Dominion Through Death (Hebrews 2:8-9)

Kootenai Church

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We turn now to Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2 and we'll read together verses 5 through verse 10

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For he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking But one has testified somewhere saying what is man that you remember him?

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Well the son of man that you are concerned about him You have made him for a little while lower than the angels

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You've crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the works of your hands You've put all things in subjection under his feet

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For in subjecting all things to him. He left nothing that is not subject to him

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But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels

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Namely Jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone

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For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory

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To perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Let's pray together Our father we has the blood -bought saints of the

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Most High God It is our desire that we may learn from your word and hear you in the pages of Scripture We pray that you would strengthen us through your word and encourage us

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Exhort us and equip us for the works of service through your word preached and studied and read

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We pray that you would be glorified in this time that you would send your spirit to be our teacher and our guide

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Guide me in the words that I say and all of us and the words that we hear So that in the hearing of your word that we may have hearts in tune and inclined to obey you and to love you

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And to see the depth and the profound nature of what you have done for us in Christ our Lord in whose name we pray

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Amen there are longings inside the heart of all of humanity that seemed to hearken back to the

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Garden of Eden and Be prior instilled in us prior to the fall For instance,

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I think that in all of us I would say have this longing to one degree or in one way or another some of these longings

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Do we not have a longing to live in paradise? Wouldn't you like to live in paradise?

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Wouldn't you like to wake up every morning and have everything that you have ever wanted right at your fingertips? Right and did not have the fear that it would be taken from you or robbed from you

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It'd be nice to wake up every morning and have an abundance of of things and all of your needs met just from your surroundings

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And to not have to work for it and slave for it And then once you have acquired it to worry about keeping it

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Wouldn't that be nice when it'd be nice to wake up and live in a world and completely at peace with itself

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Where you are at peace with others and there's no worry that your neighbor is going to rob from you or Slander you or abuse you or attack you or rape you or in some way defraud you wouldn't that be nice?

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Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in a world and a creation surrounded by? peacefulness and peace and harmony and oneness and goodness and abundance and To live at peace with your fellow man and at peace with everything that you have wouldn't that be great to live in a paradise?

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And you might be thinking to yourself Jim I fear that you are transitioning into a Subaru driving Birkenstock wearing tree -hugging granola crunching earth worshiping communists

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That's not the case You might think well you look like a liberal up there in your purple shirt and your purple tie

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And I'll grant you that but I'm not turning into a Subaru driving Birkenstock wearing granola crunching tree -hugging or earth -worshipping communist

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I'm not There's something inside of humanity that longs for Such a situation because as we've seen a scripture that that has created us for that that harkens back to it's a remnant of Eden What is inside of us is a remnant of Eden?

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Now wouldn't we'd like to live in a world that is completely a piece where there's no war between nations We'd like that wouldn't we now unlike a

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Subaru wearing etc. Etc communist to get all the way to the end of that sentence unlike that I realize and you should too that such a condition can never be realized in this world it can never happen in this world never and every attempt of man to create such an

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Edenic paradise to create a Utopia in which these things are true in which we are all at harmony with one another and everything is perfect And we don't have to work and everything's provided for us

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And we're all at peace with one another every attempt by man to create such an environment Ends in utter and abject failure in Violent oppression in death and in lots of victims every attempt because we can never have that inside of this world

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That is a desire that we have for that goes back to Eden It's something that that goes back to before the fall because we're created for that we can never have it in this world

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There will be peace Throughout the whole earth. We will live in a paradise. We'll get to enjoy that but not in this world

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There's something that is yet for us in the world that is to come and wouldn't we all long to live forever?

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I'm gonna live forever right the frustration death the thing that frustrates all of our attempts at Conquering creation and enjoying the fruit of our labor isn't a death that comes in and robs that it's the intruder

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It's the unwelcome guest. It's the unnatural condition that all we have to look forward to is eventually just giving up everything that we have done

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Has it been too long since we were in Ecclesiastes? No, it'll never be too long since we were in Ecclesiastes.

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But do you remember Solomon's frustration in Ecclesiastes, right? I work I labor I create

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I build I do all this stuff and then what death comes in and takes it all from me Death robs me of my joy.

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It frustrates my designs. It curses my accomplishments. It buries everything It makes me to be forgotten.

