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Brightness of the eternal glory.
Shall I Praise On Uttered Lie 179.
Thinking of this verse in respect to the three readings that we anticipate together.
Moses spinning verse 10.
Especially the day.
That thou stood us before the Lord thy God in Horeb.
When the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days, that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
Well, I think of Moses recalling 40 years earlier.
This wonderful moment in the camp of Israel, perhaps with such freshness to gather around the Lord himself there to be blessed.
And how we would write that the spirit of that would never leave us, never leave his people.
And we think of this dispensation almost 2000 years have gone by and I believe we can say that God intends that the way the dispensation began.
That it would close. That way nothing changed and we.
Are can still have the spirit of sitting as learners at his feet and to sing his praises together.
And then in verse 7, dropping down in verse 7 a little bit, it says, Who hath God so nigh unto them?
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As the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for.
Shall we ask for his continued blessing?
Not think I'm if I'm over bold.
I have an exercise a little and wondered if we couldn't have. It's already been brought before us in our brother's prayer.
I mean, before I was thinking of the person, the glories, the heavenly glories.
Those eternal glories of our blessed Lord Jesus as we have set before us in Hebrews chapter one, Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. I was just wondering whether we might just spend an hour.
On this passage. And if some brother has something else, well, and this might just be served as an introduction into something else someone other your brother may have for us this afternoon.
Hebrews chapter one.
It was sundry times, and diverse manners spake and kind passed on to the fathers by the prophets after 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, being made so much better than the angels, as he had by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they for unto which of the angels?
Said he, at anytime, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And again, when he bringeth in the first he got him into the world, He sat, and let all the angels of the of God worship him, and of the angels he said, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers aflame of fire?
But unto the sun he said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord in the beginning hath laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens.
Are the work of thine hand they shall perish, but thou remainest, and they shall all wax old, as doth the garment, And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, But thou art the same, In thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels set thee at any time sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth?
To minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
Apostle to the Gentiles is writing to his Hebrew brethren.
Many of them had heard the Lord Jesus when he was on earth. They heard him speak.
And they had heard the apostles too.
And they've seen those wonderful miracles wrought by the Spirit of God, as we get in the second chapter.
And many of them had believed of the salvation of their souls.
But there was a tendency on the part of those deer, Jewish Hebrew Christians.
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To to go back. To turn back to what they had just left. Judaism.
And the apostle is seeking to set before them.
One who was infinitely superior, one who was infinitely above all they ever had before.
And I know something which was entirely A heavenly high priest.
The Lord Jesus.
Has passed through the heavens, and he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And this is the one that the Apostle sets before his brethren, seeking to draw their hearts away from earthly things.
And.
One was thinking how much there is all around us 1001 Things.
Wherever we are.
Whether it's that Satan is seeking to distract and keep us occupied with earthly things, but we're a heavenly people.
We belong to heaven.
And it isn't going to be long before our Savior is coming and he's going to take us to be with himself for the end a little while, he tells us in the 10th chapter. A little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. It won't be long.
I'm thankful our brother suggested this portion because I had this chapter on my heart as well. And what I've appreciated recently in the book of Hebrews is to see that Hebrews opens up to us, the heavens, so that we can look up by faith and be occupied with the person of Christ and brethren. That's what we need. As these meetings begin to unfold before us and we take up a portion like this, let's seek by faith to get a fresh glimpse of the lovely man in the glory.
I believe Hebrews presents to us the results of the work. It's His ascension and enthronement that is taken up in the book of Hebrews. Of course the work itself. But the results of that work are what are particularly before us in this book. Because I've sometimes said the the Ascension and the Glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. Do we want any proof this afternoon that God is satisfied with His Son and the work that was accomplished here to the glory of God?
If we want proof, just look up by faith into the opened heavens and see where God has placed him as a result of the work. And I might just say that too, that when the Lord Jesus was here in this world, there was a You often find the heavens opened because there was an object in this world that was worthy of Heaven's attention. And so you read of the Heaven's opening and all heaven, gazing down at that perfect man, wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, the One who was doing the will of the Father here in His pathway.
And who could say at the end of it all I have glorified thee on the earth, and finished the work that thou gavest me to do. And so the heavens would open, and heaven would gaze at that wondrous object here in this world. And a voice declare, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But I believe, brethren, the heavens are opened for us this afternoon, not so much that heaven can look down, but so that we can look up by faith and be occupied with the one that God would always occupy his people with.
And that's why in the book of Hebrews 2 you have four times that the Lord Jesus spoke of as seated at the right hand of God. You have it in this chapter in the third verse, in connection with his having made full atonement, He's made the purification for sin. Mr. Darby's translation. In the 8th chapter you have him seated as our high priest. In the 10th chapter you have him seated having offered himself as the supreme sacrifice.
And in the 12Th chapter you have him seated as the object for faith as we pass through this world in the path of faith and service.
And so I think it's helpful, as we take up this chapter and as we look at the book of Hebrews, to see that it's God presenting to us his Son and where he is now and the place he has been given as a result of the fact that he glorified his God, his Father, here in this world.
I'd like to ask our brother Don in the last address, he began with a statement.
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That began with.
The Son of God becoming the Son of Man, in order that the sons of men become the sons of God. Could you bring that to us again, Don?
Good. I'd like to hear you say it.
The Son of God became the Son of man, but the sons of men.
Might become the sons of God.
Another thing that is exceedingly precious in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The work you were mentioning, Jim, is extremely important and a very vital thing for us to hold. But what we get so much in the beginning of the book is the glories and the value of the person of Christ who he was in his person and it seems.
