The Sustainer of All Things (Hebrews 1:3)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Hebrews chapter 1, we're going to read together verses 1 through 1 through verse 4.

00:08

God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers, in the prophets, in many portions, and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his

00:15

Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power.

00:27

When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

00:37

Let us pray together. Our Lord, it is our desire that we would understand your word in all of its fullness and in all of its glory.

00:46

When we discuss the nature of our triune God, it is difficult for us to comprehend fully everything that is before us in Scripture, and everything that is revealed, but we are able to apprehend these things by faith, and we are able to trust ourselves to a

00:59

God who is able to sustain and keep everything in its place. And so, because of you are sovereign, and you are providential and powerful, we want to honor that, and we want to see that in the pages of Scripture.

01:11

Help us to do so. Open our eyes and our hearts, that we may behold the glory of Christ with eyes of faith, and our spiritual eyes, that we may see him and appreciate who he is and what he has done for us.

01:23

And we pray that you would encourage our confidence, our trust, and our faith in him. Bless this time of study.

01:28

Help me to preach as your word is worthy to be preached, and pray that you would help us all to listen to it in a way that is honoring to your word as well.

01:35

We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. The relationship that Jesus Christ has with all of creation is an evidence of his deity and the fact that he is

01:45

God. The consistent teaching of Scripture is that Jesus existed prior to coming to this earth.

01:51

He prayed to the Father in John 17, 5, Glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

01:57

Colossians attributes to him the creation of all things. Jesus spoke of existing prior to coming into this world.

02:04

He spoke of coming down out of heaven and coming into this world to accomplish a certain thing. So his preexistence is taught all the way through Scripture.

02:12

And Scripture teaches that he is the creator of everything. And the way that he relates to creation in his various aspects is evidence at every turn of his deity.

02:22

He created everything. Hebrews says everything was made for him, everything was made by him. And he sustains all things by the word of his power.

02:28

All of these things give evidence to the fact that he is the creator. Psalm 19, verse 1 says, Scripture teaches that God created the heavens and the earth, that he created time and he created space.

02:40

He created everything that inhabits time and space. He created the ages. He created all things, energy, matter, all of it.

02:46

He put it all into existence simply by his spoken word. And it is right for us as God's people to honor him as the creator and to revere him and to worship him as our creator and to acknowledge what that relationship to us means.

02:59

Then we also have to acknowledge that Scripture affirms that Jesus Christ is that creator. And we believe what

03:04

Scripture affirms, that Christ stepped into his creation, the one who spoke all of it into existence, without laying aside any of the glories or the essence of his divine nature, stepped into the creation that he made and lived among us.

03:18

And that that one who created everything allowed himself to be hung on a Roman cross 2 ,000 years ago, and then he rose from the dead.

03:25

That is the essential teaching of the Christian church and of Christianity. That Christ is the creator of all things, and Scripture teaches that.

03:32

And Hebrews 1 teaches that. And we've been looking at these seven statements that are in Hebrews 1, and we've been taking them one or two at a time and really diving in deep to see all the implications of what these say about Jesus Christ.

03:44

We've looked so far at four of them. I was going to say five, but five is for today.

03:50

So we've looked at four of them. We've seen that he is the one who has been appointed as the heir of all things, that he is the one through whom the

03:57

Father created the world. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact representation of God's nature.

04:02

And now we're looking at number five. He upholds all things by the word of his power. And the next two, he made purification of sins and then sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

04:10

Those seven statements, and out of those seven statements, three of them deal with Christ's relationship to creation.

04:15

Three of them do. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of all things.

04:21

And he sustains all things. Those three statements describe his relationship to creation. And how he is related to creation shows that he is the creator.

04:28

He created all things, so he is outside of creation itself. And he is the one who spoke and it all came into existence.

04:34

Only a divine being, only God himself, has the ability to create, the power to create, the wisdom, the intellect, the sovereignty, and the providence to create everything as it is today.

04:44

He is the heir of all things. That tells us that all things were created for him. And only a divine being, a divine person, can inherit everything that rightly belongs to God.

