In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the greatness of salvation and urges the listeners not to neglect it. He uses a personal anecdote about a bird to illustrate the concept of dominion that humans were originally given over all creation. However, due to sin, this dominion was lost and the world is not currently under human control. The preacher references David's realization of God's original plan for humanity to share in His glory and majesty.

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 word 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 a salvation which had first begun to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him, and God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles, and with gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will? For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak? But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, and crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thine hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all things into subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not see yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. Lord, we thank you now for your Word, and we ask that you would take it and speak to us. And Lord, that who we are in you, that we would understand it, Lord. No one has anything to say to us as wonderful as you, and any hope and any power to make it happen. And Lord, as we look at your Word this morning, I pray that you would cause us to know it's true. And these things that you say of us in the future, that we would understand it. And Lord, we'd believe it, and the result is we'd find ourselves just in awe of you all the more. So we thank you for your love and your goodness and your wonderful commitment to us. In Jesus' wonderful name we pray, amen. Well, here as we continue on in the book of Hebrews, here we are given one of about four warnings through the book. To be heeded. They're to be taken very seriously, I'm sure, obviously, they wouldn't be there. But as he begins chapter two, he says, therefore, we ought to give the more enis, earnest. You know, I suppose, I think in the original Greek it's enis, heed of the things which we have. The Lord's speaking to me, I know he is. The more earnest heed of the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word 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 a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? Now, if you recall, if you were with us in these last couple of weeks, here as we're looking at the book of Hebrews, the writer of the Hebrews is writing there to a Jewish congregation of people that had been converted to Christ. And yet the Judaizers had been trying to bring them back to the temple. Their argument was, was, hey, you may believe in Jesus, but are you trying now to say that God didn't give us Moses? He didn't give us the law. Didn't God give us the priesthood? Didn't he give us the sacrifices? Didn't he give us the temple and all of this? And now you're saying those are not true. You're walking away from all those. And they were thinking, well, no, we know God gave us those. And so they were being pulled back into Judaism, being pulled back into the temple. And so the writer of Hebrews is wanting to communicate with them in this book and want them to know that they are to walk away from all of these things because they were all foreshadowing that which was perfect, which was yet to come. And here it was something where the writer of Hebrews is simply going to lay out for us on how the Jesus is better than anything and anybody. He's better than Moses. He's better than the law. He's better than Aaron. He's better than the high priest and the priesthood itself. He's more than the temple, more than the sacrifices, more than anything ever given because he is the fulfillment of them all. And what that which was in part you need not now when he that it all typified is now here. So yes, you do leave them. Were they true? Absolutely. But now that Christ has come, he is the focus of our heart and our life and our worship. You don't need those things and they won't work for you anymore. He is also, as we looked at last week, one of his first tasks was to show that Jesus is greater. He's going to go on other than, you know, with Moses and Aaron and the priesthood and all sorts of human beings and say not only is Jesus greater than them, but first of all, he wanted to say Jesus is greater than any angel. For the Jews thought that Jesus was perhaps an angel and that he was actually not an angel. He's the son of God that we looked at last week in his deity and his identity as a member of the triune Godhead was established. And now, though, he did state, as we also saw, if you were with us last week on how that the law, as Stephen said, and Paul was dispensed by angels and ordained by angels. God used angels tremendously in the old covenant. But now he is giving us a warning there to say, listen, if you believe the old covenant and you believe what Moses said and you believe what the law gave and all of these other things and these things that were given to us by angels that did appear. And now he wants to say, you better give an even more earnest heed now. For if even angels said things and yet there was a just recompensive reward based on how you responded to what an angel said, how much more important it is now that the son of God himself has spoken, that we would listen to what he has to say and respond to it adequately and sufficiently with a full, you know, trust in it. Also now, though, as he gets into this chapter, after he lays out this warning, he says, I want to warn you, don't you dare neglect so great a salvation as he calls it there. The salvation you thought you had in the old Testament, as wonderful as it was, that was offered by the blood of bulls and goats and through the priesthood. There is now a salvation given to us in Christ that is so enormous and he's going to be looking at that this morning. So awesome. He says, this is you. Don't you dare neglect a salvation this great. He says, I'm going to say some very heavy things to you essentially here. And he says, I want you to listen. I