Author of Our Salvation (Part B)

That throne is His throne. That crown is His crown. I want it that way.

I need it that way. He can give me whatever He wants and I can give Him back my crown, my throne, and be just as happy, be just as rich, as if I never gave it back. See, this makes us family, the brethren of Christ. And so, when He says, you have made Him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned Him with the glory and honor and sent Him over the works of your hand. That crown is Christ. The head of every man is Christ.

And now here's Pastor Rick with his continuing study called, Author of Our Salvation, in Hebrews chapter 2. The God they served, who they saw with their eyes, who they lived with, we believed in that God sight unseen, physical sight. But faith, we saw by faith. The just shall live by faith. In salvation, we're lifted back to the level from which Adam fell. We now again have peace and friendship with God.

That part is true, but another part of it is this way. We are lifted higher to the position from which Adam fell. In other words, we're not only brought back into fellowship with God, we have an eternity waiting for us that elevates us above what Adam was initially created to be. We will be higher. We are not elevated to the level of angels, but we will be higher than the angels. We will be higher than the eminence from which Lucifer fell.

In other words, Lucifer, who was an archangel, who forfeited that position in his rebellion, when we are finally glorified, we will be above that position too. Remember, Christ did not die for the angels. He died for us. He did not die to save the souls of animals. He died for us. He did not die to save his creation. He died to save his created beings made in his image.

That would be us, above all principalities and powers. Now catch this. This is going to take a moment, so you're going to have to bear with me. He's elevated us to his throne in heaven. You see, higher than what Adam was created to be. Revelation 3, he writes to the church, to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

But wait, there's a part two to this. If you go to Revelation and you read that in the third chapter and you stop there, you've not completed the thought. The thought comes in the fourth chapter. Revelation 4-10, and the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. God gives me a throne. He gives me a crown.

I know I'm not worthy of these things and I am totally taken by the fact that he would give these to me, but they belong to him. That throne is his throne. That crown is his crown. I want it that way.

I need it that way. He can give me whatever he wants and I can give him back my crown and my throne and be just as happy, be just as rich, as if I never gave it back. See, this makes us family, the brethren of Christ. And so when he says, You have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with the glory and honor and sent him over the works of your hand. That crown is Christ. The head of every man is Christ. The man is made in the image of God and though that image is injured at this present time for us.

Now remember, the writer to Hebrews was living, of course, at the time he wrote this. He had not yet tasted death, but he has since. He is in glory. His image is not marred any longer.

Ours, ours still is. So when you look at a human being, you are seeing a train wreck from the perspective of heaven. It's not what man intended to be.

He's had a collision. He looks nothing like what he was designed for and designed to be. Not here by chance. We're not here as a plaything of creation. We're not here as a slave for fellow man. We're not here as a slave for our own sinful passions. We are made for better things in this life and the greater things after this life.

And we better get busy now. That's the point of these things. When you understand this pedigree, this spiritual pedigree that belongs to us, it should elevate us. Our game, we would say.

We should then want to do better. I can tell you a prayer that I've been praying for a few months now, maybe six or seven months. And when I started, I didn't really expect a swift answer.

But I certainly hoped. I prayed, Lord, not in the face of any particular sin, but applying this part of the psalm, restore to me the joy of your salvation. When David made that prayer, it was on the heels of a great and egregious sin. But it doesn't belong only to great and egregious sins.

It can just be the whole humness of life, the routine of life. And the routine of life, you can get so caught up in serving that you lose the brightness of the fire, the candle. The priest in the old temple of the Lord, they were instructed to trim the wicks so the candles could burn bright.

They had to give attention to these things, and so do we. You want to burn brightly for the Lord? You want to continue to shine brightly? Are you going to have to buff? I've buffed in the Lord.

I don't go to the gym. I go on my knees. But anyway, and so I've asked the Lord, restore the joy, the joy of the faith.

I don't want it to dim. And he's been doing that. And nothing has happened for me to say, yeah, he gave me that new truck. Of course I'm shining.

Nothing has changed. That is the status quo. And yet, he is delighted to bless me with that. So my point is, keeping your eye on the destiny, on what's beyond this life, it is a good thing. It is not bad to say, I can't wait to walk those golden streets. I'll be roaming around those streets. I'll be living on those streets.

I don't know what's in store, but it's fun to say it that way. I'll be around him with glory and honor, and yet set him over the works of your hands. Man is created to rule. But again, something has gone terribly wrong, and that rule has been marred.

Genesis 1, God said, let us, that is the Trinity, make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the earth, and over every creeping thing that is on the earth. That's everything. It doesn't leave anything. Well, Martians aren't listed in that list, but they're elsewhere. Joke.

I'll attempt that. My point is, man is created to have dominion, and we sold that dominion. Adam did. When Adam was created, he was crowned king. He was the king in Eden, and he gave his dominion to Satan because of his wife. It really was because of himself. He loved his wife so much that he was willing to forfeit God's word for her sake. I'm not blaming Eve for that.

