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It seems like the best literature often starts off with great lines. Do you know who wrote some of these great introductions in the literature of our day? Let's start off with an easy one. Call me Ishmael.
Good. All children except one grow up. J. M. Berry, Peter Pan. It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. The cold passed reluctantly from the earth and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage. The past is a foreign country.
They do things differently there. L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between. Here's an easy one. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. But that ain't no matter.
That book was made by a Mr. Mark Twain and he told the truth. Mainly, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream. And he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
Hemming away as the old man in the sea. It was a pleasure to burn. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451. Marley was dead to begin with. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens. By the way, if you're a visitor today, I'll be into the Bible in just a second.
It's just an introduction. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell. Nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. It was a hobbit hole. And that means comfort.
Tolkien, The Hobbit. Maybe the most interesting one in secular literature. Where's Papa going with that axe? Said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte's Web, E .B. White.
But I have to tell you, literature that has great beginnings is best heard when you hear words like this. 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. Turn to that exact passage, please. Hebrews chapter 1 this morning. We're in the section of chapter 1, verses 1 through 3.
Jesus is superior. That is the book of Hebrews. And as you're turning there, maybe I can modify a word of life description of Hebrews as we try to understand this book and how it extols Christ Jesus. My modified word of life description of this book is the book of Hebrews is written most likely by a Hebrew to the Hebrews about the Hebrew to convince them not to be Hebrews any longer.
That's the book of Hebrews. Most likely written by a Hebrew to Jewish people about the particular great Jew that is Jesus Christ. To show them the sufficiency of His death so they don't run back to Judaism.
And so everything about this book just says Jesus is greater. Jesus is better. And at the very beginning, He's better than all the prophets. Oh, we'll move into that He's better than the angels, better than Moses, better than Aaron, better than the old covenant.
But at the beginning, He's better than the prophets. So for this morning, as we look at this great literature, chapter 1 verses 1 to 3, Jesus is greater than the prophets. God has spoken and He has spoken finally in His Son.
This book is written so it will prevent people from sliding back into ritualism, sliding back into Judaism, sliding back into their old ways. Here's who Jesus is. And when you are reminded who He is and what He's done, how could you ever go back?
You can't go back is the theme of the letter. Knowing who Jesus is, you can't go back. Now, we didn't talk last week, as I gave kind of an introduction to the book, when was the book written? Now, sometimes you say, well, it doesn't really matter.
We have the Bible. The canon is complete. We know Hebrews is Scripture. What does it matter when it was written? Well, it does matter here because as you think about His description, 70 AD is when the temple got destroyed.
So there's an argument in the scholastic circles. Was this book written before or after the temple was destroyed? Now, if you're going to argue that the Old Testament system is kaput and it's old and you don't have to go back there anymore, if the temple was destroyed, if it's past 70 AD, there would be a clear illustration from the writer, don't you think?
Look it, you can't even worship in the temple. How can you go back? But since he's writing with present tenses, since he's writing about the temple worship and he doesn't say anything about its destruction, we think it was written before 70 AD, probably in the early 60s because in 64, Nero began to kill some Christians.
And so somewhere about the early 60s, this book was written. He could have easily said, there's judgment on Jerusalem because the sacrificial system is over. Titus destroys Jerusalem, 70 AD. But it's just before that, right around the 60s.
Now, what I love about the book of Hebrews, it just starts off with the proverbial bang. Do you notice there's not someone that says, by the way, I'm the author and I'm called in as apostle and grace and peace to you.
It's all about who God is. It's God-centered from the very get-go. And I know that's what I need in my life and I know that's what you need. I need to think about God rightly. This is a sermon written down and you can almost feel the cotton mather, 1 ,700 years later, say, he could have said it of this book even, of this preacher, the great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the hearts of men.
Sometimes we don't think rightly about God and we craft Him and we shape Him and as Steve Cooley could quote me saying this, Luther to Erasmus, your thoughts of God, Erasmus, are to what? To human. He was going to get fired if he didn't get that answer.
