Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
One of my favorite things in life is evangelism. I love to evangelize and just see where the Lord would direct the conversation. A couple of months ago, Kim and I were in Rome, suffering for the Lord there.
And that's not Rome, Georgia, but Rome, Italy. And I needed to run out of the hotel and pick up some water. So it was probably 9 .30 at night, and I went to this little street shop where they would sell newspapers, magazines, snacks, and water.
So I thought I would strike up a conversation. And I said to these two young men who owned the shop, where are you from? And they said, Bangladesh. And I said, what kind of religion is there in Bangladesh?
And I knew what they were going to say, but I wanted them to say it. And they said, we're Muslim. And I said, what does it mean to be a Muslim? And he said, I don't know. Well, I said, you don't know?
He said, well, yes, I do. We have five pillars, and Muhammad's a prophet. And I said, speaking of prophets, Jesus is a greater prophet than Muhammad. Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, a greater prophet than him was coming.
And matter of fact, Jesus is greater than Muhammad. Now, as I was beginning to say that to one of the brothers, literally the other brother walked in between us to try to say with his body, don't talk to my brother like that, that Jesus is the greater prophet.
So we talked a little bit more about Jesus, the great prophet, and then we ended. My question this morning is this, how do you know Jesus is the greater prophet? Lots of people speak for God, some falsely, and some have spoken for God in a true fashion, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel.
But how do you know Jesus is the greatest prophet? What credentials does Jesus have? And if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews 1, the writer gives you the list of seven actions, attributes, characteristics about Jesus that prove that he is the greatest prophet, and that we should listen to him.
Prophets proclaim truth, and they are meant to be heard. Why should we listen to Jesus? Prophets come, prophets go. But here the writer of Hebrews lists these seven glorious affirmations that say this is why you should listen to Jesus.
Now, why is it important in our age? Well, as you're getting there to Hebrews, right after the book of Philemon, that little book Philemon, many people think they hear the voice of God today outside of scriptures.
In the last 20 or 30 years, the church, the evangelical church at large, has become very mystical, very subjective. How do I know God is talking to me? Is it maybe my thoughts or my impressions? Maybe I have a hunch.
Is that God? Or is God speaking through scripture only? I find it fascinating that when Paul is discipling Timothy, as the canon is closing and scripture, the direct, infallible, authoritative revelation is coming to a close, Paul says to Timothy, by the way, I don't encourage you, young Timothy, to follow hunches and impressions and thoughts and intuition, but he drove Timothy to follow the word of God.
Did not our Lord Jesus Christ even say in Matthew chapter 4 that you should live on every word that comes from the mouth of God? Instead of pushing people, our Lord didn't push them to subjective mysticism, it was always back to the word of God.
Paul equips Timothy for every good work, and that includes the knowledge of God and communication from God. Martin Lloyd-Jones said it wonderfully, let us imagine I follow the mystic way. I begin to have experiences.
I think God is speaking to me. How do I know it is God who is speaking to me? How can I know I am not speaking to man? How can I be sure that I am not the victim of hallucinations since this has happened to many of the mystics?
If I believe in mysticism as such without the Bible, how do I know I am not being deluded by Satan as an angel of light in order to keep me from the true and living God? I have no standard. The evangelical doctrine tells me not to look into myself, but to look into the word of God.
Not to examine myself, but to look at the revelation that has been given to me. It tells me that God can only be known in his own way, the way which has been revealed in the scriptures. Who is the final agent of revelation?
Where does he drive us to? And that is the words of scripture. Let's look at Hebrews 1, 1 to 4. Let me read the verses again to set the proverbial table as we ask and answer the question, who is the final agent of revelation?
What has the final agent of revelation done so that we know he is the one to listen to? If he's such a great prophet, why should we listen? And that's exactly what these Hebrews needed to know. And that's what we need to know as well.
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 heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
What was that old TV game show years ago, not Jeopardy, but Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Remember that show? And I can still in my mind hear them say, the hosts say, is that your... And for revelation from God, God's final answer is to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we know? And the writer then lists seven things that describe Jesus, what he has done or who he is. I used to read Hebrews 1 thinking, this is a great passage that extols Jesus. I love to learn about Jesus.
