Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Hebrews, the second chapter. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. This is One
of my favorite books in the Bible, I suppose we, maybe we shouldn't
have favorites, I don't know, but I know that as we read the
scriptures, every verse of scripture we know
tells us of Christ Jesus and speaks to us of the grace of
God, God's purpose of redemption, His salvation for undeserving
sinners. And it's all a blessing to us. It's all the Word of God equally. We know that. But we also know
there are certain passages of Scripture that God has especially
blessed each one of us individually. That's just an undeniable fact,
isn't it? That there are some Scriptures
that God has used And indeed, God did use scripture in you
and in your heart and your soul in your conversion. And there
are various scriptures that just sort of lift themselves off the
page of holy writ and speak to us maybe more than others. Indeed,
we long to see Christ Jesus in every verse, in every passage.
It's quite honestly, we see him more in some passages than we
do in others. And when we get to the book of
Hebrews, this to me is like, kind of like Mount Everest to
me. This is, we absolutely kind of
soar into the heavenlies as we look into the book of Hebrews.
It's definitely the best commentary on the book of Leviticus. So
as you read the book of Leviticus, if you want a good commentary
on the book of Leviticus, well, read the Spirit of God's book
of Hebrews and you'll get the best commentary. As iron sharpens
iron, and as a diamond is used to cut diamonds, so the Word
of God is used to understand and interpret the Word of God.
And when we get to the book of Hebrews, we know in the book
of Hebrews that the writer, and maybe it was the Apostle Paul,
maybe it wasn't, but definitely it was the Holy Ghost. In the
book of Hebrews, the Holy Ghost sits before us, the great the
great supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the theme of
the book of Hebrews is Christ is better. You name any subject,
He's better. Name any person, He's better.
Name the angels, He's better. Name the high priest of the Old
Testament, Aaron, He's better. Name that man that God used to
bring out of Egypt to lead His people out of Egyptian bondage,
Moses. Christ is better. He's better. His covenant is better. His salvation
is better. He's better. His work is better. Everything about Christ is better
than anything else. He's better than anything in
comparison that you would dare to compare with Him. He rises. He's superior over everything. And in the book of Hebrews, we
see set forth the supremacy of Christ Jesus. We see His superiority
over everything and we see His sufficiency as all of God's salvation. He's all the Savior we want and
He's all the Savior we need. All we need is Christ and His
work of redemption. We need His blood. We need His
righteousness. We need His labors. We need Him
this morning as our mediator, as our great intercessor. We
need Him as our only high priest before God. We need Christ Jesus. He is sufficient. I say, if you
have Christ Jesus, you have all you need. What do you lack for? You lack for nothing. Having
the Savior, you have all blessings. I know we ask God, Lord bless
us, and certainly that's correct to pray that, Lord bless us.
But listen, we've already been blessed. We've been blessed with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,
before the world began. We've got all blessings. Listen,
if we have Christ Jesus, this One who is supreme, this One
who is superior, this One who is sufficient, if we have Christ
Jesus, we have the reservoir of every good thing God could
ever give to a sinner. He is all. He's all we desire. He's all we want. He's all we
need. And in this great book, we see
set forth our Lord Jesus that He's better. Indeed, in chapter
1, we see the Son of God set forth. We see Him set forth as
that spokesman for God. God has spoken. He's spoken unto
us by His Son. He's the Word. He's the Word. God has revealed Himself. God has instructed us as to who
He is. What's God like? Well, look at
Jesus Christ. What are the attributes of God?
Look at Jesus Christ. He's everything that God is.
Why is that? Because He is God. He is God. He's God manifest in the flesh.
He's the spokesman for God. Anything God's got to say to
you, He'll say through Christ Jesus. And anything you've got
to say to God, you've got to say through Christ Jesus. Over
in the Old Testament, God said concerning the tabernacle in
the wilderness, He said, that's where I'll meet with you and
that's where you can meet with Me. And everything about that
tabernacle set forth either the glorious person or the work of
Jesus Christ. God said, that's where I'll meet
with you, that's where you'll meet with Me. And listen, there
is somewhere God will meet with you, and there's somewhere we
can meet with God, it's Christ Jesus. And there's somebody who
will speak to God for us, and there's somebody who speaks to
us for God, it's Christ Jesus. God has spoken unto us through
His Son. He's the final Word. He's the
Word from old eternity. In the beginning was the Word.
