who is the exact image of God's
person, exactly, in every way. There's nothing true about God
that's not true about him. Nothing that we can see in Christ
that's not true of God. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in him bodily. And so we're thankful that God
has made him known and exalted him this way. He upholds all
things by the word of his power, just by his word, just by speaking. Our Savior upholds creation,
every event in all of history, the kingdoms of this world, and
keeps them on their course to bring His people to Himself through
the providence of His work, and especially His work in our salvation
in our hearts by His Spirit. And when he's the one who by
himself purged our sins, which means that he is our high priest,
because only the priest, only the high priest could remove
the sins of God's people. So this identifies the son of
God as our high priest and the one who accomplished our salvation.
And so he goes on in verse four. Now I wanna read from verse four
all the way through verse 16 of chapter two. Let's read this
together. Speaking about the Lord Jesus,
being made so much better than the angels, as he hath 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. These are quotations from
the Old Testament. The first one occurs in Psalm
2. The second one we just read occurs in 2 Samuel 7, verse 14. He says in verse 6, and again, And again, I'm sorry, the end
of verse five, and he shall be to me a son, verse six. And again,
when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, which
was at his birth, he saith, let all the angels of God worship
him. In verse 7, and of the angels,
now he's described the sun, and now he says, of the angels he
saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire. So they're spirits, they're not
the sun. They don't have a body, and they're servants. Ministers
means servants, a flame of fire. But unto the Son, he saith, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. So it identifies Christ as the
ruling king, a king who rules in righteousness. Verse nine,
thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows. Because of his merit, he loved
righteousness, he hated iniquity, and God anointed him with the
spirit of God, with the gladness above his fellows. And thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish,
but thou remainest. Now, the angels were in this
class of things that were created. And he identifies all of creation,
the heavens and the earth, the earth and the heavens, as what
will perish. He says, thou remainest, and
they shall all wax old as to the garment, and as a vesture
shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou
art the same, and thy years shall not fail. 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 heirs of
salvation? spirits who were servants of Christ, his ministry of spirits,
to the heirs of salvation, which teaches several things, that
the angels are subject to Christ for the purpose of serving Christ's
people. Now this identifies the angels
as servants of Christ and his people. And so you see in this
comparison between Christ as the Son and the angels as created
by Him, as commanded to worship Him, as in comparison to Him,
He is God, they are spirits created. They worship, he's the one who's
worshiped. They are servants, he's the one
they serve. And the world to come has been put in subjection
to him who is the son, who is the son of man. And they serve
him as son of God and son of man for his people. Okay, so
this puts them in their proper place in comparison to Christ.
And so what we're about to see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ
is better than angels. And I want to read on, but before
I do, I want to ask this question. Why would God raise the issue
of angels? Do we even think about angels? Maybe. Some people do. Some people
give angels lots of credit. but we want to put them in the
proper place, and we want to see that. And the book of Hebrews
starts with this comparison, first with, by identifying the
Lord Jesus Christ in his majesty, and in his power, and his sovereignty
as the Son of God. He created all things, upholds
all things, the brightness of God's glory, the heir of all
things, the one, is the exact image of God. And then he also
says that he's been given all things in order to inherit them
as his own, as the son of man. And as son of man and our high
priest, he purged our sins. And now he puts our high priest,
the man Christ Jesus, who is also the son in comparison to
the angels. And he sets Christ, the man and
the son of God in one person above the angels, so far above
them that they're the worshipers, the servants, the created creatures.
and the ones who serve his people. And so we're going to see how
this unfolds in the book of Hebrews to teach us the main theme of
the book, which is that Christ is not only the better of the
angels, of Moses, of Joshua, of man, of every kind, of Aaron,
and the covenants and all of the services, the tabernacle,
but he's actually not only better, but his kingdom, his covenant,
his law replaces all those Old Testament things that pointed
to him, and the angels are included in that. So in chapter two, he
opens up in verse one, he says this, 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. Why should we give them
more earnest heed? He says in verse 2, 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, the Lord Jesus spoke it first, and was
confirmed unto us by them that heard him." We know the gospel
because those who heard Christ have preached the gospel to us,
and it came directly from Him to them, the Apostle Paul, Peter,
and all the other apostles. And then it says here in verse
four, not only did these speak from Christ, of Christ, but God
also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.
