And when a pastor of the faithfulness and the stature of Dean Olive invites you back after having been here twice, it is a moment of fear and trembling. His faithfulness through the years, His biblical knowledge, His love for you, His people, His love for the Word of God is something that no one doubts. Everyone finds a challenge to their own spirituality and their own ministry. And so I want you to know that I do take very seriously this invitation and this opportunity to come and preach to you. And I know that as I preach, you will listen with a deep sense that you are called upon to judge what is said in light of Scripture, if it is true, to apply it to your heart and to your worship. and that the growth of all of us is dependent upon the work of the Spirit owning what is said. And so we approach this time with a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity and gratitude to God for having given us a word by which we come to know the redemptive love of Christ. So it's in light of that that I want us to look at the book of Hebrews chapter 1. As Dean has said, we're talking about great introductions. Many of the books of the Bible summarize their content in the first few verses and then the rest of the book is arguing what they have said in the introductory section. The Gospel of John, most of you probably have read that several times and you know those first verses, that introduction which is so rich and abundantly full in its presentation of Jesus Christ and His incarnation and the ignorance of people to whom He came and yet having seen His glory and then as He goes through the chapters how all of these things are unfolded before us. We're going to be looking later at the book of Galatians, how Paul in the first section of the first five verses introduces us to that and the pungent issues that he wants to deal with and then he unfolds his argument in the rest of it. Well, even so it is with here with the book of Hebrews. There are sometimes we hear introductions, and I was happy that Dean did not perjure himself by going any further than he did in this introduction of me. And I'm glad that this idea of being the premier historian was mitigated somewhat by his mentioning my brother Michael Haken, who is a tremendously useful as a Baptist historian and a theologian. But I've heard introductions that just go on and on about the human messenger. and about all of the glories of the human messenger. So sometimes it just becomes embarrassing to hear and we wonder if the one who is coming to preach is actually should be preaching himself rather than Christ because he seems almost to reach the level of deity in the introduction that is given him. And the writer of Hebrews gives an introduction to his writing that is the most exalted kind of introduction. But when we look at it, we realize that it is not something that we have to be embarrassed about. It's not something that we think has become exaggerated. It's not something that we need to take with a grain of salt. But we realize that the most exalted words of human language can never express the true glory of the one that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. Human language can never exhaust the glory and the power and the wonder of Jesus Christ. But in these first verses we do have an introduction that leads us to a deep expectation, gives us excitement about how the writer is going to unfold his argument throughout the rest of the book. So let's look at Hebrews chapter 1 and I'll read verses 1 through 4 and then refer to other verses throughout the message. 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, or literally by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, 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. Let's pray. Father, as we look at this passage of Scripture, we pray that the Spirit who inspired it will now continue his work and illumine our minds, that we might understand it and sanctify our hearts, that we might apply its truths to our worship of you and to our walk before men. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the most astounding things that we have in our understanding of God and how humans are related to him is the grace that we have in the concept of revelation. God has revealed himself to us. He was under no obligation to do this once we fell in Adam. All of his actions toward us that have any redemptive quality are pure grace, purely unmerited. And so the very fact that he has revealed himself to us is in itself an act of grace. The first thing that we see in this text, I think, is the point of revelation. that it is in the Lord Jesus Christ that we have the full revelation of God not only in his attributes but in his purpose toward us. God has created the world in such a way, in fact it would be impossible for him to have created it in any other way because God is a God of truth, he's not a God of deception. God is a God of intelligence, He's not a God of pure chance. And so the created order is an order that speaks about God and we should be able to discern His eternal power and Godhead through the things that are made. We should be able to determine the moral demands He makes of us through conscience because indeed in the creation the law was written on our hearts. But these points of revelation we have so repressed that we gain no benefit from them. And so God has revealed himself in ways that are clearer because they use human language to speak to us and tell us what all of these other points of revelation mean. And then he has revealed himself also to us in person, in one who embodies his own character. So we see that the writer here is emphasizing this point of revelation. This is the first thing that we need to enjoy and celebrate about what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ came. The writer tells us that long ago and many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. He began speaking to Adam. He spoke to Adam in his unfallen state in the garden. He spoke to Adam in his fallen state. He spoke to Noah and told him even the dimensions of the ark and exactly what was going to happen and the judgment of the world. He spoke to Abraham and made a covenant with him. He spoke to the son of Abraham and the grandson of Abraham and then to