Seeing the Saviour

Praise the Lord, if you have a Bible with you, would you turn

with me please for our Scripture reading to the Epistle to the

Hebrews and chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, and we're

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

just going to read the first 9 verses of this chapter.

Hebrews chapter 2 commencing to read at verse one.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

The Apostle says, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest

heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we

should let them slip. For if the words spoken by

angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience

received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if

we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be

spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that

heard Him? God also, bearing them witness,

both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts

of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.

For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to

come, Whereof we speak that one in a certain place testified,

saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the Son

of man, that thy visitest him? Thy amazed him a little lower

than the angels, Thy crownest him with glory and honour, and

that set him over the works of thy hands.

Thy hast put all things in subjection under His feet.

For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left

nothing that is not put under Him.

But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see

Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the

suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that He by the

grace of God, should taste death for every man.

Amen. May the Lord bless to us the

public reading of His own inspired and His infallible Word

of Allah. Now we're turning again to the

Epistle to the Hebrews and the Hebrews and chapter 2, and I

want to draw your attention particularly to verse 9, the

last verse that we read in that chapter this morning throughout

the events of the week that has gone by into eternity with the

assassination of that dear man, Charlie Kirk, in the United

States of America. And we think about God's people

in many parts of the world where there is great persecution and

hardship and difficulty, and those who would seek to name the

name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many have been imprisoned and

others have given their lives for the cause of Christ.

But persecution and opposition has always been the lot of the

children of God. And the apostle writes to the

people who are described as the Hebrew Christians, men and

women, young people, boys and girls who were Jewish, who had

received the Lord Jesus Christ as their own and personal

Saviour. But now much opposition was

taking place, and the apostle says here in verse one.

Therefore we ought to give them more earnesteed to the things

which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

In the opening chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul

gives a number of warnings Lest the people of God should let the

things of God and the word of God, and their faith and their

profession of faith in Christ, lest they should let them slip

and go back into the beggarly elements of this world, and to

encourage them. As he writes these words, he

says in verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a

little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned

with glory and honour, that he by the grace of God should taste

death for every man. And the apostle is writing to

the people of God, and he says, we, we need a fresh to see our

Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to think of him and what he

has done and what he has accomplished, and how he left

the heavenly glory and committed this world, and was made in the

likeness of sinful men, and was made a little lower than the

angels. And that who was who would

suffer death on the old rugged cross of Calgary, but now is

crowned with glory and honour. And the apostle is telling us to

look to Jesus, as he says in another verse, lest ye be

wearied and faint in your minds. You know, the apostle could tell

the people that we have something they, they, they were

well used to persecution and opposition.

God's people, his ancient people, people of Israel all

down through time have been persecuted and hounded and

haunted. But here's people, and now, not

only because they were the Israel of God, but now because

they are redeemed by precious blood and their professing faith

in Christ, then there's more opposition coming to them.

And so the apostles trying to encourage them in their walk

with God and in their faith day by day, lest they become tired

and weary, As I said, he quotes that verb in their minds.

He says so consider the Lord Jesus Christ and through one of

the keywords, of course, in the Epistle to the Hebrews is the

word better. And as the apostle writes to

them, he, he tells them how much better the gospel is and that

Christ is even than the, the, the, the foreshadowings of that.

We, we have a better than the rituals that they went through

in the Tabernacle and then in the temple.

We have the Redeemer himself, our Saviour.

We have something that's far better even than the altar of

the Tabernacle or the temple. We have the one who is the

Almighty, the Christ of God who came into the world and bore our

sins and his own body on the tree.

We have more than all the sacrifices that were offered and

all the sacrifices of the old, hymn says.

Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give

the guilty conscience peace or wipe away the stain.

But Christ the Lamb of God, we have something better than all

the sacrifice. We have the Son of God himself

and this man, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.

After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he

could say it is finished and the work is complete and the price

has been paid once and for all. The old Gospel hymn says once

and for all, O Sinner, receive it once and for all.

