Hebrews, we're in chapter two. I'm gonna read, we looked at
some of these verses last week, I'm going to read again. 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 or drift away. 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 and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. God also bearing them witnessed
both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. For unto the angels
hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we
speak. 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? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and didst 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 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 the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons
to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. and again I will put my trust
in him, and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. And so he begins here with that
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard. What have we heard? We have heard
that God, who at sundry times in divers manners spake in times
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son. God has spoken unto us by his
Son, through his Son, in his Son. We ought to give them more
earnest heed to the things which we have heard, because the Lord
has indeed revealed Himself in Jesus Christ in the day in which
we live, in this time, in the last time, in these last days. And of course, as we've spoken
many times, these last days is that period of time from when
the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Those are the last
days. This is the last time. There's not coming another. And
Jesus Christ is the salvation sent by God. He's the spokesman
sent by God. He's the prophet of God. There's
not another prophet to come. There's not one who's going to
arise. It's got a clearer message. This is the message of God. And
we must give the more earnest heed, lest we let these things
slip. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? How can it be? I mean, what's
the remedy? If we turn a deaf ear to those
things that Christ has said, what else is there for us to
hope in? Where else are we going to stand?
What can we believe? Now, many men pay no heed to
those things that we have said. Many men look at this and say,
oh, well, that's just your opinion. And one thing that I have learned
over the few years that I've been alive is that you cannot
convince a man of that which he cannot be convinced of. And there's no need to try. But
what you can do is declare the truth, because God will take
the truth, and He'll take it to the heart of a man like Saul
of Tarsus, who couldn't be convinced, who would not be convinced. But
he took that truth, which was in Jesus Christ, and he convinced
Him. The Lord can convince men, and
so we need never to shy away from declaring the truth of God.
But we don't need to be thinking that through our wisdom and our
ability to set forth something that we can change somebody's
mind, because you can't. All you can do is tell them what
the truth is. And the Lord, He will open the ears and the eyes
of those whom He is pleased to give those eyes and ears to. And so the Lord is born witness,
both with signs and wonders, with diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. He has done that. Now some are intent, even in
the present day, of seeing signs and wonders and those things.
And, you know, they see them on every hand often. They see
them in things that aren't there. They come up with things and
create things because they think that by these things men will
be persuaded. The Lord did do miracles when
he came into the world. He didn't do miracles for the
sake of miracles. He did miracles in order to testify
to who he was. And then he sent his apostles
into the world and he accompanied them with those same signs and
wonders and miracles and those things because the testimony
was not written down. It was not given unto men at
that time. It has been given unto men in
the present time of all those things that Christ has spoken.
And so that we don't stand in the same place or the same place
of need for the signs and miracles. In fact, the scripture, the Lord
said, that an evil generation seeketh after signs. Now if the Lord is pleased to
give us a sign, he will do so, but it is not We've not been
given the command to go out and look for signs. You know, some
people, they spend their whole life looking for a sign and wondering
what it is, and this, that, and the other. We don't need signs
and miracles. What we need, dear brethren,
is an ear to hear the truth of God. spoken by the lips of Christ,
and given through his messengers unto the world, declaring his
truth. And those that are sent by him,
they don't come bringing another message. I mean, we don't have,
there's nothing new. You remember Solomon said in
the book of Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun. Well,
that's most definitely true when it comes to preaching the gospel.
There's no new novel way that we can preach the gospel. Oh,
we've come up with a new way we can really, you know, we'll
take this little phrase and we'll do a bunch of commercials and
we'll get people on TV to see this and people will just flock
by the thousands to hear no. If the Lord doesn't open the
ears of man to hear the truth of God, no device of man is going
to accomplish that. It's only by the hand of Almighty
God, the work of the Lord. But the Lord does indeed call
unto His people. Of course, this whole chapter,
the whole book of Hebrews is a book designed to set forth
the glory of Christ in the eyes of the Hebrews, those who were
steeped in the law and knew and understood the things that the
Lord had taught. They understood these things
insofar as they could go. They at least had the testimony
of God in the law. But the Lord came with a greater
spokesman than Moses. He came with a greater spokesman
than all the prophets that had come before because he sent his
son into the world to declare the truth of God. He made Him
higher than all of the creation because He is the Creator. Now
a lot of people, they don't think of Jesus Christ as being the
Creator, but the Scripture plainly says that He is the Creator of
all things and that by Him all things consist. Now the scientists
of the world, they spend their lives just trying to discover
how all things consist. And the most ignorant of men
in the world who've been taught by the Spirit of God know why
all things consist, and how they consist. They consist in Christ. He made them, and he holds them
together. You know, one of the things that,
in my simple mind, that I've never had anybody able, and I
don't think it can be explained, is how does gravity work? Now,
you know, if you got, if they tell us the planet, we live on
a planet, and they tell us we don't live on a flat surface,
but we live on a planet, and I have no reason to doubt that
we live on a planet, and this thing's twirling around out here
in the earth, in the space, and it goes around, it's 25,000 miles
around it, and it goes around in 24 hours. So that means that the Earth
is moving at approximately 1,000 miles an hour. And we're out
here on the surface of this planet. Now anything that I know of that
you turn around and spin around, the stuff that's on the outside
of it goes off. Now I know there's scientists
out there that's gonna say how stupid I am that I don't know
this, but why does that work? Well, it doesn't work by any
stretch of the imagination that man can observe and understand
in my way of thinking, but it has to do, they say it's the
gravitational pull of the earth. Well, where does that come from?
