Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us for
the message. Today I'll be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter
2. It's sort of a continuation from last week's message. Last
week I preached on all things under Christ. Today's message,
the title is taken from verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 2 and it
says, We See Jesus. We see Jesus. Now, do I see Jesus? Do you see Jesus? We're going
to talk about that. In this message, I want to make
the point, as I pick up from last week, about all things under
Christ. I was making the point at the
end of last week's message that God has put all things under
Christ. He says in verse six, look back
at Hebrews 2 in verse six. He says, one in a certain place,
that's talking about the psalmist. He's quoting here from Psalm
8. 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? And that's talking about the
awesomeness of the fact that God would even take notice, let
alone visit, send his son to such sinful wretches as we are. It's a humbling thought to the
psalmist and to God's people. You know, people today sort of
have the attitude that they deserve salvation just because God created
them, just because they were born. They talk about the dignity
of humanity. The Bible doesn't say anything
about the dignity of humanity. Did you know that? The Bible
says a lot about the wretchedness of humanity. The Bible says a
lot about the sinfulness and depravity of humanity. What is
depravity? You see, by nature, this is the
truth now, by nature, sometimes I talk about the three R's of
the gospel. And what that is, is the first
R, ruined by the fall. Man is a ruined race. We fell in Adam. For by one man,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and death passed
upon all men for that all sin. Romans 5, 12. The Bible says
there's none righteous. No, not one. And see, to understand
that, you have to quit thinking in human terms and deal with
God's revelation. What do you mean there's none
righteous, no not one? It means that we're all sinners
and come short of the glory of God. None of us in ourselves
or by our best efforts to be good can measure up to the righteousness
that God requires. That's what that means. You say,
well, I'm gonna try to be the best person I can be. Well, that's
fine, but you will never in yourself or by yourself or by your works
or by your efforts or by your promises or by your determinations,
you will never, never be able to stand before God and say,
now I'm righteous based on those things. That's what it means. The best of the best. Man at
his best state. Altogether vanity. Scripture
says. And then it means this, so it
means there's none righteous, it means we cannot work one.
And here's the issue of depravity in myself and in you, by nature. Is that by nature, as we're born
naturally into this world, dead spiritually, we don't want righteousness
God's way. We want it our way, the way of
Cain, the broad way that leads to destruction. Salvation conditioned
on me. And that's rebellion. That's
sin, that's depravity. And so for God to even consider
us is an amazing thing. And then the second R is redeemed
by the blood. Ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood. Now whose blood? Jesus Christ,
the God-man. who came to save his people from
their sins. How did he do it? By redemption.
He bought them lock, stock, and barrel. He didn't come to try
to save you or to try to save me. He came to save his people,
God's elect. That's what the Bible says. I
know there's people who don't like to hear that, but that's
what this book teaches. And preachers, they'll deny it,
they'll ignore it, they'll parse it, they'll rationalize it, but
that's what it says, and then people will object to it. They'll
say, well, you know, God looked down through the telescope of
time and he foresaw that I would do this or not do... My friend,
that is not biblical. That's humanism. That's unbelief. And then they'll say something
like, well, if that's so, then it doesn't matter what I do.
No, that's human rationalization. First of all, you're not God
and I'm not God. We're just creatures who are
groping in the dark down here on this earth until God intervenes
and turns on the light. You seek the Lord. God's people,
all for whom Christ died, will seek the Lord and they'll find
him. Christ said in John 6, 37, all that the father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise
cast out. You see, you don't operate in
the realm of heaven. Your mind and my mind is not
high enough to do that. Only God can do that. We operate
here on this plane here and we're responsible. I always quote Deuteronomy
chapter 29 and verse 29. which talks about the secret
things belong to God. There are things I don't know,
there are things you don't know, that only God knows. The revealed
things belong to us. In other words, what God reveals,
you know, that we might obey Him, that we might follow His
commandments. Now, left ourselves, we won't.
