Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church AM Service, 9/28/08

Christ’s Glory in the Opening Hymn and Worship

When the king Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord locked and lifted up, sitting on his throne. The cherubim and the seraphim surrounded the throne, and they called out to one another,.

Holy, Holy, Holy,.

Lord of hosts,.

The whole earth is full of His glory. So we have the opportunity of entering somewhat into that kind of praise that first hymn this morning,.

Hymn number 87,.

Holy, Holy, Holy.

We are as desirous of giving to you honor and glory. We ask that you would be with us this day, that you would lift up our hearts and our minds, you would help us to lay aside all those things that might distract us from worship this day.

Help us to sing your praises, help us to think upon the words that we sing. Help us to pray, help us to hear your word, and as your word is preached, that your people indeed be conformed ever closer to the image of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For it is in His name that we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated. The gentlemen come forward for the morning offering. We'll sing together hymn number 441. Hymn number 441, Thy works, not mine, O Christ.

The Qualifications of Church Officers in 1 Timothy

It is there that we read, This is a faithful saying.

If a man desires the position of a bishop,.

He desires a good work. A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded,.

Of good behavior,.

Hospitable, able to teach, not given to whine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle,.

Not quarrelsome,.

Not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?

Not a novice,.

Lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much whine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.

Likewise, their wives must be reverent,.

Not swaggerers,.

Temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world,.

Received of Him glory.

Singing with Understanding and the Joy of Christ

Before we sing hymn number 549,.

I would invite you to turn to it.

And to consider with me the words that we are going to sing. Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts,.

Thou fount of life,.

Thou light of men,.

From the best bliss that earth imparts we turn unfilled to thee again. Ask yourself as you sing these words today, is Jesus the joy of your heart? Is your heart filled with love for Him? Do you see Him as the fount of life,.

The light of men?

And especially that second phrase, the second line, from the best bliss that earth imparts we turn unfilled to thee again. When you consider the greatest joys that earthly things can provide to you, each of you has to think about what brings you the greatest joy.

In comparison to coming to Christ, in comparison to being filled from His fullness, is that great bliss of the earth.

That leave you unfilled?

Is there that great a distinction? Those are some of the questions. We sing these hymns because these hymns have words.

That we should be thinking about.

As we sing. They should reflect what is in our hearts when we sing. And so consider these words. This is an excellent hymn. As we stand and sing it together,.

Hymn number 549.

Let's stand together.

Prayer for Worship and the Work of Christ

Rejoice to be called before your throne. We rejoice because we know there is nothing in and of ourselves that would cause us to be worthy to approach unto a holy God, but that You have provided the way.

Through Jesus Christ.

You have provided to us.

His perfect righteousness.

You have forgiven us for our sins. You have given us new hearts.

And a desire to be obedient to You.

So we come before You boasting solely in Your worth. And the work of the triune God finds its source in You, Father, which sent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to provide the perfect sacrifice for sins.

And now Your Spirit dwells within us and causes us to desire to be here in the fellowship of the saints, to be here desirous of hearing.

From You through Your Word.

So we might be conformed ever closer to the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So we thank You for the perfection of Your work. We know, Father, that there is nothing in and of ourselves that drew Your love and mercy to us.

Like all others in the world, we loved our sin. Like all others in the world,.

We were under Your wrath.

And Your wrath was just against us. But we have confessed the justice of that wrath because You have raised us to spiritual life. You've given us eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand.

So we are thankful as we gather.

In this place this day.

We boast not in ourselves. We boast solely in the Lord. We confess the perfection of His work and we profess that Jesus Christ.

Is Lord, the glory of God the Father.

We join with all the saints for we know that we are but a few of the many who gather this day. Who gather this day and confess Jesus Christ. Who have a desire to hear from Your Word. A desire to live a holy life.

Yet Your people this day speak many languages. They gather in all the nations of the earth. We gather in freedom and we thank You.

For that freedom.

But we know that Your people gather this day.

Even when they don't have that freedom.

Even at the risk of their lives because they place their lives in Your hand. And they so desire the fellowship of the saints that they come together in the name of Jesus Christ. They hide. They meet in the woods.

The darkened corner of the house. Many cannot sing out as we sing out.

Yet they name the name of Christ.

We pray for them. We pray that You would draw near to them. In many of those lands we have brothers and sisters.

Who stay and languish in prison.

