Good morning and would you join
me in the book of Hebrews this morning. We're going to divert
from our study of the book of Acts for a couple of Sundays
as we look at today, why he came, and next Sunday we hope to look
at Luke chapter 2, how he came. So if you join me in the book
of Hebrews, now Hebrews is such an important and valuable book
to our study, particularly of the Old Testament and particularly
of the study of the Leviticus and Numbers, Deuteronomy. It
lends itself to share with us that all of those folks that
were used back there, all of those men and the sacrifices,
they were only typical pictorial. And those who were saved at that
time realized this too, that they were pictorial of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. From Genesis chapter 3 and verse
15, the people knew that there was a Messiah coming, someone
to take care of the problem that Adam got us all in. And you know
what the Bible says about Adam? In Adam, all died. And that's the problem. We are
all dead in trespasses and sin, but God did not leave us without
a hope. He had a preparation made before
the foundation of the world. He had a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He had a covenant of grace made
before the foundation of the world. And so we look into the
scriptures, we find what a blessed thing God provided a Messiah,
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem us from the law and
to redeem us from our sins. All right. In the book of Hebrews
chapter 1, it tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ, the preeminence
of the Lord. In Hebrews chapter 11, it's the
preeminence of the Lord. Just look with me there. Look with me there in Hebrews
chapter, what is Hebrews on there? Genesis on my mind. In the book
of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one, verses one through three, Hebrews
chapter one, verses one through three, we have these words left
for us, God, who at sundry times and diverse manners. Now that's
just saying to us in the Old Testament era, during the time
of Genesis, Exodus, and down through Malachi. God at sundry
times in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. Those were people God sent. He sent them to his people, and
they're the ones that had the word of God, and they're the
ones that declared the word of God. Brother Lauren read there
this morning in 1 Peter that the Word of God is not man-made.
It was given to people. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. So the Word of God is so powerful,
so good, so rich, and it is God-given. It's not of men. So at sundry
times, he spoke unto those Old Testament people by the prophets. I've said a number of times that
if you lived during an Old Testament era, and you knew the Gospel,
and you knew God, and you knew salvation in the Messiah, Christ
Jesus, then when you heard about a prophet over here, you'd want
to go gather yourself to him because he had the Word of God. Now, we may not say, it's not
a kind word sometimes He had to say about us. My goodness,
when He declared that we're dead in trespasses and sin, we're
totally depraved. We may walk away and say, boy,
I didn't like hearing that. But when God convinces us of
that in the new birth, we're thankful for the message that
God sent to us of the actual problem that we were in. In verse
2 of Hebrews chapter 1, hath in these last days, Spoken unto
us by his son. So someone was coming in the
Old Testament. Someone was here Matthew Mark
Luke and John and the declaration continues on hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his son I think it's interesting that
the the writers were using this term in the last days and I heard
a preacher yesterday say, from the time of Christ's crucifixion
until now is the last days. Don't get too stirred up about
what people have to say about what's going on in the world.
It has happened since the fall. Everywhere is continuing on.
hath in his last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,
who being in the brightness of his glory in the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power. This is a powerful God that we're
talking about. This is Christ, the powerful
God, the Son of God, God the Son, man come in the flesh, he's
all powerful. and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself no one there to aid
him. had by himself purged our sins. Now he's the one that dealt with
the problem. He's the one that dealt with
sin. We're unable to take care of it on our own, on ourself.
There are people in the Old Testament that showed pictures of how it
was taken care of by the sacrifice of lambs, by the sacrifice of
critters and so forth. By those sacrifices there were
pictures and typical and nothing else. The blood of bull and goats
did not take away sin. Nobody was saved by those, but
we are saved because those people were saved because he's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He purged our sins,
sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. What a statement
about the Savior. Now in chapter two, we're going
to spend most of our time in chapter two today, but just go
over there to chapter two for a moment. And we find in this
chapter, he's going to declare that he is superior. Christ is
superior. The Messiah is superior. The
Lord Jesus Christ is superior to angels. Now, angels are a
special creation. We find that in the scriptures,
that they were special creation. I just was reading there as Brother
Lauren was, you know, have you ever been Watching something
to the scripture and something is pointed out and you start
looking for something else. Well, that's what happens Here we are
looking for some I thought of that verse of scripture over
there in the book of Matthew when Peter took his sword out
and cut Malchus's ear off and Jesus told him put your sword
up for I could ask of my father and he would send me twelve legions
of angels Well, I had to find out what a legion was, and that's
6,000. He didn't need the angels to
take care of him. He is the Lord God Almighty. But he is just sharing with Peter
and the rest of his disciples, what is happening to me is on
purpose. I have ordained that this is
going to happen to me. I am going to be arrested. I'm
going to be betrayed. I'm going to be arrested. I'm
going to be tried. I am going to be found guilty.
