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Guide us, oh thou gracious savior.
Pilgrims, through this barren land we are weak, but thou art mighty. Hold us with thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, beat us now and evermore 276.
Psalm, Chapter 50.
And verse 5.
Just the first part of the verse.
Gather my Saints together unto me.
Now if I can just remember some of the comments that our brother made when he drafted the letter that was sent out.
He said it's important to see that the verse says gather the people together unto me.
How important?
That is to be impressed upon our hearts.
We've come, brethren, not you just come to a convention hall to have some Bible readings. It's wonderful of that, as that might be.
And here they have seminars too. We're not here to have seminars.
It does make a difference, doesn't it, when we think of coming together by the Holy Spirit?
Gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That worthy name, the only name worthy of being gathered to.
He is the head of his body, the church.
This is his desire spoken in this verse.
Gather the people together.
Unto me.
If there are those here that have come with needs and burdens.
Sorrows.
Emptiness.
Hunger as our brother Doug Red.
The Lord Jesus Christ filled those who were hungry.
And they went home happy.
I was walking out of the door this morning and Justice noticed the.
Little Christian calendar our sister so devotedly constructs for us.
I believe guided many times by the hand of the Holy Spirit.
And I believe it was Psalm 23 verse 2.
He leadeth me, and he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the stills waters.
He restoreth.
My soul.
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
But notice.
He is with those that he asks to lie down in green pastures, and beside the still waters he restores the soul. He leads those in paths of righteousness. It is his desire if there are those that are empty, those that are hungry.
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Those that need refreshment or restoration.
Or if you've been walking in a path of unrighteousness.
He wants.
To bring you back to himself.
That is the purpose of these meetings, beloved Brethren.
To be here to answer to his request, gather the people together unto me.
He is the one that can satisfy every longing of our heart.
As he ministers to us through the power and liberty of the Holy Spirit, let's just pray together.
Connection with what our brother Dave brought before us.
Southern If it might be good to consider 1St and 2nd chapter of Hebrews in these readings, perhaps today we could consider the first chapter. The Lord leaves us here, and the brethren felt it's the mind of the Lord. Perhaps tomorrow we could consider the second chapter. But Hebrews brings before us the man in the glory and brethren. Isn't that what we need before our souls? While we're waiting for His coming, I just make that suggestion.
One verse one.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets half in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world's, 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 so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said, He at any time 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 begotten into the world, he said.
And let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels fierce, and his ministers a flame of fire, But under the sun he sat by throne, O God, is forever and ever. The 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 has slayed the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish. But thou remainest they all shall wax old, as doth the garment, and as the Vester shall thou hold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same. In thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time Said 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 the heirs of salvation?
Well, just as an introduction to this chapter, we know that Hebrews opens to us the heavens so that by faith we can look up and see the Lord Jesus where He is now.
When the Lord Jesus was here and walked as a man here in this world, we find that there were occasions where the heavens opened up, and on those occasions it wasn't so much that earth could look up, but that heaven could look down and be occupied with the only perfect man. Whoever walked here in this world and a voice would declare on occasion. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, How heaven delighted to look down and gaze on that blessed one, be occupied.
With the person of Christ here in this world. But brethren, as we know, the Lord Jesus is not here in this world the way he was.
When he walked amongst men 2000 years ago. But isn't it a blessed thing that heaven is open now? Not so much that heaven can look down, although that's true. But Hebrews opens up to us, the heavens, so that by faith we can look up and be occupied with the one that God would always occupy his people with. And brethren, there are so many trials, sometimes in our personal lives, and the family often in the assembly.
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But isn't it wonderful to lift our eyes above the horizons of this sad world, the circumstances of life, and to look off to the man in the glory and let him fill our gaze and fill our hearts? And I believe this is what is going to give us courage to go on in these last moments before we see him face to face. And so this was simply my exercise in suggesting this portion. Our brother read to us concerning how we see Christ in our midst. Here he's we're gathered to a person.
And and that's true. And we need to have that much before our souls. But, oh, brethren, too, to look up into the open heavens, we sometimes sing a little hymn. Oh, fix our earnest gaze so holy Lord on thee, that with thy beauty occupied we elsewhere none may see. Well it may be while we as we take up this portion.
In Romans 9 want to read a few verses Romans Chapter 9.
Paul says in verse two that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Or I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, or my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Who are Israelites now? Here he lays out the blessings that they had and that came through that nation.
My kinsmen, according to the flesh, he had a love for them.
That was tremendously wonderful.
He had been schooled in the religion of Judaism.
Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he had a deep love for his brethren, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God, and the promises whose are the fathers.
And now notice how he ends this list and as concerning.
The flesh Christ came, who is overlaw. God blessed forever. Amen. Now the Jews had all these things, and their crowning glory was the Christ who came.
And as a nation, they rejected him.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is written to the Hebrews to the Jews.
And it's written to those who had outwardly, professedly.
Received the Lord Jesus Christ as the true Messiah.
And what he's showing in this epistle to the Hebrews is the better things of Christianity as compared with all that they had in Judaism. He's not writing to Gentiles that had nothing but false gods, and they were idolaters. He's writing to the people of God of old, those that were in that position. And their crowning glory was the Christ who came, whose God over all blessed forever. And so he starts out this epistle.
In Hebrews God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time, passed under the fathers by the prophets, they knew all those prophetic writings. They were well schooled in them. Now he's spoken in the person of his Son.
Their crowning glory, and he's addressing those that professedly had received him as such. But there was a danger that some of them might turn back to Judaism.
And that would become They would become an apostate if they did that. So he sets before them the the grandeur of the the wonders of the person. First thing he sets before them is the person and the work of Christ. Both are there in these verses.
And the Excellency the better things of Christianity over Judaism.
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There was a hard thing for Jews who had been given the law, the 10 commandments through Moses, and all the ceremonial laws, and all the regulations and all that. And they had the very presence of God in their midst, the Shekinah glory, and they had the law. The Gentiles had nothing.
But their crowning glory was the coming of the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah.
And the nation had rejected him.
And now he writes this epistle, this apostle that was sent to the Gentiles, and he had such a burden for the his people. After the flesh he was given the privilege. Paul was given the privilege of addressing 1 epistle specifically to his brethren.
After the flesh. And he exalts Christ all the way through and magnifies him. What would keep any of them from going back to Judaism was to see the excellencies that are in Christ, and all that's associated with the new order of blessing that we've been brought into. But this is not an epistle addressed to Gentiles, though we appropriate these things for ourselves, and rightly so.
But they are addressed to the Jews, to the Hebrews, and the first thing that he brings before them is the person of the Son, Person of the Christ.
If you're not right in that.
You're not right in anything. You're not writing anything if you don't understand who he is. He's not just a good prophet. He was that. He's not just a great teacher. He was that. He's not just a man. He was that. But he is God over all. Blessed forever become a man.
And they had to receive that.
And everyone of us has to receive that truth and know who he is.
He said to the Jews, what think he of Christ, whose Son is He, when he was here below? And they answered rightly, the Pharisees, they said, the Son of David.
That was true. He is the son of David. You remember Bartimaeus? He said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He was the son of David. How then doth David in spirit, quoting the 110th Psalm call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, David says, God the Father speaking to God, the Son says to his Son as man sit at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool if David call him Lord.
How is he his son?
They could not. They couldn't answer that. That the most school teachers in Judaism couldn't answer that. God and man in one person. And you fathom that. Can we fathom that?
No, but we believe it. It's the foundation of the of the church.
Again in Matthew 16.
He said, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? Some say thou art John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Sir Elias, or one of the prophets. But whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered, Beautiful, beautiful, thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God, the Christ in his manhood, the Son of the living God. In his deity he confessed both truths, that he is David's son and David's Lord.
Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood. It's not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
And then he says, Thou art Peter just a little stone. But on this rock what you have confessed, Peter, I will build my church. Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The church is founded upon the truth of who Jesus is.
You don't have that. You have nothing.
The Apostle Paul wrote, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew 1St and then to the Gentile. You know Paul was the apostle to the Gentile, but he put the Jew first.
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One time he did not have the mind of the Lord in doing it.
That's a different story. But most times he did, when he went to a city or a town, he went to the synagogue first. If there was no fruit for Christ there, he went to the Gentiles, but he believed in that to the Jew first. Now if you look at Romans 3, you'll see that Paul preached to the Gentiles and was amazed.
The Gentiles were being saved right and left, but the Jews rejected primarily and so he says verse one. What advantage did I say? Chapter 3? What advantage then hath the Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision?
Much every way he answers his own question chiefly because.
Unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Brethren, they had half the book. You have it all.
Unto you is committed the word of God. And then he says.
For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelieve.
Make the faith of God without effect.
God forbid.
Yeah, let God be true.
And every man a liar. Pretty strong, isn't it? But the Jews had every sign and every prophecy of the coming Christ and who he is and where he'll be born and what would happen to him. They had it all. And when he gave them a parable.
