We pray as we teach that the Word will be opened up where you can understand it. The Letters Iris and I enjoy the most are those that tell us that, for the first time in your life, you’re understanding the Bible, you’re reading it, studying it, and enjoying it, and that’s all we can ask. We don’t claim to be the only one that is right, but we certainly attempt to stay with the Scriptures and compare Scripture with Scripture.

Now back to our teaching in the Book of Hebrews. The last time we taped, all four of our programs came from Hebrews 2:3 and hopefully today we’re going to make a little more headway. We’re going to start with verse 4. Again I’m going back up to the very first word of chapter 3, because you see this question carries right on through to the end of verse 4. The question is all the way through verses 3 and 4.

"God also bearing them witness, (those who had heard the Lord during His earthly ministry) both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?"

And there’s your question mark at the end of that verse. So these whole two verses are tied to the word "How." How shall we neglect, and all of this confirms that we have no reason to neglect so great a salvation, and that’s the way we have to look at it. How can we neglect something that has been so meticulously, so miraculously, revealed to the human race? See, I think this is where the Lord has blessed even our teaching ministry, that we are making these things so understandable that we’re not just throwing stuff out there expecting people to believe it, but the Scripture meticulously, intrinsically puts it all together. Now verse 4, and the last half of the question.

"God also bearing them witness, (those who heard the Lord during His earthly ministry in particular) both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?"

Now, there are only two places that I’m aware of where all three of these words are used in one verse. This is one of them and the other one is back in Acts chapter 2, and we’ll look at that one a little later.

Now these three words in the Greek, and this is probably a good time to use our chalk board, the first word is "semeion" in the Greek, and is usually translated and should be translated "signs," and signs were given to the Nation of Israel to teach them something in particular. That was the whole idea of these miraculous signs.

Then the next one in the Greek is "teras," which was translated "wonders." These were the wonders we’ve heard of so often in Christ’s earthly ministry, and these were given to have an effect on the Nation of Israel, the Jewish people.

Then the third one was "dunamis" from which we get our English word, Dynamo, out of which we get a generator, and "dynamos" was for the sake of power, and it, too, was to bring about the work, or as is translated so often, "the miracles." Maybe I should put it the other way around, but whatever, the miracles and works were to show the manifest power of God.

Now these three words were used throughout the New Testament, and especially the Four Gospels. But in two verses they’re always used together, here in Hebrews and then in Acts chapter 2. Now in Acts chapter 2, I think they’re reversed in their order, but it’s the same thing. So as we come through our study in this half hour, we’re going to be looking at how, during Christ’s earthly ministry, He gave signs, which were to teach a particular lesson to the Nation of Israel.

But let’s get one thing straight. Whether it’s signs or wonders or miracles, they are all miracles. But not all miracles are signs. Not all miracles were necessarily wonders in order to have an effect on the Jewish people, but they all played a particular role and, consequently, this is why we have three different words. Otherwise they could have just used one word, and said, miracles.

But as we’re going to see a little later in the half hour, when we come to the signs, especially in John’s gospel, they taught a particular truth to the Jewish people that the Lord expected them to understand. So let’s come back for a minute to Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, and pick up just a little bit of this miraculous working of Christ during His earthly ministry. And, as I’ve stressed over the years that I’ve been teaching, what was the basic purpose of Jesus performing miracle after miracle after miracle. To prove Who He was! That was the whole idea. The Messiah had been promised ever since Genesis, and the prophets foretold of His coming. But in order for them to understand He was the promised Messiah from the Old Testament covenants and promises, He performed miracle after miracle. But the various categories of miracles had different effects upon the Nation of Israel and, consequently, they’re divided. The signs were given to teach, the wonders were to have an effect, and his other miraculous works were to show that He was exercising the power of God.

Now it takes a little while to sift all of that through, but hopefully before we get to the end of the half hour, you’ll see what I’m trying to say. In Matthew chapter 9, and verse 35, this is more or less at the beginning of His earthly ministry we find:

"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and (not just one now and then, but) every disease among the people."

Now that was part and parcel of His earthly ministry. Now come on over a little further in Matthew to chapter 15, and drop down to verse 29. And this was just commonplace in those three years of His earthly ministry. Here it is:

"Insomuch that the multitude wondered,…" He’s got them thinking. You know I was thinking last night as I was putting some of my thoughts together, what I attempt to do when I sometimes may say things that you don’t hear constantly, or traditionally, is to shock people into thinking. People don’t have to go necessarily by what I say, but just think about it and search the Scriptures. Mull these things over, and not just take it blase and say, "Well, I’ve heard the Word this week, and that’s all I need." Our churches are full of people who merely go to fill an hour of worship.

In fact I read an alarming statistic in one of the religious news magazine that I get, and it was a poll that was taken by a Christian poll taker that said about 80% of the congregations really had no solid commitment. And, if I remember right, I think the pastors that were interviewed more or less came to the same conclusion, that it was hard to keep people to maintain their membership over a period of years. They come in and they go, they come in and they go, and I think it’s all part and parcel of the time in which we live, but you see when the Lord Jesus performed these miracles, it was to make people sit up and take notice of Who He was. He wasn’t just another prophet, He was One Who had power and could perform these miracles without any of them ever failing.

Now with that, we’ll go to John’s gospel chapter 4, and in John’s gospel I always like to point out the fact that there are miracles, and they are all "semeion (signs)." The word in the original Greek, in all of John’s gospel, all 8 of them are this word here, "semeion." And even though the King James and some of the others translate it as miracles and so forth, it really should have always been, these 8 signs. So let’s begin in John 4:46. Until now, I hadn’t even decided where we were going to start in this passage. I think I was just going to use one verse, but we’ll also use a few more. Now this is the second sign already in John’s gospel, the first one of course is when He turned the water into wine in chapter 2.

"So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum." Now if you know your geography of Israel, you know Capernaum sits right on the north edge of the Sea of Galilee. It’s a beautiful, gorgeous city, and even the remains are beautiful, let alone what it must have been like in Christ’s day. So Christ goes up to Capernaum, and now verse 47:

"When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. (now verse 48. There’s more here than meets the eye. Look what Jesus said) 48. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."

Now that’s what Jesus told them. You see, I think we’ve got some reasoning to do here. You want to remember that at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry there is as yet no New Testament written. The only thing that they had was the Old Testament, so they didn’t have the advantage that we’ve got. See, we’ve got the advantage of having a whole New Testament now in front of us but they didn’t. Now that may be part of it, as I’m trying to cover for them a little bit, because I don’t want to come down too hard on those Jewish people of Christ’s day, but nevertheless this is what He said.

"Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. 49. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. 50. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth…" And we know the fever left, and the son lived, but the part I wanted you to see is in verse 54.

Now my own idea is that when the Scripture makes a reference to a particular chronological order, that is telling us, that if this is the second, then what should we look for? The third, the fourth, the fifth, and that’s the admonition.

Well if you do follow that through, you’ll see that there are seven of these miracles in John that were all signs. These signs were teaching Israel something. In other words, when He turned the water into wine, it was a miraculous sign that He was the only remedy for their lack of joy. They had a lot of religion, but they were in Spiritual darkness, and He had come to give them truth, life, and joy. And so that’s what turning the water into wine showed them.

Well, when He healed the nobleman’s son, it’s another spiritual lesson for Israel, because spiritually they were sick, and He alone could bring them Spiritual health. And all the way through John’s gospel we have those seven signs and miracles. Then when we get to the last chapter I think it is, come on over to chapter 21 we now come to the 8th miracle or sign. This is so interesting, and here is where I tell people, "How can they scoff at this Book, when it is so intricately put together? Now here is just another good example. Seven of these signs and miracles that had a direct application to the physical and the natural life of Israel were all registered before He was crucified and resurrected.

This one in chapter 21 then becomes the 8th one and it was after his resurrection. Now when you have an understanding of numbers in Scripture, 7 is the number of completions, and 8 is the number for new beginnings. So this final sign miracle in John’s gospel was a reference to the Nation of Israel’s remnant who will all be saved when Christ returns. So we’ll begin at verse 10.

Now in every other case in His earthly ministry, when they had a net full of fish, what happened? The net broke. But this time it doesn’t. Well what’s the miracle part? It was an indication that the remnant of Israel that God keeps during the last 3 years of the Tribulation, that when Christ returns at His second coming, not a single one will be lost, they will all be kept for God’s purposes.

Now to come in once again to our miracles, signs and wonders, come with me to Acts chapter 2, and this is just to show how the Book of Hebrews says, that we cannot neglect so great a salvation, that begin with the Lord’s ministry, was witnessed by the Twelve, and others, and the Apostle Paul, who of course we still feel is the writer of Hebrews, and then it was all confirmed by the miracles and signs and wonders that Jesus performed. But not only Jesus, it carries on now after He’s ascended to glory by the apostles, and we’re going to see, to a smaller extent to the Apostle Paul himself.

Now for Acts chapter 2 verse 22. This is the other verse where all three of these are mentioned in one place. Here Peter is preaching that sermon at Pentecost, and look what he says:

Remember this is what we’re stressing in the Book of Hebrews, Jesus of Nazareth, was Who? The Son! And we’re going to be seeing throughout the Book of Hebrews how the Son was higher than the host of angels, how that the Son had a greater priesthood than Aaron, so here again this is where I want you to see the correlation, that now Peter is proclaiming that:

So all the way through now then, we’re going to see that even the Twelve are going to continue on this using the signs and miracles to convince the Jewish people now, not that Jesus of Nazareth walking up and down the dusty of roads of the land of Israel is the Messiah, but now the subject is, "The crucified One." The One that was crucified, and was buried, had been risen from the dead. And since He was risen from the dead, He could still fulfill all those Old Testament covenant promises. So look what happens. Peter is just sort of picking up the mantle more or less like Elisha did from Elijah. And Peter continues on with the same ministry.

"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3. Who (this lame man) seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them."

I always have to think, and I don’t say this with any idea of being funny, but I think most of us, if you’ve been in a big city and seen a beggar sitting there on the sidewalk, usually has a tin cup. And what does he expect? For you to drop in a few coins, and if he can do that all day long, he can gather enough to stay alive. So I think this is what this fellow did. He looked up at Peter and held out his container for a coin or two, and that’s all he expected, but you see, he’s going to have more than that this time. Peter, James, and John or now in a modus operandi like Christ was, and they’re going to perform miracles. Now verse 6.

"Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. 8. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." Well you come all the way down to verse 11, and here’s the effect.

What is this healing doing to them? It’s making them think! What are these men doing and how are they doing it? So it made them attentive to what the Twelve were proclaiming. Now I know that a lot of people think that’s the only way you can reach people today, but I don’t think so. I don’t think the Holy Spirit needs that today for various reasons, but primarily because we now have the completed Word of God. And we don’t have a manifestation of the miraculous power of God, because the Bible itself is all the manifestation I need of Who God is and His power.

But, nevertheless, remember what Paul is stressing to the Hebrews This was all done to get this whole system of what we now call Christianity off the ground. And it takes the miracles, signs and wonders. Now we’ve got one more reference in the Book of Acts and this half hour will be gone. So come to Acts chapter 19.

"And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: (Paul is already out there now in his missionary journeys) 12. So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."

So all of this again was for the precise purpose of proving to even Paul’s listeners that he was not just another human being, He was the apostle to the Gentiles.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 5. Remember in this Book of Hebrews we’re trying to see Jewish people, some of which were believers, and some were what I call on the fence, and the pull of Judaism was still having it’s effect on these people. So Paul is trying to make the point, that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom the nation for the most part rejected, was Who He said He was. He was indeed the Christ, He was indeed God the Son, and He was indeed the Creator, and is the coming King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. So this is what we’re really looking at here in chapter 2. And since He is the heart of the plan of salvation, this was the question in the last 5 program, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" Which began with Christ’s earthly ministry, and was confirmed with the signs and wonders and miracles as we saw in the last program. But now verse 5, and we’re looking ahead instead of looking back at what He has accomplished, we’re going to look ahead to what He will accomplish.

"For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." Now, the casual reader would say, "The world to come? That must be heaven, and eternity." No, because the Greek word here spoken of as the world, as the inhabited earth, so just look at it that way and read it in that context.

"For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, (the inhabited earth that is coming. So what’s he talking about? The Kingdom! The thousand-year reign with Christ over which He is indeed going to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. ) whereof we speak." Now let’s read it again.

"For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, (the inhabited earth, the Kingdom that is coming) whereof we speak."

Now I’ll never forget, I hadn’t been on the air very long, and we had just branched out to one of our far off states, and I had a call from a pastor who was really upset over just one thing. He said, "Where in the world do you get this idea that there is going to be an earthly kingdom?" I said, "Well, the Bible is full of it." Well, fortunately he volunteered to break off the conversation, and said, "I would like to debate with you." And I said, "No, I don’t debate or argue," and he hung up. Well that was my first inkling that there are a lot of people out there who have no concept of this coming earthly kingdom.