And I'm going to be taken out to the cross and I'm going to
be crucified. But on the third day, I shall resurrect because
I will take care of sin in that glorious way. We find out, as
the Lord Jesus is superior to angels, that there are two types
of angels. Well, I'm not going to talk about
seraphims and so forth. I'm just going to talk about
this. There were those that kept their first estate. I don't understand
all I know about what I read in the scripture about that,
but there was a whole host of God's created beings that we
know as angels that fell from their first estate. And the only
reason that a group did not fall from their first estate, the
Bible tells us they were elect angels. God purposed them not
to fall. He had the whole host that fell. And now they're in chains of
darkness. They're held in chains of darkness
because they rebelled against the Lord Jesus Christ, rebelled
against God. And you know what? When they
did, God did not pursue them. God had no intention of going
out and finding them. God had no interest in it, because
His interest was going to be in the descendants of Adam, and
not in His created beings, the angels. When Adam fell in the
garden, What disrespect Adam showed to his Creator. What vileness
he demonstrated towards his Creator. What a statement he made towards
his Creator. He sinned against a thrice holy
God. But you know what happened as
a result of that? God came down in the cool of
the evening and found him. Now he knew where he was all
along. I�ve had people tell me he came down and asked where
Adam was, �Where art thou, Adam?� because he didn�t know. Oh, my
goodness. What a terrible view of God�s
Word to have an attitude like that. That is such a limitation
about God. But God came down and asked that
question. You know where Adam was. We know
where he was. He was hiding himself. He covered
himself and he's hiding himself from Almighty God. Now that's
an impossibility. We find that the prophet said,
you make your bed here. I know where you are. You make
your bed here. I know where you are. You make your bed in hell.
I know where you are. You make your bed in heaven.
I know where you are. That is just a statement that God is
omniscient, knows all that�s going on, and here we have that
brought out as in the days of Adam in the fall. Now God had
an interest in this one before the world began. He had an interest
in this one before Adam was ever created. He had names written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life of the descendants of Adam. You
know, over there we read about the elect angels. We find also
that there are elect men and women and boys and girls. And
those are the ones that God intended to save before the foundation
of the world. Well, here in this second chapter, well, third chapter,
I just want to jump ahead. In that chapter, Christ is superior
to Moses and the law. I want the superior one. I want
one superior to angels, highly created beings. I want one that
is superior to the law. I want someone that is superior
to Moses. I need a Savior who will save
me, a Redeemer who will redeem me, one who will take care of
my sin debt for time and for eternity so that I can stand
before Him clean. and not have to answer for one's
sin. Well, in the second chapter,
we read these words about our Savior, the Lord Jesus. When
He came down to this earth in a special manner, in the fullness
of time He came, when it was the right time. He came at the
appropriate time. He came. You know, we could go
over to the book of Daniel and it tells us exactly when the
Lord's going to come. Now, we can't calculate it and
I'm not going to waste my time. I loved what I heard from a preacher
recently back there in 13th Street when we were there in Kentucky.
God didn't make us all mathematicians, but he did make us desire to
see him in his coming. All right. I'm not going to try
to figure that out, but I know that from Daniel, from the going
forth to build the temple to the time of Christ was going
to be 70 times 7, 490 years. Now, I've read commentaries that
say, well, there wasn't enough time. And I've read commentaries
where they said there was too much time. You know what? I'm
just going to take the Bible for its face value and say it's
right. I don't have to worry about it.