the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob. through Moses. He spoke then in fire and smoke on the mountain, and he spoke in words that were recorded on the tablets of stone, giving the law of God, the expectation that we could have of how we would be judged and what is expected of us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. He has spoken through the prophets and in many ways he spoke through them. He spoke through their doing works that were examples of things that were going to happen in which they would act out judgment that would come upon Israel. He spoke to them as they would simply set forth words that he had given. He spoke to them through writings that they gave. He spoke in many times and in various ways through many different people. But none of these could bear the full revelation of God. The revelation of Isaiah and his predictions of the Babylonian captivity would be fulfilled during the time of Jeremiah, and Jeremiah would give more specific interpretations of what was happening. of what was happening. And then the words of the minor prophets are words that were predicting the coming of this judgment upon them and the horror that they experienced. And we can remember how Habakkuk was so devastated in spirit when he found out that his own people were going to be judged by that nation, the Babylonians. And then God revealed to him that he would judge the Babylonians also. And finally Habakkuk simply gave up trying to reason with God and said, whatever you say, I will believe. And that great statement of faith at the last of Habakkuk. We see God speaking, God revealing, God gradually unfolding His purpose to us through the prophets. All of these knew that the revelation they gave was something that was yet to be fulfilled. The Apostle Peter talks about how the prophets looked and examined and wanted to understand what kind of person and what kind of time it would be when this Messiah, this one who is going to die, the one who would bear the sins of the people, and yet the one, even though he was rejected by men, nevertheless would sit on the throne of his father David forever. What kind of a person is this? How can this happen? And then Peter says, it was revealed to them that it was not for them, but for you. that these things would be fulfilled. And so the prophets spoke and yet they realized that their message, though true and though giving up profile, was incomplete and could be understood only in the person and in the work of the one about whom the prophets spoke, and that the sin problem that became so obvious within Israel could be solved only through a covenant that this Redeemer would bring in, in which the law would be written in the hearts of His people, and no one would have to say, know the Lord, for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest. How can this be? How can it be that there will be someone who will write these things on the heart? And so we learn from the prophets, we learn from that revelation that something wonderful is happening, something redemptive is happening, and yet it was not full and not complete in their time. And so the writer of Hebrews then assures us that though he spoke in many times and in many ways and spoke through the prophets, through plural, through the fathers and prophets, by the prophets, he has spoken in these last days to us by a son. Now, I've emphasized the idea that it's a Son. It certainly is His Son. It is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God through whom He's spoken. But the writer is emphasizing the qualitative distinction between speaking through prophets who were mere men and then speaking through one who is of the same nature as God. He spoke through prophets on the one hand, mere men, But now He is spoken to one who bears His very nature. He's spoken to us by a Son. So these things that are freely given to us of God have now been revealed in the work of Christ. The grace that has come to us has been revealed by His own actions, by His dying on the cross, by His resurrection. And then through the prophets, this revelation has been made complete as they have explained to us what His death means, what His reign means, what His second coming means, and what eternity with Him in the future means. So He has spoken to us by His Son. Thus, we have the idea of revelation. The second thing that we see in this is the idea of incarnation. In order for us to appreciate exactly what this incarnation is, who is being incarnated, he describes the Son for us at the last part of verse 2 and in verse 3 in order that we will know that the incarnation is in itself a miraculous thing. It is something that is astounding and the incarnation is something that picks up for us this concept of revelation. Notice what it says about the Son. It says, He appointed whom He appointed the heir of all things. Now that in itself is sort of strange language to us because we could say that in eternity because of His very nature He is the heir of all things by His being the Son of God. So why is he appointed the heir of all things? This kind of theme goes throughout this introduction. Well, he is appointed the heir of all things because of a work that he has done. He is appointed the heir, not as the one who is eternally the Son of God, although that certainly is involved because He alone would be worthy to be the heir of all things, but He is the heir of all things in light of a redemptive work that He has done. And so the incarnation that He is beginning to tell us about is something that allowed Christ to operate, the Son of God to operate in the future in a role that He would not have had had the incarnation not have occurred. And so He has appointed Him in His incarnate state as having completed the work that He came to do as the heir of all things. All things will revolve around Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. All things will revolve around Jesus Christ as the Righteous One. All things will revolve around Jesus Christ as the One who completely fulfilled the will of His Father. He has appointed the heir of all things in light of the completion of His redemptive work. Now, that He is worthy to be appointed the heir of all things is related to the fact that in eternity He actually is of equal