I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from God who made
the world, and he made the world to have gravity. It's not some
scientific process that causes gravity to occur. It's because
God made it. That's a simple explanation,
is it not? But it's nonetheless what the
scripture says, by him all things consist. Now, if you want to
go and study gravity, go ahead. I mean, but, you know, I'm content
to rest in the wonders of the creator, that his creation is
exactly like he wants it to be. And nothing's going to change
it. Not all of the carbon, that people put into the atmosphere.
It's not going to speed anything up. It's not going to slow anything
down. It's going to go exactly according to the good pleasure
of His will. How foolish it is. Now, should men be stewards of
what the Lord has given us? Why sure we should. I mean, we
would be unthankful if we were not. But then we most certainly
understand that men are not going to change the course of the world. How foolish and prideful for
men to think that they can. Oh, we're going to destroy the
earth. No, you're not going to destroy
the earth because seed diamond harvest will not cease unless
the Lord causes it to cease according to the good pleasure of his will
as he sees fit. And so he has not put the world
in subjection to the angels. Now he's speaking about this
world in which we live. But as we read in the scripture
about the creation, the Lord made man and he made him to be
what? The ruler over this world, have
dominion in this world. That's what he made man as. That's
what he says here. But one in a certain place testifies
saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son
of man that thou visitest him? What is man? What in the world? I mean, man
is an insignificant creature in many ways insofar as the expanse
of the heavens is concerned and the things we can see, and we're
just a little speck out here. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? Now, of course, the humanist
says, why? Man is worth a lot. I mean, man
has all these powers and he's got a free will and he can do
anything he sets his mind to. He just gotta be in the right
environment if we can get his environment right and we can
do all these things. Man is just wonderful. He can
accomplish anything. But the Lord says, what is man? And we say, Lord, what is man?
That you are mindful of us. But understand this. And he says here, he didn't put
the angels in charge of the world. Or that is, he didn't make the
world to be under their dominion. Angels don't have any dominion
in the earth. Now the Lord sends them from
time to time to accomplish the things that he would have them
to do, but he didn't give the general subjection of the world
under them. They don't have any power apart
from that which he gives them. But he said, what is man that
thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest
him? Now why did the Lord take note
of us? We can't really answer that.
There's only one word that describes it, and it is grace. Grace, that's
why the Lord has been mindful of us. That's why he created
us as he did, in his mercy, in his kindness. Thou madest him,
speaking of man, a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest
him with glory and honor and did set him over the works of
thy hands. Now there's a two-fold meaning
in this, obviously, as he goes on to say. Thou hast put all
things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all
in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under
him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. Now this is a twofold truth here. He's speaking about in the creation,
the Lord made man to rule over the rest of his creation of the
world. He made man to have dominion over the creatures of the earth
and to be even in his image as one who rules over that. But
he says here, thus put all things, in subjection under him, he left
nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all
things put under him. And so it is that while this
is speaking about man in general as being that ruler of the earth,
he's primarily pointing out the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
came as a man and was made a little lower than the angels in being
a man. Because that's what men are. They're lower than the angels.
