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. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us for today's message. And I'll be preaching
from the book of Hebrews. The New Testament book of Hebrews
chapter 2, if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles. Hebrews
chapter 2. The title of the message is All
Things Under Christ. All Things Under Christ. And of course what I'm going
to be talking about is the preeminence, the sovereignty, the lordship
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how all things are under him, especially
all things in salvation, but even all things in providence.
Now, before I get into the passage here, consider the book of Hebrews,
the epistle to the Hebrews. This book of Hebrews was inspired
by God as a letter written to Jewish believers who were under
persecution and ridicule because of their faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and their confession of that faith before the unbelieving
Jews. As you know, if you read the
New Testament, the unbelieving Jews in Israel were especially
incensed against the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was basically for several
reasons. Number one, the gospel of salvation
based upon the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ was
a light, a message, a truth that exposed all of their natural
religious hopes to be nothing but folly, to be false refuges. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians
6.14, he said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. That's the finished work of Christ. Save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. And he went on in verse 15, he says, For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And what he was showing there
is this. He was taking one of the things that unbelieving Jews
hoped in and thought of their salvation was their circumcision.
You know, the rite of circumcision that descended down from Abraham
physical circumcision of the Jewish males. That's how they
identified themselves. That was one of the things they
boasted in and thought recommended them to God. They said, we're
circumcised and we're not of the uncircumcision, which they
called the Gentiles. Basically, the unbelieving Jews
trusted in three things to save them, to recommend them unto
God, to prove or evidence that they were true children of God
and to make them righteous. And those three things, number
one, was their physical connection to Abraham. They would constantly
say, we are Abraham's seed. Well, that had some significance
as far as God's providential dealings with that nation under
the old covenant for 1,500 years. But it had nothing to do with
the salvation of a sinner. In other words, just because,
if you're a Jew, just because you're a physical descendant
of Abraham means nothing as far as your relationship with God
and a right relationship with God. The Bible teaches that both
Jew and Gentile fell in Adam in sin and death, born dead in
trespasses and sins, and that both Jew and Gentile are sinners
who cannot be saved. by any works or any heritage
that we are all sinners who are in need of salvation by God's
free sovereign grace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only way of salvation. Paul talks about it here in verse
three of Hebrews two. He talks about how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation. Now the great salvation that
he's talking about is God's salvation of sinners by His grace, undeserved,
unmerited grace, based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ freely imputed, charged, accounted, and received by God-given
faith. So being a physical descendant
of Abraham meant nothing. And if you trusted in that, if
they trusted in that, they were just fooling themselves. It's
a refuge of lies. And then the second thing I already
mentioned, that's their circumcision, the right of circumcision for
the Jewish males. And the women were represented
by the males, so they were included in that. And they said, well,
we're circumcised. Well, the apostle Paul wrote
in Philippians chapter 3, that those who try to bring about
that, to impose the right of circumcision on a Gentile in
order to be saved or to be recommended to God or to be righteous, all
they're doing is mutilating you. And he said in Philippians 3
and verse 3, we are the circumcision. He's talking about Jewish and
Gentile believers who have been born again by the Holy Spirit.
That's the circumcision he's talking about there in Philippians
3 in verse 3. He's not talking about physical
circumcision there. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision of the heart. And he says we are the circumcision.
How do you know that? We worship God in spirit. and
we rejoice or glory or have confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. The third thing that Jewish unbelievers
trusted in was the Law of Moses. They said, we follow Moses, we
keep the Law. Now first of all, they were just
fooling themselves in making that statement. They didn't keep
the Law of Moses. In fact, the whole history of
Israel under the Old Covenant is a history of sin and rebellion
and idolatry. And so that, but they claim,
well, we keep the law of Moses. And of course, by they down through
the time of the old covenant, they added the traditions of
men, which turned out to be Pharisee-ism and all of that. And Christ told
them in John chapter five, he said, if you believe Moses, you'd
believe me. You see the law of Moses was
never given to the nation Israel as a way of salvation. No, sir. Sinners have never been able
to be saved by deeds or works of the Law. The Law of Moses
was given to expose and show forth their sinfulness, their
depravity, and their need of salvation by grace through Christ,
the promised Messiah. That's why the Law was given.
And there in that law you have the Ten Commandments, which was
the moral code that showed them their sin. And then you had the
ceremonial laws, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle
or temple, the feast days, all of that. And those were all pictures
and types of how God saves sinners by his grace through Christ,
who is the Lamb of God, who is the great high priest, who is
the tabernacle of God. So that's what they trusted him.
