In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the difference between the servants of God, the angels, and His Son. He urges the audience to pay close attention to the message they have heard from God through His Son. The preacher warns against letting the truth of God's word slip by or be disregarded. He encourages the listeners to prioritize the message and not be distracted by other thoughts or desires. The preacher emphasizes that God has spoken through His Son and that His word is the best and most important message to heed.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, AFPA, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good morning. Greetings in the name of Jesus our King and our Great High Priest. Turn to the book of Hebrews for me this morning. We will be studying this book this week in some detail. It will not be possible to finish this book this year. Lord willing, I'll be able to do that either next year or some other time. But we'll do what we can this year. As a way of introduction, ideally it probably would take two or three hours just to introduce it, but we don't have two or three hours, so we'll just take a few minutes just to introduce a few thoughts to you to kind of set a little foundation, set a little background for you to understand some of the things you need to have in the back of your mind as we then look at the specific verses. This letter, this epistle of Hebrews, first of all, is especially valuable in our day because there is abroad in the world, and it seems especially in our world here, a widespread conception of Jesus Christ that does not match the reality of what is given to us in the Scriptures. We live in a day of easy believism and chief grace. And I believe that the root of that wrong teaching is a wrong view of who Jesus Christ really is. And one of the purposes of the book of Hebrews is to show us who Jesus Christ is in all of His offices, in all of His adequacy, and that He is better than anything else. He is the best. And better is one of the key words. If you had to pick a key word in the book of Hebrews, it would be better. There are many other key words, but that's one of them. So, that is one of the themes in the book of Hebrews, is the preeminence of Jesus Christ. There are other themes. Clearly, just by the name of the book Hebrews, we see that God has some thoughts for the Hebrew. If you're here today and you understand anything about nationalities, you realize that just because a person gets born again, it doesn't change their nationality, does it? Because we know in heaven, there will be every tribe and tongue and kindred and people. And today, if you're here... I wonder how many different nationalities are here today. Today, if you're here, and you're Hispanic, as some in my family are, after you're born again, you know what? You're still Hispanic. And the Hebrew, even though He was born again, some of the Jews, they're still Hebrews. They're still Jews. And so, there's some things that God has to say to them that we need to hear, because some of the things that God has to say to them are directly applicable to you and I today. And it seems like in that day, that this group of Jewish Christians, which were born again after Jesus Christ came and after the apostles began to teach, they were reaching a time in the church here where some of them were starting to drift. They were starting to slip. They were starting to ease back and look back at some of their tradition and their form and the way that it used to be. And it seemed like they were losing the reality of who Jesus Christ really was. And, you know, we have that problem today too, don't we? You know, man, it seems like is too easily attracted to form and function and tradition and religion and so on and so on and so on. We haven't outgrown that problem in our day, have we? And so, what God has to say to the Hebrew Christian in the early church is for you and I today. They stood at the junction or the juncture of the two great dispensations, the Old Testament and at the New. It was like they were at that junction where it used to be just a few years ago what they needed to do to get to God was this way. The old dispensation, the old covenant. But then suddenly at the cross, everything changed. And what used to be very meaningful is now, according to the book of Hebrews, meaningless. What used to be pleasing unto God now, according to the book of Hebrews, is sin. What a place to be. What a place to be. And yet we can understand because in our day there are people who are very sincere, very religious, doing religious things that are not pleasing to God. That are not pleasing to God. And so there are things here for you and I. And what God is trying to show you and I in this book is that for believers of every nationality, in every age and of every age, the way to God is through the Son. The way to God is through the Son. And it's so important that we see that one of the themes here, again, in the book of Hebrews, is that we understand rightly the place of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and that we pick up the New Testament and we interpret everything back there through the eyes of that. So many well-meaning Christians are mistakenly taking and choosing things out of the Old Testament and trying to make it part of the New Covenant. And you cannot do that. Those things are good. Those things were written for examples to us. But it is not the way to God. It is not the way to God. And so we need to see that very clearly. We will speak more about this later. But mostly, mostly today, you need to understand, as it says in Hebrews 3.1, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider. And the key word there is consider. It's one of the key verses in the book of Hebrews. Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. This week, today, we are going to consider. And the word consider means to behold, to gaze upon, to meditate upon, to perceive, to receive, to sit and wonder about, and to think about Christ Jesus. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to consider Him. And I'm convinced that that is the most important thing that you can do this week, is to consider our Lord, Christ Jesus. And as far as the authorship of the book of Hebrews, I cannot be rigid about that. I don't believe anyone can. But I am dogmatic that it is the Word of God, that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it lines up with Scripture in that Jesus Himself said that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will teach us and show us all things, but especially what? Jesus Christ. And the book of Hebrews, almost like any other book in the New Testament from beginning to end, shows us a magnificent picture of the person and the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ. And so, I'm excited about this book. I hope you are. I believe that this book is the clearest and the most, if I may say, systematic, and orderly is what I mean there, presentation of the availability and the adequacy of Jesus Christ. And that is important to you and I today. The availability and the adequacy of Jesus Christ. It shows that He is the perfect man. And that Christianity is therefore the perfect and final religion. There is nothing else that God has to say after this. This is God's Word to you and I. In every age, the things that we'll see in this book are the answer to every man's need in every age. And so, as Brother Moe's challenged you this morning, you came here and you were praying for something, I tell you the way to find the answer is in the person of Jesus Christ. It is in the person of Jesus Christ. The way to God is through the Son. And what you believe this week and what you receive from Christ will mean everything to what you get out of this week. Alright, let's go ahead and begin to read here in chapter 1. There's much more we could say about some different themes and some different foundations of the book of Hebrews, but we won't do that here this morning. Some of them will come out as we make our way through, as we take a very short walk through this wonderful book. Beginning in verse 1, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. We'll stop there. Aren't those wonderful words to your heart today? Challenging words as well. It's interesting how the book of Hebrews begins. Did you notice? With one word, God. Very unusual. It's the only book of the Bible, I think, that begins that way. It's the only book in the New Testament, certainly, that begins simply with the word God. No salutation. No introduction. No explanation. No qualification. Did you know that the Bible makes no provision? The Bible does not try to explain or prove the existence of God. It just starts, God. God. What a way to start a book of the Bible. Maybe it's the best way, isn't it? You know, if I were teaching anything else, maybe mathematics, I would have to start with certain premises and certain truths and certain postulates and work on those to get you here. To teach you geometry up here, we'd have to start with addition and multiplication and subtraction and division. And to prove geometry, we'd have to start with certain basic facts like the shortest distance between point A and point B is always what? A straight line. But I don't have to do that with God. I don't have to do that with God. God is. God is. And the Bible makes no effort to prove the existence of God. You know, sadly, there are Christian seminaries in our land that have courses that try to build some sort of, I don't know, philosophic reasonings for the existence of God. That is so sad. I say that is a great waste of time. Because if you cannot walk outside and see the sky and see the changing of the leaves like we have on a beautiful day today and see the mountains and smell the fragrance of the air and realize that there is God, there is something off in your thinking. There is something wrong with you. The Bible says in Romans 1.24, the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, like the things I just mentioned. Even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. If the created universe is not speaking to you, not revealing to you that there is a God, there is something wrong with your thinking. There is something wrong with your thinking. Let me ask you another question here. Do you want to hear God speak? Do you want to hear God speak? Amen. Have you ever said... I have. Have you ever said, Oh God, I need to hear You. I need to hear from You. Speak to me. Haven't you ever said that? Amen. And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. I trust that it's out of a heart that really does want to hear God. And yet, the Lord has patiently and tenderly sometimes rebuked me for saying that. Because as He says here in Hebrews 1 and 2, that God has spoken. He is not silent. He has communicated. Did you see what it says? God, who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers, hath in these last days spoken. He has spake in times past and He has now spoken. I don't have to wonder what God wants to say to me. I don't have to wonder what God wants to say to me. God is communicating with you and I. He is a God that speaks. He is a God that wants to connect and say something to your heart and to my heart. God is not silent. He is not just an idea. He is not a philosophy to be thought about. He is a person who has spoken in eternity past and is speaking now and He'll continue to speak in eternity future. He is a speaking person. Now, in the past here, His way of speaking was through prophets. Prophets were those go-betweens. The direct interpretation of the word prophet is messenger. God had a message. He got a prophet. He gave him the message. And the prophet would say something like this, the word of the Lord, and it would say, has come unto Isaiah, Jeremiah, whatever. And if it's God's word, it would come unto Him, then He would speak it out. God didn't choose to sky-write His message in the sky. He didn't choose to just whisper it in the ear of every person at the same time. He could have done a