That that is the primary focus at the beginning of the book up through the 1St 8 chapters. When you get into the Chapter 9 and 10, you get more of his work.
His work is mentioned in this first chapter and the second chapter and brief references. But if you look at verse 3, for example, there's little phrases and it almost entirely speaks of the value and the glory of the person of Christ. Because it is so important for us to understand that that's what gives value to the work of Christ, and so it is the glory of his person. And the more we get occupied with Him, brethren, the more our hearts are going to be drawn after him.
It was mentioned at the beginning. Uncle Clem mentioned that.
These Jewish believers were in danger of going back to their Jewish form of religion. We're living in a day of a lot of outward religious profession and brethren, even as gathered to the Lord's name. There can be a danger of us to getting occupied with mere outward forms, not realizing that Christianity is not a form of religion Christianity.
Is a glorious person that God is occupying us with now and will for all eternity. This is Christianity, and it's a person, glorious person of God's beloved Son in all his glorious presented. And there's nothing that will draw your heart and mind like being occupied with Him, Brethren, That's the attraction in Christianity.
In Judaism, it was an enclosure.
And they were forcefully bound by the dictates of the law.
And to go across that line was death. But in Christianity there is no enclosure, There is a center of attraction, and it's the person of the Lord Jesus. Redemption. The work is necessary, like you mentioned, Jim, because that's the foundation of all blessing. But I think it is tremendous to see in this book that it is the person in all his glory that is presented.
Because that's what gives value to the work.
Is that though that word God hath spoken?
We pray what is brought before us here is the is, the is the value of the Word of God, and what the Word of God is, is to God and what it ought to be to us. We read in the Psalms is 138 Psalms it not.
It says.
The Oh, dear.
He hath magnified that was magnified thy word above thy name.
What a tremendous statement that is that was magnified thy word above thy name. Well, in the Old Testament we have the God used vessels and certain ones at different times.
Holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God used them as mouthpieces. But now it's it's the Son who is speaking. It's the Son, the Son of God himself, God. He is God, and it's God who is speaking. Oh, how solemnizing that that ought to be to me. It is God who is speaking. And we have. They heard his. They heard him speaking those days.
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But he's gone. He's gone up to heaven and he's gone. But we have the word of God. We have the word of God. And we have what is this more wonderful still. We have the word of God, the precious Word of God, that which abides forever.
Another claim that this is God's last voice for man. He has no other voice for man after his son.
And it really is a voice to these Hebrew believers. It is true there is always the possibility of declension in the human heart.
But the word of the Son to this nation, to these Jewish believers, is to go on from the earthly religion that God had given to be occupied with the Son of man in heaven, The Son of Man brought from heaven the message. And he said, we speak that which we know, and we testify of that which we have seen, And the danger was to not go on from that system.
And be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory. And so the apostle sets out systematically to to show the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ over every element of that religion that they had received from God. And so he sets before them as the Son, speaking in order to transfer their thoughts from earth to heaven.
Judaism is going on to its judgment.
In the days of the Lord Jesus.
And the God is going to destroy that whole system, and in fact he had judged it in the cross.
And but he had judged that whole system in the cross.
And the time was coming, was drawing near when those Roman armies were coming. We're going to destroy the cities of those wicked men.
And.
They burnt the temple and destroyed everything. It was God's judgment upon a system which he was finished with, which they had corrupted.
But all holes. The characteristic word in Hebrews day is better. And so all through the book we see that it's a better person, far better than all the prophets of the Old Testament. This glorious person, God's own beloved Son. There were better sacrifices. They were only figures and shadows. But the Lord Jesus was the one perfect sacrifice. We have a better portion for them to have an earthly portion was a wonderful thing. That was a good land God gave to them.
But we have a heavenly portion and it's very, it was very difficult for them because all this originally had been given of God. It was given of God as a shadow of good things to come. But now the better thing had come, just like as if you had a photograph of somebody and you love to look at that photograph, but then the person comes to visit you and you say, I'm not interested in looking at you, I'm going to look at this picture that I've got here that satisfies me.
You would be very hurt that they were still occupied with the picture when you were there, the person of whom the picture was taken.
And that's the blessedness of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And God would have us brethren, to be occupied with this glorious, this better person. Wonderful prophets there were in the Old Testament that God raised up, but they all were only figures of the one who was the great prophet of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The work that he accomplished in superior. They thought a lot of angels too, but he was above the angels.
And that's what our hearts need to be occupied with, is this glorious person.
And the more we are occupied with him, the more it will produce a result in our lives. Part of the result and a good part of it, will be that this religion that was given to Israel, although it was a pattern of things in the heavens, it kept them here because all their thoughts were associated with earth and what God had given them in connection with the earth. But now He wanted to draw their hearts heavenward. And that's what God wants to do with us, brethren.
It's wonderful to think of all his mercies to us and all his goodness, but he wants everyone of us to be occupied with this.
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Glorious person, The glorious work that he has accomplished. The glorious home that awaits us.
And that we would be content in the meanwhile to be here as those who are just strangers here, going outside the camp to be gathered to his glorious name, offering to him the praise and worship of our hearts.
The temple in Hebrews. The temple was for the land.
And the temple speaks of rest, that after they by the grace of God they have been brought into the land. Then we read later on we get the building of the temple. It's it was had to do with earthly things. But the Tabernacle God had called Moses up into the mountain. He called him up into the mountain and there he was given the pattern of heavenly things. Oh what a wonderful thing as we think of that Tabernacle.
How it all speaks of Christ everywhere.
But it's one thinks of how that in that Tabernacle God brings the whole universe together in a very short compass and we read in the.
