Hebrews chapter 2. I've entitled the message, The
Humiliation and Exaltation of Jesus Christ. The Humiliation
and the Exaltation of Jesus Christ. We're going to begin our reading
in verse 5, he said, For unto the angels
hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we
speak. But one in a certain place testifieth,
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 crownest Him with glory
and honor, and did set Him over all 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 what? 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 grace of god should taste
death for every man the apostle in the book of hebrews if i were
to have one word that would sum up the subject of hebrews it
is Christ is better than everything. Christ is better than everything. He is better than the angels.
He is better than the prophets. He is better than the priests.
He is better than the offerings of the Old Testament. Why? Because He is the Creator of
all things. Because the prophets spoke of
Him. Because the high priests pictured
Him. Because the offerings pictured
Him. Therefore, He is better. He is
a mediator of a better covenant. A covenant that speaketh better
things than the blood of Abel. So if you have a word to describe
the book of Hebrews, it's Christ is better. Christ is the best. Christ is all. Christ is all. And so in this text here, he
is talking about angels and he says, look, Christ is better
than angels because He made them. Christ is better than angels
because they're just ministering servants sent forth to minister. Christ is better than angels
because of this. Because God didn't put the world
to come under their feet. He did not give angels to rule,
but to Christ, His Son, He has given everything. And so herein is the hope and
expectation of every believer. Look at that in verse 5. He didn't
give them subjection to the world to come. You know what my hope
is? That there's a world to come. I am so thankful that this is
not it. You read that fool, that fool
titled the fool's book. I, of course, I didn't read the
book. I wouldn't even, I just saw it passing by. The best life
now. That's what one of the so-called
preachers of this generation has been. Let them have it. My
best life is yet to come. In the world to come, there is
a world to come. But how then should we, who are
sons of Adam, fallen sons of Adam, be made acceptable, be
made fit to enter into the world to come, the heavenly Jerusalem,
whose builder and maker is God? We are unrighteous by nature,
unholy. We are without any goodness according
to the Word of God. How then should we be made fit
for this world to come? The Scripture says in verse 6,
it says in a certain place, it says, What is man that thou art
mindful of him? What is man that God would even
be mindful of us? Behold the goodness and grace
of God that He gave man everything. He set man upright in the garden. He gave man rule over all things
of His creation. He gave him a helpmeet, a perfect
helpmeet in the woman. God set him in the best environment
with the best situation, gave him one commandment to follow. And man, in absolute rebellion,
in utter disobedience to God, willful rebellion, plunged his
whole race into ruin. Adam, by that one transgression,
plunged us all into sin and death. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men for all have sinned. The result of his sin was the
complete ruin of the race of mankind. We are completely corrupt
and defiled from birth. Therefore, why would God be mindful
of you? Now, religion would have you
say, well, you deserve it. That God owes you something.
Friend, God does not owe man anything. When the angels fell,
what did He give them? Nothing. By their one transgression,
they were wrapped in eternal chains of darkness and given
no Savior. That's exactly what we deserve.
When Adam fell, God did not have to come to man. He could have been holy and just
to leave us, just like He did the angels, those angels that
fell. But yet, what is the Son of Man? Not only was He mindful, He visited
us. Isn't that what he did to Adam?
He visited him. He came down to Adam. In the midst of his sin and rebellion,
he came and he spoke a message of hope and salvation. And what
was that message? The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent and he shall bruise his heel. This is
a picture of Christ. This was a message of grace,
a message of salvation. that Christ should come and remove
sin, that Christ should come and put away the curse, that
Christ should come and abolish death. Everything that man brought
in, everything that sin, everything that Satan had desired to bring
upon man, Christ was to come and remove it. Crush His head. The head of the serpent. How?
One way. Humiliation. His heel must be bruised. Christ
must come into the world, and this is the first point, the
humiliation of Christ. Look at this in verse 7, "...Thou
madest Him..." Who? The Son of God! God! Very God! Thou madest him a little
lower than the angels. Verse 9. Who is this talking
about? Verse 9. But we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels. For what purpose?
