About 6 or 7 years ago a new merchandizing craze began, and although at the time I thought it to be another passing fad, it seems that it has not only not died out...but has really only slowed down a little bit in all that time.
I’m referring to angels. The merchandizing of everything ‘angels’.
I saw a short news blurb on a slow news day a few years ago, where they showed all these angel ‘things’ that could be procured for the Christmas season ~ Ceramic angels, angel dolls, angel calendars, angel tree ornaments, angel cakes (not angel food cakes, but ‘angel’ cakes) angel cookies ~
The part that alarmed me though, was not this, because there’s nothing wrong with that really. There may even be some ladies here who now or in the past have collected angel ceramics and the like; just like my wife collects ‘apple’ things to decorate her kitchen with, and my sister collects Noah’s Ark things for her house.
The part that alarmed me was when they interviewed people on the street.
The people had stories of angels visiting them with messages of good news (ALWAYS good news), or helping them find a parking place at the mall, or helping them through a tough time...
...they talked about angels like they should be talking about Jesus.
They talked as though their guardian angel was their protector and preserver, and they talked about praying to their angel. One lady said “Oh, I pray to my angel all the time”.
Now, as a Believer in God‘s Word, I have to believe in angels. I want to believe in angels. There can be no denying angels, because they play an important role in man’s history all through the scriptures. If I was visited by an angel I would consider it high honor ~ and I would receive the messenger’s every word as coming from the Lord ~ I wouldn’t want to be struck silent like Zacharia.
But angels are created beings, just like you or me. They visit, but there is only One who lives inside. They bring comfort when they are sent, but there is only One who heals. They are ministering spirits, sent out. But there is One who has a more excellent ministry; a more excellent name. And we’re going to study that vast difference today.
In the past, God spoke to the fathers of the faith, in many portions and many ways. Sometimes it was through miracles, sometimes through the mouth of the prophet, sometimes through the very life of the prophet. Sometimes the prophet didn’t even know he was a prophet, and it is looking back on his life that we can see that it was a picture, a symbolic enactment of what was to come.
Well in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. No longer does God speak to men through the Law; the Law was never meant to save, it was given as a tutor ~ a schoolmaster, pointing men to Christ. And that’s why looking to the keeping of the Law to be right with God is ludicrous. No longer does God speak to man through prophets. That’s why running to and fro listening to many speakers often only confuses the searcher.
He has spoken to us “in Son”. In the precise translation of the Greek there in verse 2 the word ‘his’ is not there. Most of your bibles will have that word in italics. It’s put there to smooth it out; make for easier reading. But in the manuscripts it simply says, ‘in Son’. When I was researching this sermon and discovered this fact, it made me think of God, speaking to us in English or in Hebrew or in Greek...and now He has spoken to us ‘in Son’; a language everyone can understand.
The only language, the only message we need to receive from God.
In the Son is the fullness of deity. God incarnate. The radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature.
In verses 2 and 3 there are seven statements made about Christ, concerning His person and His work.
I want to take those in groups of 2 and 3, to show why He has inherited a name more excellent than the angels.
First of all, “whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
I’ve taken these two phrases together, because at first glance they seem a paradox. He who created all things, and as John wrote, ‘apart from Him nothing was made that has been made’, is appointed an heir.
What need is an inheritance, for the One who created all things.?
Doesn’t that give a whole new meaning to the question, ‘what do you buy a man who has everything’?
We open our eyes from sleep, there is the light. But it was Christ who said “Let there be light”.
We rise to dress in clothing for which He supplied the materials.
We sit down to eat and all our food has been made by Him.
We look at the majestic mountains in the distance; it was His strength that piled them up.
We look at the vast ocean. It is His.
Above the mountains and the sea and the sky, it was His voice that said, “Let there be a firmament”
And the clouds are His chariot. They carried Him out of sight of the apostles, He ascended far above the heavens; He has passed through the heavens, it says, as the appointed heir of all things. Why?
Because He is the Son.
He has redeemed all things back to God by His obedience in all things given Him to do, and as the Son in whom the Father is well-pleased, has come rightfully into his inheritance.
Leap for joy, believer; because He has made us also, heirs and joint-heirs.
The angels will stand by and witness our entrance into our inheritance in Him.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and heirs also; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:16,17)
“Alas, the poor, poor world”, says William R. Newell. “in the words, we brought nothing into the world, neither can we carry anything out, is the biography of every man. Men have struck gold, heaped it up, and left it to be paupers eternally. Men have labored, and with genius, to accumulate, as they say, and they have left it forever; paupers. Xerxes of Persia had no limit to his earthly possessions, but dying without Christ to what was he heir? An eternity with nothing. For Christ has been appointed heir of all things. The proud millionaire, yea, the billionaire is with us today ~ for a few years he is rich, and then leaves it all and is poor forever. While some humble servant of his, who had Christ, dying, steps out into an unspeakably glorious eternity, rich beyond all imagination. Why? Because he is an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, who is appointed heir of all things. There is no greater eternal good.”
Does He have a more excellent name than the angels?
“To which of the angels has He ever said, ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee”? and again, “I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me. And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him’. And of the angels He says, ‘Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ But of the Son He says, ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”
Now the next group of phrases is 3:
“And He is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.
I’ll take these two as one thought, because all that God is, not only in His
ways but in His being, is expressed absolutely by the Son.
The angels reflect His glory as the planets reflect the light of their suns. His glory is reflected to a lesser degree by His redeemed as we walk in obedience that arises from faith.
But John says, “We beheld His glory”, a glory that is of Himself, for He is the Person of deity.
All that God is, is expressed fully in the incarnate Son; His glory and His nature.
Jesus said of Himself, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”. “I and the Father are one”. “Before Abraham was born, I AM”.