O brother, believe it, Cling to the cross, your burden will

fall, for Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

We have something even better than the veil, the veil of the

temple. You remember on that day when

our Saviour died upon the cross, the veil of the temple was rent

and twain from the top to the bottom.

God, as it were, tore it apart. But we have the one who is the

victor of Calvary and the one who rose triumphant over sin and

death and hell and the grave. We have something better even

than the Testament. We have the one who is called

the testator himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who

accomplished it all at the place called Calvary.

And so the apostle is encouraging the people.

He says we see Jesus. He wants them to look to the

Lord Jesus Christ. You remember those people, They

were Greeks. And when the apostles were with

the Lord Jesus and Jesus was teaching, the people came and

they said to the disciples, Sirs, we would see Jesus.

And that's the great prayer of our heart.

Sunday by Sunday prayer meeting, night by prayer meeting night

Bible study by Bible study that we would see Jesus.

Remember the words of the apostle John in the book of the

Revelation when he had that glorious vision of the Lord

Jesus Christ. And he turned, he said, to see

the one who spoke with him. And he said, I fell at his feet,

as if they had. Isaiah could say that in the

year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

What must it have been for our first parents, Adam and Eve, to

walk with God, to talk with him in the beautiful paradise of

Eden, to see him? It's our prayer that even as we

think about this verse for a moment or two, that we might see

afresh the Lord Jesus as He has revealed in the world.

I want you to notice that we have here the obedient or the

observance of Christ is encouraged.

Paul is encouraging them to look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the one who came into the world in his wonderful

incarnation. He says we see Jesus who was

made a little lower than the angels.

Now when you read in the 1st chapter of this Epistle to the

Hebrews, we have a wonderful exposition of the the Person of

our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And the Bible says that God in verse one, who at sundry times

in diverse manners speak in time passed unto the fathers by the

prophets, hath on his last days spoken unto us by his Son.

Listen, And his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all

things, whom he hath appointed, who also he made the world's.

And verse 3 says, who being in the brightness of his glory, and

the express image of his person. And verse 4 says, being made so

much better than the angels. And we're reminded that the Lord

Jesus Christ is God the Son, the Son of God, Co equal, Co eternal

with the Father. He is so much being made so much

better than the angels. And he he hasn't obtained a more

excellent name than the his name.

The name of the Lord Jesus is more excellent.

The angels are created beings, their existence depends on the

will and the word of God. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he is

Co equal and Co eternal, very God of very God.

And so as you read down that chapter, the Bible says in verse

6, let all the angels of God worship him.

And the apostle says, you're just imagine the Lord Jesus

Christ, his name, his person, everything about it is better

even than the angels, because God never said to the angels in

verse 8, but unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is

forever and ever. A sceptre of righteousness is

the sceptre of thy Kingdom. Verse 13 of chapter 1.

But to which of the angels said he at any time Sit on my right

hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister

for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

And the apostle Paul says Christ the Son of God, who is greater

than the angels in his incarnation, in his humiliation

he was made a little lower than the angels.

Verse 16 of chapter 2 reminds us, for verily he took not on

him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

And so we see the Lord Jesus Christ, and round about the

Christmas season we often sing about the little town of

Bethlehem. We think about the one who was

born and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in the feeding

truck in the Manger, and hire the angels of God sang at his

birth, and our the shepherds came and worshipped at his feet

the Lord Jesus Christ and His incarnation.

He was made a little lower than the angels, and he took upon

himself a body formed in fashion like a man, but yet without sin.

And in that incarnation he came in to the world.

I remember reading a quote by the great Charles Haddon

Spurgeon, the great English Baptist preacher, and Mr

Spurgeon said when he talked about Christ coming into the

world, and there are so many beautiful hymns that describe

it. I love that hymn that says out

of the ivory palaces into a world of woe.

Only his great eternal love could make my Saviour go.

But Mr Spurgeon said if you can think about a man with all his

faculties, in all his power, in all his prowess, he said if that

man could become a worm of the dust.