In the 16th of Leviticus, Howard Aaron. On the Great Day of Atonement.
How would the blood of the goat and the and the the sacrifice he passed through?
Those He passed through, and the both of those veils, and He presented the blood there. He sprinkled the blood upon the mercy seat.
And seven times before it, well, the Lord Jesus has passed through the heavens.
He's entered in not with the blood of bulls, that of the ghosts, but with his own blood.
And He has entered in once into the holy place. There He is obtained eternal redemption.
And with that work done, he takes his seat and he sits down there in the highest place in the majesty of God.
The eternity of his person is brought out too, isn't it? Because at the end of the second verse he says by whom also he made the world's brethren. Who is this one that we're Speaking of? Is he simply the one who became Son? No, he's the one who was the Son from a past eternity. And we only have to go back to Proverbs chapter 8 to find that when creation he laid the foundation of creation. Then it says I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight rejoicing all way before him.
In the habitable part of the earth. And so it brings before us the eternity of the person that we're Speaking of. And I've been impressed with that little expression there in Proverbs 8. I was daily His delight because it's true, He was the delight and joy of the Father as He walked here in this world and accomplished the work of eternal redemption at the end of His perfect pathway. But He was also the delight of the Father from a past eternity. I was daily His delight.
Have sometimes said, I don't have any sons, but I do have two daughters. And while I love those daughters very much, I can't honestly say they're daily my delight. Some days because of their actions they grieve me. But here was a son who was daily the delight of the Father. Never did one thing to please himself. Even Christ pleased not himself and could say with perfect confidence at the end of His pathway. I have glorified thee on the earth and have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
He could say, at the beginning of His pathway I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And so this is the one brethren that God would now have us to find our joy and delight in, the one that He finds His joy in, the one who was daily the delight of the Father from a past eternity. Now he says, you just look up. The heavens are opened. You see where I've seated him? You see the name I've given him?
You see the place of exaltation that he has now, as a result of his pathway and his work through this world. Now he says, I want you to be occupied with this one. And brethren, there's a little prayer that we sometimes sing when we're gathered together. Fix our earnest gaze, so holy Lord on thee, that with thy beauty occupied we elsewhere none may see. And I have to say for myself, I often sing that little prayer when it's given out in meeting.
And yet, I wonder how much it really means to my own heart. Is that really, as these meetings begin to progress this weekend, is that really the earnest desire of your heart and mind? When we were young people, we often sung that hymn in the echoes of grace. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And what's the result? Well, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Young people, what are you placing value on? What are you working for?
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What are your goals and aspirations? Well, if you have your eyes on Jesus, if you're looking off to the man in the glory and he's captivating your mind and your heart, then it takes care of the things down here. Necessary things, yes, things that we need to get through this life. Yes, concerns burdens on that are right and proper in their place. But what is your heart set on this afternoon? What is my heart set on?
Is not trying to put those things aside as something difficult to give up. But, brethren, I believe in the measure in which we are affections. Go out to this person that we're Speaking of. From the first chapter of Hebrews, the measure in which our hearts are captivated by him and our gaze is captivated by him. By faith in that measure, these things of earth will indeed grow strangely dim. Oh, I say, we need to have the person of Christ before us.
And may the Spirit of God indeed direct our gaze and our hearts to this blessed one.
Would have the same one for our object that he has for his.
It goes right on here in this next second verse hath in these last days spoken.
Unto us by his son, what's the next thing? Whom he has appointed heir of all things? The failure of man, the failure of Israel under the law, hasn't changed God's plan one bit. He's going to set his son up.
Air of all things. And this chapter goes on and God looks at it.
So that when he says, when he brings in his first begotten into the world, he says.
Let all the angels of God worship him. He looks at the coming of the Lord Jesus to take that inheritance.
He's not coming alone. He's going to have sons and daughters with him. So Don's statement, the Son of God became the son of man in order that the sons of men might become the sons of God in order to come back and share in that inheritance that he is 1. We can look at all these things and just go on and on.
Then we then we get the heirs, and we are joint heirs with Christ. So if you eat elsewhere, yeah, what?
Of Israel. Their inheritance was that promised land and they never could keep it because of their disobedience. Even what they laid claim to. Right now, they're having to give up piece by piece. It's interesting. They can't hold on to it. They cannot do it. But here's one that's not heir of the land of Canaan. He's heir of all things. He is the heir declared to be. So I think it's interesting rather than that it speaks of.
Being the heir of all things before it even speaks of the creation of the worlds.
Isn't that interesting? I don't know that we would have put it that way, but I suppose that it means in the counsels of God, this was declared to be so before there was any world in existence. Then the time came when this same special person that we're talking about was the One Who.
Who made the worlds and the world's? I understand it could be translated the universe.
Man can't get an idea of the vastness of the universe, and here's the one.
Who not only is the heir of all things, but he made the whole universe.
In its extension, the more the more powerful telescopes they get to lookout into the universe. I understand there are millions of light years, perhaps billions, now that they can look out. They cannot find the end of it. And here's one who by the word of his power spoke it all into existence. O brethren, young people, this is the God that is revealed himself.
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In the person of the Lord Jesus. This is not a figment or invention of man's mind, as sometimes we're accused of doing when we speak about God. This is a God, that is.
Infinite in his being, it is impossible for us to know him, except that he reveal himself. He made the universe. Just think of it necessarily greater than the universe, this person we're talking about.
Why did he make so many of those great, those great, massive orbs that whirl in space?
