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Every time I come out here, I 
always think it'd be fine to relocate the family down to the 
Fraser Valley. I love the mountains. I love 
fresh air. I love rivers. And I just love the West, period. And every time I leave here, 
I've got to leave here tomorrow morning at 8.15. And I'll be 
driving to the airport tonight to check into the hotel so I 
can catch an early morning flight. But every time I do, I get misty-eyed 
in those mountains that we see in the background. Because out 
east, we don't have mountains. We have speed bumps. Now, they're 
about that tall. These are here, and so it's always 
a delight. It's a delight to be with the Neufelds again. It's 
a delight to be with you folks. And it's a delight to do a conference. 
Yesterday, we did a conference on Christianity and Islam and 
the differences between the two. And the differences are astounding. 
We had a record attendance over at Cloverdale Baptist Church. 
And your technical guru up in the rafters there, Jonathan Hall, 
you're blessed to have a man with that type of technological 
capability under your roof, was able to get together a camera 
crew for us and we live streamed the event. We had people logging 
in from as far away as Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, 
various states in the US, Germany, Sweden, Finland and a host of 
other countries. Altogether, 241 viewers logged in from around 
the world into Cloverdale. It was a delight to be able to 
minister the word. And we almost had a protester and a major altercation 
in the sanctuary right around 1130, which was, I hope it doesn't 
become a YouTube media frenzy, but who knows, it might. We could 
use the publicity. Anyway, if you have your Bibles with you, 
if you could open them up to please the New Testament to the 
book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews written by the great 
Old Testament scholar of no name, we don't know who it was written 
by. We knew he was a man who was profoundly familiar with 
the Old Testament. But we're gonna read Hebrews chapter one, 
first three verses. God, God who at various times 
and in various ways spoke in times past to 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. 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 himself purged 
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on 
high. So the question I have for you tonight is, Who is Jesus? Who is he? Not who is he to you, 
not who is he to me, but who is he, period, end of subject. There are a lot of aberrant ideas 
out there about who God is, what religion is, what spirituality 
is. There's a lot of really weird ideas out there as to who the 
nature and character of Jesus Christ happens to be. I've heard 
him referred to as my homie, my homeboy, my ardent lover, 
and a host of other pejorative adjectives to describe something 
other than what he truly is. And we at Sola Scriptura Ministries 
believe in that theology matters, that sound doctrine is vitally 
important. Because what you believe must 
influence what you do. How you view the scriptures, 
how you view Jesus, how you understand God must translate into the way 
you order and manner your personal lives. It is vitally important to adhere 
to non-negotiables. There are boundaries to orthodoxy. 
There are boundaries that say this is right and this is wrong. 
And when you step outside those boundaries, we have every right 
to call you to account as to be able to say that something 
is Christian or not Christian, something is biblical or not 
biblical. This was driven home to me very forcefully in a recent 
social gathering. We belong to the Cambridge Kitchener 
Homeschool Association. We've been homeschooling our 
kids now for 23 years. We have a 23-year-old daughter 
who just graduated college. We have a 12-year-old autistic 
boy going on 13, and a 7-year-old boy who is just every inch all 
male. This guy is just one tough little 
dude, I tell you. And every year our homeschool group does a theater 
night where five or six or seven families get together and they 
do songs, they do skits, they do plays. Whatever the group 
of five or six families choose to do, that's what they get to 
do. And at the end of the run, we met at one of the members' 
homes to have a celebratory night, have a fellowship potluck night, 
and really pat the kids on the back for doing a great job on 
the stage. And I met one of the gentlemen in the homeschool group 
who I thought was a Christian. And we got into a discussion, 
and we exchanged our names. Who are you? Why are you? What 
do you do? Who are you? And all that. And I told them who I was, 
my name, and what I did. I worked for Solo Scriptural 
Ministries. I'm the CEO of a Christian conference teaching discernment 
ministry, where we try to lay out what the bounds of orthodoxy 
is to the church. And hopefully, through reformed 
theology, persuade Christians to test all things against the 
pages of scripture. He looked at me kind of quizzically. 
I said, you know about this Jesus guy? And I said, a little bit. 
And he goes, well, you know, he never commanded anyone to 
do anything. And I'm thinking to myself, what 
church do you go to? And who is your pastor? Because 
I have most of the pastors in the region plugged into my iPhone. 
