It is good to see you this morning
in the house of the Lord. I ask you to turn to the book
of Hebrews chapter two. We'll basically be going through
most of the chapter here and looking at some of the things
about our Lord concerning his qualifications. We all know that Christ took
our sins away. Well, that's easy to say, but
then, as we would in anything else, there have to be qualifications
for that. For our Lord to take our sins
away, certainly He must be qualified. It has to be done in a manner
only acceptable unto Almighty God. And we know in the presence
of Almighty God, there can be no sin. We've been told this
many times in the Scripture that we can come into His presence
with seeing, but we cannot do that without the Mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Only when Christ has taken our
sins away are we allowed to go through Him as our Mediator to
a high and holy God. where we can pray unto God and
Christ mediates those prayers unto Him personally without having
to go through a priest or a preacher, without having to sacrifice an
animal, as was the requirement before the redemptive work of
the Savior, for He was the only acceptable sacrifice, the final
sacrifice, the one that is complete. And He alone is the Great High
Priest. And so we'll look at some of
those things this morning and we begin by reading verses 5
through 8 of chapter 2 there. It says, But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son
of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and thou didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet, for in that he put all subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put
under him, but now we see not all yet all things put under
him." First of all, for Christ to be qualified to have taken
all our sins away, He has to be sovereign. He has to be a
sovereign Christ. If He takes these sins away,
first of all, we have to look at His sovereignty. There are
many that would categorize our Lord as an angel or a chief angel,
and certainly that is not qualified in the Scripture. and it is not
acceptable. This passage points out to us
that in eternity past, present and future, that has not been.
It is not now or never will it ever be that we're under the
subjection of angels or that our Lord was under the subjection
of angels. The Lord is sovereign over all,
has been, and will always will be, as we see there in Zechariah
14. And the Lord shall be king over
all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord, and His name one. This past that we speak of, the
present that we live in, the eternity that we look forward
to, is not run by anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
in charge. The angels are not in charge.
Those things that must be done in establishing the kingdom to
come and ruling over it in eternity, the angels are not qualified
for. But yet we live in a world and a time when so much emphasis
has been put on angels. There have been numerous books
written about it in the past. There's been numerous books written
about it of late, of their existence and of their ministry. And I
guess this subject came to my mind when I was handling the
affairs of my mom and the lady at the court where she had to
handle all the paperwork and all, she was She was just eat
up with this, that angels and their ministry and how she adored
them and all these things. But we have to be careful and
that we must understand that their place and position is in
the ministry of Christ, not as leading Christ, not as having
some influence of Christ. And we have to understand our
place as well. Many times, their existence,
as I saw with this lady, is used as a tool of Satan to take away
from the work of the Savior. And isn't that what all false
religion is about? is to take away from the work
of the Savior. Yes, these angels are messengers. Yes, they're servants as shown
in Scripture in the past, and in the present, and certainly
in the future. But they, as each and every one of us who are saints
of God, have a part. We are a part of the body of
Christ. We're not the head of Christ, or neither are they.
Most important, we must understand the superiority of Christ in
all things. whether earthly or heavenly.
He is the center and He is the head. He is the sovereign. Above all, there is but one Christ. All others claiming to be are
false. The work and responsibilities
of angels is known only to God because He is sovereign, superior
to angels, superior to men. Our worship and praise is only
to Him. It is the world that worships
a fallen angelic being, Satan, as we know the history there.
And though he promotes the lie constantly that there are no
equals angels equal with the Savior, the following claim is
given there in the Old Testament. It says there in Isaiah 14, for
thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like
the Most High. And then we read in that verse
6, But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man
that thou hast art mindful of him, or the son of man, that
thou visitest him? The Old Testament speaks much
of Christ, as we learn every time we sit under Brother Gary's
ministry. Every scripture, everything about the Bible is about the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him being crucified. Certainly, as we see
there in Psalms 8, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is the name
in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babe and sucklings thou hast ordained
strength. because of thine enemies, that thou mightest steal the
enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon of thy stars, which thou
hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and
the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Thou makest him to have the dominion
over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet." Certainly the writer here speaks of man. In both of
the references in this verse, it is questioned as to what makes
man qualified to receive the precious gift of the Savior.