want you to grasp these things because they're life-changing. I hope if I can even do the simplest job with this thing, it ought to be awesome. I'll never touch it, I know, for what it's worth, but to try to grasp it here. What he's talking about here in this is the salvation that is really laid out, not just simply for man in the sense of eternal life given to us where one day we'll go to heaven, but it's a far greater salvation than even that. In the sense he is going to be talking here about the total restoration essentially here of God's plan, even in all of creation and of the earth as well, where man will one day yet again rule and reign with Christ. And so here after he is now getting into the text here, after he's given this warning, I want you to listen. There is a great salvation I want to talk to you about, but he wants us to know one thing here. First of all, in verse five, he says, for under the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak. He said, I'm going to be talking about a restoration and a full work of God that is yet to happen. And he says, and when it happens, angels will not have part in any form of ruling, any form of reigning in it. They will not have any source of power or authority in that sense. Angels will not rule, but they will minister. They will be as they were actually to be doing. In the sense of, as we left off in the last chapter, identifying angels, he says, are they not all yet ministering spirits sent forth to minister under the heirs of salvation? When God created man, angels were there to minister to him and to serve him. Man had the higher and greater glory even than the angels then. And now he wants us to know that when God puts everything back in order, angels will not have the position that they appear to have to man now. But rather than that, man will be ruling. And we're told that, of course, as well in Romans chapter 13, where Paul talks about there the rulership of man. But in the world to come, angels will not be sovereign at all. Man will rule in the ages to come. And this is what we'll be looking at right now. Today what we'll be looking at in the text, but here today angels have an authority. We'll be looking at how and why in a few moments, but it is only a temporary authority and allowed for now. As Paul tells us in Ephesians, he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, against spiritual wickedness, rulers of darkness and high places. He says, there is this great battle that is going on that we are all caught up in and this wrestling that we do day by day by day. All of us, whether we're conscious of it or not, the wrestling and the spiritual battle and warfare is constantly going on. But here he wants us to know that it will not be that way. And the earth to come, as he says here in verse five, he says, the angels will not be put, pardon me, but unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come. The world that is to one day come back and that we are going to be involved in yet ahead. It is one there essentially there where the angelic power will be gone and the angels will no longer be in any form of power, but man. The world to go, the world we're in right now, angels are powerful. Fallen angels are powerful. Demons are powerful. Satan is very, very powerful. We live in a world that's filled with tremendous spiritual conflict. For as I said, Paul said, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We think it's husband against wife or parent against child or neighbor against neighbor, employer and employee or all of these other things. And though it appears in the conversations and the anger and the hostility and all the emotion is carried on between human beings, Paul says that behind it all, the real wrestling that's going on is this spiritual that is really occurring there trying to break down and destroy the home, the marriage, the family, and turn people one against another. But it was never, of course, originally that way in the sense that there were this spiritual authority or power over man. Man, you know, when God, you know, did the work of creation, the world was subject to man and we'll look at that more, but never to angels until back in the Garden of Eden as it's recorded for us there on how that when Satan came into the garden, as he came in and began speaking to Eve, there, the Bible calls him an usurper in the Bible. He's called a beguiler. To usurp it is to usurp authority is to come in through beguiling or through deception to take somebody else's authority away from them. That's why Satan is called the usurper or the beguiler. And when he came into the garden, he usurped an authority that was not his. He came to man who was there to rule and through his deception, did God say that you can't eat of that? Well, yes, he did. And carries on the conversation, well, do you know why he said that? Well, not exactly. Well, I'll tell you why, because you'll be like him and he doesn't want that. And so there it was, you know, when man was deceived in aid of it, well, I want to be like God. Who wouldn't want to be like God? So when man was deceived, took the bait, lied, not only did what happened, did man fall into sin and did man spiritually die? But there was another great thing that oftentimes we don't think about. But at that point in time, not only was man brought down, but Satan was lifted up and he be usurped in authority that was not his through beguiling and deception. He took over essentially the place of rulership that God had created man to know. Man essentially was created to be king. We'll look at that more in a moment, but the, and to be ministered to by angels, not to be ruled over, influenced by angels. Man was the sovereign, and yet he gave his sovereignty away there through deception to an angel. But of course, wasn't created that way. God, when he created man, he created him with a majesty and with a glory and an identity way beyond anything that you and I could even comprehend. We can speak of it. We can read of it. We can try to grasp it, but I'm convinced at least myself, I have yet to even dream. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love him. There is a plan that God has that was once in place, forfeited in sin. Now recouped by Christ, sacrificed himself for me, offered again. That is going yet to be occurring in every one of our lives, but it hasn't. But when that does the glory of it, David had a little glimpse of it, I think, and it's quoted here. That's where, when it says here in verse six, it says, but one in a certain place testified that's out of Psalm eight. That is David is as he writes of this Psalm. And Psalm eight is a wonderful Psalm because in that particular Psalm, David, one time as he seemingly may be out, he loved creation and maybe looking around at it, contemplating it, thinking of God. And somehow or another began to flash on him something that God had new and planned when he created man. Whereas David writes, he says, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth whose glory is above the heavens. And then he says out of the mouth of sucklings and babes as thou ordain strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the avenger. And he said, when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained and David finds himself, he looks out there and he just sees himself there looking at God in his glory, looking at creation and then realizing there, as he said early, he says, out of the mouth of sucklings and babes has thou ordained strength. He says that thou mightest still the avenger. He says, God, you created man. There he said, David realized, I'm just a suckling. I'm just a babe. I'm just like a little child. And yet you have ordained something to happen. You have set something in motion. There is something in the mind of God that you long for, for man to realize what you created man for. I think maybe David, when he was young and he just loved the Lord so innocent, so precious and went out and served him and God anointed him and blessed him, protected him. And maybe when he went out and he killed the lion, he came back as a young man and reported to his family, guess what? A lion came after the sheep and I killed it. And they thought, David killed a lion. Yes, I did. And they probably, you know, wondered, I wonder if that's true. And then, and then another time a bear comes and he takes off and he kills the bear. He comes home. I killed a bear. It's David, David, David. Come on. And then he, then he goes out, of course, later on with Goliath. Now they had witnesses, you know? And now another, a giant falls and he finds himself there. Then they run after and take, take off after him. And the whole nation is inspired to battle, to get their lands back. And then the next thing you know, though, David, he goes out and he becomes a warrior and a thousand fall at his side and then 10,000 at his right hand. And then after it starts off with a lion and a bear, and then it goes to Goliath and then a thousand and then 10, 10,000. Then he starts looking at entire nations. Moab is my washpot. Over Edom I cast out my shoe. He looked at the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Jesurites, the Hittites, the Hivitites, the Ammonites, one after another, after another, and they're nothing. Entire nations. And he's watching God as he took this little suckling, this little child, this little babe who simply loved God, and he brought him up to a place of majesty and glory and authority. And David realized this was no mistake. First maybe when the lion fell, wow, the bear. Maybe when some of the battles, when Goliath, I must be something. Then one day he comes to realize, I'm nothing. This is so over the top. This is so beyond anything human. There is something that God has set in motion that he has. There was a plan for humanity that I think I'm just touching. I'm just beginning to comprehend for a moment because then after he says, when I consider the heavens, the moon, and the stars without our stain, he says that, then he says what's quoted here. He says, what is man? What in the world is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? God, I don't understand this unbelievable obsession. I looked at the magnanimity of you. That's a word. I look at how huge and glorious you are. The heavens, the moon, and the stars, and yet I see of all the things that God could ever think about and be preoccupied with, your focal point is obviously man. What do you see that we don't? What do you know we don't? What in the world is in your mind that you are mindful of him, that you're literally, it means obsessed. God, you have this unbelievable obsession with man. What in the world is it that you see? What is man that thou visitest him, that you want to come? You literally want to spend the day with me. You want to empower me. You want to lead me, guide me. You want to bless me. You want to watch the enemies fall. You want to have me rule and reign. You have established a kingdom. I don't understand this. And as he looks at that, then he responds in Psalm 8, and he finds himself there with this wonderful insight after he says, what is man that thou are mindful of him, the son of man that thou visitest him? He says, for thou madest him. He understands. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor and madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hand. Thou has put all things under his feet. He said, ye all sheep and oxen and all cattle and all beasts of the field. Thou of the air, the fish of the sea and all that pass through the paths of the sea. He looks there and he says, God, when you created man, you created man and you gave him dominion. You created it. He said, now you have dominion over it. You rule it. The foul of the air, the fish of the sea, all that even passed through the channels that we did. When David wrote this, they didn't even realize there are huge just channels in the ocean themselves and the paths that they now have realized thousands of years later that are in the seas. And David there, he realized God, when you created man, we were to rule over all of life and all of this creation, all of this earth, all of this planet, you gave it to us. And he says, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. But as David begins to comprehend this, he perceived there, he realized there that when God had created man, it wasn't just David, it was all