Now looking back at that passage
that Brother Mark just read, I'm going to talk to you today
a little bit about the subject of the glorious destiny of man. The glorious destiny of man. You know, it has been said that
the book of Hebrews is a book of warnings. And I think that
needs some explanation because usually when we think of warnings,
By nature, when we think naturally of warnings, we think of them
in a legal way. It's kind of like a sermon I
read years ago entitled, Turn or Burn, that kind of thing. Usually today it's give or burn,
but that's not scriptural. And of course we know that man
by nature knows nothing but legalism. You understand what legalism
is? Legalism is the idea that you can gain, obtain, or maintain
a right relationship with God based on your works, your works
under the law, obedience to the law. It's the idea God has done
his part, now the rest is up to you, that kind of thing. It
also shows itself in what people call rewards, plural today. And you might notice any time
in the Bible A reward, singular, is connected with salvation.
It's not a reward that we earn. It's a reward that's freely given
based upon what Christ has earned for his people. Therefore, it's
not an earned reward, what I call a mercenary. You know what a
mercenary is? Somebody that hires out. Like if you studied, young people,
you study history, the Revolutionary War, the British hired soldiers. They were called Hessians. And
they fought for the British for pay. They weren't loyal to the
king or to England or any cause, they were just in it for the
money. And a lot of times that's what people preach today in churches.
Call it Christianity, but it's not. They're working for earned
rewards, trying to earn their rewards. Well, that's legalism.
And so, what's different about the warnings of the Bible? Well,
the warnings of the Bible Of course, there is a just recompense,
he says in verse two, a just recompense of reward. And what
it's simply saying this, the Lord has made it clear in these
first verses of the book of Hebrews that his final word to us is
in and by his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, back over there
in verse two of chapter one, just look at that just a minute.
Hebrews one and verse two, it says, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his son. And you notice the word his there
is in italics, which means it wasn't in the original language.
And literally, it would simply say spoken to us by son. In other words, in son, in the
son. In other words, this is a son-wise
revelation. And what he's saying here is
this, the revelation of God is not simply what the Son has said,
even though that's included. When Christ came to the world
and he spoke, he preached, he dealt with people, he said things,
and those are the words of God. But the revelation is not simply
what the Son has said, but the revelation is in everything that
God has revealed in and by His Son. In other words, what I'm
saying is this. You know, the Book of Genesis
is just as much the Word of God, the Word of the Son, as the Sermon
on the Mount. That's why I caution everybody
who has a red-letter Bible. And don't go out and throw your
red letter Bible away after I say this. That's okay. It's okay
to have a red letter Bible. But don't think that the words
in red have more weight than the words in black. And the reason
I'm saying that is because it's all the word of God. From Genesis
to Revelation. It's all God's revelation of
himself in and by the Son. In the little book that I wrote
about rules of interpretation, how to interpret the script,
the rule number one is the rule of Jesus Christ crucified and
risen from the dead. And the reason I said that is
because of what Christ said himself. He said it to the Pharisees.
He said, you do search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of me. He said to his
disciples, he set them down, he taught them the things that
Moses wrote, things in the Psalms, things in the prophets concerning
himself. It's all about Christ. That's
what I'm saying. And the warning here is this.
It's simply saying this to us sinners. There is no other way
out of this mess that we're in other than Jesus Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. That's the warning. Flee to Christ.
