Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our second reading to Hebrews
chapter 2 and reading for our text the latter part of verse
13. Verse 13, the latter part, Behold
I and the children which God hath given me. The whole is a
quotation from the prophecy that we read from in Isaiah chapter
8 and we read from verse 12 there saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee and again I will put my trust in him and again behold
I and the children which God hath given me and we think of
Isaiah 700 years before our Lord come and he is speaking of the Lord
and he's speaking of his children and of those that have been given
him and really as in our text here and in Isaiah we have this
invitation, behold Behold I and the children whom thou hast given
me. And what is upon my spirit here
is that through the inspired word of God, our attention is
drawn to look at Christ and look at his children, to behold them. And we see the relationship between
them. and we see how that they are
pictured in the Word, how they are pictured by the world. If we were to, instead of being
part of this, part of those that are to be
redeemed and whom we trust are His children, If we were to be
looking from above or looking at the whole situation and we
see Christ and we see a people, what would we see? What is the
picture? Sometimes we get so enveloped
into what is happening in our lives, in our own experience,
perhaps to use an expression familiar with us, we cannot see
the wood for the trees, we just see the daily trials, the daily
burdens, the afflictions, and we don't draw back and we see
the whole picture, the whole design of God. But the scriptures show us this
design and sometimes it is good for us to do exactly what is
set before us in this verse. Behold. Look at. Look at carefully. Examine them. Behold I and the children which
God hath given me. Well, I want to look with the
Lord's help at three points this evening. Firstly, the relationship
between Christ and his children. And then secondly, the behold
I, beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, behold the
children. Beholding them, looking at them. But firstly, the relationship
between Christ and his children. There's a lot of this that is
in the very context that is here. We have in verse 10 that 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. And we have many sons and a captain
over them, the captain of their salvation. And we see this relationship
there. we have the very words of our
text that these are children that God has given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father has given them to Him and we have this in John chapter
10 and verse 29 and it's speaking of the security of God's children,
God's people And He says, I give unto them eternal life, they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
hand. What a relationship there! They are in His hand. My Father
which gave them Me is greater than all. And no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And again we have here
our Lord saying, my Father gave them to me. And we have the same
message as well that's set before us in the beautiful prayer of
our Lord in John 17. 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life, who to? To as many as thou hast given
him. a people given to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then we have, later on in
the chapter, again mentioned, I have manifested, in verse 6,
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. You know, the relationship
between Christ and His people begins first in their relationship
with God and with God the Father. They have been loved with an
everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness have been
drawn. They have been chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world. They are His inheritance, and
He is their inheritance. We have a beautiful type of it
in the Levites, the relationship that the Levites had to the Lord. They were to be special amongst
the tribes of Israel, to serve the Lord fully. And the Lord
was their portion, not lands, not houses, not having a tribe
labelled out in Israel, in the coast thereof, but the Lord was
their portion. And they're a beautiful type,
as the whole of Israel of, but the Levites as to the Lord's
dear children. To them also, this is not your
rest, it is polluted. Your inheritance is not this
side, Jordan. Your inheritance is not on this
earth. but it is above, and that Christ
is their portion. They are also a purchased people. You are bought with a price,
wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are His. You are not your own. We belong,
God's children, they belong to Him. What would we think of a
family if it was suggested their children didn't belong to them,
that they weren't part of that family? But they are, and God's
children are part of His living family as well. There's many
illustrations in the Word of God that deal with this very
point, the relationship of Christ with his people, with his children,
with his church. He is the great head of the church.