God validated the words of the apostles as the words of Christ
and his own words by showing it by the signs and wonders and
miracles and the gifts of God's own spirit by his own will. Verse five, now here's where
there's an explanation that's going to be given here that sets
the angels in their proper relationship to men and to Christ. Notice,
for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to
come, whereof we speak. So there is a world to come.
In that world, Christ has been made king. And he's the head
on that, he's the king on that throne now. He's the head of
that kingdom even now. As we saw in verse three, when
he had by himself, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. But here he says, the world to
come, not even in that world has God put the angels in charge,
but he has done something else. He says in verse six, but one,
and this is a quotation from Psalm chapter eight, 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."
So in the Psalms, he identifies man as being insignificant to
God. But notice, thou madest him a
little lower than the angels. So when we read that at first,
we think, well, man was put under angels. thou crownest him with
glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands.
And this is God describing his purpose and his design for man,
isn't it? That he was made lower than the
angels, and yet he was crowned with glory and honor, and set
over the works of thy hands. In verse eight, thou hast put
all things in subjection under his feet. This seems like a contradiction. Wait a minute, I thought the
angels that man was put under the angels, but here he says
he's crowned with glory and honor and now he's given all things.
Who is the man God is speaking about here? He says in the middle
of the verse eight, four, and 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 or man, but we see Jesus. who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. And the word
little there just simply means for a time, for a duration. It's
not like, well, he was almost an angel, but not quite. Yes,
he was put lower than the angels for a little time when he was
on the earth. And he says, for the suffering
of death. because he couldn't suffer death
unless he was a man. And man was made lower than the
angels, so Christ was made lower than the angels as man for a
short time so that he could suffer death. And now we see Jesus crowned
with glory and honor. That's the fulfillment of Psalm
8. that he, Christ, by the grace of God towards us, should taste
death for every man. He tasted death for every man. And we might wonder, every man
without exception? He's going to answer that question
in the verses that follow. For it became him, speaking about
God the Father, It became him, or it seemed good to him, it
was pleasing in his sight, it seemed good to God the Father,
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons to glory, that's the sons, the all he's speaking about,
in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. That would be Christ, he's the
captain of our salvation, and he was made a perfect captain
through sufferings. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifieth,
the one who makes holy, and they who are sanctified, those who
are set apart as holy to God, are all of one. Christ is the
sanctifier. His people are the sanctified.
He's the one who was set apart by God to accomplish our salvation. And in his suffering and death,
he was sanctified. That we might be sanctified.
we might be holy. For the witch cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, because they're all one. The
sanctifier and the sanctified, according to God's will, must
be one." And so he took on our nature. He said this as one with
us, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. You see the unity of Christ with
his people? Brethren. He is their brother. They're all sons of God, but
he's the only begotten son. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church. Will I sing praise unto
thee? And again, I, Christ said, will
put my trust in him, his father. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. So here we see those for
whom Christ tasted death, called every man. in verse 9, are also
called sons, who will be brought to glory, the sanctified ones,
in verse 11, and brethren, in verse 12, and church, in verse
12, and those who also put their trust in God the Father, because
of Christ, and who are called the children of God and given
to Christ. You see that in verse 11? Now,
verse 14. For as much then, as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, this is why he was made lower
than the angels, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death, his own death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil. Hmm, that's interesting,
isn't it? We're gonna see a lot more about
that. And deliver them who through fear of death, his people, were
all their lifetime subject to bondage, For verily he took not
on angels, but he took on the seed of Abraham. He didn't take
on the nature of angels, nor did he take on the purpose of
saving angels. He took on the nature of the
children of the seed of Abraham, those who are actually given
grace by God to be part of that same promise in Christ and therefore
given salvation by God. They're called 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, and
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation or propitiation
for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted,
or run to the aid of those who are tempted. That's what a high
priest does. He purges their sins by the sacrifice he makes
to God, and therefore, with his compassion on them, he runs to
their aid in all of their needs. Now, this section of scripture
is setting down here Christ's preeminence as the Son of God
and the Son of Man as our mediator over angels. And there's a very
important reason why he needs to do this. And that's what we
want to understand here. First of all, it's so that Christ
would be first in all things. The Son of God took our nature. It was God's eternal purpose
to set him on his throne and to make him the head and give
him the glory and the power and all things to him so that he
would have the preeminence in all things, even over angels. They were his creatures, but
as man, as the mediator, He would also have dominion over them.
