Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker is continuing their study on Hebrews and discussing the superiority of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. They mention that Jesus has provided a way to heaven and later on, they will discuss why we can avoid drifting and how God wants us to become more perfect like Jesus. They pray for guidance in their study and continue reading from Hebrews chapter 2, discussing how Jesus is crowned with glory and honor and how he tasted death for everyone. They then go on to discuss God's original plan as described in Genesis and how it got messed up due to human nature and the enemy's influence. They emphasize that despite this, Jesus has made a way for us and that God already had a plan to fix the problem. So we're going to continue our study on Hebrews. We're in chapter 2, and David's going to fill us in on something a little bit more interesting on the superiority of Jesus Christ and what He's done for us, and that is He's provided a way to heaven. So we're going to be talking about that. Later on, philosophically, we're going to talk about why we can avoid drifting and what God is trying to do in our lives is to help us to be more perfect like Jesus. So that's going to be a fun journey. So let's pray that God will guide us in our study of Hebrews. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the study that we have in Hebrews. We pray that you would bless our hearts and help us to prepare our hearts for hearing your truth. Because the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, divides to the soul and the spirit, joins to the marrow, to the center of the motives and intents of the heart. So your measure, dear Lord, is our hearts, and your standards are high, and we pray that you would help us to, every day, come closer to those standards. And we pray that you would bless the study of, and bless the preparation for David, and pray that you would help him to communicate your truth clearly and your truth with compassion like he normally does. We pray these things to Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. So continuing Hebrews chapter 2, starting in verses 5 and going through verse 9. For he did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying, What is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see him, capital H, who is made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. So by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. So we are going to look at Jesus, the restorer of God's plan. And I thought it would be a good thing to go back and review what was God's plan. So let's turn to Genesis, and let's just see what his plan was. I realize this isn't on the handout, this is extra. I think I have a little extra time tonight, so I'm going to take it. This is that plan that kind of got messed up. You all remember that? Some of you probably could quote it verbatim, but let's see if I can find my Bible. There it is. All right. So. So, so, so, so, so, so, so. Your phone may be interfering with that. My phone? Yeah, that was the main issue. So, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, right? And then you go and you read, God saw in, the earth was formless and void, darkness was of the deep. Spirit of God moving on the surface of the waters. God said, let there be light. There was light. God saw the light. And what does he say? It was good. God called the light day to darkness. He called night. There was evening and morning for one day. God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. Let's separate the waters from the waters. He made the expanse and separated the waters which are below from the waters which are above. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and morning a second day. Then God said, let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place. And let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth and gathering the waters as seas. He called it seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit, trees in the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them. And it was so. The earth brought. Isn't it interesting? God said. God said. God said. God said. Right? God said. All it takes is a word. That's all it takes. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, trees bearing fruit with seed after their kind. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning a third day. God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for the signs and seasons for days and years. And let them be the lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light to the earth. And it was so. God made the two great lights. The greater light to govern the day. The lesser light to govern the night. He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanses of the heavens to give light on the earth and to govern the day and the night and separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. I'm getting a picture here, right? There was evening and there was morning a fourth day. God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. He created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas. And let birds multiply on the earth. There was evening and there was morning a fifth day. God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind. Cattle and creeping things. Beasts of the earth after their kind. It was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind. The cattle after their kind. Everything that creeps to the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good. God said, now here we go. God said, let us. Let us. Who's us? The Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit. And actually, again, the Son doesn't get the name Son until he's incarnated. Isn't that interesting? It's on purpose. Yeah. He said that. Yeah. I mean, I know God doesn't make a mistake, but it was on purpose for us to hear that. Yeah. To know. It is. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Was there any other creature created like this? No. No. Only one. That's us. Our image according to our likeness. Let them rule. What are they supposed to do? Rule. Rule. Over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and the cattle and all over the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps to the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And so do it. Look at the plant. And rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over everything that moves in the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you. And every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky and everything that moves in the earth which has life, I've given every green plant for food. And it was so. Are you all catching that part of it? The way it was originally designed, you didn't have this survival of the fittest. It wasn't there. The animals are eating plants. Humans are eating plants. Nobody's eating each other. Nobody's eating each other. And it was so. God saw all that he had made. And behold, it was very good. Very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. There's the plan. It's good to remember what