Hebrews 2:5-9

Bibles.

Open with me to Hebrews chapter 2,

and verse number 5.

You can look in your Bibles, or you can watch upon the screen.

We will have all the verses there as well.

And we come today to another text in

Hebrews that is

really going to demand your bullet

attention, every word.

You're going to have to concentrate today.

You're going to have to lock in, because

this is really some big picture

subject matter that we're

dealing with today, but if you do, and

you understand what I am delivering to you today.

You will be very blessed.

by what you hear.

Now, let me start by reminding you, that

the primary reality, that

the whole book of Hebrews is dedicated to,

is the absolute superiority

and preeminence

of Jesus over everything,

and everybody.

That's every molecule own up.

You have to keep that in focus.

All the way through our study of

Hebrews, or you're

going to lose the right perspective about this book as a whole.

And under the umbrella of that

overall big picture theme of Jesus being

superior to everybody and everything is the

writer, remember, originally

writing to this small Jewish congregation,

also showing them this.

that Jesus is superior to everything

connected to the Old Testament

and the Old Covenant.

That as well.

In fact, also to show that Jesus does

not replace the Old Covenant,

he fulfills it.

The writer here, under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit, presents Jesus

as the epicinner of the universe.

Of humanity,

authority, grace, service,

worship, literally, everything that

matters most, Jesus is the

epicinner of.

He is the key to every

page in every chapter of this book.

Now, the Jewish people as a whole, as

you know, back in the first century,

in the majority report, not every single one, but in the

majority report, rejected their Messiah.

They made the critical mistake of

accepting all of the pictures,

and the types, and the shadows, and the symbols, and then the rituals

of the Old Testament, and then they rejected

the reality of all that when he came.

And so here in the book of Hebrews, the writer is

trying to show how foolish and

what an error it is to reject

the reality, while still

at the same time, still holding on and accepting and

performing all of the old rituals.

When the reality has come.

Ultimately, the Holy

Spirit is warning to make the point.

To all people who ever read the Bible, and the

Book of Hebrews, for all of human history that

the entire Old Testament points

to Jesus Christ.

Every page.

And he does this, this writer, again, I'm

going to keep reminding you of this, in a brilliant way,

by using many quotes from the Old Testament

to prove this to this original Jewish

group of people who all,

all definitely believe that the Old Testament is the Word of God.

So the writer says, all right, watch this.

I'm going to use the Old Testament to prove this to you.

And he also does this step by step, first,

starting in chapter 1, and continuing

into chapter 2, here, to

show first how Jesus is

superior to angels.

And remember, a couple times, we went over the high regard the Jews had for angels.

I'm not going to go back over all that again, go back and watch previous sermon, if you missed that.

But remember this, God used angels in some way

to deliver the old covenant.

They were there at Sinai.

We talked about all of that.

And if Jesus is the final and fullest meaning

of the Old Covenant, it's just logic.

He must be superior to angels.

And so the writer uses the Old Testament to

show that Jesus is, in fact,

superior to every angel.

And we saw that, we studied that in chapter 1,

and then, as we rolled into chapter 2, last

time, and there in verses 1 to 4.

Remember what happened.

It's like a bracket.

The writer can't help himself.

He takes a pause to basically

make the point that if Jesus is superior

to the angels in the way that I just told you in chapter

1, then you ought to do something about it.

You ought to respond to him the way God wants you to.

And he starts out chapter 2 of the little exhortation,

and then he gives a warning, and then an invitation.

Remember?

And he's basically saying, I have just

shown you that Jesus is God.

I have just shown you that he's better than angels.

And now, you need to act on that information.

Or verse three, look at it.

How will we escape, if

we neglect so great, a salvation.

And then, what we're going to look at today, starting in

verse 5, now he's out of the bracket, and

he's going to return to demonstrating the superiority

of Jesus over angels.

He's not finished, but boy, is he going to do it in a big way.

Look at verse 5.

For he did not subject to angels,

the world to come concerning

which we are speaking.

And the point there.

The point there is very simple.

God did not give control or

subjection of the world to come to angels.

That's easy to understand, right?

