THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
Let us begin today with a question: Have you ever wanted God to speak to
you? In a moment of desperation or heavy
discouragement, have you ever said, “O Lord, if only You
would speak to me; if only I could hear Your voice; if only You would talk to
me and not be silent”? It may have been
when cancer was found in your body. Or when your child’s health was critical. Or a young person’s future was unknown. Or when darkness filled
your heart. You said, “If only
God would speak to me. If only He would
tell me. If only He would let me know
that He is there.”
Maybe we have all
said that at different times in our life. The psalmist did
(Ps. 28:1):
“Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” It is then that we find God most patient and
most stern in His rebuke. Rebuke? Yes, appropriately so. Patient and firm in His
rebuke. For He says, “I have
spoken to you in My Son. I have spoken
awesome, infinite, precious, clear words.
I have not been silent.”
The apostle Paul
begins the epistle to the Hebrews with these words: “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.” God says that in
Do we really see
what we see in the birth of Jesus Christ?
Do we hear what we hear?
We see, we hear, that God’s Son was born a man,
in a manger, in order that He might be the only Savior. But do you hear what you hear?
The apostle Paul is
writing in the book of Hebrews to show the exceeding majesty and glory of Jesus
Christ. He is writing to fellow Jews who
have been converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but are now tempted to go
back into their former Judaism. They are
tempted under the persecutions brought upon them and under the setbacks and
disappointments that were theirs as children of God. They were tempted to give up on the
Messiah. Paul says, “Whoa! Hold up!
Don’t listen to the Devil. Don’t
listen to sin telling you that there is no hope to be found in Christ. Christ is the Victor’s Son. He is the enthroned God. He is the Lord and Savior. God has spoken to us in His Son. His Son, whom He has given for us, is the
Word of God to you.” God speaks. He is not silent. He communicates. He speaks powerfully and savingly. Do you hear?
God has spoken to us in His Son.
The apostle brings out in
Hebrews 1:1-3
that God has spoken in two phases. He spoke before the coming of His Son into
the world, and then He spoke through His Son coming into the world. Paul says, “God, who at sundry times (that
is, on many occasions) and in divers manners (that is, in many different ways) spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” God, long ago, says the apostle, spoke to the
fathers by the prophets in many different places and in many different ways in
Holy Scripture. And now He has in these
last days spoken to us in His Son.
God spoke formerly,
in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament Scriptures, in many different
portions and in many different ways, of Christ, of Himself, and of the
salvation that He would bring.
Now, note that the
apostle says there that God spoke. A lot
could be made out of that. There is
nothing more important than to understand that.
God was not silent. He
communicated. God gave Holy Scripture,
in which He came down to reveal Himself, to make Himself
known, and to tell us from His heart what a treasure is the Bible. Note that the apostle says that He spake to the fathers by the prophets. That is important. He did not simply speak to the fathers. But He spoke to the fathers by the prophets,
through inspired instruments who wrote His Word. You say, well, that’s obvious. But think about that. He did not simply whisper in their ears or
speak out of the sky or write in the clouds or write on the ground. Occasionally, exceptionally, He would
communicate directly. But how did God
speak to the fathers? He spoke through
the prophets. He inspired men to speak
or to write His Word. That is the way
God speaks to us. We say, “God should
talk to me. That is the way to get it
done. He should audibly whisper it in my
ear.” And God says, “Who are you? Are you going to tell Me, God, how to
communicate?” This is the way that God speaks: He speaks through inspired, Holy
Scriptures. This is the more sure Word of God, says Peter in
II Peter 1,
unto which
we do well to take heed as a light shining in a dark place.
“God,…in times past,” says Paul, “spake
lavishly.” He spoke in many portions and
in many wonderful ways. We marvel at the
variety of Holy Scripture. He said the
same thing: Grace. But He spoke that message of grace in
history, in the lives of His people, in psalms and proverbs, through prophets,
and in the book of Leviticus, in the Song of Solomon, and in II Kings—in all of
the Old Testament Scriptures. He spoke
in various ways so that we would get it.
