God's Final Word

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we have a firm foundation of truth to stand upon in an age of deception.

I am your host, Erin Benzinger. Thanks for tuning in today. As always, let me remind you, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook.

You can visit equippingeve .com or .org, and you can email me there, or you can always reach me at equippingeve at gmail .com,

and I will respond to you as soon as I am able, but I do really appreciate corresponding with you ladies, whether it is in social media or via email.

I really love, I am so thankful for the encouragement that you send. I love that. Who doesn't?

And I love the questions that you're asking. You ladies are asking challenging questions.

You're thinking about challenging things, and that helps me know what to speak about on future shows, and it also just gives me an idea of the theological landscape of women in evangelical

Christianity and what women are facing from day to day. We all have different circumstances in our lives and different things that are pressing on our minds, and so that's really helpful to me when you reach out with either suggestions or questions, and so I just really appreciate it, so I hope you will take advantage of those means of communication.

Please do. So I think today you are going to love what we're going to talk about.

I hope you do. I really hope you do, and when I finally tell you the topic, then you'll understand why

I say that, but before we get to that, let's have a message moment, shall we?

Message moment, I swiped that name from No Compromise Radio, Pastor Mike and Pastor Steve, so thanks to the guys for the catchy title.

I don't know that we've done a message moment here at Equipping Eve before, but we will do this from time to time, and the message moment is when you open the message version of the

Bible, written by Eugene Peterson, written poorly by Eugene Peterson, and it's when you open it and you realize how theologically horrible it actually is.

So I opened my copy of the message today to a rather sobering passage, at least in the true text, it is a rather sobering passage.

Let me just read to you from Matthew 7 out of the NASB, the

New American Standard. That's the version that I typically use, so I'm going to read to you from that.

Now remember, ladies, Matthew 7, this is the end of the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, the Sermon on the

Mount is the most magnificent sermon that has ever been preached. It was preached by our Lord, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who of course was the greatest preacher ever, and the sermon is so rich and full.

I mean, these three chapters are perhaps my three favorite chapters in all of Scripture.

Although I say that now, and in about five minutes when we talk about another passage, I'm going to say that that's my favorite.

Anyway, but in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching his followers what the life of a truly, genuinely repentant person looks like.

He is describing a Christian in these chapters, and they are humbling, and they are sobering, and they are so didactic, and so rich and wonderful, and if you have not studied through the

Sermon on the Mount, ladies, I encourage you to do so. Don't just stop with the Beatitudes. It's very easy.

We hear a lot of sermon series on the Beatitudes, and that's fine, as long as they're accurate, but go into all of Matthew 5, all of Matthew 6, all of Matthew 7, please.

You will not regret it, and there's a very sobering passage toward the end of the

Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7, 21, Jesus says,

Can you imagine the terror of hearing those words?

These are those who professed Christ. These are false converts, standing before the

Lord and being told He never knew them. They were not truly saved.

This, ladies, is one of the most sobering passages of Scripture.

And so, I wanted to see what Eugene Peterson, in his version of the

Bible, called the message how he treated this passage. And he writes,

Knowing the correct password, saying, Master, Master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me.

What is required is serious obedience, doing what my Father wills. I can see it now.

At the final judgment, thousands strutting up to me and saying, Master, we preached the message. We bashed the demons.

Our God -sponsored projects had everyone talking. And do you know what I am going to say? You missed the boat.

All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.

Really? From, depart from me,

I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness, to, you don't impress me one bit.

You're out of here. Really? How flippantly

Eugene Peterson treats this very important passage. And when

I read that, I just did not know whether to get angry or to be sad.

Ladies, stay away from the Message Bible. I'm sure I've said that here before. If I haven't, hear me now.

Stay away from the Message Bible. It is not an accurate rendering of the biblical text.

And it will lead you astray in more ways than one. But that is not our topic for today.

Our topic for today, actually, as I said, I think you'll love it. I hope you do. Our topic for today is the

Lord Jesus Christ. That seems like a good topic, doesn't it? It is a beautiful day to talk about Jesus.