Now, if you're premillennial,

in your eschatology, this could be talking about

that phrase, the world to come, to the

literal 1,000 year reign of

Jesus Christ in the millennial kingdom.

That is, a restored, renovated earth that

Jesus will rule from Jerusalem

for 1,000 years, and then at the end of that 1,000

years, in that

premillennial dispensational view, God will destroy the

present, heavens, and earth, and will create a new

heavens and earth, and there will be an eternal state.

If, however, you hold to the a

millennial view, you just go straight to eternal state,

God judges, and you go straight to the

eternal state, New heavens, and New Earth.

You skip all that literal 1,000 year stuff.

Both, the post millennial and

historic pre millennial view, which is

different from the dispensational

pre millennial view, have their versions of the kingdom

existing on this present earth.

And then, at the end of both, God creates a

new heaven and a new earth and an eternal state.

that doesn't ever change.

And here is the very simple way that

I look at this, and that you can join me, if you like.

Any way you go.

Any route you take, in the end, everybody

winds up in the new heaven and the new earth and the eternal state.

No matter which road you go down, eschatologically.

And further, all of the truths that

we are fixing to study are going

to be true about all of those situations, whether

you're in the thousand years, whether you're straight to the eternal state or not.

So this phrase that we see

here in verse five, the world to come,

depends on your es catalogical preference,

and no matter what, we all end up at the same place.

New heavens, New Earth, eternal state.

You understand that?

Okay.

For example, we can take the phrase the world to come in any of those

situations that I described.

And we can agree with verse five.

in any of those situations that God did not give subjection

and rule to the angels in any of those situations.

See my point here?

In all of them, the supreme sovereign over

the world to come is not angels, but is Jesus.

And that's the point.

And with an extra added point that

I'm fixing to show you, but I'm not going to show you right at this juncture.

There's an added point to that.

Keep that in mind.

So again, the writer is proving

that Jesus is superior to angels, and furthermore, if angels

are next to God in the created order, and

Jesus is superior to angels, then Jesus is God.

That's the bigger point.

So, moving forward, I'm not going to

explain all that to you again for time's sake.

The issues of the world to come apply to all the situations.

You with me?

I want to make sure you are.

Now next, next.

Next, we are going to get very nuanced.

You ready for this?

The Jews, I think back to

the first century Judaism, okay?

Jesus was this guy from Nazareth, okay?

And they knew all the stories, and they had been preached

to by the apostles, but he still was a man, right?

An actual historical man.

They could have the objection, some of them in their minds.

Well, if Jesus was only a man, how in the world could he be superior

to angels?

And that is fixing to get dealt with.

Here in verses 6 to 8.

And not only will this, again, prove Jesus to be superior

to angels, but also at the same time, these verses

are going to reveal something else.

The only hope for

man's recovery.

of his lost destiny.

And that's what I was talking about a minute ago about that added thing that I want you to remember.

Now get ready for this.

Man today is a lost man in his natural condition, right?

He has lost the meaning of his existence.

And this passage is going to teach us how

it is that man can recover his

destiny, and in fact, what

his destiny is, if,

he is a redeemed man, a redeemed man.

And for this, we will follow just three

simple points.

OK?

Three simple points.

Number one.

Man's destiny revealed.

That'll be first.

By God.

Man's destiny revealed by God.

Secondly, man's destiny restricted

by sin, and then number

three, man's destiny recovered by Christ.

That's our three point outline we're going to follow in these verses.

So let's first consider man's destiny revealed by God.

We already learn in verse 5 that the angels

will not rule in the world to come.

We got that down.

In fact, you go back to Hebrews 1:14.

You see this about angels, are they not all ministering

spirits sent out to render service for

the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

That's the holy angels.

Guess what?

That will also be true in the world to come.

Angels will be ministers to, not

rulers over all who inherit salvation.

And we'll get to that in a minute, a little more deeply, but just hang on to that thought.

And I want you to look in verse 5 at the word for subject.

That's a military word.

And it speaks of a system of administration,

like arranging your soldiers in order under

the command of a general in an army.

God has not turned over the system of administration of

the world to come to angels.

God ordains all the powers and all the administrations,

even in the political realm, right now,

which we learn in Romans 13, right?

