Hebrews chapter 10. I've got
a great, a great message this morning. And it's great because
I'm preaching about the captain of our salvation. And the good
thing about a great message is, is even if it's not presented
well, it's still a great message. I've got a great message today.
Let's read together Hebrews chapter two and verse 10. That sounds like I sent you to
chapter 10. No, okay, we're good. Verse 10, for it became him,
God Almighty, for whom are all things and by whom are all things
in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. Let's pray. Father, we pray for the glory
of your son, our savior, for your blessing to be upon your
word. I would pray for your blessing upon your servant and upon all
those, Lord, who are in hearing of this voice today, that they
may hear, oh Lord, the clear sound of the gospel, that there
may be folks in this very room today that may be allowed to
see the very face of Christ in this passage. And Lord, we pray
that you'd bless us, keep us from ourselves, keep us from
our vanities, keep us from our sinful flesh, and reign, Lord,
and truly make this a great message today, for, Lord, there is no
more wonderful one in all of Scripture. For it's in Christ's
name we pray, amen. The book of Hebrews is an inspired
letter It was addressed to Jewish believers living in Judea not
long before Jerusalem was destroyed around A.D. 70. And as with all
the New Testament epistles, the purpose of this letter was to
reveal Christ, to reveal Him as sovereign Lord of all and
successful Savior of His people. But this epistle, this epistle
to the Hebrews in particular, being addressed to believers
of Jewish descent, being formerly, therefore, of Jewish religion,
sets forth the Lord Jesus in ways in which he is not presented
in New Testament epistles addressed to Christians saved out of paganism. It's different. All of us who
have read this book realize it reads a little differently. The
message is the same. The Christ is the same. The manner
of reasoning is different. Just as the epistle sent to the
Gentile converts deal with Gentile misunderstandings of the gospel,
in the same way the letter to the Hebrews deals with the religious
baggage that was peculiar to born-again Jews. God meets us
all where we are, where we begin from. Chapter one, for example,
in this light, repeatedly addresses A problem for them, the superiority
of Christ over angels. Now this wasn't obviously wasn't
a problem for Gentiles, but it obviously was for Jews or it
wouldn't have been inspired this way in light of God's frequent
usage. abundant usage of angels as his
messengers in the Old Testament and the many Jewish myths and
legends that had developed over time and had become a part of
the Jewish culture at the time of this writing. In spite of
that, God patiently, in this letter, addressed the Jewish
cultural infatuation with angels in the book of Hebrews. In chapter
1, the Holy Spirit declares angels to be but the servants of Christ,
and as such, at the service of the redeemed. Look there in verse
6. Where we read when he brings the first begotten, that's the
Lord Jesus into the world. He says, let all the angels of
God worship him. Therefore it sets angels down
below Christ and makes it clear where angels are in that hierarchy.
And again, in verse 14, it tells their purpose. Are they not all
ministering spirits? Are they not all spiritual servants? sent forth to minister, to serve
those who shall be heirs of salvation, he teaches them about the place
of angels. This thing about angels, though,
carries on over into chapter two, and it serves as an underlying
reason why what's said in this chapter is said. Here the inspired
writer deals with this potentially confusing question that underlies
all of this chapter, which no doubt many Jews of that day wrestled
with in regard to the humanity of Christ. How could the Lord
Jesus, as a man, be superior to angels, spirit beings, who
are obviously far greater than men? How could he be the God-man
and angels be less than him? And again, that was a confusion
for them. The response in verses five through nine is another
one of those passages which confirms, that's chapter two, confirms
that the Bible is the inspired word of God. A mere philosopher
would have gone around his elbow to get to his thumb to explain
some elaborate concoction of how Christ could manifest himself
as though he were a man without actually being one. There have
been writers who tried to do that. But the inspired writer
here, was given and charged to concur, to go ahead and be straight
up, face forward about our natural inability to comprehend the incarnation
of Christ. Twice, in verses 7 and 9, he
confirms that Christ's humanity was very, very real. You made
him a little lower than the angels. That was hard for Jews to get
a handle on, but he just told them straight up like it was.
