take our Bibles up and turn to the book of Hebrews, their third sermon. I preached the first four verses and then the rest of chapter one and the first four verses of chapter two last time I was here. And the title of the sermon today is Lower but Still Better, remembering that Hebrews is all about Jesus and his superiority. Book of Hebrews chapter 2, beginning in verse 5, we'll read down to verse 18. This is God's word, please therefore give careful attention to its reading. Hebrews 2, verse 5, for it was not to angels, that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him. You 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. 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. For it was fitting that He for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me, verse 14, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect. so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you For this word, we pray that you would bless us as we listen, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive, hands to apply, feet to walk it out. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Well, many Christians, says Michael Barrett, Many Christians have a problem with the Christian life. Faith loses its attractiveness, initial enthusiasm dwindles, disillusionment sets in. And I think these words would be true of the audience that the author of Hebrews is writing to. They were having a problem with the Christian life. This is not a comment made by Barrett about the book of Hebrews. It's not about the Hebrew Christians. It's about a different topic altogether, but it's fitting. Because a lot of Christians, maybe that describes us. We're professing Christians, but we actually have a problem with the Christian life. Maybe we've professed faith and faith has lost its attractiveness. Maybe initial enthusiasm has dwindled or waned. Maybe we're disillusioned. And if these things are true, if they describe us, then we do well to listen to the teaching of the book of Hebrews, remembering that these Hebrew Believers remembering that this book is written to former Jews Old Testament Jews who were coming out of Judaism into Christianity and as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ They were disowned by their families they were mistreated persecuted Verbally physically Some had even died. Businesses were shunned, and so they lost everything. They lost their livelihood. There were great ramifications for their faith, their belief in Jesus Christ. Listen, it made their lives more difficult. And now, they're thinking, let's go back. Let's go back to Judaism. Let's go back to the family. Let's go back to the old ways. In large part because life would be easier, but also because there's this idea that if there's something that we can see, if there's a priest standing there in the temple slaying animals, if there's blood that's flowing and I can see it, And I can smell it. And I can smell offerings that are being burnt on the altar. The temple still stood when this book was written, it seems. So let's go back to what we can see. Let's go back to what we can feel. Let's go back to when we kind of had a feeling like we're doing something in relation to our salvation. It's not just kind of this faith thing. We're walking by faith and not by sight. We actually want to walk by sight. It's easier that way. And so the author of the book of Hebrews, the author of the book of Hebrews, probably writing a sermon to be delivered to these folks that were perhaps in Rome, in a small church, maybe this size, maybe smaller, is trying to get to them and say, don't go back. Because God is no longer there. If you go back to the Old Testament system, God has, he's left it. He's now in the New Testament. He's spoken his final word in Christ, which we see in the introduction. If you go back to the Old Testament ways, you go to the Old Testament sacrificial system, he's not there anymore. He's here. He's here where life is harder. He's here where persecution happens. He's here. And so we're gonna talk about three things this afternoon. We're gonna talk about what will be, and we're gonna talk about what is right now, presently, the current day, and then we'll wrap up by talking about how we get there to glory from here. How does that happen? And we're certainly not going to be able to cover everything in this passage. There's so much here. But I also want us to think about the fact that in chapter one, as the author is writing to the Hebrews and saying that Jesus is superior, Jesus is better, Jesus is the final word of God, better than the Old Testament system, and better than the Old Testament writings. He fulfills all that, he's better. He's a better prophet. We'll see he's better than Moses. But for chapter one, chapter two, he's better than angels. And in chapter one, it's really significant because he is exalted far above the angels. He's exalted far above the angels. He is on the throne of God. He's sitting at God's right hand. He's the creator. He's a sustainer. He's the one that's moving everything to its intended purpose, its telos, its goal, its end. He's moving the world, the universe, everything, your life, to where God wants it to be. He is doing all that. He's infinitely superior to the angels that are created beings, that are servants. He's the Son. They are messengers. He's the message, you see. And then at the