take up your Bibles and please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1 as we prepare for the sermon text and the sermon itself. Hebrews chapter 1, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 4. I really love this book and so I'd like to give us just a little bit of the following context as well. I'm going to read through a little bit more than just 1 through 4. In fact, I'm going to quickly read through chapter one of Hebrews so that we really get a hold of all that it says even in the beginning of the book about Christ because that's where we're going to be directing our attention this evening. Please listen carefully to the Word of God. 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 ear 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. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the son, he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" Well, as I said this morning, I have a special soft spot in my heart for the children of the church, and so I always address the first part of the sermon to the children. Kids, did you ever get a birthday card from your grandma or grandpa? Inside, they probably wrote, we love you. Well, that's a love note. We don't think about it that way, but that's a love note, kids. Those words tell you about their love for you, but the love itself comes from the people who wrote the note. When grandpa and grandma visit you, though, it's like they are the love note, because they are right there in front of you to tell you they love you. Well, kids, did you know that God sent his love note to us like that? He gave us this, first of all. He gave us the Bible that tells us in words about His love for us. And He brought His love to us by a person who is like a love note from God, and His name, of course, is Jesus. He loves us so much that He died for us to pay for our sins, and He rose again from the dead because He had done everything it took to save us and to make us His own children. And so, kids, you should trust Jesus and believe in His word, the Bible, precisely because He loves you so much. Adults, I want to begin with some introductory explanation about the book of Hebrews. I think that will help us to understand as we jump into this passage what in the world is happening here and why the writer to the Hebrews says the things that he does and follows the theme that he does. This book was written, or this letter actually, was written to Jewish Christians and they were probably living in Rome at the time. As God sent His gospel spreading throughout the Roman Empire like wildfire, there were Jews among the Gentile world being converted to Christ, professing faith in the promised Messiah and His redemptive work. Roman sentiment turned against second-generation Christians very quickly, and so these Jewish Christians suffered under heavy and increasing persecution. They dreaded worse still to come. Some of them were fairly new Christians, some were a bit older Christians, but many of them had drifted away from devoting proper time and attention to God's Word. They stopped growing. They opened themselves up to temptation. They weakened in faith. And worse than this, some of those Jews apostatized. They threw aside their confession of faith in Christ altogether. Like the seed sown on rocky soil that withered in the heat of the sun, they withered away with the heat of persecution. They returned to their former Judaism to escape the persecution and retreat into the relative safety of what was known as a legal religion in the Roman Empire. By this time, as we heard this morning, Judaism had become a works righteousness religion. It was no longer the religion of grace, the true religion of the Old Testament. It had become a works righteousness religion, but it still held on to its claim on Old Testament rituals and regulations and forms and offices and so on. Those who returned to that religion, abandoning Christ, they removed the heat of persecution from themselves, yes, but they also sealed their eternal judgment. By apostasy, that dreaded word, they proved they had never been regenerate at all, never saved, and then, of course, they rejected the Christ whom the Spirit had offered to them all along. But there were Jewish Christians who were not masquerading. They were regenerate Christians with saving faith. And they were still tempted, at least, by severe persecution to reject Christ and give up their profession of faith in Him. And so Hebrews, this letter was originally written to encourage professing Jewish Christians not to abandon their confession of faith in Christ and not to return to their former Jewish things. And it did so by showing that Christ is better. Christ is the all in all. He is the fulfillment of all of those former types, and shadows, and promises, and prophecies, and rituals, and offices, and so on. It's as though the writer to the Hebrews would ask, why go back to the former things? Why go back to the incomplete? Why abandon your confession of faith in Jesus Christ when there is salvation in no one else? For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Brothers and sisters, the purpose of Hebrews endures for us, to encourage us not to abandon Christ, but to hold fast the confession of our faith in times of persecution or in times of any other difficulty or affliction, because Christ is our only salvation. Christ is our help in time of temptation. Christ is our all in all. Christ is better. That's the theme of the letter to the Hebrews. Because Christ is better than the Old Testament promises as their fulfillment, let us hold fast our confession of faith in Him. That theme is so powerful that it is presented throughout the first 10 and a half chapters with the idea that because Christ is better, Christ is worthy of faith. Now we also find a strong sub-theme that God's Word in Christ is worthy to be believed. And it's in that vein that Hebrews now begins. In verses 1 through 3 of Hebrews chapter 1, Christ is set forth as both the ultimate revealer of God's Word and the final revelation of God's Word. So Christ is God's ultimate