To turn back in your Bibles to
Hebrews chapter 2, if you will, Hebrews chapter 2. As Angelo
was encouraging you to respond to this diabolical policy and
legislation that has been secretly, surreptitiously imposed upon
the citizens of California by a legislature in Sacramento who
absolutely has lost its mind They believe that all of us are
asleep all the time. I believe that most of us are
asleep all the time, but not all of us are asleep all the
time. And I also believe that you can wake up sometimes. I
think that we can have a practice in life that basically finds
itself adrift, as I'm going to talk about today, where things
matter. And because we practice a kind
of lifestyle that basically does not engage itself in the real
issues of life. Things can come and go, come
and go. And we have never ever made a
contribution to the character and nature of our own society
and our own world because we often are adrift. I believe that
concerning not only the secular world, but the Christian world
as well. There are times, however, when
we must become visibly and tangibly salt and light. Salt and light. And I am not advocating a lifestyle
of overindulgence in politics. But when the nation begins to
tamper with the life of the baby and the children, they are now
showing their horns for what they really are. a demonic institution
that wants full control over all of society. And when you
and I, our parents, our aunties and uncles and grandparents,
over the children, which is our stewardship, and we would sit
by and let the legislation pass and send our children to schools,
that would exercise the right to have boys and girls in the
same bathroom and in the same shower. How can we live with
ourselves when they come home abused? So this is a non-negotiable
for us. This is high on the price. This
is like voting for your president right now. In fact, higher. Because
we know he's just a puppet. But we've got to do what we can
do so that when your grandchildren grow up and say, mama, daddy,
grandma, grandpa, where were you at in this free country where
you can vote things in and out? They turn this world upside down
into Sodom and Gomorrah, a Babylonian system. Where were you at? We
were right there. We were responding, telling the
world, like our elders said, this book is always right. And
this is the book we're going to follow. So I'm not only encouraging
you to fill it out. We should have had way more.
But you can go to the website where these things are dealt.
The title of my message today is the son, our brother and his
children. And we are coming out of Hebrews
two as we are making our way through the book of Hebrews and
allowing the spirit of God to nurture our heart with its relevant
truths. Now, Hebrews chapter one for
us last week was a new Genesis account, if you will. to sort
of put a concept on the book of Hebrews, we are dealing with
a new Genesis account, beginning with the Son, as we saw last
week, the Son of God, the heir of the world. We are dealing
with, in the opening of the book of Hebrews, the Son as the glory
of God. You guys remember that? The Son
as the glory of God, not the abstract light that Genesis chapter
1 verse 3 declared when God said, let there be light. We're talking
about the real Son of God. The actual one who is in the
presence of God, the center and source of all that exists and
all that is forthcoming in the book of Hebrews of the life of
the people of God. Hebrews chapter one opens up,
giving us the central figure and person and object of our
gaze and our focus. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that the book of Hebrews is kind of a new Genesis. It
takes us from the Old Testament to the new. If you know anything
about the Old Testament, the Old Testament gave us a creation
narrative, a real creation narrative, not a fictitious one, a real
creation narrative. God created the heavens and the
earth in literally six days. You guys believe that, right?
Because if you don't believe that, you're done already. I
have to change my message right now. If you don't believe God
created the heavens and the earth literally in six days, you don't
have the right God. You understand what I'm getting
at? Because now you are allowing your reason, your thinking, your
logic to impede the clear testimony of Scripture. But now, if you
believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six
days, then you can enjoy everything else in the Bible. I've told
you before, if you can't get past Genesis 1-1, you're in trouble.
If you can get past Genesis 1-1, everything else in the Bible
is what? Believable. And God means for it to be that
way. And so the book of Hebrews opens up, God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spoke to our fathers through the prophets,
but in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son. Immediately featured in the opening
verses is the Son of God. He is the light of the world.
He is the revelation of the invisible God. He is the Word made flesh
dwelling among us. We are forced then to pay attention
to the Son of God. This is what the whole of the
book of Hebrews will be all about. It will be all about you and
I learning that Jesus Christ is the essence of all of God's
unfolding revelation. And this will be true here in
our chapter as well. And so we open up with point
number one. He is the Son, He is the heir, and He is the highest
authority. We closed out on that concept
last week, but the writer to the Hebrews in verse 3 says,
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." He says, how shall we escape? How shall
we escape if in fact we neglect so great a salvation which was
at the, mark the term, the first. See, in the mind of the Hebrew
writer, the coming of Jesus Christ initiated a brand new beginning. And that brand new beginning
becomes the mark of our contemplation. It begins for us to be the place
where we understand what God is doing in the fuller scope
of His redemptive purpose. And we are told that we will
not be able to escape if we neglect so great a salvation. which has
been first and foremost spoken to us by the Lord and then confirmed
unto us by them that heard him. What is he doing? He's once again
calling the people of God to remember, since you have begun
to hear from God through his son, you have heard from the
highest authority in the universe. Since Jesus has plainly manifested
himself to us through the word of God and by his incarnation
and by his ministry and miracles and by his atoning work and by
his death, burial and resurrection and by his ascension to glory,
you and I are culpable for having heard from the highest authority
in the universe. There's no more culpability than
for those who have heard the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the old Puritans would say,
it's one thing to sin against the law of God as it was given
to us by Moses. It's another thing to sin against
the gospel. It's one thing for a man or a
woman to miss the point of the law. It's a whole nother thing
for us to miss the point of the grace of God. It's one thing
for us to be trapped by a legal system set up under the old structure
which has its aim at bringing us somewhere, but it's another
thing altogether for you and I to live, get old, and die. having failed to understand the
air of the world because he has spoken very plainly to us about
the Father's will, has he not? And so the urgency of the Hebrew
writer, the urgency of the writer is speaking to us as the new
Hebrews. I told you we're the Hebrews,
right? We're the Hebrew people today. We are the people of faith. We are the people of the Word.