the plan was. What happened? Well, we go to Genesis chapter 2 and 3 and you find out what happened, right? Now, before we start getting upset with Eve and then Adam, I have to be honest with you. If it had been David sitting there in Adam's place, the result would have been the same. I mean, just be honest, you know, right? Yeah, you're not telling me one day. I mean, I'm just saying. Yeah. Right? We as humans have this nature that the enemy knew exactly how to play to it. And he did a masterful job. A masterful job. Same thing happens today. The enemy asks several questions. The first question is what? Has God said? Right? Has the plan what? A doubt into your mind as to what God really said? He knew what God said. Well, he twisted it a little bit. Yeah, he did. He twisted it a little bit. And then on top of that, he embellished it a little bit. He says, well, here's why he didn't tell you the whole truth. Because you'd be like him. He didn't give you the whole scoop. He just gave you what he wanted you to hear. And so that doubt, that play to the, what I call the P word, the exaltation of self, we call pride. Right? Anybody have trouble with that? Raise your hand. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know. I'm just saying. Right? The enemy does a great job of playing to our pride. Going back to the way we were created. We were creating his image. Now, he gave us the capacity by being created in his image to make a choice. And unfortunately, we didn't choose good. My predecessor, going all the way back to the beginning, did not make a good choice. And as is true for every bad choice that I've ever made, there is a ripple effect that goes on and on and on and on. So we got a problem. Now, unless we get discouraged. Alright? Let's don't get discouraged. Why? Because Jesus made a way. Well, because God knew what? He knew the problem would occur. And he already had a plan to deal with it. Right? Yeah, am I right? Okay. Alright. Just making sure I want to check in. If I get out of line, you need to tell me now. Okay? He made a way because he knew there needed to be a way made. And he already had that before creation was ever brought into being. He already had that in mind. We got to understand. He had a plan. He knew the plan in all likelihood. Well, I'm not saying in all likelihood. He knew the plan was going to get messed up. And he knew what he was going to do to fix it. That's what we're going to look at tonight. How's that for an intro? You like that? Okay. Alright. So that's where this author is coming from. He's coming from the understanding that God had a plan. And he has a way of fulfilling his plan ultimately. And the plan didn't involve angels to bring about the fulfillment of it. And remember, he's sending a letter out to a group of Jews who have as a part of their background and heritage and understanding of angels, of exalting them to a little bit of a higher position than what they should be exalted to. So again, he is contrasting still Jesus with the angels. In this case, he's going to make the point. We'll see in a minute, right? He's going to make the point. Jesus is still superior to angels. Because Jesus is the one who restores the plan. I'm done. I mean, does it get any better? That's it. Woo, it's good. Okay. He did not subject to angels the world to come. As a matter of fact, let's just get real. Angels existed before man, right? There is no indication anywhere in God's Word that angels were created after God's image. Now, they're created separately in a different way. We're the ones creating this image. There's no indication in God's Word that the angels were to have dominion or rule or authority over the earth, over God's creation. Right? We just got through reading it, right? Who's supposed to have that? Us. But there's a certain group of angels who were cunning and crafty, and they found a way to usurp it. And they've caused havoc to this plan ever since. Now, I've read the end. Who else in here has read the end? Right? We know what's going to happen, right? But until it happens, we've still got this challenge on our hands. So the author's writing this to these Jews that are believers, trying to help them to really get a grasp of the significance of God's provision to restore His plan. It was through Jesus Christ, not through the angels. So, he did not subject the angels of the world to come concerning which we're speaking. So that subject translates to the word hypotiso, which is primarily a military term which refers to arranging soldiers in order under a commander. It also can refer to any system of administration. And the word word there, world, the word world translates okamini, which means the inhabited earth. So he didn't give the angels control over the inhabited earth, is what he's saying. In the future, there will be a new inhabited earth. Another inhabited earth. There's going to be a new creation. In the future, there will be an inhabited earth. It says the one to come, right? Am I right? I'm going to get ahead of myself here. Yeah, the world to come. There we go. He did not subject the angels of the world to come. There will be an inhabited earth. So not only did they have any authority over the current earth, they will have no authority over the world to come. Does that make sense? Okay. So, but who are the rulers of the present world we live in? Let's look at what the Bible says. John 12, 31. Claire, go ahead. Now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Who is that referring to? How about an angel that has a proper name? Lucifer. Yeah, Lucifer, Satan. Okay. So, number one, we know Satan or Lucifer. How about Ephesians 6, 12? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. What? Against rulers, powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness and the heavenly places. And who are those? The angelic, right. The fallen angels. Correct? The fallen angels. So you've got Satan himself or Lucifer. You've got the fallen angels. And we also have one other group that comes into play, which is interesting when I study this. You know, this is a good point. Daniel 10, 13. Someone read that. For the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. So if you go to Daniel 10 and look at the context of that, that is an angel talking. A good angel. A messenger angel who was sent to bring Daniel a message. And while he's on his way to bring a message to Daniel, he gets encountered by a bad angel called the prince of Persia. And there's a war that breaks out between those two. 21 days he's stalled in his attempt to get to Daniel to bring the message. Until Michael comes along and solves the problem. So you've got good angels as well who are fighting in this present world for the good of God. Ephesians says it, there's a war going on. There's a war going on. It's the war that takes place in the heavenly places. So, who will not be ruling in the world to come? We've already talked about that. That's angels. So the author quotes now Psalm 8, 4 through 6. These verses refer to mankind. There are several significant truths to be considered. One is what is man of the