And certainly we see in the sovereignty of God there is absolutely no
qualification in man. What does he have in him that
God would see that would make him take notice of him? Absolutely
nothing. Why would God be mindful of man? Why would he visit him or pay
any attention to man at all? Why not let man just go on in
his sin and destroy him in judgment? There is nothing in sinful man
that deserves even the notice of God. But even though Man failed,
God never has taken his eye off of his own. He did this in his
sovereignty, in his choice, in his choosing, in his call, in
looking at mankind as a whole, as we look at the earth as a
whole. It is the grace and mercy of God that allows it even to
exist and the universe to go on. It is He that provides and
allows man to continue. Though we find just the opposite
taught in the world in which we live today. That it's all
about what man has done and it's all about what has just happened
automatically in nature. That nature's in charge of all
these things when all the accomplishment and all the emphasis is put upon
the accomplishments and intellect of man. But we know in His sovereignty,
in salvation, it can only be grace and mercy and the love
of God, of Almighty Sovereign God that turns the unregenerate
heart of man. There is nothing in man that
qualifies him. Again, only in the sovereignty
of Christ. It is God's choice, not man's
choice, all for the glory and honor of God. Man has neither
the ability or, as listed here, the qualification to approach
a holy God, only in the redemptive work of the Savior. More important
to understand is that man will never choose God on his own. He will never make that choice.
We cannot grasp the magnitude here when we speak of the sovereign
sovereignty of Christ. That is a thing that has been
watered down over and over again in the age in which we live.
But yet this magnificent sovereign holiness does not match up with
the portrayal of the God we have preached in the pulpits of the
world today. We must remember that God is
just as holy today as He was When we read of him in the Old
Testament, when it was in eternity past and in eternity future,
that has not changed. But yet in all the false religions
that we see around us, in most of the churches that are being
preached this morning, God is your best bud. He's your granddaddy. You can sit in his lap in a rocking
chair. And certainly that is not the
truth. It has been vividly pointed out in scripture of his holiness
and of the consequences of not taking that holiness seriously. The more we understand the sovereignty
of our Lord, the more we come to terms with our own inadequacy. It is Christ that provides salvation. It is He that calls us unto Himself. It is He that seals us. There
is nothing that we can do, no qualifications whatsoever in
us that would cause Him to seek us out, nor any that would cause
us to seek Him out. In verses 7 and 8, as we read
before, we see that God made man a little lower than the angels.
He gave him a place in the world of leadership, a place of superiority. Where? In His creation of angels,
they were created as messengers and servants. Man was given the
responsibility in the matters of creation when he was put in
charge of all these things as we read there in Genesis. With
the fall of man, what did he do? He failed. He failed in his
role of leadership that God had put him in. And that failure
continues in each and every one of us today. Predominant in the
day in which we live, predominant before we were born, predominant
in the future. We were born with that failure.
A better word there, we were born with that sin in our nature.
The sin of man does not get any better. You have to be a blind
man to think this world is getting better. As the scripture states,
and Brother Gary told us last week, it continues to wax worse
and worse until that last chosen saint is called unto Christ.
With sinful man Present, there is nothing but scourge upon the
earth. In the presence of the Lord throughout
eternity, that is all changed. In the place prepared for his
own, for those that he has chosen, there will be no sickness. There
will be no disease. There will be no crime or pestilence
or disasters or the need for emergency services or hospitals
or law enforcement or armed forces or dictators or even presidents.
All these things will be erased in that holy environment where
He is the sovereign. All this in the sovereign purpose
of God. Man was given these things. Man
failed at these things. God knew that he would fail.
It was not a surprise to God. It was not something that he
had to deal with on the spur of the moment. He knew that man
would fail, that he did not have that ability, that he was not
qualified and in that manner, and only the redemptive work
of the Savior would overcome that sin. And we see that there
in the first chapter of Genesis. We note in the responsibilities
of Adam here as we see those verses in Genesis, he had it
with all creation until the fall. He had this responsibility of
being in leadership. He had this responsibility of
being above all. And each and every one of us,
as of his descendants, are born fallen, just as he was. Left
up to our sinful self. Every time we're going to choose
ourself. Every time we're not going to
choose God. It is only when the Holy Spirit
does that work in our heart. And we will see that relationship.