man. Every single one of us that he had a plan, he had a majesty, he had a glory that when he, there was somebody was a human being and by identity of being a human being, they were created in the image of God to share his glory, to share his majesty, none higher, none lower, none greater, none lesser, all his, all with such a majesty, with such a glory. And then as he goes on, he says about him, he says, but thou has made it. First of all, when you made angels, you made man, pardon me, you made him a little lower than the angels, which we are in one sense, lower in, in, in creation, in the sense that man is out of the dust of the earth. Angels are spiritual, you know, beings, they have spiritual bodies. Man is natural. Angels are supernatural. As first Corinthians 15, there are bodies terrestrial, there are bodies celestial, there are bodies made out of terra firma, out of earth, and then there are heavenly bodies. Angels have heavenly bodies. To men, God must reveal we're lower that way. Angels have access to his presence in his throne. Men, we have choices on how to live and walk and talk and behave and function to serve or obey or sin or whatever. And angels that appears ever since the fall of Lucifer and the third of the angels of heaven that we believe went with him. At that point in time, they've all been locked in. They don't go on back and forth and trading sides and making any new decisions. Men, human beings, we die. Angels, there's no death, you know, in a sense. So there were, man are made lower than the angel, though not lower spiritually. In terms of being an object of love, man is, is the object of God's love. We are the apple of his eye. We are his children. No angel is God's child. There is creations, but not his child, not the object of his affection. So we're higher in that sense, but lower in creative design. But here the point of it is, in this chapter, is that Hebrews wants us to know how great of a salvation we have, and he says, it is so great, he says, that this what we once had when God had made man, he gave him dominion over the work of his hands, the moon and the stars, and all the, you know, the flesh of the earth, in a sense, over it. Man will have that again. This will occur. This is what redemption is truly all about. Daniel 7, 18 says, but the saints of the Most High, they shall take the kingdom and they shall possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Here the Bible tells us that what God created man originally to be, it is going to happen. It just isn't something that's just going to be a memory in God's eyes. Yeah, it was great while it lasted. Never happen again. Fine for a time, but oh well, well, no. Here the Bible says, no, what there once was will yet be again for man. Daniel 7, 27 says, and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given unto the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. Here he says, I'm going to give it. There will once again, what was created to be at one time will happen again. It will occur. Man will rule. And it is something there that Jesus promised that redemption or promised that that salvation specifically to those who are his redeemed. Luke 20, 35 says, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection of the dead. And he says, neither shall they die anymore, being the children of the resurrection. Here Jesus said that those that come through the resurrection, those that have given their life to me, those that we'll see later have been washed and cleansed in his blood and forgiven for their sins. Those who are the redeemed, they will find themselves in that world yet to come, ruling and reigning. I mean, just to stop and think of it, eternal life, you see, eternal life is not just simply endless life. As far as God is concerned, eternal life is in Jesus in John 17, three, he said, and this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou sent. All that eternal life is, is sharing the life of the one who is eternal. We think eternal life was the day our sins were forgiven, the day Christ died for us. Now that started it, that initiated it, that opened the door to it. But eternal life is not simply as far as God is concerned of getting me out of hell and into heaven someday. The real great salvation that Jesus is talking about here is that when Jesus Christ gets out of heaven and back into me, when he rules and he reigns within me again, when he now can come back to a human being and rule and reign and live with within the heart and the life and power and glory and majesty, and he can rule and reign and have full dominion in our hearts and in our lives as we were created to be. God looks and he says, this is what you were created for. This is what it's all about. I think sometimes, you know, we need to stop and realize that the wonderful thing is that when, when Jesus Christ, what he did for us, what he has planned for every one of our lives still yet, we'll be crowned with him. It's something in Ephesians chapter one, verse 20, tells us on how Christ will reign for it says, for he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that isn't named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come here, the Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ died, when he rose from the dead, he sits at the right hand of the majesty on high and he has dominion over all power, all principality over all names that is named in this life and in the life and in the world to come. But then it goes on in revelation three 21, and it says to him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne. In other words, it won't just be, I'm going to heaven, Jesus saying, even before you go to heaven, I am going to bring heaven back to earth and I'm going to rule and I'm going to reign and you're going to rule and you're going to reign with me as you were created to, as you were created to know and share. Ephesians one 21 says that you and I, when we reign, we too, we will be above principality and power and might and dominion there. When you and I rule and reign to think of angels, once again, ministering spirits sent forth to minister under the airs of salvation. And the wonderful thing, when we realized that the redemption