We are the people on the journey. We are the pilgrims. We are the
strangers in this world. We are God's covenant people.
I'm talking about all believers everywhere around the world,
Jew and Gentile. We are the people of God and we are in the precise
same place today that Israel was under the old covenant. Only
in a more better situation, And yet at the same time, a more
serious situation as well, because we are listening to the air,
listening to the air. And the exhortation of the writer
to the Hebrew is that we must indeed regard him who is the
air, the highest authority, the ruler of the universe. And here's
what he says in verses one and two. Therefore, Now, you know
that little clause there always ties what's about to be said
to what was already said, right? If you ever hear someone start
a sentence with therefore, you better stop and back up because
he has engaged you in a topic and subject that is essential
to what he's about to say now. So chapter one, which we dealt
with last week, is now being built upon by chapter two. And
he said, therefore, 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. Do you see that? The thing I
want to call your attention to then under this first point is
the writer is telling the church, he's telling the people of God,
because you are hearing from the highest authority in the
universe, the son of the living God, you must take earnest heed. You must listen earnestly to
him. And I wanna talk about that a
little bit, it's very important. Our Lord Jesus said it in Luke
chapter eight, verse 18, take heed how you hear. You know,
some of us don't listen carefully. Have you discovered that about
yourself that there are times in your life where you just don't
listen carefully? And we suffer the consequences
of it, don't we? But the word of God is very clear,
isn't it? It tells us that we must pay
attention. The Word of God never makes room
for you and I to take it lightly. The Word of God, because of its
exceeding and great and precious promises, would encourage every
one of us to regard the Scriptures, the testimony of God, as the
most important and essential document of your life. What is
it that's in your life that you love? What is it that's in your
life that you pay careful attention to? What are those things with
which you are engaged in that you fastidiously, with great
detail, observe and maintain? What is it that you do of which
you consider so important that it basically identifies you for
who you are, for which you give a lot of energy to it? You pay attention to it. You
engage in it. You learn that subject. You may
even become a master of that particular thing. Like people
who aspire to education, reach the highest levels of education,
and get their PhDs and what have you, and then several of them,
they give earnest heed to that subject, don't they? Well, God
is saying to the believer, you must give the most earnest heed
to my word. Now, here's the reason for it.
I'm going to help you. God does not tell you and me to listen
without good reason. So never let your mind ever think,
it's all right, I don't have to listen to God on this one.
On this particular subject, I don't have to pay attention to God.
Somehow over the overall objective of God in my life, he's gonna
make sure I'm all right. Do you understand when you start
thinking like that, you are already in rebellion against God? It's
all right. I don't have to be specific about
this detail or that detail. I don't have to pay attention
to God's word. But here's the problem. God already
knows that there's several, several natural impediments with which
the believer has to deal with all the time. There are impediments
that make it very difficult for us to give full heed to God,
even if we wanted to. And I want to deal with a couple
of them now. It's under the very term with which our writer has
said, take the most earnest heed, give great diligence to regard
what God says, the last clause of verse one, lest at any time
we should let them what? Slip. Slip. Has something ever slipped away
from you? Has something ever gotten away
from you inadvertently? Have you ever looked up one day
and thought the very thing that you possessed or had or retained
was out of your reach? Have you ever experienced the
painful recognition that what you thought you possessed in
fact had actually distanced itself from you so far that you woke
up to realize you no longer had control over that thing? The
Hebrew writer uses the word slip But really the word can be translated
to drift. To drift. So I'm going to play
with the language a little bit and give you a little color so
that you can understand the problem here. Here's the problem. On
the side of the subject, and the subject is you and me, we
are called upon to never let God's word slip or drift. Our
problem is that our minds and our hearts are like wicker baskets. This is one of the most practical
analogies i've used it many times for those of you who are old-time
saints here But you know a wicker basket can be woven so tight
That you actually can pour liquid into it and retain that liquid
for a while And then that liquid begins to ooze through the crags
and begin to drip out Well, that's your mind and mine That's your
affection in mind. That's your thinking in mind. You and I never retain anything
at once. In other words, the only way
you and I can retain anything in our mind and in our heart
is by repetition. Repetition. repeatedly engaging
in pouring into the mind that very resource or commodity so
that that thing stays full. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So if the Word of God is going to be wherewithal fitted in your
lips, if the Word of God is going to be in your heart dwelling
richly, if the Word of God is going to be in your mind and
your thoughts so as to have the desired effect, you have to engage
yourself in the repeated, repeated, over and over and over again
process of diligently pouring into your mind the Word of God. Because should you fall prey
to the practice of indolence and carelessness, it will begin
to dissipate, drip out, drain out, and you'll look up one day
and you will have forgotten so many of the instructions of Scripture,
you will think you are lost. See, the Hebrew writer is saying
you're human, See, this is the last verse of chapter two, where
he gets into the benefit of a priest for people who are tempted. And
the temptation is, is that you are a sinner by nature, and that
you are fallen by nature, and that the mind just doesn't retain
things. And listen, for those of you,
I know I talk about this a lot, but for those of us who have
crossed over the threshold into a whole nother dimension, what
we have to learn how to do is retain the most important things.