Certainly, again, with the return of the second Adam, as we see
those things written for us in Revelation, where those things
become under the leadership of Christ as how the lion and the
lamb are together, and the tools of war become those agricultural
tools. There was nothing that was not
put under man originally, and yet he failed at all this. He
had it in his hands. He was in control of all this.
There was nothing that he could not conquer or control. But with
the fall, all that changed. His attempt at ruling and controlling
was self-oriented. That continues with us today.
That sin continues with us. Every false religion in the world
today is an attempt at ruling and controlling. It's an attempt
at self-orientation. It's all about man. It is always
the fallacy of self. It is always the sin of self
that causes man troubles. The sin has to be taken away. The more God is taken out of
the picture, certainly the worse things we see things become,
certainly we can see that all around us. Left up to man, there
is nothing but sin. Left up to man, there is nothing
but failure. There can be no success. Success,
yes, we see by the world standard, which means absolutely nothing.
But as the Scripture promises, all this success will burn to
an ash and count for nothing. It is only through our Lord,
the Sovereign Christ, that this scenario can take place. It is
only in Him that salvation is accomplished. It is only in Him
can His own be mediated to a most righteous and holy God. In the
sovereign ministry of our Lord, we see first that He created
all people, He created all beings, even the angel. In His sovereignty,
only in His power can the sins of a fallen man be redeemed.
There is no false God. There is no person, image, or
thing that is qualified other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then we see also that there, as we look at verse 9 here of
Hebrews, there is a submissive Christ. 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, should taste death for every man. How can the fall of
man be overcome? How can our sins be taken away? Certainly this truth is vividly
pointed out in these verses here. That in His sovereignty, we will
see the things He did for each and every saint of God. It is
not the qualification of man, as we saw previously in those
verses. It was the willingness of the Son of God, not only to
lower Himself, lower than the angels, And certainly that would
be quite a miracle, but to lower himself to the level of man,
to become submissive. Had Christ not been willing to
do this, there would be no salvation for us. There would be no taking
away of sin. He was obedient not only to become
man, but to die as well, to suffer and experience the penalty of
fallen man. There was no death before the
fall of man. Christ had to pay that price
in that willingness and fulfillment. Of his mission, he was highly
exalted by God the Father. His redemptive price was accepted
by the Father, and our way to God was sealed by the Shepherd.
As Philippians 2 tells us, and being found in fashion as a man,
he humbleth himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. And
as the second Adam Christ had to become man, lower than the
angel, he had to be victorious over sin, he had to be victorious
over death. As 1 Corinthians says, the first
man is of earth, earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. The victory could have only been
possible had he not gone to death. Had he not tasted death, for
all that is called unto him, there was not one drop of his
redemptive blood that was wasted. As Titus says, who gave himself
for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Important
in the passage that we see Jesus. To see him, you must be one of
his own. We see what He has done. We understand
the validity and the depth of His sacrificial death there on
the cross. We understand that He is the
crucified Christ, that He went there in our stead. His sufferings
and all things that He did on this earth was not enough. It
was only completed in the suffering of His death when that price
was paid. Submission to the cross, to the
shedding of His blood, to His death. His death was crowned
in heaven by His Father with glory and honor. It was an acceptable
sacrifice. The redemption was complete.
It was acknowledged as complete and acceptable. And there is
no other way, despite what is preached all around us, despite
what man says all the time, there is no other valid way to the
Father but through the Son. No greater example of submission
do we have than in our Lord Jesus Christ. For in that submission,
he completed the redemptive work wherein his grace can be multiplied
unto the believer. As Romans 3 tells us, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. And that we would see not only
that the things that we've looked at, we see that Christ is salvation. As the 10th verse says, for it
became Him for whom all things and by whom are all things in
bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. For it became him. That is the
key to this passage. For it became him. We could use
the word fitting here, or as we say in the South, fitting.
We use that word a lot, but it was fitting that he is our salvation. All that the Lord Jesus had to
suffer, including His death, was consistent and was harmonious
with the sovereign purpose of God. Each and every action was
holy. Each and every action was righteous. There was no sin about it. There
was no sin in Him. There was nothing frivolous,
or there was nothing done for naught. Had there been no humiliation,
had there been no suffering on the part of Christ, had there
been no crucified Christ, his redemptive work would not be
valid, and certainly there would be no glorification in his action. The current term that is used
in the verse here, captain, means originator. Christ is the source
of our salvation. He is the initiator of our salvation. He is the leader that has made
this road to glory possible. Acts 5, Him hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Certainly, He is the Alpha
and Omega. He is the beginning and the end.
