Hebrews 1

do the book of hebrews chapter one the book of hebrews is exactly what it says it is written to the hebrews the jewish believers it is commonly accepted that paul was the author of the book of hebrews it is my opinion that that is correct it has touches of paul's style in it they are at a transition of dispensations when jesus had the last supper with his disciples when he took the cup he said this cup is a new covenant in my blood for the remission of sins and so god has established now a new covenant with the nation of israel which means that the old covenant is no longer valid the temple worship the sacrifices the priesthood is no longer valid because god has now established in jesus a new and a better way so they're at that transition of leaving the old with its traditions and entering into the new covenant this new relationship with god now made possible because of what jesus christ has done and there were many jews who embraced the gospel on the day of pentecost as peter was preaching some 3 000 people believed and were added to the church just a few days later at the miracle of the healing of the lame man some two thousand more we read that of the priest many became believers but then there arose a problem in the church because those jewish believers were still sort of held by tradition to some of the old facets of the law and they sought to make a mixture of the two covenants they tried to mix together this new covenant of grace with the old covenant of the law and thus some of them were even going so far as returning to the temple sacrifices and this issue will be dealt with as we go through the book of hebrews so this is a letter to the jews concerning this new covenant that we have in christ jesus so god who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets the assertion that god has spoken the old testament scriptures are indeed the word of god all scripture is given by inspiration of god profitable for doctrine and for reproof and correction holy men wrote as they were inspired by the holy spirit god spoke in different ways he spoke through visions he spoke through dreams he spoke through similitudes he spoke through an audible voice he spoke through that still small inner voice he spoke through circumstances so god in various times and in various ways spoke to the fathers by the prophets has now in these last days spoken unto us by his own dear son jesus pointed out how skewed their understanding of what god said have become he was constantly saying you have heard that this is what god said but i say unto you as he was correcting the misinterpreting of what god had spoken to the people jesus rebuked them because they through their traditions had really made the law of no effect they had circumvented and bypassed the law by their traditions many of the things that the law said that they should not do they were doing but they had their reasons their traditions that said well it's okay if you do it this way and so where the law said you're not to curse your father and mother they said just before you curse them say now look this is for your own benefit and if you if you put that before the curse then you can go ahead and curse them but just make sure you say this is for your own good and and thus jesus said you you've made the law of no effect they the bible said if you swear by the altar you have sinned but they said well you can swear by the gold that covers the altar and that's okay jesus said what is greater the altar or the gold the gold which is sanctified by the altar and so these various things and thus it was important that man know the truth of god and as is usually the case when you let men get involved they complicate it god taught very straight plain simply his laws and his ways to the people but then they began to complicate it there really isn't much difficulty in understanding the ten commandments but yet they began to complicate it they had the mishnah which was the oral tradition of interpreting the commandments and then they developed the talmud which were the written traditions that interpreted the mishnah the oral traditions and it became more complicated all the time look what we've done with the basic laws in the united states i mean these men are hired year after year to figure out new things to make a law about and and it seems like there's no end to the laws that they're willing and wanting to write to enforce their ideas opinions and feelings and we realize that gradually through these our freedoms are being eroded so god has spoken in these last days by his son clear plain an understanding of god is now possible by looking at jesus i can know god in truth as i look at jesus unfortunately even with the church we've through the years have messed up the message of jesus and confused the message of jesus in so many places but god having spoken to us by his son in the second chapter therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should drift away from them we because god has spoken by his son we ought to pay attention and not to drift away because if the word that was spoken by the messengers of the old testament was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward how shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation which at first was spoken to us by the lord so god has spoken to us through his son and then sort of at the end of hebrews in chapter 12 25 see that you refuse not him that speaketh don't refuse the words of jesus god has spoken to us by his own dear son speaking of the son he declares whom he has appointed heir of all things now the beautiful thing is that god has declared that we are joint heirs with jesus christ god has appointed him the heir of all things and by whom also he made the worlds in the beginning god said let us make man in our image and after our likeness the father the son and the holy spirit were active in creation john said in the beginning was the word the word was with god the word was god the same was in the beginning with god and all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made paul in colossians chapter 1 declares again concerning jesus christ that by him were all things made that are made whether they are visible or invisible by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist who being the brightness of his glory jesus is the effulgence the outshining now there was what they called the shekinah that glowing of god's presence that was there in the holy of holies just that glow of god's presence we are