The Word for the End of This World

[0:01] Well, thank you, Sean. We come now to our Bible reading, so please do grab a Bible and turn to the New Testament, to the letter to the Hebrews. And if you have a visitor's Bible, you'll find that on page 1001.

[0:18] Last week we began our current series in this letter that is full of both comfort and challenge, written to help struggling believers who are facing real crisis every day.

[0:31] And if you didn't manage to get your hands on a handout from last week that contains a really helpful overview of the book, please do speak to our stewards on the way out this morning. They will give you one. Keep them in your Bibles, maybe as you read through the letter, just so you've got an eye on the big picture and the big purpose of this wonderful letter.

[0:50] Well, let's begin reading then at Hebrews 1, verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

[1:08] But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he created the world.

[1:20] 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.

[1:45] 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.

[2:02] 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.

[2:19] But of the Son, he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

[2:30] You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

[2:42] And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain.

[2:53] They will all wear out like a garment. Like a robe, you will roll them up. Like a garment, they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.

[3:09] And to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

[3:24] Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

[3:34] For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

[3:51] It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard. Well, God also bore witness by signs and wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

[4:11] Well, amen, and may God bless to us this, his will. Well, good morning, everyone.

[4:23] Do turn with me, if you would, to the passage we read together in Hebrews chapter 1. And as you're doing that, let me just reiterate Phil's welcome to you, and also his encouragement to come and join us this evening for our joint service at 5 p.m.

[4:42] Well, Hebrews chapter 1. This scripture before us this morning will require hard work. But the writer says we must pay attention to what he's saying because it is God's word for the end of this world.

[5:00] In these last days, he said, God has spoken to us by his Son. Perhaps talk of the end of the world makes you think of the odd ball with his placard of doom predicting the end of the world.

[5:15] But actually, today, that has become mainstream thinking, hasn't it? We're surrounded by the extinction rebellion, by climate emergency, by militant vegans, and all the rest of it, so that today, the crank is the person who actually thinks perhaps there may be some optimism.

[5:31] Many today, it seems, are very gripped by fear, by anxiety, by worry about this world.

[5:42] I read in the paper this week that 73% of millennials and youngers describe themselves as filled with pessimism. And the headline read, Ours is the age of anxiety.

[5:56] And many Christians, in the same way, are fearful and anxious about the world. What's the answer? Of course, today, it's the celebrity greens that are leading the way.

[6:10] And throughout history, there have been many who have proclaimed their salvation for this world. Many religions, many cults, many gurus, many isms. Some of them very weird.

[6:23] Some of them very wicked. Think of communism. Think of the awful utopianism of ISIS that has so recently blighted the world, attracting so many to doom, really.

[6:38] Can there be found a sure word of hope for the future? Well, of course, the answer of the Christian faith is a resounding yes. We have a certain word for the end of this world.

[6:50] which is a word about the world to come. The answer to this world's problems can't possibly be found within this world. The answer lies beyond this world.

[7:03] In a world that is presently invisible to us. And yet is the only world the Bible tells us will remain when this present world is shaken to its very core.

[7:14] So that, as we're told in Hebrews chapter 12, so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain. And remain forever. Only a word from beyond this world, a word from God, the creator of this world, can possibly bring light and understanding about the future of this world and therefore about our future.

[7:37] That's why the message of the book of Hebrews, all through, is an exhortation to listen. Listen to that word. Hear and heed God's word of truth and not this world's words of confusion and folly, which surround us all the time.

[7:52] So easy, isn't it, to be rocked, to be rattled by the zeitgeist of our world. Especially when our Christian outlook is increasingly out of kilter with the world and when we ourselves as Christians are increasingly out of favor with our society.

[8:07] Great pressures face Christians today. They face Christians in every age. Pressures to listen to the world, to go back and drift back from the word of God into the ways of this world.

[8:22] And so Hebrews' message, which is a written sermon to a beloved church, it's a constant exhortation to persevere in faith, to remain confident in the things that they know to be true.

[8:35] Because as Christian believers, we have not just a word, but the word for this dying world, a unique revelation from beyond the world that teaches us clearly and comprehensively and now climactically in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[8:51] teaches us everything that we ever need to know to live and die happily and fruitfully and wholesomely. God has spoken and so we must listen and we must keep on listening right to the end.