That's his fault. That's Adam's fault. And instantly, Satan began to reign. Then death, on the heels of this, just as God said. When Adam's children were born, they were born into the wrong kingdom. They had no say-so over that.

They were subject to the wrong authority. They were born in sin. And ever since, mankind has been battered by Satan and by sin and by self in the world. After the fall, we have to fight to not be overruled once we come to Christ by our lower passions. We come to church and we sing and we're in touch when we're praising the Lord. If it is genuine, we are praising the Lord. Those are our higher passions at work, some of them. When we serve in the church, especially in the midst of unpleasant things, our higher passions are at work. But then when we are made to stumble, we get angry, or loveless, or moody, or selfish, or some other non-virtue kicks in, that would be our lower self, and that's where the fight is. Yet, we are to keep our eyes on eternity.

No other creature that we know does this. The angels, what are they looking forward to? We have no knowledge that they're going to get something later. It's going to be business as usual with them, and they seem fine with this.

They stand before the throne of God, the seraphim and the cherubim, and they're glad to praise and to worship Him, to cover their face, to humble themselves in His presence. The animal kingdom. As much as you love your dog, you can't say, you know, God is going to make you a ruler over, you know, in the millennial kingdom. Chicago's going to be yours, my puppy.

Not going to happen. But for us, God has said these things, and it remains to be developed. Make sure you are there for this. Make sure you're going to be in that millennial kingdom, in a position of authority under the Lord of authority. Verse 8, you have put all things in subjection under His feet, for in that He put all in subjection under Him. He left nothing that is not put under Him, but now we do not yet see all things put under Him.

You want to say, you got that right, brother. Again, man forfeited the earth to Satan, and now creation defies man. Those bugs, remember, the insects under the dominion of man, the creeping things, you know that's not true.

You just wait, wait till summer and spring come, and those bugs will defy you, sting you, bite you and suck your blood, if they can. But on earth, man is still the highest form of life. In fact, as the writer writes, in creation, as created beings go, we're at the top. For in that He put all things, I'm reading in verse 8, He put all things in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. Again, it includes the angelic world. Presently, a man is incapable of ruling righteously, consistently. And we got a glimpse at what Adam should be when Christ walked the earth. Did he not rule over creation?

We saw him take control over the maniacs there in Gadara. We saw him pull a coin, not present Peter, to pull the coin out of the fish's mouth, stop storms, walked on water, which is probably my favorite. I would just like to walk over to London one day and just turn water into wine. Children can turn a lot of things into wine too.

It's a different wine, it's not one you drink, it's one you hear. Jesus Christ ruled over man's lost dominion. He demonstrated that to us.

It was sort of a prelude to what's coming, a coming attraction. You're going to be like me. You'll never be God Almighty, but you will be, you will be what I formed you to be. I'll get to that verse in John later on, we're almost done, but let me finish this verse up. It continues in verse 8, But now we do not see all things put under Him, and our daily war against sin is proof of that. Romans chapter 7, now, If I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Well, yeah, that's true brother, 100%, but there's more truth to that, the consequence. If you do the sin that you would not do, there will be a consequence to it if it gets away from you. So we don't take those words from Paul and dismiss them. Now we don't all need to hear that, but some of us do. But yet on the flip side of that, there's a part of me that I just can't control.

Someone knows where my buttons are, and they tend to push those buttons, and I lose control. Christ doesn't lose control of me. And that's where Paul is going with that in that seventh chapter, and he gets to the eighth chapter. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because Christ doesn't lose control over me. Unless I want him to, and I don't want him to.

Nobody in their right mind would. Galatians 5 17, the flesh lust against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish. And so while I am dead to sin, sin is not dead to me. It is alive, it is hard at work, but the day is coming when disease and disaster, heartbreak and bereavement, violence, and all those things that make life miserable will be gone.

They will pass forever. John wrote in his first letter, he says, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. We see better things than that. Hebrews 10 13, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. So this isn't all it, and now we come to the ninth verse.

We've got five minutes to finish it. 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, might taste death for everyone. You can't miss that part, but we see Jesus. That he inserts this. And I know how I feel when I write. I often write my prayers out, or my thoughts to God, or just thoughts for a sermon. And I know how I feel when I come to certain thoughts and write it out. When I come to the name Jesus, my J's are especially done. They're just God, the G in script, you know, just God.

So when the writer comes to this part, in this parchment, and he says, but we see Jesus, it's a special moment. It's when the music would change. When I was a real little boy, I asked my mother, did we hear music when we were sad? Because I was feeling pretty sad. I don't know, my GI Joe broke or something, and I was pretty down. And mom, because I was waiting for the music to kick in.

And it wasn't happening, so I figured I'd ask, and she broke the terrible news to me. But, wouldn't it be nice if when you got to certain verses, you heard music? Glorious music. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. This is the first time the name Jesus appears in this document. And it has a grand entrance.

It is held up in contrast to everything else. He certainly covered who this Jesus is in the first three verses alone of this Hebrew document. He says, who was made. That is his humanity, the incarnation of Christ, being born of a virgin. He could not have died as God. How else was he to die for our sins? The angels don't die, could not come as an angel, so he became a man to suffer and to die for me.

