of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His vast superiority over everybody and everything in the Levitical
system. This writer writes and he says,
we ought to give them more earnest heed. We ought. As I speak to
you this morning, I'm not just saying you, you, you. It's all of us. I'm in on this
too. We ought to. I ought to. You
ought to. We all ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things that God has said. Don't you agree
with that? We ought to. You see, the preacher
is not preaching down to people. I'm no better than you are. I'm
just a sinner saved by grace. God chose me in the same covenant
that He chose you in. He redeemed me by the same blood
He redeemed you, and I'm regenerated by the power of the same Spirit
by which you were regenerated. I'm called effectually to faith
in Christ Jesus just like you are. I'm just a sinner saved
by grace. I'm no better than you are. I'm
no smarter than you are. I'm not an intellectual. I'm
not a theologian. I'm just a man who's seeking
God's will and seeking God's favor in, through, and by Christ
Jesus the Lord. And I speak to you even as I
speak to my own heart, even as I admonish myself, and I say
we ought to be careful lest we let the things of God
slip right past us. We ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard. The Bible uses this expression,
ought to. It uses it several times. There
are some things we ought not to do according to the scriptures. Acts chapter 17 verse 29, For
as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven
by art and man's device. Don't! We ought not to think
of God as one who is fashioned by the hands or fashioned according
to the imagination of men. We ought not to think that way.
We ought to go to the Scriptures and see what the Scriptures have
to say about God Almighty. God is not who we think He is. God is not who grandmother and
grandfather said that He is. God is who He says He is. And He has set forth Himself
in all of His attributes, in all of His glorious characteristics
in His Word. In His Word, we find out about
God's absolute holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. In His Word, we find out that
He is altogether sovereign. He does as He pleases. The Lord
reigns. The Lord reigns in heaven above,
on this earth, and beneath this earth. He reigns over all things. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He everywhere. God is sovereign. God is holy. God is sovereign. God is righteous. God is just. God is love. God is light. God is gracious. Let's find out who God is. God has set forth Himself in
the Word. We don't have to guess about
who He is. We just need to read His Word
and ask God's Spirit to enlighten our darkened minds so as to give
us understanding of God's true identity. We ought not to think
that the Godhead is likened to gold and silver fashioned by
the hands of men. God is who He says He is. God
says, I'm spirit. They that worship me must worship
me in spirit and in truth. And then we read in James chapter
3 and verse 10, Out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and
cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be so. They ought not to be so. Watch
your talk. Watch what you say. Oh God, set a watch before my
lips. That's what David in the Psalms
said. Set a watch. Set a guard. Guard my lips. Hey, I say I'm
a believer. I say I'm a worshipper of God.
I say, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I say, I'm one of the
people of God. I say, I'm a child of God. I
say, I'm a son of God. Well, let not cursing come forth
from my mouth. Let me be very careful the words
that I use, the words that I speak, the words that I write. Be careful. Be careful. And then, the Bible sets forth
some things that we ought to do. Like in Acts chapter 5. You remember how Peter and John,
they had been used of the Lord to heal a lame man in the name
of the Lord Jesus. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Walk. Walk. I don't have silver
and gold, they said, but in the name of Christ Jesus, such as
we have, give I unto you. In His name, rise up and walk.
And they went forth preaching the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they got hauled in before
the religious hierarchy. And they said, stop preaching
in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. We don't want to hear that name
anymore. We don't like that name. You preach in the name of God
the Father, we'll hear you. But don't preach in the name
of Jesus of Nazareth. Don't preach His gospel. Don't
preach who He is and what He did and why He did it and where
He is now. We don't want to hear that kind
of preaching. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. We ought to obey God. rather
than me. You can't give me my message.
God has given me my message. You can't tell me what to preach.
God's already told me who to preach. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I put that article in the bulletin
last week about Bunyan. They put him in prison. Hey,
if you'll just stop preaching this gospel, we'll let you out.
You can go to be with your, what do you have, eight children?