He starts it, He completes it, He is the originator of our salvation
and He is the consummator of it as well. You think about the
rescue of a drowning man, how a man is drowning in the water
and he is pulled out and saved. He is not safe unless He stays
out of the water. If one would drop Him back in
the water, then He would continue to drown and continue to dry.
That is what is so wonderful about our Savior. Not only is
He the originator of our salvation, He keeps us in our salvation.
He does not throw us back. He does not let us go. He is
always there. This was made possible by what
He did. By what He did in becoming a
man, No other purpose, no other plan, no other purpose, nothing
else would have been acceptable unto a most holy God. Christ
was made perfect. Of course, as God the Son, He
was already perfect. But we see also that He was made
perfect as the Son of Man through His suffering and through the
salvation that was completed in Him. He suffered all and more
than any man will ever suffer. He understands as our high priest
what each and every one of us go through. Surely, He is an
example for all of us as saints of God. As Philippians 2 says,
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and
He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He was made perfect in all of this. He is qualified in being
the Son of Man as well as the Son of God. He is God Himself. But that perfection did not make
the way for our salvation. It had to be in this purpose
and plan of God. It had to be in His death on
the cross that made possible our salvation. is not valid,
and it is important to remember that in the day and age in which
we live, because this is what separates everything, all religions. Salvation is not valid without
the crucified Christ. He had to pay the redemptive
price for our sin. No one or nothing else could
have done it. This is the suffering ministry
of our Lord. God made all things that were
for Him. Why does the universe exist? Because God wanted it. He chose
it. It began in the mind of Christ.
That is the origin of the universe that so many today argue about
concerning this universe's beginning. This plan of salvation was made
possible that God, as it says here in this verse, could bring
many sons to his glory. He is calling out a people for
his name. These things are the purpose
of God. There is no happenstance about
it. There is no guessing about it.
There is no depending on man for it. Salvation is only in
him. As captain, he is the author
of our salvation. And then as we look in that 11,
Worth it says, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified, all are one, 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 praise unto thee. And again,
I will put my trust in him, and again, Behold, I and the children
which God hath given me." What a tremendous passage we have
here. Sanctification here, the setting the saint apart, to be
apart from the right to be set apart from the righteous judgment
of god set apart not in our own righteousness not in our own
holiness but in the righteousness and holiness of almighty god
and the righteousness and holiness of our savior through the holy
spirit we are formed and conformed not anything in ourself for we
can accomplish nothing but sin it is all in the lord jesus christ
the context of the word And this verse goes further that it does
not speak of a condition, but a position sanctified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have a position. in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we belong to the same body, that He and we are one. He is the
head, we are the body. And to put it in the vernacular
of today, we're on the same team. There are no differences. His
truth means the same to all that are part of His body. This is
the fallacy of the religious movements of our day that group
all people and beliefs together under the offices that we are
all in the family of God. No, we're not. That we just see
and interpret things a little different. No, we don't. According
to the scripture, there can be no fellowship between men that
do not believe the truth according to God's Word. And it has been
so vividly pointed out to us thus far in this scripture, there
is only one way to God, despite what man says, and that is through
the Son. He is the one that takes our
sins away. He took our sins away. If that
be the case, then how can those who don't believe in the Son
have fellowship? We can't. Or those who don't
believe that Christ's work was enough, that there had to be
some addition by man. Or those that believe the path
of God, and certainly this is prevalent today, is through the
mother of Christ. All this is false religion. We can't be a
part of them. We're not set apart with a group
like that. Those that are set apart in Christ
are in Christ. They're truly sanctified in Christ.