end of chapter 1, in the first four verses, there's that exhortation to hear the Word of God. How are we going to escape if we neglect this great salvation that is summarized in Christ, that is brought about by Christ? And now he returns to angels in chapter two, but he shows the superiority of Jesus not here by being above, but actually by becoming lower than the angels. And that's something that they must have wrestled with in those days. How is he above angels? and superior to angels, but then lower than angels, and in some way, less than, at least for a time, than angels. How does that mesh? And so, the first thing he says here is, in verse five, for it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are now speaking. Now, in some sense, the idea here is that the world to come the world that now is, is in some way under the oversight of angels. But the point I want to focus on, and what I want to delve into, is that God has, verse 5, subjected the world to come that we're talking about right here, to Jesus, to the Son of God. Jesus rules and reigns over the age to come. the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness alone will dwell." The eternal state. In chapter 1 we've seen that already Jesus sits and rules and reigns over all things at God's right hand. But in the age to come, in the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness alone will dwell, Christ will rule forever and ever. I want us to think about that for just a moment, what that looks like. A few things that I've jotted down here. And we all kind of sense this tension, and this tension is in the passage. We believe the things that are true about Jesus, but we don't see him yet, and we'll get to that in point two. But the things that are true about Jesus and the way things will be for all of eternity, we have to have anchored in our minds right now. We have to have these glorious heavenly realities anchored in our minds today as we go through this world. So the eternal heavens, The new heavens and the new earth where righteousness alone will dwell will be ushered in at the return of Christ. The new heavens and the new earth are glorious because God is there. And by the way, heaven, if God's not there, we shouldn't want to be there either. The greatest thing about heaven, the greatest things about the new heavens and the new earth is that the triune God will be there, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And further, they are suffused, old language, with lustrous glory. They are a glorious place. They will be a place of holiness where nothing defiling will ever enter in. Nothing unholy will be allowed to dwell. They will be a place of security where there will be no risk of danger, no enemies within or without. Evil will be judged and done away with fully and finally forevermore. You know, we look around and there's things that threaten us from without. And one of the things that I'm not concerned about enough that I ought to be concerned about more is the evil that comes from within. From within my own heart. Do you think about that? It could be well said that your biggest enemy is yourself. What's the biggest problem with the world? I think G.K. Chesterton was famously quoted as saying, and maybe he did or maybe he didn't. I was in a newspaper years ago, and Chesterton was around. Hey, what's the biggest problem with the world? Chesterton writes in and says, dear sir, the biggest problem with the world is me. Evil within. there will be holiness, there will be security, there will be love, unspeakable consolation, as we will fully understand, as much as we're able, God's love for us. And then we'll be able to respond rightly with ours for God, and then ours for others as well. God says the greatest two commandments, love God supremely, love your neighbor as yourself, and we know that we are incapable, woefully inadequate to do that perfectly now. But someday that will happen. Holiness, security, love, unceasing enjoyment, pleasure, fulfillment. Everything will be great all of the time. And God will be there at the center. We will delight in glorifying Him, enjoying Him always and forever. Our desire to know Him and love Him and serve Him will be matched by a capability and a capacity to actually do that. Can you imagine what that will be like? I can't. It's beyond me, my capability. Can you imagine just having interaction and fellowship with your brothers and sisters in the Lord, people that you know, your nearest and dearest people in your life, that just goes on in unceasing ways? Think of the best days you've had with people that you've spent time doing different things, and it's been great. corner. It's the tip of the iceberg of what every day throughout the eternal ages will be like as it gets better and better and better and better forever more. And so Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, is the ruler of the world to come. God the Father has subjected the world to come to him. And Like, we need to walk around knowing that. We need to understand these realities that are 100% true. And by the way, the promises that are for what is to come are no more certain, are no less certain than the promises that have already been given to us. The blessings that God has given to you because of your salvation in Jesus Christ that are yours right now, like justification, like sanctification, like