Contained Attributes
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor James Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 15 February 2026
People learning to sing, to preach, to use skills that otherwise just get wasted watching professionals do it. And so it's a beautiful place that the Christian church is. Praise God. In Hebrews we're going to be in Hebrews, we're continuing there. In Hebrews chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one.
And this is a bit of an introduction and we've been going through this for a little bit now, several weeks, but the author of Hebrews is continually giving us examples of why the Son of God should be listened to. You and I live in a culture where there are many voices competing for our attention, for our submission to their information that they offer. Some of that might be good, but some of it is also not necessarily lasting. It focuses on external or temporary things. But here the voice given to us through the book of Hebrews is encouraging us to listen to the voice of the Son of God based on unique reasonings that only the Son of God possesses.
You can go on YouTube or TikTok and you will not find one person displaying the same level of credentials that we're going to be seeing offered here to encourage you and I to listen to the voice of the Son of God. They're going to be nice looking people, smart looking people. They're going to have lots of things they can tell you about, letters behind their names and such, or where we went to school, or the people they know, but not one them is going to have any of these credentials. And so my thought is, yes, it is a time to come to church, but more than that, it's a time to spiritually be open to the voice of the Son of God because he has the unique interest in your life and wants to speak to you. Amen.
He has something to say.
Hebrews chapter one and we're in verse three. Last week we brought up the characteristics of his nature that he is the brightness of God's glory. He is not a reflection of God's glory. He is the brightness of God's glory. The second one we looked at last week is he is the express image or the exact representation of God's person, which is when you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.
You cannot see Jesus and not seen the Father. He is the exact representation of his person. And the things we're going to talk about today are also in verse 3. Two of the reasons why you and I should pay special attention to the voice of the Son of God is number one, when he had by Himself purged our sins, Number one, when he had by himself purged our sin and Number two, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. These are two unique characteristics regarding the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, that only he possesses that call out for you and I to pay careful attention to his voice.
Right? There may be someone more spectacular than who you would find in Kapelis Community Church today, that if you came, you would pay attention to them more than me. Possibly, right? I'm not necessarily, you know, anyways, but here the idea is that Jesus Christ contains these attributes and therefore my heart is hoping for myself and for you that you would purposely choosingly be open to hearing God's voice, especially in these areas that we're going to talk about today. The first thing, when he had by himself purged our sins.
Number one, Jesus purged our sin. In order to fulfill this unique calling, an individual had to be both willing and capable. Both willing and capable. We see that priests were not able to continue in the calling that they were called in because they died. They were not able to fulfill this calling.
But we see that Jesus is a willing and capable individual to purge or cleanse your sins. That he possesses the will or the desire to do it and the capability to do it also. These things together make him an individual that you and I should pay special attention to. If you remember John in the book of Revelations, he began to weep much because no one was able to open the scroll or loose the seven seals. No one could come to fulfill that great promises to make the way open to heaven for you and I.
And an angel flew to John's side and said, do not weep, for the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. And he is able to take the scroll and to loose its seven seals. We have an interesting picture in. In Isaiah it says, who is he who comes from Edom with his dyed garments from Bozrah? This one who is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
It says, I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. They asked of him, why is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone and and from the people no one was with me. For I have trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I have stained all my robes.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help. And I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation for Me because there was no one else willing and there was no one else available. Jesus Christ took up the ministry to offer your and I's sin for us.
To purge sin, to cleanse sin. He is an individual willing. How willing was he? What would he have to do to prove to you and I that he would willingly take the sin that you offered to him? How could he show that that gift he wants to give you is one that he is willing to offer to you?
He left glory on high. He was born of a young woman who fled her situations. As a young woman, pregnant outside of wedlock, he lived a life that was extraordinarily difficult. He led a small band of ordinary men and after three years of doing good, was delivered to the authorities, the secular authorities, by the religious authorities, and they're put to death. Why?
Because he was willing to take your sins. And we're going to see in Hebrews. I'm going to go into this just a little bit. How could he, if he is willing, how could an individual deal with your sins? It is nice if a person is willing to pay a fee for you, comes to the judge and says, look, I really want to pay this person's fee for them.
And then they tell you how much it costs. And you're like, well, actually, I was on my way to the dentist instead. You know, I was. I didn't really know it was going to be that much that he owed, right? Jesus, understanding being willing, was not surprised at the cost.
It says in chapter nine of Hebrews, it says, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot of God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Biblical Christianity is not based on an individual's ability to make sacrifices for themselves. It is not based on your dedication or your ability to keep or maintain certain rules or regulations.