Now those of you who have been hearing me for the past 10 or 11 years on television, have heard me say it more than once. "The Kingdom, is the Kingdom, is the Kingdom! There is only one Kingdom, and it’s the Kingdom that Christ will establish on earth, ruling from Jerusalem when He returns at His second coming, and set everything straight. At that time Satan will be taken off the scene, and it will be heaven on earth, but it will be on the earth. That’s why the Greek word for world here means the inhabited earth. Not up in heaven, but here on the inhabited earth. So we’re going to spend this half hour just looking at various Scriptural connotations concerning this coming earthly Kingdom, and you’ll see the Old Testament is full of it.

First, go back to Isaiah chapter 2, because that’s one verse that I like to use over and over. It just says it so clearly, that the time is coming for that to happen. Now lets begin with verse 2, and this will be when Jerusalem, as the capital of this coming Kingdom on earth, is going to be the very fountainhead of everything.

Now just to make a secular reference to that, I like to think of Washington D.C. in our present time. The whole world, you might say, is dependent on what comes out of Washington. Even other world economies - if it wasn’t for Washington, I just wonder how long they would last? And wherever Iris and I travel overseas, and when you see a lot of promotion of things, and we can ask our guides, "Well, I thought this was a poor country?" He answers, "It is!" Then we ask, "Then where are they getting the money for all this beautiful, whatever?" Well, I’ll never forget the answer for one of those situations. He just said, "From you!" Well what did he mean? The American taxpayer. So Washington D.C. you might say, to a certain degree, is the very core of all the world’s economic, political, and military activity. Well it’s not going to be Washington, in this day of the Kingdom on earth, but rather it’s going to Jerusalem. Now look what Isaiah 2:2 says:

"And it shall come to pass (when the Bible says, ‘this is going to come to pass, it’s going to, I don’t care what the theologians say, it’s going to come. So it shall come to pass) in the last days, that the mountain (kingdom. The word mountain and kingdom are synonymous) of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (or the Kingdom over all the other kingdoms) and shall be exalted (that’s also the word the Bible uses for Christ’s position as King. He will be exalted) above the hills: and all nations shall flow unto it."

Get the picture? Just like the spokes in a wheel, everything will go to the very vortex of that Kingdom, which will be Jerusalem. Now as you come through the Book of Isaiah, there is a constant reference to this coming Kingdom. So as we’re turning, I see one in Isaiah chapter 11. I wasn’t even expecting to use this one, but we will. And I like this, especially when people ask me if we can have our pets when we get to glory. Well I don’t think we’ll have pets in the heavens of Heaven, but when this earthly Kingdom comes about, every animal is going to be a household pet. The lions and tigers and everything else will be part and parcel of that glorious Kingdom that is coming. And let’s just jump in at verse 6. Now this is just a little preview:

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, (remember at that time, the curse will be lifted. The whole ecology will be made right as it was in the beginning) and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; (or baby goat) and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. (or play amongst them) 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed: (they’ll forage in the same meadow) their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox."

Now what does that tell you? Come back to Genesis chapter 1 verse 30 and let’s see how it was in the beginning. This is what makes Bible study so interesting, because everything fits. And the reason we’re coming back is because Isaiah says that the lion is going to eat forage much like cattle do. Well here’s the reason, the curse will be lifted, and everything will revert back as it was originally before Adam fell.

"…and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8. (and again the reference to little children) And the sucking (nursing) child shall play on the hole of the asp, (that poisonous snake of the middle east) and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den." All to show that we’re going to have various stages of children, but now verse 9.

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: (this 1000-year Kingdom) for the earth (We’re not talking about heaven, it’s going to be here on the earth) shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

Well, I could take verse after verse, coming up through the Old Testament, that are references to this coming glorious Kingdom on earth. But let’s jump all the way up to Daniel chapter 2, where Daniel of course gives several views of this coming Kingdom. The first one is in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and we always use it as a jumping off point for teaching prophecy. We’ll just jump in at verse 35, and it’s from this passage that we understand the Gentile empires that would be the precursor of this glorious Kingdom that is coming upon the earth.

"Then (after he sees this huge image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream) was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, (everything that was ever part of these tremendous Gentiles will disappear) that no place was found for them: and the stone (the second coming Christ) that smote the image became a great mountain, (Kingdom) and filled the whole earth."

Let’s move on up to chapter 7. Daniel of course sees these same Gentile empires coming down through the corridors of time, only as animals, as beasts of prey, rather than metals in a statue of a man, but what I want you to see is in verse 13. And this is all the same Kingdom. We’re not talking about different ones, but rather about the one and only Kingdom in Scripture.

If I’ve got time after while, we’ll go back and look at Revelation chapter 5, where we have the same set of circumstances, where God the Son comes before God the Father, and I think you have the same personalities here in verse 13. Now verse 14.

"And there was given him (the Son. The One we’re talking about in our study of Hebrews. And there was given Him) dominion and glory, and a kingdom, (and in this Kingdom) that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: (they’ll be under His domain) his dominion (His power, His government) is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom (that He’s going to set up is one) that which shall not be destroy."

We understand that He Himself will do it in an interlude leading into eternity, but nevertheless we always maintain that this 1000-year earthly Kingdom will be just the precursor of the eternal state. Now let’s turn to Joel chapter 3. I’m just hitting a few of them. Some evening just grab your Bible and start flipping through the Old Testament, and wherever you see these Kingdom references just stop and read them. They’re almost always toward the end of these prophetic Books, and the reason, the first part of these prophecy books will be dealing with Israel’s near-term judgment of one sort or another, whether it’s the Babylonian captivity, or the Syrians or other. But almost in every case, by the time you get to the end of these prophecy books, you have the promises of Israel being restored, and enjoying this earthly Kingdom. And this is what you have here in Joel chapter 3 verses 17 and 18.

"So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, (and Zion is Jerusalem) my holy mountain: (Kingdom) then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, (when this Kingdom is set up, and Christ is ruling and reigning from Jerusalem) that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim."

Well whenever you see those terms, it’s speaking of the future earthly Kingdom. I had to explain that to one of my classes here in Oklahoma the other night, that when you see the reference in Scripture of the milk and honey, the promise of the mountains flowing with milk and honey, remember it’s not that the milk and honey will come flowing down the valleys of the Middle East, but rather everything that is physically necessary to produce milk and honey will be in abundance. Now, in other words, to get honey, what do you have to have? A lot of blossoms! Whether it’s clover or whether it fruit trees, there’s going to be an abundance of blossoms from which the bees can make their honey. Well it’s the same way with milk. You don’t get milk with cattle running out on bare sand, but rather what do they need? Lush pastures and abundant water, and so this is all implied then when we speak of a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a land that can be agriculturally productive. Now turn to Amos chapter 9 verse 13 for another one. Like I said, I’m only hitting a few of them, but we’ll just stop and pick out a few of the more obvious ones.