the many other gifts that go along with what Christ has done for you, the things that are future, that are yet for a future time, are no less certain than the things that are already yours, that you already have. They're no less certain. Why? Because Christ has already secured them. He's already procured them for you. They are yours in Him. It's just a matter of when God will meet them out. When God will give them to you. But you have to be anchored in the fact that these things are true. How do you know that? Because the Word of God says so. And the Word of God is absolutely 100% true. inerrant, infallible, authoritative. We stand on the Word of God. So a lot of times we cannot think about these different things. We can get caught up in the urgent, the present. We can be cloudy in our thinking. We can be muddled in our thinking, et cetera, et cetera. But we need to set our minds on certain realities. We need to think clearly that Jesus rules now. He will rule eternally. It has been decreed, determined, and accomplished. And this should absolutely affect the way that we live today, tomorrow, and every day until we see Jesus face to face. So that's what will be. Now, what is now? Well, whether you're a professing Christian in the first century like these Hebrews that are thinking about going back or living today a post-Christian America, it can be hard to live. The world is a mess. We all know that to be the case. The world is a mess. The scriptures call it this present evil age. Unbelievers often find hope. You understand that human beings are a hopeful people. We can't get out of bed in the morning without hope. We all hope in something. We all hope in some things. We all hope in people, things, et cetera. We all find things to hope in. And the world hopes in finding the right politicians. The world hopes in the right technological advancement. The world hopes in getting rid of these antiquated beliefs If only we could get rid of all of these Christian beliefs, then we'll be better off. These antiquated, these old beliefs. And on and on it goes. But what about us? What are we hoping in? What are we trusting in? Again, it has to be Christ. It has to be the one that we find spoken of here in these verses as the author quotes from Psalm 8. It's been testified somewhere, verse six says. Somebody said somewhere, and it's Psalm eight, is what he's referring to. What is man that you're mindful of him? Or the son of man that you care for him? And I love the humility here. So many times people will say, you know what, if God's real, he owes me something. Well, of course God cares for me because I'm amazing. Or, you know, When I see God, he's got some things to answer for, I'll tell you what. But this mentality from the psalmist, probably David as a teenager, as he looked up at the heavens and he saw the vastness of the heavens and he thought about his own smallness, he marveled. What is man? As I look at the created order, what is man, God, that you would care? even a little bit, that you would be concerned with me. Right, that was the notion. And the one that was originally made a little lower than the angels was Adam. He was crowned at the beginning with glory and honor. Everything was subject to him in the creation account, right, in the beginning of Genesis. But what did Adam do? He totally messed things up. He plunged the world into a state of sin and misery. And so, through Scripture, as you go through, you see different situations where people fail, and then God raises somebody else up. Like, this guy fails, so God says, you're done, I'm gonna raise somebody else up and fix it, make it better. But who could replace Adam? Who could fix what Adam messed up? Who could possibly do such a thing? One who plunged the entire state, the entire world into a state of sin and misery. Who could fix that? And of course it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam that scripture actually calls him. He comes and he's the one that this psalm is ultimately about. He's the one that fulfills Psalm 8. He's the one that was made a little lower than the angels, ultimately, right? And that's why we talk about the title of the sermon, He's Lower But Still Better. Why was he, as we see in verse nine, but we see him, at present we don't yet see everything in subjection to him. As we look at the world, it's still a mess, But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. Why was He made lower than the angels? For the suffering of death. Why was He made lower than the angels? How was He better than angels? By being made lower than angels? So that He could die for your sins. So that He could taste death for you, that you deserve. so that he could take the wrath of God, he could propitiate the wrath of God, as the end of the passage says, so that you might live forever. That's how he's made lower and is still better. So now you have the God-man, right? You have this passage that talks about the greatness of God, the exaltation of Christ as being God the Son, the Son of God, But then He's made lower, and as He becomes like us, He becomes one of us. Verse 14, What an amazing reality. What an amazing glory. Glorious thing. But, you know, we don't see everything subjected to Him. but we see Him through the eyes of faith. And my question is, do you? My question is, do you see Jesus as you go through what you go through? As you face