If you don't know where that is, just go to the second floor and go all as far as you can
until you get to the playground.
And then you know you've gone too far.
You turn around and come back and it's the first room right beside the playground, okay?
Well, a couple of weeks ago I was ill on Thanksgiving weekend.
And so what I've done is to take that text and repackage it for today.
It sort of works like this.
How many of you husbands have ever bought a Christmas present, for example, for your wife,
and you had it wrapped nicely and then you put it away somewhere?
And when Christmas came you couldn't find it.
And so middle of January, sure enough, here it shows up.
You discover it.
And so what do you do?
Well, you perhaps unwrap it and you put Valentine paper around it.
And you give it to her for Valentine's Day, right?
So what I've done is to take this text and I've taken off the Thanksgiving wrapping
and I've put Christmas wrapping on it and presented it to you this morning
so that we have covered all of that that I wanted to cover in this series on the last days.
Advent is one of my favorite seasons of the year and I love the music of Christmas.
I know that some of you men are already thinking about what you're going to buy your wives
and probably most of you already shopped and done all of it, right?
So if you haven't done that yet, I have some hints for you men who are shopping for your wives.
Just some things to keep in mind as you go out.
Number one, never give your wife any kind of household appliance or something that's going
to make household work easier for her, such as one of those brooms that you see on television
or one of the mops that you see or those dust claws.
Avoid anything that you see in an infomercial.
That's hint number one.
Hint number two, don't give her any bulk cleaning supplies.
Okay? Now, Costco has some great deals.
I understand that.
But don't present a big box of Tide to her and say, here, honey, I know you always wanted this.
Number three, avoid giving her any sharp objects made by Ronco with slice and dice.
And none of the Jinsu knives.
Stay away from those.
Number four, do not buy gifts for yourself and then pretend that they're for her.
Okay? Don't say, here, honey, here's that drill I know you've always wanted.
Finally, let me say that if you're going to buy her lingerie, do not buy flannel,
especially the kind with feet in them.
Okay? So just some hints for your Christmas shopping this year.
Some of you guys sort of need it, right?
Well, Advent season reminds us of the greatest gift ever given,
and that is God's gift of His Son.
It's the most remarkable period in human history, at least to date.
It is when God Himself became man and He lived among us for a little while.
That was the fulfillment of God's promise made hundreds and hundreds of years before,
stated many times and in many different ways.
And that was the promise to provide a final deliverer.
That is someone who could deal with humanity's greatest problem,
and that is our slavery to selfishness and sinfulness.
And God promised that this deliverer would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and then one who would bless all of the nations.
I remind you of this verse, and by the way, I think it's in your notes.
If not, it'll be on the screen, but I encourage you to pull out your notes.
We'll be looking at a number of texts this morning.
In Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3, God said this, among other things, to Abraham,
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Now, the apostle Paul takes that phrase, and he brings it into his writing
of the book of Galatians chapter 3 and verse 8.
And I want you to take a look at what he does with that verse from Genesis.
And the scriptures, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
all the nations shall be blessed in you.
Isn't that interesting?
And then in Galatians, in the fourth chapter, the apostle said,
and when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth what?
His son made of a woman.
There's the first advent, the Christmas story.
God sent forth his son being birthed by a woman.
You see, advent is about God coming down here to the earth.
But advent also reminds us of a larger story, that although God was here on the earth
and the person of Jesus 2,000 years ago, that was only the first phase of his plan
to redeem the lost race of Adam.
Eventually, God's plan is to bring about a totally new creation.
He's already started that really in us because the Bible says that anyone be in Christ,
that is a follower of Christ by faith, he is a what?
A new creation, a new creature.
So God has already begun that work, but someday it's going to involve a whole new universe.
God will send his son the second time to accomplish that.
And that's what we've been talking about in this series on the last days.
God is going to send his son and fully effect the salvation
that he secured the first time that he came.
Hebrews 9.28 says, Christ was once offered to take away the sins of many people.
And he will appear a second time, not to bear sin,
but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
That's the outcome of the last days.
Now we've studied this theme for several weeks,
so we have seen that the last days is a very broad biblical theme,
predicting a period of time that will bring about horror and suffering
and the pouring out of God's wrath in the world.
And all of that will precede the culmination of it,
which is blessing and salvation through Christ's return to the earth.
Now if I'm correct, the last days, which is a period of time biblically speaking
from the first coming until the second coming, at least 2,000 years long now,
the last days have toward the end of them another period that we might call also
the last days, the last days of the last days.
And that's when this time yet to be fulfilled is going to happen on the earth.
