The Ultimate Intention

If you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, we're looking at verses 5 through 9. If you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, if you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2, believers who have been threatened, persecuted, and rejected by their families and fellow Jews.

They are hurting. They have not been privy to Paul's wisdom in 2 Timothy 3.12 when Paul said, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. They can't understand why Jesus doesn't step up on their behalf, straighten out these unbelieving brothers and sisters.

They were thinking in the temporary and not the eternal. Lord help us not to do that. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus and come hell or high water. May we not compromise for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. I went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and our homiletics professor was our next door neighbor and he had a saying that I used to really like. He said that the pastor's responsibility is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

That's a great saying and there's much truth to it because that's what a balanced ministry should be all about. And that's exactly what we see in the book of Hebrews. In the book of Hebrews, we see this long extended discourses on comfort for the believer and then he'll turn right around and give us dire warnings and just hard hitting exhortations.

For example, in chapter one, he writes to the suffering persecuted Jewish Christians who they're going through being castigated and some of them are being martyred and they're going through a very, very tough time. And they're being told, you need to run from your Christianity. You need to recant your faith. You need to turn away from this heresy and just come back to Judaism.

And so in chapter one, what does the writing of Hebrews tell us? He said, quit thinking in the temporary and start thinking in the eternal. And remember who Jesus is. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is the heir of all things. Jesus Christ is the son of man. He's the son of God. He is the one who went to the cross and shed his blood and died for us that we might have eternal life.

Jesus is the one who rose from the dead, breaking the power of death. Jesus is superior over all things. He is superior over the prophets. He's superior over the priesthood. He is superior over the angels.

He's superior over the law. Who is Jesus? He is the great I am.

He is Yahweh. Folks, if you reject Jesus, you reject God. If you reject Jesus, then you have lost all hope. First chapter of Hebrews, we are told that in this chapter, we are told that your Jewish friends, family, and associates are wrong and they are eternally wrong.

Persecution will be temporary, but salvation is forever. That's comfort for the afflicted in chapter one. Then we get into chapter two and the passage that we dealt with last week, verses one through four, and we have a passage where we are seeing the need for some affliction.

And what does he say? He warns us great warnings about the danger of drifting. And then not only does he warn us about that, but then he says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Today we move back to his emphasis on comforting the afflicted, and I want to share with you something that Richard Phillips had to say that I think really helped me to understand what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across to us.

Listen to this carefully. Richard Phillips said this, several years ago, I had the privilege of addressing a group of college students, many of whom were not believers during Easter week. I sat before them the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only true answer to the problems of the world. Going through various solutions mankind pursued in the last century, things like education, social re-engineering, and income redistribution, I showed how each of these had failed and must fail because of the unresolved problem of sin in the human heart. At the end, one young man stood up and asked me, if the death and resurrection of Jesus is the solution to the problems of this world, and if he's already died and been raised again, then why are the problems all still here?

Wow. When we say Jesus is Lord, the world says, okay, if Jesus is Lord, then why doesn't he fix things? If Jesus is Lord, then why doesn't he fix things on my timetable, they ask. Think about it. The writer of Hebrews leaves no doubt in our mind as to who Jesus is. He is greater than the angels. He is greater than the universe. He is greater than all things. He is enthroned in glory.

Who is he? He is God. Those early Hebrew Christians believed that. They did not doubt that.

They believed it. But now they're saying, we're going through persecution, suffering. Some of us have been martyred for our faith. If that is so, then where is Jesus? Jesus could snap his finger and clean this all up. Jesus could just work it out so that the Jewish people would be scared to death to do anything to Christians. Jesus could just put a protective coating over us so that nothing could get to us. If Jesus is Lord, why is there still sin? If Jesus is Lord, then why is there death? Why is the culture so rotten if Jesus is Lord? How often do we in our culture today ask those same questions?

Let me give you a few examples of those questions being asked. A man lives next door to his neighbor, and this neighbor has been frustrating him and aggravating him. He has gotten bitter against the neighbor. He knows it's not right to be bitter. And so he's crying out, Lord, take this bitterness from my heart.

Yet the bitterness has not gone yet. Where is Jesus? Or there's a little boy who was born crippled. And he is looking out his window one day, and he sees all the other children out playing and jumping and leaping and having a great time. And he looks at himself, and he says, look at me.