Son of Man. This has to do with actively caring about someone with intentions to benefit him. So what is man that you remember him? What is the Son of Man that you're concerned about him? God cares for humanity and is actively concerned about them. How does that make you feel? That's pretty cool. That God is actually actively concerned for me. Yeah. It's hard to fathom, isn't it? I have asked this, who am I? Same thing as what is man that you're mindful of him? Guys, on this planet right now, right, over 8 billion of us, correct? Isn't that the number? Aren't we up to 8 billion now? In this metroplex, 7.5 million of us. Going to be 8.5 million within another decade. We're booming. I'm one. Who am I? Who am I? Psalmist says, what is man? When you look at the creation and you look at man, you go, what is man that you're mindful of him? Or the Son of Man that you're concerned about him? Well, let me tell you who he is. He's the one that was created in His image by the power of His Word for a purpose beyond our comprehension. It's above my pancreas. I'm just saying. It's amazing to me. What is man that you're mindful of him? Oh. Man is for a little while lower than the angels. Okay, angels are spiritual heavenly creatures, while humans are physical earthbound creatures, who are limited by their physical nature. Pretty big difference, isn't there? Angels have supernatural power and strength. Humans don't. You know, Terri told her story a couple weeks ago about her encounter with an angel. The fact that he was there one minute and gone the next, pretty clear. Right? The fact that he has a phone conversation when no phone exists that they can find, pretty clear. The fact that the phone rings when the phone wasn't anywhere close to where she could hear it normally, yet it rang where she heard it, pretty clear. I mean, I can't remember everything else, but those are the facts that stick out to me. They have supernatural power. Unfallen angels, not the ones that fell, but the unfallen angels have continual access to the throne of God. Only a few humans have seen God in person in the form that Jesus was on earth. Now once you are saved, I mean, once you read your last ego, you know, you're going to have access. What I'm talking about right now, we're limited in our access, in terms of physical access to God. Faithful angels were secured in holiness forever, while in Adam all humans were cursed and died. There will be a new earth in which saved mankind will reign. For a little while we're lower than the angels. God has crowned man with glory and honor and has appointed him over the works of his hand. So when God made Adam pure and innocent, he gave him honor, glory, and dominion. We've already read about that. Someday God will restore mankind to his original position of purity and will eternally give him honor, glory, and dominion. It says, you've made him a little while lower than the angels. You've crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the works of your hands. You've put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. Once God has restored mankind to his original position, all things will be subject to the authority and rule of mankind. Back to what the original plan was. The plan was for man to rule. When the plan is restored and consummated, man will rule again. But it's not going to be just any man, right? It's going to be mankind who are saved. They're the ones that will be ruling. So, in the new earth, all God's creation will be put in subjection under mankind's feet. Alright, so now we know what happened to sin. Consider sin's impact on God's plan for man. But we do not yet see all things subjected to him. What's the problem? Sin, right? How did it happen? We've already talked about that. But let's look at Genesis 3, 6. And I want you guys to take note of what it says here. When the woman... I thought I'd have some fun with that. I'll pay for it. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was a zobble to make one wise, at least that's what the enemy told her, right? She took from its fruit and ate. And then she grabbed a hold of her knuckle-headed husband and said, Hey, you join me. And for some reason, Adam didn't have the backbone to stand up to his wife and say, No, I'm not going to do that. I can relate to that. If Gary says, Come join me, I'm probably going to come join her. I mean, that's just all there is to it. Maybe not. Maybe not, depending on what it is. I'm selective? Okay. All right. Anyway, what we didn't talk about is what were the results. Now, we know the plan is currently in the process of being restored at some point in time. But in the meantime, that curse that we're living under has resulted in a lot of fun. So let's start listing some of the fun that the curse has brought to us. Death. Wars. Temptation. Famine. Hatred of others. Women. What did he say to Eve? You're going to have painful childbirth. He was right. Can I hear a testimony? And he said to the guys, Get the picture. What was it like before sin, before the fall? Lush, green, alive. And totally functioning without man's involvement. Right? He said, the guy said, go get the fruit from the tree and eat. And the trees just kept producing fruit. Wow. You know? There wasn't any toil. The toil, the biggest struggle was, the one I want is up there. I'm going to have to climb to get it. No, it's all low hanging. Right? Just go pick it and eat it. But after the curse, what happens? Man has to go till the ground. And get the rocks out of the soil. And turn it over. And plant the seed and water it and weed it. And hope that the rains come when they're supposed to. I mean, it goes on and on. Right? Now, today, there's no farmers in here. Right? I'm making sure. I don't think we have any farmers. Who's a farmer? Oh, you're a farmer. You grew up a farmer. Well, you know what we're talking about. Right? If I asked you to share just a little bit of the fun you had on the farm, would you do that? It was hard work. Hard work. We had to go out and pull weeds. Pick the vegetables or whatever my dad grew. Help him water. Everything, I mean. And it was in the summer when it was pretty hot. Hopefully it wasn't here this summer. Can you imagine this summer for the guys out there? You know, I work in the heat. I'm in a shop, but we don't have air conditioning. And it's just interesting the older you get. When I was 25 and it was hot, it wasn't that big of a deal to me. But 66 and 110, it's hot. So it's not a good mixture. And I've thought about... Why am I doing this? Just thinking about this heat and working by the sweat of your brow as a result of sin. Even though God has given me a good job and a good career, I'm not complaining about that. In the heat, it reminds me sometimes that it's because of sin we're having to suffer this. Yeah. Because sin still exists, right? We still have all sorts of fun, don't we? A lot of the fun we have these days is interpersonal relationships. Right? It started back in Genesis as well, right? There's a guy named Cain and a guy named Abel. And it got ugly quick, didn't it? Hadn't stopped. You think about your workplace. Even in a Christian environment and at a Baptist university, we still have fun. Our sinful nature. Our sinful nature. Pride rears its ugly head on a routine basis. We still have fun. I had... Animals are out of control. Ground produces thorns, weeds, harmful things, hard work. Bad weather. Something called COVID. Diseases. Something that Claire and Chris are actively involved in, right? Always fighting disease, aren't you? I mean, it's just... That's all because we live with it. That's sin's impact on God's plan for man. But thanks be to God, that's not the rest of the story. Flip the page. Consider God's plan for man restored by Jesus. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus. Because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. Tom, you said that you liked the way... Was it the NIV or the H? Holman read? Which one was it? Holman. Holman. Why don't you read that in Holman? Much more than, since we have been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. You're reading 2-9, yeah, 2-9, sorry. It's on the wrong place. That's okay. I didn't have you prepared for this, it's my bad. But we do see Jesus made lower than the angels for a short time, so that by God's grace, He might taste death for everyone, crowned with glory and honor, because of His suffering and death. Alright. So, God's plan to restore man's place involves His Son. What's the ultimate penalty and judgment against sin? Genesis 2-17. God said to Adam, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. From the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. And that's where the enemy attacked. He said, did God really say that? The answer was, yeah. Romans 6-23 on the other hand, Ron quotes this in his sleep. I should quote it every moment, I'm awake too. Just quote it. Well, for the penalty of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I love that but, don't you? That was our only hope. That's it. If you don't have a butt in there, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. The ultimate penalty and judgment against sin is death. For man to reign as king, the curse must first be removed. For the curse to be removed, the penalty must be paid. So for man to be restored and reign as king, he must die and be resurrected a new man that has the qualities required to reign. What are the qualities required to reign? Let's think good again. What caused us to lose the qualities? Sin. So what cannot be there if we're going to reign? Sin. So something's got to be done with sin. And that's what this is talking about. Something's got to be done with sin. Are we able to do this ourselves? No. Why not? Because we are far from perfect. It's kind of hard for something that's already spoiled to remove the spoilage from its own life, isn't it? It's pretty hard to do. We had this illustration when we learned. A long time ago, you all probably remember this. You would talk about, you know, if you've ever seen an omelet made, right? You crack an egg, you dump it in a bowl, you crack another one, you dump it in a bowl, you crack another one, you dump it in a bowl, right? And then you swirl it all together and you throw it out in the griddle or whatever. If it's a three-egg omelet and the third egg you're not paying attention, you crack it, you put it in a bowl, you start swirling around, and then you discover it was a bad egg? The whole batch is ruined. And there's no way to get it out. It's done. It only takes one sin. On Sunday, I was teaching that to James, and we were talking about it. James talked about the same thing in a different context. He was saying, you know, he was talking about the sin of murder and the sin of adultery, or the sin of what, Terry, was it? The tongue? You don't remember? I'm not tracking with you. Oh, you're not tracking with me. Okay. Anyway, he was making a point. It was not the tongue. It was the sin of showing partiality. There's that verse talking about, you know, in comes the guy with the gold all over his hands and the fine robe, and you say to that guy, go sit in that choice seat right there. Then comes the guy that's clothed in rags, and you say to him, go stand by the wall over there, or sit down here by my footstool. Right? You've just broken the law by doing that. And so the point that James is making, whether, and I held up an imaginary piece of cloth, and you have it drawn on the cloth three circles, all right? One circle says murder. Another circle says adultery. A third circle says what? Partiality or favoritism or whatever you want to call it. Prejudice. Prejudice. Right? If you punch the hole through murder, the cloth's ruined. You punch the hole through adultery, the cloth's ruined. And guess what? You punch the hole through prejudice, the cloth's ruined. It's that simple. It just takes one. So, we've got a problem, this thing called sin. So, since we can't do this ourselves, someone else has, who is perfectly qualified, must do it for us. Who is that? Jesus. Jesus, right. Jesus. And how did he do it? Well, let's just look at the actual verses about it. Romans 6, 5 through 11. Susan, you haven't read yet, right? Right. Okay. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his dead, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen, right? Galatians 2, 20, one of Philip Scragg and Dean's songs that my wife and I love to hear sung, right? And it goes like this, For I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives within me. I've been crucified with Christ. That's the only way it works. And that was God's provision. It was his Son. He was crucified for us. What did Jesus have to do to accomplish his objective? Well, first of all, it says right here, back to the verse, but we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels. Philippians 2 says it a different way, right? It says, Let this attitude be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was God, didn't regard equality with God as something to be held on to or grasped. But rather, he let go. He emptied himself. And I love the way, the concept of he poured himself into human flesh. But it says he became obedient in humility. He humbled himself and became obedient, even unto death on the cross. This is God taking my place. Right? That's it. That's it. So, he's made a little while. He willingly became, for a little while, lower than the angels. He became a man. He had to pay man's penalty for sin, which was death. And in so doing, conquered death for every man. That's what Susan just read, right? Conquered death for every man. So, because of Jesus, God's plan for man has been restored for everyone who will believe and receive his salvation. What do we, who are saved, have to look forward to in the future? Okay. Going back to what we started with. Remember, that creation that was pristine, that was perfect, that was unspoiled, that we were given dominion over? We have another one coming. Let's see what it's going to look like. Revelation 20, verse 4. Chris? I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Right. Reigned with Christ a thousand years. A new kingdom. A new kingdom. Who reigns? The king. The king reigns. A new kingdom. Isaiah 2, 2-4. Chad, you didn't read yet? Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will string to it. And many peoples will come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. And the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pretty hooks. And the nation will not lift up sword against nation. Never again will they learn war. Wow. Let that sink in. Okay, have we got there yet? No. Wow. There's going to be a day guys. God is describing here a changed mankind. A changed mankind. As I'm reading that I see just right here many people will come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Do you hear many people saying that right now? No. Okay. To the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. Do you hear that right now? No. No, what you're hearing in our culture is I don't want to know his paths. I've got my own thank you very much. And I don't want anybody trying to tell me which path to walk. Thank you. I'll choose my own. I'll walk my way. But yet here he's talking about let's go. Let's go see what God has to say. Let's go find out how we can live harmoniously with him. Wow. That's a changed mankind. Isn't that good? And to take their swords and hammer them into plowshares and their spears and their pruning hooks. No more war. Wow. A changed mankind. Isaiah 11, 6-9. Brent. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the cat and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play the role, play the role of the cobra. And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy. And all my holy mountains for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Wow. That's a lot of knowledge. That's a changed animal kingdom, isn't it? That's a changed animal kingdom. We haven't got that yet, do we? I'm intrigued by these reports of people that go to Yellowstone or to other national parks where they have the bison and the bears and the wolves and all that, right? And the rangers are constantly telling them, don't get out of your car. They're not tame. They're not tame. And so, you know, you see this photo of a bear or a bison that's got a tourist pinned down to the road. What's, you know, not a good thing, right? Hey, that's all going to change. It's all going to change. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord and there's nothing going to hurt or destroy and all my holy mountains. Wow. A changed animal kingdom. Finally, Isaiah 35, 1 and 2. Who has not read? Okay. The wilderness and the desert will be glad and the arabal will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. So, you have to understand the context here. If you go and see where the araba is, you understand that that is desert, right? And so, what it's saying is the desert is going to blossom and bloom. It's going to be, you know, it's kind of like, you know, go out and look at my yard right now, right? It's pretty brown, right? It's like what happens when the rains come in the right time and the next thing you know, it's green and lush, right? But when you're talking about rock and you start saying plants coming out of the rocks, that's a flourishing plant life. That, again, going back to the original creation, that's what we had. It was all beautiful, all pristine, all glorious. It was all flourishing. So, I asked the question for us to contemplate. I said that there's an attitude of humility in the question Psalm 8, What is man that you remember him as the son of man that you are concerned about him? Do I have the same attitude of humility concerning myself and my self-importance? What do I need to do to maintain humility in the way I relate to God and others in my life? Humility is something we don't see a lot of, right? But if you're going to be like Christ, that's something you have to be. Because that's who He is. That's who He is. So, think about that. Am I humbly walking with my God in such a way that He can use me any way He chooses to accomplish His purpose? Right. That's a wonderful question. So, we get to answer that together. So, this is the fun part of our lesson today. I thought we already had fun. Yeah, the fun part of our lesson is really to... We've had fun, sir. Well, yours was sort of fun, but this is really fun. The fun is the journey. What would you say about God, Jesus Christ Himself? What was He in relationship to what we're talking about? Why is Christ's superiority so evident? What was He? Was He in His existence? What was it about Jesus that was so attractive and so wonderful? He loved us when we were unlovable. Exactly. He's all love, right? That's 1 John 4.19. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4.8 is God is love. Now, why is that superior? What's so good about that love? 1 Corinthians 13 love. He says love is patient, love is kind. Love is not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. What's so good about that kind of love? I think the difference in that kind of love is we give love when we get love. And when we don't give love, we get mad and we hate. And we don't get our own way. We pitch a fit. But Christ came knowing who we were and chose to love us in spite of who we were and chose to die on the cross when we did not deserve it. And that's the difference between having real love. We think we love. I mean, I think I love Susan. We've been married a long time, and I think there is some stuff that I've learned. But when I start comparing what we consider love, it's usually based on what we're getting in return. And he gave us love when we didn't deserve it. Yeah, yeah. In spite of us. A plus to infinity right there. Come up here. I want you to finish up the whole class. So what kind of love is that though? Unconditional. Unconditional. Is that perfect love? Yeah. It's perfect love, isn't it? So I think that what God is wanting us to do is to perfect that love in us. Now, do we love perfectly? Okay, I see the vast majority here is saying not really. And my sweetheart will attest to that. And we've been only married 56 years, so we're still perfecting that. So the perfection of love in us and through us is what the author of Hebrews is trying to get to. You know, just like in Matthew 5, verse 48, it says, Be perfect, because I, your God in heaven, am perfect. Now, what does God have to do to help us to be perfect? Save us first. Amen. Okay, great. Now, we're assuming that these people in the Hebrew believers are saved. So he's addressing the Hebrew people that are completed in Christ Jesus. Now, we who are completed in Christ Jesus by grace through faith, what is he doing and trying to impress us with? To be perfect in delivering that love, not only to God, but to one another. Okay. The picture that I'm trying to paint now is from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. He paints it well. I think it's next to the last chapter. He says, well, what is perfection that God wants to develop in us? He paints the picture of a little boy who has a toothache, and it's really bad. But he knows that if he goes to his mother, she's going to give him some medicine, which will keep him comfortable