Long the years I had nothing, my life had no meaning till I heard about Calvary. And I knelt down in prayer, the Lord met me there, now Jesus he's living in me, he's in my soul, he's in my feet. When I'm walking, in my tongue, when I'm talking, in my eyes, and now I can see. He's in the song that I'm singing, in my heart his joy is ringing, Jesus is living in me. Through the valleys he has brought me, to the top of the mountain, and over life's troubled, troubled seas. Now I sing for his glory, songs that tell a great story, Jesus is living in me. He's in my feet, when I'm walking, in my tongue, when I'm talking, in my eyes, and now I can see. He's in the song that I'm singing, in my heart his joy is ringing, Jesus is living in me. Yes, my Jesus is living in me.

That's a little bit of an adventure out there this morning. We're going to be looking at Hebrews 2, 9 to 18. Last week we looked at a really interesting text concerning the condition of the world, the state of man, the effects of the curse, and most importantly the hope that is found in Jesus. We saw that the world is not as it should be, it's not as God intended or as he created it.

Remember on the sixth day God looked at all he had created and said that it was very good. It was only in the fall that the world and man became subject to the curse, that Adam forfeited his dominion over the earth and Satan became the ruler of this world. The corruption of sin plagues every aspect, every facet of this creation and man is now subject to the earth. He's subject to storms and pestilence and disease and thorns and thistles as he works by the sweat of his brow to survive and exist in this marred creation, which began the process of death the day Adam chose to sin.

And the injustice of our world causes us to groan, to travail as we see wicked men succeeding all around us, flaunting their sin and their debauchery and spurning the grace and the goodness of God. But the truth is that they are treasuring up wrath for themselves in the day of God's wrath and judgment of the world. As the psalmist said, my feet had almost slipped when I looked at the wicked, it was too much for me to bear until I went into the house of the Lord. Then I saw their end. 

The Bible calls on us repeatedly to look at the end, to anticipate, hope for, eagerly wait for the consummation of all things, for the judgment of the wicked, for the revealing of the sons of God, for the coming of Jesus Christ to set things right in this world and to deliver us and set up His kingdom where righteousness shall dwell. And that is really the message that we see in verses 8 and 9 of Hebrews 2. It says, we do not yet see all things put under Him. 

Speaking of man, speaking of Adam, speaking of God's original intention for creation, we do not yet see things all put under Him. All things are not right in this world, everything's upside down, suffering and dying, wickedness rules the day, but we see Jesus. This is the key to the Christian life, my friends, to keeping your focus, your perspective, to being fruitful and fulfilling our calling. We must focus on Jesus, we must see Jesus, we must look to Him and trust Him, depend on Him, believe Him and know that He is coming to set it all right. 

To punish the wicked, to cast Satan and death and hell into the lake of fire and end all suffering and death. This is the promise. And in Him, all the promises are yes. If we set our mind on earthly things, if we get all caught up in the things of this world, then we will be anxious, we will be fretting, we will be unfruitful. This is the ploy of the enemy. I think it's so prevalent in our world today with a flood of bad, negative information. Phones and iPads and news and a constant stream of information overwhelms us every day. 

We could not even imagine this 30 years ago. But now, in our culture, our world, we go to bed with our phones, we wake up with our phones and have a steady flood of negative news encompassing our minds. It's a greater and greater battle, my friends, to focus, to do what the author said in the first part of this chapter, to hold our minds to the things we have heard, to see Jesus. It takes discipline, it takes a choice, it takes a decision continually to be in His Word, to renew our minds, to study and take in truth and to look to Him, to see Jesus. 

But if we do not, we will be tossed to and fro. We will be all caught up in the meaninglessness of this world and the God of this age, and we will be fruitless to the cause of Christ. We must see Jesus, and we must remember who He is and why He came. 

And the message of our text this morning is that Jesus came to die. The eternal God of this universe, the second person of the Trinity, the creator and sustainer of all things, took on flesh, became a man, and suffered and died for you and for me. He died to save you, my friend, because of your sin and the fact that you and I deserve eternal death in the lake of fire. He loved us so much that He came and emptied Himself. He took on flesh, He condescended and died a criminal's death on a cruel cross so that we could live. 

We can never get over this, my brothers and sisters. We can never lose sight of the cross, never get past the gospel. We must remember, we must contemplate the magnitude of His love. We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day, lest we lose sight of Jesus, who He is and what He has done. We must see Jesus. 

And that's the first verse of our text this morning in verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain, the forerunner of their salvation, perfect through sufferings.