prophet and God's final word. Now that tells us what our two points are for this evening. So first we see that Christ is the prophet of God. Were you listening? You heard the emphasis. Christ is the prophet of God. Christ as a revealer is better than all of the prophets. So Christ is the ultimate prophet. He is the prophet that God promised through Moses when Moses said that God would give His people another prophet like Himself. Now we know God sent many more prophets to His people. But Christ is the ultimate prophet whom Moses foretold would come to complete God's word to his people. Those who heard Christ speak during his earthly ministry recognized and said that he was a prophet, yes, but that he was even greater than all of the former prophets because he spoke with an authority that they did not have. He did not just speak God's word, but he was God speaking his word. Furthermore, Moses made it clear that the ultimate prophet that God would send would be greater than himself and would ultimately be the one upon whom salvation itself would rest. Peter pointed out in his second sermon in Acts chapter three, and this is kind of an extended quote from the scriptures there, but it makes the point. Peter said, Moses said, The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To him you shall give heed in everything he says to you. And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among his people. And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. That's all talking about Christ. For the Jews, heeding this ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ, was an eternal life and death matter. Heed Him not in what He did, said, and revealed by His gospel, word, and work. In other words, heed Him not by faith and eternal judgment would fall upon them. heed Him in all that He said, His word about Himself and His work, and the long-promised covenant blessings of salvation would be theirs." In other words, Jesus Christ was the better, the greater prophet who revealed and fulfilled salvation and all that pertained to life and godliness by His work and His word. Now you can consider this. I mean, you can imagine what joyful news that would be to the Jews who were appointed to eternal life and would, through God's gospel salvation, become Christians. But now you begin to see the significance of this for the Jewish Christians to whom the letter to the Hebrews was written. In the time of persecution or any other severe temptation, why should they want to return to the status and times of the former prophets before the ultimate prophet arrived? Why go back to the position of waiting for salvation to be revealed? Why go back to the former times and refuse to heed the ultimate prophet that Moses warned them they should heed? Well, both encouragement and warning are inherent in this. It's the same for us, brothers and sisters, in our times of temptation. Why would we want to turn away from Him who has revealed and given to us our salvation? How could we fail to heed all that He has to say to us in a completed word about His completed work? Next, we find that Christ is the ultimate mediator of God's word. He is the one to speak and to bring God's word to his people, including all of the written word. We don't often think about that in connection with Christ. Scripture says, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Peter 1.21. It's as true of the written Word of God as of the spoken Word. The Holy Spirit, yes, is the author of the written Word of God. But let's remember something, folks. Let's remember our good Reformed theology here, because the Holy Spirit is just as much the Spirit of Christ as He is the Spirit of God, for He proceeds both from the Father and the Son. And so then Christ received from the Father the Word which was to be expressed to His people, so that by His Spirit it was revealed to His people, as much in the Old Testament times as in the New Testament times. When it came to New Testament times particularly, the risen, ascended Christ fulfilled His promise to His apostles that the Father would send the Spirit in Christ's name to teach them all they needed to reveal to His people and bring to their remembrance all that He said. He fulfilled His promise to send them the Spirit of God by whose power they would record the inspired New Testament to complete the Word of God. Christ is the ultimate prophet because He is the giver of God's Word. We can have no revelation of God and His salvation at all apart from Jesus Christ. Christ, the ultimate mediator of God's Word, has the rights that qualify Him to speak for God. Look at the passage we just read. He's the heir of God who inherited all things. And so he has the right to speak for God in ruling all nations as God's king on Mount Zion. Christ inherited God's people. The very people that you are, that I am, that we are, we are his inheritance. And so he has the right to speak for God to us for our welfare. Christ has the authority to speak for God, being at the right hand of God in the place of authority as the risen Lord. He is God Himself and creator and sustainer of all, who upholds all things by the word of His power, the passage says. He and He alone is perfectly suited and qualified to reveal God and His word to us. Christ is the giver of God's word to man. Now I'm sure you can see at this point that that makes Christ better than the prophets. Christ is the ultimate prophet of God towards whom they all pointed. Now second, we see that Christ is the final word. Not just the ultimate prophet, but he is also the final word himself. Now for one thing, in Jesus Christ, God's Word is finished. That tells us that He is the final Word of God. We can see this first in the contrast between God's former speaking of His Word in former prophets, former times, and former ways, and His final speaking of His Word in Christ. The former prophets were men whom God called to the extraordinary and ordained office of prophet. In the Old Testament, God revealed his inspired word to them, and they spoke and wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with