04:52

Only somebody with the ability to govern it all, and to rule it all, and to take care of it all, and attend it, receive it all, and exercise authority over all of it.

05:02

Such an individual has to be a divine being. And now today we're looking at this third statement, that he upholds all things by the word of his power.

05:09

And this is in verse 3. Before we dive into that, I want you to notice that these three statements deal with things that are past, present, and future.

05:16

You notice that? In the past, he created everything that exists. That is his act of creation, described in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

05:24

That is a past act. He created all things. He created it by the Son. The Father did this through the Son. The future thing is that he is going to inherit all things.

05:32

In eternity past, the Father appointed him to be the heir of all things. So that in the end, in the fullest manifestation of all of creation's design, it will come to the

05:41

Son. As the Son will take ownership, he will bring everything into subjection to himself. The last enemy that will be destroyed will be death.

05:47

He will make his enemies a footstool for his feet. He will receive everything, receive the kingdom, and rule and reign over all of creation as he inherits everything.

05:53

So that is the past, and that is the future. And in the meantime, what does he do? He upholds, present tense, all things by the word of his power.

06:00

Past, present, and future. Jesus Christ rules and reigns, has created everything, will inherit everything.

06:06

And in the meantime, between creation and his inheritance, he is upholding it all, sustaining and maintaining it all, simply by the word of his power.

06:13

That is past, present, and future. Which is why, I think, the author of Hebrews says that through him he made the worlds, and he doesn't use the normal term for worlds.

06:21

Remember, he uses the term for ages. He made the ages, the I owns, the long periods of time, space, and everything that time and space inhabit.

06:30

It's his way of taking us to the farthest reaches of all that exists, and encompassing everything.

06:35

He didn't just make the world, the planet Earth. He didn't just make the worlds, the planets. He made everything, time and space, and everything contained in that description.

06:43

Past, present, and future, it was created for him, it was created by him, and today he maintains and sustains it all.

06:50

So let's look at this phrase, what it means in verse 3, that he sustains all things by the word of his power.

06:56

The word that is translated as sustained there, well, first I want you to recognize that it is a present tense word. It's something that he is continually doing right now.

07:03

While he sits at the Father's right hand, making intercession for you and I, he is upholding all of creation. While he is governing in the affairs of men, while he is ruling and reigning in God's spiritual kingdom, while he is right now in communion with the

07:15

Father at his right hand, while he is hearing our prayers and receiving our worship, he is presently, right now, upholding all things by the word of his power.

07:24

He's doing this while we sit here. He is sustaining everything that exists. Now this is kind of a difficult thing to get our mind around.

07:31

What does it mean that he upholds things? The word that's translated uphold there is the word pharaoh in Greek.

07:37

It is not in any way connected to what you just heard in your mind, which was the pharaoh of Egypt. It's not in any way connected to that.

07:44

There's no relationship between those words. It's just a homophone, homophone, whatever that is. They sound alike, right?

07:49

The Greek word pharaoh, which means to sustain or to maintain and uphold. And oftentimes when we as Christians talk about Christ maintaining and upholding and sustaining all things, what we think of is something in terms of a cosmic deity who darts about back and forth across creation, keeping the planet spinning, keeping the suns burning, and races around the world, keeping the winds blowing and the tides coming in and out.

08:11

That's what we think of. Now it does involve that, but it involves so much more than just that.

08:18

This word pharaoh means to bear, to progress, to carry along. It was sometimes used of driving something along, of guiding it or leading it or bringing it to an end.

08:28

It's used in a very familiar passage, 2 Peter 1, verse 21, where Peter says, For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved, that's the word, by the

08:39

Holy Spirit spoke from God. So there the word is used to describe the moving of the Holy Spirit to carry or bear men under His influence, to have that influence upon them, to inspire

08:52

Scripture, to inscripturate the word of God so that the final product is in fact

08:58

God's word. It's the idea of moving men to that end, of filling them and moving them and sustaining them and bearing them along so that they are writing exactly what

09:08

God wants them to write. And that is the way that this word is most often used, of bearing or carrying something.

