Hebrews 1:1-3
Before opening my subject tonight, I would like to mention two instances that we get in the Acts of the Apostles. In chapter 16 when the Apostle Paul was speaking at Philippi, you find a woman there whose heart the Lord opened to hear the things that were spoken by Paul, and she got a blessing that day that she is enjoying tonight. In the next chapter we find that same servant of the Lord, Paul, under different circumstances. He is speaking in another city, and the people say, “Let us go and hear what this babbler has to say.” It is the same servant, preaching the same gospel, but think of the difference in the attitude of his hearers!
Any blessing that you, or the speaker himself, can get tonight depends upon our attitude of soul. Are you here thinking, “What will this babbler have to say?” or are you here to attend to what the Lord has to say? If that is our attitude of soul, we can’t help but get blessing.
I want to speak in a very simple way tonight of some of the blessings that are ours because we have been called to heaven, and of the glories of that blessed Person who is there waiting for us. We have it brought out so wonderfully in the book of Hebrews.
We suppose that the book of Hebrews was written to the Church at Jerusalem. It is unlike the other epistles, because it has no salutation and no signature. Perhaps the reason why Paul hid himself (for no doubt he wrote it), was because he was conscious of the intense prejudice that existed at Jerusalem against him, because he had turned aside from his Pharisaical Judaism, and had cast it aside, and had accepted unreservedly the Messiahship of Christ. So, in order not to provoke antagonism against his message, he hides himself. Also, he does not care to direct their thoughts to any other apostle, because he is going to tell them about the Great Apostle and High Priest of their profession, Christ Jesus.
Think of the religious background of those to whom the apostle brings out the truths he states in Hebrews. There in Jerusalem was firmly entrenched for ages, that religious system of things which at the start was given by God, but like everything else committed to man, had become corrupt. Yet the more corrupt it became, the more boastful it became. When Paul was writing this epistle, no doubt the most outstanding thing in that great metropolis was the religion of the Hebrews. No doubt the grandest building there was the temple, with its gold and silver and magnificent stones, and all the grandeur that was attendant upon its ritual. And the people were proud of their ancestry, proud of their religion, and very much inclined to look with contempt upon anything outside their own circle.
In that great city were some believers. They were in the minority, and they were keenly conscious that they were surrounded by this great system of things that denied everything they held dear. That system of things laid claim to the earth, and if those in it were asked to demonstrate what they had religiously in this world, they could point with pride to many evidences of it. They could point to that temple, to the dignity of the priesthood, and to that magnificent and elaborate worship, and they could cite the generations that lay back of that system. But here in that same city were little groups of simple believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if they were challenged to produce some credentials for what they held, there was nothing tangible to which they could point. They had no building, no temple, no ordained priesthood, no enlarged borders, to their garments. All they had was the Word of God, and there were no promises connected with their system that gave them title to this earth. All their promises as Christians connected them with heaven. No wonder there was a temptation to give up attachment to the unseen and turn back to something which the senses could appreciate.
That is the situation in which these Hebrew Christians found themselves. Paul is writing this epistle, led by the Spirit of God, to encourage them in their heavenly hopes and to keep their eyes fixed above, where He is. He is saying in effect, “Don’t turn back to earth. Hold on a little longer—just a little longer.”
He starts out by opening up to them the glories and the dignity of that blessed One to whom they were attached by faith.
“God who at sundry times and in divers 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, 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.” Heb. 1:1-3.
When one reads that opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he just feels how impossible it is to do justice in speaking of such a revelation. Our brother in preaching the gospel last night referred repeatedly to what we have here— “God hath spoken.” O, what a thing that is! Have you heard Him? I wonder if everybody here tonight is a child of God. When one faces an audience of this size, he feels that there may be someone here who is not saved. Remember, “God hath spoken,” and, friend, He has spoken to you! If it is God who has spoken, would you not do well to take heed?
In the room where we have been holding the three day’s meetings, my glance wandered several times to that large picture of the King and Queen hanging on the wall, and I thought, “What a hush would come over this audience if they should come walking out on that platform.” Then I thought, “Suppose they should start to speak from that platform. What a tremendous hush would fall over the audience, and what attention would be given to what they said!” And yet, in our midst is a Greater than Solomon, a Greater than King George, a Greater than the Queen. Here we read that God hath spoken. Friend, it is worth listening to what He has said.
How has God spoken? In times past He spoke unto the fathers by the prophets. It was God that spoke. But the marvel of marvels is, that in these last days He has chosen to speak unto us in the Person of the Son. We will never be able to fathom the wonder of that, but we will marvel at it through all eternity. God came down in the Person of the Son, and God has spoken to us. Isn’t that wonderful! How much do we appreciate it?
(To be continued)