Alright, open your Bibles again,
if you would, to that second chapter of the book of Hebrews. The Lord Jesus Christ has many
names, titles, descriptions, and even all that He has, they
are not enough and sufficient to describe His great glory. But one of the names or titles
or descriptions that we find of Him is here in the 10th verse
of Hebrews 2. 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." He's described in this verse as the captain of
their salvation. He is the captain of salvation. the only salvation there is,
the only Savior there is. But the Spirit of God calls him
here, the captain of their salvation. In other words, he is the captain,
or as that word means, the commander, or the prince, or the leader
of God's elect. God had already said long ago
in Isaiah, Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people,
a leader and commander to the people. If you look in Hebrews
5, He is described as the author, the author of eternal salvation. And it is as this captain or
commander that these people have this victory. The victory, as salvation is
called, is accomplished by Him. The psalmist says, O sing unto
the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm
hath gotten Him the victory. And then he tells us by the Apostle
Paul, who writes, but thanks be to God who giveth us, who
is giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is in His humanity that
he accomplishes this. When you read in the book of
Hebrews, it is clear that his humanity is spoken of, his humanity
wherein he accomplishes this role as their priest. as well as their commander. He does this as the God-man mediator. And the apostle here says that
the Lord Jesus, because of God's grace, if you look back in verse
9, it says that because of God's grace, He has tasted death for
this people. He's the captain of their salvation,
and He has tasted death, actually what it is, for every son, not
every person in the world, But just like every pronoun is in
language, it is described somewhere close by and identified by words
that say who they really are. Who does he taste death for? He says, these, in verse 11,
who are sanctified or set apart by God. Of course, they're set
apart by God in that divine election before the world began. They are every son, as you see
in verse 10, these many sons. They are all the children, in
verse 13, which God had given Him. They are, in verse 11, His
brethren. And they are also, in verse 16,
described as the seed of Abraham. It is for these people, this
definite people, that he tastes death for, or in the place of. And why is it that he must taste
death in their place in order to be the captain of their salvation? It is because their sins warrant
death. Death is what their sins require,
death is what their sins deserve, and death is what the just God
of heaven demands for all who have sinned and come short of
His glory if they are to be saved. And if he has taken to himself,
if God has appointed him to be the captain of their salvation,
that death is necessary in him accomplishing that salvation. Now, if you look back here in
this 10th verse, it says in the very beginning, it says that
it became Him. That is, it became not only the
Lord Jesus Christ, but it became or suited and fitted God as He
is. That is, in order to do this
in harmony with his own holy and just self, it became him
who would not and will not and cannot clear the guilty. In other words, whatever Christ
does, In the saving of his people, it must become him, or suit him,
or fit God as he is, or it cannot be a real salvation. So he says, it became him, that
is this holy God who must punish sin. And the cross death of this
captain of salvation is necessary then to display and to show out
all these attributes and the character of God as he is. This priest must deal with things
that are pertaining to God. And as we read in Romans 5, the
grace that God shows in salvation, this grace, he says, must reign
through righteousness. In other words, his love must
not in any way conflict with his justice. His mercy must be
in harmony with His holy nature. Our sin must be dealt with and
punished, and the debt paid, and the penalty endured, and
the law honored, or we cannot be saved. Grace. As Paul says there in Romans
5, must, and in Christ has, reigned in righteousness. And as somebody
said, God's grace cannot be His disgrace. And it says that it
became Him. And the Him here is not like
such as you and I are, but the Him here is God over all. He is described as the God for
whom are all things and by whom are all things. In other words,
God's purpose, and this is totally foreign to our day. It is totally
foreign to our natural minds. And it is certainly totally,
teetotally foreign to the messages that are brought forth in our
day. And that is that God's purpose,
God's will, and God's honor and glory are the chief things. It's not all about us. It's not all about what we need. It's not all about what would
be good for us. If it is not first good for God,
then it cannot be good for us, and the means and the end of
salvation must become and glorify Him first. Now, I don't know
how many times that is exactly what we find in this book. That is, that creation, all of
creation, is to the glory of God. And not only that, but all
the activities of his providence, they are for the glory of God. But most of all, and above all
things, salvation is to the glory of God. If you remember whenever
Abraham was about to take Isaac up on Mount Moriah, And Isaac
began to question him about how that they had the fire, and they
had the wood, and they had the knife for the sacrifice. But he asked his father, he said,
but where is the lamb? Where is the sacrifice itself? And Abraham said, God will provide
Himself a Lamb. God will provide Himself a sacrifice. And that is why He must do it,
