Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. As an illustration of the corrupting power of sin, let us consider a pitcher of pure, refreshing water. If we were to add even the slightest bit of sewage to that container, none of us would have any interest in drinking it.
The entire pitcher is completely contaminated. Sin completely contaminates and corrupts our human nature. In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system became a picture or a foreshadowing of the only one who could cleanse us from that corrupting force that wraps itself around our souls. In that sacrificial system, animals were killed and their blood spilled out onto the altar year after year after year. But Jesus would pay our debt once for all.
Then He would sit down at the right hand of the Father, the ultimate and final sacrifice complete. This series from the beginning of the letter of Hebrews unpacks all that Christ's sacrifice and resurrection mean for us. Our scripture this morning is from Hebrews chapter one, verses one through nine from the ESV version.
I'll be on the screen. Hold your copy if you have it and read along with me. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.
And He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to Him a father and He shall be to me a son. And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, Let all God's angels worship Him. Of the angels, He says, He makes His angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire. But of the Son, He says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this word from Hebrews that recognizes Christ as far superior to anything. Help us to have that same attitude. Give us your heart and your mind as we hear the pastor tells us from your word.
Give him clarity of thought and speech. Thank you for his service to us and for his service to you, Lord. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Thank you, Andrew. The series through the first chapter of Hebrews is entitled The Supremacy of God's Son. Last time, the title of the message was The Radiance of His Glory, The Radiance of the Glory of God. Today, the title of the message today is The One Who Brings Us to God. The supremacy of God's Son because he is the one who brings us to God. No other divine agent has been or is or ever will be able to bring us to God.
Only the Son of God can do that, bring us to God. So we look at, in review a little bit, at the sovereign power of God. As he has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
I want you to get something here, okay? In verse 3, two phrases back to back, two awesome descriptions of Jesus, the God-man. Two phrases back to back. He upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins. Those two, think about that. This one that we celebrate upholds the universe by the word of his power. He's also the one who makes purification for sins, those two things.
Start contrast, right? One God is infinite and transcendent and omnipotent and sovereign, and the other one sees a baby lying in a manger, God in the form of human flesh, who will grow up and live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death. Who is like our God?
This is unique. We need to understand also that God is a consuming fire. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.
He is a consuming fire. The radiance of the glory of God speaks of God's perfections. As John says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. It's impossible for you and me to imagine the complete absence of darkness.
We're so used to it. It's everywhere, right? But in God, there is no darkness at all, meaning in him, there is nothing lacking. There's nothing corrupting in God, nothing lacking and nothing corrupting in him. And the idea of glory, when we speak of it, as I said last time, the idea of glory is the beauty of the perfection of God.
That's his glory. And so we speak then of God's holiness, and holiness is in two senses. First of all, that God is holy other. He is set apart from us. He is not like us. There are ways that he is that we cannot be or become. He is infinite and absolutely good, absolutely pure. And that's the other sense, the holiness of God is the purity of God. He's light and no darkness at all.
He is absolutely good and right and beautiful. That is the God we worship and serve. He's the God who made us. That being true, it is also true that his presence exposes and consumes what corrupts.
Do you see the problem that's coming here? He made us for himself, and yet he, in his perfect holy attributes, his presence exposes and consumes what corrupts. And you and I were born corrupt. So let's talk about that corrupting presence there. It's the power of death.
If you look at chapter 2 and verse 14, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook in the same that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, and that is the devil, the power of death. Let me just give you an object lesson, if I may. You're going to have to use your imaginations, but say I have a gallon jug of perfectly pure distilled water up here, and you could do whatever you want with that. You could come up and just take a drink out of it, and it would be perfectly pure, right? What if I took one little drop of sewage and put it in that water? It's no longer pure, is it?
You could no longer call it holy, set apart, absolutely pure. Good and have sicknesses that we have to deal with. You might have a strong and good and active body, and then you go to the doctor. There's this lump, and all of a sudden the doctor says, you've got cancer, and it's corrupting. And if you do nothing about it, we'll continue to grow.
These are things that many of us deal with day in and day out, if not us, a loved one. It's a corrupting presence. We live in corruptible bodies and in a corrupt world, and that corrupting presence ultimately destroys. That corrupting presence was introduced through a deception, a deception. 2.14, he who has the power of death, that is the devil.
What is he talking about there? Death is separation. The devil's ambition was to separate us from God, and we're separated from God. Our sin separates from God as the sustaining and satisfying source. Do you see what he did in that original deception in the garden?
To cross over God's loving boundaries, God's holding out on you, you're going to find more pleasure and satisfaction and good, and you're going to be a more complete and whole person if you step over God's loving boundaries. It was a deception. And in that deception, they were then separated from the sustaining and satisfying source that God is, and that's what death is.
That's what death is. It was a necessary separation for the same reason I told you of the water and the one drop of sewer. You need to keep those very, very separate, right? That's why we work hard to take destructive cells out of the body.
That separation is necessary. And Leon Morris puts it this way, sin appears as the power that deceives men and leads them to destruction. Mark this, all sin is destructive.
All of it, every time, it is destructive. It is that which defiles a person. And this language that is used here in Hebrews 1, making purification for sins, it's dealing with the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament because he's writing to a Jewish people here, right? And that which is unclean under the law, that which is unclean was that which is normally related to corruption and would lead to death, and that which is clean is that which was related to flourishing and would lead to life. But there was a cleanness that was an outside cleanness, and that's what the law mostly dealt with. But the Lord Jesus came to deal with a cleanness on the inside. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-23 12:17:07 / 2024-12-23 12:21:31 / 4