The Best Last Word — Rick Leibee

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Hebrews Reveals the Preeminence of Jesus Christ

These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good morning. Greetings in the name of Jesus our King and our great high priests turn to the book of Hebrews for me this morning.

We'll be studying this book this week in some detail. It will not be possible to finish this book this year. Lord willing I'll be able to do that either next year or some other time, but we'll Do what we can this year as a Way of introduction ideally it probably would take two or three hours just to introduce it, but we don't have two or three hours.

So we'll just take a few minutes just to introduce a few thoughts to you to kind of set a little foundation. So a little background for you to understand. Some of the things you need to have in the back of your mind as we then look at the specific verses this letter this epistle of Hebrews first of all is especially valuable in our day because there is a Broad in the world and it seems especially in our world here a widespread Conception of Jesus Christ that does not match the reality of what is given to us in the scriptures.

We live in a day of easy believism and cheap grace, and I believe that the root of that wrong Teaching is a wrong view of who Jesus Christ really is and One of the purposes of the book of Hebrews is to show us Who Jesus Christ is in all of his offices in all of his adequacy and that he is better than anything else.

He is the best and better is one of the key words if you had to pick a key word in the book of Hebrews It would be better. There are many other key words, but that's one of them so that is one of the themes in the book of Hebrews is the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ there are other themes clearly just by the Name of the book Hebrews.

We see that God has some thoughts for the Hebrew if you're here today and you understand anything about Nationalities you realize that just because a person gets born again It doesn't change the nationality does it?

Because we know in heaven there'll be every tribe and tongue and kindred and people and today if you're here I wonder how many different nationalities are here today today if you're here, and you're Hispanic as Someone my family are after you're born again.

You know what you're still Hispanic and the Hebrew even though he was born again some of the Jews. They're still Hebrews are still Jews and so there's some things that God has to say to them that we need to hear because Some of the things that God has to say to them are directly applicable to you.

And I today and it seems like in that day that this group of Jewish Christians Which were born again after Jesus Christ came and after the Apostles began to teach they were reaching a time in the church here.

Where some of them were starting to? Starting to drift they were starting to slip. They were starting to ease back and look back at some of their tradition and their form and the way that it used to be and it seemed like they were losing the reality of who Jesus Christ really was and You know we have that problem today, too.

Don't we you know man it seems like is too easily attracted to form and function Tradition and religion and so on and so on and so on we haven't outgrown that problem in our day. Have we and so what God has to say to the Hebrew Christian in the early church is for you?

And I today they stood at the junction or the juncture of the two great Dispensations the Old Testament and at the new it was like they were at that junction where it was Used to be just a few years ago.

What they needed to do to get to God was this way the old dispensation the Old Covenant. But then suddenly at the cross everything changed and what used to be very meaningful is now according to the book of Hebrews Meaningless what used to be pleasing unto God now according to the book of Hebrews is sin.

What a place to be. What a place to be and yet we can understand because in our day there are people who are very sincere very religious. Doing religious things that are not pleasing to God. That are not pleasing to God.

And so there are things here for you and I and what God is trying to show you and I in this book is That for believers of every Nationality in every age and on every in and of every age the way to God is through the Sun.

The way to God is through the Sun. And it's so important that we see that one of the themes here again in The book of Hebrews is that we understand rightly the place of the Old Testament the Old Covenant and that we pick up the New Testament and we interpret everything back there through the eyes of that so many well-meaning Christians are mistakenly Taking and choosing things out of the Old Testament and trying to make it part of the New Covenant and you cannot do that.

Those things are good. Those things were written for examples to us, but it is not the way to God. It is not the way to God. And so we need to see that very clearly. We will speak more about this later.

Considering Christ Jesus

But mostly Mostly today you need to understand as it says in Hebrews 3 1 wherefore Holy Brethren partakers of the heavenly calling Consider and the key word there is consider. It's one of the key verses in the book of Hebrews.