But why is this list here? Well, the list is here because there's lots of competing voices in the world to listen to. But when we say the final supreme voice, remember even the book of Hebrews, the superiority of Jesus, the high priest.
Here it is final. How do we know it's final? Because there's this list of these great things that Jesus has done. Why listen to him? Why is Jesus God's final answer? And there's seven of these affirmations, seven reasons why Jesus is the final answer and that we should listen to him.
Just like on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. What are the next three words? Listen to him. Now, we saw last time with a little bit of the review, the first reason why Jesus is the last answer from God, full, final, superior revelation is that he is the heir of all things.
If I was going to put the outline together with a Q &A, maybe it'd be, why should I listen to Jesus, the final prophet? Why is Jesus a greater prophet? Number one, he's the heir of all things. Do you see that in verse 2?
Whom he, the father, appointed the heir of not just Israel, not just a few things, not just a couple of acres of land, but he's appointed the heir of all things. God had ten sons. They all got a lot. That would be a lie.
You should have seen your faces. You were looking at me like, where has he gone? He has one son, so the one son inherits everything. Therefore, we're to listen to him. Secondly, we saw last week and the week before, Jesus is the final answer because he made everything.
He hasn't just been appointed as heir and exalted, but he's made everything, verse 2, through whom also he made the eons. He doesn't use cosmos there, a more general term. It's a more expansive term. He made the eons.
He made history. He made space. He made matter. He made time. Now remember, couch this in the context of the book of Hebrews. I'm tempted to go back to the temple. I don't want to get persecuted anymore.
I might run back to the Old Testament. Why should I listen to Jesus? It seems better to go back. Christians are persecuted. Jews aren't. And the writer of Hebrews says, listen, Moses wasn't the inheritance of everything.
He didn't inherit it all. And Moses didn't make everything. And neither did Elijah or Elisha or anyone else. Jesus did. You can't go back. He made the content of the world and also the times of the world, the purpose, the plan of God unfolding.
He did it all. Energy he made. Time he made. You can tell where the writer is going. Only God can create. And if only God can create, guess what? Jesus is God. No prophet creates. Moses didn't create anything.
Aaron didn't make molecules. High priests don't make atoms. Jesus, without effort, without expanding energy, without having to get recharged. I mean, I just think about us. I go to the airport. And everybody in the airport hovers around these little charging terminals.
Man, they are golden. I thought, you know what? I'm going to just start printing these little RSVP kind of VIP things, placards, and put them down on chairs and then sell them while people are hovering to like recharge their iPhones.
Everything's got to be recharged. You've got to have phones with like recharger built in. When Jesus creates, no recharging, no diminishing of power. Everything about Jesus speaks of how excellent he is.
And if he's that excellent, then when the king of the universe talks, we should listen. John 1 .3. Apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. Including you. Including me. On a side note, we'll get to purging our sins next time.
But I can't help myself. If God can create everything, Jesus can also create in me a clean heart. What? Oh, God. God can create everything and he can create a new heart in me based on his son's worth.
In the Old Testament, the word create is a divinely driven word. Only God creates. And it says in Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth. Jesus creates the ends of the earth, Isaiah 40. Jesus creates a new heaven and a new earth, Isaiah 65.
Jesus creates the north and the south, Psalm 89. He creates the stars, Isaiah 40. He creates the wind, Amos 4. He creates the clouds, Isaiah 4. Jesus creates the darkness, Isaiah 45. He creates man, male and female, Genesis 1.
He creates sea monsters, Genesis 1. And he creates the day and the night, Jeremiah 33. God, the subject of all those verbs, creates. Jesus should be listened to because he creates. Thirdly, we saw last time, he is the radiance of his glory.
Do you see that in Hebrews 1, 3? He's the radiance, the effulgent glory of God himself. Not reflection like Moses had the glory of God reflected upon his face coming down from Sinai, but Jesus emits, as it were, because this is his nature.
This is an ontological statement. This is who he is, his being. This is where in the Nicene Creed, I remember as a kid repeating it every Sunday, very God of very God, light of God, light from God, light of light.