You made him, as a man, a little lower than the angels. Now, I
believe that the difference between Christ's human nature and the
angels' spiritual nature was more than a little. That word,
a little, can be understood in two ways. It can be understood
in terms of degree. He was made a little less than
the angels, speaks of his human nature as opposed to angels spiritual
nature, but it can also at the same and is translated many times
in the New Testament as a little while. It's a statement about
time. I tend to think that's the way
it should have been translated here. I believe that if Christ
truly became a human like me, sin excluded, yet subject to
death, which proved he was human like me, that in such a condition
he was for a little while, vastly inferior to angels. Oh my, what
a thought, the son of God, like you and I. How awkward the angels
must have felt on that day of his temptation in the desert
when they had to care for him like an invalid, weak, emaciated,
barely conscious, or to observe him by Jacob's well, tired, thirsty,
hungry, how especially strange it must have been for them his
eternal service to keep guard over the dead body of the giver
of life. I imagine that was very difficult
for them on those occasions. But sandwiched between those
two verses, seven and nine, speaking and openly admitting Christ's
absolute humanity, we find the confirmation of his absolute
deity. Look there at verse eight. You
have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. That can only be said of God
Almighty. God Almighty. And then beginning
with the latter part of verse nine, he proceeds over the next
10 verses to expound why it had to be this way. Look there in
verse nine. But we see Jesus. who was made lower than the angels
for a little while. And here's the reason why. Because
of the suffering of death. Christ as God cannot die. There's only one reason why Christ
became a man. Because only as a man could God
die. Now for a little while I want
us to work down through these verses in chapter two. And I
want us to study closely These four questions, these are amazing
verses. Why did Christ die? How did he
die? Who he died for? And what his
death accomplished? Let's jump right in. Why did
Christ die? Simply put, Christ died to bring two things together. He died in order to make peace
between God's holiness and his love. If God's love had been
limited to elect angels, there would have been no death. No
atoning death would have been required to satisfy his holiness
if he had only set his electing grace upon angels, those elect
angels. Bible says they're holy. and
the least bit offensive to the Almighty. Therefore, if he had
chosen them alone, there was no barrier of sin or evil to
hinder the full and free expression of his love for his chosen heavenly
service. There have been no need for Christ to die, had he only
placed his love upon angels. But verse nine makes it clear
that there is also an immense number, an immense population,
of the sinful descendants of Adam that God also loves and
truly loves. But we see Jesus, the one having
been made for a little while less than angels, because of
the suffering of death, in order that he, by the grace of God,
taste death on behalf, and it literally says, each, each. on behalf of each one, and we'll
get back to that later on. And because of that, have him
been crowned with glory and honor. Therefore, the reason Christ
died is first of all because God has eternally and irrevocably
set his love on a host of sinful men and women. Is that not an
encouragement? that God, before he ever made
the world, set his love on a whole bunch. Remember that no man can
number of sinful people like us and determined to save them. John 3.16 teaches that. For God
thus loved the world. World is used there in the New
Testament sense of both Jew and Gentile alike. Not just Jewish
men, but Gentile men and women too. God thus loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that all who believe, and
notice that verse never says that all who choose to believe,
all who will to believe, all who decide to believe. That verb
is not in that verse. that all believers, all believers
in Christ not perish. Did you know what's going to
happen at the end of this world? Every single person who somewhere along
the way was called and caused and made by God to trust Christ
in spite of themselves, they're going to be saved. And everybody
else is going to be lost. And do you know who Christ died
for according to that verse? all those that are going to leave
sometime in this life. He died for them. They put away
their sins. He didn't die to make it possible
to be saved. Oh, may God grant you to be able
to get your heart around that. He didn't die to give you a shot
at it, to give you a chance to be saved. He died so that you
could not be lost. That's the only death that'll
do a sinner any good, that you can't miss it. You can't be lost.
Romans 5, 8 and 9, very familiar verses, teaches that same truth.