authority and equal glory with the Father. He has appointed the heir of all things because it is through Him He created the world. be the heir of all things, because He Himself, by the will of the Father, has brought the entire world into existence. And He brought it into existence for the very purpose that He would be the heir of all things, for the very purpose that His glory would be shown through it. The Father created the world through the Son, in order to show that it was entirely appropriate in His eternal state that everything, when it comes to culmination, be seen as the property of the Son, as reflecting the glory of the Son and the triune God through the glory of the work of the Son. So He's appointed the heir of all things, and it is through Him that He created the world, that is, all things of which He will be the heir. And this is seen as a worthy appointment because Jesus indeed is the radiance of the glory of God. If we want to know what the Father is like, indeed what the triune God is like, if we want to see it in all of its brilliance, just like the radiance of the sun shows all the colors of the world, the radiance of the sun is the way in which we see all things, even so, the radiance of the Son of God is the one through whom we understand the purpose of God and we understand the character of God. He is the one who sheds light on all of this for us. He is the one that allows us to see what God's purpose is and what God is like. We cannot mistake what God is like if we understand who the Son is because the Son is of the very essence of that light which is God. He is of the essence of the Father. So He is the radiance of the glory of God. All of those things that are the stunning attributes of God, all of the things that we learn through creation and through redemption, those attributes that we celebrate so much, His power, and His sustaining power, and His knowledge, and His wisdom, and His intelligence, and His mercy, and His grace, and His loving kindness, and His faithfulness, and all of these things are shown for us in the fact that the Son is the radiance of the glory of God. If the Son had not come to redeem us, we would know none of these things about God. All that we know about Him comes through the Son. It does not diminish the glory of the Father or of the Spirit. It does not make their glory in any sense inferior that we understand it all through the person and work of Christ because He is the one that is the radiance of that glory that God, the triune God, has in and of Himself and is a revelation of His purpose. And now, in order to emphasize that even more, not only is He the radiance of the glory of God so that we see everything about the glory of God in Him, He is the exact imprint of His nature. When He spoke to us by His Son, this one who came to His own and His own received Him not because they esteemed Him smitten of God and afflicted. They esteemed Him as someone who is too humble and of too mean an origin in order to be the Son of God. Certainly this could not be the the Messiah, this could not be the one through whom God was going to redeem Israel. This one who was the son of a carpenter of Nazareth, this one who is merely an itinerant preacher, this one who came and submitted himself to the baptism of this wild man, John the Baptist. How in the world could this be one who is going to redeem Israel? How could this be one in whom we should believe? How could this be the fulfillment of the prophets? But the writer tells us that He is the exact imprint of His nature. He is in fact God. If you see God, if you see Jesus and you understand Jesus, anything you understand about Jesus, any truth you know about Jesus is a truth that you will know about God. He is the exact imprint of His nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Not only has he created it, but that same power, that same power that existed in his word when he said, let there be light, then he divided the light from the darkness and then he divided the waters from the waters and made the different levels of this world and he let the dry land appear and he called forth the birds and he called forth the fish and he called forth the land animals and then he created man in his own image. He also sustains all of these things. That same creative power, that same word by which he brought everything into existence continues to operate. So that it is, as it were, a moment-by-moment continuous creation upholding all things in their proper sphere, in their proper history, in the purpose that He has for them, moment-by-moment He is upholding it. Nothing has existence in itself. None of us has our being in and of ourselves. Our being is upheld by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself because not only has He brought us into being, but He upholds us by the Word of His power, in order that when the world culminates, it will have performed precisely what His power has determined that should be performed in it. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. And so, that is the one through whom we have revelation. And that is the one who came to fulfill the purpose of God by His incarnation. He says, after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So this one has come to us. This one has done something in this world. This one has done something we could not do in ourselves. He has done something that humanity needed doing, but humanity could not do it. So throughout this book, he speaks about the necessity of the incarnation. In chapter 2, verse 10, he says, it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist." So he refers back to his introductory section that he is the one who created all things, he is the one who upholds all things. It was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. This was the purpose of the incarnation. He would make him perfect through suffering. And in verse 14, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. So he had to become like us. who was lost, who had rebelled, his image bearers, men and women, rebelled, we fell in Adam. When that one man sinned, death came upon all men. By that one man's sin, condemnation came upon all men. Who is it that must pay the price? Who is it that must live the righteous life? Who is it that has