God's authority to God's people. And yet, they were not given all of God's revelation to man. They did not have the full light of the gospel. Remember what Jesus said about John the Baptist? No one greater No one born of woman was greater than John the Baptist. He was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, even if he wasn't a writing prophet. And yet Jesus said, you who are in the kingdom of God, you who are brought into the kingdom of God by the fulfilled and accomplished work of Jesus Christ, you're greater. You're greater than John the Baptist. because you have the full light of the gospel revealed to you by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The revelation that those prophets received was incomplete. Those were times of foreshadowing, promise, anticipation, waiting, longing for the Messiah and the redemption from sin that he was promised to accomplish. God's people could not yet have the Messiah or the light of his full revelation for which they longed. The former ways of revealing to the prophets, the dreams, the visions, the trances, the signs, the miracles, and so on, were sometimes cloudy, mysterious, infrequent, and incomplete. The contrast here shows that the Old Testament Word of God was preliminary, anticipatory, unfinished. That doesn't make it any the less the Word of God. But it was incomplete. The contrast here shows that God has finished all that was unfinished of the Word of God by speaking, if you will, in Christ the Son. Christ ordered the final revelation of God's Word in Himself and His saving work to be set down in writing by His commissioned witnesses, the apostles, and that, of course, is the New Testament we have. Once it was complete, God's special revelation to man for the exaltation of his son was wholly and completely committed to writing. The former offices of prophet and apostle ceased. The former time of promise was passed. The former ways of revealing were ceased. The dreams, the visions, the prophecies, the tongues, interpretations of tongues, miracles, healings, all ceased. They were all tied to new revelation before all that had been revealed in Christ was set down in writing according to His commission. Those were preliminary means of allowing God's Word to be written down and were less than adequate. Are you hearing me here, folks? visions, tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, healings. They were means of allowing God's word to be written down, they were less than adequate for the job of carrying God's full word sufficiently to all of his people throughout all the rest of the age. So why should any Christian want to go back to the inadequate, insufficient ways when we have the whole written word of God? Now, sadly, we see a lot of our well-meaning but misguided brothers and sisters in Christ doing exactly that today. Thinking that to go back to the dreams, the visions, interpretation of tongue-tongues and the whole business is something that we should have for today, when in fact, that was incomplete. Now in the second place, we see God's word finished in the form of the word has spoken. It's interesting how the Greek language works, that sometimes a simple verb tense has such amazing importance. That in verse one, verse two I think it is, that it says that God has spoken in his son. That is in the Greek perfect tense, and it means that God completed his speaking to us in his son, and it resulted in an eternally abiding word in the possession of his people, which the spirit of Christ then set down wholly in writing. That one little verb tense says, the speaking is all done, and it remains with us today and forever. God's speaking to us is finished, and it is this inspired Bible that we have, folks. This is such a treasure, and I hope that you see it as such and that you will use it and respect it as the treasure that it is. And so from then on, from the moment that it was completed, no new revelation has been or ever will be given. Christ is better. His finished written word is better. Christ is the final word of God because in him it is finished. Next, Christ is the final word because in Jesus Christ, God's word is fulfilled. The prophetic Old Testament was to come to fruition in Christ and the fully preached gospel. All the types, the shadows, the promises, prophecies, foreshadowings that pointed to the Redeemer to come and His promised atoning and justifying work by which He would accomplish salvation for all of God's elect was fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. For example, just one example out of many, the millions of… Have you ever thought about that? How many animals were sacrificed throughout the thousands of years of the Old Testament? The millions of animals sacrificed all pointed to and were fulfilled by Jesus Christ's once for all sacrifice of himself in shedding his blood unto death to pay for every last one of our sins. Every last one of your sins. Dear brother and sister. He accomplished all. and revealed its fulfillment by his preaching of the gospel through his earthly ministry, his accomplishing of the work itself in his perfect life, sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead, and the apostles preaching and writing the full light of the gospel. With the New Testament record of the history and meaning of Christ's saving ministry and its implications, God's word is fulfilled. All of the promises of God are what? They are yes in Jesus Christ, to which we add our amen. How much better it is to have the full light of the gospel than those shadows? To have the complete than the incomplete? To have the fulfillment than the promise? How much better to have the fullness of Christ the word? Christ is the final word because in Him, God's word is fulfilled next. Christ is the final word because in Jesus Christ, God is expressed. In John chapter one, Christ is called the eternal word of God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. Just as a word, and you think about this, what does a word do? A word is the expression and the outward manifestation of the