The Arian's Worst Nightmare Is The Christian's Greatest Praise - [Hebrews 1:7ff]

Well, many people think that I'm hard on false teachers, critical of false teachers, but I guess it's all relative.

The Edict of Emperor Constantine said, in addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames.

So that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him.

And I hereby make a public order that if someone should be discovered to have a hidden writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death.

As soon as he is discovered in this offense, he shall be submitted for capital punishment.

Like I said, it's all relative. Arius taught that Jesus was not

God, that he was not eternal, that he was not equal with God. Arius was the precursor to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Arius would be one who would influence and still influences T .D. Jakes. It is such a crime theologically to subordinate

Jesus to a position of less than God. Even the loving Apostle John wrote,

By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the

Antichrist. John in his second letter, the loving

Apostle John writes about this very issue, about the eternal Son becoming man.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Antichrist, watch yourself.

Just how important is it to have a right view of Jesus, to think of him as the Bible teaches him,

Jesus the eternal Son, never created. Please take your

Bibles and let's look at Hebrews chapter 1 this morning and be reaffirmed and have this truth riveted to our minds that Jesus is in fact

God and since he is God, he is deserving of your worship. For those who come along and say

Jesus is some way less than God, those who are Aryans, those who are Jehovah's Witnesses, those who are modalists in some way, shape or form, have to think

Hebrews 1 is a nightmare. But for the Christian, it's a beautiful passage because it extols the object of our faith into the right crystal clear frame.

Jesus is God, therefore he is superior to prophets, to angels, to Moses, to Aaron, to our problems, to everything in life,

Jesus is superior. No room for idolatry, no room for if I only had this

I'd be happy, if I only met this person I'd be happy, if only this happened I'd be happy, Jesus is superior.

Now Aryanism in the 3rd century and the 4th century was combated by Athanasius.

Arius is a name, Athanasius is a name. And I don't know about you but while I can't sing very well and I can't compose music, when

I recognize something rhythmic or lyrical, I can appreciate it.

To help people remember the importance of Jesus the Son of God, Athanasius put a creed together.

And some say maybe he didn't put it together but his followers did. And this was to combat Aryanism, Jesus isn't the eternal

Son of God because Arius used to like to have songs that children would sing and others to make them think wrong theology.

So Athanasius came up with his own 44 rhythmic lines known as the Athanasius Creed. I won't read the whole liturgical document but sometimes it was read in worship services.

Very, very precise to think clearly about God for you see God wants to be thought of only by the way he tells us to think of him.

This is the universal faith that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity.

Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance for there is one person of the Father, another of the

Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co -eternal.

The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. Yet there are not three eternals but one eternal.

I don't know what you're thinking right now but when I read part of the Athanasius Creed it makes me want to worship. I know you might think

I'm weirder now making that statement. I know you think I was idiosyncratic before. But I read about these truths, parsing the truth, exact truths, how to think about God precisely and accurately.

And that's what the Athanasius Creed teaches us. Is there anything better than the

Athanasius Creed that teaches the deity of Christ how He is greater than everyone else? And the answer is, of course, the scriptures.

And this morning, Hebrews chapter 1, the deity of the

Lord Jesus Christ and His splendor and His majesty and how He is greater than even angels.

Don't forget as we study this congregation that God will not give His glory to another. Correct?

He won't give His glory to another. Yet you're going to eavesdrop on the Father speaking to the

Son about how He wants that Son to be glorified. How can that be?

If they're different gods, if Jesus is less than God, it is an impossibility. But since the

Father and the Son are co -equal in the Godhead, it's very easy for the

Father to say, I'd like you to worship the Son, have a high view of the Son, think rightly about the

Son. Just like on earth, it was easy for Jesus to say, All glory, laud, and honor essentially goes to the

Father. Jesus, it starts off with this book. You notice something different with the book of Hebrews.

It doesn't start off with Paul an apostle, our grace and peace to you, but just with a bang, just with a shout, with a running start,

Jesus creates. Jesus is the heir of all things. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.

He's the exact imprint of His nature. Jesus upholds the universe with His power. Jesus makes purification for sins.

