R674 What A Man

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. In just a moment, we'll head to Hebrews Chapter 2 for a two-part series called What a Man from Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, pastor, seminary professor, and the pastor of Billy Graham for 20-plus years.

If you haven't heard about the book, he's been on television a great deal lately, and God's just opening the doors for us to understand this relationship between Don Wilton and Dr. Billy Graham and how you and I can have a similar relationship with God as we step out in faith. If you want to know more about how you can get your copy of the book, visit us online at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. There are a number of great resources you'll find there.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Wilton. We have been considering perhaps the greatest statement concerning the invitation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it's found in Hebrews Chapter 2 and verse 3. It's a very simple statement, but profound beyond human comprehension. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? To put it into our modern terminology, how are we ever going to have forgiveness of sin? How are we ever going to become brand new people? How are we ever going to have hope beyond the grave?

How are we ever going to see our loved ones again? How are we ever going to have an abundant life if we turn our back on the Lord Jesus Christ? And so we've come up to the point of verse 5 of this incredible epistle, this letter written primarily to Jewish people concerning Jesus Christ. And our theme is the superiority of the Lord Jesus. Some of you might say to me, well, pastor, what does that mean?

It means that there's nobody else, that Jesus Christ is number one, that everything points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you're really going to need to have your Bibles this morning. If you didn't bring your own, we have very gladly provided you with a pew Bible. You can turn to page 1161, page 1161 in your pew Bibles. If not, turn in your own Bibles to Hebrews Chapter 2. Now, I want to tell you something before we begin today. My friends, we are about to get into a very difficult part of Scripture.

I don't mind telling you that. These are the kinds of passages of Scripture that I'm sure that many pastors, including myself, we come to that and we say, well, it's time to go on to other things and we just kind of skip around it. And we go on to other things, not because we don't believe that the Word of God is inerrant and infallible, that we don't believe that this is God's Word from Genesis to Revelation.

It's just that God is so great and He is so magnificent that in all honesty, it's very difficult for us sometimes trapped in our own feeble human minds to try to understand the vast extent of God's sovereign grace. And I'm going to submit to you today, my beloved friend, that there is a sense in which some of you may sit here and wonder what this is about. I'm going to try by the power of God and through His Spirit, I'm going to try to explain to you today what I believe God by His Spirit is trying to explain to me.

I just simply want to be that channel, but I don't want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to what the Lord says to you. You might say to me, well, pastor, how does that happen?

You ask Him to do so. If you've given your heart to Jesus Christ, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God by His Spirit resides in you. And one of the functions of the Spirit of God is to open the eyes of our understanding.

One of the functions of God's Spirit is to help us to understand the deep things concerning God. Let's pray together. Father, as we come to Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5 through 9, please help us to understand your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to read it to you first and then I'm going to come back and I'm going to just spend a little bit of time walking you through these verses and then I'm going to do a little preaching.

Have you got that today? That's how we're going to do this. I'm first of all going to read to you these verses.

Then I'm going to go back and I'm going to stop a number of times and talk about each one of the things or most of them that are said. Then I'm going to do a little preaching. All right.

I hope you've unpacked your suitcases this morning and we'll still get out of here on time. All right. My subject this morning comes from a question that is asked in verse 6 and you can read it there for yourself. What is man? What is man?

Who is this person? There is a sense in which I am standing here today and I'm looking up into heaven and I'm asking God this question, Lord, I know that you love me, I know that Jesus Christ died for me, but who am I, Lord? Where do I fit into your great scheme of things? What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you would be concerned about him? And that word there, concerned, is literally the word that you would care about him. That you would bother with man. Why would you bother with me, Lord? Well, let's try to place this into context here this morning. I'm going to go back to verse 5.

I'm going to read it first of all uninterrupted. It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking, but there is a place where someone has testified, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him.

Yet, at present, we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Now let's go back to verse 5, and I'm going to take a little longer. The Lord by his Spirit begins by making the statement, it is not to angels that he, that is God, has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking.

Well, let's begin at the end. What about which what are we speaking? Here the writer to the Hebrews is referring back to all the things that have just been said concerning the world to come. And everything that he has told us from verse 1 in chapter 1 all the way through to verse 4, has been a reiteration and a reminder of all the great glory that God has made available to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll remember that in these last days he has spoken to us by and through his Son. We even read in verse 4 of chapter 2 that God testified to it. Jesus Christ came to sanctify, sanction it, that the disciples bore testimony to it.

These are the things about which we are speaking. And by the way, the use of the royal we there, God again by his Spirit through the writer to the Hebrews, is addressing this Hebrew or this Jewish audience and he is making his conversation all inclusive. There is a sense in which his dialogue with this Jewish crowd has become a dialogue in the sense that he has invited the Jewish audience to participate with him in a conversation concerning the validity of the Messiah who is Jesus Christ. Remember that he is talking about who Jesus Christ is. And so God tells us here in his Word these things about which we are speaking.