Or Psalm 50 verse 21, you thought that I was altogether like you, God says to people. This book, it just startles you because instead of being all about people, it's all about God even from the get-go.
The author doesn't even say, by the way, this is who I am, this is who I've been called by. It's been said that Romans discusses the necessity of the Christian faith and Hebrews discusses the superiority of the Christian faith.
And I think that's right. It's like an elixir for our souls. It's like a tonic. It's like some, okay, if I was going to talk to a youth group, I would say it's like a monster drink. Because as you look at it, you think, okay, how do I get strength?
If I'm backsliding a little bit, how do I move forward? If I'm just lethargic in my Christian walk, how do I get a move on? If I'm just kind of like co-hum, just going through the motions, how do I get out of that rut?
And the answer is found, God revives people, not in a tent or in a tent meeting, but He revives people through His Word. Can't you hear Psalm 119? Revive me according to your what? Word. Because when you see the object of your faith, then you say, okay, now I'm motivated.
You might want to ask the question, who wrote the book? Now let me just briefly tell you who I think wrote the book, and then we'll get into the passage because clearly you'll say, God wrote this book.
He's the divine author, and if I don't know exactly who the human author is, it's okay. Some people think Paul wrote this book. I won't ask for a show of hands. But they think Paul wrote the book. The Eastern Church early on thought so.
Clement thought so. Origen used to think so until he said, who wrote the epistle and truth? God only knows. But in the Western Church, things like the Muratorian canon, people like Irenaeus did not think Paul was the author.
Jerome said it doesn't matter who the author was because it was honored by being read in churches day by day. The synod of Hippo, 393, said of Paul the Apostle, 13 epistles, of the same to the Hebrews, one.
Early on, St. Paul isn't the author. Luther said this man who wrote Hebrews was an able and learned man. But see, Luther didn't know who the author was, so he said we cannot put it on the same level with the apostolic epistles.
Calvin then said, no, we can, and it is apostolic. Take a look at chapter 2, verse 3, please. This is just some background before I get into the text. This is one of the reasons why I think Paul did not write it.
There's not Pauline style here. There's not Pauline vocabulary. Paul starts off by saying Paul, an apostle. That's not here. But in particular, chapter 2, verse 3, how should we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard. Paul heard directly from Jesus. There's not going to be somebody that Jesus teaches and then teaches this particular author.
If it's Paul, no. Paul got taught by Jesus. There's no person who taught him except the Lord Himself. So I don't think Paul wrote this. Other people think it's an associate of Paul. Silas, Epaphras, Timothy, maybe Luke.
Others think maybe Barnabas wrote it because he was a son of encouragement and this book is all about encouragement, chapter 13. Others think Apollos wrote it. But as Andrew Trotter said, the church has benefited for almost 2 ,000 years from this magisterial work without knowing with any more certainty than we do today who authored it.
So it doesn't really matter who the human author is. It's the divine author. And it's fascinating, don't you think, that the human author doesn't say who he is? Because that's not the point of the whole book anyway.
It's the superiority of Jesus Christ. Even when the Old Testament is quoted, many times he doesn't say, by the way Moses said, by the way Jeremiah said. He'll say things like this. It's said somewhere in the Old Testament, such and such.
All the focus is away from the human agents put onto the divine. Now let's go back to chapter 1, verse 1 and work through this a little bit because you will see that there used to be the way that God spoke and now there's a way God speaks.
And we're going to move not from, well, the Old Testament was kind of true and New Testament's truer. That's not right. We're not going to say there's less true to more true, less worthy to more worthy.
We're going to promise in the Old Testament to fulfillment in the new. To piecemeal in the Old Testament by the whole picture in the new. That's the language here. It is of superiority and finality. Chapter 1, verse 1.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Verse 2, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. Let's stop there. The subject of the first verb is God.
What the King James did is it put the word God to the very front of the sentence and God is the subject, although the first word isn't God, but you get the idea. Over and over and over, this author uses the word God.
It has been counted by one person. 68 times this word is used. Once every 73 words. God, God, God, God. And what do you see right away? A deist God? A God that winds everything up and just sits back? No.