"Behold, the days come, (oh it’s still future, but it’s coming. God’s Word says it) saith the lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, (in other words, He’s going to bring them in from their dispersion from all the nations of the world) and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; (that has already begun to a degree) and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God." Now go to Zephaniah 3, verses 19 and 20.

"Behold, at that time (when the Kingdom is set up) I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame, 20. At that time (when the Kingdom is finally established) will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make (these are all promises to the Nation of Israel) you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD."

Over and over you can find these, but let’s look at one more, and that will be in Zechariah chapter 14, and we use these verses quite routinely, because again they are so clearly put, and there’s no room for argument. And remember what the Book of Hebrews called it? The world to come. And here, this is His second coming, just exactly like the angels told the eleven in chapter 1. "This same Jesus that you have seen going into heaven, will come again in like manner, as you have seen Him go." Well, here is the Old Testament record of it, prophetically of course.

"And his feet shall stand in that day (the day of His second coming, and the setting up of this Kingdom) upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, (so there’s no argument here, this is not a figurative Mount of Olive, but rather this is the real one) and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the south." And now go to verse 8.

"And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, (Mediterranean) and half of them toward the hinder sea: (Dead Sea) in summer and in winter shall it be." That river will never dry up, but now verse 9.

"And the LORD (Jesus of Nazareth as we know Him. God the Son as the Book of Hebrews put it) shall be king (not over heaven, but) over all the earth: in that day (when He establishes His Kingdom) shall there be one LORD, and his name one."

Now let’s go to Matthew chapter 19 verse 27 - this is Jesus speaking, and it’s in full accord with the prophets. Nothing is out of place. They have just about finished their three years of His earthly ministry, and they have left their fishing businesses and families upon on Galilee.

"…Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" And although He told them "it is not for you to know the times or the season, …" We know it’s coming!

Hebrews chapter 2 verse 6. Remember in our last program we spent the whole half hour dealing with the world to come up there in verse 5, which is the Kingdom on an inhabited earth, and we’re going to see that the angels would never fulfill the requirements to be that Ruler and King over that coming Kingdom, because they certainly don’t have the power that the Christ, the Son, has.

"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; (for a little while) thou (speaking of the Triune God) crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:" In other words, this glorious earthly Kingdom that we’re introduced to back in verse 5.

"Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet,…" Earlier we showed how all through Scripture the various writers quote Psalms 110:1, and what was it?

"Let this mind be in you,…" In other words, Romans chapter 12 says, "be not conformed to this world, but be conformed to the mind of Christ." Well this is a Pauline statement that we as believers ought to literally think to a degree as Christ thinks. We’re to have His thoughts which are higher than the mundane thoughts of this world.

"…made himself of no reputation, (He did not use Deity to subject the people under Him at that time, because he did not come to subject them, but rather to save them) and took upon him the form of a servant,…" (or bond slave)

I think the last time we used this, I mentioned that the first thought that comes to my mind when I think of a bond salve back in antiquity, was poor souls that were put down in the lower holes of a ship to pull the oars. I’m sure you’ve all seen pictures of those ships that were literally driven by oars who were manned by slaves. And they would man those oars until they died a physical death, and then were thrown overboard and another was put in their place. Now that’s what it was meant to be a bond slave. It was a life of misery, it was a life of enjoying none of the good things of this world, and you see that’s where Jesus went.

Someone made the statement that after all we should all be rich, because Jesus was. Well, that’s not the Jesus in my Bible! My Bible says, "He didn’t even have a place to lay His head. He didn’t even have a den like the foxes have." So He wasn’t rich in material things. Oh, I know the Psalmist says: "Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills," but that’s not the Jesus of Nazareth, as He had nothing of this world’s goods. He became as low as a bond slave. Reading on in verse 7. Not only did he take on Himself the form a servant:

"…and was made in the likeness of men:" (He had all the human frailty.)

Now stop and think a minute, after a long day of putting up with the press of the crowds, and everything else, he became physically tired. He became hungry. He became sorrowful. You say, "When did that happen, that He became sorrowful?" You all know. At Lazarus’ funeral. What did He do? Jesus wept. Why did He weep? In His humanity, He was just as sorrowful as you and I would be. So this is all part of the price He paid then, that He could go the way of the cross and suffer the death that you and I deserved to suffer. Now let’s read verse 8.

"And found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, (as a man) and became obedient unto death, (not an ordinary death, but what kind?) even the death of the cross." (crucifixion - a most horrible death.)

Facing death for my faith doesn’t scare me a bit. I’m ready to go. Now if they would torture me over a period of 5 or 6 years, like a lot of people have been, then that gives me second thoughts, and I wouldn’t look forward to that at all. But, you see, our Lord did. He knew the suffering that was coming. He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him. He knew how those Roman soldiers were going to abuse Him, and beat Him as He carried the cross down toward Golgotha. He knew the pain that would happen when they drove the nails. He knew what it was going to be like to hang on that cross, and He never shrank from it! And all because He was going to be willing to pay the price of redemption for all of mankind. And we’ll be looking at that more in detail in our next program, where we see in Hebrews chapter 2, "that He tasted death for every man." But now coming out of verse 8, as He:

"…became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (now verse 9 - what a change) Wherefore (because of all He did to accomplish that work of the cross, Wherefore) God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, …"

Now I know we have to be careful that we do not put others down, and I never like to give that impression that we’re smug or arrogant or anything like that, but I have used a word over and over on this program, and I even gave mention of a gentlemen up in Minnesota who really complemented me for using this word. He was a retired minister of one of our large denominations, and it was probably as sweet, and as great a complement as I ever received, when he came up one time, after one of our teaching seminars, and said, "Les I admire you, because you stick so closely to an exclusivist salvation." Well I had never heard it quite like that before, but he said, "That’s what I’ve always preached." I probably looked kind of puzzled at him, and he said, "Well it is. It’s an exclusivist salvation."

And this is what this verse says, "There is no other way." There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. You see a Joseph Smith won’t cut it, or any of these others who claim to be a later prophet, or what ever. There is only One name, whereby we must be saved, and see, this says it so plainly.

I’ll never forget hearing an evangelist many, many years ago who put it this way, and I imagine others have said it the same way. "Every human being has that choice of bowing the knee and recognizing Christ as Saviour in this life, or he’ll do it at the Great White Judgment Throne in preparation for his doom." And isn’t that true? That’s exactly what it is. We can bow the knee and recognize Christ as Saviour now and go on with joy evermore, or we can reject it and pass off this life. But one day. we’ll come before Him at the Great White Throne, and every lost person of the ages is going to bow the knee and recognize finally that He was Who He said He was, but it’s going to be too late for them, because He won’t be the Saviour at the Great White Throne, but rather He’s going to be the Judge!