the right time he came. And here in the book of Hebrews,
it tells us down in verse 16. Verse 16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels. Now, so often we find in scripture
that there's going to be a comparison between two. And here's one of
those comparisons between two. He took not on him the nature
of angels, but he goes on to tell us, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham. You know, there is an absolute
need that he come of the seed of Abraham. It is told us that
that's what He's going to do, but there was a need that He
come like unto men, that He would come like unto His brethren,
that He would come in the flesh. You know, the word Emmanuel means
God come in the flesh, God with us. We call Him Jesus Christ. Jesus is the name which means
Savior, and Christ is His anointed position as the Messiah. It's
not a name, it's a title. He is the Messiah, the Promised
One, promised to Israel, promised to the Gentiles, promised to
everyone that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And
so we have this One who came very early He took not on Him
the form or the nature of angels. Another translation says, for
truly He did not come to help angels, but to help the offspring
of Abraham. So here we have the Word identifies
this, that He's going to come. Now, in this second chapter of
the book of Hebrews, we have some more information, and we'll
be here in just a moment. But we notice that the Lord shares
with us here in chapter 2, verse 6. Chapter 2, verse 6. Now, here is what God had to
say about His coming. It says in Hebrews 2, verse 6,
But one in a certain place. You know, I take comfort in those
words. Have you ever been thinking about a verse of Scripture and
can't find it, and you just have to say, in a certain place? I
know it's there. I'm thankful for my phone. I
wrote a friend of mine who helped me put the Bible program on there,
and I says, I have a Bible library in my pocket. And it's good to
be able to look up things, but I like this too. It says, in
a certain place testified saying, what is man that thou art mindful
of him? Now, isn't that a miracle that
the God of heaven who had Adam shake his finger in God's face
and said, I will not have you rule over me. that God would
be mindful of him, that he would rise up from the position that
he was in as Almighty God, as the Sovereign King of the Universe,
and come down to this sin-cursed earth just after it happened,
and seek out Adam. And you know what he did when
he sought him out? He found him in a fallen state, dead in trespasses
and sin, and then he covered them with skins of animals, which
is typical of being covered by the robe of righteousness that
God gives to us in Christ Jesus, that we are now clean before
him in love and in purpose. We have his righteousness imputed
to us. So he came down. He raised up
off of His throne, came down to this sin-cursed earth, walked
through the garden that He had created and given to man, walked
by a tree that He told man, ìDonít you dare eat of this tree, and
the day you eat, you shall surely die.î And He died the moment
He ate that. Weíve said a number of times
that nothing happened when she ate it, when Eve ate it, nothing
happened. But when He ate it, the responsible partyóyou know,
thereís only two men in all creation that represent all men. In Adam, first Adam, we all die. He represented us. He was our
representative. God said he is our representative. In Adam, all died. And then the
second Adam is brought up. And in him, all that he represents
shall be made alive. Adam, all he represented, died.
All that Christ represented shall be made alive, the second Adam.
So we have him dealing with that situation. So here it says in
verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 2, Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou
hast put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that should not
be 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. Now notice this, why he came.
Why must he be made a little lower than the angels? Why did
God choose not an angel for him that would come down? Angels
are going to witness his birth. Angels are going to announce
his birth. Angels are going to be an important part. We find
angels at the resurrection tomb. They're the ones that told those
people that came, don't you remember what he said unto you when he
was yet with you? That in three days he'll come
out of this tomb victorious over sin, death, hell, and the grave.
And they went, oh. Angels were important. Angels
came and comforted the Lord Jesus. Angels were used throughout the
New Testament. I don't know all I know. I don't
understand all I know about angels, but I know this, that Jesus Christ
did not come down here in the body of an angel. He did not
come as an angel. He came as a man, as the God-man,
as the child or seed of Abraham. And it tells us right here in
this verse of scripture why he must come in that capacity. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Can you imagine God of heaven
coming down here with one purpose in mind, and that is to suffer
death? He did not come down here specifically to raise people
from the physical dead. He did not come down here. to
heal people. That wasn't his specific purpose.
He did all of that. He illustrated in healing people
physically what he must do for us spiritually. He went through
all of that, taught in the temple, around the temple, taught there
in the synagogue, preached himself. He is the only preacher that
ever has the right to preach himself. All other preachers
are required to preach Christ and Him crucified. That's our
ministry. All right, crowned Him with glory
and honor, 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. You know, it's interesting, in
the original language, that word man is not there. We get the
word anthropology, I used to think that was a fake science,
until you find out that anthropos is the Greek word for man, and
it's the study of man. Now, if we have the study of
man originating in the Garden of Eden, we got the right study
of man. If we have the study of man beginning as an amoeba
in some pond billions of years ago, we have the wrong study
of man. We're going to say that he's getting better and better,
and we find out the Bible says, no, no, no, no, no. We're getting
worse and worse and worse. Nothing is getting better in
us by nature. We have more diseases now. We
have this. Every time a disease is found
to have a remedy, another one comes along. There's no end to
it because of sin, because of the fall. So if we begin in the
garden, we have the right anthropology. were studying man from a rite.
What happened there? He was given an opportunity.