I want you to know something. It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come. Have you ever wondered what the Lord means in the book of Revelation when he says that at the end of the thousand year reign in Revelation chapter 20 that there will be a new heaven and a what? A new earth. Have you ever wondered what that is? Now it is interesting here if we are going to try to understand what God is trying to say concerning man, we have got to understand where he has man and in what relationship God has man where he has him.

Now I know where I am. I want you to know that I'm on this earth and something rather interesting here because he says it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, a future world. Which world is he talking about?

Well, you have to go back and really study this. The most common use in the scriptures of the word for world is the word that we use cosmos. The cosmos. You talk about the cosmos, you're talking about the universe.

All of God's creation. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message, What a Man by Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don wants you to know we're here for you. We would love to pray with you, love to be able to connect you with resources that will help you grow in your faith and we can do that at the end of this phone number 866-899-WORD.

Jot it down, store it in your cell. It's 866-899-9673. And we'd love to connect you with resources like right now, if you haven't heard about it, there's a message called, Is This The End? When we think of the times that we're living through right now, we wonder, is this the end?

Well, Dr. Wilton deals with that in a wonderful message you'll find on our website at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, right now it's a companion with a wonderful book called, The King is Coming. Both are on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. And again, as we pray for our world, as we pray for our nation, know that we would love to join you in prayer any time, 24 hours a day on our prayer line at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. The cosmos refers to the stars and to the galaxies. It refers to space. It refers to the magnificence of all of God's creation. Well, God doesn't use the word cosmos here. He's not talking about all of creation. Another word that we find in the Greek text is the word eon or ion, which literally means the unfolding of all of God's creation according to the chronology and the dispensation of God's grace. Here the Lord is not using the word cosmos. He's not talking about all the galaxies. He's not talking about the unfolding of God's grace according to His timetable. No, what God is doing here, He uses the word oikumene, which literally means the inhabited earth.

Now folks, listen carefully. What God is doing here is He is about to tell us something concerning this earth, this inhabited earth. And what God is about to tell us is that this inhabited earth, while it is inhabited today, while man dwells upon it, is going to be inhabited after the dispensation of God's grace according to the book of Revelation. Now there's something very interesting here.

There is something very, very interesting. If you go back into the book of Genesis, the Bible says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Have you ever wondered why the Lord didn't say in the beginning God created the heavens and Mercury and Venus and Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and the stars and earth? How come God talks about the heavens and the earth? Haaretz, in Genesis and in the book of Revelation in chapter 21, he talks about the new heaven and the new earth, not the cosmos, but the oikumene, the inhabited earth.

Now friends, I want you to listen today because we're going to come up on a question in a moment. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the sons of man that you would take the trouble to visit upon them and pour out your concern and your grace and your care upon them? But here in verse 5 he establishes something.

It's a negative statement. The Spirit of God says it is not to angels, that God will be subjecting the world to come about which we have been speaking concerning Jesus Christ. See, God has an order. God, the angels, man.

Well, if you look at it with me, how do we know this? He tells us here, quoting from Psalms and from some other passages, he says in verse 7, you made him a little lower than the angels. By the way, who is the son of man or who are the sons of man? Ezekiel uses that phrase. I've heard some theologians say that that is a reference to Jesus Christ.

No, it is not. And the reason we know that it is not is because what we find here is the word anthropos. Here we find a direct reference to man who has been created by the hand of God from the dust of the earth. Every time that Jesus Christ, the son of man, is referred to as the son of man, there is no reference to creation because Jesus Christ was never created because he is God and he was God and he always will be God. But in this instance, God is telling us that man that God is concerned about was created from the dust of the earth and he was created to be a little lower than angels.

I'm going to talk about that in a minute. And when he was created a little lower than the angels, God crowned him with glory and honor. Why did God crown him with glory and honor? Because when God created man, he looked upon man and he said, it is good. God never attributes goodness to that which he does not crown with glory and with honor. That is why God was able to crown the son of God who himself became a little lower than the angels.

Why? Because what Jesus Christ did was good. And when you talk about good in relation to the heart of almighty God, you're talking about the righteousness of Christ Jesus. And when you talk about his goodness, you're talking about righteous goodness and righteous goodness warrants the crowning of God's glory. And so it is that he tells us everything was put under his feet in verse eight. How did that happen?

Go back to the Genesis account. When God created man, everything was put in subjection under man. Man had dominion. The word there in the Hebrew text is he had dominion. He had authority. He had power. He had dominion over the beast of the field. And in putting everything under him, God left nothing that was not subject to him. Yet at this present time, we do not see everything subject to him.

Why? Because of the sin of Adam. Folks, when Adam fell, when Adam and Eve sinned, that relationship with God, God's order was ruptured.

