So thou hideous monster sin, only as we look at the cross
of Christ and we see him as offering for sin can we begin
to consider how awful sin is. You know how strange it is that
we can delight so much in it and yet at the same time delight
that Christ is that one who is our Redeemer. May the Lord help us to look
ever to Him because in Him though our sin is revealed to us as
we consider what it was that he did for us yet at the same
time it is also revealed to us that uh... he has taken away
our sin as far as east is from the west and he remembers it
no more and there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus what a glorious truth that is may the Lord ever
impress those things upon our heart and mind We're looking at Hebrews. I finished
up with chapter one last week. And I want to read the second
chapter, but I want to read the last two verses of the first
chapter as kind of a continuation of the thought. Hebrews chapter one verse 13. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs
of salvation? 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. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also
bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak. But one
in a certain place testified saying, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest
him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crown'st him with glory
and honor and did set over him the works of thy hands. 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. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise
unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able also
to succor them that are tempted. Now, this is a continuation of
the were the truth that the writer
of Hebrews would set forth to the Hebrews, and of course to
all of God's people, but specifically to these Hebrews who were raised
in Judaism and had an understanding of all the things that the Lord
did to Abraham. And as they looked at this man,
Jesus, they could clearly see that he was a man. What they
could not see and what no man can really see, apart from the
grace of God and the mercy of God to show it to him, is that
he was not simply a man, but that he was the man. And so that
he is a man unlike any other man, although he is made like
unto men in all ways. There's no means whereby he has
not been made in the flesh like as we are, except for one thing,
that is there's no corruption in him. Now, God's, in God's
divine purpose, And in His work of creation, He has made us just
exactly as He would have us to be. Now, you know, it's often
said, well, man kind of missed God's plan. God planned for man
to be this, and it turned out he was that. Well, that's not
so. I mean, everything that has ever occurred in this world has
occurred according to the good pleasure of Almighty God. Now,
the only people, the only way that a person can have a problem
with that is if he does not believe God is an absolute God. You know,
if he thinks that somehow things can occur outside of the realm
of the power and purpose of Almighty God. And to entertain such a
thought as that is to ultimately have no God at all. Because God
is either God or He's not God. And He is the one who's designed
the world exactly as He designed, as He purposed it to be. And
all things have occurred according to that purpose. Now, what men
often do in their line of reasoning, in their thought, as they would
seek to dethrone God, is they say, well, God couldn't hold
a man accountable for something if he directed him to do it. Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Cannot the Lord make one vessel
unto honor, and another unto dishonor, as it pleaseth him?
I mean, cannot God hold a man accountable as He sees fit? I mean, who can say anything
about it? And God, who at sundry times
in divers manner spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,
whom the Scripture says, He hath appointed heir of all things,
and by whom He made the worlds. Now this was the part of the
Lord Jesus Christ as he walked among the men in the earth that
man could not see. The Jews could not see, and not
only could they not see it, they would not see it. You see, man's
problem is not primarily that he can't see, although he can't
see it. He can't see it. He can't see
the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. It's
impossible that he could. No man has seen God at any time. So it's impossible that a man
could approach unto the ever-living God. But the most serious problem
that man has is not only can't he do it, but he won't do it. See, men talk about free will
as if man can come over here and he can decide to follow God
or he can decide not to follow God. But there's no choice involved
in that. Because every man, when he's
born into the world, he has in his mind his will is bent. He's not bent towards following
God. He's not on a neutral playing
field. But he comes forth, the scripture
says, the wicked go astray as soon as they're born speaking
lies. Think about that next time you
see a little infant, you know, in the crib and he's cooing and
he's all, and he's as innocent as he'll ever be. I mean, he'll
never be more innocent than he is when he's there. But he's
not innocent. Because lurking within his bosom
is a heart of rebellion against Almighty God. It's not flowered
out yet. It's not come to its full place. But it's there. The seed of it
is there. I know that's disconcerting to
a lot of people. And it's disconcerting to me
on the one hand, except the reason it is not as disconcerting to
me is because I know that it's true. Because I know, by the grace
of God, what I was by nature. And I don't find that I'm a whole
lot different than everybody else that I've known in that
respect. And so it is. That man by nature is in rebellion
against God. And while it is true that he
cannot come to God, the biggest problem that he has is that he
will not. That's what the Lord said to
the Pharisees. He said, ye will not come to me that you might
have life. You will not. Oh, that the Lord
might make us willing today. And he can, and he does. He makes
his people willing in the day of his power. And that's the
only way that a man will become willing is if the Lord makes
him willing. Now, you know, I know people like to think that they'll
just decide to do whatever they want to with it, but they won't.
They'll never seek God. Scripture says so, says there's
none that seeketh after God. There's none righteous, no not
one. And so, By the grace of God, he imprints and implants
that knowledge into those whom he gives faith to believe the
truth of God. To know that to be true. Even
though sometimes it might rankle them and they don't want to think
on it. And they think of, oh, that's just negative thoughts.
