love of
God. He says there that it would drain
the ocean. The scrolls wouldn't be able
to contain the whole of it. The whole sky was a parchment. The scroll
could not contain the whole of the love of God. And you think
that was a very emotional person. Very sweet, but a little emotional.
Very sweet, but a little bit of exaggeration there. Is that
right? But that person was excited that
day about the love of God. And so he wrote this, or she
wrote this song, maybe overstated the case a little bit. Well,
in Ephesians 3, listen to what it says in Ephesians 3. that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and the
height, and to know the love of Christ." They want you to
be able to comprehend everything that you can. Everything that
your puny mind can grasp, I want you to get it of the love of
Christ. The height, the depth, the length, the breadth, I want
you to get it of all the love of Christ. And then he says this, which
passeth all knowledge. I want you to spend all of your
years learning about the love of Christ, but you'll never learn
it all because it's too much for your mind to comprehend.
It's too much for your mind to contain. You can't do it. It's
passive all knowledge. I tell you, that writer was not
overstating the case. He had it right on target. But
guess what? Guess what? The love of God is
only one attribute of who God is. It's a wonderful attribute. But it's only one of many, many,
many attributes. And if you get all those attributes
together, there you see the value of God. And so it says Christ
is the brightness of His glory. If you want to see the value
of God, if you want to see the excellency of God, my friend,
I tell you, place your eyes upon Jesus Christ. He is the glory. He is the value. He is the excellency
of who God is. God says, look at my son. Look
at my son. God said that because of the
next phrase, which says, he is the express image of his person. He's the express image of his
person. He exactly, perfectly expresses
who God is. He is the imprint, he is the
engraving of his person. I was trying to show my children
this, trying to teach them about who God is and why it's hard
to do. I don't even know who God is completely. And so I took
one of those stamps, you know, that says your name and address.
You put it in the ink and you stamp it there. The children
in Christ is the express image of God. So let's take this stamp. So we put it in the ink and I
pressed it on the paper. And every time it never came
out right. Either I would push too hard
on the left side and it would be more dark there. It never came out exactly
like the stamp. Never did. Never worked. They
got the point, I think, hopefully. It was kind of a long devotional.
But hopefully they got the point. But I never could get it exactly
right. But God says, My son is the express image of who I am. In the Ten Commandments, God
says, Thou shalt make no graven images. And I always thought,
you know, that's talking about these bad people that worship
false idols. They have Buddhas in these these
just all kinds of false idols that we read about and we see.
That's talking about those, and maybe that is talking about those,
that's part of it. But I believe, my friends, that includes pictures
of Christ, images of Christ. You know why? You know why I
think he said that? It's because no matter If we
do it in great sincerity and in great love for Christ, trying
to conjure up in our minds and on a picture, what does Christ
look like? You will never, ever, ever, never be able to capture
the perfection of who God is. And God says there's only one
thing, there's only one thing that can capture perfectly who
I am. That's my Son. That's my son. So the reason that we don't make
graven images, because we can't do it justice, we can't do God
justice. Only Christ, only Christ, He
and He alone can do God justice. And that's why God the Father
would come down and speak from heaven, not just once, but twice,
once at the baptism of Christ where He said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. This is my Son. This is my Son.
This is my Son. Look at Christ. If you want to
see God, look at Jesus Christ. He reveals Christ to us in His
Word, Christ came to earth, that we may be able to see who God
is. My friends, it's a scary thing
to see who God is. 1 Timothy 6 says this, He dwelleth
in a light that no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen nor
can see, to whom be it power and glory or however it finishes
up. He dwells in a light that no man can approach unto. He's
the Holy God. Moses wanted to see the glory
of God. God said, Moses, I'm going to have to hide you by
the cliff of a rock. And I'm going to have to put my hands
here. And when I walk by, you're going to glance at my underparts.
It's a scary thing to see God. He's a holy God. My friend, you
can see God. He's concealing himself, and
yet he's revealing himself in the person of Jesus Christ. He's
the express image of God. He is the image of the invisible
God, it says in Colossians 1, verse 15. That's why Christ is
superior. He's the express image of God.