told here that jesus is that glow that outshining that effulgence of god's glory he is the express image of his person he could say if you have seen me you have seen the father the express image of the person of god the greek word as a reference to the image that was made with a signet ring where you press the signet ring into the wax it leaves an express image of the ring and so jesus the express image of god and he upholds all things by the word of his power this is equivalent by him are all things held together column's law of electricity speaks of the repelling force of positive charges there is the attraction of opposite poles but there is the repelling of of the positive poles so you take an a magnet and you try to put the positive pole of a magnet against a negative pole and you'll find that it is pushing away that's column's law of electricity it's just an observation that positive poles repel now in the nucleus of an atom you have protons or positive charges that are tightly clustered together in defiance of the natural bent of positive charges to repel what holds the positive charges together in the nucleus of an atom scientists speak of an atomic glue they used to call them masons but it is a mystery of what holds the positive charges together now the scientists have learned that by by bombarding the nucleus of an atom with slow-moving neutrons they can dis engage the positive charges and they start a fission a nuclear reaction and they can release tremendous energy the force the power of an atomic bomb is created by the positive charges acting according to nature that's the natural thing for positive charges to repel and if they can upset the balance of the nucleus of an atom with the slow-moving neutrons they can create the tremendous explosions that we have observed in the atomic bombs the force that holds the positive charges together has to be greater than the force that is released when the atom is upset it is interesting as peter is talking about the end of the age when the thousand years of christ's reign is over and god creates a new heaven and a new earth in ii peter chapter 3 verse 10 he said the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise the elements will melt with a fervent heat the earth also in the works that are therein shall be burned up seeing then that all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy manner of living and godliness as we look for and hasten unto the coming of the day of god wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat you'd think that peter was an atomic scientist but he is describing what will happen when the lord releases the material universe to be dissolved when the protons are free from that hold and that power and the whole thing just goes up so all things are upheld by the word of his power and when he by himself had purged our sins jesus has cleansed us from sin john writes the blood of jesus christ god's son cleanses a man from all sin and when he by himself purged us from our sins he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high his work is finished on the cross he cried it is finished and he was talking about the redemptive plan of god through the death of christ it was complete the way is now made for sinful man to approach the holy god through the new covenant in the blood of jesus christ whereby we are washed and purged from our sins and thus have access unto the father the effect of sin is always that of separating a person from god god's hand is not short that he cannot save his ear is not heavy that he cannot hear but the prophet said your sins have separated you from god that's always the case in order for us to have fellowship with god the sin issue has to be resolved and jesus through his death purged us of our sins there is no other way jesus said father if it is possible if what is possible if fellowship with god and man is possible by any other means then jesus prayed let this cup pass from me nevertheless not what i will thy will be done had redemption been possible by man being good by man being religious by man being sincere by man keeping a law then jesus would not have had to have died there would have been a standard set and we would all be required to keep that standard but no man can keep god's standard of righteousness we've all sinned and come short of the glory of god and thus we all need the redemptive plan of god worked out personally in our own lives by himself he purged our sin and then he sat down the work is finished and now he is able to receive and the father will receive all who will come to god by him being made so much better than the angels now this word better is one that we're going to meet several times in the book of hebrews because the author is interested in showing that through jesus christ we have a better way here much better than the angels 7 19 for the law made nothing perfect but bringing in of a better hope we have a better hope than they did under the law 722 by so much was jesus made a surety of a better covenant much better than the covenant that said do and live the covenant that says believe and live hebrews 8 6 but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is a mediator of a better covenant again which was established upon better promises hebrews 9 23 it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these talking about how they sprinkled blood on the tabernacle and everything that was used in the tabernacle it was necessary to sanctify them by the blood of the the bulls and so forth that they had killed but the heavenly my a better sacrifice even that of jesus christ 10 34 for you had compassion of me and my bonds typical of paul and you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance you've got in heaven something much better than the furniture in your condo down here much better than that old clunker you've been driving the heavenly sump substance is so much better the because they're enduring these are all temporal those are enduring in heaven a better and an enduring substance 11 16 but now they desire a better country talking about these men of faith in the old testament that is a heavenly wherefore god's not ashamed to be called their god for he has prefer prepared for them a city 1135 women received their dead raised to life again others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection if we suffer with him we'll reign with him hebrews 11 40 god having provided some better thing for us that they the old testament saints could not be made complete