Now, angels are mighty, aren't they? They're strong beings.
And so we need to look at these things. I want to just go from
the things I captured as I was thinking about this yesterday. So Hebrews begins in the first
chapter by exalting the Son of God. You saw that, didn't you?
This is what the scripture does. God the Father exalts his Son
and in so doing glorifies himself. Christ as the Son of God and
the Son of Man because he's spoken to us. We know he was a son of
man because he was made flesh and dwelt among us. As son of
God and son of man, whom God has spoken to us, God appointed
him as the heir of all things, and in so doing put all things
into his hands. I want to look at a couple of
scriptures with you. I didn't do this when we covered that,
but look at these scriptures just real briefly here. Look
at Matthew chapter 11. So you can appreciate this emphasis
that God makes here in Hebrews as connected to what Christ himself
said in scripture. Matthew 11, 27, Jesus says this,
all things are delivered unto me of my father. Do you see that? All things. are delivered unto
me of my Father." I like to think about that. Everything that was
the Father, that belonged to the Father, is given to Christ.
And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father neither. That means
he's infinite. If only God the Father can know
him, then the Son of God is beyond comprehension. But neither knoweth
any man the Father save the Son, and he, that person, to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. So in the hand of Christ, not
only are all things, but most especially the prerogative to
make the Father known. The Son has that sovereign prerogative
to make His Father known. Look at John chapter 3. We don't
come to God by any other, do we? There's salvation in no other
but the name of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter
3. And verse 35, he says this about
the Lord Jesus. He says, the Father loveth the
Son and hath given all things into his hand. There you have
it. Everything's his. You and I are
his. We belong to him. And everything
in this world belongs to him. We have nothing but what was
given to us by the Son of God. All that we give We only give
because He first gave it to us. It's His already. And now look
at John chapter 13. John chapter 13. Our life is
His. Our salvation is His. Our eternal
life and our eternal glory, of course, are all His. And He gives
salvation, faith, repentance, His Spirit. Every breath we breathe,
every thought we have, that's towards Him and a true thought. John 13, verse 3. He says, Jesus
Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and
that he was come from God and went to God, notice what he did. He rises from supper and he laid
aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. And after
that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples'
feet. Amazing. Amazing. He who has
all things made himself a servant of all. Look at John 16. One
more verse. Verse 15. I like to delight over
these verses. He says, all things that the
Father hath are mine. All things. Verse 15, John 16,
15. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore said I that he, the Spirit of God, shall
take of mine, because all things are mine, and he shall show it
to you. We don't know anything about
God except that what is Christ. And the Spirit of God has to
show us what we know about God by showing us Christ. Do you
see that? And one more. I said one more. I'm going to
give you one more. John 17, verse 9. He says to his father in his
high priestly prayer, I pray for them. He's speaking, first
of all, of the apostles. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. You see? For they are thine,
they belong to you, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine. Everything that belongs to my
father is mine. And all that is mine is His.
God the Father retains everything He has given to His Son. I want
to just take that little diversion there to show you these things.
Now, God the Father has given His people to our Mediator, the
Son of God, to have them as His own and to save them and to give
them eternal life and eternal inheritance and eternal glory. The Father entered into a covenant
of peace, it says in Ezekiel 37, 26, with His Son on behalf
of His people who had made themselves His enemies in their minds and
by their wicked works. But in His covenant, God gave
Christ the work of doing His will to save His people from
their sins, and in their eternal salvation by Christ, God would
make known His great glory to all men and to all angels. Look
at, I want you to consider this in 1 Peter 1 also. 1 Peter 1, it says, not only
men but angels. He says, read this, of which
salvation? The salvation that we receive
as the end of our faith, this is what we look for, this is
what we wait for, and we shall receive it. 1 Peter 1, verse
10, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently
who prophesied of the grace that should come to you. Searching
what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was
in them did signify when it testified, the Spirit of Christ testified
beforehand of what? the sufferings of Christ, and
the glory that should follow. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them to us, his sufferings, and the glory that would follow.