that you have as a Christian, what Jesus Christ offers again is not just simply when the role is called up yonder, I'll be there, but Jesus wants to say before that, when I come back to heaven, I come back to earth, you'll be there and you'll reign with me and you will rule with me and you will live with me and you will have that dominion and that power and that life and that victory that God created man to know in the very first place. It says there in Hebrews two eight, he says, and thou has put all things in subjection under his feet. When God created man, everything was, it was in subjection to him of all creation, all of it there. And he said for him that he put all in subjection to him. He left nothing that is not put under him. Imagine, see when God, when he created man and he gave him dominion. Last night I was sitting out in my backyard and a little sparrow, I was sitting there motionless and it just flew and just landed right on that fence, just only a couple feet from me. It didn't see me obviously. And, but it just, they're chirping away kind of. And then I made a little motion or noise and boom, you could just see it looked off and took away. And I was just thinking as I just kind of looked at that and thinking about Hebrews and realized that was, he was in subjection to me. He, I mean, he was to me, right now he's in fear of me. Right now he's just enjoying everything, having a nice day and he looks, oh, a human, get out of here. You know, I mean, he, he's, it's gone. But to realize the Bible literally says that when God had created us, we had dominion over all of these things. This was the life that man was to know. All things were under his feet and it says, all things were under his power. But as he says there in verse eight, thou has put all things in subjection under his feet for and that he put all things in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him, but now we see not yet all things put under him. He says, but not so for now. Right now, the world in which he lived, because but, that terrible word, it was so wonderful to think of that. But then he says, but back to reality, where it is right now, but now we don't see it. Why? Because man sinned. Because an usurper came into the garden, usurped an authority and took over man's place. And when man sinned, what a terrible thing it was. We just sometimes don't realize how huge it was. Genesis 317, it says, And God, or unto Adam, God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And in sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return into the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, and dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. He looked at man and he said, Now this whole world that you were once in dominion over, that you were the keeper of, that you were the steward of, that was all under your feet, now you're under it. Now it is going to take over and now instead of you ruling creation, creation is going to rule you. Today the earth isn't, men don't rule the earth, the earth rules man. You know, we're ruled by ecology essentially in the world in which we're now. We're, you know, we're living in a world of, it's a fallen world with fallen angels and we're fighting it out with them and no sooner of course did Adam sin and the fall happen and this, you know, there's jealousy and then there's hatred, there's murder, there's envy, and then death, and then two chapters later God destroys the planet, it becomes so crumpled. So flood comes and God wipes the whole thing out and starts all over, but essentially ever since then Satan has ruled, you know, over a cursed earth and he rules over a fallen man. Essentially there, I mean, what has happened now is that here we are looking at everything around us is all fallen and man went there from king to slave. The next thing you know, again, as I already said, the whole animal world, everything that was once, Adam named the animals, pets, no fear, but all of a sudden now man, the whole animal kingdom falls into a fear of the man that had once named them and the ground begins to, as the Bible says, bring forth thorns and thistles and weeds and the next thing you know, there's temperature, radical changes of heat and cold, there's poisonous snakes and reptiles, they begin to flourish, there's earthquakes and floods and hurricanes and disease and bacteria is out of control and man is fighting back with pesticides and DDT, trying to raise our crops before all the pests come and destroy it and we're poisoning ourself in the process of trying to kill everyone else and meantime they say we're destroying the ozone that protects the earth when the infrared rays coming in, we got nation against nation and wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilence and evil is waxing worse and worse and men are walking after their own times and it's perilous times, that's the world in which we live today. And now we are literally, man, we find ourselves getting up day by day, fighting to exist while we are watching the world die with us. Everything has fallen, not just simply man. And the reason for it is simply as John tells us in 1 John, the whole world lies in the arms of the wicked one. He's called the prince of the power of the air, the God of this world. You see, when Satan came in, usurped an authority, took over for man his place of dominion, not only did man fall himself, but all of creation that would have been held up by man in his majesty and glory, his birthright from God to rule it. Now all of a sudden a fallen angel who has no power, no strength, no goodness, no ability to rule or reign or bring peace or hope or any unity, now next thing you know he is now ruling over a cursed earth that he brought it upon as he now is the God of it. And the great tragedy of it is again he won't take any glory for it, in one sense, because the result is though he can't rule it, he can't help a home or a marriage or a family, he can't hold the earth together, he can't keep the platelets of the earth from shifting and earthquakes happening, he can't keep the atmosphere in control, he can't stop any thorns and thistles and reptiles and life getting out of order, it's all out of