Jesus sets down. Jesus is better than angels. And that sets the tone for the rest of the book. The writer of Hebrews, writing to Hebrew people, quotes the

Hebrew Bible, and he quotes seven particular passages beginning in verse 5 all the way down through verse 14 of chapter 1 to show you, to affirm his thesis.

Jesus is the eternal God. He's greater. He's superior. If you've got Jesus, you've got it all.

If you don't have Jesus, although you might think you have everything, you have nothing. Angels might be great.

Angels might be important. Angels might deliver Mosaic law, but they're not Jesus. And one thing you'll notice when the passages from the

Old Testament are quoted, unlike other times in the New Testament, here we don't see, it is written.

It is written. So -and -so wrote. Jeremiah wrote. Isaiah wrote.

The author's not even mentioned. The human author's not mentioned because it's God speaking. When the Old Testament speaks,

God speaks. This writer has a high view of the Old Testament. The divine author of all the

Bible. Now, the first passage that we've seen weeks ago that shouts out,

Jesus is greater than angels, is found in verse 5. Do you remember? It was a quote from Psalm 2 -7.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today

I have begotten you. Speaking of this great royal psalm in Psalm 2,

Jesus is raised from the dead. He ascends to heaven and there's a coronation. There's a celebration.

And that's when he's ultimately the son. The second passage is found in verse 5 as well.

2 Samuel 7 from the Davidic Covenant. Or again, I will be to him a father.

God doesn't say this to angels. And he shall be to me a son. The promised son of David.

The ultimate son of David. His name is Jesus. And he's not an angel.

The third passage is found in verse 6 that we saw last week. And again, quoting probably

Deuteronomy 32, possibly Psalm 97, or maybe even more remotely both.

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, God the Father says, where he's dropping on Trinitarian discussions, as it were, let all

God's angels worship him. Interestingly, in the

Old Testament, that Psalm 97 and that passage in Deuteronomy 32 aren't messianic.

But they speak of God. And when the Old Testament speaks of God, the New Testament writer of Hebrews thinks

Jesus. When he reads Lord, when he reads Yahweh, when he reads Elohim, he's thinking

Trinitarianly. You can't read the Old Testament and see Yahweh and think to yourself something less than Jesus Christ.

And what does the Father say to the angels? Now again, this is all coronation language in chapter 1, verses 3, 4, 5, and now 6.

Jesus dies on the cross. He's raised from the dead. He ascends to heaven after being with the disciples.

And he gets to heaven. It's not talking about after he's been with the disciples.

This is right after the death and burial of Jesus and he gets to heaven. And the Father now, with a command form, says, angels, you worship

Jesus. This word worship means to get down on your face with reverence.

Kissing the feet as it were. This is what people would do with pagan gods. Kiss the feet of a god or a goddess. This is what you would do to Alexander the

Great. But in the Old Testament, you didn't kiss anybody with this kind of worship except for God Himself.

The Father saying of the Son, worship Him like God. Why? Because He is God. Now some people think, and maybe just when you read it in English, you might default to, look at the beginning of verse 6, when

He brings the firstborn into the world. Kind of like the incarnation or maybe that could be the second coming.

The context is all coronation. Second coming language, it's not worship of the angels.

The angels are with. But it's interesting. I didn't make note of it last week. The word world there isn't cosmos.

The word world isn't the earth. What is that word world?

Well, I think it's further defined. Just go down to chapter 2, verse 5. It's a different word for world.

It's the world to come. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, a heavenly realm of which we're speaking.

When Jesus dies on the cross and is raised from the dead and goes into the heavenly realm,

God the Father says to all the angels, worship Him. If you had knees, get down on your knees and worship

Him. If you had lips, kiss His feet. He's not talking about when Jesus enters the world again, the second coming.

He's not talking about the incarnation. He's talking about this heavenly realm that Hebrews 2, verse 5 discusses.

Enthronement language, exaltation language. And isn't it fitting for when

Jesus gets to heaven after His rescue mission, for Him to be worshiped? Yes. And now we come to our passage for today.

Verse 7, 8, and 9. Yes, congregation, we're going to do three verses today.

Last week we were fast. We did one verse. Today, three verses. 7, 8, and 9.