because it is first for Him. And it says that all things are
of God, who was reconciling us to Himself by Jesus Christ. Listen to what he says in Romans
11, "...for of him, and through him, and to him." You see, there
are some who will admit to the fact that all things are of him,
but it doesn't say just that all things are of him and through
him, but they are also to him. They are for His glory. To whom be glory forever, Paul
says, Amen. And then when he writes to the
Corinthians, he says this, "...but to us there is but one God, the
Father, of whom are all things, and we are in Him, and one Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." All things. All things are of God, all things
are through God, but all things are especially to God. In Revelation, we read these
words, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure
they are and were created. For His pleasure, for His honor,
for His glory. There's no doubt that these people
will receive a great benefit, an immeasurable benefit. But
the first part, the first aim and goal of this salvation and
of this Savior is to glorify God. Listen to Paul in Colossians
11. It says, "...for by Him were
all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him
and for." The apostle begins here in this
matter of this salvation, and in how this captain accomplishes
this salvation, and he begins by saying, it became him, it
suited him, it fitted him, since it is for his glory. But then he says this, He says,
"...for it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things, in bringing." In bringing. And in the Greek, that's
in the past tense. So it would actually read something
like this, "...it became him in all this, having brought as
he did." He's not talking here so much about what Christ will
do, might do, could do, we want Him to do. He's talking about
what He has done. It became Him, for whom are all
things in bringing. In other words, this is an eternal
salvation. We read that in Hebrews 5. It
is an eternal salvation in which the sons were brought by God
to Himself when He brought them into that everlasting covenant
in Christ before the world began. when He brought them to salvation
through the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. And when He brings them to salvation
through that work of God's Spirit, whereby they are given new birth
and enabled to believe the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. He's the one doing the bringing. He's the one who has brought
them as He has. You remember what Christ said
there in John's Gospel when He said, "...of the sheep have I
that are not of this foe, them also I must bring." He says,
"...in bringing." He chose them to be sons, these many sons. He adopted them to be sons, and
they are born sons in that new birth. And that old hymn writer,
he said it all when he said, sons we are by God's election
who in Jesus Christ believe. He's bringing them because He
has brought And then if you notice here, so contrary to what men
and women say concerning the gospel that we believe and preach,
he says, in bringing these many sons, They say, well, if you believe
in a limited atonement, or if you believe in a particular redemption,
you're shutting Christ up in a box and not letting Him die
for a sufficient number that will bring Him glory. How many
people, how many souls, Would it be necessary for the Lord
Jesus Christ to save and to bring unto Himself in order for Him
to be glorious? You know what our thinking is
in our day. The more, the better. The bigger,
As it is in religion, the bigger the building, the bigger the
membership role, the bigger the offerings, the bigger the outreach,
the bigger this, it's got to be better. And would we dare
say that God is not in all these things that are so big? You just go and read Matthew
7. When He says, broad is the way that leads to destruction,
and many go there, many go that way. But straight is that gate,
narrow is that way that leads to life, and few there be that
find it. The number of souls that Jesus
Christ must actually save is that number that He purposed
to save. His glory depends upon Him as
the captain of their salvation, saving all of them. And if He doesn't save all these
that He intended to save and purposed to save, He has no glory. But the many that spoken of here,
they're not the many in terms of man's descriptions. But they are the many that are
such by God's description. Man likes to say all, everyone. But I can tell you this, God's
many better be in God's many than man's all anytime. As a matter of fact, listen to
what Christ says in Matthew 20. He said, "...even as the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give His life a ransom for many." You can say it like this, He
laid down His life for the sheep. Or you can say it like this,
he came and he gave his life a ransom for many. But they're the same group. They are exactly the same group. The justice of God requires that. In verse 12, it's obvious here,
he says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, and in the
midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee." The many are
these that make up the church, and that word means a called-out
assembly. That's who He dies for. This
called-out, singled-out, loved with an everlasting love, chosen
in that covenant. This assembly, these he brings
out of darkness into light and assembles in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hold your place right there.
Turn back to the book of Acts. Look back in Acts chapter 20.
Because on this occasion, we have the apostle Paul giving
instructions to those elders at Ephesus that he will most
likely never see again on this earth. Look down in verse 28. Look at verse 27. He says to
them, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. What is all the counsel of God?