You see a God and he's a speaking God. He's a God who speaks. And he speaks well. How important is communication? Ask a politician. Ask even a sports star. Ask married couples. Communication breakdown.
Here we have God speaking and he's broken down the key gap between sinful man and holy God. Ever ask yourself a question? Here, God spoke to our fathers, he has spoken to us in his Son. What if God didn't speak?
Ever imagine that? God doesn't speak. What could you know then about God? Well, you could say general revelation would teach me God's wise, hydrological cycle and how babies are born. There's a wise planner behind all this.
But you don't know any details unless God speaks. I mean, you'd be walking around almost like Nadab and Abihu. I offered up strange fire to God and he kills me. I was going to grab the Ark of the Covenant with his hands so it doesn't hit the ground.
How do you know that you're going to get killed? You wouldn't know that unless God specifically tells you. Can you imagine a God who would not speak? How could you know about a God that wouldn't tell you who he was or what he was honored by?
God spoke. We have a speaking God. Now, if you're going to talk to a child and sometimes they try to speak, maybe some of them would just say something like this, la, la, la, la, la, like that, la, la.
They just have these kind of childish kind of prattling. That word speak there for you Hebrew scholars is laleo. And it started off kind of birds make that sound, la, la, and children make that sound.
And then it was eventually used to the highest form of speech, God speaking to mankind. Arthur Pink, Deity is not speechless. The true and living God unlike the idols of the heathen is no dumb being. Okay, so idols you can see but they don't talk.
God you can't see. He's a spirit, but He what? He speaks. This is fascinating to me. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but what?
Do not speak. That's Psalm 115. Same thing in Psalm 135. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not what? Speak. What if God didn't speak? We would not know how holy He is, how He's provided atonement in His Son, that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.
You would have no idea. Turn your Bible to Isaiah 41. I want you to see the theme. I take for granted that God speaks, but I don't want to take for granted anymore. And the writer of the book of Hebrews doesn't want His listeners and His readers to forget either.
God is a speaking God. I think it was Francis Schaeffer that said, God is there and He is not what? Silent. God speaks. Isaiah 41. If you work through Isaiah 41 through 49 -ish, you have a lot of things about God speaking, announcing, declaring, in contrast to idols that don't talk.
Let's start with Isaiah 41. I just want you to see the flow so you can get yourself set in the Old Testament. By the way, we will regularly go to the Old Testament in the book of Hebrews and its exposition.
Isaiah 41, verse 21. God is a speaking God. Idols are mute, dumb. Set forth your case, Isaiah 41, 21, says the Lord. Bring your proofs. You can just imagine a courtroom setting, says the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them. Tell us what is to happen. Tell us former things, what they are that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome, or declare to us the things to come. You tell us. Tell me.
Tell us what's to come hereafter, that we may know that you're gods. Do good, do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you're nothing, and your work is less than nothing, and abomination is he who chooses you.
You think you're an idol? You think you're a god? Well, then you talk. You tell me. You instruct me. You tell me what's happened, what's going to happen. You can't talk. You're dumb. You're an idol. Wow.
Chapter 44 of Isaiah. I didn't mean to yell there for a minute. It's getting intense. Isaiah 44. This is all going to lead us to, since God has spoken in His Son, well, then we better follow it. If God does speak, what He says is true.
Isaiah 44. Verse 12 starts talking about this ironsmith that has some tools and he fashions and works with his strong arm, this idol. At the end of verse 12, he becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint.
It's hard work to make idols, by the way. The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it in the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house.
He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for the man. He takes part of it, warms himself.
He kindles a fire and bakes bread. And he makes a god and worships it also. He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it burns in the fire. The other half he eats meat. Over the other half he eats meat.
He roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, Ah, I'm warm. I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to worship it. He prays to it. And it doesn't go the other way around either.
It's one-way communication. He prays to it, Deliver me, for you are my God. Look down at verse 19. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? He feeds on ashes.
A deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? You make a god out of wood? It doesn't talk to you. Gods speak. Look at chapter 46. The same kind of language with an emphasis on God declares.