[9:05] When God speaks, it's not like listening to the pundits or politicians or celebrities or even scientists. When God speaks, it really is supremely serious.

[9:17] And it's easy for us, isn't it, in this world of constant chatter and Twitter and so on, to listen, to listen to the world all round about us far, far more seriously than we should, taking its voice seriously and stopping, taking God's voice seriously.

[9:35] That's the story of the church in the Western world today, by and large. But you see, when God's voice diminishes in the church, well, inevitably, faith is going to diminish.

[9:46] Christian assurance is going to diminish and people are going to drift and lose their way. That's the road to ruin. Look at chapter 2, verse 1 that we read.

[9:57] Those who are drifting from God's word, notice verse 3, are drifting from salvation and therefore into judgment. And that's the real danger for churches, for professing Christians.

[10:13] And the message of this chapter is that God has spoken his final word to the world in the glory of his son. And therefore, God is speaking his final warning to this world in the gospel of his son.

[10:27] His divinely supreme revelation demands a deadly serious response. And that's his message for the church. Notice, he is not principally challenging outsiders, although of course it's a word to challenge everybody on this earth, but he's challenging us as Christians to take God and his word much more seriously than we often do.

[10:48] so that we'll live in these last days focused where we should be focused supremely not on this world but on the world to come. That's what I'm speaking about.

[11:00] He says it plainly. Look at chapter 2, verse 5. The world to come is what we're speaking about here. That's what all the saints of old longed for and looked for from afar. They were living, we're told it, in chapter 11 for that heavenly country.

[11:13] But now, he says, in these last days, you, that's us, we have a far greater revelation and therefore we have far greater responsibility. We have a far superior word and therefore that carries a far superior warning.

[11:31] And that's really the sermon outline of the preacher here in chapter 1 down to chapter 2, verse 4. The writer is a preacher. He's preaching to his church and he's shaping his message as a preacher.

[11:41] He states his point, then he explains it and then he rams it home. He replies it. Two main things is all he's saying. God has spoken his supreme word to us so we must listen to his serious warning to us.

[11:57] He takes his logical structure serious. That's why he uses these memorable phrases. God's spoken to our fathers and the prophets. He's spoken to us in the Son. It's to be memorable. Actually, in the Greek test, he even uses alliteration.

[12:11] Five words beginning with P in verse 1. I really appreciate that. Pretty good. So here we are. His two points. The supreme word, that's chapter 1, and the serious warning.

[12:23] Chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. First of all, chapter 1, the supreme word. God has spoken his final word to this passing world in the glory of his Son.

[12:35] And so we have far greater revelation of God than ever before. verse 2. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.

[12:46] The church today, he's saying, has a far superior word to all of those who lived before Christ in the age of promise. We have been given a very great privilege indeed.

[12:59] And our writer is preaching for a response. He's written, what he tells us, is a word of exhortation to his people. And he is summoning them and he's summoning us to persevering faith.

[13:12] But you see, he doesn't begin, does he? Straight in with that exhortation. He begins with exposition about Christ. Because faith isn't something that we can ever summon up from ourselves within.

[13:24] Faith is a response that God summons from us by his word of revelation. Faith is a response to God's revelation to us. That's why in the Bible, faith is never a leap into the dark as people sometimes think.

[13:39] Faith for the Bible is a step into the light that reveals God's truth to us. David Gooding is absolutely right when he says that Christ is his own self-evidence.

[13:52] If you want to provoke faith in him, proclaim him himself. And that's what the writer does here in verses 1 to 4. He proclaims Christ as supreme. But then he goes on to persuade and to prove that this is the Christ of the scriptures.

[14:10] That's very important for these Jewish believers who would no doubt be under great pressure from their families and their friends. Other Jews who are not Christians who denied the deity of Christ and who no doubt told them that in becoming Christians they were now abandoning the truth of God for this new cult called Christianity.

[14:28] You're turning your back on divine revelation. It was given to us by God through the prophets like Moses attended by myriads of angels at Sinai. Don't abandon God's word.

[14:42] Look at all the shame that it's bringing on you. Look at the suffering that it's bringing to you. Why are you doing it? Come home. Come back to your true family. Come back to the true faith. I'm sure that was a common theme don't you think?

[14:56] Among many of those Christian believers just as it is common today in a different form among many families where somebody comes to faith in Jesus Christ they want them to get over that phase of Christian enthusiasm come back come back home where you belong to us.

