GOD'S FINAL WORD
Heb. 1:2
Morning Meditation 8/2/2014
Verse 2 says, "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."
We are living in the Church age. Paul says in Ephesians 3:2: "If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward." The Church age is where the grace of God through the preaching of the cross is going out to the whole world. Israel no longer has a monopoly on the truth. The Lord Jesus began the church during His personal ministry, and in the Church there are no partitions (see Eph. 2:11-18). If there are, they are man made.
Up until the Church age, God had spoken "sundry times and in divers manners" to the fathers. But we will discover in our text,
THE FINALITY OF HIS MESSAGE
The words "Hath spoken" is an aorist active indicative verb. "The aorist tense used both of God speaking by the prophets and his speaking by Christ indicates that God has finished speaking in both cases" (Hughes) - Linguistic Key. The aorist tense speaks of a point of time. This aorist tense verb gathers into it the incarnation, perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection of Jesus. God has spoken in a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. What He said stands forever. He left nothing to be added to what He said. We have what He said by the prophets and apostles in the written Word of God. Don't look for something else. Get your Bible. You have God's complete and final revelation in it. He will say no more. But I might add, it is enough! Next let's us notice,
THE TIME OF THE MESSAGE
He says, "in these last days." "In these last days" indicates the Church age. Peter quoted Joel in Acts 2:16 and applied it to what had happened on the day of Pentecost: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:" We have been living in the last days since Pentecost.
If this is true, that we have been in the last days since Pentecost, and it is, why is it that the last days have lasted so long? We have God's Word on this: 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." There you have the answer. The mercy of God and His desire to see all come to repentance is the one and only thing that prevents His immediate return to this earth for His bride.
If the last days began at Pentecost, we must be VERY CLOSE TO THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS. Those who walk by faith in Christ will one of these days in the very near future disappear just as Enoch did before the flood in Noah's day. And as they looked for him and did not find him (Heb. 11:5), so they will look for us but they will not find us. We will be gone to be "ever with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17). People may scoff at this truth but when they do, they become a part of the sign of our Lord's soon return: 2 Peter 3:3-4 says, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Notice two things in these verses that are in evidence everywhere today:
1.Their conduct. The philosophy of the world in which we live is IF IT FEELS GOOD DO IT. The word "lusts" comes from a word that means "craving, a compelling desire." This word is used to define base sexual desires. This is just one of its uses, but it is a primary word used of those who have lost all morality, and have given themselves over to ungodly sexual desires. People who give themselves to sexual lusts do not want to see Jesus come. Every man has in himself a conscience put there by the Lord that lets him know that sex outside of marriage is wrong and is something for which God will judge him. So to live with himself, he goes from one sexual encounter to another fulfilling his lusts and denying the return of the Lord.
2.Their reasoning. They scoff at the truth of our Lord's return, and use as their argument against it, the seeming delay. They say, "we have heard this all our lives. This has been preached for two thousand years. The promise is untrue. He will not come again. Things will continue as they have always been. Let's go have a good time." This is the world's philosophy.
Next our text speaks of,
THE PERSON OF THE MESSAGE
Out text says, "by his Son." God spoke by His Son through the virgin birth, the sinless life, through every verbal utterance, through every miracle, through the substitutionary death, and through the resurrection. Paul said, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). He continues to speak by His Son today through the gospel. When Jesus gave what we call the great commission, He ended it by saying, " . . . and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Jesus is not visible but He is present with the Church as she preaches the gospel. If you walk by sight, you have turned Christianity into a religion that is no more powerful than the dead religions of this world. But if you use the God given capacity of faith to fellowship with the One who cannot be seen, that is something else all together. The authority of the Church is in the person of Christ who is present every time we meet and speaks to us through His inspired Word. Jesus is still the head of the Church!
Next our text speaks of,
THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SON
Our text says, "Whom he hath appointed heir of all things." The words, "Hath appointed" are the translation of an aorist active indicative verb. The aorist tense means once for all. The Lord Jesus regained what Adam lost and much more. God has placed it all under him. We also see the sovereignty of God here. God chooses, He decides. Man can only accept or reject it. Antichrist will soon come on the scene and try to take over. He will not be successful. A sovereign God would not be God or sovereign unless He had the power to make His promises and decrees stand. God is Omnipotent. He is all-powerful..
Let this get a hold of you. Our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, has a God given appointment and we will share in that appointment as believers. Romans 8:17 says, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Revelation 20:6 says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." We have a share in this by GRACE. The appointment of His Son IS the appointment of those who are IN HIS SON (2 Cor. 5:17).
Then finally,
THE MESSENGER IS THE MAKER
God has not only spoken to us in absolute finality in the person of His Son, His Son is the Maker. He says in our text, "by whom also he made the worlds." The One through whom God has spoken His final Word is none other than the One who made the worlds.
This is a truth unreasonable to the rational mind. You will never accept this on the basis of reason. We accept this on the basis of REVELATION. God says it and then we make a choice to believe it or reject it.
John 1:1-3 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Note the words "All things were made by him." He is creator. Jesus did not become the Son when He was born in Bethlehem, He has always been the Son. He did become something that He had never been before, i.e., a man. God became a man to save us. Our Saviour is also Creator.
Paul said in Col. 1:16-17: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Paul is very plain and simple in declaring the truth that Jesus is the Creator. He doesn't rationalize, he reveals.
America is in denial of God and/or Christ as Creator. They have ruled out the Bible as God's revelation of creation. They have accepted as a FACT the hypothesis of EVOLUTION which is the same as calling God a liar. God either tells the truth in Genesis 1:1, and the verses above, or it is all a lie. I believe it is the infallible Word of the eternal God before whom every person will stand in the final judgment to be judged.
God has given His final Word in the person of His Son. Don't wait for Him to say anything else. He won't. I believe what God said in Christ. I trust every person reading these words does also. If not, why not right now? John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them what believe on his name."
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