He was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that
he by the grace of God should taste death for every son, brethren,
church, child of God. Unto whom it was revealed, to
those prophets, it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you. by them that have preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven."
Notice which things the angels desire to look into. The gospel
is preached to these sinful, puny people. And that gospel
that's preached to us is preached by the Holy Ghost, he says in
verse 12. Through the prophets preaching
the gospel, these men who preach the gospel, the apostles, to
us. And the gospel that's preached to us, what do the angels do?
They want to know about it. They want to understand the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow, because it's not
given to them. They have to listen to it in
the church. They have to hear the preaching
of the gospel in the church. It tells us something about the
superiority of Christ, that he as the subject of the gospel,
the fulfillment of God's will, and the salvation of his people,
is preached to his people. They're the ones to whom the
gospel was sent. And the angels stand by, and
they're interested in it, attentive to it. They want to understand
it. And they have to wait their turn, because this is not a message
that's for them. It's about Christ, and they admire
him through the gospel. And so Jesus said this about
God glorifying himself. In John chapter 12 and verse
31, he says after he had given the Lord's Supper, I'm just going
to read this as a preview of what he was about to do. He said,
now is the Son of Man glorified. And God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify
him. And Jesus said, the hour has come that the son of man
should be glorified. And he said this in verse 24
of, 23 and 24 of John 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I'm sorry, yeah, I think it's actually 30, yeah, 23 and 24
of John 12. Verily, verily, I say to you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. You see how God would be glorified?
In the death of his son, God would make known his greatness
and all of his attributes and his perfections, but he would
also bring forth fruit, which was the people of God, through
his death. That corn of wheat is the Lord
Jesus. He says in verse 27 of John 12, now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again.
Now, Jesus says in verse 32, or 31, now is the judgment of
this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. We just read that in Hebrews
2.14. And I, Jesus said, if I be lifted up from the earth. How
was Christ lifted up from the earth? the cross will draw all
men or all unto me all of his people this he says signifying
what death he should die how he would glorify God how he would
destroy the devil through his death and thus by his sin atoning
death the Lord Jesus Christ glorified his father and by his death he
also draws all men to himself no not all men without exception
but all those given to him by God the Father he gave The Father
gave his people to Christ to save them. And Christ propitiated
God. He satisfied God. And he made
them holy by his blood, by the sacrifice of himself, as we read
in Hebrews 10.10.29 and Hebrews 13.12. Now, this sanctification
is the cleansing of our sins. He made us holy by offering himself
to God. And this is our sanctification
to God. How are we holy? By the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now in the time state
of our experience, he sanctifies all for whom he died by giving
them his spirit. He puts his spirit upon them.
They're made to know that in Christ they were sanctified before
God, and they receive that sanctification, that fact of God, that truth
of God into their hearts and believe it. So the blood of Christ
is sprinkled on their very conscience. So now their conscience is purified.
That's the experience of our life when God saves us and converts
us. He puts his spirit in us in order
that we might see Christ crucified and live to God. And he creates
us new in Christ and raises us to life with him and births us
as his sons. And then we believe the good
report. In our minds, we are then reconciled to God because
of the blood sprinkled on our conscience through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, this is all part of God the Father glorifying
himself and the Son of God glorifying his Father in his work. And this
is the glory that's seen in the New Testament, that he would
save his people from their sins. That's the covenant. He would
save them from their sins and give them an eternal inheritance
with eternal glory. And now obviously in these verses
in Hebrews, Jesus is the son of man, isn't he? And he is better
throughout the whole book. He's the sum total. of all God
is as our mediator. So why does the Hebrew writer
take the next step to prove that Christ is better than angels?
If he just declares these things to us, why does he compare him
to angels? Well, first of all, because he needed to show that
it was God's will always from eternity for us to glorify his
son. not just his son as the son of
God, but as the God-man, our mediator. That was his purpose.
