Transcription
If you grab your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter one, we'll do our responsive reading together. It won't be much, as we're looking at the first three verses. We started it in our introduction to the book the last two times together. Today, we'll get, uh, deeper into it. Hebrews chapter one and, uh, verse one. I'll read verse one, if you'll read verse two. I'll end in verse three. We're reading of the New King James Version of the Bible.
Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,"
"Who being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
Father, we pray that You would speak to us out of Your word. We have come, as the ancients did say, to You, Lord. We have come that we might see Jesus. We've come tonight that we might see Jesus. So, Father, speak to us, we pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen.
Church, you can be seated. And as we get into Hebrews, the, the book of Hebrews, aloft the amazing, powerful work of God, expressing to us the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. You are going to hear throughout this book, over and over again, from Old Testament references that pertain to the Hebrews, absolutely. Yes, to the Israelites, certainly. But the book of Hebrews is awesome because it addresses not only the Jew that is now born again, or the Jew that is thinking about Jesus as Messiah, but it obviously, being a New Testament book, envelopes the Gentile believer. We come out of this book, we will come out of this book having a greater appreciation for Jesus's ministry towards us, His priesthood towards us. We're going to come out of this book of the Bible with a stronger understanding of what it means to confess. What is confession? To whom do we confess? Why do it? Repentance, offering, worship, giving the word of God, and the eternal person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot read the book of Hebrews and come to the end of it without having a clear understanding that Jesus Christ is literally the God of all creation. That the personification, the flesh of Jesus, 2,000 years ago on this earth, listen to this, and we'll hear it tonight, was the manifestation of the Godhead. See, what does that mean? It means that when Jesus walked and Jesus spoke, and you and I, mankind, related to Him tangibly 2,000 years ago, they were looking, watching, seeing, hearing, experiencing God the Father attributes, the Holy Spirit attributes, and the Son of God attributes, personified in front of them. In other words, when you read the Gospels, and when you read the book of Revelation, the first two, three chapters, uh, when you see Christ relating, you're seeing Jesus who is manifesting what the Holy Spirit would say in circumstances. When someone is sick, or the centurion's servant is ill or dying, you remember this. Or when the woman is caught in the act of adultery, you remember what Jesus did. That's exactly what the Father would have done. Does that, I think that should excite you. What Jesus said to them and to her in that moment, that's exactly what the Holy Spirit would have said. You want to know why? Because it was the Holy Spirit speaking. It was God the Father speaking. Because God the Son was speaking. Listen, they're one. He's like, "That's what Jesus did." But what would the Father have done? Exact same thing. Exact same thing. God became flesh for us that we might be able to relate to God in His wonderful love of having provided atonement for our sins and salvation by the blood of the cross. The book of Hebrews will be teaching us all of this. So listen as we open it up. We're talking about the noble God, and we saw that He's personal. We looked at that, that it's God who initiates the conversation with us. We are not somehow having some epiphany and we decide to become a Christian because we all of a sudden got smart. Oh, no, no. It's God who initiates the conversations in our lives. We saw that in Hebrews 1, verse 1, when it says, "God who..." and we developed that, it is God. We saw that He enables our conversations. God initiates it. He speaks to you, and then He enables it. He comes to us in that area of personality that you and I can relate to God in and on and through. And then we let, we saw that He engages the conversation. The Christian life is a dynamic. It is a constant emotion. The Christian life is, oh, I don't want to use the word "busy" because that has negative connotations. How about this? The Christian life is a constant active at all times, even when you and I are praying in, in silence or isolation. It's an active Christianity. It is absolutely dynamic. And I got to tell you, if you're watching tonight, or if you're here right now, and your Christianity is boring, can I tell you, you're doing it wrong. Just think about this. The Lord wants to move in the earth, and He's like, He's like, "Okay, let's do this. Let's go." You know, like a good coach or somebody, or maybe parents from the sidelines, "Come on, you can do it!" God wants to so get things going in the earth that He's, it's as though He's speaking to us and saying, "Come on, let's go! Let's go! Ask me, pray to me, let me show you what I want to do with you." And you take that approach, and watch what God does. He'll absolutely blow your mind.
