Signs And Wonders
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 17 May 2026
- Hebrews 2:4
Who the Son of God is, he is the judge, he is creator. The angels of God worship him. He sits at the right hand and shares the attributes with the Father. We've been learning a lot about the nature of Jesus Christ and it's a very important one. As we consider the mode of salvation, it's important to recognize the nature of the one who saves.
We're going to be in chapter two, verse three and four, Chapter two of Hebrews, verse three and four. Now, we did begin talking about verse three a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I spent some time some of my Sunday in the emergency room last week. Praise God for Terry. It's just a blessing to have him here with us.
I think everyone agrees with that. What a talented and beautiful spirit he has just grateful for his ministry. So in chapter two, verse three, it says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him? God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Here the writer of Hebrews is saying that if we neglect that salvation which Jesus offers, there is no way of escape.
It is interesting as we look, if we need, if there is a salvation, it must be that there needs something to be saved from. There is something that must be in the future from now that individuals have a necessity to be saved from now. When we look at salvation, we have to look about what is required to save somebody. You know, there are certain things that any individual can save. A person scrapes their hand or they fall and their mother or anyone can be the ones to comfort them and save them, to help them, to bandage their wounds.
But if the more that is required for salvation, the higher the value of the individual sent to offer that salvation. Here we see an individual who has been described as the creator of all things. He is the judge of all things. That all eternity, all creation is subject to this individual. The angels of God worship him.
He sits at the right hand of God. It is extraordinarily important to recognize that if such a Savior is necessary, then it must be that which an individual needs saving from is of huge consequence. If there is talk going on, I think in Iran and such, trying to work out some sort of a deal in this thing. And at times the United States sends low level negotiators, right? And individuals come to talk.
But it really comes down to something heavy. Trump breaks out what he breaks out his son in law, Jared Kushner, Right. No, I'm not necessarily saying I agree with any of this, but he breaks out Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and he sends them on the mission. Here we see there was a salvation necessary which required God Almighty to send His Son. No one else could handle what was before them.
If any of the angels would have come to try to facilitate facilitate this salvation, they would have fallen short, because what individuals needed saving from was beyond their capabilities. What people needed saving from required the Son of God to come and come down. Born as a child, live a life, die on the cross. There was something so necessary in Urania's future that required an individual of his stat stature to come and save us. He didn't come because he had nothing better to do.
He came because he was the only individual who had the qualifications necessary to rescue individuals like you and I who had become enemies of God. It had been tried. People had thought that maybe we could overcome this difficulty that we have by good works. Maybe there is a law that could be instituted. Maybe there is sacrifices that people could make to try to overcome this guilt that is reflected in our souls against God Almighty.
But none of it was of sufficient value to save an individual from what they were confronted with. We needed Jesus. We needed Jesus because he was the only one who could effectuate such a great salvation.
It says in chapter three of 2 Peter, it says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of the Lord, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. There is coming a day in which you and I are going to require a salvation, because there is a day coming. You and I unfortunately live in a culture that is compromised by the same lackadaisal tendencies that they had during the days of Noah.
We're going to back up in 2 Peter 3:5:3. It says, knowing this first in 2 Peter 3:3, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. And look, nothing changes. They're all the same.
Life goes on. It moves along. There's nothing that really needs to be considered with importance. It says in verse 5. For this they willfully forget that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.
First of all, if we're to take a careful and make a careful application of the truths to us, we need to know that God formed the world by his word out of nothing. That just as an individual who forms a toy, we have our share of squabbling in our house. If anyone needs patience, I suggest that you have 10 children.
Or maybe show that you don't have any patience. But even a child, you break out the Legos and people build their marvelous creations, their towers. They want to get it all the way to the ceiling, and then their brother comes and they smash it. The child who built has an innate recognition that what I created, I have a responsibility and an ownership of. Even a child knows that when you get stolen of, someone goes into your garage and takes something that belongs to you or either you created, there is a.
There's a hurt, there's a remorse. I made this. It belonged to me. In a similar way, part of the reason that our society is struggling so much is that we do not recognize that the world belongs to God because He created it out of nothing. He has the right to determine what happens to it.
And an understanding of this gives a freedom to understand the second. If he created it, he has the right to put rules upon that which he created and to punish people for breaking those rules. That's his right. It says in verse six, but which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water that once already. Unfortunately, we live in a modern culture who has not only rejected God as creator out of nothing, they've also rejected that one event which tells us of how we are where we are physically here on Earth.
Mainly Noah's flood. Modern geology has come up with a solution by which they said, uniformitarianism is finally the by which we can free ourselves from Moses. We can live a godless life. All we got to do is get rid of the great flood and we can live however we want. But as we go through, when I go through eastern Washington and I see all those channels and canyons and such which were created as a result of Lake Missoula busting, right?
And in a matter of hours or days, all those channels were formed by water going like 70 miles an hour combined with sharp aggregate basalt. And so as we go through the rest of the world to remember that this is Something that was created largely by that flood in Moses time. When we recognize that we live in an inherited history by which God has already judged this world, it is not a far step to the conclusion that that just as he judged the world one time, he can do it again. And he will do it again in verse seven. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing. That with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. It may seem like it's been a long time that everything's continued the way it is, but a correct understanding of history brings us to a place of recognizing that one day God is going to judge the world again. And you and I, as a result, need saving. We need to find an ark.
Back to Hebrews. Hebrews says that if we neglect that great salvation, if that salvation, which began to be spoken by the Lord himself and then by the prophets, if we neglect that great salvation, if that individual who was born, gave up his life, was needed to effectuate that salvation. If we neglect it, is there a consequence? Everyone always remembers the story. The flood's coming, and the guy's up on the roof, right?
And the floods are rising and rising, and the guy's praying, lord, save me, save me. And, you know, a boat comes by, and he's like, you know, quick, the flood's going up. Get in the boat. And the guy's like, no, I'm praying for God to save me. And then, you know, the water keeps rising.
The helicopter comes by, and he's like, you know, quick, the water's still going up, you know, get in the helicopter. He's like, no, I'm waiting for God to save me. And then the water, of course, goes up more and he drowns and dies. He neglected the salvation that was sent to him. How much more?
So if you neglect that salvation, how much worse consequences do you think there will be if we neglect him? That's what we talked about a couple weeks ago. We're going to go to Hebrews and we're going to continue in the next verse in Hebrews.
This salvation has not just been brought to us without a certain amount. How do we say it? Of evidence supplied with us, that it is not just left for us to say, hey, this is the good way. This is there has been evidence. Divine fingers on this salvation to prove to us, to give ideas to the skeptic.
That there is a way in which we can look at the salvation to see if it is something that it says it is. So when Hebrews back in chapter two, we're going to begin to look at that salvation. Maybe you're a skeptic, maybe you have become lukewarm. Maybe you don't think that it's necessary to use the boat that's being sent to you. Maybe the ark is passing by and you have neglected it.
Is there a way that a skeptic could look and say and see whether or not that salvation is something that should be considered carefully?
In chapter two, verse four, it says, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Here we see that the writer of Hebrews is asking us to pay special attention to the miraculous signs and wonders, miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit that were accomplished through Jesus Christ. This is important for us to recognize. It is the spiritual stamp of approval upon the message of Jesus Christ and the salvation which he came to offer you and I. Now, can something that happened so long ago be looked at with integrity to determine whether it was truthful?
Can we at this moment in our lives look back at these things and ascertain for ourselves whether they actually were something that is a divine stamp of approval upon the salvation that Jesus Christ has to offer? So many times people say, but that was 2,000 years ago. Is there a way, is there a way that we can determine the truth of this thing? First I'm going to just look at some of the indicators that are talked about here regarding these things. So I'm just going to go over for them.