09:14

Now in order to understand what this bearing or carrying means here in this context, we have to ask what it is that Jesus Christ sustains or bears.

09:24

If I were to say to you that I'm carrying or bearing a bed, that you would understand that picking up a physical bed and carrying it from one place to another.

09:31

If I say that a man carries a burden, you understand that to be something entirely different. He is bearing a burden. He's not doing anything physical at all, but rather something sort of a metaphor for an emotional weight that is upon him.

09:44

Or if I say that men were born along by the Holy Spirit to write Scripture, then you understand exactly what that refers to as well.

09:51

So the word is used in three separate distinct senses. And when we look at this passage, we're asking, what is it that Jesus Christ sustains or bears?

10:01

And there are a number of ways that he does this. And I would just give you three of them, three things that this entails, this bearing or sustaining of all things.

10:09

First, we would say that this means that he maintains or holds together all that is.

10:15

He holds together all that is. I remember as a kid sitting in science class learning about atoms and molecules and protons and neutrons and electrons and wondering to myself, what is it that keeps the entire universe together?

10:28

Because we were taught in science class that everything is the way that it is because of several opposing forces.

10:35

There are laws of attraction, laws of gravity, laws that push things apart, you know, the opposite magnets pushing apart.

10:42

You have centrifugal forces, everything spinning and yet being pulled together at the same time. So there is this perfect balance where everything in creation wants to fly apart and yet at the same time wants to implode in upon itself at an atomic level.

10:58

What is it that keeps it all from flying apart, exploding? What is it that keeps it all from imploding upon itself?

11:07

We know that every molecule is composed of atoms, every atom is composed of a nucleus, a proton, electrons and these different particles.

11:13

And now we're finding out that the protons and neutrons are composed of quarks,

11:19

Q -U -A -R -K -S. As of today, nobody has ever seen or observed a quark, nobody has ever noticed them, but we see the effects of them, just like there was a time when we speculated that everything was composed of atoms, but we didn't know the structure of an atom or how things work, but we could see them functioning and doing what they do and we would postulate as to what the structure of an atom looked like.

11:41

And same thing with quarks. Today we've never observed it, but we know that quarks make up all of these different elements of an atom.

11:48

Where do these things come from? And why do they exist? Where do they get their energies and their properties?

11:55

These things are so small, it is as if they do not even exist, and yet they do. And they compose everything around us.

12:02

And the space between these individual micro -subatomic particles, the space between them is mind -boggling, and the energy that is contained in them is mind -boggling.

12:14

We know what type of energy is released when we split an atom, and the electrons zip around the nucleus of the atom at speeds that are just, relative to their size, boggle the mind.

12:26

It would be as if the planet Pluto were to make a revolution around the Sun once every second.

12:32

That fast! Now I understand that Pluto is no longer recognized as a planet. I'm having a hard time giving that up.

12:40

So in here, Pluto will always be a planet. In here. And as Oprah would say, that's my truth, and you can't judge that.

12:47

It is what it is, and it is reality, and you have no say upon that whatsoever. That's my truth.

12:52

Pluto is a planet. So it would be as if Pluto were to make a revolution around the Sun in an instant, just like that. That is how fast those things travel.

12:59

What keeps it from all flying apart? We don't even understand these things. Eventually, we are going to find out what the particle that composes the particle, that composes the particle, that composes the particle, composes the particle, composes the particle, composes the proton, or the quark, that composes the proton.

13:14

One of these days, we're going to find out what that is. We'll probably all be long dead by then. And if that is ever discovered, you know what

13:20

I would propose that we call it? The Word of His Power. That's what it is.

13:25

These things are so small, it's as if they do not even exist, and yet they do. They hold everything together. Now, the atheist and the skeptic would say it's not the

13:33

Word of His Power that holds everything together. It's the laws of the universe. It's the laws of physics. It's gravity. It's inertia.

13:39

It's momentum. It's centrifugal forces. It's the laws of astrophysics and physics and all of these elements.