apart from us and then hebrews 12 24 and to jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of abel abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than cain but even a better sacrifice than abel is ours through jesus christ so the better way the better covenant the better resurrection the better hope uh all of these things are ours in christ being made so much better than the angels now the jehovah witnesses today seek to identify jesus as michael the archangel and in their belief system they do believe that jesus is michael the archangel they teach that the mormons teach that jesus is the brother of lucifer lucifer was a cherubim and thus they would put jesus down to an angel classification being the brother of lucifer but jesus is so much better than the angels and so he is going now to contrast jesus and the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they god has given him a name that is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father for unto which of the angels did god say at any time thou art my son this day have i begotten thee he is quoting from psalm 2 7. god didn't say that to any of the angels you are my son this day have i begotten thee jesus said god so loved the world he gave his only begotten son and again god said i will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son quoting from ii samuel 7 14. and again when he brought the first begotten into the world he said and let all of the angels of god worship him and so the angels are commanded to worship jesus when satan tempted jesus with the offer of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of jesus would bow down and worship him jesus quoted the scripture thou shalt worship the lord thy god and him only only god is to be worshiped but when god commands the worship of the son that equates to the fact that jesus is god worship him the order to the angels that's out of deuteronomy 32 43. interesting the writer of hebrews was surely conversant with the old testament scriptures just quoting so many different passages tying them together the scriptures that refer to the son versus the angels and of the angels he said who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire quoting psalm 104 4 but unto the son in contrast the the angels are ministering spirits they are servants but unto the son he saith thy throne o god is forever and ever notice he said thy throne o god psalm 45 6-7 if god calls him god then who am i to call him anything less this is one of those powerful scriptures you see when john wrote he said in the beginning was the word the word was with god the word was god john called him god when jesus showed to thomas the nail prince in his hand thomas said my lord and my god paul said our citizenship is in heaven from whence we look for the glorious appearing of our great god and savior jesus christ and here god is calling him god that should be sufficient but unto the son he saith thy throne o god is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom for thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore god even thy god hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows and so god's anointing oil of gladness and thou lord in the beginning has laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands again referring to him laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the work of thy hands in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth when you look at the vast universe in which we live it gives you a little bit of a concept of how vast god must be the creator the bible speaks of him stretching out the heavens as a curtain talks about him measuring the heavens with his span holding the waters of the earth in the palm of his hand lord in the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth the heavens of the work of your hands when i consider the heavens the psalmist said the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which you have ordained what is man that you are mindful of him when i go up to the youth camp that beautiful clear mountain air the dark skies you can still see the milky way probably some of you have never seen it if you lived around here for any length of time you've probably never seen the milky way around here but up there in the mountains you can see the milky way and you realize that the millions upon millions of stars that make up this milky way galaxy and we realize that our planet earth is just so insignificant when compared to the universe out here in one corner of the milky way we have a star that we call the sun and around this star there are there orbits planets maybe we found a tenth one they believe they have but these planets just orbiting around and fourth out from the sun we have this little planet called earth some eight thousand miles approximately in diameter a speck of dust orbiting around this star we call the sun some 93 million miles away which happens to be just exactly the right distance to get the right amount of heat and energy to support life on the planet earth it was fortunate that just the right distance this little out here spins on its orbit at about a thousand miles a minute so that we are spinning on this little planet as we go around the sun in our orbit around the sun the sun in the same token is orbiting within the milky way galaxy the earth as i said is about 8 000 miles in diameter it is one million two hundred thousand times smaller than the sun the sun is orbiting at a speed of about thirteen miles per second pretty fast figure it out the sun is 865 000 miles in diameter 1 million two hundred thousand times greater than the earth in volume if you would carve out a hole in the center of the sun and leave a crust a hundred thousand miles thick you could set the earth in the center of the sun or you the earth could orbit around inside of the sun and and have no make your pardon wait a minute now i have to think that one through the moon set the earth in the middle and let the moon rotate around the earth and it could go on within the sun and you'd have a hundred thousand miles to spare it that's what it is that's a pretty big object the sun now when we send the rockets into space we're a little familiar with the power that it takes the thrust it needs to develop in order to get a rocket into orbit that weighs a few tons we know the tremendous energy and force and thrust what kind of thrust do you suppose it took to get the sun moving in its orbit what kind of thrust do you suppose it took the get the