"And that every tongue (whether in this life or the one to come) should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Well these are all references that give rise to His coming exaltation. Now let’s come back to the Book of Ephesians chapter 1, and this is all still showing how that He was made lower than the angels for a little while, but the day is coming when He is going to exalted. He is going to be the King over this earthly Kingdom. Let’s begin with verse 7. Remember that Paul is constantly using the prepositional phrase in Ephesians that speaks of our position "In Christ."

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace: 8. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence: 9. Having made know unto the mystery (secret) of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (now here it comes in verse 10.) 10. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times (this coming Kingdom. That’s just another way of putting it.) he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. 11. In whom also we obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"

Now these are all references then, alluding to His coming power and majesty that will be put above everything, and all of His enemies will be put under His feet. Now I think we can also go back to I Corinthians chapter 15, and let’s come in at verse 12, because you see, none of these things could have been consummated without His resurrection from the dead. Now it was one thing that He was crucified, but none of these things could have come to pass had He not been raised from the dead - that was a preeminent thing. He could not put everything under His feet until He had defeated His arch enemy, Satan and death, which we’ll look at in the next lesson.

"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." In other words, when people reject the resurrection they are destitute of faith! They have nothing to go on, because everything rests on this spiritual fact, that Christ arose from the dead. Verse 15.

How many people, even in our enlightened America, think that when you die, it’s like when a dog dies. Oh they’ve got the wishful thinking for something better, that somehow they’ll get there, but you see they’re not going to get there if their faith isn’t in this crucified, buried, and risen Christ. And if we can’t believe the resurrection, we’re as good as nothing. Now read on in verse 17.

"And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; (it counts for nothing) ye are yet in your sins." In other words, there’s been no forgiveness until we appropriate the whole Gospel by faith.

"Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." In other words, if someone dies believing in Jesus, as we see and hear so much, and yet they had no abiding faith in His resurrection, then where are they? Lost. Now we can’t look at an individual and look on the heart. But I can certainly tell them from Scripture what they’d better be putting they’re faith in. And if they don’t have their faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Christ, I don’t care how much they talk about Jesus, they’re doomed. So we have to be careful that we never mislead people that they’re somehow going to make it, short of Paul’s Gospel of I Corinthians 15:1-4. Now verse 19.

"But now (there’s no doubt about it) is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, (like I said, we’ll be looking at that in the next half hour) by man (the second man, the second Adam, Jesus of Nazareth) came also the resurrection of the dead."

So on the one hand we have the Federal head of the human race, Adam, who plunged us into the fall and into our lost estate, but we also have the second Adam who has accomplished everything to bring salvation to everyone that will believe it. Now verse 22.

Now all is going to be made alive someday, but not all will be with Christ. Let’s look at that in John’s gospel chapter 5. And this is exactly what Paul is alluding to, that even the lost are going to be resurrected. Jesus is speaking in His earthly ministry and says:

"Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." In other words, everyone that has lived and died is going to be resurrected. Now verse 29.

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, 23. But every man in his own order (or company) Christ the firstfruits; (those who rose after His resurrection in Matthew chapter 27) afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming." Which I feel will be the Rapture of the Church. Now verse 24. This is the verse I want to look at.

"For he hath put all things under his feet, …" Even death which will be the final enemy!

We’ve established this afternoon, that He, Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior, will be the One Who will be the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords of the world to come, in this inhabited earth that will be made again like the Garden of Eden. We also know He is higher than the angels, even though for the work of the cross, He became a little lower than the angels. But now then, as the One Who will be the ruler, and the King of this coming Kingdom, we find that the last part of verse 8 gives us a clue, that even though all these things are being made ready, and we know it’s coming, it just hasn’t happened yet, and that’s what it says. So let’s begin this study with verse 9, but look at the last part of verse 8 in Hebrews chapter 2.

"…But now we see not yet all things put under him. (It’s still in a future time. Now verse 9) But (this much we know. Even though the Kingdom hasn’t come in yet,) we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels (for just a little while) for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."

Not just for those who will be saved and go to glory, but He tasted death for the billions that are going to go to their doom. And of course that’s what going to make it so awful. I think the worst part of the Lake of Fire will be that people will realize that they did not have to be there. They’re there because they chose to be there, and it’s going to be a horrible time of regret, "Why didn’t I take what was offered?" But you see, by then it’s going to be too late. But the thing that we always like to emphasize is that when Christ finished the work of cross, He opened salvation to every last human being.

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world (even before Adam was created) are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, (in other words the stars and the sun, and the moon) even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they (multitudes of the human race that we think have never heard) are without excuse:"

Now those are awesome words aren’t they? And these people are going to come before the Great White Throne without a word of argument. They are suddenly going to know that they deserve the doom that is coming because they’ve rejected the Light that was given. Now then, we’re going to look at this whole idea of death that I alluded to in the last program, that we’d be looking at how Christ not only will become King of Kings, but He’s going to put everything in the secular world under His feet, but He’s also going to defeat our arch enemy, death. And the only way you can defeat death is with death! Now for that study let’s go back to Genesis chapter 2, and verse 17. Here the Lord is talking to Adam and He says:

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (death)

Now the moment that Adam ate, what entered the world? Death! Death became part and parcel of the human experience as well as all of nature. Everything is facing death. Now let’s look at the next one still in the Old Testament in Ezekiel chapter 18. We’re just going to see from Scripture that this is not just a one time statement, but rather it’s one of the very fundamental truths that we have to face. Let’s drop in at verse 4, and this is a verse I guess that throws a curve at a lot of people because of the very first statement. Well of course every soul that’s ever lived is God’s because the soul comes from God, and they are God’s, but it’s going to be up to His Sovereignty to determine whether they spend eternity with Him, or are separated from Him. But that doesn’t take away the fact of the first part of this verse.

"Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: (now here comes that crowning statement) the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

See, there’s no escaping death. The whole human race is headed for death. Now first and foremost we look at physical death. We’re all, unless the Lord comes in our lifetime, going to die physically, but there’s two areas of life and death that we have to deal with, and that is the spiritual, as well as the physical. Now we saw in John chapter 5 in the last program how that Jesus spoke of a resurrection of those who were spiritually alive, by virtue of their faith, and on the other hand, those who would be physically dead, and the two of course we always have to keep separate. So now I want to bring you all the way up to John’s gospel chapter 12, because this is one of the fundamental truths of Scripture, that the only way you can overcome death, is with death. So this is why Christ had to die.