For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. For which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you, and again I will put my trust in Him. And again, here am I in the children whom God has given me. 

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 

Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. 

I've given you four points on your outline. First, we're going to see a little lower than the angels. Second, the suffering of death. Third, He calls us brothers. And third, a merciful and faithful high priest. 

Fourth, I'm sorry, my wife's correcting me back there. Well, I wonder if you've ever thought about the impact that Jesus of Nazareth has had on this world. He was a poor carpenter from a little nowhere town. He never owned anything. He never had any political office or any power. He never went to university or seminary. And yet He has had the most profound effect on the human race, on the cultures and societies of man, more so than any man that has ever lived. Why is this? 

Why are there so many books written, paintings and sculptures and art, classes and seminars and whole schools about this Jesus? Why is it that there have been whole religions created in His name, religions that dominated the world? Why is He adopted by nearly all religions in some form or fashion? Why do even the most vile of pagans and your neighbor use His name in vain? Why not Buddha? Why not Allah? Why do they not curse these names as the natural course of their speech and expression? I haven't met a youper man that can complete a sentence without using the Lord's name in vain two or three times. 

Why has Jesus had such an impact on this world for the pagan and the faithful? Who is this Jesus? Many say He was a good man. Many say He was a teacher. Many say He was a prophet. The truth is He is God. He is Savior. He is sovereign over all creation. He is sustainer and He is Lord. And this is why He so pervades the hearts and minds of the entire world of man. 

But the real question before us, the central matter, is if He is God, if He is sovereign, if He is above all, if He is creator of all, then why did He come? Why did He take on flesh and become a man? And this is the paramount question for every man. Who is Jesus and why did He come? And the ultimate question, what will I do with Him? How will I respond to this Jesus? 

Verse 9 of our text begins the explanation, the answer to these important questions. The author writes, who was made a little lower than the angels. He's continuing His theme in these first two chapters, comparing Jesus to angels and showing that Jesus is so much better. You'll remember angels were the mediators of the old covenant. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. So if Jesus is better than the angels, then the new covenant is better than the old covenant. 

And that's the main message of this entire book. So, this is His main theme, this is His intent. But He's going to show us here how and why Jesus became a little lower than the angels. And the words here refer to time. It could be translated for a little time. He was made lower than the angels. How is it that the eternal God who made the angels, created them, became lower than the angels? Well, the answer is His incarnation and ultimately His death. 

That's the emphasis of verse 9 in our whole text, that Jesus came to die, to suffer and die, to taste death for every man. You see, angels do not die, but men die. Jesus took on flesh, He became a man, He lived and He died. And in this primary sense, He became, for a little time, lower than the angels. 

We saw before up in verse 7 that man, Adam, was lower than the angels, because of the restriction of his physical body, because of his confinement to the earth, and because of his susceptibility to death. And that's what we see in the case of Jesus. He was made for a little time, lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, in order to taste death for every man. But the great hope that we have in Jesus is that death was not the end, and we will see that death could not hold Him. He rose and reigns, defeating sin and death and Satan, and now sits at the right hand of God, Victor, King of kings, Lord of lords. 

And now He is our hope. We see Him, we see Jesus. He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Look at verse 10. It says, For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 

The word translated fitting means right, proper. It was right for Jesus, now watch carefully here, in bringing many sons to glory. This is the key phrase. It was right, it was fitting, it was proper, it was necessary for Jesus, for the very purpose of bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now, this verse is a mouthful. It explains the necessity of the cross for salvation. It's God's intent, purpose in sending Jesus to bring many sons to glory, to save lost men. 

You see, the world and the religions of this world try to explain Jesus' way as a good man, as a teacher, as an example. But this falls so short because Jesus is God. He's the Savior of all. And God the Father sent His only begotten Son for the express purpose of saving lost men who would come to Him, who would look to Him, who would believe Him. And to accomplish this grand and glorious purpose, Jesus had to die. He had to suffer. He had to become the sacrificial substitute in my place, taking the punishment for my sins. 

The philosophies and religions of man would have you believe that you can earn your way, that you can suffer for your sins, that you can do good works, that you can become righteous. But the fact is that we are not righteous. We are not perfect. We fall short of the glory of God, and He will not let us enter His heaven based on our faulty performance. The only way is God's way, and we see clearly in the Scriptures that Jesus had to die. He had to suffer death in order to become the full, complete, perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

And it's by faith alone and Jesus alone and what He did on the cross and His resurrection from the dead that we can receive His righteousness. He gives to us, He imputes to our account His righteousness through faith. 

