Help For Humans

Help for Humans: Hebrews 2:16 and the Need for Salvation

We come now to the preaching of the Word of God. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 2 where we will read our passage. Hebrews 1 has been primarily about the nature of Christ as being higher than the angels.

Hebrews 2 primarily about Him being made for a little while lower than the angels and explaining the purpose of that. Maybe you've noticed that a number of our, the hymns we did, the first two hymns we did were heavily themed around angels and the angels praising God.

This last song we sang was about our need for the help of God. So this passage is about how the angels while giving glory to God do not receive God's help yet humans do receive God's help. So if you are in Hebrews chapter 2 we will begin reading in verse 10.

Although the preaching will simply be on verse 16. For it was fitting that He, excuse me, please stand for the reading of God's Word. For it was fitting that He for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.

And again I will put my trust in Him. And again behold I and the children that God has given me. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for this great precious blessing that we have, revelation from You, and You have not inspired merely 65 books but have given us 66, including this book of Hebrews.

Each chapter, each verse is a precious revelation from You, and we thank You for this. We ask that You would open our eyes and open our hearts that we might receive Your Word, that we would not be blinded, that we would not be hardened, but that our hearts would be soft and malleable and pliable for Your work, that we would be even prepared to do Your works that You have prepared beforehand for us.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, our preaching text for this morning is verse 16. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. This is a fairly profound truth, that angels, which are far higher than humans, God does not help, but He has chosen to help we who are lowly.

This is to decide to help humans, mankind. Now I think there are several audiences that need to hear the message of this verse. First would be those who have been Christians for a very long period of time.

Now if you've been a Christian for a very long period of time, salvation may just be assumed, and after a while you start losing the wonder of that salvation, and you don't appreciate it the way you ought.

I recently finished reading the book The Secret Garden. I don't know if you've read that book, it's children's fiction. It has some pantheistic undertones, but otherwise a fairly delightful book about two children who have grown up getting everything without ever being rejected anything, and so thinking that everything is owed to them, and they're very spoiled, and it's so about them learning that this is not the case, and learning to appreciate the world around them.

That is how many people are, including many who have been Christians for a long time. If they are not thinking regularly about the word of God the way they ought to be, they may grow to be unappreciative, thinking that the blessings of God are simply owed to them.

Well certainly in Christ they have been perfectly secured, and they are owed in the sense that God has committed them to His people who are found in Christ, but yet there is a great truth in the fact that salvation is not owed in any primary sense apart from the promise of God, apart from His covenant.

If salvation has not been given to angels, then why would it be due to humans? Likewise, this is a message for those who are new to the faith, who still have that wonder of salvation, but do not know the depths of how wonderful it is.

And this truth is not a truth that often comes up as a first point in doctrine as you begin studying the Christian faith. It is usually something that you only notice later as it is only spoken of so directly here.

You know, angels are fairly mysterious creatures. They are not often spoken of in Scripture. And lastly, this is also a verse that applies to those who do not know the Lord, to those who have not trusted in Him, and so naturally have no appreciation for salvation.

If you do not have that salvation, you do not appreciate it. In fact, you may look at what the Bible says about salvation, about God's election, about His choice of some, not others, about the way that His grace is distributed unevenly, that He has chosen to allow some to languish and He has lifted up others, both in physical senses of prosperity as well as spiritual senses.

You may look at that and you may feel that that is unjust and unkind, and so considering the truth that salvation is not owed, that salvation is a wonderful gift from God, it is even important for the unbeliever to hear that they might believe and they might trust in a gospel that is truly good and something that is not to be frowned on because it is selectively distributed, but rather that it is to be truly appreciated because it is selectively distributed, and behold, you are part of that species that God has chosen.

No, He has not chosen angels, but He has chosen men. And so, I would like for every one of you to develop in your hearts an appreciation for the sweetness of salvation that has not been given to some of the most glorious beings that exist, but has been given to those of us who dwell on this earth in weakness and lowliness, that this salvation has been given to men.