lot of different things, but He didn't. He spoke in time past unto the prophets. He spoke to them. But it also says an interesting thing here. It says He spoke in diverse manners. And what that means is He spoke in many different ways. In many different ways. Did you ever consider all the ways that God spoke to us in time past? As you pick up the Bible and as you just stop at Malachi there and as you just look at the Old Testament, all the ways that God spoke in time past. You know, it begins with Genesis and the wondrous, magnificent tale of creation. Then it goes on in the historical account of the patriarchs. And the Bible moves on with other stories. Stories about individual people like Esther and Ruth and Job. And it moves on to the beautiful, melodious songs of Psalms, to the wisdom of Proverbs, to the tenderness of the song of Solomon. God spoke in many different diverse ways. He spoke in whirlwinds, earthquakes. He spoke in visions and in dreams and in a still, small voice. Why did God do that? So many different ways. So many different ways. But it seems like we needed to hear from God in different ways, and yet in speaking in all those different ways, did you know none of them was complete? None of them was the absolute end. None of them had all the answers. None of them had all of the things that God wanted to say. Now, hidden in a lot of those ways He spoke were shadows and types and hints and prophecies and all these different ways and these diverse manners. But the Old Testament alone as it stands is an unfinished story. Do you realize that? It's an unfinished story. It's not complete. It's not done. As wondrous as it is, and it is the Word of God, and God spoke in many ways, still, small voices, dreams. You know, it seems like I've noticed that in our day there are still Christians who want to be spoken to the way God used to speak. They want dreams or visions or things like that. And I don't understand all that, and I'm not saying God is limited and God doesn't ever use that, but I would beg you, along with the writer of Hebrews, don't look for dreams. Don't look for those things. God has spoken now in His Son. And that's the best Word. And that's the Word God wants you to hear today. You don't need to wait for a dream. You don't need to wait for some special revelation. It probably won't come because God has spoken in His Son and by the work and the life of His Son. And when you turn the pages of the New Testament and you read the fourfold picture, it's like there's this four-dimensional, fourfold picture of Christ in the Gospels of Jesus Christ. You find that the old suddenly merges into one voice. The voice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said He didn't come to destroy that or pitch it out. He came to fulfill it, which means He's going to now take the whole thing and bring it to where it needs to be. That's what He's going to do. That's what He's done. And therefore, God's Word to man is fully uttered, fully spoken in the Son. And that's the title of our message for today is The Best Last Word. The Best Last Word. That's the title today. And therefore, the Word to the Son of God is greater. It is a better revelation. It is a better revelation than all those other revelations. Now by saying that, we are not putting them down and saying they're bad. But we are saying we have a better revelation. Do we see that? We have a better revelation. The writer says here in the second verse of the Son whom He hath appointed Heir of all things. Do you know what an heir is? An heir is someone who receives everything from the person that is giving it to them. They get it. They get the full ownership of everything. And when He says He is the heir of all things, that's a tremendous statement. And the reason I think that this is in here is God is trying to show us as He's looking down both into eternity past and in the future, and He's trying to get us to see as far as our eye can see of understanding, that if we listen to Jesus Christ, that we've heard the One that owns everything. Did you ever think about that? The heir owns it all. He inherits everything. And Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. And that means this, beloved, it means He can make good on His Word. He can make good on His promises because He owns all things. Everything, all things, will be at His disposal. All the world, all the heavens above and below, all the angels, all the demons, all things. It doesn't leave anything out. Everything is under Jesus Christ. He has been appointed heir of all things. All the resources of heaven. He even said as He was leaving in Matthew there in the Great Commission, all power has been given unto Me. Do you remember that verse? And here He says that He's the heir of all things. So He has all power and He has all things. And so the important thing to remember about this is that when Jesus Christ makes a promise, He has the authority and the position to make good on His Word. When He says something, like in Revelation where it says there shall no longer be death or mourning or crying or pain anymore, He owns death. He owns everything. He is the heir of all things. And so He can say that and He can back it up because of who He is. He can make good on His Word because He is God. I'm from the state of Florida originally. I've been living up here eight years. When I used to live in Florida, I had a friend who was a doctor at the University of Florida about 30 miles north of where I used to live. It's a big research facility. And one day he was showing me around some things there. One of the things they had was an electron microscope. You ever heard of an electron microscope? Supposedly the most powerful microscope. It was hooked up to computers. It was this huge thing and lasers and I don't know what all. And I asked him, well, I mean, why do you keep going? How much more is there to see? What are you trying to accomplish? And he wasn't a Christian. He said, well, we believe that by looking through here, we're going to use this as a tool