Because a whole bunch of stuff that we used to retain, it's
not working anymore. So we are shrinking the wicker
basket down to a manageable size so we can retain the most important
things. Am I making some sense? In regards
to the Word of God, ladies and gentlemen, the vast majority
of people who will end up in hell, having heard the Word of
God, will be the people who thought that they could play games with
the Scriptures. Not recognizing that it is endemic to your human
nature to not retain the Bible. It's endemic to you. You don't
naturally retain biblical truth. If the principle of repetition
is not exercised consistently with a high level of attentiveness
to it, you will forget Genesis 1-1, John 3-16, Psalm 23, Jesus
wept. You'll forget it. You'll forget
it. You'll forget it. And in the
day of trouble, you will smart for it. So the Hebrew writer
is saying, listen, ladies and gentlemen, I want to encourage
you on two levels. One, the highest authority has
spoken to you. You will not hear from anyone higher than the son
of God. Secondly, he has spoken so clearly
and explicitly to you for your salvation that the one thing
you must give yourself over to is listening to him with the
greatest of diligence. This is why smart Christians,
I have observed them for 37 years now, smart Christians maintain
a habit of being under the hearing of the word. Smart Christians
maintain a consistent pattern of staying under sound doctrine.
Smart Christians always stay in the community of believers
who are serious about the teaching of the Word of God. Because we
understand that we cannot be built up in the faith by a hodgepodge
behavior pattern of sometimes here and sometimes there. See,
you not only have your own weak human nature that is inclined
to drift, Inclined to drift it not what the hymn writer said
prone to wonder Lord. I feel it Prone to wonder from
the God I love Have you figured that out? I'm prone to wonder
you're prone to wonder This is just between you and me Aren't
there some days you didn't even call on Jesus name and a whole
24-hour period You have maybe not even done it in a couple
days. You rose up, you went to bed. You rose up, you went to
bed. You rose up, you went to bed. You didn't even say thank
you for watching over me for that day. Lord, watch over me
as I go to sleep. Lord, I'm getting up now. I'm
going about my day. Watch over me. You didn't do it. You didn't
do it. You presumed upon God. I'm talking
about the ever-present, omnipotent, immutable, unchangeable God.
You didn't even call on him who is the great I am. let alone
pick his book up to read it. See what I'm saying? You see
how the Hebrew writer is saying, please listen to me. You and
I can allow just by the disposition of our fallen nature to allow
the word to drift. Now the word in the Greek is
to flow out. Let me see if I can help you.
Remember when Jesus was standing up on that great day of the Feast
of Tabernacles in John chapter 7 verse 37, And he cried out,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. For as the
scripture said, out of his belly, out of his belly, out of the
innermost part of his being shall what? Flow. That's the word. Flow, flow, flow, flow, flow,
flow. And this is how you can know
Christians who are drifting from the Christians who are consistent
because the Christians who are consistent has the word of God
in their soul and it flows out of their mouth easily. They can
speak to the issue. They can speak to the situation.
They can address it biblically. They can address it in the wisdom
of the Word of God because it's flowing out of the mouth. The
problem is the other group of Christians who are in trouble,
they let the Word flow out. Got it? It flowed out and never
returned. They never filled it up. That's
what the Hebrew writer is saying. The Hebrew writer is saying,
don't let it flow out. Don't let it flow out. Don't
let it flow out and not replace it. Don't let it flow out and
not replace it and it's the idea again of a river of a river When
you stand on the shore of a river the river is flowing right that
river is flowing Now if you have an object in front of you that
is precious to you and somehow it gets away from you And falls
into the water before long it will what drift Isn't that true? drift drift So for many people
the word of god drifts They look up and the word of God is far
off from them. Are you hearing me? Drifts. The
other way the Hebrew writer is saying it is this. Because of
the nature of the world that you and I live in, we live in
a world that doesn't leave us alone. The world's always nagging
you. It's always tugging at you. It's
always tempting you. That's the last verse. We're
tempted all the time. We're beset on every hand. We're
being called upon by the world. Hey, you need to join us. It
wants us to pay attention to it. Here then is the other colorful
analogy. It's not so much as the word
drifts because the word is forever settled in heaven. But we drift. We imperceptibly step off of
the foundation of biblical truth and get on some stupid log called
the world system and start drifting away from the word of God. We're
drifting, drifting, drifting on some dumb, carnal, secular
agenda. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And you wake up and thinking that that agenda was so important
to you, so important to God, and it meant nothing. It was
only another diabolical temptation on the part of the devil to get
you away from the Word of God. That's what it's saying. That's
all they're saying y'all got that so we got two problems.
We got a human nature that does not have the capacity to retain
it Thus I must exercise the principle if you don't use it you're gonna
what? So I have to repetitive repetitively engage in studying
the word hearing the word hearing the word Having it expounded
and talk stretch my mind get a hold of my heart. I need the
kind of preaching that will grip my soul Get a hold of my soul. Don't let me go. Don't speak
smooth things to me. Tell me the truth. Get a hold
of me. Root and ground me in your word.