God commends, He demonstrates, He lays bare His love for us
in that yet being sinners, having nothing to commend us back to
Him, but He lays bare His heart to sinners. And this is how he
did that, for still being in that condition, Christ died for
us. Now, if you're a freewheeler
like I have been most of my life, that means nothing to you. Christ
died for everybody, so what's special about that? Those for
whom Christ died, every last one of them must be saved. Hell's not populated by people
for whom Christ died. If he died for them, they wouldn't
be there. If Christ died for you, you must be saved. God loved
us before the foundation of the world, so much so that he set
his love upon us and he proved it to us by sending Christ to
die for us while we still yet hated him. Much more then, what
could be better than that? Well, here it is. Having been
now justified by his blood. Let me tell you what that means.
That means before you ever knew about it, you were justified
if you're one of those for whom Christ died. Because it's not
justified by our amen, nor our confession, nor our committal,
nor our repentance, nor anything we do, we're justified by his
blood, pure and simple. There's rest, there's rest. Romans
eight, let me give you another one. Paul wrote this and said,
for I've been persuaded, Let not death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, beings far greater than us, good angels
or bad angels, nor things present, anything going on in my life
right now, nor things to come, anything that will come before
the end of time, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature will be able to separate us from what? The love
of God. Every last one God loves, He
saves. Would you have any other God?
Who would bow before any other God? Those whom God loves, He
saves. They will not be able to separate
us from the love of God. Why? Which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Everyone God loves, Christ died
for. And everyone Christ died for
must be saved, cannot be lost. The second reason why Christ
died is not only in order to honor God's love for his people,
but also he died because God is holy, and there's the problem.
There's the problem. God cannot love, God cannot,
his love cannot be given where his holiness has not been satisfied. He cannot just decide to love
you. I think most religious people,
they see God as somewhat benevolent in the sense that He looks down
on sinners and He says, poor people, poor people, I should
do something for them. And that's not the way that works.
No, it's not His pity for our sinful condition. No, it's His
eternal love. And yet the problem is He's holy.
He can't just pity sinners. He loathes sinners. Those loathsome sinners that
God has revealed our true self to us. We loathe ourselves, do
we not? Do we not? I loathe my every
thought. Every thought is always off. It's always downward. It's
always going back to my sinful nature. Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 10 was an interesting verse in this regard of God's holiness. Let me follow along with me and
I'll That word became, it's actually
the word becoming, fitting. It was fitting for God. That
God because of whom all things, things exist because God made
them exist. Things are as they are because
God makes them as they are. And it was fitting for Him because
of whom all things and through whom all things. Everything comes
to pass exactly as God would have it to be. It was fitting
for this God though, however, in leading many sons to glory,
to perfect the captain of their salvation through sufferings. What a gruesome and a terrible
death. Lord Jesus died for us. Why would such a terrible, agonizing,
bloody show of death be fitting? How could that be becoming to
God? Most folks nowadays in our modern
religion, we don't talk much about that part. We don't talk
much about the gore and the blood and the suffering of the Lord
Jesus Christ. People don't like to talk about the blood. Don't
like to talk about the suffering savior. They talk about God is
love and Christ is love and we'll do better and he'll be happy
with us and we'll all be good after a while. No, it's not like
that. It can't be like that. God killed his son with all the
vehemence and the hatred and the scorn and vengeance and wrath
that you and I deserve for all of our sins. Because he's holy. Why did Christ die? There would
have been no need had God not been holy. If he wasn't holy,
Christ would have been spared. There would have been no need.
God could have just changed his mind. Okay, we'll let it slide. Oh, but God is holy. There's no natural example to
explain the suffering of Christ. Because in natural examples,
it's always one offended sinner forgiving another offending sinner.
And that's all just a matter of vain pride, because at the
end of the day, the offended one could just as easily have
been the offender. So I mean, there's no way to compare anything in
our society with God's forgiveness. But when Christ died, he wasn't
just trying to get God the Father to accept us as we are. Oh, no. He actually made those he died
for acceptable to God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy. Paul wrote
in Colossians, because it pleased the Father that in him, in Christ,
all the fullness dwell. And it also pleased him through
him to reconcile all things unto himself. How? And I like this
terminology, making peace. making peace. God loved his people. God's holiness loathed his people. And the death of Christ brought
those two together in perfect harmony. And God's holiness is
preserved and honored and magnified in no way any more so than through
the cross of Christ and his love. Likewise, what a great demonstration
of God's love for sinners. That was his son. He was doing
that, too. What a wonderful thing. through him to reconcile all
things to himself making peace, through the blood of his cross,
through him whether things on earth or things in heaven. At
the time Christ died, there was a whole Old Testament full of
God's people that were already with God in glory. And that death
of Christ covered every one of them. paid for all of their sins. But that's after the fact, Mark.