That's the idea. Emitting brightness, the Shekinah glory of God radiates from him. Therefore, he must be God himself. Wesley wrote, eternal beam of divine light, fountain of unexhausted love, in whom the Father's glory shine through earth beneath and heaven above.
Why listen to Jesus? Why is he the final answer? Number four, he is the exact representation of his nature. Hebrews 1, 3, the exact representation of his nature. The RSV translates it wonderfully, bears the very stamp of his nature.
You want to see Jesus? You want to see God? Rather, look to Jesus. Jesus reveals the person of God the Father perfectly. When you go to New York City, and Kirby was just there, although it's probably hard for you to buy things off the street when there's 30 inches of snow there.
But they have street vendors in New York and probably in Boston too, and you can get a really nice Rolex for about $29 .95. It lasts for about a day. It's just a cheap knockoff. This is exactly opposite of that kind of word.
The Greek word is where we get the word character. He's got the character of. It's not a knockoff of. It's not something superior. It's not something that lasts a day. When you see God the Son, you see God the Father.
Real essence, real substance, the exact representation. Take your ring, and you put it in some wax, and what was on your ring, let's say it was Caesar, and you would take a look at the wax, and you'd say that's an exact replica.
That's the idea. Number five, why should you look at Jesus as the superior prophet? Why listen to Him? He upholds all things by the word of His power. Notice in verse 3 as it goes on. It's just this list.
See these lists in Scripture a lot of times because they just talk about who Jesus is and how great He is. And here the ESV says He upholds the universe by the word of His power. And I wish they wouldn't have translated it that way because literally the text is in Greek.
He upholds all things by the word of His power. Now you say the universe is all things. Yeah, but I've kind of got enough Star Trek geek in me to go, what if there's an alternative universe? What if there's like two universe eyes?
All things is more encompassing. It's meant to be all encompassing. Instead of like the universe, it means everything. He upholds everything. Now remember from last time, this is a word that means to hold up and then to bring to a conclusion.
It's going somewhere. The world is going somewhere. Jesus the Sovereign King is driving it somewhere. And where do we know it's going? Well, we get a flicker of where it's going the next statement He makes purification for sins.
Jesus creates everything, and it's driving towards His own substitutionary death, His own resurrection, His own return. There's a consummation to everything. In Eden, you have the fall, and then you have redemption, and then you have consummation.
And Jesus is upholding, driving everything there. He's not just bearing the weight of the world like an atlas. He creates it, sustains it, and then moves it forward. That's the idea. Why listen to Jesus?
Because He's the Sovereign One. He moves the universe to a goal to which God had planned for its consummation. He sustains the universe by the power of His command, one translation says. Who can do that?
Only God could do that. That's the point. And then listen to Him. All the competing talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Who do we listen to? Who's the heir of all things? Who creates all things? Who's the effulgent glory of God?
Who's the exact representation of God? Who upholds all things? Well, Jesus does, so I should listen to Him. Only God can do this. He must be God. Wonderfully, do you notice the text? Upholds just a little bit of Greek.
We'll tell you that that's a present tense. It's not deistic Jesus, winds it all up and lets it go. Or kind of deistically, I wind it up, let it go, and it might need a little nudge here or a little nudge there.
This isn't passive involvement. This is active involvement. This is oceans, you stay there. Don't go any farther. Rivers, you flow downstream into that ocean. Planets, you will revolve that way. Hydrological system, you keep doing what you're doing.
Moon, you stay in your orbit. Psalm 33, verse 9, it says, same idea. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. This present tense means Jesus is involved. He's a micromanager. He's hands-on.
He involves Himself in every event. Unlike the God of Islam, that's sovereign over everything, but not personally involved. There's a transcendence, but not an eminence. There's an otherness, but not a closeness.
God is other. He creates and then He's close as He's guiding everything along. There's a personal relationship. When Christians say, I have a personal relationship with Jesus, this is the idea. He's a hands-on governor.
He's a hands-on preserver. Sovereign, divine providence. Why is Jesus superior? Because He upholds the universe and drives it towards its end. While driving it to its end, He has things to accomplish, like raise people from the dead, Lazarus.
Heal blind Bart from his blindness. Cast out demons. People hunched over for years and He cleanses them. Westminster Shorter Catechism says, God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all His creations, all His creatures, and all their actions.
