The Supremacy Of Jesus Christ (pt-2) - [Hebrews 1:1-3]

I grew up in Nebraska. My high school class had 600 people, so it was no small school.

A couple thousand people in the class. But I would go to northern Nebraska and work on a farm in the summer.

I figured I could make more money working on the farm than I could at Burger King or someplace else, and so that's what I did.

And I would do any job that they would have. We shoveled, we detasseled, we dug, we sweat, we were toiling.

Some days I'd work until 6 o 'clock at night. We'd start off at 5 .30 in the morning, and we'd work 12 plus hours.

My mother would make me lunch, and we'd eat that about 9 .30 in the morning. Have breakfast before we'd leave, and we'd have lunch there.

We'd go back to the farmer's family's house and have lunch at noon, and we would work until we were so tired. I was dirty from head to foot, and we would go back to our cabin on the

Missouri River. And I could not wait to get into that water. I didn't even put my swimsuit on.

With my jeans and my shirt and my farmer's tan, I would go walking to the dock at the

Missouri River on our houseboat, and I would nesty plunge in. Just the feeling of that water around all your pores on a hot day instantly stops you from sweating, and you feel refreshed.

You feel good. And today in the book of Hebrews, as we look to Christ, you know what

I think it's like? It's like a spiritual nesty plunge.

It's like plunging into the water of saying, Lord, I've got trials, I've got problems, I've got family matters,

I've got my own sin, I've got all these other things. So I just want to see you high and lifted up.

I want to be like Hebrews chapter 12, where you're in a trial, and you're tired, and you're weary. What do you do?

You get rid of sins, and then you look to the Savior, who ran a perfect course, who finished

His race. So if you turn to Hebrews chapter 1, we'll be here this week and next week before we begin our series in Matthew, verse by verse.

We want to finish Hebrews chapter 1 in the next couple weeks. And we'll just take our time as we see

Christ Jesus, not some kind of man who is just a man, but the man who is

God. Theologian Arthur Pink said,

The most dishonoring and degrading conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere.

The God of the 20th century no more resembles the sovereign supreme of the Holy Bible than does the dim flickering of a candle to the glory of the midday sun.

He went on to say that people's view of God is often a figment of their own imagination and sentimentality.

What's your view of God? He's just kind of a buddy? He's there when you need Him? He's there to give you that abundant life?

Or do you see Him like you would a king? Imagine yourself back 2 ,000 years ago, 5 ,000 years ago, 600 years ago, and you would be having a ticket.

You would have the privilege to be ushered into the throne room to see a king. We get to see that very king here through the passage

Hebrews chapter 1, 1 to 3. I have a vision for this church.

Not a weird supernatural vision, but I have a vision of where I want us to go. My vision for Bethlehem Bible Church would be this, that we would be a mature, reproducing church.

Mature meaning we would grow and we wouldn't be children anymore, cast to and fro. We would be maturing and we would be able to reproduce ourselves, evangelize.

I don't mean a bunch of numbers, but I could put one of you in the room with someone else of that same sex and say, teach them everything you know about Christ.

And that older believer could teach that young believer about prayer, Bible study, evangelism, what happened at Calvary, all kinds of things.

I also pray that the vision of our church, we would keep central, the preaching of Jesus Christ from the Scriptures in a verse -by -verse manner.

A mature, reproducing church, and a church that keeps Christ Jesus high and lifted up, expository preaching, exposing the people to the glories of Christ in the

Word. And I would also pray that our church, as we grow and mature, and we keep preaching

Christ verse -by -verse, that we would be able to impact and help the churches in New England. And I can't wait until next

Sunday. I'm drooling over next Sunday. Guido's going to go to Cape Cod Bible Fellowship and preach from the pulpit

Sunday morning. Steve Cooley will be at Grace Church in Hartford preaching

Sunday morning to that church. Dan Rathman will be at West Bridgewater Baptist Church next Sunday preaching at that church.

And those are people who have grown up and matured among us. And God would give us the vision of being a maturing, reproducing, faithful to exposition, and helping

New England. I think that's exciting. I want to be a part of that. But what I don't want to do is get so involved of reproducing and maturing and helping other churches that we forget who

Christ is. And this is a good reminder today in Hebrews. He is the one that deserves our worship. This is why we do it.

It's not to get fame or fortune or applause or anything else. We want to boast that we can know this God.

What are the options? I'll tell you one option. ilovelucy .com. I'll strike that.

ilovelucybiblestudy .com. This week I was looking at, and last week, Bible studies from I Love Lucy.

