Hebrews

Message One

God has Spoken

Heb. 1

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 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; KJV

The simple statement of v.1 is that God spoke. Now we know that He talked with Adam at the beginning, conversing with him face to face and with Eve as well.

But the 'speaking' of God by which we know this came to Moses, who penned down the words of Genesis. In the intervening time between the conversations in the garden and the speaking to Moses, man has so violated God's laws and commands that the very fact that God has spoken to man at all is a true miracle.

Even though God had walked with Adam in the cool of the day and conversed with him, Adam had rebelled, deliberately and consciously against his Creator. His sons likewise sinned and their sons after them until the whole human race was involved in such wickedness that God destroyed them all with a flood, except for 8 souls, Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. Even in all of this, God spoke to certain men and called them to cry out against the wickedness of their day, Enoch and Noah to name two. No doubt there were many others.

Within a few generations of leaving the ark, the large part of mankind was back to wickedness, sinning and refusing to obey the laws of God, which they knew full well. History records that Shem stood firm against wickedness and spoke for God to mankind.

In the midst of this wickedness, God came a spoke to a man, promising him great things.

Gen 12:1-3

1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. KJV

God gave him a son, Isaac, and he gave Isaac a special son, Jacob, and, through him, twelve patriarchs of a small nation. God sent them into Egypt and grew them there into a mighty throng of people and then called one of them to be a spokesman for Him like no other.

Ex 3:1-4

1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. KJV

Through Moses, God spoke like He had not spoken since the beginning of His creation. For forty days, He communed with Moses on top of Mount Sinai and gave him laws by which the Jews were to conduct themselves. Included in those laws to the Jews were moral principles to which God holds all of humanity accountable.

Even today in the wicked world in which we live, the laws of God given to Moses and encoded in the legal systems of the major industrialized countries of the world.

God has spoken to man in clear words and in profound terms. And yet Israel would not obey the words of God.

So He sent other men, prophets of old. He would speak to these men and they would tell people what God had said: Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, Elishah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and many more besides. We do not even know the names of many of them, but the ones that we do know wrote down the words of God to speak to following generations.

Yet for all this, men would still not hear and obey Him. So He sent His Only Begotten Son into the world to speak again to mankind the words of God. He commissioned and empowered men to fully develop and speak to humanity His words.

Can we even imagine the value of the words of God spoken to sinners?

Can we imagine a world in which God had not spoken?

I think we have a couple of pictures in the Bible of what such a world might be like.

Gen 19:1-5

1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. KJV

Judg 19:16-25

16 And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.

17 And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?

18 And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehem Judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.

19 Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing.

20 And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.

21 So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.

22 Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. KJV

This would be our world, except for the speaking of God to men and the heeding of His words by some.

The legal systems which provide a measure of safety for those who live in civilized lands were, in the beginning, written by men who feared God and respected the words that He has spoken to men.

Can you imagine yourself without the speaking of God to our world? What would you be? What would your life be like?

Can you imagine yourself without a Bible, without a church, without any Christian friends and neighbors?

Can you imagine living in a world in which only the law of the jungle prevailed? The strong preying on the weak and every tribe living either to attack some other tribe or defend itself from being attacked? Can you imagine owning nothing except that which you could carry from place to place?

Do you realize that all we have is made possible only because God has spoken?

Can we imagine knowing nothing of God but what superstition, witch doctors, and medicine men told us? Can we imagine living like the Mayans, giving up our children to be sacrificed to the gods?

Can we imagine being left in the darkness that Paul described concerning the pagans?

Eph 2:11-12

11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: KJV

What we have, we have because God has spoken.

Those who believe are now the children of God, partakers of the commonwealth of Israel and heirs of the covenants of promise, having hope and a real relationship with God. All this because God spoke, first to the 'fathers by the prophets' and then 'unto us by his Son.'

Can we conceive how foolish, how utterly stupid, it is, then, to refuse to pay close attention to what He said and obey it?

What a marvelous thing it is that God has spoken!

But there is a problem. What God has spoken men do not want to hear. They do not like what He has said.

According to Jesus, all that He has said stands upon two great and profound principles.

Deut 6:4-5

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. KJV

Deut 11:1

1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. KJV

Lev 19:34

34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. KJV

Matt 22:35-40

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. KJV

All of the other commands of scripture are extensions of these two principles. Any failure to obey or violation of any of the commands of God is described as sin.

We see in these verses that Jesus was in agreement with the principles of the OT. But His message to men was that they had violated the commands of God, were under judgment for those violations and had no hope unless they (1) repented of all their sins against God and man, and (2) believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with the whole heart.

Because men do not like what God has said, they do not place high value on the fact that God has spoken.

But consider the alternative. If God had not spoken their lives would be much more miserable than they are. And, there would be no hope of anything but judgment and condemnation beyond this life.

Consider something else that God has said.

Matt 17:1-5

1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. KJV

And then consider the blessed words of that Son.

John 3:16-21

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. KJV

So, the question for every human being is this, Will you believe on the Son of God? Do you believe Him? If so, then the fact that God has spoken is a blessed and wonderful truth for you. You will not perish. You will have everlasting life. You are not condemned for your sins but instead you have been forgiven. You love truth and light and have come to the light that you might obey the Word of God.

Is it not a blessed truth that God has spoken?