And having learned a little bit more about that last week in particular,
you may say to yourself, how am I going to make it through?
What am I going to hang on to if we are in fact entering into this period of time called
the last days of the last days?
What I want to say to you this morning from the book of Hebrews, the first chapter is this,
that you can face whatever lies ahead with joy and confidence
if you lay hold of your last day spiritual benefits.
You see, people in previous generations envy you.
Because of the benefits that come to you, because of the period of time in which you live.
That's explained to us here in the first three verses of the book of Hebrews.
In the past, that is before this age, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets
at many times and in various ways.
But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things
and through whom he made the universe.
The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.
Sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
Friends, in those three verses, God lays out for us some benefits that we have in these last days
so that we can make some bold statements that will see us through the years to come.
Bold statements that will see us through the last days.
We can enter into this period of time with joy and confidence because number one,
we can boldly say, I know God's final word.
We can say this.
People before this age could not say it.
But we know God's final word. It says here, God has spoken to us by his son.
People in previous generations heard God's voice.
God spoke to them through the prophets many times, various ways, in bits and pieces.
Just bits and pieces.
That's how they saw things.
Something like a puzzle.
They had the pieces to the puzzle, but they didn't know what they were doing.
They had the puzzle, but they didn't have the frame for the puzzle.
And so they didn't know how all of these things fit together.
So they had God's truth in bits and pieces, but they didn't understand how they fit.
But in these last days, God has spoken to us by his son.
And in doing that, God has given us the framework for the puzzle.
God has spoken fully, definitively, conclusively in Christ.
We should expect that there will be no prophet superior to Christ who will come after him.
There is no place in God's plan for another prophet by the name of Muhammad.
He is a false prophet.
There is no room for a prophet by the name of Joseph Smith.
He is a false prophet.
Or any other person who claims to speak with some later revelation.
For Jesus Christ is God's final word.
And you all remember the old E.F. Hutton commercial, right?
When they speak, what?
That's right.
And I want to tell you something.
When God speaks, there's nothing more to be said.
When God speaks, that's it.
It's full.
It's complete.
And he has spoken in his son.
You say, well, there are lots of voices in our world today.
And some of them disagree with God.
When I lived in Kentucky 10 years, there was a phrase that I learned.
I've never heard it spoken outside of Kentucky, probably with good reason.
But it kind of gets to the point of this.
It says, it don't make no never mind.
It don't make no never mind.
In other words, it doesn't make any difference if you hear other voices.
Because God has spoken.
That's it.
What God will do in the last days is to exalt his son through whom he's spoken.
You see, the last days are really all about Jesus.
The last days are about God vindicating Jesus, acclaiming Jesus, revealing Jesus,
who he is to everyone so that someday every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess that he is Lord.
Eventually, everything will come under his absolute and direct rule.
That's what the last days are all about.
God's son and what he has said through him.
Some of you enjoy reading the book of the Revelation.
And a few of you are right now reading through the book.
I commend you for that.
You may not understand everything that you read, to say the least.
But it is the only book in the Bible that promises a special blessing to anyone who reads it.
So read it.
The book is introduced by these words.
The revelation of things that are going to come about in the future.
Is that what it says?
No.
The revelation of who?
The revelation of the future.
The revelation of who?
Jesus Christ.
The book of Revelation does deal with some future things, but that's not its purpose.
Its purpose is to show us the glory that is uniquely Jesus Christ's.
It is the book of Revelation about him.
You see, this word that God has spoken through Jesus is the key that unites all of history.
All of it comes together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, eventually.
Therefore, I can say this.
I don't have to worry.
I don't have to worry about the future because Jesus ties it all together.
I don't have to be alarmed and frustrated about what's going to happen tomorrow or
what's going to happen next on God's calendar.
I think I know.
But I don't have to worry about those things because Jesus Christ holds it all together,
and I am Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I am free from worry.
I don't have to try to figure it out.
All I have to do is keep my eyes on him.
So how will you make it through the last days?
You will make it through because you keep your eyes on Jesus, because he is God's final word.
That's all you need.
There's a second benefit that we see here, and that is I can boldly say,
because I live in the last days, I understand history's big picture.
You and I know all that is necessary for us to know.
If you have a story before you and you know the beginning of the story,
and you know the ending of the story, and you know the events in the middle and how they all
fall out, why read the book, right?
Why go to the movie?
Because you already know it all.
Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end.
He's the Alpha, and he's the what?
The Omega.
You and I know the beginning, we know the ending, and we have everything in between in him.
And that's essentially what the writer says here.