I need to call the eldership board. If this guy's a member 
of the church, we need to examine what his fidelity is to the scriptures. 
I said, really, Jesus never commanded anything? He goes, yeah, that's 
right. He makes no demands. I said, so in the Sermon on the 
Mount in Matthew 5, where he said, he talked about murdery, 
adultery, and theft, all those things are optional. We can pick 
and choose what we want to believe and do and live. He goes, all 
I know is that Jesus makes no demands on us. So even to tell 
me, sir, when Jesus says in John 15, 14, you are my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command 
you. You mean he lied? Was that a 
joke? Do we take that seriously or 
what? He goes, well, Jesus had some good ideas, and these good 
ideas worked for him and a few of his followers. His life and 
death were nothing more than expressions of his dedication 
to a cause which he was ultimately committed to. That was his direct 
quote. I said, let me see, I need to 
make sure I perfectly understand what you're telling me here, 
sir, tonight. What you're telling me then is that this Jesus Christ 
who lived 2,000 years ago, who lived a spotless life, who taught 
a variety of ethical concerns, who commanded his followers to 
do a variety of things, how do you handle then his crucifixion? 
Well, what do you mean? So, well, if he was a man who 
was committed to a good religious cause, and he was so committed 
that he was willing to die for that cause, how do you handle that? He said, 
well, I don't. He said, well, you realize what you've done 
now, haven't you? He said, no, I don't. He said, what you've done now 
is put Jesus Christ in the same category as homicide bombers 
from Iraq, because these are men who are religiously committed, 
they may have one or two interesting, good, ethical ideas under their 
belt, but they are so dedicated to their cause that they're willing 
not only to kill themselves but others in the name of religious 
commitment. Is that what you're telling me, 
sir? And his eyes glazed over and he looked at me and said, 
well, I don't know whether I can love enough to make sense of 
all that. For many of us, in our society 
at large, there are strange ideas of what, who, and what we think 
Jesus Christ actually is. To some, he's nothing more than 
a smooth-talking religious salesman. To some, he's nothing more than 
a huckster. To some, he is nothing more than a good moral teacher 
on the same category as a Buddha or a Mahatma Gandhi. He's a wise, 
ethical man. And unfortunately, I travel to 
enough churches, have been to enough conferences, have had 
enough discussions to last me a lifetime of the way even so-called 
professing Christians view who Jesus is. They tend to cherry 
pick the New Testament and find those aspects of Jesus that they 
like the most, and they begin to apply them to their lives. 
Not only do they do that with Jesus, but they do that with 
the entire canon of scripture. I like this passage. I don't 
like that passage. I'll have some of that passage and a little 
bit of this. It's kind of like going to a spiritual smorgasbord 
or all-you-can-eat buffet and going, well, you know, I think 
I'll have maybe that much piety, maybe this much sanctity, maybe 
only that much holiness, but not too much because I've got 
to catch the NFL on Sunday afternoon. I don't want anything to fear 
with my NFL on Sunday afternoon. Well. We don't have an option 
of picking and choosing who Jesus is, and we don't have an option 
of picking and choosing what we choose to believe and how 
we choose to live based on scripture if we call ourselves a committed 
Christ follower. If you're not a Christ follower 
here today, you can do whatever you want. If you are committed to 
Jesus Christ, you need to readjust your priorities and adjust them 
real quick because he's laid some very stringent commands 
as to how we are to live and obey him. So Hebrews 1.1. says that God who at various 
times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers 
by the prophets. Now, in the past churches I've 
been involved with, I teach lay hermeneutics, lay homiletics, 
that's interpretation and preaching to guys who are aspiring teachers 
through our Sunday school program. And the one thing I teach them 
is that when you analyze a passage, there's two things you have to 
identify. Who is the subject? In other words, who is the passage 
talking about? And you have to identify the 
verb or the action word. What is the subject of the passage 
doing? It says here that God spoke. Now I want that to sink in for 
a minute. God spoke. The Bible is God's word. All 66 books of the Old Testament 
and the New Testament together are one consistent revelation. While we recognize that there 
were human beings involved in the authoring of these books, 
Paul wrote the epistles, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, David wrote 
a good portion of the Psalms, there were human beings involved 
in the process. But as they were moved by the 
spirit of God to transcribe or to put those things down as God 
worked in their lives, in order to bring about God's revelation. 