When the Lord himself gave them a parable about, I gotta think a minute, which parable this was. But they they took account, the religious leaders took account that he spake these things of them.
Were they responsible?
They were responsible. Are you? We are more responsible.
That's Paul. Paul wrote the Hebrews. It don't tell us that does not tell us that in the in the book of Hebrews because Paul took a back place in this. But I think in in Peter it tells us. I think it's second Peter and.
Verse Chapter 3, Second Peter, chapter three. I think this is it.
I got to look for it a minute.
Second Peter 3.
Verse 16 Thank you.
Would you want to read it? And also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction? Well, I think it'd be 15, not 16, brother, in account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul, also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.
And also in all his epistles Under who the Jews? When did he write to the Jews? No place except the Hebrews. I think that 15th verse would bring it out, don't you? Thank you. Thank you for finding it.
It was said that.
The first chapter presents to the Hebrews the first of Christ.
To keep them, to guide them, to lead them. Well, is it not presented to each and everyone of us today in the same way? It's the only thing that's going to keep anyone in this scene in the path going on to the glory of the Lord. Is the vision of the person of Christ and who he is in glory the only thing that will keep us?
And Christianity is that, isn't it? It's attraction to the person of Christ.
And I think there's a real application for us. Even though it was written to the Jewish people, they as believers were part of the same church that we belong to as well. And so it applies very directly to us, and especially in this day in which we live, in which Christendom has become a great house.
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Of which we are apart, brethren. But so often the tendency is to get occupied with forms and ceremonies and and organizational structures, and not realize that it really is to the person of Christ that God is calling us into fellowship. That's His purpose. That's why we've been called into the fellowship of his sons, Jesus Christ our Lord.
So it's so vital that we have our hearts attracted and attached to His glorious person. All those shadows of the Old Testament prefigured Christ, but now the reality had come, and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Are we going to embrace shadows when we have the reality that was what they were in danger of doing?
And we today are in danger of the same thing, of getting so occupied with forms and.
The way we do things that we do not remember that we are called into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Son of God made flesh.
Oh, what a privilege, brethren, to be occupied.
With him it's not that the precious precious truth that in the first verse of our chapter.
In the times past he's spoken unto the fathers by the prophets. Now the next verse should read have at the end of these days the days in which he was speaking by the prophets. He has introduced his son, He has sent him the the reading in these last days sounds like Second Timothy 3 And it's not that at all. It's not the last days of the church. Period.
It's the end of the days in which these prophets pointed forward to in their writings, the coming of the Messiah. Then he has appeared at the end of those days, and so we don't have Old Testament prophets anymore. He has come and God has spoken now not by a prophet, but by the person of his son, the highest authority in the universe. I have one son. Perhaps they will reverence him. I just want to say this too, in connection with what Bob said.
That it's not that we disregard the types and the shadows in the Old Testament, because those types and shadows by illustration, bring before us in a very real way the person and the work of Christ, because this has already been said. All those types and shadows, the sacrifices, their rights, and the ordinance of the Levitical Law and all that was committed to Israel. It all, in one way or another, speaks.
Of Christ, I'll repeat a little illustration that I know some recently heard me use.
But it just helped me in this regard because we want to encourage our hearts to read the Old Testament. Be familiar with those types and shadows. They'll help you in your understanding of the person and work of Christ. When I was engaged to the one who promised to be my wife, there were about 2000 miles between us for the next 10 months between the engagement and the wedding. And so I had on my desk at home a large photograph.
Given to me by the one who had promised to be my wife and for those months between the engagement and the wedding.
That photograph assumed a very important place in my life.
Because we were separated by many miles. But we'll suppose that after I get got married, you came into my home and you found that I was more occupied with the photograph, the picture, than I was with the one who was now my wife. Why you'd rebuke me, you'd say, Jim, that's just a picture. Now you've got her with you. The one of whom this was just a picture is with you. Why are you more occupied with the picture?
Than with the one who shall your wife. And perhaps that helps us to understand, just in a little way. Because it's not that I threw out the picture. I still have the photograph. I still have it up on the wall, and I still value it. And I look at it from time to time. And so we value those types and shadows in the Old Testament. But we see that they were just pale reflections and feeble foreshadows of the one who was really in the heart of God, who came forth in the fullness of time.
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And so the apostles sought to bring this before these Hebrew believers, because they had something better now. And what was the better thing? Why they had Christ. And the apostle says these just pointed forward to that. But now you have Christ, and your occupation needs to be with him, not the forms and ceremonies and the things that were right and proper in their place. And they were they were right and proper in their place.