And again, the theme is Jesus is superior to the angels and here are all the

Old Testament quotes to confirm that and to affirm that. I mean, how many verses does it take?

This is a pretty impressive list. This is bulky. This is weighty. How many different ways can we say

Jesus is God and deserves worship and is better than the angels? And I guess if I was from Nebraska, I'd call this a pile -on, a dog pile.

In New England, we say something different, but I think that's irreverent. He's just stacking them on, one piece and another piece and another.

And he wants you to say, you know, the Old Testament teaches this and I just should say theologically,

Uncle, yes, that's true. You can almost picture, even though the time would be messed up, there's an

Arian in the corner, there's a Jehovah's Witness in the corner, there's a T .D. Jake's follower in the corner. You really mean to tell me that Jesus has not eternally existed?

The Scriptures will not allow that. That's blasphemy. That's speaking poorly. That's the opposite of worship.

And now he quotes Psalm 104, verse 4, and he quotes like he always does from not the

Hebrew Old Testament, but the Greek version of the Old Testament. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds, verse 7, and his ministers a flame of fire, stacking up more evidence.

But in the construction, verse 8 and 9 are tied together. But of the

Son, he says, now he talks to the Son. He was talking about the angels, now he talks to the

Son. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

Here's how it works in the Greek. Verse 7 on one hand, verses 8 and 9 on the other hand.

That's the way it's set up. You can't really see this in any English translation. On one hand, this is what's spoken of the angels.

On the other hand, here's what it says about the Son. And he's quoting Psalm 104, who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

While nothing's said directly of Jesus in verse 7, on one hand and on the other hand, drives us to think of Jesus in these three verses.

And here's the tenor of the passage. Angels are created. Angels serve.

Angels do what they're told. Angels hear from God and with alacrity serve

Him. The Son isn't created. He creates.

The Son doesn't change. He's immutable. The Son doesn't receive orders. He gives them.

On one hand, on the other hand. Why don't you turn with me? Keep your finger on Hebrews 1.

Let's go to Psalm 104 like we have been doing with every Old Testament passage that's quoted in Hebrews.

Let's just see the context for what it is in Psalm 104. We won't go through every verse in Psalm 104, but I want you to see this celebratory psalm.

Scott, he got the lament psalm. I get the celebratory psalm. The writer is quoting

Psalm 104. I often think to myself when

Matthew the Gospel is written to Hebrews, there's lots of Old Testament quotes.

Similarly, when the writer of Hebrews is discussing things to the Hebrew people, he's going to be quoting the

Old Testament a lot. They knew the Old Testament. And Psalm 104 speaks well of God. So well of God.

Exalting God. Then the writer of Hebrews says, and by the way, that God of Psalm 104 is Jesus.

Psalm 104 verse 1. Bless Yahweh, O my soul. Bless the

Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Look at the exclamation points in your

English text. O Lord my God, You are very great. You're clothed with splendor and majesty.

What poetry. What elegance. The elegance of the language is matched only by the elegance of the person receiving this praise.

You're great. How are you great? He gives some definitions and details.

Covering yourself with light as with a garment. Stretching out the heavens like a tent.

He lays the beams of His chambers on the waters. He makes the clouds

His chariot. He rides on the wings of the wind.

He, God, makes His messengers winds. His ministers a flaming fire.

God, You are masterful, and You are masterful over Your creation. You say to the wind, blow at 50 miles an hour.

It does. You say, destroy that field. It does with the winds. What the winds are told to do, it does because God is a master, sovereign over all creation.

Not only at creation where God speaks and it is done, in nature as well with wind, with weather, whatever

God sovereignly wants nature to do, it does. Verse 5,

He set the earth on its foundations so that it could never be moved. I mean, who's going to move it?

Who's going to change the axis of the rotation of the earth? You covered it with the deep as with a garment.

The water stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled. At the sound of Your thunder they took to flight.

Mountains rose, valleys sank down to the place that You appointed for them. You set a boundary they may not pass so that they might not again cover the earth.

And He even, on a very personal level as it were, gives drink to every beast of the field and He quenches the thirst of wild donkeys.