13:46

It's magnetism and repulsion, and all this stuff holds it in this perfectly fine -tuned balance. And yet, if we were to take any element of that fine -tuned balance and alter it just a little bit, everything would be destroyed.

13:56

That fine -tuned balance. And the atheist would say everything is held together by those laws. It's the laws that hold everything together.

14:02

The physical laws. Where do the physical laws come from? Who wrote them? Who established them? Why do they exist? Why do they do it the way they do?

14:07

Why does it exist the way that it does? It's such fine -tuned balance. You know what the laws of science or the laws of physics and the laws of our universe are?

14:15

They are nothing but the consistent manifestation of the Word of His Power. When you look upon the Word of God's Power holding everything together, you know what we see?

14:23

We see laws of gravity. It is consistent. It is repeatable. It is measurable. It is demonstrable.

14:29

It is seen by the eye because it is always the same law, because it is always the same

14:34

Word of His Power that holds it all together. We call it the second law of thermodynamics and the first law of thermodynamics and the law of gravity, etc.

14:40

This is just the Word of His Power that keeps everything from falling apart or imploding in upon itself. The very basis of all of it is an energy and a power that sustains all of creation.

14:52

Now, looking back on it, I can see what it is that keeps everything from falling apart and imploding upon itself. He, that is the

14:59

Divine Son, sustains all of this by the Word of His Power, by the exertion of His energy and His Word, His command,

15:05

His authority. All of it is the way that it is, and He maintains and sustains all of it, and He keeps all of it from flying apart.

15:12

A .W. Pink, in his commentary on Hebrews, says this, By Him the worlds were made, their materials were called into being and arranged in comely order, and by Him, too, they are preserved from running into confusion or reverting back into nothing.

15:26

What keeps all of the universe from going out of existence in an instant? We wonder that.

15:31

Scientists wonder that. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does something exist instead of nothing exist?

15:37

And then once that something exists, what keeps that something from becoming nothing? Because we go to the very basic of the subatomic level, and guess what we find?

15:46

Particles and principles and energy that we cannot even understand. And the amount of energy contained in an atom is beyond our ability to comprehend.

15:54

We split atoms, and what happens? It's amazing amounts of energy. It is the Word of His Power that sustains everything.

16:00

Every last quark, including all of the quarks that make up you, every last one of them is under His sovereign control at all times and in all places.

16:10

Here in this room and in the farthest reaches of the universe, in galaxies yet undiscovered,

16:16

He maintains and sustains every quark that exists. And we say the same of whatever particle makes up the quark, and whatever particle makes up the particle that makes up the quark.

16:25

It all exists by the Word of His Power. It is a magnificent description of the

16:30

Son of God. Second, let me give you one more quote before I go on to the second thing that this upholding entails. John MacArthur said this,

16:36

The universe is a cosmos instead of a chaos, an ordered and reliable system instead of an erratic and unpredictable muddle, only because Jesus Christ upholds it.

16:46

That's why science is repeatable. That's why science is demonstrable. That's why we observe laws. We can count on laws.

16:51

That's why you woke up this morning, you didn't float up into the ether. That's why you can count on the laws of gravity, because He keeps it from becoming a chaos.

16:58

It is a cosmos, an orderly system, instead of a chaotic, unorderly mess, simply because Jesus Christ upholds it all.

17:04

That's the first thing. He keeps everything in existence as it is, holding it all together. Second, He rules and reigns and disposes of all things.

17:13

This is tied up in the meaning of the word Pharaoh as well. In the Greek translation of the

17:18

Old Testament, this word is used to describe the burden or the weight that would rest upon somebody who is in a position of rule or authority or government.

17:27

For instance, Moses used this word in Numbers chapter 11, I think it's verses 11 and 2, to describe the burden of this people, describing him as the leader of this people and the weight of the government and the oversight of the nation of Israel.

17:41

He said this was a burden that he carried. Pharaoh, same word. I bear the burden of this people. And that applies to the

17:47

Lord Jesus Christ in this sense, in this case, that He is the one upon whom Scripture says the burden or the weight of the government shall rest.