Do we know what all the counsel of God is? Does that mean that
Paul preached everything, every word, every prophecy, every prophet? That's not what it means. All
the counsel of God is in the counselor himself. And that's
why in other places he said, I determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now listen to
this man. who can say, by inspiration of
the Spirit, I am not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves,
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood." If we didn't know from any other verse of
Scripture who it is that Jesus Christ died for, we'd have to
know it in that verse. He purchased the church with
His own blood. Many. He says, in bringing many
sons unto glory. I'll never forget One time, when
Brother Scott Richardson was preaching for us, and he was
staying with Benny and Peggy, and you know I lived down the
lane behind them, and so we were coming home from one of the services
and we were riding in his car. And so when we turned in the
driveway, I just told him, I said, just drop me off right here and
you can just pull under their carport and I'll just walk on
just a little ways farther down the lane to my house. And he
said, oh no. He said, when I was a boy living
in West Virginia, I lived way up at the head of the holler
and he said it was a terribly bad holy dirt road to get up
there to where I live." And he said, if I could ever catch a
ride into town, I'd ride in somebody's car into town, and if I caught
a ride back toward my house, he said, they'd just stop there
on the hard surface and I'd have to walk that way all the way
up that holler. And he said, I made up my mind
right then, if I ever got my own car, and I was going to take
somebody home, I was going to take them all the way home. Isn't that what the captain does
here? He brings these many sons, these many children of God, he
brings them unto glory. Is that eternal glory? Well, yes. But this has to do
also with Christ's glory, which is spoken of in that ninth verse. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor. He brings each and every one
of these sons unto glory. And the glory of His death was
that it put away sin, that it satisfied God, that it honored
every aspect of God's character, that it saved every sinner He
died for, that it made every person in Him perfectly holy. He brought them through His life
and His death unto glory. Turn over to Hebrews 10 a minute. Hebrews 10, and look down in
verse 9. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
He may establish the second. by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, this captain, After
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." In other words, there's not a
little skirmish to go on anywhere. In the treaty of peace with God,
there's not any detail that is left to be corrected or straightened. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And He has brought all His people,
He has brought all these sons unto glory from their shame. He has brought them from the
shame of self-righteousness to the glory of His imputed righteousness. He has brought them from the
shame of their idolatry to the glory of worshiping the living
God. From the shame of their sin to
the glory of His holiness. From the shame of being the children
of wrath by nature to the glory of the children of God, having
brought, as he did, many sons unto glory." Now notice that
he continues here. He says that it became him, and
then he describes him, he says, it became him to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. Perfect. Now, we ought
to be sure that we understand something. And that is, first
of all, that Christ, as the Son of God, He was already perfect
in the sense of sinlessness and purity and perfection. And as the man Christ Jesus,
He was also perfect And he had to be in order to be the sacrifice. He had to be in order to be God's
Lamb. But what the word perfect here
means is to consummate. It means to bring to a consummated
goal and glory through sufferings as the appointed avenue of it. The way to glory. The way for
him to receive that glory that was said to be appointed to him
of the Father before the world began. In order for him to receive
glory beyond what he already possessed as God the Son. In order for him to receive glory
as the Redeemer. and most especially in our text,
glory as the captain of their salvation. The way to it was
through sufferings. When we have a captain or a general
or somebody that's recognized as a warrior or as a military
person, How is that greatest glory that they receive for being
saved, how did they come to that? They come to it through conquest. They come to it through victory. They come to it through battles
won. You don't see You don't see,
well, I won't say totally, because the standard is much different,
but you would not ordinarily see a real and genuine medal
given unless that person had actually accomplished something,
and most often through suffering, through enduring something. And this means to arrive at a
completed goal through this way and means of suffering. It means something like to finish
something. Seems like I remember hearing
our Lord say something like that when He hung on that cross. He
said, You see, the mission that God
gave His appointed and anointed and approved Captain was to save
His people from their sins. Christ never left the bosom of
the Father to come and make some folks savable. He did not come
into this world on this mission sent of the Father to give all
people a chance or an opportunity. He came into this world to save
His people from their sins. My friend is the captain of their
salvation. If He did not do that, then He
has no glory. These descriptions are given
in Scripture to magnify not only the person of Christ, but the
success of Christ. I would say, if you wanted a
rule of thumb by which to try every preacher and every gospel
and every sermon, it would have to be in this. Is the work of
Christ, the mission of Christ, Was it such in their description
as to leave something for the sinner to make complete or finish? In other words, is the Christ
that is spoken of, is He the one who in His sufferings actually,
did He actually bring these many sons unto glory? Did He really