until the next day. But then he knows that he's going to take the boy to the dentist. And the dentist does all sorts of things with his teeth, like sticking probes in there and finding out if there's any pus in there, all sorts of nasty things. He doesn't want to go through that. So he doesn't tell his mother that he has a toothache. And so the question is, why doesn't the boy tell his mother about his toothache? And he's likened this question to us. Because what happens is, if the mother takes him to the dentist, the dentist is going to go the full yard of treating him completely. So sometimes we don't go to God, to Jesus, and to come to him so that we know that God is going to do the full job. He's not going to do a halfway job on us, right? So we don't have full disclosure. So we tell him part of the problem, but God knows the whole problem. And so now we realize that we're in a fix. Because now, you know, we come to God in prayer, but we don't tell him the whole story. So because we don't tell him the whole story, we think... He doesn't know it. Yeah, as if he didn't know it, right? But you know that he's going to go the whole way. So now we're talking about perfection in regard to what he talked about in 1 Peter 1, verse 16, because I, your God, am holy. Now, Hebrews refers to that holiness. And holiness is a wonderful word. It's called hagyos. We're being set apart for God's purpose and plan. So we see that as the Hebrew writer unfolds his story, he says, now, God has a plan for us, but he's going to go the whole way. So when he does the whole way process to us in regard to our perfection in Christ Jesus and holiness in Christ Jesus, is Jesus going to go part way? No, he isn't, is he? He puts us in places where we don't want to be, like going to the spiritual dentist. You know, if we need something pulled, the dentist is going to pull it. And what God does in his wonderful majesty and knowledge, you know, omniscience, he's going to pull it out, but is it going to be gentle? He does it in love now. You know, there's some things that we do as physicians that we know that's going to hurt. You know, I hurt a lot of patients, okay? And, you know, the thing is that I have in mind that I have to go the whole way even though I hurt patients. Right, Terri? Yeah, well, you know, but I sent you a doctor who wasn't so gentle. But you see, the surgery that's done for us, God spiritually, surgically removes that which we don't need in life. So what do you think that God is, you know, his plan is really perfect. It's a perfect plan. So what do you think God is removing in our life? All the things that do not benefit that hurt us so that we can be more like him. Amen, amen. Is that a comfortable way to do life? It's not for me. It may be for somebody else, but it has been very comfortable. Has anyone enjoyed that process, okay? See, it's not enjoyable, is it? But you see that that's what, you know, God is talking about like in Romans 5.3. He says, be thankful in your suffering because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope which never disappoints because of what being poured into our hearts. What does God pour into our heart in the midst of suffering and pain that builds character and the hope that never disappoints? What is that hope that we look forward to in the future that God's going to pour into us that's going to change us from inside out? You all know it. I can see it in your eyes, you know. Holy Spirit. What is that? Holy Spirit. Well, yes, done by the power of the Holy Spirit. But what God's Spirit does is it impresses us with the love of God, the true agape of God, the full load of agape, all 16 wonderful characters that God just pours into us in the midst of our pain. Now, when God pours that love into our hearts, what does that do? What does it do? You know, we're talking about what David was talking about is transformation. It changes us from one direction that we're going, and usually I'm running from God, you know, just like a guy that was supposed to go to Nineveh, but he went the other way, you know, just like Jonah. My tendency is to run from God rather than toward Him because I think I can figure out life in a way where I can get out of whatever hot water I'm going to get into, particularly with my sweetheart, you know. I think I'm going to get away with it. She knows that I lie. Okay. You've all heard the story about my experience in half-priced books, right? Okay, so I'm in half-priced books, and so I come out of half-priced books, and I'm outside the door, okay, I'm outside the building of half-priced books, and my wife asks me, are you in half-priced books? And I said, no. And she said to me, you just lied to me, and so therefore you cannot go to half-priced books for a whole year. But it turned out to be over two years, okay. But now she relents, and I get to go into half-priced books now, but with her. But she still doesn't trust me. See, now you realize that what God wants us to do is to cultivate character qualities in which we can be trusted. So what is that character quality that can be trusted in us and through us? What do you think that is? And I know you all know the answer, okay. What do you think that is? What do you think it would be? That we can be trusted if we communicate this one particular area that God gives us. Faith. What? Faith. Okay, you're on your way. Now there's faith, there's hope, and there's love. And the greatest of these is love. See, now, see that's an A plus to infinity answer, because now we realize that the only thing that can be trusted in this world is someone who demonstrates that word called agape love. See, medicine, you know, I meet with a lot of young doctors-to-be, and I share with them that there's one thing that we have to learn in medicine, and that is the fact that we learn in medicine that we have to do the 3A technique of learning medicine. It's all about memorization, okay. And I've been on the slow learning curve for my entire life, so, you know, it takes me a long time to learn this process called medicine. So I've been doing it for 37 years, but the 3As that I learned in my third-year residency in orthopedics was availability, affability, and ability, in that order. And what that leads to is a life in which you are competent in what you're doing. And, see, I have to tell all the medical students that I see, these are all first-years, they're all going to be competent, okay. Now, is that going to make them comfortable in their practice of medicine? Are they going to be really happy in it? And the thing is, is that there are a lot of unhappy doctors out there. Fifty-three percent at age 50 want to get out of medicine permanently. You know, why is that? See, because you cannot be happy with just your competence level, just by your intellectual, you know, by just your intellect. So I have to be honest with them and say, you know, you may be competent and you're going to be very good physicians, but the problem is you're not going to be totally happy. Now, have I mentioned to all of you the four levels of happiness? Some of you have heard this. Not all