And as Chuck said, it was hard for the Hebrew believers to give those things up. And isn't it beautiful? The Spirit of God takes 13 long chapters to just very patiently go over every part of the old order of things, and to explain very carefully that while it was good, right, and proper, in its place, you have something better. Brethren, if you just allow me to, I'd like to go back to Acts in connection with what I think it was, our brother, Chuck said. Because I think again.
It's a prelude to what we have here, and it really helps us to understand the character of things in the book of Hebrews. Go back to Acts 7 just for a moment.
I won't read much here, but we know the context of this chapter. This is really the spirit of God's last appeal to the Jewish nation as a nation. Steven, a man full of the Holy Ghost, speaks to the leaders of that nation, and as these leaders listen to him, they're cut to the quick and they eventually gnash on him with their teeth and they stone him. What I want to notice is a little expression in verse 56.
Well, I'll read verse 55. But he 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, and said, behold, I see heavens open, the heavens open, and the Spirit of man standing.
Son of Man. The Son of man. I'm sorry, The Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And what I want to point out here is that God gave 2 great testimonies to the nation of Israel. The Son, when he walked here in this world, and at the end of it they cried away with him, crucify him. They did not want the Lord Jesus and they took him outside the walls of Jerusalem, that city that deteriorated to such a point that it had religion without Christ.
Because it is possible to have religion without Christ. And they took him outside those walls and they nailed him to a Roman cross.
But God gave another testimony to the nation before he set them aside. It was the testimony of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that the culmination of that rejection is the stoning of Steven. It's what the Lord Jesus said. They sent a messenger after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. That's what they did in the stoning of Stephen. And at this point, I believe the nation was then set aside in the gospel.
Began to go out beyond the walls of Judaism to the Gentile. Such was his desire for the blessing of this nation, that he had told his own that the gospel was to begin with those very people who were going to nail him to a Roman cross and reject him. What I want to point out is that when Stephen looked up, he saw the Son of Man not seated but standing at the right hand of God, standing ready to come back and to bless that nation.
Had they accepted, received the testimony of Stephen in the power of the Holy Spirit. But when we come to the book of Hebrews now, because as we say, the stoning of Steven was the final culmination for Israel, it was the sin against the Holy Ghost, and God had nothing more for that nation at that time. He will bless them on the grounds of grace in the coming day, but at that time it was nothing more. And now we come to Hebrews and we see the Lord Jesus.
Not standing at the right hand of God, but four times in this book he is seated at the right hand of God.
Here in the 8th chapter as our High Priest, in the 10th chapter having offered himself as the supreme sacrifice, and in the 12Th chapter as the object for faith as we go through this world, but not standing ready to come back and bless a particular nation.
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Seated as the resource for those who had stepped outside the walls of Jerusalem of Judaism.
Save themselves from that untoward generation and stepped outside of that.
And not only for them, brethren, but for you and for me today. And I just say again, let's look up and have Christ before our souls, Brethren, He is everything Hebrews begins with God.
Genesis begins with God, but you know Genesis ends with death.
A Kirk? A coffin. In Egypt, that's where it ends.
Hebrews begins with God and ends with grace. Why? In between God and grace is Christ and the blood, the precious blood of Jesus. And Paul emphasizes that throughout this book, contrary of course to Genesis, is Hebrews both beginning with God, one ending with death, one ending with grace.
And it's a blood that makes the difference and faith in it. By grace are you saved through faith, that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. So grace is what really brings it all to us.
Verse one we have the Old Testament. In verse two, we have the New Testament.
And this beautiful brethren in these two verses two and three the little phrases.
To.
Meditate on them the tremendous wealth there is as to the glory of the person of the Son of God. And I'd like to say too, that in chapter one we have the Lord Jesus presented as God.
In chapter two we have him as man. Those things are.
The glorious truth of his person fully God, fully man in one glorious person, Oh, how rich these little phrases are starts in the middle of verse two. He has appointed heir of all things, and then it says by whom also he made the world's. Why does it put it in that order?
He is going to take the inheritance in a future day, but why does it put that before? It speaks about the creation of the world.
Just suggest that in the councils those eternal purposes of God.
It was all settled before there was any world in existence that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would form the grand center of all God's purposes. So he is the one that is appointed heir of all things.
And then by whom also he made the world think of the tremendous?
Power that is manifested in creation. We're talking here about the first creation that it speaks of in Genesis Chapter one.
