This short series that we've
done, and we haven't done any series since I've been pastor
here. Some other pastors I know of did, so it made me not really
worry about it as being a negative thing. It's just kind of what
we called it. Seven distinct truths of our Lord. Seven distinct
truths about who He is and what He's done. And this is number
seven. We've arrived at number seven. Seventh one is that Christ Jesus
is better than the angels. Christ Jesus is better than the
angels. My hope this morning, in looking at angels a little
bit, is that we would hear the gospel. We would see Christ.
We would see the Lord. We can get so easily distracted,
can't we, when it comes to facts? I found myself going down many
rabbit holes whenever I was studying this out. And the place we always
need to land on is where is Christ in this? Where is the gospel
in this? The message has to be Christ, Senator. It's not truth.
It's not the gospel. And so my hope this morning is
that we will see Christ as better than the angels. Let's read our
text here. Hebrews one verse one, God, who
at sundry times in a diverse manner, spake in time past under
the fathers by the prophets. Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he had appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, 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,
being made so much better than the angels. as he had by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of
the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten unto the world, he saith, and let all
the angels of God worship him. We'll stop right there. The title
is Better Than Angels. better than angels. The Spirit of the Lord moved
upon the writer of Hebrews, and there's some controversy over
who wrote Hebrews, and I'm not even going to talk about that.
It doesn't matter, does it? Who wrote Hebrews? The Holy Spirit
of God moved upon men as they were inspired to do so. We don't
need to know his name. It doesn't matter who the preacher
is. What matters is that the Lord's
seen. It doesn't matter who the writer is, as long as it's the
Lord's word. As long as it's His words, that's all that matters,
isn't it? So for that being said, the writer's writing the Hebrews.
Now why was that important? Why is that important for me
to bring to our attention? Hebrews would have been, they
would have seen signs and wonders of the Lord. You remember in
Egypt, Hebrews saw the 10 plagues. Hebrews would have saw the Red
Sea parting. Now I understand this is a long time after that,
but they still, Paul said this, the Jews require a sign. The
Jews require a sign. You remember when they came to
the Lord and they said, Lord, show us a sign. show us a sign,
and what'd the Lord say? A wicked and adulterous generation
seek after a sign. No, we don't look to see signs
and wonders, do we? We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith if he causes us to do so. It's important to understand
he's writing to the Hebrews because of their fascination with unseen
things. Understand something many would
have believed that Christ was just an angel. He was just a
manifested angel that had abilities to heal. It takes faith to believe
he's Jesus Christ, the son of God. We can't arrive at that
conclusion, naturally speaking. So the writer of Hebrews is clarifying
this by saying he's better than the angels. He's so much better
than the angels. It might sound silly to say that
many would have believed Christ as an angel, but remember when
angel appeared unto John in Revelation? John the Revelator, the angel
of the Lord, appeared unto John. What's the first thing John did?
He fell down on his face and worshiped. Fell on his face to
worship. What did the angel do? He said, don't worship me. He
said, I'm just a fellow laborer. I'm just a minister. I'm just
the messenger. Don't worship me. Worship God. He said that twice. in the book
of Revelation. And we see all throughout how
that's the same. When men see something with their
eyes, then they worship. But God's a spirit, and they
that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Men today,
women today, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. How many statues
have you seen of angels? People put them as decor in their
Their yard, what's the word I'm looking for, not decor, yard,
an object in your yard. You understand, I don't know
the word. Some people have lawn gnomes, other people have angels.
They have trinkets, they have things that has wings on them.
They have, men want to worship something. They want to see what
they can see, or they want to worship what they can see. They
want to worship what they can touch. They want to worship what
they can feel in the flesh. That's our nature. That's our
nature. Men will say things like, God
loves me, so he gave me a guardian angel. You ever heard that before?
The word guardian's not in the scripture. Word guardians, not
in scripture. What does the scripture teach
us? What does it say? What's the truth about angels this morning?
That's what we're looking at. And my hope is that we'll see the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel in all of this.