And this is what God will do at the end of time, throughout
time. He's going to glorify his son, as we just read in John
12. He determined to glorify him on completion of our salvation
in all that he did, especially in his sufferings and death under
false accusations, when he bore the beatings that our sins deserved
and did not himself deserved, but his people did. And as they
could not endure that outpouring of God's curse, he bore it for
them. But as they deserved no blessing,
he obtained the blessing for them in heavenly places, even
the inheritance that God prepared for them before the world began
as heirs of God, chosen in Christ. So that's the first reason, to
show that it was always God's will to glorify His Son in the
salvation of His people. But secondly, because angels
in the Old Testament were always revealed as being wiser and mightier
than men. wiser and mightier than men.
And so we would naturally think, well, if the angels are wiser
and mightier than man, and Christ is now incarnate, they must be
still greater than he. Remember how that God put two
cherubim at the entrance of the garden after Adam sinned to keep
the way of the tree of life, so that if anyone tried to pass
that way, there they were met with a flaming sword. And then
in 2nd Chronicles, chapter 32, 21, just as an example, it says,
the Lord sent an angel, just one, which cut off all the mighty
men of valor and the leaders and captains in the camp of the
king of Assyrians. One angel destroyed the whole
Assyrian army. So he returned with a shame.
The Assyrian king returned to his own land in shame. When he
was come to the house of his God, they came forth and they
slew him. Amazing. One angel. And then
also remember when David had Joab number the people in 2 Samuel
24. I think it's 2 Samuel 24. The
angel of the Lord came against Jerusalem, stretched out his
sword and killed 70,000 people. That's an angel. So we would
naturally think that angels are mightier and stronger and wiser.
And men therefore revered angels because they were so much mightier
than the men were. And they were prone to give angels
honor and glory that belonged to Christ. So that had to be
corrected. Whenever in scripture a man gives
honor to a mere man, the man, if he's a godly man, immediately
warns him not to do it. See thou do it not. In Revelation,
Paul and Barnabas did that also in the book of Acts. But here's
the thing about the angels, that this is, I believe, the thrust
of why God is setting angels below Christ in Hebrews. Because
remember, what's the purpose? What's going to result when he
gets done expounding the book of Hebrews? He's going to convince
those to whom he writes, and us, that the old covenant God
gave by Moses, which the Jewish nation was under for some fourteen,
fifteen hundred years, that covenant had to be abandoned because it
was never intended by God as a means of salvation or sanctification
or eternal glory or anything. Everything we have as believers
comes to us by Christ according to the new covenant. And so he's
going to set the angels in contrast to that In comparison with that
old covenant, in order to show that angels also have to be abandoned
as this entity that we should admire and revere, but we should
look to Christ instead. So, let's look at this for a
minute. In Acts 7, verse 53, look at
how Stephen speaks about these angels. Because these people,
these Jews, they thought a lot about angels, and for good reason. Because any word, as we read
in Hebrews 2, any word that angels spoke, if it wasn't obeyed, it
had a severe consequence. Acts chapter 7, verse 53, Stephen
says, These, the prophets, the fathers,
they persecuted, they persecuted the prophets that were sent to
them, and then they persecuted and killed the Lord Jesus in
verse 52. He says, who have received, what? What did they receive? They received
the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. How did God give the law to the
nation of Israel? Well, we would say he gave it
to them by Moses, and he did. But how did Moses receive it?
According to this verse, it was through the dispensing, the administration
by God to give it to Moses through angels. So the people, when they
disobeyed the law, there was a severe judgment, wasn't there?
There was a curse pronounced, death. The curse of the law. And they would trace that back.
It came from Moses, which made Moses great. He was a prophet.
But it came to Moses through angels, so they would fear angels.
How did Moses receive this law? An angel spoke to him. An angel
gave it to him. So they would naturally think
that. It's interesting. This was brought out when I was
in Alabama, but I had to verify it. So I went back and looked
this up on the internet last night. Did you know that in the
Muslim religion, there's a prophet, if you're not familiar with this,
named Muhammad. They view Muhammad as the great prophet, right?
And they call God Allah. But Muhammad received a revelation
how? How did he receive the revelation
they call the Quran, their holy book? How did the Muhammad's
receive this? through an angel. That's what
he claimed. We received, it says in Wikipedia,
Muhammad's first revelation was an event described in Islamic
tradition taking place 610 A.D., which was after Christ, during
which the Islamic prophet Muhammad was visited by the angel, Jibril
or something, known as Gabriel in English, who received, who
revealed to him the beginnings of what would later become the
Quran. So the Muslim religion is a religion based on a revelation
given by angels. And the Old Testament, the Old
Covenant, the law, was given to Israel by Moses from angels,
according to Acts 7.53. And then it also says this in
the BBC on religions, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, which is also called Mormons, was founded by Joseph
Smith in New York State in USA in 1830. Smith received a revelation
from God first through an angel, and then through a book inscribed
on golden plates. That's interesting. Isn't it
curious that there's a similarity between the giving of the law,
the giving of the Muslim religion, of course that's fictitious,
and the giving of the Mormon religion, which is also false. The law was given by God to Moses
through angels to the people of Israel. The book of Hebrews
is there to teach us that Christ is better than, first of all,
angels. God has spoken in the last days,
not by angels, not by men, but by His Son and in His Son. You
see that? And then I want you to also look
at Galatians 3. And as soon as I say Galatians,
what should come into your mind? It should come immediately into
your mind that we cannot be justified by our own personal obedience
to God's requirements of us, His law. That's what the law
was given to prove. We're guilty and we cannot keep
it, therefore we're under its curse. And the only way we can
be rid of it is if Christ delivers us from the curse by his own
substitutionary curse bearing for us. If he comes as the seed
of a woman made under the law to redeem us from the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 3 verse 17. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed by God in Christ, the law which was 430
years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise
of none effect. That's verse 17. And verse 19, I'm sorry,
verse 18. For if the inheritance, if the
inheritance, meaning the inheritance of eternal salvation, eternal
glory, everything, If the inheritance God promised his people, which
he did first to Abraham, if the inheritance be of the law, it
is no more of promise. It's either the law, we receive
the inheritance from God either by our own personal obedience
to God's law, or God just promises it and gives it to us. That's
the contrast. He says, if it was by the law,
it's no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, who
is Christ, to whom the promise was made. And the law was ordained
by angels in the hand of a mediator. How did God give the law? He
gave it to Moses, to the people, but first through these angels. And now in the book of Hebrews,
God is putting these angels in contrast. Now, I want you to remember this
also. Not only are angels mightier than men, but also what happened
in the Garden of Eden. Well, Eve was there and Satan
came and tempted her. He took God's word and twisted
it. Yeah, that's what God said. And put doubt in her mind. And
he distorted what God said and she believed Satan. Well, who
is Satan? He is a created spirit. Created as a servant of the Son
of God to worship Him and to serve Christ's people in service
to Christ. But the devil tempted Eve. He tried to usurp his own place
and take the place of Christ over his people by tempting Eve
and causing Adam to fall and making them subject to death
because they would sin against God and God as the judge would
hold them accountable for their sins. So Satan pushed them into
the justice of God in their sin. made them fall, or tempted them
to fall, and they did fall in sin, and then he thrust them
under the justice of God, accusing them to God, like the men who
brought the adulterous woman in the very act into the presence
of Christ." Here, here, what are you going to say now? We
know what Moses says about such a case. Stone her. And so this
is what Lucifer did. But Lucifer is himself a fallen
angel. Now, the law was given by God
to Moses through the disposition of angels. The law is what? Done away in Christ. And we see
that in some of the angelic realm, there were angels who fell and
became what? They became the devil's angels. It says in Matthew
25 that hell is prepared for the devil and his angels. These angels that fall are in
subjection to the prince of darkness, the spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience. So here we see in history that
God, in placing man in the garden, when man fell, they became subject
to what? They became slaves. They were enslaved into the kingdom
of Satan. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus said,
when a strong man keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. He's in peace because his goods
are safe inside of his palace. But when a stronger than he comes
and binds the strong man, that he takes away from him his goods
in which he trusted. Satan is the strong man in a
castle, and the people who are in the kingdom of Satan are in
his palace, and he's at peace. Look, they're all blind. They
are happy inside of my palace, my kingdom. Christ comes as a
strong man and he binds Satan at the cross. Through his death
he puts Satan, he casts Satan out like lightning that falls
from heaven and then Christ sends his gospel and he strips away
the spoils of Satan's kingdom, his people that are in that kingdom.
But until the Lord converts us, until he commands the gospel
to shine in our hearts, to make known to us the knowledge, the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. 2 Corinthians 4 says, now the God of this world holds
men in blindness because they were put in subjection. They're
in the kingdom of Satan. God has translated us from the
kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear son. Now, here we
see both sides. We see that even the good angels,
if we want to call them that, through which God gave the law,
and those angels that fell are beneath Christ. On the one hand,
the devil and his angels are destined for eternal perdition.
On the other hand, the other angels that didn't fall, that
remained faithful to Christ, serve his people. But there's
a big contrast here that goes on. And that's the one that's brought
up here in the book of Hebrews. So if we realize that the entire
book is setting Christ over and above the old covenant and the
covenant of works, we see that God shows that the old covenant
now is set aside. The true has come because the
old is faulty. Why? Because it depended upon
sinful man. And because the old couldn't
justify a sinful man, it couldn't perfect a sinner, it couldn't
cleanse the conscience of a sinner, it couldn't make a sinner holy,
and Satan didn't see how that could possibly be either. So
he thought, as soon as he got Adam and Eve to fall, I've won,
I've foiled God's purpose to put man over all things. No,
it's gonna be me, the angel, the fallen angel now. He thought
he had foiled him. He thrust the woman, as it were,
the church of God, under the accusing law of God. You have
to destroy him now. The Supreme Court of God in heaven
has to judge these sinful people. But there he was short-sighted. He didn't know like they didn't
know in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8, if they had known. that the
Lord Jesus Christ was the prince of glory, they wouldn't have
crucified him. But God, by the determinate counsel of his will,
he brought Christ under the sufferings of death. He was made lower than
the angels for a time in order that by his death he would satisfy
God. He would bring his own offering
of himself into the supreme court of heaven before the judge of
all. He wouldn't go the other route. He wouldn't take the temptation
of those accusers, like in John 8, and try to argue theology
with them about the old covenant. Well, this woman did it, but
you guys caused her to do it, blah, blah, blah. No, he didn't
deny the guilt of his people, but he himself was made under
the law. And according to God's eternal
covenant as a surety for his people, he argued his father's
everlasting love for them. He argued his engagements as
surety for them. And he argued before the judge
of all his own substitution, his own answer to God. And God's
accepted that answer. And then the Supreme Court passed
down its decision on Satan. And like Haman, go to the gallows
that you made for Mordecai. Satan was then cast out of heaven.
And all the angels now, you can imagine if they had hair on their
head, would be tingling. Because look at what happened.
God always intended. They're hearing the gospel, as
it says in 1 Peter 1-12. They want to look into it because
they realize there's something here that's very significant.
It didn't even enter our minds, just like it didn't enter the
mind of Satan when he tempted Eve. He thought he had won. He
thought he won again at the cross, but he didn't. God raised him
from the dead. Now, in these verses, God is
setting down that Christ is greater than the angels as the Son of
God, and because by God's purpose, He always intended to exalt His
Son as man over all things and give Him all things, as we read
in all those verses back in Matthew and John. It was always God's
purpose. And so he was going to give him
all things, and Christ was going to glorify God and glorify himself
in his own death as a substitute for his people. He stooped, took
the towel. He disrobed himself. He took
the towel, and he took a basin and washed his disciples' feet,
the one who had been given all things. This shows that he stooped. He made himself lower. Honor
comes, I mean, humility comes before honor. He that humbles
himself will be exalted. Look at 2 Samuel. I think it's,
if I get it right here, I just saw this verse this morning.
I was thinking about it last night, and I looked it up this
morning, and I wrote about this in the bulletin, but I want to
mention this to you. In 2 Samuel, I think it's chapter 22, if I
can put my finger on it. Mm, it's in verse 26. Look at this. Now think about
Satan. And think about how, what do the devils think of when they
think of God? Well, they think about him as
a consuming fire, don't they? They think about him as a god
of wrath, don't they? Because that's the only view
of God they're given. Why? Look at 2 Samuel 22, verse
26. With the merciful, thou wilt
show thyself merciful. And with the upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the froward, thou wilt
show thyself unsavory. How do we see God? Do we see
him as only a God of wrath? and the afflicted people thou
wilt save, but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest
bring them down. He that humbles himself will
be exalted, but he that exalts himself shall be brought down.
God alone is able to humble the proud heart of man, Pharaoh,
Nebuchadnezzar, and Satan, and all in his kingdom. And he humbles
them. And before us, he humbles these
angels and exalts his son in order to teach us what the angels
gave to you from Moses, that came from Moses through these
angels, the old covenant. If you had to continue obeying
that covenant as the way to come to God, what would that do to
angels? They would be exalted over you.
You would be worshiping angels. But the old covenant was never
given to save anyone. It couldn't save. It put all
the conditions on us as sinners. But it prophesied of Christ who
would save. It shut us up in a prison until
He came and was made under the law and fulfilled it for us.
Now He is exalted. He tasted death for every son,
child, church member, everyone the Father gave to Him. He took
their nature. He lowered himself and made himself
a servant. And since he did that as a servant,
he became obedient unto death. He fulfilled all righteousness
in so doing, and God has therefore highly exalted him, and given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every tongue, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,
not only men, but angels, and especially those in hell. The
devil and his angels, hell was created and prepared for them.
But all who remain in subjection to the prince of darkness, Lucifer,
the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, as it
says in Ephesians 2, 2 and 3, we were then, we were subject
to him just like before, but Christ came in the power of his
resurrection and God raised us together with Christ. You see,
He delivered us out of that kingdom. Now we see Christ, and we see
His covenant, His gospel. We're not under the law, we're
under grace. How does grace reign now? Look
at Romans 5, 21. How can God's grace possibly
reign towards sinful men? This is the glory of our savior.
The king of righteousness has come. He established righteousness. He made peace through his own
blood and he gives us this peace. Look at this in Romans chapter
5. He says in verse 19, for as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners. That would be Adam.
Adam sinned. We sinned in Adam. We were made
sinners by his sin because we did it. He says, As by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Christ didn't commit our sins,
but we didn't obey what He did. I mean, we didn't do what He
did to obey God either. But our sins were imputed to
Him, and His obedience was imputed to us. Adam's sins charged to
us because we did it in him. Our sins imputed to Christ because
he voluntarily made himself our surety and our covenant head.
And now his obedience is imputed to us because that's why he did
it. He was made sin who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And now look at verse 20. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. When the law came,
that which was given by Moses from angels, what did it do to
us? Sin just multiplied. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. In all things, Christ gives us
the victory. 1 Corinthians 15, 57. As by man came death, so by man
came what? The resurrection from the dead.
Not by angels, but by Christ. He was made man. Notice verse
21. That is, sin hath reigned like
a king unto death. A tyrannical king. Sin reigns
over all of his subjects and brings all of them to death,
even so, now, might grace reign, that all-sufficient grace of
God that saves the ungodly sinner, that grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life, not death, and all by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now who do we worship? Now who's
the greatest? You see, the Son of God in our
nature. It behooved him to be made like
to his brethren in all things that he might make propitiation
to God, and in making that propitiation reconcile us to God, and in making
reconciliation to God for us. What did he do to our enemy?
It says he destroyed the works of the devil. Through death,
he has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil. He tried to usurp Christ's place over his people,
and he claimed to have rule over all the kingdoms of this world.
Well, he does in that sense, over the unbelieving kingdoms
of this world, but over his people, there's only one king, and it's
Christ. And because he reigns over his people, all the world
is subject to him in order that he might give all things to them.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the
glory of our Savior in his death, in his life, in his sufferings,
his humility, in his selflessness, giving himself for us and to
us and forever sitting on heaven's throne to bring us to himself
and interceding for us there with his own blood and righteousness. And we know he's heard. You cannot
deny him one thing. In fact, you've sealed everything
that he says and does with your own name. because it's your will. It was always put down in your
eternal will. And out of the eternal love you
have for your people, you've provided your son and exalted
him now. And everything else is faded
away. We see the facade of these things
that were used by men and are used now even by men, even twisted
in the ungodly religions of this world. They've wrested the concept
of angels giving revelation from God, and they've twisted it and
made their own false religions. And men now worship angels. But
we worship the Son, and we're exalted with Him above the angels
and shall judge angels. And we wonder at this, that we
would be given so much grace and mercy and all for Christ's
sake. And for this, we thank you and praise you. In Jesus'
name, amen.