McColl, Jim: Greatness of the Lord Jesus

Come to the Epistle to the Hebrews, please, and we shall read first of all in chapter one. Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter one, and reading at verse one. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 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, 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 by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, that is when he bringeth him in again into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him. Chapter four, please. Chapter four, and reading at verse fourteen. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into or passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And a final reading, please, from chapter thirteen. Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter thirteen. And verse 5, let your manner of life be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who had the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their manner of life. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him bet without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. One other reading down, please, at verse twenty. Now the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I think all of us are aware of the fact that this great epistle to the Hebrews presents to us the greatness of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is little doubt in anyone's mind that the great theme of this thrilling, throbbing epistle is the matchless glory and the infinite greatness of God's eternal Son. For a little while this afternoon, I should like to concentrate your thoughts upon three uh aspects of his greatness. In chapter one, we shall think of the greatness of his sonship. In chapter four, the greatness of his priesthood. We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. And in chapter thirteen, the greatness of his shepherd ministry. We have a great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, where did you get your word great in chapter one? Well, the word at the end of verse three is exactly the same as I quoted to you in chapter four and chapter thirteen. He sat down on the right hand of the greatness on high. Who sat there? None other than the Son of God, who in grace stood to earth, did the will of God, made purgation for sin, and ascended up to the greatness on high. The greatness of the Son. There's an interesting word in the Epistle to the Hebrews regarding Moses. It says of Moses that, in chapter eleven, that when he was come to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You might be interested to know, fellow believers, that that is the very same word that we are dwelling on today, when Moses came to greatness. And that's what makes it all important as to the decision he made, the verdict he made, and the vision he had. When he was come to greatness, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Wasn't that a tremendous thing to arrive at by faith? You will remember that during our Bible readings, our brethren drew our attention to a very unique personality called Melchizedek. And this great epistle to the Hebrews tells us, consider him, Melchizedek, to whom Abraham gave of the spoiling of his goods. The greatness of the person of the Lord Jesus is surely the wonderful theme of this letter. Just a few observations at the beginning of our meeting. In Hebrews chapter one, we are caused to think by the Spirit of the unoriginated glories of the Lord Jesus as God's eternal Son. You say, you're always saying eternal Son, and there's no reference to that. Well, it may not be stated as such, but I thank God that in the assemblies, since my reception to the assemblies, I have been taught by men to believe and appreciate not only that Mary's child was Mary's God, but that the child that Mary bore had an eternal, unique relationship with his father, that of sonship. And I believe that all the glories of the Lord Jesus, and all the titles, and all the offices he bears, and even his great work at Calvary is all based upon the fact of his unoriginated eternal sonship. So I'd like briefly to look with you at the first reference to his glories in Hebrews chapter one. You'll notice he is described as the heir. Verse two, hath in these last days spoken unto us by son. That's the great thing in Hebrews. Whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Because he is son, he is heir. Isn't that the point? When Abraham sent his servant to go to the land of his own people to find a bride for his son Isaac, the servant was told to remember to state that everything that was his father Abraham's would be Isaac's. Based upon his sonship was the great truth of his heirship. And fellow believers, it's the same with us, according to Romans chapter eight. We are sons, and because we are sons, we are heirs. Heirs of God, joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. What a precious thing that is. And our Lord Jesus Christ is heir of all things. He's in full possession of all things. Whether it be dominion or authority or eternal administration, whatever it is. Because he is son, he is in full possession of all things. What a wealthy person he is. Secondly, I want you to notice that our verse tells us the end of verse two, by whom also he made the worlds. He's not only heir, he's creator. Younger believer, let me remind you today, no matter what the colleges and the universities teach, God's word makes it abundantly plain that every particle of this vast universe owes its creaturehood to the Son of God. Every particle of it. He made all things, and the Bible says he made the stars also. Isn't that a nice addition there? I remember reading about a story during the French Revolution, and they went up and down the streets, breaking down everything that spoke of God. Get rid of everything that speaks of God. They came to the great cathedral, Notre Dame. And the man's all way up at the peak there, and he's knocking down the evidence of religion or of God, whatever you like. And he says, we are getting rid of everything that speaks of God, and he threw it down onto the pavement or the footpath or the whatever you call it in the States. One peasant standing down there, and he looks up at the man, and he calls up to him, get rid of the stars also. Pull down the stars also. He couldn't do that, could he? Philip Leaver's God's vast creation proves conclusively the absolute reality of the creatorial majesty and power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made