What is a Word? W-O-R-D. What is a Word? It's a vehicle of thought. There's no way you can know what's
on my mind or what my desires are, what things that I want
to express to you. The only way you can know is
by words. They're vehicles of thought.
God has spoken unto us. Well, how do we know the mind
of God? The will of God? The purpose
of God? God has spoken through His Son. Everything God's got to say,
He says through Christ Jesus. And what we have to say to God,
we say through Christ Jesus. That's the reason at the end
of our prayer, we say in Jesus' name, in Christ's name, for Christ's
sake, something along that order. And if we don't say those exact
words, we certainly intend that. We know that God, being absolutely
holy, He's not going to receive us and He's not going to receive
our petitions. He's not going to receive our
requests. He's not going to receive the
desires of our hearts. He's not going to listen to our
words of confession and forgiveness. He's not going to listen to our
expressions of thanksgiving and praise except through Jesus Christ
the Lord. We come to God through Christ.
He's God's spokesman, He's God's spokesman to us, and He's our
spokesman to God. He's the mediator. He's the mediator. He's the go-between. And in chapter 1, we find out
not only is He the spokesman for God and the spokesman to
God, but He is equal to God. As you read through chapter 1,
you find He is the Creator. He made all things. In fact,
without Him was not anything made that was made. He spoke
everything into existence. Oh, how great is our Savior?
Well, He's the Creator. Is that great enough for you?
By His own Word and by His own will, everything came into existence. He's the mighty Creator. That's
what it says in chapter 1 in verse 3. By whom He made the
world. The worlds were made by Him.
He's equal to God. He's the Creator. He's the brightness
of God's glory, that Shekinah glory of God. In the Old Testament,
in the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, between the cherubim,
over top of the mercy seat, covering the Ark of the Covenant was that
bright Shekinah glory, that light that went up and illuminated
all the camp of Israel all night long. You think about it. They never dwelt in darkness. Our Lord Jesus is the Shekinah
Glory. And for His people, we never
dwell in darkness. He is the Light. He has enlightened
us. The Light of God, the Son of
God's righteousness has flooded into our souls. The Light has
shined in. Never be dark again. Isn't that
glorious? He is the Light of Lights. That's
what it says in chapter 1. He's the brightness of God's
glory. He's the Shekinah glory of God Himself. In fact, He's
the exact image of God. And the reason He's the exact
image of God is because He is God. And if it's not God, then
we're of all men most miserable. Because only God could come to
our rescue. Only God could save us. Only
God could reach down into the depths of the miry, awful miry
clay and lift us up. and wash us in His blood, and
robe us in His righteousness, and establish our goings, and
set our feet among the princes of His people. Only God could
do that. He tells us Jesus Christ is God. He's equal to God. He is God. He's the exact image of God.
He's the upholder of all things, He tells us in chapter 1. By
Him all things consist, we read in Colossians chapter 1. So He's
not only the Creator of all things, He's the Preserver of all things. He's the Upholder of all things. By His will, He governs everything. He directs everything to the
end that He ordained before the world began. That's called providence. What is predestination? God marking
out a path. God marking out, God ordaining
every single thing that will ever happen. That's predestination. What is providence? Providence
is God's work in bringing predestination to pass. So that everything that
happens is according to the will of God. His sovereign will. Not His will of allowance, and
I don't ever read that in the Bible. But His will of decree. That which happens is God's will,
God's purpose. And today, in your life, in the
world, the will of God is being carried out, it's being worked
out according to His perfect, exact providence. And who is
doing that? King Jesus. Our Savior. Our Lord. Our majestic leader. Our friend who sticketh closer
than a brother. He sits upon His throne in glory. He is upholding all things by
the word of His power. He is directing every single
thing that happens in the world. The big things and the minute
things. The things in my life and the
things in your life. Those good times as we define
them and those troublesome times as we would define them, He governs
those too. All things are of God. He's the
Lord. He's the upholder of all things.