In fact, I had a thought come up last night as I was mulling this over, but I want to be very careful how I say this, as I don’t want somebody writing me a real strong nasty letter, and say, "Les, you said thus and such." But, I am going to throw something out just to provoke your thinking, and if I happen to have a physiologist, or an embryologist in the audience, I’d like to hear from them. This thought crossed my mind. Since everything in Scripture speaks of death being overcome with death, or you cannot have life until you have death, and I always use the plant kingdom for an example, because you’re all acquainted with gardening, or agriculture of some sort. But if you plant a seed in the moist warm soil, what happens to that original seed? It dies! Anyone that has ever been in biology knows that. That seed dies! Now out of that death process, what happens next? New life, and reproduction! Now the thought I’m going to share is, and I’m not saying this happens, but rather I’m asking if it may happen? "And that is, when the sperm invades the female ovum at conception, does that ovum die, at least temporary?" I kind of think it does. Now don’t go out and quote me, and say, "Les says that the ovum dies when the sperm invades it." But it would almost fit with all of nature, that before something can have new life, something has to die. So think about that, and if I have a professional out there, then let me know, because I think there’s probably more to that than meets the eye.

Now here is the way the Lord Jesus Himself put it in John chapter 12, and verse 23, and of course this is the time when certain Gentiles (who had no doubt heard all about Jesus’ earthly ministry, and all the miracles, signs, and wonders that He had performed, and they’re curiosity was exercised) approach Andrew and Philip, and then they go in and tell Jesus that there are Greeks that want to see Him. Now verse 23.

"And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, (remember this is the great feast of Passover and people are already gathering around the temple area, so His crucifixion is only a matter of hours) that the Son of man should be glorified. 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

Now the whole concept of nature is based on that very concept. Now spiritually, let’s look at it from Paul’s point of view, so let’s go to Romans chapter 3 for a minute where you’ll find that as a result of spiritual death of man, brought about by Adam’s fall, this is the result.

"What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;" And what’s synonymous with sin? Death! Everybody, both Jew and Gentile are under the curse of sin and death. Consequently, we find in verse 10:

You know I was looking at some of our old programs while we were dubbing them, and I suppose some of these statements shock people. In one of my programs I made the statement, "Man never goes looking after God, but rather it’s God Who always seeks the sinner." And in that lesson I went back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After they had sinned and had sewed their fig leaves, and they knew God was coming down the path - did they run to meet Him? No! But rather, what did they do? They hid. But God came looking for them, not that He didn’t know where they were, but the whole idea was, to show us that God seeks the sinner. Well, when you get to John’s gospel, that’s exactly what it says. In fact come back to John’s gospel chapter 3 so you can see it with your own eyes, because this is the mental makeup of sinful men, women, boy and girls, we’re all alike, and this is the true picture. I hope you still have your hand in Romans, because we’re going to go right back there.

"And this is the condemnation, (this is mankind’s problem) that light is come into the world, (see how that fits with what we read a moment ago?) and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20. For every one that doeth evil (anything contrary to the will of God) hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

Now in your mind’s eye, can you picture Adam and Eve? This is the perfect picture. They had sinned, they sewed fig leaves, but were they ready to meet their righteous Lord? No! So instead of running to meet Him and get right with Him, what did they do? They ran and hid, because their deeds were evil, they had been disobedient, and this is the perfect picture of it. So, since they had done evil, they hated the Light, they didn’t want to come to the Light, they ran and hid. Now come back to Romans and this is just an extension of all of this. Evil men are what they are because they’ve rejected the Light. Now reading on in Romans chapter 3, and verse 10.

"As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth,…" Why? Because we are a fallen race, we are bent to sin, because of Adam. Remember I put it on the board, over and over, throughout the years, "We’re not sinners because we have sinned, we’ve sinned because we’re sinners." Well, this is what these verses are telling us, that the human race is just bent to sin. Verse 12.

"They are all (the human race, not just Jew, not just Gentile) gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doth good, no, not one." And then the Word goes on to describe the human nature, and the culmination of it is in verse 18.

Now that seems like a harsh statement, but it’s true, as they really don’t fear Him. And even if they do want to recognize that there’s an eternity out there, you know what they rationalize? "Well, I don’t think I’ve been that bad, I think God will be good to me, I think He’ll let me in." And they cannot comprehend that God cannot tolerate their sin when He had done everything that He has done to bring about their salvation. Now I think I can now come all the way down to verse 23 here in Romans chapter 3. And here is the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit’s conclusion.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Nobody in their human element can hit the mark. It’s impossible, we’re sons of Adam. But in verse 24, we have the great promise. Yes, we’re under the condemnation, we are a fallen race, but:

"Being justified freely (not because of our works, not because of what we can do, but) by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"

Well that’s enough for that portion - let’s look at another in Romans chapter 5, and let’s start with verse 1.

"Therefore (because of what we’ve just been reading in chapter 3, that we’re a fallen race, we are in total depravity, but) being justified by faith, (not by works) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:"

Now stop and think a moment. You know we’re surrounded by people that are just bound by works religion. The bondage that so many people are in with a works-oriented religion. They are just in constant fear that maybe they’re not going to be able to work enough. And on top of that there is never any joy, there is never peace with God, because it’s depending on their works. Now that’s an awful place to be. My, that’s horrible. The Bible makes it so plain that when we come to salvation, not resting on our works, but we’re resting on what Christ has tasted for every man, and we can have peace with God. There’s no wondering, "I wonder if I’ll make it, I wonder if I’ll get to heaven." No, we don’t have to wonder, because we have this wonderful Grace. Now back to the text in Romans 5:1

"Therefore being justified by faith, (not works) we have peace with God…"

You know I’ve given the example on the program of people who have come into our home, or here at the taping, or some of our classes who have come out of these works religions. The clearest one is, "It’s like someone has knocked the shackles off my wrist." Well, that’s the freedom that we have when we enter in by faith rather than trying to get in by works.

Alright I want to stay with this whole concept that "Christ died for us." So now staying in Romans chapter 5, come on down to verse 6. And remember this is all going back to that verse in Hebrews where "Christ tasted death for everyone." No one can ever say, "Well, He didn’t do enough for me." Oh, yes, He did.

"For when we were yet without strength, (we were hopeless) in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Not for good people, but He died for the ungodly, those without God. Now verse 7.

Yeah that could be possible. Here is a fellow who is so admirable and so looked up to, and he suddenly gets framed or whatever, and someone might come along and take his punishment, that’s a possibility. But for a no good, a reprobate, who would want to die for that kind of a person? Well, you’d probably say, "Nobody would, it’s probably good riddance." But you see that’s what you and I were, and Christ the Creator God, died for us. Now verse 8, and with this verse, I guess we’ll have to close.

