Christ The Creator - [Hebrews 1:2ff]

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The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.
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Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep.
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And I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice.
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So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I might take it up again.
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No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.
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This charge I have received from my Father. There was again a division among the
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Jews because of these words. And listen very carefully. Many of them said, from what
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Jesus has just said about being a good shepherd, laying down his life for the sheep. Many of them said, he has a demon and he is insane, why listen to him?
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He's mad, he has a demon, he's insane, so don't listen to him. And the writer of the book of Hebrews says the exact opposite.
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Since he is the good shepherd, since he is the eternal Son of God, listen to him.
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Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter one and see this very truth. When someone has a platform of authority and other people try to damage that, the first thing they do is they try to assassinate their character.
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And it's an ad hominem attack, an attack on the person, on the man. And that's exactly what was happening with Jesus.
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They were attacking Jesus, don't listen to him. Don't give him any platform because he's a phony, he's a fraud, don't listen.
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And so the exact opposite is happening in the book of Hebrews. Since Jesus is God, since Jesus is the creator, since Jesus is extolled, then we should pay heed to the words of the
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Father, both at the transfiguration and at the baptism of Jesus. This is my beloved
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Son in whom I'm well pleased. Tell me what the next part of the sentence is. Listen to him, that's exactly right.
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It would have been a little louder if we just have a few people sit up in this little blind spot right here.
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We're in the book of Hebrews going verse by verse. And what's happening in the book of Hebrews, right from the very get -go, the writer is trying to encourage those who are sitting on the fence, encourage those who are tempted to slide back, encourage unbelievers, encourage believers to say, listen,
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God does speak. And in the old days, he's spoken in many ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us in his
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Son. And therefore, he should be listened to. So let me read verses one through four in Hebrews chapter one, and we're gonna dive in and today look at the person and work of Christ.
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If you love Jesus and have been loved by him, you love Hebrews because it just extols him.
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It talks about him and why he is great, and therefore, we are to listen to him and his apostolic messengers.
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Long ago, Hebrews 1 .1, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
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But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things.
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He's launching into why you should listen to him. He's the heir of all things. Why should you listen to him?
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Through whom he also created the world. Why listen to Jesus? He is the radiance of the glory of God.
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Why hear him? He's the exact imprint of his nature. Why should we heed his sayings?
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He upholds the universe by the word of his power. There are lots of religious teachers.
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Who should we listen to? Listen to Jesus because 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.
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The greatness of Jesus Christ by the writer of Hebrews is trying to promote you, trying to propel you into saying, since he is the final and full agent of revelation, we must pay attention to him.
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We must pay heed to him. And so right there, if you take a look in verses two and three, if you want to count them, there are seven affirmation, seven wondrous glories, seven statements that describe
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Jesus so in fact, you may listen to him. You'd be motivated to listen to him. And we saw last week, the first one, why listen to Jesus?
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How do I know he is superior? How do I know he's better than Moses, the prophets, Jeremiah or anyone else?
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How do I know so that I listen to him? And the first one was found right there in verse two, whom he appointed the heir of all things.
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Jesus is a superior high priest because he is the heir of everything. And the writer is trying to drive you to say,
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I therefore must listen to him. I didn't say everything I wanted to say two weeks ago about the heir of all things.
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So let's dive in, partly review, partly an expansion of Hebrews 1 to whom he appointed heir of all things.
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So we can understand the person and work of Christ Jesus a little bit more.
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Now that word heir there means, we get the word lot from it.
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If you cast lots and you would divide up inheritance and we learned last time, didn't we? That since there's only one son, he gets all the inheritance, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 11 says, all things have been handed over to me by my father and as great as Moses is or was and as great as Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, they were not heirs.
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There is one son, it's Jesus, he gets everything. And so you want to listen to the one heir.
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And it's a fair question to ask, when did he become heir? Some think that this is an eternity past with the father and the son and the spirit.