He spoke and it was done. The tremendous size of the universe, it boggles our minds. Man cannot find the edge of it as far out as he looks. But here's the person.
Who spoke it all into existence by the word of His power. This is the person we're talking about, brethren.
But this one that spoke spoke as a man. He's the Son, all right, the Creator of all things. But when he did, the speaking that's spoken of in these in the second verse, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us by his Son. It was this man down here, the four Gospels, that was when he spoke. And instead of the prophets speaking, God himself came in human form.
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And spoke that person, the Son. He's unique of the Persons in the Trinity. There's the Father and the Spirit too, but they remained in Deity. But here's one that didn't remain in Deity, though he was in the form of God, thought it not something to be grasped after, but he emptied himself and became took upon him the form of a servant.
And it's added in his servant character that he came.
And spoke and did the work.
He was not speaking from heaven, speaking here on earth in that Blessed One who became Incarnate as the God Man. When we think of the creation of the universe, we think of great power. But to turn to Ephesians Chapter One.
And the power that demonstrated there goes far, far beyond.
Any power that it took to create the universe. Ephesians Chapter One, verse 19.
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward? Who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places? The work of salvation, the work of redeeming your soul, goes far, far beyond any power that was needed in the creation of this universe.
Let's remember, brethren, the Jews still adhere to the Old Testament strongly. For many years I had much to do with Jews, and I used to bring try to bring out Christ in the Old Testament. And because I I went early to pick up my mail.
You seem to like our book, Brother Bauman, and I didn't like him calling me brother, but I said it's not your book, it's 1/2 of mine.
You seem to like our book.
It's not your book. It's 1/2 of mine. You've got the treasure chest. I've got the key that opens it. And so we got around circles. They they don't like to get to Isaiah 53, just like the the Ethiopian eunuch, they do not.
They need somebody to make it clear to them. And you know, it was made clear to the eunuch and he went back with Christ for all Ethiopia, wonderful one that. But they can understand those things because they're partially blinded. They have not the spirit of God, but they sure adhere to that book and they know it. They like to talk about Abraham.
I told them Abraham's my father. You're not a Jew.
Boy, right away. Chastisement, I said. He wasn't either.
Of course, you get a lot of a lot of scoring there, but they're still in hearing and Paul was astounded with all the signs and wonders of the Christ, their Messiah, who they crucified get saved. And it used to bother me.
Because I love those men I did.
But they can't get saved.
Unto all in that he hath raised him from among the dead.
Some believe 32, some believe not. Isn't that the way it is today?
The third verse we get the.
Excellency of his glory, the person of Christ, who being the brightness of his story, the brightness of the glory of God.
And the express image of his person? No deviation. They're exactly alike.
They are one and upholding all things by the word of his power, of the fact that we're here today.
Because the Lord Jesus sits as king and glorious ruler of this universe.
Please keep all things in its proper location, and when he had by himself first our sins the only story that's in the word of God, here it is.
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Forged our sins when he made the world's, he was not a man.
He was God, and only God and only in the form of God when he made the world's. But the person that he's talking about is the one that became a man. That man, that person made the world's not as man but as God. But it's the same person. There are two persons, the same person. When he became a man, he took manhood. He took humanity into union with his deity. So he is God and man and one person.
And that's what he's talking about. He goes back and forth about what he did when he was God and what he did and is doing as man. And we have that in Hebrews. That's what they had to get ahold of. That's what they had to believe and understand that the Messiah is not just a man.
He's God and man in one person. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And when I read that, I think what a marvelous privilege it must have been for John and others to see the Lord Jesus walking here in this world, the one who fully showed out. He was the express image of his person. Can anyone say that they've ever had a child? Who was the express image?
Of his person we say, Well, that's the spitting image of his father. No trouble to tell whose son he is, but the Lord Jesus. At the end of his pathway he said, Have I been so long time with you? And hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and the 17th of John, He said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And to be glorified is to have every attribute and every quality.
That makes up a person's being brought into full display. And as the Lord Jesus walked here in this world, every attribute, every quality of God was, every glory was brought into full display. Is there any doubt as to who God is, as to his glory? No. The Lord Jesus walking here as a man, He was the express image of his person. But brethren, he's going to, he has right and title as heir in two ways.
He has right and title because he's the eternal Son and he has right and title as to being creator. But we're going to find two in this chapter. He has write and title as to redemption. I think it's nice to see those two things. He by whom also he made the worlds and he has right and title in that regard. But he also has right entitled because he's made the purification for sin and he's going to take it all back someday. Brethren in redemption. It's been purchased but not redeemed yet.