I prayed and prayed asking God to heal me, and God has not healed me yet. Where is Jesus? A man's an alcoholic, and this habit has created great problems in his life. He has lost money. He has lost friends. He has hurt his family. He's hurt people that he loves. He has wasted much, much time, and he says, I've asked the Lord to help me.

Where is Jesus? So our question is, why doesn't an all-powerful God who is perfect love just break all my sin and my temptations? Why doesn't he deal with the wickedness of atheistic abortionists who are killing babies in the womb? Why doesn't he do that? Why doesn't he take the perversion and the wokeness and the corruption in our government, in our culture today, and just do away with it?

Why is sex trafficking so prominent in the country in which we live, where little children are being stolen, taken away, and those children are being sexually molested, and it happens so often they get sick and diseased, and then oftentimes they are killed, and the government and the culture turns its back as if it really isn't happening. Folks, the writer of Hebrews does not give us all the answers. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29, the scripture says that the secret things belong to the Lord. I'm reading a book by Alistair Begg, and it's a devotional book, and I got to a devotional the other day where he was emphasizing Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And what he said here goes right along with what I'm trying to get across. I wanted to read it to you. At one point or another, when we're facing trouble in life, we're all tempted to ask, what's the point of all this? Why make the effort to keep going? Why do I face all the difficulty or opposition? Sometimes it looks as if some 21st century churches and Christians live and operate primarily out of discouragement rather than being glad and rejoicing in the day that the Lord has made.

Some despondency is understandable, but we certainly don't want to live there all the time, nor do we need to. Our discouragement should never lead us to disbelieve that God is still at work. The fact of the matter is that sometimes God's work looks less impressive from a worldly viewpoint than we'd like. But while some trust in chariots, some in horses, we are to trust in the name of the Lord our God.

In the heat of battle, combat equipment like chariots and horses sure was intimidating. Yet while it may seem that the side with the most firepower always wins, we must never forget that God is always at work among his people and he will give victory, not by might, not by power, but by his spirit. So we don't know why God answers some prayers with yes and some prayers with no. We don't know why God breaks some addictions and temptations in our life and then some he leaves us to fight and to struggle with that we might be more dependent upon him. Before I came to know Christ, I was developing a problem with alcohol. When I came to know Jesus, he immediately took that problem away. I mean completely away. I couldn't stand the smell of it. I didn't want to be around it.

I've not touched a drop of alcohol in 52 years. He took it completely, totally, gloriously away, but there are other things that I still struggle with today. There are other things that I need to be so dependent upon him and I need to work and to put out effort on those things that I might have victory.

Now unless I miss my guess and I'm not going to miss it, every single one of you are dealing with that very same thing. You are not complete yet, but the sovereign Lord loves me. Because the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away my sin and made me his child, but he didn't perfect me.

He didn't break all the bondages. Is that good? Is that okay?

It is. Romans 8 28 says that God works all things together for good to those who love him and those who are called according to his purpose. So if Jesus says no or wait a while, it is a good no or a good wait a while.

It will ultimately be for my good and my glory. Now I'm not saying that my sin is okay for it's certainly not. Let me tell you what God does. God chastens those who he loves according to Hebrews chapter 12. If I'm doing something that's out of God's will, he's going to deal with my heart and I might not like it and it may hurt, but you know what? It lets me know that I belong to Jesus, that God is my father and that he loves me as a father loves his son and it also gives me assurance of my salvation that I genuinely truly belong to him. Well, what about sicknesses and accidents and infirmities?

What about those things? How often do we pray for a sickness or somebody that's been infirmed and we don't get the answer that we want? I think of Joni Eareckson Tada. She's 17 years old. She was in a swimming accident. She broke her spine. For the last 55 years, she has suffered as a paraplegic. She's been paralyzed from the neck down. For 55 years, she has not been able to take one step. She has been in a lot of pain, but she intensely knows and loves the Lord Jesus and she has been a witness for Christ and her life is counted, just has done so much good for thousands and thousands of paraplegics.