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It threatens to make everything that I do and everything that I touch utterly meaningless Death is what does that death is what create it keeps us the curse of God upon this creation is what keeps us from Exercising dominion and from living forever for it for death.

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We can live forever Thank you captain obvious, right? But if it weren't for death coming in and seizing upon us we'd be able to live forever

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Wouldn't it be nice to be able to create something and enjoy the fruit of that forever? Don't be nice Wouldn't it be nice to build something and never have it wear out or be torn down or to be buried or to to be

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Exhausted but simply to build something and have it last forever Wouldn't it be nice to work and then watch and enjoy the fruit of our labor forever.

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That'd be nice, wouldn't it? We have these longings inside of our heart We long for something more

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We feel as if we are made for something more because we are and what we are learning from Hebrews chapter 2 is that God has

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Created us to exercise this great dominion. He gave it to man in the garden He has promised it to his redeemed men in the kingdom

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And this is where we're at in Hebrews chapter 2 look at verse 5 and this is what we looked at last week was verse 5

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Through 8 and we're gonna be picking it up today in verse 8 verse 8 Kind of comes into the middle of a quotation there from Psalm 8

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Where the psalmist and that's David and the author of Hebrews here is making the point that in creation

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God has given to man this dominion He's describing that in Psalm 8 and it harkens back to Genesis 1 where God said to man

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I've given you dominion over and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every creeping thing on The face of the planet.

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It is all yours. God created it all He created man for that creation and then he put man in that creation and said now rule it reign over it and exercise dominion over it the expanse of all that I have made it is all yours exercise that dominion and Then in verse 5 there is a dominion that we are given when all of the world that is to come will be subject to Men, but we live in this in between in creation.

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God gave us that dominion. He committed it to us But now we do not see all things subject to us and in the kingdom

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We will exercise and enjoy the dominion that God created for us in the garden and appointed for us in the garden

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So we've been created to this and we have been destined to us to it But we live in this parentheses in the middle of that.

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We do not yet now see all things subjected to us So what has happened and we're looking at Hebrews chapter 2 last week

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We looked at just the first of three statements that I gave you that sort of summarized the grand scope of God's redemptive human history

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It's three statements that sort of capture what is here in Hebrews chapter 2 God has created us to exercise this great dominion.

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That was the first one as we looked at last week Today, we're picking it up with the last two and we will get through both of these last two

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Second that God has so the man has suffered forfeited that domain Dominion and suffered a great downfall and then third

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Christ has come to deliver men from that downfall and to restore that Dominion It's one of the purposes in the incarnation of Jesus So we're picking it up in verse 8 and let's just read verses 8 and 9 today

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These are the two verses we're going to be looking at you have put all things in subjection under his feet For in subjecting all things to him.

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He left nothing that is not subject to him But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him

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But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels namely Jesus Because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

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So man has lost the Dominion that God created for him He has subjected all things under his feet, but then that last statement in verse 8

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He has but we do not yet see all things subjected to him. Why is it that that is the case? Why is it that we don't see all of creation under our control?

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Why is it that we don't rule over all of creation? We hardly even rule over this planet hardly even rule over anything that we touch

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But why is that what has caused that what is what is frustrated albeit? Temporarily the plan of God to give to men

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Dominion and rule over all of the works of his hands something is frustrated that and that is sin sin has crept in and the curse

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Has come and now we do not yet exercise Dominion over all things that God has made

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So verse 8 when he says you have put all things in subjection under his feet I want you to recognize or notice that in in this quotation from Psalm 8 both the author of Psalm 8 that is

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David and the author of Hebrews Which is not David but those two men both of those offers authors are quoting and using the words in Psalm 8 to describe something

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That is true of all of humanity. Not just one singular individual It's not just one particular King that is in mind here.

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I would argue that the author of Hebrews sees this fulfilled most Succinctly in the person of Christ, but because it is fulfilled in the person of Christ Christ himself

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Is promised to share with us his father's throne? So this Dominion that is is given to all men was not just given to Adam It was intended and given to all of Adams race

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And then this Dominion that we will exercise in the kingdom that is a Dominion that is not just exercised by one individual

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But it is exercised by all who belong to that one individual who is the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ So in Psalm 8 he is looking forward to a time when everything will be brought back unto and into subjection

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To men, when will that be look at last week? That's the kingdom that is to come verse 5

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He says for we did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we have been speaking and I made the argument last

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Week that the world that he has been describing is the world Invert in chapter 1 all of those quotations from the

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Psalms and the passage in Old Testament Which promised a future and coming reign of the Messiah King that is the world that is to come in that world

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Everything will be subject to us, but it is not yet subject to us in this world Revelation chapter 20 describes that world and says we will reign with him for a thousand years over this over this creation in this world

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When he establishes that kingdom and he brings that to pass he makes all enemies subject to him Every last enemy will be conquered.

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He will his enemies will be beneath of his feet He will rule and he will reign over This kingdom a restored

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Davidic kingdom in this planet in this world on this earth from Jerusalem that world which is to come It will be subject to us that is when that will start to be fulfilled and I will continue into the new heavens in the new earth when he recreates everything and We rule and reign over that as His as his co -regents forever.

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That is what awaits us That is the that is the glory that waits us, but that is not the case now Now now we're in this time between the

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Dominion given to us in creation and the Dominion promised to us in the kingdom or between those two things and what describes it

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Now is it would you say that right now all of creation is under your feet? That you'll you rule and reign over all of it.

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You have authority over over anything We tend to think that we have authority over far more than we actually have authority over We think that if we could just tweak how we how we use the carpool lane and how much energy we use we control the weather for 50 100 years out and we think we can control the weather we think we can control human history and we can control outcomes and We can raise up Kings and put down Kings and we can free people and not free people

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We think that we can control everything under the planet. There's something in us that longs to do that, but we don't actually do it

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Do you rule angels right now? No, you know a fallen man is actually ruled by a fallen angel

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Fallen men are subject to angels Fallen men belong to the Prince of the power of the air.

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They do his bidding. They're taken captive by him to do his will They are blinded by him. They are his subjects.

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They are his children. They are his slaves. They belong to him They're in his kingdom and they're blinded and they're in the kingdom of darkness.

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That is what is true of unbelievers So man doesn't even rule over the angelic world We don't rule over the angelic world because fallen man is ruled over by a fallen angel and the angels are greater than we are

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We don't rule angels today. Do you rule animals? Does mankind rule the animal kingdom today

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Do you think we rule the animal kingdom? You need to get a cat You will soon realize that you do not rule.

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You do not rule the animal kingdom. They put you right into your place Now we we use animals.

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We test on animals. We eat animals. We've domesticated some animals We have tamed some animals, but the vast majority of the animal kingdom is a threat to us

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We can't swim with sharks. We can't eat lunch with lions. We can't we can't cohort with Cobras Most of the animal kingdom is not under our dominion or our control

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It frustrates our X our attempt to exercise dominion over it because most of the animal kingdom are our predators

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And we can fend them off but at best we can say that we're sort of at a at a Cold War stance against each other right and You don't eat me and I just want to leave you alone and do my own thing

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We don't rule over the animal kingdom. How about over the earth itself? Do we rule the earth? You control the weather

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You exercise dominion over all things That belong to you No Instead we have to fight thorns and thistles and disease and death and pest and pestilence and blight and locusts

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We are in a struggle for survival Against the earth that was created to serve us.

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That's just not right And instead we have to instead of ruling over creation. We have to eke out our existence from a world that is hostile to us

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It fights us at every turn the world around us is at war with itself and with humanity and So we have to fight against war of the world even to even to eat and to exist and we are threatened by tornadoes and hurricanes and tsunamis and heat waves and and cold spells and and everything else in the weather and in our environment that threatens to undo

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Us and destroy us and kill us we fight against a creation that was created to serve us

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That's not frustrating this is what Paul describes in in Romans chapter 8 verses 19 and 222 for the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God the creation was subjected to futility

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That's what we read in Genesis chapter 3 You will you will eat your bread You're gonna have to fight thorns and thistles and and get your bread from the dust of the ground

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Man was set outside of Eden. We were cast out. We were exiled from paradise There's something in mankind that is was created to do that So now we are an environment that is completely

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Unnatural to what we were created to do and what we are destined to do And so now we have to fight against that creation, which itself has been subjected to futility

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Back to Romans 8 he says it was subjected not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom

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Of the glory of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now all of creation is under this curse and all of creation groans to be liberated and Everywhere we look we see creation not it was it was originally created.

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We see a creation that was created We see what was created fish trees plants men animals, etc We see what was created

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But we do not see what was created as it was created because everything that we see now Every aspect of this creation from the smallest molecule on this planet to the farthest reaching star in the universe

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All of it has been corrupted by sin. All of it is dying All of it is under the curse every planet every star of a nebula every distant galaxy

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All of it is cursed by God. And so now we have to fight against this just to survive That's the curse upon man because of his rebellion

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So when he says we do not yet see all things in subjection to him. That's an understatement, isn't it? We don't see the angels subjected to us.

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We don't see the animals subjected to us. We don't see this earth even subjected to us We don't even see ourselves subjected to us do we does your body do everything it wants you want it to do

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No Sure doesn't does it the older I get the more I tell my body to do things that doesn't want to do and the more

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My body does things that I don't want it to do That's just the reality and the and the older you get the smaller your kingdom becomes until your only

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Dominion that you exercise is over your deathbed and there you lie Waiting for your final breath our kingdom decreases in size over the course of the scope of our lives

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That's not as it should be it should in it should increase We should be exercising dominion and ruling and reigning and as Regents with Christ There should be a never -ending expanse to this over which we exercise dominion

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But it shrinks and it shrinks and it shrinks The point where the last thing that we rule over is the bed on which we lie.

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We can't even get up from that When we didn't rule ourselves Men are at war with each other nations are at war with each other.

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We can't a piece with one another We can't a piece with ourselves all of creation fights us. The animal kingdom threatens us men want to undo us

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This is a world at war with itself, that's the world under the curse We do not yet see all things in subjection to us

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God is subjected to mankind All of the works of his hands. That's what he gave him in the garden

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That is what he has promised us in the kingdom But now we don't see anything subjected to us now, what is it that we do?

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What do we do in the meantime? Right now we're fighting against the curse This is what we do in this world.

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We fight against the curse. We have to battle thistles and thorns We have to spray them. We have to rid ourselves of pests

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We are constantly fighting back a nature that if it were to encroach upon us would threaten to undo us

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The natural state of this world is not desirable Not at all The natural state of this world is hostile to men and to mankind the natural state of this world would kill us and destroy us

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In an instant, it's no coincidence that the more unnatural our world becomes the more we conquer

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Dominion conquered a creation and exercise Dominion and expand out the more we build houses and burn energy and use the resources around us the better lives become for us as Human beings the more we flourish and the better and easier our life has become everything that we enjoy everything that is easy everything that is good everything that is delightful all of it comes from us fighting back nature and there is a mindset sometimes even in the hearts and minds of Christians that thinks if we could just get back to the time when we were all naked and sitting under oak trees out in the middle of the wilderness

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Doing nothing unnatural Then creation would be at peace with us and we would be at peace with creation and the weather would just be blissful and utopia would come just flowing in Just like the love and peace that we all want

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That's an unbiblical worldview This creation is hostile to us

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It is at war with us and when we fight it back and we push it back

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We are fighting against the curse trying to exercise Dominion bringing things under our control

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Taming creation taming the animal kingdom fighting back disease and death and resisting that the more we do that better our lives become

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The natural state of this world is a state at war with us it is not good.

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It's not good If we're all just sitting out under the oak trees naked Eventually, we'd want to put on some clothing and we're gonna have to do what do something unnatural

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Which would be to kill something and make clothing or watch something die and make clothing out of that This world without men pushing back the effects of the curse is a world without Refrigeration it is a world without cures.

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It is a world without health care It is a dark and depressing and discouraging world Even if it was just down to a thousand of us left sitting naked under oak trees

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It wouldn't be any better yet to fight back the curse. That is what we do because as it is now

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Nothing is subject to us We're waiting for somebody to do something to make everything

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Subject to us as it should have been in the garden and that brings us to verse 9 So now we do not yet see all things subjected to him

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That's the great downfall that man has suffered where he has forfeited his crown. He has given up his dominion he doesn't exercise it anymore and Then Christ has come and offered a deliverance that will rescue us from that downfall and restore our deliverance

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So verse 9 we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels namely Jesus Because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

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I want you to to follow the argument here Because of death and because of the curse we do not exercise or have the dominion that was given to us in the garden

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We have fallen so we have forfeited that now one has come and he has made himself subject to the angels he has he's become for a little while lower than the angels so that he might rescue those who are lower than the angels and Seat them on his father's throne.