He did not speak in one way or in one manner or in one portion, but He
spoke through it all—through Psalms and Proverbs, Zechariah and Jonah, the
sufferings of Job, the sins of David. He
spoke through all of this in order that I might hear and I might see and
understand. So I am rebuked already in
my complaint that God is silent. The Old
Testament Scriptures are tailor-made for us.
Do you say, “There
is no word of God for me in my situation in life”? God would say, “In the Old Testament and in
all of the Scriptures I spoke with you and your situation in mind. For your confusion and loneliness, your
anxiety and temptation—I wrote it all out in the life of Job and Abraham,
Peter, and in all the Holy Scriptures, in a thousand portions. I made it all abundantly plain.”
What did God speak
in times past to our fathers? He spoke
of His Son. He spoke of the promise of
His grace. He spoke of what He would do for
us unworthy sinners. He spoke of how He
would glorify Himself by picking us out of the dunghill. He spoke in many portions and in many
ways. He spoke in Jeremiah 31:3:
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee.” He spoke in
Isaiah 40:1:
“Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people.” He spoke in
Genesis 3:15:
“And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God spoke in many wonderful ways of the
promise of His Son.
But now, Paul wants
us to see that God has spoken in a far greater way—in the sending of His
Son. The former word, the Old Testament,
the inspired Word of God, pointed ahead to something. And the apostle Paul says this has now
happened. “God, who in
sundry times…spake …unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by (or in) his Son.” In the giving, in the birth, of His Son to
the virgin Mary, God has spoken. When you or I would
complain to God, “Lord, I want to hear you speak to me. Cause me to hear Thy voice,” is that
complaint well placed? What would be
God’s response? God’s response would
be: “I have spoken in the coming of My
Son; spoken powerfully, sufficiently, beautifully for you.”
God spoke, in the
gift of His Son, of the marvel of His grace.
God spoke in such a way as to open up all of His great heart when He
sent His Son to be born of the virgin in a manger. God spoke.
God conveyed, God communicated His living Word of grace in His Son. Note that the apostle does not say, “In times
past God spoke by prophets and in these last day has
spoken by the apostles.” That would be
true enough. He did speak in the
inspired New Testament Scriptures as well.
But the point he wishes to make is more.
He spoke in what He did. You say,
“Actions speak louder than words”? The
point made is that God has done something to communicate to us. He sent His Son to bear our
iniquities, to heal our diseases, to make His soul a ransom for our sin.
Paul, in verse 3,
goes on to give the marvel of that, that God has given His Son. His Son, “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.”
God’s Son is His glory Son, the Son of God, in whom
shines the glory of the eternal God.
God’s Son is His mighty Son, for His Son upholds the whole world in His
hands. He has you and me, brother, in
His hands. His Son is the victorious Son
who, having purged away the sins of God’s elect church, now sits at God’s right
hand to rule over everything. God did
not give for you and me a prophet. He
gave His Son.
Here Muslims show
their critical error and heresy and blasphemy.
For they say that Jesus is a prophet, but not Son. They belittle the Son. Jesus Christ is no mere creature, no mere
angel, no mere prophet, no man of the year, no man of the millennium. He is God’s eternal, natural Son, to whom must be, now and ever, all praise, and before whom all
must bow down and worship.
God spoke, oh how
He spoke, in infinite volume and in amazing tenderness, in the sweetest of
sounds, in the most profound tones, when He gave His Son in
Every time that I
complain that God is silent, Oh may the Lord cause me
to stop and ask, “Have I heard God speak in the manger of
The Son in whom God
speaks is the Son who has been appointed heir of all things, says the apostle,
“by whom also he made the world.” Now,
why is that added? Is that just thrown
in there? No! The apostle adds that in order to tell us
that all that God has spoken to us in His Son, His Son is able to fulfill. In His Son God speaks. He says, “By My Son, I will wipe away your
sins and make you clean. By My Son, I
will empty your grave of its power. By
My Son, I will work all things for your eternal well-being and salvation. By My Son, I will glorify you in heaven.”
