The God Who Speaks

Good morning, please open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 1.

I do not even want to hint that reading the Bible is like reading any other book other than top-down and left to right.

After all, the Bible has a divine author. It is God-breathed. It is His revelation to us.

And yet, there is so much variation in the canon of Scripture. Variation in writing style and language use and genre that we can say that while all books of the Bible are given for a purpose and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, as we read in 2 Tim 3:16, there are books that are easier to read.

We’ve all been challenged by books such as Leviticus and Numbers.

Even while recognizing God has spoken to us in even those more difficult sections of Scripture.

Even outside the Bible, we find books that start slow and some that jump right into the action.

Some of the slow books, if you can get through the opening chapters, which may seem to drag on, you will find a real page-turner.

I think of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables where there is a ton of backstory and hundreds of pages before we even meet the main characters.

But those who plow through find the book worth the work.

On the other extreme, some books burst off the page from the first sentence and you hit the ground running, so to speak.

Listen, the Book of Hebrews is a book that explodes off the page from the first paragraph.

If we are right and this is a sermon…a sermon manuscript essentially, then the author doesn’t open with a story or some other little attention getter but dives in and makes one of the most profound Christological statements in the NT.

Let me read the first 3 verses.

Hebrews 1:1–3 (NASB95)

1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Not only do we read there of the fact that God has spoken but what we have just read is one of the central Christological passages of the NT.

We think of the prologue in the Gospel of John:

John 1:1–5 (NASB95)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

And then a few verses later:

John 1:10–14 (NASB95)

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Or, we think of Colossians chapter 1:

Colossians 1:15–19 (NASB95)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him…

This passage, like those others, rises like a mountain peak of Christology and is vitally fundamental to our understanding of Christ.

The author is going to unpack the superiority of Christ and he begins by pointing out the superiority of Christ or the preeminence of Christ…His supremacy that is pointed out in a few different ways.

The first is how God has revealed Himself.

But even before that we find captured here the fact that God is a God who speaks.

The problem has never been whether or not God speaks but does man listen?

God, who spoke the world into being, spoke at the beginning and has never ceased from speaking.

Even His Creation speaks. The Psalmist writes:

Psalm 19:1–4 (NASB95)

1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

2 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world…

· God spoke to Adam,

· God spoke to Cain

· God spoke to Noah

· God spoke to Abraham

· God spoke to Moses

· God spoke to Samuel and David and on and on throughout redemptive history God has spoken.

God has never stopped speaking. He continues to speak through His word, which is why the Bible is called the Word of God…it is God breathed…Theopneustos.

The problem has always been that man does not listen.

In the garden, Adam chose to listen to another voice…that of Satan.

And ever since, man has been listening to other voices, we are even attentive to other voices.

It’s as if we are born into this world with our fingers plugged into our ears to muffle out only the voice of God while we drink in any voice but.

Perhaps you want to listen to the voice of your friends or acquaintances who do not know the Lord.

Perhaps you are listening to siblings who are leading you down a path toward death and judgment.

Perhaps you are listening to those who have a lot of money as if their pocketbook purchases the right for them to be heard.

Perhaps you are listening to the famous because you’ve elevated them to some pedestal in your mind.

Because of our sin, we don’t want a God who speaks. We want our gods to be silent so that we can fill their empty mouths with words.

Paul tells us in 1 Cor 12 that men were led astray to the mute idols.

Or as we read in Habakkuk 2:

Habakkuk 2:18–20 (NASB95)

18 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols.

19 “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it.

20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Whose voice are you listening to?

It is cliché to speak of a “failure to communicate” in fact, we often speak of communication gaps, which essentially is a lack of communication because there is some breakdown in how communication must happen.

We think of the communication gap that exists between languages.

Well, there can be no greater communication gap than the distinction and separation that exists between the Creator and the creature.

Those are the two great categories into which everything falls. There is the Creator God who alone is on one side of that distinction and everything else on the other.