thought. In the same way, Christ is the expression of God's thought and he is the outward manifestation of God's being. He is the expression of God in his creating work. Through Christ, God gave general revelation of his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature. Through Christ, God gave general revelation of himself that is innate in every man's conscience. Christ is also the expression of God's being, of His attributes and His substance. Hebrews 1, our passage says, and He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature. Christ is the expression of God in providence and power. Think about this, where is Christ? At the right hand of God. Providence is committed into the hand of the risen, ascended God-man. He's the one carrying out the plan of God at this point. Isaiah 53 says, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. The good pleasure of the Lord, that's the sovereign grace of God. It rests in the hand of the Savior. It rests in the hand of the Savior to call, justify, sanctify, and glorify his people whom he redeemed. That's his job now. That's what he's doing there at the right hand of God. The word of God's decree has been entrusted to him to carry out, to ensure that he will lose none of his at the last day, as John 6 tells us. In carrying out God's decree, he expresses God himself. Christ is that omnipotent God whose word is just as powerful to sustain as the word of God was to create. Christ sustains all things by his word, and thus he expresses God. In Jesus Christ, God is expressed. Only thus, brothers and sisters, can we know God, can we be saved, and can we be sustained both temporally and eternally. And last, excuse me, Christ is the final word because in Jesus Christ, salvation is complete. I hope you can rejoice in the fact, in the truth, that no more needs to be done or can be done than what Christ has done. No more needs to be said than what God has said in Christ for His people to be saved. He has made purification of sins, as Hebrews 1 says, made purification of sins by expiation and propitiation. What does that mean? It means that He has borne away our guilt, He has satisfied our penalty, He has exhausted in Himself the wrath of God that we deserve, He has fulfilled all righteousness of God's law on our behalf, and He is our perfection in God's eyes. He is the unblemished and spotless Lamb of God by whose precious blood you were redeemed from your futile way of life and who has appeared in these last times to reveal a salvation for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. And I hope you recognize that as Peter's words in the New Testament. In Jesus Christ, God's word is finished, God's word is fulfilled, God is expressed, and salvation is complete. Jesus Christ is the final word of God. Now, what does this mean for us? How do we apply this? Well, here's several things. First, simply rejoice in Christ. Brothers and sisters revel in his glory and in your salvation by him. Next, trust the Bible. God completed his speaking in Christ, Christ ensured that it was wholly committed to writing. Look nowhere else but the word of Christ written, read, faithfully preached and administered in the sacraments to learn what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. Don't be drawn away into confusion and uncertainty by those who attempt you to seek new revelation from God by the former ways of revealing that we have seen are all ceased. Next. And yes, I'm going to preach to the choir here because you're all here doing exactly what I'm about to tell you to do. Avail yourself faithfully of the word of God as a means of grace. The Jewish Christians to whom this epistle was written were ill-equipped in a time when they were sorely tempted by persecution to abandon their professions of faith. They had neglected the word of Christ in the scriptures and in the preaching to their spiritual danger and harm. Some of them began to drift away from their confession of Christ. You must faithfully feed upon God's word if you would stay anchored to Christ. To neglect the means of grace is to risk exposure of a false profession of faith and to risk apostasy. Next, repair to Christ in the time of temptation. Brothers and sisters, Christ is better than any sin. no matter what momentary pleasure you might derive from it, Christ is better than any sin, better than any temporal safety or comfort or pleasure or reward or anything else. Whether you're tempted by affliction, persecution, or any other severe temptation, to consider giving up your confession of faith in Christ just to get relief from that, No, no, no, no. Don't flee from Christ. Flee to Christ. He is your relief. He is your help in time of temptation. His word is your great encouragement. He is worth believing and serving no matter how difficult things become. Let me repeat that. He is worth believing and serving, no matter how difficult things become. And finally. Heed the gospel. Jesus Christ is God's final word, therefore he is the only hope of salvation. It has not been and cannot be revealed by any other than the word who became flesh. Believe the trustworthy revelation of it in God's word. And if any of you don't yet, then right now rest upon Christ alone for salvation. We close with this tonight from William Lane, commentator on Hebrews, quote, There could be no authentic knowledge of God independent of his self-revelation in Jesus Christ. In Jesus alone, the Father's eternal will and purpose are both revealed and fulfilled." End quote. Jesus Christ is God's ultimate prophet and final word. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how blessed we are, how privileged we are to have been drawn to Christ so that you have made us his and he is ours. We thank you that we can say that, oh Lord, truthfully because of your doing. And we bless and praise you, O Lord, that we have, by your doing as well, this word of God, not only Christ as the final word, but what he has had set down in writing for us. Lord, keep us directed by it. Keep us directed to it. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.