God is a speaking God. God generally in nature, specifically in Scripture. And finally in His Son. Isaiah 46. Verse 6. Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god.
Then they fall down and worship. They lift it to their shoulders. They carry it. They set it in its place. It stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
Remember this. Stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me. How do you know He's God? What?
He speaks. Verse 10. He announces. Verse 10. He declares the end from the beginning. From the ancient times, things not yet done. Saying, My counsel, what I say shall stand and I will accomplish all My purpose.
Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My counsel from a far country. Listen, friends. I have spoken. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it. Listen to Me, God says. Hear.
Listen. Heed. Because I declare. Chapter 48. Chapter 48 says the same thing. God speaks. And if He speaks, we must listen. We must heed. We must remember. Chapter 48 verse 1. Hear this. Verse 3. The former things I declared of old, they went out from My mouth and I announced them.
Verse 5. I declared them to you from of old before they came to pass. I announced them to you. Lest you say, My idol did them. My carved image and My metal image commanded them. You have heard. Now see this all.
And you will not declare it. From this time forth, I announce to you new things hidden that you have not known. And you can read the rest of chapter 48 and see the same kind of thing. God speaks. Idols you can see, they don't talk.
God is invisible, yet He speaks. Thus says the Lord in ESV 422 times. God said in the ESV 547 times. The Lord said in the ESV 1092 times. I personally take it for granted that God is a speaking God. Now ask yourself the question, what if God didn't speak?
And you had a big decision to make. You needed instruction. You needed wisdom. What would you do? It wasn't that long ago I went to Greece and I went to Delphi to see the Delphic Oracle. And remember the worship of God Apollo?
And he was said to have killed a python, a dragon that was protecting the center of the earth. And so people would then go to this spot. It had a big opening in the earth where this kind of noxious fumes and gas would come out.
Supposedly Apollo had killed this python, dragon, Pythia spirit and thrown it down into the chasm of the world. And then Python, Apollo's brother, would speak through this woman, this priestess. She had to be an older woman, blameless, a peasant.
And she would sit over that chasm on a little tripod and she would suck in these noxious fumes while eating oleander. Is that how you say it, oleander? How do you say it? Oleander. That's why I knew that.
Poinsettia. I don't like real poinsettias around Easter time or maybe any other time. These are fake. They're okay. Many of you know sometimes bugs fly into the pastor's mouth during those times. Tastes like celery.
Hey, we need somebody to speak to us. Our idols aren't speaking. So this lady will sit over this fissure and with some kind of weird gas that would come up, ethylene they thought maybe, and go into a trance.
And then if you eat the oleander, then that would send you into some sacred disease like epilepsy. And then she would talk and people would say, oh, do we go to war? She would answer. Do we found this colony?
She would answer. Because people need to know the answer. They can't figure it out. So they want their goddesses and their idols to speak. We need direction. Now let's go back to Hebrews chapter 1. The great news is God has spoken and He speaks.
He's a speaking God. He took the initiative to tell us all about Him. We wouldn't know about His holiness, His faithfulness, His mercy, His grace, His son. We wouldn't know anything except God has disclosed Himself.
He reveals. He uncovers His mind. And it says in comparison, verse 1 to verse 2, long ago but in these last days. God spoke to our fathers. He has spoken in His son. And what the writer of Hebrews is trying to say is this.
While there was progressive revelation in the old, there's finality in the new. You Jewish people, I mean, it makes sense, right? He's writing to Jewish people that would know the Old Testament. God did speak to those people, to Abraham, to Moses, to Isaac, to Jacob.
He did speak in those days. But now with finality, with supremacy, with superiority, He speaks to us through His son. Now let's break this apart a little bit. Long ago, in the olden days, you could probably translate it.
With our forefathers, God spoke. You're going to find all kinds of quotes in the book of Hebrews. You won't find one from the Apographa. You won't find one from the Pseudepigrapha. You'll find them from the Old Testament.
Psalms, Leviticus, Isaiah. And God, piecemeal at many times, and in many ways, spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Take a look at the first description there. At many times. He spoke at many times. So He spoke in parts.