Biblical Christianity recognizes that in order to purge sin, something had to pay for those sins. We live in an area that basically arena, that basically says, you know, how sincere you are is how much your sins will be forgiven, how much you hurt or feel sorry or try to repent or try to make up for what you did. None of this would hold up in any court of law. We serve the great and Just God, who, having had his laws violated, is rightfully angry with the wicked because they have transgressed his law. Think about it.
If you had a home and someone was in your home and they were breaking rules in your home, would you have anything to say about it? Of course, you would be rightly motivated to restore that purity in your home. The following of rules. And in the same way the Father has had his laws broken, part of our society believes that the sincerity of repentance can restore this relationship. As if a man were convicted of a murder, he could come in with some sob story to the judge, and the judge would just say, oh, look, you look like you're really sorry.
There is no penalty for your sin today. Some of us try this. When a police pulls us over, right? And we quickly pull the mirror down, put on, try to clean up our car, shove the stuff right, and think, okay, how I act when he pulls me over is going to determine whether he gives me a ticket or not. Well, that's not right.
That's not the basis of whether a ticket is given. Here we see that something had to come in. Not just to cover or just to be some sort of, you know, good smell dipped on those ugly things we did, but something to actually deal with them completely. And Jesus, having become the high priest of a better covenant, he took his own blood into the place where our sins were written, where the rules that we had broken were all stored up. As a just judge, he could not forget about one of them.
They were all written in a book. But he blasted into this holy place similar to those the priests in the Old Testament, bringing blood to cover the sin of the nation. For a year, Jesus brought in his blood and put it upon those sins that were stored up before God in heaven. And they washed them all away. The power of the blood was enough to deal with those sins.
You and I now are called upon to follow him there. He, without hesitation, after having obtained eternal redemption, broke into the holy place with such a thrust that it tore the curtains in two. There was no hesitation. There was a rush. I am going to take the payment for their sins and there won't be a moment delay.
I love them so much. There isn't a day longer. They should live in their sins, not a second more. Now that the antidote has been found. He rushed in and placed it over the altar.
And God was pleased with it. He purged our sins.
It says, then beware, lest there be in anyone an evil heart of unbelief who refuses to look at the Evidence who refuses to take the blood of Jesus Christ at the worth in which it really has and turn to the weak and beggarly elements in which you have always lived in bondage. Beware, lest there be in any of us an evil heart of belief that doesn't take the voice of the Son of God and value that redemption which he offered your soul to for the worth that it actually has. The voice of the Son of God is to be listened to because he purged our sins. The second thing we're going to look at in Hebrews chapter one, it says that he, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
This is the enduring and everlasting brightness who dwells alone that no one can stand in front of that enduring fire that no one can see and live. Jesus sat down at his right hand of the majesty on high. It is interesting as we look at this scripture. It is. There is a scripture that is used many times regarding this idea.
So if you remember in the Gospels, there were individuals, the Herodians, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who all came with their hardest questions to test Jesus, right? And they said, you know, I can't remember which one. They said, is it lawful? I believe the Herodians, is it lawful to. To pay taxes to Caesar?
And Jesus said, hypocrite, show me a coin. Whose image and inscription is on the coin? And they said, well, it's Caesar. Well, if you're going to engage in his money, then pay him his taxes. If you're going to use his resources, pay him the taxes.
And they were quiet from that moment on. The next group, the Sadducees, came and said, seven people, seven brothers, all married the same woman and died one by one in the resurrection. Whose wife is she going to be? Jesus said, you hypocrites, you err not knowing the power of God or the word of God. And he says, in heaven, it's going to be so much better that no one's going to be given in marriage.
And then the last group that came and says, teacher, which is the greatest commandment of all? Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the greatest command. Jesus had a question for them. He says, whose son is the Messiah?
Just get that wording just a little bit right. In Matthew, It says in Matthew, chapter 22, verse 41, while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them, saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? Then they said to him, the Son of David. He said to them, how then does David in the Spirit call him Lord?
Zane? The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies my footstool. He asked them a question which absolutely perplexed them. He says in verse 45, if David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer a word.
And from that day on, no one dared question him anymore. This answer that Jesus gives regarding the Son of David, it's interesting as we look at it, out of Psalm 110. It said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And we see it says the Lord in the English. The first Lord is capital L, O, R D. Capital L, O R D, the covenant name of God.
