The Knowable God - Part 2 (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Church family, we're looking at the opening throws of the book of Hebrews on Wednesday nights. And we're looking at a message that is entitled, "Right now, at this part, at this part of chapter one, the Knowable God." And if you were not here last time, together, please write that down in your note-taking: "The Knowable God." That God is knowable.

Hebrews chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoken the time, or in time past, of the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." Notice the plurality there, "worlds."

Verse 3: "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 at the right hand of the Majesty on high." And again, all God's people said, "Yeah!" You could say "Amen" or you can say "Wow." This is Jesus we're talking about in a book that unlocks the mysteries of Christ and His ministry, and why Jesus Christ today is the one that you want to go to as the one that represents you in heaven. That is your intercessor, the one that you'll see throughout the book of Hebrews is your High Priest, and the one who will maintain, He will save your soul, He will garrison your soul, and He will deliver your soul into eternity. And He has guaranteed you that in the book of Hebrews. And He is both the author and the finisher of our faith.

In Colossians chapter 2, verse 16 and 17, the Bible says, "So let no one judge you in food and drink, or regarding festivals or new moons or Sabbaths." Did y'all hear that? Don't let anybody bind you up with some legalistic constraints that you have to worship God on thus and so are they, or in thus and so away. Listen to what it says: "Verse 17, these things, He's saying, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." In other words, everything of the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus. It itself is not the answer. The Sabbath is not the answer. The blood is not the answer. The animal sacrifice is not the answer. It's not how much of the Old Testament you know, or for that matter, the New Testament you know. It's all about Christ and your relationship to Him, and what He's done for you, and how you associate with Him is the real thread of this whole title, "The Knowable God."

So church, we broke into it last time, just barely, but we'll pick it up tonight and make some ground. Number one, we looked at the Knowable God is the fact that He's personal. He's personal. The God of the Bible is the God that says of Himself to you that He is knowable. And He does that by being the one who reveals His person. Put it in your notes if you didn't last time together, that God reveals to us that He is a person and has personality. Listen, He relates to you and I in that familiar place of personality, one personality to the other personality is how God deals with you in life. And if that seems strange to you, it shouldn't be, because God made you in His image and personality.

Listen, A.W. Tozer, you got to listen carefully. It sounds crazy at first. A.W. Tozer writes that biblical theology is this regarding man, that who we are in little is who God is in big, apart from sin. That's a strong statement. It doesn't mean that we're little gods. Don't misunderstand. Don't, don't get that wrong. We are not. He alone is God. But we are the only ones in all of His creation that have been created in His likeness. And because of that, He relates to us personality to personality. And He doesn't do it to animals, and He doesn't do it with angels. He speaks to you. He speaks to me in that familiar place of personality. He's a person.

And we saw this in verse 1. That it is God who initiates the conversation in our life. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 says, "God, God who..." And we looked at that, and we aligned the fact that it's the same God of Hebrews 1:1, the God of Genesis 1:1, the God of the creation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is the God of the Bible. He's the God of the Hebrews. And so we looked at this part. In fact, we started right here and we went all the way through our study talking about a little bit regarding His nature. And this is where we left off regarding this point. And it's serious. And listen, we're going to be coming up on this, um, in the next few weeks on Sunday mornings.

Romans chapter 1, verse 18. Listen to this, church: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Verse 19: "Because what may be known of God is manifest in them." Church, listen. It's not that what can be known of God is manifest to them. That's what I would think. That God has refilled, revealed Himself to mankind. No. God goes beyond that. Listen up, everyone. God says here in Romans, in His argumentation regarding Him being personal, Hebrews chapter 1 is that He has revealed Himself in all of mankind. That means He has spoken to man. You say, "Jack, but that's not true because I have a friend who's an atheist. He doesn't believe in God." Your friend is sinning against God and his own consciousness down inside. God is speaking to that man, to that woman. That man, that woman knows that whatever they're thinking or doing that is aberrant to God's word, and they're convicted. The Holy Spirit, the Bible says, the Spirit of God convicts them. They know that they're sinning against God. In fact, some people who know that the most and try to suppress it the most are those who fight most out loud against the existence of God. It's quite remarkable. But I'm in Romans 1 still going. "For God has shown it to them." Isn't that an awesome statement?

How many of you have any atheist friends? Raise your hands. That's it. We should all have atheist friends. Get out there, people. Live your life. Go find an atheist. Become their friend. Yeah. And know this when you meet them, "Hey, God has told you some things about Him, hasn't He?" Because God says He reveals it to them.

