All right, take your Bibles again
and turn with me to Hebrews 2. Hebrews chapter 2, our text will
be found in verse 10 and 11. The scripture says, 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 suffering. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. I'm tired of this message, the
fitness of Christ, our captain. The fitness of Christ, our captain. Scripture here, for it became
him. And these words mean it was just
fitting. It was just right. It was necessary. For this one, whom are all things,
and by whom are all things. Now then, I see this as both
the Father and the Son. We know that both the Father
and the Son are accredited with the creation of the world. It was by the Father, but truly
it was through the Son that all things were created, and all
things are sustained. So this has, I believe, has reference
to either one of them, can be mentioned in this. But again,
I think the text is looking specifically at the Son. From chapter 1, All
the way through this we see that it is the Son being magnified. It is the Son who is the express
image of the Father. It is the Son who is the final
word. It is the Lord Jesus who is better
than the angels. And so we see this as reference
to the Son. I believe it is over in Colossians
1. Yes, in Colossians 1 it says
this, In verse 16 it says, For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. This is specifically speaking
of the Son. The Son. In John chapter 1 we
read again, In the beginning was the Word, and that's speaking
of Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things
that were created were made by Him. They were made by Him. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. Therefore,
the Apostle By this assertion continues to express again the
deity of Christ. We speak of Jesus, we are speaking
of God. He is God, very God. He is the Lord of glory. He is
the express image of the Father. Upholding all things by the word
of His power. Never forget, believer, that
your Savior is God. Dwight tells us in the first
verse there in chapter 2, he says, he says, therefore, we
ought to give more earnest heed to these things. You that know
these things, you that have heard these things, we're not to just
say, oh, well, I know that and move on. We don't know the fullness
of it. And so we must look into these
things again and again, be reminded of them. That our Redeemer, listen,
He is the Creator and Sustainer of everything. I don't know if you understand
the fullness of that. Can you not see that everything
that makes up matter in this universe is held together by
Him? The chair you are sitting in is held together by Him, by
the Word of His power. Your body is held together by
Him. Everything that lives and moves
and has its being is by His power. That's who I'm talking about.
I'm not talking a weak effeminate God who's just up there wishing
for things, desiring things and can't do anything. I'm not speaking
about that puny deity of religion. The Christ that I speak of is
God who created all things and by Him all things consist. They move. You decided to come
here, didn't you? Really, who decided for you to
come here? You or Him? You think you decided to come
here without Him? That don't happen, friends. No, that's the
one I'm talking about. Yet, listen, consider this. He who is God, very God, was
yet willing to become man, very man. He was willing to become a man
of sorrows, not just a man, but a man of sorrows, familiar with
grief. Look at this in verse 9, he says,
but we see Jesus. who is made a little lower than
the angels. Isn't that what he says about man? He says in verse
7, you made man lower than the angels. Well, guess what? He
who made the angels and made man became a man lower than the
angels. Why did he do that? For the suffering
of death. You realize when he said, when
Peter tried to resist those men from taking him, he said, look,
this is why I came into the world. I came to die. That was his purpose. And so
in our text, when it says this, for, therefore, it was just fitting. When he came into the world as
a man, it was just right for him to do so. It was becoming. Appropriate for the Son of God
to be made flesh. Why? Why was it appropriate for
the Son of God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things to
be made flesh? For it became Him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons
to glory. That's why He came in the flesh.
He came in the flesh for that purpose, to bring many sons to
glory. This was his purpose in becoming
a man, to save his elect people. What the scripture here says,
sons, sons, to bring many sons to glory. I'm gonna give you
several reasons why it was just fitting, why it became him to
become a man. First of all, it was fitting
because it was the eternal purpose of God the Father. He became
a man, it was just necessary for him to become a man. Why
was it necessary for Jesus to become a man? Because God the
Father purposed it. That's why it was necessary. You see, God's eternal scheme
of salvation lies in the self giving of the sun. It lies in
the gracious gift of himself. Which is only consistent with
his nature. For God to be gracious, listen
to this. It's his nature. For Christ to condescend to become
a man is part of His graciousness. It is the manifestation of His
nature. Our nature is not to be gracious.
Our nature is to fulfill our own lust and have our own way. That's how we are. But it became
Him. It is just becoming. You know,
when He came down and said, yeah, that's just like Him. Just like
Him to be gracious. I thought of Jonah. Remember
old Jonah? He didn't want to go to those Ninevites and he
got mad and ran off and God put him in the whale's belly and
spit him out on the boat. And he went and preached. And
this is the most reluctant preacher that ever lived. He didn't want
to go. He didn't want those people to
be saved. He went through preaching hell. They're going, God's going
to send you. That's all he did. Run down the
street and tell them God's going to condemn you. And he got out
there and he crossed his arms leaning underneath that little
gourd, that tree, just waiting to see what God's going to do.