One of them was a little blind child? His blind daughter? And
I know you miss your children. I know you miss your wife. I
tell you, Mr. Bunyan, we'll release you from
prison. If you'll just promise us, just
give us your word. We believe you're a man of your
word. Just give us your word. You won't preach the gospel anymore. He said, if you let me out of
here, I'll be preaching the gospel before the day ends. They said,
well, we'll just keep you in here then. We ought to obey God
rather than men. Let's don't stand in fear of
men. Our goal is not to tickle men's
ears. Our goal is to honor God. Our
goal is to bless His name. Our goal is to tell people who
God is and what we are and the only way whereby this holy God
can be approached through Jesus Christ the Savior. We ought to
obey God. rather than men. 1 John chapter
3 verse 16 says this, Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren. We ought to. We ought to do whatever
is necessary for the brethren. For our family. This is my family. You're my family. You're my family. One day Mary, our Lord's, His
earthly nature's mother, Mary came and some of His half-brothers
and sisters, and our Lord was busy preaching. And somebody
said, Master, your mother and your family wants to see you.
He said, Who is my mother? Who are my brethren? Who is my
family? He that doeth the will of God.
You're my family. If you love Christ Jesus, you
and I are born of the same Spirit. He used the same seed, the incorruptible
seed of the Word of God to quicken you that He quickened me. We're
brethren. Like it or not, you're stuck
with me. You're stuck with me forever.
We're blood kin, the blood of Christ Jesus. And that's a kinship
that will always last. I love my wife. I think the world
of my wife. She won't always be my wife,
but she'll always be my sister in the Lord. I know death is
going to part that relationship someday, but I tell you, she
and I will spend forever in glory, worshiping Christ Jesus, not
as husband and wife, but as brother and sister in the Lord. We are
brethren. We are family. This is our family
right here. There is nobody I would rather
be with than my family. There is nobody I would rather
spend time with than my family. And a good many of my family
members are with me this morning. Lots of my family members are
other places worshiping the Lord. And a lot of my family members,
a bunch of my family members have already gone home. They're
already in glory to be with our Father and to be with our elder
brother. That's where we'll be someday
as we just sang a while ago. We'll be with Him and we'll sing
together, Saved by Grace. Let's love the brethren. Let's
do what we need to do for the brethren. And in 1 John chapter 4 and verse
11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another. We ought to. We ought to love
one another. You see, but I tell you, I a
preacher, I find it hard to love so and so. They're so unlovely. Well, so are you sometimes. So am I. And we're all unlovely
by nature, but God loves us unconditionally. You think about that. Unconditionally. He loves us in His Son. Let me
love you. Let me love you. You may rub
me the wrong way. You may be to me like sandpaper. You ever seen two believers that
just And you know they both love the Lord, but they get together
and before long, like two alphas, you know. You get a couple of
alphas together. Even though they love the Lord
and before long they are just like this. But for Christ's sake, we love
one another. Would you love me notwithstanding
my faults? Would you love me notwithstanding
my transgressions and my sins? Just love me for Christ's sake.
Would you do that? Love me for Christ. I'm just
a poor sinner and I constantly need God's mercy. Would you just
love me for the Lord's sake? We ought to love one another. And in this passage, here's what
he says. Now look back at our text. Here's
verse 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to
the things which we have heard. lest at any time we should let
them slip." Well, what have we heard? The Word therefore, of
course, sends us back to chapter 1. And in chapter 1, we've heard
about Christ Jesus. We've heard of the glory of His
person, of His Godhead, of His deity, of His accomplishment
of redemption, of Him cleansing us, of Him purging us of our
sins and being exalted to the throne. And He has universal
sovereign rule. He has the scepter of righteousness
in His hand. We've learned about the Lord
Jesus Christ who's been made higher than the angels. God over
the angels. Lord over the angels. They worship
Him. He's been exalted in His manhood
by virtue of His successful work of redemption. Now this message
of the gospel of God's redeeming grace, we ought to give the more
earnest heed to this message, lest at any time we should let
them slip. Let them slip. That means to go right by you. To pass right by you. the Lord of glory and His gospel. Don't let this message slip away
from you. Oh, I call upon you. Oh, God
the Spirit, may He work in your heart because I know this, the
gospel will slip right by us. unless the Lord is pleased to
get our attention. That's how hard-hearted we are.
That's how dead we are. The Gospel is such a glorious
message, such a wonderful story of redeeming love and grace and
forgiveness and imputed righteousness of a home in glory, of salvation conditioned solely
upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A message altogether of grace
requires nothing of you, no works on your part, no labor, no merits,
a good thing, because you don't have any. What a wonderful message
this is! And yet, by nature, we don't
believe it, it just drifts right past us. Unless God gets our
attention. Oh God, by your irresistible
grace, Make bare your right arm of salvation. That's what we
pray. That's what we pray for our children,
our grandchildren, our family members, and our friends. Oh
God, they can't do anything. You've got to do everything for
them. And bless His name, He does.