Get my attention. Tell me, all right, you're slipping
up, Jesse. Stop right now. You're playing
the hypocrite. You're getting in trouble. I
haven't heard from you in a minute. Your knees are too dry. Your
eyes are too dry. When last time seen that's what
the Spirit of God has to do for us get a hold of us Because we
will drift and it will flow out of us It will flow out. That's what the Hebrew writer
said So you got brothers and sisters this the Christian church
is messed up today very much because of this one issue They
are messed up today because they are inclined the world is inclined
the churches are inclined Not to earnestly hear regard and
thus retain the message of the gospel as its chief pleasure
in life. I'll ask you the question, how
frequently do you meet real, deeply committed, authentically
grounded, Bible-based Christians who can really, really show you
that they spend time with God and his word? How frequently
do you meet them? I would wager to bet that the average kind
of Christian you meet is the simple nominal Christian that
goes to church that is really still drifting right along with
the rest of the world. See, that's our present culture,
and that's why the Hebrew writer is saying it. See, we are just
like the Old Testament church. We are privileged with a legacy
of rich biblical history. I'm talking about America. and
we are privileged with doctrines, and we are privileged with a
history of deeds, and yet we are quickly, as a nation, becoming
a wholesale pagan society, accommodating churches, churches which accommodate
this pagan society, just as Israel did. It's not America just like
Israel right now. And I can tell you something,
the four parents, our mothers and our fathers, the pastors
and the ministers, just 100 years ago, would have never believed
that our nation and this church, these churches, would be in the
condition we are in today. The people of God a hundred years
ago would not be able to recognize Christianity as it's being demonstrated
by most present Christians today. See, most Christians today are
really not about our Father's business. I'm just telling you,
as saints of God, this is a burden on my heart. I'm so concerned
about our nation. I'm so concerned about our churches,
and more particularly, Christians, because we are wasting our time. And see, Washington is a trip
to me, and Sacramento is worse. How do you let 20 politicians
sit up in the middle of the night and draw up the most heinous
policies that they did, and they actually expect to win. They
already passed it in Sacramento, and they expect Americans, citizens
of California, to be so indifferent, so cold, and so callous. Listen,
they expect church folks to keep doing what they do. and not take
10 minutes to say, I don't agree. It is my right as an American
citizen to let you know. Like I said on my Monday program,
please tell me who these wicked politicians were. Give me their
names. I want to know who it was that
set my grandchildren up to be abused. I want to know who it
was who thought they were representing me. Because all your politicians
are are your representatives. What fool in Sacramento thought
that I agreed with him? Are you hearing me? See, and
yet they're expecting the church to keep being distracted and
deceived by the cares of this life. We'll keep doing all of
our carnal worldly things. The policy will pass. January
1st will come and our Children will be going from K. K. I'm
talking about Kenny Gardner's. the same bathroom with other
kids and because there's no regulation on ages are you hearing me K
through 6 6 through 8 9 through 12 do you understand what's gonna
happen and so I'm saying that the Church of the Living God
is already adrift in many ways let alone on a political issue
but the Hebrew writer is saying to you When he's saying to me
that we need to understand that our capacity to disengage the
scriptures will lead to our own demise. It will lead to our own
problems. And he says that in verse two,
with a great warning, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast,
you see the word steadfast. Can I tell you what that means?
When the Lord spoke by the angels to the children of Israel and
they disobeyed, disobeyed, guess what they did? they suffered
when the word of the lord came to the children of israel in
the old testament and they disobeyed the voice of the angel i'll talk
about that in a moment guess what happened judgment came on
them when they rebelled against law god's law god speedily punished
israel that's why the last verse says every sin shall receive
a just recompense a reward go back through your old testament
god didn't play He opened up the ground and swallowed up some,
fire came down, consumed other people, plagues destroyed people. He sent out judicial judgments
to have multitudes slain by the sword. And that was the voice
of the angel. How much more so if we neglect
the God who spoke from heaven? Are you hearing me? Are you guys
hearing me? And so the Hebrew writer is telling
us, please, please understand the privilege that you have.
In a sense, we live in a better time than most nations and most
people around the world at any time in human history. I know
we're consuming our time with all kinds of frivolous activity,
for which you will have to answer for that. But you have Bibles.
You have literature. You have commentaries. You have
a plethora of resources to edify your soul. You and I can multitask
and still grow in grace. Am I making some sense? But now
watch this, watch this. If I'm going to multitask and
still grow in grace, my chief priority must be the constant
transformation of my mind and renewing of my mind through the
Word of God, so that my affections and so that my desires and so
that my propensities can be in accord with God's will, so that
I might discover myself doing God's will. And I know I will
not be doing God's will if my mind is filled with the vanity
of this life. Am I making some sense? So I
must have the Word of God engaging me constantly so that I can ask
the question, Lord, does this honor you? Does this thing I'm
doing honor you? Does it honor you for me to make
this choice and this decision in my life? Lord, does it honor
you for me to go about this task, take this job, engage in this
educational pursuit? Am I making some sense? See,
real, honest, earnest, listening believers, they listen to God. And Proverbs chapter 3, 5 comes
into view. You know what that is. We talk
it all the time, but it doesn't translate into our life. And
so the Hebrew writer is telling us, he's telling us saints, listen,
he's telling us, you and I are in a better situation because
we have the Lord of glory by his spirit speaking to us. And
the goal of the Hebrew writer is to get us down the road, to
understand that we are operating out of better things than the
Old Testament saints. Better things. How many of you
know that Christ is better? How many of you know that Jesus
Christ is better than life? He's better than life. And see
what the Hebrew writer is about to set them up to understand
is Jesus, Jesus, listen, Jesus is better than the prophets.