And I want us to understand why the Lord's better than angels.
So first of all, we have to talk about how men are, how they view
angels and why that's wrong. And second of all, we're going
to look at how angels are a little bit. And for the majority, I
want to look at the Lord Jesus Christ, why he's better. So bear
with me for a moment. The word guardian is not in the
scripture. What it does say is the Lord gives his angels charge
over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, to keep thee in all
thy ways. As we think about the angels
keeping the Lord's people, what do the Lords do? Well, they're
ministers, the scripture says here. Look at verse seven. who maketh, verse 7, about the
angels, he said, who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers
a flame of fire. The word angel is literally a
messenger. That's what angels do. They just
convey what's been told to them by the Lord to convey. And what
is the message in the messenger? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We
looked at that. That was the very first truth in this series. That was the very first distinct
truth in this series. No, the comforter to the believer
is not that I have a guardian angel watching over my shoulder.
The comfort to the believer, I saw a bumper sticker that says,
don't drive faster than your guardian angel can keep up. People
view angels as being something that, that they can be worshiped. And that's what men would do
by nature. But the comfort to us is not that we have a guardian
angel, but we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our provider, as our
protector, as our comforter, his spirit is our comforter,
isn't it? Comfort to the believer is never
found in an angel or any other place, no other person, no other
object, nothing that's seen. The comfort and peace comes through
the singular source, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our comfort,
he's our peace, and he's better than angels. He's so much better
than the angels. And all to rest means that we're
looking to him by grace through faith. by grace through faith. We're not looking at what we
can see, are we? No, we're looking at things unseen.
How do you see something unseen? Well, it has to be revealed.
And the only way we can see it is if he reveals us and gives
us faith to believe it, gives us faith to believe it. Now, angels can't do anything
without God's permission. Unless God commands it, angels
can do nothing. Angels can do nothing. But the
Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, he is God, he does everything
he has purposed, everything he wills, nothing can stop him.
It's all according to his sovereign, omnipotent power, isn't it? He's
better than angels. Now I said this before, but the
word angel means messenger. Every angel that was manifested,
every angel that was revealed, every angel that appeared was
a messenger of the Lord. and they declared the Lord's
word. That was their job. Remember
Luke chapter two says, and there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night,
and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory
of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.
The angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. What was the message of the angels?
A savior's born, a savior. One peace with God is among you
now, but one that's gonna bring peace. They never declared themselves. Angels never drew attention to
themselves and said, worship me, look at me. There's one angel
that did. His name was Lucifer. And what happened to him? Well,
the scripture tells us there was a war in heaven. What time?
I don't know, so I'm not gonna, spirit's not clear on that. I'm
not gonna elaborate. There was a war in heaven. It
would make sense that it was before time, doesn't it? We see
that the angel was cast out, Lucifer was cast out, and he
took a third of the angels with him. Well, why didn't he take
all of them? Why didn't he take all of them?
Well, because in the book of Timothy, or let's see, getting
ahead of myself a little bit. When I get to that here in just
a minute, then I'll just have to tell you where it's from,
but they're called elect angels. The elect angels. What kept the
two thirds there? They were elect. See, everything
hinges upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything hinges upon the election
of God. Otherwise, the angels are not
even kept. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ is so much better
than the angels. He's the, oh, he's the son of God. He is God. He's better than angels. He's better than angels. He's
the message. What is the message of the angels?