earth the earth has been continuing in its orbit around the sun does continue and there's only a variation of just a few seconds in the orbit year by year right on time you say wow there it is right on time made its orbit again what kind of thrust to get the sun into orbit the psalmist said when i consider the heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you've ordained oh the vastness of the god that we serve flung the universe into space all of the giant stars the sun is only a medium-sized star it's it's not even one of the big stars beetle geese is so much bigger than the sun when i consider the heavens and i love to do that he it says lord in the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands when i consider the heavens the work of his fingers and i realize wow this whole vast universe the work of his fingers i love the psalm that says and underneath are the everlasting arms it doesn't say god holds you with his fingers he holds you with his arms underneath the everlasting arms i'll tell you what if he could create the whole vast universe out there with the work of his fingers i ought to feel very secure in his arms underneath the everlasting arms oh glory i love it now they shall perish we read about it in ii peter there one day this whole vast universe god's going to fold it up it's interesting how that those scientists that hold to the big bang theory talk about how that at one time all of the matter in the universe was the size of a dried pea now that's sort of hard for me to comprehend but all of the matter all of the stars all of the matter in the universe was once condensed so tightly so compactly and then the whole thing exploded and all went out into space and here out in the milky way the sun and as it was spinning it threw off masses of heat which became the planets and fell into order away from the sun and all and they somehow got spinning too and keep spinning i often wonder what keeps us spinning out here it seems to me that we might slow down and and stop spinning and then just show one face to the sun but here we are and it just uh they say that when we have expanded to the fullness of this original explosion then there will be a slow gathering back again as the universe begins to collapse and rather than expanding it will start drawing back again until it is all compacted into this you know powerful gravitational pull and it becomes just a small little dried pea again and then there will probably be another explosion of course you understand it takes some 15 billion years to get out to the full expansion and how long it'll take to gather back so you don't have to worry about it tonight but it is interesting jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away but my word will never pass away in hebrews here we read of the enduring substance peter said seeing that all of these things the universe is to be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be surely not materialist because the material universe will one day disappear we need to be spiritual as a vesture a garment it grows old it waxes old they shall perish but you remain they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture you will fold them up and they shall be changed but you o lord are the same and your years shall not fail the unchanging god universe yes that doesn't last forever there was the birth of the universe just how the sign is theorized with a big bang but others have other theories we don't know no one was there to observe and record it but it's going to pass away scientists will tell you that too as a vesture god will fold them up they'll be changed god said behold i create all things new isaiah 65. the word create there is the same word in hebrew as in genesis 1 1. in the beginning god created the word is bara he brought out of nothing the universe the physicists say he brought it out of a little compact matter but god said i'm creating all things new again he uses the word bara new heavens new earth the old heavens the old earth will pass away and not be brought into mind the future the eternal future with god in the new universe where the old sin is not to be brought into mind so jesus the creators far superior to any angels and to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool jesus is sitting at the right hand of the father and the father will one day make his enemies his footstool speaking of the angels he said are they not all ministering spirits who are sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister but god didn't say to the angels just rest sit at my right hand until i take care of all of the rebellion which god will do in the great tribulation period but the angels ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who be shall be the heirs of salvation he shall give his angels charge over thee to bear thee up lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone so we begin with jesus much better than the angels has spoken to us much better than the prophets of this new and the living way which is much better than the old way through the law therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard that is the things that we've heard from jesus we need to pay attention father we thank you for the better way that you have provided for us through jesus christ the better covenant the better hope the better promises the better sacrifice lord we wonder as the psalmist who am i that you should be mindful of me who am i that you should love me who am i that you should give your son for me who am i that you should desire fellowship with me lord those are mysteries that we don't understand but we receive them joyfully and gratefully that you would love us that you would want to fellowship with us so much that you would be willing to make such a great sacrifice to make it possible oh god you're so good so good to me i thank you in jesus name amen shall we stand god is so good god is so good god is so good he's so good to me jesus is real jesus is real jesus is real he's so real to me i praise his name i praise his name i praise his name he's so good to me god is so good god is so good [Music] god is so good he's so good to me remember fellas if you can stick around for a little while and let's get this thing cleaned up get the pews out of here so we can get going with the remodeling god bless

Channel: Pastor Chuck Smith

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Id: 0r3tJO4QDvk

Length: 49min 15sec (2955 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021