May not look like it.

But John Calvin said when God judges a nation, he gives it wicked rulers.

We're living in that right now.

But this verse indicates a truth that we know from other passages,

which is, right now, at this moment,

angels do have a

certain kind of rulership over this world.

And we're going to get to that in just a minute, but we're also going to learn

that this angel rule right

now is only temporary.

But before we get to that, let's discuss this sense in which angels

have rulership over this present world.

I want you to look at John 1430.

And I want you to look at how Jesus himself

refers to Satan.

He says, I will not speak much more with you, for

the ruler of the world.

That's Satan.

The ruler of the world is coming, and

he has nothing in me.

King James uses the phrase the prince of this world.

And that's Jesus speaking.

God allows,

Satan and his fallen angels, a certain

sense of rulership over

this present world system.

All you got to do is take a look at our culture and say, yeah, that's right.

But not only that, we see,

for example, in the Book of Daniel.

that holy angels, the good angels

have a certain sense of sovereignty over this present world.

Look at with me at Daniel 10:13.

And here we have an angel, unnamed,

most commentators think this is Gabriel, we

can't be dogmatic, but most commentators think that.

And this angel is talking to Daniel.

And he says in verse 13,

But the prince of the kingdom of

Persia, that's an angel, prince

of the earth, is how Jesus referred to Satan and King James.

The prince of the kingdom of Persia was standing me

for 21 days, then, behold,

Michael, one of the chief princes,

the chief angels, came to help me, for

I have been left there with the kings of Persia,

fascinating.

Fascinating.

Gabriel, the angel, if, indeed, this is Gabriel, was held

up for three weeks by

a fallen angel that is described as the

prince of Persia, and then Michael, the

archangel, the big dog, had to step in and

help out this lower angel.

That's what this is saying.

R.C.

Sproul says, Here is a glimpse.

of spiritual battles being waged

in heavenly places and affecting

events on the Earth.

John MacArthur says, this tells us that Satan

engages in heavenly warfare to

influence, generations, and nations,

against God and his people, see Nigeria

right now, where Christians are being slaughtered by the Muslims.

Behind that is the power of Satan and fallen

angels, slaughtering Christians in Africa, right at this moment.

As I've told you before.

There is a whole lot going on in

this world right at this moment that our eyes cannot see.

And here's a biblical example of that.

Look further down in Daniel 10, in verse 20.

The angel says this.

Do you understand why I came to you?

But I shall now return to

fight against the prince of

Persia, a fallen angel.

So, I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece,

a fallen angel, is about to come.

This is describing the reality that some of these fallen angels have

their own territories.

And they fight with the holy angels.

Let me tell you something.

Marvel Studios could not come up with anything

as compelling as what's happening in

the unseen realm right now.

Couldn't do it.

Look at how Daniel 12.

And verse number 1 starts out.

Now, at that time, Michael, the great

prince, the great angel, he's

the archangel, who stands guard over the

sons of your people, will arrive.

So there's an archangel, Michael, assign

a certain sense of sovereignty over at least the

redeemed people of the Earth, stands

guard over the sons of your people.

That's Michael.

So the point I'm making is that right now, there is

a sense in which the earth is

subject to angels in a certain sense.

Christ rules over all in all of that.

But for God's purposes in redemptive history,

He is allowing all of this to happen with the angels

in the unseen realm.

But back to our text in verse 5.

In the world to come, that's not going to be the case.

You with me?

OK. Now, let's go, you want to go a little deeper?

Let's do that.

The only reason the Earth now

is subject to angels is

because man lost the sovereignty

that God originally ordained for him to

have over the Earth in the beginning.

But in the world to come.

That sovereignty is going to be restored

to redeemed man.

And as I explain this, you're going to see at the same time that

the argument that says, well, Jesus is a man,

how can he be better than angels?

This is going to get answered yet again, okay?

Follow me with this.

God originally made this world subject

to men and not to angels.

Angels right now, they're just filling in the gap.

OK?

Satan stole the subjection from men.

In fact, he's known as the usurper, which means he

moved in, and he took what wasn't his.

So the argument that Jesus can't be better than angels,

because he is a man, can be hit back at from this angle as well.