Verse 20, Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world, here you go, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." His plurality, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. "So that they are without excuse." The Bible says all of mankind is without excuse. Why? Because God is a person and He reaches out to His creation, and He wants His creation to know Him. And I'm speaking specifically of humanity. And God reveals Himself constantly, wooing a lost soul to Him, constantly reaching out to the believer's life to grow in grace and knowledge, constantly casting vision in our lives. The Knowable God. And He's the one that initiates the conversation. We do not pursue God and then find God, thinking, "Wow, if I didn't pursue Him, I would have missed Him." No, no. Listen. The Bible makes it clear. We cannot find Him. He's the one that drops the bread crumbs, as we said last time, so we can catch up to Him. He's the one like a kid when you're playing hide-and-seek with your little one, and you go hide behind the curtains, but you leave your foot out so that you can be found out. That's what God does. He allows Himself to be caught. He allows Himself to be discovered. God is hoping and desiring, if I can put it in a human term. He's not, He's not sitting up there wishing, but His desire is that you, if you're not a believer tonight, that you would come to know Him. And if you think about your life, He has left enough out there for you to discover Him.

And then we saw last time that He enables the conversation. Then we talked about the God of the Bible in verse 1, chapter 1, that He's the God that initiates, and He's the God that engages, or enables, I should say, the conversation.

Acts chapter 17, verse 24 down to verse 28. The Bible there tells us that "God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives gives to all life, breath, and all things. And that He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings." I don't want to be too current today, but that verse means the borders of nations. I know that's not popular to talk about borders these days. I know globalists get upset. But the Bible says God created the borders of nations and He put people in those borders of nations. And if you don't like it, I don't have to tell you.

"Verse 27, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him." Listen to this, though, "He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being." See the word "being"? Who you are, the very creativity of God and His person has made you the way that you are because you were designed to relate to the God that made you.

And then thirdly, we see under this point, the first point argument is that He engages in the conversation. When it says that God is the one, as a human, you and I, church family, obviously we have been created to be a people that, uh, bond to one another. And, uh, in some ways, we hit on this, but, uh, bonding to one another. We, we talk to people and we discern, you know, "What I like talking to them," or "It's hard talking to them." And some people, listen, you know, some people are, and it's just the way that God made us. It's not a sin. But, you know, some people carry the conversation for you, and it's kind of nice. It's kind of effortless. They just carry it. It's just, "I like those kind of people." It's like, "Oh, that's nice." And then there's the, then there's people in life where you got to keep it going for them. They, you know what I'm saying? I mean, it's like it's both like pulling a, a brick, or a wall made of bricks. Sometimes it's like licking a rock. It's about as rewarding. But it's got to be worked on. It's got to be engaged. And it's, it's got to be a conversation that is massaged and spoken to and developed.

It's amazing to me. Think about your life as a Christian. I, I might assume tonight, I don't know. It's a Wednesday night. This may be wrong. But, you know, your Wednesday nighters, I think Wednesday nighters are die-hard believers, right? That was your, "Yes." Uh, not to take anything away from Sunday people, but I mean, it is Wednesday and you're here in crowd. And, and the beautiful thing about that is that you desire to engage God. You came here tonight thinking, "God, speak to me. Talk to me, God. I'm gonna go there and worship You." I saw, I saw some of you. I was watching some of you while I was worshiping the Lord myself. And some of you are on your knees, and some of you were standing with your hands raised, and some of you might have had a lump in your throat or a tear. And the diversity of God, because of His personality and the person that He is, He's knowable. And He engages. Thank God, He does, in the conversation.

Because you and I, as God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and Christianity, if you don't know, we believe in one God that manifests Himself in one person. The Bible says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one." But from Genesis to Revelation, God reveals Himself in three persons. You say, "Man, I don't get that." Well, join the club. Nobody gets it. And we have all our little things. You know, it's like this. It's like this. It's not like this. It's kind of like water, ice, and vapor. No, it's not. How about an egg? There's a shell, a yolk in it. No, it's not. The closest thing I can come to, and this is for my weak little brain, is that if you live in a home right now with three people, Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear, and you have an address, 123 Big Bear Lane, and you're the Bear family, and under that one roof is one family at one address, but inside there are three distinct, different personalities with the same last name. That's as close as my little head can get to the triunity of God.