Fragments. Segments. A word here, a word there. It was almost like every prophet, he'd give a different syllable, so you put the Old Testament together for the full sentence. That's the idea. A word here, a word there.
Some now, some later. This is what we call incremental revelation, or progressive revelation. In portions. One commentator said, all was not revealed to each one prophet, to Noah, the quarter of which the world of the Messiah should belong to, was revealed.
To Abraham, the nation. To Jacob, the tribe. To David and Isaiah, the family. To Micah, the town of Nativity. To Daniel, the exact time. To Malachi, the coming of his forerunner and his second advent.
Through Jonah, his burial and resurrection. Through Isaiah and Hosea, his resurrection. Each only knew in part, but when the perfect was come and the Messiah, that which was in part was done away with.
You had all these prophets back then, and not one of them had all the truth. And then what's the second part? And in many ways. How did God speak in many ways in the Old Testament? Well, he used different people.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jeremiah. Also in many ways. Visions, right? Dreams. Prophecies. Pillar of smoke. Pillar of fire. The Urim and the Thumen. He used Amos for social justice issues. Hosea talked about the forgiveness of God.
Isaiah talked about the holiness of God. All kinds of different ways. And he's not saying the Old Testament was bad, evil, wrong. But he's saying it was partial, fragmented, and in preparation for the New Testament.
Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. From Moses to Malachi. From Genesis to 2 Chronicles. But the ultimate, the superior, the final way he speaks is through his son, verse 2.
But in these last days, compared to the long ago at many times in many ways, in these last days, by the way, what's the last days? In between Jesus' first coming and his second coming, we're in the last days.
In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. You say, yeah, but what about the apostles? Well, those are included in the son. He's trying to say plural to singular. In his son. He has spoken in his son.
Not to superior, but final. God is done speaking. Completed action. I love what Jesus said in Matthew 13. I am superior in my disclosure of myself. God speaks periodically in the Old Testament, partially in the Old Testament, but finally with superiority and fully in his final prophet, Jesus Christ.
True or false? Jesus is priest. True. He's prophet. True. He's king. True. And don't you remember that God speaks through prophets and Moses in Deuteronomy 18? Did he not say there's going to be a better prophet than I am who's going to speak?
Of course, it's going to be Jesus Christ, a prophet like me from among you. The communication gap between holy God and sinful man has been closed. Jesus has spoken. In these last days, God speaks to us through his son.
Now, if you take a look at the passage in your English text, it says by his son. Literally, it's through son. No definite article. Now, if you put an article there, the, this particular son, but if there's not an article there, and there's not, it means quality.
God doesn't speak through prophets today and through visions today and through pillar of smoke today and pillar of fire today. He speaks to us through the person who's got the quality of being a son. The one who is son, the final messenger.
The emphasis on the quality of the noun, son. The stress is on, he's a son. He has other emissaries, but now it's his son. And you can almost hear, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. God the Father speaks through a son.
And if I send a courier to you, a runner to you, a, what do they call them back in the old days? Pony Express to you. I think the new Pony Express are the bike couriers in Manhattan. Aren't they? Some of you watch the YouTubes, I guess.
But this is a message to you from my son. These are all temporary. These are all leading up to something. These are not full, not final, not superior. But when I send to you my son, that's the idea. The nature of the son is stressed without the definite article.
Through his son. And you can know, the Hebrews are reading this. Some of them want to go back to Judaism. Some of them are tempted to come back. They're wooed back. It's like the sirens yelling. And he's saying, listen, if you're going to listen to the Word, because I know you Jewish people believe in the Word, then you listen to what's the final, the superior Word, and that is the son.
He's the final spokesperson. Father and the son. Think about that word son compared to the Father, God the Father. The honor that a son would have back in the Greek world. The honor a son would have in the Roman world.
He's spoken to us in his son. Israel was a son. She sinned. David was a son. He sinned. But now God speaks to us in the sinless son. Did not the woman at the well know about this? The woman said to Jesus, I know that the Messiah is coming.