You order a few I Love Lucys. There's some moral themes there about telling the truth and don't bet and don't lie.

You watch the I Love Lucys, and then you sit around, and you pray, and you sing Kumbaya, and you say, what does this teach us about God?

What? You can also, if you don't like Lucy, I know guys like Stooges better, but they don't have the I Love Stooges Bible study yet.

They do have Andy Griffith. Morality doesn't save anyone.

You just look better as you go to hell faster. If Satan were to leave an area, the bars would close.

The X -rated theme places would close. And everybody would be to church on Sunday morning, where Christ is not preached and the

Bible is not opened. And so where do we go when you want to have your soul fed? I do believe that we are made in the likeness and image of God.

I believe God has set eternity in our hearts, and we need something bigger than who we are. I went to the

Red Sox game last night. I was glad to go. I had a great time of fellowship. But I'm telling you, that was worship to many.

I was at a worship service last night with 35 ,000 other people. Here's how they were worshiping. The guy next to me had all his charts and graphs.

It wasn't Rathbun, either. It was some other guy. All this stuff, looking and analyzing.

When you worship someone, you give attention to them. You sacrifice for them. You give time for them.

It's fine for relaxation. It's fine to go to a game. I absolutely had a great time. But there is one who demands and commands and is worthy of our worship.

And that is the triune God. And everything about the triune God points to the one person of the triune

God, Christ. People say, well, that's not a Holy Spirit -filled church. I've heard that about our church. You're not

Holy Spirit -filled. Well, I know what you mean. But if you'd like to be biblical, the Holy Spirit has this job.

Here's the veil. And He stands behind the veil and He puts His finger over here and says,

Here's Jesus. Look to Him. You know the ministry of the Holy Spirit is always hiding behind the door, pointing to Christ.

Because that's how God is glorified. Of course we believe in the Holy Spirit. We couldn't preach, understand the

Bible, have people saved, sanctified or glorified or anything. I like Hebrews because He jumps right into it and He just starts with God.

68 times the word God is used in Hebrews. More than any other time in the Bible, I think, in the

New Testament epistles. God is used so often. Something like once every 73 words. I need a view of God.

I remember what it was like to fly home to visit my mother as she was dying before me. Lewis, what would you tell

Lewis if you met Lewis today? And you've got the phone call on Thursday. You need to go see your dad if you want to see him alive again.

What kind of advice would you give to Lewis? It'll all be okay. Oh, he's 91.

He's lived a good life. We need something more than just the kind of pablum and the porridge of watered -down gruel of it's going to be okay and a little pat on the forehead.

What do we have to give? I wish I could give you comfort. I wish I could be there.

I can cry for you and I can pray for you. But there's a friend that sticks closer to a brother. And let me remind you who this great

Christ is. God is the one who gives comfort. He uses us sometimes.

But what do we do? That's why I love this book of Hebrews. It just talks about Christ Jesus in such a wonderful way.

Let me read verses 1, 2, and 3. And I'll read it in the King James. I won't preach out of the King James this morning.

But I'll read it because it kind of approximates the elegant, musical, cadence. Alliteration is what?

Words that all start with the same letter. In Greek, there's all kinds of words that start with P here.

And it just flows. It's just very noble and nice. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past, unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom

He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, in upholding all things by the word of His power, when

He had Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the

Majesty on high. This is a book written to say to those who aren't quite

Christians, there's no other option. Christ is God. Worship Him. This book is a book written for those who are kind of lethargic and they just need a jump start to say, remember the one who saved you?

This is a book written as the Jewish people in the church were getting suffered and persecuted.

They were going through hard times. This is a book written for them to say, think about someone else who's

God and King for a moment and you'll forget your trials and troubles. One man said, we neglect

Hebrews to our own impoverishment. Before we go any farther, here's my challenge.

Would you read Hebrews this week? How many chapters in Hebrews? Thirteen chapters.

Here's your assignment for next Sunday before we go into Hebrews again. Would you read Hebrews and would you see how

Christ is just magnified? Would you see that this is all about who God is and not who we are?

Here's the good news. How could I feed all you sheep? I can't reproduce bread like Jesus could, so what do

I do? Some people have a trial. Some people need encouragement. Some people are struggling.

Some people are sick. I got an email just this last week. A pastor friend of mine who's my age was diagnosed with a huge tumor in his stomach and it's cancer.

They start chemo this week. How do you feed all these different people, especially when you're preaching?