to pay for sin? Why, it is sinners themselves. It is those who bear human nature. How can this be taken care of? How can God in His wisdom say that He will by no means clear the guilty and yet at the same time be filled with loving kindness and forgiving iniquities and forgiving transgressions? How can that be? Well, it's because not only has He placed us all in Adam at the beginning, but He places all of those that He has chosen in Christ, so that when He dies, He dies for them. When He lives His righteous life, His righteous life is imputed to them for righteousness. He made purification for sins. It was necessary for Him to become human in order that He might redeem those that He had given to the Son in the eternal covenant of redemption. So this idea of incarnation then leads us into this reality of purification. He has made purification. He has become man in order that He might make purification for sins. When He made purifications for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Verse 8 of this same chapter says, But of the sun, 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." He loved righteousness and hated wickedness. He loved righteousness, therefore he lived a righteous life that was completely obedient to God's law and completely obedient to the command that God had given him, that the Father had given him before his incarnation. He loved righteousness all of his life. He loved doing what the Father had told him. He loved the character of his Father. There was never a moment when he resented what he had come to do, even though he was to die just for the unjust, even though he was to bear sins that were not his own, even though he would be brought to punishment. for the sins of others. Nevertheless, He loved the will of His Father. He loved this all the way to the end. He was obedient all the way unto death, even the death of the cross. He loved righteousness and hated wickedness. And in no other way could He make purification for sins. Had He had sins of His own, He would have had to die for His own sins. But only if he had no sins of his own and only if he could be the representative of many sinners could he make purification for sins. And this is precisely what he did. We learn in chapter 9, verses 13 and 14. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, and that is in an external way in the ceremonial law, how much more Will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? He purifies sins and so therefore He purifies our conscience. If we understand what Christ has done, if we understand that He indeed bore our sin in His own body, if we understand that God has accepted this sacrifice as full and total payment for our sins, then our conscience is purified as well as we stand really pure before God because Jesus has made purification for sins. It is on this basis that John can say in 1 John chapter 1, have such tremendous confidence in this completed work of Christ. He says, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is the death of Christ that allows God to be faithful to His Word, faithful to His character, faithful to His covenant promises, faithful to everything about Himself, and yet, faithful to the verdict that, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die, faithful to the promise that He would by no means clear the guilty, and yet, at the same time, He can be just in forgiving us of our sins because He has performed the just action in Jesus Christ, in His bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. He made purification for sins. Now notice the text says, after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. This is what we might call His coronation. We have looked at Jesus as a source, the final source of revelation. We have seen that the Son of God, the one who was bearing all of the attributes of God in himself eternally, took to himself our very nature in his incarnation. We have seen that the purpose for which he did this was that he might provide purification for sins, but now we see that once he has made purification for sins, he is sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. This is his coronation. He refers again to this in verse 8 when he says, but of the son he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. And again, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you, that is, as a king, with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Now, this coronation is a coronation as the one who is the Redeemer. This coronation is certainly consistent with the fact that He is the second person of the triune God and He rules and He reigns and all should bow before Him and worship Him. That He indeed is by very nature King of kings and Lord of lords. But this idea of his being seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high after making purification for sin sets this within the context of his redemptive purpose. He is a redeemer king. He is not a king that will only judge, though he has the right to judge. by His very nature, by the fact that He has created all things, by the fact that He is the One who is the Revealer of the Law, by the fact that He is the Holy One, He can be the judge of all things, but he now has made purification for sins and he sits down at the right hand of the majesty on high, the place of authority, being given a scepter of uprightness because he has loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Now he is seated there as one who is a redeemer. In the Psalms, we see the celebration of this reality that the Lord Jesus Christ is a Redeemer. In the book of Psalms, in Psalm 2, we read that verse 8 where the Father, we see the Father talking to Him and He says, Ask of Me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. This is, his reigning as king is one who has the right to inflict this kind of judgment. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun. 