[15:15] And there's a powerful pressure then to struggling Jewish Christian and the writer therefore tackles it head on and he's telling them that the Christ that he is proclaiming as supreme is the Christ who is promised in their Jewish scriptures the very scriptures that they knew to be the infallible word of God.

[15:36] Look at verses one to four far from far from rejecting the revelation of God Christians he says are the ones who recognize that we have in Jesus the climactic revelation of God in the person of his son God has spoken to us by his son God has spoken consistently all down the ages revealing himself but now he has spoken climactically by his son Jesus Christ because this world is coming to its end these are the last days these are the end times don't think that those that term the end times are the last days something to do with sort of cranky end time prophecies the sort of people who are obsessed all the time with seeing in the news the number of the beast and all that sort of thing wars in the Middle East no no that's just the language that the Bible's used right from the very beginning way back in Moses time all the way through the prophets to describe the long promised great day of the Lord the day when at last

[16:50] God would fulfill his promise for the salvation of this world and for his people when at last the curse of sin would be reversed forever and at last the world would be reborn in the glory of God himself and now he is saying we are in these days of fulfillment because God has done through Christ through the promised Messiah what he said he would do restore all things for a glorious future so this passing world is ending and a new creation has begun and it awaits its consummation the world to come as he calls it in chapter 2 verse 5 a permanent world a world that replaces what C.S. Lewis called the shadowlands of this passing world and because God's redemption of this world finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ so God's revelation to the world comes to its finality in Jesus Christ see in former times

[17:54] God was revealing himself always through mediators the earthly mediators verse 1 here tells us were the prophets beginning with Moses and the heavenly mediators verse 4 talks about were the angels Deuteronomy 33 says that Sinai was surrounded by myriads of angels that's why Paul says in Galatians 3 that the law was given through the angels and an intermediary that's why the angels are popping up all over the place in this chapter but however full of splendor the revelation of God was then it was a mediated revelation but now he says God has revealed himself unmediated in a message that's far far beyond the prophets and through a messenger who is far far above any of the angels you can see how verse 1 and verse 4 are saying the same things they're like bracket bringing home that response this revelation is beyond the prophets it's above all that's gone before the angels then you see it was mediated it was partial it was piecemeal it was progressive but now it is unmediated it's full it's final it is complete because the revealer is none other than God himself in the flesh look at verse 3 it's right at the heart of the paragraph the sun radiates the very light of God directly to man he's the exact imprint of his nature that is

[19:33] Jesus Christ reveals to us everything that is God like he epitomizes for us the Godness of God if you like so there's no hidden characteristic of God that is not in every respect seen and revealed in the nature of the character of Jesus Christ and that means that in him we can know God completely absolutely abundantly truly what is the heart of this Godness if you like that Jesus reveals well look at what's either side of that central statement in the beginning of verse 3 about the glory of God verse 2 he has appointed the heir of all things that is the world to come his kingdom and yet through him God also created this world the scholar William Lane says that's how we should translate those verses to get the force of it again in verse 3 although he is a radiance of the glory of God although he's the exact imprint of his nature although he upholds the universe by the word of his power that means not just keeping it going but driving it to its destiny and glory although he is all that yet look he made purifications he made purification for sins the sins of a rebellious evil world you see the contrast although he is the sovereign lord of heaven of all worlds seen and unseen although he shares in the majesty on high yet he cares intimately and infinitely for this world he created it and us he cares for it and upholds it and us and he came into it to us to save us to purify us to cleanse us from our sins to cleanse the whole creation from the stain of human sin the radiance of the glory of God the true

[21:46] God of heaven whose light we have seen in Jesus Christ the son is the glory of the creator of the controller the glory of the crown prince of the cosmos and yet he became the cleansing priest for sinners in this dark world what he is saying is it is in the beauty of his redeeming love for us but the brightness of God's radiant light is at last fully and finally revealed to the world forever isn't that staggering that's where we see the supreme godness of God the crown of God the crown of the universe in the cross of Jesus Christ and you see notice how closely God's final work of redemption is tied to this final word of revelation in Hebrews chapters 1 to 4 largely focus on God's revelation in the sun and chapters 5 to 10 on his work of redemption in the sun but these two things are inseparable and that's so clear right here at the very start and now God's redeeming work is complete in Christ so his revealing work and his revealing word to us is completed in Christ there's no more for God to reveal beyond