Y'all listen to the prophets, but Jesus is better than the
prophets. He's about to tell the Hebrew people, listen, y'all
got all caught up in the angel, because they talked about angels,
angels, angels, angels mediating the law, angels, as it were,
intervening for the people of God, angels, angels, angels,
as if they were the highest messengers. You know what the Hebrew writer
says? Jesus is better than the angels. Is Jesus better than
the angels? If you had the choice of seeing
Jesus or the angel, which one would you want to see? Jesus
is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Moses. You
know, I don't mind meeting Moses when I get the glory, but if
I don't have to that's cool. I Want to see Jesus? Listen,
Jesus is better than Moses. He's better than Aaron. He's
better than the priesthood He's better than the law. Am I do
y'all understand what I mean by better? I mean better like
French toast is better than tofu Did you get that? Like red beans
and rice is better than salad, green salad? Am I making a little
bit of sense? Like 3,000 count sheets that
are made of satin is better than 200 count sheets that's made
of polyester and cotton? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
See, Jesus is a lot better than all that. It's like grace is
better than law and faith is better than works. And the spirit
of the living God is better than the labors of my own hands? And
the blood of Christ speaks better things than that of Abel? I'm
talking better. Better. Better. Better. He is so much better that if
I die, it's better to be with Him. It's better to be... Have you found Christ to be better
yet? See, because when Christ is better,
you can let a bunch of stuff go. You look at it and you go,
here's what you go, Christ is better. You single sisters, Christ
is better. You single brothers, Christ is
better. You young people, Christ is better. He's better. He's better. And that's what the Hebrew writer
said. And see, the goal is to get us from those things that
were good to that which is better. We're on a journey from the old
to the new. You're going to see that he's
moving us away from those things that were good to that which
is better. A believer has discovered the better. And we're headed
towards that. Why on earth would you let this
world system trap you and cause you to fall short of the better? Why would you do that? That's
what the Hebrew writer is saying. So we move then on to our next
point. It's critical we move on to our
next point. From Adam to Jesus. The Hebrew writer has already
developed the argument that Jesus is greater than the angels. And
then he says in verses 5 through 9, For unto the angels hath he
not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak? What
is he saying? He's saying there's a world that
you and I have already begun to taste. You and I are actually
part of the kingdom of God if you're born again. Isn't that
true? You watch these movies where they talk about parallel
worlds. You guys hear the theory of parallel worlds? And you see
folks coming out of that dimension coming into this dimension? That's
biblical. Did you understand that? That's biblical. There's
a world that coexists with our present physical world that we
don't see. It's the realm where God is.
I am a partaker of that world. When we get to Hebrews 6, you'll
find that out. If God wanted to, he could pull back the veil
and show us stuff that's going on right now. That underscores
that dimension, the dimension where God is, His faithful angels
are. Then there's another dimension,
it's called the dark dimension of demonism. That's where they
get a hold to our politicians and our rulers and our wicked
preachers and corrupt their minds and inseminate culture with heresy
and error. Are you hearing me? That's a
motive. What the Hebrew writer is saying is this physical world,
when God created it physically, He gave the angels charge. to restrain and govern and protect
the outworking of human events for God's glory and the good
of his elect. How do we know this? Because
whenever the saints were in trouble in the Old Testament, the angel
of the Lord showed up to help them out all the way through. How do we know that he put this
world into subjection of the angels? Because when Jesus was
born, the angels worshiped him. And when Jesus entered into his
baptism and came out and entered into the wilderness, the angels
sustained him. And when Jesus was in his passion,
in his passion, the angels sustained him. Why? Because he had assumed
a human nature, became a man, and the angels are made to serve
us. But that other dimension, Jesus
owns that dimension. The dimension that you and I
are in called the world to come. He owns that. Am I making some
sense to y'all? Are y'all getting that now? See, so the angels
are here to serve you and me. They're here to advance us in
our airship. They are ministers to those who
are heirs of salvation. They can't but help me get to
where I'm going. That's their charge. That's their
duty. That's their job. That's why I'm still here preaching
today. That's why you're still listening today. The multitude
and myriad of angels that God used to watch over you. You thought
your life was going about in a normal empirical way because
you did not see the hand of the Lord using instrumentally the
angels to keep you, watch over you, you and your children. If
you can say today, since you've awakened and are here, that the
Lord has watched over me, kept me over the course of this week.
No major tragedies have occurred in my family, with my children
or my kids. Do you know why? Because God
gave his angels charge over you. That's their job, sweetheart.
That's their job. To watch over theirs. We've got
an inheritance to enter into. and we're on our journey. That's
good, isn't it? You know when you're riding down
that street and you're asleep and you start drifting off and
then God wakes you up and you realize you thought you was the
one waking up, but God woke you up. Are you hearing? Or that knucklehead swerved over
to hit you and didn't swerve back? The angel kicked him out
of the way. You just didn't see it. You just
didn't see it. Now, stay with me for a moment.
I believe those things with all my heart. I believe those things
with all my heart. With all my heart, I believe
those things. Because my great prototype, Jesus
Christ, who was every wit, a man just like I am, had to be helped
by the angels to make sure he reached his destiny. Am I making
some sense? It's critically important. Critically
important then. The Hebrew writer's not playing
around. We are to understand then what he means when he says
in verse 6, but one in a certain place testifies saying, what
is man that you are mindful of him? Let me talk to you about
this for a minute. What is man that you are mindful
of? Are the son of man that you would visit him? Obviously, he's
quoting Psalms 8, right? Don't we love Psalm 8? You made
man a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and
honor. and you set them over the works of your hand. Now,
children of God, I know you don't think that way about yourself.
But if you were to drink deeply of biblical theology, as we have
been learning, God created us to be vicars in this world of
His glory. He created us in His image and
in His likeness. He gave mankind to have dominion
over everything. That's you and me. as poverty
stricken in mind and heart as you and I are, we are still so
highly dignified for having been created in the image of God that
we rule, even though we don't rule well, we still rule. You
get to vicariously enjoy all of the ruling evidence of our
eclectic efforts as human beings. I have said it to you long ago,
Lucy, Lucy will never create a computer. Lucy the the monkey
will never ever produce a computer just to help you out See you
are not an animal. You're not a monkey you are the
offspring an image and vicar of God and Because he has given
you the capacity of high levels of intelligence We run this universe
See, I could drift off into some of the technological things we
are doing today. But as I talked to my sister,
Dolly, this morning, I said mankind, every time he advances in technology,
only affirms the infinite wisdom and power of God. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? He only affirms it. We know the
word of the Lord is right. And I'm simply saying, listen
to me, I'm simply saying when the hymn writer said, what is
man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that you
should visit him, you and I ought to be thankful that we are a
part of that lot because our deficits are soon to be fixed. You know you got deficits, right?