Why everyone is a glory, and everyone sits, reflects the glory of the Creator. Everyone, every one of those mighty orbs. One thinks of the lines of our dear Christian poet. Those mighty orbs proclaim thy power, their motions speak thy skill, and on the wings of every hour we read thy patients still. But I was thinking there was a how precious it is that.
When you think of the greatness of that one, but it was not his greatness.
Displayed though in his humiliation he became nothing, and one thinks of one thinks of a dearer mind, like dear Mr. Bellet of the last century.
Oh, how in his last days he enjoyed He seemed to have a he seemed to have a such a rich sense of the Lord's presence with him, he says. And he could, he could say.
By it is with the man. It is the man Christ Jesus, with whom I'm going to dwell.
The very man of Saikar who sat upon the well.
And tis the one it is him who stayed to call Zacchaeus from the tree, the one who hung up on the cross, the man who died for me. Well, when we think of his greatness, it almost it carries us out of ourselves, and carries us away from this world. But one to think that he was down here as a blessed, lonely man, and he loved the little children. He took them up in his arms, and He blessed them.
And then he went on to the cross of Calvary to die for you and me.
It says in John.
Certainly not to distract anyway from what has already been brought before us as to his eternal sonship and his existence as Son within the Godhead. But when he came and took his place as the as the faithful servant of God, he was owned in sonship at that place. This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight. And so it is as man that he has been made heir of all things.
And he will inherit as man. When he comes back as the Son of Man, he says, all judgment is delivered unto his hands because he is the Son of Man. So when we have him here as speaking, we have him in this world as presenting those heavenly things of which he was familiar, because he came from God and brought them wonderful grace of God down into this scene. But here he is as.
Man in this world.
Communicating to this these Jewish believers, that which he knew so well, because he came from heaven. But he says, man in his place as a servant of God, that these things were begun to be spoken unto us by him, and confirmed unto us by those who heard him.
As he's spoken in Son, and I think that's so wonderful. As we think of the Lord Jesus, he could say he that has seed me has seen the Father. And so as we trace the pathway of the blessed Lord Jesus through this world, we learn what God is. He was the perfect manifestation of all that. God is just to think a man here in this world and walking through this world, the creator of it all. He says he was in the world and the world was made by him and that's why the world is so responsible.
Because in the 15th chapter of John, I believe we have the most solemn condemnation of man that says, if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now they have both seen and hated both me and my father. That is, when the world looked at the Lord Jesus, saw those wonderful works, saw that perfect life of grace and goodness to man, as they saw that and said.
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If that is what God is like, we don't want him. That was the solemn condemnation, and that's why it says that the judgment was going to fall because God had been perfectly manifested now in us, they don't always see as they should. We say we're Christians and they've been born into the family of God, but we're not always Christ. Like we don't always manifest that new life that God has given to us. But there was one in this world that did, and he always did what pleased his father.
He always sought the blessing of man. He went about doing good, but the world rejected him. And that's the one brethren that's brought before us here for the adoration of our hearts. God spoke in Son. He's been here, John could say our hands have handle to the word of life. And he did more than that. He not only displayed what was in the heart of God, but he did a glorious work of redemption, that we might be brought into this place of blessing, that we might share that place in nearness to him forever.
The nearest possible place, because our place is not only to be, as our brother brought out sons of God, but part of the bride of Christ, nothing nearer to you than your bride. And that's the place that He has won for us. And that's why the Epistle to the Hebrews He's bringing before us first the glory of his person, the work that he accomplished and that all plays that he has brought us into to share. Not just the earthly scene, although that's going to be glorious in the eternal state, but the heavenly scene, the best of all.
Because we, brethren, are going to occupy the nearest place to that beloved person of God's beloved Son, our beloved Savior, for all eternity.
The garden that the Lord Jesus was the perfect manifestation of of God. All that God one thinks of. In First Timothy chapter six we get that remarkable scripture.
The 14th, the 15th of which Indian times he shall show Who is the blessed, and only potentate.
The king of kings and Lord of Lords, who only hath immortality.
Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man has seen.
Nor can see to whom the honor and power and everlasting Amen, that that unseen and unseeable God has has been displayed perfectly displayed in all in the perfect life of our Lord Jesus Christ down here. How marvelous it.
In all everything that he did, everything he did, it was God. Everything that he said was God. Every step that he took, it was God. It was God speaking and and.
How wonderful.
When we think of the thoughts of God.
Is it says the Spirit Searcheth all things. Yeah, the deep things of God, or the depths of God. And to think that you and I by grace have been brought to to search out and to know that the the the depths of of that blessed God, the depths of God. And then it says, we have the mind of Christ. All that is in the mind of that blessed Lord Jesus Christ, is all laid open to us. We have the mind of Christ.
I think it's good to just.
To that not only did the Lord Jesus satisfy God as to the work that was given him to do, but he also glorified God. And I believe there's a difference, because I believe to be glorified is to have all the qualities that exalt a person brought into full display. I sometimes illustrate it this way. I may set one of my children to a task, and after they've had ample time to complete that task, I come back and I see that that task.
Has indeed been done to my satisfaction. Everything that I've set before them, they've done to my satisfaction.
No fault with the work that they've completed for me. But while the work was done to my satisfaction, you wouldn't say that I was glorified in what they did. But the Lord Jesus not only satisfied God, that's true. He finished the work that his Father gave him to do. But brethren, he brought into full display every quality and attribute of God the Father. He could say, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do. He was the express image of His person.
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Every attribute and glory of God has been brought into full display for us.
Through the Lord Jesus becoming a man and walking through this world and accomplishing the work of eternal redemption. And that's why now God has glorified Him, given him a name that is above every name. God has glorified the person who glorified him here in this world. So I just say it's good to realize it wasn't just a completed work to the satisfaction of God, but it was a work to His glory as well.