I throw that in for my Presbyterian friends that sometimes attend. Actively, perpetually, providentially moving to the end. Sovereignty of King Jesus. This sounds like Jesus is a king, that He's sovereign over everything.
How can He be sovereign? Well, you've got to be all-powerful to be sovereign because you have enough power to drive everything. You've got to be wise, all-wise and omniscient, to know everything, to drive everything.
So not only powerful, but wise, but you also have to be good. Because how can God cause all things to work together for good if He's only powerful, if He's only wise, but He's not good? So here we have Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the tender, loving Shepherd, who's also powerful and wise, driving everything to the end.
Upholds, what does the text say? All things. That's the totality of the universe. Nothing is excluded from the Son's sustaining work. Everything going to the plan of God as He sustains it. Now, if I think about a human king, they have limitations.
Because this is royal language, this is reigning language, this is ruling language. Human kings have limitations, externally and internally. Externally, they have limitations by geographical terrain, borders, rivers, how big their armies are, time.
Kings have limitations even internally, how smart they are, how much willpower they have, how much knowledge they have, what's their health. But here Jesus has no limitations, no restrictions. The text says, all things.
Far from being what the Chinese would label a paper tiger king, He upholds all things. He's not less than advertised. I don't know how many times you buy something new. I'm kind of a sucker for anything that says new and improved and it has to do with food.
New and improved Elmer's glue. I've got some old glue that's 30 years old, works fine after you get rid of that top crusty part. Works best if you remove it with your teeth, by the way. I always thought Elmer's glue tasted funny in school.
But new and improved products that you can try and taste. And you know, so many times you try those new and improved products and you go, it's just marketing and you taste them and you go, it just wasn't living up to par, it wasn't up to snuff.
But when God the Son is advertised as king, we heard it when Tom read it in Psalm 2. You never think, you know what? All this talk about king, it's just kind of a constitutional monarch and you know, you're just a god that's far off, you're not there close when I need you.
You advertise yourself as a great king but you'd never deliver. That's not who God is. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Alexander the Great was downcast because he had no more places to conquer.
I just wish I could conquer something else. Here God the Son has conquered everything because He's created everything and He upholds all things. Is there a scrap of the universe that's not under God's dominion and rule?
Is there just a little bit, is there just a smidgen? Now I want you to begin to think to yourself too, what's happened in your life this week? What kind of trial do you go through? What's happening when you think, you know what?
From my perspective, it's just chaos. But God is upholding, the Son creates, and He's driving to the consummation. We know He's a good Savior because He dies for sinners like us. He's been raised from the dead.
But in the meantime, He's driving everything. He upholds all things. Think about your own life, your own world, your own family. He's upholding all these things. No one's off bounds. You say, well, I have an unsaved loved one.
All things. Abraham Kuyper spoke at Free University, inaugural address. And he boldly asserted, quote, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine, you're mine.
I'm so thankful that Jesus upholds all things and there's no room for democracies in His kingdom. That is to say, He doesn't rule by democracy, majorities, oligarchies, republics. He governs it all. He upholds all things, every nook, every cranny.
Now, when you read Scripture, the Bible tells you something about God that's a lot different than modern society or maybe even modern evangelical. Kind of the attributes of God, especially His sovereignty, are restricted.
And maybe it's free will restricts God's sovereignty or maybe it's powerful presidents that restrict God's sovereignty or maybe it's, or maybe it's, or maybe it's. But when the Bible talks this kind of kingly language of Jesus, Jesus isn't just sovereign by name, but by actions.
He upholds all things by the word of His power. Spurgeon, there's no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a great football as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of infinite Jehovah.
Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop, fashioning worlds and making stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonery to dispense His alms and bestow bounties.
They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof or light the lamps of heaven or rule the waves of the ever moving ocean. But when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth and we proclaim and enthrone God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well without consulting them in the matter.
Then it is that we are hissed and excreted and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us for God on His throne is not the God they love. But for the Christian, is there any doctrine more sweet and to be loved than the sovereignty of God?
That's the doctrine because as we were talking about in prayer today, you just think, you know what? God's sovereign, but He's close. He's sovereign, but He's close. He cares for His people. He loves people.