I'd like for you to turn over to Romans 3 at verse 19. This is a very clear passage, it speaks for itself, I think, concerning what we're talking about here. Romans 3, 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, by good works, no flesh, no man will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

But now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, look at this last phrase, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

You see, only God could conceive of such a plan. And only God could bring such a plan to pass. And only if He became a man and died to pay the debt for my sins and yours in our place, in our stead, fully satisfying the wrath of God. And if you follow down in Romans 4, we see how it is that we can receive His righteousness, become perfect and righteous and fit for heaven in Him. 

Look at Romans 4, 1. What then shall we say that Abraham our father is found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Look at verse 4, these are such amazing words. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 

Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. What amazing and clear statements, my friends. Jesus became the full, perfect, complete sacrifice by the suffering of death in our place for our sins. He had to suffer. He had to die because the penalty for sin is death. 

And only an innocent lamb, a blameless, spotless sacrifice, could suffer in my place for my sins, could pay the debt that I owed to save me from the wrath of God to come. You see, all the religions of the world, even many who name the name of Jesus but deny Him by their doctrine, teach us that we can outweigh our bad works with our good works. But this is a misunderstanding of the law and it's a misunderstanding of the holiness of God. 

Take a simple illustration. Take the speed limit. Now, let's say you, as my wife does, drive from Hurley to Mercer for work every day on Highway 51. The speed limit is 55. If you were to travel 55 miles per hour every day, twice a day for a whole year and keep the law, but then one morning you're running late and your favorite song's on the radio and you're daydreaming and you see that friendly state trooper sitting at the town garage as you cruise into Mercer going 65 miles an hour. 

Now if that police officer whips out behind you and hits those lights, what are you going to tell him? What are you going to tell him, Bobby? One would say, oh, just explain to him how you've been good in excess of 700 times in the last year driving the speed limit every day. And explain how your good works far outweigh your bad works. This isn't how the law works, my friends. If you break it, you are a lawbreaker and since that section you were traveling in just turned to the 45 mile an hour zone and you were going 65, you're going to get a big fat ticket. 

And let's say the fine is $400 and you don't have $400. You can't pay the fine. And then you go up and stand before Judge Madden in the Iron County Court. What is your plea? What is your defense? You broke the law. You deserve the punishment. But consider this, what if a benevolent man were to come into the court and pay your fine? If he just walked in and he gave $400 to the clerk and paid your fine in your place? You see, he didn't speed, he didn't break the law, he didn't owe the fine but he paid the fine on your behalf. What could you do but say thank you? But receive the gracious gift on your behalf? 

This is what Jesus did, my friends. He suffered and He died in our place. We broke the law of God, we transgressed. And we deserve the punishment, eternal death in the lake of fire. But Jesus paid the full debt for my sins and yours on the cross of Calvary. He never sinned, He didn't owe the debt. He was made the perfect sacrifice through sufferings, through death, satisfying the wrath of God, proven by the fact that God raised Him from the dead. 

And please will you notice the words at the very end of verse 9 before we move on, that He might taste death for everyone. There's an insidious doctrine that's permeating the church today like leaven in a loaf of bread. It's a lie against the very character and nature of God, of Jesus our Savior, and it's associated with a very dangerous theology. 

The teaching says that Jesus did not die for everyone, but only for the elect. It says that when you go out into your community among your family or your co-workers and you preach the gospel to an individual and offer them salvation through faith in Jesus alone and call on them to believe, that you might be lying to that man, woman, or child. You don't know. It may be that they're not of the elect and therefore Jesus did not die for them, that atonement was not for them, not for everyone, but only for a select few. 

I just want you to take heed to the words at the end of verse 9 and we could quote dozens of scriptures that He might taste death for everyone. Jesus died not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God desires that every man be saved, that each and every individual come to the knowledge of the truth and place his faith in Jesus. Jesus died for everyone. 

So we see that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for suffering of death. And the next amazing, unfathomable truth is that He calls us His brothers. Look at verse 11. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you, and again I will put my trust in him, and again here am I in the children whom God has given me. 

Well verse 11 is very interesting; he who sanctifies is Jesus. Those who are being sanctified are believers. The interesting phrase is that they are all of one, or all out of one source, is what it says literally. Jesus came from the Father in His incarnation. He depended on the Father as a man, He looked to the Father. Brothers are made sons of God, brothers, co-heirs with Christ by the Father. The source is the same. They are out of one source, or all of one, and thus Jesus says He is not ashamed to call us His brothers. 

