Ruined, Ruled And Restored

 

 

"⁵ For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. ⁶ But one has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
⁷ “You have made him 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;
⁸ You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

⁹ But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, 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."

Hebrews 2:5-9

 

Good Morning My Beloved,

Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!

We would like to welcome our beloved new brothers and sisters in Christ, joining us for the first time, we are so thankful that you are all with us today. We continue to lift all of you up in prayer, and ask that you would also pray for us.  

 

It would appear to me that many Christians today, are focused on the here and now. We have somehow lost our central focus of living each day in view of death and eternity. The modern view is, "While heaven may be a glorious thought, I want to live the good life now. I want a Jesus can help me succeed in my family, in business, and in my personal life, that’s what I want! I’ll think about heaven when I’m old."

 

Christians today, don’t handle trials well. I often wonder how we might handle persecution, I imagine it would probably would free up a few seats in the pews on Sunday mornings. Pastors have become  emotionally fragile, if they receive any type of strong criticism or become the subject of personal attacks, they quickly bail out of the ministry or revert to culturally pleasing messages. I believe the main reason for this weakness is that we are not focused on our glorious eternal destiny in Jesus Christ.

 

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, thank You for this Word, for these amazing truths, for the clarity to help us to understand. Lord, we seek Your help to apply what we are about to learn in our message today, that we would more faithful, more obedient to You. Father, we are so grateful for Christ's sacrifice, that He would taste death for us and recover our lost destiny. It is unimaginable that we, who are unworthy, would one day reign with Him. Thank You Lord, we bless Your holy name.

In Jesus' name

Amen

 

 

Today's Message: Ruined, Ruled And Restored

 

In Hebrews chapter 10, the writer exhorts his readers "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised." Endurance under trials is the practical theme of Letter to the Hebrews. The author, in order to give his readers the perspective to endure, he focuses on their eternal destiny in Christ. His argument, in 1:14, is that Jesus is greater than the angels, he pointed out that the angels serve "those who will inherit salvation." If we have trusted in Christ, while we currently possess salvation, much of it is reserved for eternity as our inheritance. 

 

In Romans 8:16-18, the Apostle Paul says "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

 

The writer, after his brief exhortation to pay close attention so that we do not drift,, he again deals with Jesus’ superiority over the angels, which he presents a fantastic point to prove that Jesus  superiority to angels. He makes a tremendous point, by elucidating it in verses 6 to 9. " For He did not subject to angels he world to come, concerning which we are speaking."

 

In verse 5, he gives us tremendous proof that Jesus is better than angels. That’s really the initial key to the argument. However, it answers an objection. For the objection could be this, well if Jesus was only a man, how could He be superior to angels? I mean if He was a man and He died, how could He possibly be superior to angels? Well he answers that is this passage, let's see how he answers that potential objection. These verses reveal the only hope for a man’s recovery of his lost destiny, and the authors is going to teach us how it is that man can recover his destiny. He essentially does this in three points,

man’s destiny revealed by God, man’s destiny restricted by sin, and man’s destiny recovered by Christ. 

 

The opening word, "for," links us back to 1:14 and the entire preceding argument. He was probably anticipating an objection, thinking that some of his Jewish readers who were wavering might have been thinking, "If the Son of God is greater than the angels, having obtained a more excellent name than they then how does this fit with His becoming a man, since men are lower than the angels? And, how does this all fit with His dying on the cross, since angels never die? How can Jesus superior to the angels?"

 

In the world to come, angels are not going to be rulers, they will be ministers, not rulers. They are sovereign in the world to come according to God's design. That God is not design. Since God ordains every power, He is the One who gives out the administrations. Romans 13:1 says "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." As a footnote, the world to come is the greatest world that’s ever been. The world to come is the great and glorious world, and whoever reigns in that world must be glorious beyond glory! And, it will not be ruled by angels.  Allow to add, that the angels’ rule or angels’ superiority over men is only temporary.