You pick up the newspaper and read it today and you just say, there's no good news. Everything's bad news. Look at how wicked these people are. And then you think for God so loved these kind of people that He would send His Son, His only Son to die for the riffraff like that.
And we think this is the kind of God we love. This text that says God upholds all things would be a much better bumper sticker than God is my co-pilot. But we live here in New England and we think freedom.
We think my rights. We think individualism. We think the American War of Independence. We serve no sovereign here. But the text says all things. And when you understand the sovereignty of God, you think this is the most blessed thing I could ever know.
The sovereignty of God, it affects everything. And if you don't know it, it's probably the saddest thing about you that you don't understand the sovereignty of God. Friends, Psalm 103. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all.
Psalm 115. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He what? Pleases. Now sometimes people say negatively about someone that they're a control freak, sinfully managing people's affairs and manipulating other people.
But God's not a control freak because He's sovereign. He's good and He's holy. Probably my favorite thing in life is... I shouldn't say that. I already told you something. I said my favorite thing was evangelism.
Now how can I give you another one? But a lesser favorite, a sub-favorite, is when I'm around some church people and they know I care for them so it's not like the first time I meet you I might say it.
But when people say, oh, you know, I was so lucky this week. I always pretend that I'm deaf. And I don't really have to pretend that much anymore because I basically am. I say, pardon me? I'm sure lucky this week.
Sorry? I'm sure... And then they feel the conviction. That is like the word that we don't use at Bethlehem Bible Church. Lucky. We have a little joke about it. They leave the church, split the church.
How about your own life? How many things come into your life where you go, if I maybe would have just turned left and I wouldn't have gotten that car accident. If maybe they didn't hire that person that stabbed me in the back.
If maybe, if maybe, if maybe. But listen friends, Jesus upholds all things. No fate. No happenstance. No circumstances. No just kind of luck of the draw, raw chance. That's language used for Dagon. That's language used of Molech.
It's just happened. All things. Jesus is Lord over. He's the most high over. He ordains everything that comes to pass. I love Isaiah 46. My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. Listen to these words that talk about God's sovereign rule.
All things come to my mind when I think of these words. Lord. Lord of hosts. King. Most high. Sovereign. Almighty. Throne. Appointed. Established. Dominion. Rule. Decree. Command. Predestined. Foreordained.
Control. Authority. And if anything starts slipping in your mind when you think, God's sovereign over everything, what's the next dreaded word that just cancels everything out? I know God's sovereign, but He upholds all things.
But at the end of that period, I in Ebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever for His dominion is an everlasting dominion.
His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, what have you done?
No one can say that. He upholds everything. Friends, this is the comfort that makes you sleep well at night even though things are chaotic. I'm telling you, in my life and in yours, I know you and you know me.
I remember that one day, Luke was born, and I have four children as you know, and there's usually a civil war in our family because two children were born at St. V's, the old one. No, no, one of the old one, one of the new one.
So they're born in Worcester. The other two, they were born in Burbank, California. And so we have the haves and the have-nots depending on where you look at it. Haley was born, and you know, the first deal, it's a big deal, and what do you do?
And then Luke was about ready to be born and we had a Bible study that Tuesday night and my plans were, go to the hospital, Kim will have the baby and I'll kiss her and my son and hang out for a little bit and then I'll go home and teach the Bible.
And then all of a sudden Luke comes out and like negative 49 on his Apgar or whatever it was. It's just made up, but it seemed like it at the time. Here, kiss your son and off he goes blue, you know, he's basically not going to make it kind of thing, almost might not make it.
So what do you think about? How do you wrap your head around what's going on? This is my son, everything seemed to be going so well and I'm telling you and you know it as well, it's the truth that Hebrews encapsulates.
He upholds all things. Like Job said, even though He might slay me, what? I'll trust in Him. I mean, if this is the God and of course, the purification of sins is for next time, but if this is the God that gives up His best, His Son, He could give up no more, His Son, to die on my behalf and to redeem me, the awful sinner.
And He said in His Word that He doesn't only do that, but He upholds everything and drives it. Even the death of Jesus was ordained and predestined and it had to happen because God upholds all things.