It's like a catering service. When my mother died, I think we had to say, well, 300 people we think will come.

How do you feed all those? You give that to a catering service and say, feed 300 and it's $8 a head, $10 a head, whatever the price was,

I don't know. What's so good about the Word of God and what's so good about Christ, He's the God -man who has an infinite amount of mercy and grace to feed everyone who will ever listen.

It is such a great opportunity now to show you Christ in Hebrews chapter 1. We looked at this last week.

Look at verse 1, please, with me. If you don't have a Bible, get a black Bible in front of you in the pew or you're going to be lost. After He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

God used to speak in a certain way and He used intermediaries for the most part. But verse 2 says

He spoke a little bit differently. He spoke with finality. He spoke with sufficiency. He spoke not in piecemeal, but He said there in verse 2, in these last days, one of the last days, the last days are between Jesus' first coming and second coming.

We're in the last days. He has spoke to us in His Son, not just with superior speaking.

He says, I'm going to speak to you through Jesus with superiority, but also finality. That's what He's talking about here.

He has spoken to us literally, I didn't mention this last week, in Son. It doesn't even have an article there.

Jesus is referred to there as not His Son in the original, not the Son. In these last days, the text says

He's spoken to us in Son. Whatever makes the person a son, that kind of quality, that's the one in whom

He spoke. I could say it this way. Think about the Hebrew mindset of having a son and you realize how important that is to the relationship to the

Father and the same essence in nature. God didn't just speak through Moses, through a prophet, through a father, through Elijah.

He spoke to us through His Son, so we should listen. And now we come to the fireworks.

Let me show you seven reasons why Christ is great. Seven reasons why you should praise the Lord. I like Roman candles.

I use this illustration often. There are seven shots in this Roman candle. Have you ever bought a Roman candle?

Not lately in Massachusetts or anything, or illegally up in New Hampshire bringing it across the border on $4 .95, but have you ever bought a

Roman candle? I haven't, but I know you do. You can buy five shots, nine shots, and these are the

Roman candles. You just stick them in the ground and you can just count them. Roman candles used to be really trick when we were growing up and now they have to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,

THX times 10, but they're still pretty neat. So here are the seven shots of the Roman candle that the writer of Hebrews is trying to get you to say this,

Jesus Christ should be praised. Jesus Christ should be listened to. There's no one else to turn to if we want forgiveness and worship.

Here's the one God said, I've used all these other kind of prophets, but in these last days, this day,

God spoke through His Son, and He wants us not to be dumbstruck, but awestruck, so we can praise

Him with these wondrous glories about who Christ is His person, His work, and His status. In review number one, the first Roman candle of praise, as it were, is the writer of Hebrews wants us to see

Christ as superior because He is the heir of all things. And if you're the heir of all things, you own all things.

If you have a king and the king dies, and the son takes over for you being the king, that king now has dominion and authority and lordship over everything.

We don't think of it necessarily as an inheritance. My mother died and I got a third of her estate. This has more the idea of the domination and the control of the universe where the king of England dies, and the son takes over his kingship, and then he controls

England. And so here we have Christ. He's the heir of all things. And the

Jews understood what it meant to be an heir. Firstborn got double.

Here there's only one born. He gets everything. Daniel chapter 7, speaking of Christ, says,

Secondly, in review, we are to see

Christ as superior, the second Roman candle, if you will, it's because He's the creator. Why worship

God? Why listen to Him? He owns everything because He's the heir, but secondly, He made it all.

Look at verse 2, Through whom also He made the world. Everything you see made is made by Christ.

And do you remember from last week? He not only made everything, but He made the what? The ages, the eons, the time.

He made everything in the world, but He also made time, and He makes past, present, and future.

He makes it all, and I don't know if you read this week like I did, The London Zoo had a little set up for about 5 to 7 days, and it was called the

Human Zoo. Anybody read that? You can raise your hand. It's okay. Some of you did.

So, zoos now are making political statements. That's basically what's happening. And zoos believe in evolution, and so we've got all these other monkeys and primates and everything else, so you go to the little monkey area, and you put about 5 to 7,

I don't know how many, 8 students there, and they sit in the zoo, and then people walk by and see the humans in the zoo.

What's the point? Humans being put on display with the rest of the animal kingdom?

The sign out front said, Warning, humans in their natural environment. We're just an animal.

We're just kind of made out of goo and the Big Bang and everything else, and same kind of DNA, same structure.