For suffering of death. For suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honor
that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. God was made a little lower than
the angels, He was made flesh. Now what John says, he says He
was made flesh and dwelt among us, as one of us. Behold, the purpose of God in
salvation is that Christ should be your representative man. This is how sinners are saved,
only through a representative man. As that high priest of old,
you remember he offered the sacrifices. Not everybody in Israel offered
those sacrifices. It was one man that offered the
atoning sacrifice for the whole nation. He was a representative
of all those people. That's a picture of Christ. Christ
is a representative man of all the sons of God. And God decreed
that we should be made holy. That all His sons should be made
holy. Isn't that something? Because
in order to be made holy insinuates that you weren't holy. If you
had to be made holy, then you were being made something you
were not. But isn't that what the Scripture
says? According as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. In love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children, how should He do this? By Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His greats, wherein He hath made
us accepted. in the Beloved. This work of making us holy could
only be by visitation. What is the Son of Man that thou
visitest Him? And notice, He did not visit
Him in deity. He visited Him in humanity. He was made something He wasn't
before, a little lower than the angels. Scripture says He took not on
Him the nature of angels, but what? The seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham. This is
the absolute humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation
of the Son of God is the greatest display and depth of divine wisdom. You know, no other religion has
their God being made man. They got their gods pretending
to be man, but none of them are made man. They do. They got their gods coming in
the form of man, but not really being man. See, that can never
happen by the wisdom of man. No wisdom of man would ever come
up with this. But God has come up with this
wisdom. It's the height of wisdom that God should save His people
in a representative. And that representative, who
Himself is God, should be made flesh. Infinite wisdom. This incarnation is a full display
of God's power. behold a virgin shall conceive
now who'd ever thought of that? no what? no a virgin shall conceive
who could have ever done that? a virgin shall conceive and bear
a son now shall call his name what? Emmanuel God with us Jesus
Jehovah saves shall be his name It's a full manifestation. The
Incarnation is a full manifestation of the love of God. The love
of God. For God so loved the world. Now what's the manifestation?
That He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And being
found in fashion as a man, Paul says, he humbled himself and
became obedient. Can you imagine God being obedient? That's just opposite to what
you ever thought. Yet, he who is God, being made
flesh, became obedient unto God. And what was this humiliation
for? Listen, it was to save His people
from their sins. Isn't that what the angel said
at the beginning when He told him, Thou shalt call His name
Jehovah Saves, for He shall save His people. from their sins. The reason of Christ's humiliation
was to save His people from their sins. That He should taste death
for every man, for everyone the Father had given Him, He should
taste death. Not just physical death, but
spiritual. He should taste the death, the
wrath of God for all His people. And He came to do the will of
the Father, which was to lay down His life. He said, I am
the Good Shepherd, and I lay down My life for the sheep. And the Father loveth Me because,
what? I lay down My life for the sheep.
This is the will of God, that He lay down His life. That He
offer Himself a sacrifice. That He be made sin for us. Who would have thought of that?
That the righteous Son of God should be made sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And the justice and wrath of
God in the midst of His humiliation fell squarely on Him. The wrath of God unmixed with
mercy. unmixed. There was no mercy when
God punished His Son. He forsook Him completely and
utterly because of our sin. It was the purpose of God that
Christ be offered to redeem all of His elect people, to redeem
Israel. Now then, I ask you, He that
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, for the salvation of His people, what was the result
of His humiliation? What was the result of His suffering? Was the justice of God satisfied? He who was sent to redeem His
people, did He redeem His people? Did He accomplish the work His
Father gave Him to do? The answer is squarely found
in our text. Look at this in verse 7. Jesus, who is made a little lower
than the angels, yet thou crownest Him with glory and honor. Jesus Christ was absolutely victorious. He Himself said, it is finished. Paul says to all the elect who
were given to Christ, decreed by holy, sovereign election,
he says, in Christ we have obtained redemption. We have redemption
through His blood. Even the forgiveness of sins.