And then we also learned the second point, and this is where we left off, by the way, was that the fact that it's He's so dependable to do these things because He is immutable. It's a big word, immutable. Yeah, it simply means that it is impossible for God to change. Ah, that's a good feeling. Is there something impossible for God? Yes, there's a lot of things impossible for God. God cannot be stupid. God, God cannot sin. God cannot lie. God cannot change. God cannot tempt you with evil. God cannot do a lot of these things that are wrong. It's a beautiful comfort. He's immutable. And the fact that verse 1 went on to say that, "who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets," we learned this, that it's God who appoints the times. God, in this book, the Bible, God is the one who has set pre-appointed times, and He has done that based upon His absolute knowledge. It is God. That's the, that's the opening throws of this book. The book of Hebrews is saying to you that God is the one who's initiating all these things. He never changes. And regarding His ability, or His inability, I should say, uh, to change, He announces to you that time is not whimsical. It's not chance. God is not ruling cosmic dice. It says right here that He's the one who, over various times and in various ways. And as I mentioned you guys before, the word "times," you ought to write in your margins, it actually means portions or segments, which is where we get the argument in theology as dispensations. God has chosen to do certain things at certain times. Listen, but with perfect continuity, no contradiction. He doesn't go back on Himself. It's the unraveling or the unfolding of time. What's amazing to me is that God has set time. He's the governor of it. We'll see this in a moment, and we see time unfolding, and yet, from God's perspective, time has unfolded, and we're near the end of it. Isn't that amazing? We're approaching the end of time, and we're not guessing on that. You can see how the world is showing indicators of the last days. But He's unchanging in this person. He presides over time. Time changes. God does not.
This is a fun verse. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. Isaiah 9:6 tells us this. In fact, we'll look at it together. It says, "For unto us a child is born." No big deal there, except you don't get a capital "C" when you're born. The, the Hebrew reference in this word is deity. But look, "unto us a child is born." Somebody could say, "Yeah, yeah, that happens every day." Let's keep reading. "Unto us a son is given." That is a wake-up call. Something's up. Whatever child is born is unique because He's a son given. This speaks of a unique arrival into the world. "And the government will be upon His shoulder." That is, from start to finish, He's in, He's, He's intimately involved with the governments of the world. But for this reason, His government is ultimately coming. You see, why does Jesus have to come back? Because when He comes back in the millennial, the thousand-year reign of Christ, Jesus is going to establish His governmental reign, and He's going to show mankind how government was supposed to be. And He's also going to show us how it was to be for Adam and Eve. Imagine if they wouldn't have fallen. What would it have been like? The millennium, in many, many ways, governments will someday completely, totally be upon His shoulders. Right now, He presides. He watches. As Ben Franklin said, "A nation cannot rise without His aid." That's a good statement. "He is the Counselor." And look at this, "He is the Mighty God." Our Jehovah Witness friends have a hard time with this. They don't believe He's the Mighty God. And this is a fun one. This is why I'm bringing it up. "Everlasting Father." You see, wait, is Jesus the Father? No. This is unfortunate in the English. The, the word means the governor, the, the governor, or the one that presides, the authority, the, the, um, the ruler over time and eternity. In other words, in, in the Trinity, who's going to, who's going to govern time? "I'll govern time," Jesus says. But it's not because He says it. It's because in His attributes and His person, the Godhead has given Him jurisdiction over time and eternity. Excuse me. Listen, let that settle in. Jesus, the Jesus we celebrate at Christmas or Easter, or every Sunday or Wednesday, or every moment for the believer, He is the eternal God. And before there was ever anything physically made, He was the one who held time and eternity, time and timelessness, in His possession. He's the governor of it. That's why it says "Everlasting Father." He is the Father of time. And that even everlasting. Isn't that thrilling about who He is? And think about it, because again, the cults come to the door of your house, always undermining the deity of Jesus. The Bible knows nothing of that. And He is the Prince of Peace, of course. Remarkable.
Next, we move on to this. As we look, "who at various times and in various ways," we see this, that it's, it's He who reaches the soul. It's God in Christ Jesus who reaches the soul of who we are. We saw that, and we've touched on that, uh, some more in the fact that, uh, the whole presentation, the book of Hebrews. This is, this is what led me to say, and I'm very grateful for what I'm hearing from people. I, I said to you guys not too long ago, and I mentioned it again, and looking at this, uh, portion here, that if, if you know any Catholic friends, invite them to Wednesday nights. And I hope I said that lovingly and tenderly because I mean it. I'm not saying leave your Catholic church. I'm not saying stop going to, uh, Mass. I'm saying, why don't you just add Wednesday nights here in the book of Hebrews? Just add it. And watch what happens. Watch what happens. I'll give you a sneak peek. As God begins to speak to you about who Jesus is and His ministry to you in the book of Hebrews, you are going to be, you're going to find out all of a sudden that your soul is being fed, and you won't quite know what to say about that. You're going to experience things that cause you to say something like, "I'm going to come back. I'm going to, you know, I think I'm going to start taking notes." You don't even have a clue what's going on. Here's what's going on: your soul, with its longing taste buds, have tasted of the word of God, and you're saying, "I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I like the way that, that the taste of this is." And I'm thinking about it. And as I'm starting to see colors, my Bible is starting to turn into colors. I'm starting to see that Jesus is not some distant, far-removed entity. That He's actually in love with my soul and He wants me in heaven with Him. And, oh my goodness, He's my High Priest. And you're going to get hooked. Your soul is going to start waking up, and He's going to pull you to Himself. Listen, with all due respect, He's not going to pull you into a church. He's not going to pull you into this church or any other church. He's going to pull you into Himself. And that's where the believer lives, and that's what He does. And you're going to wake up to that. And so, listen, if, if any of you who are here know any Catholics who are here, just leave them alone. Wait, there's a Catholic? Go get them. No, love on them. No, listen, listen. I think it's safe to say, it's 50, 60, 70% of this church is probably people of the Catholic faith who wound up realizing that they can study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and enjoy the word of God. And the great thing about it is, the Bible takes over your life, just as it should for every single one of us. The Bible takes over our lives. It's absolutely the way God would have us to live.