And the Lord condescended to men of low estate and he came
and he visited us and he walked among us because he loved his
people. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. Remember he said over here in
1 Corinthians, he said the last enemy that shall be destroyed
is death. Now Christ is the destroyer of
death. We sang about it a moment ago,
death of deaths and hell's destruction. He is that one. Death, he holds
death in his hand. He said, I kill and I make alive. I, the Lord, do all these things. So he's the God of life, he's
the God of death. Death belongs to the Lord. There
was no such thing as death until he instituted it. And he told
Adam, he said, Adam, in the day that you eat this tree, you're
going to die. He didn't say, now Adam, I made this tree, and
buddy, if you eat it, you're going to die. He didn't say that. He said, Adam, you're going to
eat this tree. And Adam gladly ate of that tree,
wrongly, because God said, don't eat of it. Now, men get all up
in arms. They say, well, well, Adam just
did then what the will of God. Well, nay, but old man, who art
thou that replies against God? You say, well, who hath been
able to overturn the will of God? Nobody. But you see, God,
who is God, he makes one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor,
as it pleaseth him. Now what does that do? Well,
it causes the rebel to rebel. And it causes the man in whose
mind and heart the Lord has worked and humbled him before God, he
falls down on his face and he says, even so, Father, for so
it seemed good in thy sight. See, a rebel's gonna be a rebel. The unbeliever is gonna be an
unbeliever still. apart from the grace of God to
open his heart and mind and show him the truth and to bring him
into subjection so that he can't find one thing he can accuse
God of. Now the rebels of the world,
they find many things. Oh, we'll see all this suffering
that's in the world and all these babies dying and all this stuff.
It's just terrible. Why, if God was, you know, really
who he said he was, he wouldn't be letting them do all this stuff.
And the people of God just fall on their face and say, Have glory
in all things. Humble our hearts before thee,
O Lord. May thy will be done in the earth
as it is in the heavens. But thou, we see not yet all
things put under him. Because you see, even though
he is the destroyer of death, he has not yet put death, physical
death, out of the picture. For it's appointed unto men once
to die. After this, the judgment. And
we just laid to rest a dear brother yesterday. A man who walked with
God. A man who confessed that he was
a stranger in this world. A man who confessed that he was
a great sinner. But a man who confessed that
he had a great savior. A man who desired to worship
God with his whole heart. And yet death visited him just
as surely as it visited the most vile sinner that's in rebellion
against God at the present moment. And God strikes him down just
like that. Death is the same to both. And
the Lord has not yet put that away. There is coming a day, however.
when that is true, because that victory has actually already
been won. It's just not the time has not
yet come for that to occur. So we don't see yet all things
put under him. Under men, in general, we don't
have any control whatsoever over death. You know, men say, well,
you know, I'm gonna take these vitamins so I don't die. Well,
I take vitamins every day. But I don't take them with the
notion that I'm gonna breathe one more breath than I would
breathe if I didn't take them. Because I know that the one who
numbers the hairs on my head also numbers the minutes of my
life. My times are in his hand. And
I can't pass that time. And I'm not mad. I'm glad. Because I'm glad it's not just
some random thing that might occur one day. This might happen
to me. Well, no, nothing might happen
to you. Whatever the Lord has ordained
to happen is gonna happen to you. And we just give God glory. And we don't use that as an excuse
to do stupid stuff. And maybe we do stupid stuff.
See, even the stupid stuff that men do, redounds unto the glory
of God. You can't... See, the most vile
rebel against God who breathes out threatens and slaughters
against the people of God, who hates the way of God, he can't
escape doing the will of God. He cannot do it. And he can't
escape that he is going to fall down one day and give honor and
praise unto God, even though he hates God with all of his
heart. is going to happen. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess. But we don't see all things yet
put under him. Death is still a reality, but... I like the buts that's in the
scripture. But... Here's what we do see. So we
don't see yet all things done. We don't see yet that death has
been put aside because we know that friends and loved ones have
died, and we know if we're honest with ourself that we're progressing
to that end ourself. Our days are numbered. I mean,
when a child comes into the world, his days have a number upon them.