Yahweh. Some people say Yahweh, or some people say Jehovah, the eternal, always existent God of the Bible. The Lord. The Lord said to David's Lord, David's master, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. They were thinking that this individual was David's son.
And the question is, if he is David's son, how could David speak to him that way? How could the Lord say to my Lord David, did he have. Who was his Lord?
That's okay. Was his son his Lord? Did he bow down to his son? The Lord Yahweh said to David's Lord, sit at my right hand this Lord. If you remember when David was at the end of his life and his son Adonijah presumed to make himself king, David was somehow his hand was at least encouraged by Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet to who is going to be king?
And he brings out a method by making Solomon king. But in that process of making Solomon king, he got up and bowed down on his bed. Who did he worship? It was not his son, it was his Lord. He worshipped on that bed.
This individual, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. This individual is not David's son, but the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Go back to Hebrews before I move on. Here just.
It says, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. This individual, David's Lord, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Also in Matthew we're going to see that the way in which we view this individual who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. How we view him indicates. How we listen to him indicates our future. We're going to look in the negative first back in Matthew.
So in matthew, How it normally goes in the world today, when Christians are persecuted, there rises up a false religious system. And that false religious system ends up convicting individuals of blasphemy. And then they turn the individuals over to the secular system, who then kills them. And this has happened throughout history, over and over again. But in chapter 26 of Matthew, we're going to see.
In verse 62, chapter 26, verse 62. And the high priest arose and said to him, do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God.
Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. The way we view this Jesus Christ, the authority we give to him, the willingness to listen to him as Lord, determines how we treat Jesus. If we recognize the appropriate authority, authority he has, we will respond one way.
If we reject the authority that he has over our lives, we will respond another way. You and I are all in one category or the other, submitting to the authority of the one who sits at the right hand of the power on high, the majesty or not. It says verse 64, Jesus said to him, it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying he has spoken blasphemy.
What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard this blasphemy. What do you think? They answered and said, he is deserving of death. And then they went through the process of turning him over to the secular power to kill him.
How we view this individual, Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of the power on high, determines what we do with him. We're going to look in Acts to see a different example, in closing.
In Acts, chapter one, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, these individuals who had been terrified in Jerusalem, who had been scared, but now, after seeing Jesus rose from the dead, after 500 of them had spent 40 days as eyewitnesses of his resurrection, now returned to the place where he had been crucified. Just a few short time before, and now boldly complained that that individual that they had killed in the streets and on the hill outside of Jerusalem now lived. And Peter begins to preach in Acts chapter one.
It's not going to be in chapter one. It's going to be in chapter two. Okay, in chapter two, verse 30, 32, this Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. One of the things which absolutely testifies to the veracity or the truthfulness of Jesus resurrection is that there were eyewitnesses. Jesus said, Paul says that without these witnesses, without the truth of Jesus actually raising from the dead, we are the most pitiful people, meaning Christians.
Okay, in chapter two, I lost where it was. Okay. In verse 33, therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. This verse had turned the religious leaders against him and caused them to reject Jesus.
But this same verse, falling upon ears that are ready to receive the authority of Jesus, has a different response in verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do when a person recognizes the correctness of our lives under the authority of Jesus, who holds all authority, it prompts the question that you and I need to answer. If he has all authority, what do we do about it? What do we do?
Then Peter said to them, repentance. And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call today. The message of Christianity is no different when you recognize that authority which Jesus Christ has over you, his call to all of us, the voice that we hear is, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise, this wonderful promise of having a new life that is different from the old one, that corrupt one, that sinful one, that dirty one, that painful one that you and I have been accustomed to the Holy Spirit fills our life with new life, with joy and a sense of belonging. He adopts us into our family and gives us an inheritance that we don't deserve. He fills us with an everlasting joy. This is a promise for you.
It's a promise that you can extend to those around you, that you and your household can be saved. You don't have to follow the program of our world around us. Just because everyone else is on the spiral to hell doesn't mean you need to lead your family there. There's a different way, There's a different path. There's ancient paths that are beautiful for those who walk on it.
And I would like to testify today that individuals who receive the authority of Jesus Christ. He still promises to change your life. No matter what you have done. There is no sin. He is motivated and able.
Confess the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That is my encouragement. I believe that is the message of the book of Hebrews. I appreciate. I appreciate the time listening to this.
But more important, I ask you in your heart, look at the evidence. Is he Lord or isn't he? If he is, submit to him willingly, come to him. Because he won't cast out any who come to him by faith. Let's pray.
O Father, we do come to you, Lord. Thankful that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.