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But most others, even if you look at context, what did Jesus do that was so great that he would become an heir?
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He made purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the father. And then when you begin to read the
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Old Testament, you will hear language like this and think, heir. And to him,
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Daniel 7 was given dominion, glory, a kingdom, all peoples, nations, men of every language.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. The father gives these things to the son as the one rightful heir.
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Turn to Revelation chapter five. I was talking to Pradeep a couple of weeks ago and he said,
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I love the concept about God, the son as an heir. And I said, well, I wanted to talk a little bit about Revelation five, but I ran out of time.
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And he said, I wish you would have. And so Pradeep, I love you. This is my love gift to you. Revelation chapter five.
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When you get the concept of heir, H -E -I -R, you begin seeing it all kinds of places.
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Just remember for a minute when you first understood by the grace of God and the power of the spirit that God's sovereign.
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Remember those moments? It was like a second blessing. It was like, you know what? I cannot believe everywhere
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I look now, God's sovereign. Election is found on every page, it seems, predestination and God's sovereign over not just skin color, but who goes to heaven.
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And it just began to just pop out of scripture as it were. It's the same thing when it comes to God, the son, as an heir.
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Maybe not as many times as election and predestination, but here is an illustration of when you read the
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Bible, you're gonna begin to say, yes, Jesus is an heir. And if he's the only heir,
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I must listen to him. Revelation chapter five, if there's no heir to the father, everyone's doomed.
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That's what we'll see here. Revelation 5, one, this great scene of heaven focused on the lamb of God, the son.
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Then I saw in the right hand of him who is seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
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And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?
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No one in heaven or on earth or under earth was the heir.
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They were not able to open the scroll or to look into it. And if there's no heir, there's weeping.
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And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
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Where's the heir? Who's going to receive this from God? But there's a scroll written within and on the back, the title deed of the universe.
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What's going to happen in the future? All the judgments, all the blessings are found in this book.
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Who can open it? Who has the authority to open it? It's sealed with how many seals?
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Closed up, no access, no unauthorized opening. It's a complete scroll, no spaces for later adding things or supplementing things.
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The redemptive plan of God is in this scroll. And if there's no opening, there's no hope for people.
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There's no salvation. The future is over. And when that is noticed by John, there's weeping.
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Who's got their credentials to open such a book surrounded by unworthy people in the sea of unworthy people?
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Verse two, who is worthy to open the book and its seals? I mean, who is a righteous man, a faithful man, a man who's tempted but does not fail?
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Who's a man who keeps his word? Who's a man that has right judgment and authority? Who is the man?
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Where is that man? Michael the archangel can't do it.
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Gabriel can't do it. Abraham can't open it. David can't open it. We need perfect judgment, the perfect man, the perfect redeemer kinsman.
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People can't even look into it. You can't even open it up and see what's in it. Verse three, the creation's inability and unworthiness, there's no error.
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And so without this, there's only weeping. Maybe God can be checkmated.
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And by the way, that weeping there, it's a loud wail. Unrestrained emotion, super loud.
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How is the earth going to make it? Something must be done. And then of course, we know as Christians, we've read this before, we understand the context.
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Verse five, there is an heir. Now the language isn't used, but that's exactly what the writer
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John is speaking to. Jesus is the heir. One of the elders said to me, weep no more.
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Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered.
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He's prevailed so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
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There's an heir who defeated sin. There's an heir who's been raised from the dead. There's an heir who defeated death.
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He's prevailed. Jesus is the heir. Now let's think big picture here for a second in Hebrews.
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We live in a world where all kinds of people say God speaks to them. I just read something this week that Alistair Begg quoted a survey saying, one in three
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American adults say that God speaks to them directly. The writer of Hebrews is trying to say this.
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God does speak and he speaks directly to you, but not outside the word.
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D .A. Carson was talking about a friend critiquing a book called Listening to God. If anyone had written a book 30 years ago with that title, you would have expected it to be more about Bible study, not about prayer.