And what's the reason? According to what? Not according
to merit. Not according to our goodness,
but according to His grace. According to the riches of His
grace, He has redeemed us. The apostle later in the book
of Hebrews, look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, concerning
the success of his humiliation, of his sacrifice. Hebrews 10,
chapter 10 and verse 11. Paul is comparing the Old Testament
high priest and their offerings to the offering and work of Jesus
Christ. He says, every priest standeth
daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sin. But this man. Let me tell you
something about this man. I want you to shift your focus
from those men and you look at this man. This man, Jesus, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever, what'd he do? Sat down. What does that tell you? When
a man sits down, it means he's done. It means his work is accomplished. It's finished. After his one
offering for sin, he sat down. How long? Forever. No more work
to be done. How long? Forever. By his one
sacrifice, he's done it all. He's already accomplished what
he set out to do. And notice where he sat. He just
didn't sit anywhere. He sat down on the right hand
of God. And now what is he doing? Expecting. You expect something to happen.
What do you... You anticipate it. It's going
to happen. He's expecting it to happen. He knows it's going
to happen. "...Expecting till his enemies
be made his footstool. For by his one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified." Our Lord Jesus Christ,
who was in humiliation, made sin for us. Now, being raised
from the dead, is exalted. I was reading this past week
of King Solomon. I picked up the book of Kings,
and I just started reading about Solomon. And I didn't know why
I was reading it. I just read it. I wanted to read
it, and it's beautiful, beautiful. You can imagine this. He said
there were so many riches there in that land of Jerusalem that
silver was as stones. There was so much silver going
on, people would just drop it on the ground. It really wasn't
worth anything. It was so much. And then it pictures Solomon
in all of his glory, and all of his robes, and all of his
majesty. And he said he built this throne
out of ivory. Now can you imagine a throne
built out of ivory? Carved to beautiful perfection. This throne was so white and
pure, and on each side of it was lions. He had carved lions
on the side of his throne. And there were six that went
up to this throne, and lions were carved all along the edge
of this throne. Can you imagine Solomon and all
of his majesty ascending up the steps to sit down on his throne
and rule over his kingdom with such wisdom and power? That's
just Solomon. That pictured something better
than this. Behold, a greater than Solomon is here. And Christ,
after His humiliation, has donned the robe of His deity, and now
He has ascended into the very throne of God and sits down,
ruling and reigning over all things, expecting His enemies
to be made His footstool. Jesus Christ who is now, is no
longer in humiliation, he is in exaltation. Wherefore God
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall swear things in heaven and things in
earth. Every tongue shall confess to
the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord. Behold, He who visited
us in humiliation, I want you to know right now where He's
sitting. I want you to know right now where your Redeemer is sitting. He is sitting on the throne of
God, ruling all things. Ruling. Reigning. You know, there's so many people
right now anticipating Christ to rule. They say, well, one
day He's going to come back and rule. One day He's going to say,
right now everything's a mess and, you know, He's not really
ruling everything right now, but He's going to rule one day.
No, He's ruling right now. He is crowned with what? Glory
and honor. Glory and honor. And what does it say? And did
set Him over the works of thy hand. Back in our text in verse
7. He said, Thou crownest Him with glory, honor, and did set
Him over all thy works. And what does this mean? Set
Him over all thy works. Look at verse 8. It gives you
an explanation of what that means. He said, Thou hast put all things
in subjection under His feet. Now what does that mean, under
his feet? This is taken from ancient times,
when a king would conquer another kingdom. He would make a big
spectacle, a big display, so as to show the conquered people
who was ruling, who was reigning now, who they owed their allegiance
to now. He would make a big spectacle,
and he would take the king of the conquered kingdom, and he
would cause him to lay down before him. And he would take his foot,
and he would put it on the neck of his fallen enemy. That's exactly what happened.
Jesus Christ right now has His feet on the necks of all things. Not just one thing. It's not
just Satan. It's not just the wicked. It's
everything. God has made a spectacle by His
resurrection to show you that He is Lord of everything. God has put him in charge of
all things. And this spectacle, you know,
Joshua did this in the book of Judges, after he had conquered
those five kings, that's what he did. He called his captains
and he says, Hey, come on up here, you put your neck on these
five kings. They're conquered, they're done.