Well, is what God
says true? Can He make good on this
Word? Listen. The Son through whom God speaks is appointed
heir of all things. He is the One by
whom also God made the worlds, and right now upholds the world. He makes good all His promises. His Son is appointed by God eternally to be
the heir of everything. He made all
things. All things are at His
disposal. He disposes and dispenses all
things as He wills, for He is Lord God Almighty. All lands, wind, oceans, buildings, nations,
energy, military might, bacteria, viruses, cancer, demons, angels—everything
except God the Father. All things are
subject to Him. He can and He will make
good every promise. The Word that God
spoke to you and to me when His Son Jesus Christ was born is a Word that is
sure and cannot know change. It is dependable. It will never fail. It is the Word of grace that God speaks in
His Son.
If in His Son God says, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (
Rom. 8),
then do not say, “Well, I don’t know about that.” No! He
speaks to us in His Son, who is the heir of all creation and who upholds all
things by His own might. If in His Son
God says to us, “All things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to his purpose” (
Rom. 8),
then do not say, “Well, I
don’t know about that.” Do not say
that! If He speaks to us in His Son and
says that there shall soon come a day when there shall be no more crying or
death or pain, and He will wipe away all tears from your eyes, then do not say,
“Can that be?” God has spoken by His
Son. And He will make good on that
promise.
Listen to God speak
in His Son and be still. Stand
still. Go to
Listen, because
there will be no other Word from God.
This is His last Word. “This is
My Beloved Son,” said God. “Hear ye
Him.” That is what the apostle means
when he says in verse 2, God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son.” The Bible knows only two
days: the day of promise and the day of
reality. God spoke formerly, in the day
of promise, by the prophets. And now, in
this last day, He has spoken in His Son.
There are no days coming after these days. There will not be another phase of human
history. These days are the days that
shall be brought finally to the end when Jesus returns in His majesty and
glory. They are the New Testament
dispensation, when the victory has been won upon the cross. The mortal blow has been delivered to the
devil and sin. Days
when the church is being gathered, when sin is being judged. The day, now, of spiritual
warfare, a day of preparation for the bride of Jesus Christ to be ushered into
glory. It is the day when we are
waiting for His Son to come again upon the clouds of glory. But the point is this: God has now spoken His decisive word. It will not be followed by another word. It cannot be followed by a greater word. A greater word does not exist. This is the word of God: “Behold, My Son—the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world—who is made Lord of all,
above all things, exalted at My right hand.
This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased, the Redeemer and Savior. Hear
ye Him!”
Do you hear
Him? Do you hear God speak through
Him? In this time of year, in the rush
and anxiety and the stress of the holidays, do we rush by the Word of all words
spoken in a manger? Do you skim that
Word like you would read the newspaper?
Or do you taste it? And do you
stand still before the wonder of what God says in His Son? Do you say, foolishly, “I need something more. It’s not enough
for me, for my situation, for my dashed heart, for my burdens, for my
grief”? Do not say that, child of
God! Be still. Listen.
God speaks tenderly.
And God speaks sovereignly, as Lord God Almighty. “I have spoken to you, sinner, in My
Son. I spoke when a virgin conceived and
eternal God of God, remaining God, was born, Man of man, in a lowly cattle
shed, among stinking manure and bound in swaddling clothes (torn pieces of
rags). I spoke, then, of the misery and
of the sin and of the death that were yours.
And of the fact that I have given it now over to My Son that He might
bear it away, that it can never be found again.
I have spoken to you of my eternal heart.” Do you hear it? God speaks in the manger.
The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. Never did God speak so as when Jesus was born.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank
Thee for Thy precious Word. And we pray
that Thou wilt daily bind it to our ears that we may hear what Thou hast spoken
in Thy Son. In Jesus’
name, Amen.
Last Modified: 12-04-2007