The Sevenfold Glorious Christ - Tim Conway

If you've got any conscience at all,

no matter how secure your faith

and confidence in Christ might be,

if you've got any conscience at all,

forgiven as you might be,

but any conscience whatsoever

concerning the sin you've had in your life

and you know it's time to stand before...

what untold comfort

if there you stand

and Christ shows you that wound

and you see your name written there.

My name is written,

the songwriter says.

To see your name written there.

Whatever happens in that judgment,

my name is written in the very wounds

bore by the Judge Himself.

Brethren, let's pray.

Lord, what would we be
able to say in that day?

Knowing all the sin that
we could even remember,

let alone that which at least
now escapes our mind.

We know that that day we'll love grace

as we've never loved it before -

the grace of God that came to us

and offered us such a great salvation

as what we find revealed

and even that we'll look at today.

Lord, my desire, help us to know

how great this salvation is.

My desire would be that others

that don't know anything about it -

they don't rest in Christ now;

they haven't seen the greatness of this -

Lord, I pray, reveal the
wonders of Your Word.

I want to pray for our
brethren down in Laredo.

May the grace of God fall upon them.

May great grace be upon
our brethren there.

We can see their faces.

Brothers and sisters that we love

and we just pray,

I don't know if they're meeting
in their new place today,

but I pray, Father, be with them.

Help them.

Build that church down there.

Our brethren in Corpus - we can see

those brothers and sisters
before our eyes as well.

We ask You, Lord,

oh, may Christ be great there.

We ask that.

Our brethren that labor,

John and Judy and the girls,

I pray, Father,

I pray that Your hand is on them for good,

leading them, steering them,

showing them where they should go,

what they should do,
when they should do it.

Lord, we pray, give us an orphanage there.

May it teem with young men and women

being exposed to the Gospel;

being exposed to the light of the truth.

We pray, Lord, that You would grant us

a harvest in that place.

For the (unintelligible), as
they labor down there

without the Ritchie's with them,

we ask You to protect them. Be with them.

Give them wisdom.

Lead them. Use them.

Lord, Trevor and Teresa as they labor

over there in Indonesia, I pray for them.

Oh Lord, be kind to the
(unintelligible) people.

Cannibal society as it is,

we pray that they would
one day be with us,

many of them,

bowed down before the throne of Christ.

Lord, we pray for our
brethren here in this city

that meet in other places,

God, help us. God, be with us.

God, allow us all to be
light here in San Antonio.

We pray, Lord, light. Make us light.

I just pray, Lord, make Your salvation

great in the eyes of Your people.

In Christ's name I pray, Amen.

Okay.

Hebrews.

If you would, turn in your Bibles

to chapter 2.

Just right here at the beginning.

I want to do something really basic,

really fundamental,

very simple.

I'm not going to lose you
with profoundness at all.

Hebrews 2:1.

You just follow with me here.

"Therefore, we must pay
much closer attention

to what we have heard

lest we drift away from it."

Now, this isn't rocket science, folks.

"...Lest we drift away from it."

What is the "it" that we don't
want to drift away from?

What's the "it" at the end of the verse?

"...Lest we drift away from it."

I mean, just based on this verse alone,

what is it? What is "it"?

What we have heard.

Who said salvation?

But you didn't get that from this verse.

This verse right here -

the "it" is what we have heard.

You all see that, right?

It's real basic.

You know, you may have
different translations,

but basically see the same thing.

But what have we heard?

What is the writer of Hebrews

assuming has been delivered to our ears?

Somebody said the Gospel.

Craig said the Gospel.

And I would say that's absolutely right.

And I would say that we can deduce that.

We don't have to just guess.

We can come to that conclusion.

Let's just read further. Hebrews 2:2.

"For..." That's like saying "because."

He's going to extend this argument.

The "for" tells us he's talking
about the same thing.

He's not changing subject matter on us.

"For since the message declared by angels

proved to be reliable,

and every transgression or
disobedience received

a just retribution,

how shall we escape..."

Just retribution is what he has in mind.

"How shall we escape
(that just retribution)

if we neglect such a great salvation?"

His assumption here is,

clearly, what we have heard

is the message of a great salvation.

That's therefore what we need to pay

more closer attention to

and what we don't want to neglect.

And if those that heard this word

that was delivered by angels -

the old covenant, that which was

delivered to Moses -

if they received just retribution for that

then how much more this
what we've heard now -

this "it" that we don't
want to drift away from,

this great salvation, how much more

will we receive just retribution -

how are we doing to escape

if we neglect this great salvation?

But if we keep reading,

Hebrews 2:3 about midway there,

"It was declared at first by the Lord."

So there's the "it" again -
what we've been talking about.

It was declared by the Lord.

"And it was attested to
us by those who heard

while God also bore witness

by signs and wonders and various miracles

and by gifts of the Holy Spirit

distributed according to His will."

And brethren, I mean,
it's not very difficult

for us to come to some conclusions

about what it was that was declared to us

by our Lord and by those who followed Him,

by the apostles. What was it?

We can look all sorts of places,

but just a quick reference. Matthew 4:23,

"He (Jesus Christ) went
throughout all Galilee

teaching in their synagogues

and proclaiming the
Gospel of the kingdom."

So yes, of course, we're
looking at the Gospel here.

We're looking at a message

of very great salvation.

I know this is plain.
I know this is simple.

But I want to show you something.

Let's use our imaginations.

Come with me for a second.

Think, think, think.

I love to read church history.

And one of the things that will make you

appreciate your Bibles

is you just read about times in history,

or read about countries even now -

there are countries that exist

on the face of this earth right now,

if you're found with the Word of God,

it will cost you your life.

Still.

And throughout history we can see it.

There were times in the
English speaking world

when it was a capital
offense to be caught

with the Scriptures in your hands.

Can you imagine in the days

before the printing press

when we did not have
the multitude of Bibles

like we have today?

I have read about instances

even after the printing press,

like in Romania, parts of Eastern Europe,

behind the Iron Curtain

in the days of Communist
regimes and reign,

it was not unknown at times in China

for a whole church to have one Bible.

And you know what they would do?

Can you imagine if the only Bible we had

was this one?

Right here. That I have right in my hand.

This is the only Bible.

There are no stores that have Bibles.

You can't get them.

This is it.

Well, I can tell you this,

we wouldn't keep the Bible whole.

We wouldn't keep it like this.

You know what we would do?

We would carefully take it apart.

Why? Because what would happen,

and I've read about this,

they would actually lend parts of it out.

The different people in the church

would take it and they would go home

to copy it or to study it

or to memorize it.

Well, let's say we're
in a church like that

and through the course of years

the Bible has been distributed

and sent around.

Well, at some point, Hebrews 1

got sent over to Scott's house

and his dogs ate it.

I mean, we're using our imagination here.

But you can imagine,

in a time when they were like that,

something like that could have happened.

Imagine that all of a sudden,

we're now a generation removed from Scott.

The church has this Bible

and I'm coming to proclaim it to you

and we're starting in Hebrews 2:1

because we don't have Hebrews 1.

None of us have ever seen it.

We have no clue about what it even says.

And here we come to Hebrews 2:1

and we start reading,

"Therefore..."

Well, that tells us something right away.

We're missing something, right?

You don't start that way.

I mean, can you imagine
me saying to Richard,

"Therefore, turn off the computer."

You're looking for some
kind of reason right?

Some kind of argumentation?

If I say, "Richard, this
is sensitive stuff,

therefore turn off your computer,"
then you will all understand it.

If I just start out by saying,
"Therefore, turn off the computer."

You're saying something is missing.

There's reasonings; there's
argument that's not there.

When we start out reading,

"Therefore, we must pay

much closer attention
to this great salvation

that we've heard about
lest we drift from it."

What would we expect went before this?

I mean, you would expect - I would expect

when something starts with "therefore,"

that we're missing something
that went before it.

Well, if we all knew we're
missing chapter 1...

Think with me here.

Just think about this.

(Incomplete thought)

We don't have Hebrews 1.

We know the writer inspired -

God is telling us there's this great,

I mean, marvelous salvation.

And he's obviously just
been giving us reasons

why we shouldn't drift from it;

why we shouldn't neglect it,

and why we need to pay
much closer attention to it.

So, I would expect that he was saying

right before this -

he was just showing us

this magnificent salvation.

Now, think with me here.

Let's say this afternoon at lunch,

you're in here and somebody comes in

and they say, "I hear that this church

preaches about this great salvation.

I want you to tell me about it."

Well, think with me.

Let your imagination go.

We're thinking about
such a great salvation.

Where would we start?

I mean, I would think, this salvation -

I'll tell you this, this
salvation is great

because it's permanent. It's forever.

I mean, when I get saved,

I'm saved for good. It's eternal life.

It's going to go on till the ends

and out there into the ages

and on and on and on eternally.

It's a salvation that saves me forever!

That certainly makes it pretty great.

God loved me

with an everlasting love.

I find that God chose me

before the very foundations of the world.

That makes it great.

This isn't just something
God does off the cuff

in a moment of time.

It just happens to catch Him by surprise.

He had this planned.

The roots, the foundation
of this salvation

are deep, brethren. They're deep.

We look at the cost of it.

Wow!

It cost His Son His life.

We can look at justification.

You could imagine that
the whole first chapter

could have been this whole unraveling

of all the glories of justification.

(Incomplete thought)

Brethren, if there is something

that makes this salvation so great,

it is the doctrine of justification.

It is getting to Judgment Day

and saying,

"I have committed so many sins

I can't remember them all.

The weight of it reaches
up to the heavens.

And because of nothing that I did,

He took it all."

Brethren, justification is
such a glorious Gospel.

We could talk about regeneration.

It's coming and saying

this salvation is so glorious.

Why? Because it doesn't
just take away my guilt.

God comes in there and says,

"You're going to call My Son Jesus

because He's going to save
His people from their sin."

And He breaks the power of it!

Romans 6:14 says that.

It will not have dominion.

He breaks the dominion

of this reigning sin.

And the day is coming, brethren,

when He will eradicate it altogether

and I know that's true

because it says when I see Him,

I'll be like Him and in Him
there is no sin whatsoever.

Brethren, we could go
through all these things

and we could say not only that,

but this is a salvation

that you can be the chief of sinners;

you can have done such things

that man can't even comprehend,

and you can come before Him

and where sin abounds,

this grace does much more abound.

We can look at that and we can say

the most foul, filthy, wretched sinner

of the East side can come in here

and just like a five year old child

who hasn't done all those things,

if they but come to faith in Christ,

clean as the new fallen snow.

Brethren, there are such
glories in this Gospel.

We could look at all
these different things

and marvel - just marvel -

absolutely free this Gospel is.

The righteousness of God

which is not by the law.

There is a righteousness of God

which is now by faith.

And it is for everybody.

It is so free and it is so for everybody

who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

I mean we can just bounce of the walls

with this stuff, brethren.

Our salvation is great.

You think about this.

We were talking about Job.

He gives; He takes away.

But there is an inheritance
to be had here.

Brethren, joy.

Have you heard?

Joy.

The fact that forevermore

there are pleasures to be had

and joys to be had

for those who rebelled against God

and were sinners and
deserved nothing but hell.

We could go there!

We could just talk about the hell

that this salvation has delivered us from

which we deserved and we know it.

Fully deserved.

We could talk about
sanctification and all of that.

I mean, you talk about glory.

We are going to shine like the sun

in the kingdom of our Father -

those of us that have been saved.

He actually says we're going to be

seated with Him on His throne

and we're going to reign with Him.

Brethren, this salvation is truly great!

It is!

But you know what?

Those are just some of the things

that could be said about this salvation.

But that isn't even what the
writer of Hebrews does at all!

You might have thought he just spent

a whole chapter articulating

all the glories of salvation.

But you know what?

We do have Hebrews 1.

And when we read it - let's read it.

I want you to notice just how much

our salvation is not talked about

in chapter 1.

That's what I want you to see.

How much it isn't even there!

It's not even on the mind of the writer

to be bringing that out

and showing us all these wonderful things

about this salvation.

Which is not what we might expect

if we didn't have this first chapter.

Listen, "Long ago at many times

and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers

by the prophets,

but in these last days,

He has spoken to us by His Son."

There's no direct mention
of our salvation there.

"...Whom He appointed
the heir of all things;

through Whom He also created the world."

Again, no direct mention of our salvation.

"He is the radiance of the glory of God,

the exact imprint of His nature..."

"Upholds the universe

with the word of His power."

Again, no mention.

"After making purification for sins..."

Watch that.

Purification for sins.

Three words

that have to do with our salvation.

But that's almost entirely
it in the whole chapter.

Listen to what he goes on to say.

"He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high,

having become as much superior to angels

as the name He has inherited
is more excellent than theirs."

Again, no mention there.

"For to which of the
angels did God ever say,

'You are My Son; today I
have begotten You.'

Or again, 'To Him I will be a Father,

and He shall be to Me a Son.'"

No direct mention at all of our salvation.

Again, "When He brings the
Firstborn into the world,

He says, 'Let all God's
angels worship Him.'"

No mention of our salvation.

Of the angels, he says,
"He makes His angels winds,

His ministers a flame of fire,

but of the Son He says,
'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of uprightness

is the scepter of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness
and hated wickedness,

therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

with the oil of gladness
beyond Your companions,

and You, Lord, laid the foundation
of the earth in the beginning

and the heavens are
the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You remain.

They will wear out like a garment,

like a robe You will roll them up;

like a garment, they will be changed,

but You are the same and
Your years will have no end."

No mention of our salvation here.

"And to which of the angels
has He ever said,

'Sit at My right hand until
I make Your enemies

a footstool for Your feet.'

Are they not all ministering
spirits sent out

to serve for the sake of those
who are to inherit salvation?"

He uses the word "salvation" there.

There's a reference
there to our salvation,

but that's only in passing.

It's an off-handed way.

I mean, literally, you have four words

if you include that
"salvation" right there

in that entire chapter

that had anything to do
directly with our salvation.

Anything!

And it just strikes me
right between the eyes

as I was studying this.

For the writer of Hebrews

to then come to Hebrews 2:1

and say, "Therefore, we must pay

much closer attention to this."

And not drift from it.

Not neglect such a great salvation.

For him to say this when he largely

hasn't even been describing
our great salvation,

it shows us, brethren,
something infinitely valuable.

Absolutely, our salvation

is inestimably great.

Not just because of what was
accomplished in that salvation,

but it's such a great salvation primarily

because Who accomplished
that salvation for us.

That's the thing - do you all see that?

When the writer says,

"Therefore, we must pay
much closer attention..."

We better not drift from it.

How shall we escape if we neglect

such a great salvation?

The writer's primary argument

for paying attention and not drifting

and not neglecting

does not even flow

from breath-taking views of our salvation.

But he utterly wants to
knock the breath out of us

with the glories of the
One Who did the saving.

That's what he does here.

Breath-taking descriptions of the One

Who worked out our salvation.

Listen to me.

Nobody - I mean, nobody -

has a great salvation

unless they have a great Christ.

And you watch, brethren,

any religion out there -

I don't care what it calls itself -

whether it calls itself
Baptist or Presbyterian

or Methodist or Catholic,

Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Islam,

whatever religion in the world out there -

if they don't have a great Christ,

they don't have a great salvation.

Lay it down, brethren.

That's the point here.

What the writer of Hebrews shows us

is that if you do nothing

but simply put your gaze on Christ -

I mean, you don't even consider

what He did for you -

you just set your eyes on Him,

you can come to no other conclusion.

Whoa!

That is a great salvation

because that is a great Person.

That's what he wants to have happen to us.

That's exactly it.

Brethren, don't miss this.

It's huge.

You can come to the conclusion

that our salvation is altogether thrilling

and altogether impressive

and altogether beautiful

simply, brethren, focusing on Christ.

That's clearly what's
happening in chapter 1.

Brethren, as I tried to urge you

and encourage you before,

our Christianity needs to be consumed

with meditating on the Person of Christ.

It's great, it's glorious,

we should be all about thinking

about what Christ has done for us

and thanking Him for it, but brethren,

I'm telling you, what this teaches us

is there are places and there are times

and much of our life just needs to be

devoted to just looking at Who Christ is.

Just all about His glory.

This is huge!

Huge!

He shows us that what we have heard -

it's unparalleled in its glory!

Because that One that sits on that throne

is of unparalleled glory.

Don't miss it, brethren.

Don't miss it.

That's why we must pay
much closer attention.

Brethren, what that means is

you need to give primarily

most attention to Him,

His Person, His beauty.

(incomplete thought)

You know what?

I just get the feeling here

what the writer of Hebrews
is wanting us to do

is look at Christ and just say, "Whoa..."

Without a thought -

I mean, with very little mention

of what He actually did for us.

Just look at Him.

And come to the conclusion:

Whoa... if all He did

was glanced at me once

and gave me that attention,

if He even gave me the time of day,

it would be such an
unspeakable act of kindness

and glory on His part to do that.

For Him to even welcome me into His courts

one time to stand off in the corner,

but when One like Him

actually takes me to be His bride,

and to bring me right
next to Him on His throne,

brethren, this writer
just wants us to become

unglued with this!

This is so tremendous!

If such a person as this
even regarded me at all

and I neglected it,

it would be a crime of infinite
guilt and wickedness.

But when such a salvation
is offered to mankind

by such a One as that,

and to neglect it or drift from it,

it is a crime that will receive

a just retribution.

It is a crime you can't
even imagine the guilt of.

Because the glory of the One

Who accomplished this salvation

is unspeakable.

We can't even fathom.

In fact, there are statements
made here in Hebrews 1

I can't fathom.

I don't even know how to
teach these things to you.

This is the kind of stuff
you have to look at

and you have to meditate.

You have to use a lot of your life

to just ponder and grasp.

Isn't that what we find ourselves doing

with Christ and with the Trinity

and with everything that is deity?

We're just grasping.

We can't get a firm handle on it.

I mean, things are said,

they're so out there.

They're so high.

But to feel the reality of it.

Brethren, I know, I know, I know,

before I even say this,

this example just pales in comparison.

But there's something in it
that just speaks a reality.

In C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia"

there's a place in one of the stories

where you have these two talking horses

and this young lady.

Hwin and Bree,

and what was the girl's name?

Aravis.

And suddenly, Aslan appears.

And he is the picture of Christ.

And the female horse, Hwin,

she's trembling,

but she walks over to him and she says,

"Sir, I would rather be eaten by you -

you are so beautiful -

than fed by anybody else."

And I think in some little way,

that's a picture of what
the writer of Hebrews

wants us to feel.

He wants us to look at Christ

and say I would rather

lose everything for Him;

I would rather suffer a thousand lives

for Him,

than to feel pleasure anywhere else.

I would rather be a servant on His floor

buckling His sandals,

than to be on a throne
in any other kingdom.

He wants us to look and say

I wouldn't trade that for anything at all!

Brethren, do you feel that?

I know, brethren, I know

that example pales, pales, pales.

But there is an intent in this writer

that I should look at this Christ,

and say I'd rather lose my life for Him

than gain it for anything else.

I'd rather suffer the loss of everything

than suffer losing Him.

Brethren, this first chapter
is broken up like this:

In the beginning,

seven wonderful, glorious characteristics

or descriptive phrases are used of Christ.

I've actually entitled my message:

"The Sevenfold Glorious Christ."