17:55

That prophecy regarding Him in Isaiah chapter 9 says the weight of the government shall be upon His shoulders, or He will bear the government upon His shoulders.

18:01

The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who rules and reigns and bears this creation in terms not just of keeping it all together from imploding or flying apart,

18:10

He is the one who bears or rules and reigns and disposes of all of this creation. It is all

18:15

His, and at any moment any of it could go out of existence if He should will it to be so, because He maintains and sustains all of that simply by the word of His power.

18:25

The governance and all that happens from the explosion of a distant star to the dying of a single cell in your body, all of it is under His sovereign control.

18:32

He is the one who sustains all things. A cell dies or an atom changes its form, guess who's in charge of that?

18:39

Every last thing. He sovereignly rules in all of it. He reigns in all of it.

18:45

He has authority over all of it. He is the King and He rules over the spiritual kingdom and everything that exists,

18:52

He sustains even this moment by the word of His power. Third thing that it entails is He is directing everything toward a predetermined goal.

19:00

And this is what that word actually entails, this idea of not just bearing something along or carrying something, but moving it from A to B, moving it from one place toward a predetermined or a designed goal.

19:11

It was used of carrying something, the word is used of carrying something to an end. Homer Kent in his commentary in Hebrews says this, the word suggests more than just sustaining or maintaining, it indicates the sense involves both upholding and movement towards some goal.

19:24

Now what is the goal? To what is He carrying all of creation? What is the end of it?

19:29

We've already looked at that, what is it? That He might inherit all of it. So there is a goal that He has in mind.

19:36

He is directing everything toward one predetermined, pre -established, preordained goal for all of creation.

19:43

God did not just create creation and then sort of get the wheel spinning and roll the ball down the road and see where it goes.

19:49

He didn't wind up the clock and set it there and say, now let's see where the laws of nature and human free choices take this creation that I have made.

19:55

None of that is true. He created everything, He has ordained all things that come to pass, He has allowed things to happen,

20:01

He is pulling all of this creation toward a predetermined goal. And what is it? That He will subjugate all of His enemies to Himself, that He will destroy death, that He will receive the kingdom, that He will set up and He will rule and reign over a kingdom on this earth, that He will resurrect all of us and that we will inherit the kingdom, and He will share all of that with us.

20:21

That is the goal of creation. He has an end in mind, and He is moving everything that He has created inexorably, unstoppably toward that goal.

20:31

It must come to pass because He Himself is bearing all of it along. Isn't that magnificent? That is wonderful news.

20:39

That is wonderful news for the Christian. How does He do this? How does He direct everything to that end goal?

20:45

John Owen says this, Such is the nature and condition of the universe that it could not subsist a moment, nor could anything in it act regularly unto its appointed end without the continued support, guidance, influence, and disposal of the

20:58

Son of God. The things of this creation can no more support, act, and dispose of themselves than they could at first make themselves out of nothing.

21:08

He is observing this back in the 1600s, but scientists today readily affirm that all of these elements of creation, the laws and everything that exists, can no more act and dispose of themselves or direct themselves than they could create themselves out of nothing.

21:24

It's the laws of the universe. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Let's look at that phrase, the word of His power. What does that mean?

21:30

The NIV, I think, translates it as His powerful word. It simply describes His will, His power.

21:36

He speaks, and it's similar to the act of creation. It shouldn't surprise us that the author would use this to describe

21:41

Christ sustaining or maintaining or bearing all things, upholding all things, that he would use the word of His power to describe that when it is by His word that He spoke and everything came into existence.

21:53

The same voice that speaks and everything leaps into existence is the same voice or command, authority, that maintains and sustains everything as it is.

22:02

He does this by the word of His power. He simply declares it. There's no expenditure of energy. There's no extraordinary effort.

22:08

He decrees that it be, and it is. He decrees that it happens, and it happens. He desires it. He states it.

22:14

He utters it, and it stands fast. The Lord established the foundations of the earth, and how did He do so? He just said,

22:20

Let it be. Let this happen, and it happened. God spoke, and He said, and it happened. God spoke, and He said, and it happened.