Spurgeon said that's what it was like for the Son of God, the

Lord Jesus Christ, to leave heaven's glory and to be formed

and fashioned as a man in this world, in his incarnation.

And Paul says we need to observe the Lord Jesus Christ, look to

the Lord, see the Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation, think

about him in his great act of redemption.

It says there we see Jesus, who has made a little lower than the

angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and

honour, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every

man. We think about that great act of

redemption that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, suffered death

upon the cross of Calvary. He didn't deserve to die,

because he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might

be made the righteousness of God in it.

But the Lord Jesus had no sin of his own.

He never thought a wrong thought.

He never said a wrong word. He never performed a wrong deed.

He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

And yet thereupon the cross of Calvary, God Almighty had to

turn his face away. And Calvary was shrouded in

blackness and darkness. And the Lord Jesus cried out, My

God, my God, why hast thy first? Because God's Son.

And he was still God's only begotten Son.

He was still the darling of God's bosom.

He was still the apple of God's eye, But he took upon himself

your sin and my sin, and he bore our sins and his own body on the

tree. All our iniquities on him were

laid, says the hymn writer. He bore them all to the tree and

Jesus the death of our sins fully paid.

He paid the ransom for me and I create act of redemption when he

shed his precious blood to wash away our sins.

Thank God there's still power in Jesus blood to wash away every

sin and every stay. And the weak chorus says every

sin had to go, the cleansing flow ruled away, ruled away, and

the burden my heart rolled away. And we think about how he

brought about reconciliation of sinful men to a holy God as he

died upon the cross of Calvary. And we think of course too about

his resurrection. We see Jesus who was made a

little lower than the Angel for the suffering and death crowned

with glory and honour. He did not remain in the tomb.

We were singing in the heaven. He could not.

Beholden of death. One day the stone rolled away

from the door, and he arose triumphant over sin and death

and hell and the grave. And thank God, he lives forever

in the power of an endless life. As reading recently there said,

there are 4300 religions in this world at least.

But beloved, there's only one way to heaven.

There's only one mediator between God and men.

There's only one saviour, there's only one door, the Lord

Jesus Christ. And there's many religions and

rituals and rites and ceremonies and all the other things

associated with empty dead religion.

But thank God, Jesus Christ, he conquered sin and death and hell

and the grave, and up from the grave heroes with a mighty

triumph, or his foes. He's the only one who conceive

from sin. And of course his exaltation is

spoken of there. He's crowned with glory and

honour. So the apostle tells the people

for your encouragement, he tells the the Hebrew Christians there

are some people, and he says they have not yet resisted unto

blood. In other words, there's a

possibility that some of these people to whom Paul was writing,

some of these people to whom he had preached that they could

suffer death on account of their faith in Christ, we say some of

you have not yet resisted unto blood.

They're other believers and they have resisted unto blood and

they have stood fast even though they were martyred for the cause

of Christ. And so he says, we need to look

to the Lord Jesus. May God help us to look to Lord.

The observance of crisis and courage, you know the obedience

of Christ is exhibited here. Says we see Jesus who was made a

little lower than the angels. When was he made a little lower

than the angels? As we have said in his

incarnation? And you remember the words of

the Apostle Paul there when he wrote to the church at Philippi

about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but the one who was

equal with God and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God

in Philippines chapter 2 and verse five and six, he says, let

this mind be in you unless we should get above ourselves, as

they say, unless we should think more highly about ourselves.

And we ought to think we ought to have that spirit of

submission and willingness and yieldedness to God.

And there was problems in the church and people were trying to

score points over one another. But Paul says, let this mind be

in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Verse 6 of chapter 2 of Philippines, who being in the

form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

but made himself of no reputation took upon him.

The form of a servant was made in the likeness of man, and

being found in fashion as a man, and he humbled himself and

became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, Paul says.