There's none that doeth good, there's none that seeketh after
God, it says. But see, when Christ redeemed
his people, and that's what this is talking about, you know. God
visited his people. He sent Christ. And how did he
do it? He says in verse seven, thou
madest him a little lower than the angels. Now what's that talking
about? It's talking about his humanity.
Angels are created beings. They're spirits. And they can
do a lot of things we can't do, and they know a lot of things
we don't know. But because humanity, especially
in our fallen state, is the lowest form of life. Now, does that
offend you? Well, Isaiah spoke that way back
in Isaiah chapter one, when he looked at the people of Israel
in their rebellion, and he said, now look, the old mule, the old
donkey, the old ass knows his master's crib, He knows where
it all comes from. He says, even the animals have
that kind of instinct, but we who are so sinful and rebellious
against our creator, that's something to consider, isn't it? If you
think about it. But when Christ redeemed his
people by his blood, now, when it says that thou have made us
to him a little lower than the angels, That's His humanity.
He had to become incarnate and take into union with His deity
a sinless humanity so that He could die. Look at verse 14 of
Hebrews 2. He says, "...for as much then
as the children..." Who's the children? That's God's elect.
"...their partakers of flesh and blood, He Christ also Himself
likewise took part of the same." Flesh and blood. Why? That through
death he had to die. The wages of sin is death. The
sins of his people were imputed, charged, accounted to him, reckoned
to him. And he took on the debt of their
sin and that debt had to be paid by the price of his death, his
blood, that he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. We'll talk about that later on.
But you see, that's redeemed by the blood. And then the third
R, ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood, is regenerated
by the Spirit. Out of His death comes life for
His people. And we'll get to that in just
a moment. But look here in verse eight, or verse seven, thou madest
him a little lower, or for a little while inferior to angels. And his inferiority there does
not refer to his deity but to his humanity in what we call
the infirmities of the flesh. Now, infirmities are not sinful. Infirmities are weaknesses. For
example, Christ in his humanity, he had to learn and grow in wisdom
and stature. And that's a mind-boggling thing.
He who is God in human flesh had to grow in wisdom and stature.
And I don't know how to explain that to you and I don't need
to. Nobody else does. That's to be
attributed to His humanity but was an act of His entire person.
Think about it. The God of this universe The
word that was in the beginning with God and was God, John 1,
was made flesh. That is, he was conceived in
the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. And he resided
in her womb just like a baby. And he grew and he was born and
he was an infant. And he had to feed upon his mother's
breast. He had to be taken care of. All
of those things that come with being a human. But those things
in and of themselves are not sinful, you see. As he grew,
he hungered. He grew tired. He wept, he sorrowed,
all of that. But those are sinless infirmities.
That's why in the book of Hebrews chapter four, it talks about
how he was tested in all things, like as we are, yet without sin. That's what it's talking about.
So he was made a little lower than the angels. But it says
in verse seven, Thou crown'st him with glory and honor, and
it set him over the works of thy hands." Now, Peter said this
in his sermon at Pentecost. He said that God has made him
both Lord and Christ. Now what that's talking about
is his mediatorial glory as the successful redeemer of his people. Christ did not come to try to
save you and me. He came to save His people and
He did. And He did it through His death
as the surety and substitute of His people. He died, He was
buried, and He arose the third day. What does that mean? That
means He was successful. See, He put away the sins of
His people. He put away the transgressions
of His people and established righteousness that God had imputed
to His people, charged to His people. Christ established that
at the cross. He paid the debt. He satisfied
justice and He brought forth righteousness, brought in an
everlasting righteousness as Daniel prophesied and as Jeremiah
prophesied and as Isaiah prophesied, all of them did. and His righteousness
demanded that He be raised from the dead. You see, sin demands
death. Righteousness demands life. That's
why without Christ we have no life, spiritual eternal life. All we have is death because
we're sinners. And that will turn into eternal
death unless we're found before God in Christ washed in His blood
and clothed in His righteousness. And so He's crowned with honor
and glory as the Savior of His people. Listen, if anyone for
whom Christ died ends up perishing eternally, then he could not
be crowned with honor and glory. He's not the Savior. If you're
saved because of your decision, you're your own Savior. Now that's
not just splitting hairs. But it says here that God crowned
him with honor and glory and set him over the works of his
hands. Everything is under Christ. All
things under him. So look at verse 8. He says,
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. He's in control. He's in control. You say, well,
I don't see how all that works out. Now look here now. He says,
for in that he put all in subjection under him, he, now listen to
this, he left nothing that is not put under him. It's all put
under his sovereign control. He's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. You say, well, I don't really
believe that. Well, then don't quote Romans 8, 28 ever again.