It is a beautiful day to marvel at the one who has saved our souls.

So ladies, I'd like for you to turn with me to Hebrews 1. And we've talked about, we've mentioned

Hebrews 1 in the past, on probably multiple episodes of Equipping Eve. And we've used it in reference to indicating that the canon is closed, the

Lord has spoken finally and fully, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do not expect continuing revelation.

We do not look for personal words from the Lord. We do not wait for whispers and liver shivers and nudges and hunches.

We turn to the 66 books of the Bible that the Lord has been good and gracious to give us.

And that is where we find our truth. And that is where we find what God has to say to His people.

And so, that is what we have mostly focused on when we've mentioned Hebrews 1 in the past.

But today, I still want to focus on the first three verses, particularly verses 2 and 3.

But we are going to focus solely on Christ today and on how He is described in these verses.

It's magnificent. I think you're going to love it. So first, let's read it.

As I said, I used the New American Standard Version. So it doesn't matter if you're using that or not.

But I hope you have a good Bible translation. I think the NASB is excellent. It's my favorite.

My second favorite is the ESV. I certainly have nothing against the ESV, but I'll probably pick up the

NASB if I can. Other translations are good as well.

But I think that those two, in my opinion, are probably the best that you will find today. The two that are the truest to the original biblical text.

So, Hebrews 1, verse 1. Ladies, I don't know if you've ever had opportunity to study

Hebrews or how many times you have read through this epistle. But I hope that you will take some time in the next couple of weeks and read through the book of Hebrews.

It is phenomenal. It explains how Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the foreshadowing that we saw in the

Old Testament sacrifices. You will see Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.

But especially as priest in Hebrews. As the great high priest. This is one of my favorite books in the

Bible. Which is why I said earlier when I said Matthew 5, 6, and 7 were three of my favorite chapters,

I said I would say the same thing about the passage today. And it's true. Hebrews is quite possibly my favorite book of the

Bible. Until I'm reading another one and then that will be my favorite. But I think

Hebrews is so full of magnificent truth and so full of exaltation of Jesus Christ that you cannot not treasure these 13 chapters.

So what I wanted to do today, stopping with these first three verses, and as I said really focusing on verses 2 and 3, was

I wanted to point out to you seven descriptors that are in these verses that indicate to us how it is and why it is that the

Son has the authority to speak. These are perhaps seven excellencies of the

Lord Jesus Christ and why we can look to Him as the full and final authority on all things.

And so we'll just jump right into it, ladies. And in verse 2, the writer of Hebrews says,

In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things.

That's number one. That's the first excellency of Christ that we see in these verses. He is the heir of all things.

Everything will ultimately come under the Son's control, ladies. And His inheritance is the full authority of all these things that is given to Him by the

Father. Now, this is His by right, by being the firstborn.

And if you turn to Psalm 89, verse 27, you can see a mention of that in the

Old Testament. I also shall make Him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. We see also in the

Old Testament evidence that Christ will be the heir of all things way back in Psalm 2.

So if you turn to Psalm 2, verses 7 to 9, it says, the psalmist writes,

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. And if you turn back to the book of Matthew, in chapter 11,

Jesus speaks about His position, His sonship Himself.

In chapter 11, verse 27, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the

Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal

Him. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, says Jesus. Ladies, turn to Revelation chapter 5, and we can truly see a depiction of this inheritance that Christ has been given by the

Father, and in the last days, the deed to the earth will be handed over to the

Son. And we see this in Revelation 5. The Apostle John writes,

I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals.

This was depicting a will. Back in ancient times, you would write up a will, and it would be sealed over and over again with seven seals, so that no one could tamper with the will.

And so, this is handed over. Verse 2, I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,

Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

Then I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so as to open the book and its seven seals.

And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Verse 7, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Christ was the one who was worthy to take that deed to the earth and to break its seals.

That is his inheritance. His inheritance is all things.