Well, maybe in terms of time. But in eternity, it all works
out on God's timetable. Oh, no. Things on earth, those
who were alive at the time Christ died, and things in heaven, those
who are already past, dead and gone. And you, then being alienated
and enemies in your minds, still hating God by your evil works,
but now He reconciled. What a wonderful word. He reconciled
you. In his fleshly body through death. Here's what the kicker is to
present you. Holy. I can't see it. Can you, you
can't see it in me and I can't see it in you, but God's word
has absolutely. And the spirit of God has absolutely
convinced me that there is a whole lot of holy people in this room. made absolutely, sinlessly, faultlessly,
flawlessly, blamelessly holy. To present you wholly, blameless
and irreproachable before Him, before God Almighty. The death
of the Lord Jesus Christ alone is capable of satisfying God's
love for wretched sinners and giving sinners peace and entrance
in the presence of God most holy. How did Christ die? This passage
is very enlightening as to some of the mystery of the nature
of his death. How did Christ die? The nature of Christ's death
is every bit as essential as the fact of it. There's a whole
lot more in the statement, he died in our place, than what
most people are aware of. I've heard a lot of people attempt
to illustrate with some earthly illustration the essence of Christ's
death, but I've never heard one earthly scenario that even comes
close to defining the spiritual reality. Some good deed for another
is just not what we're talking about here. It's far deeper than
that. When we speak of Christ as our
representative before God, it's not merely a legal relationship. Most folks believe that. Most
folks believe that there's a sense somehow or other, Christ died,
God took the benefits or the results of that death and somehow
on the books of heaven, he applied that to our accounts. And therefore
we're considered, they like those words, we're considered as righteous,
we're looked upon as righteous, God regards us as righteous,
and there's nothing in the scriptures that teach that kind of legal
transference of righteousness from one to another. That righteousness,
beloved, it better be yours. It better be mine. It better
be truly ours if we're to stand before God. It can't be pasted
on. It can't be just on a book somewhere saying we are. Can't
be an affidavit in our pocket that we present. It has to be
a true righteousness, absolute righteousness. The divine reality
of our justification by Christ is our justification in Christ,
in Christ. His death was one of spiritual
union. He became one with us, beloved,
a long time before we ever thought about becoming one with him.
His death was one of union with his people. That's the only explanation
of how God could kill him. God is true. God is absolutely
honest. He's absolutely straightforward.
Things are real with him. They are what they are. He could
not have simply cut a deal with the Lord Jesus and said, now
son, I love you. I know you're as holy as I am.
I know you're as righteous as I am. I know you've never done
anything wrong, but I'm going to have to treat you as though
you did. I'm going to have to say that you're the guilty sinner,
and I'm going to have to look on these miserable wretches,
and I'm going to have to say they're the righteous ones. We're
going to have to play this role change, and for a while, you're
just going to have to endure this, and I'm going to treat
you like you're bad, and we know it's not the truth. That's not
what happened. That's not what happened. Wasn't
it interesting in verse 10, the latter part, it became God Almighty.
It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, by whom are all
things, obviously talking about God the Father. It was becoming
to him and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain
of their salvation perfect? Who's more perfect than the Lord
Jesus Christ? He had to be made perfect? He first had to be flawed in
order to be made perfect. When was he flawed? He was flawed
when he became one with me. He was fatally flawed. He was
terribly flawed when he became one with his people on the cross. Look at verse 11. For both the
ones sanctifying, that's the Lord Jesus, and the ones being
sanctified, that's all of his people, are all of one. Now, in the language in which
the New Testament was written, that one can either, based on
the way it's spelled, can either be referring to one person, or
one thing. This is the one thing. The one doing the sanctifying
and the ones being sanctified are all sanctified together out
of one thing. One redeeming act by which the
Lord Jesus was sanctified from our sins and we were sanctified
from our sins. That says something about if
we were all sanctified by the same redeeming act that he was
sanctified right along with us. You know what that means? That
means our sins really did become his. I don't know about you,
but that fills my heart with shame. I'd rather he didn't know
him. I'd rather he never had come
that close to me. I don't even want my wife to
know that much about me, much less my savior. But he was sanctified
in union with me through the same death that I was. Look with
me very quickly in 1 Peter 2. We refer to this passage often.