All things work together for good to them that love God who
are the called according to his purpose. How can all things,
all things work together? Because God's doing it in Christ. But look here in verse eight,
he says in the last line, but now we see not yet all things
put under him. You look around this world. And
you might say, well, this world's getting so bad. Well, the world's
always been bad, friend. I think the major difference
between the world today and the world in the past is that all
the bad stuff is brought into our living rooms through television
and the internet and the forms of communication. We see it firsthand,
whereas they didn't back then, but it was still going on. This
world's always been a fallen, cursed world. This world is not
gonna last forever. This world is under the judgment
of God, under the wrath of God. And that's gonna be realized
when Christ comes again and destroys this earth and makes it anew. That's what has to happen. So
when we look around and we glance at this world, It may seem to
us like, well, this thing's out of control. Satan's winning and
God's losing. No, look at verse nine. But we
see Jesus. Now there's your key. Now back
in verse eight, he says, we see not yet all things, but that
word for see there is like a glance, like a temporary glance. But
verse 9, but we see Jesus. That word see there is a different
word. It means to gaze intently upon Him. We who are saved look to Christ. And if we see Jesus, now Jesus
means salvation. We see the way of salvation.
We see salvation by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. We see
it by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Word revealed. Now, when
I glance around this world, it looks awful. And I'm not optimistic. And it doesn't matter, listen,
I mean, you know, I have my ideas about who I want to be president,
who would be better for this country and all that, and we're
to be responsible citizens. But when I look around this world,
it's an awful mess. But when I look to Christ, according
to the word of God, as the Savior of my soul, the Savior who saved
me from my sin, as the Lord my righteousness. I have no righteousness
but Christ. And when I look to Him, you see,
then I see all things working out for good to them that love
God, who are the called according to His purpose. Somebody used
an illustration one time, I can't remember who, a preacher, He
was talking about embroidery. Some of you, you may do embroidery. And if you get a tapestry out
and you've got a cloth there and you're bringing in different
kinds of yarn or thread with different colors, and you put
it all together in a beautiful, colorful pattern. Well, if you
look at the back of that embroidered tapestry, It may look like a
jumbled mess with no pattern, no purpose, nothing at all that
you can make out. But when you turn it over and
look at the top of it, there may be a beautiful picture there
that you can make out everything. And that's the way it is here.
When we glance at this world from the ground up, It looks
like a mess, but when we see it from God's point of view in
Christ, it's all working out. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, He who works all things after the counsel of His own
will. So we see Jesus. Now who's the we there? That's
believers who believe in Jesus as He's identified and distinguished
in the Word. Now I heard a false preacher
on TV one time. He's one of these health and
wealth preachers who tells people to sow their seed and the seed
is a check or dollars and money, you know, all of that. Now don't
get me wrong. I believe the people of God should
support financially the gospel and evangelism, but that kind
of health and wealth gospel is false friend. But this preacher,
he made, he made the statement. He said, he said, there are a
lot of Christians who are confused about this issue. And he said,
they believe God's in control, but he says, God's not in control.