Being the brightness of his glory.
Well, no. It would have been wonderful if it simply said that he came from the glory.
But how much more it is that he he was. He was himself was the brightness. He is the brightness of that eternal glory. He's the brightness of his own self. He's the brightness of that.
Not only did he come from the glory, but he himself is the brightness of that glory.
Go outside during the day, and on a clear day, you can't even stand to look at the sun. It's too bright. But we're not talking here about part of the creation of this person. We're talking about the person himself.
And just to think, brethren, that we're going to look right into his face.
Very soon we're going to be caught into his presence to look straight into the face.
It says in the Book of Revelation his countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength.
The full outshining of the glory of God and the person of the Lord Jesus, just to think of it, brethren.
On those points, to look at what Steven said when he looked up and saw that man in the glory. It tells us in Acts 7 what he saw. And then he tells us what he saw. There's a little bit of difference. Acts 755 He, Steven, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
Now he begins to talk. He leaves out one part of it.
He said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, that is, that person was everything. To Steven, the glory must have been wonderful, but the person was everything.
Hebrew of Ephesians, where the Apostle feels he's there, as it were. He feels and finds himself in the midst of a vast.
Scene of glory. The breadth and length and depth and height. Well, he's lost as it were. And he says, but he says here's something that I can know to know the love of Christ. Which path of knowledge. And this is something that we can all know and enjoy. To know the love of Christ. Even though weakest babe in Christ can enjoy that. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
Chapter one, that he is the image of the invisible God.
And the Lord in his prayer said that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, who thou hast sent. So when we behold him as he walked in this scene, we see the express image of God, Phillip said, Show us the Father, and he could say he that has seen me hath seen the Father. So when he was God manifest in the flesh, he was seen of angels. Here is 1.
As it says in the first chapter of John's Gospel that the only begotten Son hath declared him who has never been seen and cannot be seen. He is the image of the invisible God, that by which we know and recognize God we see and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man in this world.
These Hebrew believers were used to looking at things, seeing things with the natural eyesight. For instance, the disciples would take the Lord to show him the temple and master. See these goodly stones? Well, the Lord tells them there wouldn't be not one stone left upon another. And the time came when the whole thing was destroyed. It was gone. Everything while they were left but but the.
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Really, they were given to see. Christianity is a life of faith. Christianity is a life of faith. And we see and enjoy things far more by faith than these dear disciples ever would ever did. Who who looked by naturally saw things by natural eyesight, even the disciples themselves.
We have this blessing of the word of God and it tells us the thoughts of God.
It tells us out the mind of God and that how wonderful is this pleasant book that we that we hold in our hands.
It's the word of God and what and we think when we think of the Lord Jesus as the Son.
Who continued, as it were the testimony of the of the of the.
Of the Old Testament prophets, Australia.
A continuation of the testament of the Old Testament prophets. And we have the this blessed word of God in our hands to enjoy.
That we're perfect. They serve God, but they made their mistakes too. But here is one who was perfect in everything that he did, and especially in that glorious work of redemption. And so I think we know that in Mr. Darby's translation, it says.
He seated himself, that is, he had a right, and he went back there. He had come sent by his Father in love to do here the work, and he could say at the end of his blessed pathway. Here in anticipation I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do on the cross, after he had borne all the wrath and judgment of God against sin, He could say it is finished. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken from it.
And God doeth it that man should fear before him. That's in Ecclesiastes. So he did a work by which God was perfectly glorified.
And he sat down in his own right and all the glory of his person, as the one who had, shall I say, not only brought in that glorious work of redemption, but told out all that was in the heart of God. Because in the work of redemption there is not only the fact that our sins are put away, but God has been glorified in the one who did it. God has been glorified because we would never known all the love that was in his heart if the Lord Jesus hadn't put away sins by the sacrifice of himself.
We wouldn't have known the holiness of God. We hadn't seen that he couldn't Passover sin, that every transgression and disobedience must receive a just recompense of reward. And when that Lord Jesus in those hours of darkness was suffering, he was bearing every one of my sins and the sins of every believer in this room on that cross. Oh, how wonderful. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high and all the majesty and glory of God's throne.
As light and love has been fully told out, and the person that did it is God himself and God's beloved Son, and there he is well. To go back to all the empty things that were only a shadow of good things to come is to really make little of the finished work of the Lord Jesus and what he has done. So he starts out with that. Just the same as if you want to draw a child away from something that he's playing with, that you think's inferior, you can show him something better.
And he drops the thing and he takes the better thing. And that's what God is doing, He says, here's the better thing. Now look at the others. They're on the shadows of good things to come. But the better thing is all fulfilled in Christ the glorious person and his glorious work. In Ephesians chapter one and verse 20, we find that God has set him at his own right hand because, as we said earlier, the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ.
Our gods, Amen to the work of Calvary. But here is Brother, Hayhoe has pointed out. He seats himself down.
And some of you have heard me use this illustration, but when I was in business, I would often be called to do a job.
For a large company or corporation, and when the job was completed, I usually had an interview with the man who hired me, be he the plant foreman or the owner of the company or whoever it was. And so I would be taken into this man's office to sit down in his presence, to go over the work and to present my invoice. But I have to honestly say that as I sat down in that man's presence, it was rarely with a feeling of real confidence, because there was always in the back of my mind that maybe the job hadn't been done to his satisfaction.