It's an amazing, profound truth when you consider who Jesus is and who we are, and it is representative of the magnitude of the grace of God. He didn't quote scripture from Psalm 22, from Isaiah, in verses 12 and 13 to support His point. What an amazing truth that Jesus calls us His brothers, that we by His grace, by His work on the cross, by the imputation of His righteousness to us through faith in Him, and by promise, are now co-heirs with Christ, and He's not ashamed to call us His brethren. 

Verse 14 and following brings us the impact, the result of Jesus taking on flesh and dying for our sins, and that He...that is, that He is the victor, that He has conquered sin and Satan and death. I remember after I was saved looking into some doctrine from my old religion, and the words they say when they re-sacrifice Jesus on the cross is that He's the sacred victim. I remember a guy's name is Richard, I can't remember his last name now, but he was a priest for 26 years and he got saved, and I remember listening to a message with him talking about that, and he said, He is not victim, He is victor. 

Jesus is not a victim; He gave Himself willingly, and He died, and He was buried, and He rose again victor, conqueror, He destroyed Satan. Look at verse 14. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, and He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. 

And this brings us to our final point, a wonderful, glorious truth, Jesus is our faithful and merciful High Priest. The first word translated, partaken, in verse 14, speaks of the commonality of man, that we all partake of flesh and blood, we are human, living in bodies. This is our nature, we have this in common. But the second word, translated shared, speaking of Jesus, means to take hold of something foreign to your nature, that you have nothing in common with. 

Man is by nature flesh and blood. Jesus took hold of flesh and blood and held it to Himself as something uncommon to His very essence as God. This is instructive because it tells us that Jesus voluntarily took on human flesh absent sin and willingly lowered Himself, condescended for the very purpose of dying in our place to accomplish our salvation. And the result, the implication of His death, burial and resurrection, the very purpose stated in this verse for which He died, was to destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and to release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

And I can't go past that verse without thinking of Joe Massey, I've told you that story before, but Ray's brother-in-law, Debbie's brother, Joe, came to me in the barn about this time of year because I was pulling a lamb out of a ewe when he... And he said, I need you to tell me about Jesus. Well, that's a nice start, isn't it? But I remember going and how he told me, I'm afraid to die. He had cancer, and he said, I'm afraid to die. So I took him to this verse. I said, Joe, if you believe Jesus, you don't have to be afraid to die. He will release you from the bondage to fear of death that plagues every man and Adam. And Joe did believe Jesus. 

Well, here we have something very important, and I don't think Christians think about or understand in conjunction with their salvation in Christ and what he accomplished. And the truth of the nature of the salvation that Jesus provides, we talk about this a lot, all that it entails has many implications, not only in our understanding and state of mind, but in how we live out the Christian life, how we understand it. If we don't rightly understand salvation, what Jesus did, if we don't understand who we are in Christ because of what he's done, then we will have not only an errant understanding of our security in him, of our destiny and our hope and assurance, but we will also have an errant understanding of why we can live a new life and how God intends we should do so. 

There's so much confusion in the church today concerning these things, and perhaps the best illustration of this relating to our current text in verses 14 to 15 is the understanding of many concerning Satan and demons and our relationship to them. With a large sect of Christendom often associated with the word faith or the charismatic movement, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what Jesus accomplished at the cross concerning Satan and the demonic forces. I just wanted to mention this; we don't have a lot of time to go into teaching, but the scriptures make clear, even here in our text, that Satan was defeated at the cross, that Jesus destroyed him, it says, and his threat against humanity of eternal death. 

The word destroy means to render inoperative or impotent. Just as God promised back in Genesis the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, the promise was made of a deliverer, of a rescuer from the curse that came because of Adam's sin. We've seen that all things are not yet right in this world, the creation's still groaning and waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, but this promise fulfilled at Jesus' second coming will be the culmination of the truth that He has defeated, He has rendered inoperative, impotent, the devil and his power of death. Such good news. 

This deliverance from the bondage to fear of death is for those who believe Jesus, who receive this great salvation. I was going to have you turn to Romans 6, but you're all well aware of that passage as it talks about sin in verse 6, where it says, Our old man has been crucified with Christ, that old man and Adam dominated by sin, for the very purpose that the body of sin might be destroyed, or rendered inoperative, or rendered powerless. 