That's why he says in verse 1 of chapter 2 that we ought to give
the more earnest heed. To heed something is not just
to hear it with the physical ear, not to let it go in one
ear and out the other. It's to obey it. It's to believe
it. It's to see the value of it. And of course, we know that's
a God-given gift, isn't it? How do I know that God has given
me the gift of spiritual life, a new heart? It's because I value
this. I believe it. This is my life. There's no other way but Christ. And outside of Christ, it's just
like those who were under the law. Look at verse two. For the word spoken by angels
was steadfast. It didn't change. It was spoken
by angels because God determined and gave it and authorized the
angels to deliver the message. They delivered it to Moses. Moses
delivered it to the people. And it was steadfast. It was
unchangeable. You couldn't vote. They say in
the United Methodist Church, they're having a vote over whether
or not to accept homosexuals. Well, this is what, you can't
vote on God's word. You may try, but that's just
abject rebellion. Isn't that right? Is that being
too hard? Absolutely not. We don't have
any right to get together and vote on anything that God's word
says. It's to be believed. And he says
in verse two, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and
it was, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward. Well, what's the point of all
this? He's saying this, outside of Christ, Apart from His blood
and His righteousness, all we can expect from God is to get
what we deserve justly. And what is that? The wages of
sin is death. I'm telling you, you have no
hope. You have no hope but that which can be found in the grace
of God through the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. When everything is said and done,
here's what he's telling us. God's glory, God's merciful dealings
with mankind. Now, I'll use the terms humanity
and mankind. And understand, I don't mean
everybody without exception there, and I'll show you that in just
a moment. But God's merciful dealings with mankind, God's
revelation are all revealed in this great and glorious person.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the theme of the book of Hebrews, he's
better than anything. He's better than the angels,
he's better than Moses, he's better than Aaron and the Levitical
priesthood. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
is God manifest in the flesh and who is the complete salvation
of all his people and therefore He has the preeminence in all
things. Look at verse five of chapter
two. For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak. It's clear
that Christ is greater than the angels, isn't it? That's clear. Because God has not put the world
to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. Angels
have no ruling power. The only ruling power any of
us have is as we speak the word of God. That makes us ambassadors
of Christ. The world to come that I, there's
a lot of different ideas on this. I believe what he's speaking
of is the inhabited world in light of the kingdom of God,
in which God through his son is working all things according
to his will. And look at verse six. He says,
but one in a certain place testified. Now he goes back to the psalm
that I read. And he quotes from that psalm,
and he says, saying, what is man that thou art mindful of
him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Verse seven, thou
madest him a little lower than the angels, a little while inferior. Thou crown'st him with glory
and honor, and hast set him over the works of thy hands. Thou
hast put all things in subjection under his feet. That's where
the quote ends. And what he's talking about here
is the glorious destiny of man can only be accomplished and
ultimately achieved through the greater God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And apart from Christ, the destiny
of man is anything but glorious. It's eternal death and damnation. Think about this. Ask yourself
this question. What is man? What is man? Now, again, understand
this is describing, this beginning to describe the glorious destiny
of mankind, humanity, which can only be realized through the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. It was foretold by God through
the first man, Adam, Remember over in Genesis chapter one,
he told Adam, he said, you have dominion over the earth, subdue
the world. Do you remember that in Genesis
one? But it could never have been accomplished and realized
through Adam. Why? Well, first, because it
was God's purpose, even before Adam and this world was created,
to glorify himself in the salvation of mankind by saving a remnant
of people. They're called his elect. And
it was always God's purpose to accomplish this through Christ,
the God-man. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verses
9 and 10 speaks of salvation which was given us in Christ
Jesus when? Before the world began. In Revelation 13 and verse 8
leads us to conclude that the names of those who make up this
remnant, this blessed remnant upon whom God chose to accomplish
his purpose by grace through Christ, that their names were
written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And then secondly, the eternal
destiny of mankind, humanity, could not be accomplished and
realized in a mutable creature. The covenant that God made with
Adam was a conditional covenant, conditioned upon Adam. Remember
what he said in Genesis chapter two? He said, you can eat of
all the fruit of the trees of the garden, but one tree you
can't eat of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that
tree that represented God's sovereign authority to establish what's
evil and what's good, right and wrong. And he said, in the day
that you eat thereof, you will what? Surely die. and Adam ate,
Adam fell. So in light of all that, we have
to ask this question, in light of our fall in Adam, what is
man? What are we? That question comes up often
in the scripture, especially in the book of Job. Job 7, 17,
the question is asked, what is man that thou shouldest magnify
him and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? What are
we? In Job 15, 14, listen to this, what is man that he should
be clean, and he which is born of woman that he should be righteous? What is man? What is man that
thou takest knowledge of him, or the son of man that thou makest
account of him? What are we according to the Bible? Here's what we
are, fallen, sinful creatures. Fallen, sinful man is the poorest,
the lowest, and the most pitiful of all creation. Did you know
that? Now, here's man in Adam, created in the image of God,
and he fell to the lowest low, spiritually dead. Now, humanism
disagrees with that, doesn't it? You know what humanism is,
don't you? It's a philosophy, it's a religion that says man
is the center and goal of all things. Attaches the prime importance
upon man rather than God, and stresses the potential value
and goodness of all human beings. Doesn't that sound like false
Christianity today? It's all about you. It's all
about me. I've had people say when they're looking for a church,
they're looking for some place to meet their felt needs. You
ever heard that? Well, first of all, by nature,
we don't even know what we need, let alone feel what we need.