I just want to make sure that a few of us understand my computer
is not working like it's supposed to. It's got some viruses in
it. So it runs a little bit slow
My ram goes off and on and my hard drive is a little jacked
up, but that's gonna be fixed one day You do understand that
right? It's very important for you to
understand then your dignity and calling and he says over
in verse 7 the latter part you made him a little lower than
the angels you crowned him with glory and honor and you set him over
the works of your hands and You have put all things in subjection
under his feet, for in that he has put all things in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. Do you
see that the Hebrew writer to the Hebrews has very clearly
seen that man has exercised dominion over this world? You know, when
you want to fly from here to India, or Africa, or Malaysia,
or the Philippines, or anywhere in the world, you never ever
once, never ever once think that a dog is going to fly that plane.
You never ever contemplate the idea, wonder if a kangaroo or
chimpanzee is going to be the pilot and co-pilot. You never
think it once. It doesn't even enter into your mind. You always
think of a fellow man taking you from hither to thither, don't
you? Because he has given us dominion. He has given us dominion. Isn't that good? Isn't that good?
He has given us dominion. But we don't see everything under
man, do we? Man's still got issues. The hymn
writer says, the Hebrew writer says, but we see Jesus. But we see Jesus. And this is
our second point critical to it. From Adam to Jesus, whom
we see. From Adam to Jesus. Now, everybody
can't say they see Jesus. The vast majority of the world
is stuck on Adam. Adam what? the first Adam and
their identification with him. The vast majority of the world
is really trying to uphold the first flawed Adam, trying to
recover from his bad choices, trying to overcome what he has
foisted on us and its ramifications. Most people don't see that the
first man really only pointed to the last man. But every believing
Christian sees past Adam one to the proto-Adam. Do you know
who we're talking about? We are talking about Jesus Christ.
He is the quintessential man. In fact, he is the proto-man
of which Adam was only a figure. When God created the first man
Adam, he created the first man Adam out of the blueprint of
his own darling son. Jesus was before Adam, even though
he comes after Adam. And Adam only served as a model
of Jesus. Jesus is the reality of the man
that God always intended us to be. When God said in Genesis
chapter 1 verse 26, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.
Let us give them dominion over all things. He was talking about
his son. Jesus Christ is the image of
the invisible God. He is the icon of the glorious
God. And you and I were made to be
in the image of God only in Christ. Only in Christ. And when the
gospel comes to you in saving grace, you know what it does?
It shifts you from the worldly man to the heavenly man. It takes
your mind off of confidence in Adam one and sets you on confidence
in the last Adam. And we see Jesus Do you know
how I said last week to you as we go through the book of Hebrews?
I got to wrap this up as we go through the book of Hebrews.
We're gonna see 13 times in 13 chapters how God talks about the Son of
God. Remember I told you that? 13 times in 13 chapters, God
talks about the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the
Son of God, because the Son of God is the heir of the world.
He upholds all things by the word of his power. Isn't that
what chapter 1 verse 3 says? Now that doesn't mean he's atlas.
No, sorry, he ain't Atlas. The word means to carry along
this universe. It's a transient verb that means
the world is moving according to the will of God, according
to the rule of Christ, and it's going exactly where Jesus Christ
wants it. This is why we have the book
of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ tells us he sits
on the throne, opening up the seven seals, running this universe,
bringing it to its ultimate destiny. Who's doing that? Jesus! Now
watch this. That very same Son of God who
is seen 13 times in the scripture, the Hebrew writer, curiously
also 13 times in the book of Hebrews, uses the name Jesus. 13 times the Son of God, 13 times
the name Jesus. Do you think his emphasis is
that we must pay attention to Jesus? See, really, that's the
key. Religion gets off track because
it ceases to peer into Fixate itself and lock its gaze on the
Son of God now watch this now He says we see not all things
put under him, but we see Jesus The word see there is a word
that does not mean a scant look See a scant look means that you
don't regard that thing much You're arguing passed by something
that you have no interest in you look at and keep going No
such thing could ever be the case in the beating heart of
a born-again believer with Jesus When God makes you born again
Jesus Christ Becomes so glorious to you that He becomes the whole
of your feces. All your life long you are fixed
on Christ. All your life long you are studying
Him. You are learning about Him. You
are gazing upon Him. You are understanding Him more
and more and more. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen.
This is the issue. How deeply affected are you by
the revelation of Jesus? How glorious is His appearing
to you? How wonderful is this person
to you? We come to church and we sing
hymns and songs every week. It's all about Jesus, isn't it?
It's all about Jesus, all about Jesus. What happens when we leave? See what I'm getting at? See,
the Hebrew writer says the world is going through trouble and
it's going through trouble because of the first Adam. No fear. We
see Jesus. See, the true believer is fixed
on Christ. He's fixed on Christ, because
Christ has done something for us that Adam could never have
done. Let me consider that with you
for a few moments before I close. Listen to what the Hebrew writer
says. We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels. Do you
see that? Made a little lower than the
angels. What do you mean by that, Pastor? It doesn't mean that Christ was
made materially lower than the angels. It's not possible for
the Son of God to have morphed Ontologically are in the essence
of his being to be lower than the angels as God Possessing
the divine nature with his father and the Spirit Christ is immutable
He is unchangeable. He is eternal. He will always
maintain, possess, and as it were, operate out of the fullness
of His divinity. There's no way you can morph
God. So when it says He was made a
little Lord than the angels, it simply means this. There was
a season. The word a little Lord is actually
a chronological term. It has nothing to do with creation. He was for a little season, for
a small while, 33 years for a small while he was made to operate
in a state of humility. He went from the Son of God with
the Father and the Holy Ghost from all eternity to assuming
a human nature. That was his grand condescension. That was his humility. That was
that small window of human time where God assumed a human nature.