of you, okay, so I'll go ahead and just remind you all. The four levels of happiness are really a, we have a misunderstanding happiness problem, and that is in life. Happiness one is the happiness of our emotions, and if you're hungry, your appetite, you find food, you consume food, you're happy one. But if you consume food for any other reason than to satisfy your appetite, it's called an eating disorder, unhappiness one. So you have to go to happiness two to lay that. So you find a friend that will help you to discipline those appetites so you're eating for the right reason. Okay, for example, if you're on a team, a football team, for example, since I just started, you train your body to train well, to perform well, to strengthen your body well, and to eat well. But, you know, if you look at the table for the athletes, those tables are pretty full of really bad food, and they all eat the bad food. You have these big tables that start from here, goes to the end of the room, three tables full of food, okay. Steaks, everything you can imagine, all kinds of meats on one table. The next table has all sorts of fruits and vegetables, all the way from here to the door. And then another table has all sorts of breads and pastries of various kinds. Now guess what they eat mostly? They eat all the bad food. They don't eat the fruits and the vegetables. But they eat a lot of steaks. One athlete had like five steaks stacked up on him, and he ate the whole thing. I mean, it wasn't like, and these were big steaks. But, see, that's what athletes eat. But the problem is, is that when you eat without discipline, then what happens is they get overweight, and, you know, their cholesterol goes up, their blood pressure goes up, their heart messes up, and stuff like that. So happiness, too, is to control and discipline those appetites. Now, so they're training their body to play well, to exercise well, to strengthen their body, to play an excellent game. And so if they win, that's happiness, too. But if they lose, it's unhappiness, too. So in order for you to allay those problems that you have, then you have to go to happiness three, which is to say there really is good in and of itself. For example, you know, you train your body, and you're playing in athletics, and you go on to teaching and go on to coaching and things like this. Or a student, like in medical school, they go on and further their education, get their medical degree. They go on and get their subspecialty training in surgery or internal medicine or whatnot. And they're very, very happy with having completed those goals. The problem with happiness three, it comes to an end. You know, when I retire as a physician, I'm thinking, you know, what good am I? You know, I think that maybe there's something better out there. But after I retired, I found out that there's some other things that are probably better. But, you know, I'm not really knowing for sure where to go. So with that quandary, having children, for example, and raising them to be law-abiding citizens that you can say, well, this is my son and this is my daughter, and I did my best to raise them, and they're not in jail and they're not on drugs. So, you know, you realize you did fine. But again, it ends. When our children leave the home and things like this, you know, they realize, well, where do I go from here? So like Solomon in Ecclesiastes. So unhappiness three, see? You're tracking, right? Now we realize, well, where do I go from there? Because I'm talking about death, and that's what Solomon is saying. We're all going to die. Unhappiness three. But happiness four is not politically correct to tell you what it is because it's not happiness. Happiness four is true joy. See, joy is a gift. And who does that come from? Him. Amen. A plus infinity and now beyond because now we realize that there's something out there, and Solomon hits it on the nose in Ecclesiastes 3.11. He says, God has made everything beautiful in its time. He's placed eternity in the hearts of all men and all women as well. The eternity he places in, like Pascal says, is a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts, and only God can fill it. And that's what David was sharing today so well. You know, the only way that we can restore our relationship with God is through God himself. It's a gift of God, so therefore the restoration is that filling that God-shaped vacuum in our hearts. But grace that we've saved through faith and that not of ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. The work of God is something very special because it's a happiness four experience. It's true joy. Because the moment we choose to trust in Jesus, the moment we come to grips with the fact that we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, Romans 9 and 10, and we confess with our mouth that he's raised from the dead, we'll be saved. Because it's with our heart that we believe and are made perfect with God, so the mouth we confess and are saved. So the moment that that happens, we receive the Holy Spirit right then. He stamps his stamp of approval on us forever. He'll never remove that stamp from us, ever. Even though we're rascals. And we're going to get into that later on in Hebrews, right? Right, David? David knows all the answers. So if you have any questions, please ask David. Don't call me. David enjoys that. But you see that the idea, though, is the fact... Or ask Ed, too. Ed would know. Noel and Susan would know. All of us would know. I'm pointing to all of you. Because now we realize that now there is something that's really, really important that we have to consider. Because once we have that answer, once we know that we know Jesus Christ, now what happens is we're now targeted. We're targeted not by just Satan, but we're targeted by the Holy Spirit. The throne of heaven that will be after you. Not to torment you like Satan would, but to encourage you to not drift from him. See, we're talking about drifting, and we're going to talk more about that as we go along in this study. But the drift away from God and His Word is really an insidious one, isn't it? Because of the busyness of life. And as we go through life, we get more and more busy. And as a consequence, what happens is it dilutes our relationship with Him. We drift. Now, for David and I, we know you are all on our prayer list. So you're being prayed for every day that you don't drift. But you know, if you do drift, the thing is that not only the hound of heaven is going after you, but David and I will look you up. And we'll call you. Not to hound you, but just to remind you that the key is Scripture, right? I open up every lesson with Hebrews 4.12. The Word of God is living and active. But it's also like in 2 Timothy 3.16-17, that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man and woman of God will be thoroughly equipped to do every good work. See, the good work that God is talking about is the process that it's God, the triune God that's working in our hearts. The Holy Spirit touching our hearts to guide us, to teach us, to sort of walk with us through life. You know, God