Beaten.

Separated from their loved ones. Mothers separated from their children. Children separated from their parents. Husbands and wives torn asunder. They are there alone from the world's perspective.

We know that they are not alone.

We ask that You would draw near to those who suffer this day in the name of Christ. That You would encourage them to come. Father, we always have to think.

What would we do in those situations. We pray that we would be found faithful.

As they are found faithful.

So Father, as we open Your Word this day we would ask that You would give us of Your Spirit to understand that You would cause us to recognize that we handle the very Word of God. That You would increase our faith and our understanding.

That we would recognize that You are meeting with us. That Your Word remains alive and powerful. May we rejoice in our possession of it. If we have grown apathetic about it may You rekindle that fire within our hearts.

So we may bring proper honor and glory to You.

And so protect us, Father, during this hour from distraction.

May Your Word go forth with clarity.

May You be honored in all that is done in this place. We pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We continue in our worship.

Please take your candles.

And turn to hymn number 269.

Hymn number 269.

Let us sing glory.

Glorious things of Thee are spoken. 269.

Stand together.

Why Hebrews Is Worth Slow, Careful Study

Chapter 1. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we do ask that now You would, by Your Spirit, grant us understanding and insight into Your Word that we have an obedient spirit and may be desirous as obedient children.

To hear from You,.

To be pleased by Your Spirit.

To enlighten and guide us at this time.

In Christ's name.

It was my intention, even in arriving here today, to seek to cover all of Hebrews chapter 1 in the two sermons today. But as I reviewed the text, as I considered some of the necessity of providing some background, I decided I'm just not going to hurry myself.

So if we don't get through the first chapter today, that's perfectly fine. I'm just not going to rush. There is in this book such tremendous wisdom. And indeed, in my reading, I was excited to consider some of the words.

Of one of the commentators.

He pointed out that the words of Hebrews were well known by Clement of Rome. Now, Clement of Rome is considered the name of an epistle. Clement was one of the multiple elders in the city of Rome, somewhere toward the end of the first century.

And some even say that Clement is even earlier than that. And this epistle is quite familiar with the book we look at today,.

The book of Hebrews.

Now, why is that relevant? Well, obviously, it shows us that the book of Hebrews is an early writing. We seem in looking at it to even come to the conclusion that the temple sacrifices were still ongoing at this time, which would mean that it's written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 7.

And so we have here an epistle written within the lifetime of the eyewitnesses of the ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But you will notice there is no name attached to the epistle to the Hebrews.

It does not say, I, Paul, an apostle to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no name. And as many of you are probably aware, there has been much speculation down through history, some of it almost humorous, as to who the writer to the epistle, the epistle of Hebrews is.

The early church seemed to believe that it was Paul. The earliest collection we have of Paul's writings around the year AD 200 contains Hebrews along with the rest of Paul's writings. And so many in the early church believe that Paul was the one who wrote Hebrews.

Well, why might anyone even question that? Well, if you look at the language of the text, and you can, I think, probably discern this in English translations, it is clearly discernible in the original language.

Whoever wrote Hebrews did not write like Paul. In fact, if you were to put the difficulty level of the language on a chart of, say, one to ten,.

Hebrews and Luke and Acts.

Would be at the very top of that chart. It is the most difficult, most classical type of Greek in the New Testament. And Paul wouldn't be there. Now, Ephesians is a little more formal. There's more of a range in his writings.

But it's not his style. Some have theorized, well, the reason for that is it was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic by Paul, and then Luke translated it into Greek. That's why it sounds like Luke's style and form as well as its possibility.

All sorts of other possibilities.

Have been suggested.

Apollos has been suggested because he was mighty in the Scriptures and things like that. Whoever it was, they were clearly familiar with Paul. There are all sorts of parallels and similarities between what this epistle says and that which we read elsewhere in Paul.

But, once again, it is not the author that makes Scripture the Scripture. I mentioned Wednesday evening in the study that, as Paul himself said, Scripture is theionoustos, it is God breathed, and it comes forth from the mouth of God.

It is the Spirit of God that makes something Scripture, not the wrote it. And even though Peter says that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, yes, men spoke. Someday we're going to find out.

Maybe the Lord will have a big meeting, the first day in heaven, and He's going to gather us all together and say, alright, everybody who thought it was Paul over here, and everybody who thought it was Apollos over here, and everybody who didn't have a clue in the middle, and we'll see who's right.