The Bible at no times is simply a book of human beings trying 
to make sense of the world around them. We're not trying to come 
to grips with nature. We're not trying to give an explanation 
for how we understand the way good things happen, the way bad 
things happen. We're not trying to explain luck and fortune by 
fabricating a being who we claim to be God after our own image. 
The writer of Hebrews is very clear here in this book that 
God And not only in this book, but the entire canon of scripture, 
it is God, ultimately behind the scenes, authoring what we 
need to know and how we are to live. It's his authority, his 
word, although he uses human agents to convey that message. In the beginning, God spoke. 
In the beginning, God spoke everything into creation. Everything that 
we know is because God has first revealed it to us. Ultimately, 
at the end of the day, final chapter, the Bible is not what 
human beings think. It's what God thinks, what he's 
given us, what we need to live by. It's his word. That's the first thing we've 
got to settle here. This is God's book. He's speaking in this passage. 
Not only did God speak, it says here that he had spoken in times 
past. At the time of the writing of 
this particular epistle, the New Testament canon had not been 
yet fully finished. It was still a work in progress. 
God was still revealing to his apostles and to his followers 
that which they needed to know, and it wouldn't be for another 
couple hundred years before the canon would be finally formulated 
into a concise document of 66 books. So when he's talking about 
times past, he's not talking about the earliest epistles of 
the New Testament, he's talking about the books of the Old Testament. 
The Pentateuch, the law, the prophets, the writings, the wisdom 
literature, all that is part of the times past. The message 
of God in the Old Testament is one of promise and hope. It describes the fall in Genesis 
3 very clearly. Man was perfect, was in a perfect 
condition. He was in perfect union fellowship with God. He 
saw God face to face. He spoke with God face to face. 
He got revelation from God face to face. And the man was only 
given one order, one command. The attorney who was our chairman 
of Solus Scriptura Ministries is a Queen's Council in Toronto. And I've been to his office a 
number of times. And one thing that always astounds me is the 
law library that high-powered law firms have. The books that 
come out, their law library extends from here to there, across that 
wall, and down that wall. That's all law books for the 
province of Ontario. And every year, they have a new 
selection of books that come out that go out to here. That's 
every year. Adam was given one law, one rule, 
one thing to do right, and he couldn't get that right. And 
as a consequence, we are living in a fallen world today. And 
so the entire message from Genesis 3 forward is to undo that which 
was done in Genesis chapter 3, the promise of a Redeemer, a 
Messiah, one who would undo the curse. One who would finally 
bring about the salvation of a special people chosen for God. 
God spoke in times past about a promised Redeemer. The entire 
chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, The Hall of Faith. The Legacy of Champions, where 
it talks about men in times past who were sawn in two, about Abraham 
who left the Ur of the Chaldees. There were men in times past 
who understood this by the Spirit of God. They saw the promise 
from afar, but recognized they were sojourners, they were pilgrims 
in a strange land. They had not yet received the 
promise, but they knew a better day was coming when Genesis 3 
would be undone in its entirety. And yet they pressed on, knowing 
that it would not be fulfilled in their lifetime, but at some 
future point in history. Those men all died in faith, 
not having received the promises, but they saw them from afar. 
You see, whenever we look at the past in times past, we look 
at the Old Testament in times past, and now that we are 2,000 
years removed from the cross, we look at that event at Calvary 
2,000 years ago in times past. We are not really looking at 
a history lesson. That's important. While God manifested 
himself and has operated in history all along, we never look at the 
past as merely a history lesson. The past explains who we are 
or why we are today. It also gives us the assurance 
of that which is to be promised for tomorrow. When do you celebrate the Lord's 
table here? Once a month? Okay, once a month you get together 
to celebrate the Lord's table. In the Lord's table, you have 
this biblical principle of past, present, and future comes together 
in one glorious celebration. Think about what the scriptures 
say. As often as you gather in my name to eat and drink. What 
is that? Present activity. We're doing 
this right now. Remembering the Lord's death 
in time's past, past event. For how long? until he comes, 
future consolation. So when God speaks about times 
past, in times past, he's giving assurance to the readers of this 
particular epistle that who you are, why you are, the reason 
you exist, and your marching orders derived from the past, 
I have spoken, I have spoken in the past, and what I have 
done to my redeemed people, my redeemed community, my worshiping 
community today, is the basis for why you are to live how you 
are to live today. God spoke in various ways in 
times past. He also used a variety of means, 
the author goes on to say, in various times and in various 
ways to the fathers by the prophets. Throughout Hebrew history, God 
is a creative God. He spoke to his people in very 
imaginative and very creative and very distinct and different 
ways during various times in order to convey his message, 
whatever the message happened to be at the time. The most powerful 
voice that spoke was the voice at creation. Let there be light, 
and there was. Let there be land, and there 
was. Let there be animals, and there was. Let there be human 
beings, and there were. God spoke at the voice of creation. 