the Father initiates that agape love and wisdom. God the Son mediates it through His death on the cross, which He covered so well. But that's what the death is for, right? The only thing that can buy and pay perfectly and completely well for the sins of the world is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That's why He was the perfect sacrifice. Then only His blood then can pay once and for all the penalty for all sins, now and forever. That's why the temple's been removed. That's why there's no sacrificial practices like they had in the Old Testament. The sacrificial system is now removed because it's all paid for by Jesus Christ. Because of that now we have incentive. The incentive is to agape love. You know, like God says. A new commandment Jesus says, I give you that you love one another as I have just loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have just kind of agape love one for another. And Jesus has just washed the feet in the upper room of all of His disciples. But especially the one He knew was going to betray Him. And also the one He knew was going to deny Him. Now He couldn't go back and look up Jesus because He already hung Himself. But He did go back and look up Peter who denied Him three times. And remember, there's that poignant moment in John 21, 15, 16, 17 where Jesus is asking Peter three questions. Yeah, amen. And what did Jesus ask Peter? Peter, do you... Agape. Yeah, do you agape me? Peter, do you love me? Peter answers... He asked Him twice that question. Peter answers both those times, you know, I love you phileo. So Peter didn't quite understand. He didn't quite get it. But then he asked Him, Jesus asked Him a third time, Peter, do you love me phileo? And Peter answers again, phileo. So he still didn't quite understand yet. But he did understand once Jesus was resurrected. Because when he shared his testimony, 3,000 people came to know the Lord in different languages. Can you imagine that? And He's also, even before that, walked on water. Now, the thing is, how much faith do you need to walk on water? I never walked on water. I actually can sink to the bottom pretty fast. But God says in His Word, if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. Not very much faith. That brings us to a place with God, but now we have to examine ourselves. Do we have the humility to do this? Now, when you pray, when we pray, how much humility do we have to have to come to the throne of grace through prayer? How much? A lot? Or just a little? What do you think? Yeah. You know, that amount of faith that comes to grips with us to come to the Lord. He says, come to me, all you weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, because I'm gentle and humble of heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. Because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. See? So when we come to God in prayer and come to Him humbly, it takes a bit of courage to do that. Right? Because now he says, now that you've come to know me as your Savior by faith, grace through faith, what I want you to do now is I want you to grow in your faith every day. Because that's why he gave Peter that mantra. In John 21, 15 through 15, 16, 17. Feed my sheep. The idea is, is now that we are Christian, God wants us to be just like Peter and feed sheep. You know, we shared that little acrostic earlier on soaps. The S is scripture. The O is observation. What does it say? What does it mean? The A is application of God's word. The P is prayer. So therefore we realize that prayer is very instrumental in us being willing to and have the courage to pass it on. And then the S is to share. Go therefore, make disciples, baptizing them in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I've commanded. Lo, I am with you to the end of the age. See? The journey of discipleship and disciple making is a journey with the Lord. Now you're all doing it. So I commend you for that. Because how do you do that? You know, there are some not nice people out there that cut you off when you're driving and try to run you off the road or some other nasty things. Some people that scowl at you when you smile at them and say nice things to them. You know? But you see, what you're doing though is you're sharing with them the grace and love of God. Returning a curse with a blessing. Right? Now you all get A pluses for that. Because I know that you've hit some obstacles along the road here of life. But every day that occurs, doesn't it? Every day that occurs. I always want to say to someone who cuts me off in traffic, you... Bless you. See? Now I don't do that. I say, you rascal. You stupid something or other. You stupid idiot. You know? I say something like that. It comes out of my mouth. I'm very sorry that I said that. But you know that's reflexic, isn't it? Because that's the world around us. But God says, I want you to be in the world but not of the world. And the only way that we can not be of the world is to have a wonderful prayer life that starts with Scripture every day. You know? And so that's the challenge that we have. So we don't drift. See, that's the challenge of all of life. To not drift from the Lord and stay close to Him. Because He's going to stay close to us. Amen. If we're not, the hound of heaven is going to be sick on us. But you already know you're targeted already by the evil one, the deceiver. The one that got after Adam and Eve. And like David said, if he were Adam, he probably wouldn't last very long. And I'm the chief of sinners, so I would probably last maybe 10 seconds or so, or less. Probably less. But you see, the point is, is that we all have that weakness in our heart that wants to have us to think about ourself. Right? And not about the Lord. So we have to think in terms of the Shema. Hear, O Israel, I, the Lord of One, shall love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Who's my neighbor? Well, your worst enemy. And he's down there after us. His name is Satan himself. So to have a good prayer life. So let's pray right now, and let's close our class. And thank you for your attention, and thank you for being here. This is really hard in the middle of the week to be here. So thank you so much. Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity to look at your plan for us. Plans to help us. Plans not to harm us. Plans to give us a hope and a future. But you tell us in Jeremiah 29, 11, 12, and 13 that if we come to you, and call you, and come to you, and pray to you, and to seek you, we'll find you. But we must seek you with all our heart. So dear Lord, with all our heart, we pray that you'd help us to trust you. We pray that you'd help us to trust you with all our heart. Help us to lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways. We pray that we would acknowledge you, and you would direct our path. Help us then to always, every day, to be joyful in all things, to be prayerful in all things, and to be thankful in all things. For this is your plan and purpose for our life. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. All right, well thank you all. So to be continued.