I like what Al Mohler said. He said, So, humans are really animals, and humans are no different than the monkeys.

He said, why didn't they interview the other monkeys? They only interviewed the humans. He also said, why didn't they mention that the humans built the zoo, and why didn't they mention that the humans in the zoo were not owned by the zoo?

But all that put aside, the culture is saying everything has evolved, when the text clearly said,

Christ has created what? All things, including all time. He is to be lifted up as creator to be worshipped, and that's why the inverse of that, the satanic inverse is, everything has been made, there's no creator, and isn't that good, because if there's no creator, we don't have any judge.

Do what you want, let your hair down. I do find it strange that even the evolutionist

Desmond Morris said, there are 193 living species of monkeys and apes, 192 of them are covered with hair.

Only one monkey doesn't have hair, and that's you. I wonder why that is. Jesus made it all, so here, put it again in context.

To the Jews that are suffering, to the Jews who aren't quite Christians, to you, the congregation, why should you listen to Jesus?

Why should you obey him? Why should you worship him? Because he made it all. You think about time, and everything out there,

I'm trying not to sell products up here, but I've got that new Google Earth thing. Have you seen

Google Earth? That thing is wild. You click on Google Earth, and you see the

Earth, and you type in 307 Lancaster, West Boylston, and here's what happens. And you go right there.

It's amazing, this kind of, they say, I want to go in the Grand Canyon. Feel like it's some IMAX movie on your computer.

I know Google is atheistic and all that other stuff. I don't care. It's an illustration. You see it all, and you think,

I am so impressed. Steve and I were oodling in his study about how cool

Google was. How about, let's one -up it, that God has made all that, and he can easily see every little thing.

Have you ever thought about this creator God who's made it all? I sat there last night at that stadium. I thought, 35 ,000 people, they're all image bearers.

He knows every thought of everyone. Everyone's a living soul, and all the masses of people, he can hear every person, what their thoughts are, what their intentions are, what they're doing.

If they were all 35 ,000 of those Christians, he could be there close and minister, and be there to come alongside in the troubles, and he just knows it all.

He's created all this stuff. That man's a great God. That's what the writer of Hebrews wants us to do.

He's a creator. Third Roman candle, Christ is superior, and you should see him that way, because he reflects, or he's the radiance of God's glory.

He's the radiance of his glory. Do you see that in verse 3? How does a preacher preach a sermon? What are the points? The points are right in the passage.

See, here we go. One, two, three, they're just laid right out there. One long sentence, but here's the next part of that sentence.

He's the radiance, or shining forth of God's glory. Remember last week we said, it's either because on the inside Jesus is

God, therefore he shines out with glory, like on the Mount of Transfiguration, or, probably better, the writer of Hebrews is trying to say the essence that the

Father has, glory, the Son does too. Not necessarily brightness and dazzling light, although Christ has that on the inside.

And our response is, I think Pink gets it right. How can a sin -darkened understanding lay hold of, believe, and love the truth that the great

God should hide himself in frail human nature, that omnipotence should be concealed in a servant's form, that the

Eternal One should become an infant of days? People look at Jesus and say, he's just a man.

The writer of Hebrews says, he's not just a man, he's the God -man, and he's just like God, who radiates out this great glory of the

Father. Well, now let's break new ground. You're going to learn a new Greek word today, and it's going to be easy.

Very easy. The fourth Roman candle burst of praise. You should see

Christ Jesus as superior because he's the exact representation of God's nature. I just picked what was in the text, that's my outline.

The exact representation of his nature. The English Standard Version, I think it's a wonderful English Bible, says this way, he's the exact imprint of his nature.

What's the new Greek word, Pastor? Character is the Greek word.

Exact representation, character. What's the Greek word? Character. What's the

English equivalent? Wrong. Close. The Greek word is character.

It doesn't occur any place else. And here's the idea. If I've got a ring, and it's got my picture on there because I'm the king or I'm the sovereign or I'm Nero or a

Caesar, and I take that ring that's kind of got engravings on it, and it kind of is raised up a little bit, and I find some warm wax, or I find some putty or something, some mud, and I take my ring and I push it down in there.

The exact representation of what was on my ring is on that putty. Inverse, yes, but the exact representation.

If God the Father took Himself and placed Himself into putty, as it were, for illustration, what you would see when you looked at it would be the

Son, and vice versa. Colossians 1 says that He is the image of the invisible

God. He's the image or icon of the invisible God. All that God is, one man said, in His nature and character, is expressed manifestly and perfectly by the incarnate

Son. How about this one?