And then a curtain will be drawn back and out will walk, well, I don't know either, so we'll find out maybe someday in heaven and we'll find out who the writer to the Hebrews was. But that doesn't matter because it's not the person that makes the Scripture, it is the Spirit of God and the consistency of that revelation with what has come before.

And that, I think, is one of the reasons why this book seems to be such a closed book to many. Some of you who have been here for many years remember that many years ago I preached a series where I went through Hebrews 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

And in doing that, I once again was drawn to this tremendous book. And you'll recall I made the comment that I think one of the reasons that for many modern day Christians it seems like such a difficult book, it seems so difficult for us to follow is because of its tremendous dependence on the Old Testament.

I have a Greek text in front of me and this particular Greek text uses bold font to show you when the Old Testament is being cited. And if you have an English translation that in some way indicates that the Old Testament is being quoted, maybe puts it in italics or sets it off in some way, thumb through the book of Hebrews and you will see that every single chapter has quote after quote after quote from the Old Testament.

And the writer does not stop each time to give you a context. The writer assumes because it's being written to the Hebrews and hence this would have been their upbringing. This would have been what they were taught from the time they were young.

It would have been even more than in our own nation back in the 1700s, 1800s how people were taught to read from the Bible in the school system. You would know the Bible. And so the literature back then, people could make just passing references to Bible stories and everybody understood it because it was the common possession of everyone, biblical literature, biblical understanding.

That's not the case anymore, not even in the Christian church. But certainly among the Jews even more so was the case to know the Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi 'im, and Pentateuch, the law, the writings, and the prophets.

And so the writer, writing to the Hebrews, doesn't have to stop every time and say now remember in a certain book of scripture remember what the context was and this is what happened.

No.

The writer can just simply quote even little snippets, especially from the Psalter assuming that his audience will automatically understand what it is he's saying because they are familiar, so intimately familiar with the biblical text.

So he doesn't have to give references, he doesn't have to give backgrounds, and that's why so many Christians.

Today just look at the book.

And they have no idea why this would be relevant to their lives today. They have no concept whatsoever. And as such, we miss out on a book that I think contains some of the clearest teaching on the deity of Christ, the clearest teaching on the purpose and function of the cross, the clearest teaching on atonement, the clearest teaching on intercession, all to be found in these words.

And so I really do believe that one of the reasons that we have such a shaky, sentimental, emotional view of the cross today is because Hebrews is a closed book to most evangelicals. Most evangelicals simply look at that book and they just move on, I'd rather read John.

But indeed, as I have been just seeking to be prepared to open up this first chapter, I have been challenged. As I'm about to read it to you, you will notice that I'll be reading it fairly slowly. Most of you know that I seek to try to read only from the original language text.

I do not have an English text.

In front of me right now.

So I'll be translating as I'm going along and it's not easy. It's a little bit more difficult than what I'm used to trying to work through. And that is reflected in the English text as well. But as I have been seeking to do this, every phrase, especially in this opening section, has stopped me in my tracks and has caused me to go, my, what a treasure this work is.

I really would hope that even this brief amount of time that we have together.

Would encourage you.

To spend some time in this work. It is so beautiful and it is so deep. And as I read it, I run across difficulties. I think one other reason.

That we're sort of afraid of it.

Is because, well,.

Isn't Hebrews that one with Hebrews 6 in it?

No?

And isn't Hebrews 10, you know,.

Trampling underfoot the blood of the Son of God.

And no forgiveness of sins? Ah, you know, I've heard a lot of controversy about stuff in Hebrews and so I'm going back to jogging again. And it is in working through those difficulties, if we avoid those difficulties, not only does it cripple us in giving an answer for our faith, but it's in working through them that we begin to see the depth of the harmony and consistency of the Word of God.

As most of you know, I work as an apologist. I deal with a lot of people who question the Scriptures and question the Word of God. And a lot of times, Christians will come up to me and maybe they have gotten into some apologetic conversations they shouldn't have gotten into.

Maybe they have been doing some reading in liberal theologians and their faith is teetering. And they will ask, how is it that you know these things? You know about this problem.

And that problem.

And yet you remain firm in your faith in the inspiration of the text of Scripture.

How is that?

And it's difficult to give an answer because the answer has come from experience. The answer has come from 25 years now of being hit with these things, going back to the Word of God, seeing how these things are to be answered and seeing this consistency over time in the text of Scripture.

