Welcome friends.
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I'm so glad you joined
us for Books of the Book,
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which is the program that
explores the Bible book by book.
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Just as the word of God reads.
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We are in the study of
the book of Hebrews James.
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We have already had
two sessions in this
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series of programs.
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We've had an overview
of the book of Hebrews.
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Kind of a flyby overview
and then we looked at Chapter 1
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of the book of Hebrews and
now we have come to Chapter 2.
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So we want to invite our
friends to grab a Bible and
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pull up to the television set
there, or if you are listening
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by radio get a Bible and
follow along as we move through
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Hebrews Chapter 2.
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Hebrews 2 is where we
are picking up because
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we left off here.
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We finished Hebrews,
Chapter 1, and were moving into
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Hebrews, Chapter 2.
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We are going to start
with verse 1 of Hebrews 2.
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"Therefore we ought to
give more earnest heed to the
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things that we have heard
lest any time, we should let
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them slip," or drift a way.
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This is beautiful, really
this verse, because God is
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drawing our minds
again to that relationship,
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theme, don't drift from me.
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Don't let me slip away
from You, but He is doing it
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in a relationship to the Word.
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The reason that
Chapter 2 begins with the word
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"therefore", is because
it is referring back to what
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Paul has just
developed in Chapter 1.
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In Chapter 1, he has
introduced us to God supreme
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revelation of Himself, in
the person of Jesus Christ.
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Paul has informed us that
this individual that we are
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dealing with in Christ is
none other than the Creator
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of the Universe who, buy
Himself has purged our sins.
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He is none other than
God, Lord and the Maker of
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heaven and earth down in
the latter verses of Chapter 1.
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So, then Paul in Chapter
2, says, "Therefore, we must
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give earnest heed
to these things. "
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In other words, Paul is
communicating a tone of urgency
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here, he is saying God
has done everything He can do.
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There is no further that
God can go in self-sacrifice,
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He has given all of heaven.
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And this one gift of
Himself in Jesus Christ.
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So if we let this
slip through our fingers.
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If we somehow become
hardened and insensitive to this
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greatest of all gifts and
manifestation of God's love.
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There is nothing more that
God can do to reach our hearts.
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Absolutely, and also, I
think one of the themes we are
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picking up on here it,
we are going to find flowing
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through the book of Hebrews,
a relationship theme that
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He is building on is God has
always opened, had an open door
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of communication to us.
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He has always committed to
us, even from the inception
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of sin, He came looking
for us through the prophets,
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has communicated to
us and in the last days.
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His last effort, His last
focus is to come personally,
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in Human Flesh and
connect with us relationally for
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eternity, because Jesus
Christ is going to bear human,
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humanity for all eternity.
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And what else
can God do but that.
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In other words, in
relationship and seeking
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to restore relationship.
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How more can He
manifest Himself?
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So James, what we see
here is that if we were to
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summarize, Chapter 1, the
author of Hebrews is saying,
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Jesus is God.
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If we are to
summarize, Chapter 2 of Hebrews.
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The author is saying, Jesus
who is God, has become human.
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And this is necessary in
order to accomplish, to bring to
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fruition and completion,
the plan of salvation.
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This book, the book of
Hebrews is Paul's masterpiece of
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Christian apologetics..
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Now Christian apologetics
is defined as the purpose of
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proving Christianity true.
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And so Paul here is using
every, he is pulling out all
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the stops, he is using
everything he can to help us to
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see God in the correct
light and the right light.
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He is doing this by
laying the foundation in
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who Jesus Christ was.
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Hebrews, in a sense, knew
that Jesus was human, in fact
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He was too human for them
to believe that He was God.
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Many of the Jews were ready
to stone Jesus for claiming
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to be one with the
Father for claiming to be God.
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They knew He was human,
and so Paul takes this first
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chapter, and just dedicates
it to pulling the point home,
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pushing the point
home, that Jesus was God.
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Now he goes back in a sense,
to help us understand that
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while He was God,
He was also human.
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This is vital for the Gospel.
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This is the most incredible
thing that's ever happened
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in all of Universal history.
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There is nothing that
human minds can contemplate,
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nothing we can study, nothing
we can delve into, there's
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no scientific pursuit,
there is nothing that compares
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with the reality of God
the Creator of the universe,
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condescending and infinite
love and self-sacrifice to
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become a member James, of
His own creation of His own,
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what He's made.
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I mean, we are mere human
beings, and God didn't remain
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in a lofty separate position,
God step down and became human.
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Paul begins to open this up
with verse 5 and onward in the
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book of Hebrews.
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He says there in verse 5,
"for God has not put the world
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to come, of which we
speak in subjection to Angels,
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but one has
testified in a certain place,"
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he's speaking of David here.