He does. He does save sinners. This is
His specialty. He saves the lost. He rescues
the perishing. Oh, we don't want Him to slip
by us. Look at verse 2, for if the word spoken by angels was
steadfast, that is the law of God. God gave the law by the
angels. And every transgression and every disobedience received
a just recompense of reward. The least violation of God's
law had consequences. If you broke the law, there was
always a penalty. Well, if that was true, How shall
we escape if we neglect this great salvation by a great God,
by a great Savior? How shall we escape? Escape. Escape. There must be destruction
out there somewhere then. There must be danger if there
needs to be an escape. If there needs to be salvation,
if there needs to be deliverance, how shall we escape? If we neglect
this, if you neglect it, what shall it profit a man if he gained
the whole world and lose his own soul? Oh, we ought to give the more
earnest heed to this message. Because we're not going to escape
if we neglect this great salvation. I promise you, you're not going
to escape. You can get religious, you can get morality, you can
do a lot of things. But if you're not saved by God's
free and sovereign grace, you're not going to escape the judgment
of God. You're just not going to escape. Watch this. began to be spoken
by the Lord, He was a preacher and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard Him. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of
the Holy Ghost according to His will. For unto the angels hath
He not put in subjection the world to come. But in a certain place, and this
is a passage you read from a while ago, there's testified saying,
what is man? That thou art mindful of him.
Or the son of man, that thou visitest him. This passage of
scripture, of course, on the surface is about man. What is
man? As if to ask, is there anything
to man? What is man? Is there anything
to us? Vanity of vanities, all is vanities,
saith the preacher. What is man? He is flesh and
blood, bones and muscle. What is man? He's a lost sinner. What is man? He's a rebel. What
is man? He's dead and trespasses in sins. What is man? He's a worm. What is man? He's a maggot. What
is man? He's a beggar. What is man? He's dead and trespasses in sins. What is man? As if to say, is there anything
to it? What is man that God would be
mindful of us? Now you think about that. What
are you? You. What am I that God would
even think about me? Think of the greatness of God.
Think of the multitudes of people who live on this earth. Billions
of people. What is man? What are you? Who
am I? that God would even give me a
thought, that God would even look my way.
Of the billions of people on this great planet, that God would look on me, be
mindful of me. What is man that God would visit
him, that God would visit with you? And He visited with us 2,000
years ago in the person of His Son. He visited us. He visited. He visited His own creation.
You say, well, that was Jesus who came and visited. Well, He's
the maker of all things, isn't He? Weren't all things made by
Him? And without Him was not anything
made that was made? And He visited here. And everybody
who has anybody turn thumbs down on Him, He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. He visited here for a while.
And my, what a rude welcome He received. What are we going to
do with Jesus of Nazareth? Crucify Him. That's what we want
done with Him. It said, we will not have this
man reign over us. Not this man. While we know His mother and
His daddy and His brothers and sisters. Not this man. We're
looking for somebody to come in here and kick these Romans
out of here. We're not looking for a Savior
from sin. We be not sinners. Why, we live
by Moses' law. That's what they said. He visited. Why did he visit? Well, he's
here on an errand of mercy to do the Father's will. In fact,
look at verse 7. Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. You see,
I want you to notice how the inspired writer transitions in
this scripture from speaking about man to speaking about that
One who is the Son of Man, Christ Jesus. Because you see, that's
the real interpretation. This is the best commentary on
that 8th Psalm. When the Lord says, What is man
that thou art mindful of him? And then He goes on to talk about
man. Talk about the Son of Man. He's
speaking about Christ Jesus. As is evidenced right here in
this passage of Scripture. He made Him lower than the angels.
Wait, He made the angels though. He made the angels, but He was
made lower. For a little while, He was made
lower than the angels. And then He crowned Him with
glory and honor. And it set Him over all the works
of His hands. In fact, verse 8 says, Thou hast
put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He
put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put
under Him." Everything is under the feet of, everything is under
the authority of King Jesus. Now, understand this, they've
always been in subjection to Him as God. Right? He's always been the Lord. He's
always been the King. But He stepped out of heaven
and visited us. He joined His divine nature to
this human nature. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and as a man. He obeyed God's law as a man. He lived up to every strict requirement
that God set before him. And as a man, he faced death. As the God-man, he bore the sin
of all of his people. And as this God-man, He died
under the wrath of God, answering every demand of divine justice. And as this God-man, He brought
in everlasting righteousness for all of His elect. He put
all of our sins away. Therefore, He's been exalted
and everything's under His feet. There is a man in glory today. King Jesus Christ. Bow the knee
to Him and confess that He is the Lord. You are going to confess
His Lordship sooner or later anyhow. And what is salvation? It is bowing ahead of time. Bowing
ahead of the judgment. Acknowledging that He is the
Lord and believing on Him in your heart. He's put everything
in subjection under Him. He's left nothing that's not
put under Him. But, look at the last verse 8. We see not yet all things put
under Him. We don't see it with these eyes.