But yet, Old Testament, New Testament theology reveals the fact that God engages with us. Because the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, write it down, you won't see it on the screens, is the fact that we have been created by God, body, soul, and spirit. Isn't that cool? I love that. Body, soul, and spirit. "May the Lord God Himself sanctify you, body, soul, and spirit." Isn't that a beautiful thing? He gives life. The Bible says in 1 John 1, "That which was from the beginning." Listen carefully, for where we're going tonight. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard," John said, "which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life." "The life was manifested or revealed, made known, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us." "That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." He's the Knowable God. It's absolutely awesome.

Are you guys with me tonight? Are you sleeping? All right. I need some, uh, are you guys all new here tonight? Okay. We need some, I need you to, there you go. Okay. But it's a beautiful thing where the God of the Bible is the one announcing to us and saying to us that He is, He is knowable. He wants you to know Him and He wants to be known. God is real, and God speaks. I love saying that. God is real. God speaks.

If tonight, as I've often challenged you in many of our Bible studies, that go to the God of the Bible and call out to Him and ask Him to speak to you. I honestly believe that if you are a skeptic, doubter, atheist, but you get alone and you honestly, with integrity of your heart, sincerely say, "God, if You're out there, I don't know if I believe in You, God, but if You're there, speak to me. I'd like to know if You're there." Be honest enough, and then make sure you come and tell me when He speaks, because I can't wait to welcome you into the family of God. Because it's, He's, listen, you know what I love about what who we are and what we do with Him is that we don't have to conjure this stuff up. Hey, come on, become a believer. Like people knocking on your door, "Hey, you want to join our cult?" No, no. "Well, you need to." "Why?" "Because you need to belong." "Why belong to the family of God?" "Well, how do you know that?" "Well, first of all, how do you know that you belong to your cult?" And they'll tell you some story. And then I tell them, "Well, uh, look, your story, you, you believe your story." "Well, I do believe your story." "Well," I said, "here's the deal. Uh, I believe in a totally different story. The story that I believe in is right out of the Bible." And you go home today after you're done doing what you're doing, you go home today and you ask God if the conversation on my doorstep with you was Him trying to reach out to you. Because didn't you come to talk to me? Yes. Well, guess what? I prayed this morning that God would use me to share His name. And you came to my door. You made it so easy. I didn't even have to drive anywhere. And listen, you can't let him leave. When they start to leave, you say, "You can't leave. You got me up. You got me to the door. You're not leaving. I'm not done here. You need to know regarding the deity of Jesus Christ, because all the cults deny the deity of Christ. Start there." But challenge them.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:25: "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven?" Wow.

So church, number two, in our study as we go through the book of Hebrews right now, is the fact that God is immutable. Verse one teaches us that He cannot change. The God of the Bible never changes. My friend, listen. My dear Muslim friends, you need to know the God of the Bible never changes. The God of Islam changes. You don't know if He's going to be happy tomorrow or not. You don't know what kind of mood He's going to be in tonight or tomorrow. And your Muslim friends live in a constant state of uneasiness. And they, they don't know if God loves them today or tomorrow. I want you to all hear right now tonight that the God of the Bible never changes. The Bible says He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that He loves us. He, He's immutable is the nature of who He is.

It says there that "who at various times and in various ways." I love that. "Spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets." Speaks this way. That He appoints the times. God is the one who appoints the times. It says there in verse one that "who at various times." That were times is multiple parts, portions, or seasons, segments. Listen, you can talk about that as what is known as dispensations. God speaks in dispensations, so says the scriptures. He does this in various times. He appoints the times. And God speaks. God spoke to you at a certain time of your life. You know, many times we see people coming up accepting Christ, and some of them are just smiling, and some of them are crying, some of them look terrified. God is speaking to them differently. But He's using all of their history of life, their times. He makes His time and He uses that story, that abuse, that world, that life, that success, or that failure. And He uses it at various times. Quite remarkable.

The second thing we see here is that He reaches the soul. In verse one, He's the God that reaches the soul. He does it in various ways. The word "various ways" is avenues or directions or paths. What would appear to us as options to God are things that He has set in the doctrine of biblical study. It's called the decree of God. It's a fascinating doctrine of who God is. Decree. The decree of God is the fact that I think I've shared this with you guys before, that God knows if you're driving down the road and you decide to go left, it's a Y, you know, a Y in the road or, or a T in the road. If you go left, God knows that you were going to go left. And He knows what's coming up as you go. He said, "Yeah, but what if I want to do it right?" God knows what would have happened if you would have gone right. He said, "Yeah, but I really went left." "Yes, but God knows what would have happened if you went right." Isn't that awesome? It's the fact that nothing is outside of Him. Well, "If I would have..." He knows. See, we see that stuff, don't we? Because we don't know. "I don't like the way this is turning out. If I would have, why didn't I?" We say that because we are blind. He says, "I know whether direction you take, whichever way you go, I know." I love that. It gives me comfort. Does it give you comfort? I, I hope it does. I hope it gives you comfort. It's beautiful.

Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus," as I said a moment ago, Hebrews 13:8, write that down. "Jesus is the same. He's immutable. Yesterday, today, forever." See, does God love me today? Yeah. Is He gonna love me tomorrow? Yep. Charles Spurgeon said, he was joking, but Charles Spurgeon said, "I'm so glad that God called me when He did as a young man at the age of 15 or 16 years old." Because he said, "Now, as an older man, I don't think God would have called me." And that's cute. And he went quickly to correct himself or to give the punch line. But God doesn't do that. Spurgeon was being cute. God loved Spurgeon when he was a little tiny Spurgeon to the day that Spurgeon died. And the same is true for you. Well, God forgave me last year, but will He forgive me now? Yes, absolutely. The blood of Jesus and what it has affected doesn't wear out. It doesn't lose power. See, everything in our world, you and I associate with losing power. We learned some years ago from Stanford University that light is getting tired. That light is slowing down. Everything of the created universe is slowing down. The law of, uh, entropy, the second law of thermodynamics applies to everything, including light, because light is actually a physical entity. God's not physical. And if I keep going, we'll get to the part that I'm all excited to get to tonight, and we'll talk more about that. Exciting things.

Listen, He also ordains His message. The message that God ordains. It says here in scripture that "He spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets." So God spoke to those patriarchs of old. He did so by the prophets. A biblical prophet, yes, it's true in the Bible. He spoke through angels. The book of Genesis tells us this, by angelic appearances. Listen, He appeared. Jesus. Listen. The Bible tells us what is known as, you might want to write it down and study it later, it's fascinating. It's known as the, theophanies or Christophanies. Theophanies is when God appears in the Old Testament in the person of Jesus Christ. When God appears before Bethlehem. Christ has appeared in the Old Testament numerous times. He did it with Abraham and Manoah, Samson's parents. He appears to Joshua just before the great battle, or I should say, Jericho. He appears there and speaks to Joshua. And you say, "What are you talking about?" It's called a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. That is, before He came into the world as baby Jesus, Jesus appears in the Old Testament. Theophanies, manifestation, or Christophanies. Quite remarkable.

But God ordains the messages. He ordains the message through angels. He did that in the Old Testament. He did it again through Moses in the book of Exodus. God spoke to Moses. And He spoke by the earthly priesthood in Leviticus, all throughout the Old Testament. Then you get into the prophets, and God spoke, spoke to individuals, spoke to kings, spoke to nations. Quite amazing. Quite awesome. The Bible tells us in Hosea chapter 12, verse 10: "Hosea, listen to this, 12:10. 'I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.'" And that's amazing. I hope you're very, at least in this church, you better be very familiar with your Old Testament and how much of God speaking through the prophets He did in interesting ways. And for example, Ezekiel. God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel. And I'm smiling because some of this stuff was just flat out odd, to the point, to the point of being funny. But God is communicating to Israel about their upcoming defeat. And He's using Ezekiel to speak to the nation about what's coming. So God tells them, "I want you to make little army men, and I want you to make these guys." He sets up a little battle scene. That's one way. And then another way is God speaks through prophets, and He tells them, "I want you to lay on your left side for like 128 days, and then when you get up, I want you to lay on your right side the other way." And this, and the other. And it's like, "What strange things God has chosen to do?" That sometimes it's other types of symbols and parables. You love the parables of the Gospels. But that is an ancient form of teaching invented by God Himself. A parable. That's why you don't want to mess with parables. You better read them. You better study them. You better make sure you get it down. Because a parable is a bizarre thing. A parable judges every person that reads it. You don't judge a parable. A parable judges you. There's only one answer to a parable, and God knows the answer to the parable. And when you read a parable and you go, "Well, I think, I think it means..." It's scary because two people can hear a parable at the exact same time, and one will reject the message, and one will see the message more clearly. That's what a parable does. It lands right alongside your head, and it waits there for you to grab it and to use it as a key. If you don't grab it, the very parable winds up judging you because you should have known it. You could have known it. It's fascinating. God does that. He ordains the message.