And it's interesting,

once you have these seven descriptions,

then, see, I don't think
seven is by accident.

I think it's deliberate.

You know why I think that?

Because then the writer goes on to give

seven Old Testament passages

to prove Christ's glory and supremacy.

Brethren, you know what the number seven

is meant to indicate in Scripture.

Perfection. Completeness.

I believe that's what we have here.

I believe the point of the writer

is to exalt the perfect
supremacy of Christ.

And what I want to do now

as I draw everything to conclusion

is go through these
first seven descriptions

and I want you to see them.

Hebrews 1:1,

"Long ago, at many times

and in many ways,

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

but in these last days,

He has spoken to us by His Son."

You know what I found
myself wanting to do?

Here's Christ.

The writer of Hebrews says,

I want to prove His supremacy.

In fact, one of the things that
he does in this first chapter

is He proves His
supremacy over the angels.

And you know how he does it?

He does it by basically saying

to which one of the angels
did He ever say this?

Well, you know what?

I thought I can do no better

than to do what he does.

Well, if I'm going to compare Christ

to all the other prophets,

then I guess I can say this:

To which one of the prophets

did He ever say what's
said in Matthew 17:5?

You see, the writer of Hebrews

is taking all of his texts

from the Old Testament, but guess what?

I get to draw from the New Testament.

He didn't have that, but I have that.

So I can draw from there.

And I can say to which one of the prophets

did He ever say this?

"This is My beloved Son

with Whom I am well pleased.

Listen to Him."

And it's the "beloved Son"
and the "listen to Him"

that I want you both to see.

Why listen to Him?

Well, this is the beloved Son.

You see, we should listen to the prophets,

but to which of them...?

God said to Ezekiel, "Son of Man"

but which of them did He
ever call "My beloved Son"?

None of them.

And listen, we could almost look at Isaiah

as probably the greatest
Old Testament prophet.

But even he when he saw the Lord,

what did he say?

"Woe is me. I am undone." Or, "I am lost."

"I am a man of unclean lips

and I dwell in the midst of a people

of unclean lips."

Brethren, that's the best

that one of the prophets could say.

But do you know what was said of Christ?

Here's the prophet saying

"my lips are unclean."

What does the Bible
say about Christ's lips?

And it does. It speaks about them.

Psalm 45:2, "You are the most handsome

of the sons of men."

Don't you love that description of Christ?

The most handsome of the sons of men.

"Grace is poured upon Your lips.

Therefore, God has blessed You forever."

Here's this One more
handsome than all the sons

blessed of God forever

because grace is on His lips.

Phenomenal.

Can you just imagine?

Have you ever stood and
watched somebody talk?

You look over and you see people talking

and you just stand and you watch them.

You don't really hear what they're saying.

Can you imagine just
watching from a distance?

Like His disciples must have sometimes?

You know how it is.

I've seen this when I've been in places

where John MacArthur has been

or where John Piper has been

or where Paul Washer's been.

And they're speaking
and it's like a magnet.

People want to go there.

Can you imagine with Christ speaking?

His disciples - it would have been

almost unbearable to not hear Him.

I just imagine Him with a leper coming up

and His disciples just thinking

what could He be saying to him?

"I will. Be clean."

I mean, pure, smooth as silk,

precious as gold,

the words just flow out of His mouth.

In Luke 4:22, you know
what it says about Him?

"They marveled at the gracious words

that were coming from His mouth."

When those officers were sent

by the chief priests and the Pharisees

to go get Him, you remember what happened.

They come back without Him

and the Pharisees and chief priests are...

"where is He?"

(incomplete thought)

In other words, they were saying,

we never heard anybody talk like this.

"No one ever spoke like this man."

In other words, they were saying

His speaking just astounded us -

we couldn't even get
ourselves to the place

where we could take the guy.

We never heard anybody
say things like this.

Brethren, the reason
nobody ever spoke like that

is because nobody else was ever like that.

God had never come to the earth before.

They never had One so full of glory,

so full of truth,

so much the mouthpiece of God.

In one place, Matthew 7:28,

"When Jesus finished these sayings,

the crowds were astonished
at His teaching."

Brethren, they marveled.
They were astonished.

Let me ask you this.

Have you, have I, have we

gotten to the place where what Jesus says

doesn't astound us anymore?

I can remember when I was first saved

and opening up the Scriptures and reading,

"Render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar's,

and to God the things that are God's."

The wisdom of Him.

To be put in a place where either answer

was going to condemn Him

and then to give an answer
that nobody could answer.

You know how many times when He spoke

it says people just went quiet?

He closed their mouths.

(incomplete thought)

Isaiah had impurity mixed in there.

He had to bow his head in shame,

fall on his face.

When Jesus spoke,

all truth.

He said to Pilate, "I came to
bear witness of the truth."

(incomplete thought)

There was a day when Herod was speaking

and they said,

"It's the voice of a god, not a man."

That was an abomination, folks.

Herod got eaten by worms and died.