Number one, God bore witness with signs and wonders. Signs and wonders. What does it say in Joel? Blood and fire and billows of smoke, right? That the last days would bring upon these things.
Well, here we see Jesus Christ and he came born in an obscure part of the world, in a poor family, in a backwoods place. And yet somehow this individual, this one person's ministry, the son of a builder, led a ragtag, a bunch of working class people into a mission, into a movement that changed the world. Something strange is going on.
If you haven't interacted with Jesus Christ, you don't know what I'm talking about.
God bears with us with signs and wonders. Remember Jesus in the first he was baptized. He went down to John the Baptist to be baptized. And a voice came to heaven and a dove came upon him physically and says, this is my, my beloved Son. Hear him.
There is Something special that this normal person has that you need to pay careful attention to. Later on we see that he went up on a mountain and the same voice came from heaven in Peter and John's life. This is my beloved son. Hear him. If those voices would still be audible to us today, I can't know.
I don't know of any person who would be exempt from the necessity to listen to that voice. Jesus Christ has a message. He has a voice that he intends to speak, that it does well for each of us to heed. He is going to speak and God is saying, hey, look, when he speaks, listen to him. You got a lot of other stuff to listen to.
Important things don't bother me. I'm doing things. I got business, I got things to do. And he's saying, hey, listen to him. If there was a man who has changed the world more than any other man since his birth, it definitely is the person Jesus Christ.
You can add together every other individual that has ever existed, stack their accomplishments one on another, and still they would not meet that which Jesus accomplished in three years. Talk about whoever you want, add them everywhere you go, stack them, and still there definitely is not any individual that is accomplishing more today and through history is that individual. Hear him. He is an individual that had authority over the elements. At his word, the winds and the waves stopped.
The people began to wonder, who is this man?
Signs and wonders follow Jesus Christ. But not only we came and were given a picture. If you are a student of the Bible, you can't help but see that miracles follow Jesus Christ, that he is miraculously involved in the lives of people. Now we're used to the modern day miracles and a person's like, oh, I got a pain in my back. And you know, they're like, oh, I'm all better.
But it's interesting. There is not one miracle that I understand, forgive me, that could be healed by modern medicine today that every single he seemed to have chose the things people born blind from birth, individuals with withered hands straightening out individuals who had been lame in their legs from birth completely. Modern medicine was unable to deal with those things then and today. He lived a life in which miraculous signs and wonders followed him. It is smart for you and I to recognize that God's seal of approval was on his servant Jesus Christ by accompanying his life with special miracles where he says, I have at times wondered about praying for someone to see if they're healing.
And I remember this one guy down in Honduras and he was in a chair and he sat by the store, and his whole body was withered, just all crippled up, just all shrunk and deformed. And I always wondered what would happen if I took him by the hand and pulled him out of that chair.
I think everyone probably started yelling at me, first of all, but I have no power to straighten people's limbs. But Jesus, as a matter of fact, cured these things, regularly demonstrating that he has authority over all physical nature, that everything in nature obeys him immediately. The next thing that is an amazing testimony to the nature of Jesus Christ is the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus died upon the cross and that he went down into the grave for three days.
There it appears that he terrorized the devil, he preached to the spirits in prison, and he defeated the strongman, robbing him or taking back that which the devil had stolen from our ancestors in the Garden of Eden. And now, as a result, in Ephesians, chapter in the middle of Ephesians, that now Jesus, as a result of recovering that which our ancestors lost, he is in the process of giving back to his followers those gifts.
Now, these individuals who followed Jesus were ordinary men, untrained men, uneducated men, not even probably the most religious men. But as a result of the gifts that they were given, these 12 men, and later others who followed Jesus Christ were imdued or given spiritual gifts which allowed them to operate outside of what they had inherently to their being.
I believe that those spiritual gifts are still available for you and I, that God is still looking for powerless, uneducated, untransforming lives. And in giving to them a spiritual gift based on his riches, allowing people to participate in his work, who by their own natural self would have no ability to participate. Now I have to say that though I believe earnestly, Paul says to King Agrippa, he says, when he's giving his defense before King Agrippa, he says, these things were not done in a corner. We have the ability because the way in which Jesus did these things, in which the way they were presented to people, we can accurately determine whether there's a difference between the way in which Jesus did miraculous signs and wonders and that which is being foisted upon an unprepared society today. There's a difference.
It says in now, In 2 Thessalonians, In chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians, verse 7, it says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might receive. And therefore for this reason God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie.
Here we see in Revelations it says that Satan and his angels will put forth strong miracles of such tremendous powerful nature that those, even the elect might be deceived by those things. They are of astonishingly powerful nature. You and I, even though I believe we should look at the miraculous things that were accomplished in Jesus life, we have to be careful because that is the not only is not only the miraculous, that is not the only miraculous signs and wonders being displayed. There are others also that you and I need to be aware of. It says in in John it says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
Because the delusion is so strong, because it has the ability even to tempt, maybe even the elect. You and I need a way of understanding the difference between the two. We are not left in a cloud. We're not left confused. There is a difference between the miraculous things that God does and the miraculous things that are deception.
We see that Satan is a liar. He comes to kill, steal and destroy. It is according to deception that his ministry takes place where the ministry of Jesus Christ takes place in the open. In the open. It is one that any serious individual can look at carefully with the intelligence that you and I have to determine whether there's a difference between the two.
Now, any spirit that does not confess that Jesus is, is the Christ. We see that if you remember, Jesus had been casting out demons in Mark and one of the demons came to him and said, hey, we know who you are. Christ, the Son of God. Obviously it does not mean that demons are angels who know of the existence of Jesus that we should be concerned about. It is end of angels who know of the existence of Jesus but refuse to worship Jesus.
Angels who refuse to worship Jesus according to first John should not be trusted. Anything that confesses Jesus as Lord willingly worships and serves Jesus. That angel, that spirit can be trusted, but into angels that do not cannot be trusted. I'm going to go back to finish. Out of Hebrews 2.
It says in verse four, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to. According to his own will. My encouragement in ending this talk here is number one for you and I to earnestly question whether or not we have heeded the voice of salvation. Maybe you're on a rooftop. Maybe you've begun to recognize that the water's coming up.
Maybe you've begin to see something's abnormal. We live, I love to say it. I think it's true. At the lowest elevation in Grays Arbor, when it floods, and if it begins to come up over the river and it begins to threaten, come up over the road, we know we're in trouble. Because once it comes over the road, we're in trouble.
It begins to flood. And we only have so much time before either the tide goes out or our house is flooded, the food bank's flooded and such. But when you see that water, you need to take action. There's things to do. An individual beginning to recognize the water's rising is not a bad thing.
It's the time you need to begin to not neglect the salvation that's being offered to you. And I hope that there's someone here that's saying, you know, I need not to neglect. One of the ways we don't neglect is. Is looking at the miraculous nature of Jesus Christ. There's a lot of fancy things that you're wasting your time scrolling over.
They're done in a corner. They're done just because someone looked halfway. They're done just because the image was blurry. They're done just because they're just stupid. And you spend your time refusing to neglect, looking at those things.
Great work. Has it done anything for you?
I'm just as guilty. But Jesus offers us salvation. Don't neglect it. The waters are rising, the world will perish, and God wants you to be saved.
We're going to shift gears a little bit here. And one of the effects of individuals seeing their sin and desiring to be saved and learning to walk with Jesus because they trust him is an act of obedience by following Jesus. And one of those ways is baptism. And Jeshurun was the one who kind of started off this thing that when we were in Israel, we got a phone call and for the first time in Jeshurun's life, he was experiencing remorse from sin and repented for it. Isn't that strange?