[23:15] Jesus Christ Christ the sufficient redeemer is Christ the supreme revealer of God so there can be no further prophets to come can there beyond Jesus there's no place for a Joseph Smith of the Jehovah's Witnesses there's no place for a prophet Mohammed so called or any other prophet no place for any professing to be prophets to add to the word of God in the Christian church in Jesus God has spoken his last word to man forever there can't be any place for any other deities either no place for the other gods of the Hindus who will have Jesus as part of the pantheon but plenty others too no his work is complete and he has sat down look verse 4 at the right hand of the majesty on high one who is vastly superior to all heavenly beings all angels and others and whose name is above every other name the name of the son of God in Jesus Christ

[24:17] God has spoken his supreme word to man the message has become the messenger if you like the play is over the author has walked onto the stage and he has spoken himself to end all uncertainty about any interpretation of what the story is all about he has given his definitive word to tell us scholar F.F.

[24:45] Bruce puts it this way Jesus Christ the son is the prophet through whom God has spoken his final word to man the priest who has accomplished his perfect work of cleansing for his people's sins and the king who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the majesty on high do you see the son and in the son God is revealed ultimately and uniquely and universally to the world Christ the sufficient redeemer Christ the sovereign ruler he is Christ the supreme revealer of God to us God has spoken in these last days by his son and we have the climactic revelation of God there can be nothing beyond that's the ringing message all the way through the preacher of Hebrews you don't need any more there can't be any more there can't be anything better than this it's Jesus alone it's Jesus forever that's what you need nothing and no one else not ever does that mean though then that we don't need the

[25:56] Old Testament scriptures anymore are the Old Testament scriptures no longer the word of God if everything has been superseded in Jesus no no no no of course they are and all through Hebrews he quotes from the Old Testament and tells us very plainly that that's still God's word for today but you see when we read the scriptures he says you'll see that you find that everything the scriptures speak of leads you to the son of God the one who has now come in fulfillment of these very scriptures these are the scriptures that spoke of me says Jesus and everything written in the law of Moses the prophet and the psalms must be fulfilled about me and so it is indeed says the Hebrews preacher right here this is not a novel message I'm preaching to you I'll prove it to you and that's what he does now in verses 5 to 14 he shows us that the climactic revelation of God in the son fulfills the consistent revelation of God in the scriptures see these

[26:58] Jewish Christians that he's writing to they know their scriptures known them from infancy and you're all about the promises of God's coming kingdom and his Messiah and the line of David I suppose today even in our society which has abandoned the Bible people still have a vague sort of understanding of that they come occasionally to Christmas carol services they know that in the Bible God promises a day when swords will be beaten into pliashires when the prince of peace will reign but our world just thinks well that's that's just wishful thinking and by the first century many Jews had begun to fear that it was wishful thinking they'd had centuries of waiting they'd had the exile they'd had occupation of their land by the Persians by the Greeks and by the Romans many of them had reduced their expectations enormously so that if the Messiah was still to come well their hope was really nothing more than one for this world political hopes social and economic hopes and so it was easy even for

[28:02] Christians who had believed to begin to doubt was it true really that these promised last days the days of God's coming kingdom had really begun the tiring visions of Isaiah and the other prophets and so on is it really credible that this has come and begun in what we believed about Jesus are we right to believe that the Son of God Jesus really is the Son of God not just in the sense of the anointed king the human king the Messiah but actually the divine son one who is God deity come to earth for our salvation have we been mistaken well having just stated so clearly the truth of it the preacher is saying no you're not mistaken it is credible and in fact it is the clear teaching of all of your scriptures and he goes on to quote here a chain of seven quotations from the Old Testament to prove it to us and mostly from the

[29:03] Psalms as you can see quotes from the Greek Old Testament that was their common Bible version like the ESV is ours sometimes he's quoting the exact version actually from the Greek Psalter that was their hymn book containing many Psalms and other passages like the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 that's why sometimes the wording is slightly different from when you look up the references but he's quoting from the law of Moses Deuteronomy from the prophets 2 Samuel 7 and from the Psalms to tell us that the whole Old Testament is saying the same thing about the same unfolding story of salvation which is now all fulfilled in Jesus Christ the Son of God and that everything is being fulfilled exactly according to the plan and purpose of God that's his big point and that the Messiah who they longed for the promised Christ must be must be to do everything that was prophesied of him must be far more than a mere human king must be far above even the highest angels he must be himself divine we need to be very brief looking at these quotes you can read the commentaries they have pages and pages and pages of them but basically there's three groups of quotations and they're to show us that the scriptures consistently tell of the divine majesty of the one who is to come first in verses 5 and 6 he tells us that the scriptures foresaw the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus

[30:42] Christ they foresaw a public proclamation of the reign of Christ the son of God in earth and in heaven there's five quotes from psalm 2 and from 2nd samuel 7 to show us that the Christ to come would be the supreme power in earth and heaven and verse 6 he quotes from deuteronomy 32 the song of Moses which proclaims him as the praise of all heaven they're not random quotes they're not quotes that are arrested out of context quite the opposite the writer assumes that his readers know these well they understand the context psalm 2 we probably know quite well it tells about the earthly rulers gathered together against the lord and against his anointed and how god just laughs at their folly and says no no no i've installed my king in zion hill who is going to rule over all the earth with his rod of iron you are my son today i've begotten you and at the crucifixion of jesus as as the early christians understood this was fulfilled pilate the jews the gentiles gathered together arrayed against christ the son of god and crucified him but god laughed and raised him up proclaiming his victory and power over all and has set him as the judge who will judge all the earth and therefore as the psalm says you must kiss the son or experience his wrath there is no refuge from him there is only refuge in him and likewise in 2 samuel 7 there where he says i will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son of david's offspring he promised the descendant of david would reign perpetually over god's kingdom on earth how could that possibly ever be so if the king was merely to be a man every single one of them was a sinful person but it was fulfilled in jesus christ who was declared to the world in his resurrection as paul says in romans chapter 1 to be appointed the son of god with power descended from david but now risen from the dead and powerful over the universe you see the scriptures promised a christ who was human in david's line and yet clearly one who had heavenly power and glory who rules from heaven and that is what you see in the risen lord jesus christ his resurrection proclaims him the supreme power over earth and also the supreme praise of all heaven that's where verse 6 is about quoting from the end of the song of moses but moses is speaking about the final great intervention of god to destroy his enemies to cleanse his people and their land and the preacher is saying that's fulfilled when god brought his firstborn that is the heir of this new creation brought him into the world through his triumph that the world there speaks of the heavenly kingdom it's the same word as in chapter 2 verse 5 the world to come he's speaking of the resurrection and the ascension into glory of jesus that's what you see when you read john's vision in revelation 4 and 5 it's a picture of the resurrection the ascension the triumphal entry into the heavenly kingdom of jesus christ and what do you read every angel every heavenly creature bowing down to him jesus is not bowing to them all of them are bowing to him remember when john is so terrified by the presence just of an angel he bows down to the angel the angel says get up i'm just a servant like you worship him the son of god alone is the praise of all heaven there's no one we can pray to in heaven angels

[34:42] powers spirits saints the virgin mary jesus christ is the praise of all heaven but secondly you see he's telling us that the alt testament scriptures also foresaw the permanence and the perfection of the reign of messiah that it will be the never ending world to come look at verses 8 to 12 verses 8 and 9 are quoting from psalm 45 psalm that sees in the royal wedding of israel's kings a prophecy a foreshadowing of the consummation of the reign of the messiah the son of god he says to him your throne oh god speaking to this man who is king your throne oh god is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom it's a kingdom of loving righteousness where all wickedness is banished forever where has any king ever been like that truly well read the gospels see the beauty the love the joy that surrounded the earthly presence of jesus christ that emanated from him and when he comes to reign again that is what this world will be forever and ever says the psalm and verses 10 to 12 speak about the human king the messiah the son of david living forever in his glorified humanity they will perish verse 11 but you will remain verse 12 you are the same your years will have no end and so will those whom the messiah is leading to glory the many sons the many children that chapter 2 tells us he is bringing to glory to share in it he's the giver of eternal life and that's what the scriptures promised about the messiah the son of god it promised the reign of permanent perfection of justice and joy of love and life eternal forever and ever years without end but you might say well that's all very well but where is that we don't see it do we we don't see it round about us no we don't but you see the scriptures also spoke of that as part of god's plan look at verse 13 they prophesied the present patience of the reign of the risen savior quoting psalm 110 here a key psalm for the book of hebrews and for the whole new testament more quoted than any other and he's quoting it here to remind us that we are living now in what are still the last days of this present age before the final judgment of god when all enemies are at last judged and put under his feet forever and that permanent perfect kingdom is consummated forever look at verse 12 sorry verse 13 the old testament scriptures foresaw that there was an until do you see a delay between the enthronement of the son of god in heaven and the final judgment why what was that for well read on to verse 14 salvation because god in his infinite mercy wants the world to come to be filled by people who are going to inherit salvation who are going to share in that glorious life of jesus in the life of the world to come people who are going to live forever with him we don't yet see everything that's described in verses 8 and 9 although it's chapter 2 we'll see next week we do see jesus who's gone before us into that world