From the greatest things to the oceans, to the mountains, God's the sovereign Creator. He tells them what to do.

They do it. They always obey Him. They never disobey. And these angels that do what they're supposed to do, worship

Jesus. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 1 now because we've seen a little bit of the context of Psalm 104.

I want to stress that the writer of Hebrews never says, angels are bad, angels aren't very good, angels just come see, come saw.

He never says that. He doesn't say that about Moses. He doesn't say that about Aaron. He doesn't say that about the Old Covenant.

It was bad. They were bad. They were subpar. He tells us they're great, but Jesus is greater or to use the refrain in Hebrews, better, better, better, better, better.

Angels, you know what? They're like winds. They're like a breeze. But Jesus is the sun.

You honor someone's sun or you honor the wind. These angels, they're just like wind. They do what they're told like the north wind does.

But Jesus is the sun. He's co -eternal with the

Father. I wonder what would you do if you ever met an angel. If you were ever touched by an angel,

I wonder what would happen. I think you would be on your face as fast as a tire iron goes down into a swimming pool to use the phrase.

John, Revelation 19, Angel said to me, Write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the

Lamb. So the angel's telling John, Write these things. And he said to me, These are true words,

John. Write these things. I'm going to tell you. They're true words. And what was John's response initially, immediately, right away?

Start writing. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. You meet an angel so glorious, so transcendent.

And what did the angel say? You must not do that. Chapter 22, the same thing happens.

I, John, yeah, I'm the one, John, I'm the one who heard these things and saw these things. And when

I heard them and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

But he said to me, You must not do this. As great as angels are, they're not to be worshipped.

As great as they fulfill their duties like wind shot out from the throne of God, they're not to be worshipped.

Angels, exalted of all creatures, great as they are, they're simply servants.

You don't go to someone's house if there's a master and a servant and then worship the servant and honor the servant.

I mean, just how great are angels? They deliver. Two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet that you may rise up early and go on your way.

No, we will spend the night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly so they turned aside to him and entered his house and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread.

And they ate it. How great are angels? But before, it says in Genesis 19, they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.

How great are angels? What did these angels do? They struck the men with blindness who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping at the door.

Angels just do what they're told. Angels are just servants. The one who's sending the angels is in fact the

Son. Don't worship angels. Worship the Son. Angels are great.

Jesus is greater. It's a lesser to greater argument. But there's, on the other hand, verse 8,

On one hand, the angels do what they're told. On the other hand, Hebrews 1 .8

There's the contrast. You see it even in the English version. But of the Son, he says.

Then he addresses the Son face to face. To Him. Not of Him. And now we're going to look at Psalm 45, verses 6 and 7.

And I'll quote them again. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

Let's stop there. Angels are servants.

Jesus is the Son. Angels do what they're told. Jesus tells them what to do. Angels are to worship the

Son. The Son is to receive worship. Now let's just take a look at it in Psalm 45.

We might as well see where every one of these passages come from. Psalm 45. The Jewish rabbis later on in the history of Judaism thought this is a messianic hymn.

It's certainly a marriage hymn. A marriage psalm.

The king is getting married. And the writer of Hebrews, by the inspiration of the

Spirit, applies these words to Jesus. I'll just read through verse 7 of Psalm 45 in this marriage celebration wedding psalm.

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

You are the most handsome of the servants, sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever.

Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty. In your majesty, ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.

Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.

The peoples fall under you. And now from which Hebrews 1 quotes?

Right here, verse 6. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.

You've loved righteousness, hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

All right, back to Hebrews 1. Do you notice the antithesis found in verses 7, 8, and 9?

Of the angels, he says. To the son, he says. Angels go do what they're told.

Jesus is the sovereign one. And now can you believe it? The father says of the son,

God. He calls the son God. I think there's kind of a big difference between a created being, angels, and the non -created eternal son,

Jesus. And the writer recognizes that. Think of all the verses in the

Old Testament that speak of the triune nature of God and the nature of God Himself. These are the ones applied to Jesus.

They're ministers. He sits on a throne. They're flames of fire. He's judge, jury, and executioner.