Think of the poverty that he endured to to come out from the

the place where the streets are paved with gold, and come out of

the ivory palaces, and go through those.

Gates and. Walls of glory and come into

this world and to be rejected and despised among men.

Became for the. Suffering of death.

And he humbled himself, and became obedient even on to the

death of the cross. Not just any death, but the

death of the cross. And the apostle says we ought to

see the Lord Jesus encourages the people to look to him, so

that in seeing Him we too might be obedient.

I always remember at some baptismal services we had in in

Banbridge and used to sing and we chorus, when someone went

through the waters of baptism. And it was Be thy faithful unto

death, be thy faithful unto death.

Why, if we see the Lord Jesus Christ, like John on the Isle of

Patmos, when we see Jesus, he was able to endure the

persecution. He was able to endure being an

exile. He was able to endure the

hardship and the difficulties, as the apostle writes to the

Hebrews as seeing him who is invisible.

And then the apostle not only speaks here about observing

Christ, he encourages us to do that.

He says, look, the obedience of Christ is exhibited here, but

you'll notice there that the the offering of Christ is a factual

and is affected here. He for the suffering of death.

And then it says that he might taste death for every man what

Christ did upon the old rugged cross.

Is he factual? It works, It really works.

It saves men and women from their sin.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me holy here? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And the Lord. Jesus came into the world.

He was born of the Virgin. He lived a perfect, sinless

life. He poured out his soul unto

death on the old rugged cross of Calvary, that he, by the grace

of God, should taste death for every man.

He suffered the awful agonies of Calvary.

He suffered the indignities he suffered the shame.

He suffered the spitting. He suffered, the mocking.

He suffered the the crown of thorns being beaten into his

brow. He suffered the his back being

like a ploughed field with the Roman whip.

He suffered the the kneels in his hands, the spear in his

side. He died that we might be

forgiven. He died to make us good, that we

might go at last to heaven. See him by His precious blood

and and the offering of our Saviour is one word that the old

Puritan is used to use the oblation, the the sacrifice, the

the the the giving of oneself, the sacrifice of sin forever.

It was affected. It was real works.

It saves the soul and then you'll notice just in closing,

the apostle says the omnipotence of Christ is emphasised here.

He is now. Crowned with glory and honour.

We see Jesus who was made a little more than the angels.

We see Jesus who suffered in, bled and died at the cross of

Calvary. But we see Jesus, who is crowned

with glory and honour, as what the Apostle says, whereby God

hath given him an name that is higher than every other name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow every tongue.

Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the

Father. Kings and Queens and Princess

and potentates and presidents will all bow the knee to the

Lord Jesus Christ. Dictators, evil men and women,

those who have fought against the Gospel of Christ all down

through history, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Ayatollahs and the Buddhists, the Muhammad's this

world. The leaders of the.

Cults. And those who have?

Been against our God and his Christ.

Every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus

Christ as Lord. So the apostle says, beloved,

don't be discouraged. Beloved, don't get downhearted.

Beloved, look to Jesus, the one who came into the world, who

died for our sin, who rose again, who has ascended to the

right hand of the majesty on high.

And one day he's coming in power and in glory.

And the dead, small and great, and the nations of this world,

like the seas, will stand before him, and every knee will bow,

and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

I love that week chorus. Maybe we'll sing it tonight.

He is Lord, He is Lord. He has risen from the dead, and

he is Lord. And thank God, we can say that

He's my Lord, He's my Lord. He has risen from the dead, and

he is Lord. Wherefore he is able to keep

that which I have committed unto him against that day.

What a wonderful Saviour we serve.

The old hymn says, I serve our risen Saviour.

Buddha's dead, Muhammad's dead, Confucius is dead, but Jesus

Christ is alive, and he's alive forever more.

So may the Lord help us to see Him afresh, to follow Him, to

look to Him, and to take encouragement in our

discouragement, to take soccer and help from Him in our

weakness, and to press on toward the mark of the high calling in

Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless these simple

thoughts from His Word to our heart for His namesake.