Have I been so long with you? You have not yet to come to know me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the

Father. All right, let's back up from the text just for a second.

Speculation. Do you think in heaven, when you see God, the triune God, are you going to see what?

What will you see? Three bright white orbs? There's the Father, there's the

Son, there's the Spirit. Will you see an old man there with gray hair, gray long beard, kind of a

George Burns kind of guy? What will you see? When you look at God, what kind of glory will there be?

You won't have to bow your head. You can if you want, but you can be able to see God because you won't have any sin.

Jude says you can stand in the presence of His glory, so you won't have to bow because of your sin.

What will you see? Will you see, in fact, Christ Jesus with the nail -pierced hands?

Theologian Strong said, and I don't want to spend too much time, and that's why I said it's speculation. It's very wise if you're a pastor and say, this is biblical and this is just a guess.

In heaven, the man said, Christ will be the visible God. We shall never see the Father separate from the Christ.

No man or angel has at any time seen God whom no man hath seen nor can see. What Strong goes on to talk about is, when you get to heaven, you're going to see

Christ incarnate, and you will see God. All the fullness dwells in God in bodily what?

Form. You say, Pastor, I don't know if I believe all that. Let's go to the next point. It doesn't matter. When you see

Jesus on earth, I will say this, everything that is God is found in Christ Jesus.

He's the exact character of who God is. You say, well, it's a three -in -one. How could that be? It can't be.

Gloat anyway. How can I describe the finite, the infinite with my finite words?

When you get to heaven, you're not going to see three modes of God, and they're all kind of somehow separate. We believe in one

God with one essence, with one nature, manifest in three persons, and Colossians and Hebrews says that manifestation of the great triune

God can be seen perfectly in the bodily form of Christ. It's a mystery.

It humbles me. One man said, of whom were these words spoken? Of the

Son, but as incarnate. Of Him who entered the world by mysterious and miraculous conception in the

Virgin's womb. Men may doubt and deny this. How can a sin -darkened understanding lay hold of, believe, and love the truth that the great

God should hide Himself in a frail human stature? Number five, it gets better.

If that's not all, here's the next Roman candle shot. Christ is seen as superior because He upholds all things.

He's the heir of all things, He's the creator of all things. Number three, He's the radiance of God's glory, He's the exact representation of God's nature.

And number five, He upholds all things. You see the text there, Hebrews 1 .3?

And upholds all things by the word of His power. How do you think that should be described? If you were going to preach that, how would you preach it?

God the Son has got on His back the world, and He's kind of hunched over and He's holding it up.

Kind of like, what's that guy's name? Atlas. Is that what it means?

Holding up like a burden on the back? That's not what it means. It means holding up and moving to the consummation.

It means sustaining and bringing forth to God's decreed conclusion. It means some kind of sustained,

I lift something up, I make it, and by the way, I create, sustain, ordain, take care of everything in a manner that is unlike deistic theology.

What's a deist believe? Here, God with micromanagement -like tendencies, in a good sense, micromanagement, works on everything from the start to the finish.

He created all the ages and He's making the ages come across exactly the way He wants them to end and He sees the telos of the end and He says it's all going towards that way.

In a providential way, He just sustains it and carries it all the way across, guiding it. He's hands -on, you could say.

That word upholds means more than just sustaining. It means sustaining and bringing towards some kind of goal at the end.

God is not up there at the beginning of the world. He made the world and He said, I just sure hope it all works out okay. It's going to be kind of hard.

I put a guy like Ebendroth, that guy in charge of the whole group at BBC and I sure hope it's going to work out okay.

God basically, think about your ministry. Here's how I think about my ministry. In 1997, God said, you know, the guy's got a lot to learn, but I think

Ebendroth's about ready. I'm going to drop him in to Wes Boylston. He's going to be the pastor. Take a lot of work.

He's still not a finished product, but he's been trained and learned and experienced and preaching and we're going to just kind of drop him in.

It wasn't an accident. It may be unfortunate to some of you, but it wasn't an accident.

It's all planned out. That gives me so much hope and so much thankfulness thinking, you know, this whole, well, what if I would have done that?

If I only would have changed majors, if I only would have took that job and if I would have took that left turn instead of a right turn. We've all made mistakes and we could say,

God, I repent from those mistakes and give me more wisdom to make a more God -honoring mistake, but God can even take those mistakes and sins and he still has it all tied up in his sustaining, caring, guiding, directing hand.