In 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 17: "2 Peter 1:17 says, 'For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the excellent glory, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. "And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to take heed as a light that shines in a dark place." The prophetic word of God. Words spoken by the prophets of old, and the words spoken today. The Bible, God's prophetic word.

In John chapter 14, verse 29: "Jesus says this, 'And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.'" God's prophetic word. He ordains the message. Listen, for a church to grow, teach the Bible. Teach the Bible. Well, what about "10 Steps to Happiness"? Don't do it. Don't do it. Teach the Bible. It's supernatural. "God, yeah, but who, who's going to come? Who's going to come to church?" Listen, the church is not a country club. The church is not Costco where everybody's supposed to come because it's not that everybody's supposed to come. See, Pastor, I can't believe you just said that. I'll say it again. Not everyone's supposed to come. Listen, there's some people in the community that don't want to come here. They shouldn't come here. How do you know? Teach the Bible. The Bible. When somebody goes into a gathering where they don't want God, and the Bible goes out, they go, "I don't want this." And when they leave again, I'm picking on Spurgeon. I didn't mean to. But Charles Spurgeon said, "Don't, don't try to pull them back into your church if they're leaving. Let them go." He said, "Those are blessed subtractions." Because they, they don't, and they're cute. They don't belong with us. They're, they're not saved. They're not followers. They're not, you hear them saying that. That's quite fascinating. None of us have got to coerce people to come. We can invite people to come. But you don't say, "No, well, now that you're here, you're not going anywhere. You're going to sit down. We're going to lock you down." No, you know, don't do that. Listen, they may hear the word of God and run out of the building with their hair on fire. Let them go. But listen, if you teach the word of God, Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice. They follow Me." Wherever the word goes out, sheep will come in. Sheep will gravitate to the word. It's amazing. Pastors need to be focused on just that one thing alone. Give them the word of God. Well, what about this committee? And what about this growth? And what about the building project? Forget it all. Forget it all. It doesn't work. Give the word, and God will use it, and people will respond to that word, either in salvation, or the sheep will gather to feed.

And then thirdly, under this point, we made it into verse two. The Knowable God is complete, complete in all of His ways. And we see, first of all, that He's gifted us Himself. It says that He has, "in these last days spoken to us by His Son." In these last days. Church, the word "last days." See, wait, that's 2,000 years ago now. The last days. When God speaks about the last days, again, I mentioned the word dispensation earlier. God speaks. The last days started when Jesus Christ was born. Those are the last days. Actually, that's a long time ago. I know. But look how cool it is. We're at the end of the last days now. The last day started 2,000 years ago. We're in the last hour, right? I hope we're in the last few minutes. [Applause]

"In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son." In Galatians chapter 4, verse 4, a wonderful verse. Galatians 4:4 says, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law." God's Son came into the world, born through a woman. And Jesus Christ grew up in what was then Judaism. We'll call it the fullness. At just the right time, Jesus came into the world. When that verse tells us in Galatians 4:4, "Then, when the fullness of time had come, at just the right moment, Christ was born." He came into the world. And these last days, technically, theologically, cover that time of His first coming, being born into this world, and it goes all the way through to His second coming at the end of the tribulation period. In a more detailed or accurate way. But the final word to mankind, listen to this, is in and through Jesus Christ. The second person of the Holy Trinity of God. Jesus speaks. It's Jesus. We love this. We love this because we don't have to. We don't have to try to go, "God, you know, show me a sign." I know in our ignorance, we've asked that. "Show me a sign." Sure. You know, by the way, people say, "I've asked God for a sign about this decision I have to make." And then they tell me what the sign was. And it's like, "Oh boy." I'm not going to touch that with a tenfold pole. "I asked God for a sign," you know, like it would get lighter in the morning, like the sun would come up. And then you wonder why your venture was a total flop, right? Now, you don't need to do that. You don't need to ask God for a sign. Pick up His word and read it. And you know what He will give you? A verse. I mean, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but for me, I don't need a sign because if I read His word and I'm seeking Him, He gives me an answer that comes from the word, off the page. I mean, I mean, listen, it comes off the page to the point it's, it's equal to a slap across the face. Like, "Get your attention!" Wham! What? And it's like, "I've heard that verse." How many, how many times have you done that? "I've read that verse a thousand times." But this time, it answers where you're at, right? That's Him speaking. Because here's the funny thing about a sign. "Oh, look, a sign." And then you're wondering when things get rough, "Was that really a sign, or did I see it upside down?" Oh, hallelujah. Get it from the word. Get the answer from it, through the word. And that's what that's what the book is all about. The Bible is all about. And in Revelation chapter 1, verse 1, that's what the book of Revelation is all about. When it says that it's "the revelation of Jesus Christ." It's not the revelation of John. It's the revelation of Jesus. The unveiling of Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is God's ultimate and final word to man. There's nobody else coming.

