Song writer John Popper wrote a song entitled "Hook." Here are a few lines of the song:
"It doesn't matter what I say, So long as I sing with inflection, That makes you feel I'll convey, Some inner truth or vast reflection, But I've said nothing so far, And I can keep it up for as long as it takes, And it don't matter who you are, If I'm doing my job then it's your resolve that breaks, Because the hook brings you back, I ain't tellin' you no lie, The hook brings you back, On that you can rely."
Popper is calling a hook the part of the song that people like, the part that makes you remember the song.
But beyond that, Popper claims that no matter what you put in a song, if it has a hook that people like, you can say whatever you want and people will like the song and buy into it - "It doesn't matter what I say as long as I sing with inflection."
He knows that all he has to do to make a good song is to have a catchy hook, whether it takes any talent or emotion. "The hook brings you back," is the hook of the song, so he can say whatever he wants in this part and get away with it.
The message is that you don't need deep, meaningful lyrics to make people like your music.
That reminds me of another song that had these words, "De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da" by the group called the Police. That line is repeated over and over and the song sold millions of copies. It's clear Popper had it right. Words don't really matter in pop songs.
Well Mr. Popper you may not be "tellin' us a lie," about pop songs. But what about life and death situations? Are words meaningless in all things? I think not.
Such meaningless words may work in pop songs, but pop songs are just for fun. If I'm going to stake my life on something, that something better have words that are not only meaningful, but also something I can believe is true.
If God's Word is not true then nothing God says is reliable.
We cannot accept his written Word if we cannot believe his spoken Word. Hebrews 1:1-3 reveals that God has spoken to us, and that we know God by the Word he speaks.
Hebrews 1..
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 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:
There are many things we can learn from this passage about God's Word.
First, we learn that God has spoken to mankind in many ways in the past, but God saved the best for last.
The word "spoken" is in the aorist tense. It speaks of a finality. In other words it is telling us, that the Word of God is now fully established. The fully established words of God came when God sent his Son to speak to mankind in the flesh. He came to lay bare before the world the totality of his truth. Jesus Christ is the very revelation of God himself.
Jesus said in John 14:9 "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father..."
Jesus Christ is God's final Word, but Jesus Christ is also God's complete word.
The text literally reads "in the last of these days."
The word, last, is the word from which we derive our theological term "eschatology."
It clearly asserts that there was a period of time when God outwardly, verbally, and openly spoke to man, and that at the very end of that period of time He spoke through His Son. In His Son He had said it all.
There is no need to add anything to it.
God's revelation is complete. It needs no supplement. That means that everything we need in life, or the life to come, we can find in God's Son, Jesus.
Some wrongly lift Holy Spirit up to a higher plane than God's Son. Holy Spirit gives no higher revelation than what we have in God's Son.
Beginning with the second half of verse 2, the writer of Hebrews makes six astonishing statements about Jesus.
1) Jesus Christ is also shown in this passage to be superior to the prophets because they were simply spokesmen for God, but Jesus Christ is "heir of all things." He is heir even of the prophets.
2) Verse 2 also tells us that Christ is superior because it was Christ that made the worlds. Christ is the agent of creation, of time, and of history.
3) Verse 3 tells us that the brightness of God's glory comes from the Son. Think about that for a moment. Without a radiance, there could be no sun. This verse is saying that without the Son, there would be no God.
4) Next we are told that Jesus is the "expressed image of His person." The prophets were men, inspired of God, redeemed by God. But Jesus was exactly God. He was the character of God.
5) Christ also is "upholding all things by the word of his power." The word "upholding" means to carry. Christ is carrying all things toward their appointed end. In other words, Jesus is in full control.
6) Jesus also, "purged our sins." The prophets simply told about the atonement that God was going to make. Jesus made the atonement. He paid for the sins of his people.
He is not only God's superior Word, he is God's sufficient Word.
Having described the ways Christ is Superior to the prophets, and the fact of his sacrificial atonement for our sins, Hebrews says, he "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
The blood of bulls and goats could not forgive man's sins, so it had to be done over and over again. But when the Son paid the price on the cross, the work was done.
It was over with.
It need not be repeated.
Therefore he sat down.
Jesus is God's final Word
Jesus is God's complete Word
Jesus is God's superior Word.
And Jesus Christ's work was sufficient in forgiving sins.
As Popper sang in his song, "I ain't tellin' you no lie, .....On that you can rely"