And so, our agenda is very simple today. I want to look at who needs help and who receives help. Some angels need help. All people need help. No angel receives help. Some people receive help. So, that's simple.

And this tells us much of our Savior and much of the goodness of His grace toward us. So, allow me to read this passage again, and as is, I suppose, my pattern in preaching, to reread the phrase that I'm on several times.

There is an opportunity for me here, since it is just one verse, to trust that you have that in the back of your mind, but I will probably read it from time to time. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.

So, it speaks first of angels, and so we ought to ask what angels are and whether or not they need help. So, what is an angel? Well, an angel is a spiritual being. An angel does not have a body. Angels are glorious beings designed to glorify God.

We see angels in Scripture singing to the Lord, praising Him, but there are limits to the ways in which angels glorify God. Mankind has been made in the image of God, and angels have not. And so, various aspects and consequences of the image of God are not true of angels.

For example, God made man in His image. Both male and female, He created them. The Bible does not say the same of angels. Angels do not have sexes. They do not prefigure the marriage between Christ and the church through marriage.

Jesus says they are neither married nor given in marriage. Rather, that is something that is particular to humans, and so not one of the ways that angels glorify God. In fact, as you read through Scripture, of course, when describing angels, it's going to use analogies.

It's not going to speak of things always in such a precise manner, because angels are so unlike the creation that we're used to interacting with, but it almost always speaks of them as men. There's one verse in Zechariah where you have two winged women flying, but apart from that, angels are always pictured as either men or some other creatures.

Not always men as in mailmen. Sometimes as in, sometimes they are lions, sometimes beasts composed of various features. And another way that angels do not glorify God the way that mankind does would be dominion.

God has given man dominion over the earth, and so mankind has an ownership over the earth in a way that angels cannot lay claim to. So there are various ways that God has made angels to glorify him that are distinct from the ways that God has created man to glorify him.

But this is an angel. An angel is a spiritual being who glorifies God, or is designed to glorify God. Now, there are some angels that need help, and those angels are those who do not glorify God, those angels who have fallen.

And we think about most primarily of Satan, who has fallen, the great accuser, and then his devils under him. These are all angelic beings, so it would not be wrong to speak of these as angels. They have fallen, and they are, in a sense, in need of salvation.

Now, there is no salvation held out for them, as we see in this verse, but the situation that they have found themselves in is one that would require rescuing should it ever improve. They are not able to rescue themselves from this situation.

And Scripture speaks of this on a number of occasions. For example, in Jude 6, it says,. In the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he is kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of that great day.

And in context, it's speaking of the fact that they did have a position with God, they did have some status whereby these fallen angels were much more elevated. It says, in just the verse before,. Now, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe.

You see the analogy that's being made here? Those that came through the Exodus, were among God's people, were cast out. And similarly, angels who had status with God were also cast out. So do not presume upon your position with the Lord just by where you sit or what people you find yourself among.

It was not true for the Israelites. It was not true for the angels. 2 Peter, which has many of the same phrases that Jude has, says much of the same. And 2 Peter 2, 4, it says,. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, etc.

It goes on with a much larger thought. But God did not spare the angels when they sinned. It speaks of their sin elsewhere. John 8, 44 says that when Satan speaks, he lies because he speaks of himself.

He does not speak of God's truth, but he speaks of himself from his own self. His words are his own rather than God's. Job 4, 18 says that God charges his angels with error. And so these angels are in need of rescue.

They are not capable of rescuing themselves. Now, there are some angels who do not need help. Now, of course, all creatures are dependent on the Lord. There's no creature that is not dependent on the Lord.

But in the sense of God having given people abilities whereby they may either maintain or improve their situation, these angels have been equipped with everything that they need from the beginning, that they not need any special form of salvation.