And I can rest my mind for certainty that God is sovereign over everything from evangelism to comfort when your son or daughter are sick or you've lost a loved one. God is faithful. Let me give you in our time that we have left some realms that God the Son is king over.
The text says in Hebrews 1 .3, He upholds all things. Let me flesh out those all things and I think I can get almost everything covered with six realms. If Jesus is the King, first class, third class conditional, He is the King and He upholds all things, what are those all things?
ESV says the universe, but again, what if there's an alternative universe? They said Kirby, by the way, at Master's Seminary never used a Star Trek illustration. I was thinking of that Mirror, Mirror, Star Trek episode with the original one with Leonard Nimoy and I thought that's the alternative universe and God's sovereign over that too.
Plus I now teach at the seminary so I do what I want. I'm the professor. I'm going to start telling my students, I'm mentoring some Doctorate of Ministry students at Master's Seminary on Skype and I'm going to start telling them, listen, you must have a Star Trek illustration in every sermon.
I'm going to. You can go everywhere with that. The effectual call, right, irresistible grace is like the Borg, you will be assimilated. See, this can go on. I thought I was on radio for a second. Jesus is the King.
Why listen to Him? Because He can uphold everything and drive it to its consummation. What are those all things? What are the realms? Realm one, all creation. All creation. He upholds all things and that includes the realm of creation.
Think about it. This is so great. God Himself has decided by His own good pleasure to make the earth the way it is. Waterfalls, Niagara, Victoria Falls, deserts that are arid, Sahara, polar caps, dense jungles.
This is the meticulous handiwork of a sovereign God who upholds all things. He designed it all. The earth could just have been as easily two-thirds land instead of two-thirds water. We could have had a thousand Mount Everests or none.
Creation follows the decree of King Jesus. Turn to Psalm 139 and let me just show you at least a verse for every one of these realms. If I had some motivation in life and some free time, I'd write a book that Jesus is the King.
It would probably be a bestseller. Well, we could at least hand one out to all of you. But this is that kind of language. He upholds all things. Remember when you first understood the sovereignty of God every place in the Bible it seemed like it spoke of it.
And that's exactly what's happening here. Why listen to a king who can't be king over all? But if He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords, I'll listen. Look at what this text says. I'll read from the NAS in Psalm 135, verses 6 and 7.
Think about the realm of all things, its creation. This should influence the way you think about weather by the way. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. And that's a king right there. In heaven and in earth, in the seas, and in all deeps.
He causes the vapors to ascend from the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain, who brings forth the wind from His treasuries. Psalm 135, verses 6 and 7. Did you know Psalm 119 calls the moon and the stars and the sun God's servants?
I'd like to have those for servants. I have a dog and I can order my dog around. Sit. Stay. Come. Heal. When visitors spend the night, bite. And with fascinating obedience, God the Son tells the stars and the moon and the sun and all creation, come here.
Do as you're told. Stop. Rise. Set. Rain. Even the word rain, I always thought to myself, and I would talk this way, it's raining outside. Very passive. Down came the rain. But the text of Scripture, most often it says God gives the rain because God is sovereign over creation.
Every drop in the hydrological cycle lands where it's supposed to land. Psalm 107, He spoke and raised up a stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. That's why when Rabbi Kushner writes the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and he said, you know, insurance companies, when they say fires, earthquakes and tornadoes are acts of God, that's a case of using God's name in vain.
Because those have nothing to do with God. That's faulty theology. He upholds all things. God decides everything from earthquakes, to fire, to ice, to floods, to famines, to tsunamis, to 30 inches of snow in New York.
Second realm. Bless you. The second realm. Flo, it is so good to see you. Glad to worship with you again. I'm glad you're recovering from your accident and that unfortunate happenstance. And as fate would have it.
What did you just say? Yeah, you were unlucky. You know, the Calvinist responds to the accident when they fall down the steps. Glad I got that over with. But that's not true. That's not true. There's nuances in there.
There's nuances. Now let's think again before we get out of control. The writer of Hebrews is writing to these saints that are suffering and are tempted to go back to Judaism. Some are saved. There's some who are lost.
They're tempted to go back too. Why not run back? I mean, the glories of the Old Testament and the Pentateuch and the law and the prophets. Let's run back there. And the writer of Hebrews says by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, don't go back.