He spoke to Abraham at the order of the Chaldees. Let me go to 
a land that I will show you, and I will create a great nation. 
The number is so large that if you look at the stars in the 
sky, as vast as those numbers are, so vast will be your descendants. 
He spoke to Moses at the burning bush in Sinai. He was the pillar 
of fire at night and the cloud of glory for the Israelite community 
to march out of Egypt. He was the head of the Lord's 
army in Joshua. He was the high and lifted up 
one in Isaiah's beatific vision. He was the threefold angelic 
visitor who spoke to Abraham a year before Isaac was born, 
the promised covenant child would come forth through Abraham. He 
was the writing in the wall of the Babylonian palace, and he 
was the voice that spoke through Balaam's donkey at one point. 
At each stage of Israel's history, God has spoken. in order to convey 
more and more, give his people a greater picture of what he 
expects and what is about to happen. But in the past, God 
relied merely on fallen creatures, human beings, created, even if 
it was an angel, it was still a created being that conveyed 
the message. In the past, relied on human 
messengers. The writer goes on to say that he has, in these 
last days, spoken to us by his son, these last days. You don't need to buy books by 
Hal Lindsay to understand these last days. Because with the advent 
of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, the writer says, we are in these 
last days. These last days are still continuing. 
We are in the end times. We don't know how much longer 
those end times are gonna be. At some point, everything's going 
to evaporate and the Lord's going to come back. But we are living 
in these last days right now. In the past, God used sons of 
Adam to convey God's message. And the message was always consistent. 
While today may not be a bed of roses, there is a Messiah 
coming. There is a promised deliverer. A person, a descendant of David 
whose kingdom will have no end. In the New Testament economy, 
there's a change. The sons of Adam are replaced. They're no longer the messengers 
of final revelation. In these last days, he has spoken 
to us by his son. It is the son of God, Jesus Christ 
himself, who is the messenger, the ultimate messenger, the final 
messenger. You can't get a better messenger, 
a greater messenger, a more glorious messenger, a more powerful messenger, 
a more eternal messenger than Jesus Christ himself. The second 
person of the Godhead is the messenger. He is the highest expression 
of God's revelation. You can't get any higher than 
him. Jesus, the veiled promise of the Old Testament, he now 
in the flesh becomes the promise fulfilled. Second Samuel 7, the 
descendant of King David will sit on the throne, his reign 
will have no end. He's here. The suffering servant Isaiah, 
he's here. The one that David wrote about 
in Psalm 22, that's Jesus. The promise of Genesis 3.16 about 
the seed of woman who'll crush the serpent's head, that's him, 
he's here. You can't get any better or higher 
or more glorious than Jesus Christ himself. In addition to that, we shouldn't 
be looking for additional revelation because you can't get better 
than Jesus. He is the final messenger. The promise has come. Old Testament 
is fulfilled. Well, if Jesus is the messenger, 
the question we have to ask then, what is the message? Jesus came with a message of 
seven effective leadership skills for church pastors. Jesus came with the message of 
12 ways to manage your time better. Jesus came with cooking book 
recipes how you can have seven ways to lose weight in a Christ-like 
way. Jesus came with a message that 
says here's 12 stock tips that every Christian can use to enhance 
your retirement portfolio. Question. There are a lot of 
books out there that trumpet these sorts of ideologies, these 
sort of practical hands-to-ideas. And there's nothing wrong with 
getting stock tips. There's nothing wrong with finding good ways 
to manage your time better. There's nothing wrong with trying 
to become a better person or a better leader. There's no problem 
with that. That's what the scriptures are for. But the question I have 
for you, was that the message of Jesus? Was that his central 
message? Well, to put it simply, the message 
of Jesus is Jesus. That's the message. Pastor Cam 
this morning went over some of the I am statements in his message 
this morning. Before Abraham was, I am. The one you seek, 
the Messiah you look for, I am he. He indicted the Pharisees 
by saying that if you knew who I was, if you really understood 
your scriptures, you'd know that I am the promised Messiah. Guys, 
the era of Old Testament promise is over because the fulfillment 
is here. I'm in. That was his message. The message 
and the messenger are identical. You cannot separate the two. 