Thirdly, look at verse two. Thirdly, we're looking at this fact that He's the noble God, and the fact that He is complete. We see in verse two that it begins to end that portion of argumentation with this, with the fact that God has gifted Himself to us. He says, "as in these last days spoken to us by His Son." This is an awesome and tremendous statement because God is not sending another prophet. Mark, listen. Mark your heart on this. Mark your mind. The Bible says, listen, the Bible says right here, "He spoke to the fathers of old, the patriarchs of old, through the prophets," and He's done this over various times and in various ways. He has been speaking. But God, in these last days, and for a final time, has spoken to us by His Son. This is huge. Paul will tell the believers in Galatia, chapter 1, "The gospel that we've preached to you, Galatians, if I come back, or anybody on this ministry team, or any Christians come back to you and preach a different gospel, or if anybody else tells you a different gospel, or if an angel came from heaven and preached to you a different gospel, another gospel, let them, let us, let them be accursed." The word is Maranatha and Ethema. Let them be forever damned if someone, and even an angel, preaches another gospel. This is important. And notice that the Bible, when Paul spoke to them, right here in Hebrews, is the foundation that God's done speaking. He's not going to send a new revelation. And I'm apparently tonight, I'm in a mood to offend people. Apparently. I remember being in Russia with many of you. We're preaching the gospel on the streets, and we're doing all kinds of outreaches. And two, uh, beautiful young American, uh, Mormon men came out of the metro stop and said, "Oh my goodness, Americans! Americans! Where are you guys from?" And we're talking to them, and they saw that I was leading this group. They started talking to me. And, um, they said, "We can't get these crowds. We can't get crowds like this." And I said, "It's because our message is different than your message." And he said, "What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that?" And I told him, I said, "Listen, you guys preach another gospel." Do you even say it's another gospel? He said, "It's another testament." Galatians says this. No, listen. No, no, no, no. I know. Here's the deal. You stay right here. I'm going to walk into the woods and I'm going to pray. Listen. And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to talk to you, to the two of you guys, because this is what's going to happen to me. I'm going to go out in the woods and I'm going to pray, and God's going to show me. He's going to speak to me. An angel is going to talk to me. And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to tell the two of you guys that an angel appeared to me and said that your religion's wrong. And they both told me that would never happen. And I said, "That's exactly what your boss, your founder, said. He went, he went into the forest and he prayed and came out and then said Christianity is wrong. I got a new one." So if I'm gonna go, I can do that. I'm gonna go do that and then come back and I'll meet you back here and I'm gonna tell you the angel told me yours is wrong. And he said that would never happen. And I said, "Those words are your words. Do you hear what I'm saying?" God is done speaking. Oh, if God would just speak to me. God, speak to me. You're not going to hear a thing. God's going to, well, He might say, "Read the Bible." Or what would be better is the Bible would fall out of an airplane and hit you on the head. That would be cool. But listen, "Oh, I just need a word from God. I need a word from God." Open the book, and the word will come out. Okay? But listen, listen, we need to love the people of the cults. We just know where their messages came from. Okay? And then the other group says, "Jesus is not God. He cannot be God. He's Michael the Archangel. He's got, he's somebody big, but he's not God. Can't be. Can't be." Well, the Bible says this. The Bible says this. The Bible says this. They don't want to hear it. God speaks through His Son, Jesus. Listen, it's not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus is the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is revealed Him. It's God speaking. That's why Christ can be found from Old and New Testament alike. It's, it's awesome.
And then, listen, we see this. The fact that He's complete, and that He's gifted Himself to us. We also see that in verse 2, that we learn about His humility. And I love this. It says, "whom He has appointed heir of all things." That is God. And I like to look at it this way: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God in unity, of course, has appointed Christ Jesus to be the heir of all things. And you look at the word "heir." This is kind of cool. Check this out. We'll see it on the screen here. That this word that's applied to Jesus as the heir of all things. Follow along with me, please. You see, Jack, how can He be the heir of all things when He's God in flesh? Listen, you, if you, if you're thinking that thought, you actually have the answer in total. Just, just don't confuse it. He is God in flesh. No other religion on the planet has your message. God came to this world and He took upon Himself humanity. It's hard for us to even hear this. Jesus at 13 years of age, Jesus at 33, Jesus right now, Jesus in eternity past, is the same Jesus, God Almighty. But listen, the difference is this, that when He came into the world, born in Bethlehem, when He took on that human skin of His body, He took that on forever for you and me. I could even put it this way: your salvation is as secured in heaven so long as there's a man representing you in heaven. Thank God that man is not Adam or anybody else. That man is the Man Christ Jesus. He's 100% God and 100% Man. And that is theologically accurate, but that's exactly what you and I needed to experience salvation and to have a High Priest because He knows what it's like to feel what you and I feel. So when the scripture says that He's the heir of all things, it's teaching us that Jesus, as now God-man, He receives as heir what was duly given to Adam prior to the fall. He is the recipient. The Bible is going to tell us that nations will become His, that that all that there is become His. He's God. He made it all. But He became man to inherit it all. He turns around and now this One who has saved us is the One who gives us all things in Christ. The promise of ownership. The word "heir." Promise of ownership. This is Christ in His humanity. Christ in His deity. Authority, possession, jurisdiction, or rule over that which was given. The humble state of Jesus Christ becoming a man, and thereby becoming the last Adam. You know, Jesus is taught or presented in scripture as the last Adam. Did you are aware of that? If you know, we'll come do it in scripture in times ahead. Last Adam, as one who completes what was promised. Listen, the first Adam was who? Adam. But he blew it. Jesus came to not only pay for Adam's sin and ours, but He's the last Adam. Scripture refers to Christ as the last Adam, and this is a thrilling thing because forever, in the millennium, and in eternity, and in heaven, Christ represents all things that He's created. Remember, He's the Creator of them all. We'll read it soon. If I just keep going, He created them, but then He gives them to us. That's why the Bible tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ. Do you ever think about that? Now, I got to be honest with you, I don't. Right now, in my ignorant humanity, I don't really care about that. And it's probably because I don't understand it. If I understood it, I'd probably be freaking out about it. I just want to be up there, you know? But listen, I know that sounds not so humble. No, it's pretty pathetic, actually. Because God wants us to conduct ourselves with much more greater joy than just getting up there. See, what makes you say that? Because the scripture says that a broad or grand entrance will be provided unto us in that day. You're not going to squint. You're not going to go like this, "Excuse me, Peter, can you move? Michael, Michael, can you move him? Trying to get into heaven here." You're not going to squeak in. Nobody squeaks in. If you're a born-again believer, trusting in what Christ did at the cross, you are drenched, coated, marked by His blood. And it's amazing because when Billy Graham died and entered into heaven, don't you think, "Oh, Billy Graham! Boy, the angels must have been freaking out when Billy Graham died." Not any more than when you die. Isn't that hard for you to believe? I agree. It's hard for us to believe. But theology says it's going to happen.
First Corinthians 15:42 begins, listen to this, "Jesus, our prototype, the one who is the heir." First Corinthians 15:42 says, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption." That is, we put a, a body that has been ravaged by cancer or pain or disease or accident, right? It is raised in incorruption. So listen, when you put somebody in the ground and you have a service for them, and their body over the years begins to decay and become reduced to dust, that's not the person. That's not how they're going to be resurrected. Before they ever, before that body ever reaches the atmosphere, in the, in the day of the resurrection, that body, molecularly, is reconstituted. That's why Christians, we're Christians. We believe in resurrection. Do you know that? We don't believe in reincarnation. That's that's nuts. Listen, resurrection from the dead. When Jesus rose from the dead, there wasn't any, His foot wasn't done over there, left nothing. Was that fine? There was no dust, no fingernail right there. All of it came up. It has to. Listen, resurrection, everything comes up out of the grave. And for the believer, we are raised incorruptible. That means the body is no longer ever again subject to sin. Wow. Wow. Verse 43 says, "that it's sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It's sown in weakness, it's raised in power. It has sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Right now, I'm looking at all natural bodies. These natural bodies are housing, right now, your soul and spirit, your mind and your born-again spirit. Right? When your body dies, you get the, you're, you're set free. Remember that? You mean, when my body dies, why don't I die? No, no, just your body dies. Right? Think of it. Now, some of you have a hard time with that because you think your body is really something, then you want to hang on to it. Trust me, the older you get, the Bible gets sweeter. The older you get, God's word is more wonderful. Oh, man, my neck hurts, my, my back hurts. And it's not, not for long. No, not for long. Because when the believer dies, we, this carcass goes into the ground, we're set free. And on the day of resurrection, Jesus fixes it, brings it up out of the ground. The Bible tells us that we get that new body. [Applause] And will be in that body forever. Forever, man.
And so it is written: "The first Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is, or the last man, second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly." I love the word "heavenly" because it presents it in the, in the present tense. So look at you, look at you right now. You look at yourself. The Bible sees you in the present tense. You see, I see skin. Yeah, okay. Just so, what? Just don't you know? Okay. Use it. Just don't get fixated on it. Because heaven looks down and sees you as a man or a woman that is heavenly. And I'm not saying heavenly like Hallmark heavenly. I'm talking about heavenly, meaning your citizenship, your very existence, your spirit is based in heaven, man. Verse 49. First Corinthians 15. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, you can hear Paul getting excited. Whoa! I tell you a mystery. Mysterion. The word means something that has always been but is now being revealed. It's not a mystery like you can't figure it out. That's not the right word. The word means it's always been a truth, but now it's being revealed. "We shall not all sleep." Look, notice how the Bible speaks about the believer's dead body: sleep. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Right? That's a great verse for children's ministry. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruption, or corruptible, must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." So when this corruption has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory! O grave, where is your sting? O Hades, or hell, where is your victory?" Man, that's great news! Oh, man! Oh, that's why I say Jesus broke the grave. He busted it. He busted it.
Listen to this. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14. "And as much then as the children have, uh, partaken of flesh and blood," that's all of us here, "that now He Himself likewise shared in the same." You guys all get that? Just let's, because you and I live in the flesh, God came in Christ Jesus to live in the flesh, that through death He might destroy him." This is going to be Satan, who had the power of death, that is the devil. That's good news. "And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage," or subject to the prison of fear and the grave. Did you see that? I'm going to read that again. Verse 15: "And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Can I ask you, I want to ask you a personal question. I guess depending how you answer this depends if you cut out verse 15 out of your Bible or not. With the worldwide COVID thing, over, maybe, maybe it's never going to be over if you let the politicians decide. But in a worldwide COVID issue world, in a post-COVID world, maybe, what do we just think from, what have we learned? Have we learned anything? I think, I think, you know, most people say, "We learned a lot." Then I would ask, "What? But what did we learn?" Now, we learned this week, and it's going to be coming out, and it may lead to a, who knows if it doesn't wind up leading to a trial in the World Court in Belgium? Is it Belgium? Where's the Hague? Belgium. So it turns out that, uh, Mr. Fauci, Mr. Fauci didn't tell you the truth after all, huh? Turns out he got caught, huh? Turns out there's some high-tech people now who's been named as being a co-conspirator with Dr. Fauci, huh? What's up? Let me ask you something. That's that one single man is responsible for plunging the world into fear, and his cohorts. But hey, listen, people do what people do. That's what they do. But did you, as a believer, I'm just talking to the believers right now, did you, as a believer, were you, were you walking around biting your fingernails and waiting to die? Fauci had no control over my life. Think about this for a moment. That apart from faith, fear now rules in the world of man. Does it not? You cannot, listen, you may not like what I'm saying right now, but you can't prove me wrong. The whole globe learned how to fear at the same time. That apart from faith, fear has scared the church. See my air quotes. We were confronted with the reality of the Bible. Do I trust God is even trustworthy? Can God really save me? If He can't, listen, if, if, if there's germs floating around invisible right now, my goodness. I just heard on the news tonight, 400,000 people die a year from malaria. Nobody's crying about that. Why are we not crying about malaria? It's who controls the narrative. And the narrative, narrative is fearful. And fear, listen, we gravitate to fear much more quicker than we gravitate to faith. Fear, you can feel it. I mean, it's just, it's, it's, you can feel it. It's in your tongue. [Music] You can feel it. And you may not like it, but it's a sense of reality. And I, and I can feel it. To trust God, that's invisible, and it has nothing to do with feelings. I have to decide where's the, where's the church now? Remember what I'm talking about. Hebrews 2:15. Satan holds people in a grip of fear because he wants them to think constantly about death and the grave. And he jumps on things as fast as he possibly can, and he'll pimp them, he'll exploit them. Think of it. We don't like what we're hearing right now. It's either Jesus or fear. There's either trusting in Him or there's fear-mongering. And listen, when you're afraid, you're not happy until you make others around you afraid, just like you. This is human nature. Nobody called me to tell me to say that about you. I'm standing about us. It's human nature. And that apart from faith, fear has deceived the masses. And it's strange to me, and I've said this before, but why are we all of a sudden so concerned about someone getting sick and dying? Where were, where was all this love before regarding all the other ailments that fly about? Why haven't we the same applied this tenacity to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases? Listen, you're not going to like me. This is pure truth. Satan. I'm not blaming any governmental person, anybody in the world, no doctor, nobody. This is fingerprints of Satan. I'm not saying COVID wasn't real. I'm saying Satan used it. How do you know? Because the result was crippling fear in people's lives. And if we were honest, then where's all the intensity for sexually transmitted diseases? If we're honest with this intensity and concern, why are we not showing the same incredible commitment to drug abuse or alcoholism? Well, I'm getting into that one. He said it, so I'll say it. It was lower down on the list, but I think what you mentioned reveals the greatest hypocrisy of all, illogical, and that is, where's the outrage about abortion? Come on, let's be honest. Let's be honest. Where's the outrage really about human trafficking? Listen, we don't care. We don't care. We don't care. We'd make noise if we cared. Everything's about the mask. No, no, listen. No, about the, the mask. But in the last few months, we've opened up our borders. And it's so dangerous that now you saw the video Tuesday night, with a Monday night, of that five-year-old child on the border, that lost in the dark, holding this teddy bear, a little Mexican kid or Guatemalan kid, we don't know, we don't know. Whoever was bringing them over, the coyotes or whatever, abandoned him. And he was in the black dark, crying out, "Someone help me! Someone help me!" in Spanish. Nobody cared. Where's that? Did you see it on CNN? I had to watch it on Newsmax. Why is it on the news? Listen, something's up, people. Something's up. Fear. Jesus broke the grave. Jesus is in control. Listen, God, listen, eventually, think because of the world we're living in, nobody's, nobody can die. Nobody can die. Nobody can die. Well, people are going to die. Don't say that. Don't say that. People are going to die. Prepare. Prepare. Think about, prepare. You're going to die. Why do you wear seat belts on an airplane? Don't you prepare? Tell the stewardess tomorrow when you get on that flight, tell the flight attendant, "I'm not wearing my seat belt. I'm not going to do it." Let's look like a lunatic because they want you to be prepared in case something happens. I'm just telling you this: in California, you will pay taxes, and in the world, you will die. Those two things are going to happen. You're going to pay taxes, and you're going to die. Prepare. Right? Think about, prepare. But right now, because of the fear of death in the grave, the world out there, apart from God, is saying, "We're terrified. Nobody's allowed to die." And so you ask your doctor, "Doctor, this year, how many? Last year, 2020, how many people died of emphysema? How many people died of diabetes? How many people died of..." No one's allowed to die. Listen, the reason why we're acting like this and overreacting is because of fear. And the Bible says Jesus has crushed and destroyed the powers of Satan because Satan uses the fear of death to keep people bound. God wants you to live righteously, holy, beautifully, recklessly for Him. Does, I'm not saying don't wash your hands. Wash your hands. Stay home when you're sick. And can I say this? Men, I know women, women have got to wash their hands in the women's bathroom, right? I mean, they've got to. But I think I'm going to start setting up a hidden camera in men's bathrooms. Come on, guys. Man, wash your hands. And then women, and then women wanted to use the men's bathroom. You should have asked me. I would have told you. You do not want to use the men's bathroom, ladies. Not a good idea. Co-ed, co-ed bathrooms? Not a good idea. I'm hoping a woman's bathroom is way cleaner than a guy's bathroom. But wash your hands. Be clean. But listen, regarding your faith, be reckless. God will sustain you. Step out. Let Him lead you. Let Him guide you. You can be safe in all kinds of areas. But when it comes to following Jesus, He's the one taking care of you. He, He'll do that. But I digress.
Psalm chapter 2. Psalm 2, verse 7 and 8 says, "I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'" This is a reference to Christ coming into the world. "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your..." What is it? "...inheritance." He's the heir. "And the ends of the earth for Your possession." That's a reference to the millennium and beyond. Isaiah 66, verse 1. Isaiah 66, verse 1 says, "Thus says the Lord: 'Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is that house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist.'" I love this. Here we go. Let me write these down. We're going to go quick. Philippians 2, verse 5. Now, you just heard the God of the Old Testament say that He's the Creator and He made them. Philippians 2, beginning in verse 5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself..." This is the great kenosis, the, that God would take birth into this world. Amazing. "...made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men," or mankind. Verse 8: "Being found in fashion as a man." Is that an awesome statement, church? Listen, you and I are in the fashion of mankind. But the Bible here is talking about Christ, who, it's miraculous that He would take upon Himself the form of a man. That's saying something. "He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of who?" One more time, "at the name of who?" "Every knee should bow." See, the word "should bow." The word "should" is not suggested, like they have a choice. It means by the end, when time is over, every knee will bow. Every knee. Who? Every human that's ever lived will bow. Every angel that has ever been will bow, including, guess who? Yes, he will bow. He's going to bow. "Of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth." The spirit realm. "And that every tongue should confess, will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Listen, notice the supremacy of Jesus again. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for for many." Notice this is the incarnate God in flesh, showcasing His humility. Second Corinthians 8, verse 9: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich." The incarnate God in humility. Look at Matthew 11:29. Matthew 11:29: "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." This is Jesus speaking, the eternal God, the Creator. John 13:3. John 13:3: "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garment, and took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet." Can you imagine God washing your feet? That's just beyond my ability to even almost speak. "And to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." Then He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to Him, "Lord, you, you are washing my feet?" And Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not now understand, but you will know after this." And that is a declaration of His humility. We're supposed to be humble with each other, and we're supposed to be humble in nature, as Christ, incarnate God in humility. John 5:19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." By the way, this is awesome because many scholars will point out, Jesus is speaking in the third person. Did you see that? The Trinity is represented here linguistically. Did you get it? Talking about the Father, talking about the Son, and then it goes into the third person. The Son's not speaking, and the Father's not speaking. Another one is speaking. Who is the other one? The Holy Spirit. The incarnate God, humble, or, uh, in His humility. Look at John 12:12. We're almost done. John 12:12: "The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!'" Then Jesus went, then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it. And as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming to you, on a donkey's colt." Verse 16: "His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him." All about God coming in humility. Hebrews 4:15. Listen to this, my friends. Some of you need to hear this. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." You don't have an earthly priest that knows exactly how you feel. You've got a heavenly Priest that knows exactly how you feel. All the time. Depressed, sad, sick, disillusioned, fearful, hurting. He knows. He's the only One we can go to. Mark 6:34. "And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things." I love that, by the way. As a pastor, that's one of the goals of my life. When I grow up, I want to do that. Jesus saw a crowd of people, and the first thought in His mind was, "They need to be taught." Is that awesome? He didn't say, "They need food. They need shade." Well, they need food and they need shade, they need water, they need water. Jesus said, "Look at all of them. They need to be taught." I think that's awesome. I think that is just so profound. That's just like Him.
And finally, we end right here. And that is, it says that "through whom also He made the worlds." That is the Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, made the world. See, this is "s" on the end of "worlds." It's this, I'm going to say it, it's hard to say, but you'll get it. The word is actually "cosmoses." Cosmoses. You know, "cosmos." It's in the plural. What do we know? I just read today, um, a statement by, um, who's the physicist? He's now, he died. Stephen Hawking. Is that the guy? Stephen Hawking. Stephen, Stephen Hawking is the one who revealed, and supposedly the greatest physicist since Einstein, right? Said that there, there is the, the universe is moving, is expanding. And yet there are trillions of billions of millions, trillions and billions of millions, he said, of galaxies. And inside of them, trillions and billions of millions, and inside of those, trillions and millions and billions of. And then he talked about how you reverse that. You go from the most distant place that our Hubble, or whoever, can telescope out into, and then reverse it back. And he pointed out that, listen, it doesn't stop. I thought this was almost a religious, I would have thought it would have been like a religious experience for him. That if you go out to the ends that we can imagine, and do the math, and work backwards, and look what the Hubble telescope has given us, and keep doing the math backwards, you go from these infinite numbers, seemingly infinite numbers, they're not infinite because they're physical, they have to come to an end. But as you comes back, he comes down to our Milky Way, then dialing down more, our solar system. You know, our Milky Way, our solar system is one of many within the Milky Way. Come down to our solar system, come down to our.
planet. Come down to the human. Come down to what we're made of. Did you know that what we're made of on the atomic level? Us. Did you know that we are a an atom is a little tiny solar system that's got it? Listen, it has a nucleus and it has rotation. It has little planets going around it. And that's right. And look, pick up your hand. Look at it. That's happening right there. The same engineering that's happening right here is the same one that is a billion light years from us here tonight. You wanna know why it's the same architect? It's the same. It's the same designer. Same, same.
Is the same is true with animal life. You ever see it's? I love it. You ever see a dolphin, an embryonic dolphin? Well, you ever seen an embryonic monkey? Have you seen an embryonic human? Have you seen an embryonic elephant? What do they have in common? They look the same. I mean, I hate to blow your mind, but it looks the same. Microscope, it looks the same. Well, monkeys have monkeys have two eyes in the front of the face like we do, and lips and ears like we do. We evolved. That's your conclusion from that. You get an evolution. How about this? It's the same designer. It's the same creator.
These final verses, really, I'm not kidding. John 1, verse 2. He was in the beginning, physical creation with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. Boom. Colossians 1:16. For by him, that's Jesus, all things were created. That's the physical creation that are in heaven, that is the atmospheric, and that is on earth, visible and invisible. Whether uh thrones, now this is non-physical creation, these are spiritual entities. Thrones, oh, dominion, dominions, or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. This is the Jesus of the book of Hebrews. And here's where we had last verse. First Corinthians 8:6. Yet for us, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and for whom we exist. I love that. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.
This is a perfect. Listen, we are going to segue now into communion, and that's a perfect verse for it. Jesus to the believer. I speak to you tonight, church, as we prepare our hearts for communion. Believer, know this. When Jesus broke the bread that night and passed it among the disciples, to them, it means so much. Even to this day, it should mean so much to us as well. But when you break bread in the Middle East, especially Israel, and you pass it to someone else, and they pull from the same loaf and eat it, there is an understanding there. You want to solve the world's problems in the Middle East? Sit down and eat. There is just a thing about it where what I'm eating is becoming part of me, but you're pulling from the same source, and so now it's part of you. And the same thing that was on the table is now in us. And Jesus said, when you take of this bread and you eat it, think of it, we're becoming one. Do this in remembrance of me.
The God of all creation, the God of your salvation, the God who is your high priest, comes to you and says, I not only want to save you from your sins and give you a meaningful life and to give you purpose now, so that you can actually fly above depression and sadness and gloom and fear and death, and be situated in the heavens, even right now on this earth. But when it's all over, I'm gonna take you, scoop you up, and pull you into my presence in heaven. And so much so, I communicate this, that until I see you again, I want you to partake of this bread that reminds you I'm in you. And I want you to drink of this cup, which reminds you that my blood washed you clean of your sins. Listen, Christian, we celebrate. We rejoice in this. And honestly, if you're not a Christian tonight, can you just, can you just change that right now? Can you just stop it and become a Christian tonight? Please. Listen, listen, we're going, we're going, we're going to heaven with or without you, but we'd love to have you come. We don't get anything out of this other than sharing with you the glorious news. We're going to pray now, and if you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do it. And when it comes time to partake of communion tonight, do it. Do it. We'll probably have to scoop you up off the floor because you'll be so moved by what he does to your heart. But stop, stop running from him. Just stop. It's time to give up.
You guys remain seated. The ushers are going to pass out, uh, not pass out, the ushers are going to pass it out, the elements out to you in a moment. Just remain seated, if you would, uh, during the entire time as worship leads us in communion. Father, we thank you for this, for this amazing gift you've given us in Jesus. And Father, I pray, Lord God, that tonight, that will be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, that's either here, maybe someone that's watching tonight, that they can right now, right where they're at, they can go grab any fluid, any chip, bread, cracker, milk, water, doesn't matter. Does it matter that we would say tonight, Lord, I thank you for this cup, and I thank you for this bread that has been given. Lord, these are symbols. These are types of what you did for us 2,000 years ago. And what's amazing is that these are symbols of what's happening in heaven right now. Your blood secures our salvation, and you, the man Christ Jesus, is there representing us tonight. Friend, if you're here this evening and you want to accept Christ, Jesus, tonight's your night. Right where you're at, will you let him hear this from your lips, from your heart? Dear Lord Jesus, I believe you died on the cross according to the scriptures for my sins, and I'm asking you to hear my testimony, Lord, of prayer now, that I believe the scriptures that say you rose from the dead, and I put my trust in you now, and I ask you to wash me clean of my sins and give me a new life. And from this moment forward, Lord, I want to dedicate my life to you, and this is how I want to do it. I want to surrender to you. I want to have you live your life through me. Jesus, make me your follower.
Father, tonight we praise and thank you for the body of your Son, our Savior, Jesus, who [Music] who not only came [Music] here [Music] but in eternity past loved the idea that he would be our redemption. That it's one thing to be somewhere, it's quite another thing to long to be there. How is it, Almighty God, that you longed to be with us, to come to us, broken, lost, mean people, alienated from you? [Music] And you came to buy us back out of our mess is truly awesome, Lord. We can say these words. I can, I can declare them now. I do so by faith because I don't get it. I cannot fathom such love. No wonder why forever is forever. It's going to take that long for us to experience your love. And Lord, thank you that your Bible tells us that the blood of Jesus was presented before the altar in heaven. I'm so grateful. We are grateful, Lord, that it was not offered on some earthly temple, someplace, some shrine on earth. Thank you, God, that there's no fence around it, guards, laser protection, some iconic destination for tourists to look at where your blood was offered. Thank you that it's in heaven. Thank you that no moth or rust or thieves can break in and steal that. Wow. We love you, God. We praise you. [Music]
And so, church family, with this bread and cup, let us partake together in worship of Him. In Jesus' name. Well, hey, thanks for listening. And uh, we appreciate you. And of course, we do in this time and in this age, us being together and linking up together to get the word of God out is actually ministry being fulfilled. And in fact, if you would like to subscribe, please do so. Hit the subscribe button. Tell your friends about us. And listen, if you'd like to help us get this out on a broader scale, you can support us by hitting on the give now button. And look, we're going to continue on with or without you. We're inviting you to join us. No pressure. But if you'd like to link arms in this venture, you'd be greatly appreciated. So listen, keep praying for us. We're praying for you. God bless you, and we'll see you back here real soon.