All the Old Testament prophets? What was the message? What was
the message of the angels that appear judgments coming, repent
and believe? How can you and I repent unless
it be given of God? How can we have faith to believe
unless it be given of God? We know that to be true. The
angel couldn't do it. The angels just declared the word of the
Lord. They couldn't give life. It's all Him. He's the self-existent
one. He's the one that created all
things. That's why declaring Him as an
angel is wrong. Declaring the Lord Jesus. Now,
the scripture does tell us that He is the angel of the Lord,
but that's the messenger of the Lord's translated. That's Him
in the Old Testament. You remember the manifestation
of the Lord. That was a physical incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ when He appeared to Abraham. He was called the angel of the
Lord there. Is the Lord just an angel? No, he's God, but he's
also called, it's one of his titles, the angel of the Lord,
the message of God. That's his title. If we declare
him as just an angel, as any other angel, then it renders
him a created being, and he was never created. He's without beginning
of days. That's how Melchizedek was Saul,
wasn't it? He was without beginning of days or end of life. He had
no father, mother. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
His father was God. This is who he, this is why he's
better than the angels. He tells us here, he tells us
here to which, verse five, for which, under which of the angels
said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee, and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be
to me a son. If I am able this morning, I
want us to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the exalted
one above everything, and that includes angels. We look at angels
as being, the scripture calls them holy beings. We look at
them as messengers of the Lord and different things like that.
But he is so much better than the angels. We're at the lowest,
we're at the lowest point as far as being born. We're born
in sin, we're born in flesh. Angels are spiritual beings and
yet the Lord is better than all the angels. For the Lord is the
one that keeps them as well. That's all, we're kept by his
power, the angels are kept by his power. He's so much better
than the angels. He created the angels. He made
all things. What does that word all mean?
He made all things without him there was not anything that was
made that was made he made the angels. This is why the script the Lord
the spirits declare and clearly that he's better than the angels. And in this passage, we have
God By the Spirit, we have God distinctly declaring Jesus Christ
is set apart from angels, being infinitely better in every way,
being infinitely better in every way. He's manifest as God in
the flesh. He's different. He's different
than the angels. It's not that he's just different,
though. He's superior to the angels. He's not just different,
but he's over them. He is, he has the, do you remember
what he told, he said, do you not know that my father, that
I could ask of my father right now, and he sent 12 legions of
angels. He could have done that at any
time. They were at his disposal, at his word. Yet he didn't. He didn't. They're at his command. You remember whenever Joshua
Joshua had an encounter, I guess is the word you call it. The
Lord appeared unto him and it was called the angel of the Lord.
And he said that he was the commander of the armies of the Lord. Who
do you think that was? It wasn't Gabriel. It wasn't
the other angels. It wasn't Lucifer. Certainly
it was the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the commander of the armies
of the heavens. He's the commander. He owns it
all. He owns it all. So what is the purpose of angels
then? It's to glorify God. It's to glorify God. To serve him at his will. To
serve him at his command. To do as he says. What is your
and I's purpose? To glorify God. To glorify God. You think about this. Scripture
calls angels holy beings in Matthew chapter 25, but even they don't
keep themselves. The Lord does. The Lord does.
And I found that verse. I told you I'd get to first Timothy
chapter five, verse 21. I changed, I charged the before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. So he says,
and the other elect angel, he kept them. I love the thought
that the Lord has, he even has to keep the angels, everything
created. He has to keep. The most amazing part in all
of this is he didn't take on the form of angels. He took on
the seat of Abraham. He became the lowliest form that
he might redeem his people. The angels could have never redeemed.
The angels didn't have holy blood in them. They didn't have the
ability to redeem. They didn't have the power to
redeem. He does. Why? Because he's so much better
than the angels. God does not elect. If he does
not will to keep us, or even the angels, all will be lost.
If he leaves us to ourself, all will be lost. He even says that
he charges his angels with folly, with folly. No, these angels
are, that's not where salvation is. Christ is salvation. That's
where it's found. That's where it's found. It's
in the person of Lord Jesus Christ, and he must reveal it for it
to be found. I guess a better way to put it is he bestows it.
We really don't find it, do we? Salvation ain't lost, we are.
You only find something that's lost, never really thought of
it that way, but we don't find salvation, it's given, it's received,
it's bestowed. Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely
better than the angels. What was the purpose of the fallen
angels? To glorify God. You remember the verse that says,
I form the light, Lord speaking, Isaiah chapter 45, verse seven,
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
You ever heard that before? I know that I've said it before,
but Lord create evil. He does it all. What was the
purpose in the fallen angels? Well, they're called evil. Lord
created evil. He just left them to themselves.
