Christ is Better than Angels Part 2

If you would please take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter one. The title for today's message is Christ is Better Than Angels, part two. We encountered upon this part of the chapter last week and I would encourage you to go back to last week's message if you were not able to be here and hear it. As we continue to build upon this theme in chapter one that Christ is Better Than Angels, you'll see that in the Bible in verse four. So if you would turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter one and read in verse four with me, as we will perhaps make it through the end of the chapter today or however far the Lord gives us time.

In verse four, the Bible says, "He has become much better than angels as He has inherited a more excellent name." Not only is Christ better than angels, but the entire book of Hebrews is a case that Christ is not only better than angels, but He is superior to Moses as well. He's superior to the priest as well. He's superior to the old covenant as well. He's superior over the tabernacle as well and Christ is superior over your individual life. If Christ is superior over all of these things for which Israel idolized instead of worshiping Christ, they got their eyes on the means instead of the man.

If Israel can set their eyes on the means instead of the man and Israel being human beings, then you ought to also understand that being human, we also can be subject to the similar errors that we have in the Bible knowing that the apostle Paul gave the Corinthians the same warning to utilize Old Testament Israel as an example so that you will not also go astray. Christ is superior; the theme of the entire book of Hebrews. And then for chapter one, He's better than angels. Set not your mind and heart on the means. Angels were a means. You see that in the birth account and how God used angels mightily even in the birth of our Savior and so forth and so on. So do not set your heart and mind on the means, but remember the man, Jesus Christ. He is Lord and Savior. It's His name that we lift up. It's His name that we worship.

Having become much better than angels, He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Verse four says that He has inherited this name. This is not an isolated theme. In Acts chapter one, verse 38, it says, "Repent each one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." And then as well in Philippians chapter one, verse nine, it says in Philippians 1:9, "God bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord." So this is not an isolated theme here in Hebrews. You could study this out all the way through the Bible, but not only is it an honor to confess the name of Jesus and to bow at Jesus' name and to worship Jesus and be saved by Jesus, it's also an honor to suffer in the name of Jesus. And let this not be a foreign concept for you in your life. If it's foreign, you'll be surprised. But Jesus warned His disciples that you'll suffer because of my name. In Mark chapter 13 and verse 13, it says, "You will be hated by all because of my name." So this theme of Jesus' name is not isolated to the book of Hebrews. Jesus spoke of this very clearly. Not only in Mark, but also the apostle John recorded such in chapter 15 and verse 20. "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

And if your life is as clear as it should be being a Christian, not a shallow Christian, but a bold Christian, you will suffer some consequences by clarifying who Christ is. And it is an honor to suffer for the name of Jesus. Listen, I know that there are many family gatherings this time of year. Thanksgiving is past and Christmas is before us. And as you gather with your family, no doubt, every single one of us have family members that perhaps are on a different spectrum, theologically, maybe even in a different religion. And this is a difficult time to be clear about Christianity, but I would admonish you, Acts chapter 20 verse 20, "Do not shrink back from declaring anything that is profitable." This is what Paul said to the elders by way of clearing his conscience and saying, "Hey, I have lived my life in honor of the name of Jesus and I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything." In other words, everything that is profitable for you and your life is not Godliness good enough for life. Yes, it's a very core of who we are. And so the name of Jesus, in Acts chapter 21 and verse 13, it says, "For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die for the name of Jesus." And so Acts 21:13, Paul declares to his elders, "Listen, don't try and prohibit me from going to Jerusalem. I know that things are coming in my future by way of suffering for Jesus. Do not try and prohibit God's will for my life. I'm gonna be bold, I'm gonna continue in Christ, I'm gonna continue in His word, and this is God's will for my life. And believe me, the suffering is minor as compared to the glory, but much suffering, much glory, little suffering, little glory. And unfortunately, this agony of mind, this heaviness of soul is part of being a Christian.