[38:42] but that doesn't mean god has failed that doesn't mean god is feeble that doesn't mean we're mistaken it means as peter says in his letter god is not slow but he is merciful he wants people the world over to inherit salvation to share in his eternal kingdom and verse 14 here says you see he has enlisted all his heavenly servants the angels and he sent them out to help his earthly servants so that they won't stumble so that they won't fall so they won't drift but so they will go striving onward to be those who inherit the final salvation on that day of judgment jesus is not like the angels he's not a ministering spirit but he has sent his angels to help his people do you see how as a preacher he's coming logically to his conclusion his application he's saying we are living still in the day of salvation the door of the eternal kingdom has been opened to all believers through christ's death and resurrection and god is patient he doesn't want any to perish but that patience will come to an end the day is coming when all enemies at last will be judged and so that means that we are living today still in the day of decision aren't we every day until that day and every day until that day we must endure so that we will be those who inherit the promises who have faith and do preserve our souls therefore he says in chapter 2 verse 1 since we are the ones who have received the supreme word in christ this word of abundant grace we must heed in it the serious warning god is speaking his final warning to this world in the gospel of his son in these last days we believers we've received a far greater revelation of god therefore we've got far greater responsibility as humans how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation the church today you see has a far superior word of god than any living in these former days therefore says the preacher here it's also received a far more serious warning we've been given very great privileges he says but therefore we're in very great peril if we think that we can neglect that word and if we therefore drift away you must pay much closer attention he says to the gospel than you're doing look because look at verse 3 to drift from the word of god and from his gospel is to neglect and drift from your salvation you cannot treat the gospel lightly you cannot treat god's revelation lightly if the if the former message verse 2 in the old days given through through prophets and moses and the angels if that was deadly serious if disobedience to that revelation led to swift retribution and judgment how shall we escape you see if we reject the supreme revelation god's final word to the world comes from his own lips verse 3 the lips of the lord jesus himself it was testified to us by those who heard it it was witnessed to by god the father he says also by wonders and miracles and by the holy spirit and all he did this is the supreme word if god has no greater messenger than his son he has no further message beyond the

[42:43] gospel says one scholar it's a final word and therefore it is his final warning so don't neglect it pay attention to it and to god keep on paying attention and obeying him buying down to him trusting him following him today and every day until that very last day of judgment you have need of endurance says the preacher so that you will receive what god has promised and to do that friends we have to go on listening to him in his word not listening to this world and its words with all its sights that dazzle all the tempting sounds that we hear from it day after day but to his word to the supreme word of the glory of the son in the gospel of the son the crown prince of heaven who yet for us men and our salvation became the cleansing priest of healing who alone could wash away our sins and lead us to the glory of his kingdom god has spoken to us in these last days in his son he is the radiance of the glory of god the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power directing it inexorably to that glorious future and he will direct you inexorably to that glorious future as well to inherit salvation by the word of his power if you will keep listening to him and looking to him and me also but we need one another if we're going to do that that's the whole point of this message to the

[44:38] Hebrews encourage one another with this daily don't give up meeting together you need one another if you are to inherit what god has promised so you follow jesus and i'll follow jesus we'll all follow jesus together we'll run with endurance our eyes upon the prize of a savior who loves us forever that's god's word to us for the end of this world let's pray heavenly father we thank you that you have not left us in the dark not left us wondering not left us with mysteries that we cannot fathom about you about this world about the future but that you have spoken to us so clearly and now so wonderfully and climactically in jesus christ our lord so help us lord to look to him and help one another day after day to go on looking to him until that day when we see you face to face and rejoice in the glory of this world to come help us we ask for jesus sake thank you for coming to and again울

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