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Many Christians now rely far more on inward promptings than on their Bible knowledge to decide what they're going to do in a situation.
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In these last days, how does God speak? In dreams, in visions, still small voices?
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No, he speaks through his word. And how do you know that's true? Because there's only one heir and his name is
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Jesus. Secondly, let's go back to Hebrews 1. This is a case for listening to Jesus and his apostolic messengers.
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How did God speak in the past? How does he speak now? He speaks through his word.
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Say, well, what about impressions? Mike, I'm getting an impression that what you're saying might not be right.
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Well, we're going to talk about that. Let's take a look at the second one first.
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Jesus is superior and should be listened to because he's the creator. Do you notice right after that phrase that he's the heir, it says here, through whom also he made the world.
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Why should I listen to a particular politician if they have no cred? They have no street cred.
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I don't care what they say because their lives don't match what they say or they say foolish things.
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Here we have the Lord Jesus. Why should we listen to him? Because he made everything. He made you, he made the world.
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And that's exactly what he's saying here in the text. But it's a fascinating word for world.
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It's not cosmos, it's not the created globe, although it's true. It's something more magnificent.
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It's something greater. It's something more. He made the eons or the ages. That would be the
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Greek word, ages. And it is applied to the ages of time, history, and then everything in the world as well.
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He made everything. Yes, it's true. He made Grand Canyon and Antarctica and the universe and winter snow storms.
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He made everything. But this is a word that is a little larger. And the rabbis back in the day would say, yes, it refers to everything in the world, but also time and history and successive ages.
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So Jesus is the Lord of history. He made it all. Why should I listen to you?
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I made everything. If you use the word age instead of cosmos, it's more comprehensive.
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I love some of the different Bible translations. Through whom he also created the worlds.
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That's a good one. Through whom he made the ages. Through the sun, he made the universe and everything in it.
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When I read this, I think this is probably a Jehovah's Witnesses underlined verse.
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You know, you ever have a Bible and you think, I'm gonna underline this or put yellow highlight there.
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They don't wanna underline this because who creates the world except God himself.
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Does this verse sound familiar? Does it make you think of Hebrews 1?
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In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And all things came into being, exact same terminology here, through Jesus, the word.
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And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. Or how about Colossians 1, echoing the same truth.
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For by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Jesus and for Jesus.
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Does it sound familiar when I read to you 1 Corinthians 8, 6? Yet for us, there is one
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God, the Father, from whom are all things are and for whom we exist.
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And one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.
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What the writer of Hebrews is trying to say is, Jesus is worthy of being heard because he makes the world.
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He makes the worlds. He makes the planets. Now, I have a question for you if we stop and think context for a second.
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Here are these Jewish people and they're tempted to go back to the temple. They're tempted to go back to Judaism.
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Why stay here and get persecuted with Jesus if we can have all the glitz and the glamor and the pomp and the circumstance of the temple?
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Let's go back. We're safer there than being over here. And the writer is saying, listen, as great as the temple might be,
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Solomon didn't make the world. As great as Old Testament Judaism is, Moses didn't create the world.
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Moses didn't make everything. Neither did Elijah or anyone else. Jesus is better than the prophets.
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If you've got Jesus, you've got everything. Who makes time, space, energy, matter?
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Who made you? Hebrews 11 talks similarly, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible.
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Same word there, ages are universe, all things created by Jesus.
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Now here's what I think that happens. The writer is trying to say, listen to Jesus, don't be tempted to go back.
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And for us, a great application is as I continue to harp upon this, is that a right word, harp?
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I think that's the word, isn't it? No, Barry's shaking his head. I believe you, Barry, what's the right word? You want me to say harangue?
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Let me tell you three words that are important when it comes to studying the Bible and understanding the word of God.
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And those words are revelation, inspiration, and illumination. If you had to write down on a piece of paper what are the differences between those three words and why does it matter,
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I wonder what you'd say. What's revelation, inspiration, and then illumination?