Then we read, “and upholds all things by the word of His power”. Men talk of the laws of nature; there are no such things. There are no laws resident in things. He maintains all things by the word of His power.
Godless men owe Him thanks for the gravity that keeps them earthbound.
For the predictability of the changing seasons. For growth from the seed.
For the air that they breathe and the ability to exchange it.
Paul said, “For in Him we live and move and exist.” and , “He Himself gives to all, life and breath and all things”.
This truth is evident in our Lord’s own words. “I will. Be clean”, He said to the leper.
“Young man I say to you ‘arise’, “ He said to the dead son of the widow of Nain.
“Lazarus, come forth!” He called to His friend at a tomb outside of Bethany, and the Bible says, “He that was dead came forth”
Can He hold all things together by the word of His power and for an instant be apart from His creation? Impossible. Not a chance.
Thousands upon thousands are seeking Him daily for this or that, and He is able to answer each and every one perfectly. With the word of His power. Because He is God.
Does He have a more excellent name than the angels?
To which of the angels has He ever said,
“Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands;
They will perish, but Thou remainest; and they all will become old as a garment, and as a mantle Thou wilt roll them up; as a garment they will also be changed. But Thou are the same, and Thy years will not come to an end.”
Now the third group of phrases:
“When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;”
“When He had made purification of sins” This is the most concise, yet potent statement in all of scripture of Christ’s work at His first coming.
Purification... not ‘from sins’, but, ‘of sins’. Purification of sins.
It speaks not only of His work toward us, but of the whole task of removing sin from God’s sight...in just one word. Purification.
Not a covering over, as was accomplished in the daily tedium of the sacrifices by the priests of old.
Listen: “Who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever”. Now the main point in what has been said is this; we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,...: (Heb. 7:27,28 & 8:1)
He sat down.
As an intercessor who has finished His defense, He sat down. Nothing more to be said.
As a priest who has sprinkled the blood of the perfect sacrifice over the mercy seat and has received the final approval, He sat down.
No more sacrifice to make.
As the prince who through birthright and heir-ship to the kingdom feels comfortable in the throne room, He sat down.
He went out against the one who in eons past boasted that he would rise above the heavens and be greater than the Most High; and returning victorious from battle, having crushed the serpent’s head, He sat down, in the very place Lucifer would have aspired to.
Having endured the cross, despising the shame, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Does He have a more excellent name than the angels?
“To which of the angels has He ever said, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet”?
Does He have a more excellent name?
Count with me.
1. He is the Son of God, they are servants
2. He is worshiped by the angels
3. He is addressed as God by God the Father
4. He is addressed as King, whose scepter is that of uprightness.
5. For His love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity, God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
6. He is addressed as Lord, who in the beginning did lay the foundations of the earth, and of whose hands the very heavens are.
7. He shall continue, though these heavens shall pass away. They will perish, but Thou remainest. Thou art the same and Thy years will not come to an end.
8. Of which of the Angels has He said at any time, ’Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet’?
9. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
10. Not unto angels did He subject the world to come.
Does He have a more excellent name?
We must never for a moment think that this is a competition with the angels or other beings. Competition with their Creator? Subjection is their delight.
“Glory to God in the highest” they sang at His birth in Bethlehem.
It’s not a vote taken in Heaven that makes the Son of God become as much better than the angels, it’s the facts of the case.
He is God, they are creatures ~ the separation is infinite between God and all creatures, forever.
Christ: More Excellent.
Now why have I preached on this subject today?
Mankind has been made, to worship. Those who claim no God would deny that they worship anything. But everybody worships something.
If it’s not spiritual it’s material, and if their god is not outside of themselves, then they worship themselves.
Anyone who does not worship Christ worships an idol. For any and all lesser gods are not gods at all, but are idols usurping the rightful authority over the life of His creation.
We need to be aware of this and point them to Christ.
Should you find someone who prays to angels, you must tell them that angels do not hear them. For they are flames of fire, sent out to minister to those who will inherit salvation.
And if they pray to angels; if they worship angels, they will not inherit salvation. Because there is salvation in no other, than the One of whom the Father said, “And let all the angels of God worship Him”.
Should you find someone who prays to the saints, they must be told that the saints would say to them, “get up off your knees, for I am but a sinner saved by grace, and I bow before the One of whom it says, “Therefore, God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions”, whoever those companions might be.”
Should you find someone who worships Satan, plead with them; beg them; to turn and run for all they’re worth to the cross of Christ. Their general has a crushed head.
Point them to the One to whom the Father says, “Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet”
Christian! (Be careful now, don’t tune me out) Is your God too small? Do you pray to a god of convenience? Do you pray to a god who you expect to deliver you without development?
Do you serve a god who winks at your secret sins and coddles you like a doting mother her spoiled brat?
Or do you serve a god who stands ready to condemn your every failure ~ your every short-coming, and demands that you adhere to some strict standard that’s too high for you to reach, thereby letting you feel very proud when you feel you’ve met the goal, and you’re towing the line pretty good; but also collapsing you like a deflated balloon when you feel that you’ve fallen?
That god is an idol. He’s too small.
Run from him, to the One of whom the Father said, “Thy Throne, O God is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”. STAND IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Friend if you’re here today and you’ve never realized that you’ve failed to measure up to God’s standards, and are therefore His enemy; He has made provision for your salvation through the blood of His one and only Son ~ the One we’ve been talking about here ~ the One of whom the Father says, “And the heavens are the works of Thy hands; they will perish but Thou remainest; and they all will become old as a garment, and as a mantle Thou wilt roll them up; as a garment they will also be changed. But Thou are the same, and Thy years will not come to an end”.
Do not pass up one more chance to come to Him today.
There is no other worthy of your worship. Not a man, not the angels of heaven. Only Christ, who is more excellent.