And these are the angels that you see glorifying God throughout scripture in a direct way and through singing rather than by their own destruction. 1 Timothy speaks of these angels. 1 Timothy 5, 21 says, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

He speaks of the elect angels. Now, angels, those angels who have not sinned were chosen by God to not sin. That in his sovereignty, he has held them up and kept them away from sinning. And yet, even though it was by his help, it was through the means of their own natural abilities so that what they have been given is not a salvation like ours where they were rescued out of some despair that they had fallen into.

It's also not an election like ours being in Christ. We are, the Bible speaks of us as being elected in Christ, him having made the sacrifice from the foundation of the world, this plan being made to save particular people by his redemption.

That means of election, that mode of election of being in Christ is also not something that is true of them. So when it speaks of them being elect, it is not speaking of them as having received some salvation as it speaks of us when it says that we are elect, being elect in Christ.

So you have some angels who have needed help. You have some who do not need help. And if you are curious about this topic of angels, you know, I was wondering, is there a particular work I could recommend to you?

I ended up reading a lot of things. And one thing I noticed is that modern authors are either way off the rails or they are not willing to say very much at all. In fact, I read one modern author who, the whole book is about angels and demons specifically, more specifically demons and angels.

And answering the question of how did the angels fall says I don't know how one would even begin to answer that question. And then he moved on to a few things that other people say, but then, you know, he just wasn't willing to say anything.

Then I read Turretin who, if you don't know who Turretin is, after Calvin and Geneva at that church, there was Beza and after Beza, there was Turretin. So Turretin answered this question and he begins by saying the Bible does not speak directly of this.

And so there's very little we can say. However, I can say this. And he goes on for four pages and four large pages in small font to describe what can be said. So one recommendation would be Turretin, but another recommendation in general would be to read old authors.

Don't assume that the new authors are standing on the shoulders of giants and building off of what the old ones have said. A lot of times you'll find a lot more serious and detailed reflection in some of these older authors, especially as they address these questions.

You know, God has revealed his truth to us that we might know it. You know, he's not revealed it to us that we might say, well, I don't know if we can sort that one out. Now there are some things that are secret.

The secret things belong to the Lord. But those things which are revealed are for us and for our children forever. God has revealed much. And those who say that, well, we can't peer too much into this when God has revealed are falling into a different ditch.

You know, they would say, well, let's not fall into the ditch of peering beyond where we're allowed to go. They're falling into another ditch of not peering where they are supposed to peer. Jesus was willing to tell the Sadducees, have you not read when they denied the resurrection?

Have you not read that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So those truths right there, he's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but of the living.

They were obligated to have read that and to have concluded that the resurrection must be the case from these simple facts. Now, I look at that and I shudder to think what conclusions I should be arriving at that I am not by a serious and dedicated devotion to God arriving at.

So do not fall prey to the very common thing that says, very common mode of thought that says, we shouldn't be peering into the mysteries of God when we certainly shouldn't be peering into the mysteries of God.

But what people are doing is they're taking something that's not a mystery, just a little harder, and then calling it a mystery. And leaving it alone. So just a word about studying a scripture that God has given us much and we should be squeezing it for every last drop that is truly there.

And so some of these angels need help, others do not. I would also add to all this that we should have a wonder about us, about the creation around us. Now, that's true when we go out and we hike and we see rocks and trees, and beautiful landscapes, but it's even true when considering the creation that we can't see like angels.

There is a wild world out there far beyond what we are aware of. You know, if you were, if you ever study, and by study I mean just, you know, look at a few articles on cryptozoology, it's interesting, just all the fascinating new animals that people discover all the time that no one ever knew existed.

There is, God is infinite and he has created a finite world, but it is so large and vast beyond what we can comprehend even that. And not only has he made physical creatures that can be seen, that are hidden from us for great periods of time, but there are invisible creatures which he has also made, and we should wonder at those likewise.