Most churches today are social clubs. It's what it is. Activity,
all of that. Humanistic religion. Conditional
salvation. It's up to you. Like the old
boy preacher who said one time, he said, after giving an invitation
and nobody came down the aisle, he said, now every one of you
go home and look in the mirror and say to yourself, you're looking
at the person who determines your eternal destiny. That's
humanism. You ever heard of the poem Invictus?
You know what Invictus means? It means unconquered. Written
by a fellow named William Ernest Henley. Here's one stanza out
of that poem. It says, it matters not how straight
the gate, how charged with punishments the scrow, I am the master of
my fate, I am the captain of my soul. What is man? Think about it. What does the
Bible say about man? Let me show you something in
Isaiah chapter one. You know, the humanists today
are Those who are like them, they talk about man evolving
from lower forms and rising to the position that we are now.
We're animals, but we're the best of all the animals, they
might say. Well, the Bible doesn't say that. You know what the Bible
actually says? It says we're worse than all
the animals. We're not animals, first of all. We're human beings. But if you want to compare us
to the animals, look at Isaiah chapter 1. And look at verse
2. Isaiah the prophet, he says,
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken,
I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against me. Verse 3, The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider. The ox and the ass know more
than men, By nature. They know their owner. They know
who feeds them. But man, by nature, doesn't know
God. They rebelled against God, verse
four, all sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corruptors. They've forsaken
the Lord. They've provoked the Holy One
of Israel under anger. They're gone away backward. Man
has not evolved upward. He fell in Adam. What is man? Mankind's eternal glorious destiny
cannot and will not be accomplished and realized through human goodness,
human efforts, or human achievement. It won't work. Man cannot save
himself. He cannot save his world. And
I'll tell you something else. Man cannot destroy this world.
Only God can. Without Christ, here's a summation. written in the book of Ecclesiastes
of what is man. And it says in Ecclesiastes 7.20,
there is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
Romans 3.10, there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. And the soul that sins must surely die. Without Christ, man's
destiny is death. And that's it. But look back
at Hebrews chapter two. What does he say here? He says,
what is man? What is man that thou art mindful
of him? It's an awesome thought that
God would even consider and think upon sinful people such as we
are. God's thoughts towards humanity
can be an awful thing or it can be a good thing. You say, well,
how could it be awful? Well, in the sense of those who
perish in their sins, they're called vessels of wrath, what
the scripture calls them. They are those who live and die
under the wrath of God in unbelief. Jeremiah spoke of it this way
when he was talking about rebellious Israel, but it applies to all
fallen mankind. Jeremiah 1410, thus saith the
Lord unto this people, thus have they loved to wander, they have
not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them.
He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. And why was it so awful? Well,
Jeremiah said that in Jeremiah 2. He said, for my people have
committed two evils. They've forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. That's talking about man's religious
efforts, forsaking God and trying to go his own way. There is a
way that seems right unto a man, but it's the way that leads to
death. But God's thoughts towards his
people, are good thoughts in the sense that those who are
saved by his grace, those who are washed in the blood of Christ
and clothed in his righteousness will live forever in Christ.