It's a wonderful one. It's a simple, very simple little
short verse, but it speaks an eternity of blessing for us as
people. 1 Peter 2. I'm sorry, I said 1 Peter, 2
Peter. Well, let's see. I must have
the wrong reference. Give me just a second. I was right the first time. 1 Peter 2, verse 22. Speaking of Christ, and here
we preserve for all those people out there who say, Mark, I don't
like the way you're talking because you made Christ a sinner, did
not make Him a sinner. The scriptures are very faithful
to preserve His absolute holiness. Verse 22, who Himself did no
sin. Neither was guile found in His
mouth. He spoke nothing sinful or amiss. Who when He was reviled,
reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not. He didn't say, I'll get you back.
But he committed himself to him who judges righteously. And look
at what it says here. Who his own self bore our sins
in his body up on that tree. It literally says he carried
them up in his body. He carried our sins up on that
tree. They were His. If they're in His body, they're
His. They became His own. He wore them as His own, and
in Psalm 40, He spoke of them as His own. My sins, He called
them, are more than the hairs of my head. They were His sins.
There's nothing that can explain that. There's no deal cut in
heaven that can explain His laying claim to them and calling them
His own, feeling the shame of them, knowing the sinfulness
of them, knowing the dark evil. They became His own because we
became His own. because all of his people were
in that body somehow. Mystery of mysteries, I don't
understand. My only hope is what that is nonetheless. Who his
own self carried up our sins in his own body on the tree.
That we, that we, and actually that being dead to sin is actually
present tense. That we dying to sins. I didn't
die. You didn't die. Christ did all
the dying. But doesn't that tell us how
close that union is? That God looked at him and said,
we died. That we, dying to sins, live
unto righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. Everything that
was true of us became true of him. when he joined himself to
us on that cross. And everything that became true
of him as a result of his successful satisfactory atonement became
true of us. Paul writes to the Colossians
and says this, for you died, you died. Colossians 3, look
it up sometime. You died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. I was joined to Him on the cross,
and I'm still joined to Him, even in glory. I am with Him
in oneness. Now, He died a death of unity
with us, and He died a death of absolute substitution. 2 Corinthians
5.21 reads like this. The one not knowing sin, He made
sin. We often say that apart from
Christ, we're nothing but sin. On his side of that equation,
the inverse became true on the cross. In union with us, he was
made nothing but sin. Thankfully, he was still the
true and righteous son of God, but in terms of his humanity,
it was sinful by our sins through our union with him. So back in Hebrews, in Hebrews
9, he says, so indeed Christ having been offered once and
for all, that's verse 28. Indeed Christ having been offered
once and for all to bear the sins of many, he will appear
a second time to those expecting him without sin and to salvation. The nature and the description
of Christ's death in the scriptures for His people can only be understood
as the result of His union with His people, our absolute substitute
in God's presence. We've been there. The judgment,
the final judgment, I don't want to demean that, I don't want
to make that anything less than the terribly frightening thing
it is, but the final judgment, we've been there, beloved. We've
been there. We've been there and yet we were
spared from it all at the same time through union with Christ.