In Isaiah chapter 53 and verse three, "Jesus proclaimed that He was a man of suffering, a man of sorrow, all kinds of weightiness is what He carried all the time." And you too should be concerned for the lost because you know their eternity. You too should carry the weight of the word of God and your soul to sink you into Christianity and force you to walk according to His word. And then when you poke your head up, it's so glorious because you comprehend the whole. This is life in Christ. I look at it as if you are doing it correctly. You want to get a check mark in Christianity, the first thing that you're gonna do is bow before Jesus. The first thing that you're gonna do is repent. The first thing that you're gonna do is humble yourself. It's like a check mark, down first, then life in Christ; the longer part of your life is glorious. It's more rejoicing, more joy, more happiness, more peace, more wonderful things, more comfort, more proclaiming, but more of Christ. The majority of your life in Christ is the longer part of the check mark if you first will humble yourself. Luke 18:14 says that if you humble yourself, you will be exalted. Humble yourself and you will be exalted. But it's also true, picture that check mark flipped upside down.

If you exalt yourself, that little bit of time that you live in with in pride and you gotta be first, you gotta be heard, then the longer part of that upside down check mark is not being filled with the Spirit but filled with the flesh. The two contrasts you see in scripture. And so, humble yourselves and you shall be exalted. But if you exalt yourselves, you shall be humbled. It's all about the name of Jesus. If you get that right, you'll live right. So Hebrews, the book, the sermon is geared towards strengthening weakened believers who are suffering for the name of Jesus to keep them from shrinking back and drifting. In Hebrews chapter two and verse one it says for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. You know that "so that" are very important words in the Bible—so that you do not drift. You need to know these things.

In verse five I want to draw out a particular observation. Notice that scripture is authoritative. In verse five the Bible says, "For to which of the angels did He ever say..."—now starts an Old Testament quote. A testimony from the Old Testament: "You are my son, today I have begotten you." By way of observation, which is your first step in Bible study, you will see that this is a testimony being leveraged by the preacher to substantiate the theme. And so you see that testimonies from scripture are authoritative. Scripture is authoritative.

Our personal testimonies can be subjective in the minds of people. They're not authoritative; you're not the authority. The word of God is the authority. And the preacher here uses a testimony from scripture as authoritative. Notice that—hermeneutics 101, how to interpret the Bible correctly. Scripture interprets scripture. You've heard that if you're in a Bible study group. We drive home these hermeneutical points so that we can rightly divide God's word. Second Timothy 2:15 says that you have the responsibility to rightly divide God's word. It's your task. And so scripture interprets scripture, supports scripture, and illuminates scripture. So these testimonies that are being leveraged from the writer of Hebrews from the Old Testament to support the point are authoritative.

Now, an atheist might say this, "You're using the Bible to support the Bible. You've nullified that. Are they true in saying that?" And perhaps you will enter into a conversation with a family member or a friend the next coming season, Christmas season, if you have family gatherings and stuff like that with someone who doesn't believe in God. And they say to you, "That's circular reasoning." What are you gonna say? Well, the biblical apologists would just eat up the opportunity to answer this question. They would start salivating over the opportunity to defend Christ rather than any type of food. And they would say, "Well, Proverbs 30:5 says that every word of God is tested. Every word of God is true. It's been tried. It's been heated up to the hottest temperatures possible and found pure. You heat gold up, the impurities rise to the surface. You heat the word of God up, you see that it is pure through and through. No impurities rise to the surface through heating up the word of God or scrutinizing the word of God or dividing up the word of God or comparing the Old Testament to the New Testament. It's always pure and true. John 17:17 says, 'Thy word is true.'"

And so we believe the word of God is true. And so congruency is verifying. You would say, "This is not circular reasoning. This is proving that the word of God is true through and through, backwards and forwards." The author saying the same thing, "No human being could have done this. The Bible is awesome." It's God displaying Himself. It's so pure, it's so wonderful.

Scientifically, to determine the validity of a historical document, they have three different points of examination. And so perhaps your engagement with an atheist would hear you say from this perspective, "We need to look at this historical document." And you would say, "Well, I know that it is inspired." 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is inspired. But if you don't believe that it's inspired, then let's take a look at the historicity of this document, these documents, the compiled attestations to Jesus as Lord. And scientifically, you'll have internal, external, and bibliographical tests to see whether or not a document is true.