We are now in the Book of Hebrews chapter 2, jumping in at verse 10. We finished verse 9 in our last lesson. I have to keep reminding everybody that Hebrews is just like the title implies. It was written primarily to the Hebrew believers, but they were Hebrews that were fighting the pull back into Judaism. Anyone who has come out of a strict religion, whatever it is, can understand what that is. Because after years and years of being indoctrinated in something and then to suddenly see something better, as Paul constantly calls it in Hebrews, there is always that magnetic pull back to that old belief system.

So this is the whole idea of Hebrews. Yes, that which was in the past: Judaism, the Law, the Temple Worship, it was good. After all, God ordained it - but everything now on this side of the Cross and especially after the revelations of Paul’s mysteries, we now have something that is so much better. The comparison throughout the book of Hebrews is that Christ is better and higher than the angels. And that one thing and another is better than that which went before.

As we have seen in the early chapters and verses, in chapters 1 and 2, the Apostle is showing the epitome of Christ and Who He really is! How that He was the Son, and, how that He was the One Who will one day rule and reign on a new inhabited earth. (That was in verse 5.) Now we have been showing in the last couple of verses in chapter 2, how that even though He was the Creator God, He was the Ruler of the universe - for a little while He took His position lower than the angels. In other words, He became man. This is what we are looking at now in these verses, how God the Creator in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth – the Man, Who has accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished. And in His death, He not only tasted death for us, as believers, but for every human being who has ever lived. Let’s move on into verse 10.

We are going to stop with that verse and go back to the first few words "For it became him,..." Now, as I studied this I couldn’t help but be reminded that so many little cliches, even in our everyday secular language, have a Biblical origin. You are all acquainted with the little saying "It just "becomes him" to do what he does." It just "becomes him" to be the kind of a person that he is. Well, that is exactly what it means here. It "became" God to become the Savior of mankind. In other words, He couldn’t help Himself! He had such a love for those created creatures that He had started there in the Garden of Eden, that the moment that they fell into sin it just "became" Him to express His love for them by setting up a plan of redemption.

That plan of redemption included His own suffering and death as a man, but remember, He never lost his Deity. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that! He never stopped being God. Even in the womb, I am convinced that He is God. But, once He planted His feet on the dusty trail of ancient Israel or Palestine, as we many times refer to it, He was a man. He was the man, Christ Jesus the man from Nazareth. But, as a man, He could pray to God the Father and during those hours leading up to the cross, when He prayed that the Father would strengthen him, that the Father would be with him, those were truly prayers from the man Christ Jesus. So it just "became" God, it was part of His nature, that He would bring about this tremendous plan of Salvation.

As we travel through the cities of our country, we can’t judge hearts. We can’t even begin to come close, but you can’t help but wonder how many have ever considered this tremendous plan of salvation that has been offered free for nothing! I’m afraid not many. Even though we are in a nation where there are churches on every corner and Bibles in every home, and radio and television is blaring with people of one sort or another proclaiming whatever they call it, yet how many people ever stop for a moment to consider spiritual things?

I don’t think very many anymore. So, here we have to be aware then that the very nature of God, it "became" him, "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." We like to compare Scripture with Scripture, so I am going to bring you back to Colossians chapter 1.

Remember what He is telling the Hebrews that "it became him," the God of creation, the One Who made everything, the One Who holds everything together, it is His! He didn’t have to, He could have just let Adam and Eve go off into whatever and He could have started over, or He could have just simply stayed with the angels. But, "it became him," to love these mortal creatures that He created there in the Garden of Eden. Alright, Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 and 16. We’ve used these verses over and over:

"Who (speaking of the Son in verse 13) is the image (or the visible likeness) of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:" In other words, He was before anything that had ever been created and here’s why. Verse 16.

But we have to constantly remember that even though God was great and powerful, the Omnipotent, the Creator, the Sustainer of the universe, yet He immediately set in motion those tremendous wheels of Redemption. Which all led up to His own suffering and death to bring about mankind’s salvation.

Coming back to verse 10 of Hebrews. It just "became" God. It was something that He just couldn’t help doing, even though He is the One that brought everything into being. He is the One by Whom everything is held together and by so bringing in this plan of redemption, He is bringing – now watch the word here, He is:

Recently I was reminded of a little anecdote. There was a gentleman who had an ant hill back in the corner of his yard. Periodically, he liked to just go out and watch those ants with all of their activity. One day as he was watching, he noticed that there was one poor little ant trying to get a piece of straw about an inch or so long down into the ant hole. Of course, it was too wide! That poor little ant could not get that piece of straw down the hole. So, finally, he couldn’t take it any longer, so he got down on his knees and he was going to help that little ant put that straw down into the hole. Well, what happened. The ants all scattered! So again, he stood there in frustration and his neighbor said "What are you doing?" He said, "I am watching these ants. They are interesting, but there is one in particular that I want to help. Every time I go down and try to help him, they all scatter. Yet as soon as I back away a little bit, that same little fellow picks up that same piece of straw and frantically tries to get it down into his den. It’s just frustrating!" His neighbor said, "The only way it will ever work, is if you become an ant!"

See, isn’t that exactly what God did? God knew mankind could never understand Who He is and what He’s done. So, He had to become one of us! When He became one of us, then He was on that playing field where we can understand and we can take hold of all of this. That’s exactly what is implied here. The very God Who "became" to do this, He went down and became part of the human race, so that He could bring them with Him to Glory.

Now, the next thought and it is just as good! That, as He brings many sons, which is what Paul says - in fact, I guess we need to compare Scripture with Scripture, so come back with me to Romans. Because when we use the words "the sons," we want to clarify it from Scripture. Romans chapter 8 verse 14, in order to establish why Paul says here in Hebrews that Christ is bringing sons to glory.

"The Spirit (the Holy Spirit) itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" The actual Greek there for the word children are born ones. And if I am not mistaken, the Scottish term barn really originated from the born ones. That family relationship. If we are the born ones then we are heirs!

"...bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Underline that word captain. The captain of our salvation! It is the same Greek word translated in chapter 12 as the author of our salvation. But here the concept is a file leader. That’s the real definition of captain.

I have to go back and remember some of the western movies where the cavalry were involved. I remember seeing this file of the American cavalry going up this mountain on a narrow ledge, single file. They wound down around the mountain, down to the plains. But, who had to be at the head? A leader! There was a leader up at the head of that long line. Well now, if that can help you a little bit, that is where Christ is! Christ is the "file leader" of all of us, that He came down to earth to purchase their redemption and now he is bringing us to Glory! Can you just make a beautiful picture of that in your mind? I hope so!

