Jesus: God is Worshipped, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You cannot read the biblical account about Jesus and remain neutral. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S.

Lewis points out that based on the things Jesus said, you cannot simply call him a great human teacher. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. Jesus demands a response. Our text Hebrews 1 5-14 reminds us that he is ever worthy of our worship.

Let's listen in. This is the third part of a message titled Jesus, God is Worshipped. It was first preached on April 22, 2012 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What is this verse about? This is the third verse of our Christ Exalting Him. This verse is about sovereignty. This verse is about his sovereignty, that he reigns. His commands and purposes stand.

Period. He doesn't alter them. He doesn't change them. He doesn't adjust them.

His thinking doesn't get adjusted because of circumstances. He is sovereign. He is God and his commands and purposes stand the test of time. He defines, his sovereignty means he defines what is good and what is not. A scepter of righteousness. Righteous means things are the way they ought to be as defined by his very being as God. So he defines what is good and what is not good and his scepter is a scepter of righteousness. I want you to notice something very important here. What is coupled together with righteousness in this verse?

Look at the text. What is coupled together with righteousness? Gladness. Gladness. The scriptures put together gladness with righteousness.

Loved ones, think on this. Where there is righteousness, there is gladness. That's the third verse of the hymn. Let's move to the fourth verse now and we find this one in verses 10 and 12 and this comes from Psalm 102. The third verse comes from Psalm 45. Now this verse comes from Psalm 102. The fourth verse, verses 10 through 12 of Hebrews 1. You Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.

Remember this is the father speaking to the son. You Lord laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish but you remain. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak.

You will fold them up and they will be changed but you are the same and your years will not fail. What is this verse about? This verse is about infinitude. This Christ exalting him, verse 4, teaches us that Christ is an infinite being. He is an infinite person. How do you grasp infinitude?

It's pretty hard because we're finite but the Lord has given us just enough imagination that we can make attempts at it. Let's try to grasp infinitude. Get a sheet of paper in front of you. You're imagining a sheet of paper.

This is not take out a sheet of paper for a quiz. You're imagining a sheet of paper in front of you. Now that sheet of paper is going to expand in every direction around you for as far as you can imagine. Now let's draw space and time. You have a pencil.

You're going to draw a one inch line on that sheet of paper. Within that one inch is all of space and time as it has existed in the cosmos. Beyond that is Jesus Christ. Try too hard it might scramble your brain, I understand, but he is an infinite being. He is an infinite person, this one.

The one who said, who do you say that I am? He is unchangeable. Because he is infinite, he is unchangeable. He transcends space and time. You see, we're so limited to our understanding of him because we are bound by space and time, but he is not. He transcends it. He can operate within space. He can limit himself to operate within space and time and that's exactly what he did.

That's what the incarnation is. Infinite God came to us like one of us and he operated in our context but it didn't change who he was. Verse four, he is infinite. He speaks of the heavens. What does he do with the heavens?

Like a cloak you will fold them up and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will not fail. He's an infinite being, an infinite person. Alright, let's move to the last verse of this five verse hymn and the writer of Hebrews then draws from Psalm 110 and this is verse 13. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. This means that this one who said, who do you say that I am, is Lord. What's a synonym for Lord? How about master, controller.

What's the synonym for master, controller? He is Lord. The Bible teaches us in the Old and the New Testament that to him every knee will bow. There are no exceptions and every tongue will confess.

No exceptions. That is the truth of the one who said, who do you say that I am? You see why I say the answer to that question has eternal significance and it shapes your world view, your thinking and your behavior.

Who do you say that I am? Two key prepositions in scripture that help us understand this. It's in Colossians chapter 1. All things were made by him and for him.

Two key prepositions. All things were made by him and for and it's speaking of Jesus Christ. All things were made by him and for him. Listen, until you grasp that, life will not make sense.

When you do grasp and surrender yourself to the truth that you were made by him and for him, then you will begin to understand what life means. The him is this one. This one who is infinite, who is sovereign, who is Lord, who is God. He is worshipped. He is the one who has a unique relationship with the Father himself. There are many things that can shape our world view today. The financial happenings in New York, the entertainment from Hollywood, the technology from Silicon Valley, the fashions of Miami, all of these shape and fashion the world views of many, many people today, maybe even ours. Therein lies the challenge. Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher said a long time ago, let me write the songs of the nation.

I don't care who writes its laws. Why did the psalmist want to write a hymn? Why did he appeal to the song book of the Hebrews? Two reasons. One, because music shapes our world view. And two, because it is a form of meditation. Meditation is a form of developing a habit of thought. And that habit of thought needs to be informed by revelation. I didn't create God. God created me and he revealed himself to me.

That's a game changer. And so this hymn, this Christ exalting hymn puts Christ in the right perspective so that we have the right understanding of him, so that when he asks, who do you say that I am? We will be able to utter the words with Peter, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Because that shapes our world view, our habits of thought and our behavior. Who is your hero? What is the hero, by the way? For the Jews, their hero are the angels. Today, the heroes of our Western culture today are athletes, musicians, popular musicians anyway, actors. By and large, the heroes of our Western culture are entertainers. What does it mean that they are our heroes? What do we do with the hero? If one is your hero, you admire that person.

You follow that person. You want to imitate that person. And we see that around today, don't we? The celebrities. We want to look like them. We want to act like them. We want to sound like them. We want to do the things that they do. We want to buy the things that they buy.

We want to wear the clothes that they wear. That's why commercials are so successful. That's why celebrities always have these endorsements that are granted them. Very, very high paying endorsements. Many celebrities make more from their endorsements than they do from their very occupation. Because they know that because I'm a celebrity, right, and I'm going to be on a commercial, they're going to pay me to be on a commercial that I'm going to get on the TV and say, you're going to like the way you look.

And Colin, because he admires me so much, is I need to go out and buy one of these because Rich wears one. Thank you. I appreciate that.

But see, that's how it operates today, isn't it? And that's what we do with our heroes. We want to look like them. We want to do the things they do. We admire them. We imitate them. We follow them. What is that?

What is that? It's worship. That's worship.

When you admire someone and you follow them and you want to imitate them, what is that but worship? Who are you worshiping today? Who is it that's shaping your worldview?

Who is it that's molding your behavior? The writer of Hebrews posits, very aptly, very logically, we can think of no one more worthy of our admiration and imitation than Jesus Christ. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.