You know what God did? He didn't destroy them. Those
people repented. Those people believed. And you
know what he said? He said, that's just like you.
That's just like you to be gracious. I knew you'd be gracious. That's
why I didn't want to come. I knew you'd be gracious. So
why did he become a man? Because God is gracious. Behold,
it's only fitting for the God of all grace to be so gracious
as to send his only begotten son, the eternal object of his
love and affection. To take upon him the seed, not
of angels, but of Abraham, of man. To become a man for those who
never could deserve that. Never could deserve it. Paul said, you know, scarcely
for a righteous man would some dare to die. For a good man,
maybe, you know. What about sinners? Who should
die for a wicked, evil man? Christ came to die in that when
we were ungodly, Christ died. So what then, therefore, listen,
There is nothing. Nothing. I can't emphasize the
word nothing enough. There is nothing that compelled
Christ to come into this world. Nothing obligated Him to come
into this world to save sinners. Nothing except His own grace. You realize that God is only, was only obligated to give his
son and to save those he purposed
to save in an eternal covenant of grace. He's only obligated by himself. That's the only reason Christ
is just becoming for Christ to come down. I want to come down,
not because of you. Because God in an eternal covenant,
an oath, he swore an oath to save a people for himself. And Christ agreed to be the surety,
to be the savior of those people. What obligated God to do that? Nothing but His grace. Nothing. Listen to what He says in Ezekiel
36. Ezekiel 36 verse 22. He's speaking about this covenant.
He's going to tell you about this covenant. This wonderful
covenant of forgiveness of sins and pardon and peace and knowledge
of God. He's going to give you all of
those wonderful things. Now, He starts out by telling
you there's a disclaimer. You always have that disclaimer
before all the good stuff, right? Well, God gives a disclaimer.
Listen what he said. Thus saith the Lord, I do this
not for your sakes. I'm going to do all this good
stuff for you, but not because you deserve it. I'm going to
do this for my name's sake. I'm going to do it for me. I
want to do it because I choose to do it. And all you've done is profane
my name. That's all you've done. So don't
think this is about you. How arrogant are men to suppose
this? This is the religious view of
the day. That God decided to save people And so he looked
down in time and he saw what man would do. And then he said,
ah, because of what that man did, I'm going to change my will
and I'm going to bow to his will. I'm going to do it for him. What
an arrogant ass. Anyone who says that God's will
is determined by man's will, I don't believe in such a worthless
God. That's not the God of this book. You see, we by nature have always
and only sinned against God. We by nature are born dead in
sins. And so the purpose of God's election
was one of grace, not of works, not of merit. You take a dead corpse, and you
put it there, and you leave it there. You can beg, you can plead,
you can perform all the medical procedures you want to on a dead
corpse, and the only thing it's going to do is get worse. You can bring the most, the great,
the best teachers. You can bring the best doctors.
And they cannot do anything to a corpse. That's what we are
when you're born. You're born a corpse. That's
why you don't love God. That's why you don't believe
in Christ, because that's how you're born. That's why we are
born loving sin and despising God. Leave a corpse alone, all it's
going to do is stink. And the longer it stays, the
more it stinks. The longer we live in this world,
if you are dead, it only gets worse. You're not going to get
better. You're not going to get better. And so a man by nature
being dead in sins cannot by any power of self-righteousness
make himself appealing to God. Nothing you can do, nothing you
can do can make yourself appealing to God. Nothing. Do it. Whatever
it is. God's not pleased. There is nothing you can do to
merit Christ coming into this world. Nothing. You never take the first step
towards God because we are dead. Yet this is the message of all
false religion, that you must do something. You must work,
you must merit God's acceptance. No. I don't have to explain this
because it's very plain. There is none righteous, no, not one.
You understand that? Who's righteous? Not one. There's none that understands.
What does that mean? What means you don't understand?
You don't know how to get to God. You don't know how to be
saved. You don't know anything. There's none that seeketh after
God. You're not even seeking God.
Now you're seeking a God. You're seeking a God that you
like. You're seeking a God that bows to your will. But that's
not God. You might as well put a little
idol, a statue in front of you and bow down to that. No? Therefore, this is true,
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. By the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. You got that? By
your works you cannot merit salvation ever, ever. Work as hard as you
want to. Stop this, start that. Well,
I gotta give this up, and I gotta start doing this, and I gotta
start going here, and I gotta stop doing this. Stop it, start
it, do whatever you want to. Can't merit God's favor. Can't
do it. So then if we can't merit anything,
what's the motivation of him becoming a man? What motivated
him to become a man? One word, grace. Now if you don't
know what that means, I'm gonna tell you what it means. Simply
it is unmerited favor. when you don't deserve something
and you get it anyway. That's grace. The second reason
it became him, it became him to become a man because this
was the only way to save his sons. It became him who was God, very
God, to be made lower than the angels so that he might, what? Bring many sons. to glory. Just fitting for God. Let me
ask you, what good is a God that purposes something and can't
do it? I don't need a God like that.