Let me tell you, the day is coming when Joni Eareckson Tada is going to die and when she dies, she is going to glory and she is going to be perfectly, totally whole and healthy and for all eternity, she's going to be rewarded for how the Lord used her while she was here on this earth. Look, we think we know what's best for us. We don't. We think we can manipulate God sometimes through prayer and make him give us what we want.

We can't. God's answer will always be for our good and for his glory. What about that sin that we hate, that we see destroying our culture?

We pray that God would deal with it and that God would bring it to an end. Eugene has been preaching a series of sermons on the book of Ezekiel. It's been a powerful series and in that book, we have seen over and over again that there are consequences for spiritual apathy and spiritual rebellion, that there are consequences when a culture worships false gods, that there are consequences when a culture thumps its nose in God's face. God sent Judah into exile because of Judah's worshiping of false gods and because of Judah's rebellion against him and all hell could not change the fact that they were going to exile. I guarantee you, the people of Judah pray, Lord, don't let this happen. Don't let Jerusalem be destroyed. Don't let Babylon come in and destroy our temple. Lord, don't put us in exile. God said no.

They were going into exile and they did. When they did, the world was able to see that sin and rebellion and the worship of false gods was going to cost and the cost was painful and the cost was real. Ezekiel could not prevent that kind of judgment. Ezekiel could not manipulate God into changing his mind.

Let me tell you what that did. While they were in exile, God dealt with hearts and God began to do things in their lives that they had never had happened before and Ezekiel himself was changed forever. I hear preachers today going to Romans chapter 1 and they point out the sins of homosexuality and sexual perversion and say, if we don't stop this, then God's going to send judgment. Let me tell you something, folks, the sin of homosexuality and sexual perversion is the judgment and we need to understand that.

What brought it about? What caused that judgment? Well, let's look at a passage in Romans 1 and let's look at the cause of God's judgment on a culture. Romans 1 18 through 23, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. When people hear the truth about God and they reject it and they suppress it and they refuse to give God honor and give God thanks, then God lifts his hand of restraining grace off of those people, lets them do what their wicked hearts want to do and gives them over to a reprobate mind. The perversion, the corruption, the wokeness that we are seeing in our culture today is not the cause of coming judgment.

It is the beginning of judgment on this nation. The writer of Hebrews is dealing with this very thing. The superiority of Christ over priests, over prophets, over angels, over the law lets us know that Jesus is God and he is a God who does all things well. So let me ask you this, does the persecution and martyrdom of the early church negate that truth?

And the answer to that is absolutely no. Jesus prophesied it. He told us it was coming. Jesus said, if they hate me, they will hate you. If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you.

If they crucified me, they will kill you. The servant is not greater than his master. All right. I want to take a look at the passage and I'm going to use Kent Hughes, his outline here because I really like the way he put it. But point one is the original intention. Look at verses 6 through 8a. It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him who made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. Now remember the audience that the writer of Hebrews is writing to, he's writing to Jews and these Jews loved the book of Psalms and many of the Jews had memorized a lot of the Psalms. Probably most of them had memorized Psalm chapter 8.

And they knew not only the little quote that is given by the writer of Hebrews but they knew the verses that came right before that. And what were those verses? Psalm 8 verses 3 through 5.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, crowned him with glory and honor. The Psalmist had Genesis 1 verse 26 through 28 in mind when he said that. It says, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. The Psalmist, Moses and the writer of Hebrews are telling us that they are absolutely astonished at God's original intention for man. God made man a little lower than the angels. We're not as strong as the angels. We're not as powerful as the angels. We are a little lower than the angels and then the Psalmist points to the vastness of God's creation and he does that for what purpose?

To show us how puny and how weak we really are. He said this, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, then what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? The first century Jew was able to go outside and he could look up into the sky. He could see the sun. He could see the moon. At night he could see the stars. He was amazed by that.

Wow. Look how big they are. Look how far away they are. Oh, friends, think of the technology that we have today where we can look past what can be seen with a visible eye and we know today that there are billions and billions of stars.

There are multiplied galaxies out there. What should that do to us? We should be much more wowed even than the first century Christians and the first century Jews.

The writer of Hebrews is teaching us about God's original intention for us. Think of man's astonishing position. God made us a little lower than the angels.

We in this life have a fleshly body. Angels have a spiritual body. The angels can appear and disappear. We can't. The angels can be here one second, miles away the next second.