Now, whether it is not you can say that yourself is up to you. But I can say it myself, he died for me. And I know he died for others, but he died for me.

Christ, the man, Christ, the ruler, will taste death no more after the resurrection. We'll get to this next session, but he doesn't call us brethren until after the resurrection. See, man was not family with God. So long as sin was on him. But when that blood washed off sin, we became family.

We were just singing. He's my friend and my brother even though he's a king. And we don't treat him as though he is our brother.

We understand the kinship. He is my Lord and he is my God. He is higher to me than anything could ever be. He's never, never is he totally casual to me as humans are to me. I can say to a human being, ah, get out of here.

Are you kidding me? I would never say that to Christ. I wouldn't even take that tone with him. No sin in it. He is my Lord. Muffled speech is what he'd hear with my face on the floor. Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim my God how great thou art.

What a day that will be. Well, he was made, that is again referenced to his humanity. Hebrews 7, 6, he is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens. It says lower than the angels here in verse 9.

That's a temporary state. Again, the angels could not die, suffer no pain that we know of. And so he to suffer these things in that regard was lower than the angels. In his role as Savior, he subjected himself to these things on our behalf. And so David, when he said, what is man that you are mindful of me? Imagine if David had the New Testament.

What is man that you would die for me? That you would suffer as you did. That you would even become one of us, subjecting yourself to the things we're subjected to under the curse of sin. Philippians, Paul said, who being in the form of God, speaking of Jesus. Now he says in the form of God, he's not talking about a similarity to God like a shadow is to a person. He's saying he is actually God.

That is the strength of the Greek. You could not say that I am in the form of God even though I am created in the image of God, even if I were not in the marred image of God. Not like he is saying here in Philippians. He says it did not consider him, consider it robbery to be equal with God. Could never say that about a human being. Could never say that about a created being.

Satan thought so and that's why Lucifer became Satan. The son of the morning star became the enemy. Continues to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation.

Made himself. You see, Jesus Christ is God the son. He is Yahweh the son of the Old Testament. He is Jesus Christ of the New Testament. He is God eternal. There's more to him than we could ever know. The scriptures do not give us all there is to know about Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ doesn't even come close. But made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant, not the form of an angel and coming in the likeness of men. In another place Paul says the likeness of sinful flesh. But as the risen king he returns to his role as Lord of lords and in the likeness of sinful flesh he is no more. And thus his glorified body which the apostles struggled to identify in those first moments of the resurrection.

For we sons of Adam are also lower than the angels for now but we will be exalted as verse 5 has told us. Listen to this, 1 John chapter 3 verse 2, Beloved, now we are children of God presently and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed and when we see him, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. There's so much more to Christ than we can see.

There's so much that he's going to roll out to us as the ages go by. And so in his role as Savior incarnate, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, Isaiah 53. But in his position as Lord, he has seen the travail of his soul, again Isaiah 53, and is satisfied. You were to say, Lord was it worth it?

Every bit of it. For the suffering death crowned with glory and honor as a voluntary substitute that he made himself. Mark's Gospel chapter 10 verse 45, we all need to be reminded of this, this is our message to the world. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life ransom for many. Knowing your role as a Christian, it goes such a long way. To know what I'm supposed to do as a pastor and not supposed to do, to know what you're supposed to do if you're not a pastor and what you're not supposed to do, those things invigorate us.

They add vigor to our service, keeping sight of eternity. That he, by the grace of God, that's the kindness towards sinners who don't deserve it, in his pain and his misery, taste death. As I mentioned, the writer had not tasted death, but Christ did at the time that this was written for everyone, not just the chosen. See, there are those that think the chosen are arbitrarily chosen. The Bible teaches that we are chosen when we receive the gospel. If you say, Lord, I receive you, then you are chosen. All right, you come in. If you say, Lord, I reject you, there's no choice, you're not coming in.

And there are those that are otherwise intelligent that have bought into this. I have to introduce this just briefly before we close. We're coming to heavy scriptures that if you are under the influence of what is known as Calvinism, you're going to get slapped around by my presentation because I am not a Calvinist, not even a gentle one or a little bit of one.

I disagree categorically with his position, his five points of tulip, pretty flower, horrible doctrine. And so as we get to this, we're going to hit it pretty hard. And so maybe I should just give you a coming attraction if you've fallen for this. One of the sways that Calvinism has over mostly the men is that, here, drink this, this will make you intellectual and analytical because those who don't drink this aren't. It makes them feel that way. And so they begin to dig into the Calvin and the Reformed theology and the volumes and volumes on Reformed theology. I'll take scriptural theology over Reformed theology. Now I know that could cause a big argument, but I don't care. So anyway, he tasted death for everyone, not just the elect.

The elect are so because they have received. Jesus said this is the works that you need to do. You want to know of a work that you can do that God will accept?

Believe in the Son. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews, right here on Cross Reference Radio.