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Because I think what's happening is we are hankering for more revelation, but revelation is completed and God is illuminating our minds to understand the
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Scripture. The word revelation is how God reveals Himself specifically in Scripture.
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You could think about this as how God reveals Himself to man, that's revelation. We have something disclosed by God so we can understand salvation and resurrection.
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Then there's inspiration, our God -breathed. And this is when God has spoken to man, that's revelation.
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And now when man writes down, that is the apostles, Moses, Paul, when they write down God's thoughts to paper.
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So we've got God to man is revelation and now we've got man to parchment or man to paper or man to vellum, that's inspiration.
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And then illumination is God has already revealed Himself to man, man has written it down, the 66 books of the canon, and now how do we understand this?
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There's been revelation, inspiration, and now how do we understand the text? That's called what? Illumination.
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And so what we're doing in our day and age today affected by many folks is we're running to revelation.
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We want new revelation when the canons close, when God has finished speaking, when we should be saying,
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Lord, just give me a mind to understand Scripture as You help illuminate, as You help me understand it.
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Don't confuse illumination with revelation. Now here's one way that we often do it is people say, well,
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I have an impression. I have a hunch. I have intuition.
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And you know what I say to hunches, impressions and intuition?
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Great. You've got a hunch, you've got intuition, and you've got an impression. But friends, this is gonna be very profound,
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I know. Impressions are simply impressions. Hunches are simply hunches.
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And intuition is simply intuition. Furthermore, impressions are not revelation.
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Hunches are not revelation. And impressions are not revelation. Say, well,
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I had a hunch and it came true. Great. How many hunches have you had that didn't come true?
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I have a hunch, quite a few. Here's what I'm trying to, I'm not trying to say, you know, you can't go with your gut ever, you can't have an impression.
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But remember, as we've talked about many times, we are fallen creatures and we can't trust ourselves. Fools trust themselves.
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And so if you just said, you know what, I've got a hunch, I prayed about it, I looked at Scripture, and I've just got a hunch, and I think
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I should do this, then fine. Just don't say, God told me, because He didn't tell you.
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Revelation is when God speaks to man. Inspiration is when man, these apostles and prophets wrote it down.
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God breathed as the Scripture is talked about in 2 Corinthians 3. And illumination is when the
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Holy Spirit illumines the word. Spurgeon. Often to judge by their duty of impressions,
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I say this, they say this. If I feel it impressed upon my mind,
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I shall do it. Spurgeon, does God command you to do it? That is the proper question. If He does, you should make haste, whether it is impressed upon your mind or not.
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But if there be no command to that effect, or rather, if it diverges from the line of God's statutes and needs apology or explanation, hold your hand.
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For though you have 10 ,000 impressions, yet must you never dare to go by them, it is a dangerous thing for us to make the whims of our brain instead of the clear precepts of God the guide of our moral actions.
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To the law, to the testimony, that is the lamp that shows the Christian true light.
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Be this your chart, be this your compass, but as to impressions and whims and fancies, and I do not know what beside which some have taken, these are more wrecker lights that will entice you onto rocks.
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Hold fast to the word of God and nothing else. Whoever He shall be that shall guide you otherwise, close your ears to Him.
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In other words, if someone says to me, I have an impression that you should do such and such, friends, it's only impression.
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And they wrongly say, probably trying to get more authority or maybe they're just ignorant.
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Well, God told me to tell you that and God is leading me. If you wanna see the leading of God, friends, why don't you just look back in your life instead and see how
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God's providential hand led you all the way in spite of good impressions, bad impressions, no impressions.
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The writer of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one, verses one to three is saying, we have the completed word in the apostles and Jesus, listen to Him, listen to them.
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Let's go back to Hebrews chapter one and see the third reason we should be listening to Jesus. Why listen to Jesus if He's got a demon, if He's insane, if He's mad?