Consider the Apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Jesus this week today. We are going to consider and the word consider means to behold to gaze upon to meditate upon to perceive to receive to Sit in wonder about and to think about Christ Jesus, and that's what we're going to do.

We're going to consider him and I'm convinced That that is the most important thing that you can do this week is to consider our Lord Christ Jesus. And as far as the authorship of the book of Hebrews, I cannot be rigid about that I don't believe anyone can.

But I am dogmatic that it is the Word of God that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it lines up with Scripture. In that Jesus himself said that when the Holy Spirit comes he will teach us and show us all things but especially what Jesus Christ and the book of Hebrews almost like any other book in the New Testament from beginning to end shows us a magnificent picture of the person and the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ and so I'm excited about this book.

I hope you are I believe that This book is the clearest and the most if I may say Systematic and orderly is what I mean their presentation of the availability and the adequacy of Jesus Christ and that is important to you and I today the Availability and the adequacy of Jesus Christ.

It shows that he is The perfect man and that Christianity is therefore the perfect and final religion. There is nothing else that God has to say after this. This is God's Word to you and I in every age.

The things that we'll see in this book are the answer to every man's need in every age. And so as brother Moe's challenged you this morning you came here and you were praying for something I tell you the way to find the answer is in the person of Jesus Christ.

It is in the person of Jesus Christ the way to God is through The Sun and what you believe this week and what you receive from Christ will mean Everything to what you get out of this week. All right. Let's go ahead and begin to read here in Chapter 1 there's much more we could say about some different themes and some different foundations of the book of Hebrews.

But we won't do that here this morning. Some of them will come out as we make our way through as we take a very short walk through this wonderful book. Beginning in verse 1 God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past.

Under the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days Spoken unto 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 and Upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself.

Purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. We'll stop there. Aren't those wonderful words to your heart today challenging words as well. It's interesting how the book of Hebrews begins did you notice with one word God very unusual.

It's the only book of the Bible. I think that begins that way. It's the only book in the in the New Testament certainly that begins simply with the word God. No salutation. No introduction no explanation.

No qualification. Did you know that the Bible makes no? Provision the Bible does not try to explain or prove the existence of God. It just starts God. What a way to start a book of the Bible. Maybe it's the best way, isn't it?

You know if I were teaching anything else Maybe mathematics I would have to start with certain premises and certain truths and And certain postulates and work on those to get you here to teach you geometry up here.

We'd have to start with addition Multiplication and Subtraction and division and to prove geometry we'd have to start with certain basic facts like the shortest distance Between point A and point B is always what a straight line, but I don't have to do that with God.

I don't have to do that with God. God is God is and the Bible makes no effort to prove the existence of God, you know, sadly there are Christian seminaries in our land that try to have that have courses that try to build some sort of I Don't know philosophic reasonings for the existence of God.

That is so sad. I say that is a great waste of time because if you cannot walk outside and see the sky and see the changing of the leaves like we have on a beautiful day today and see the see the Mountains and smell the fragrance of the air and realize that there is God there is something off in your thinking.

There is something wrong with you. The Bible says in Romans 1 20 for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. Being understood by the things that are made like the things I just mentioned even his eternal power and Godhead.

So that they are without excuse. If the created universe is not Speaking to you not revealing to you that there is a God. There is something wrong with your thinking. There is something wrong with your thinking.

God Has Spoken Through His Son

Let me ask you another question here. Do you want to hear God speak? Do you want to hear God speak? Amen, have you ever said I have have you ever said Oh God, I Need to hear you. I need to hear from you speak to me.

Have you ever said that? Amen, and I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. I trust that it's out of a heart that really doesn't want to hear God and yet The Lord has patiently and tenderly Sometimes rebuked me for saying that because as he says here in Hebrews 1 1 and 2 That God has spoken He is not silent.

He has communicated. Did you see what it says God who at sundry times and diverse manners? Spake in time past unto the fathers hath in these last days spoken. He has spake in times past and he has now spoken.