And I can't comprehend it and you can't either. You see so
much evil at work in the world. And you say, is this in subjection
to Jesus Christ? All of these awful things that
are going on. Are all these things in subjection
to Him? Are they serving His eternal
purpose? And the answer is yes. Everything
serves His purpose. So I can't see it. Well, you
don't have to see it. You don't have to see it. Believe. Believe. But I'll tell
you who we do see. We see Jesus. We see Him, not
with these eyes. We see Him by faith. You know,
in the book of Hebrews, this is the first time Jesus, the
name Jesus is mentioned. Jesus is not a title. That's
not our Lord's title. That's His name. That's His name. In Luke chapter 1, Gabriel, whose
name means the man of God, Gabriel, he said to Mary, you're going
to have a son. Well, she said, that's an impossibility.
Oh, he said, God's power, the power of the highest is going
to overshadow you. That holy thing conceived in
you is going to be called the Son of God. And you'll call His
name Jesus. Jesus. And in Matthew chapter
1, The messenger from God said to Joseph, thou shalt call his
name Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Jesus comes from the Old Testament
named Joshua. Jehovah who saves. Jehovah who
saves. So this is the first time the
name Jesus has been introduced in this book. In chapter 1, the
Lord Jesus is called the Son of God. He's the Son of God and
He must be the Son of God to save us. Because nobody can save
us but Him who is God. If we're to be rescued from our
sins, if we're to be rescued from Satan who holds all men
captive at his will, the only one who can save us has got to
be God. And our Redeemer is the Son of
God. But the Son of God, being infinite
God and being Spirit, He can't suffer and He can't die. So if we're to be redeemed, God's
Son must humble Himself, join His deity to humanity, and that's
what we have here in the person and in the name of Jesus. The
name of Jesus directs us to think several things. He directs us
to consider several things that are stated here in the ninth
verse. But we see Jesus. We see Him by faith. We don't
see Him with these eyes. Peter says there in 1 Peter,
speaking to those believers that have been scattered, he said,
Whom having not seen, you love. They had never laid eyes on Him.
They didn't see. You see, even, understand this,
when our Lord walked on this earth, it wasn't literally seeing
Him that did anything for you. There's a lot of people who laid
eyes on Jesus of Nazareth and they still hated Him. While He
stood in front of Pilate, Pilate looked eye to eye with Him. And Pilate said, what is truth? And truth was standing in front
of him. And I hear folks today, once in a while people say to
me, I wish I could live when Jesus lived so I could see Him.
It's not seeing Him literally, it's seeing Him by faith. Seeing
Him in the Scriptures. Seeing Him as God reveals Himself
to you. And having not seen Him literally,
we still love Him because we see Him by faith. Several years
ago, my secretary up in Alma, I preached a message there in
1 Peter chapter 1. Whom having not seen, you love. That's what Peter said. She gave
me a big picture frame. And it had a nice matting on
it. But there was no picture. And
down at the bottom was quoted that verse out of 1 Peter chapter
1, having whom we love, whom having not seen we love. I've
never seen him. I don't want to see a picture
of Jesus. There are no pictures of Jesus, except in the Old Testament
types. Those sorts of pictures. But
we have no picture. There are no pictures of Jesus.