He is also the bridegroom of the bride, the church. We have
this beautifully set forth in Ephesians, how that Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it, sanctifying it, washing it,
cleansing it. making it a prepared people for
a prepared place. We have in John 14, I go to prepare
a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll
come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there
ye may be also. And all the time the emphasis
here is a relationship And maybe to emphasise this again, when
the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, and they
so provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord said to Moses more
than once, but specifically when there was the golden calf, he
said that he would destroy them, and that he'd make of Moses another
nation. But Moses, he pleaded with the
Lord, and he put him in remembrance that the Lord had made promises
to Abraham. And it was to Abraham's seed
that the promises were made. And it was to, not as seeds of
many, but one which is Christ. And that line to Christ ran through
Abraham, and it encompassed in a natural way the children of
Israel. And what Moses was saying, if
you destroy these people, remember, they are a covenant people. There
is a relationship between you and them. They can't just be
disbanded, forgotten, and some others made. And this applies
to all of the children of God. It is an eternal relationship,
made known in time, that there is this eternal relationship. is very, very evident in the
Word of God. That which is wrought in your
heart and in mine, that which is done in time, you might say,
is only the tip of the iceberg. It is only what is seen. There's
a deep that coucheth beneath. There's eternal counsels of God
and purposes of God that have been brought to pass. in this
lifetime. If we think about it just with
our Lord and what he accomplished on this earth. And we think of
all of the Old Testament types and shadows and prophecies and
then we have just the 33 years that our Lord was on the earth
and the three years of ministry and there is all that brought
together I was like that Christmas carol, the hopes and fears of
all the years are met in thee tonight. You know the set time
coming and the Lord coming to this earth but it was because
of eternal counsels and because of an eternal relationship between
Christ and his children and his people and Many, many different
expressions in the Word of God all the time are emphasizing
this relationship. And the types that we have here,
the types of a father and a children, the types of a husband and a
wife, The Lord has not left us without those scriptural illustrations
of this relationship. Now I hope this evening we look
in a moment at beholding Christ and then beholding his children.
But my prayer, my desire is that there will be those of you that
are brought to see and to realise what a relationship you have
with the Lord and what the Lord has with you, how He needs you
and you need Him. There cannot be a saviour without
those to save. There cannot be the bridegroom
without the bride. There cannot be the firstfruits
without those that follow. There cannot be the elder brother
without the younger ones. where there's a relationship,
there's two sides. And think on this, and may it
be very precious to be put amongst the children of God, to have
it shown to you, to shown to me, that there is a bond, is
an eternal bond between your soul and the Lord, that He is
yours, and you are His, And he is the one that has made that
very clear, very plain. Well, I want to look then, secondly,
more closely at the Lord. Behold I. Behold I. And so the attention there now
is not to the complete exclusion of his people, but to focus on
the Lord, to focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. Going back to our
reading and where our text is here, in Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 9, we have these beautiful words, but we see Jesus. And this is contrasted, this
is all what the Lord has done And at the moment, we look at
the world and we think, well, it seems Satan is in control. The world is in control. It doesn't seem like the Lord
is in control. There's not all things under
him. We don't see that yet, but they
are. They are. He is in control. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not? that this
answers everything. But we see Jesus. It's no wonder
the Apostle said, let us run the race that is set before us
looking unto Jesus. Because our Lord says, I am the
way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And we're not to take our eyes
off the Lord. Remember that. Maybe it's one
of you like dear Peter, you ventured, you're going over the ways and
the billows of life and you begin to sink. Your faith begins to
fail. Lord save me. The Lord put forth
his hand and lifted up dear Peter. We can't, we mustn't take our
eyes off the Lord. He is the one that we're in relationship
with, and those relationships, they speak of how needful He
is to us. And we can be sure of this, the
Lord will use, use the tribulations and trials of the way to draw
us more to look unto Him. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I am meek and lowly in heart,
ye shall find rest unto your souls. All the time it's those
in trouble and tribulation and their bid, look, look to the
Lord, look to me. So with our text, behold, I behold
I and the children which God hath given me. And when we behold
Him, we behold the Lord as one made like unto his brethren,
yet sin accepted. Made of a woman, made under the
law, brought to be a near kinsman, brought to be in the position
to be able to redeem, who? Redeemed those that were given
to him. I lay down my life for the she. And we see him in that position.
We're not to lose sight of the God-man. Emmanuel, we read it
in Isaiah, Emmanuel, God with us. Will God, says Solomon, in
very deed dwell upon the earth? Yes, he did. Job, he says, I
know that my Redeemer liveth. He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth. He knew that. And the Lord did
stand. Simeon knew that he would not
see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. Took him up in
his arms as he was brought into the temple. Lord, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, my nice.