You've got everything. Listen to Jesus. Who has better credentials than King Jesus? And when the King talks, you should listen to Him. And Jesus says, in these last days, I speak through Me, My apostolic messengers, and then the canon closes.
And with these all things, not only does Jesus' realm include creation, but secondly, all history. Jesus is King over all history. This is included in the all things. Turn, if you would, to Daniel 2, please.
Daniel 2. God the King. The Son rules everything in time and place, including world leaders. I will say this, that if our church is tempted to become the pro-Trump people and the anti-Trump people, then I'm going to pull out my Trump card from the pulpit and squash it.
I don't care who you vote for. That's between you and the Lord. But God already knows who's going to be the King. Not because He foresees it and He learns new information. Well, I looked down the quarter of time, God says, and now I learned that it's President Sanders.
I want you to remember these verses that Jesus upholds all things. Therefore, we should listen to Him. And Daniel 2, how great is this? Daniel said, verses 20 and 21, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever.
Why? For wisdom and power belongs to Him. Why do we bless God's name forever? It is He who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.
Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad God's sovereign? Friend, it's a sin to worry about who's going to be elected. Because it goes against, it says practically, pragmatically, essentially, functionally that no, God, You don't uphold all things.
There might be some ballot stuffers or some people who are not registered legally and they might vote and there might be a coup and there might be this and all that and you go, you know what? It's nice to rest.
Don't you want to just have rest for your souls and not worry about all this stuff? If you trust in the sovereignty of God and the Jesus that upholds all things, then you might hear Him when He says, through Paul, be anxious for nothing.
Be anxious for nothing. Acts 17, Paul was preaching and he said, from one man of every nation of mankind God made to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and boundaries of their habitation.
Sovereign over everything, including world leaders. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God, Romans 13.
All things means all things. And if you understand the sovereignty of God where Jesus holds everything up that He's created, drives it to consummation, we know He's not just sovereign, He's personal, He's compassionate because we know the love of the Father and the love of the Son as they rescue sinners in the midst of all this process to give themselves glory.
And you go, God loves me. He's loved me freely, Hosea 14. Then instead of worrying, we should listen to Him and then have confidence in Him. You want some confidence in your life? You study the sovereignty of God.
If you want a book to read outside of Scripture, you need to read Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. Say, I've lost a loved one. I've had a trial. My health is a wreck. Lost a bunch of money in the stock market.
Not getting along with so-and-so. Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. And he will tell you from the Scriptures like this one that God's sovereign. Bridges said, Confidence in the sovereignty of God in all that affects us is crucial to our trusting Him.
If there's a single event in all the universe that can occur outside of God's sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited and His purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust Him.
You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions. I may love you and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere, but if I do not have the power or ability to guard your valuables, you cannot truly entrust them to me.
God the Son is powerful, wise, personal, and good. And in God's universe, there are no such things as what-ifs, if-onlys. In God's universe, they are never-a-doubts. Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Congregation, what's the rest say? Blessed be the name of the Lord. We'll look at the other four realms next week. Bow with me, please. Father, I think of Your mercies.
I think of Your covenant faithfulness. I think about Your eternal steadfast love. And I think then with the psalmist, what is man that You are mindful of him? Why do You even think about us? But You do.
You love wicked sinners, and that shows how great Your love is. Loving the lovely is fine, but loving the unlovely, the ungodly as Romans 5 says, is just great. We're thankful to be loved by You. Father, we would ask today as a congregation, as we've had losses, I think of George's mom yesterday.
I think about Pastor Rathbun with a stroke, Flo, Karen, other folks that I'm not mentioning. Father, where could we go but to You and Your Word? You can be trusted. You are faithful. So Father, increase our trust in the God who has made it clear to be listened to Him because He upholds all things that He has created by the Word of His power.
Increase our faith. And Father, if there's anyone here today that does not know You, You have not revealed Yourself to them, I pray that You would grant them saving faith and today they would repent and bow the knee.
They will bow one day, but it's going to be too late after they die. So Father, You did it for us. You could do it for them. Give them saving faith today for forgiveness of their sins. In Jesus' name, Amen.