And seeing how often there is a temptation for me to puff myself up as a creature and sit in judgment of God, but if I would just remain in some sense humble before the Word of God, I could see. I could find a way of seeing the consistency.

It didn't always happen at one time. Sometimes it would take some time. There had to be some patience. A lot of people get very impatient. I want to answer right now. But it was in working through it and struggling through these things and doing this over and over again, not just in response to one group, but to so many different attacks that over that time period, I can testify to you.

I can't communicate this to you, but I can testify to you that I have seen such a beautiful consistency. Think about this book that lies in your lap. Forty different authors,.

1500 years,.

Spread all across the known world at that time. Authors with different interests and different backgrounds, different political situations, different languages. The world changed a lot in 1500 years. Think of all the empires that rose and fell.

The political situation changed. Technology changed. Warfare changed. Forty authors, 1500 years. See, in our day, what most people do is they say, oh, well, because of all that, that's why you can't trust the Bible.

But it's in that that I see the Bible's greatest beauty. To see men who speak with different tongues and with different words and different styles, and yet there is superintending over all of that.

The purpose of God.

Bring about this harmony. Is it a harmony that just lies on the surface?

No.

But it's a harmony that you find when with an obedient heart and humility before God, you're willing to listen to what the Word of God says. That's when you find this beautiful harmony of the Word of God.

Like I said, I can't... I wish there was some way I could open your heart up and just pour that experience of mine into you. I can't.

It's something you have to experience.

Every Christian, I believe, is called to be a student of this Word throughout their life. There are so many things that we give so much of our time to that it will be worth nothing in eternity in comparison to knowing the Word of God.

And it's interesting that as we look at this first chapter, that's sort of where we start, is with the reality of God's revelation.

Now keep in mind,.

I know that not everyone has heard sermons preached five or six or ten years ago. Everyone was now. And they're still on the website. I believe Brother Royals has kept them up there. The series on Hebrews is there.

At least Hebrews 6 -10. But remember the key to understanding this book. The key to understanding this book is remembering to whom it is written. The context in which it is written. The apostle, or whoever it is who's writing,.

Is writing to Hebrew believers.

Who are in danger of going back to Judaism. We know historically that great pressure was placed upon those early believers to go back to Judaism. To go back to the temple. To go back and offer sacrifice upon the altar.

Down through history, you have seen how seriously the Jewish community has responded to this idea of this false messiah, Jesus. Even the Gospels tell us that those who were confessing Jesus were put out of the synagogue at that time.

We don't want you here. And we know that in many situations a person who was Jewish, who was of the faith of Israel, who confessed Jesus Christ to be the messiah, would be considered dead to that community.

Not only were they excluded from the worship, but they would be considered dead to their family. No communication. Cut off. And so those who were embracing Jesus as the messiah, great pressure was put upon them.

If you would but come back.

And if you would but go to the temple.

And offer the sacrifice.

Why would that be so important? Well, obviously it would be a statement that you continue to believe the ways of Moses, but most importantly, to offer that sacrifice would be to say that Jesus wasn't a sacrifice.

Jesus wasn't the one who gave himself so that God's people might have salvation. This is that great act of apostasy referred to later in the book. And so what is the writer's purpose? Well, he is seeking to encourage.

He is seeking to reason with those who are experiencing this pressure to leave the Christian faith, to go back to the old ways. And in essence, his argument is this. There's nothing to go back to. And so he ransacks the Old Testament.

The scriptures of the people of God. He goes through all these scriptures and he says, all right, let's look at Jesus and let's look at what you have to offer. Let's look at Jesus in comparison to angels.

The Jews spoke much about angels.

Michael and Gabriel and others. And especially during the intertestamental period, a whole bunch of literature had grown up about these angels and about their roles in the world. Want to talk about angels?

First chapter. Jesus is superior to all the angels. Oh, we have the priesthood. Jesus is superior to the priesthood. We have the high priest. We have the sacrifices. We have the tabernacle given by God, now seen in the temple.

We have Moses and we have Abraham and we have Melchizedek. Jesus is superior to everyone. In fact, he is the completion of everything.

Judaism.

Those were but shadows filled in Christ. It's an argument. It's an argument in the form of a letter, not a classical letter. You notice this is written to whom,.

From whom, and such.