And as if this distinction does not create a gap enough, man is sinful and God is holy. So sinful is man that the Bible can only use the word “deadness” to describe our natural estate.

But God in His grace heralds out a message of good news. A message of rest for the weary and the water of life and the bread of life for those who are spiritually thirsty and hungry.

He can give you ears to hear and has not only given us the ability to communicate but He has revealed things to us that we would have no other way of finding out.

God has spoken.

And because God has spoken we have, in the Bible, a perfectly trustworthy source of revelation.

After all, God as the Almighty Creator knows all things and nothing can be hidden from Him.

He is all-powerful to bring about everything that He has promised.

He is all-good, so that we can trust Him in all of His doings, knowing that nothing He does can ever ultimately end in evil, even while He uses evil to accomplish His purposes.

God is all-wise so that we know that there can never be a better or superior plan than that which He has revealed, ordained, or sovereignly carries out.

We are not speaking here of the book of General Revelation or the created order and the world around which also communicates things about God as we read in Psalm 19 and just as Paul tells us in Romans 1. Paul writes:

Romans 1:20 (NASB95)

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

But here, in Hebrews, we are speaking of Special Revelation and those things necessary for our salvation that God has revealed, going back to the garden itself.

And we find here a distinction is made between what God previously has communicated to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and ways and “in these last days” God’s revelation in the Son.

And in that, we see that there is a contrast between not only the fathers and prophets in one category and Christ in another but that the fathers and prophets were long ago and by various portions and ways and the son is in these last days without the additional information of how revelation comes.

In other words, God, to the prophets spoke or revealed Himself by dreams, visions, inspirations, voices, angels and so there is a medium through which revelation occurred, so often captured by the words, thus saith the Lord, but in Christ, we find God incarnate who says to us, “verily verily I say unto you”.

None of that to say that the previous ways that God has spoken were inferior in their quality, because God is the author of all revelation.

Just as General Revelation is not less true or inferior in quality to Special Revelation as God is both Creator and the One who has spoken.

But there is a difference in nature. General Revelation while able to condemn us does not contain the Good News capable of saving us.

And God revealing Himself through the prophets is also distinguished from God revealing Himself in Christ. And I think we know that intuitively but let’s substantiate that as well.

First of all, there is a progressive nature of Revelation. Those that have come in later points of the redemptive timeline have had access to more of God’s revelation than previous generations.

That God gave new information as time went on that did not contradict or deny His previous revelation.

In fact, the Bible is divided in just the way that we’ve been talking about. There is an Old Testament and a New Testament.

And we who live in the New Testament time have been blessed to know more than those who lived in previous times.

So, what was the purpose of Old Testament revelation?

Well, the primary purpose was to prepare the way for the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The OT Scriptures point to Christ. They are preparatory in nature.

We read of Jesus’s post-resurrection appearance to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And it is recorded that Jesus said to them:

Luke 24:25–27 (NASB95)

25 …“O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Notice that it is with Moses, going back to the first books of the OT canon and the law of God revealed to man. And then to all the prophets, Christ explained to them the things concerning Himself in ALL the Scriptures.

They all point to Him.

They point to Him in various ways, they point to Him in:

Promise – We can think of the first Gospel pronouncement in Gen: 3:15 or how all the nations will be blessed in places like Gen 18.

Symbols, types, and shadows – We can think of the bronze snake in Numbers 23 or Jesus described as the Second Adam, or the Sacrificial System, or the Tabernacle.

Prophecies – Such as Messianic Prophecy or pointing to the age to come.

Titles – like in the offices of Christ, that He is prophet, priest, and King, Judge, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, etc.

Themes – God’s judgment or the fact of God covenanting with His people.

Or ideas that we see presented in the OT that lead us to the redemptive work of Christ.

In all of these ways, the OT Scriptures are preparatory in nature.

The Great Princeton Theologian BB Warfield said of the OT that it was a room that was “fully furnished but dimly lit”.

In other words, the Gospel was all there awaiting Jesus who would bring light to the dimly lit room.