God thought of us first in his sovereign electing love to choose
us in Christ unto salvation. They're called vessels of mercy,
a four prepared by God. As he made Christ to be our surety,
making him responsible and accountable for our salvation, imputing our
sins to him and his righteousness to us, that's our justification.
Here's what he says in Hebrews 8, 12, for I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more. That means he won't charge us,
he won't hold them against us. But look here, Hebrews 2. He
says in verse six, what is man that thou art mindful of him
or the son of man that thou visitest him? You know who that's talking
about? The psalmist was prophesying
of Christ when he said this. How do you know that? Look at
verse seven. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.
Thou crowned him with glory and honor and did set him over the
works of thy hands. That refers to Christ, the Messiah. And it shows the glorious destiny
of mankind that can only be accomplished and realized through the Son
of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man. He says that thou
visitest Him. That means to take care of. That's
what it means. It don't mean just to show up
at the door. It means to take care of. And it's either referring
to Christ Himself because He Himself in His humanity as God-man,
as He walked this earth, He was protected, He was sustained,
He was delivered by the Father and the Spirit. And it certainly refers to His
people in Him. The Bible says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. yet rather
is risen again. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. And
then it goes on to say, who shall separate us from the love of
God in Christ? Read about that in Romans 8.
Nothing. In verse 8, it speaks of his
glorious person, his finished work, and the reward of his accomplishment. Look at it again. Verse 8, thou
hast put all things in subjection under his feet. You see that? For in that he put all in subjection
under him. Now listen to this. He left nothing
that is not put under him. Is there anything in this world
that he's not in control of? Well, according to the Bible,
no. You say, well, seems like the things are pretty much out
of control. Well, hold on. Look at verse eight, the last
part. He says, but now we see not yet
all things put under him. That speaks of our present state
here on earth. What we see with our physical
eyes, we see much corruption, we see much rebellion, and even
what we might judge to be chaos. But all things have not yet come
to their final end. Everything is working together. God is working all things together
for his glory and the good of his people. He's actively, he's
not like what the patriotic father said that he's, you ever heard
of the watchmaker God theory? God created the world, wound
it up like a watch, and then went somewhere else and let it
wind down? No. He's the governor of this universe. He's everything. And how do we
know that? Look at verse nine. But we see
Jesus. We see salvation. We see the
person who was made a little lower than the angels. We see
him. We don't see how every little
nuance of providence is working it out in our mind. We know that
it is because God says it is. We don't see everything. It doesn't
look like that God's in control sometimes. But he is. And how do we know that? How
do we see that? That word see there is like a long gaze. We see Jesus. We see salvation. We see the glory of God in him.
By divine revelation, by God's word, by faith. What Moses tell
the children of Israel on the brink of the Red Sea, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Things don't look good.
There's the Red Sea. Pharaoh's army behind. But stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. Think about justice. There's
a lot of injustice in this world, isn't there? So how do we see
justice? How do we see righteousness,
real righteousness? Somebody says, well, look within
yourself. You're not going to find it. If you do, what have
you got? Pharisaism. We see Jesus Christ,
the Lord, our righteousness. That's our right standing before
God. That's our hope. His blood shed. That's what he
says. Look at verse nine. We see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. How do we know that we'll live again? because Jesus
Christ died, was buried, and arose from the dead. He established
righteousness, which demands life, which God has imputed to
his people, evidenced by the fact that they see Jesus. What
do you mean, see him? We look unto him as the author
and finisher of our faith. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, there's none else.
Who you gonna look to? A just God and a Savior. You
see, all this is not going to be realized here on this earth
as far as our sight of it. But it's all being worked out.