He was not perfect, but he was innocent, and he is the only
man that has ever walked this earth that had the privilege
of exercising a free will. From that time on, everybody
is captured by sin. And we're unable in our own person
to ever reach out to God unless He first of all reaches out to
us. Why do we love Him? Because He first loved us. Why
do we want Him? Because He first wanted us. He
asked to raise us from the spirits of death. All right, for it became
Him, verse 10, whom are all things, and by whom all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory. So He came down here for the
purpose of bringing many children, seed of Abraham children, seed
of Adam children, Those who fell in Adam, those who came down,
Jesus Christ came down for the sole purpose of laying down His
life, a ransom for many. Now, He had to get here in a
very special way, and we'll spend some time on that next Sunday,
but He had to get here in a very special way. He could not come
as an angel, and if He didn't come as a man, He couldn't die. So he had to come not as an angel,
but he had to come as a man. But we find out that it was God,
man. We find out that God came in
the flesh. Now there's much more powerful
minds than mine have tried to sift through that and have not
come to a conclusion of how that could happen. Great preachers. have tried to sift through that,
and you know what? It is unfathomable. It is inexplainable,
but God's people believe that that's just the way it is. He
is Emmanuel, God with us. He is God-man among us. And it was necessary that He
come in that capacity, because God could not die, but the God-man
could, and pay the price that was necessary to redeem His people
from their sins. Well, as we follow this in verse
11, for both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified
are all one. What does that tell us? In this relationship that
the Lord Jesus had with the seed of Abraham, he is going to be
at oneness with them. Now, he's not going to be a sinner,
but he's going to come like sinners. He's not going to have sin in
his inheritance. He's not going to have sin in
his nature. He's impeccable. He did not commit one sin. No,
one time his two disciples, they had a little discussion about
some of those who were bringing up things about the Lord. Jesus
says, do you want us to just call down lightning from heaven
and destroy them? You know, the Lord could have
done that a thousand times, couldn't he? I mean, all of the nastiness
that he had to put up with from the time of Adam till this day,
all of the works of the flesh, all the religion that we went
through, all the nonsense, he could have just wiped the slate
clean. But we find out He came down
here on purpose to sanctify them who are sanctified. He came down
to die for those that died in Adam. He came down to redeem
a people that He was the Redeemer for. And so He has a special
purpose in coming, but He has a special means in how to come. Because we are the children of
our mother and father, it removes us from the ability of redeeming
ourself or anybody else. Because we're naturally born,
it removes us from the ability of redeeming ourself or anybody
else. There is not a work that we can
do or accumulate that God would be pleased with. There is not
enough time, and we don't have the nature to do it, We are without
help, without hope, and without God in this world. And it is
in God's interest, because of the covenant of grace, to save
those that He redeemed. He came to redeem a people. He
is in about the business of doing that. And He's going to continue
that until the last one is redeemed, the last one is saved. And then
He's going to wrap this up like an old tent. He made it a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. In the book
of, would you turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy? 1 Timothy
chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Now, I don't pretend to understand
this. I'm just going to read it. And there's such a blessing
in it because it sums up the ministry of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. You know, when religion is discussed,
there's always a controversy. Just the natural extent. I was
visiting with a young man the other day, and I just said something
about the religion of the world and the religion that's going
on here, and I said, you know, there's about, there's 99.9%
of the churches don't know the first thing about the gospel.
You know his comment to me? He said to me, I am surprised
that you would tell me that I'm a false prophet and I'm not saved."
I said, where did you get that from out of my comment? You know,
if our salvation is so hinged on what other people think about
us, we don't have salvation. If our salvation is based upon
what we have done, we don't have salvation. Our salvation must
be based upon what He has done for us. He's the one that raises
the dead. He's the one that gives us of
His grace and mercy. And so here in the book of 1
Timothy 3 and verse 16, the scripture says, and without controversy
on this subject, there's no controversy between the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And there's no controversy between the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit and the church on this issue. Now, there
may be controversy among all other people, and the Apostle
Paul would say, I have a problem with that before he was saved,
when he was Saul of Tarsus. But he didn't have a problem
with that after the Lord revealed himself to him. He said, as he
writes, and without controversy, great is the mystery. Now, that mystery is that which
has not been previously revealed. It's not something that's still
a mystery. It's been revealed. Great is the mystery of God,
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. You know, when Peter, James,
John, and the rest of the disciples, even Pilate, and Herod, and the
rest of those rascals, when they saw Jesus, they were looking
at God. to His own disciples, He said,
show us the Father. And Jesus said, if you see Me,
you've seen the Father. We are in such unity that what
I say is what He says, and what He says is what I say. And we
have the same ministry with the same purpose. We have the same
purpose of grace. Well, so if you've seen Me, you've
seen the Father. And those who have seen the Father,
which you can't see, and if you did, you'd die. That's what the
Bible says. If you've seen Christ, you've seen the Godhead. All
right, great is the mystery of God in us. God was manifest in
the flesh, justified in the spirit. Scene of angels. Next Sunday,
we're gonna look at the second chapter of the book of Luke.