Because man was originally created to rule,

to be the king of the earth, and God's final

destiny for redeemed man, he

is going to be the sovereign in the world to come that

God originally designed him to be in the fullest sense.

Now I know this is a lot.

It was a lot for me to study this and put this all down for you.

But hang in here with me, okay?

As we walk through these verses and

just take all this great truth in about

who we are in Christ, because that's what we're getting at here.

While we see that right now, the earth

is, in a sense, under the sovereignty of

angels, as I explain, both holy and

falling, battling it out, the

earth to come, will be under the control of

men, and again, in brilliant fashion,

brilliant fashion.

The writer is going to use the

Old Testament and direct quotes

from Psalm 8 to make his point.

Look at how verse 6 starts out.

But one has testified somewhere saying, And

then he goes on to quote directly from Psalm 8.

And he's talking about David.

Now, why does he say it, like

that, but one, has testified somewhere saying,

is his memory of the Old Testament failing at this point?

Well, if you notice, throughout the book

of Hebrews, he never names any Old Testament author, does he?

Never does.

Read it for yourself.

He just eliminates the human instrument, and

he's continually making it clear that this is all the voice

of God from the Old Testament.

He wants these Hebrew readers to understand who

really wrote the Old Testament just using

human authors to get it done, even passes

over the great King David, saying, One

has testified somewhere.

And of course, they all knew the passage.

They were Jews, and, of course, they all knew that David said this.

Look next in verse 6, and we go see what David testified

in Psalm 8.

What is man?

But you remember him.

Or the Son of Man, that you are concerned about him.

David is talking to God, and he's asking God,

What is man?

That you should be so good to him.

that you would give him so much blessing,

and then next, in verse 7, still quoting

directly from Psalm 8, You have made him man

for a little while, lower than the angels, you

have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over

the works of your hands, verse 8, you have put all things

in subjection under his feet.

Now, let me give you the summary point here before we get into details,

because you need to know the details of this.

In spite of the superiority of angels over mankind,

now, God, as I said, had originally

placed the administration of the Earth into

the hands of mankind, see Genesis 1, OK?

Due to the fall, in Genesis 3,

man right now is incapable of

fulfilling that divinely ordained position

from the first, God made man

originally large and in charge of the earth.

Look at Genesis 1:26, then God

said, Let us, Trinity, make

man in our Trinity, image, according

to our Trinity, likeness, and let them what?

Rule!

King James says, Let them have dominion

over, and then it goes down that great list

of fish, and birds, and cattle, and creeping things and everything.

Man was originally made a king with

dominion over the earth.

And you can go back to Genesis 1 and read all those details.

Now go back to Hebrews 26.

in this, what does, man,

you remember him, concerned after him, David could also be

saying, what is, man, that you should crown him with dominion.

What is, man?

And then he also tells us in verse 7, You

have made him for a little while lower than the angels.

So there we see the chain of command, right?

God, angels, man, earth.

And by the way, just as an aside in verse six in this context.

Son of Man is a Hebrew term that's written.

referring to mankind.

Ezekiel is called Son of Man,

just meaning mankind, you're born.

Some lesser commentators like to say this is all about Jesus,

but man, when I got Matthew, Henry, Arsby, Sproll,

and John MacArthur, all agreeing that this is all about man, I'm with those guys, okay?

So it's clear.

man must be real important to God.

Made in his image.

to originally be king of the earth.

Notice again, verse 7.

You have made him for a little while lower than the angels,

and understand, not in the sense of love, God

loved man, with the same infinite capacity that

he loves angels with, and not in the sense that he was lower

in importance to God, not in that sense,

the only sense that

man was lower than the angels was in the sense that

man was created as a physical being,

and angels were created as spiritual beings.

Man is earthly.

man is earth bound, angels are heavenly beings.

Notice in seven again.

You have made him for a little while.

lower than the angels, and that's a clue

to the incredible eternity that lies ahead for all believers.

Because God, in the very beginning, knew in his infinite

mind that the ultimate, final destiny

as glorified man in

the eternal state would not be something

lower than the angels in that future glory.

This is a temporary situation that we are in right now in

being a little lower than the angels.