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Well, then we shouldn't. But if Jesus makes everything, He's the heir of all things.
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And here it says He's the radiance, number three of His glory. Why listen to Jesus, the superior high priest?
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He's the heir, He creates everything and He's the radiance of His glory found right there in verse three of Hebrews one.
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The radiance of God's glory. Now there's an active way to translate this and it's radiance.
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There's a passive way to translate this and it's reflection, radiance and reflection.
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I think it's the first one, radiance or a word that I never thought I would have to say out loud and didn't even know what it meant, that's probably why.
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But now I love to say when I talk about the glory of Jesus and it's effulgence.
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When do you, I dare you to use that at work tomorrow. I dare you if you have a stay home mom to say the effulgent glory of God.
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Now just think for a second as you think like a Jew. Moses, he goes up and sees God face to face and there's the
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Shekinah glory and it's reflected on his face. But Jesus is in fact from the inside out the radiance of God's glory, radiating from a source.
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It's a very rare word and it means to shine out from the source of light, to emit brightness, to have the
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Shekinah glory of Jesus stream out. It could be translated the outshining.
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King James says it's the brightness of His glory. Another translation, the outshining of His glory.
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The NAB, the refulgence of His glory. I like Vincent's translation.
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This is not our Vincent. He wouldn't know how to translate Greek, would you? Maybe you would. Just kidding. It's in love.
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Do you know Greek? Hebrew? Okay. But you're a good Bible student so I appreciate that.
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Take that out of the tape please, Andrew. Vincent's translation, the out -raying of divine glory.
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No wonder when Jesus said the words, I am the light of the world,
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He meant the same effect. Not just a reflection, but the radiance of God's glory.
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So what would that mean? The Shekinah glory is manifesting who God is and Jesus does the same thing.
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Jesus has the same essence of God. The same essence of the Father. Not just likeness, but the same essence. The same dignity, rank, importance.
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And if He is that important, then we must listen to Him. Why listen to Jesus? He's the heir. He's the creator.
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And He has the splendor inside of Him. The shining forth. The brilliance emanating from Him.
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So we should listen. And by the way, the word therefore radiance does not have an article in the
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Greek. And when something has an article in the Greek, a definite article, it's a particular thing. It's a unique thing.
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It's set apart from everything else. This has no article, so it talks about character.
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It talks about substance. It's not talking about a particular thing. It's talking about a kind of thing to make that highlighted.
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The Son has glory. The Father has glory. The Son is, matter of fact, the outshining of the glory of the
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Father. Philip, remember he said to Jesus, show us the Father and it's enough for us.
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Jesus, He who has seen me has seen Thee. How about John describing
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Jesus? The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
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Glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. No wonder as we've seen many times here at the church,
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Jesus transfigured before them and His face shone like the sun and His garments became white as light.
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So we must listen to Him if He is the heir, if He is the creator, if He is the radiance of the glory of God and all those are third class conditionals, since He is, that we must listen to Him.
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And He has told us, here we have the inscripturated Bible to listen to. That's why
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I become so concerned when people get into things like contemplative prayer.
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When people have thoughts like this, well, God spoke to people in the Old Testament through dreams and visions and He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
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Therefore, He must do it today as well because God doesn't change. Here's their faulty syllogism. God used to talk this way to people, give them impressions and thoughts and dreams.
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God doesn't change, He's immutable. Therefore, God speaks this way today as well.
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What's wrong with that little syllogism? To make it easy, here's what's wrong with it. Hebrews 1, 1, 2, and 3.
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One writer said, nowhere in the Bible are readers cautioned that they should not expect their walk with God to be like that of believers in biblical times.
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And I just want to raise my hand and say, no, Hebrews 1. The writer goes on to say, the only way for us to have a relationship with Christ is if He directs our everyday lives by telling us specifically what to do in a detailed way exactly as He did with the apostles.