Wonderful chapter about the birth of the Messiah. The birth of
the Lord Jesus. And you know, a whole host of
angels appeared unto some shepherds. And that was a problem with the
rest of his ministry because Herod was not notified first.
It was a bunch of shepherds, working folk. And he's been placed
in a manger because there's no room for him in the inn. But
the most important thing, he was born of a virgin. He didn't
have our capacity to sin. He had no capacity whatsoever
to sin. Scene of angels, priest unto
the Gentiles. Now I can understand a little
bit about that. I'm so glad that God sent a preacher to the Gentiles. You know what? The apostle Paul
was preaching one time in a synagogue, and he was preaching the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a whole bunch of Jews said, we
don't want to hear this. We are satisfied with our keeping
the law, we're satisfied with Moses, we're satisfied with all
that stuff. And the Apostle Paul and his
friend Barnabas said, you have judged yourselves unworthy of
eternal life, therefore we turn to the Gentiles. And you know,
a little bit later in that passage of scripture, we find out that
a bunch of Gentiles, we'd like to hear something about this.
You know what stirred them to want to hear something about
that? God Almighty. If he doesn't stir us, we'll
never have any interest whatsoever. We'll become religious. We'll
join some religious program, but we'll never have God if he
doesn't move us, you know? And then it tells us in Acts
13, 48, those that were ordained to eternal life, Gentiles and
all Jews that are ever saved, those who were ordained to eternal
life, So the gospel goes out, preached to the Gentiles, believed
on in the world. You know, in the book of Revelation
it tells us, out of every kindred, nation, people, and tongue. He's
going to have representatives out of every nation, kindred,
people, and tongue in the church as they surround Him and praise
Him in that day. Now, not everybody out of every
kindred, race, people, and tongue are going to be there, because
the Bible tells us, with regard, there's a broad gate, and many
there be that find it. That's by nature, we're on it.
And he shares with us, in that day, when judgment comes, many
shall say to me in that day, have we not done all this stuff
on your behalf? And his comment to them, depart
from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Now, to a few,
Few there be that find that. Few there be. To the few, he
said, welcome to the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. And you know what? They're going
to be welcome. God's welcomed them. Why? Because Jesus Christ
came not in the body of an angel, not representing angels, but
as the seed of Abraham, he became a man as Abraham was, yet without
sin. He was a man and he did his ministry. He grew up from birth to 30 years
of age, and we find a little bit about him through the time.
And at 30 years of age, or about 30 years of age, his public ministry
begins. Some people say well, he had
the year popularity, you know among lost people. He had no
popularity during any of his years There were a few and then
he had his year and then he had his year when he was brought
to the cross on purpose God's purpose was carried out in Ephesians
Would you turn there with me, Ephesians chapter 5, as we think
about the unity that Christ had, His body, and what it was like. It tells us here in the book
of Hebrews, excuse me, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter
5 and there verse 31. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 31.
The apostle Paul is writing to the Ephesians, the saints at
Ephesus. Now, he's the secretary. I want
to stress that. He is the secretary. The Holy
Spirit is the one who had this message. Now, in this message,
it tells us in Ephesians chapter 5 and there, verse 31, for this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined
unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. Now, why did he say that they
shall be one flesh? And then I speak to you as Christ
and the church. He came in a body like our body to redeem people
that are in that same capacity. Yet he had no sin. And that union
is made in heaven. Talk about love made in heaven. Talk about a marriage made in
heaven. That's the marriage between Christ
and His church. They have a body. like Adam's
body, but he's going to change that body like unto his glorious
body, and there will be unity like we can't even imagine. It goes on to say, nevertheless,
let me, every one of you in particular, so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Verse 32, this is
a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ and
the church. What a unity. We have the knowledge of what
kind of body he came down here with. Wherefore, in all things,
it behooved him to take a body like unto his brethren. In the
fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. It is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. And Jesus said, with regard to
Abraham, your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day. Why did
he say he came as the seed of Abraham? Because Abraham saw
the Lord and rejoiced to see that day. He saw it and was glad. We see the reason he came as
the seed of Abraham for the suffering of death. That's why he came. Christ died, not merely as an
example, but as a surety in the room instead of the seat of Abraham. For the whole body of Christ,
he came. He came for the sons of God. He came for the brethren. He
came for the members of the church. He came for the children of God.
He came for the seat of Abraham. He came not as an angel, but
as Abraham's seed. Why? To redeem them that were
under the law, that we might be made free in Christ Jesus,
and we'd have this wonderful time with Him for eternity. Well, we've mentioned here that
the reason that the Lord came was to offer himself a ransom.