That's a bad thing.

But you know, if you looked at Christ

and you said "the voice of God,"

that would not be sarcasm.

That would not be mockery.

That would not be sacrilege.

That is true.

That's the glory of Christ.

How about this? Hebrews 1:2,

"Whom He appointed
the heir of all things."

Now, brethren, it's not absolutely certain

but it's definitely possible that
if you look down at verse 5,

there is a quote from Psalm 2

where it says, "You are My Son,

today I have begotten You."

Well, Psalm 2 is definitely
in the writer's mind

when he wrote that Christ
is heir of all things.

And it's very possible he said that

because he was thinking about

what it says in Psalm 2

right after it says that.

What does it say?

"You are My Son;
today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me and I will make
the nations Your heritage."

That's what the ESV says.

Every other translation I
saw says "inheritance."

That's the word.

That's what it means.

The ESV translates it that way

almost everywhere.

Excuse me.

Let me ask you this.

Here's the Father saying to the Son,

"Ask of Me and I will give
You the inheritance..."

Who gets the inheritance?

The heir.

Who's the heir?

Christ.

"...And the ends of the
earth Your possession."

Brethren, just imagine this.

Let it take hold.

Daniel 7:13,

"I saw in the night visions,

and behold with the clouds of heaven,

there came one like a Son of Man."

Can you imagine?

The clouds of heaven.

And here comes One in His glory.

He's like the Son of Man.

"He came to the Ancient of Days."

He came to His Father.

"And was presented before Him.

And to Him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

which shall not pass away

and His kingdom one that
shall not be destroyed."

Brethren, the Son of Man. He is the heir.

Do you recognize what that means?

The Father holds nothing back.

Nothing at all. All is for Christ.

Ephesians 1:22, "God put all things

under Christ's feet."

Gave Him as Head over all things

to the church.

This is what we see.

How about Psalm 72?

"May He have dominion from sea to sea

and from the river to
the ends of the earth.

May the desert tribes bow down before Him

and His enemies lick the dust.

May the kings of Tarshish
and of the coastlands

render Him tribute.

May the kings of Sheba
and Seba bring gifts.

May all the kings fall down before Him;

all nations serve Him."

Brethren, you know how we've heard

that all things work together for good

to those that love God;

to those that are called
according to His purpose.

Do you know what Scripture also tells us?

All things work together to serve Christ.

Even if it's His enemies licking the dust.

You know what that does?

That makes Jesus relevant, right?

If we say this:

Literally everything,
Christ has inherited.

It's all for Him. Even His enemies.

Even that which is wicked,
that which is dark,

that which is stained.

Brethren, even if it's a vessel of wrath

that does nothing but exalts His wrath,

it is for Him and it serves Him.

That is huge!

You know what that means?

That means that we all - you and me -

we belong to Him.

That makes Him relevant.

I mean, if you go out of here today

and you say "well,
that doesn't really matter,"

you're not connecting with truth.

Right?

You need to go out of here
after reading things like that

and say "I'm His.
And I'm serving His ends.

And I'm going to bring glory
to Him one way or another.

And it may be licking dust,
but I'm for Him."

Brethren, that's what that text says.

People are either bowing
down and serving Him

or they're licking the
dust and serving Him.

It's relevant to everything.

Literally everything. To you. To me.

We need to realize this is the Christ

we have to reckon with.

He owns us. He has us.

We have been offered to Him by the Father

as an inheritance.

And we are going to serve His purposes.

And brethren, it behooves every one of us

to bow before Him.

My friend, don't serve Him by licking dust

as one of His enemies.

Right now, He calls you.

Do you remember how it says there?

I'm so convinced that
the writer of Hebrews

has Psalm 2 in mind because
listen to what it says.

"Ask of Me and I will make
the nations Your inheritance

and the ends of the earth Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron."

What's He going to
break with a rod of iron?

What's been given to
Him as an inheritance.

He's going to come to what He's inherited.

He's going to take a rod of iron

and bang!

He hits it.

"...And dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel."

You say, "He is?"

(incomplete thought)

My son is my heir

and I come bring to him
some treasured family relic

and I give it to him and
he just takes out a rod

and smashes it.

But I'll tell you this, it doesn't meet

the disapproval of the Father at all.

There's a conclusion to that.

"Therefore, O kings,

(and every one of us),

be wise, be warned,

O rulers of the earth,

serve the Lord with fear

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son lest He be angry

and you perish in the way,

for His wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all those who
take refuge in Him."

Oh brethren, this stuff is so
wonderful and fearful.

"Kiss the Son."

"Blessed are all those who take refuge..."

in the Heir.

Him Who is the Heir of all things.

This has to do with your life.

You can't get away.

I don't care who you are here today.

Whether you're a Christian
or you're not a Christian,

you're just visiting,
you're old, you're young,

you're male, you're female -

you can't get away from this.

You have something to do with Christ

because He owns you.

Then it goes on to say this,

"Through Whom also He created the world."