It burst open. Man was laid asunder. Prior to that time, death was not even in the scheme of things. But from the time that Adam died, you read right throughout Scripture, he died, she died, he died, she died, he died, she died. No wonder in verse nine, we see Jesus Christ who tasted death so that everybody can once again have life. I wonder this passage concerns the superiority of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, without whom we are nothing. And then we come to that climactic moment in verse nine. Surely verse nine is one of the most magnificent of all passages. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels. Hold on a minute. I thought God made man a little lower than the angels.

That's exactly right. So, my friends, at this Christmas time, what do you think happened to Jesus? What are we celebrating? Yes, we are celebrating the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man. If man was created to be a little lower than the angels and Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem's manger and became the God-man, this is the divinity of Jesus Christ, the God-man. He became sin for us, even though he himself knew no sin. Jesus Christ, the superior one, was made a little lower than the angels.

He identified with man in every single point, yet without sin. Now he is crowned with glory and honour. Why is Jesus Christ crowned with glory and honour?

There it is. Because he suffered death. What is death? Death is the penalty for sin. It is the consequence of my sin, so that by the grace of God, what is the grace of God? For God so loved the world that he gave.

That's the grace of God, so that by the grace of God, Jesus Christ might be the one who has tasted death on my behalf. And on your behalf, here's our question. What then is man, that you are mindful of him, or the sons and daughters of men, that you would care for them like this? How do we understand what God is trying to say to us?

There are four things I want to give to you, albeit briefly this morning. Number one, if we're going to understand our position as man, there is a present world to consider. This world, this Akumine, this inhabited earth, this planet, this place called Spartanburg, South Carolina. There are three things about this world that the Bible tells us. Number one, it is led by the prince of this world. Jesus told us that in John chapter 12 and verse 31 and John chapter 14 and verse 30, and on and on it goes. It is led by the prince of this world, and his name is Satan.

Number two, we're going to consider this present world. We've got to understand that this present world is under demonic influence. Ephesians chapter six and verse 12, principalities and powers, darkness, wicked things in heavenly places.

The Bible tells us that this present world is not only led by the prince of this world, but it is under demonic influence. And number three, it is ministered to by holy angels. Go back to chapter one and verse 14, are not all angels ministering spirits, sent to serve those who are inheriting salvation? You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and when we think about phrases like that, aren't angels sent to minister to those who are seeking salvation? Perhaps not only that truth, but the reality of what you've heard from the living word of God, the Bible itself, God's encouraging word today, through God's minister, Dr. Don Wilton, you realize you need to make a change. There's a course correction necessary.

Sometimes it's a radical one. You need to turn around and head in a new direction with Jesus. Just know that we're here to pray with you, to connect with resources at 866-866-866.

866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. Or perhaps rather than talk to us right now, you need to talk to God. Here's Dr. Don with our next step in what's happening in our lives as we grow in Jesus. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin.

I confess my sin to you. And I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you've prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey.

And in just a moment, I'm going to come back with a final word. Perhaps you just prayed along with Dr. Don Wilton moments ago to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life to Jesus. You need to know Dr. Wilton wants you to have some free resources that will help you take the next step, that will help you grow. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. Call for your free resources right now if you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life today. The number is 866-899-9673. You can also connect with us on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. And while you're there, I pray you'll consider signing up for the daily encouraging word devotional email from Dr. Wilton that comes out every morning. You can sign up on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. And while you're on our website, there is so much excitement about this message from Dr. Wilton simply answering this question, Is this the end?

Here's Liz with all the details. Believers around the world are asking these questions. Is Jesus about to come back? Is this the end of the world? Join Dr. Wilton as he answers these questions straight from God's word in his message, Is this the end? Also, as a bonus, you will receive The King is Coming by Erwin Lutzer, renowned theologian and friend. Both of these ministry resources will greatly bless, motivate, and encourage you in anticipation of our Lord Jesus' return. Be assured, God has everything under control.

He is our living hope. Call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 and request, Is this the end?

In the bonus book, The King is Coming for yourself or your friend today. Thank you for listening and thank you for supporting The Encouraging Word. Now it's time to spread the gospel. It's such a powerful resource among many resources you'll find on our website at www.tewonline.org. You may have seen Dr. Wilton on TBN just the other day talking about the book he wrote about his 20 plus years of being the pastor of Dr. Billy Graham. That resource is on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. Again, the way to connect is 866-899-WORD. That phone number is available 24 hours a day to connect you with one of us live. Happy to pray with you, to connect you with resources. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online as well 24 hours a day at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org and I hope you'll join us tomorrow. Tomorrow we continue and complete this message, What a Man, from Dr. Don Wilton. Until then, I pray you have a blessed day and will join us again for more of God's encouraging word with Dr. Don Wilton.