It's what's known as a Shakespearean analogy. What? I missed something. It's what's known as the Shakespearean analogy. And it's kind of cute. And you've probably already assumed what that means. It means that when Shakespeare, who is the creator of Hamlet, right? He writes Hamlet. He invents it. He writes it. Shakespeare is the creator. Hamlet's the created. At any time, the creator could write himself into the story, right? Maybe you're in the movie, and it's your movie. Maybe you're, I don't know, you're Mel Gibson, or you're Tom Cruise, or Hanks, whoever these people are, and they, they're writing this movie, and they, they just, for fun, they write themselves into a, into a scene for a second. You can't fault them, even if you don't even like if you don't like them or like them. It doesn't matter. They wrote themselves into their own play. Are you with me? Listen, friend, God wrote Himself into His own story of redemption.

Now, look, we're going to break order as we come and bring this to an end. But I hope you find this wonderful. For me, I got so excited about this. And listen, if you don't get excited about it, can you fake it? Because it's amazing to me. Now, I know that we just started verse two, and I'm going to delve into portions of verse three in a moment. But watch this, if you would, and write it down if it blesses you. So this creator of the story has written Himself into the story seven key ways, seven key times. And it's all bundled up right here. It's almost like the Holy Spirit packages a treat in the opening verse or two of the book of Hebrews. Watch this. Seven revealed attributes of Christ's centrality.

Number one, verse two says, "whom He has appointed heir of all things." Note this first of all. You're talking about right here. Two. There's two persons being spoken of right here. "Whom He." You want a Bible student? One, one of 'em. One asks a question, "Who is He?" Right. Exactly. "Has appointed heir of all things." Whom He has appointed heir of all things. Who's the heir of all things? It's the Bible says it's Jesus. John chapter 1, verse 1 and 2: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. He was in the beginning with God." When everything physical and material was made. That means Christ, who is eternal, was there at creation. That John 1:1 and 2 means Jesus was at Genesis 1:1.

Number 2 is found in verse 2: "Through whom also He made the worlds." Some of your margins of your notes will say "ages" or "eons" or "worlds" plural, and that's right. It's a hard word. Listen, it's hard word to put your heart, our mind around, because it simply drops the truth bomb right there. "Through whom," that is Christ Jesus, "also He made the worlds." All that there is beyond. He has done this. John chapter 1, verse 3: "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." This is Jesus.

Number 3 is found in verse 3: "Who being the brightness of His glory." Jesus Christ is the brightness of His glory, the glory of God. But we need to be careful here, not of the Bible verse, of course, but of our limited ability to comprehend this. When we talk about "who being the brightness of His glory," listen, this is fun. In John chapter 1, verse 16 and 18, it says, "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Verse 18: "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." So when the Bible tells us about Him, Jesus being the brightness of His glory, listen to this. The Bible says that God is spirit, does it not, church? Yes. So listen. When you think of that God is spirit, okay? God says, "You can't build Me a house for Me to live in, because I don't live in houses." Okay? We're tempted in our minds, because we're limited, we're tempted to think that God is spirit, that means that He's somehow not tangible. Listen, that He's somehow unable to make contact. Listen, we, because we fail to meditate on His attributes, we sometimes think that God, who is a spirit, must be kind of ghost-like. That He must be kind of ethereal or a gas or a fog. And He's not. He's in another world from our world. It is a world that has form. It is a world that has what we have in little, it has in grandeur. There are beings there. There's angels. There's a relationship. There's dynamic. There's thrones. There's, there's the kingdom. There's all of these things. There's, there's beyond. But we think it's all. We think, "Oh, you just fall through the wall if you walk." If you're walking around heaven, you, you know, you can walk through. Listen, we think in terms that it's just kind of ghost-like. It's not. He's not. Listen.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 15: "Deuteronomy 4:15 says, 'Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire.'" Last, or here's the reason why you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved or crafted image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of..." He's talking about idols, obviously. Anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them." Example: horoscope, zodiac is an abomination to God, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples, nations under the whole heaven, as a heritage. Listen, He says to them upfront, "When you saw Me, you didn't see a form because I didn't show you My form, because if I would have, you would have made an idol out of Me." Interesting, right?

Which leads us to the fourth out of the seven arguments here, putting this together, we're assembling this. Number 4, it's found in verse 3: "And He's the express image of His person." Jesus is the express image of God. What does the Holy Spirit think? Look at Jesus. What does God the Father do? Look at Jesus. When you look at Jesus, you're looking at a total, complete representation of the Godhead, brought to you in a way that you and I could relate to. Christ came as a human. He didn't come as an angel. He didn't come as an animal. He came as a representation of you, to speak to you, because it's you He came to redeem. You like people who can relate to you, don't you? "He understands me." "She gets it." You know why you appreciate that? Because you're a person. And God, the Creator and your Redeemer and Savior, came and related to you so you can know Him. The express image of His person. Watch how the below verse is exclusively of Jesus Christ, but also totally descriptive and unique to Jesus Christ. Watch this. So He's the express image of His person.

Isaiah 45:18: "For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain." He didn't create it to be canceled. He created it for a purpose. "Who formed it to be inhabited? 'I am the Lord, and there is no other.'" You got that? Okay. So, lim, watch this. Exclusively of Jesus is our argument, and descriptive and unique to Jesus Christ. Watch how these arguments come together. So you know this verse well. Proverbs 30:4. But I want you to see it on the screens. Who? Still talking about the same God. Speaking. "Who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fist? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth?" Stop right there. Would you agree with me that Isaiah 45, Proverbs 30, we're talking about the Creator, the One True God? There's no doubt about it. No matter who you might be or what you believe. It's like, "Yeah, I got that." Proverbs 30:4 goes on: "What is His name, and what is His Son's name, if you know?" Okay, that verse continues. "And what is His Son's name, if you know?" The answer is, watch this. The answer is, "He is the one who spoke to the children of Israel, specifically Moses and to the elders, and He said, 'When I revealed Myself to you, I didn't reveal to you My form, because you would have made an idol out of Me.'" You got to learn this. You got to get this down. He's saying to them, as God would reveal Himself.

Number 5, we're building one upon another. Jesus. And upholding all things by the word of His power. Colossians chapter 1, verse 15 and 17: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones or dominions, principalities or powers." Those are angelic entities. "All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Did you know this is Jesus Christ? He's the Creator. He holds it all together. And He made them because He wanted to make them. He's holding the universe together right now. You may be an unbeliever, and He's giving your lungs air right now. He's absolutely awesome. Listen, we're almost done.

Number 6: "When He had by Himself purged our sins." Wow. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9: "Having made known to us the mystery of His will, the secret of God." What is that? "According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself." What is it? What is it? We're asking that "in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him." This is Jesus.

And number 7, I love this: "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." What does that mean? Well, the Bible tells us. The book of Hebrews is going to teach us that Jesus is the priest. So listen, what priest on earth ever sits down? They don't. You want to know why? Because their job's never done. See, if you have an earthly priest, they're working their tail off to meet all the ministry needs and the demands. And like Old Testament priests, like today's priests, and if you don't watch out, pastors, you got to remember something. None of us died for ourselves or for you. He did. But when you operate an earthly priesthood, and you're the authority, and you still operate without Christ, then you're running around trying to meet all the needs of the people, and you're the one trying to make them all happy, take care of them all, answer all their questions, do everything, and make sure you, you offer their their confessions so they can be forgiven. And that priest, that kind of priest, never sits down. Guess what? For 2,000 years, Jesus has been sitting down. The Great High Priest sits. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty. It means what He did for you is all done. In fact, listen, man, just let that sink in for a second. Some of you need to, you need to hear that. You need to be free. What Jesus did for you, He's all done doing. He doesn't do anything else. He took care of it. See, "What about?" He took care of it. How does He take care of it? The only time we see Jesus standing is when one of His saints die. When Stephen was being stoned, the Bible tells us Stephen saw the glory of heaven as he was dying, and he saw Jesus stand up. Don't you want to see Jesus stand up when you're about ready to enter heaven? Can you imagine? You imagine tonight on your way home, if it's your time, I'm not wishing some weirdness on you. Imagine tonight on your way home, the car comes through the intersection, and all of a sudden you start hearing...

Not horns, but angels singing. And Stephen, just before he died, he even said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man." That's God. That's the name for Christ, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of Majesty. And the Bible says, at that, he died. He bled out. He died. That's how God's saints go.