This, it really is incredible that God has made not just this physical world, but even a spiritual realm to be considered. Now, in all that, let us also consider men. Do men need help? Yes, absolutely, men need help.

It says, Shirley is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Men are in desperate need of help. Men are in need of help because they have sinned against the holy God. They have transgressed his law.

His law is perfect, and he is perfect. He will not be dishonored. Anyone who violates that law must die. That is the wages of sin is death. Scripture makes it very plain. There are three ways that we have sinned before God.

The first is by the covenant made with Adam. You know, that's what we, if you weren't here for the announcements at the very beginning, we talked about the covenant made with Adam and with his whole posterity, all having been by ordinary generation descended in him.

So those who have natural birth, Jesus accepted through the virgin birth, but all of us are guilty of Adam's sin. Now you may feel, well, that doesn't, that doesn't seem fair. Consider how the covenants in scripture work in salvation.

People are credited with the righteousness of Christ. If you were credited with the righteousness of Christ, and that is considered just, it is certainly just for God to credit the sin of Adam to those in covenant with him.

So we are guilty by that original sin by Adam. We are also guilty by our own corruption. So Adam having sinned, becoming corrupt in nature, so he's inclined to sin, that passing down to all his descendants after him.

And so we are born in sin, as it says in Psalm 51. We are born in sin. We are conceived in sin and fully inclined to it. There are some who equivocate on this matter. I've read from otherwise good authors.

You know, if I would, if I threw out a name out there, you would be surprised that he says this. But who said that, we are not judged, but we are, what does he say? We are saved by grace, but we are judged on the basis of our works.

And so, in other words, he's willing to say that mankind is guilty on the basis of original corruption, but God would not hold that guilt against him in a court of law. So he would save someone by grace who has not committed any actual sin, who only has this corruption that he's born into.

Well, the Bible is clear that no corruption can be allowed into the presence of God. That is guilt the same way any other thing is guilt. Our confession even says that corruption is itself sin, as well as all things that come from it.

It is against God's character to have such corruption that will be judged on that day of judgment. And then thirdly, most obviously, the actual sins that we commit in this life. And people may think that sin is a fairly rare thing.

It's something they do once every few days when they violate very expressly one of the Ten Commandments and they steal something or they lie. But no, Jesus made it clear that these sins, they're of the heart.

And so anger is murder in your heart. Lust is adultery in your heart. And moreover, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If that's the case, then we are required to be perfect before our maker, even in our thought.

A lot of people in considering this think that, okay, well, the first time a child commits actual sin, you know, they've got original sin, original corruption, but the first time they commit actual sin is probably when they're seven years old, something like that.

No, I mean, push it back to one years old and you're not pushing it back far enough. Children have thoughts in the mind that do not honor God. We are commanded to honor God with our thought, mind, soul, strength.

Any thought that does not do that perfectly is a sinful thought. And so we are guilty before God on more counts than most people are aware of. And we are with a death sentence over our heads apart from some means of salvation.

It is absolutely necessary that we be rescued out of this if we are able to stand before God, if we are able to have any kind of standing, even in this universe. So one conclusion from this is that you should not, you should not think that you can improve your own condition whereby you might be able to come to God on the basis of your own merit.

There are a lot of people who want to get their lives together before they come spend time with God's people, for example. And they'll say, yes, I know that I need to repent and I'm working on that. And when I've gotten that together, then I will come to Jesus.

But I don't want to bring my mess to him until I've cleaned it up first. Like there's a song that we sing, it says the only fitness that he requires is to feel your need of him. You do not just give up in the task of helping yourself.

If the angels were not capable of doing it, if the fallen angels were not able to help themselves, how much do you think you can help yourself? Do not try to fix up your life before you come to Christ and beg for his mercy.

Rather come now that he is merciful. He will give you everything you need. He is the bread of life. Now who receives help? Who receives help? Says once again, for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

Angels are not helped. They are not helped in the sense of them being rescued out of a state that they could not save themselves out of. There are all kinds of caveats to this. Once again, God, every creature is dependent upon their maker.