All things have been given to him by the Father. Ladies, turn with me, and I know we're going to a lot of different passages, but I want you to see that this is something that is throughout

Scripture. This is not a one -off that we see in Hebrews. So turn with me to Romans 11, verse 36.

Paul writes, For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.

Amen. All things, all things are given to Christ by the

Father. Turn with me to Colossians 1, and we're going to come back to this passage quite a bit today.

Colossians 1, verse 16. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things have been created through him and for him. Colossians 1, verse 16.

All authority has been given to Christ. All authority has been given to Christ.

He's not just an heir of material things. All authority has been given to him in this inheritance as well.

Jesus himself affirmed this in Matthew 28, 18. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying,

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And then he gives the great commission.

Ladies, if you turn to Daniel, chapter 7. Daniel 7, verse 13 and 14.

I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming.

And he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

Jesus Christ is the heir of all things, appointed by the

Father. That's the first excellency of Christ that we see in Hebrews, verse 2.

The second excellency that we see is that all things were made through him.

Look at the verse again. Whom he, God appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.

Christ was the agency through which God created. But the language here is also indicative of the ages.

So not only was Christ the creator of the universe, but he was the creator of all things throughout the ages.

This is time, this is space, this is energy, this is matter. This is the entire universe. He is the

Lord of all history. Turn back again. Remember Colossians 1, verse 16.

For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible.

All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

You remember John 1, don't you? Turn to the Gospel of John, first chapter.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, he was in the beginning with God.

Verse 3, all things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Christ is acknowledged then as the father's agent in the work of creation.

All things, all of history was created through the

Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the second excellency that we see in the book of Hebrews, in the second verse.

So what then is the third excellency? We move on then to verse 3 in Hebrews 1, and this verse is full of awe -inspiring characteristics of our

Lord. Verse 3 says that he, Jesus Christ, is the radiance of his glory.

He is the radiance of the glory of God, is what that is saying. This is an idea of, it's more than just a reflection.

This is an identification of Christ with God. The Son is eternal.

We just saw that in Colossians and in John, the first chapter, that Jesus Christ is eternal, just like God.

And he is the radiance then of the glory of God. As Lewis Johnson has said,

There was never a time in which the glory of God did not have brightness, and our

Lord possesses that. Jesus Christ is the radiance of God's glory.

He is eternal. It's this idea of sending forth light or shining, that God's glory just shines forth through Christ.

Turn to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Verse 6, For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

So Jesus Christ is God. And Jesus Christ radiates his own glory.

He doesn't just reflect God's. He radiates his own glory. Because he is God. He is the radiance of God's glory.

And he is God. And that then is the third excellency that we see here in the book of Hebrews.

The fourth excellency, ladies, is still there in that third verse. Jesus Christ is the exact representation of his nature.

The exact representation, then, of God's nature. This word here for exact representation is actually used only here in the

New Testament. And it means that he is the very image of the essence of God. If that makes any sense.

The extra biblical literature that uses this word speaks of like an engraving on wood or a stamped imprint.

Jesus Christ is the image of the essence of God. John MacArthur words it such that he says the sun is the perfect imprint of God.

We see the same idea in scripture, but the language here in Hebrews is actually more emphatic than we see in some other verses.

But just to give you an idea of how this is relayed other places in scripture.

Again, if you'll turn back to Colossians 1, kind of our sister passage here for today.

Colossians 1 verse 15 says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Colossians 2 verse 9 says, For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

So again, all the fullness, all that essence of God dwells within Jesus Christ in bodily form.

2 Corinthians 4 verse 4 where we just were, that gets the same idea. And then

John 14 verse 9, Jesus said to him, Philip, He said to Philip, Have I been so long with you?

And yet you have not come to know me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the

Father? Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the Father. The being of God is in Christ.

And what God is, one commentator put it this way, what God is, is made manifest in Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Son, is the perfect imprint of the Father. So that is the fourth excellency of Christ that we see in Hebrews.