I have to stop. Here's the punchline. Watch this. This is the bet. I'll just have to tell you the best part right now because I can't take it. God dwells in a world that, where we live, it's an invisible world. When God called Moses up to the mountain, Moses said, "I want to see your glory." I think that should be the request of every true believer. I think the Holy Spirit in every true believer says, "I want to see your glory. God, draw me closer." And it's the greatest because God says, "Moses, you can't. You can't see me face to face like this. You can't see me because my presence, who I am, what I am, will kill you. You'll melt. So that's not going to work. But here's what we'll do. I'm going to put you in the crack of the rock. Okay? So come on up to the mountain. There's going to be a crack in this rock. I'm going to put you, I'm going to stuff you in the crack. Okay? And then I'm gonna come by. I'm gonna pass by this thing." This is God relegating himself to Moses's lofty desire. "I'm going to pass by. But before I do, I'm going to cover your face with my hand. When I walk by, I'll cover you. And when I walk past, and when I have gone past, then I will move my hand from you. And as you see, you'll see me leaving. And you'll see my backside. And you'll see my glory from the back. You can't see it from the front." And God did that to Moses. And just that event in the spiritual realm, right? Hello? What did it do to his skin? It completely altered some sort of structure of his, his face retained light. And then from that event, that light, he had to keep his face covered in the presence of the Israelis, of the, he, the Jews, because the glory was diminishing after he had left God's presence. It fell upon him.

God lives in a tangible world that we can't fathom. In the same Bible that describes the very same event, God speaks to Moses and says, "Now bring the elders up." And they come to the mountain. God's up here. They're, this is the valley. Moses has already been up there. He comes back and he gets the 70 elders and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, his sons. And they go up. And they go up halfway. And God stops them. "Stop right there." And the Bible tells us in the book of Exodus that God reveals himself to them. And they see him. Listen, it says they see him. And beneath his feet is a sapphire flooring or presence. Sapphire isn't sapphire like really super, what color is that? Can you think of that? This is beauty of this. But they saw him from a distance. And then God said to Moses, "You come up. Everybody else has got to stay halfway up the mountain. You, I'll show you myself as much as I can show you."

We need to revel in the fact that Jesus Christ is the physical manifestation of the fullness of God. What he walked us through in the Old Testament with the light and the glory and the distance and the presence and the nearness and the fog, fire, earth-quaking, lightning in the mountain, Jesus shows up. And think of it, all of that glory is inside of him. And God drapes himself in human flesh and he comes and he speaks to us and he laughs with us and he cries with us and he's with us. So amazingly so that if Moses, if Moses could have been in the corner over there, knowing what you know tonight, his mind would have completely blown. I'm not joking. Moses would have had to have thought, "How in the world do you speak to God? And you, you, you know he's always with you wherever you go, but you don't see him." We looked for him. We saw the mountain shaking and the people said, "Don't talk to him any longer because we're afraid." When he speaks, the earth shakes. "Don't talk to Moses anymore." Can you imagine Moses finding out that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you? No, no, no. He might say, "That can't be. I saw God from his distance and there was his feet and beneath was sapphire. And then he called me up. I went into his presence and I saw his glory that passed by. I couldn't even look at him face to face. It's not allowed." In this world of ours, in which we live in, and he allowed me to have a little bit of indulgence. And I saw the backside of when he passed by. And it completely freaked out my physical existence. And are you telling me that you know God personally? Are you telling me that you have touched, you have heard, you have seen? And John would say to Moses, "Absolutely. Absolutely."

Hey, you can stand. I, I end with this and we're going to end with a worship song. Don't run out of the building. You need this song. But let's stand. Um, forever. So you, of all, everyone's been saying to me, "You got to watch The Chosen. You got to watch The Chosen." And I haven't had time. And I, I didn't watch. I haven't watched it. So I just started to watch it with my, uh, granddaughter. And I have to be honest with you, the first, uh, the first program was a little slow. And the second was, "Oh, okay." But I think we're on the third one right now. And it's Jesus, uh, talking to kids, a bunch of kids. And here's the cool thing about The Chosen. If people can produce a movie, think about how much better God is. You start warming up to this Jesus because he, he comes off the pages of the Bible. And you see him laugh. And some of us are wound so tight that we cannot let God laugh. God cannot laugh like we invented laughter. You see Jesus having a sense of humor. And we get offended at that. No, you shouldn't get offended at that because God gave you a sense of humor. And it's precious because, uh, one of the little kids says something like, "Are you from, are you from around here?" And he goes, "You know, not exactly, but yeah." Well, is, is your, where's your, is your dad alive? And like that. He goes, "Yes, he's very much alive." It's very, very sweet. But God is relatable. And I hope your Christian experience is knowing this God.

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.