Arthur Pink in verse 6, we are told that all the angels of God have received command to worship the mediator. Now we are shown the propriety of them doing so.

He is God. Angels worship. Why? Because Jesus is God.

He sits on a throne. Now, I don't love this, but I'm just using that language.

I love to watch the Arians and the Jehovah's Witnesses try to wiggle out of this verse.

If you just guessed and you never read the New World translation, the JW's translation, or any other kind of modalistic,

Sabellian, heretical, Arian, Jesus isn't the eternal God. Do you think they would just let this verse ride?

Do you think they would just say, you know what? You're a throne, O God. The father says to the son, you're God and you sit on a throne.

What do you think they'd end up doing to it? They've got to do some weird things to it and that's exactly what they do.

They translate it, God is your throne. They translate it, your throne is

God. The New World translation says, but about the son, he says, God is your throne forever and ever.

It doesn't even make sense. Angels worship God. Why? I mean, angels worship the son.

Why? Because the son has God on the throne. In Greek, this is evocative.

And evocative is, your throne, O God. And of the son, things are told about him that only

God could have. Throne, scepter, kingdom, righteousness, anointing.

Kings come and go. Monarchs come and go. We kick out our king about every eight years, don't we? Vote in a new one.

His throne is forever and ever. Angels come and go. Actually, angels are, in one sense, mutable.

They're not mutable now, but they change. They could change. They have the power of change. Did not some of them, one third of them, fall and follow

Satan and change, and now they're the demons and the devils and the bad principalities?

Isn't that not true? But when Jesus, who sits on the throne, is God, he never changes. His throne is forever and ever.

Isaac Watts, Jesus shall reign where 'er the sun does his successive journeys run.

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more.

I don't think gibbous fit in there. I didn't know what a gibbous was until I think one of my daughters said, it's a waning gibbous.

The very last song we're going to sing today is going to be a song that highlights and encapsulates what's going on.

Angels are great, but they're servants. Jesus' son is to be worshipped. Edward Perrineau, he knew that.

All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall.

Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. That's what the writer of Hebrews is doing.

Of course, you can think, the listeners in the book of Hebrews, while some are believers, others are thinking, wait a second, the

Lord, our God is one. There's one God. Trinitarian thinking, one God subsisting in three persons, the

Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It says, I can't wrap my mind around this. I'm so monotheistic.

I'm having a hard time. So the writer of Hebrews is painstakingly validating from the

Old Testament, the Son is God. He receives worship because He is divine.

How do we know He's divine? His throne is forever and ever. And look what verse 8 goes on to say, the scepter of your kingdom,

Jesus, is a scepter of uprightness. His scepter, this great symbol of power, authority, government, is right.

True or false? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. False, because it didn't corrupt

Jesus absolutely. Jeremiah says in verse 5 and 6 of chapter 23,

The days are coming when the Lord shall raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

And he's got a name, and his name is the Lord our righteousness. Righteous rule by Jesus.

Jesus is God. I think it would be good to stop right now and ask you the question, do you think about Jesus the way the

Father teaches us to think about Jesus? Are you secretly thinking, you know,

I can't believe in the Trinity, that's three gods, I can't do it. Or do you say, you know, while I can't wrap my mind around three and one,

I can say, the Father's God, the Son's God, and the Spirit's God, the Father's not the

Son, the Son's not the Spirit. By the way, have you noticed when the Father's talking to the Son, this blows away anything that might say,

God, the Father existed alone, then He manifested Himself to us in Jesus, and then now

He's the Holy Spirit. Modalism. Who's He talking to? The Father is talking to the

Son. And the question this morning is, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as fully

God the Son? This Jesus verse 9, you have love.

This is what the Father says of the Son. You might ask yourself before I read this, did

Jesus ever sin? Was Jesus capable of sin? Would the Father say verse 9, if Jesus sinned in any way, shape, or form?

I mean, the sin of Adam has tainted. When we say to ourselves, you know what, have we sinned this week? Have we broken any of the

Ten Commandments this week? I think it would be better for us to ask, which ones didn't we break? Because we are an awful lot, a sinful lot.

I'm very, even as Christians, I and you, we're very sinful. To love

God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to always keep doing it. Who does that?