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Maybe I'd left something out, forgotten something. Maybe I hadn't included something in the contract that he thought should have been part of the contract, or something like that, so it was rarely with a feeling of real confidence. But oh brethren, just think of it. It's true. God set him at his own right hand because of what he accomplished here on earth. But just think of the sun returning to the glory and seating himself down in perfect confidence with every right to seat himself down, knowing that not one jot of the work that had been given him to do was left undone.
Sometimes my children come to me and they've done a job for me and there's a little hesitancy because maybe in the back of their mind they feel they haven't finished the job the way I wanted them to do. But not the Lord Jesus. He sat down, I say in perfect confidence, knowing that not one thing had been left undone.
And I sometimes think what a feeling must have passed between the Father and the Son. As God the Father seats him there, and as he seats Himself down, God forever satisfied the Son, knowing that He had every right to take His place there, because everything had been accomplished to the glory and satisfaction of God. And let me just say, too, that in connection with His glories manifested here in this world which we have been speaking, I think it's nice to see that his.
Glories as the son of man.
Are seen in his submission to death, is going into death, and his glories of the Son of as the Son of God are brought into full display as to his power over death. And so John could say that we have beheld his glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. But brethren, just in connection with what Bob said a moment ago about the fact that we're going to see him, the one who is the brightness of his glory, and so on.
That's true. In the coming day the Lord Jesus prayed, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
That they be may behold my glory which thou hast given me. And that's true, brethren, we're going to see it unhindered in the coming day.
But just go to a verse that is for our exercise now in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
In connection with what has been before us, because we don't have to wait until that coming day to behold His glories, we will unhindered. As I say in the Father's house, behold the Lord Jesus, and those glories will shine unhindered. And I'm going to read this in Mr. Darby's translation, 2nd Corinthians 3 and verse 18.
But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord, the Spirit. And so, brethren, this is something for us. Now we can behold His glories. John and the others saw him here in this world, and they saw more than just a man walking in this world. And as those moral glories and perfection shone out, they saw that some even had the privilege of being on the Mount and seeing.
A little glimpse beyond what was generally seen. But, brethren, we have the privilege of looking up, and we have the privilege of looking full in his wonderful face. When Moses came down from the presence of the mount, he had to veil his face, because he had been in the presence of the glory of the Lord on the mount. And the children of Israel couldn't look on his face at that time because he had been there on the mount with Jehovah. But brethren, for us the Veil's been removed.
We can look full in his wonderful face. And as we are occupied with this man in the glory, as these glories and beauties of Christ captivate our gaze and our hearts, then there will be a reflection of Christ in your life and mine. If there's any reflection of Christ in the believer's life, it's a result of the believer looking up by faith and being occupied looking with unveiled face at the glories of the person with whom we're talking.
Oh, brother, let's let's be occupied with him.
That there might be that reflection. God was glorified in the sun when he walked here. Now he wants the Saints to be walking in a way that the sun is glorified in the Saints, and that the perfections of that one, at least in some measure, shine out in your life and mine.
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The verse you quote Jim, we are changed into the same image. But what we have in this verse that he is the express image of his person. Isn't it interesting that we have to be changed because of what we are by nature? It is a process that goes on through this life as we are occupied with the Lord Jesus. But here's one who was that never was anything else but.
That he was the express image of his person. And so if you want to know God.
Jesus, it's been mentioned. He picked up the little children in his arms. He had time for little children. That's our God, brethren. He's interested in the little things, too, of light. We think we're important, and children are too small and insignificant yet to pay attention to. That's not our God, brethren. Our God had time for those little ones.
He picked him up. He laid his hands on them. He blessed him. And so all through his life down here, every step he made, you get a display of what our God is. I think it's so blessed. Adam was set in this world and he was made in the image of God. He was the representation of God in the first creation, but he failed in that. Now God brings out one.
Who is always is, always was the express image of his person. So if you want to know God, look at Jesus. You will see our God in the fullest sense of the word in all his perfection.
I believe is very precious, that is the, he says. This is clear to me as the noonday sun, and that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Son of God of the New.
The whole of the Old Testament is the Son of God of the New. And so how that oh how that brings out the wonderful the Old Testament scriptures to think of the same Blessed One was back there going through along with these people and.
He.
Well, I was thinking about this, this scripture we had before us here, when He had by himself purged our sin, that his, that work of redemption was exclusive.
It was himself who undertook that record. All sin is against God.
And that's what we have in Hebrews is not. It's where we have sin. It's God.
And when He had by Himself purged our sin, he.
All sin is against God, and only God can forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins. Well, how wonderful to think that that blessing won there on the cross was. God took up your case in mind and He put, He put away our sins, put it all away, and furthermore, we had nothing to do with it. Our only part there was our sins and he had and he took it up and he's put them all away.
How wonderful, Peter, didn't he? Thou shalt not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me hereafter. No one could follow him where he was going. It was a work that he alone could do, and he did it alone, he himself. Think of it, brother, in those three hours of darkness and that awful cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He himself made the purgation for our sins.
I think it's helpful to see that in Mr. Darby's translation too, because I believe it's a broader thought here in this first chapter than just having purged our sins. That's true, he has purged our sins. But if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, he's made the purification for sins. That is when the Lord Jesus died on the cross. Or let me back up a moment when man sinned in the garden. Not only did man come under the curse of sin.
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But the whole creation, every level of creation, came under the effects of the curse of sin. And we know today that every level of creation is affected by the curse of sin. We had a beautiful Poplar tree outside our kitchen window, and one summer it got a blight and I went out and looked at it. I think every leaf was affected by that blight. That's part of the curse of sin, and it tells us the whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain as a result of the effects of sin.