When a true believer began testifying of this great salvation, the
only way that God saves sinners, Jew and Gentile, it brought down
the anger and persecution upon them from unbelieving Jews. And
so this letter to the Hebrews was written to the church, professing
believers who were being persecuted and coaxed away from their faith. The Jewish unbelievers were trying
to draw them away from the truth and these Jewish unbelievers
were successful in some cases. And that's why you have a couple
of passages in the book of Hebrews where people go to to try to
say, well, you can lose your salvation because it's talking
about those who profess faith in Christ, but then later on
denied it to the point of calling him accursed. They totally apostatized,
which means they fell away. And so people say, well, see
there, you can lose your salvation. Oh no, that's not what that teaches
at all. Any professing believer, Jew
or Gentile, who can be coaxed away from the truth, from faith
in Christ, and fall away unto perdition, as Hebrews 10 says,
never was a believer to begin with. Now you may say in your
mind, you say, well I know this person was a believer. I look
at their... You've got to go by God's Word. You can't go by
what you see and rationalize in your mind. God's Word said
if they were truly of us, that is of the true church, they would
continue with us. It says that. But if they're
not with us, if they're not true, they go out from us. That's what
he says. So that's what's happening here.
So what What Hebrews does is it gives us a whole lot of glorious
truth concerning how much greater, how much better, how superior
that Jesus Christ the Lord of glory, the Savior of sinners,
the Lord our righteousness is over and above the old covenant
law and that ministration to the nation Israel. And he goes
through several different facets of that. He talks about how in
the old covenant law, angels, for example, messengers from
God had such an intimate and intricate relationship part of
the ministering of that law during their time. And angels are still
present with the people of God. But Christ is so much better
than angels. We don't worship angels if we're
true believers. We don't pray to angels, we don't
pray through angels. Angels are messengers, they're
created beings. Christ is God in human flesh
and he is the savior. Angels cannot save sinners. This
great salvation that we read about in the book of Hebrews
is something that angels are fascinated, that the elect angels,
the chosen, they're fallen angels too now. But the elect angels
are fascinated by it. It's something they desire to
look into. It's amazing to them. Because
Christ is so great. Now you see, this is that great
salvation. Christ is much better than angels.
Christ is much better than Moses. Moses was a sinner saved by grace. Christ is much better than the
Old Covenant priesthood of Aaron and the Levites. That was temporary. They were sinners themselves
who needed salvation. But Christ is the sinless High
Priest who stood in the place of His people as their surety
and substitute, having their sins imputed, charged to Him.
And He died, was buried, and rose the third day. He's seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for Him. Christ is better than the tabernacle. Christ is better. Better covenant, better promises,
all of that. And so the writer of Hebrews
here writes by inspiration of the Spirit in verse one of Hebrews
2. Now listen to this. He says, therefore, we, now who's
the we there? Those who profess to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, do you profess to believe
in Him? You say yes. Is your belief in Him based upon
biblical truth or is it tradition or what you've been told? 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. When the gospel
of God's grace is preached in all of its truth, Not telling
me, for example, what I want to hear, necessarily, but what
I need to hear. When that gospel, the glorious
gospel, when it's preached, then if I profess to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, I ought to be a listener. I ought to be
on the edge of my seat, ready to listen to this great and glorious
truth that exalts God as a just God and a Savior. that exalts
Christ, the second person of the Trinity, as God in human
flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, that exalts Him in the glory
of His person and in the success of His redemptive work on my
behalf. And I ought to give them more
earnest heed, lest at any time we should let them slip. Now
the idea there, and most Scholars agree with this if you go back
to the original language. It's like a ship out at sea coming
into the harbor and needing to anchor at the dock. And instead
of anchoring at the dock, it just drifts on by. And that's the problem with people.
They don't listen. They don't read the Bible. They
don't study the Bible in light of the great truths of the gospel.
And they just drift on by. Well, don't do that. He says
in verse 2 of Hebrews 2, he says, if the word spoken by angels,
now remember, angels were ministering spirits in the old covenant. They were instruments used by
God to reveal things to the people. And if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, was true, dependable, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward. Remember under the old
covenant, there were laws and penalties and they were to be
followed. In other words, God didn't make
suggestions under the law. He gave commandments. Well, if
that was true back then under that temporal ceremonial national
covenant for that time, verse three, 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.
And look at verse four. He says, God also bearing them
witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse or various miracles
and gifts of the Holy Ghost, that's the distributions, as
one translation says, of the Holy Ghost according to His own
will. You think about the time of the
Old Covenant. I even go back to, the Old Covenant
began at Sinai. It lasted from Sinai to the cross. That's the time period of the
old covenant. We're not under the old covenant now. If you're
a believer, you're under the new covenant in Christ. But the
old covenant was a national covenant made with that nation, Israel,
the Hebrew children, after Moses brought them out of the, delivered
them out of the bondage of Egypt. And you know all the miracles
that went on there and how they came to the Red Sea, they crossed
over and they met, they camped there at the Mount Sinai and
Moses went up into the mountain. They saw miracles, how they rebelled
and disobeyed God and how God consigned them to wander in the
wilderness for 40 years because of their rebellion. That's a
picture of all of us by nature as sinners. Sinners, if left
to ourselves, you know, if left to ourselves, you know, people
talk about, you know, free will and all of that. Let me tell
you something. The Bible teaches us that if we are left to ourselves,
up to our own volition, would be like Israel wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years. God has to bring us by revelation
and by power to Christ, to the promised land, salvation by Christ. But you think about all the miracles
and then over the 1500 year period, all the things that they saw.