hard things, do you see Jesus? Or do you just see your circumstances? Do you just see the hard things? Do you just see what you're going through and say, I don't, this is, this makes no sense to me. Why am I suffering? Why am I going through this? Why are there hard things? Or do you see Jesus? And listen, if Jesus suffered when he came and he was perfect in every way, He never failed. He never fell short. He never disobeyed. He never turned his back on God. He never said, not going to do that. And yet he suffered still. How could we ever hope to escape? God has many sons, one without sin, but none without suffering. And the passage speaks of us all as the sons, the sons and daughters, the brethren, that belong to God through Jesus Christ. And so as you go through hard things, dear friends, as you think about the things that you're going through, never look at them apart from Christ. Never forget to see what you're going through in your life without seeing them through the lens of Christ. Christ suffered, tasted death for you that you might live forever in the glory that we spoke of in point one. We understand the world is broken. We understand that the world is a mess. It's because of sin. We understand that God has a plan for it. Everything's moving towards the judgment in the last day, when everybody who hasn't repented their sins and trusted in the Savior will be judged in their sin and for their sin, and they will pay for it throughout the eternal ages. They will be cast into the lake of fire with the devil and those rebellious angels. That day is coming, dear friend. where all the wrongs will be made right, where the righteous God will judge all things. And we remember right now that God the Son is sitting on the throne, crowned with glory and honor. And I want you to understand that principle of scripture, that Jesus is crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering that he endured. That's what the passage teaches. And the pattern that you see in scripture, the pattern that you see in Christ is the pattern that is in your own life. first suffering, then glory. I know we all want glory now, but the pattern that God spells out in scripture, the pattern that is clear for each of us and all of us together is suffering, then glory. Glory is coming, friends, but suffering is for this time now. And so we walk by faith and not by sight. That's what Hebrews is all about, brothers and sisters. Walking by faith and not by sight. Seeing the unseen through your belief and your trust in God. That's what being a Christian is all about. It is about a supernatural gift given to you by God after he gives you a new heart. and then gives you the ability to believe the scriptures that you know people, don't you, that think they're a joke. They think that this book is a fairy tale, but God has granted you the ability to believe if you do in fact believe. And he's calling you day by day to look to him, to trust in him, and to walk by faith and not by sight. And sometimes people will say, you know what, my God would never You know, God would never do this. But in verse 10, we see something about the way that God is, the things that are fitting for God to do. Do you see that in verse 10? For it was fitting that God, the one for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons, sons and daughters, us, to glory, He would make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. You want to know what God's like? Don't try to come up with something on your own. Look to Scripture. And God is a God that deems it appropriate, counts it to be fitting, to save us through the suffering, through the wrath bearing of His own Son. He looked on Him as He bruised Him, Isaiah 53 says, so that He might pardon us. It was the will of God to crush him for your iniquities so that we might be forgiven and brought to God. It was fitting for God. God says, this is what I'm like. I'm gracious and merciful and kind. And then finally, how do we get there? Just briefly. Again, I just mentioned it, but Jesus is said to be in the ESV, the founder of our salvation. in that he began Christianity by his actions. You could say that he's the pioneer, he's the pathfinder, the trailblazer, in that he carved the way, he made the way, blazed the path or trail, as it were, to the heavenly home, to that place that we talked about in point one, the place where all of those blessings are waiting for us and will be ours forevermore. He made the way for us to get there. The imagery of Genesis, going back to the beginning, I think is really helpful. I really like this image. When Adam sinned as our federal representative and God kicked him out of the garden, remember that? That was the place of God's immediate presence. It said there in that passage before the fall that God would meet with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and there would be this perfect fellowship, this ongoing fellowship that took place on a regular basis. And then when Adam and Eve sinned and fell, God drove them east of Eden and set up, what, angels, angelic beings, at the gate of the garden. And they had these flaming swords so that the only way back into God's immediate presence would have been through death. Like, if you try to come back into God's presence, you will die. And so you go throughout the Old Testament scriptures and you have this idea of come into my