And the fifth, ladies, we're just moving along. It said, Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of his power.

And we love this verse, don't we? Because you just think of all of the laws of nature. And you know, science would love to tell us that just poof, everything happened.

You know, men just poof, happened with all of the body systems functioning the way that they should, and gravity just happened, and the planets just appeared, and all of this just happened out of a big bang.

But those of us who know Christ know the truth, that God created this, and he created this order so that the world and the universe and his people function the way that they need to.

Again, back to Colossians 1, verse 17, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Christ is sustaining all things. The universe is sustained by him and his word.

He upholds all things by the word of his power. This denotes movement or progress.

The Son of God, one commentator put it, actually it was John MacArthur looking at my notes, John MacArthur put it this way, that the

Son of God directs all things toward the consummation of all things according to God's sovereign purpose.

So, it's not like, you know, you've seen that sculpture of Atlas who has the world just resting on his shoulders.

It's not like that. That's very static. This denotes movement and progress. Christ is not only holding all things together and upholding all things by the power of his word, he is actually moving them along just as he is the

Lord of all history, he is the Lord of all time, and moving things along through time as things are accomplished according to God's preordained purpose.

The one who has spoken all things into creation is the same one who sustains his creation, ladies, and he's also the one who consummates his creation and his purpose according to his word as he has ordained it.

So, it's not this dead weight that is, you know, just chilling out, resting on the shoulders of Atlas, but this is moving along to an appointed end, an appointed consummation in the future as the

Lord God has willed and purposed. S. Lewis Johnson says that Jesus Christ is the

Lord of all prophecy, and he uses that in speaking about this verse, and I love that, you know, because we see these prophecies in the

Old Testament and we see how they're fulfilled in the New Testament, and we see that there are still some that have yet to be fulfilled, and we know they will be fulfilled to the letter because all of the previous ones have been fulfilled to the letter, and so the

Lord Jesus Christ, who is sustaining his creation, holding all things together, is moving things along so that he, as the

Lord of all prophecy, will then fulfill all those prophecies just as he has perfectly willed it.

It's mind -blowing. It's so amazing, and that is why I love, love, love this verse.

And so that's the fifth excellency of Christ here that the writer of Hebrews gives us, that Christ upholds all things by the word of his power.

And the sixth excellency of Christ is that he made purification of sins.

Alright, this is where it starts to get more personal. You know, all of these, the five previous excellencies are very kind of cosmic and big, and they make us just stand back in awe of our

God. Our God is so big, and yet, here in this sixth excellency of Christ, he is so personal.

Because he made purification for sins. Whose sins? Not his. He was the sinless son of God.

But he made purification for the sins of his people. He purged our sins.

And if you keep reading in Hebrews, ladies, you will see so much more teaching on this.

And just to give you a glimpse, turn to Hebrews 9, 14. Actually, we'll start in verse 13.

Hebrews 9, 13. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

God? Our Christ, who was sinless, who earned no punishment for his sin, bore the sins of all those who would believe, so that we can stand before God, cloaked in his righteousness.

Because we have no righteousness of our own. How awesome is that?

Turn again to Revelation, this time to chapter 1, and verse 5.

Go back to verse 4, just to start the sentence. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, he made purification for our sins.

Turn with me to Titus, chapter 2 and verse 14, who

Jesus, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

What we're seeing here in the purification of sins, we are seeing Jesus Christ in his priestly ministry.

By making purification, he has accomplished what nobody else can accomplish. He has accomplished for us what we cannot accomplish for ourselves.

This is the gospel that Jesus Christ has made purification for the sins of his people because we sin.

We're born sinners and we grow up and we keep sinning and we have a debt owed to the holy

God of the universe that we cannot pay. And so we stand condemned before him unless we are covered by the blood and righteousness of the

Lord Jesus Christ who did not sin in his life and who gave himself up as an atoning sacrifice suffering the death we deserve so that we would not have to.

And God the Father accepted that sacrifice and we know that because Jesus Christ rose again three days later.