make them what they were not before, which is holy? Was He really made sin for them,
this One who knew no sin, that they might be made the righteousness
of God in Him? Were they really saved from all
their sins? Isaiah says, it pleased the Lord,
to bruise Him. He was wounded for our transgressions,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed. Now, people like to take verses
like that in the reference to them in the New Testament and
say, well, you can claim your physical healing. No, it's through
his sufferings, through the sufferings of our captain. He says, you
were healed. You were healed. And because
of his successful sufferings, which brought his people to God,
he has received even greater glory. Peter says, for Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit." Now, we believe on Christ. God's people
believe on Him. But we believe on Him, number
one, not only on the basis of who He is, but also on the basis
of what he's actually done. I know people say, well, you
know, you can have a head doctrine, head knowledge, but not know
Christ. That's probably true. But I'm
telling you this, if we don't have the doctrine of Christ,
we don't have the Christ of the doctrine. Do we understand that? If Christ is just some mystical
person out there and I just say His name and you associate with
Him the definition and description you want to, then let's just
close this book and we'll all go home, we won't have any more
disputes, I won't have any more argument with all these preachers
around, all these religious people. If I say Christ and don't describe
Him, I don't have any problem with them. It's when I describe
him by his own description of himself. The Christ of the Bible. He is the captain of the salvation
of all his people. And he brought in his life and
death these many sons to glory. And he did it. He showed himself
to be the one who accomplished that goal through his suffering. And this is who we're commanded
to believe on, and this is what we're commanded to believe concerning
him, that Christ, the captain of our salvation, has gone before
And as they say in the military, He has taken the point, the vanguard. And by His covenant pledge, and
by His victorious death, He has brought us to a full and free
eternal salvation. We've already gone through death
and the grave, and hell in him, and are now seated in the heavenlies
in him victorious. We're not trying to get the victory,
we have the victory in the victor himself. And if the captain succeeded,
And by virtue of God using that name, Captain, there's automatically
this connotation of a fight or a battle or a conflict. If our
Captain succeeded and won, then we're saved. Was his death a
failure or a success? Did he actually obtain eternal
redemption by his blood? God said he did. Did He actually
deliver us from this present evil world? Scripture says so. Did He, in dying, satisfy every
claim against us? Did He bring us unto glory by
His cross death? Well, long before He came, He
gave us a good picture of that by a man who is in so many ways
a picture and a type of Christ by the name of David. One day
David heard the news that all of Israel, the whole army of
Israel, was cowered down on a mountainside, afraid of a threatening, not
so much army, but a threatening man. Probably the first so-called
Bible story I ever heard, David and Goliath. And Goliath was
a giant who stood as representative for the army of the Philistines
and he went out every day and he defied the armies of Israel. He'd say this, he said, give
me a man, you bring out a man and He'll fight against me, and I'll
fight against him, and if he wins, we'll be your servants. You'll be the victor. But if
I win, you'll be our servants, and we'll be the victors. You
see, it all really depended on two men. And David heard He'd
been sent by his father, actually, to go down to the battle where
his brothers were a part of that army, and to take them some food
and supplies, as the custom was. And he heard Goliath. And he said, who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? David said, I'll go out and fight
him. Word got back to Saul, and Saul said, well, I guess he thought,
what have we got to lose? So he offered him his armor and
his sword and all his instruments of war, but David said, I can't
use those. I haven't proved those. But he
went out and he challenged that Philistine giant. He took a stone
from his little shepherd's bag and put it in that sling, whirled
it around a couple times and slung it and it hit Goliath right
in the forehead, right where he had no armor to protect him. And it knocked him to his knees
and he fell down and David went over and took his own sword and
cut off his head. Now why do you reckon God would
tell us a story like that? Because David is a type of Christ. And you can read the same thing
in Romans 5 where it describes, by one man this and by one man
that. That one man in his victory over
Goliath and those Philistines, what he did and what he accomplished
was of a great benefit. to Israel. He was the captain
of their salvation. And that's what our Lord is doing
on that cross. He is being the captain of our
salvation. And He got not only Himself,
but all His people the victory. He saved us. Oh, He keeps saving
us. Like we sung that song prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, here's
my heart, oh, take and seal it, bind my wandering heart to Thee."
He keeps saving us, keeping us, because He's the captain of our
salvation. Father, we pray this day that
You would give us faith, that You'd give us spiritual life,
that we might have an eye to behold the captain of our salvation
seated on the throne of glory, seated at the right hand of the
majesty on high. In his humanity enthroned the
captain of their salvation. May we be found among that people
that you redeemed by your blood, that you by that one offering
have perfected forever by these who believe, rely, trust you
and what you have alone done to save us. How we rejoice in
you. How we delight in our hero, our
true hero. How we rejoice to be assembled
around you. Delight to hear what you've done,
and to thank you, and to praise you, and to know that you did
it for sinners like as we are, who can do nothing to save ourselves. We thank you and we pray in your
name. Amen.