I mean, he gets all the glory in this. Everything is by his
will, everything. He's infinitely better than the
angels. He could not fall. Angels, there's fallen angels.
And he could not fail. He could not fail. All by himself,
according to his power, the scripture says, Ephesians one, by his power,
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, he set him
far above principalities. He set him far above all power
and might and dominion and every name that is named. He set him
above every name that is named. That includes the angels, doesn't
it? He had highly exalted him and given him a name which is
above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess. He set him far above every name,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. His
name is above every creature, every being. He's above everything. He's so much better than the
angels. Job said this, shall mortal man be more just than
God? Shall mortal man be more just
than God? Shall a man be more pure than
his maker? Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. I love
the thought that the Lord trusted in the Son. The Lord didn't trust
in the angels. The Lord put his trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's where salvation is, is
where the Father trusted the Son before the world began. Now
the Lord's where he, he trusted his son, he says he charges his
angels with folly, but as for the son, he was declared worthy
to be the one that would redeem. None other name, no other person,
no other being, but the Lord Jesus Christ. What of salvation? Did he send
an angel to help in salvation? Did he send an angel to take
part in salvation? Well, what was our text just
last hour? He by himself purged our sin. No, an angel didn't give aid.
An angel couldn't prevent it. An angel didn't have anything
to do with it. God's the author and finisher of faith. He didn't
take on the nature of angels either. He took on the seat of
Abraham. And I said that earlier, but I didn't make, I didn't have
us turn there. Look at Hebrews chapter two, just a page over. Brethren, this is why it's not
okay for us to have statues and trinkets and things of angels. It takes away from the finished
work of Christ. It doesn't glorify God. It glorifies us. It's something
we can see. We don't glory in trinkets and
statues. We glorify in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, all by
faith. He's a spirit, and if we're to
worship, it's gotta be in spirit and in truth. We worship him,
not objects. Hebrews chapter two, verse 16
tells us 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 all things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he's able to succor
them that are tempted. Becoming an angel would not have
saved his people, Becoming an angel would not have saved his
people. He humbled himself to the lowest degree and took on
the form of man, robed in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin condemned sin in the flesh. It pleased him to be made
born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, his people. He's better than angels. What angel was tasked, what angel
was tasked with ransoming God's elect? What angel was tasked
with that job? What angel was tasked with redemption?
None. Only the Lord Jesus Christ was
tasked with redemption. Only he entered into the covenant
with his father. He was the only one found worthy. The Lord said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He's better
than angels. He's better than the angels. He was the only one that could
have taken the book. I study and sometimes I get my
notes mixed up and I have us looking now at Revelation where
John saw that I'll just briefly tell us again you remember whenever.
was looked in heaven and earth and under the earth for one that
was found worthy to open the book. There wasn't a single angel
that stood up and was found worthy. Angels are not worthy, but there's
one that was found worthy. What's his name? The Lord Jesus
Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse. He was found worthy to open the
book and loose the seals. He was the only one found worthy
to endure the wrath of God and put away sin. No angel's worthy
of that. He alone drank the bitter dregs
of the cup of God's wrath. You know, the angels would have
been looking upon during the scene of the cross of Calvary
until the earth was blacked out. The universe was blacked out
by God. Nobody could look in. God was doing business with God.
The Lord Jesus Christ was alone bearing the sin of his people.
No angel came to aid him or could. He had the power to call the
angels. He could have Think about this, if he would have called
the angels, what would have happened in salvation? There'd have been
no salvation for you and I. The angels would have destroyed
the place. That's what he meant by the 12 legion. That's enough
to wipe out the world, isn't it? But he didn't call, why? He was going to finish the work
that was given to him of his father, the only one who could
have done that. No other angel could have, no other being could
have saved, but he did. He did. Angel couldn't have helped.
Angel couldn't have aided. He was alone with the justice
of God. The angels were powerless. Powerless
to aid, powerless to interfere. Nothing helped the Lord Jesus
Christ. He by himself purged our sin.