Now he just told a lie. And I'm gonna tell you something
about the man, he doesn't see Jesus. If you see him, you'll
know God's in control. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
12 and verse two, that believers are to run the race, the Christian
race, the race of grace, the life of faith, not looking to
the world to find meaning and purpose and design and all of
that, but we're to run the race looking unto Jesus, the author,
the beginner, and the finisher, the completer of our faith. You
see that? Now go on, verse nine, he says,
but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Why was he made lower than that?
And that's talking about his humanity for the suffering of
death. He did it so that he might die
because that's what was required. You see, the condition of salvation
is righteousness by the blood of Christ. That's what it is. The condition of salvation is
not your faith or my faith. We who are saved will believe. But the condition of salvation
is what Christ did in His death, His atonement, reconciliation
through the blood of the cross by His righteousness shown forth
by His resurrection from the dead. That's why He arose from
the dead. That's the glory and the miracle,
the resurrection. The miracle of the resurrection
is not simply life from the dead. It's righteousness established
whereupon God gives life to all of his people. When Christ said,
you must be born again, he's talking about a new birth. What
some call regeneration, and it's okay. Where he gives his people
a new heart, a new spirit, life, knowledge, he changes them. He makes them willing in the
day of His power. He convicts them of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. He brings them to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works and idolatry. He sheds abroad
His love within their hearts as they look to Christ, hearing
His love, not that we loved Him, but that He loved us and gave
His Son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who
brought satisfaction for our sins. And that's what He does. And so it's for the suffering
of death. That's the condition of salvation.
He says in verse nine, crowned with glory and honor, that he
by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Now when
people go to words like every man, first of all, that word
there, the word man was added by the translators. It should
be every one. Some say it should be every son.
Anytime you see the words all, every, or the word world, it
has to be qualified by the context. These things are not just words
in and of themselves. And so you have to ask yourself,
well, does it mean everybody without exception? Well, it can't
be everybody without exception. Because he later on, he says
that he did not take on him the nature of angels. So the angels
were excluded. You say, but it says every man.
Well, the word man was not in the original. It says every one. And I'll give you an example
of this. Romans 3.23 says that all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Now does that all there, does
that mean all without exception? Now you may immediately say yes. No it doesn't. Christ is not
included in the all. The elect angels are not included
in the all. That's all men and women who
fell in Adam. It means every man and woman
without exception who fell in Adam. That's what it means. These
always have to be qualified. And where is the qualification?
Well, it comes in the next verses. Now, I'm gonna deal with these
next time, but just listen to a few of them. Verse 11, or verse
10. It says, for it became him for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons unto the glory. That's why some translators would
say every son. Who are the sons there? That's
the children of God. That's the elect. That's the
every man there, the every person, everyone. And he says to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Now
the word perfect there doesn't mean morally perfect. Christ
was not made morally perfect by what he suffered on the cross.
He was already morally perfect, morally pure. Perfect there means
a completed action. And so what it means here is
that Christ was the captain of their salvation, was completed
the task, perfected, we'll see that in the next time, perfected
the work through what he suffered. And he did it for the many sons. Now who are these sons? Well,
you know, Christ, when he was identifying his family, you can
find this over in Matthew chapter 12, when he was preaching in
his hometown, or preaching there in a house, and his mother and
his half-brothers came to see him, and they went into him and
said, your mother and your brothers are out here to see you. And
he said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who are the
children of God? Who's my family? He said, them
that do the will of my father. And what is the will of the father?
The will of the Father is stated clearly in the Bible, to believe
on the Son and to follow Him. And that's an act of God's grace.
That's how God saves sinners by bringing them to Christ, to
see Him and to look to Him, to intently gaze upon Him and to
see how all things are put under Christ. That's how we who are
saved see Jesus. Do you see Him? Not just with
the physical eye, not with just a glance, but with the eye of
God-given faith. Do you have eyes to see? You
remember Christ told the disciples, you've got ears to hear, you've
got eyes to see. They were given you by God. Hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.