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That is what has happened So the thing that frustrates our dominion and our exercise of that dominion our rule and reign over all of nature and all of creation

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The thing that frustrates that is the curse Justly because of our sin it is the curse and it is death that thwarts that that frustrates it so one has come and he has suffered the curse of God and he himself has died and Submitted himself to that death so that he might rescue us and that's the whole point of verse 9

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Notice three things here first Jesus shared in full humanity when he says we do see him who was made a little while lower than The angels you'll notice that he is borrowing the same language that he used back in verse 7 when he quoted from Psalm 8 you have made him for a little while lower than the angels and there in verse 7 he is

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Describing humanity or mankind in general. This is man's status rather than being above the angels He's been made or created lower than the angels and now the author uses that very same language to describe the

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Lord Jesus Christ And the point there is that he has shared fully in our humanity Jesus has he has shared fully in our humanity the same

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Language that is used to describe the creation of man in his weakness is used to describe

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Jesus's incarnation he was he Christ was made for a little while lower than the angels

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Now it would be improper for us to say that in doing this the one Who is described in chapter 1 as the

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Divine Son the one who has made? Purification of sins who is the radiance of God's glory the exact representation of God's nature that that one who sits at the father's right hand it would be wrong to say that in in existing in that state that he morphed in some way and Became a man while forfeiting the attributes of his deity.

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That's not biblical or Christian teaching instead We say that the one who existed in the form of God Laid aside his glory and took a status and a condition by uniting himself with humanity not sinful humanity

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But uniting himself with a human nature that he became the God man So in chapter 1 we see that the

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Divine Son is divine in chapter 2 We see that that one who was divine was made for a little while lower than the angels.

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He shared fully in our humanity He understands it. He embraced it and the one who is

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God Became a man without forfeiting his deity the one who is God united his nature with a human nature

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So that you have two natures in that one person the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we say Which is

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Orthodox teaching that he is the God man. He is fully God and he's fully man But he has shared fully in our humanity so in Psalm 8 and in verse 7 of chapter 2 where the author says that he was made for a little while lower than the

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Angels that describes humanity the exact same language is used to describe Jesus So we have in the first two chapters these two things affirmed that Jesus Christ is fully

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God The Jesus Christ is fully man, man Because he is the one who was divine who united himself with humanity.

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He shared fully in our humanity Second notice that he suffered in our humanity as well We see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels namely

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Jesus because of the suffering of death in his humanity He suffered in that full humanity so that he might redeem us

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Notice that the word that the name of Jesus is in is shows appears there in verse 9 Something unique about that.

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This is the first time in all the book of Hebrews that we read the name of Jesus It's kind of curious, isn't it?

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Because you read through all of chapter 1 you read about this one who has all of these qualifications He sits at the father's right hand is the exact radiance of his glory acceptor.

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He's made purification for sins He's the Divine Son the one prophesied in the Old Testament the one that all the Psalms predicted a coming future messianic

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King That's the one that's described in chapter 1 You have to read all the way to chapter 2 verse 9 before you even find out who it is that the author's been speaking

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Of or at least before he states who it is that he's been speaking of because we know he's been speaking of Jesus but here he uses the term

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Jesus, which is the name associated with his humanity and with his incarnation and Notice that he uses the name

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Jesus in connection with discussing his suffering and his death He was made for a while a little while lower than the angels.

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That is his incarnation being united with with man Namely Jesus because of the suffering of death

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He's using there to the descriptum that the title or the name that is associated with not only his incarnation, but also his suffering

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He is Jesus. You'll name him Jesus where he will save his people from their sins the angels said to Mary that's the name associated with his humanity and he has suffered real inhumanity and it was a real death and a real suffering that he endured and That real suffering resulted in him bearing the cross or bearing the the cost of our sin and being made a curse for us so I Galatians 3 verse 13 says

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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us because it's written Curse, it is everyone who hangs on a tree

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So he suffered and died for us 2nd Corinthians 5 21 He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him

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Those two passages describe this exchange. He became a curse in our place. He suffered and died in our place

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So what is it that frustrates our exercise of dominion in this world? It keeps us from being able from from make that keeps us from being able to make anything subject to us

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It's the curse and it is death Jesus became a curse for us and he died a death for us so we see him who was made like us a little lower than the angels so that he might taste death for us and Then in tasting death and in enduring that becoming a curse and dying in our stead

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He could take those who are lower than the angels and seat them on his father's throne. Is that not magnificent?