Nothing like that. It just starts off various kinds,.

Sundry manners of the past.

God spoke to us by the prophets. Starts at a common starting place, the existence of God's revelation, and then begins immediately to demonstrate what? The supremacy of Christ. That is his purpose, all the way through the letter, all the way to the point where you get the hall of fame of faith, and then those exhortations to godly living that so often come after the deep theology.

The same thing in the book of Romans. It's another reason why some people see a connection. There's parallels between Romans and Hebrews.

In their form.

But this is an argument. It's meant to be a convincing argument. And when that is ignored, the results have always been rather ugly. And so I want to look, as a part of our looking at the deity of Christ, we've been looking at the deity of Christ, we've looked at most of the main passages.

But I've mentioned to you a number of times, in Hebrews chapter 1, is a wealth of references to the deity of Christ. But I don't want to skip over the rest of what's there, because I see so much of it as being.

So very important to us today.

So I want to go slowly. I want to dig deep into this text. And I say to those of you who are members of this church, I know that we're accustomed to doing this kind of thing. I know it's counter-cultural.

I know it's why we are the size we are. That we consider this to be so important. But you have a treasure in your hands. You're going to take this treasure out through that door or that door, whichever way you're going today.

You're going to take this treasure, and I want you to see it as a greater treasure than you ever have before. I want you to be as excited about this book as I am.

Well, some of you are going, well, maybe not as excited as you get about things.

But I want you to be excited about what is in this text. Because I think it speaks to us today. There are a tremendous amount, a number of forces coming against us today seeking to cause us to abandon our confession.

To make us either leave the Christian faith completely, or to be satisfied with an apathetic faith. A faith that does not impact the way we think. A faith that does not impact the way we live. And so I think as we see how God encouraged believers, then we ourselves can be encouraged.

The Supremacy of Christ in Hebrews 1

So let's dig into the text. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1. Right off the bat. In various ways and by various means, at various times of old, God spoke to the fathers in or by the prophets. In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages or the world, the created order, being the radiance, the reflection, the effulgence of His glory, and the character, the exact representation, the stamp of His very being, His person.

All things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He had become so much greater than the angels because He inherited so much better a name than they.

For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are my son. Today I have begotten you.

Psalm 27.

And again, I will be to you as a father and you will be to me as a son. 2 Samuel 7. And when He again brings the firstborn into the inhabited world, He says, let all the angels of God worship Him.

Psalm 97.

And indeed, to which of the angels has He ever said, the one making His angels spirits and His ministers flames and fire. Psalm 104. But to the Son, He says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. And for this reason, God has anointed you. Your God has anointed you with the oil of rejoicing or gladness above your compatriots, your companions. Isaiah 61, 1 and 3.

Still to the Son, this is said, you at the beginning, O Lord, laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you abide or remain. They shall all as a garment, you shall roll them up and as a garment they shall be changed.

But you remain the same and your years will never fail or will never be exhausted. Direct quotation, Psalm 102, 25 -27. To which of the angels did He ever say, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

The great messianic psalm, Psalm 110.

One Jesus even used it himself.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve or minister to those who will inherit salvation? Here is the first chapter of the book of Hebrews. Now just in passing, I hope you saw the tremendous dependence upon the Old Testament, the use of it, and the first argument.

Jesus is superior to the angels. That's the overarching argument, but how He argues that and how He gets there hopefully will be very, very encouraging to us. Going back to verse 1. God has spoken. God has spoken.

And verse 1 tells us that He spoke to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, by the prophets. Here is a clear, open assertion of the inspiration and validity of the Old Testament text.

You might say,.

Everybody believes that, don't they?

No. No.

One of the greatest battles in the early church was with Gnosticism. Remember a few weeks ago I went through Colossians. I mentioned Gnosticism to you. Gnosticism is the great ancient religious movement that never really did have a whole lot of people in it.

And yet it has been dug up out of the sands of Egypt over the past hundred years. The Nag Hammadi library and various other manuscripts that have been found. And now today it has become yet again the great rival of Christianity.

Not that people are necessarily embracing it. There are a few oddballs out there, but it is the general means by which unbelievers use, it's the means they use to disprove Christianity.

See?

These people were Christians too. And if Christians could believe all the stuff the Gnostics believed and now you believe what you believe, there was just this mishmash. And it just so happens your group eventually won out, basically.

Well, actually it was the Catholics,.