I got a God like that in me. There's a lot of things I purpose
and I don't have the power to do any of it. I don't need a God like that.
I need a God who purposes something and then does it. Well, that's
him. It became him to become a man
so that he might bring many sons to glory. It's fitting that the
Son of God should be made flesh so that he should fulfill the
promise of God to bring many sons to glory. Now, these sons,
these sons, who are these sons? He came for sons. Who are they? Simply they are the elect of
God. I mean simply by the elect those
that God chose before the foundation of the world There is a certain
people There are many I don't know who they are. I don't know
where they are. I know this that God chose him in an eternal purpose
the father of sending his son and by grace to give his life
a ransom for many. That's what Jesus said in John
20 in verse 28. He said the Son of Man came to
give his life a ransom for who? Many. Many. He came to bring many sons to
glory. Now, I want you to know this. If God
the Father purposed to save everyone, there would be no hell. You got that? If God determined
to save every person, then there would be no hell. Why? Because everything God determines
to do, He does. But here in the text, we see
His purpose is bringing many sons to glory, and these sons
are limited only to those the Father chose. Ephesians 1 tells
us, according as He had chosen us in Christ, Before the foundation
of the world. If you are saved, you know this
about God. He chose you. When? Before the foundation of
the world. Before you had done anything
good or bad. God says, that's mine. That's
my son. He had chosen us. Listen. in Christ. So everyone he chose,
he gave to his son. He said, Son, these are yours.
Son, save these. And the son says, I will save
them. He chose us in Christ. Now, why
did he do this, that we should be holy? You got this? This is
what he said, that we should be holy. Don't you know why you
were chosen? That you should be holy. You
know what it is to be holy? I tell you what. I have only
a small minuscule idea of what holiness is, but I know this
holiness is without sin. To be holy is to be as holy as
God. There's no such thing as partial
holiness. You can't be half holy. You're either all holy or you're
a non holy. So God purposed that we should
be holy, and he predestinated us in love. Here's his motivation.
In love, having predestined us to the adoption of children,
to make us sons. All men are God's creatures,
but not all men are God's sons. You're his creature. You don't
deserve breath, but God gave it to you. You don't deserve
anything good that has ever happened to you. And yet, look, God still
gives good things to men who don't deserve them. But that
doesn't make you His son. I want to see if I can prove
this. Go to John chapter 8. Look at this. I'm telling you,
Jesus, He came because of grace. He came, a man, because of grace.
And He came to save His sons. And who are His sons? Well, that's
not everybody. Look at John chapter 8 and verse
44. These Pharisees, they thought
they were the sons. They thought they were sons. Look at verse 44, what he tells
them. He said, you are of your father the devil. You got that? The most moral
people on the face of the earth at that time, and Jesus said,
your father's the devil. Now, how do you know he's the
devil? He said, the lust of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because
there is no truth in him. When he speak of the lies, speak
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Jesus said to those men,
you are your father, the devil, and you're going to do what your
father wants to do. All who believe on Christ. Listen. We have a father. Our father
is God. But if you do not believe on
the cry on the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to me. You are of your
father, the devil. And you know what you're going
to do, just like your daddy. You know what you know what the
devil does? He hates Christ. You know what his children do?
They hate Christ. I don't have any desire for Christ. What do
they love? They love all the things that
please their flesh. Have any love for the gospel?
Any love for God's people? Jesus tells him in verse 42 and
43, He said, If God were your Father, you would love Me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, neither came of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not
understand My speech? Listen, because you cannot hear
My words. I mean, none of those words are above a second grade
education. The words he said to them are
very plain. They're very clear. And yet they
still said, we don't understand what you're saying. Well, of
course you don't. You cannot hear me. You hear
me with these things, ears, but you cannot hear me inside. You
do not understand my speech. I just called you children of
the devil. Why would you not repent and believe on me? Because
you are of your father the devil. If you were my children, you
would love me. See the mark? Tell me. You believe on him. Do you love him? Do you love him? He asked Peter
that. Lovest thou me more than these?