Internally, the test then would be, are there contradictions? And we just conquered that one with Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 5, and John chapter 17 and verse 17. There are no contradictions. And the supposed contradictions that are claimed to study them out, there's no contradictions. And so there's no contradictions in the word of God. So test number one scientifically, check, we're good. Number two, externally, do outside sources contradict what this document says, or do they collaborate? Do the documents that exist at the same time or at a similar time that attest to this document collaborate or do they contradict it? Well, we have documents from Josephus, manuscripts, and stuff from Cornelius, Aetachus of Rome, these annals, these things, these documents that collaborate perfectly. People that had no belief that Jesus was Lord, but simply articulated the history of the times well, collaborate with what they knew happened, and then what the Bible says happened perfectly in alignment. So a Jewish man like Josephus, who cared nothing for the lordship of Jesus Christ, has written down historically, from his perspective, the crucifixion. And it's beautiful to write or to read this type of collaborative evidence, because you see Jesus being known as a, or being referred to as just a mere man, a rioter who was causing problems and had to be executed to keep the peace of Rome and Jerusalem.

So yes, we have tons of external evidence. And then bibliographical, that is to say we have close copies of the original, close copies of the original. It's very important that we would say, okay, well, within a lifetime of Jesus, we have authors who wrote about His life within His lifetime, and then bibliographical is gonna say, these writings that were written down, do we have close enough documents that are credible that also pass these tests? And the answer is we do. So praise the Lord for our original manuscripts. So the opposition as an atheist may say these things and may proclaim these errors, but the Bible passes the internal, external, and bibliographical test. And we see that the word of God is trustworthy. And as it says that Christ is better than angels, it is a sealed case. And we can then therefore apply this truth to our life because we have confidence in God's word.

Just by way of observation there in verse five, you see that scripture is being leveraged as authoritative. And that's very important for us to place more emphasis and lean more on scripture than what we think, or what we believe, or what I understand. To be transparent with someone who does not believe in Christ, you would want to bring them underneath the authority of scripture and not believe because of what you have said. You want to proclaim the gospel and see that the gospel is the power of God and the salvation in someone's heart, but at the same time lead them to Jesus Christ and depending upon Him, upon the word of God. So we see that the author of Hebrews is doing it. This is wonderful.

In verses five to 12, this is fascinating. Now as the writer of Hebrews, or the author of Hebrews, the preacher of Hebrews uses a chain of quotations. These would be catch words in the original language. And there are catch words in our language. You could say something that perks people's ears, something that may be a hot word in our culture, and then you would be listening very closely because of all these catch, catch, catch words. We don't really see that unless you understand Greek and Hebrew, we just have to study it through and see what the author is doing.

The first catch word phrase is found in verse five: "For which of the angels did He ever say? 'You are my son, today I have begotten you,' and again 'I will be a father to Him and He shall be a son to me.'" This is a utilized reference from Psalm 2 and Second Samuel 7:14, for which we studied last time through the sermon. Go back and study that again if you would like. It's rich. Now this is the point that God enthroned His son. This is an idea that would catch them.

The second catch phrase is seen in verses six and seven: "And when He again brings the first born into the world, He says, 'And let all the angels of God worship Him.' And of the angels He says 'Who makes His angels winds. And His ministers, a flame of fire.'" And so the second catch phrase point is this: Angels are servants. Angels are servants. So you see the first point is that God enthroned His son. Gotcha. And then the second catch phrase is that angels are ministers, they're servants. And this is substantiated by the Old Testament references of Deuteronomy 32:43 and Psalm 96:7.

So the author knows the Old Testament well. He is not new to the Old Testament. Luke being a Greek would have been converted into Judaism first. I bring up Luke because he's potentially most likely the author of Hebrews. He wrote this in a high level of Greek. He would have known Greek, but he would have been converted first to Judaism and then would have been understanding Christ as Lord and then converted to Christianity. Luke would be more of a New Testament scholar, one who could write Greek at a high level and articulate these things. The preacher of the book of Hebrews is most certainly an Old Testament scholar. This man knows the Old Testament. He's lived out Judaism. He's been a Pharisee of all Pharisees. And there are other reasons why I would believe that Paul was the articulator of this sermon because of his rich and wonderful and strong use of the Old Testament to see that Jesus is Lord. See that the whole Bible is pointing to Jesus. Turn to Jesus, look to Jesus. All these Old Testament references are rich. The whole history of Jesus Christ on display for us to find.

The third catchphrase or point is that the son rules the universe. The son rules the universe. In verses eight through 12, you'll see this: "But of the son, He says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom and You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Your God has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions. And You, Lord, in the beginning...'" You get that reference. You see how rich this is, this allusion to "in the beginning." I know you know what that reference is—"in the beginning." Lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are Your works, the works of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain.

In verse 11, do you see the doctrine of Jesus Christ in His immutability? He does not change. You have Hebrews 13:8 memorized: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forevermore," the immutability of Christ. Christ remains; He's the same and He is the word of God. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8 says, "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever." This is rich, wonderful doctrine substantiated from the Old Testament and there's so many more references and allusions here today, I can't speak to them all. And they all will become like a garment, like a mantle. You will roll them up like a garment. They also will be changed. Well, the comparison is Christ is better than angels. And then the further substantiate that everything you see is gonna change, but Christ remains. The heavens and the earth, they're gonna change. They're gonna be rolled up, tossed away, redone and Christ still remains the same. So where should your hope be? Where should your foundation be? In the unchanging one.

You see that as well as you continue to read in verse 12: "But You are the same and Your years will not come to an end." Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6 says this: "For I am the Lord, I do not change."

Oh, that is so stabilizing to our faith. There's a particular point that I want to draw out here for us in this Christmas season. When it comes to gladness, it is a result of being anointed. In this passage, you see the oil back in verse 9. Verse 9 says this: "You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore Your God, therefore God, Your God has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions."

And yes, Jesus was a demonstrator of rejoicing evermore. He was a very happy man in the incarnate state and His glory exuberates. And when we truly are representing Christ well, no matter what happens in this world, we're always thankful, 1 Thessalonians 5:18. When we harness Christianity, we exuberate His joy. And Paul even in prison said in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice evermore. And again, I say, Rejoice." We know this. And he said it again to the Thessalonians. So listen, when we really truly have apprehended Christ, then we are joyful people by and large, no matter what's going on. We have been saved, which is synonymous with being selected or anointed. And this is pictured in the Old Testament through oil. Oil is symbolic for blessings.

So let's just look at it for just a moment in Psalm 23. Turn with me if you would to Psalm 23. And notice that even while the illustration of walking through the valley of shadow of death, He is still having a feast and anointed and can be at a place of peace and rest and overwhelmed with joy and blessings. We'll start from the top in Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures." And here for just a moment, notice the singular word "the." Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6. The Lord, the Lord, yes, the Lord is Jesus. Jesus is Lord. So from the Old Testament, when you see the word "Lord," you could easily write in the Trinitarian concept of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Lord. Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess Jesus as Lord."

And so the Lord, the Lord Jesus, the only God, the Lord Jesus is my—that personal pronoun—my shepherd. Can you say that Jesus is mine? He's mine. I have inherited Christ. He selected me. I've been saved, gloriously saved. He's my shepherd, the one who cares for your needs, who protects and guides you. Can you say that the Lord is my shepherd? I'm protected by Him.

The troubles of this world are no longer gonna trouble me because my God is powerful. He shepherds my soul and my circumstances. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I am content in Christ because He cares for my need. This is what verse one is saying. Apply this to your life.

And then in verse two: "He makes me to lie down." True sheep are made to be restful in Christ because of who Christ is. Christ is Lord of your hearts. We don't just rest on one day a week and take a restful day, a peaceful day and focus on the Lord. We have what's called resting in Christ. We'll get to that in chapter four of Hebrews. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. If you're following Jesus, you're gonna be led to a peacefulness inside of your soul. He wants to lead you to this tranquility. Not all of life is rushing water. Not all of life feels like you've fallen off of a waterfall. There's lots of peaceful meandering realms within life in Christ like a river. There's rapids, yes. And there's waterfalls, yes. But a lot of your life should be being led by Christ to be at peace.

And then in verse three: "He restores my soul." This is to say that you have been harmed or hurt or from lost, saved or from damaged as a Christian to being restored. This original Hebrew word, shav, shav, means renew. And so perhaps your soul needs to be renewed or made whole. That's the work of God in your life. He does these things. He guides me in paths of righteousness. Yes, we yield to Him and we're led in paths of righteousness but it's not just for your own good. The purpose of your sanctification, the purpose of you being led into a righteous life is for His name's sake. His name, the theme again pops up here in Psalm 23. It's not new. It's through and through the word of God, the name of Jesus, the name for His name's sake. So Christ puts us at peace and He makes the weary soul whole again to glorify Him.

Your being at peace through turbulent times glorifies Christ. When people look at your life and they say, I can't believe what you're dealing with and yet consistent in Christ, yet consistent to church, yet consistent to pray, yet consistent to love your loved ones, yet consistent to love the unlovable ones, yet consistent, yet, yet, yet. When people see your consistency in Christ and your peace in Christ despite living in a fallen world, they see your good works and glorify the Father in heaven, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16 says. You're being a light because you're yielded to Christ but when you individualistically separate yourself from the word of God and from the light of Christ, doesn't that lead you in a downward spiral? Hopelessness. You're not at rest; you're filled with anxiety. You know this. And so the psalmist is being very encouraging here that it's not just for our righteousness or for our benefit, it's actually for His name's sake, for His glory. So you're living with purpose. You're on a mission to glorify Jesus in your life.

Even though I'm just trying real hard to get to the word oil here if you're not following me well. In verse four, it says: "For even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, let me tell you, do not stop walking if you're in tough times. Keep walking in Christ. The worst thing that you can do is stop and get bitter and separate yourself from the church, from your loved ones, from Christ, from the word of God. The worst thing you can do is stop praying and stop studying the word of God. The worst thing you could do is get away from the fellowship and the encouragement of the believers. This is what Christ prayed for in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17—that we would be unified with each other and unified with Christ. It's so important to love God and to love others. Keep walking through valleys. It's a shadow of death. Death has been conquered. John Owen the Puritan wrote on this. The death of death, Christ conquered death. What we deal with is a shadow.

Satan's trying to scare you into an individualistic, secluded life. Satan's trying to make you be filled with fear and run from what you know is right. It's just a shadow. Don't be scared of a shadow. Second Timothy 1:10 says, "Christ defeated death."

"I'll fear no evil before because You are with me," verse four says. "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Those who know God know that the staff symbolizes both a rod and that curvature part at the top makes it also a staff. And so this rod represents His power to discipline us, His power to rule, but the staff part, the curvature part symbolizes firstly His gentleness and His guidance. Together in Hebrew, these two words, separate, mean different than when they are combined. Word pairs in Hebrew mean something different than when they are separate. Pairing them together signify God's power to protect and His concern and care and to guide you.

But as this unravels through this text, you will see that this word pair and the next word pair emulate His fierce pursuit for His sheep, His unrelenting love of you, and that He is unwilling to allow a wayward sheep to stay wayward. He's gonna bring that sheep back into the fold. He is unwilling to see that a sheep is not in a good state and He is going to pursue you with all of who He is and do everything needed to bring you back into a close and intimate fellowship with Him. He's not satisfied with anything outside of a close relationship with Himself for His sheep.

Now as we continue through this, "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me, You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Do you believe that God has a personality? Oh man, it's so funny. I'm gonna eat and be merry and I'm gonna be just fine. I'm gonna be at peace even in the midst of my enemies. You know why? Because God's in control. They can shout all these shadows of fear. They can threaten me. They can email me a lawsuit. I'm gonna sue you. I'm not gonna like you anymore. Let me warm up my food and just eat while you do your evil thing.

Listen, in the presence of your enemies, we live in a fallen world. We need to continue in Christ. This is so wonderful and in the midst of this, "You prepare a table before me. In the presence of my enemies, You have anointed my head with oil," even while I am eating a meal despite all of the terrible things going on.