I don't know what that number is, but the Lord does because
he's the one that ordains those numbers to occur as he sees fit. And so we don't see death yet
put under him, but here's what we do see. We see Jesus. Oh, what a glorious vision that
is. Remember those men that the apostles came to, or they came
to the apostles, and the apostles said, well, who are you looking
for? They said, Sarge, we would see Jesus. We won't talk to you. And by the grace of God, we've
been, he says here, we see Jesus. Now we see Jesus not just as
the world sees Jesus. The world, many people, they
know that there was a man who lived in this world and his name
was Jesus. And the world has many celebrations
that surround his birth. They surround his resurrection,
dying on the cross, all those things. I mean, the world sees
him. But that's not what the apostle's saying here. He says
we see Jesus as the Lord has sent him, as that one who's the
spokesman of God. See, there's many people that
believe that Jesus existed, but they don't believe what he said. But we do. By the grace of God,
we believe every word that He said. We believe that He spoke
nothing but truth when He walked among men, whether we liked it
or whether we didn't. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels, the same fashion in which man
was made, a lower creation. But he was made, he came and
took upon himself sinful flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh,
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. That's why he came, the scripture
says. See, the death of Christ on the
cross was not something that happened due to the wickedness
of men, although it was something that happened due to the wickedness
of men. But you see, that was ordained of Almighty God. He
said, you have taken Him by wicked hands, but it's according to
the foreordained purpose of Almighty God. Because see, He came into
the world for this purpose. Now He didn't come just to randomly
die. but he came that he might redeem
his people. He came with that in mind and
the angel told Joseph that you shall call his name Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sins. He didn't say he's
gonna just try to do the good that he can in the world and
hope somebody will be saved. He said he came to save his people. He's the savior of sinners. He's
not the one who tries to save sinners. He's the one who saves
sinners. His redemption made lower than the angels. Can
you imagine that? The one who created the angels
made himself lower than the angels. And allowed himself to be comforted
in the garden under the greatest stress that any man could ever
have placed upon him, pouring out his soul unto death. And
he had the angels to come and minister to him. Can you imagine
that? I can't. I can't even comprehend
it. How it would be. But it pleased
God. And He's crowned with glory. Him who was made lower than the
angels and for the suffering of death, this man, whom men
despised and mocked him. Remember there were two thieves
on the cross and the scripture says that they both mocked him.
Both of them. They said, if you're really the
son of God, come on down. But we know what happened there.
You see the grace of God was evident there on Calvary. Because
here were two men, both of them equally worthy of destruction
and death, equally rebels against God, lawbreakers, sinners. And yet suddenly, something happened
to one of them and he turned to the other one and he said,
you know, we're sinners and we're worthy of death. And he said,
Lord, remember me. when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Now how on earth did he all of a sudden know that this one whom
he had been mocking was the Son of God, was the King of Kings,
this one who was dying, pouring out his life's blood in a weak
state just like himself. There was no beauty that we should
desire him. There was nothing in him naturally that would be
attractive to him. But he looked upon him and he
saw him and he understood that he was the king of kings and
the lord of lords. And he said, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. He knew he had a kingdom. Oh
man, how can that be? Except that the grace of God
was there. and opens the eyes of sinners
even as he does at the present time while one grows up and he
listens to the gospel and he hears it all his life and he
goes and lives his life and he has no concern for it and yet
another hears it and it's become precious to his soul and he cries
out, oh God, have mercy upon me a sinner. How is that? It's the grace of God. It's the
mercy of God. a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. Because
you see, that's how we see Him. Crowned with glory and honor.
One of my most favorite hymns is crowned Him with many crowns.
The Lamb upon the throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns. All music but its own. Awake
my soul and sing of Him who died for thee. and hail Him as our
matchless King through all eternity. We see Jesus, even though He was made lower than the angels,
we see Him as one who's most high and lifted up. That He by
the grace of God should taste death For every man, just like
every man dies, he would taste death. A death that no man shall escape. And Christ, being identified
with his people, would not escape it either. For it became him,
or it pleased him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons to glory. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. This was in the plan and purpose
of Almighty God. See, the death of Christ, you
know, we've often all speculated, you know, about what would have
happened if Christ had not died. Well, in the first place, that's
a foolish speculation because there's no way that could have
occurred because it was ordained of God to occur. There'd be no salvation had he
not died. Because this was the means whereby
the Lord would save his people. And he put all these things in
motion. From the first day that he said,
let there be light. When he said, let there be light.
You see, that was a precursor to the fact that he said, my
son is coming into the world as the light of the world. Let
there be light. And in him is light and no darkness
at all. Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is. And then He did this to bring many
sons unto glory. He didn't do it to try to bring
some sons to glory, but He had some sons that belonged to Him. He said, these are my people.
They're the sheep of my pasture, and I will save them. I will
deliver them. I will bring them unto myself.
They will hear my voice. they will come to me. In him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Oh what a glorious
Savior he is dear brethren. Oh what a wonderful redemption
that there is in Christ who was made lower than the angels. for
the suffering of death. That's the purpose. See, the
angels, we don't know of the angels dying. I've not read of
any place where any angels died. Now, I do find in scripture that
those wicked angels and their erstwhile leader shall be cast
into the lake of fire. That is going to occur. But up
to this time, I don't know of any of them that have died. They
shall though, because you see Christ didn't die for them. And those men that have no desire
to hear the word of God, who go on in their way, and they
are cast in that same place. Why? Because their names were
not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Nor did they have any
desire that it be. because they loved their way
and they had no regard to the Savior. How shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which has now been spoken by
Christ? Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is.