I could say all the time, come and visit our church, you're not here by mistake. You're here because you either need to be encouraged or confronted with the truth that Jesus is

God, worship him. He carries along without sweat, without effort, without toil, without power that needs to be replenished, the universe including all the people in it.

By the way, do you think he loves the universe more than he loves the people? This universe, if you don't know, is disposable and people aren't and so I don't want to run around and have an anti -earth day, but I don't worship the earth and this earth was not meant to live and be forever and so if you want to worship the earth, there's something else in mind.

God uses the earth for his purposes just like he uses the animal kingdom, but the center of the universe is the bride of Christ because as the bride becomes more lovely,

Christ is exalted and he did it with what?

His powerful hand. The word of his power, the text literally says.

It's kind of a Hebrew way to just say he's in control of it all. He did it all. He speaks and it's done. Psalm 33 9 says he spoke and it was done.

He's got an efficient command of everything. I like that. He's hands -on.

He's sovereign. He's providential. Westminster Shorter Catechism says this of providence, of God's perfect designing control.

God works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.

He keeps all his creatures in being, A. B. He involves himself in all events and C.

Directs all things to their appointed end. He's hands -on. His rule may be hidden, but it is there.

I know what you're thinking. What about 9 -11? What about Katrina? What about all these other things?

If I have a theological problem, here's what I do. I say to myself, what do

I know first before I try to explore my theological problem? Is that fair? Furthermore, I say to myself, what do

I know about God for sure that should shed light onto my problem? How can bad things happen to good people?

How can Louisiana be destroyed? How can my mom die? How can all these things happen?

Well, what I try to do is I try to think of the attributes of God. In this particular case, our problem is this.

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ carries along the entire universe doing everything to the exact moment, to the exact degree, to the exact kind that he wants it to, and nothing is outside of God's control.

I'll give you a quick example. Marriage. You come to me and say, is it God's will for me to marry

Anthony? And I say, well, I have twofold answer. Answer number one,

I don't know. You say, that's no answer. Yes, it is. Answer number two, should be better.

Is Anthony a Christian? Does Anthony want your best? Does Anthony want to fulfill God's roles for him in being a husband?

Does he want to love the Savior? If the answers are yes, then that's God's revealed will. What does the Bible say about Christianity and Christians, or you should marry other

Christians? Is Anthony a Christian? By all we know, yes. Secondly, should

I marry Anthony? Is it God's will? I don't know if it's God's will until you say I do. And when you say I do, I go, it was

God's will. Because whatever happens is God's will. There's a God's will when he reveals himself in Scripture, and people can sin against that will.

But there's the will of God that takes something and creates it and brings it along to its very end, and nothing can escape the will of God.

And if you think something can, then somehow God's not sovereign over everything. You say, well, what about sin? What about sin?

How can God take the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and turn it into glory? I think you're probably glad that he does.

I am. How can God take ignorance and sin and everything else and say, he can make it in for something good.

That's why if something's bad in my life and something's going all wrong, I can say, you know what? God, I'm sure glad that you've taught me, even though I don't feel like you're in control, you are in control.

And God, only you could make something good come out of this entire disaster and mess.

God decrees whatsoever comes to pass, because that's what the text says, whether we can understand it or whether we can't.

So how do I try to describe this problem of God was providential over Katrina? I think of his attributes.

You have a theological problem? Think about what you know. Let me give you three of his attributes that I would think of. You don't have to write them down.

Number one, power. True or false, God is omnipotent. God can do anything as easily as he can the next thing.

God can do as many things that are difficult to do simultaneously as he wants. Nothing can stop

God with his mighty right arm to do whatever he wants, the symbol of power and authority. God can speak the world into existence.

Can God do anything he wants? Absolutely. So can God take the universe that he starts up and does he have the power to make it happen the way he wants to have it happen?

Absolutely. Secondly, I think about God's wisdom. How wise is

God? How smart is God? Does God know everything? True or false,

God learns things as he goes on. Just think, God doesn't learn anything. That's scary and lovely at the same time.

You know, you commit a sin and when you ask for a confession, you don't do this. God, I know you don't know this, but here's what

I've done. God, you knew it when you saved me and you still love me anyway and now

I agree with you that I was foolish and stupid and ignorant and I just... I don't know about you, but sometimes

I do this to myself. I go, I hate myself. Now, I don't mean I hate myself and I'm looking around for some butter knife to cut myself.