He's God. The next phrase, the fifth phrase,
is upholding all things by the word of his power. Here's the
One to whom has been given all things, including history. It's
all being done for Him. Here's the One who created all
things. His brilliance and His wisdom
and His honor are just screaming out from all of creation. Here's
the One who is the brightness, the value of the excellency of
God, the glory of God. Here's the One who is the express
image of the person of God. And this One is upholding all
things. By the Word of His power, by
His powerful Word, He is upholding all things. This speaks of not
only sustaining all things, He is preserving all things. My
friends, the reason that you are here today, the reason that you
are still breathing, the reason that you are still existing,
It's not by your great diet. It's not by the many vitamins
you take. You exist because by Him all things consist. It is
God that is preserving this world. It is God that is keeping this
world. It is God that is sustaining this world. He is the one who
sustains all. He sustains you. It's in Him
we live. It's in Him we move. And it's
in Him we have our being. So this speaks of His sustaining
power. This also speaks of His governing
power. God is in the business, Christ
is in the business of governing over all. Praise God, my friends,
that not just some tyrant, not just some crazy ruler, not just
some dictator, not just some Herod, not just some Hitler,
but the God of heaven and earth, the brightness and the glory
of God is governing all things by the word of His power. In
Matthew 24, He describes a very scary time when there's going
to be trouble. And He says this, He says, Ye
shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Oh. You'll hear of wars. You'll hear
of rumors of wars. And listen to the next words
that he says. See that ye be not troubled. That verse doesn't go with that.
It's talking about wars. What happens in wars? People
die. The fathers don't come home.
Brothers, young men don't come home. People die. Wars are horrible
things. And he says to you that you be
not troubled. Is this man crazy? Is he delusional?
Has he lost his mind? Is he an angry and cruel, mean
God? No, he's a God. The only person
that can say that and we can rest in him and we can fully
agree to not be troubled is if the good God is governing and
ruling over all, upholding all things by the word of his power.
He's excellent. He's superior because He's upholding
all things by the word of His power. Two more. Then it says, when
He had by Himself purged our sins. Why is Christ superior? Well, he's superior because he's
the heir of all things. He's superior because he created
the world. He's superior because all things are upheld by him.
He's superior because he's the brightness of the glory of God.
He's superior because he's the express image of God. But now
all that glory that we just described, those five glorious, beautiful
things, that great glory, guess what it does? It comes down to
this sinful, stinky earth. The brightness of the glory of
God. The express image of this person. This great, brilliant
designer just spreading out the stars, tossing out the stars,
creating, sculpting the mountains, digging out the oceans. This
great, glorious God says He came down to earth. Don't turn there,
we don't have time, but in 2 Chronicles 6, I have a bookmark. David is
amazed. I'm sorry, I think it's Solomon
speaking here, but regardless, he says, Now then, O Lord God
of Israel, let thy word be verified which thou hast spoken unto thy
servant David. Listen to this. Listen to the amazement in his
voice. Listen to the awe in these words as they are dedicating
the temple here. He says, But will God in very
deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee. How much less this house that
I have built. Will God come and dwell with
men on earth? Heaven can't contain Him. Will
this glorious God come and dwell on earth? My friends, the story,
the revealing of God in the person of Jesus Christ is that yes,
God will and God did come down to earth. Not as I expected. Not to be this shining, glorious
person. But came down to earth, my friends, to lay it all aside
and to serve. To live a life of obedience,
to live a life of subservience, to live a life of pain, to live
a life of toil, to live a life of suffering, to live a life
of persecution, to live a life of all these things for your
sake, for your sake. For our sakes we are killed,
it says. He was killed all the day long. It was by His wounds
that we were healed. It was by His bruises. It was
by His stripes that we have peace with God. It was because this
glorious God, this glorious Christ, agreed, this superior One, agreed
to come down to earth, not to shine, that He came down to die.
In this story in Hebrews 1, we see the heights of glory and
we see the lowest depths of abasement as He agrees to be abased. for
you, if you are one of His, if you are a lover of Jesus Christ
this morning. Oh, my friends, I love the words of our song,
our hymn book, My Sin. My Sin, oh, the bliss of its
glorious thought. My Sin. Do you mourn for sin
today? Does sin bother you today? Is
sin an abstract thing that happens, that just kind of happens? Sin
happens. We hate it, but it just happens.
It happens to other people a lot more than it happens to me, too.