Now, who did the Lord Jesus do this for? Who did Christ die
for? Look back at Hebrews 2 and verse
9. I want to look closer at that ending of that verse. But we see Jesus, who was made
lower than the angels for a little while, for the purpose of the
suffering of death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. Now, bad translation is not a
bad translation, but it's given a lot of people a lot of reason
to think that he died for every last, you know how it goes, I've
heard it all my life, he died for every last man, woman, boy,
and girl who has ever lived, who's living now, whoever will
live, he died for every last human being. That's not the intent
of that writing. First of all, the word man is
supplied by the translators because there's another one of those
words. Because that every can either be spelled to mean everything
or it can be spelled to be animate. Everyone. And it's animate. He
might taste God, by the grace of God, might taste death for
each is what it actually says. Each one. Each one who? each
one of a particular group of people that God knows by name,
each and every one of them. In this passage, he makes it
clear. First of all, we find that he died for his many sons. Look in verse 10. And for it became him, for whom
are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons. Now if God was intending to bring
all men and women, boys and girls, to the Lord Jesus, don't you
think he would have said that? But he didn't. He didn't say all
sons. He said many sons. All are not
sons of God. All are not daughters of God. All are not saved by the grace
of God. And I know what your first inclination
is. It's the same as my sinful heart.
We would say, well, he tried to save them all, but they just
wouldn't. What kind of a God is that? What
kind of a God is that who tried to save some and couldn't? And
you're going to trust him? How could you trust a God who
tried to save you and couldn't? You obviously must be trusting.
Folks are not trusting God. Those who say that I put my faith
in Christ, and because I have put my faith in Christ, he's
going to save me. Women, are you putting your faith in Christ,
or are you putting your faith in your faith? You're putting your
faith in yourself. I've done my part. Now I put
him in a bind, and he's going to have to do his, because I
did my part. Oh, no. Christ died for God's
many sons. I like two things about that.
If Christ only died for God's sons, then it makes God God Almighty,
and he won't lose a one of them, and it's not up to chance. But
what I also like is that word many. He's got a bunch of them. He has many sons. How many? More than you and I can count.
The good thing I like about that is I can believe in sovereign,
predestinating grace. I can believe in absolutely pinpoint
accurate, electing grace, and still look at that word many
and say, maybe I'm one. I might yet be one. And those
people, you know what, everyone that finds themselves in that
position where they bow before God's providence, they bow before
his sovereignty, they bow before his right to choose, and not
having a right to choose, you know what all of them do? They
all cry out for mercy. Folks who have a choice don't
cry out for mercy. They take their pick. God doesn't
save people who take a pick. He saves everyone who cries out
for mercy. Do you have hope in your will?
Oh, how I feel for you. Do you have hope in your decision?
You're trusting yourself. Look to the Savior. Read your
Bible. Read all the Gospels. Not a single
sinner who came running up to that man and said, have mercy
on me, were ever pushed away. He saved them all. Well, I thought
you believed in election. I do. All those people were elect. But I don't know who's elect.
God doesn't mark them for me. I know that everyone who comes
to him he saves, and he's never not saved one of them. Who else
did he save? His many sons. Look at verse
11 and 12. For both he who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren,
brethren, saying, I'll declare my name, thy name unto my brethren. Christ saved his brothers. And
to not be against females, he saved his brothers and his sisters.
He saved all who were in the family. He saved his family. You ever wonder why as families
we feel a connection? It comes from God. God loves
his family. He sent his son to die for his
family. God loves his brothers. Christ died for his brothers.
Look at the latter part of verse 12. In the midst of the church.
Who Christ died for? He died for the church. Everyone
in the eternal church of the Lord Jesus Christ is one he died
for. Look at verse 13. And again,
I'll put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the
children. Which children? The children
which God gave me. Every one of us as children of
God are a child only because God gave us to the Lord Jesus
and he died for us Look down at verse 16 For barely the Lord
Jesus took not on in the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham all of those Years and years and years in
the Old Testament that one little people stood as evidence of God's
electing grace Now there might have been a Hittite or two saved
There probably was an Egyptian or two saved. There probably
was some of those other groups and other tribes that were saved.
But they were saved because they were God's people. And that physical
tribe of the Jews, that ragtag bunch of God-hating people, rebellious
God-hating people, he used as the Old Testament symbol of electing
grace. They were his people, and he
had mercy on them over and over and over again. That's not much
different than us, is it? day-by-day what an aggravation
I am in myself to my God and yet for Christ's sake he sees
nothing but love for me what a wonder who Christ died for
he died for the seed of Abraham he died also look on down in
verse 17 wherefore in all things it behooved him He had to be
made like unto his brethren, not the entire world, but 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, the
people of God. Who'd Christ die for? He died
for God's people, God's people. If Christ died for everybody,
his death is meaningless because it works for some and doesn't
work for others. How do you know it's gonna work for you? Well,
I'll just have to do the best I can. Then who are you trusting?