No one could have either, could they? Even if they wanted to
help. There's a song in the hymn book. It says, does Jesus have
to bear the cross alone? That nauseates me. The answer
is yes. He must. They're talking about
that verse that says, take up your cross and follow me. What
that verse means, brethren, is if you look to Christ, you're
going to suffer reproach for the gospel's sake. Christ bore the cross all
by himself. I understand the scripture talks
about Simon helping him up with the cross. I'm talking about
the burden of salvation on the cross is what we're talking about.
He by himself bore that cross, bore the wrath of God. No angel
could have helped him. No man could have helped him.
He was alone with God, the very justice of God being poured upon
him. Whenever he was finished with the work, who did he confer
with? Who did he ask permission to
do anything with at that time? No one. He said, it is finished.
It is finished. He alone was able by right, by
inheritance, by his own power to redeem. Thank God he's better
than the angels. He's better than the angels.
In closing, I wanna look at verse five through nine here. You're
in Hebrews two. Verse five, chapter two of Hebrews. For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come, wherever we speak, but
one in a certain place testifying, saying, what is man that thou
art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?
Thou hast made'st him a little lower than the angels. Thou crown'st
him, the Lord Jesus Christ, with glory and honor, and did set
him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things, brethren,
I like to stop when we see those words, that word all, you put
all things. all things in subjection under
his feet. Now look here though, it says
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. Just because you can't see it
doesn't mean that ain't how it is. That's what he's saying there.
All things are under his feet right now, we just can't see
it. We believe it through faith, we can't see everything in subjection.
But here's who we see, verse nine, 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. As low as he humbled himself
as becoming a man, that's how infinitely more the Father hath
exalted him. Father hath exalted him, said,
sit thou here at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool. What a glorious thought, brethren,
that after His resurrection He sat down because salvation was
accomplished. You can see the scene in heaven
that took place at that time. He really sat down. Can you imagine
the elders? Can you imagine the 144,000,
the Lord's elect already there? You can imagine the, we're already
there. I mean, we know that. You've heard me talk about that
before. The word, then He did predestinate, He foreknow, then
He, at the end of that it says He justified, He glorified. That's
past tense. We're already there, but when
he sat down, think about this. You have the elders, you have
the beast, you have the entire band of angels that's in glory,
all of them, all the angels there, they begin shouting, worthy is
the lamb. Worthy is the Lamb to receive
all glory and all honor and all praise. And you know what they
say as they fly above? The scripture says, the cherubims,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, which was, which
is, and which is to come. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gets the praise of all of his people. He gets the praise
of his angels, every one of them. None of them get any glory or
any honor. He's worthy of it all. He's better
than angels. Good news is, brethren, all that
he accomplished is finished. Everything he accomplished is
finished. Neither you or I can mess it up. Neither you and I
can add to or take away from it. The salvation of God's people
is completely finished, and not even an angel can do anything
about it. Not even an angel. Whether they
would or whether they wouldn't. Whether it's the ones that were
cast out or the ones that's in glory, an angel cannot. cannot
do anything to the elect of God. Look in Romans chapter eight,
I'll show you that. Last place we're turning. He's so much better than the
angels. No angel could save us and no angel can unsave us. I
love that. No man can, no angel, no principality or power. This
is what we're going to read right here. Romans 8 38. Look, Where
I am persuaded, who persuaded him? God or man? The Lord did,
didn't he? The Lord's persuaded us that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, there's the word, angels. Angels can't do it, anything
about it. Nor principalities, nor powers. nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from
his love. Nothing can separate us from his salvation, his righteousness.
We've been made the righteousness of God in him. We can't mess
it up, but the good news is nothing else can either. Nothing else
can either, amen. He's better than the angels.
Let's pray. Father, give us understanding
of your more understanding, Father, of your your lordship, your your
godness. Father, we can't enter into these
things, but we are thankful that we know and believe by your word
that you are so much better than the angels who could not redeem.
You redeemed your people by becoming a man. Cause us to rest in your
redemption in Christ's name. Amen.