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." Now, how can you take refuge in one who has the right to judge you? When you are thoroughly convinced that you are a sinner, you are outside of His will, you have disobeyed Him and you are worthy of condemnation, how is it that you can come to this One who has the right to judge and it says that He will dash these like a potter dashes a vessel that He has made. He warns the rulers that His wrath is quickly kindled, kindled in a moment. How do we go to Him to take refuge? Who is this King who judges with such severity and with such precision? And yet we're urged to go to Him to take refuge. Well, it's because He is now seated at that place of power after having made purification for sins. He is a Redeemer King. He is one to whom we can come and He will forgive us when we take refuge in Him. When we say to Him, it is because of your death that I can be shielded from your wrath. It is because of your righteousness that I can escape the verdict of guilty. It is because of your loving kindness shown in your making purification for sins that I have the confidence in my conscience that I am cleansed and that I am your child and that I will live with you forever. I can take refuge in this King because He has made purification for sins. The writer quotes for us later, Psalm 45, which is a psalm that talks about the coronation of Christ. And beginning with verse 6, we have some of the quotations from Hebrews 1, where the writer there says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." Now notice these descriptions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Here, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. and so forth. This King in all of His glory has made purification for sins and therefore He will have a bride that will come to Him and will be adorned with His great and splendid garments. He has bought us as His own and He will come and receive us to Himself as a groom coming to see the glory of His bride. After He made purifications for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high and He became this King who will draw us to Himself and clothe us with all of the beauty of His Majesty and His righteousness. So we see the wonder of this coronation. He has made purification for sin. As a result of purification for sin, He has been crowned as a Redeemer King. The last thing that we see in this text is he's been given the right of adjudication. We've seen that he's a source of revelation. We've seen the mercy involved in the incarnation. We've seen the redemption of purification. We've seen the fact that he claims us as his own by his own authority as king and his coronation. And now we see that he is the one who will indeed judge the world. He has been given the position of judge. After making purifications for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And he says again, this thing of the, as he had said earlier, that he was appointed the heir of all things. Now in verse four he says, having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent. than theirs, having become as much superior to the angels." Well, we know that in his eternal existence as a son of God, he already was superior to the angels. He was the one, in fact, that was their creator. He is the one against whom the perhaps the most brilliant and beautiful of the angels rebelled. It is probably because of the covenant in which this Son of God would become a Redeemer of sinners that that angel in fact did rebel. But those elect angels stayed. Those elect angels wondered. Those elect angels continued to learn. Those elect angels are ones that will be informed. It is before the angels that these things are done. These are things in which angels Desire to look. The last part of this chapter, the writer says that angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. They are the ones who will serve those for whom Christ in His incarnation has died. And so as a result of his incarnation, as a result of his making purification for sins, as a result now of his coronation, he has become, as the Redeemer, as the one who is now still both God and man, as the one who is the mediator, the man, Christ Jesus, he has become After having been humiliated, after the incarnation, after having borne our sin in His own body, after having been under the power of death and buried, and now after His resurrection and His appearance for forty days, after His ascension, now He is seated and has become, by this work, as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. The name He has inherited probably is bound up in the name He was given at the very beginning. You will call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins. He succeeded in that. He completed the task. He came and did everything that was necessary to save His people from their sins. And so, as the one who redeems this fallen race, the one who redeems the rebels, the one who in Himself allows God to be just and yet justify those who have faith in Christ, this name is more excellent than the name of any angel. They are messengers. He is Savior. And he has become, by this work of obedience, not only the one who will be the judge in the end, but he has become the one who as judge also says to some, enter thou into the joy of your Lord. He is the one who acquits us. He is the one who is there, our lawyer. If any man sin, John says, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And He is the propitiation for our sins. And so we have an Advocate, we have an Advocate who is righteous, and we have a righteous Advocate who has absorbed the wrath of God for our sins. And so the name that He has inherited as Redeemer is far above any other name that can be named. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. This name is the exalted name. This name is the name of the Savior. This name is the name that will be worshipped forever. This name is the one that will set forth before us even an eternity and ever unfolding manifestation of the glory of God because He is the Redeemer of sinners. having become as much superior to angels, though for a little while he was under the angels. They came and they ministered to him. They supplied him with power. They supplied him with encouragement. They observed every aspect of his ministry. They ministered to him after the temptation. They ministered to him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were there observing His resurrection and the first to announce that He is risen. He is not here, but He is risen. They were there at His ascension when He went back to heaven and He told the men, why do you stand here gazing? This same Jesus who has ascended into heaven shall so come in like manner. The angels are actually a part of one of the early church confessions in 1 Timothy chapter 3. We read that He was observed by And after all of this observation, and after all of this ministering, and after all of seeing about this One who they knew as Creator, who was nevertheless placed in the hands of wicked men, now He is lifted up above them and He has become as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now, in order to demonstrate, the writer gives us a little bit of a history. of how this elevation above the angels came, even though he was superior to angels in his nature. In verse 5 he says, to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son? Today I have begotten you. This is the words of the father to the son in eternity. He is eternally begotten of the father. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. Speaking of the promise that is made to David. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, this is at the incarnation, let all of God's angels worship him. They sang, they said, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased after announcing that a savior was born. But of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the sun, he says, Now, this is after his completed work, as we've said. Your throne, O God, is forever. You've loved righteousness and hated wickedness. And then that is his ascension. That is his current reign. And now he talks about his being the judge. And, Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning, the heavens of the work of Your hand. They will perish, but You remain. They will all 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 never end. And then all things will be placed under His feet. to which the angels, as he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." So in eternity past, he says to the son, you are my son, today I have begotten you, again to Psalm 2 where he begins that section, I will tell of the decree. We get a vision into the eternal decree of God in which He is announcing to the Son what will be the result of His incarnation and all kings coming to Him and people taking refuge in Him. But in eternity, when the decree begins, this is the reality. This is the One who is the Son, the eternally begotten One, the only One who is worthy to come and do this work. And we see it traced all the way through until all of His enemies are placed under His feet. And so he has become as much superior to the angels as the name that he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. He is the one who is worthy to do the work of adjudication. He is the one who in that position will keep history at bay until all of His brethren, until all the elect are called. He is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. And they will. He intercedes for us. In 1 John 2, as we've seen, we have one who is our intercessor, who is our advocate, who is the righteous one. In Matthew, He says that all the nations will appear before Him and they will be divided into the sheep and the goats. In John 5, verses 22 and 30, He talks about how the Father has committed all judgment to the Son on the basis of this redemptive work that He has done. And then in Hebrews 9, verses 27 and 28, we read these powerful words where The writer says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, as he did in his first appearing, not to become the propitiation for sin, as he did in his first appearing, not to die to just for the unjust as He did in His first appearing, not to commend the love of God to us by dying for our sins, not to deal with sin in that way, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. And so, we die, judgment comes. Those who are outside of Christ will be judged and the wrath of the Lamb will be upon them, the Son will be angry and they will perish. Those who have received Him, those whose sins are forgiven, those for whose sins He made purification are now eagerly waiting for Him, desiring to see Him, desiring to see His glory, this One who has saved them. It is this One who will come and we will marvel at His appearing when He comes. Those of us who are eagerly waiting for Him, who expect Him to show up in the greatest splendor, nevertheless will marvel at Him because of this greatness of His glory that we see all executed for the sake of the salvation of His people. We find the writer of Hebrews seeking to introduce us to a discussion of the one who is creator, the one who is a sustainer, the one who has taken upon himself the sins of his people, the one who has conquered death by his resurrection, the one who has ascended and is now at the right hand of the throne of power on high, the One who executes His will in this world as He reigns, and the One who will judge all things when He comes again. It is to this One that we desire to bow. It is this One that we worship. And this is the one, as long as we're in this life, to whom we can hold out to other people and say, take refuge in the Son and you indeed will find purification for sins because He alone has made purification for sins. Let's bow for prayer. Father, as we come to you, we come to you with a deep sense of our indebtedness, realizing that apart from your grace and apart from your loving kindness, we would stand outside the possibility of redemption. But we thank you that you have given us a word. We thank you that you have revealed to us your loving purposes towards sinners who will repent of sin and place faith in Christ, who will take refuge in him. If there are those here who do not yet know what it means to find that refuge, we pray that Your Spirit would honor the Son and honor His work by bringing them with repentance and with full trust in Christ, to know Him. We pray that each of us who know this forgiveness will allow the reality of its glory to sink deeper and deeper into our souls and our consciences. that even while we're in this life, this fallen world, even while we still struggle with the indwelling sin, that nevertheless, more and more, we will be transformed from one degree of glory to another into the image of Christ, worshiping Him and loving Him and serving Him. Grant us these things, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.