But, brethren, isn't it wonderful to think that he's made the purification for sin and that there's a day coming when he's going to take it all back, not just as creator? That's true. That's the 4th of Revelation, but he's going to take it for back in redemption as well. And it will be the fulfillment of what John the Baptist said when he saw that person walking here in this world. He said, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
That hasn't happened yet. We feel the effects and see the effects of sin on every hand.
In fact, in the second chapter of Hebrews, it says we see not yet all things put under him.
We still see open sin and rebellion in mankind and the lower creation affected by sin, but there's a day coming when this creation is not going to feel the effects of sin in the way it does now. Now it's true He's purged our sins, brethren, because in the 10th chapter it says concerning him seated at the right hand of God, that He's seated there having offered himself as the sacrament after He'd offered one sacrifice.
For sin forever sat down on the right hand of God. And there it says by one offering ye a perfected forever them that are sanctified. That is, we've been brought under the blessing of the work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross. But not only are we brought in in this wonderful way, but there is too the fact that there will be. He's made the purification for sin by the grace of God. He's tasted death for everything, not just for every man, but for everything.
And what a day it will be when the fulfillment of this is fully accomplished, don't you think, Brother Ron?
Another thing before we go further on brethren, that metal phrase upholding all things by the word of his power, not only does He is he the creator of all things, He is the sustainer of all things. He keeps it going.
Watch on my arm if a battery runs down it stops and everything if it's not, kept going by some continuous power.
Will rundown. It will fall into a state of disorder.
But this universe not only was made by.
This person, but it is sustained by this person just to think of him.
As he was.
And after he was born and laid in the Manger by his mother in Bethlehem.
There a little babe, and yet at the same time sustaining the whole universe by the word of his power. There he was, hanging on that cross, suffering those intense agonies for our sins, and at the same time sustaining all things by the word of his power. Something that is hard for to grasp, but oh how it does make us.
Fall down and worship before him, brethren, this person we're talking about.
After just as man cannot take his own sins away and deal with his own sins, he cannot undo the effects of what sin has brought into this world. And God was dishonored. This is God's creation. It wasn't brought into ruin by God's actions. People will often tell you that. They'll say, well, if there's a loving God, why does he allow his suffering in the world? It wasn't brought in as a result of God's actions, but God has been dishonored by what has happened in his creation.
But the Son of God coming into this creation, becoming a man, he restored that which he took that away. And the whole environmental movement is a denial of the fact that it is the Son of God who's going to restore that which was taken away. That he is not only glorified God as to the has glorified God as to the question of sin, and that he is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world and will entirely remove its effects. And he alone and man can no more undo the effects of sin and creation.
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And he can, and taking away the moral effects of sin in his own life. I just wanted to come back to what you said, Brother Clem, in connection with Mr. Darby's comment, because I think that there's a very lovely information of this in the very first chapter of the Bible, that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New. And in the very first chapter of the Bible we read in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But it was not until the 4th day that He made the greater light to rule the night.
And the lesser light to rule the day, the lesser lights to rule the night, and so the sun is a distinct body, did not appear until the 4th day, and it wasn't until 4000 years into creation.
Jesus was always this is the true light, that light of every man that cometh into the world. And the Son of God was the one who brought moral light into every soul in the history of this world. But He did not appear until 4000 years later, and that's what we have in our verse, who, being the brightness of his eternal glory, he came into the world and as a distinct.
If I may say, that body was seen there, an incarnation. I think we get that thought there, right from the very first chapter of the Word of God.
That Scripture magnified thy word above Thy name. Well in back in the Old Testament we think of God magnifying his his name. Abraham knew him as the Almighty God, and as Abraham moved up and down.
In the midst of Fracts hostile peoples, he knew God as the Almighty God God made himself known. Well then at the OH after the victory over those kings, the slaughter of the kings, and we Melchizedek arrives on the scene. And then we have him there brought as as as the as the most high God. And that will be his his title. That will be the title that he will take, the Lord will take in.
In the in the In the millennial day, as king and priest, he will he will take the Kingdom and God, and as as the Most High God. Well then at the burning Bush we get.
God speaks to Moses and when he learns God as the I am, I am, the I am.
The eternal God, the ever existing one, the same yesterday and today and forever. Well, God was magnifying his name. And then he told Pharaoh how that he had raised him up. He'd raised him up in order that he might magnify his name.
And so, but when?
We come to the gospel, then we find the Lord Jesus. There we find.
The Lord himself and he is indeed spoken of as the word of God.
There he is, all that at all. It has all come out now. God is.
Glorified He is. It's the word of God God has glorified.
Glorified himself and glorified Him His word above His name, because we just think of the think of the what we have on our hands. Here is the words of the Son of God, as the words of of God's Son as God here and well might the apostle say to his His Jewish brethren. Therefore we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
Lest at anytime we should let them slip. No dear brother just accused me for saying something which is probably maybe a little off. But her brother Norm Berry here in Saint Louis, here a few weeks ago he made a comment and he told us about some things and he said in a meeting that 500 of our brethren have left have left, have left.
500 Well, that was. That's very humbling. What sorrow filled our hearts, filled our hearts as to think of that.
500 of our brethren have left the Lord's hand well the great Troubles. The tendency of these Jewish brethren was to leave was to Christianity and go back to Judaism, or else we find them seeking to attach Christianity to Judaism. But the great thing was going back well, to give up and go back, and how the enemy in this very day enemy of our souls, would seek.
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To get us to give up and to go back. Well, may the Lord help us by His grace and keep our eyes fixed upon him, that blessed man in the glory, our great High Priest who sits at God's right hand, who's put all our sins away and sits there for us, and that we might go on and go forward and not go back.