We can't do that. We are a little lower than the angels. Then think of man's astonishing honor. The Scripture says that God is crowned man with glory and honor. God created Adam and Eve. They were the king and queen of this world.

They were put into a glorious paradise and God walked with them. Then think of man's astonishing authority. Genesis 1 28 says, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Adam and Eve were given rule over the world.

All things were put in subjection under them. So the original intention of God for man was absolutely stupendous. If man had been faithful and obedient to God, if Adam and Eve had not sinned, if Adam and Eve's descendants had not sinned, then we would be like Adam and Eve today. Angels and queens on this earth.

What happened? But sin, sin. Takes us to point two and that is the intention stalled. Look at verse eight. Putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, will you not yet see everything in subjection to him? The author of Hebrews says, wait a minute. We don't see all things under subjection to him right now, do we? That's what I was saying earlier. If all things are under subjection to him, then why isn't God answering my prayer?

Let my 21-year-old granddaughter be healed of arthrogryposis. Why is it that I still struggle with temptations to sin and oftentimes lose those temptations? Folks, the culprit is sin. Kent Hughes said this, Adam sinned and as a consequence, his God-given dominion became twisted.

Man's rule over creation has through the centuries become an ecological disaster. His reign over the animal world is superficial. He achieves it by intimidation.

Obey me or I'll eat you or I'll wear you. And sometimes himself, he has been the feast. The problem is he cannot rule over himself, let alone others. And the dictum, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, is lived out before the eyes of every generation as it was so personally being done before the storm-tossed little church.

Chesterton was right. Whatever else is true about man, this one thing is certain, man is not what he was meant to be. All right, point three is the ultimate intention, verses eight through nine. Putting everything in subjection under his feet, now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. What about God's intention? Will his intention ever be achieved?

Yes. And not just his known intention to Adam, but his ultimate intention that we experience in Christ. The writer of Hebrews shows us that Jesus, son of man, stepped up and did what none of us could. He lived sin perfectly sinless on this earth. He lived perfectly righteous on this earth. And then God crowned him with glory and honor as he went to the cross and shed his blood to wash away the sin of God's people. The apostle Paul said it this way in Philippians chapter two, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things of heaven, of things of the earth, of things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In other words, Jesus fulfilled God's ultimate intention and he passed the benefits along to you and me. Folks, I will have to fight sin until the day that I die. You will have to fight sin until the day that you die. But when you die and when I die, or if Jesus comes back before we die, then I can promise you this, at that very moment, our sin nature is going to be totally eradicated. Johnny X and Tada will throw away her wheelchair and be whole and complete forever and ever and ever in the lost world who has mocked us, who has persecuted us, who has martyred us, who has hated us, who has laughed at the idea that a thrice holy God will hold them accountable one day, along with all the fallen angels who followed Satan in his rebellion. They are going to be cast into the burning lake of fire where they will experience judgment forever and ever and ever.

Folks, justice will happen. But we will be with him and we will be with him forever. Folks, that's comfort.

Not just for the persecuted Jewish Christian who lived in that early church, but for you and me. We can know it. We can hold it in our heart. We can meditate on it day and night. We're going to be with Jesus. We're going to be with him forever and we will experience his glory and the joy will be unbelievable. Kent Hughes concluded the passage this way.

He said, this is meant to be our comfort today as well. You may journey into a great city such as Chicago. You may walk through the maze of skyscrapers with an existential sense of significance on the level of a gnat.

Your workplace is perhaps within the dark recesses of a granite landmark and your comings and going would mean less than nothing to the city of Chicago or any other major city. But on the authority of God's word, you're important and you're of infinite value. You are just a little lower than the angels. You will be crammed with glory and honor.

Everything will be put under your feet. You may say, Doug, how can this be? I don't see it, but we see Jesus who for a little while was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor. He is our promise. He is God's ultimate intention for us. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we are limited by our lack of understanding of your perfect will. We know that Deuteronomy 29, 29 tells us about the secret things of God. Many things will not be revealed to us in this life. Many situations will cause us frustration because we think we know best. Help us to realize that our eyes need to be fixed on Christ who always does all things well. It is in the precious, holy name of Jesus that I pray, amen.