He's going to take it all back in redemption because he gave himself at Calvary's Cross and that's what you find in the 4th and 5th chapter of Revelation. In the 4th chapter, it's his right and title as to being creator. In the 5th chapter it goes beyond that. It's his right entitle because he's Redeemer. I just say that because if you noticed in verse 3, if in Mr. Darby's translation, it's a broader thought than just having purged our sins.
It's true, he has purged our sins if we've availed ourselves of the work of Calvary, he's purged our sins. But he has made the purification for sin. And when he takes it back in a coming day by right entitled, it will be the fulfillment of what John the Baptist said when he saw the Lord Jesus 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.
He's taken away our sins, but he hasn't taken sin from this world yet. But there's a day coming when this world is not going to feel the effects of sin the way it does now because the Lord Jesus is coming. It says whose right it is and he's going to reign and he's going to take it all back. The inheritance is his by right, by right as creator, by right as to redemption. I want to read a correction here.
And I'm reading Mr. Darby's translation. Verse three says, who being the effulgence King James, the brightness of his glory, And now this next expression and the expression of his substance.
Instead of of of his person, of his substance and he has a note and he said clearly substance essential being not person.
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It is of God, not of the Father. Now when you when you when you get the Father and ministry on the Father, it's John's Gospel. The Son always speaks of his Father, his Father, and he was the expression of the Father. Very words he spoke were the Father's words and the works he performed were the Father's works. But here it's it's it's really a deeper thought than that. He is a very expression of the essential being of God himself and that that's in a man.
That's in a man. That's that's a thought. That is. And that's Romans. I think it was 5.
18181 That's the only one, and it's because they brought up the phrase from verse 4, but he said don't give up the King James Version.
Many of our dear.
Brother and who preceded us said the same thing. And let's don't think that there's others to match it. I don't believe there are.
Isn't it beautiful, brethren, to these first two phrases of verse 3, to think about him? Like Jim said was, it was wonderful for the apostles to contemplate it as they lived with the Lord Jesus and walked with him and listened to him. But it is our privilege too. As we go back to the Gospels and muse over what we see presented to us there, we too have.
The same privilege of viewing this one who was.
The full outshining of the glory of God. It was veiled with a human veil. And as man looked at him, they said, we know who he is. He's the Carpenter or the Carpenter son, But that was the human veil they saw. But in him that glory shone out. The moral glory could not be hid, but there were times when even his.
Glory, his official glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, is shown out.
When they came to take him, and he said, I am that was his Godhead glory, they fell backward to the ground. It was a little glimpse of who he really was. They couldn't grasp it. But isn't it a privilege, brethren, to go back to the Gospels and to look at the Lord Jesus, how he had time to pick up little children?
In his arms. And bless them disciples wanted to shoot them away.
The Lord had time for little children.
What does that tell you about our God? Does He have time for you and your little problems?
Yes, she does. He's interested in every detail. When that poor woman of Samaria came out to draw water, there was a man sitting on the side of the well.
Wearied with his journey. Does God get weary?
No, but as a man he was weary, and as such he now can sympathize with us when we get weary. Oh brethren, it's so beautiful. Just to muse over all that is given to us in the Gospels. He is the express image of his person, the full expression of what God is.
We see in the person of the Lord Jesus you want to know what kind of a God you have.
Look at Jesus there you will see it in full display. You know when God made man in the beginning, He made him in his image and likeness. Man was a representative in God of God in the first creation, but he fell. But the Lord Jesus is the image in Colossians, it says.
Of the invisible God, God in his essential being is invisible. But in the Lord Jesus we have what is visible now. We can see and hear who he is God in the essence of his being. And you know it never says to the Lord Jesus that he was the likeness of God because that would deny his deity.
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It does say in Philippians chapter 2 That he was made.
In the likeness of men, so he took a human form.
But he was and is God in every sense of his being.
Never when he became a man did he leave equality with God. He left, Perhaps you could say the outward form of that physician that he as God occupied. But he was always and is always God over all things, blessed forever. It is true in chapter 2, verse nine. Don't have to turn to it. We see Jesus.
But, you know, it's not as John, James and Peter did. There's a difference, although I do think it's more marvelous what we have on Lord's Day Morning. We'll see him.
Clearly and very wonderfully. We'll see him, no doubt about it now. But what did Peter and James and John see? They saw more than just see it. They read.
First John with me. First John, chapter one. This is John speaking that which was from the beginning.
The Word of God.
But like to comment on.
Few verses that.
And looking over in connection with the Lord's glory.