He's the one who purged our sins away. That's what He tells us
in chapter 1. He washed us. What was the reason for the Lord
Jesus entering into this world. What was the reason for Him joining
His deity to humanity? It was to save. It was to rescue. Oh listen, He came to our rescue. When after 4,000 years that had
been absolutely proven that man by wisdom could not know God,
Christ Jesus came. To do the work that nobody could
do but Himself. The work of reconciling His people
unto Himself. The work of redemption. The work
of establishing righteousness. The work of removing the sins
of His people. Or as it says in chapter 1 and
verse 3, purging. He purged our sins. He made us
clean. He washed us whiter than the
snow. whiter than the snow, so that
no guilt remains on God's people. All of the sins of all of God's
elect, those that God chose under salvation in Christ Jesus before
the world began, all of those sins met on the Savior. They
were imputed to Him. They were charged to Him. Lifted
off us, put on Him. And if they're lifted off of
us, then they're gone. They're gone. They're not on
you. They're not on you. Justice doesn't see sin on the
people that Christ died for. Justice saw our sins on the Savior. And they punished Him. Or justice
punished Him. God inflicted upon His very soul
that wrath that our sins deserved. Until Jesus paid it all. with
His bloody death. And in doing so, He removed our
sins. He washed us. Our sins are gone. Our sins are gone, forevermore
sunk in the depths of the sea of God's forgetfulness. Our God
has set our sins behind His back. Well, where is the back of God?
I don't know, but that's where our sins are. God has no back. And the Lord says, your sins
and your iniquities, well, I remember no more! No more! Well, what happened to them?
Our Lord Jesus purged them away. We're a purged people. Yes, we're
a purchased people and we're a purged people. Washed in the
blood of the Lord Jesus. And our glorious Savior, what
did He do after He purged us? He sat down. He sat down at the
right hand of God. As you well know in the Old Testament
tabernacle, there was no seat save the mercy seat, of God's
seat. But there was no seat for a man
to sit in. There was nowhere for Aaron the
high priest to sit. There was no work for any of
the other priests who labored in the holy place, who labored
at the candlestick, who labored at the table of showbread, who
labored at the altar of incense. There was no work for them to
sit down in there. because they were busy every
day. There was the morning sacrifice to be offered. There was the
evening sacrifice to be offered. There were all the offerings
that all of the Israelites brought every day. Thousands of offerings
that had to be offered up. Their work was never done. But
this man, this man, Christ Jesus, after He had offered up one sacrifice
for sins forever, what did He do? He sat down. He sat down. God the Father said, sit here
at my right hand until I make all of the enemies your footstool.
Sit down? What does that indicate? The
work is finished. His labors as the substitute
and sacrifice of his people, it's come to an end. He's gone
back to glory. the victories of our Lord Jesus.
He conquered death. Then He ascended. Then He went
home to glory and He sat down. Where He sits now upon His sovereign
throne. Oh, He's greater. This is what
Hebrews is about. He's greater. He's better. He
sits upon the throne of sovereign authority. He has in His hand
the scepter of righteousness. He does all things well. The
angels of God worship Him. All of chapter 1, it's about
this glorious person, the Son of God. Then you get into chapter
2. And in chapter 2, it's about God's salvation. Chapter 1 is
about the Son of God. The second chapter is about the
salvation that the Son of God has accomplished. And it's said
to be in chapter 2, a great salvation. It's a great salvation. It has
a great author, God Himself. It was established in great wisdom. Only the wisdom of God could
come up with the way, the only way whereby God could be just
and justify ungodly sinners like you and me without tarnishing
or lessening His own holy character, law and justice. In infinite
wisdom, in great wisdom in this great salvation, God came up
with the only way whereby He could save us and be true to
His holy character. a substitute would die. And this
wasn't God responding to the fall. This wasn't God reacting
to the fall. Understand this, God doesn't
react. God acts and we react. God's the first cause of everything.
You see, before there was ever a sinner, there was already a
Savior. Before there was anybody who
was fallen, there was already the Lamb of God appointed. In
fact, He's said to be the Lamb of God slain from before the
foundation of the world. God purposed all of this. He
purposed in His own infinite wisdom. He purposed this great
salvation in great wisdom whereby He would honor His holy character
and honor His love and honor His mercy and honor His grace
and honor His righteousness. All of the glorious attributes
are brought to glisten and shine in their brilliance in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God did it. This is God's salvation. It's a great salvation. It has
a great author. It was schemed in great wisdom.
I tell you this salvation, it was purchased at great cost.
What did it cost? Well, it wasn't silver. And it
wasn't gold. God already had that. Right? He owns all the silver. I watch
these guys on television advertising gold and silver. You see those
guys got those silver coins and gold coins. Oh boy, look at all
that. You can own these. They'll send
them to you through the mail. Let me tell you something. My
father owns all those. My father owns all the gold in
the mines of the world. My father owns all the silver.