22:25

God said, Let there be light, and it happened, all the way through the seven days of creation. By mere fiat, the power of His word,

22:32

He willed it and created it, brought it into existence simply by declaring it to be so. That is the power that we're talking about.

22:38

That is the power that Christ has. Now, whose power is this? It's the word of His power. Whose power? Who's the His referred to?

22:44

All the way through the chapter, we've been tracing very carefully the pronouns. Remember this? As we've gone through this, the

22:49

His, and the He, and the Him, and all of that, through Hebrews chapter 1? To whom does the His refer?

22:55

Whose power is that? You might say, well, it sounds like it's the Son's power. That Christ does this by His own power.

23:00

But if you follow the pronouns, it seems to suggest that it is the Father's power. For instance, if you just look at the beginning of verse 3, and He, that is

23:07

Christ, is the radiance of His glory. Whose glory is that? The Father's glory, or the God's glory.

23:13

He is the exact representation of His nature. Whose nature? The Father's nature. And He upholds all things by the word of His power.

23:19

Whose power? Now, if we just track the pronouns, it seems to suggest that it is the Father's power. But admittedly, there's some confusion because the

23:26

His could refer, in the Greek, to either Christ's power or to the Father's power. And I would suggest to you that that is a distinction without a difference.

23:33

If the Father does something by His power, whose power does the Father use? God's power. If the Son does something by His power, whose power is

23:39

He using? It's God's power. The same power, the same essence, the same nature, belong to both persons.

23:44

Father, Son, belongs to the Holy Spirit. So we can talk about the Holy Spirit, or Christ, or the Father doing something by their power, and we're describing something that is done by the power of God.

23:53

A power that belongs and is possessed co -equally by all three persons of the Trinity.

23:58

So, Christ upholds all things by God's power. If He upholds all things by God's power, then who is

24:05

He? He is God, and He is worthy of our worship. That is the deity, the divinity of the

24:11

Son of God. The second person of the Trinity upholds everything by the Father's, or by the Spirit's, or by His own, or by God's power.

24:19

It is all one and the same power. So that really is a distinction that is quite meaningless. It is the same power that Christ displayed on this earth when

24:27

He did His miracles. Remember He said to the wind and the sea, be still. What did they do?

24:33

They stopped instantly, just like that. They were still. And the disciples recognized this and said, who is this man?

24:39

That the wind and the sea obey Him. He just said to Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus came forth at His word.

24:45

He healed people by His word. He said to the demons, come out of them. And the demons obeyed His command. Everything in creation obeyed

24:50

His word, and He spoke, and it was so, even while He was here on earth. All those miracles demonstrated His divinity,

24:56

His power to command and make it happen, and make it stand fast. And He did this by His own power, not by the power of another.

25:03

And today, that same power He upholds all things. There are other passages that describe the same thing. I'll give you a couple of them.

25:09

Colossians chapter 1, we talked about that. Remember I told you there are three chapters that you need to keep in your mind and always connect together.

25:16

Colossians 1, John 1, and Hebrews chapter 1. Colossians 1, verse 16 says, for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

25:26

All things have been created through Him and for Him. Through Him, He's the creator. For Him, He's the one who will inherit it.

25:33

And then Paul says, and in Him all things hold together. Different language, different word, but it's the same idea.

25:38

Everything's created through Him, everything was created for Him, and in Him everything holds together. The same three concepts in Colossians chapter 1.

25:46

He is the creator of all things, He is the one who will inherit all things, and He is the one who even right now holds everything together, sustains it all.

25:52

John chapter 1, though John doesn't use the same language, he does communicate the same concept. In John chapter 1, when he says, in the beginning was the

25:58

Word, the Logos, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In that passage, John is using the term

26:04

Logos, he is referring to the very same principle. In Greek, for the Greek Stoic philosophers, they had an idea of what it is that held everything together.

26:12

They would look at creation, they would say, everything happens by laws, it's predictable, it's repeatable, it happens with frequency and regularity.

26:19

What is it that keeps everything together, that seems to put order to an otherwise what would be disorderly universe? Why is it that things operate the way that it is?