Angels are therefore dependent upon their maker. And there's all kinds of ways that the Bible describes God helping angels. For example, in Daniel 10, it speaks, and I believe this is Jesus who is speaking, speaks of him going to help Michael as he fights against the Prince of Persia.

And so you have God assisting and aiding angels. And that's not what we're talking about by help here. We're talking about something much greater than that. And consider that language that was used in Jude in 2 Peter.

It's the language of sparing. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, he did not spare them.

There was no sparing. There is no opportunity for a correction of the situation. This salvation is not something that has been given to angels. 1 Peter 1 also speaks of the salvation that God has given.

It's something into which angels long to look. They are not able, it is not given to them. It is not something that is for them to enjoy. And so it is God's prerogative to give help. The angels are high and glorious beings.

You would think, why would he help these lowly ones and not these high ones? It is God's prerogative to help whom he will. He does not help angels, but he extends his mercy to whom he extends mercy. And that makes it all the much more precious and to be appreciated.

It's amazing how many people do not realize this when the Bible says it so clearly that he does not help angels. If you're familiar with William Paul Young, the guy who wrote the shack, he, if you're not aware of, if you are aware of that book and not aware of his views, he's, I suppose he wouldn't call himself a universalist, but he believes that on the, that eventually, even after the day of judgment, everyone will be eventually reconciled to God.

And I once saw him give a presentation, I asked him whether or not he thought that also applied to angels when the angels so clearly say, describe their torment and in Revelation 20 as being forever and ever.

And he said, yes, this could apply even to the angels. It says here so plainly that he does not help angels. He does not rescue them out of that condition of torment. He has consigned them to the gloomy chains of darkness, not just until that last day is a final ending point.

That's something interesting worth noting. In English, this is not true in a lot of other languages. The word we have, until, almost always specifies a termination at that point. In a lot of other languages, including the word that's usually used for until in Greek, just means that it goes at least up to that point.

If not, if not further. Now, obviously they're being held in chains so that they might be judged, but that is, yeah, something to consider that, because that comes up several times in Scripture where it says until, and people will base whole theologies off of that, not realizing that our word for until signifies something which a lot of other languages' words for until does not signify, doesn't necessarily signify a termination.

You may also be wondering, why are they said to be in chains if Satan also prowls around like a roaring lion? Well, Jesus also said that he saw him cast down from heaven. Revelation 20, which I believe has been fulfilled, speaks of him being cast into a pit.

One good way of thinking of this is what Revelation 20 says, is that he no longer deceives the nation. The gospel goes out to many nations. He does roam around like a lion, but if you imagine a lion having a chain that is tethered to a stake way deep inside a pit, that's where he is.

He is tethered to that gloomy darkness. He will not be able to escape it, even though he is able to prowl about like a roaring lion. He has limits on what he may do, limits that he did not previously have prior to the preaching ministry of Christ.

And it is very interesting, too, to consider that the angels have no hope. They were not spared. There is no hope for them to be spared. They have no hope. And so why is it that demons are so wicked? You know, I was thinking about this, and I was so happy later when I was reading Turret, and he said the same thing.

Why is it that demons are so desperately wicked? Why are they so evil? Is it not because they have no hope? They have no hope. They are chained to gloomy darkness. They are just eager to do whatever damage they can in the time that they have.

Why? Because there's no hope of improvement. Why would you ever pursue anything that is good if there is no hope that it will profit you at all? Now, take that and think about ourselves. Who is it that acts most wicked among society?

It's men. It is those who feel the most hopeless. It is those who feel that good actions, righteous actions, righteous thoughts, righteous pursuits, pursuing God will avail nothing, right? And who does the most good?