Our position is in Christ. Those that are truly His are
on the same page with Him and with each other. There is no
shame to call those of this same position, brethren, for we are
all one. in the Savior. Revelation 20
says, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He which
is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. For we to be righteous and holy,
it has to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the holiness and righteousness
of the one true God. Certainly we have no holiness
and righteousness in ourselves. And then as we look at verses
12 and 13, and we've already read some of those, our endearing
and endearing relationship to Christ is declared there in those
verses. He and the believers are one,
and He's not ashamed to call them His. He's not ashamed to
call them brethren. We are brothers with the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are, as the scripture says,
we are flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, spirit of His spirit. We are His blood because we're
covered by His blood. We're covered by His redemption. We are the chosen saints. No
matter that we are man, he is not ashamed to call us his own.
He is not ashamed to call us brothers. We are all in the family
of God because he has taken our sins away. Psalms 22 tells us,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of
the congregation will I praise thee. Certainly referencing that
group of believers that are his own, that are the body of Christ,
a following, a group of men and women that belong to him. not
only brothers to Christ, not only a part of Christ, but brothers
to one another as well. most importantly, of course,
to Christ. He declares Himself and all the saints as brothers,
members of the same family, that they are all acceptable to a
holy and righteous God through the working and the redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalms 18 says, The Lord is my
rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation, my
high tower. Yes, the true Christ qualified
to sanctify us, that He alone has the strength and the ability
to call us out, to choose us, to call us out, to set us apart.
He alone has the ability to remove our sins. Again, we see the sovereignty
revealed here. Behold, as Isaiah says, behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and
for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts. God gave Christ
to His children in the counsel of His eternal love. They belong
to Christ. The Lord Jesus receives them,
rules over them, rejoices in them, and perfects all their
affairs because we have none of these ability. Taking them
and presenting them unto His Father, as John 17 points out
so vividly throughout the chapter. In removing our sins, certainly
He can sanctify us. He sets us apart for a holy purpose. Holiness not in ourselves, but
holiness in God. Acceptable to God the Father,
bringing glory and honor to God the Father. And then in verses
14 and 15 it says, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death
that is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death
were all lifetime subject to bondage. Just as we are flesh
and blood, so was Christ as the Son of Man. So was the Lord Jesus. When He became lower than the
angels, He became the same flesh and blood as we. He became man. And though He did not sin, He
suffered, as the Scripture talks about. He suffered every pain,
persecuted in every way, more than any man that has ever or
will ever live. This allows Him to be qualified. This allows Him to be our true
mediator and comforter, to understand exactly what we are going through
and what each and every one of us has to face, has ever faced
or will ever face. Christ shared in the flesh and
blood of man, shows that it was something that was not naturally
by His nature, yet He took it upon Himself so that redemption
could be possible. Only through this way, only through
this route, could the power of death be overcome. Only could
Satan, the essence of death, be defeated and ultimately destroyed. For those who know the Lord,
for those that have been called unto him, this action by Christ
has rendered the prince of darkness powerless. He cannot use death
against the Satan death against the saint of God. Our Savior
subdued the prince of darkness. Christ was truly born to die. Die so the redemptive price of
a most holy God would be accepted. Die so that each and every one
that God had given Him could be called unto Him. Die so that
Satan is totally defeated. Satan, the author of sin, Sin
caused the fall of man through the wiles of the devil, death
being the result of that fall. But yet all of this was wiped
away. All that is reversed for those
chosen before the beginning of the world. Through the redemptive
work of the Savior, as we spoke of in His sovereignty, Satan
and all that follow him has been defeated. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is the victor, and in Him we are the victor. And certainly
John gives us that finality there in the revelations. And the devil
that deceived them are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented
day and night forever. In the flesh, as we see there
in verse 15, we see, in the flesh we are in bondage to death. In
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are freed from the bonds and brought
into the presence in righteousness. How do we escape the fear of
death? How can we be delivered? Only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is He that removes the sting of death by taking away our sin. He delivered us by changing the
very nature of death. from a sentence of eternal judgment
to a passage into a blessed and blissful eternity with Him. He
assures us that our soul shall never die. We will never become
extinct. There is no end to man, whether
saint or sinner. There is eternity for everyone. What is it we have since the
earthly advent of the Savior? Certainly, we have the resurrection
of the body. It will not stay in the ground
forever, for the same it will be made like unto Him, as the
Scriptures tell us. Christ also gave us these truths
to ponder through His Word in our earthly sojourn that makes
us not fear death. We are called to do no more than
the Lord Jesus Christ did. Death of the saint brings no
separation from the love and the care of the Savior, nor from
the Savior Himself. Death will not separate us forever
from our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord has promised
us all that we need in that time of dying, grace to sustain us,
all that we must endure. He has promised of our abode
beyond death, surely a comfort, that we're not placed in a grave,
never to experience another breath of life. What can we do as Christians
to overcome our fear of death? Paul states that we're to die
daily, to acknowledge that the things of this earth grow dimmer
and weaker while the spiritual things become most important
to us. We should hold loosely to the things of earth. We should
bind tightly to the eternal heavenly things. The least fear over death
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. Blocking out
the world, looking not unto ourselves, but looking unto the Savior.