They don't rule anymore. And so it is with Christ. Jesus
Christ is the mighty conqueror in all things. Now, I want us
to get a view of this, because this is for our comfort, you
who are His redeemed, you who He came in humiliation and died
for. I want you to know this, that
your Savior has His feet on all things. that all things are in
subjection to Him. Now that's a big, big scope.
And so we're just going to cover a few things and kind of maybe
we can corral these things in perspective. First of all, He
is over all persons. All persons and beings are under
His feet. From the highest king to the
lowest pauper. are under his direct rule. Now kings upon their throne,
to the lowest beggar and subjection of Christ, all who rule the nations,
don't you know that they are placed there? I'm sure we'll vote soon, that
kind of thing. Do your civic duty, vote, whatever. God's going to put who He wants
there. I want you to know that. God's going to put exactly who
He wants there. Wicked or good, doesn't matter.
It's God's prerogative to raise kingdoms and to put them down. That's what He does. He is in
charge of this. So don't fret. Don't be fearful. God put the man there. And now we who are believers,
we know this. We're to give honor to whom honors
do, tribute to whom tributes do. We're to be good in the kingdom that God
has placed us in, whatever kingdom we're in. Whether we're in a
dictatorship or we're in a democracy or we're a republic, whatever
government we are in, we are to be subject to those powers
because God put them there. Unless they contradict God, and
then, it's only then we're to obey God. You know, that's what
Peter and John did. They said, well, you judge. Should
we rather obey you or God? Those three Hebrew children,
they were good subjects to their king, weren't they? They were
good governors until he went against God, and then they said,
look, no, we're not going to obey you. We're going to obey
God. And it didn't matter if it cost
them their death, and eventually that king, he recognized something. That God's in charge of this
show. God's in charge. Behold the truth of God's word,
that no man can move hand or foot against you, except God
give him leave. You know, they can't even hate
you unless God allows it. That's how in control He is of
every person. They cannot lift their hand against
Him, for if He should even cast a frown on them, He'd crush them
to powder. That's how sovereign He is. He
is sovereign over all things. Now then, why then fret? He said
this in Psalm 37, "...fret not thyself because of evildoers."
Why? They shall be cut down like grass.
How easy do you cut the grass? You push the mower over and whoop,
it's gone. That's how easy God will cut
down men. Don't fret because of them. Why? They are under
His foot, under His dominion. We need not fear them. Could
anyone oppose us except the Lord Jesus Christ allow it? Our oppressors then have their
limits. Don't they? They have their limits. Listen to what he says in Isaiah.
He says, "...therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and
come singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.
They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning
shall flee away. I, even I, am that He that comforteth
you." Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of man? Look,
I've already told you, you're going to come. You're going to
come with joy. You're going to come with singing
and desire. I'm your comforter. What is man that dies? He's going to die. He's going
to die. that you should be afraid of
Him. Believer, let this be our comfort when men assail you,
assault you, or oppress you. They are under His feet, and
He does with them as He pleases. Secondly, I want you to know
this. All things are subject to Him.
Now, all people are subject to Him, and all things. What does this mean? Circumstances.
circumstances of your life. Do you wonder how your dark and
troubling circumstances will end? At present things may look dark.
All hopes may be extinguished. It appears no good could ever
come from what you're suffering. Your situation is so bleak and
so dark that you can't see any light. But may God shine this light
into your dark situation. All things are under His feet. Do you know this, that nothing
happens by chance? Don't you know that? Don't you
know those things that you expect to happen and they didn't happen?
Don't you know they're under His feet? Don't you know He directed
them? Men think they're doing what
they want to. They are doing exactly what God desires them
to do. They're not outside of His control. All things, circumstances, providences,
dark and light, joy and sorrow, grief and pain, all things are
under His feet. Believer, let us then be quiet. Isn't that the best thing to
do is just shut up and bow down? Stop trying to figure it out.