Those who have their minds fixed on the hope of the gospel. This is why it is so important to have yourself firmly rooted in the hope of the faith. That hope, which is not a fallible hope, but a certain hope that Christ will return, that He will save His people, that those who have placed their trust in Him will be raised from the dead.

It is important to be reminding yourself of these truths, not just week by week as we gather here, but even day by day as you're encouraging one another, as you're reading God's word, as you're going to Him in prayer.

It is so important to have your mind fixed on that hope because apart from that hope, you will have a gloom analogous to the gloom that the angels find themselves in, one that leads them to desperately wicked things.

And you will find yourself led into wicked thoughts, wicked actions, as you do not pursue an exposure, a regular exposure to the hope of God found in Jesus Christ. In fact, not only are angels not helped, they are, God has assigned them to the task of helping His people.

Hebrews 1 .14, just a little bit before this said, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who inherit salvation? They are ministering spirits sent for the sake of God's people.

They are our servants for Him, for Him in His salvation of the people. So for example, the call to worship that we read in Psalm 104, it talks about making His ministers winds and His angels a flame of fire.

What is that describing? It's describing that He rides upon the chariot of angels and to do what? Why does God ride on this chariot? Not that there is a literal chariot, but this is the way that God has pictured to us to imagine His powerful works of sovereignty.

It is an order to reveal His goodness and kindness to men, particularly in the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of His people through such judgment of the wicked. So angels, not only are they not helped, but they are assigned the task of helping people.

This is how focused the Lord is on making the salvation that we've received so glorious. Not only has He made it an election that is particularly for some men, but He has made it particularly for this one species of creatures for humans rather than for angels, and even assigned angels the task of reinforcing that salvation with being the ministers who are helping those who will be saved.

And 1 Peter 1 .10 says much of the same, that they are, yeah, that they long to look into these things, that they are basically observing and watching and helping in this process of salvation. So let us consider also, oh, sorry, there were a couple of other references I wanted to throw out there.

In Matthew 18 .10, it speaks of the little ones who, it speaks of their angels in heaven. You know, I don't believe in a particular guardian angel assigned to each person or anything like that, but the Bible does speak of angels helping even little children.

And it speaks of in the narrative of Lazarus and the rich man, it speaks of angels carrying him away into the bosom of Abraham. So more pictures you have of angels, their task being to help humans in salvation.

Okay, so humans, are humans helped? Yes, humans are helped, as it says. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. He helps humans. Romans 8 .38 makes this very clear when it says, excuse me, 8 .32.

What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. God justifies. And what's very interesting about that passage in this context is it uses that word sparing. What did it say of the angels? He did not spare them. And what does it say in this verse about salvation?

It says He doesn't spare once again, but who is He not sparing? He's not sparing Jesus Christ. He does not spare the Son of God. So do you see how symmetric that is? The angels, they are not spared, they are destroyed.

But Jesus Christ, He is not spared on our behalf so that we might be spared. We are spared because Christ has died in place of those who deserve what the angels will receive, that gloomy darkness that has been prepared for them.

Excuse me, the gloomy darkness there and the hell of fire that has been prepared for them. And so Christ has gloriously saved His people by Himself not being spared. And so consider what this means in the in the context of Hebrews 2.

Hebrews 2 has said in this verse, it starts off with for surely and it's not angels. You know, there's a connection to the rest of this passage. Paul is, well, I think it's written by Paul. Anyway, the author of Hebrews is saying that he's talking about the greatness of Christ, how he's higher than the angels.

He speaks in Hebrews 2 about how he's made for a little while lower than the angels and he's giving an account for why that is. Why was Christ a little while lower than the angels? The answer is because He helps humans.

In order to help humans, He must be like humans. He must be humiliated in that way of having the same weaknesses that we have. And consider how necessary that is for Him fulfilling God's law. First of all, to obey the law that He might, His active obedience, obeying the law that He might perfectly satisfy God's requirements that He might merit for us a resurrection from the dead and a glorious existence.