have seen thy salvation." What faith, what faith to behold that
babe and to see that this was his salvation, this was God manifest
in the flesh, this was the seed of the woman, this was that holy
thing that shall be formed of thee and we're to behold him. Now Pilate, when it came right
to the other end of the life of our Lord, when our Lord was
to yield up his life, a willing sacrifice, a ransom for his people,
Pilate, he brings him forth, he says, behold, behold the man,
behold the man. But here we have I, behold I. the Lord would have his people
look unto him, and to see in him what the Scriptures said
that the promised Messiah should be. Come, says the woman at the
well of Samaria, see a man that told me all things that ever
I did. Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the Christ? Yes, it is the Christ, the Christ
of God. and we are to behold Him. We
know, says John in his epistles, that the Son of God hath come. He hath given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true and are in Him that is true
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And it is to behold one made
under the Lord made of a woman to redeem, to redeem. We are
to behold Him also as He was in this world, not the same as
He is on the throne of glory, not in His greatness and His
power, but as He is set before us in the Word, as Paul sets
Him before the Philippians, And he says, being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and made himself
of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. But it is that man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the Lord, as he was in
this world, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, despised by
men, Man, they saw the outside, they didn't see the inside. Even
the disciples, they saw him laid in the ship, Master, care us
thou not that we perish. But then they saw he that was
asleep arise and rebuke the wind and the wave, and there was a
great calm. What manner of man is this, that even the winds
and the waves obey him? What a wonder that they saw the
Godhead and the God shining gracious through the man. In all the miracles
the Lord did, He declared who He was, the man that was born blind and
The scribes, the Pharisees, they tried to take it from him, but
he says, was it ever heard that a man could open the eyes of
one that was born blind? If this man were not of God,
he could not do anything. And so what is viewed? We view
him as he was in this world. And it's important for us in
this way. Now we have the view, the picture
in the Scriptures, the witness of the Scriptures, those that
saw Him, communed with Him, and they testified of who He was
and what He was. Because our Lord, He draws this
comparison and He says, they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world. If they have heard my word, then
they will listen to your word. If they do these things when
he was being crucified in a green tree, what shall be done in the
dry? And all the time our Lord is
saying, I am in the world, I am a real man, I'm walking through
this world. In this world, I will redeem
my people. I will suffer for them. I'll
be crucified. I'll be slain. I'll pay the debt
that they owed. I'll rise again. I will live
a life of perfect obedience, though in an imperfect environment. Though surrounded with sinners
and enduring the contradiction of sinners against myself, my
life shall be perfect. No sin, no disobedience, perfect
righteousness. In this world, to us it is impossible. It is impossible for us, but
not impossible with God. And we're to behold the Lord.
Sometimes we might think, well, if only we didn't have sin surrounding
us, and if the situation was different, There's times I've
thought, well, in the plan of the Lord in sending His Son into
this world, He couldn't have got a worse time than someone
like Herod on the throne. He couldn't have had a worse
time than with the scribes and the Pharisees that were so blind
and so hard. And yet the Lord comes and He
works the greatest miracle of redemption and salvation in these
surroundings. And we are to behold the Lord,
the Man of Sorrows, because the Scriptures are clear that the
people of God are predestinated to be conformed unto His image,
the image that Christ was here below. and yes, later on, His
image above, glorified in heaven above. But while we are here
below, we are to behold, to behold the Lord, what He was when He
worked and wrought the one and only sacrifice that puts away
sin, when He satisfied the justice of God, when He paid the debt,
when He fulfilled the Scriptures, so adverse circumstances, and
yet that great salvation He wrought, and we are to behold Him. We
have this in Hebrews 12. Consider Him, consider Him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Again, our attention is
not drawn to the Lord exalted in heaven, but as He was on earth,
as He was, so are we in this world. May this be an encouragement
to you, because we begin our journey, our pilgrimage here
below. We are born again of the Spirit
here below. And it is here below we first
begin to be followers. The Apostle, when he speaks to
the Thessalonians and those that were called of God, he said,
you became followers of the Lord and of us. There was a real effect
that was brought in their hearts. It brought the people of God
together. We have in 1 John, truly our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. There is a fellowship here below
and a viewing, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, viewing
the Lord's sojourn here below. Well, we not only have to behold
Him in the pages of Scripture in this way, but there's three
very clear distinctive ways set before the Church of God. The
first is this, is preaching. Preach the Word. So it's the
Word of God, and it's preached. The Lord did that on the way
to Emmaus, And though they didn't know him visually, the stranger
that was with him, yet that stranger, he showed them Christ in all
the Scriptures. The eunuch, he sees the Lord
in Isaiah 53 through Philip's preaching. It hath pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save then that belief. And so, through the Word, through
the preaching of the Word, behold I and the children whom thou
hast given me. May there be many times under
the preaching of the Word you say, I beheld Him, I saw Him. You know, in Song of Solomon
we have the spouse, the asking, saw ye Him? whom my soul loveth. We have the Greek saying, so
as we would see Jesus, and we have in this passage here in
Hebrews, but we see Jesus. And that word has been precious
to me, was blessed to me many, many years ago. And may we, this
evening, through the word, Behold the Lord, behold the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, then we have the ordinances
of the Lord's house. We have baptism. Buried, and
here we have again the relationship one with another. Buried with
Him by baptism into death and risen again in newness of life. And there's an identifying with
Christ's death and with his resurrection, dying to the world, rising in
newness of life, dying to self, living unto God, the power of
an eternal life. Old things pass away, all things
become new. An empty tomb, he is not here,
he is risen, a people, that are risen with Christ. Because I
live, ye shall live also. And then we have the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper. As oft as ye do drink this cup
and eat this bread, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he
come. This do in remembrance of me. Behold I and the children Our
attention is to be drawn to Christ. And what is it in that ordinance?
A broken body. A shed blood. Where was that done? On Calvary,
when the multitude are crying, away with him, away with him. When his disciples are so sad. When he yields up his breath
and the centurion, he says, truly this was. a righteous man. May we be helped in the words
of our text and in the preaching and the ordinances of the Lord's
house to behold the Lord. but not just on his own. Behold
I and the children. There's a beauty of the relationship
and in our text you can hardly separate between them to make
two points because they are so close together. And so I want
to look then in the last place of the children. Behold the children. Sometimes they're spoken of as
the sheep, my sheep. They hear my voice, they follow
me. Well, sheep often can't see the
mark on their own back that links them to the shepherd. But our
Lord says they're quite apart from that mark. And some of you
might think, well, what I need is I want to be told that I'm
one of God's children. I want to see the mark. The Lord
says, no. I'll give you a token, I'll give
you a mark. Do you hear my voice? Do you
follow me? That's the token that he gives
in John 10. And so we have, behold the children. Look upon the children. You think
of what we said at the beginning, to draw back and to look down
and we view the Lord and we view His people. What do we see? What
does the world see? Well, you know, by nature. They
won't see any difference. Yeah, they might be brought up
under the sound of the truth and there'll be an outward difference
like that. But our hearts are just the same.
They're fallen, they're lost. And many of the Lord's children
too have been plucked as Ruth was from heathen nations from
where they never heard the word of God. But then the Lord made a difference.
I pass by thee when thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast
in thy blood I bid them live. Born again, how the Lord so emphasised
it, ye must be born again. Born again of the Spirit, risen
in newness of life to have a spiritual appetite. to view the Word as
you never viewed it before, to view the things of God as you
never saw them before, a difference. There'll be a difference in our
own sight. Paul once saw the Pharisee of
the Pharisees in his own sight. There was nothing wrong. But
when the commandment came, he says, sin revived and I died. That holy law of God made known
what he was, a sinner. Himmler says, sinners can say
none but they. How precious is the Savior. So when we behold the children,
we behold those who acknowledge that they have sinned. Do you
think of the parable of the prodigal son? I'll return to my father
and say I have sinned. I have sinned." You hear David,
when Nathan comes regarding his adultery and murder, and he falls
under it, Nathan, he says, thou art the man. And David said,
I have sinned. And Nathan says, the Lord hath
also put away thy sin. When we look at those that the
Lord has given him, his children, we see them acknowledging their
sinnership, that they are sinners. And that humbles, it brings low,
they feel unworthy. And it's not just in the head,
here on my heart, the burden lies and past offences pain my
eyes. The sins of one's youth, those
sins that stare one in the face. So that's what we see, a difference
made, and the first aspect is this, they become sinners. And they see what the deserts
of sin are. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all points of the law to do it. The sentence of death. Another mark they have that is
in Hebrews 13. They confess. What do they confess? Our Lord
said, and we mentioned it just before, they are not of the world,
or I am not of the world, even as they are not of the world.