I like to think of the practical side of that verse. Thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. We know the name of the Lord Jesus is very much used in Christendom. But how are we going to know who that person is? We know him. Everybody knows the expression, the Lord Jesus Christ. But how are we going to know who that person is? This book tells us. And so the word of God is so important, people might say, well, we're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, just as you are.
But we prove their possession. How? By a fact, Whether they use the name. Well, maybe they do use that name, but we test that by the word of God, thou has magnified thy word, above all thy name. One dear brother used to illustrate it used to stand. A person could put out a nice sign in a doctor's office and say he was a physician and surgeon. The sign is very nice, all polished brass and everything. But he doesn't have any diploma inside. Would you be satisfied with the sign? No, you'd say. I want to see that he's a bona fide doctorate. He's got to have.
A certificate that has reliability and authority to give him that title.
And saw Isn't it true, brethren, that every time a person uses the name of the Lord Jesus, we can be thankful to use that glorious name, but we test all that they claim. By the word of God, thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. The person who is here was the full revelation of it in himself. But he's up there in glory now, and we have His word, and His word is truth.
Says to that company Philadelphia, thou hast kept my word and not denied my name.
Met a man last week and he said, well, we meet just exactly as you are. But he said there was a man there who taught unsound things as to the person of Christ. And he said, and I couldn't get anybody to get excited about it, but they had denied the person of Christ. And yet they said they met in the name of the Lord Jesus. They had all the outward trappings and meetings, and yet they denied the person himself. And that's so important that we have the revelation of who he is in his word. And to keep his word and not deny his name, we cannot speak.
Of not denying his name if we don't keep his word.
And that's true in every aspect of our lives, isn't it? We're never justified in doing something, even in the name of the Lord Jesus, without the authority of the word of God for what we do. We might have a desire to go out with the gospel, wonderful when there's a desire, rather than have a desire to spread the word. But if you go out with the gospel, make sure it's in a way that conforms to the word of God. We're not justified even in making known that name in the gospel if it's not done in a way that is in accordance with the word of God.
We've spoke of being gathered to the Lord's name, and questions and decisions come up in the assembly. Things need to be taken up and dealt with. We're never to act in the name of the Lord Jesus without the authority of the word of God for what we do when there was a situation in Corinth that was a situation that needed to be dealt with was a serious evil. But the apostle writes to them by inspiration and leaves nothing unexplained as to how that action was to be carried out.
And it was indeed to be carried out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they were gathered together with the Lord in the midst, they were to do it in his name. But when they acted in the name of the Lord Jesus for his glory and for the clearing of the assembly, they had the authority of the word of God for what they did. So now, if there's a similar situation arises in the assembly, we turn to 1St Corinthians 5. We say, here's the authority for acting in the name. Yes, but here's the authority of the word of God. And brethren, I think this is. We don't want to digress, but I think that they're our brethren here the afternoon and.
There's problems in your home assembly. Things that we, the natural man, says that has to be straightened out, and we want to deal with these things and get them straightened out. Well, we need to act. It's true for the Lord's glory. But brethren, if we don't have a scripture, if we don't have light from the word of God.
As to the action that is to be taken, then I believe that all we can do is commit the matter to the one whose head over all things to the Church, which is his body.
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And if there is a collective exercise in searching of the word of God, than in his time and way he will give a scripture so that when we take the action in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his glory, we can rest our finger our souls on the word of God and say this is the authority we never have. And I want to be careful in saying this, but we never are justified in putting the name above the word.
God says he's put his word above his name, and as our brother Neil says, that is really what called forth the.
Commendation to the Philadelphian Saints. It's the same order as in the 138th Psalm.
They kept his word that's first and not denied his name. Brethren, these things are vital and important.
I think it's instructive too, brethren, to see that.
These Jewish people who were so favored of God in the Old Testament, and to whom the Lord Jesus came and presented himself in all his glory, they were the ones that were turning back again to the form of religion, and we can look at them and say that was them.
But that's our hearts, brethren. We have to recognize that naturally, there's a tendency.
To return to outward visible material things.
Perhaps of a religious sort, but I think it is so important for us as we go through these.
Verses and meditate on them to let it sink into our hearts. These are not things merely.
To be understood on a doctrinal level, it's important to have doctrines straight and correct and pure. But let's remember this is something for us to enjoy in our hearts. And if we don't lay hold of it in our hearts, we're going to go the same way as these Jewish people did. And we can talk about others that have left brethren, we'll be leaving if we don't enjoy these things in our hearts.
This is Christianity and apostasy. Brother Lundin some years ago mentioned the question of apostasy in this book, and it was instructive to me to see He pointed out three steps of apostasy that you have in chapter 3 and I'll mention them. But they all have to do with the heart. It's not with the mind, it's with the heart. Notice in chapter 3.
And.
Verse seven at the end of the verse today if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts. The second step, verse 10 They do always err in their heart, And verse 12 is the third step. Take he, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.
In departing from the living God, that's apostasy, turning away from the living God. But in each of those steps, it's a matter of the heart. May the Lord exercise this brethren. These are not just things to be entertained in our mind, but to, through meditation, let them sink into our souls. This is the living God. This is our God. This is not a fabrication of the human mind.
This is the revelation of the God of the universe, the one whom we know as that blessed person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh our dear.
God.
Remember.
Lord, I have been all over the world what I got everything in your life.
Independence.
Grant us to lean on shaken upon thy faithfulness, until the glory taken, we see thee face to face.
Full of.
Bruises.