And for a season, guess what? The God who created this universe
subjected himself to angels. See what he did? He subjected
himself to angels. The creator of the angels subjected
himself to the angels. The creator of the angels allowed
the angels to protect him, guide him, guard him. Why? Because
he had become one like you and me. He had assumed our nature. But we see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels. Why would God's Son assume our
nature? Because he loves to dwell with
us Remember what we learned in Proverbs chapter 8 last week
and my delight is with the sons of men. I want you to get that
See, this is why the gospel is like no other in the world. There's
no God like our God There's no message like our message What
God would create a universe and then create a vicar who would
act as much a fool as we did? and even before we acted a fool
already derived and drew up a plan to meet that fool's needs by
assuming that fool's nature and entering into that fool's world
and taking on that fool's lot and suffering that fool's trouble
and enduring that fool's wrath so that fool wouldn't have to
endure the wrath himself. It has to be a God who loves
to dwell with men. Hallelujah! It has to be a God
who loves to dwell with men I was daily my father's delight and
my delight was with the sons of men What is man that thou
art mindful of him? That you would be so mindful
of him that in your eternal wisdom you would choose To solve his
problem by entering into his plight in such a way as he did
This is what we call the glory of the gospel. The glory of the
gospel. How many of you would take a
fool's place to bear a fool's judgment in order for that fool
to be let go? I'm the fool that God let go
because his son loved me so. He's made a little lower than
the angels and here's his purpose as we move to our next point
He was made a little lower than the angels assuming our human
nature point three the son incarnate came to what he came to die You
preach a gospel that does not deal with the death of Christ.
You are not preaching the gospel If you if you preach a gospel
that does not deal with death. I Its origin, its consequences. You are not preaching the gospel.
If you preach a Jesus that does not have as its central purpose
for existence, to deal with your death and mine, you are not preaching
the gospel. Because the wages of sin is what? It doesn't matter
what this postmodern culture believes, the wages of sin is
death. And whether or not one wants
to believe it or not, sin is a problem. And death is a problem. And the judgment of God is a
problem. And hell is a problem. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Facing God on the last day without a substitute and assurity is
a problem. You got a problem and the job
of the church is let the world know. Hey, sir, ma'am, you've
got an issue. You've got a problem. You're
dying and you need to know why you're dying. You're dying because
you're a sinner and you need to know that you're a sinner
because you've broken God's law and you need to know that God
has given us a law because he's holy, holy evangelism right now. See evangelism because he's holy
and you've got to meet God. Only we see Jesus, don't we? And he is whom we recommend to
everyone. We recommend Christ. We recommend
Christ to sinners. We recommend the only one in
the universe who was willing to subject himself to his father's
wrath and endure his father's judgment and endure the death
that the text goes on to speak about. Look at it in verse 10.
For it became him. I'm sorry, verse nine. 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. See, he came to die. You got that? He didn't come
to be some glorified community organizer. I heard a Jewish cat
just write another book about Jesus. Extracting from all of
the testimonies his deity, his messiahship just made him a glorified
community organizer. In other words, Jesus is a social
worker. This is your social gospel that dominates most of your liberal
churches that really don't believe it. Are y'all hearing me? Most
of your liberal churches that laud Jesus, he's just a glorified
social worker. He's just here to gather everybody
all around so we can go kumbaya. Jesus didn't come to gather everybody
around to go kumbaya. He came to die. He came to die. See, death is our problem. He
came to die. And this is what he said in John
chapter 12, verses 27 through 30, when he said, my soul, my
soul is troubled unto this death. Nevertheless, father, for this
cause came I into the world. I came into the world to die.
Are you guys hearing me, ladies and gentlemen? I came into the
world to die. To die. To die. And the idea
of tasting death. No one tasted death like Jesus.
Do you remember when he hung on the cross? He said, I thirst.
And they gave him vinegar to drink. And he drank it. He drank of the death of God's
wrath. Are you guys feeling what I'm
saying? He drank of the wrath of God, the wrath of God, the
judgment of God. Christ drank that. He bore that
in his soul, in his soul. He came under the weight of eternal
punishment in his soul. What a God, what a Savior, what
a Mediator, what a Mediator. And it's interesting because
what the text does is it unfurls for us very simply these truths
with which we will close. He tasted death for every man.
Now we understand that his tasting death for every man does not
mean that every man will live. He tasted death as a representative
of the human race, but he tasted death specifically as a substitute
for his elect. Did y'all get that? He tasted
death as the representative of the Anthropos as man because
humanity would be redeemed. But he tasted death in the real
sense as a substitute for his elect. I want you to hear what
the text says as it explains it. It goes on to say in verse
10, for it became him that's got the father, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons
unto glory. Who are the sons unto glory?
Believers. Are you a believer? You are a
son of glory. And bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation. Who is the captain?