He is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. She knew. There's a progression of speaking, both content and form, all the way up to Jesus. And when Jesus speaks, it's done.
It's final. No progression after him. He speaks to us in his son. So what does that mean? Well, let me give you one thing that's very important. Preaching is necessary if God is a speaking God. True? You've got to proclaim what God has said.
Tell other people what God has said. You don't know how often preaching is bashed today in America. What's the thing? If somebody's giving you kind of a lecture, what do we even like to say to that person?
Don't you preach to me. It's a bad thing to preach to people. Stott said, Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching, a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the word of God.
He could take that right from Hebrews. God used to speak through the prophets. God spoke through his son. No attempt, Stott said, to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity, or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us.
Namely, by a word, our words, or that he calls upon those who have heard his word to speak it to others. Friends, here's our world today. I'm a visual learner. Is there something to be said for visual learning?
When you watch someone do it? I, sadly, the other day followed the Johansons to the Israeli self-defense classes, the Krav Maga classes, and I enjoyed wailing on him. And if he just told me what to do, the instructor, punch this way, it's nice to be able to see, you do it so I can watch you.
And all of us, in some sense, are visual learners because God does teach visually with natural revelation. But he specifically teaches through a book. If God is a book teacher and you say, no, but I'm a visual learner, I don't know what these things are doing up here.
I mean, it's just like these poinsettias are going to kill me eventually. We have to say, you know what? If God teaches me through Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic letters, what must I then try to do? I'll tell you very personally, and some of you will laugh when I say this, to whatever degree I have good grammar and not bad grammar, I owe it to the study of the Bible as God has used his word to change the way I even think about participles and nouns and gerunds and possessive apostrophes.
Because God speaks specifically about Jesus. If you want to know about Jesus, it has to be through letters. Well, I can't memorize, I can't read. When people say, I can't memorize, I always say, pardon me, what's your phone number again?
In the old days, that worked. But now with cell phones, nobody even knows their own number. If you want to learn and grow, you have to learn about the Jesus who is in the Bible. He's the final source of authority, the supreme source of revelation, and you have to be a Bible student.
So here's the good news. I think at Bethlehem Bible Church, so many of you are wonderful students, and I say, amen. I commend you. But I know there's some here that probably won't pick up their Bibles again until next Sunday.
So what I want to try to do is, if you do study the Bible a lot, I say, amen. And if you don't, or you're anywhere in between, if you want to learn and grow and be caught up in anything but lethargic worship, you have to study the God who speaks in His Word.
I could ask you, how many minutes did you read the Bible yesterday? And if you didn't read your Bible, you did not hear God speak. Yes, but you don't understand, Mike. God walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
No, He does not. He used to walk and talk with people in those days, but in this last day, He has spoken to us finally and completely in His Son. But you don't know. God speaks to me when I pray, and I have burning in my bosom, and I have shivers in my liver, and I have gizzards that do other kinds of things.
Don't you see where this is all going, where we're going to go next week? The mystics are really worshiping dumb idols that don't talk, that don't speak, that don't reveal their mind. But friends, it's hard work.
It takes work to read. It takes work to study. It takes work to memorize. You know how I love Estilus Johnson, and in a grandfatherly way, he would say, the problem with most Christians is they just don't read their Bible enough.
You think, well, this is Bethlehem Bible Church, we read the Bible. I want you to read the Bible. I'm glad when I see you minister and you quote the Bible, I'm very, very glad to be your pastor. But anything less is essentially, practically, pragmatically, it's just idolatry.
Or worse, we listen to ourselves, and a fool listens to his own heart. When Jesus speaks, we know it's pure because He's holy, He's sinless, He's spotless, He's undefiled. But when we listen to ourselves, and God gave me a piece about it, and God opened doors and closed doors, those are all things that could have validity if you look at them in the past and see how God providentially worked.
But in these last days, He doesn't speak through pieces about it. And bosom burnings. He speaks to us in His Son, in His apostolic messengers. Mysticism is going to hurt you because you're not looking to the Son.