And how do we know that? Because Christ arose from the
dead. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. We
see it by divine revelation, we see it by God's word, and
we see it by God-given faith. We see the glory of God. We look
unto Him and we do not look to ourselves. We do not look to
the government. We don't even look to the president.
We look to Christ. It's all wrapped up in Him. It's
all accomplished by Him. You remember when the Israelites
were in the wilderness? And they began to complain against
God and God sent fiery serpents, poisonous snakes, bit the people
and they died. And Moses went to intercede for
them and he told Moses, make you a serpent of brass and put
it upon a pole. And he said, you tell them, everyone
who looks shall live. That serpent of brass was a picture
of Christ under the wrath of God for the sins of his people
charged to him. working out a perfect righteousness
whereby God could be just to justify, and everyone that looks
lived. That's a picture. The Bible says
in John chapter six and verse 40, this is the will of him that
sent me, Christ saying this, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. This look of faith centers
on three glorious truths. Number one, the glory of his
person, who Jesus Christ is. It's not about who we are, it's
about who he is. We see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels. That speaks of God in human flesh,
God manifest among us. Secondly, his accomplishment
of salvation by his death. For the sufferings of death,
but not only just death, look at it in verse nine. The sufferings
of death crowned with glory and honor. What does that tell you?
His death was an accomplishment. Remember when he showed himself
in his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration? I think it was
Peter and James, Peter and John, and I think James. And it said
that they saw a vision of Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus,
and they spoke of his decease. And that word decease there is
the Greek word for exodus. They spoke of his exodus, which
would be accomplished, which he would accomplish. His death,
which he would accomplish. We don't normally think of death
as being man's greatest accomplishment, do we? But it was for him, for
this man, because in his death, righteousness was established.
That's the very righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.
So it's the accomplishment of salvation. It's not what he tried
to do. It's not him doing his part and you doing yours. It's
what he accomplished to save his people from their sin. And
then thirdly, the security of all for whom he died. Now look
back here at verse nine. And read the whole verse now.
He says, 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. Every man. Now next week, Lord
willing, the title of my message is going to be this in the form
of a question. Who is every man? Somebody might say, well, now
that's kind of silly. It's obvious who every man is.
It's talking about everybody without exception. Well, first
of all, it's not talking about everybody without exception.
In fact, if you were to pick up, which I don't do, if you
were to pick up a Greek text, I study the words and I do the
word studies and all that, but if you were to pick up a Greek
text and you could read Greek, the New Testament Greek, It would
read this, it would say that he should taste death for every
period. Some translate it every one.
The word man, the masculine word man is not there. But it's every
one. Some translations say every son. And that's the context. When
it says he tasted death for every man, it doesn't mean everybody
without exception. And the context shows it. Every
man refers not to all with that exception, but he refers to the
ones he describes in the following verses. And let me just read
through it. Look at it. He says, verse 10,
for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all
things in bringing who? Many sons. He's talking about
every son, child of God. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings, we'll deal with that next week,
for both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified, they
who are set apart, they're all one, they're one with Christ,
for which cause he's not ashamed to call them what? Brethren,
his brethren, that's who the everyman is. Saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. That's the preaching of the gospel
to God's people, his sheep. In the midst of the church, there
it is. See, these are all identifying marks of the everyman. And here's
the point. There is no salvation apart from
Christ. But in Christ, there is sure
salvation. so much so that man's eternal
destiny can only be accomplished by and realized in him who is
God in human flesh, God-man, and based upon the accomplishment
of his death, which is righteousness that demands eternal life and
glory. His righteousness charged, accounted, imputed, and all whom
to whom he reveals himself, every son, all his brethren, That destiny,
that glorious destiny will be realized in their total, complete
salvation. And he'll be glorified and honored.
And everything that we see in this chaotic world, as we can
look at it, everything we see in this world, Ghanima, is all
being intricately controlled by the sovereign God of this
universe to bring us to that point in Christ. And that's a
comfort, isn't it? Especially when you watch the
news and read the news and all of that, that's a real comfort
to God's people.