chaos, he has no capacity to rule, no capacity to bring anything good about and the result of it is that it's all falling apart. And the whole world lies in the arms of the wicked one and as a result of that, you know, the tragic thing is that many people are running around blaming God for something he has nothing to do with. You know, God's the God of love, why was there a tsunami? Why did we have earthquakes? You know, why are there, where was God when I was hurt or molested? Why is it children can be born deformed? Why does this have, why are there wars? Why, if God is a God of love, did these things happen? Well, God is a God of love and he rules and reigns in his realm but he created man and gave this to him and he says, either you are going to come to a place where you will rule over it as it was designed to be or whoever you gave it to until I have redeemed it back fully, he'll run it and you'll learn who's God and who you want. But the thing is, so Satan goes out and blames God for all of these things because of his inadequacies to do anything and the world goes into it. God, where is God? What kind of either God of love is he that lets these things happen? And but the tragic thing is it wasn't just simply man that fell when he fell, the whole of creation fell with him. All of it fell and there's nobody keeping it. There's no one with dominion over it. There's this just, we're literally watching a planet fall apart before our very eyes as to being unkept. And the thing that I suppose it ought to amaze me or at least it does amaze me, it ought to amaze all of us, I think, is not so much the fact that, you know, where is God in all of this? But when I pick up my Bible, I see exactly where God is in all of this. God is one there that even though, as Paul says in Romans chapter 5, for, you know, if when we were sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. That's where God was in it. While man had sinned, man had walked away, given up his birthright, given it to an usurper, a devil, who's now destroying the whole thing in the midst of it. God is over here on the side. There where He looks at those who are without strength and who are ungodly and He dies for them. And He says, the very first thing we've got to do is I told you when you were back there in the garden, when I gave you authority over it, I told you of the tree that thou seest, thou mayest eat it freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of it, for the day in which thou eat it, you'll die. You'll lose your spiritual life. You will be cut off. If you want to give it to somebody else, you can give it to somebody else. You can do whatever it is you want to. I've given it to you and it's yours to rule. But the amazing thing is, is man died and yet then all that did was provoke God's unbelievable love because when man died and man sinned and man rebelled, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. God was already looking and saying, we'll bring it back, but I'm going to come back and I'm going to take it through my servants. I'm going to take it through their life and their identity of restoring them back to their place and then they are going to take it again. As David said, you know, out of the mouths of sucklings and babes hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemy that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. God is going to rule, but He's going to rule through His saints, as we said here in Daniel. He's going to give it to His saints and His saints are going to come back to the devil and take it back from Him by His power. And this is what He has for you. I know this is very technical this morning, but I think sometimes we need to understand, well, it's in the Bible. I'm not ashamed of it. I mean, what, hello, what am I doing? I don't know. But anyway, but the wonderful thing here is that God is looking over, He's restoring. He's regenerating human beings. That's why in Romans 5, as I said, you know, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. For if when we were enemies, you know, God proves His love for us there in Christ. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, well, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? Paul says you're reconciled to God, but that's just the beginning. His life is once again going to infuse, is going to flood your heart and your life and take you over and conform you back into His image and you will rule and you will reign with Him. Your identity will be fully restored. That's why in Romans 6, he goes on and he says the whole objective of life is to be baptized into Christ in the sense of identifying fully of my life being poured back into Him. And as my life is being poured back into Him, I'm finding out who I was created to be. Then in chapter 7 of Romans, he discusses the flesh, something you never really realize you have until you grow in the Spirit. Because there's this whole nature inside called the flesh that fights against us. This whole nature within us that sits there, but wait a minute, I want to rule, I want to reign. I can handle it. I can run my life. God, what are you trying to do? Yeah, you know, until finally I realized that there's this flesh that opposes God and it's got to be reckoned dead. And to where I looked there and realized, Jesus, I want you to fully take over my life. And then in Romans chapter 8, he talks about walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, having the Spirit of God rule within our hearts and lives as he restores us back into the image of God, what God created man to be in Christ, to rule and to reign with Him in this wonderful way. But even then in Romans 8, Paul says, but even we who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown within ourselves earnestly to desire to wit the redemption of our body, Paul says, even we who have the finest work of the Spirit of God within us, the most wonderful spiritual life, walking in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, having the best works of God, even we, every day, we groan, earnestly desiring the redemption of our body, the full work when Jesus Christ will come and reestablish Himself fully in us and have the complete work