You cannot embrace the messenger and despise his message. Nor 
can you accept the messenger without understanding who the 
messenger is. I wish I had a dollar for every 
conversation I've had with people who look at me and say, you know 
this Jesus guy? I like him. Boy, he's nice and 
servant on the mount. He is loving. He is kind. He 
is compassionate. Boy, I really like him. But I 
can't stand the idea that he is the only way. I reject that 
entirely. If you reject the messenger, 
you reject the message. You cannot have a Christian faith 
that calls itself even remotely Christian if you have a message 
void of the messenger. They gotta go together to have 
a complete gospel. Well, what was that message about 
Jesus? The writer goes on to say that 
he has been appointed heir of all things. This is a statement 
about Christ's preeminence or his first tier status or his 
number one status in God's economy. Everything that belongs to the 
father has been granted to the son. In fact, we read that in 
the opening psalm, Psalm chapter two. I'll just cut a portion 
out of it here for you where he says, picking up in verse 
six, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will 
declare the decree the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today 
I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you 
the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for 
your possession. You shall break them into a rod of iron. You 
shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Also in Psalm 
89, I will make my firstborn, speaking of the future redeemer, 
I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the 
earth. Colossians 1.16 says, for by him all things were created 
that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. 
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. 
Now get this, all things were created through him and for him. Everything, this entire created 
universe, everything belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's 
his. He is the heir of all things. Then the writer goes on to make 
two rather extraordinary claims about Jesus. It says that it 
is by him he also made the worlds. Now we just covered that a moment 
ago. It echoes John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 where it says, in 
the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word 
was God. And it was the word that brought everything into 
being. It was that babe in Bethlehem who he will celebrate his manger 
birth in about 10 or 12 weeks or so. that babe wrapped in swaddling 
cloths, that Jesus meek and lowly, the one who fled with his parents 
to Egypt to avoid the persecution by Herod, the one who Simeon 
and Anna saw that day in Luke chapter two in the temple when 
Mary brought him for the day eight consecration. It's the 
one of whom the shepherds venerated in the fields by night. It is 
one of whom the angels spoke on the eve of his birth. this 
babe, this child, this helpless, fragile baby of a human being. It is he whose thumbprint is 
on these mountains that are right around us. He made the worlds. And he condescended to step into 
this world. He became flesh and dwelt among 
us. He tabernacled with us. He lived 
a spotless life. He went to the cross, not to 
prove that he was committed to a cause, but to atone for sin. 
He made the worlds. Jesus meek and lowly? I don't 
think so. You don't make all this by being meek and lowly. You do it because you're the 
second person of the Godhead who exists eternally, who has 
eternal power at his beck and call. This one made the worlds. It also says that he upholds 
all things by the word of his power. Jesus is not a watchmaker 
who simply makes a fob watch, winds it up, and lets it go, 
lets it wind down. By upholding all things by the 
word of his power, that means that he is intimately involved 
with the biomechanics, the chemistry, the quantum physics, the electromagnetics 
of this particular created order. I mean, it is astounding when 
you look at creation, just how finely tuned the universe is. Give you an example, we are 93 
million miles from the sun. If we were 2 million miles closer, 
life would be too hot to exist. Temperature would be too hot 
for life to exist. If we were 2 million miles further away, 
temperature too cold for life to exist. The moon is 186,000 
miles away from the Earth. If it was only 10,000 miles closer 
or 10,000 miles further away, there would be too much of a 
gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans for the land masses to 
bear life in any sort of meaningful way. The exact gravitational 
pull of the Earth itself is such that we have the right balance 
of gases for a living life to exist. If you change the gravitational 
pull even 1%, you change the entire balance of the way gases 
hang in the air. Life can't exist. The whole universe, 
and I could show you dozens and dozens and dozens of examples 
of the finely tuned manner in which life operates, or the way 
physics operate on this planet. And it says that he upholds all 
things by the word of his power, which means he authored it. And 
he's intimately acquainted with the physics and the chemistry 
and the biology. And so I've always said to people that the 
Christian faith never contradicts, there's no conflict between science 
and scripture. I mean, science, correctly interpreted, 
tells us something about the thumbprint of Jesus. Because 
if he's the one who created everything, he called it into existence, 
that means he put in the biomechanical laws, which means he upholds 
all things by the word of his power, which means we know something 
a little bit more about the one who put it there in the first 
place. Science has some great insights. They have lousy conclusions. 