I don't have to wonder what God wants to say to me. I Don't have to wonder what God is but wants to say to me. God is Communicating with you and I he is a God that speaks. He is a God that wants to connect and say something to your heart and to my heart.

God is not silent. He is not just an idea. He is not a philosophy to be thought about. He is a person who has spoken in eternity past and is speaking now. And he'll continue to speak in eternity future.

He is a speaking person. Now in the past here his way of speaking was through prophets. Prophets were those go-betweens the direct interpretation of the word prophet is messenger. God had a message. He got a prophet.

He gave him the message and The prophet would say something like this the word of the Lord and it would say has come unto Isaiah Jeremiah, whatever and if it's God's Word, it would come unto him then he would speak it out.

God didn't choose to sky write his message in the sky. He didn't choose to just whisper it in the ear of Every person at the same time he could have done a lot of different things, but he didn't he spake in time past unto the prophets.

He spake to them, but it also says an interesting thing here. It says he spoke in diverse manners and what that means. He's he spoke in many different ways in Many different ways. Did you ever consider all the ways that God spoke to us in time past as you pick up the Bible and as you just stop at Malachi there and if you just look at the Old Testament all the ways that God spoke in time past.

You know, it begins with Genesis and the wondrous Magnificent tale of creation. Then it goes on and the historical account of the Patriarchs and the Bible moves on with other stories stories about individual people like Esther and Ruth and Job and it moves on to the to the beautiful melodious songs of Psalms to the wisdom of Proverbs to the tenderness of the song of Solomon.

God spoke in many different divers ways. He spoke in whirlwinds Earthquakes he spoke in visions and in dreams and in a still small voice and why did God do that? So many different ways. So many different ways but it seems like we Needed to hear from God in different ways and it and yet in speaking in all those different ways.

Did you know none of them was complete? None of them was the apples absolute end. None of them had all the answers. None of them had all of the things that God wanted to say now hidden in a lot of those ways He spoke were shadows and types and hints and prophecies and all these different ways in these diverse manners.

But the Old Testament alone as it stands is an unfinished story. Do you realize that? It's an unfinished story. It's not complete it's not done as Wondrous as it is and it is the Word of God and God spoke in many ways.

Still small voices dreams, you know, it seems like I've noticed that in our day. There are still Christians who want to be spoken to the way God used to speak they want dreams or Visions or things like that and I don't understand all that and I'm not saying God is limited and God doesn't ever use that but I Would beg you along with the writer of Hebrews.

Don't look for dreams. Don't look for those things. God has spoken now in his Son. And that's the best word. And that's the word God wants you to hear today. You don't need to wait for a dream. You don't need to wait for some special revelation.

Probably won't come. Because God has spoken in his Son and by the work and the life of his Son. And when you turn the pages of the New Testament and you read the fourfold Picture it's like there's this four-dimensional fourfold picture of Christ in the Gospels of Jesus Christ you find that the old suddenly Merges into one voice the voice of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Jesus said he didn't come to destroy that or pitch it out. He came to fulfill it which means he's going to now take the whole thing and bring it to where it needs to be that's what he's going to do that's what he's done and Therefore God's Word to man is fully uttered fully spoken in the Son.

And that's the title of our message for today. Is the best last word? The best last word that's the title today and therefore The word to the Son of God is greater is Greater it is a better revelation.

It is a better revelation than all those other revelations now by saying that we are not putting them down and saying they're bad. But we are saying we have a better revelation. Do we see that we have a better?

Revelation the writer says here in the second verse that of the Son whom he hath appointed Air of all things, you know what an air is an air is someone who receives Everything from the person that is giving it to them.

They get it. They get the full ownership of everything and when he says he is the air of All things that's a tremendous statement. And the reason I think that this is in here is God is trying to show us as he's looking down Both into eternity past and in the future and he's trying to get us to see as far as our eye can see of understanding that.