I think it happens a lot more to you right now and not much
to me. But it says my sin or the bliss of this glorious thought,
my sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross. Well,
who was on the cross? Who was on the cross was the
glory of glory, the express image of the person of God, the brightness
of the glory of God, stood upon the cross. I was nailed to the
cross and I bear it no more. So let's go ahead and compromise.
Let's go ahead and just live life on Sundays and live life
our way the rest of the week. Let's keep it on the hush-hush
that we serve Jesus Christ. Let's not tell anybody about
this. Praise the Lord, he says. Praise the Lord, O my soul. He
can't keep silent when he's thinking about the depths of abasement
that Christ submitted to. I love what it says here, when
he had by himself purge our sins. My friends, he was the only one
who would do it. And he was the only one who could
do it. He had by himself purged our
sins. Not by your might. At least think
of all the good people in the Old Testament. People that are
heroes. People like David. Well, he couldn't even live right.
He sinned against Sheba. Think about Abraham. A great
father of the faithful. But he gave up his wife under
pressure. Think about the great leader Moses. struck to rock
in anger. My friends, no one could. No
one could. And if you could, would you?
I might for my family, but I probably wouldn't for you. I wouldn't
want to endure the wrath of God put upon me for people that are
different than me. I couldn't. I wouldn't. My friends,
Christ could and He did. He did. He's the only one who
could. The blood of bulls and goats, they would paint a perfect
picture, but they could not take away one sin. Yet Christ can
take away all the sins of all of His people. What a beautiful,
beautiful scene. My friends, He's superior. We
look up at Him in awe for His glory that we spread about in
the first five. But we must see Him as superior as well for His
abasement for what He did for us upon the cross. He's the Excellency. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, here's the seventh one, He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. My friends, he is superior because
he is at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is sat down. He is sat down. That's because
of the finished work of what he came to do. It's because of
the settled work of our sins being placed upon him. It's because
of his majesty, of his glory, that he is sat down. He is the
majestic one. He is the one that the seraphims
cry, holy, holy, holy is the word God has host about. He is
the one that they cry worthy is the lamb that was slain to
receive honor and power and glory everlasting. He's the one we
sing about. Because He is the Great God. And I love that last
phrase. He is sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. That phrase, on high, is nowhere
else used in the Scriptures. What it speaks of, it is the
highest height. It is the most elevated position
that could ever be attained or could ever even be conceived
of. Did you hear that? He is sat
down at the highest position that could ever even be conceived
of. In closing, let's read the verses
10 through 12 quickly. And these verses describe the lifeblood of most Americans. Earth, things, the creation. God created the world and it
was good, but it's cursed by sin and we have consumed it and
we are consumed by it. These vexations describe the
things that grab most of your attention, that grab most of
our thoughts, that grab most of our fears, that grab most
of our desires. Right here in the earth, the
earthly, this is what consumes us most of the time. Things transit,
things on earth. Listen to what it says about
them. We just read seven beautiful,
wonderful things. Listen to what it says about
this thing that consume you, that you are most interested
in most of the time if you are a typical American Christian. And thou,
Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundations of the earth
and the heavens with the works of thy hands. They shall perish.
But thou remainest. And they all shall wax old as
duff and 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." You buy that
new, beautiful garment, that dress, that suit, and you wear
it and you're so proud of it. But then you get down on your
knees and you're carrying it like a horsey, and you rub a
hole in the knee of your pants, and you throw it out. Give it
to the goodwill. You throw it in the trash. You
use it to check the oil in your car with. And it's no more. It's
a vesture. You fold it up, put it in the
drawer, and it's no longer used. And God says, Lord, I'm going
to fold this thing up. It's going to perish. It's going
to wax old. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. Listen to this. Therefore, because
of the superiority of Christ over everything, therefore, We
ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompensive reward. How in the world shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began
to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that
heard them. My friends, there is no escaping
if we neglect this great salvation. If we can see the glory of Christ
and then turn and compromise and turn away, there is no escape. That's what he's saying. We ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
It's no comparison. Jesus wins in a landslide. He
knocked the guy out in the first seconds of the first round. It's
over. It's a skunk. It's done. He's
superior. Now what will you do with him?
May God bless you.
Superiority of Christ
| Sermon ID | 4506225537 |
| Duration | 52:43 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 1 |
| Language | English |
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