The conclusions we find are here in scripture. Question. for all you budding 
theologians. What would happen if the Lord 
Jesus Christ ever turned his back on the universe for one 
microsecond? Think about that for a moment. In 1941, the United States was 
involved in a research project called the Manhattan Project. 
And the Manhattan Project was the They were working towards developing 
the atom bomb, the final solution to end World War II. They understood 
the mechanics and the physics of nuclear fusion, where you 
fire a particle, the particle hits a nucleus, splits in two, 
splits in four, splits in eight, sixteen, so forth. They knew 
that if they split the atom, it would unleash some horrific 
power. What they didn't know was how 
much power. And once we start this chain reaction, can we actually 
stop and contain it? Because this could be very well 
debated. This first atom bomb could very well be the last atom 
bomb humanity ever drops on itself. Manhattan Project. Think about that for a moment 
in light of the crucifixion. The Lord of the universe, by 
whom all things were created, who upholds all things by the 
word of his power. was nailed to the cross. He died 
a criminal's death. He was buried dead. The crucifixion, the ultimate 
Manhattan Project, the people who killed him had no idea what 
they were playing with. Killing the Lord of Glory In 
his humanity, the second person of the Godhead, and yet the earth 
kept spinning on its axis, the sun kept rising, the tides kept 
coming in. Such is the mercy and power of 
the Lord Jesus Christ that even in death, he did not turn his 
back on his creation. The writer goes on to say that 
this Jesus, who being the brightness of his glory and express image 
of his nature, the brightness of God's glory. We have an episode in the Old 
Testament, in the book of Exodus, where the Israelites have left 
Egypt. They're at the base of Mount 
Horeb. And Moses climbs up the mountain to have a face-to-face 
meeting with God where he is going to receive the law and 
the Ten Commandments. Do you recall the reaction of 
the elders and the people of Israel when Moses came off the 
mountain? What did they tell him? Put a veil on your face because 
you have been in the presence of God. The sheer radiance of 
His power and magnitude shines off your face, covered up because 
we can't stand it. He is the brightness, Lord Jesus 
is the brightness of God's glory. That momentary interview that 
Moses had with the triune God on that mountain in Horeb, All 
that brightness, all his glory is wrapped up in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, even in his humanity as he walked planet Earth 2,000 
years ago. It says that he is the express image of his nature. And the word image, and here 
in Hebrews 1 is the word icon, which means exact representation, 
the exact image, the full, whatever the father is, whatever he is 
like, whatever his essence and nature happens to be, Jesus Christ 
has both his glory, and his image. He is an exact representation 
of God. To call Christ the icon of God 
is to call him the exact reproduction or the exact image of God. The writer goes on to say that 
when he had, it says that Christ came and he had purged our sins. 
When he had purged our sins, Six little words. Six little 
words that we really need about six Sunday nights to explore 
the full implication of what these six little words happen 
to mean. When he had purged our sins. It embodies a whole array 
of doctrinal theological concepts. Well, that was the main mission 
of Jesus was to purge our sin and provide atonement, but To 
do that, it encompasses things like the virgin birth and conception. 
How does a fallen man of Adam's race redeem people? We've had 
a whole. a train of Old Testament prophets 
and leaders who were insufficient in order to carry out the task. 