In Genesis chapter 37.
We read in verse 3 now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age.
And he made him a coat of many colors.
I believe that would speak speak to us of the very glories of the Lord Jesus.
We can speak of the Lord's essential glory.
And then there were the acquired glories that the Lord Jesus also had, and I believe that that's brought before us in the 45th chapter of that same book.
And Joseph gives instruction to his brethren. There in verse 12 it says, And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you, And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt. And that has been our privilege this morning, has it not? To speak about all of those glories We've spoken about the essential glories.
That the Lord Jesus possessed and we would think of those acquired goals and.
We think of the Lord's death upon the cross of Calvary, and we have brought before us in that the aspect too of the burnt offering, that which brought glory to God the Father. And so the Lord Jesus has brought before us.
In such a beautiful way in this chapter.
Verse four being made so much better than the angels, as he hath in here by inheritance.
Obtained a more excellent name than they Mankind. You likes to make comparisons, don't they? And.
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We see here that the Lord Jesus had a more excellent name than they. And if we go down to verse six, we see that the Lord Jesus is the first born not in respect to time, but in respect to person, isn't he? And so the Lord Jesus is brought before us in that first position. And just very briefly, I'd like to turn to another verse.
In the 6th chapter.
Of the book of Daniel that would bring before us that truth.
And type.
In verse.
Daniel 6 and over these 3 presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the Princess might give account unto them, and the king should have no damage.
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and Princess. That's what we have brought before some Colossians 1-2, isn't it? One that's preferred above all?
There was a sister some years ago in in Atlanta. I recall brother Albert Hale noting an account. Apparently the sister had done some good deed in the community.
And the newspaper was sending reporters to that sister's house to.
Get a little story. Apparently the sister had text on almost every square inch of her wall.
And.
The reporters had come not only to interview her, but to bring her a plaque or an award that was made-up especially for her. And when the reporters came in to present this award, they looked at the wall and said we'd like to find a place to put this.
And.
They looked around and they said maybe we could take one of these off the wall. And he reached up. The reporter reached up to take a text off the wall and was the text. And that all things he might have the preeminence. And as the sister saw this reporter reaching up to take it off the wall, she said, Oh no, not that one, That's special to me. So may the Lord Jesus be very real and special to each one of us today.
Well, the Lord is not in this world the way he was when he walked here over 2000 years ago. And we find here that he's now seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And in that tremendous brethren to think about. You know, the resurrection, the ascension and glorification of Christ are really God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. They're the gods. Amen to the work that the Lord Jesus did here. The Lord Jesus glorified God in his pathway.
And in the work of redemption. And God has glorified him, raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand. Do you want proof this morning that God is satisfied with His Son and the work that was accomplished here? All you have to do is look up into the opened heavens and see where God has seated him, because after the Lord Jesus in resurrection remained on earth long enough to give ample testimony to his own as to his bodily resurrection.
Then there came a moment when he lifted up his hands and blessed them, and his feet left the mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more. But brethren, again this morning we can look up without a cloud between by faith, and we can see the Lord Jesus not as they saw him here, as has already been said, but seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, and the resources that we have in an ascended Christ today.
Are far, far greater than even what the disciples had when they accompanied with the Lord Jesus when he was here. In fact, the Lord Jesus told them before he went away that he needed to go away because if he didn't go away, they would never really have the ability and capacity to take in and enjoy the things that he had for them in Christianity. And that he was going to send the Spirit of God as that link between the members here on earth and his and the head in glory.
And we can look up by faith. We're linked to Him as members of his body. We look up by faith. We have resources, tremendous resources, in the person of Christ. Not here in this world, brethren, but there, in the glory at the right hand of power, sits a man marvelous to think about. There is a man already in the glory. He's there as God's beloved Son. He's there as the one who glorified God.
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Here on earth, and God has set him there and he says, now you just look up, you're going to see him another day.
We're going to see him face to face, But he says, you look up now and be occupied with that one. I think of the Kim we used to sing when we were young people. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. There's nothing will wean our hearts from this world but that more than occupation with the man who seated at God's right hand. There's a couple of verses, a couple of expressions in the.
Third verse that we're passing over and they're very, very precious. He's the expression of his substance and then it says and upholding all things by the word of his power. He didn't just create the universe and set everything spinning and then retire like the deists say.
No, he he is maintaining everything in its proper order. He upholds all things Colossians. One says that by him all things subsist.