I don't mean that at all. Because that would be a different sin and we'd be facing the image of God. But I just go, you know,

I'm sick and tired of Mike Avendroth. I'm done with me. That's actually salvation, by the way.

Jesus said, if you want to be saved, you need to be sick and tired of yourself or there's no hope for you.

How's that? We don't talk that way. I would love...

It would blow my theology, but I would love to have Jesus come in and just preach one time at our church. He does preach all the time through his word.

I know that. Don't send me emails. Send them to Charlie. He's better at that stuff than I am. By the way, on a side note,

I'm so glad to have Charlie around. More than that, I'm glad he's on my side. Because if you've got bad theology and Crane gets a hold of it, you are in big trouble.

Because he's not like me. When I go after people, I'm kind of like the brute. Sinai. And Charlie's got the kind of loving, you know, the loving, gentle, assassin style.

Okay, where am I? So I'm glad we see eye to eye. God knows everything.

So if God is not only all powerful, but he has all the wisdom to make everything put together in that perfect tapestry that on the underneath side of a rug looks all messed up because there's knots and jagged things everywhere.

But on the right side of the tapestry, everything looks great. God's wisdom is sufficient enough that he can make it all happen.

You could probably even think of your own salvation. How could God set it up so I'm driving down the street with some people that I don't even really want to be with, but I'm going to church with them because I'm trying to figure out how to get to know this girl named

Kim. And so I'm just kind of going along for the ride and then the guy looks at me and says, how can you call yourself a

Christian? How did he set that all up? How did I end up going to that church and the guy just looked at me?

And I like to say that to people now, but I was sure offended then. How do you call yourself a Christian? Who are you to judge?

Right? I use the whole judge not lest you be judged thing. I mean, I knew enough Bible to be stupid, you know, grunting around.

So now you know I'm stupid, sick of myself, and I hate myself. How's that? Let's close in prayer. But how could

God love a guy like me? But anyway, how does God arrange your salvation?

He's got all the wisdom to do it. And then the last attribute that I think about that helps me understand providence.

God's got the power to do providential things. He's got the wisdom. And lastly, goodness. How does

God uphold all things? How could that be? Well, he says he does it, but thinking through it, he's got the power, he's got the wisdom, and his infinite goodness.

Here's what theologian Hodge says about that. His infinite goodness makes it certain that he would not leave his sensitive and intelligent creatures to the toils of a mechanical, soulless fate, nor his religious creatures to be divorced from himself in whose communion their highest life consists.

That's a good reminder for me because God in his goodness, can you imagine? Wind everything up, and I hope you guys make it out there.

Versus create it, uphold it, wisely ordaining things, providentially controlling them, and with the goodness of his heart making sure that the right things happen to his elect chosen bride.

And so when people ask me, well, what about Katrina? I was asked last night, what do you say to people who question

God's goodness? Here's what I say. If they're being smart, Alex, about it, and just trying to say bad things about God, I know

God doesn't need anyone to defend him, but I would say something like this. As Pastor Steve even prayed, can you imagine all the good things

God does for unbelievers? Can you imagine all the good things he did for you? Like the waves on a shore without succession, pleasure, feelings, taste, camaraderie, job, children, money, house, friends, companionships, sex, music, one after another after another, and you don't deserve any of it.

And so once in a while, God lets what happened to people, probably what they deserve to have happen,

I'm not trying to say that the hurricane, like some of these fundamentalists, it was God's judgment on, what's this district down there?

French Quarter. But we are too quick to say, here is my point, how could

God, when we should be saying, how does God keep giving me all those blessings, one after another after another, to people especially who hate

Christ? I've got a news flash for you. You either love Christ, or you hate him.

There is no difference. There's no place in between. There's no place for difference. You either love him, or you hate him.

So a bunch of people that would want to kill Christ if they could reach their arm up to heaven, want to kill him, and God just says,

I love, I love, I love, I love, I've created you. And then for them to say, by the way

God, how could you? That's the wrong question to ask. Rabbi Kushner in his blasphemous book,

Why do bad things happen to good people? Got it all wrong, according to R .C. Sproul, and I believe that. Why do good things happen to bad people?

Because God takes his providential hand, but he's still good, and he works out things in such a way, where God just blesses and blesses and blesses and blesses, and can you imagine the day of judgment when people stand before God with their lips zipped, and God said, look at how

I loved you. Remember Malachi last week? God says, I've loved you, and the people go, how have you loved us?

I've blessed you, and blessed you, and blessed you, and you hate my son, and I've still blessed you, and the people say, how did you bless us?