The virgin birth of conception explains that. We also know that 
he had to live a sinless life. That's carried up in here. We 
also know that imputation is carried up in the purging of 
sins because he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might 
become the righteousness of God. There's imputation. How do we 
acquire a holy righteousness? Well, we don't get it on our 
own. It has to come from someplace else. It covers the whole area 
of justification, the declaration of that which is one who is guilty 
who is now innocent. It covers regeneration. How does 
one who is spiritually dead respond to that which is spiritually 
alive? You need a work of the spirit in order to awaken the 
human being, a dead corpse, a spiritually dead corpse, to respond to the 
gospel. All these concepts are embodied in these six little 
words when he had purged our sins. That's why I say it would 
take about six Sunday nights to really flesh out everything 
that's in this particular little section of scripture. But I want 
to touch on two things, at least on two things very, very briefly 
in the time that we have. The first thing is that by purging 
our sins or providing the means by which our sins could be purged, 
he eliminated the inefficiency and the insufficiency of the 
Old Testament law. The book of Hebrews goes to great 
pains to make that point in earlier chapters. The administration 
of purging sins in the Old Testament required an entire nation. There 
was an entire nation of Israel called the Levites who were supposed 
to be priests. And they were the ones who had 
no land, no inheritance, but they were to superintend, to 
organize, to administrate the entire religious machinery whereby 
atonement would be made year after year, month after month. The system had been in place 
approximately 1400 years by the time we come to this portion 
of scripture, which means there were 1400 days of atonement. 
High Holy Days, there were 1,400 annual high priests. There were 
tens of thousands of lesser priests that had come and gone in the 
meantime. Tens of thousands of animals 
had been slaughtered, and millions of gallons of blood had been 
shed on the various altars in order to appease the wrath of 
God. And it only did so, as we know, for only a season. There 
was never a final solution here. It was insufficient because no 
matter how many animals offered, the slaughter continued year 
after year after blood year. pointing to a person who would 
come who would eliminate the system once and for all. So first 
of all, when he had purged our sins, it eliminates the entire 
Old Testament machinery. That's gone. Fulfilled. And the second thing his work 
accomplished was that he made salvation by works possible. 
Now before you start throwing tomatoes, because we are good 
Reformed Baptists, we believe in that there's no way you can 
work your way into heaven, but let me just explain what I mean 
by what he said when I say that his mission made salvation by 
works possible. Paul in the Book of Romans goes 
to great pains to show that the law is insufficient to bring 
about salvation. You can try as you may to fulfill 
the law, you can't. And the reason is that the law 
is spiritual. It is perfect. It is a spiritual 
law. We are not spiritual. We are 
carnal, by definition. We have the Adamic sin. We are 
fallen human creatures. We are sin-laden beings. We are 
born in iniquity. We are, by nature, children of 
wrath. And therefore, try as we may to fulfill the Old Testament 
law, our best efforts will always fall short. There is no question. It can't be done. If human beings could be saved 
simply by fulfilling all the obligations set out under the 
law, All you got to do, fill the law perfectly. No mistakes, 
no oops, I'll take that back, no mulligans, no gimmies, no 
retries, no redo's, none. The California Highway Patrol 
did a study a few years ago and they estimate that even the best 
of drivers, the most diligent of drivers, commits a moving 
violation every seven blocks. Now, suppose for a moment that 
when you bought your brand new GMC from the dealership, it came 
with a special GPS with a radio-controlled monitor that hooks up to the 
local RCMP station. And it has the entire British Columbia Highway Traffic 
Act logged into its data bank. And on block number seven, when 
you as a diligent Christian driver make your first traffic violation, 
what happens is that your car automatically shuts off. You 
can't drive it. The police are automatically 
dispatched. They come by Pony Express to pick you up and cart 
you off to jail and assess your fine. You lose your license not 
simply for a day, but you lose your license for life. You will 
never be privileged to drive a car again. One violation every seven blocks. If we cannot even drive our cars 
correctly to the full extent of the law, such that we don't 
commit this violation every seven blocks, how much less than the 
perfect law of God, where the stakes aren't whether you drive 
or not, but whether it's life or death, eternal destiny, heaven 
or hell. So when it comes to fulfilling 
of the Old Testament law, it's not a question of when, not a 
question of if, but when. You break the law, you're done, 
you're toast. You have the full weight of God 
on your shoulders. So when I say that he made salvation 
by works possible, it's not by anything you and I can do. It's 
by works he has done on our behalf. We call it the finished work 
of Jesus Christ on behalf of his people. That's why when a 
sinner, the glorious realization that a sinner is a sinner before 
a holy God and understands that the only way of redemption is 
through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That is the only way 
redemption is possible, through his work, not ours. Then it says that he sat down 
at the right hand of the Father. This is a statement of Christ's 
ultimate exaltation. his statement of preeminence, 
his first place in the cosmos. If you study the furniture of 
the Old Testament temple and of the Old Testament tabernacle, 
you'll notice that there is one piece of furniture that is conspicuously 
absent. It's not an error of omission. 