as a lever to sort of pry off the lid of the secrets of what holds everything together and what is really the force or the glue of everything. You know? And I mean, well, I mean, I guess that's a good thought. I don't know. But I asked him, well, what do you call it? He didn't have a name for it. But the Scriptures do. Jesus Christ is that force. He is that glue that holds everything together, that owns everything. I don't need an electron microscope. God has spoken. God has spoken. And the reason that we can sit here today is because Jesus Christ is the secret behind everything that exists. Because in here we also see by whom also He made the worlds. See, He's not only the heir of all things, He's the Creator of all things. The reason that the sky is blue is because of Him. The reason that the robin sings is because of Him. The reason the grass is green is because of Him. He gets to choose those things. He gets to do those things because He made all things. He was there back at creation in eternity past. He was there. And the reason the things work the way they do is because He made the worlds. Notice it's plural there too. I don't have time to get into all that. This is so different than a prophet speaking, isn't it? Did you know the fastest growing religion in the world is the Muslim or Islamic religion? They recognize Jesus Christ. They do. He is in their writings. They acknowledge Him, but they do not acknowledge this. They call Him a prophet. They would relegate Him to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and those others. They are wrong. That is not what these are saying. Jeremiah and Isaiah is not the heir of all things. They did not create all things. They were not there at the beginning with the Holy Spirit and God. God has spoken to us by inspiring prophets and apostles, but in our day, He has spoken to us in the person of His Son. And what He spoke was what He accomplished by His life and by His death on the cross and by His resurrection. This is what God has said. This is what you need to hear. This is what God said of Jesus Christ after He was baptized. This is My beloved Son. Hear ye Him. And He didn't just mean audibly. He meant receive everything about Him. His life. His teaching. His ministry. His work. What He's done. And so on. And so the question for you to answer this morning is have you listened to the Son? Have you heard what He has to say? Have you heard God? Has He spoken to you today? And really the question is, have you heard Him? Well, the other thing I want to just mention briefly here that's important, and we've kind of said it, but I just want to say it again because it's so important. The first part of this verse 2, it says, Hath in these last days... The word last there is an interesting word. We are living in the last days according to the Bible. Did you know that? And you may think, well, I'm not sure, Brother Rick. It's been almost 2,000 years. That's a pretty long last. Well, God is patient. God is merciful. God is gracious. I'm thankful He does not define days like you and I do. I'm so thankful for that. I wouldn't be standing here today, and neither would you be sitting there if He defined time like you and I did. But we are in the last days. Well, what does it mean? If it doesn't mean what you and I think it means, what does it mean? Well, it means several things. One, we've already said, this is God's last word to us. But the other thing it means is this. The last days begin with the coming of the Son into the world. And we are still living in the last days since the days of Christ. And that is the last days of history as we know them before the full and final establishment of the reign of Christ forever and ever. Let me give you an illustration that maybe will help you understand it. During wartime in a war, the last days of the war are those days that come after the final decisive battle or the final decisive bomb or whatever that lets you know everybody knows who's going to win. But do you know in most wars after that decisive battle, there are other battles that follow? Let me give you an example from World War II. August 6, 1945, the United States did an awful thing. They did a terrible thing. They unleashed the most powerful bomb that's ever been exploded on the surface of this earth. The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And on that day on August 6, 100,000 people died. The power that was unleashed by splitting that small little atom in that fusion nuclear bomb spread out over about a 6 or 7 mile area and 100,000 people died. Boy, that's an awful thing, isn't it? Well, the war was decided on that day, but the battles were not over. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and about 60,000 or 70,000 people died on that day. But it wasn't until about a week later or more, actually it was a couple weeks later, until September 2, that a full and final and unconditional surrender was signed by the Japanese. Now, between August 6 and September 2, there were still battles that were fought, but you know what? That was the last days of the war. Those battles, frankly, didn't matter anymore. I mean, they mattered to the people that were in them, but the decision who was going to win, the victor, was already decided. Do you understand? And that's the days we live in. The victory is already decided. The decisive thing has already happened. On the cross on Calvary, the victory was made. Death was destroyed. Satan was abolished. On that day when Jesus Christ gave up the ghosts, and right before that when He uttered, it is finished. Telestia. Telestia. The greatest power that has ever been unleashed on the history of this earth went forth. And the shockwaves of that atomic bomb which went five miles are nothing to the waves that rolled out of that cross that went up through the heavens, down into the lowest pit of hell, out across eternity past, and into eternity future, and it's still hitting you and I today. That force that can do away with sin and change where a man is going to spend eternity