all things. Many of our younger people in the assemblies are being subjected to treatment today that would take away from their belief in the word of God and in the greatness of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember some years ago hearing about a young Christian lad who was attending the Edinburgh University, and his professor was telling him now, after my lecture, I wish to make it clear to you that there is no God, that there is absolutely no truth about creation. And he was propounding the theory of evolution and so on. And at the end of it, he said, now you're all satisfied. No God, no heaven, no hell, no, no creation theory, nothing of that kind. One young Christian lad said, sir, there is one question I would like to ask, and I'll be satisfied. You said something just came about, and then it all developed from that. Well, I want to know, how came the came to come? No reaction? How came the came to come? Oh, he says, I'll answer that another day. Of course it need to be another day, because there's no answer to that other than the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ made all things. He's heir, he is creator. He's revealer, the next verse says, verse three, who being the brightness of God's glory, the revealer, he didn't reflect the glory of God while he was down here or at any given time. He didn't reflect it, he revealed it. There's quite a major difference. We might be illuminaries, but our Lord Jesus Christ was the revealer of the Father, the revealer of God. John the Baptist was a bright, shining light in the sense of reflecting, but our Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect revelation of all that God is. He was the Son from all eternity. Then you'll notice the next statement. Not only is he the brightness of his glory, but he is the express image of his person. He is the exact imprint of God's eternal substance. As we said in thanksgivings this morning, he was deficient in nothing belonging to absolute godhood. He lacked nothing of eternal essence of deity. He was in the image of God. He always was in the image of God. This is before incarnation. This is one who eternally subsisted in the essential form of God, not shape, but essence. And our Lord Jesus Christ, fellow believers, is heir, he is creator, he is revealer, he is image, the very image of God. What a blessed person he is. Then I want you to notice he's upholder of all things, and he holds the universe together. Colossians says, by him all things subsist, all things are held together. To me, that is very precious. Not merely laws of nature that they talk about holding the universe together. It's not laws of nature that we are taking up with fellow believers. He can intervene at any moment, our Lord Jesus Christ. He holds all things together. Somebody handed me this today, and I want to read it to you. A little boy offering his prayers was heard to say, dear God, please take care of mom and dad and look after my sisters and brothers and me. And please, God, take good care of yourself. If anything should happen to you, we are all sunk. Isn't that true? My fellow believers, our faith, our confidence, the Epistle to the Hebrews, I'm sticking to the context of this epistle, chapter twelve— our confidence is all in God, in our Lord Jesus Christ. And if anything should happen to him, or if things should get out of his control, where would we be today? Is there a believer in the meeting room today who is apprehensive about the future, concerned about your circumstances, disturbed about your family, agitated about the assembly and its future? All of these matters should concern. Well, I want to tell you today, fellow believers, we are associated and linked indissolubly to a blessed man in heaven, in whose hand is absolute and eternal control of all things. The one who can control this great universe of ours can surely handle our circumstances. I think that's the practical point. Some of you are saying he's getting round to this great canyon again, the Grand Canyon. I told you I'm going to talk about it for the next six months. The Aussies are going to say, hey, you better get back to the States. I was so impressed with it. Who wouldn't be? Only a skeptic wouldn't be. I was so impressed with it that the only expression I could get wasn't so much the sight I saw, but you know what impressed me? The superlative grandeur of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made all things, and he holds all things together. And I, you coined a phrase, it was breathlessly vast. But I was really speaking about our Lord Jesus Christ. My fellow believers, there is no limits to him, is there? No limits to our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to be a good boy and keep to my time. Now, the last, the other two is sin purger. It says in verse three that when he had by himself, I just like that. I heard Mr. McShane say once, many years ago, and I really enjoyed it. He said that this was an infinite work that had to be done, the purgation of sins. And the point in this verse is, said he, if it was an infinite work that had to be done, it took an infinite person to do it. I just like that. I think that's what the writer is telling us. It's not even his power or his majesty or his control or his efficacy of the sacrifice. It's all because of the grandeur and the greatness and the infinite p- preciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the last one enthroned, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down, he took his seat at the right hand of the greatness on high. Well, he deserves that place, doesn't he? You see him up there at the right hand of the greatness on high? Who is more fitted to sit there than our Lord Jesus Christ? The greatness of the Son. Chapter four, please. The greatness of his priesthood. Seeing then that we have a great high priest. The epistle to the Hebrews is so wonderful about our possessions. He's calling upon a people who had turned from religion to the person of Christ, abandoned Judaism for Christianity, left the shadow for the substance, left the literal for the spiritual, left the temporary for the eternal. And, and he's saying, you think that you've lost everything. You haven't got a temple, you haven't got a literal altar, and you haven't got a ceremonialism, and you haven't got priests, and you haven't got all these other things. He says, I want to tell you, we have a great high priest. We have a throne of grace. We have an anchor. We have an altar. And he goes right through seven of them, seven great possessions, what we have in Christianity. And he says, that should draw you away from the temporal and the temporary to the spiritual and the eternal. That should take you outside the camp and in in full identification with a rejected Lord who's outside all this religious system. My fellow believers, it should have an effect on us today. As I mentioned this afternoon already in ministry, the rending of the veil in Herod's temple wasn't to let us into the presence of God, it was to bring to a termination all the sham and hypocrisy of the religious Judaism. God is bringing to an end all that great system because of the finality of the death of Christ. Thank God for the finality of his death, but it has a practical, uh, compunction upon us, and that is to abandon every association with the religious world in full identification with our Lord Jesus Christ. That's chapter thirteen. He waits till he gets, gets there before he draws us out, doesn't he? But chapter one, two, three, four, all the way through, he is gathering our affections together and drawing us magnetically to the person of the Lord Jesus, and if that is effective, we will find ourselves outside the whole religious system. Isn't it great to be there? Outside the camp with our dear Lord. That's where I would want to be. A great high priest, quickly, verse fourteen. you'll notice he speaks about the feeling of his heart. The Lord, as our great high priest, has feeling. And it's Luke that takes up this word in his gospel and uses it three times. When the Lord saw her, the weeping widow, it says he had compassion on her, and he said, weep not. Chapter ten, the certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, had compassion on the man. Luke fifteen, when the father saw him a great way off, he had compassion upon him, and he ran, and he fell on his neck and kissed him. I want to tell you today, dear heavy-hearted believer, we have a living great high priest at God's right hand who has feeling for us. Isn't it lovely to have a feeling for the saints of God? I like a preacher who's got feeling. I don't like this cold, calculated kind of thing, impression that it makes upon you. That is too remote. That's too cold. That's too abstract. Fellow believers, our Lord Jesus Christ is warm-hearted. He has deep feeling in his heart for his people. He has compassion upon us. Younger saints in the meeting, remember today, as you face an evil world and a corrupt, godless society, remember there's a great high priest who has feeling for your infirmities, our weaknesses, not our sins, but our weaknesses. I'm glad about that. I want you to notice too the fullness of his testing, who was in all points tempted as we are, not yet without sin, as if he was tempted but didn't yield. Why, there's no thought of that, as we heard in our Bible readings, because there was no sin within. The perfection of his manhood, the fullness of his testing. He was in all points tested as we are, apart from sin. He became like us without our sin, but fellow believers, he was always a space apart. Always a space apart. His holy humanity was distinct in every sense, but it's real humanity, and that's why he's able to sympathize, isn't it? He's a real person at God's right hand. Finally, the faultlessness of his character, who was in all points tempted as we are, apart from sin. Someone said, would suggest that would lessen his sympathy and his feeling for us. No, it wouldn't. I had one of our great preachers in Scotland many years ago explain this. This is how he put it. He said, in our homes in Britain, there's because of the cold weather, they would have big cold fires and used to stir up the coals with a, what we called a poker, a steel object. And you'd sit it on the fender, you see, after you'd been poking the fire, the coals, to stir it up and get a good heat. And many a time that would come out of the fire red hot, and you'd sit it on the hearth, I think is a proper word. And little children crawling at the crawling stage would see the man. You can feel it yourself, can't you? Did you ever lift a red hot poker? Did the mother do it? When she saw what happened, she lift the child in her arms and hug it to her bosom. Did she need to lift the poker in order to sympathize? No, of course she didn't. Why? Because you share the same humanity, the same feelings. Our Lord Jesus, fellow believers, did not necessarily require to sin in order to sympathize, and because he was sinless, his feeling and his testing was the more real and the more savage and the more severe. But thank God we have one who, because of his sinless humanity, is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Two or three minutes and I'll finish. Chapter thirteen, please. This is a great chapter. Right at the end, he gathers it all together, the theme of his epistle, to draw hearts and lives away from all that system, out to Christ, in personal devotion, in utter fidelity, in true love to himself and obedience to himself. And so the writer, you'd almost think he had completely, uh, used all his superlatives and all his titles, and there weren't any more left. But no, he waits till chapter four, and he gives us four more. He speaks of the Lord Jesus as the sufficiency of his people. The Lord is my helper. And then he says he's the same to his people. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then he says he's the sanctifier of his people. In order to separate us, he sanctified us, and he did it without the gate suffering for us, as the great sin offering, whose bodies were carried outside the camp. Little did those men understand all that God had in mind of the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. In order to sanctify us, he suffered. Fellow believers, that is the basis of our separation, the sufferings of Christ. Isn't that true? And before he finishes the chapter, he said he's the great shepherd of the sheep. What a lovely title. The great shepherd of the sheep, greater than Moses and Aaron, who shepherded God's earthly people with all their frailty. We have one in heaven, fellow believers, who will never fail in his shepherd work. He's our great shepherd who will never fail us. May this little meditation at the beginning of our meeting help to create an atmosphere for our brethren to bring forward ministry that will really be timely and effective and useful for us as we wait the coming of the Lord Jesus. May God bless.