And as we are, let me give you some more things to

contrast and think about.

We are confined to physical bodies.

I can't go outside in the parking lot and fly up to

Canada on my own, can I?

Now, Elon just made a

card that might fly me there, but I can't do it in my physical body.

But angels are able to move freely all around the

universe as spirits.

As I said, we're earth bound.

We cannot ascend to the supernatural realm.

Angels can move around in both.

Angers are supernatural.

Man, even before the fall, was still natural.

Angels were created as spirit beings, man

was made out of what, the dust of the earth.

After Satan's rebellion,

Now, the holy angels were secured in

their holiness, forever, never to be changed, man was not.

Now, man was innocent originally, but

he had the choice to sin or not to sin.

So, holy angels were perfect, and man in his original state

was only innocent, and

also in that sense, he was lower than angels.

Holy angels never had any possibility of dying.

But man, you eat that fruit?

You shall surely die.

And he did, and now we all do too, right?

But God has designed a destiny for redeemed

man that will change this temporary

existence as being lower than the angels,

when all of God's elect are called in, and

the kingdom is fully consummated, man will

no longer be lower than the angels.

Look at Daniel 7, 18,

but the saints, of

the highest one will receive the kingdom

and possess the kingdom forever for all angels to come.

That's every redeemed human being right there.

This is a breathtaking reality.

Who is going to rule in the kingdom alongside the king of kings,

not angels, redeeemed man?

Look at Daniel 7, verse 27, then the

sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness

of all the kingdoms on their whole heaven will

be given to the people of the saints of

the highest one.

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the

dominions will serve and obey him.

It's a staggering thought.

David was perfectly right to wonder,

what is man that you remember him?

What is man, the son of man, that you are concerned about him?

I have to tell you, it's

hard for me to grasp Christ ruling

and reigning in eternity,

future, and what he says, for example, look

at Romans 3:21.

Look at what he says.

I can't grasp this.

He who overcomes, I will grant

to him to sit down with me

on my throne.

That's every believer, as I also overcame

and sat down with my father on

his throne.

Speaking of Christ's rule in Ephesians 121, it says,

This, look at it, far above,

all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,

that is named not only in this age,

but also in the world to come,

as we learned in Ephesians, those words, rule

authority, power, and dominion, are referring

to the ranks of angels.

And if Christ rules and reigns over the

angels in the kingdom, and we sit on

the throne with Christ, guess who

else rules over the angels on Christ's throne.

Us.

That's just beyond me.

I mean, that is just beyond my thinking.

Now, hopefully, all of that will help you understand how we're lower than angels for a little.

Wow.

OK?

Next, verse 7.

You have crowned him with glory and honor.

And again, that speaking of man in his original state, when

God made Adam pure and innocent, he gave him honor, and

he gave him glory, and gave him a crown of rank.

He was crowned as king of the earth.

Next, it says, and have appointed him over the works of

your hands.

He gave him dominion, as we saw, in Genesis verse 8.

You have put all things in subjection under his feet.

Now, remember, we're still quoting from Psalm

8 in all of this directly from Psalm 8.

There wasn't anything that was not subject to man in

the original creation, even though he was lower than angels

in the way that I explained earlier, in his innocence.

Man was king over the undefiled world.

The earth served men go back and read, and it fed him.

It provided everything he needed.

But then what happened?

Tragedy.

struck.

And that's points two.

Man's destiny was restricted

by sin.

As you know, Adam's sin brought about the

great curse, and you know all the

sad realities that came with the curse, pain

and childbirth for women, thorns and thistles,

working by the sweat of our brow.

All that stuff, still in place today, were still

under that curse.

Adam lost his crown when he fell.

Satan usurped the crown.

And everything on this world changed dramatically.

We don't rule this world.

This world rules us.

Let me give you an example.

Go stand out on a beach in a cat five hurricane.

Find out who rules, you or the Earth.

We fight constantly against the Earth for

our existence in this fallen world.

Adam's sin, death appeared on the scene, and

not too long after that, there was a murder in Adam's family, right?

And everything just kept going downhill from there.

We only just get a few more chapters ahead into Genesis

6, and it gets so bad, God has to destroy the whole world,

except Noah and his family.