Well, who created the world?

Who is the "he" in v. 2?

It's not the Son. It's the Father.

The "he" is God Who creates.

Do you all see that?

"Through Whom..."

The "whom" is Christ.

Through Christ, God creates the world.

Through God Who is the Son,

God Who is the Father creates the world.

How does that happen?

Brethren, don't you see

that constantly what the writer of Hebrews

and God in all of the Scriptures

is constantly trying to stretch us.

Stretch. Stretch your mind.

Because God is so absolutely
beyond our minds,

but He tries to give us thoughts

that we have to try to get our hands on

and get into our minds.

How does one do it,

but He does it by another?

I mean, I could understand,

you know I call you by my cell phone.

Did I call you? Did the cell phone?

I did it through that.

Brethren, our examples never stack up.

But the best I can do with all this

is go to God's Word at look at it.

Listen, back in Proverbs 8,

what you have is apparently Solomon

takes wisdom - the wisdom of God -

and he turns it into a person.

You say why would he do that?

Well, maybe because Jesus one time said,

"you go into those Scriptures

thinking you have eternal life,

but they speak about Me."

Have you ever read that Jesus

is the wisdom of God?

Scripture tells us that
in 1 Corinthians 1.

So when I come to Proverbs 8

and I begin to read this way:

Now look, just listen. Listen.

Try to just take some glory from this.

I'm trying to come up
with biblical descriptions

of how the Father does the creating,

and yet He does the creating in such a way

that the Son does the creating.

"The Lord possessed Me at
the beginning of His work.

The first of His acts of old.

Ages ago, I was set up at the first,

before the beginning of the earth.

Where there were no depths,

I was brought forth."

You say, I was brought forth?

But this is the idea.

Jesus proceeds from the Father.

Jesus was begotten by the Father.

How do we explain that?

How is Christ proceeding from?

Emanating from?

Being begotten by the Father?

"Brought forth when there were no springs

abounding with water,

before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth.

Before He had made the
earth with its fields

or the first of the dust of the world

when He established the heavens,

I was there.

When He drew a circle

on the face of the deep;

when He made firm the skies above;

when He established the
fountains of the deep;

when He assigned to
the sea its limits

so that the waters might
not transgress His command;

when He marked out the
foundations of the earth,

then I was beside Him like
a master workman."

This one speaking says,

"I was the master workman."

Well, wait. But it just said

that the One that possessed Him

at the beginning of His work

is the One that was actually

making firm the skies above.

So why is the One speaking,

the One with the Lord,

why is He saying He's the master workman?

Because He is.

He says, "I was daily His delight,

rejoicing before Him always,

rejoicing in His inhabited world

and delighting in the children of men."

Again, you can argue with me

whether you think that's Christ or not,

but don't we have to try to reach

and stretch and let the Bible

try to put this together
for us in our minds?

What a Person!

I mean, brethren, what
the writer of Hebrews

is wanting us to do -

he wants us to see that there was

this plain looking, very unassuming

Jewish carpenter.

And he wants you to look at Him and say,

"Wow... He created the worlds."

The worlds.

That means the ages. This present age.

All of the universe. All of time.

All of space. All of everything.

This One - He came into the world.

And when He walked down the street

there were no blasts
of archangel trumpets.

There was no great applause.

And the writer of Hebrews is saying:

but He demanded it.

When He entered those
gates of glory, there was.

There was such a celebration.

There was such a reception

when those gates lifted up

and admitted Him in, brethren.

Beloved, our salvation is very great

becaues our Savior is great like this.

How about this one?

"The radiance of God's glory."

Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance

of the glory of God,

the exact imprint of His nature."

What do you think of when
you think of radiance?

I think of light.

I think of brilliant, bright shining,

amazing light.

You know how it is when it's all overcast?

Like if it was all cloudy -

we don't get many days
like that here in Texas -

but when it's just cloudy all day long.

In Michigan where I grew up

there were too many days like that.

But you know what it's
like when it's cloudy?

You don't really see where
the light's coming from.

You see that everything is sort of lit,

but you don't see where it's coming from.

Not like last night

when I was standing out front of my house

and this great big cloud,

this thunderhead was pluming up,

and the rays of light were
piercing through there

and you could see them
stretching across the sky.

Not like an overcast day, but like that.

That's how I envision radiance

where you can see these beams of light

and they're streaming out.

Like when the sun pierces
across these mighty clouds.

Beams of light.

Like 10,000 bolts of lightning.

You know how a bolt of lightning

just lights up everything at night,

where you have that intensity of light

just emanating, shining rays.

And it comes and you draw
it back to its source

and the source is One

Who is sitting on a throne.

Brethren, emanating brightness.

Now look, I know God is everywhere.

But I know that there are places

He manifests Himself

and I know God is not everything,

and there are things that are dark.

And He shines into them.

Piercing, dazzling, shimmering.

He shines into that darkness.

There is none in Him.

You look towards the center

and it's blinding.

There's no darkness there at all.