Even in these opening verses, the author is establishing a contrast between the prophets of old and Jesus Christ. The rest of the book will be building on this contrast.

Remember, this book is written to Hebrews and there is a high view already of the law and the prophets. And so this recognizes that not only has God spoken but that He has done so differently. Whether in different genres and such but all of it is God speaking.

We too, ought to have that as a starting point in our thoughts.

That we have a speaking God and have a high view of His word to us.

In the prophets, the revelation of God was not all given to each prophet. One author writes:

All was not revealed to each prophet: one received one portion of revelation, another another. To Noah, the quarter of the world to which Messiah should belong was revealed; to Abraham, the nation; to Jacob, the tribe; to David and Isaiah, the family; to Micah, the town; to Daniel, the exact time; to Malachi, the coming of His forerunner; through Jonah, His burial and resurrection, &c. Each only knew in part; Messiah combined and realized all[1]

And we’ve already spoken of the many ways these prophecies and words of God came.

But notice in verse 2 the sense of finality that comes in God’s revelation in Christ.

Hebrews 1:2 (NASB95)

2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Just as we’ve studied in the Book of Revelation. Scripture recognizes two ages. This age and the age to come.

And this present evil age is coming to an end. Since the coming of Christ, we live in the last days or the ending days of this age.

And these last days were ushered in when God the Father sent God the Son to be born of a woman to live and die bearing the sins of His people and resurrect from the grave.

Turn with me to Mark 12.

This separation between the prophets of old and Jesus is illustrated in this parable that Jesus tells recorded in Mark 12.

Mark 12, beginning in verse 1:

1 And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.

2 “At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers.

3 “They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

4 “Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully.

5 “And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.

6 “He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

7 “But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’

8 “They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

9 “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.

10 “Have you not even read this Scripture:

‘The stone which the builders rejected,

This became the chief corner stone;

11 This came about from the Lord,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

12 And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.

Now I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this parable but I want you to see the Gospel presented here.

All of us have “pharisee” running through our veins. Like the Pharisees, we don’t picture ourselves as killers of the prophets.

Jesus says of the Pharisees in Matt 23:

Matthew 23:29–36 (NASB95)

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.

33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,

35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Our hearts are like that of the Pharisees and we too would have been those who killed the prophets.

But notice in this parable of Mark 12 that the murderers say in verse 7:

Mark 12:7 (NASB95)

7 “But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’

Well, I want you to think about this for a moment. It is our sin that put the Lord Jesus on the cross and yet, in his death…we the killers who deserve death as well, actually do receive the inheritance.

For Christ’s death has provided our redemption.

God sent prophets and the world wouldn’t listen and killed them.

God sent His Son and the world wouldn’t listen and killed Him.

And the resurrected Christ sent forth His apostles and the world wouldn’t listen and killed them.

What about you?

Are you listening?

God has sent the prophets.

God has sent His Son.

But are you listening?

Or have you become like the Pharisees in thinking that you will somehow escape the judgment of God even while you reject the one acceptable payment for sins

Either your sins Christ bore on the cross and you obtain the inheritance that Christ has purchased or you are against Christ and God the Father’s wrath is burning against you.

Do not read the opening verses of Hebrews and miss the fact that there are two messages there because there have always been two responses to the revelation of God.

From the beginning, there have been the Cain’s of this world just as there have been the Abels.

And in as much as we read those words and for many of us, we read good news. For those of you who do not know Christ, understand that those same words pronounce wrath upon all who reject the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Turn back to Hebrews, if you have not already done so, and notice the description of Christ that the author here.

While we must see the distinction made between the prophets of old and the Son, we must also recognize that there is continuity of the revelation as all revelation comes from God…there is one divine author.

Puritan Preacher, William Perkins writes this:

The sum and substance of the message of the Bible can be summarized in an argument or syllogism such as this:

Major Premise: The true Messiah shall be both God and man, from the seed of David. He shall be born of his heavenly Father’s bosom. He shall satisfy the law. He shall offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the faithful. He shall conquer death by dying and rising again. He shall ascend into heaven. In due time he shall return for judgment.