I know it was a tragedy that Charlie Kirk got shot. I know that that causes sorrow of soul because we have got to continue in Christ with confidence in our God that God is in control and not demonstrate that we're on the losing team, but demonstrate by continuing to eat, by continuing to sleep, by continuing to go to church, by continuing in Christ, eat your meals and be happy in the Lord despite all of the threats and despite all of this. You know that normative Christianity is not like what we are living. Normative Christianity is being persecuted all the time. And when the believers come together, they are in a New Testament under the impression that the government or opposers could come in and murder somebody or persecute somebody or burn down the church. And if you have experienced that today by going on a commission trip somewhere in a liberal country where Christianity is illegal and that is happening, you know exactly what's happening here. For us, we got to intellectually learn it and interpret it and apply it so that we can get what true Christianity truly is.

And now for the point that I was trying to get to is that "You have anointed my head with oil." You know that in 1 Samuel chapter 10, Samuel anointed Saul. And then in 1 Samuel 16, Samuel anointed David. This is symbolic for God's selection. This is particular. So He has selected these men to anoint them. And He has also, by way of application, then anointed you. The anointing in the Old Testament was a ceremonial smearing. You could picture Samuel dumping oil on top of these men and then just smearing and bathing their whole head with oil.

Ladies, don't think of oily hair. Oh, I can't believe that happened. Don't think of men, don't think of the fact like, man, this is gonna drip all down my back and feel weird. That is not the picture. Get past all of that and picture Jesus Christ smothering you with all of who He is and all of His joy and all of His blessings and all of His protection and all of His wonderful meaningfulness. He's just pouring out His blessing upon you. And He's pouring His oil as a way of symbolically referencing all of these blessings, protection and empowerment. Oh, this is wonderful. Did you know that Messiah means anointed one? Yes.

And so Christ spreads to you and gives to you who He is. The anointed one, He anoints you. Christ Himself is our anointing. And therefore, we live out this blessed Christianity. What's the result? Your cup overflows. You see it in verse five. Your cup overflows. And then in verse six: "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life." Here's another Hebraic word pair: goodness and lovingkindness.

Goodness in the Hebrew, tov, refers to God's nature. So in Hebrew, you have this word, what it means. But this word pair, when it's combined with lovingkindness, chesed, means that God has an active determination to shepherd you unrelentlessly. Tov and Chesed paired together portrays the fierce, loyal love of God toward you. His unwavering love. We're gonna understand what it is to engage in a covenant relationship with Christ more and more as we go through Hebrews. But believe me, God fulfills His side of this covenant no matter what you do. He's patient and He's kind and He's wonderful and He is always, always gonna be there for His children.

No matter what you fall into, no matter how far away from Christ you fall, just like the book of Hebrews is bringing Israel back to fullness in Christ. I can't imagine worshiping an idol and yet being forgiven. Oh, how the mercy of God is wonderful. And so, God is a God who seeks and brings His people back and it's ultimately into His presence personally now and in forever in eternity.

Look how Psalm 23 ends up: "Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." This word "dwell," yeshab, means a deep and secure settledness. Now and forever reflecting our communion with God. Oh, this is a wonderful thing to dwell with the Lord and this is also a reference from the tabernacle when it comes to tabernacling with Christ and the other point in Hebrews is that Christ is better than the tabernacle because we don't idolize a building or go to a building, He tabernacles with us and we tabernacle with Him, we have fellowship, close and rich and wonderful communion with God. And this is just simply in context to understand from Hebrews back to Hebrews what it means for the Old Testament reference of oil to be brought into the richness of Christ. Well, no wonder Christ is better than an angel. An angel is a servant of God.

And so the climax here in this chain of quotes back in Hebrews chapter one is a quote from the Old Testament again and we'll read it yet in Hebrews chapter one and verse 13. I'm gonna wrap up and continue this message next week. Hebrews chapter 1 in verse 13 says this: "But to which of the angel has He ever said, 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool unto Your feet?'" So this chain of quotes sets up this point for which Jesus is on the throne and He is making His enemies into a footstool. Remember you're on the victorious team here. All of the enemies of Christ are being made into a footstool leveraged to lift up Christ. Everything evil is happening in the world, leveraged to lift up Christ. You don't understand the wonders of God. You don't understand it all. You don't understand how all that's happening in the world is providential and how God is sovereign. We don't understand these things, especially when we contemplate the deep and dark things that are happening in this world. But believe me, God is on the throne. He's ruling in all of these things are being made to glorify Him.

And so what do we make of all of this? Let me skip the take home points and focus on Jesus as Lord and Savior. When Jesus is Lord of your life and you're esteeming Him better than angels and better than all the things in this world and better than anything that can tempt you to fall away from Christ and better and more important, your heart and mind and soul is on Jesus, then I'm telling you, the life that you will live is so exuberant of the wonderful things of the word of God. Your life will have new motives, according to Ezekiel chapter 36 and verses 26 and 27, your heart will be renewed to be given a new heart, new motives. And you will recognize the fact that you aspire to do different things for Jesus rather than to do the things for yourself. That's an evidence of your true salvation. Jesus is your Lord and you will also be willing to be obedient to the word of God.

In John chapter 3 and verse 36, the fact that you're truly saved is evidenced by your obedience to the word of God. It's not because you prayed a prayer, it's not because you profess Jesus Christ. Words don't save you; Christ saves you. And the evidence that He has saved you is that you love His law, you love His word, you're obedient to it. And then from this life in Christ that produces fruit, the fruit comes from being changed: love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. Galatians 5:22 testifies of this. And the one that hardly anybody truly preaches and embraces is Luke 9:23, a costly sacrifice. A costly sacrifice, your life in Christ, if you want some evidence, the fact that you're truly saved and you've embraced the cost of being a disciple and you have yielded to the call to take up your own cross and follow me. Truly, you have yielded to that and you have taken up your own cross, yes, your act of suffering for Jesus. It costs you something to serve Jesus, not just tread on your tires and gas out of your tank. I'm talking about mentally, emotionally and physically, there is an emptying of yourself for the causes of Christ, a giving of time, a giving of treasure, a giving of talent, a giving of yourself for the purposes of Christ and when you empty yourself out for the purposes of Christ, Christ fills you back up.

And that fullness is better than any type of selfish lifestyle that keeps your time, keeps your talent, keeps your treasure and keeps your mind and keeps your heart away from the purposes of Christ. Christ wants His kingdom to be spread, to grow and He wants you to be a part of that and there's joy in it, it's a costly sacrifice. And then there's also an inward compulsion for gospel urgency and a willingness to be persecuted. A continuance in perseverance through suffering and joy in obeying Christ and we are regular repenters and we're prayer warriors and we're gracious forgivers. These evidences of true Christianity help us to have confidence that Christ has saved us because these ideas and precepts are inside our heart and soul and we are getting better at obeying them and we're getting better at employing them and we're getting better and better at utilizing these aspects of Christianity and as we do, develop the skill set of spiritual Christianity, our joyometer gets better and better and better and we esteem Christ as better than angels and better than Moses, better than the tabernacle, better than everything.

That's what the author of Hebrews is saying to us: Christ is better. Enjoy Him this season because He is so rich and so wonderful for you. No wonder we want to be bright lights for Christ.

Lord, thank you for the fact that You are better than angels and helping us to apply this concept to our life and I pray that You will help us, Lord, to understand that when You save us, You also shape us and then we shine for You. Help us to be willing to yield our heart, minds and souls to Your transformative process so that we can bring You glory. Help us not to look at ourselves and think from a consumeristic standpoint, what can Christ do for me, what can His church do for me, but help us to do an about face and love You and love others no matter who they are, where they are and how they're acting because You first loved us, we want to love others with all we possibly are and You in us gives us that desire.

Thank you, dear Jesus, for growing us spiritually over the last few years and by a point of maturity, may we all take it personally and then do an about face in our life and become a disciple maker, a great commission Christian who comes to church to be equipped into worship but at the same time goes and makes disciples and loves the brethren, loves the sisterhood and loves the lost. Lord, I pray to You, do this in us and the only way that we can do that is if we esteem You better than all earthly and even heavenly things. Help us in this way, we pray in Christ's name, amen.