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Because today the Holy Spirit is to function in us the very same way that Jesus led
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His disciples, which involves very specific instructions not provided in the Bible. Friends, that's so wrong on so many different levels.
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The promises in John 16 from Jesus to the apostles as they would be told exactly what to say is talking about Scripture and revelation.
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Say, well, when I pray, I just listen to God. I'm trying to do everything I can to make you not think that way because prayer is talking to God.
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You say, well, Mike, you continue to stress this because it's devastating churches and it's important for you.
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One man said, while quiet and alone when you pray, listen with your heart. Don't strain your ears for an audible voice.
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The Bible describes this order of the Lord's communication with us in a still small voice. Further expect
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His voice to come more by impressions, that is by thoughts or ideas which begin to form as you are quiet and worshipful in His presence.
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One of the most popular books of the 20th century according to Christianity today is a mystical book that ignores
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Hebrews 1, 1 -3. And I'm not even gonna tell you who wrote it. It doesn't really matter because this stuff is everywhere.
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He said in the original edition of his book, Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it.
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And I just think, Hebrews 1, 1 -3. He said,
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I find it best to sit in a straight chair with my back correctly positioned in the chair and both feet flat on the floor.
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Place my hands on my knees, palms upward in a gesture of receptivity. Sometimes it's good to close the eyes to remove distractions and center the attention on Christ.
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At other times, it's helpful to ponder a picture of the Lord or to look at some lovely trees and plants for the same purpose.
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But in these last days, how does God speak? Not that way. Luke 11, 28.
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Jesus said, quote, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
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The NAS says, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.
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There are no words from God given today outside the Scriptures. So why should
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I yearn after them? Wouldn't I study the Bible instead? Do we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture?
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Yes. Number four, Hebrews 1, verse 3.
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Jesus is superior. The final revelation from God, the full revelation from God. How do
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I know it? He's the heir of all things. He's the creator of all things. He's the radiance of God's glory.
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And if that's not all, number four, He's the exact representation of His nature.
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He bears the stamp of His nature. You want to see God? Look to Christ. The express image of His person,
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King James. The exact copy of God's nature. Now, let me tell you the
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Greek word here for not only Vincent, but for everyone else, we can learn this. Vincent, I'm so sorry.
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It was in love that I said that earlier. The word is character.
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That's not how you would say it in Greek, but that's essentially the word character. The exact representation.
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If I take my ring and smash it into some wax or to some clay, the exact image that was on my ring is now on that clay.
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And what would happen back in those days, you can imagine a seal with Nero or the other emperor's face.
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And how would you know if that was an exact representation? If you put it into the clay or the moldy kind of substance, malleable substance rather, well, you could just look at the ring and then look at the clay and you would say that's an exact representation.
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That's the word here. Not a general likeness, not something pretty close, but an exact duplication.
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Exactly the nature of God. You can't see God the Father, but when you see the Son, you know what the
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Father's like. John 1 .18, No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the
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Father, He has exegeted or explained Him. Colossians 1 .19,
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For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.
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It's like God stamped, Kistemacher said, Himself upon His Son, the divine imprint of His being.
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Exact representation refers to minted coins that bear the image of a sovereign or president.
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The exact representation. Spurgeon, whatever
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God is, Christ is. The very likeness of God, the very Godhead of Godhead, the very deity of deity is in Christ Jesus.
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The Congregationalist John Owen was explaining this in his book of Hebrews commentary.
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And he was talking about the Shekinah glory over the mercy seat, which was the only visible token of the presence of God there.
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An extraordinary brightness is said to have shone forth from between the cherubim. Now Christ is
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God manifesting Himself in His brightness. Exactly. He who has seen
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Me has seen the Father. Jesus said to Philip, Have I not been with you so long and yet you have not come to know
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Me, Philip? Just like I said for the last point, He who has seen Me, Jesus said, has seen the
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Father. How do you say, show us the Father? And since Jesus is
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God, then we must listen to Him. Let's continue back in Hebrews.
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Hebrews chapter one, verse three, number five. Why listen to Jesus as superior?
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Fifthly, He upholds all things. Oh, this is so good. Verse three says in the
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ESV, And He upholds all things by the word of His power. This means not just to hold up like some burden, not just Atlas holding up this big globe, but you hold up the globe and you go, it needs to go over there.
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It needs to go to that particular spot. The destiny for this globe is over there and this person guides the world to its end.
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It's to hold up, to bear up, and to bring from one place to another with some goal in mind, carrying along.
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And so remember, you're thinking about the Hebrews for a second. You think Moses wasn't the heir. Moses didn't create.
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Moses isn't the exact representation of God and a fulgent glory. Moses doesn't have the character of God.
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Moses doesn't bear the world on his shoulders and bring it to the end. I better listen to Jesus. Jesus is the one that bears these things up, sustains them as a good way, supports them all the way to the end, to the very end of the world, to the consummation.
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Jesus is taking the world and everything in it and making it go somewhere. By the way, when
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I think of this, I think to myself, this is why I've got to train my mind to not just look at the world, especially with the politics these days and think the world is chaotic and what's going to happen and I should be afraid.
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You know, I think I'm 55. I kind of made it through everything before there's chaos in the world, but I have four kids.
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Now, how are they going to make it? And I'm reminded again, focus on who the Lord is. He is totally in control.
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Sovereigntially. Sovereigntially. That's my new word. Vincent, you thought Greek was hard.
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Sovereigntially. Sovereignly, providentially. You'd think it's the
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Father who would do all this. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, that's the Son. The Son is sovereign over everything.
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Everything's happening for a reason. And you look back to yesterday's news and you go, that was the sovereign plan of God.
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How it all works. Who could take evil and sin and coordinate it and make it sovereignly something for the glory of God and the good of man?
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I don't know, but I know if God could do that with the Son's death, He could do it with everything else.
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And God has a plan. He's lifted up this universe and He's driving it to the end. And the intermediary agent is
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Jesus who's doing that very thing. This is not passive. This is active.
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God Himself. Who could do that but God Himself? This word to uphold, this word to uphold the universe means to carry.
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It means to be driven along. A ship is driven along by wind. This word is used in the
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Old Testament, Greek, the Septuagint Moses said, how about this?
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Who's better, Moses or Jesus? Jesus carries the world and upholds the universe by the word of His power.
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And Moses said using the exact same word in Greek in Numbers 11,
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Moses, I'm not able to carry or uphold all this people because it's too burdensome for me.
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The government, the guidance of all these people, I cannot carry these people to the end.
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And here the text says in Hebrews, Jesus can. Matter of fact, the text in Hebrews upholds as a present tense.
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He continually upholds. He always upholds. He's not too busy to uphold. He's not too tired to uphold.
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He speaks and it's done. Isn't that the truth? What's the text say? He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
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Affected by His powerful word. All heaven, all earth directed by Jesus.
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All heaven, all earth in control of Jesus. Matthew 8,
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Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm.
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And the question they ask is answered in Hebrews chapter 1. The men were amazed and said,
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What kind of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him?
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What kind of man? And he's the God man. Now remember, it's not too long after Jesus himself was walking on the earth.
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He's fully human. I know he's more than that, but he was a human walking on earth. Who can do these things?
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The writer says, Jesus does. And if He does these things, you better listen to Him.
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This language is echoed by Paul in Romans 11. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
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Paul says to Him be the glory forever. And the writer of Hebrews says, then listen to Him. Spurgeon, just think of it.
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This great world of ours is upheld by Christ's word. If He did not speak it into continued existence, it would go back into nothingness from which it sprung.
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There exists not a being who is independent of the mediator, save only the ever -blessed Father and the
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Spirit. Just as the foundation upholds the house, so does Jesus Christ sustain all things by the word of His power.