26:27

They would ask the same question, what keeps everything from not existing, or everything from simply flying apart? And they called that principle, that thing behind all of this order in our universe, they called it the

26:40

Logos. But that just means Word. And they would talk about the Logos being the mind, the rational mind, the orderly mind that was behind all of creation.

26:50

Now John takes that word and he says, in the beginning was the Logos. The Logos was God. Now listen,

26:56

John is not taking a pagan Stoic Greek idea of what the Logos rationality was and trying to import that into Christianity.

27:02

What John was doing was the same thing Paul did in Acts chapter 17, when he's walking through Athens and he comes across an altar to an unknown

27:09

God. And he says to the people, you're right, you have identified a God that you do not know. I'll tell you who that God is that you do not know.

27:15

The God you do not know is this God. And then Paul in Acts chapter 17 preaches a sermon in which he describes that God who created all things, that God who sustains all things, and that God who governs all things.

27:26

That's what he was doing. So what John says in the beginning was the Logos. He is saying to those who would be familiar with Greek Stoic pagan philosophy, he's saying, what you have identified as the mind, the order behind all of creation,

27:38

I will tell you who that order is. You don't know who that order is. You don't know what that order is. You just call it the

27:44

Word. I will tell you who the order is. The one behind it all is Jesus Christ.

27:49

He was with God and he is God. And he came and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as if he only begotten the

27:54

Father, full of grace and truth. Now let me tell you about him. That's what John is doing. So it's in Hebrews chapter 1, it's in Colossians chapter 1, and the same concept is in John chapter 1.

28:03

Jesus said in John chapter 17 that the Father had given him authority over all flesh. Matthew 28, he says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

28:10

What type of authority are we talking about? The authority that holds everything together. And if none of this has blown your mind yet, let this do so.

28:19

While a babe in the manger, he was holding the universe together. The divine son.

28:26

His divine power was upholding everything that exists. While dying on a cross, he was holding the universe together.

28:34

Every atom, every quirk, every part of it, he held it all in perfect balance.

28:40

From the moment of the creation, he has maintained and sustained all of it, even while coming here and taking upon himself human nature and living here and sleeping in the bow of a boat and lying in a manger and dying on a cross, he was upholding all things by the word of his power.

28:55

That is your God, Christian. That's your God. Now what are the implications of it?

29:00

I'll give you three of them first. What does this tell us about the Savior? What type of wisdom and power and sovereignty and providence and grace and kindness and goodness and majesty and glory is required for somebody to hold all things by the word of their power?

29:13

That's authority. That is power. It is an evidence of his deity. A .W.

29:18

Pink says this, the whole universe hangs on his arm. His unsearchable wisdom and boundless power are manifested in governing and directing the complicated movements of animate and inanimate, rational and irrational beings to the attainment of his own great and holy purposes and he does this by the word of his power.

29:35

All this is done without effort or difficulty and as he speaks and it is done, he commands and it stands fast.

29:43

This fact that he upholds all things by the word of his power is an evidence of his deity and it is contrary to the notion of God that most pagans have, that even oftentimes, sadly enough, that many

29:52

Christians have. That God simply created it and put everything in motion and then he sits back to wait and see what's going to happen with it.

29:59

Where will the laws of nature take this? Where will men's free actions take this? What will people do with what

30:04

I have created? And then God sits in the heavens and he pulls his hair out and he's shocked to find out what happens to you. There's nothing that befalls you that he hasn't foreseen.

30:11

There's nothing that befalls you that he has not ordained. Everything that comes to pass. The death of your loved one, the death of your child, the death of your spouse, your death, every death, every death of every cell, every death of even human being and even the death of kingdoms.

30:25

It's all under his control because he upholds all things by the word of his power. He's not waiting to see what happens with all of this. He's not shocked when we elect somebody to the presidency of this country.

30:34

None of it shocks him. He's carrying it along. Every last element of it, he is bearing it along knowing right where he is taking it.

30:41

And he is taking it toward that conclusion when he receives the kingdom and we inherit all of that with him.