You can't take your next breath. Neither can I without him. We can't do anything without him, he said. Without me he can do nothing. And that's literally, absolutely a fact and true. We can't do a thing without him. We owe everything to him, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. That little baby in in the the stable in Bethlehem, there was upholding all things by the word of his power.
At the time when he had become a man, the Word had become flesh. We can't fathom that, but that's the truth. And then it says when he had it should read by himself.
It does say that when he had by himself purged our sins, the work is looked at as or purged sins, as Jim has brought out. It's it's not so much what he's done for me or for you, but it's the work itself that is being brought before us.
The person himself, and then the work that he did, He made purgation for sin. That's the value of the work. And then of course applying it to us, we have our sins forgiven and all that that follows. But what he's dwelling on here in Hebrews One is the glory of his person and the glory of his work. He did it himself and and it it's, it's it all flows from who He is and what He has done. Then he sat himself down.
On the right hand of God, other scriptures says that God sent him there, God set him there. But here he sits himself down at the right hand of God. It's it's all himself, isn't it? The glory of who he is and what he has done made purgation for sins. Then he sits down himself.
At the right hand of God and then these verses that we've gone on to being made or taking a place.
So much better than the angels not being made. Not that he was put into that place, but he took it himself. He took that place himself by so much better than the angels. It all flows from the greatness of his person, doesn't it? Just to confirm what you say, Chuck and Lester be some question. It's that second himself that Mister Darby adds. He sat himself down and I just like to say a word about that, because as Chuck said, there's two sides to it. God has seated him there.
Showing his satisfaction with his son, but the Lord Jesus has taken his place and sat himself down. Perhaps I can just use a little illustration. When I was in business, I would often be called to do a job for a large corporation or company, and I would go in and I would service or install equipment as the contract required. And when the job was over, I always had an interview with the man who hired me, be he the plant foreman or the president or the owner of the company.
I would be taken into his office to sit down in his presence, to go over the work and to present my invoice. But I must say that it was rarely with a feeling of real confidence that I ever sat down in the presence of that individual. Because there was always in the back of my mind that maybe the job hadn't been done to his satisfaction. Maybe I'd left something out. Maybe I had inadvertently missed something or hadn't included something that he felt should have been part of the contract.
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And so it was, rarely with a feeling of real confidence. But think of it, brethren, the Lord Jesus knowing that everything had been done, not just to the satisfaction of God, that's true, but to the glory of God, knowing that nothing was undone of what was given him to do. Here he leaves this world, and he returns to the Father, to God, and in perfect confidence he can see himself down.
Think of the feeling that must have passed between God the Father and the Son.
As the Lord Jesus sat down, God, satisfied and glorified, seats him there. The sun in perfect confidence takes his place, but a feeling must have passed between them. And now God says, This is the one that I want you to be occupied with. This brethren. The man at the right hand of God is the man that God would always occupy his people with because of the rights he had. Having completely accomplished the work, he sits himself down.
Just like to refer back to the previous phrase.
Too, when he had by himself purged our sins. No brethren. How that is so touching. There was no one else that could be there. He was completely alone on that cross hanging there.
Even forsaken by God.
By himself.
He purged our sins, purged sin. But oh, we have to stand at a distance when we think of the tremendous.
Value of that work of redemption, that work of purging sin during those three hours of darkness now. No wonder he has the right to walk into the very glory of God.
And set himself down at God's right hand, brethren.
Coming to verse 4, which we'll begin with no doubt, next time we come to a keyword in Hebrew, it's, I believe, the key. It's better, And you know, it says being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than angels. You know you're going to find everything.
The Jews had something better, Paul presents.
And the word better, you'll see 13 times, I believe as we go through. We're not going through it but that's it. In fact that brings in his son better, but for us it brings in responsibility. 13 times you'll find let us, let us now you know it says so much better name than the angels.
I had visited many times because I wanted my children.
To sit down in the presence in in Florida, Tampa of brother Eric Smith and TH Jackson, the two of them together.
Nothing but Christ, of course. Beautiful. But Eric told me this, and I don't mind repeating it when he was in Bolivia. A younger man, he was occupied in a way, with angels.
And he said he was going to write an infinitive work on angels.
He had many cards, cards after cards, as he translated this into the Inca and other things you know.
He told me that wasn't long until the Lord really let him know.
You don't become occupied with angels.
Will be come up to occupy with my son, he said. I destroyed all those cards.
And I haven't had a problem since with angels, so we sing #4.
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Where God had built the mountains or raised the fruitful hills, before we filled the fountains that feed the running rails in thee from everlasting the wonderful I am found pleasures never wasting, And wisdom is thy name #4.