was unleashed on the cross that day. We are in the last days. The decisive battle was won on that day on the cross. Amen? Now, there are still casualties today, just like in World War II, but the battle is won. And we need to see that. And that's why we're in the last days. And when we see it that way, we begin to understand a little bit about what's going on. And things begin to line up in our heads and our hearts about who Jesus is and what He really did on that day. This is the Word of God. This is what God has spoken. In past, He spoke through the prophets. But today, He's spoken through His Son. And what His Son has to say is that He died on that cross and He was resurrected. That's what God has to say to you and I today. That's what God has to say to you and I today. He doesn't have anything else to say. That's His last word. Do you know there's no third covenant coming? There's no third phase? There's no special better revelation coming. This is God's Word. And man must deal with it because God has dealt with man. Mercifully. Mercifully. But He has dealt with man. Who being the brightness of His glory... Brightness here actually means the outshining, the outraying. It means He is the light being. It means He is the light carrier. All of those things. He is the brightness. The brightness of His glory. It's just like you and I, we cannot understand the true glory or the true shining of the physical sun because we cannot look upon it with our naked eyes in its full force. We have to see its effects. We have to see the radiance of the sun through the sun rays and its effect on this earth of growing things and healing things and heating things. And so, Jesus, by looking at Him, we see the outraying, the outshining, the radiance of God in the person of Jesus Christ. As He said to Philip that day, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. And that's why the next part is also true. It says He's the express image. And the word express image there in the Greek is where we get our word character. And what it literally means, He is like the steel engraving image of God Himself. It's just like if you want to make a coin, you make a steel engraving mold and that mold puts the exact image in steel upon that coin. And that's what God is. He is the express character and image engraved upon who He is of God Himself. And that is why if you want to know about God, if you come here to learn about God, the way to the Father is through the Son. The way to the Father is through the Son. He is the express image. Upholding all things by the word of His power. We mentioned the atomic bomb a minute ago. The amount of power that was released, really all we did when we split the atom, I'd rather say it's like we untied something there. And when we untied it and loosed it, we loosed the power that Jesus Christ put in it. Because the Bible teaches us in Colossians that He not only created all things, but He sustains, which means He holds all things together. And when we untied one of those little teeny things you and I can't even see, except if we have an electron microscope, by the way, the power that was unleashed was awesome. It was awful, but it was awesome. It's just a little touch. Not even a drop in the ocean of the power that He does, but He upholds all things by the word of His power. Well, the other thing that I want to talk about here for a few minutes is it says that when He had by Himself purged our sins. Purged our sins. You know, we live in a world that is desperate for redemption. They may not know it, but they are. We need to be brought back out of a state of hopelessness and restored to that right relationship with God. And the number one thing that keeps us from that is sin. It's sin. Why is it that nothing really completely satisfies? Why is it that nothing really does the trick, so to speak? Why is it that so many people in a world where there's so many gadgets, so many things, so much to do, hundreds of television stations, millions of movies, entertainment galore, that the suicide rate increases exponentially every year? I'll tell you the reason. It's sin. Because none of that stuff satisfies. It never has and it never will. And the reason is sin. Sin is a reality. You open up the book of Romans, you will have to come to terms with the fact that sin is not just a little problem. It's that sin has a grip upon every human being on this earth. You were born with a sin nature. And the main problem with sin, beyond that you have a sin nature, is that men choose to sin. It's as if they cannot help themselves. They do not have the power or the ability to purge themselves or get rid of it. They do not have that ability. You know, it's like they're infected with some disease, but the problem is it's self-inflicted. If I were to have a syringe up here full of some horrible disease of cancer, and I would say, well, who wants to come up and let me infect you with this cancer? Let me impute it or put it into your system. And it won't hurt. In fact, it will feel pretty good. You'll sort of enjoy it for a while. And oh, by the way, you'll be dead in less than six months. Nobody would come up here. And yet, we drink the cup of sin willingly because we think it tastes good or feels good. And yet, the sad thing is we don't seem to be able to help ourselves. We don't have the power. We know it will kill us. Sin is a destructive thing. Sin is an awful thing. It wastes a man. It wastes his life. It wastes his spirit. It wastes his soul. And it wastes him for all eternity. Sin is an awful thing. The other problem with sin is God is angry with sin. The Bible says in Psalm 2 that God is angry every day at sin. We don't say that very much in the 21st century here. You know, we live in the 21st century over here where we hear God is love, God is love, God is love. And He is. Amen? And now back in the 18th century in Jonathan Edwards' day, he preached a sermon. What was it called? Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. They talked about God is angry at sin, God is angry at sin. And somewhere between the 18th century and the 21st century, we need to get this thing together, don't we? And depending on where you are in your theology, you need both. And thank God for both. I'm glad God is angry at sin. Because that means He's going to do something about it. And He did something about it. And He did something about it in the person of His Son. The cross. And because of that, the cross is an expression of two things. A just anger of a holy God at sin, just like they understood back in the 18th century, but also the incredible love and mercy of a God that would die. Amazing love. How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And that, on the cross, came together. The anger of God and the love of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Why do you think God is begging you to hear His Son? This is the reason. This is the reason. God is pleading with you now. He will not plead with you forever. God will not strive with man forever. There will come a day when God will stop speaking. I hope that shocks you just a little bit. God is still speaking, present tense continuously. But you know, there will be a day when God says enough. And He will not speak with man anymore. Sin is a great offense against God. And it was Jesus Christ alone who by Himself notice the emphasis of the personal pronouns there, by Himself purged our sins. Purged our sins. And what did He do after that? Another one of the themes of the book of Hebrews is He sat down. He sat down. It's finished, young people. He sat down. Do you know when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies? There was no chair in there. No high priest ever got to sit down. But Jesus, when He entered into the veil for you and I, He got to sit down. And He got to not just sit down. He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And you know, there's something in heaven now that wasn't in heaven 2,100 years ago if I may say it this way. There's a glory in heaven today that wasn't there 2,100 years ago because not only is Jesus the Son of God now, He is the Son of Man. And now there's a man sitting by the right hand of God that has nail prints in His hands. I believe they're still there. And because of that, there's a glory in heaven that wasn't there 2,100 years ago because what He did on the cross forever changed not only earth, but it changed heaven forever too. Did you ever think about that? It wasn't just the earth that was shocked and rocked that day on the cross. All heaven was rocked as well. It was rocked. And then Jesus went home. And He sat down. And somehow He was the same, but He wasn't the same. I don't know how to explain all these paradoxes sometimes. He was still fully God, but He was fully man now because He came here as a man. And there's something in heaven that wasn't there. There's somebody in heaven that wasn't there 2,100 years ago. Jesus was there before, but the Jesus that's there now, He's different. He's also a man. And He died on a cross. And that brings a glory to Him that wasn't there before. I believe that. I don't know how to explain all that. I hope you hear my heart. He's God and He's man. Well, I want to go through this next section a little more quickly here about angels. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them. I'm just going to read 4-14 here. Sit up straight. Listen. God is speaking. You need to tune in your mind and your heart. We're speaking of Jesus. "...being made so much better..." There's that key word. "...than the angels, as He hath by inheritance..." We've already talked about that. "...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 saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him." See, there's no angels that have ever worshiped a prophet. But they worship Jesus Christ. "...And of the angels, He saith, who make this angel's spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son He saith..." Now watch this carefully. "...Thy throne..." This is God speaking to Jesus. "...Thy throne, O God..." So this is God speaking to Jesus, calling Him God. Do you get that? Jesus Christ is God. He is deity. And that's why one of the root problems with almost every cult that has ever existed is they try to do away with the fact that Jesus Christ is God. Because once you deal with that truth, it opens up what all the rest of the Bible really has to say. But if you can shove it aside, you can shove aside a lot of other doctrines too. But once you come to grips with that truth, my, then you have to read the Bible. I truly believe the way God meant you to hear it. So God is saying, "...Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom." Now watch this. Thou, speaking about Jesus, has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. See, not only God hates sin, Jesus does. We always think of the meek and lowly and lovely Jesus, and He is. But did you know He hates iniquity? He hates iniquity. He hates iniquity. That's what the Bible says. He hates iniquity. He hates sin. He hates it so much that He died to purge it out of your life and my life. "...Therefore, God, even Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." And what this is saying is that Christ is above everybody else. He's been anointed with an oil, a kingly oil, a righteous oil, and He is to get preeminence in all things. What does it say in Colossians? That He might have the preeminence in all things. All things. That means not only in heaven. That not only means in eternity future. That it means in your heart. And some of you Bible school students that are here that are Christians, you're Christians, but Jesus Christ is not where He needs to be in your life. And some of you know that. And maybe that's why some of you are here. Some of you are here because you know you need to dethrone yourself. You cannot have the cross without the crown. We try it, and we're frustrated in our Christianity. Isn't that right? He must have the preeminence in all things, even in your things. Even in my things. Do you know that in the Bible, Jesus is called Savior only 15 times, but He's called Lord over 500 times? Do a study on that sometimes. It will shock you. We like to call Him Savior at Amen. But God only called Him that 15 times, but He called Him Lord over 500 times. We need to get our thinking right, don't we? We need to get our thinking right. And Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth. We've already talked about that creation. And the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstep. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? And you may wonder why did God, why did the Bible spend so much time in verses 5-14 talking about why Jesus is so much better than angels? And it's because God knows us. We continually get some of these simple things so wrong. In those days, the people, there were religions that worshiped angels. There were religious rites concerning angels. And this letter was written to a people, the Hebrew people, who had a great interest and almost preoccupation with angels. And if you look back at their history, some of it is almost understandable as angels would visit them and bring proclamations and bring words from God and different things would happen. But God is saying, enough of the angels! It's Jesus Christ. And I think God is saying the same thing today. Have you ever gone in a Christian bookstore lately? Calendars with angels. Mugs with angels. Half the books on there are sometimes about angels. I'm not against angels. Please don't misunderstand me. But why is it people that seem so preoccupied with angels are not really as spiritual as they need to be? They're not really interested in the things of Jesus Christ. I don't know if there are any angels in this room right now, but I know who is here. Jesus Christ. He is here. He is real. Cultivate a relationship with Him. And may I say, just forget about the angels. If God sends one to you in a moment of distress because He's ministering to you, amen. But that doesn't mean you then want to hang out with the angel, does it? I mean, come on. I think some of us are falling into this. It's not about angels. It's about Him. Jesus is so much better. I come from Florida. Like I said earlier, I remember meeting several people there over the course of one week. The first one I met... Well, in Marion County, where I live there in Florida, there's over 500 very beautiful, attractive horse farms. And I used to do business with some of those farms. And one day I met this man who actually worked at a farm. He was one of the hired help on the farm. And he invited me to come out. And I drove out there. And he took me into the farm. And he showed me around some of the barns. The real showpiece of the whole farm, though, was the main house. It was this big, beautiful, colonial house. Big stone pillars. I really wanted to go see it. And he said, I'm not allowed in there. So I said, okay. About a week later, I happened to meet the son of the owner of the farm. And he asked me if I wanted to come out. And I said, sure. I still wanted to see the house. And now the other guy that brought me in, he actually brought me in from the back of the farm. On all these horse farms, there's always four or five entrances. He brought me in the back where he always went in. And we looked at these barns on the outer area. I never made it to the middle of the farm. The other man that took me, the son, brought me right through the main entrance. You know, big main entrance, big sign across the front. We went right in the main entrance. First place we went, we drove right up to the main house. Not only that, we went right immediately into the study of the house, the inner sanctum. And there sat the owner. He introduced him to him. He shook my hand. What a difference. Same farm, but my, what a different tour I got that day. One was with a servant. The other was with a son. You see the difference? What a difference. What a difference. We need to see the difference between the servants of God, the angels, and between His Son. Now, I want to finish by reading these last four verses and making a few comments here in chapter 2. Again, Hebrews, like many books of the New Testament, don't necessarily break as smoothly with a thought at the end of a chapter. So chapters are very useful to find things, but we still want to go with the flow of the thought. And so look at this word, therefore, meaning all these other 14 verses have been said. God has spoken so that you can hear, so that I can hear, so that I can preach and say what Paul is saying here in these first four verses. Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard. See what you've just heard? What have you just heard? That God has spoken through His Son, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. This is the first of about seven major signposts. There are seven major warnings in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is a wonderful book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, but sewn into the fabric of Hebrews are some warnings. There are some warnings. There are some signposts. You know what a signpost is and a warning is, don't you? Danger. There's a bridge out ahead. And if you don't heed it, if you don't give it earnest heed, you'll just go into the canyon. People have done that, haven't they? It happens in real life. People don't pay attention to the warning. There was a man where I used to work at a job I had in central Florida. His name was Paul. He was getting some pain in his back up and down his spine. It lasted for several weeks. Do you know pain is a warning? We don't like pain, but you know God gave us pain to warn us of things. You ever think about that? But anyway, he got this pain in his back and his friend said, you need to go to the doctor. He said, I'll be alright. Weeks went by. Months went by. A year went by and finally he went. It ended up that he had cancer of the spine. I'd never met anybody that had cancer of the spine, but somehow it got in his spine. I mean, this whole spine was just riddled all through all the