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"What is man that you
are mindful of him or the
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Son of Man, that
you take care of Him. "
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Here's the question
that David urged in Psalms
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Chapter 8,and Paul
takes up here and repeats,
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David is contemplating humanity.
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Why are they so important?
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What's the big deal?
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What's so
significant about human beings?
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Why does God even care for us?
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How vast the universe is,
how large creation is, and
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how tiny our planet is.
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And we're little specks
of, little specks of dust on
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this planet and then
you think of a Creator God,
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who has created all of this.
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So it's much bigger than all
of it, the question comes home
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to the mind, even the scientific
mind, the question comes home,
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What is man?
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In comparison to all of
this, and the answer that Paul
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drives home is astounding,
because he gives an answer
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that elevates humanity in
the scale of moral worth before
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God on such an incredible
scale, he says in verse 7,
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"You," that is God, "you
have made Him a little lower
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than the angels and have
crowned him with glory and
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honor and set Him over
the works of Your hands. "
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It is very interesting,
James, that in this text,
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if you look at other
versions, you look at
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the actual Greek here.
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And even in my margin, in
my new King James version, it
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explains here that there
is another dimension to this
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that Paul is bringing home.
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That actually you don't
even need the other translations
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for, because the remainder
of the chapter actually fills
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out this picture.
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The way that this verse reads
really reads, "You have made Him
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for a little while,
lower than the angels. "
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Then Paul's logic goes something
like this, human beings
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were made a little
while lower than the angels
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because, in the course of
time, God was incarnate in
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Christ Jesus became a human
being, and then was elevated
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to the right hand of the Father.
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Humanity was, in fact,
in Christ, taken in the very
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heavens and seated at
the right hand of the Father.
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So Paul is kind of saying,
now a part of the plan of
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redemption, is that we as
human beings would catch up
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to our position in Christ.
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That we would find
our place in Jesus Christ,
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at the right hand of the Father.
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So God is not just restoring
us God, God is not just bringing
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us back to this ideally
perfection that we had in the
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garden of Eden,
down on this earth.
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He is taken as
further than that.
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He is actually elevating
us, in that restoration,
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to a place by Himself.
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In other words, the plan of
salvation the gospel of Jesus
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Christ, involving God
becoming a man, means that the
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immortal, becomes mortal
and takes upon Himself that
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mortality that human flesh.
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I should say dying in the
human flesh, and then glorified
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in that human flesh takes it to
heaven and then there with Him
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We sit, as He is the head
of the human race, we sit with
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Him on the right side of
the Father for all eternity.
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I mean, think about this,
right now, as we are sitting
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here having this Bible study,
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right at this
very moment, a literal
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human being is seated
in the throne room of the
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universe with the Father.
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A specimen of the
human race, you could say,
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in Jesus Christ has
traversed the entire,
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the entire gamut of redemption.
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He has completely
perfected humanity and
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has ascended to the
throne room of the universe.
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There is a sense in
which according to the
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New Testament
Gospel that Jesus is our
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representative there.
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I mean, I'm not
there, literally,
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you're not there literally.
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That's why we said we
are called upon by faith to
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catch up to where
Jesus is by faith.
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The fact is, that in a
representative set, as our
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Savior, as a human
being, our brother in the flesh.
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Jesus after His incarnation,
His death, His resurrection
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and ascension
retained our humanity.
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Yes, I like these
verses, because these verses in
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Hebrew Chapter 2.
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These verses 5 through
9, give us a set outline of
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the whole plan of salvation.
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We have the
creation story right here.
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We have the fact that
God's put us on this earth and
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placed everything under us.
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We were given dominion
of the whole planet in its
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perfection, in
its Edenic beauty.
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Then it says in verse 8,
when you put all things in
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subjection under His
feet... there was nothing that
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was not put under Him.
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There was nothing that was
left out, of that subjection.
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He has subjection of
the animals, the earth,
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everything was ours.
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But now, the end of this
verse says, verse eight, but now
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we do not yet see
all things put under Him.
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That has taken us to the fall.
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That is taken is to the
truth of our deception by
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Satan, by the serpent.
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And the fact that we yield
ourselves servants to obey.
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We become those
servants to whom we obey.
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Romans Chapter 6 tells us.
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And therefore now in obeying
the serpent, believing the lie
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in disobeying God and
turning our allegiance from
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God to the devil.
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We have given dominion
over this earth to the devil.
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He has become the
prince of this world that is
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why we see evil.
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That's why we see pain
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That's what we see suffering.
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That's where we see death.
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That's why we see
what we see on this planet.
00:11:04.38\00:11:06.38
It was never God's will.
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His will is not being
done here, in that context, but
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verse 9 says, we see Jesus.
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So there is a reversal
of the effects of the fall.
00:11:13.54\00:11:17.75
I mean, the plan of
salvation in a sense in this
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particular context, is God
coming into human experience
00:11:21.96\00:11:25.92
and reversing or you
could say this way, that He is
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going to carry forth
His original plan for the
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human race, as if human
beings have never fallen.
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Paul and in other words,
He is not putting in a demoted
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position, He's not consigning
us to some remote planet
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somewhere in the universe
and saying, you know, you
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should be just
glad that I spared you.
00:11:44.59\00:11:46.50
He is going the extra
mile to say the least He is not
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only redeeming us.
00:11:49.72\00:11:51.31
But then He is taking
us into His very closest,
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intimate relationship.
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Literally, according to
this scripture, human beings
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are to occupy a
position, eventually,
00:12:00.81\00:12:03.85
in relationship with
God, that is higher than the
00:12:03.88\00:12:06.45
angels who have
never fallen into sin.
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And that is why Paul uses
here, for example, the little
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word "yet" in verse 8.
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We do not yet see all
things in subjection to Him,
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but verse 9, we do see Jesus.
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Who, who was made a little
lower than the angels why,
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because that's where we were
made, He became one with us.
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What for, for the suffering
of death that He by the grace
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of God should taste
death for everyone, for all.
00:12:29.38\00:12:31.87
Why though, why did He need
to taste death? is God's wrath
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need to be
appeased, is God angry, No!
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The context of this is really
clear in Hebrews Chapter 2.
00:12:39.32\00:12:42.99
We see in verse two that the
word that was spoken by angels
00:12:43.03\00:12:46.67
was steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience
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received a just
recompense of reward.
00:12:50.39\00:12:52.64
How shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation?
00:12:52.68\00:12:55.30
In other words, God is just.
00:12:55.33\00:12:57.24
Does that mean He's not love?
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Does that justice
eclipse, His love?
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Absolutely not, there
is a common misconception,
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in the world and in
Christianity, that there is a
00:13:06.09\00:13:09.78
contradiction or a contrast.
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That is irreconcilable
between justice and mercy.
00:13:12.32\00:13:15.72
So people, sometimes James,
you hear people place love and
00:13:15.75\00:13:20.30
justice as an opposite or
intention with one another.
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They say God is love.
00:13:25.08\00:13:26.51
But God is also just or God
is just the God is also love,
00:13:26.54\00:13:30.34
but the truth is that God
is love, and both justice and
00:13:30.38\00:13:34.14
mercy are two
hemispheres of that same love.
00:13:34.18\00:13:37.33
God is just because God is love.
00:13:37.36\00:13:39.73
God is merciful, because
God is love, justice is as much
00:13:39.77\00:13:44.53
dimension or an
aspect of love as is mercy.
00:13:44.57\00:13:48.76
Mercy is just as much part
of much of love as is justice
00:13:48.80\00:13:51.82
they are not polar opposites.
00:13:51.85\00:13:53.80
They are a paradoxical
whole, in God's character.
00:13:53.84\00:13:57.25
That's what we see on the cross.
00:13:57.29\00:13:58.57
When we look at
the cross we see mercy.
00:13:58.60\00:14:00.21
When we look
across we see justice.
00:14:00.25\00:14:02.21
They come
together and meet together,
00:14:02.25\00:14:03.34
they kiss each other.
00:14:03.37\00:14:04.77
Psalms 85 says in the
cross and in Jesus Christ.
00:14:04.81\00:14:07.38
I love that verse.
00:14:07.41\00:14:08.38
I love that verse because
there is an intimate element.
00:14:08.39\00:14:12.71
Why would God
employ this word kiss?
00:14:12.74\00:14:15.98
God tells us through
David, in Psalms 85, that at the
00:14:16.02\00:14:20.13
cross and in Jesus Christ.
00:14:20.16\00:14:21.52
Mercy and justice,
truth, kiss each other.
00:14:21.56\00:14:27.15
They came together.
00:14:27.18\00:14:28.15
There was a
beautiful blending of the two.
00:14:28.17\00:14:30.82
We are going to
continue in our study of the
00:14:30.85\00:14:33.14
book of Hebrews,
here in Chapter 2 James,
00:14:33.17\00:14:35.43
but we need to take a break.
00:14:35.46\00:14:36.43
So let's go ahead take
our break and we'll come
00:14:36.47\00:14:38.32
back after the break.
00:14:38.36\00:14:39.36
Please join us as we
continue our study on Chapter 2
00:14:39.39\00:14:42.35