But nonetheless, it's true. And it's never revealed more
clearly to us than when we look on Christ. and what he has done
in our behalf. But the Lord would teach through
the writer of Hebrews, which I believe to be Paul, that this
one whom the Lord sent is the spokesman for God. He's never
spoken unto the world in the total revelation of his truth
except through Jesus Christ. He spoke in times past to the
fathers, to the prophets. And they did what he sent them
to do. They spoke what they knew. I
mean, that's all that a man can do, is speak what he knows. And
it's terrible when men try to speak what other people know.
You can learn, you can be like a parrot, you can read all kinds
of books. John said that if all the things
that the Lord Jesus Christ had done were recorded, that all
the books in the world couldn't contain those things. Well, men
have written so many books on the things of what we're talking
about, about the Bible and their ideas about God and all these
things. And no library on earth is big enough to contain them
all. They're out there. And so it's not surprising that
men will take the thoughts of other men and stand up and parrot
those. That's not to preach the gospel.
Because you see, the preaching of the gospel is a message that's
sent by Almighty God. And it's sent by the power of
God. And it transcends what somebody
might say, their words, their thoughts. It's not just getting
up a nice little talk to keep folks entertained for a half
hour or 45 minutes or whatever. But it is the message of God
that he has sent. But that message which he sends
is always going to be, if it is the gospel, it's always gonna
have one subject. And that subject is gonna be
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And as you read the book of Hebrews,
you see that that is the message of this book. But we must begin
where the beginning is, and that the beginning is the beginning,
is it not? God, who at sundry times in diverse
manner spake in time, pass hath now in these last days. This
is the last time. We're not waiting for a day.
We're not interested in hearing all the great prophets telling
us, well, I believe these might be the last days. Brethren, they're
too late. It's the last days. John said,
did he not? He said, brethren, this is the
last time. Peter said it. He said, behold,
today is the day of salvation. The Lord and sent His Son into
the world to die for sinners, there's not another day coming. This is the time. And God has
spoken unto us by His Son, and He has shown the excellence of
who Jesus Christ is, being made so much better than the angels.
That is, He has come forth better than the angels. Why? Because
he hath an inheritance. He has by right a place of honor. He doesn't have a place of honor
because he earned it. Now he has earned it, don't get
me wrong, but that's not why he has a place of honor. See,
he has a place of honor had he never come into the world and
saved one person. if he created the world and damned
them all to hell and that was it he'd still be worthy of honor
because he hath by inheritance by the fact that he is God obtained
a more excellent name than even the highest of the creatures
that have been made now we've spoken uh... about what the scripture
speaks about about angels and i think that We can say primarily,
when he's speaking about angels here, he is primarily speaking
about those angelic creatures which are higher, a higher form
of creation than man is. I don't understand that. I don't claim to know it. There's
all kind of books people have written on angels. Why they'd
spend all the time to do that, I don't know. But people have
written a lot of stuff about it, most of it speculation, because
the scripture says what it says about it, and that's all we know
about it. But we do know that the Lord does have some creatures
that we refer to as angels, which are of a higher order than us.
And the scripture does give us a little glimpse into some of
the things about angels. And even as we read here, In
this book to the Hebrews, Paul gives a, he says here, if the
word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience
received just recompense of the Lord, the Lord has held the angels
accountable. Now, we have implications in the scripture that there was
a great number of the angels that rose up in rebellion against
God at some juncture or place and some were cast out, not the
elect angels however, because the Lord had angels that He chose,
but Christ didn't die for the angels. He didn't come into the
world for the angels, He's used the angels. People say, well, where'd the
devil come from? Well, the Lord made him. I mean,
where else would he have come from? The Lord made all things. The Lord's not, he's not ashamed
to say, he said, he said, I, the Lord, do all these things.
He said, I make peace and I create evil. I form the light and I
make, I make the light and form the darkness. He says, I'll do all my pleasure.
He is God. And there is none else. And we'll
fall down and worship Him by His grace. So we speak about the angels,
and as it speaks here of Christ being higher than the angels,
but it also has a reference whenever the scripture speaks about the
angels, an angel is essentially a messenger insofar as the angels'
relation to men. I mean, the times when the Lord
sent angels, he sent them with a message for men or with help
to men. Even the Lord Jesus Christ was
ministered to by the angels. That's what he says here. He
says, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for them who shall be the heirs of salvation? Who is the heir
of salvation? Who is the one that owns salvation? That it belongs to him, who is
it? The Lord Jesus Christ, you see, we have an inheritance in
Christ, but his inheritance is in himself. It belongs to him. And as you read, I believe it's
in the Gospel of Luke. I'm not sure which one. My brain
don't work good sometimes, but when the Lord was in the garden
pouring out his soul unto death, In our behalf, the scripture
says that the Lord sent angels and they upheld Him. Can you
imagine how that could be? But you see, that's what the
Lord said, that's what their purpose is. Are they not all
ministering spirits? They're sent. The Lord said,
all things work together for good to them that love God who
are the called according to His purpose. The Lord even created
the angels that they might come and minister to those who would
be the heirs of salvation in Christ, even as they would minister
unto Him. In all things, you see, He was
made like unto the brethren. He knew what it is to be weak. That blows my mind. When I read
this passage of Scripture, as we read these verses, about how that he learned obedience
by the things which he suffered. I can't comprehend that. But
it's a glorious thing, because the Lord would show us that Jesus
Christ was indeed a man. But as he says here in the book
of Hebrews, he wants us to know of a surety that this man was
above all men, because he is the God-man. He's that one who
not as a man made himself God, but as God who made himself man. And so he is indeed made a little
lower than the angels, but for a reason. Therefore, We ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels,
that is those who are ministering spirits, if those things that
they said and did, and every transgression and disobedience
of the angels, if the Lord spared not the angels who were disobedient,
how shall we escape? How shall we escape? Now that's
a pregnant question, is it not? When a man is convinced by the
Spirit of God that he's a sinner, he wants an answer to that question.