Solomon says in Proverbs, I believe it's Proverbs 9, if I'm not mistaken,
he says that's just misery. Trying to trace the providences
of God and trace the love of God based on circumstances is
miserable. Can you look at your circumstances
and see the love of God for you? Not very often. And even when
it is, I'm usually mistaken. No, I can only trace the love
of God by the Word of God. Not by circumstance. So what
comforts us in the circumstance is this. All things are under
His feet. And what does He determine for
you? Out of these providences that He controls, what is His
determination for you who are His children? God says this,
I know my thoughts that I think toward you. thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Isn't Christ expecting that His
enemy's been made His footstool? You have an expected end, a sure
end. You know how this thing's going
to end, don't you? Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. So whatever it is you're going
through, it's not for evil. It's not for evil. It's for your
good. He says this, I will make an
everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them good. Good. And so then God who is over all
things, He is over all circumstances, and listen, He's over every trial.
The Scriptures are clear, the righteous, the Lord shall try
the righteous. What did Peter say about your
trials? He says that they are more precious than gold and perish. All of your trials of faith,
Isn't that what dark providences are? Isn't that what these sorrowful
situations are for? They're for the trial of your
faith, to prove your faith. Is there anything more precious
than proven faith? No. To know that I am a son of
God, and the evidence of that is faith, and if my faith is
genuine, then I have hope. And so God is using these trials,
using these providences, in order to make us to grow in
grace. And so then, believer, remember,
every joy and trial falleth from above, traced upon thy dial by
the sound of love. Therefore, in the trial, let
us look up and see who sits on the throne." Let us see that
the trial is under... He has weighed and measured every
trial for you. Isn't that refreshing to know
that every trial is weighed and measured specifically designed
for you? Not that you should fail, but
that you should succeed. that you should grow in grace
and knowledge of Him through the trial, through the difficulty. And listen, even temptations
are under His control. Isn't that something? Temptations?
Aren't you always surrounded by temptations out within? Don't they cause you great sorrow
because of your sin and proneness to wander? Well, who controls
all that? Remember, all things are under
His feet. I often ask, why does God allow
such sin to overwhelm me? If He controls all things, why
are things as they are? Have you not thought that? You've not looked around and
seen the mess, this world that seems upside down and backwards.
Men hate the truth and love the lie. The church is small, and
false religion is so vast and large. God's saints are persecuted,
and the wicked and the evildoers prosper. You often wonder, Lord, why is
it such? But in such questions, we have
no business. Faith is our business. Trusting
Him. Look what Paul says here. He
says, just in case you might suspect something is not under
his feet, he says this, For he said he put all things in subjection
under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him,
what did he leave? He left nothing that is not put
in subjection under him. But now, we see not yet all things
put under him. Now listen, all things are put
under him, but as of yet we do not see it. But again, it's not our business
to understand. I imagine if God were to open
our minds to understand, it would drive us to insanity. to try
to comprehend what God is doing with all of these things under
His feet so as to bring us in. What then should be your focus?
I know this, one day it will be revealed. His reign will be
exposed. One day we'll see it. He said not yet, right? That
means it's coming. We're going to see it, but not
yet. Not yet. What should our eyes then be
on? Verse 9, But we see Jesus. That's where your eyes need to
be. You need to know all things are in subjection under Him.
But where should your eyes be? We see Jesus. I know this, he
in humiliation was made lower than the angel, but now is crowned
with glory and honor. I know this, by his grace, by
the grace of God, he has tasted death for me. What did Paul say in Romans?
He says, Romans chapter 8, he says in verse uh... thirty one what shall we say
to these things if god before us who can be against us he that
spared not his own son in humiliation but delivered him up for us all
how shall he not with him who is crowned with glory and honor
freely give us believer who is running And if all things are under His
feet, what then should you fear? Even seeing that our sin has
been put under Him. You know, you don't even sin
without His allowing it. But He only allows it so you
draw you closer to Him. He has everything. He rules everything. May God comfort your heart in
this because it may not seem he said no we don't see it yet
but we know it because we see we know in humiliation reading
and in his exaltation keeps us and sustained one day we'll see
i pray god keep us give us live the stand be dismissed