Then, being the Pauline man that I am, what does Paul say? Be followers of "me" as I follow the file leader, Christ. See? Now let’s come back and pick that up in Corinthians 11 verse 1.

Just envision this. I am not a visualization promoter, but, once in a while, as these pictures are drawn in Scripture, it just helps us to get a little glimpse of what he is talking about. I have always said as long as I have been teaching, you cannot find one single earthly illustration that will carry a spiritual illustration all the way to the end. It is impossible. In fact it’s just like the Four Gospels. Why do we have four instead of one? Well, because all four of the Four Gospels look at Christ from a different viewpoint, and one could have never done that.

It is the same way with earthly anecdotes. You cannot carry a theme from start to finish in the spiritual realm with an earthly antidote. It is absolutely impossible. But it does help to put several of them together. Look what the Apostle writes. This angers people, but it is what the Holy Spirit inspired him to write and it is just as appropriate for us today as it was the day he wrote it.

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am (a follower) of Christ." See how plain that is? Now come back to Hebrews and we get the picture, how that the Lord Himself left heaven’s glory to come amongst human men and became a man that He might be the file leader of all these that He is bringing with Him to Glory.

For us as believers, the second man up there at the front is who? The Apostle Paul! So Paul is following Christ as He is leading us up that file of believers to Glory. He’s following Christ. We follow Paul. The reason I always give is that Paul is human like we are. He had the same temptations, he had the same weaknesses. Consequently, we can identify with something like that. But, remember, when Christ finished that work of redemption, He became the captain, the file leader, of those of us that He is bringing with Him to Glory.

The last part of the verse is that our salvation was made perfect through what? Through suffering. Yes, through suffering. Now where does that begin? Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve have just disobeyed. They have plunged the human race into sin and death. All because of the tempter, the devil, Satan.

"And the LORD God..." God the Son, in His Old Testament personality is confronting Satan and look what He tells him. This is the first promise of a line of the redemption from Genesis all the way up through the finished work on the Cross.

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; (Christ is the seed of the woman) it (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, (Christ defeated Satan by crushing his head with his death, burial and resurrection. But did Satan get his licks in? You bet he did! And here’s the prophecy of it) and thou (the Lord says to Satan) shalt bruise his heel."

What’s implied? The suffering that Christ would go through in order to crush the head of Satan. So we have this concept all the way up through Scripture that the righteous are going to suffer for their faith. Paul epitomizes that with the suffering that he went through in order to get the Gospel of salvation to the ends of the Roman Empire. Now back to Romans chapter 8. Paul writes:

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Now what is he talking about? Oh, we will suffer in this earthly sojourn, but it is nothing compared to the glory that is awaiting us.

Every once in a while, someone will write with a question concerning our eternal state. I usually have to answer that the Scripture doesn’t tell us very much about our eternal state. It’s going to be glorious! And, we know that God alone knows how to make things perfect. But, to be able to just lay out what we are going to be doing and how we are going to be operating, no, I can’t do that. Because, the Bible is silent.

But, we do have to constantly be reminded that we suffer for our faith. We in the Western world in the last couple of hundred years have known almost nothing of suffering for our faith. There are places in Africa tonight, and in Indonesia, etc. where they are. They are suffering inexorably for their faith. But you and I have it so good that we really don’t know what it is to suffer. Oh we may have somebody make a snide remark once in a while, bu that’s not suffering. That’s something that just rolls off like water off of a duck. Nevertheless, it has been part and parcel of the Christian experience down through the history of Christendom that people have had to suffer for their faith.

Even the Disciples, they all suffered a martyr’s death but none of them suffered as much as the Apostle Paul. He really knew what he was talking about. Let’s look at that verse once more before we go back to Hebrews. So he says:

So the suffering of this present time was precipitated by the curse. Since we are living under the curse, we can certainly expect to have a certain amount of suffering. We know that a lot of our listener’s are suffering - in fact, I had one gentleman call yesterday. He and his wife had been in a terrible car wreck. He shared the suffering that they had to go through and the surgeries that he still faces. We have had others that suffered inexorably with terminal cancer, yet it is amazing how almost in every instance, when someone like that suffers, a family member was saved shortly thereafter.

Always remember, God has his own purposes. The suffering we sometimes endure, we don’t understand personally. But God has a reason and a purpose for it. We’re not to shrink from that. Repeating verse 10:

We are presently in the book of Hebrews. Years back we started in Genesis and we have been coming up through the Bible, as our title of the program implies, and we have already finished 13 lessons in Hebrews. Now we’re going to pick right up where we left off after the last lesson, and that would be Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11.

Alright, I’m going to stop there first. Here again we have this whole concept that God does something and we are the recipients, in this case it is sanctification. God sanctified those of us who are His own. We have that same connotation in Romans chapter 3. It follows all the way through, that the God of Glory, the God of Creation, the One Who is Sovereign, everything He does is based on that Sovereign Grace. He can show mercy to whom He will show mercy. And in order to pick up the flow, let’s just pick up in verse 23. You remember that verse 23 is the capstone of the judicial decree as God finds the whole human race guilty.

"For all (every last human being) have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" But, we follow that up just like we did in Genesis. Just as soon as Adam sinned, God followed it up with what? A plan of redemption. The same way here. He comes to the conclusion that ALL have sinned. Every human being, but He follows it right up with a remedy. Being justified! Just as if we had never sinned!

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (that shed blood of the Cross) to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God:" In other words, through His mercy and grace. Now here is the verse I wanted to come to. The word is ‘sanctified’ in Hebrews but here we are looking at justification.

"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: (that is the righteousness of God) that he (God! Usually in the Person of the Son. The One Who fulfilled it all on our behalf.) might be just, (totally fair) and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Do you see the same connotation? In Hebrews, we find that God is the One Who sanctifies, He’s the One Who acts on it and we are the recipients. Now it is the same here with justification. God is the One Who declares us just! And He is the justifier of those of us who believe and then become justified. So you have this whole idea throughout the Scripture, how that God Himself precipitates everything and we just rake it in, don’t we? Oh, we just rake it in and too many times we don’t realize how much God has done on our behalf. Come back to Hebrews chapter 2, once again.

That is hard to comprehend, isn’t it? Do you know what that is saying? That just as soon as God saves us, justifies us and sanctifies us, we come into the Body of Christ. And as a member of the Body of Christ, we are all what? One! Whether we are rich or poor, whether we are black or white, Jew or Gentile, when we become a member of the Body of Christ of which He is the head, then we are all one!

I have mentioned on the program over and over, that’s why believers are never strangers very long. You can go into a home of a believer that you have never known before but if they are a true believer, in five minutes you feel like you have known them all your life! That’s the reason! Because we have all become one. Now the last portion of the verse is probably, once again th