You can imagine the writer of Hebrews saying, by the way, I know you're tempted, you're flirting with this Judaism still. What I'd like you to do to determine if Jesus is correct or not, I want you to read the Old Testament and if you've got a warm feeling in your stomach, then you'll know Judaism is still true.
What does that sound like to you today? Sounds like Mormonism to me. Except they just use it with the Book of Mormon. God did speak. He's a speaking God. But in these last days, He has spoken to us. What's the point of Hebrews?
Finally, with superiority through His Son. And I can hear people pushing back. Do you know what? I've heard this about Bethlehem Bible Church before. You believe in the Trinity at Bethlehem Bible Church and your Trinity is this.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy what? Bible. Now reading Hebrews, I say to myself, if you want to accuse me of bibliolatry, I'll take it. Because I want you to know, this is how we know who God is. Here's the great Son, the superior Son, and He reveals Himself piecemeal in the Old Testament, all pointing to Christ, all promises about Christ, many types about Christ.
And once we get Jesus, we've got everything. But I don't know anything about Jesus outside of His Word. Do I know anything about propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, resurrection? I know nothing about Jesus outside His Word.
God is a speaking God. He speaks to you. And if you watch the church down the street, the Unitarian Unity Church for Universalism, or whatever they're called, they'll say, don't put a period where God's placed a comma, right?
Is that what they say? Call me Ishmael. I mean, somebody, they're trying to say, God keeps speaking today, but they mean through impressions and through mysticism. God does speak, but it's here, friends.
Show me a mystic, a spiritual person like that, and I'll show you somebody whose mind and whose lives are all messed up. Stott, God has clothed His thoughts in words. There's no way to know Him except by knowing the Scriptures.
This is interesting. We can't even read each other's minds, much less than what's in the mind of God. Husbands, do you know what your wife thinks? Sometimes you guess right. How would I know the transcendent God of the universe unless He speaks and He has spoken?
So the book of Hebrews is basically this. God did speak in the past in a fragmented, progressional way. And now we've got to the end point. We've arrived. If you see a sign, Salt Lake City, 542 miles, that's pointing somewhere.
That's the Old Testament. And then once you get to Salt Lake City, you're not looking for a sign anymore. We've arrived and we have the Word of God. Never be ashamed for loving the Word of God. I've said to you before, Psalm 119, I lift my hands to your commandments which I love.
You don't see me raise my hands very often here, do you? And I love the Word of God, David said. I know that's where I understand who you are. I yearn for your revelation in Scripture. Tell me who you are.
I can only know from the Word of God. I love your Word. So what Hebrews is going to do for us, it's going to encourage those who are reading and it will spur those on who aren't. George Gallup, Americans revere the Bible, but by and large, they don't read it.
By the grace of God, let's enjoy reading His Word. Bow with me if you would. Father, I am very thankful this morning that Your Word is breathed out by You. It is profitable for everything we need, including teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
Thank You that we don't have to do ministry on our own. We have the Word of God. I praise You that Your Word is sufficient because it's finally spoken through the person and work of no less than Your Son.
Oh, You love the prophets. You love the fathers. But it's Your Son. You've spoken to us in Your Son. So thank You that Your Word has no deficiencies, no errors. It's not fallible. It's not errant. It's not missing anything.
I thank You that we have it. It's a lamp. It's a light. It gives life and light. Understanding to the simple. I pray, Father, that You would just help us to enjoy You as we read the Word. Would You so arrange our lives and our minds so that we might be able to, during the day, spend a good time with You in the Word?
Not one minute or two minutes, not on the rush, but Father, would You rearrange our priorities? We're weak and we're sinful, and we just go back to thinking about who Jesus was, how He revered You, how He read Your Word, how He memorized Your Word, how He grew in wisdom and stature and knowledge of You and studying the Bible.
So we're thankful that we have a substitute and a representative like Jesus. But we need to be men and women of the Book. It's so easy to be lazy and to try to hear from You outside the Word, but it takes time and effort.
Father, grant us that. We're weak. But when we know we're weak, we're strong because You are a God who loves to help Your people. We want to understand You better, more precisely, and we would ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.