If God had chosen to remain hidden in thick darkness, all the science in the world could never have penetrated one inch through that thick curtain of darkness. The battle fleets nowadays have those mighty, million candle-power search lights that make the ocean as light as day; but they could never have pierced the thick darkness in which God dwelt until he was pleased to reveal Himself. He has done it, and done it in the fullest possible way. He has come forth in the Person of the Son of God. God has manifested Himself in the Son. What a privilege we have, who were born in this age. I have read history somewhat, and I read about men like Julius Caesar. He was born before the Lord Jesus ever came into this world, and he never heard of Christ. Why was I not born then? O, I was born in what we call A. D.—the year of our Lord. You and I were born since that blessed One came into this world, and what a privilege we have! It was not our choice but God chose to place you and me in this favored position. How our hearts ought to well up in thanksgiving to Him that ours is such a favored place!
God has spoken in the Person of the Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things. Everyone else is a usurper. The world is divided up into kingdoms and countries, and you can get books that will give you the list of all the countries and the size of their territories, but in one sense they are all usurpers, for it all belongs to Him, and He is heir to all things.
“Whom He hath appointed heir of all things” —not this poor little puny world only. He is Heir of all things—and that is the One we read about in this same verse who has made purgation for sins. When one stops to contemplate the plan of salvation, he is simply overwhelmed. The grandeur of the plan by which God has been pleased to deal with the question of your sins and mine is beyond all human amazement. And it would have taken this same plan with all its marvelous sacrifice and infinite wisdom, if you were the only sinner that ever lived. It would all have been necessary to take care of Adam’s sin, if no other man had ever been born. Yes, by one man sin entered into the world, and so death passed upon all men. Yet, the One that put away that sin, is the One who is Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.
Not so long ago, Brother M. and I were having meetings down in Iowa. It was a cold winter night, and when we got out of the car and turned off the lights, were irresistibly led to gaze up into the canopy of heaven, and we simply stood aghast as we saw the expanse of the heavens. It was unusually clear that night. The milky way was just white with stars, and the glory of the heavens was an unforgettable sight.
Of whom do you suppose we were thinking? We were thing of the One who spread the canopy above our heads. O, the glory of that Person!—and He is the One who died for us! Can we put those two things together?
Our poor little minds simply cannot take it in. You know, I think it is a good thing for all of us once in a while to take time to gaze into the heavens at night and think how great they are, and how small we are;—and then to think the One who put them there, made purgation for our sins! Our heads fairly reel as we gaze into that expanse, and I wonder if the human mind could stand it just to gaze and gaze and let the vastness of it grow upon one. It seems to me that human reason would crack under the strain.
The One who hung on the middle cross made that expanse. How great is it? The most powerful telescope man has ever invented only sees more of what they have already seen. Out in California one of these days, if God permits, astronomers are going to gaze through a 200-inch reflector telescope, and they will be able to see four times as far as they have ever seen before. Christians, what will they see? Will they see an end to that expanse of starry heavens? You know they will not. They are just going to see more of what they have already seen—and yet some of those stars are so far away that if they had been blotted out of the heavens 2,000 years ago we would not know anything about it, because the light would still be coming from them. It takes only eight minutes for the light to get from the sun to the earth—but here are stars so far away that they might have been blotted out two millenniums ago, and we would not know the difference. Who made all that?—We know it was the blessed Son of God.
God has spoken in the Person of the Son, by whom also He made the worlds. “Who being the brightness of His glory” or “the outshining of His glory and the expression of His person (or substance), and upholding all things by the word of His power.” I think creation is marvelous—but to me there is something more wonderful still, and that is the fact that not only did He create them, but all down through the untold millions of years that those orbs have been shining there, He has been upholding them. He upholdeth all things—and that is the One who died for us, and the One who is going to have us with Himself in heaven forever and ever.
“Upholding all things by the word of His power” —O, the marvelous dignity of that One. He upholds, not just this world, but all the universe of God. I can take a baseball and toss it down this aisle, but the moment it leaves my hand my control over it ends; but that is not the way God by the Son made the universe. He started it on its way, but He did not let loose. Every planet and every universe, as it reels through endless space, is held and sustained and kept in its course by that blessed One.
You and I take to the road in our automobiles, and there is a fear attendant upon that kind of travel. Perhaps we don’t go very far until we hear a crash, and there is a lot of excitement, and something has happened. It is such a common occurrence that everybody here has seen something like that. Things have gone crisscross. There has been a collision, and there is a racket and a noise—and perhaps there is suffering and possibly death. There is the same danger whether you travel by car or by train. Dear old Brother Close spoke along this line one time, and he said, “Whenever man makes anything, he always puts a repair shop right alongside of it.” The moment you hear of an automobile, you hear of a garage where you can get it fixed; the moment you get a lovely watch, you immediately think of a shop that will fix it when it goes wrong.
Well, beloved, He upholds all things. How many of those planets and stars have had to be laid up for repairs? He upholds all things by the word of His power. That is the blessed Lord Jesus, the One who made purgation for sins, and in whose presence we are going to be forever and ever. We are going to enjoy what He enjoys, and be heirs and co-heirs with Him. What a future! Would you not like to be a child of God? Wouldn’t you like to know that when you get through down here you are going to be with the Man who built the sky, forever and ever? And you know, all the saints of God down through the ages who have lived and gone on, have been made heirs of that same glory. They are going to be with Him, and in a certain measure they are enjoying the blessedness of His presence now. They will enjoy it in fuller measure a little later on. That is the portion of everyone for whom He made purgation of sins.
“By the word of His power” —not by the power of His word. What does that mean? I take it to mean this: All power in heaven and in earth is His, but the way He manifests that power is by His word. For instance, as He came up to the tomb of Lazarus, Lazarus had been lying there corrupting, stinking, for four days. As the Son of God approaches that tomb, the power is all there, but it is the word that makes it effective. The word that said “Lazarus come forth” was in itself that which gave that carcass to be suddenly transformed into life—real pulsating human life—and come forth into light and life and joy, and association with the best that this world had —back to his loved ones, back to his home, and back to the side of the Son of God. It was the power manifested by the Word. Isn’t that wonderful? Some day that same power is going to be manifested on behalf of every one of us in this room who knows the Saviour. O, yes, it is going to work in you mightily, and when it works in you, it is going to take you right up into the glory of God, and you will inhabit that place forever and ever with Him.
(To be continued)