done. Paul says that is what we all, you know, that's the, I don't know whether you know what you're looking for. I know what you're looking for. You may think, well, who do you think you are? I just know what the Bible says. The Bible says the earnest desire of all of life in Romans 8, 19, it says, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. The Bible says what every human being is looking for every day. It's not a new house or a new car, new job, new outfit, new, you know, trip to there or here or there, I got to have this, I got to have that. God says, I'll tell you what you're looking for every day of your life. You're looking for your life to once again manifest yourself as a son of God. What it is that you're really, you'll never be happy until the day comes where you are restored and once again you manifest your created identity everywhere you go and everything you do and as wonderful as it'll wear out. The real fulfillment is in Christ until finally, you know, I'm being restored fully in him. It tells us in Romans 8, 20, he says, for the creature was made subject into vanity, not willing, but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself shall be delivered from bondage of corruption under the glorious liberty of the children of God. He said, God created this subject to bed subject and it created me to emptiness because that emptiness is my hope. He realized today, the Bible says the, the emptiness that you have in your heart that says there's something missing. That's your greatest hope. And when you try to fill it with a man or a woman or a house or a car or a job, and then it comes back and it's still empty. He says, God created you that nothing would fill you, but himself that nothing would satisfy you until himself. Don't be upset in life. Don't be angry that you're empty because that's your greatest hope is that that emptiness drives you to realize God. I think the only thing that'll ever satisfy is you. And he says in verse 22, for we know that the whole of creation grown with and travail is in pain together until now. Here, Paul, he goes on and he says, not only are you waiting for the sons of God to be manifested, the entire creation is waiting for the sons of God to come into their own. I like the way J.B. Phillips translates that particular verse. He says, the whole world is standing on tippy toes, interesting translation, but the whole world is standing on its tiptoes waiting for God's children to come into their own. The entire planet, that's an absolute disarray. The atmosphere, the oceans, the rivers, the weather systems, every animal, everything in it is all waiting for man one day to come back and rule it. But somebody with authority and love and power in his real identity, he was given dominion. And until man does it again, all of creation travail that he says in pain until now, it's all waiting for you and for me to realize who we are in Christ and to know that's what it is that he has for us. And here, I mean, the thing I think how God would love us to understand this is who you are. Everyone, it tells us there. Every single human being, God created us in his image. That was his plan. When he made an animal, he made something else. When he made bird and fish, he made something else. When he made a human being, he made somebody that is in his image. And if you're a human being, you are still yet in the heart of God. Somebody that he said, you is my desire that you would rule and you'd reign and you'd know the fullness of the life, what it is you're really searching for. It isn't just simply heaven one day. It's also be praying thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As Jesus come and reign in me, Jesus, fill me with your life and your power and your majesty. Fill me with this that I, David, what in the world is man that thou art mine from the son of man that thou visited him. For thou has given dominion over the works of thy hand has put all things under his feet. And then we'd realize God looks and he says, this is what you'll have. This is what you'll know. One day when this happens, all of the spiritual warfare will be gone that we're struggling with in this life. Angels will be in subjection in the world to come to us. They will not have the ability to confuse and deter the creation itself and its harmony. It won't be an attraction to us. We will have that full relationship with Christ or we'll look as a nice garden, beautiful place, but you're the one my identity comes from. You're the one that I look to. And that's why he said, he says, he put all things in subjection under his feet for him that he has put all things in subjection. I mean, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. Now it isn't. And then wonderfully though, verse nine, which is as far as we'll get today. He says, but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, could taste death for every man. He said, listen, we don't see yet what we will be. And he says, but we've seen enough to know. We see Jesus. You know, the wonderful thing here, when you just walk in Corinthians, Paul calls Jesus the second Adam, the second man, the first Adam came in the life that he had and he lived and he expressed, you know, which he forfeited in sin. The second man, Christ, when he came there and he, and though the second member that God had, but, but he indwelt humanity. He says, I'll show you what Adam lived like. And here you just think of Jesus walking out on the water, walking on the water. I mean, is that a trip or what? But I'm convinced Adam could do that because he had dominion over it. There was something there that when Jesus there, I mean, they marveled at him when though he commanded the wind to cease and it ceased, he was his gardener. He was the one that was to rule and to reign. We just look at that and say, I, me, I don't think so. But God looks and when he looks at his children and he says, it is so you will have yet dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea. You will rule. And it simply says, because that's how I've chosen to do it. And he says, we don't see all these under his feet, but we see Jesus. And then he said, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. When