vertebrae and everything right into the interior of the spinal cord. And the doctor just said, you know, we're not even going to treat you. There's nothing we can do. I mean, it's so full. We're wasting your time and our time. You're gone. And he said, if you had come a year ago when it first happened, I think we probably could have helped you, but it's too late. Why didn't you come? And he admitted and said, well, people warned me and told me to come, but he ignored the warning. See, ignoring the warning didn't make the cancer go away. He had the cancer anyway. He had the cancer. You don't have to ignore the warning to be lost. You're already lost if you're not born again. If you don't know God, if you were born with the sin of nature, you're already lost. You don't have to do anything to be lost. He didn't have to do anything to get cancer. He had it. You don't have to do anything to be lost. You already are. You're already under judgment. You're already lost. That is your condition. But if you neglect the word that God has spoken to His Son and let it slip, how shall you escape? And that's what's called a rhetorical question. The question answers itself. You won't escape. There is no escape because this is God's last, best word to man. There is no other answer. There is no third covenant. There is no special dream or revelation you're going to get that's going to fix everything. God has said everything that He's going to say. He has spoken. Just as a side note, on Paul on his hospital bed, sick, he was the first person I ever led to Jesus Christ. I'd only been a Christian about two years. He didn't neglect that warning. And you know, he even thanked God before he died for the cancer because he would have neglected the warning. But God in His mercy gave him cancer to put him in a position he wouldn't have allowed himself to be in before. God will do that. God is merciful. Give the more earnest heed. You know, this part of this convinces me that the writer of Hebrews was a preacher because it's almost as if he's heartbroken here. There's this earnestness in his plea. And there's nothing more heartbroken, I don't think, for a preacher to preach the truth, to expose, to bring forth the truth of the Word of God that you know could change a life and set it free and have people just let it slip by. That's what it says here. The word slip here means just kind of let it coast on by. The Bible speaks of the people in Thessalonica that when they heard the Word, they received the Word with all readiness of mind. That means they put it to the front or the forward part of their mind. And what you need to do here this week is you need to put what we have to say to the forward part of your mind. You know, I realize that even as I speak here this morning, there's a chance that some of you are letting some of this slip by and drift by. Some of you are thinking about home. Some of you might be thinking about your job or your car or the weather. I don't know. But I beg you, don't do that. Don't let it drift by. Receive the Word with all readiness of mind. In verse 2 here, it talks about the Word spoken by angels was steadfast. And what he's talking about is in time past, angels brought words of judgment that were true. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Who brought the message? Angels. What did they say? This place is going to be judged with fire from heaven. You need to escape. And they dragged Lot by the scruff of the collar, it seemed like, out of there. That was the mercy of God to Lot, wasn't it? But their word was steadfast ensured. The judgment, the recompense of what they said happened. And if that happened, and it did, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. How much more is the Word of the Son and how shall we escape so great a salvation if we neglect it and let it slip? You see, God is using a comparative way to try to get your attention and my attention here. And then he says there's eyewitnesses to what Jesus Christ did. Here it says in verse 3, "...spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him." You know, even in our land this day, 2,000 years past that, if there are enough eyewitnesses that can confirm a thing happened, the judgment is very easy to make, isn't it? And he's saying here there are eyewitnesses that saw and heard and they've confirmed it. They've affirmed it. They've testified this is true. This was the Christ. This is the Messiah. These things have happened. We have touched the nail prints in His hands. We have spoken to Him before and after the resurrection. And so God is using all these things. Then He attests it or confirms it with signs and miracles. You know, those things haven't even stopped in our day. God is still testifying to what He did on the cross by signs and miracles and by gifts. He even mentions gifts. You know, when gifts come forth and are manifested in a church, when there's healing, when there's mercy, when there's prophecy, it's actually a testimony that Jesus Christ spoke for God 2,000 years ago. It's not about the person with the gift. It's about the giver and the reason He's given. We need to see this and understand this. And so to you today, non-Christian, God lets that question hang at the end of this passage and so will I. How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation? But to the Christian, the writer is also saying in the flow of all of this, you can't escape this fact either that Jesus Christ is to have the preeminence in all things and He has a more excellent name than all things and He has a throne of righteousness and He hates iniquity and where is your life and when are you going to surrender to Him and dethrone yourself? You can't escape that fact. Oh, Christians try to play around with that and play games with God. This is a week to stop playing games. Dethrone yourself. You cannot escape this truth because God has spoken by His Son and it is God's best, last Word to you as well. May God bless His Word and add His applications to your heart this day. Thank you. Amen.