My father owns all the diamonds. That's not the purchase price.
God can't be bought or the salvation of His people can't be bought
with those things that God already had. What was the price? Death. Death. But it's got to be the
death of a glorious victim. This has got to be a victim different
from every victim in the Old Testament. They were just animals. And by the blood of bulls and
goats, sin was never put away. Not one sin. Rivers of blood. Can you imagine how many thousands
and thousands of lambs and goats and oxen died How many thousands
and thousands of turtle doves and pigeons died in the Old Testament? And yet all of them together,
all the thousands and thousands of them, and all the blood that
was shed on all the Jewish altars, all of them together could not
erase even one sin. But this man, Christ Jesus, at
great cost to Himself, He laid down His life and He
fully paid the price for our redemption. Great cost. And it comes to us in great power.
This salvation, it comes to us in great power. It's a whole lot different than
you just walk in the aisle making a decision. That just won't cut
it. That won't do it. You know, I
remember Years ago. I was like five or six years
old. Anybody in here six years old? Okay, here's a six year old right
here. I was six years old and I was sitting right down here.
I sat right where you're sitting, Joe. And I got scared. The preacher said, do you want
to go to heaven? Yeah. Do you want to go to hell? No. Hold on to that story, let me
tell you another one. I just happened to think of this.
Nancy and I were in a restaurant somewhere the other day and there
was this sign or something that says, you have two choices, heaven
or hell. Duh, let me see. Which one do
I want? That's never the issue in the
Bible. Thank God there is salvation
from hell, but it's salvation from sin, and the penalty of
sin is that death in hell. But anyway, I go back to story
number one, story eight. So he said, you want to go to
hell? No. Every head bowed, every eye
closed. So I bowed my head, and if you
were serious, and you want us to pray for you, raise your hand.
Well, I was serious. Six years old, raised my hand.
Because I didn't want to go to hell. Forgive me for saying this,
but he kind of scared the hell out of me. I didn't want to go. I mean, it was an awful picture
that he painted. And I didn't want to go. And
then we stood and sang, Just As I Am. He said, now, if you're
serious, if you really are interested, if you're really serious when
you raise your hand, Just come down here and meet me down front."
I was five or six years old, I don't remember now, but I remember
stepping out and I was crying. And I remember slobbering all
over. I said, I don't want to go to
hell. He said, do you trust Jesus? I said, yes. He said, you're
saved. You need to be baptized. You're
saved now. Never doubt it. And I thought,
okay, whew, I felt better about that. And you know I felt good
about that for several years. I felt real good about that decision
that I made. And I was so glad that that night
I decided to let go and let Jesus have His way. I was so glad I
did that. And then a few years later, I
was sitting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and some guy
from Ashland, Kentucky came to preach to us. His name was Henry
Mahan. And he preached the gospel of
God's grace, and he said, this gospel is not in a plan, it's
a person. And that hit me. I started to
say it hit me right between the eyes, but it really hit me in
the heart. Salvation is in a person. It's not in walking the aisle.
I already had some doctrine, but didn't have Christ. We didn't
have Christ. Listen, here's what it took to
save us. It's not about you walking the
aisle. It's not about you raising your hand or answering yes to
a few questions. It's about who Christ is and
what He did and why He did it and where He is now. It's about knowing the living
God through His Son. That's what it's about. It is
about God doing something for you. We are saved in great power,
great power. God the Spirit comes to us. And
something happens inside. Now in this salvation, there
is no question about it. There are some things in this
salvation, glorious things happen outside of us. Election took
place outside of us. Long before God made the world.
Way back out there in eternity when there was no such thing
as time. God set His love on a people. It's really an eternal love.
An eternal choice. He gave us as a gift to Christ
Jesus. And then something else happened
outside of us. Redemption. And that's where
everything was settled. That's where God was satisfied. That's when the law was satisfied. That's when justice was honored.
That's when our sins were put away. When Jesus Christ died.
And then something happened inside of us. And that happens in regeneration. It doesn't add to what Christ
did. Really, it's the result of what Christ did. It flows
out of the purpose of God in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result of His resurrection
from the dead, we're raised from a spiritual death. We're begotten
again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What happens in regeneration?