That's the same word as the word used here in our text when it says He destroyed the devil. That passage in Romans 6 teaches us tremendous truths about our identification, our union with Christ, and many great truths about our salvation in Him. Of course, the main thrust is our death to the controlling power of sin, that our old man, the man and Adam that was dominated by indwelling sin, died, was crucified. 

What we see is that it was done for the express purpose of destroying the power of sin. And that's what we see in our text. Jesus died to destroy, to render inoperative or powerless, the devil. He releases us from the bondage to fear of death because at the cross He destroyed Satan, the one who had the power of death. Romans 6 tells us that He destroyed or rendered powerless the dominating, controlling power of indwelling sin in the believer. It also says that death no longer has dominion over us. 

If we go to Romans 7, it says we died to the law. We no longer live under that external realm of law, but we now live by the Spirit in us. These are all amazing, instructive, liberating truths concerning our salvation in Christ. And the exhortation is to believe them. When you woke up this morning, did you say, I'm dead to sin? I believe I'm dead to sin. Did you reckon it to be true? And then going through your day, yield your members to righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

You see, if we understand our salvation in Christ, we won't be out fighting against Satan and demons. Their power has been stripped. They have nothing on us. And passages like Ephesians 6 tell us that the key to winning spiritual battles is not casting them out or fighting them off, but rather standing fast in the Lord. Jude said, the Lord rebuke you. It's not our job to fight Satan. We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to stand in Him, the truths of our salvation, know them, reckon them to be so, and yield to Jesus' power living in us. 

Christ lives in me, like Ray sang about this morning. God saved us to make us new men, to release us from the power of sin and death and hell, to take us out of the realm of the external law life and to recreate us on the inside, solving the real problem of indwelling sin, and to come to live His life in us and through us. Jesus, actually Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, live in us. 

Ephesians 1 says the very power that raised Jesus from the dead works in us. We need to understand our salvation in Him and its implications concerning Satan, sin, law, living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, abiding in Jesus, all these things. And we need to understand that in this life, in this living, in this battle, Jesus is our merciful and faithful High Priest. He has taken hold of us in order to help us, to aid us. 

Look at verse 16. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for in that He Himself has suffered. Look at verse 18, my friends. For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. Aren't you glad for that? Don't you need that every day? 

The author here finally and devastatingly drives home his point concerning Jesus being better than the angels when he says that He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. And the word give aid here means, literally, to lay hold of for the purpose of helping. Jesus did not come and lay hold of angels, of some heavenly body, in order to bring this great salvation to angels. God became a man. He took on flesh and blood. He laid hold of the human nature for the very purpose of saving men, of giving aid, of helping the seed of Abraham. 

And the last two verses of our text explain that because He did this, because He became like us, experienced suffering, temptation, and even death, He is able to sympathize with us, to empathize with our struggles and temptation. He is our High Priest. He's making intercession for us at the right hand of God. He continues to intercede for us. And this is tremendous news because I need Him as an intercessor each and every day. And I am secure in Him because of His grace alone. But He's also able to help me, to encourage me. You know why? Because He understands me. 

He knows me. He's able to aid me, to lay hold of me, to help me in my time of need. Look at chapter 4 and verse 14, Hebrews 4, 14, just a page over. It says, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

My brothers and sisters, there's something new in the New Covenant. One thing that the old covenant Jews understood was that they did not have direct access to God. That their sins separated them from a holy God and they could not approach Him. They had no access. Now in the New Covenant in Jesus' blood, now in the fulfillment of all those pictures and shadows of the old covenant, the veil has been rent from top to bottom. The veil has been removed and we can come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. 

He's your Abba, your Papa. You can crawl up in His lap, as it were, to find grace or help for time of need. Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that He might call us brothers. And now He is our merciful and faithful High Priest who made full payment, propitiation for our sins, and now sits as our intercessor, continually interceding on our behalf. What a salvation we have in Jesus Christ. What a great salvation. 

We need to set our minds to it. We need to hold our minds to it. We need to see Jesus. And when we look at all these things, when we understand all these things, when we see what God says is true of us, what can we say? What can we say but thank you? How can we live but thank you? It's all by His grace. And it's ours if we only believe. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, just these tremendous words that we're studying, looking at in this book of Hebrews. Thank You for preserving Your Word for us so we have it freely to read it, to study it. Help us to do that, Lord, to seek You, to need You, to want You, and to agonize over these truths, over Your Word every day, that we might set our minds to them, hold fast to them, to see Jesus, Lord, our hope. When we look at Him, we're never disappointed. It's in Jesus' name we pray.