 

We can see that it these next two verses, verses 6-7, "But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? “You have made him 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;"

 

Also, I'd like you to notice, in verse 5, the term world. This is not the common Greek world kosmos, which means the system, the universe. Occasionally, we'll also see the word aiōn, which is translated world, however, it means the ages. In verse 5, we see the   word oikoumenēn. It means inhabited earth. 

I'm sure that comes as a shock to the amillennialsts, they are the ones who say there is no kingdom.

 

Allow me to point out, this cannot be this earth. Because this inhabited earth isn’t to come! So obviously, there has to be another inhabited earth which is to come. And, its inhabited, a great millennial kingdom. I believe its going to so amazing, far beyond anything we could ever imagine. Many Christians today, seem not to know that that angels really have the rule over this present world. Did you know that? Who is the number one angel, the fallen angel that rules this world.

 

Not only does Satan and his fallen angels have rule over this world, but even the holy angels have a kind of sovereignty. Remember in Daniel chapter 10, I believe its in verse 20, "Then he said, "Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come." Right now, the earth is subject to angels. 

 

Allow me to just quickly read Daniel 12:1 to you, "Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued." The only reason this present earth is subject to angels is because men lost the sovereignty that God gave them in the beginning." God made the earth subject to men, not angels, but them Satan, came tool what wasn't his. He stole it from men.

 

This inhabited earth is under the sovereignty of angels, both the holy and unholy angels. The Apostle Paul describes this in Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

 

In the very beginning, God knew that the ultimate destiny of man would be temporary, not something lower than angels. God was looking into the future of redeemed man in His presence, that would come in Christ and would rise in redemption.

 

Then, in verse 8, in the last part of the verse, tragedy happened. Man’s destiny was restricted, because Adam sinned.Turn with me to Genesis 3:14-15, "The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

 

And, another one of the results of Adam's sin, was "To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you." When Adam sinned, he lost his crown. The earth was subjected to man, and the earth supplied all of man’s needs without man doing anything, all he needed to do was accept it. However, when Adam sinned, Satan usurped the crown.The result, was man fell to the bottom. And immediately after, man has had to fight constantly against the earth for his existence. 

 

First, there was a murder in his own family, then there was polygamy.A few chapters later, there was death. And in Genesis 6, God destroys the entire world. As a footnote, all of this has only taken a few short chapters! For now Satan rules the cursed earth, which, in turn, rules man in sin.

 

I John 5:19 tells us "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." Mans destiny been restricted by sin, and the earth is ruled by Satan and his evil angels, as well as the holy angels, who minister for God, and this earth is cursed.

 

And, I believe that the earth knows it. Look at Romans chapter 8, verses 18-19, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God."

 

The whole earth groans waiting for the day that we are manifested in God’s glorious kingdom, when man and earth will be liberated from the curse. God literally subjected the earth to this vain curse in order that man might have trouble all his days and know that God was aware of his sin, that he had to pay for his sin by fighting against his own earth. Beloved, God did not design that way. 

 

In verse 9, "But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, 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." In that day, man’s destiny recovered by Christ. Man’s destiny revealed by God, restricted by sin, and here recovered by Christ.  

 

In Genesis 2:17, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

 

So in verse 9, we see Jesus, who has made for a time lower than the angels. In other words, He became a man for the suffering of death, and He also is crowned with glory and honor. Jesus, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. The, in the restored kingdom, we are elevated to the crown again over a redeemed earth.

 

We'll wrap this up with Romans 6:8-11, " Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, ^[f]is never to die again; death no longer is 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."

 

Bible says the wages of sin is death, so men had to die to remove the curse, that's the only way man could be king again. From the moment you put your faith in Christ, you were identified with Him. You also died on the cross, in your baptism you were raised in new life and, you walk in the newness of  life. 

 

May it be so..

 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 

 

 

 

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