You just had a national crisis. I said also, if someone said to me, what about this whole critique? I wish it was a different letter of a hurricane.

What about that? Well, it's just like 9 -11. What would we say about 9 -11?

What would we say about some of these things that happened? What would Jesus say? Now, on the same occasion,

Luke 13, there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

Boy, what a wicked man Pilate was. People were going to go sacrifice, and they were just slain on the altar, and Jesus said to them, do you suppose that these

Galileans were greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this fate? Kind of the mindset of the day. Hey, they got what was coming to them, kind of like Job's buddies.

Hey, you're suffering. You deserve it. What did Jesus say? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

The lesson of tragedy is, are you right with God? Jesus said to her, do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

Do you think they got what was coming to them? Jesus said, I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

What about with this whole Katrina thing? If someone says, how can God be that? And they're kind of not trying to understand as a new

Christian would understand. The answer is, how about you? Are you right with God because one day you're going to die? Thousands of people die every single day.

This particular day, 10 ,000 may have died. And unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. How about Job?

God, I've got all these questions for you. How could you? Why? Why? Why? God said, all right,

I'll answer your questions. But first, there's a little pop quiz. Job chapter 38, chapter 39, chapter 40, chapter 41.

You answer me these 70 questions about who I am. I'm the God of the universe. What I did before time began. And after you're done answering those questions,

I'll answer you. And what did Job do? I repent.

Sackcloth and ashes. How can God be providentially good over all evil?

He's got enough power to do it. He's got enough control to do it. He's smart enough to do it.

He's good enough to do it. And when I speak of God, I'm speaking about Jesus Christ. He's on the throne. Say, well, what about sin?

What about these kind of things? I need more. For over us, there occurs the infinite, one man wrote.

Blue heaven as a shield, and at the end, we shall find one who loveth to befriend, even those who faint for shame within his sight.

We are going to learn next week that God can even take the worst evil and turn it into good.

And God will look at next week how God can even allow evil, how he can save people.

What is the difference between fortune and chance and providence? And I want to dive into that even next week.

Well, time goes by so fast. We had communion and baptism. We better stop now. Let me leave you with this note.

I love charismatics. I married one. Kim was going to Jack Hayford's church at the time.

I think extreme charismatic people are like extreme fundamentalists. I don't like their theology.

But will you look this week as you live for great signs and wonders as God providentially works?

I don't need some huge sign. I don't need some kind of thing that just happens and everybody goes,

Wow! I don't need some kind of thing in Tulsa where something happens and I get all these millions of dollars or else.

Do you know what I want to see? Only once in a while does God punctuate history with miracles and signs.

Did you know that? The time of Moses and Joshua, he did a few of those. The time of Elijah and Elisha, he did a few of those.

The time of Jesus and apostles, he did a few of those. And you add up all that time, it's 100 years.

So how can we sit back and say, Wow God, how great are you? When he doesn't seem to punctuate things with...

He's obviously got enough power to do it, but he doesn't do that very much. Because you know what the great miracle is today that I would long for my real charismatic friends to grab a hold of and you as many non -charismatics is to see the beauty of God in Providence where something's buzzing my head.

I don't care if a fly's on my head, but that's a big old bee thing kind of up there. First I almost get electrocuted and then

I get stung by a bee and I have an apocalyptic shock up here and seizure and I need an EpiPen.

Come on. I'm just starting. God does miraculous things all the time.

His wonder is to perform, as the songwriter would say. But he does it behind the scenes in a sweet, silent, providential way.

And so this week, do what Ephesians 1 says in chapter 1. It says, You know God, open my eyes so I can see you move because you're moving all the time.

I just need eyes to see. And I don't need to see a miracle because miracles are already in the text. What I want to see,

God, is your Son, Jesus Christ, doing all kinds of things behind the scenes because I need that in my life and when

I see it, I'm going to praise you. God is working. Are you seeing it? If you're not seeing it, then say,

God, open my eyes that I might see what you do. Well, let's pray.

Father, we exalt your name today. We want to lift up your name. Father, there's lots of things we don't understand and Lord, may some of that just be us responding with Uncle.

Lord, you said you're sovereign. You said you hate sin. You allow sin and so we just say

Uncle because we know you're going to make something great out of it and you did. Salvation for us.

And that's not all. Lord, help us this week to speak your praises and Lord, would you let us see something behind the scenes that you're doing that only you can get the credit for and it'd be so wonderful we'd come and see other