And what he's saying here is this, that had a glory, The Apostle
Paul explains this in 2 Corinthians 3. That was impressive. But it's
not as glorious or as impressive as what a true sinner saved by
grace, a true believer has in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not even compared. In fact, what the book of Hebrews
does is give us a contrast between the lesser glory of the Old Covenant
and what they went through and the greater glory of Jesus Christ. He says that miracles, the gifts,
all of that, he says in verse five, look here at Hebrews 2,
five. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the
world to come whereof we speak. Now what he's talking about there
is that Christ is so much better, so much greater than the angels. And one of the proofs of that
is that all things are put under the feet of Jesus Christ. All
things in creation have been put under him. Colossians chapter
one speaks of that. John chapter one. All things
in providence are put under him. Now, that's God's government
of this world. God's in control. And then especially
in this great salvation, all things have been put under Christ. It's all in Him. It's all under
Him. He has the preeminence. It's
all about Him. You see, that's one of the failings
of modern day false Christianity. It's kind of blended in with
the human false religions of the world. so that it's become
all about man, all about you, all about me, our felt needs,
how we can have our best life now, all of those things. It's
become no more than religious psychology and moral pep talks. Now, don't misunderstand me.
We need to be moral people. We need morality. But the gospel
and salvation is all about Christ, who He is, what He accomplished
in His death, why He did it, where He is now, and the fact
that He's coming back again to gather His people unto Himself
and to judge the world. That's what this is all about.
Who is Jesus Christ? What think ye of Christ? He's
God in human flesh. That's who He is. He's God-man. There are people who claim to
be Christian who deny either the humanity or the deity of
Christ. To deny either one is to deny
Him. What did He accomplish at Calvary? There are people today who claim
to be Christian who say, well, He made a stab at trying to save
everybody if they'll just let Him. That's not what the Bible
teaches. The Bible teaches that in his
death, as the surety and substitute of his people, that he redeemed
his people, bought them lock, stock, and barrel, and ensured
their salvation. They're known as God's chosen,
God's elect, his church. We're going to see later on in
Hebrews 2 about they're his brethren. For whom did Christ die? He died
for his brethren. He calls them his sheep in John
chapter 10. Somebody says, well, what if
I'm not one of those? That's not your business. And
you're not even to think that way. What are you to do? What am I to do? We're to give
heed. We're to listen. We're to seek
the Lord. Seek him in his word. Seek him
as sinners seeking mercy. I need mercy. I need grace. It's
not God, give me what I've earned or what I deserve. It's God,
give me Christ. Give me salvation from my sins. Give me a righteousness that
I have no part in producing because I can't do it. There's none righteous,
no, not one. What did Christ accomplish when
he died? He secured the salvation of all
for whom he died. Now, did he die for me? Well,
if he did, I'll seek him and I'll find him and I'll believe
in him by his power. He established a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. God is just
to justify a sinful wretch like me, based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, freely imputed, charged to my account. And by God-given faith, I've
received Him and submitted to Him and believe in Him. Where
is He now? Well, he's not in a tomb somewhere
and finding his tomb will do nobody any good. Somebody said,
well, we think we found the tomb where Jesus lay. And I'm going
to tell you something, big deal. That may sound sacrilegious to
you, but we don't serve a dead Savior. We who are saved serve
a risen Savior. He rose the third day. which means he did the work,
he completed it, and he established righteousness, and he ascended
unto the Father. He's seated right now at the
right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for
his people. And that's one of the reasons,
one of the many reasons we cannot be lost if we're truly saved,
because Christ intercedes for us. He's our advocate if we believe
in him. Why did he do all that? Well,
he just felt sorry for it. No, he did it for the glory of
his father. He said in John 17.1, he said,
he's talking about the glory of his father, which he had with
the father before the world began. And then later on in that chapter,
he says, I've glorified thee. I finished the work which you
gave me to do. And he's coming again to judge
this world, to gather his people unto himself. Now, that's the
fact of the glory of Christ. But he says there in verse 5,
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to
come, wherever we speak. Verse 6, and here he quotes from
Psalm 8. He says, 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? Consider man. who we are by nature. We fell
in Adam, we're born dead in trespasses and sins, and we live our lives
in rebellion against God until God the Holy Spirit brings us
under the gospel and gives us life, raises us from the dead,
the new birth, you must be born again. Now you may say, well,
I didn't live my life in rebellion against God. My friend, as long
as you were in unbelief of Christ and the gospel as it's presented
in this book, that's rebellion. What is man that God would even
take notice? Why hasn't God snuffed us out
of existence because of our sin and rebellion? And what is man
that the Son of Man that thou visitest him?" God sent His Son
into the world to save His people. Now that's an awesome subject
to think about, isn't it? Well, all things under Christ. I 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 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. 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.