Who are you trusting this morning? Oh my. Finally then, what did
the death of Christ accomplish? This, if you're interested in
truth at all, this should finish, this should round out the message
today for you. Not only is the scripture clear about who Christ
died for and it was a particular people, but what did it accomplish? That speaks volumes, volumes
of who he died for and what he accomplished. What did he accomplish?
Look in verse 14. Freedom from the power of death.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
they're sinners, he also himself took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him, render powerless him who had the power
of death, that is the devil. Now these old bodies, brothers
and sisters in Christ, These old bodies, I feel it more every
day. I've had an ache I can't get rid of in my shoulder. I
hope it goes away sometime. These old bodies, we don't look
near about as good as we did 25 years ago when I first got
here, and I'm not talking down to you. I'm the same. We don't
nearly about look like as good as we did back then, and we're
going to look worse. These old bodies are going to pass away. But I and you, the real me and
the real you, that was joined to Christ upon that cross are
no more subject to death than he is. We will not die. We have no fear. Oh, I fear pain. I fear pain. I don't want to
die an agonizing death. I don't want to die a gruesome
death in a fire or suffocate. I don't want to do that. But
have no fear. After those few minutes pass,
have no fear of what's beyond. Because my Savior took care of
everything that I needed to have taken care of for me. It's done. It's finished. Freedom from the
power of death. Only my flesh will pass away,
but I will never die. Look at verse 15. Freedom from
the law. And deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He's talking about the bondage
of the law. Do I keep the law? I've never
kept a single law of God one time, not even close. And yet,
in Christ, I've never broken a one-off. Stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. Stand before the great white
throne. I tremble at the thought of that.
I know who Mark Daniel is. He's a wretch. He's a pitiful
wretch, and he can't help himself. But I have no fear. Amidst flaming worlds, in the
righteousness of Christ arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. Oh no. Christ died for a people
from whom he, and he liberated them from the law. And finally,
he freed us from the wrath of God. Look at verses 16 through
18. Verily he took not on him the
nature of angels, Christ didn't die for those fallen angels.
Their fate was sealed and it will not be undone. He took on him the seed of Abraham,
God's elect. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brothers, that he might be a
merciful, faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor,
to help, those who are tempted. That word reconciliation is actually
the word propitiation. There was a transaction that
took place that day on the cross. God demanded a payment, an infinite
and eternal payment for all of the sins of all of his people.
And beloved, it was paid. The agony and the suffering and
the blood and the death And all of those hours of torment were
not just the physical pain. It's true that he suffered terrible
physical suffering, but that was not the intensity of it.
The intensity of it was a hell, an eternal hell for me. The suffering
of an eternal hell for you, beloved. And every last one of us was
placed upon him. You and I will never know hell,
brothers and sisters. We will never know hell by the
grace of God, but he knows it very well. We will never know
the wrath of God poured out in all of its fullness upon our
head. He knows exactly what that is. He suffered in those hours
on that cross, all of the eternity of suffering that every one of
us as his people would have suffered. And he put that away. God, I
say this with great humility and I say it with great trembling. God cannot be. God cannot be
angry with us. He cannot. He already has been. And thank God for the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's finished. He cannot be angry
with us. Let me finish and read this last
passage in closing. Here's the captain of our salvation. For all sinned, that is when
Adam sinned, and therefore now we come short of the glory of
God. But being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth a propitiation,
a sacrifice which fully and absolutely satisfies God's holy wrath, through
faith, not in ourselves, but in his blood, for a showing forth
of God's righteousness in his passing by the sins having been
previously committed in his forbearance in the Old Testament times, as
I was referring to, and unto the showing forth of his righteousness
in the present time, that he, God Almighty, because of the
captain of our salvation, be just, holy, and justifier. of that one whose sole object
of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord give you that look
this morning. Let's pray.