And now, there is constant conflict,

not only between men against one another in

war and murder, but also, as we saw in

the unseen realm, there's conflict between holy

angels and fallen angels going on all the time.

And the prince of this earth for now is

the ruler of this fallen world system.

Look at how 2 Corinthians 44 refers to him.

In whose case, look at

this phrase, the god of this world.

Little G, that's Satan.

The god of this world has blinded the

minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not

see the light of the gospel of the glory

of Christ, who is the image of God.

What a mess we are in right now at

this time period, right?

When man lost his crown, he was no longer master of himself.

He became a slave to sin.

And as Jesus said, a child of

his father, the devil, in

his natural condition, we live in a fallen

world of murder, war, crime, and death.

Did you know that every day, 24 hours a

day, 365 days a year, between 150

and 170,000 people die on planet Earth every day?

Due to math, that's 6,000 people, every

hour of every day and night, go out of existence.

That's two depths every second.

Nonstop, 365.

Every two people died.

Two people just died.

Two people just died.

Two people just died.

Just keep doing that every second.

That's happening right now.

And the little k, king, over all

this, for now, is the usurper

who stole man's crown.

Satan himself.

Look at 1 John 519, is about this condition.

We know that we are of God.

Hallelujah.

Christian.

We know that we are of God, and that the

whole world lies in the power of Hoot, the evil one.

That's right now.

But he's on a leash.

His own god's leash.

He can't go any further than God allows him on that leash, right?

So, man's destiny, clearly, has been restricted by

sin, the earth in this fallen world system is

ruled by Satan and his fallen angels, who fight with

the holy angels, who are also, at the same time,

there fighting with the fallen angels, are ministering to us

as ministering spirits.

And guess what?

Even the earth itself is cursed.

The Earth itself and God's cold creation knows it.

You know how I know that?

Well, look at Romans 8:22.

But we know that the whole creation groans and

suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Romans 8, 19, for the anxious longing of

the creation waits eagerly, for the revealing

of the sons of God.

The whole creation is waiting for the consummation of

the kingdom, and the glorified saints of God to

appear after the second coming, because once it starts,

not only are we liberated from the curse, the

whole creation is going to be liberated as well.

Look at Romans 8:21, that the creation itself

also will be set free from its

slavery to corruption and to the freedom of the glory

of the children of God, that's coming, guaranteed that's coming.

No more war, no

more hospitals, no more humidity.

Amen.

No more politics.

Hallelujah.

And lastly, in verse 8, it finishes off, explaining, now,

or in subjecting all things to him,

He left nothing that is not subject to him.

Now that's originally, right, and

will be, even in a greater way, in a future, but then looks next in the verse.

But now!

You talking about right now?

But now we do not yet see all things

subjected to him.

Again, a great tragedy struck when Adam fell.

Man's destiny was restricted by Adam and Eve's sin.

The earth was corrupted, as I said, and he immediately lost his crown.

Right now, we do not see all things subjected to man, right?

But look at verse 9.

But we do see him.

who was made a little while lower than angels, namely

Jesus.

We see him, and that brings us to our last

point for today, man's destiny, recovered by Christ.

The ultimate curse of man's lost destiny is death.

God said to Adam, In the day you eat from it, you shall

surely die.

But the cross conquered the curse for all who believe.

The kingdom will be restored, and

man will be given the crown again.

But how?

I'm so glad you asked.

Let's read all of verse 9.

But we do see him who was made for

a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus,

and lower than the angels there, for him, means in his incarnation,

also known as his humiliation, during

his earthly ministry, but keep going, because of

the suffering of death, crowned with

glory and honor, so that by the grace of

God, the unmerited favor of God, he

might taste death for everyone.

So, if we are all sinners.

And the wages of sin is death, how

can we become sinless, which is the

requirement for the crown?

Well, the only way, man, can ever be

king, again, to have the

curse removed?

It's the only way.

And the only way for the curse to

be removed is for the penalty for

sin to be paid.

Well, how does this happen?

Well, we know for sure, even without God's revelation in

this Bible, that we could not do this ourselves, right?

Unless you go to hell forever.