That in the temple in the Holy of Holies, except for the mercy 
seat, there is no chair for the high priest to sit down. Symbolically 
telling the covenant community that the finished work, that 
the work is to continue year after year after year, even something 
as the trappings. But Jesus, as the perfect high 
priest, says here that when he had purged our sins, he sat down 
at the right hand of the Father. One sacrifice, one event, once 
for all, never to be equaled, never to be exceeded, never to 
be duplicated. So when Jesus cried out, it is 
finished, it is because he had purged our sins once for all. Well, what the law could not 
do, Jesus did in one spectacular, blazing moment of history. Well, there are four things signified 
by this statement. He sat down at the right hand 
of the father. First, that it is a sign of ultimate honor to 
sit at the right hand of the monarch. In ancient worlds, the 
right hand, the right seat of the monarch was a place that 
was only relegated to one person, one person alone. That is somebody 
who is at high estimation on a par with the king. And that 
seat is reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ himself. When you 
think about that, that also brings into light one of the reasons 
why the disciples were chided. When they talked about, when 
we get to the kingdom of heaven, who will sit at your right hand and 
who at your left hand? Well, Christ's left hand, who's 
at the left hand? Father. Who's at the right hand? Not 
quite sure yet. I suspect it's probably the Holy 
Spirit. When he sat down, it is a sign 
of authority. Monarchs rule from the seated 
position. Peter 3.22, he's at the right 
hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities 
and powers have been subjugated to him. When the ruler rules, 
the ruler sits. It also indicates that when he 
sat down, he sat down to rest. Hebrews 10.12 indicates that 
his work was now complete and could finally rest from his work 
of redemption. It also indicates that when he 
sat down, he sits down to intercede for us. Romans 8.34, he's at 
the right hand of the father, making intercession for all who 
belong to him. So let's go back to the original 
question that opened the message tonight. Who is Jesus? Who is 
he? Well, to summarize, he is a prophet. He is the final spokesman from 
God. There are no others. And there 
is no further prophetic ministry. By that, I mean that there is 
no future foretelling, there is no future emissaries, messengers 
that tell us that God is coming. There is no further revelation 
beyond Jesus Christ. There is, however, the prophetic 
ministry of the church, which says that, thus say of the Lord, 
that continues on. It's our job as salt and light to bring light 
to a dying world, and that part of the prophetic ministry is 
still there. But as far as new messengers giving new revelation, 
telling us about what God's latest update to his will is, that's 
done. He's it. He is a priest. He has atoned 
for our sins and now currently intercedes on our behalf. And 
he is king. He created us. He controls the 
universe. He sustains all things. And he 
rules from his father's right hand. And as some day, Revelation 
says, that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord. I want to conclude with this. Where did you go? Where did you 
go? I'm still getting used to iPads. Someone has said that Jesus Christ 
came from the bosom of the father to the bosom of a woman. He put 
on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became son of 
man that we might become sons of God. He was born contrary 
to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity, 
and only once crossed the boundaries of the land in which he was born, 
and that in his childhood. He had no wealth or influence. 
He had neither training nor education in the world's schools. His relatives 
were inconspicuous and uninfluential. In infancy, he startled a king. 
In boyhood, he puzzled the learned doctors. In manhood, he ruled 
the course of nature. He walked upon the billows and 
hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without 
medicine and made no charge for services. He never wrote a book, 
and yet all the libraries of the world could not hold the 
books about him. He never wrote a song, yet he has furnished 
the theme for more songs and all songwriters together. He 
never founded a college, yet all the schools together cannot 
boast of as many students as he has. He never practiced medicine, 
and yet he has healed more broken hearts than all the doctors that 
have healed broken bodies. This Jesus Christ is the star 
of astronomy, the rock of geology, the lion and the lamb of zoology, 
the harmonizer of all discord, and the healer of all diseases. 
Throughout history, great men have come and gone, yet he lives 
on. Herod could not kill him, Satan could not seduce him, death 
could not destroy him, and the grave could not hold him. That 
is who we worship. Amen? I think the final hymn is Mighty 
Fortress.