Minor Premise: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, meets all of these requirements.

Conclusion: Therefore Jesus is the true Messiah

Those who think that they can approach the Father apart from Christ will find out that God’s revelation is final and complete in Christ.

Remember when we spoke of Revelation being progressive?

Well listen to Commentator FF Bruce, who hits the nail on the head. Bruce writes:

“The story of divine revelation is a story of progression up to Christ, but there is no progression beyond Him.”

Have you ever wondered that no book of the NT is authored by Jesus?

Paul has 13 books he wrote and yet Jesus did not pick up the pen…He didn’t write a single verse.

But rather, He was the subject of every book.

Instead of writing, Jesus lived.

He is the Word of God incarnate…the Word of God in flesh.

That great communication gap between Creator and Creature. Jesus in the incarnation bridges the gap. He becomes the great mediator that Job cried out for in Job 9:

Job 9:32–33 (NASB95)

32 “For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together.

33 “There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both.

Now we will dive into the second part of verse 2 next week as we start unpacking these great Christological statements but let me point out a few observations from the second half of verse 2.

In verse two we see that the Son is the heir of all things.

We know what this means. The Father who owns all things has made the Son the heir of all things. We who are found in the Son have the favor of the Father in the inheritance of the Son bestowed upon us as well.

But those who are not in Christ have nothing.

Some think that they can reject Christ and still possess something. Something good. Perhaps they reject Christ because they think their sin is good or pleasurable or something like that.

And they think that there will at least be something good leftover for them. They are like Esau wailing loudly before Isaac, ”have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

Except their situation is worst because Isaac wanted to bless Esau…Isaac loved Esau but there will only be wrath left for those who reject Christ…after all, God sent His Son to save sinners and instead of kissing the Son in submission they have mocked Him and spit in His face.

How could the Father have any other reaction?

Furthermore, all things have been given to the Son whom they have rejected. Therefore, there is no reserved blessing somewhere left over for them. There is no small corner of the universe where they can live quietly and bother no one.

No, the Son owns it all and He rules it all, and His kingship will be felt and known over all. Either to the objects of His love or the objects of His wrath and there are no other categories among men for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”.

Jesus Christ is God’s final revelation to man.

God’s revelation to the prophets concealed Christ and God’s revelation in Christ revealed the entire purpose of the prophets.

Augustine’s quip was right, “The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed, the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed.”

Often, you will hear people contrast the God of the OT from the God of the NT, as if they are not the same or as if it is possible for God to change.

But here we see the truth.

God spoke.

Formerly, by the prophets

But now by the Son.

God spoke then to the Fathers but now to us.

God spoke then at various times but now in these last days.

And so, it is in these opening words, we see the correlation between the law and the Gospel.

We see the finality of Christ and the sinfulness of those who seek after continued revelation.

We see that we who live in the last days have received the revelation of all things in this age and therefore those who reject God’s word will receive great judgment for their great rejection.

We see that before God sends us out as His ambassador into the world that He has sent Christ as an ambassador to us.

Our forefathers were sent Moses, were sent Elijah and Elisha, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and David and all the prophets of old.

We not only possess all of them but God has sent us Christ.

The Pharisees were guilty of a great evil in that they were satisfied with the law and did not look for with great anticipation the revelation of Christ, that God had given His final revelation in Jesus of Nazareth, whom they rejected as God’s Messiah, and yet who is the only Gospel given to man.

Let us not be guilty of the opposite error and having received the Gospel, either return to the law for justification or go beyond Christ, as if there is anything that could be better than the Gospel of God revealed in these last days in the sending of His Son, as the sin-bearer of man and the light of God.

Let’s pray.

[1] Brown, D., Fausset, A. R., & Jamieson, R. (n.d.). A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Acts–Revelation (Vol. VI, p. 526). London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited.