Well, these messages that have
been preached here have blessed my heart and soul, and the Lord
has tied them all together. And as Norman was preaching tonight,
I thought, well, I could just get up there and say amen, because
he said everything I'm going to say anyway. But we'll muddle
through. Hebrews chapter 2, verse nine but we see jesus 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 should taste death
for every man for it became him for whom are all things and by
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying i will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the church will i sing praise unto thee and again i will put
my trust in him and again behold i and the brethren or i and the
children which god has given me for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood he also likewise through death
or took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Wherein
that he himself has suffered being tempted or tested, he is
able to succor or comfort them that are tempted. Verses nine
and 10, we'll read that again. 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, should taste
death for every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. Our Lord's work of redemption
when considered for a moment remains the most astonishing
thing that a human mind is privileged to ponder. The mind made spiritually
alive by God's grace and given unction to understand all things
is yet made to stand in awe of this great, wondrous, magnificent
thing. We cannot begin to perceive the
unspeakable depths of shame, humiliation, and sorrow that
our Lord plumbed in order to save the likes of us. The eternal
Son of God laid aside the robes of His resplendent glory and
took upon Himself the form of a servant and being found in
the fashion of the man. He, Jesus Christ, the Ruler of
Heaven and Earth, was made under the Law. The Sovereign Architect
of this Universe walked in this world with nowhere to lay His
Head. God Almighty became homeless
in his own world. Try as we might, we are simply
unable to wrap our finite minds around this, but when our impotent
reasoning betrays us, God-given faith believes and bows and worships
and understands. From the realms of glory, our
Redeemer's path was ever toward humiliation. He who was rich
for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might
be made rich. Each step that he made was willingly
made in agreement with his father's eternal purpose. But we're at
a loss to understand the depths of sorrow, unimaginable anguish,
daily dishonor, monstrous malice, and relentless persecution that
culminated with the blessed Son of the Highest, the desire of
all nations, suffering the incomprehensible ignominious death of the cross. What mind but God's mind, the
omniscient mind of God could conceive such a thing? For us to imagine this ourselves
as some sort of scheme that seems reasonable to humanity would
be in itself blasphemy. God's mind did this. This was
His scheme. Yonder on Calvary the Holy One
of Israel was nailed to the cruel merciless tree. drenched in his
own blood, soaked in the spittle of the mindless malicious mob.
He was made to be sinned, forsaken and cursed and punished by God
the Father. And this is God's handiwork. For he said to Herod Pontius
Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles gathered together against His
Holy Child Jesus for to do whatsoever had before been ordained to be
done. I am utterly unequipped to process
the magnitude of these goings on. I've been preaching about
it for 46 years and still haven't touched the hem of the garment Here the believer takes headquarters
in the dust and simply cries, my Lord and my God. Considering
this, there is but one question that is worthy of asking. If
at some point in our poor life, we are able to rub two cogent
thoughts together, I am compelled to ask this, why? Why did the Son of God suffer
such a death? Why did God so torment His beloved
Son and bruise Him in such a vengeful way? I know that it was to save
my soul. I know that He died that I would
live. He suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring
me to God. The Word of God plainly declares
this. There's no other way for the
omnipotent God to save me. This love is exercise. God commended
his love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down
our lives for one another. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his son the propitiation. for our sin. Men in erring efforts
to in their minds exalt the largesse of God sometimes say things like,
God could have saved a man a thousand ways. Could he? The answer to that question is
to ask another question. Could justice be satisfied and
the law honored in any other way? If a sinner is to be made
suitable, and he must be made suitable, to stand accepted in
the presence of the thrice holy God, he must stand there justly,
or not at all. The justice of God must be perfectly
satisfied. God must be propitiated. And the only way God could save
his people and forgive their sins was by the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. without the shedding of blood.
There is no remission of sin. This is the Bible doctrine and
it's a Bible doctrine of nuclear import. It encompasses the very
glory of the gospel. The blessed truth severs true
Christianity from all other religions. If this truth is removed from
Christianity, then it becomes valueless to the souls of men,
as valueless as Judaism, or Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Shintoism, or
Islam. Where perfect justice is not
administered in the punishment of sin, there is no salvation. The Scriptures warn us of damnable
heresies brought in by false prophets and false teachers.
And among those damnable heresies, none is more common and more
destructive to the souls of men than the denial of Christ's satisfaction. Over in Hebrews chapter 10, it talks about sinning willfully
as if there were any other kind. It talks about this in verse
26 of chapter 10, says, For if we sin willfully after we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins. Now, he s talking about what
is preceded in chapter 10, where Jesus Christ, by one sacrifice,
has perfected forever them that are sanctified. He s satisfied
God so much that God will remember their sins no more. Where sins
are omitted, there is no more sacrifice, and to sin willfully
is to not look at that the right way, or to look at the wrong
way. But a certain fearful look for
the judgment of fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under the two or
three witnesses. But how much more sore a punishment! Suppose ye, shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace." That
word unholy means common, and common in a specific way. It
means to look at the blood and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
as undesignated, to look at the blood and the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ for all rather than for a particular person or a
particular group. Those who deem the blood of Christ
a common thing, an ineffectual thing without merit are those
without hope. Hebrews 2.9 proclaims the necessity
of Christ's substitutionary work. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned
with glory that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. That's substitution and satisfaction. We see Jesus. Our brother preached
about it this morning and really done a good job with it. He hit
a home run. We believers see Him because
the Spirit of God has graciously revealed Him to us. We see Him
as our Savior, the Christ of God. We see Him as the fullness
of the Godhead in a body as grace effectually bestowed, effectually
bestowed, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father full of
grace and truth, and it pleased the Father that all fullness
should dwell in Him. As complete redemption, He has
forgiven us by the riches of His mercy. He is the Christ,
our Redeemer, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Lord,
our righteousness. He is our all, for God hath made
Him to be to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that no flesh should glory in His presence. If you see Him,
you truly see Him, then flesh and blood has not revealed it
to you, but our Father which is in heaven. We see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels. The Creator of the angels was
made lower than the angels He created. He was made the seed
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that are under
the law. This is why he came, you see. This is why Christ was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Angels'
death, if they could die, wouldn't do us any good. He was made a
little lower than the angels, made flesh and dwelt among us.
in order to die, just like you see. Our sweet, sovereign, substitute savior entered this
world to die. He set his face like a flint
to a lonely hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, the place of
the skull. That's where he set his heart
like a flint. He didn't leave glory to start
a new religion or even establish a Baptist church or set up some
government in earthly Jerusalem or sign his name to some silly
hallmark love card that talks about unrequited love. He did
not come to be a reformer. or an example of morality and
virtue. Jesus Christ, the Immaculate
and Eternal Son of God became a man. So 33 years after he was
born, he would die and die in the stead of his elect and redeem
every one of them. He came to this planet to die
because there was no other way to save His people. There's no
other way. We have here recorded for us
also the unqualified for success of this wondrous death. Having
finished salvation, He was crowned with glory and honor. This is
an earned exaltation. He earned it. You remember those
old TV commercials about E.F. Hutton? He earned it. And Jesus Christ earned it, for
to this end, He died and rose and resurrected that He might
be the Lord of the living and the dead. In Philippians chapter
two it said He was found in the fashion of a man and He was obedient
even to the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted
Him and given Him a name above every name that at the name of
Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess He's the
Lord to the glory of the Father. Christ is exalted sitting at
the right hand of the Father because He hath purged our sins,
and when He had done that, that's when He sat down. That singularly
excellent human being that died for us and redeemed us on Golgotha
now sits in resplendent respite, crowned with glory, imbued with
honor as the Lord over all. He is that old lion that jake
to talk about and who shall rouse him up hey we pray hard enough
and we pray through and we put our hands together and pray in
unison we'll stir him up you ain't gonna stir him up he's
finished the work of salvation he's since now ever living to
intercede for his people the very one who died for us rules this world moves and manipulates
all things and all peoples to give eternal life to as many
as God has given him. People talk about, you know,
I don't want to be useless. You're not. Nobody is. Everybody's used. In God's economy there is no
unemployment. You all have a job. Your job
is to glorify God, and you will. You'll glorify His grace, or you'll glorify His justice,
which you have a job to do. And my friend, you will do it. And you'll do it because of the
One who sits at the right hand of the Father even now, ruling
and reigning in this world. Consider the next phrase, Christ
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. And we know that the writer of Hebrews, who I
believe is Paul, and people say that maybe he didn t write it. I believe it was Paul. It may
not be Paul, but Paul only has one syllable, and the writer
of Hebrews has several. So I'll just shorten my sentences
and say, Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. Well, whoever wrote
it, this phrase does not depart from the context. Paul did not
decide suddenly to inject the false notion of universal redemption
here or in any other place in scripture. This is not a declaration
that Christ died for those whom he would not pray for. I pray
not for the world, I pray for them that thou has given to me.
or for those that are other than his sheep. For he said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. This commandment have I received
of the Father. Or for those manufactured as vessels of wrath, fitted to
destruction. For out of the same clay, God
made some to be vessels of honor and others to be vessels of wrath,
fitted to destruction. Vessels to be used for his glory. Just like I said, everything's
used. Some of you, And some of this WORLD are VESSELS OF HONOR. Now, they?re empty vessels whom
God pours grace and mercy into, but they?re DIRT POTS, that?s
all they are. But they?re special DIRT POTS, for He?s engraved
His NAME upon them, and they sit upon His MANTLE as His TROPHIES
OF GRACE. But there are other DIRT POTS,
too, that He makes and uses, and when He?s done with them,
He casts them on the PILE with the rest of the POT SHIRTS. those He didn't come to save,
He come to use and then destroy. So every man don't mean that. He didn't come for those He hid
the truth from. There were those who mocked the
Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist for the way they preached.
John was rough and tough, And when he preached, he shook people
up. And people stood in the street and said, you go ahead and preach
hard if you want to, we ain't gonna mourn. We're not gonna
mourn when you preach hard stuff, you ain't gonna affect us any.
Then Jesus Christ came along and preached mercy and grace
and the coming of the kingdom. It was kind and gracious to sinners.
And they said, you know, he's kind of like a little flute.
He just pipes and he's all sweet and pretty, but listen, we ain't
gonna dance to your tune. And our Lord looked at them and
he looked up at heaven and he said, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, I thank you that you've hid these things from the wise
and the prudent and reveal them unto babes. For even so, Father,
it seemed good in your sight. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. No man knoweth the Father, but the Son. And he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. But you've hid it from Son. If
our gospel be hid, it be hid from them that are lost. He didn't die for them. The statement
does not even suggest that Christ died for those who suffer the
wrath of God in hell. didn't die for them. No, such
thoughts would count his shed blood to be vanity and would
deny the accomplishment of his sacrifice. This phrase tells
us that Christ did not die to be a good example, but rather
as a surety in the room instead of men. In the original language,
there is no word in this phrase that can be translated man. It's
simply not there. The sentence literally reads
that he by the grace of God should face death for every or for all
or for everyone. Now the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and died upon the cursed tree for everyone of who? The sons
that he would bring to glory in verse 10. For every single
brother that he unashamedly claims as his own in verse 11. For every
member of his body in the midst of the church, he will sing praise.
In verse 12. In every one of the children
that God had given him to save, for those sake he assumed flesh
and blood. In verses 13 and 14. And for
every one of Abraham's seed, God's elect, whom he took hold
of to save. In verse 16. Verse 10 is a wonder
because it flies in the face of what men generally think about
suffering and shame. What man looks at a person brought
to suffer shame and indignity, especially if that person has
done nothing wrong and says that such humiliation looks good on
him? So what it says, it says it became
him. For whom are all things and by
whom are all things to bring many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation, PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS, IT
BECAME HIM, IT LOOKED GOOD ON HIM, IT HONORED HIM, IT ADORNED
HIM, IT SUITED HIM TO ATTAIN. IT IS NECESSARY, IT HAD TO BE,
BUT MORE THAN THAT, THAT THING, AND THIS STILL FILLS ME WITH
WONDER, THAT THING, THAT WONDROUS TRANSACTION THAT TOOK PLACE ON
CALVARY, THAT BLOODY SLAUGHTER, that took place on Calvary. It
was beautiful. It was beautiful. For God to save sinners and bring
them to glory, the Son of God must suffer in their room instead all that the law and justice
of God could demand, and yet it be called an adornment of
His Beloved Son. It was His greatest thing. It
was why He came. The Scriptures plainly declare
that the death of Christ was His greatest thing. God's decree demanded it, for
He was delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of
God. Our Lord's covenant of surety
agreement assured that it would take place. He said, I do this
because my father gave me power to do this. No man does this
to me. I do it of myself. The Old Testament prophets prophesied.
All the prophets gave witness of Him. Isaiah 53 is all about
this. I think of that. I think of that. That old Ethiopian eunuch. Had
him a copy of Isaiah 53. He didn't read that and wonder
what in the world does this mean? God sent him a preacher. God
sent him a preacher. Come up beside his chariot. Preacher
says, you know what you're reading, you understand what you're reading?
He said, somebody got to explain this to me, I don't get it. So
he said he got up in the chariot with him and from that text,
Isaiah 53. He preached to him, Jesus Christ, and after he finished
preaching, he said, I want to be baptized. He said, well, if
you believe, he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now, where'd he get that from? The name Jesus is not mentioned
in Isaiah 53. There's a suffering one there,
a suffering Savior. There's one who shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied for by his
skill. My righteous service will justify
many." We saw that. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. I believed that most of my life.
I was taught that from boyhood. But today I believe it. I believe
it with all my heart. And if you believe Jesus Christ
is the Son of God based on the Scriptures, as this Ethiopian
eunuch did. You?re a believer! You?re a believer! What a thing! It became HIM! It became HIM! We use words like
?necessity? and ?necessary? because we are bound by our inability
to express the magnitude of what took place here. It was necessary
for God to save sinners this NOT BECAUSE THERE WERE OTHER
OPTIONS, BUT BECAUSE THIS IS THE WAY HE DID IT. IF GOD DID
IT, THEN THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO DO IT. HERE THE LORD GOD IS
DESCRIBED AS THE FIRST CAUSE OF ALL THINGS, OF HIM, THROUGH
HIM, AND TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS. IF IT HAS BEEN DONE, IT IS FOR
HIM AND BY HIM. Christ died for God. He died in our room instead.
but that was for God, for God. In bringing many sons to glory
is the declaration of God's gracious design toward His elect. I know
my thoughts toward you, the Lord said. They're good, but not evil
to bring you to an expected end. They're already the sons of God
by eternal option, where it says that that's why Jesus Christ
came and sinned, that's the chronology. In verse fourteen, For as much
then as the children ARE partakers of flesh and blood, He ALSO partook
or took part in the sin. Why did Christ become flesh and
blood? Because His children were flesh and blood. They were already
His children. How can that be? They were His
children by adoption before the foundation of the world. predestinated
through the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself.
We are given the privilege to be made aware of that wondrous
thing. Made aware. When you hear the
Gospel, if God gives you ears to hear, if God opens your eyes
to see, God gives you a new heart to grasp and a mind to understand. God does that for you when you
hear the Gospel. you're not going to hear what
you must do. You're not going to hear about things that might
be possible. What you're going to hear is that 2,000 years ago
on Calvary Street, Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, redeemed
your soul in a done deal. Paul worded it this way, After
you heard the word of truth, the good news of your personal
possessive pronoun, your salvation. What did you hear when you heard
the gospel? You heard you had been saved. That?s why He came,
to bring many sons to glory. As to the number of His sons,
it?s many. It?s many. are the ransom ones
that God gave His Son. Who is this wonderful One who
will bring many sons to glory? He's the Captain of their salvation.
He's the Captain because the victory belongs to Him. He alone
took upon Himself responsibility for it. He alone has earned the
rank of glory for the accomplishment of it. earned that lofty rank because
He was made perfect through sufferings. I don't even begin to know what
that means. I know it's powerful. It was by His perfect sufferings
and death as our substitute that He has perfected them that are
sanctified. Without His sufferings for the
satisfaction of justice, there could have been no salvation.
Though He were a Son, Scripture says, Yet he learned obedience
by the things he suffered, and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
His suffering satisfied justice and justified those for whom
he died. Many sons are brought to glory
by his suffering and his death. He's the captain. He's the captain. Three things are clearly declared
here in this passage of scripture. First, it's impossible for a
holy and just God to save any sinner apart from the satisfaction
of his justice. Secondly, Christ satisfied justice
for many sinners. And third, it's impossible for
God in his holiness to punish any sinner for whose sins justice
has been satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ. Indeed, he shall
see of the travail of his soul. and shall be satisfied. The law
has no claim upon an executed felon. Now that's what we are. We died in
him. You said it last night, quoting
that old poet, payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding
surety's hand, and then again at mine. We who have received
such amazing grace can do nothing but sit in admiration and awe
and adoringly ponder the perfections of our captain. But we see Jesus
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 should taste death for every man, for it became him. FOR WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND
BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND BRINGING MANY SONS TO GLORY, TO MAKE THE
CAPTAIN OF THEIR SALVATION PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING. GOD BLESS
YOU.