Christ. Perfect through suffering. God
the Father made him perfect through suffering that he might bring
us to glory. Every believer is a son. This is what makes the
gospel so wonderful. Everything that Christ is, I
am in Him. God has always viewed me as a son. So what's happening
to Jesus is what happened to me. I cannot believe it. It's
too wonderful to believe, and yet it's true. Isn't this amazing? Now watch the language. It bears
itself out. For both He that sanctifyeth,
that is Christ, and they who are sanctified, that's us. Are
you sanctified? Saints? all of one you know who
the one is the Father God the Father is the cause for our salvation
Christ is the means of our salvation and the Spirit is the one who
is bringing it to pass this is a work of the triune God it's
good isn't it listen to what he goes on to say saying listen
to this for he had sanctified for both he that sanctified and
they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause for which
cause He is not ashamed to call them brother. Are you ashamed
to call him savior? Are you ashamed to call him the
son of the living God? Are you ashamed to call him master
and Lord and king? Are you ashamed? He's not even
ashamed to call us brethren. This is how much he was pleased
to dwell with us. We're his brethren. Did you get that? The whole of
the weight of our eternal destiny lay on our elder brother. He took that thing on, didn't
he? What love, what love. Do you know what he said? Therefore,
my father loves me because I laid down my life for the sheep. I told you God's love is secondary
to us. It's through Christ to us. The
father loves the son. The son loves the father. And
because they love each other, they love us. This is a wonderful
gospel. It's a wonderful God. See, what
you don't know is the Hebrew writer is hedging us in. He's
bringing us in. He's tying us to our family.
Are you in the family? He's tying us to the family.
He's tying us to the family. Pastor, why is he tying us to
the family? Because you got issues. You got problems. You got troubles.
That's why he's tying us. He's making this all in the family.
You know how we get embarrassed about some family members? Stop
it. Stop it right now. You know,
I have some some family members. You don't even want a name Right,
you know, you got some really jacked up cousins and aunties
that's on the edge Listen the Son of God got brothers and sisters
in this world jacked up But see he's hedging us all in Hedging
us all in hedging us all in and he doesn't mind going through
the whole congregation said these are my brethren and These are
my brethren saying to the father. These are my brethren What wondrous
love is this? Oh my soul. Oh my soul What wondrous
love is this? Oh my soul and see he's not only
calling us brethren. It's just I got one more point
on it he's not only calling us brethren, but then he turns in
verse 13 and he says I Again, I will put my trust in him and
again behold I and the children Which God has given me Do you
see that? God views Christ views you and
me who believe the gospel as the children that the father
has given him See, this is the way he talked all through the
gospel Those whom you have given me I have kept Those whom you
have given me, I have manifested my name to them. Those whom you
have given me, I have showed them your glory. Those whom you
have given me, Father, keep them through thy own name. Those whom
you have given me, Father, I have given them the glory that you
gave me, I gave them. those that you have given me
father i want them to be one even as we are one i want them
to know the love that we have i want them to behold my glory
this is how unified christ is in his own mind concerning us
and the father see we are sons headed to glory sons headed to
glory do you guys see that sons headed to glory but jesus is
more than our Savior. He's more than the Son of God.
He's more than our brother. He's our high priest. You got
that? See, that's where we're getting
ready to go. You need a high priest. You need a mediator. We need someone to stand in the
gap for us in that ultimate dimension called heaven. Whoever lives
to make intercession for us. Pastor, I'll come. Because you
jacked up. You still jacked up. You still got issues. You still
got problems. And you need somebody that has
to end with the Father. Because sometimes you can't get
to the Father. I've already told you, you wake
up after weeks not even talking to God. Come on now, you know
you messed up. But the Son talks to the Father
24 hours a day. He mediates for His people 24
hours a day. He intercedes for us 24 hours
a day. He maintains communion for us
24 hours a day. And from His throne in glory,
He meets out the covenant blessings. That's what we're getting ready
to get into, the covenant blessings. You and I are heirs and joint
heirs with Christ. And the only reason you enjoy
Him right now is because He continues to meet out the covenant blessings.
One of those is the message you just heard this hour. Are you
hearing me? Are you hearing me? The veil
has been removed. You and I have been transported
to heaven. We've had another glimpse of
the glory of God. Our minds, I have been fixed
on Jesus. We've learned a little bit more
of our Savior. We have found out that we have
great and precious promises and that they can never be revoked.
They can never be removed because Christ ever lives to make intercession
for us. And I want to go deeper and deeper
and deeper into the covenant blessing. I want to find out
who I am in Christ. I want to enjoy my walk with
Christ. I want to be able to tell somebody
that we see Jesus. We see him. We behold him. Our eyes are fixed on him. For
us, it's nothing but Jesus on this side of glory. On this side
of glory, it's all about Jesus. That's my point of application.
That's my point of application. The job of the church is to sustain
an unending contemplation of Jesus Christ. Let Him be your
thought all the time. Everything that proceeds from
Him, that's ours. Let Jesus Christ be the foundation
and the goal of your contemplation. Let Him be the basis for your
choices and your decisions. Think about what you do. Think
about where you're going. Think about the opportunities
in an everyday scenario whereby you can say, how will this? Honored
the one who honored me enough To take my place and go back
to his throne and uphold this universe so that I might make
it to glory Am I making some sense ladies and gentlemen and
ask ask God to make you everything that Christ was for you first
a son of God secondly an evangelist Thirdly an apostle Do you understand
what I'm saying? May He make us children of God
with the longing to tell other people about Christ and to be
ready to prophetically tell this world, if you aren't willing
to hear Jesus, you've got to face the consequences. We are
not afraid to tell the world, Christ, Christ, Christ is the
only way, truth and life. No one will come to the Father
but by him. Now bring it on. Bring on the
consequences. Bring on the consequences. Because
we cannot lie. We see Jesus for all that he
is. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.