Notice what he says.
Through the Son, God made the universe.
That's the beginning.
That's the start of it all.
He says, God appointed the Son heir of all things.
That's the future.
Everything eventually belongs to him and is under his rule.
The beginning and the ending.
And then he says, the Son sustains all things by his powerful word.
That's everything in between.
The beginning, the ending, everything in between is all about Jesus Christ.
Now the universe is not eternal.
Scientists are discovering this now after having followed a stray idea brought about,
frankly, through evolution.
That the universe must surely be eternal.
All that has ever been, all that will ever be is the cosmos, says Carl Sagan.
He knows better now.
The universe has a beginning, and scientists understand that through the Big Bang Theory.
Now they may not know all about it, but they know that it had a beginning.
And they've also discovered that the universe is going to one day come to an end.
That the universe is going to one day contract.
Again, they don't have the details of Revelation from God's word on it.
But they know from their theories of science that the universe eventually is going to contract and be no more.
They know now that it has an ending.
And we know that as it's laid out right now, the whole cosmos is like a poem that God has written.
And Jesus is the origin, Jesus is the heir of it all in the end, and all of history and all of its eras in between are planned out.
And all of those successive periods of time, however many there be, were all planned out through Jesus Christ.
As it says in Hebrews 11.3, by faith we understand that the world, the word there literally is the ages,
the eons of time, the successive periods of time, were prepared by the word of God.
Who is the word of God? Jesus Christ, the Son.
So that what is seen was made out of things which are, what is seen was not made rather out of things which are visible.
So my friends, you and I understand history's big picture.
We understand that now. People in the past did not grasp this.
But in these last days we know this to be true. God tells us the beginning, the end, it all is about Jesus.
God has the big picture all planned out.
And if God has the big picture planned out, let me assure you, He has your life, your piece of that, planned out too.
The words of David in Psalm 139,
For you created my inmost being, you Lord knit me together in my mother's womb.
And then down in verse 16 it says, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
What is David saying here? He's saying, Lord, before I was even conceived you had all of my days planned out.
How are you going to make it through the last days?
Well, I want to tell you how you're going to do that.
By understanding that you don't have to question your life's purpose.
Because God has a plan for you.
God does.
Now you may not understand this plan. In fact, you can only see it a day, even a moment at a time.
Whatever lies ahead, whatever events there be, however long we're going to be here on the earth,
all of those things are planned out by God and you and I don't have to question what God is doing.
The universe did not originate with an unplanned big bang and you did not originate with an unplanned accident.
God has planned for you to be alive right now in this period of time, in this generation,
and He has a purpose for your life.
And one of the greatest discoveries you can make is God's plan for you to be alive.
One of the greatest discoveries you can make is God's purpose for you and to live that out.
What a benefit you've got.
People in past ages are jealous of what you've got that they didn't have the privilege of possessing.
Third, my last day benefits include these.
This, I have confidence in God's nature.
I have confidence in God's nature.
The text says the sun is the radiance of God's glory and the what?
The exact representation of His being.
Now, people have lots of ideas about God and most of them are pretty screwy.
As you read in our world today and even some of the most popular books that are being sold in the
bookstores, reminds you of the old proverb of the blind man feeling an elephant trying to figure out
what it is.
They're so lost, so groping in their spiritual darkness that they cannot understand God, although
God has revealed Himself.
But they're trying to figure God out and what inevitably happens is that they make God in their
own image.
Is God a good God or is He bad?
Is God angry?
Does God care about us personally?
Is God evolving and changing with time?
That's one of the latest theories of liberal theologians.
Obviously, you see where they get it from, evolution, the whole philosophy of evolution,
evolution, the whole philosophy of it, they apply to theology and God's changing too over time.
Or is God the same yesterday, today, and forever?
Is God personal or is He the force who's with you?
Is God real or is God imaginary?
Is God kind and loving?
Or is God capricious and potentially mean as the Muslims fear that He is?
These things matter.
How can I make it through the last days if I don't know what God is really like?
You see, I have confidence in God's nature and that's because of the sun.
Notice the two phrases used to describe the sun.
First one is he is the radiance of God's glorious being.
He is the shining out of who God really is.
In the Old Testament, there was this appearance of God's glory that was called, does anybody know?
Shka'ina is the Hebrew word, the glorious appearance of God.
The glorious appearance of God. The glorious appearance of God was incarnated in the person
of Christ so that we can actually look at that glory and see exactly what it's like.
He goes on to say it's the exact representation of God's very nature.
The word there is where we get our English word character.
Do any of you remember the name Underwood?