How shall we escape? You see, is that not what those
men at the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached unto them
Christ? He said, this man you have taken
and slain. And some said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? How can we escape? Oh, see everybody's not asking that
question today. But those who are convinced by
the Spirit of God of their sin cannot escape that question.
It haunts them. I remember as a young man it
haunted me every day. How shall I escape? What shall
I do? Oh, what a sweet sound. the gospel
is to somebody who knows himself to be a sinner. But see, Paul's
writing here, he says we ought to give them more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard. When have we heard them? He's
speaking to the Hebrews. He says you heard them when the
fathers, when I sent the prophets to your fathers, he said you
heard them. But he said now. He said, God has spoken through
his prophet. And he said, if those words that
you heard the prophet say, if you couldn't disregard them,
I mean, if everything that you read in the Old Testament is
true, and you couldn't escape then, how shall we escape? if we neglect this that he's
now revealed. Because you see, man is left
without excuse. God, the scripture says, at the
times of man's ignorance, he winked at. Now some have had
some strange ideas about what he meant by that, but it simply
has reference to what he's saying here. This is a greater message
than what the prophets brought. And if he held men accountable for what the prophets taught,
how much more so now that he has spoken to us by his son?
How shall we escape if we neglect this? See, there's not another
round. I mean, in one sense, you could
say that those who were raised in Judaism, they got a second
chance. If you want to think of it in
those terms, I mean, some people talk about, well, God gave every
man a chance to be saved. Well, here, this can satisfy
your mind here, because God did give them a second chance. Now,
we know there's no such thing as chance in the purpose of God.
Salvation's not by chance, it's on purpose. But he gave to men
this message, but then he made it plain. See, on the day of
Pentecost, all doubt was removed. There was nothing else to be
said. Peter stood up and said, this man whom you have crucified,
He's made Him both Lord and Christ. He is the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. And that's what the rite of Hebrews
said here. You don't have any other avenue. I mean, if you neglect this salvation,
if you turn from what Christ has said, then you'll perish. There's not another message.
There's not another Savior coming. There's not another avenue open.
It's not through any other religion in the world or any prophet that
comes along and says, we've got a better understanding of these
things, but it's what Christ said. He said, my sheep hear
my voice, I know them and they follow me. For if the word spoken
was steadfast, every transgression, how shall we escape? if we neglect
so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord. When he came into the world,
born of a virgin, walked among men, and he brought the gospel
unto men in clear and plain terms, there was no doubt about it.
And if he began to speak these things, and this was a truth
that couldn't be denied, It was also confirmed by his apostles,
as we spoke of Peter, was the first, he was the first person,
first man, I could say he's the first angel. Because whenever
we speak about the angels, while we speak about the angels primarily,
as he speaks of them here, as those who are those ministering
spirits, yet those are also angels who are sent with the gospel
message. And Peter, in that respect, was
a messenger of God, an angel of God, sent to those people
there on the day of Pentecost. He carried to them the truth.
How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And the Lord does send them How
shall we escape if we neglect it? We ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we should let them slip. This is important. When I was growing up, of course,
we went to church on a regular basis. And I heard what they
call preaching. I don't think now looking back
on it was much preaching to it. I guess in some ways it was better
than nothing, but not a whole lot. But nonetheless, if we've
heard the truth of God, we must not let it slip. It's serious
business here. How shall we escape if we neglect
it? God bore with signs and wonders,
he says. and with diverse miracles and
gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. For unto the
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come wherever we
speak. Now he didn't put the world in subjection to the angels
in time past, but he did put the world in subjection to Christ. Why? Because he's the creator
of the world. But he didn't put it in subjection
to the angels even though they are higher creatures than we
are. And I tell you this, there's
a message here for all preachers that call themselves preachers
and go forth thinking that the world is supposedly at their
fingertips. And that they can command people
to do something and coerce people to do something and it's good
because they're a preacher. Christ alone. is the spokesman
of God. No man has any right to stand
before God's people if he's not sent by the Lord with the message
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh, that the Lord might burn
these things in our heart, that we might give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard. There's not anybody in
here that has not heard the gospel with these ears. Oh, I pray that
the Lord might cause us to hear the gospel with the ears of our
heart and mind. He might give us an awakening
understanding to receive His truth and not let it slip. May the Lord help us