We're raised from the dead. The same power, read Ephesians
chapter 1, the same power that raised our Lord Jesus from the
dead is effectual in us raising us from a spiritual grave. It's
not about making a decision. I'm not asking you to say yes
to Jesus. I'm not asking you to do favors
for Jesus. I'm not asking you to walk the
aisle for Jesus or raise your hand for Jesus or make a decision
for Jesus. He doesn't need your hand raising.
He doesn't need your decision either. When He comes in in mighty
power, He conquers the heart. And He makes men willing in the
day of His power. And you'll bow down and you'll
kiss the Son lest He be angry with you. You'll say, oh, God show me mercy
for Christ's sake. Well, what has happened to that
sinner? Oh, I'll tell you, a resurrection has happened. He's been raised
from the dead. This is salvation by great power. It's a great salvation. We're
saved by great power. And then we're willing to come
to Christ. He makes us willing. I'm not
an unwilling follower, are you? I'm not an unwilling worshipper
this morning. With the full agreement of my
will, I'm here doing what I want to do, what I delight to do,
what I'm thrilled to do in anticipation of everlasting glory where I'll
do what I want to do perfectly. But the reason I'm here worshipping
today and the reason you're here worshipping today is because
of this power that's effectual inside of us. who keeps us ever
looking unto Jesus. It's not you, it's Him. It's
Him. And the reason we persevere in
the faith, the reason we continue looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, is because He keeps us looking!
He keeps us thirsty! He keeps us hungry! He keeps
us interested! Several of you have been here
for many years. Some are charter members. You've
seen a lot of people go out those doors. People come in, and they
stay for a while, and then they're gone. Never see them or hear
from them ever again. What's the difference between
those folks and you? How come you're still here? How
come you're still interested? How come you still believe? I'll
tell you why. Because He's preserved you by
His power. If He'd let you go, You'd go
back like a dog to its vomit, like a hog to a wallowing in
the mire. That's the truth. Oh God, keep
us, keep us. And thank God He does. He keeps
His people. This is a great salvation. And
He brings us down here into chapter 2, and I'll just give you this,
and I'm going to go back to this tonight. This is just kind of
the introduction for tonight's message. It didn't aim to be
that way to begin with, but all of a sudden it is because this
is as far as I got on my notes right now. And I got the rest
of them to go again. But we get down to verse 10.
Verse number 10. This is a gospel, this is a salvation
becoming to God. And that's the title of the message.
A salvation becoming to God. It becomes Him. It just suits
Him. It's a gospel that puts God in
the very best light. You know, sometimes we'll say
to somebody, well, that blouse just suits you. It becomes you. That's a very becoming outfit. That's a very becoming tie you've
got on there. Just go around like that. Well,
what does it mean? Well, I didn't mean that he became
his tie. He is separate from his tie.
What I mean is that suits you well. It looks nice on you. It just fits you. It honors you. This salvation is a salvation
honoring God. It just makes Him look good.
I tell you, God looks good in creation, doesn't He? Oh, salvation sets forth the
glory of God. All that He made and in His providence. I tell you, that suits God, too.
That's becoming to God. That He's governing all things,
that He's directing everything to the end that He's already
appointed. That helps me in my life. It helps me as a believer.
That's why, as our brother read to us, we shouldn't be anxious
for anything. Because the Lord, by His providence, is leading
us to the point that He's already ordained. You wouldn't fuss about God's
foreordination, would you? You wouldn't fuss about what
God predestinated for you, would you? That route that God has
laid out for you, you wouldn't argue with Him over it, would
you? And yet that's what we do when we murmur in this life,
in this world about the things that happen to us. Our lives
are governed by God and He's keeping us right on track. The Lord is. But oh, neither creation nor
providence so suits God or is more becoming to God than this
great salvation. Just absolutely glorifies. And you can name any attribute
of God, name any attribute of God, The salvation of sinners
by the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ magnifies
that attribute. It had to. It had to. You see, God can only save if
all of His attributes are honored and magnified and glorified. Everything's got to bring Him
the glory. And in His salvation, it does. All of His characteristics are
honored. And we're the recipients of this
great salvation. I said it's a great salvation.
It's great in its results. Great in its results. We go into
eternal glory. And what are we going to do in
glory? We're going to give Him the praise.
We're going to fall down at His throne and honor the Son of God. This is a salvation that is becoming
to God. It just suits God. God never
looks so good as He does in saving sinners. Oh, and we give Him
the glory. We give Him the thanksgiving.
Alright, let's sing it.