presence, but don't come too close. We'll build a tabernacle, we'll build a temple, and that's where God will be, in the center of the camp. But only the high priest can come, and that once a year. And if he's not ready, if he's not properly prepared to come into the Holy of Holies and make that sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, God says, I'll strike him dead. And so what do we see? death of Christ. As Jesus turns back towards the Father, as he turns back so that he might bring us into the immediate presence of God, he does in fact die. He is in fact put to death. And what happens in the veil, when he dies on the cross, what happens to the veil that separates the courts from the Holy of Holies? The veil is torn from top to bottom. Not as man would tear it from bottom to top, but from top to bottom as God would tear it, the veil is torn, which signifies the fact that through Christ's death, we have the ability to come back into God's presence. And then he rises again from the dead. And he sits on the throne of God now. And he looks after us. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He is our Savior, guiding us, bringing us home to be with Him forever. He finished His course and was made perfect through suffering. He completed the course and He comes back to get us. He hasn't forgotten you, dear Christian. He never will. He's with you always to the end of the age, and He will bring you home to glory, successfully getting you there. the enemy deceive you, don't kid yourself. He was forsaken of God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me so that you could never be? He took your hell so that all that is left for you is heaven. And he identifies with us. He was made lower than the angels. He partook of flesh and blood so he could represent us and die for us. And he calls us his brethren, verse 11 and 12, and speaks about the children that the father has given to him in verse 13. He is not ashamed of us. And every day, don't you suppose that every day He has an opportunity to be ashamed of us when we sin against Him in word and thought and deed? Doesn't He have an opportunity to say, these people, I don't even... But He's not ashamed to call us His own. And my question again to you is, are you ashamed to call Him your own? Are you ashamed to identify with Him when things get tough? When people might look at you, give you kind of a side eye? When people might make comments about you? When you might hear people whispering behind your back? Do you kind of step away from Christ in your Christianity? Do you kind of step away from the things that make things a little bit more difficult? Are you ashamed of Him? Or are you willing to stand for Him as He stood for you? You identify with Him. Just a couple benefits as we close. A few more things. He overthrows through his perfect life and then his sin-bearing death, he overthrows the devil that causes so much havoc in his life. He delivers us from a fear of death. He transformed death, takes the stinger out of it as he tasted it for us. So you don't have to be afraid. Your last breath here, dear Christian, is your first breath there. He will meet you and usher you through the veil when your time comes. We don't need to be slaves any longer to the world, the flesh, or the devil. We are free to be what God has made us to be in Christ. And when you fail and fall short, his grace is sufficient as you turn and you confess. He is indeed a faithful and a merciful high priest who offers up the ultimate sacrifice of himself. And he can help us, as verse 18 says, when we are tempted, because we know that we are, because he too was tempted and he ever lives to intercede for us. C.S. Lewis said in his book, The Last Battle, just kind of to summarize this, that this life, these 70 or 80 years, are like the beginning of the real story. The life that we live on this planet, in this body, the way that we are now, is like the cover of a book, like the title page of a book. But when we leave this life and enter into the life to come, when the Lord Jesus returns for His church and we get to glory, it's like the beginning of chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has ever read. A story which goes on forever and ever in which every chapter is better than the one before it. That is what we are looking forward to. Do you believe that to be the case? Do you believe that Jesus lived a perfect life for you before dying on the cross for your sins? Do you believe that He's crowned right now with glory and honor at the right hand of God the Father? Do you believe that He will return to make all the wrongs right and set everything straight to usher in the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness alone will dwell? Then live accordingly. Walk by faith and not by sight. See the unseen. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. We do pray that you would drive these realities home to our hearts when there's areas where we need to repent and turn and confess, that you would give us the ability, the strength to do so, and that we would press in in our relationship with you, that we would understand and know as individuals, as families, as a church, that there is indeed nothing better than knowing you and loving you and serving you today and every day forevermore. We love you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen.