James Richards

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Sunday Morning Service

Pastor Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

24 May 2026

Bible References

• Hebrews 2:5-9

Audio MP3 PDF

Hebrews. So we've been looking in Hebrews about the nature of God, the nature of the Son of God. And he is creator, he is the judge, everything's accountable to him. Angels worship him. And we also see that he is offering salvation, a salvation that cannot be neglected.

But now we're going to start looking at the, the need for salvation, that he is offering a salvation to a people who need to be saved. So we're gonna look at the original sin. Original sin is the thing that causes the need for salvation. So oftentimes we are influenced by a culture that dictates to us that there are levels of sinners based on what an individ has done with their hands. There are bad people, really bad people, and really, really bad people, right?

And based on how bad they are, how much they've done, you know, we kind of feel like, oh, there, there's no hope for them. But is that really what Christianity is trying to deal with? Is it trying to deal with the effects of sin or what sin does through a person? Or is he trying to deal with something inward in our hearts? Is there something worse inside a person than what his hands do?

Is there something inside of us that is the cause of, of all that our hands do? Is what is inside worse than what is displayed outside? So we're going to look at that in chapter two, verse five. So we're going to kind of identify the problem out of Hebrews and then we're going to go into it a little bit more in Romans. So in Hebrews, chapter 2, sin, nature, Hebrews 2, 5.

For he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place saying, what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.

For in that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who is 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. Okay, so there's a few things, three things that I see going on here.

Number one, he has entrusted something to mankind. Mankind, it says, is a little lower than the angels. When you look at mankind and Compare him to angels. We are not strong, right? I love that Calvin and the Hobbes, you know, cartoon.

At times sometimes it's a little coarse, but the tiger is talking to Calvin about the weakness of human beings, right? Just, you know, just this thin skinned, slow, you know, weak people, right? Where tigers are, you know, smart, you know, and all this stuff. As, you know, Hobbes, right? And human beings are not impressive creatures to look at in the scope of eternity.

Low things, and yet they have been entrusted with something. They have been given something. They have been given a responsibility, right? And we'll look at that responsibility. This is the first thing that mankind, though weak, has been given a responsibility.

How they handled that responsibility leads to consequences. We see that that responsibility which was given to them was not fulfilled. It was not accomplished. That which God entrusted to mankind was failed. It was not accomplished.

So we see in verse eight, it says, but we do not yet see all things put under him. We see as a result, if we look at human history and what mankind has done with the authority that they have, normally it's not a good picture, but then the last thing we're going to look at, it says, but we see Jesus, we see someone coming here to actually accomplish the that which was intended for mankind. So let's look at first of all in Genesis, we're going to Genesis. What responsibility has God given mankind? And so In Genesis chapter one and verse, verse 26, It says, in chapter one of Genesis 1:26, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. Male and female. He created them. Then God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seeds, and you shall have it for food. So here we see that God gave, entrusted mankind with a responsibility.

He gave them something. This is what you were created for. This is your position. This is your purpose in life, to have dominion, to fulfill this mandate. You are being entrusted with something that I expect you to do.

And we see originally Adam and Eve, they are Walking within this mandate, they are partnering with God. We see. I love the picture that Jesus gives as he is calling people back into this fellowship with God. Take my yoke upon you. Work with me.

I have given you this mandate, this command. I want to partner with you in this calling. I want you. I want to work with you. And so this is the original calling upon mankind.

How do they do with this calling? Not very well. But the failure, the response to this calling, an act of disobedience, has repercussions.

When somebody asks you to do something, it's important. Your neighbor comes and asks you for something, you should. You should think about it. If the police visit your house, it's important to at least consider. I got a call the other day from a police officer and I was not very happy.

I was up at my neighbor's house with my tractor and I was threatening to push all their cars into a pile. The police came and says, you know, you shouldn't do that. I was like, no, come over here. I should do that. And he's like, no, listen.

If you do that, you're responsible for their car. And I'm like, listen, thanks for the call.

Anyway. And you should listen to the police. If the governor comes to your house, it's important that, that you listen to them. The degree of authority that communicates to you increases the responsibility you have to rightfully consider what they're requesting of you. When God Almighty, who created the heavens and the earth by the breath of his hands, holds all things in his power and gives you by his determination or responsibility, it is not to be lightly rejected.

Some of us are in the position of just hanging up the phone when he calls.

It's not wise to do that to the sheriff. It's even worse to do that when it's God Almighty. Here we see that our ancestors rejected the opportunity to be yoked up with God in the responsibility of that he created for them. This has serious consequences for Adam and Eve. As a result of this rejection of God's purposes, they entered into a lifestyle that was not the one that God had for them originally.

It was a bad thing to ignore his calling upon their life. Are you and I in some ways still guilty of the same thing? Are we still following into the same fault that our ancestors did? How well have you and I walked within the calling that God has for our life? How well has humankind taken dominion over God's creation in the way that he wanted to?

When you look at man's dominion, mankind's dominion, what kind of picture do you get? Is it a good one when mankind takes dominion? Isn't it one filled with sickness, bloodshed, waste, greed, graft, hurt, pain? Something has happened to turn God's original intention into something ugly. And that is called the curse.

It has affected you and I. This is a major problem, but not one that you and I normally identify or deal with. Normally, you and I spend our time in a fruitless desire to break off branches from an ugly tree whose roots supply the branches. We are trying to control circumstances rather than identifying the source, the heart. So we're going to look at that.

We're going to go into this a little bit. In Romans, chapter 5. Romans, chapter 5. Is the issue that God has with you and I merely based on the outcome of your actions?

Think about it. Have you repented this week? Anyone? What did you repent for your actions? When have you ever gone and repented for the source of your actions?

Isn't the source of more value than the actions themselves? So let's look at this. I hope that we're listening here. The world wants to try and control behavior. If they can't doing it by telling you to grow up, they'll medicate you.

They will encourage you, they'll slap you. They want you to act like a big boy and girl. But Jesus is not there in a social society trying to control your actions. He's interested in your heart. He wants to adjust the spring of the issue.

He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life trimming back BlackBerry canes. He wants to rip the thing out of your heart. Okay, chapter five, verse 12. So this is a little bit of a longer scripture. So we're going to read it and then work through it.

Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Here we see we're dealing with an issue that has the direct original place or source as coming from one man, Adam and his wife, Eve in the garden. As a result of this action, there is a cause that comes about from sin, and that is death. Sin. Excuse me.

Sin is the communicated disease. The outcome of this disease is always death. Once communicated, sin in the life of a person always produces death. Now we get sicknesses and some people are affected and some are not, right? The stronger the disease, the more likely you are to contact the symptoms of the disease.

But in our case, we hope just because all my family's throwing up, maybe I won't, right? Maybe I'll escape. In this case, There never is an escape once sin is communicated. Once the contagion is contracted, it always brings about the same result. It never has not.

Sin always produces death. There is no escape. Once you have contacted this disease, it will produce death in you. This death was originated from our ancestors, our spiritual ancestors, our physical ancestors, Adam and Eve, and was communicated to you and I through our engagement in sin. As we committed sin, we contacted this disease.

A little bit brutish, but I was reading about Lewis and Clark this week and they started out, of course, from St. Louis and ended up spending their first winter in a Mandan village not so far from where they started at the Missouri River. It became apparent to I can't remember Lewis or Clark that he had to treat all of his men for venereal disease very quickly.

They had engaged in behavior that resulted in them contracting a disease that produced outcome in their lives. In a similar way, you and I, when we engage in sin, we contract the disease. The disease always has an outcome in our life.

This is something that is the problem. I know you're struggling with how you treated your wife or your child or your dog or whichever. Those are important things. But I just ask for a moment that you would consider that there's something that needs addressed more than those issues. You are a rascal.

Let's just get it straight.

You shouldn't have. It's true. But there's something more important to talk about. So let's look through this. Verse 13 is a very important verse.

It says, for until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed. Where there is no law takes a moment to grasp. Right. These are.

Paul is very deep. So we're going to have to try to work with this. This is saying that sin was there before there were laws against sin of any kind. If you remember the law came under Moses. He brought the Ten Commandments down.

You know, this is the law. These are the things you should do. And those individuals at the base of the mountain became the first law breakers. Right? They were the first people to break the law.

But just because there was no law to break before that moment does not mean that sin wasn't producing the same thing in the lives of people. Sin was producing death even before physical actions were unlawful. It wasn't the physical unlawfulness of the actions that was causing death in people. It wasn't because they were adulterers. It wasn't because they were murderers.

It wasn't because of all these things that they could have been clued as lawbreakers. It was because there was something else inside of them producing death before there was anything outside that could condemn them. Something inside of them was churning and boiling and producing death before they could even be convicted of accomplishing sin with their hands. This is an inward thing we're dealing with here. We see that the whole world in Noah's time had become violent and filled with bloodshed.

There was no law to convict them of that, but their hearts were producing something that had to be judged. It says in verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who is to come. So even before Moses, we see this contracted sin sickness, making death in the life of every individual who contracted it. Every individual who contracted was people who sinned.

Only people who sinned were the people who contracted this disease. And death reigned. Death reigned. It was in the same book it was talking about. I can't remember the chief's name, but they had a village of something like 40,000 people in this village, this Indian village.

And unfortunately, traders brought in smallpox. It reduced their village of 40,000 to like 40 people or something like that. Killed almost every single one of them. You know, just a horrid, horrid experience. And that may have happened even prior to our knowledge of the Americas.

It may have happened, you know, to a degree, all the way from South America, all the way through North America, maybe millions of people dying as a result of contracting diseases for which they were not prepared to handle a horrid, horrid thought. But in this case, we see that this disease is producing death in the life of people. Okay, so, but we get the picture in chapter five, verse, verse 14, that there is a type of him who is to come. There is something else. While this is bad news, while it is something to be aware of, it's important to look at the good news in verse 15.

But the free gift is not like the offense. So here we see that this offense caused death to spread to everyone. The free gift is similar, but different. There is something that can be done that this individual who offers a free gift can do to counteract and even more so, offset this disease that individuals contract. It says, but the free gift is not like the offense.

For if by one man's offense many died, the offense caused death. But this free gift, it says, it says much more. The grace of God and the gift, by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Just as this sickness spread like Wildfire from Adam to his descendants. So in a similar way, this free gift has the possibility of, in a word, infecting the hearts of man to not only offset, but much more cause something to abound in the lives of people whom this antidote reaches.

Its purpose is not only to prevent death, it has the explosive power to do something in the lives of a person, to offset, to counteract, and to begin to produce something of beauty in the lives of people who are affected by it. Amazing thing. I don't think it takes too long and too much honesty to recognize that you've been infected with something that causes us to act in selfish ways.

If you've gone a week without demonstrating selfishness, wow, did a lot better than I did. I don't think it takes much for us to see something is causing me to act like a child.

But just as something caused us to inherit a disease, so there's a free gift that's being offered that is much more powerful, much more. This grace of God that when a person receives this free gift is it is going to do something explosive another way. It's not the same, but similar in verse 16. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. The one who sinned, it says in verse 16.

For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. That infection that you received as a result of sin led to condemnation. For anyone who sins against God's kingdom and is found guilty of that, there is no recourse except for him to act against that individual with justice. He can't let a sinner go free, so it always results in condemnation. But this free gift which brings grace into the life of people does not lead to condemnation, it leads to justification.

Just as one thing that came into a man's body led to justification so much more, so this free gift leads to justification. Verse 17. For if by one man's offense, death reigned through the one, much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of. Of righteousness will reign through the one Jesus Christ. The last thing we're going to look at is this.

Just as sin, when it enters your body, produces corruption, it produces the availability for sin, acts, ugly displays, tantrums, selfish motivation, deceitful greed. To have an option in your life for a display, the kind of thing that is not beautiful at all, but this free gift that comes through one man produces in the life of everyone who receives the gift, true life, it infects an individual with the desire and ability to live a lifestyle that they were not capable of before. They live in newness of life. People are looking for anything to give them enough sustenance to overcome their depravity, hoping for some sort of a policy or methodology or something. But this is saying no.

This comes as a result of a gift entering into your life. And that wellspring of life, though maybe slow, eventually grows into a tree, produces something that is beautiful to behold.

That is the problem and that is the solution. That is biblical Christianity. Not the fighting of the branches on the outside, but an inward recognition of the problem and an acceptance of the solution that only Jesus Christ can provide. So we're going to go back to Hebrews to finish off mankind. It says, what is man in chapter two, verse eight, what is man that you are mindful of him?

Mankind, starting with our father Abraham, Adam, continuing on through the generations to you and I have not fulfilled the holy commandment delivered to us. We have failed in it. We have sinned. And as a result it says we do not yet see all things put under him in verse 8 as a result of our sinful condition. Have you ever wondered at the amazing potential of mankind on this earth?

We look at World War II, what they could do in a few short years. In turning back the clocks of entire civilizations was astonishing. Things which people built and cared for for generations were destroyed. In instances we don't see mankind ruling over God's creation in the way that it should, they have failed in it. They have mutilated, they have raped, they have wronged, they have left the generations after them in a worse place than when they themselves started.

Does anyone know how much debt the United States has?

It's a lot. It's a lot trillions. Like not just 1 trillion. I think now we're in tens of trillions, maybe almost $40 trillion. So if you and I had to split that up amongst ourselves, it would not be a payable amount in our lifetime.

Well, praise God. We live great, don't we? This is awesome. Spend now, let our children pay later. And our grandchildren, great grandchildren.

Right. This is not the kind of dominion that I believe God anticipated for you and I. We have chosen to act selfishly as a result of sin. We have failed in our responsibility. We have let down, we have failed.

And what could mankind do? But here we see in verse nine, though we're guilty of failing in that responsibility, though I believe there's a payment for that. We see someone come to the rescue. And this is what the book of Hebrews is going to be about. Verse 9.

Hope you remember this. But we see Jesus. But we see Jesus in light of all the failures. Everywhere you look. You can't look anywhere and not see greedy people failing in what God has called them to do.

Everywhere you look, there is nowhere you can look and not see failure. But we see Jesus. He is the place where. Where someone finally took up that calling and could do something about it. First of all, he had to be sinless.

He could not be infected with the disease himself if he were to redeem those who were infected. But we see Jesus, he had to be. Next sentence, it says, who was made a little lower than the angels. He had to be an individual, made like his brethren. In order to redeem people.

Jesus had to be born a physical person, an actual physical being with the same limitations that you and I had. He had to be sinless, but also he had to go further in that. In verse nine, it says, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honor. He had to live a life and give that life as a sacrifice for many.

As a result of him having or living this sacrifice, giving of his life as a sacrifice, he has the ability to do something. It says, crowned with glory and honor. He is given a position. He is given a responsibility. After being enabled to be this person, now he can give something.

God has enabled him to fulfill a responsibility. He has given him the position to do something about a problem. Because of this life and the sacrifice that he made, he is able to do something for individuals who cannot do something for themselves.

He was crowned with glory and honor. In the Old Testament, when an individual did something great, he says, you know, behold, I give you even up to half of my kingdom. Ask of me what you want even at the half of my kingdom, and I will give it to you. And so Jesus, having lived a life, having laid down his life demonstrating the nature of God most completely, if you want to know who God is, look at Jesus on the cross. And that is his character.

After he asked of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. He wanted one thing because he had heaven, because there was nothing else that he wanted, because he had everything. The one thing he wanted. I want to effect a solution to mankind's problems. I want to take on their sins that they deserve to pay for.

What I really want is to take on man's sin nature. If you admire what I have done, if I have done something worthy of the Father, what I really want, if you're asking me of something, I want for you as A result of doing something extraordinary. What I really want is I want the sinful nature.

If there is something that you would give me based on all that I've done for you, and I could communicate that to you. What he communicated to the Father is I want that which is rightly to be punished on the souls of men for their disobedience. I want to ask you to that you would put that sinful curse on me, the one you love.

There was nothing harder for the Father to do. There was no request that could have been asked that was harder than that one. You remember Herod asked, what is Elmira? What did you. After she danced this pleasing dance right before King Herod.

And she went to her mother and said, you know, what should I ask for? He just said that he'd give me half of the kingdom. And she said, ask for John the Baptist's head on a platter. And the King was sorry. But because of the request, he did it.

Had his head cut off and brought to her on a platter. Oh, great gift for a 13 year old girl. Well, Jesus asked, I want their sin nature. I want to take that my own self, which they deserve. It was hard, but the Father honored that request and poured out the entirety of man's sinful nature.

Honoring Jesus request and taking that sinful nature and pouring it out on the Son. It was so much of a burden. I remember the words in Hebrew. It says, eli, eli lama sabachthani. My God, my God, God, why have you forsaken me?

This burden is so much. But he loved men so much. It says, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. He wanted one thing, his crowning moment. I want the sin of the world.

That's what he wanted. And the Father honored that request. He was a worthy sacrifice and he honored it. And so Jesus bore the sin of many that he might give them the gift of grace that would overcome the curse, that would overcome condemnation, that would overcome a worthless life spent in vanity. Change you and I. I hope as you consider your spiritual life, that your focus is more on what Jesus Christ did for your sinful condition than the springing up of BlackBerry lives.

BlackBerry canes. In your life, if you are focused on those branches springing up, you will spend the rest of your life cutting them back.

Every year, every month, every week, every day, they're going to be there again. They come up so fast and so hard. But there is an antidote to that curse. Jesus Christ made it available to you and I as a gift, he wants more than anything that you would receive it into your heart. Take, I have an antidote.

How many people have cancer now who, if approached with an antidote, would refuse it?

I think most people would say, you know, I don't like cancer. I don't want cancer. I want something better than cancer. But yet so many of you and I will spend our lives, the rest of our lives, working ourselves to death, refusing a gift of grace that he has made available to you and I by faith. My hope is that today you can say what makes me righteous is what Jesus did for me, and that's it.

I hope you can say I am justified and not condemned only because of what Jesus did for me. I hope you can say I see springing out of my heart fountains of righteousness where only ugliness used to dwell, only because of what Jesus did for me. If not, that gift is available to you at all times, but especially when you're sinning, especially when you're ugly, especially when you're battled down and scarred and sinful. That's when he most likes to give his gift of grace to people. And then we're going to close there.

The Book of Hebrews. We're just starting. It is all about this gift. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we do come to you thanking you for the gift of righteousness that you made available to us because of your own desires.