If we listen to Jesus Christ That we've heard the one that owns everything. Did you ever think about that? The air owns it all he inherits everything and Jesus Christ is the air of all things and that means this Beloved it means he can make good on his word.

He can make good on his promises because he owns all things. Everything all things will be at his disposal all the world all the heavens above and below. All the angels all the demons all things. It doesn't leave anything out.

Everything is under Jesus Christ. He has been appointed air of all things. All the resources of heaven he even said he was as he was leaving. In Matthew there in the Great Commission all power has been given unto me.

Do you remember that verse and here he says that he's the air of all things so he has all power and he has all things and. So with Jesus the important thing to remember about this is that when Jesus Christ makes a promise He has the authority and the position to make good on his word when he says something.

Like in Revelation where it says there shall no longer be death or mourning or crying or pain anymore. He owns death. He owns everything. He is the air of all things and so he can say that and he can back it up because of who he is.

He can make good on his word. Because he is God. I'm from The state of Florida originally. I've been living up here eight years and when I used to live in, Florida I had a friend who was a doctor at the University of Florida.

About 30 miles north of where I used to live as a big research facility. And one day he was showing me around some things there one of the things they had Was an electron microscope. You ever heard an electron microscope supposedly the most powerful microscope.

It was hooked up to computers. It was this huge thing and lasers, and I don't know what all and I asked him well I Mean why do you keep going? I mean how much more is there to see what are you trying to accomplish and he wasn't a Christian.

He said well we believe that by looking through here. We're going to use this as a tool to sort of as a lever to sort of pry off the lid of the secrets of what holds everything together and What is really the force or the glue of everything?

You know and I mean. Well, I mean, I guess that's a good thought. I don't know. But he didn't have. I asked him. What do you call it? He didn't have a name for it. But the scriptures do. Jesus Christ is that force?

He is that glue that holds everything together that owns everything. I don't need an electron microscope. God has spoken. God has spoken and The reason that we can sit here today is Because Jesus Christ is the secret behind everything that exists because in here.

We also see by whom also he made the worlds see he's not only the heir of all things. He's the creator of all things. The reason that the sky is blue is because of him. The reason that the robin sings is because of him.

The reason the grass is green is because of him. He gets to choose those things he gets to do those things because he made all things. He was there back at creation in eternity past. He was there and the reason the things work the way they do is because he made the worlds.

Notice, it's plural there, too. Don't have time to get into all that. This is so different than a prophet speaking, isn't it? Did you know the fastest growing religion in the world is? The Muslim or Islamic religion they recognize Jesus Christ they do he is in their writings they acknowledge Him, but they do not acknowledge this they call him a prophet.

They would relegate him to Isaiah Jeremiah and those others. They are wrong. That is not what these saying Jeremiah and Isaiah is not the heir of all things. They did not create all things. They were not there at the beginning with the Holy Spirit and God Has spoken to us by inspiring prophets and Apostles but in our day he has spoken to us in the person of his son and What he spoke was what he accomplished by his life and by his death on the cross and by his resurrection.

This is what God has said. This is what you need to hear. This is why God said of Jesus Christ after he was baptized. This is my beloved son. Hear ye him. And he didn't just mean audibly he met receive everything about him his life his teaching his ministry his work what he's done and so on and.

So the question for you to answer this morning is Have you listened to the son? Have you heard what he has to say? Have you heard God? Has he spoken to you today? And Really? The question is have you heard him?

Christ Is Better Than the Angels

Well, the other thing I want to just mention briefly here. That's important and we've kind of said it but I just want to say it again because it's so important. The first part of this verse 2 it says hath in these last Days the word last there is an interesting word.

We are living in the last days according to the Bible. Did you know that and You may think well, I Don't. I'm not sure brother Rick. It's been almost 2 ,000 years. That's a pretty long last. Well, God is patient.

God is merciful. God is gracious. I'm thankful. He does not define days like you and I do. I'm so thankful for that. I Wouldn't be standing here today and neither would you be sitting there if he defined time like you and I did.