That's what Scripture tells us.

And Paul would say

it's an unapproachable light.

In other words,

when you take all that God is,

brethren, even in glory,
it's unapproachable.

We will never see God for all -

we will never see the entire brightness.

Because we will never be beyond created.

And His uncreated fullness

can never be seen by us.

We will never fully grasp God.

We will never fully come to that.

It's unapproachable.

There's a brightness that
transcends everything.

It's so intense a brightness

that is literally God Himself.

I mean, can you imagine?

Just pure God.

Even after we've been there

through eons of ages,

we will only know some of what God is.

Brethren, brethren! Grasp this with me.

Do you remember how
Jesus defined eternal life?

"This is eternal life,

that they might know You (the Father, God)

and Who else?

Jesus Christ Whom He has sent.

Know. That we might come to know.

I want you to think about this.

John tells us God is light.

The writer of Hebrews tells us

Jesus Christ is the
radiance of that light.

Now you tell me this.

Here's God pulling us into eternity

to know light and the radiance of light.

Brethren, this is the glory.

This is eternity.

It's God pulling us

deeper and deeper
and deeper into the light

that we might come to know it more

and more and more fully,

further and further and further

into that light.

Brethren, you think about it.

We as Christians are going
to shine like the sun

in the kingdom of our Father.

We are going to have
such glorified bodies.

We are going to be created
as the bride of Christ.

To be able to exist somewhere

in His manifest presence,

and as He manifests Himself

more and more and more,

we are actually going to be beings

created to endure more and more -

never all - but fuller and fuller,

deeper and deeper

He is going to draw us into that light.

Brethren, when it talks about the
unsearchable riches of Christ,

it doesn't say that for nothing.

Can you even get this?

I can't.

The exact imprint of God's nature.

I mean, the Son is the
exact representation

of everything that is true of God's being.

That doesn't mean God the Son

is the same person as God the Father,

but it means that when you see the Son,

you see what He is, what He is like,

He is everything that the Father is.

Brethren, when you see Him weeping

over Jerusalem, you see the heart of God.

When you see Him lay
His hand on that leper,

oh brethren, that is God's heart -

a heart to heal, a heart to save,

a heart to help.

Brethren, it says He upholds the universe

by the word of His power.

Brethren, think about it right now.

All this cinder and block

and sheetrock and the rebar inside of it,

it is all right now upheld

by the word of His power.

He upholds it.

Your heartbeat. He upholds it.

Again, I was saying before,
because He's the heir of all things,

He's relevant to everything.

Brethren, because He upholds everything

by the word of His power
He's relevant to everything.

If He just said "stop"

by the word of His power,

He stopped thinking things into existence,

speaking them, upholding them,

if He stops that for a second,
we go out of existence.

Literally, He holds us.

It's amazing, brethren,

can you remember those
days of your wickedness?

When you were just hell
bent on wicked things?

To do evil.

And He upheld you.

Oh brethren, but now He has
revealed Himself to us

as One Who upholds us

but will also take us to Himself

if we but call upon Him.

Brethren, purification - then He sat down.

I'm not going to deal
with purification this week

because I'm diving into it next week.

But listen, Jesus didn't
just sit down anywhere.

He sat down on a throne.

And I was just thinking,

brethren, He is high

and He is lifted up.

And He is seated

not in any low place.

He's seated on the highest throne of all.

And I looked at Him -

last night I was out in the field,

and I was just contemplating
all these pictures of Christ.

Brethren, if there isn't any place

for a Christian who hungers,

thirsts to be righteous,

to please God,

but you fall...

you know that you aren't

what you want to be.

You aren't what you were by any stretch,

but you're striving

and it feels like so often there's

these weights of sin.

Just weight.

And I was thinking about this Christ.

And I thought if there is anybody

to come and help us -

I was thinking,

call His name Jesus.

He's going to save His
people from their sin.

If this is such the kind
of Jesus that we have,

One like this, One that is that great,

One that is that powerful and enthroned,

everything committed to Him,

One Who is this radiance,

One Who is this exact imprint,

One Who is speaking the Word -

if we have such a salvation based on

such a One as this, brethren,

we need to be saved still!

This is ongoing!

We need to be saved from our enemies.

We need to be saved from sin.

We need to be saved from its power.

We need to persevere
and make it to the end.

And we do that by Him.

But in that picture, is there not

full reason to believe and trust

and to hold firm and fast your confidence

that this One can do it?

We're not dealing with a novice here.

We're not dealing with a lightweight.

We're dealing with this Christ

Who transcends all.

King of kings

seated on a throne,

inherited everything.

He owns it. He creates it.

He upholds it.

And you come to Him and you say

is there any possibility
You might help me

and save me from my sin?

Of course!

That's exactly what the
writer wants us to think.

Remember this whole
book is about holding fast,

firmly, fast to your confidence.

Next week, we look at
purification for sins.

Brethren, just swim in these truths.

Swim in them.

Lose yourself in them.