they're in order to initiate the whole restoration process, God told Adam in the garden, the day in which you sin, the price will be death. The wage of sin is death. You will die. And thus, in order to even start the work of restoration, the price had to be paid. And as the old song had it, I owed a debt I couldn't pay. Or let's see, or he paid the debt. He didn't know I owed a debt I couldn't pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away. And now I sing a brand new song. Amazing grace. But here is something when I realized that he paid a debt he didn't know and I owed a debt I couldn't pay. But Jesus Christ came into the world and he took upon himself human flesh made lower than the angels for the suffering of death. That he could then pay the debt, forgive my sins, and then start the whole process. Say, now I want you to grow up. Now I want you to realize who you were, the dignity, the glory, the honesty. Here you are running around this stupid little dustbowl of a fallen planet, digging out, fighting against the world, fighting against you, thinking what you really need. I need a bigger house. I need a faster car. I need a prettier dog or something. And he says, you think that's what you were made for? God is waiting for something to happen where I realize, wait a minute, when I look up and I see Christ, and he says, that's whose image you're in. That's whose likeness you will yet be. As John says, brethren, we do not know what we shall be, but we do know this at seeing we shall be like him. Share his image and his likeness again. And when we realize that is what a Christian is. Somebody there who finds out with his heart and with all of his heart there that Christ has died for me and for that I'll love him because not only did he die for me and I'm going to heaven someday, he's bringing heaven here. And then I'm going to rule with him. I'm going to reign with him. And the wonderful thing is that he could taste death for every man. Notice that. Verse 9, it says there that, but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. He looks at every man. That's every man, woman, boy, girl out of every century, generation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Every man. Every one of us he looks at and he says, this is who you were created to be. There may be some of us today say, well, I'm a loser. I'm a, let me tell you, we're all losers. Real big losers. And if you don't think you're a loser, why don't you take a little walk to Catalina this afternoon, see how far you get. That's what you lost, you see. I mean, when we realize that's the loss. And we have all suffered an unbelievable loss. The identity of the glory, the majesty of God. And here when I realize that Jesus said, I tasted death for every one of you. That I can take one day every one of your life and restore you. Back into what you don't even, I have not seen, ear has not heard, it even hasn't entered into your heart. What God has prepared for those who love him. There's just a tinkling, a little suggestion by his spirit that said, you wait and you'll see. And let me tell you, the wonderful thing is that when you and I look at Christ and realize that's the Christian life. It's not just getting out of hell and going to heaven. It's Jesus, please get out of heaven and into me. Get into my heart and my life and get into my relationships and get into my home. Break down these spiritual battles that go on and these stupid desires and things of this planet. I want to see you, the author and the finisher of my faith who tasted death for me. Revelation 5, 9 says, and they sang a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain as redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation and has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth. Bible says here somebody redeemed by his blood and you have made us as kings and priests and we will come back and we will reign on the earth. That's his plan. Don't spend the rest of your time infatuated with this life, this fallen world. Exist in it, function, carry on. We're to do that. But the affections in our heart are to be on things that are above. Lord, you make me into the man of God you want me to be. Make me into the woman of God you want me to be. That's what we ought to be longing for with all of our heart in all of our lives. Let's pray. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and I thank you for what it says. I suppose if it came from any other place, it'd be absurd, it'd be ridiculous to even think like this, but Lord, this is your word. And I thank you, Lord, that we, if we've understood it at all, we have to say with David, what is man that thou art mindful of him of the son of man that thou art business to him? God, what is it about us that you are so obsessed with us that you are utterly determined that we will rule and reign? That in your sacrificial blood on the cross, you died for us, forgave our sins. And now you just say, look at me, just look at me and keep your eyes on me. Lord, may it be something we don't see things under our feet, but we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. And you have been crowded with glory and honor because you have tasted death for every man. Lord, I pray that today that every one of us would know that debt has been paid, that Jesus, you have died for us on the cross. I pray that if there's any here that haven't received you right now, they'd open their heart and say, Jesus, you're the one I want. I understand. Maybe some of us have been mad at God when we should have been looking at the devil and saying, look, he usurped an authority. He deceived man. He took away our right to rule and reign. But Jesus Christ, instead of being angry, we should be blown away for his love and his mercy, that he says, I'll get it back for you. You'll trust me. I'll get it all back. I'll get you all back. What an unbelievable love. Lord, may we just be taken by it and finding ourselves just wanting to set our affections on things that are above. So, Jesus, we thank you for your word that today and we ask you to take it to every one of our hearts, strengthen us with it. We ask you, Jesus, in your wonderful name. Amen. Let's stand.