But we are in the last days, well, what does it mean if it doesn't mean what you and I think it means. What does it mean? Well, it means several things one We've already said this is God's last word to us.

But the other thing it means is this the last days. Begin with the coming of the Sun into the world and we are still living in the last days. Since the days of Christ and that is the last days of history as we know them.

Before the full and final establishment of the reign of Christ forever and ever. Let me give you an illustration that maybe to help you understand it. During wartime in a war the last days of the war are those days that come after the final decisive battle or the final decisive Bomb or whatever this that lets you know.

Everybody knows who's going to win, but you know in most wars after that decisive battle. There are other battles that follow let me give you an example from World War 2 August the 6th 1945 the United States did an awful thing.

They did a terrible thing. They unleashed the most powerful bomb that's ever been exploded on the surface of this earth. The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And on that day on August the 6th 100 ,000 people died the power that was unleashed by splitting that small little atom in that fusion nuclear bomb.

Spread out over about a six or seven mile area and a hundred thousand people died. That's an awful thing, isn't it? Well. The war was decided on that day. But the battles were not over three days later a Second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and about 60 or 70 thousand people died on that day.

But it wasn't until about a week later or more. Actually a couple weeks later until September the 2nd that a full and final and unconditional surrender was signed by the Japanese. Now between August the 6th and September the 2nd there were still battles that were fought.

But you know what that was the last days of the war. Those battles frankly didn't matter anymore. I mean they matter to the people that were in them. But the war the decision who is going to win the victor was already decided you understand and That's the days we live in.

The victory is already decided the decisive. The decisive thing has already happened on the cross on Calvary the victory was made death was destroyed. Satan was abolished on that day when Jesus Christ Gave up the ghosts and right before that when he uttered it is finished.

Telestea. Telestea the greatest power that has ever been unleashed on. The history of this earth went forth and the shock waves of that atomic bomb which went five miles or nothing. To the waves that rolled out of that cross that went up through the heavens down into the lowest pit of hell out.

Across eternity past and into eternity future and it's still hitting you and I today that force that can do away with sin and change. Where a man is going to spend eternity was unleashed on the cross that day.

We are in the last days the decisive battle was won on that day on the cross. Amen. Now there are still casualties today just like in World War two, but the battle is won. And we need to see that and that's why we're in the last days.

And when we see it that way we begin to understand a little bit about what's going on and things begin to line up in Our heads in our hearts about who Jesus is and what he really did on that day. This is the Word of God.

This is what God has spoken in past. He spoke through the prophets. But today he's spoken through his son and what he said in his and what his son has to say is That he died on that cross and he was resurrected.

That's what God has to say to you and I today. That's what God has to say to you and I today. He doesn't have anything else to say that's his last word. Do you know there's no third covenant coming? There's no third phase.

There's no special better revelation coming. This is God's Word and Man must deal with it because God has dealt with man mercifully. Mercifully, but he has dealt with man. Who being the brightness of his glory brightness here actually means the out?

Shining the out. Raging it means he is the light being it means he is the light Carrier all of those things. He is the brightness the brightness of his glory. It's just like you and I we cannot understand the true Glory or the true shining of the physical Sun because we cannot look Upon it with our naked eye in its full force.

We have to see its effects we have to see the radiance of the Sun through the Sun rays and its effect on this earth of growing things and and Healing things and heating things and so Jesus by looking at him.

We see the out raining the out shining the radiance of God in the person of Jesus Christ as he said to Philip that day if you have seen me you have seen the Father and That's why the next part is also true.

It says he's the express image and the word express image there in the Greek is where we get our word Character and what it literally means he is he is like this steel Engraving image of God himself. It's just like if you want to make a coin you make a steel engraving mold and that mold puts the exact Image in steel upon that coin and that's what God is.

He is the express character and image engraved upon who he is of God himself and That is why if you want to know about God if you come here to learn about God. The way to the Father is through the Son the way to the Father Is through the Son.