Well, let me ask it this way.
Do any of you remember a mechanical machine called a typewriter?
Underwood was a type of typewriter.
And what happened with those, and I know for some of you this is like going into a museum,
but there were keys on the keyboard and you would push the key and it actually went down.
And that caused a reaction, a mechanical reaction, and there was a lever inside that went up.
And on the end of that was a little character.
And it would hit an actual ribbon of ink.
Can you believe that?
And it would impress the character on the paper leaving a mark there.
That's exactly what this word there is.
That's exactly what this word means, the exact representation.
Jesus Christ is the impression of deity on human flesh, human nature.
So that when we look at Jesus, we are seeing exactly what God is like.
Therefore, I know God is loving and caring.
I know that God is merciful and gracious because that's what Jesus is like.
You see, I don't have to question God's care because Jesus shows it to me.
I don't have to worry about whether God's going to take care of me in the last days
or whatever tough thing I'm passing through because Jesus shows me how much God cares
about me, about you.
The whole phrase here indicates that the Son is distinct from and yet equal to
the one whose essence is imprinted upon Him.
You and I have the wonderful benefit, the confidence of who God is by His nature
because we live in the last days.
Jesus has come and showed us God.
There's a fourth benefit that I want to talk about briefly and that is,
my last day benefits include I enjoy amnesty from God's wrath.
You believe in amnesty?
Well, we ought to believe in this guy.
Amnesty means release.
He provided purification for sins.
The big problem, the big problem, my sins.
My sins separate me from God.
My sins keep me out of God's holy presence.
My selfishness, my self-centeredness separate me from God.
But Jesus has provided purification for sins.
The word purification here is catharsis.
Catharsis, now we use that word in our English language in drama, medicine,
in psychotherapy.
It's also used in religious expressions like here.
What it means is to release from one condition or one experience
and to be restored to another.
So people can go through a psychological catharsis by some experience they have
and they're changed by it.
They're released from what they were before, they become something else.
What it's saying here is that we are released, we are changed,
we are restored to something we were not before by Jesus purification of our sins.
The writer talks about this more in chapter 10 when he says,
we have confidence to enter the most holy place.
Question.
What was it that kept people out of the most holy place in the Old Testament?
Sins.
Even the high priest could not go behind the veil into the most holy presence of God without blood
that had to be sprinkled for his sins and the sins of the people.
The writer says here, we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body.
So what was it that physically separated the most holy place from the rest of the temple?
It was a curtain, right?
What happened to that place?
It was a curtain, right? What happened to that curtain at the very moment that Jesus said,
it is finished, it was torn in two from the top to the bottom?
That curtain was a symbol of his body in which he suffered and died.
And as he died, that curtain was torn in two and the way into God's holy presence was
now opened, it says, because Jesus has provided the cleansing for our sins.
In the Old Testament, this was illustrated in the Day of Atonement by the scapegoats.
You familiar with that concept? Two goats were brought to the high priest.
One of them, the high priest would place his hands on the heads of the goats and confess the sins of
Israel. One of the goats was then taken and sacrificed and the blood was sprinkled in a
certain way in the tabernacle of the temple. The other goat was then led out into the wilderness
and released. Symbolically, that goat was carrying away the sins of the people.
What this idea of catharsis is to embrace both of these, Jesus died to pay the penalty
and he carried away our sins. In the Old Testament, it was all by atonement, which means a what?
A covering over. God just covered over the sins, but they were not carried away, taken away.
But when Jesus died, all of those sins and all of our sins were carried away. The record was cleansed
because of the worth of his sacrifice blood for us. I enjoy amnesty from God's wrath.
You say, what's that got to do with the last days? Well, remember last week,
I told you that there's coming on the earth this time called the tribulation.
It is a time when God's wrath is going to be poured out upon the earth because of its rejection
of his Son. It will be a horrible time of suffering. The encouragement that I have from this
is that because you and I have amnesty from God's wrath, we're not going to be there for that.
And not everybody agrees with me on this, but I believe that because we have already received
amnesty and cleansing from sin and therefore amnesty from God's wrath, that it would be
entirely inappropriate for us to be in the world when God's wrath is poured out. We have not been
appointed to wrath, but to what? Salvation. Paul writes to the Thessalonians.
I don't have to fear God's judgment because Jesus cleanses me. Jesus cleanses me.
Finally, I want to say my last day benefit that I can enjoy is that I have a high priest who
intercedes. A high priest who intercedes. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
breastplate. This was a piece of silver. He would have a breastplate on his chest.
Now this relates to the high priest of the Old Testament who represented Israel before God.
And on that day of atonement, for example, he would enter into the holiest place in the temple
and as he did, he would have on his chest a breastplate. This was a piece of silver.
And on that day of atonement, for example, he would enter into the holiest place in the temple
and as he did, he would have on his chest a breastplate. This was a piece of solid gold about that large
and embedded in it were 12 precious stones. And on each one of those stones engraved the name
of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. So that when he went into the presence of God,
he represented the whole nation. You and I have a high priest.
As the writer of Hebrews says, who has passed through the heavens. Who is it? Jesus, the Son of God.
You and I have a high priest who enters into the very holy place and he remains there
in the presence of God, among other things, praying for us as a group and for us individually.
And so we are invited, it says in verse 16 of chapter 4, to approach the throne of grace,
the mercy seat, with confidence that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
Are you in a time of need today? You have one who prays for you at the throne of grace.
Simply approach the throne of grace and you have the mercy, the grace that you need today.
Will you need it tomorrow? Will you need it in the last days and those events coming on the earth?
The high priest is there my friend and your name is engraved upon his breastplate,
even upon his hands by the nails of the cross. He represents you before God.
He represents you before God. There's a great old hymn that left the hymnals years ago. Remember hymnals?
They were books that you collected hymns in and
there's a great old hymn that you won't find even in more recent hymnals written back in the middle
of the 1800s that says, Every stormy wind that blows from every swelling tide of woes,
there is a calm, a sure retreat, tis found beneath the mercy seat.
Ah, whither could we flee for aid when tempted, desolate, dismayed? Or how the hosts of hell defeat
had suffering saints no mercy seat. Thank God we have a mercy seat and we have a great high priest
who stands there praying for us. So I don't have to feel alone because Jesus knows and prays for me.
He knows you and even when you are too discouraged, too low, too much in pain
to even pray for yourself, He prays for you. That's why you can make it through the tough times.
What to do with the last day benefits? Just four very quick thoughts and for these I go to Hebrews
chapter 10. Here's what we need to do now to take advantage of our benefits that we enjoy in this age.
Since we have a great priest over the house of God, He says in chapter 10,
since we live in this privileged time that we do, let us draw near to God. In other words,
live near to God. This is no time, my friends, for us to be playing out in the pig pen of sin.
This is no time for us to put up with backsliding in our lives. This is no time for us to be asleep
at the switch. Let us draw near to God and live in consistent fellowship with Him.
Secondly, He says, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. In other words, hold on to your hope.
Do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that
when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He's promised. For in just a very
little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. That's our hope, my friends.
It is that hope that gives us perspective on everything else. Hold on to the hope that He
has. Number three, He says, let us consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds.
In other words, exist to encourage. Do not get focused on yourself in the last days. What is
going to happen to me? How am I going to make it? Be looking around at others. Be a blessing to them.
Encourage them to walk on with God. We need each other in this regard, and that brings me to the
final point, and that is, He says, let us not give up. That is, let us not abandon meeting together
like some do, but let us encourage one another. In other words, stay connected with others in God's
family. Don't be casual about being in church. Don't be haphazard about being with others in
a small group where you really get to know each other and connect. He says, hey, stay connected,
and all the more as you see the day approaching, He says, the last days.
Now, we have a choice. We can choose to live in fear. We can look at the last days and say,
oh my goodness, what's going to happen? I'm so frustrated. I can't figure all of this out.
This person says that. That person says something else. Who's right? What's going to happen?
We can go down that road. Why? Why? We have the wonderful benefits we have living in these last
days, and if we will simply do what He tells us to do, the result will be we will be fixed.
We will be firm. We'll have a foundation that will take us all the way through the last days.
And instead of having agitated hearts, our hearts can be still and know that He is God.
Is that where your heart is today? At the end of the service, we're going to have some people who'll
be up here to pray with you. And if you'd like to come and pray with some folks for something in
your life, something that's troubling you and agitating your heart, please come. If you don't
know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I beg you to come and just say, would you pray for me? I need
to take a step of faith. I need to become a follower of Christ. Right now, though, we're
going to sing together after I've prayed. Father, thank you for what you say to us about the last
days, and I pray that we will be so in touch with you, so walking with you, so near to you,
that we will be so connected with others, so focused on encouraging others,
that we'll be so tight with hanging on to our hope, that our hearts will be still, quiet,
trusting as we live through this time that we're privileged to be a part of. Lord, help us to know
what we're about, what our role is, and then to do it, and all the more so as the day approaches.
Jesus' name, amen.