They confess that they are strangers and pilgrims in the earth, just
the same as the Lord was. My kingdom is not of this world. He says of his people, this is
not your rest, it is polluted. So when we look at the people
of God, we find them willingly saying and testifying, this is
not my rest, this is not my home. I remember going into the pilgrim
home a year or two ago, and there was Ron Bishop, and he'd come
in, I never knew him before, And he was so attention as I
was taking the service, he was right in front of the desk where
I was taking the service from. And afterwards I introduced myself,
he introduced himself and said, you're here just for convalescence
or are you here to stay? He said, oh no, I'm here to stay. And then his face lit up. And
he said, but this is not my home. He said, I've got an eternal
home. And you know, it wasn't long, only a matter of months,
if that, and the Lord took him home. But it was that sudden
realisation, the home that he was going into, the pilgrim home
in that case, That wasn't his eternal home. That was to be
a hell when his poor body was being taken down, readied for
the grave, his spirit ready to be loosed and to be with the
Lord forever and ever. And he hadn't lost sight of that. That'll help you to loose from
your own home and to go into a stopgap home, as it were, in
a pilgrim of Bethesda, on the way to a heavenly home. and to
be found with the Lord. You know, the Lord's dear people,
they confess their strangers and pilgrims, and in the things
they say and how they act, they give that impression, here are
the people that have a heavenly home, they're longing for it,
they often think of it, they speak of it, and the Church of
God is to be like that. Behold, I and the children. Behold the children. What do
you see in the children? It's what they think of Christ. They speak well of Him. In His
temple, everyone shall speak of His glory. Now when the Lord
shines, shines on His Word, shines in our heart, then how we would
love Him and we think well of Him, speak well of Him. point
to thy redeeming blood, and say, Behold the way to God." You think
of what the spouse said when the daughters of Jerusalem, they
were, no, why do you charge us so that if you find him, you
do not awake him until he please, and why do you charge us with
these things? You obviously have some reason,
and she, says how much he loved him and could see a beauty in
his locks, his head and his whole body as it were. How do we view
Christ? One of our hymns says, what think
ye of Christ, is the test, to try both your state and your
scheme. Unto you which believe, he is
precious. That's in Hebrews here, isn't
it? Unto you which believe, he is precious. It won't be the
same every day, all day. Sometimes we get in the dumps
very low, very cold, very hard, cast down. But dear Francis,
there have been some times he's been very precious. Precious
sometimes in the want of him, sometimes in the possession of
him, sometimes in the word he drops down into your souls, sometimes
in the providences that he leads you in, sometimes in the helps,
in afflictions, sometimes as his spirit brings to remembrance
what he's done for you, points you back to Calvary, points you
to the love of God. sheds abroad that love in his
soul. Behold the children. You see
these children, they are impressionable. Their changes, they come and
go, but it all depends on the Lord. When He shines, they have
light and happiness. When He withdraws, they have
darkness and sadness. He is their life. The apostle
says, when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, then shall
we appear with Him. and you see his children reflect,
reflect his glory, reflect that relationship. If you love someone
and you can't be with them for a long while, you feel it, you're
sad, you miss, you miss them. Through this pandemic there's
been much of that. And how is it with our Lord?
The Apostle says, absent from the body, present with the Lord,
desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
And these things that mark out the people of God, so different
than the world. The world doesn't like this.
They don't want to be told they're sinners. They don't think anything
of Christ. They don't see any beauty in
Him. They don't say they're strangers in this world. There's not been
a difference made by God's grace in their heart. They don't love
holiness. They don't hate sin. They don't
groan because they have a body of death, and because the good
that they would, they don't do, and the evil that they would
not, that they do. But God's children do. Behold
them. Look upon them. May the Lord
use the word tonight like a mirror and turn it round. And say, dear
soul, this is you, is it not? Do you know something of this
path? Do you know something of this work? This picture of the
people of God? Does it bear any resemblance
to you? I know you say, it's a poor resemblance. I feel ashamed. But is there
a resemblance? And is your prayer is, do put
thy seal, thy mark there? that I am one of thy children? Behold I and the children which
God hath given me. May the Lord draw this together
this evening and give you dear friends that sweet witness that
there is a bond not just between God and His children, but between
your soul and the Lord, by the grace of God. And dear friends,
if it is not so, if the word this evening you say, well, this
picture of God's children, it doesn't at all bear anything,
any resemblance to me whatsoever, may you be really concerned of
this. Print thy own resemblance there. Put me amongst the children.
Beginner work in my heart, let us be more like the Lord, and
desiring to be less like the world. Never be ashamed of that
man of sorrows. He who wrought our salvation
on Calvary's tree works that salvation in our hearts in this
same world, and his salvation is suited and perfect. to be
wrought in this world and in the heart of a sinner. Yes, it
is for sinners. Sinners can say, and none but
they, how precious is the Saviour. May the Lord bless this. Bless
this word to you and to me. Behold, I and the children which
God hath given me. May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.