Who, verse 9, always loves righteousness? Who always hates wickedness? It's only

Jesus. He's to be exalted. He's to be worshipped. Therefore, God, your God, speaking the Father, has anointed you.

He just called the Son God. Now He, God the Father, has anointed you. This is language of celebration.

This is language of you're the King. Don't you put oil on Saul when you make him king. This is the coronation continues with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

Who are those companions? Maybe the angels. Maybe it's us. It doesn't matter, because the focus is on Jesus.

He is the one who loves righteousness, and hates iniquity, and always has, and always will.

One writer said, all Oriental feasts had oil that were poured on the heads of distinguished and very welcome guests.

How do you know if you go to a big party back in those days that they really liked you? Olive oil all over your head.

Interesting take on things. God Himself anoints the man

Christ Jesus as He sits at the heavenly feast. Anoints Him as a reward for His work.

Remember, this is after Jesus dies and is raised from the dead and goes into heaven. We just extract all the celebration language, all the wedding language, all the distinguished guest language.

He anoints Him as a reward for His work with higher and fuller joy than anyone else can know.

This is the Son of Man honored and rewarded for all His pains. Did not

Jesus on the cross say, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And the Father sent

Him to do this mission, still loving Him of course, but now having to treat Him as if He was a sinner, even though He wasn't, pouring out

His wrath on Him. For the first time, for the only time in the history of the universe, pre -universe, in eternity past verse, the

Father and the Son don't have close communion because the Father is so holy and sin is so awful.

And now Jesus has done His work. He's finished the course. He's kept the faith.

And now He gets to heaven and it's just language of celebration. If I were teaching little five -year -olds about this,

I would give them all... What are those little things you give them that make a little party noise? I don't want to say kazoo from the pulpit, but we're talking five -year -olds.

Language of... This is festive, this is party, this is the best of the best. If you have a party at your house, you get out to China, whatever you do to say, we make this special.

So what happens here? The writer of Hebrews is saying what they did especially back in the feast days is you get the oil out and the oil's all over.

Jesus, the mediator, won. Jesus is God. He added humanity to Himself and He lived that perfect life.

He won the battle. He died for my sins and He was raised from the dead. Perfect life, oil. Perfect death, more oil.

He's the Prince. Spurgeon said, Jesus is the anointed

King and though we share in the anointing, He's far above us. Christ is infinitely greater than Christians and we are glad to have it so.

The writer of Hebrews knows these people are on the run. They're going to die maybe for their faith.

Their houses are taken away. Some of them are in prison. I mean, couldn't you just cut to the practical stuff?

Couldn't you just tell me what do I do? What about my tax exemption? What do we do about training other leaders in the church?

The other ones are in jail. Give me something practical. Yet the most practical thing that He gives is, you know what?

All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. He's the King. He's the

Sovereign. He's the Lord. He's the Mediator. And the celebration in Heaven that started with the

Father that goes on now in Heaven with Jesus in the center of the heavens should continue in the church.

My guess is Heaven is loud with praises.

Heaven is loud with the praises of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. You want to know about Jesus' Christology?

You study this book. Jesus is greater than angels because the Father says, angels, you do what you're told and you do it well.

But the Son is the one ordering you. So angels, you worship the Father. And Son, you sit on a throne because you're

God. You could think with angels and the Son, it's like apples and oranges, completely different Creator creation.

Now the Athanasius Creed has 44 lines. Here are a few more of them as I close.

Jesus is perfect God and perfect man, equal to the Father.

Although He is God and man, He is not two but one Christ who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

He ascended into Heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty. From thence

He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise with their bodies and give an account of their own works.

And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting. And they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.

This is the universal faith which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

Friends, do you believe it? Father, I thank You for Your Word today in Hebrews chapter 1 and then

Psalm 45. Father, I thank You that You give that great laud and honor to Jesus Christ.

He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep. He, by the blood of the eternal covenant, has rescued us.

And therefore, as Hebrews ends, through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. We celebrate and praise and honor Jesus Christ as very

God of very gods, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the

Father. He is God and we are pleased and privileged to worship Him. In Jesus name we pray.