This is the gospel. The purification of sins is the gospel, ladies.

And so this big picture that we've had of Christ in verse 2 and the first part of verse 3 this cosmic awe that we kind of have in approaching him because he is

God of the universe now we see that he is our personal savior and he provides cleansing and reconciliation by his grace and mercy and by his work that is indeed an excellency of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And the last excellency that we see in these verses says that when he made purification of sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Now there's two things we can focus on here in this verse we can focus on the fact that he sat down and that means then that his work was over and we'll see that teaching later in the book of Hebrews if you keep reading and you go back to Hebrews 10 where we were a little while ago we see some further teaching of that.

In verse 11 the writer of Hebrews writes every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but he

Jesus Christ having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

And that will happen. And so he sat down because his work was finished.

But there's another part of this verse in Hebrews 1 -3 not only sat down at the right hand he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high and so Jesus Christ was given a place of power, a place of authority and a place of honor.

We see that later in verse 13 of chapter 1 speaking of Jesus Christ the angels

God never said of the angels sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet no he said that of the

Son. In Romans 8 34 we read that Christ Jesus is he who died yes rather he who was raised who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us he is sitting there and he is interceding for us as well but he is in this place of power, authority and honor.

If you'll turn the other direction in your Bible to 1 Peter 3 22 you read that Christ is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him and so our

Lord sits at the right hand of the majesty on high the right hand of God the

Father and there he rules as sovereign Lord. He is on the throne of God.

In Hebrews 8 1 and 2 we see the writer says that the main point in what has been said is this we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the

Lord pitched not men. Hebrews 12 2 says we fix our eyes on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God this is where the

Lord Jesus Christ is sitting in this place of power authority and honor.

This is also ladies a place of subordination indicating that the Son is under the authority of the

Father still God God the Father, God the

Son God the Holy Spirit equal one

God three persons but the Son submits himself to the

Father 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 27 says for he has put all things in subjection under his feet but when he says all things are put in subjection it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him verse 28 when all things are subjected to him then the

Son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all.

So here our Lord the victorious Savior sits on the throne of God at the right hand of the majesty on high in a position of power authority and honor he has completed his work and there he sits the heir to all things the

Son of God turn to Luke chapter 22 verse 69 but from now on the

Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God we see in this verse in Hebrews the exaltation and the supremacy of the

Lord Jesus Christ we see the greatness of the Son of God and we see the confirmation sevenfold as to why he is worthy to be the final word that God has spoken to us the excellencies of Christ ladies something that we should thank him for daily

I want you to think on these excellencies in the coming days think on your

Lord who not only created and sustained all things but also died as a propitiation for your sins if you have been saved and I think when you reflect on that I know when you reflect on that you will want to thank him more and you will ask that he help you to worship him and serve him better and that's what we are created to do is it not we're created to glorify

God we glorify him in our life by obeying him by proclaiming to those who have not been saved proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ through faith and trust in him alone for salvation he is the radiance of the glory of God and he is the savior of men and women so ladies

I hope you'll think on that this week I hope that this brings you some encouragement and focuses your eyes back on Christ there are so many things going on in the world today there are things just in our own day to day personal lives that keep keep our focus on other things and there are big newsworthy items that are changing the landscape of Christianity across the globe not just in America but our

Lord never changes so ladies fix your eyes on him fix your eyes on his promises fix your eyes on the blessings and the inheritance that he promises us as co -heirs with him because this world is not our home our home our eternal home is with the

Lord Jesus Christ this one who is so excellent as described here in the book of Hebrews someday we will see him face to face and we will be with him forever but until then we serve him and we strive and pray by his power that we might serve him well here on earth so until next time ladies get in your

Bibles get on your knees and get equipped thanks for listening you've been listening to Equipping Eve a no compromise radio production if you'd like to get a hold of Erin you can reach her at EquippingEve at gmail .com

or you can check out one of her two websites DoNotBeSurprised .com or EquippingEve .org