Our fears are calmed in that God-given faith. Paul states
there that to live is to be with Christ and to die is gain. The fear of death is subdued
in Christ as He has subdued the prince of death. And then lastly,
we look to see Christ is sympathetic unto each and every one of us
His own, as we see there in verses 16 through 18. 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 make 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. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted. He is able to
succor them that are tempted. He is stooped lower than the
angels and become man. This was done so that His job
as High Priest could be accomplished, that He be a faithful and merciful
High Priest, and certainly He is. Faithful in that He was obedient
even unto death, that He did not change His mind on the way
to the cross, that He did not call down angels and destroy
all those around him, that he accomplished exactly what he
was here to accomplish. All that was necessary to reconcile
his own to God was completed and forever accomplished. Just
as our Lord was tempted, as we see in these verses, we see that
in the wilderness there, Satan offered him the whole world,
all that he would have. All he had to do was to give
up. All he had to do was turn from the Father and not complete
the purpose of God. There is no temptation that we
can experience that our Lord has not been tempted with. And
he says that, and he has overcome them all. It is not within ourselves
to overcome. It is not within ourselves to
be victorious. We as sinners will fail every
time when we depend upon ourself. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the author and the finisher of our salvation. He alone in
His accomplishment has taken our sins away. It is He that
provides our path to God the Father who bathes us in His love. It is the Holy Spirit that quickens
and sanctifies us that we can receive this love. Man from the
fall of Adam is lost. There is no hope of help. There
is no hope of salvation other than in the redemptive work of
Christ. He is completely Man is completely dead in his sin.
Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. There
is no faith. Apart from Him, there is no joy.
There is no comfort or peace or hope, and the list goes on
and on. Truly, He and He alone took our sins away. There is
but one true Savior. He provides all that is necessary
to come unto the Father. His redemptive work is complete. His redemptive work is Perfect. There has to be no addition.
There has to be no subtractions. If there is, it is not the true
gospel, but a false gospel. There is no more comforting truth
that we can come to understand than to know that in the Savior,
We have all that we need because He sympathizes with our every
need. Only the Lord Jesus Christ is qualified to take our sins
away. We have looked at those things
that make Him qualified, His sovereignty, His submissiveness,
His saving, His salvation. His sanctifying, His subduing,
and certainly His sympathizing ministry. All these things make
Him qualified. For those of us saints of God,
He gives us hope, joy, comfort, and peace that we rest in His
work, not our own, but that of a qualified Savior. As 1 Peter
says, who his own self bear our sin in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes we are healed. He is the only hope. He is the
only salvation. John 5 says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him,
that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
common in the nation, but is passed from death unto life."
Truly, only our Lord Jesus Christ can take away our sins. Our fathers,
we come to you just now. We're thankful for these scriptures,
just as all scriptures back up everything you did. We're thankful
that this is the truth. that we don't have to depend
upon ourselves, that all we have to do is to see the crucified
Christ. We're thankful for your calling,
for your choosing, for your sanctifying, for all these things that we
can't list now that is the qualifications of a true Christ. We're thankful
that you've shown us these truths. We're thankful that you Open
our eyes, because we don't have that ability. And we're thankful
most of all for our Savior. In His blessed name we pray.
Amen. I would just like to say thank
you. That's good word this morning.
And wouldn't you like to have a copy
of that? I pray that the Lord will give
us grace to have that put in print. I really do. I'm thankful that the Lord has
taught somebody the truth, the gospel. I don't know any other
way to say it except to say thank you. Thank you. Bless you. Yeah. Yeah.