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Only think of it. Those innumerable worlds of light that make unbounded space to look as though it were sprinkled over with golden dust would all die out like so many expiring sparks and cease to be if the
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Christ who died on Calvary did not will that they should continue to exist.
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Surely if Christ upholds all things, He can uphold me. If the word of His power upholds heaven and earth, surely that same word can uphold you, poor trembling heart, if you will trust in Him.
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And then all of a sudden, the word of God absorbs you as the Spirit of God is helping you understand.
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And you think, you know what? My life, I live through my own eyes in a selfish way, in a prideful way, in an arrogant way.
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It's all about me. And then you look at the text and you go, no, no, that's not the way the universe is supposed to be seen.
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They say they just have discovered a new planet this week, didn't they?
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They said it was planet number nine. I thought that was Pluto, but that's an argument. And God, the
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Son just holds that thing up by the word of His power. And as Spurgeon said, then
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He could hold you up as well. And I look at the text and I just think, you know what? It's all about the Lord. Lord, make my life that way.
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Make Bethlehem Bible Church life that way, where we're consumed on who the Lord is and what He's done.
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And the introduction to Hebrews, wouldn't that be a good introduction that we could have when we talk to other people and we think, what should we talk about with this other
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Christian brother? What would encourage them? What do the unbelievers need? Then I begin to understand a little bit when
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Paul said, you know, when I show up to a town, first I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna be in prison for a while, but I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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Just did a video a couple of days with Ben and Sam and everybody is laughing at Donald Trump because he said two
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Corinthians instead of second Corinthians. I don't know, maybe he learned the
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Bible in England because they say two Corinthians there. But my point was this. I thought, you know what?
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When's the last time anybody read second Corinthians? How about just read two
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Corinthians and you will say to yourself, chapter one, all the promises of God and there are a lot of them are yes and amen in Christ Jesus.
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Chapter two, Jesus is like this great general in the victory celebration back in Rome. And He's got all these captives and instead of bringing them to the temple of Jupiter and killing them,
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He regenerates them, He gives them spiritual gifts and then He gives them to His church to serve. And then you think chapter three,
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Moses has glory on His face, Jesus Christ beams out glory from within. Chapter four, you say, do you know what?
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How does God create a world? Ex nihilo, it is done. How does God make a Christian? Chapter four, verse six says the exact same way.
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You're a Christian, I made you like that. You start working through and you go chapter five, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
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Paul goes up to heaven and he can't talk about the things because it's so spectacular, so wonderful.
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And then he says, all my trials and tribulations and he could beat us all when it comes to that for bragging rights are minimal in comparison to the person and work of Christ Jesus.
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So what I don't need is, do you know what? I just got to get through another trial. I, along with you need an exalted view of who
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Jesus is because then everything is seen properly. Nothing even goes away necessarily, except my poor view, my anthropomorphic view, my anthro centered view of the world instead of a
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Christ centered view. And the writer of Hebrews will not let you up for air because he says, Jesus is so great.
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He's the air, he's the glory of God. He makes everything, he does everything. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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Father, thank you for our time in your word. I pray that for Bethlehem Bible Church, you would just encourage us.
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We want to follow Christ. We want to love him with our heart, soul, mind and strength, but we're weak and we fail, we sin.
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Yet you love us anyway, cleansed, pardoned, forgiven. And because we are that, would you help us to walk in a newness of life this week and to be encouragers.
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Father, help us to talk about who Jesus is to believers and unbelievers alike.
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May he be the conversation centerpiece in our lives. He was in the Bible, he was to Paul, he was to the writer of Hebrews, he was to Moses.
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So we want to be that as well. So we'd ask for your help. I pray that the folks that are here who don't know you, haven't been known by you in a saving fashion,
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I pray that you would impress upon them who Jesus is, the eternal son. Only he can make purification for their sins.
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Only he could raise himself from the dead. And I pray father that they would realize they've been made by him and they will be judged by him if in fact they aren't saved by him.