He is the express image Upholding all things by the word of his power. We mentioned the atomic bomb a minute ago. The amount of power that was released. Really all we did when we split the atom is I'd rather say it's like we untied Something there and when we untied it and loosed it we loosed the power That Jesus Christ put in it because the Bible teaches us in Colossians that he not only created all things But he sustains which means he holds all things together and when we untied one of those little teeny Things you and I can't even see except if we have an electron microscope, by the way.

The power that was unleashed Was awesome. It was awful. But it was awesome. It's just a little touch not even a drop in the ocean of the power that he does. But he upholds all things by the word of his power.

The Cross Purges Sin and Accomplishes Redemption

Well, the other thing that I want to talk about here for a few minutes is it says that when he had by himself purged our sins Purged our sins now we live in a world that is desperate for redemption. They may not know it.

But they are. We need to be brought back out of a state of hopelessness and restore to that right Relationship with God and the number one thing that keeps us from that is sin. It's sin. Why is it that nothing really completely satisfies?

Why is it that nothing really? Does The trick so to speak. Why is it that so many people in a world where there's so many gadgets so many things so much to do hundreds of television stations millions of movies.

Entertainment galore that the suicide rate increases exponentially every year. I Tell you the reason it's sin. Because none of that stuff satisfies it never has and it never will and the reason is sin.

Sin is a reality you open up the book of Romans. You will have to come to terms with the fact that sin is not just a little Problem. It's that sin has a grip upon every human being on this earth. You were born with the sin nature and the main problem with sin.

Beyond that you have a sin nature is that men choose to sin? It's as if they cannot help themselves. They do not have the power or the ability to purge themselves or get rid of it. They do not have that ability.

You know if it's like they're infected with some disease. But the problem is it's self-inflicted. If I were to have a syringe up here or full of some horrible cancer. Disease of cancer and I would say well who wants to come up and let me infect you with this cancer.

Let me impute it or put it into your system and it won't hurt. In fact, it'll feel pretty good. You'll sort of enjoy it for a while. And oh, by the way, you'll be dead in less than six months nobody would come up here and Yet we drink the cup of sin willingly because we think it tastes good or feels good or and.

Yet the sad thing is we don't seem to be able to help ourselves. I don't have the power. We know it will kill us. Sin is a destructive thing. Sin is an awful thing. It wastes a man. It wastes his life.

It wastes his spirit. It wastes his soul and it wastes him for all eternity. Sin is an awful thing. The other problem with sin is God is angry with sin. The Bible says in Psalm 2 that God is angry every day.

It's sin. We don't say that very much in the 21st century here. You know. We live in the 21st century over here where we hear God is love. God is love. God is and he is amen. And now back in the 18th century in Jonathan Edwards day.

He preached a sermon. What was it called sinners in the hand of an angry God? They talked about God is angry at sin. God is angry at sin and somewhere between the 18th century and 21st century we need to get this thing together don't we and depending on where you are in your theology you need both and Thank God for both.

I'm glad God is angry at sin because that means he's going to do something about it and he did something about it. And he did something about it in the person of his son the cross and because of that the cross is an expression of two things a Just anger of a holy God.

It's sin just like they understood back in the 18th century, but also the incredible love and mercy of A God that would die. Amazing love how can it be that thou my God should stop for me and that on the cross came together the anger of God and the love of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Why do you think God is begging you to hear his son? This is the reason. This is the reason God is pleading with you. Now. He will not plead with you forever. God will not strive with man forever. There will come a day when God will stop speaking.

I hope that shocks you just a little bit. God is still speaking present tense continuously. But you know, there'll be a day when God says enough and he will not speak with man anymore. Sin is a great offense against God and it was Jesus Christ alone who by himself.

Notice the emphasis of the personal pronouns there by himself purged our sins. Purged our sins. And what did he do after that? Another one of the themes of the book of Hebrews is he's he sat down. He sat down it's finished young people.