No artist's rendition of Jesus. Those things we don't want to
even look at. That's idolatry. Just rip those
pictures off your wall. Get rid of them. The one we see
is the one we see by faith. We see the glory of God in Jesus
Christ. We see the Savior in Jesus Christ. We see Him in all of His magnificence,
but we see Him as our Savior, as our Lord, as our King, as
our Redeemer, as our Reconciler. We see Him with the eye of faith
that God the Spirit has to give us. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, God's got to give them. I can preach to you all day long,
preach to you till I'm blue in the face, till I'm so hoarse
I can't speak anymore. But unless God the Spirit gives
you a view of Jesus Christ, you'll still be blind. Oh God, open our eyes. Open our eyes. That's what I
pray. open our eyes and we might see Him. We see Him made a little
lower than the angels. We see Him made, here's the second
thing, we see Him made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. And you'll notice it doesn't
say just for the purpose of dying, but for the purpose of suffering
death. He had to suffer death. Emphasis
on suffer. Suffer. He wasn't put to sleep
in some kind of calm, serene setting. I know we, in this day,
of course, capital punishment's just about gone, but you say,
oh, we, you know, we want to treat people with respect, so
we just ease them into the sleep of death. A man butchers a woman
and cuts her up and mutilates her and finds him guilty and
says, well, we're going to put him to death. And somebody says,
oh, no, that's unfair. That's unfair. Really? I don't
think it's unfair at all. You can differ with me if you
want to, but you've been wrong before. Somebody says, well, not the
electric chair, not hanging or something like that. Let's just
put the needle in them and ease them on into the sleep of death. Really? Well, that's another
subject. You pretty much know how I feel
about that now, don't you? In case you've always wondered,
wonder what the preacher thinks about that. Well, you're not
in doubt anymore. But our Lord Jesus, when He came
to die, He didn't die in a calm, sterile city. He didn't die in circumstances
that were peaceful. He suffered. He suffered. He suffered physically. He suffered
in his soul. He suffered mentally. God the
Father laid stripes on him. Man laid stripes on his back.
God laid stripes on his soul. The soul suffering of Jesus Christ. That's the soul of His suffering.
That's the very heart of His suffering. What God did to Him.
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Man bruised His body. Man slapped Him and beat Him.
And yes, that's horrible. But that's not the half of it.
The half has not been told when you just talk about the nails
in His hands and the crown of thorns on His brow. It's what
God did to Him. God's wrath, God's justice that
demanded that sin be punished. Not in a serene, quiet, peaceful
setting. Suffer, suffer all the way to
death. And He did. He did. All of God's wrath that would
have fallen on us forever and ever, He endured Himself while
on the cross. Three hours of darkness. God
dealt with Him. Oh, what a transaction took place
on the cross between the Father and the Son! A transaction that
meant His people were redeemed. He suffered unto death. Why was
He made lower than the angels? For the suffering of death. And
by faith we see Jesus. made lower than the angels. We
see Him made lower than the angels for the suffering of death. And
we see Jesus now by faith crowned with honor and glory. We see
Him on His throne. Our brother, my Savior, my King,
my Redeemer, where is He? He's not in a tomb somewhere. He's not in a grave. And He's
not pacing the floors of heaven wondering why people won't cooperate
with Him, why people won't do right. He's on His throne ruling
and reigning over everybody. He's your Lord. Whether you acknowledge that
or not makes no difference. It doesn't make any difference
to the fact that He's the Lord. He doesn't need your permission
to be the Lord. He's already the Lord. God made
Him Lord. God has made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Well, won't you make
Jesus the Lord of your life? God beat you to that a long time
ago. God made Him Lord. Oh, sinner,
bend the knee. Confess His Lordship with your
mouth or God will damn you. God will put you in hell. We
see Him by faith, crowned with glory and honor. Do you see Him? Do you see Him? Oh, what a sight
for the soul. Oh, this sight will do wonders
for your soul. It will give you peace in these
days of trouble and affliction and hardship and trial and agony
and pain and sickness and disease and death and all of the things
around us. If we could see Jesus crowned
with glory and honor, seated on His throne, that will calm
the troubled breast right there. That will help you. That will
help you. We see Jesus He who by the grace
of God should taste death for every man, for all of his people,
for the many brethren, for his church, for everybody God gave
him. And you notice what's behind
all of this? The grace of God. Thank God for
His grace. I had somebody say to me one
time, You just preach too much grace. Grace, grace, grace. That's
all you preach. Would you write that on my tombstone?
I'll give you the money ahead of time to write that. Grace,
grace, grace. I tell you, grace has laid the
foundation and grace is going to put the top stone on it too.
It's all of grace, in through and by Jesus Christ the Lord.
We see Jesus. I hope you see Him. I hope you
see. I wonder if I could change the
song. What is that song? Where it says, we would see Jesus. And what is that song we sing
into the tune? We would see Jesus. Do you know
that song? We would see Jesus. I'm really throwing a curve now.