With each of my kids that have given their life to the Lord, the first time they repented was after they gave their life to the Lord. Isn't that strange? No repentance that I am aware of before that. And he told me, he says, jesh, Jeremy, Papa, I want to be baptized. And that was a very emotional thing for me, a very powerful thing for me.
And then Paul and Marie came to church. And Marie indicated a desire to be baptized. And also Hannah a few weeks ago came and confessed to the church her desire to follow Jesus Christ as her savior and wanted to be baptized. But that doesn't necessarily mean that only three people have to be baptized. Like the Ethiopian eunuch said, hey, look, here's some water.
What prevents me from being baptized? And what do you know? Hey, here's some water. If you have chosen to follow Christ and Christ has saved you from your sins and you recognize him as Savior of your life, what do you know? There's water right here.
Okay, so if you guys want to come up, Hannah and Marie and Paul, you mind just come up? And Stacy and Isaiah, can you come up also?
I'm just going to read just a short scripture. Yeah. In Romans, so you could kind of. It's kind of an awkward place for an eight foot stock optic. Yeah.
Isaiah, you want to come move this with me?
Okay, we're going to read in Romans 6.
Everyone's going to want to go in the water after how hot's in here, right?
What shall we say then in Romans 6:1? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death.
That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should be, we should walk in newness of life. Baptism is a physical picture of that death of our flesh and the new life that comes by following God. The person is put into the water. That is a picture of Christ's death and also our own death with Christ. And as we come out of the water, that is a picture of Christ raising from the dead and us raising with him.
And so that's what we're going to do today. So, Stacy, Jesh asked if you would help me baptize Jeshurun. First of all, Jesh, do you want to give a testimony real quick?
Good morning. My name is Jeshrin Richards.
Yeah, so I just realized that my life was just a downward spiral, to be honest with you. I was falling into things and it just kept me captive and I just was tired of that. Tired of being held captive to things that really were ruling me. When I thought it was freedom. And I just wanted to be free of that.
And I made decision to follow God. And I saw freedom in that. And one last statement is my favorite verse so far is the verse, the righteous man falls seven times and gets up again and I still fall. I still do. But when I decided to follow God, I noticed that I kept on getting up and I'm going to keep on falling.
But I want to say this to all my brothers and all the people that are around me, that if you see me falling, I appreciate you helping me back up.
All right, Jess, jump in there carefully.
Okay, Jester. And have so. Actually, you got to sit down, otherwise that's a bad deal.
Have you confessed Jesus as your savior? Is it your desire to follow him? Then we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Okay, Marie, you can just step up here. Marie, so can you give a little testimony of what God's doing in your life?
I just want to change my life around. That's all because of him. I was Catholic, but I just want to change my life around. Is it your desire to follow Christ?
Okay, let's go ahead and carefully step in. And Paul, if you want to come up here too, You have to sit down. Yeah.
Okay. Marie, upon your confession of faith, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Okay, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord.
Which way do you want to go?
I got her.
Jeshurun wanted to be baptized in the hump tulips, which is pretty cool this time of year. Okay, Hannah.
Yep. Just a testimony of what God's been doing in your life. So a few weeks ago.
Sorry, I didn't think I was going to cry. I was in the mother's lounge sitting with my son and I just saw.
The way that my attitude had affected my relationships. They like to joke in the Richards family that they're pretty ornery, but I've got to say, I'm pretty ornery too. I guess I did marry into the family, but I just want to thank God first of all, because none of he saved all of us. And if I would have asked myself five years ago what I'd be doing today, I would have never seen myself here. But praise God that I'm here.
So I just want to say I love you all. I want to thank you and my husband and my family and my in laws and everyone that's been an example to me in my life. Is it your desire to follow Christ? Yes.
Put your hand on your nose, Hannah. Okay. We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Okay. Anyone else?
Okay. Thank you so much for being a part of this step for them. And just pray God blessing on them. So we have one more song, and then we're going to close, Tim.