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That is what he has promised to the redeemed And I promised it to everybody. He's promised it to those who repent believe upon his son.

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We're found in that final day in Christ He will share with us his father's throne We get the kingdom

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That is all that dominion is secured for us because he suffered the curse and because he died that death

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And because he is the one who is both God and man He could suffer the curse and he could die that death and redeem those who were under the curse and that is us

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Third you'll notice that he is crowned as humanity because he has suffered due to his suffering because of the suffering of death verse 9

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He is crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God. He might taste death with ever for everyone Because of the suffering of death he has been crowned and these two things go together

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He suffered first and then he was crowned later. Yeah, he was suffered and died on the cross rose again

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Ascended to heaven where he sits at the father's right hand He has been exalted now as Philippians as Paul says in Philippians chapter 2

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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross For this reason because he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death for this reason

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God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father Every tongue in heaven and on earth and under the earth Everyone will make that statement

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Why because God has exalted him to his right hand he who humbled himself to the point of death even death on a cross

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So he suffered he identified with real humanity He suffered as real humanity and he has been glorified as real humanity.

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This is what Christ has done for those who are his So what is the author of Hebrews saying?

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Does the does the incarnation of Jesus prove that he is less than the angels no, he's greater than the angels Because we have lost dominion and we needed a

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Savior He made himself for a little while lower than the angels So that he might taste death for us that he might suffer in our stead and then give to us the dominion

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That was promised to us in the garden, which we forfeited we get that dominion not because we're great shakes

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Not because we're special we get that dominion because Christ has secured it for us and because we are in him

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We will rule and reign with him so that his rule becomes our rule in the kingdom and in the age, which is to come

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That's a beautiful thing That's what we look forward to. That's our hope Paradise has been lost

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Paradise has been regained by Christ and we can have paradise regained even though we have suffered paradise lost

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We can have paradise regained if we are in Christ if you repent and if you believe the gospel

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This is what awaits you if you will not You will forever be frustrated You will forever suffer.

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You will never exercise dominion because you're not in the one who is secured dominion on your behalf And you'll notice just one quick thing before we close in prayer.

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You'll notice the end of verse 9 It says that he by the grace of God that he might taste death for everyone

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There's a question that that phrase raises a whole bunch of questions and we want to answer them not today

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But we'll answer them next week Which we will it requires the context of what we've just gone through as well as versus 10 and 11 and the passage that is to Follow is starting in verse 10

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The author is swings to begin to answering answer a different question from the first question does doesn't the incarnation?

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Prove that he was less than the angels The second question is doesn't his death prove that he is less than the angels

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If he was made man that puts him below the angels, doesn't it? No, the author says it's only temporary But if he died and he suffered that's something angels don't have to endure doesn't that prove that he is less than the angels?

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So in verses 10 following the author Talks about the death of Christ. So we want to understand that phrase

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He tasted death for everyone in the context of the discussion on the death of Christ, which is in verse 10 and follow

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So here's some of the questions that we might ask from that phrase in what sense did he taste death for everyone?

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what does tasting death mean and If he tasted death for me, then why do I still die? And and if his death only secures my salvation and if he tasted death for me and that's what secures salvation

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Then if he tasted death for everyone, why won't everyone be saved? Those are tough questions.

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We'll deal with that next week. So let's pray Father we thank you for a Savior who has come here and suffered under the curse of this creation and Borne the wrath of all those whom you will draw to yourself

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We thank you for a Savior who loves us and who died in our stead that we may have eternal life And that you might give to us the dominion that was promised in the garden

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We live now in that in -between age when we know what we were created for We look forward to what the fulfillment of that will be and we thank you that Christ has guaranteed and secured it on our behalf