30:47

Second, what does this mean for the wicked? You look around you at the nations and you see them raging.

30:55

And you know what I see? I see people who are spitting in the face of the loving God and shaking their fist at heaven. And these are people who are shaking their fist at the one whose hand is their very life.

31:06

In an instant, if he should will it, it would cease to exist. In an instant, if he should will it, everything would cease to exist.

31:15

The wicked shake their fist and spit in the face of a God who controls everything and whose hand is their very life.

31:24

Now I ask you this, where will they flee to on the day of judgment? Where are you going to run from one who sustains the existence of every particle in the universe?

31:34

Where do you run? How can you escape that? That is why, as Psalm 2 says, we are to seek refuge in him.

31:41

Find your refuge in him. Repent of your sin and trust him. Do homage to the son, lest his anger be kindled and turned against you.

31:50

We're to seek refuge in this one who holds everything in existence and upholds everything by the word of his power. That's the implication for the wicked.

31:57

Now what does this mean for the believer? It simply means this, that for our good and for his glory, he is bearing everything along to its appointed end.

32:05

Sometimes you may wonder, is it really possible for him to guarantee that everything that happens will work together for my good and for his glory?

32:15

Is it really possible for him to guarantee that? He has promised us a lot, has he not? He has promised us that everything that happens to us in this life will work for our good.

32:24

He has promised us that he will see us all the way through death. He has promised us that on the other side of death we will receive an inheritance.

32:31

He has promised us that he will raise us from the dead and he will recreate all of this creation and he will turn around and share the kingdom and all of the inheritance and everything of a recreated creation without sin and death and suffering and all of that.

32:43

He will bring all of his enemies in to subject himself and he will give us all of that. Those are some lofty promises. Those are big promises.

32:49

Can he pull that off? Yeah, why? Because he is the one who created everything and he is carrying it all along.

32:55

To us, we look at creation without that perspective and all we see is what Solomon saw in Ecclesiastes chapter 1.

33:03

A generation comes and a generation goes and the sun rises and the sun sets and the wind blows east and the wind blows west and the rain goes up and the rain comes down and it's all vanity.

33:11

That's the perspective of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. And what do we say? No, Solomon, it's not vanity.

33:17

He is carrying it all along to its end. To us, it looks vain. To us, it looks repetitive.

33:22

To us, it looks aimless, but it's not aimless at all. He sustains and rules and maintains and holds together everything and he is bearing it all the way to the end so that we can have confidence that we who have trusted in Christ will look upon his face.

33:35

As Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, Paul said, I am confident in this very thing that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

33:43

How can you guarantee that? How can you guarantee that the work that Christ has done in you, begun in you, that he will without fail complete and present you perfect before the

33:54

Father? How can you promise such a thing? Only if the one in whom we have trusted is the one who is bearing everything under his control toward an appointed end.

34:03

So Jude says in Jude chapter, well, don't Jude only has one chapter, in Jude verses 24 and 25, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, to the only

34:15

God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

34:23

Amen. That's how that verse concludes. We say amen. We believe that he is able to present us faultless before his throne of exceeding joy.

34:31

Why? Because he is the very one who upholds all things by the word of his power. He is directing it toward its appointed end.

34:37

Let's pray together. Our Father, we stand in awe before your glory and your majesty.

34:43

Our hearts are lifted in affection toward Christ for what he has done in the glory of his great name, in the glory of his great person.

34:50

We thank you that you have revealed your purposes to us in the Savior, and that we can know you, and that we thank you that we can have confidence that you are directing and carrying everything to the end that you have preordained should come to pass.

35:02

Nothing that befalls us takes us by surprise, or takes you by surprise, though it may take us by surprise, and we know that we can have confidence that you're working it all out because you are the one who controls everything.

35:12

Thank you for such amazing power, for such amazing grace, and we thank you for the confidence that we have that your purposes for us will be fulfilled.

35:19

We rest in that, and we pray that you would direct the hearts of your people, your sheep, to trust in that and to rest in that for the glory of Christ our