And then you never pay it off.

It's an infinite penalty.

But this is what I want to do here, to answer this question.

I just want to answer this question straight from scripture, because

it's such a great answer to this particular question.

In Romans 6, 5 to 11.

Let's just let scripture speak to this answer.

For if we have become united with him, in

the likeness of his death, certainly,

we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

knowing this, that our old self

was crucified with him.

In order that our body of sin might be

done away with so that we would no longer be slaves

to sin, for he who has died is

free from sin.

For if we have died with Christ, we believe that

we shall also live with him, knowing

that Christ, having been raised from the dead is

never to die again, death no longer has

master over him, for the death that he died,

he died to sin once for all, but

the life that he lives, he lives to God,

even so consider yourselves, to be dead,

to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now, real quick, go back to Hebrews 2.9.

Second part of the verse speaking of Jesus, because of the suffering

of death, crowned with glory and honor,

so that by the grace of God, he might taste death

for everyone.

And that is everyone who was united with him.

Everyone who was in union with him.

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,

if man is ever to be restored to reign

as king, he has to die and be resurrected as a new man.

It's the only way.

And guess what?

Speaking from this context, in

1997 I died.

Did you know that?

I died.

How do I know that?

Galatians 220,

Look at it.

I have been crucified with Christ,

and it is no longer, I who live,

but Christ lives in me, and the life which

I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

And let me just read again, in case you didn't catch it.

Part of what we just read in Romans 6, 5.

For if we have become united with him in

the likeness of his death, certainly

we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

That's a promise.

This is how the destiny of the redeemed man will

be restored.

And even though we have died and been crucified

with Christ, and we do right now walk in new

of life because of what Christ did

for us on the tree, we're not all the way there yet.

But we will, one day, guaranteed

be there.

Look at 1 John 3, 2.

Beloved, now we are children of God.

And it has not yet appeared as yet what

we will be, we know that when he appears.

We will be what?

We will be like him.

because we will see him, just as he is.

Romans 8, 17, about

all people in history who believe in Jesus Christ savingly.

And if children, errs also.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs

with Christ, if indeed we suffer

with him, so that we also may be glorified with him.

Join heirs.

If Jesus rules over everything, you're

a joiner with him ruling over everything.

and mind boggling.

It's going to be even better than the pre fall existence of the Garden of Eden.

You understand what I'm saying?

I was talking to the preacher this week when we were talking about this.

Think about this.

Whatever your mind can imagine

about the best that heavenly

glory is going to be, that you can imagine in

your mind, whatever the best you can imagine it'll be,

that right there will be worse than the actual reality.

Because your puny brain can't imagine, and can't

comprehend, the glory that

awaits you.

Let me tell you, I could keep going here for a while.

Okay.

I left all kinds of stuff out, but we got to land a plane,

because I just want you to get the major points with these Hebrew sermons, right?

Jesus, tasted death,

as Hebrews 2, 9 says, for you,

for me, and for all who believe, to

recover our lost destiny.

that was lost in the garden through sin, to

get our crown back, and you know what?

I can't wait, as soon as that crown touches my hand, I

can't wait to throw it back at his feet.

I can't wait to do that.

That's just going to be the greatest moment ever.

Get the crown, throw it back at him.

As Christians, we no longer have to wonder and search,

or even think about why we exist as so many people sitting

there, searching for meaning, and climbing the hill to

go look at the little guru with the beard and the bald head to

find out what's life is about.

Christian, you don't have to do that.

If you didn't know before today, I hope you know now, why

you exist, we are no longer slaves,

because Christ suffered and died for us.

We are joint heirs, with King Jesus, forever.

Let's pray.

Oh, Father, what a text.

What a text.

We need a much better preacher to get this stuff across, but this is one you got for here.

What information we have been given from your words,

and I would remind us all that this is your word.

This is what you wanted your church to know for all time, and

how we thank you for how good you have been to

us to reveal all this tremendous truth for us.

I pray that everyone will walk out of here today with a deeper

understanding of who Christ is, what Christ has done,

and how you operate in the world of men, and

that it would invigorate us, to witness to a

loss and dying world, the good news of

the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen.

Amen.