He said, Lord, I, you know, I love you. And he did that three times,
and he was so grieved. Because why? We don't love him
as much as we want to. But all who are sons of God,
chosen of God, purposed of God, do not follow their lusts. We
do not follow after the things of the world. We desire to follow
Christ. We believe on Christ. We inherit
from Him a holy nature so as to believe on Him and follow
Him. The sons of God in this free covenant of grace
are adopted sons made to be holy not by their own works but by
the obedience of Jesus Christ. The only way I can be made holy
is if somebody does it for me. This is why it became him to
become a man. So that he could provide for
his sons what they could not provide for themselves. He provided
righteousness. Righteousness. All the elect of God were by
nature sinners. None could merit it, but by divine
eternal decree, Christ came into the world And I pray God allow you to see
this, that Jesus Christ, in order to bring many sons to glory,
he must have been made their champion. Look at what our text
says. For it became him by grace and
love. He became a man, he who for whom
are all things and by whom are all things. This is perfect,
to bring many sons to glory. How is He going to do it? To
make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. In order for Jesus to save His
sons, He must have become their champion, their deliverer, their
savior. I like to think of David and
Goliath. Most of you heard this since you was a little kid. David,
you see Goliath in the field of battle. Two armies set against
each other. And they make a pact and the
Philistines send out their greatest champion, Goliath. There he stands. He's over seven, eight foot tall,
armor from head to toe, a warrior, a man who's killed hundreds and
hundreds of men, a champion. And there He defies the armies
of Israel. He curses the God of Israel and
defies them to send out their champion. Every man on Israel,
they can't move. They're paralyzed. Everybody look into the other.
Who's going to go out for us? You going out? I ain't going
out there. The whole nation is paralyzed with fear. And here
comes David, young man, probably in his teenage years, maybe a
little bit older, comes in and says, what's wrong? What's going
on here? They said, hey, there's Goliath out there, and he's defied
the armies of Israel. And they said, we need a champion.
We need somebody to go out for us. And they said, whoever wins,
the whole nation wins. If Goliath wins, the whole nation
of Philistines wins. If our champion wins, then we
win. But we ain't got one. And David
said, well, man, I'll go. He said, what are you so afraid
of? We have the Lord our God on our
side. And they try to put that armor on Dave and Dave said,
I don't need that King's armor. And he goes out in the middle
of the field with just a stones and a sling. And they he mocks
and he says, well, they send out a dog. Little boy to come
fight me. And it looks like he said, the
Lord God deliver your head into my hands today. Remember the
giant rushed on to David and David threw the single stone
and knocked him in the head and the giant fell down. And you know what David did?
He didn't have a sword of his own. He took the sword of the
giant and chopped his own head off with his own sword. Now I
can't get a better picture of the Lord Jesus Christ than that. You see, as David represented
Israel as their champion, so did the Lord Jesus Christ represent
His people. And what happened to David happened
to our Lord. They mocked Him, they ridiculed
Him, they despised Him. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
our champion. You see, Christ is not only David,
He's the stone. He's the rock. by which the giant
was slain. What's the giant? My sin is the
giant. Satan is the giant. The world
is the giant. Everything that opposed me from
being accepted with God, Christ slew it. The law of God was against me. The law of God told me I had
no right to be accepted of God. You know what? He was right.
until Christ slew the law. How do you do that? Look at your
text. The captain of our salvation. Perfect through suffering. Death was a product of sin, wasn't
it? Satan. Death was a product of
what he came into the world to do. And yet you see, The sword,
Satan had the sword of death, but you know what? Christ took
it and chopped his own head off with it. What they thought was defeat,
they had the Lord Jesus Christ crucified on a cross! He was dying! And they thought,
we've got it! We've got it! They didn't realize
that's exactly what he wanted to do. Because through death,
what did he do? He paid the debt. for the sins
of his sons. Get this, all my sin, all of
it, if God permit that I live after tonight, there are still
more sins that I will commit. But yet God took all of my sin, and put them on his son. And Jesus Christ is the captain
of my salvation for my sin. And God's justice poured out
on him. I want you to understand something,
he deserved none of it. And yet when he was made sin,
God justly killed his own son. Now when sin was found on his
son and he killed his son, what do you suppose God's gonna do
with you if he finds sin on you? But this is my champion, my representative. I'll give you another illustration
of what a champion is or what a surety is. Genesis chapter
43, you can read it later. It's talking about Jacob and
his family. There was a famine and we don't
know what a famine is. We well, I mean, the poorest
among us eat really well. We don't know what a famine is,
but this was such a famine in the world at that time that there
was no bread anywhere. There was no wheat. There was
no I mean, everything was gone. And you remember, God raised
up Joseph, Jacob's son, to be ruler over Egypt. And the boys
who thought he was dead, his brothers, they go into Egypt
and they beg for bread. There's Joseph, their brother.
They don't even know him as a brother, but he gives them some bread.
And he asked about his father and he asked about his his brother,
his other brother, Benjamin, that didn't come. And they and
Joseph said this. He said, Look, I ain't going
to give you no more bread. until you bring Benjamin with
you. You come back, you bring Benjamin, I'll give you more
bread. Until then, I ain't give you nothing. So they go back
and they tell their dad, they said, Dad, we got to take Benjamin. And he said, oh no, I already
lost my other son. I'm not going to give you Benjamin. And so
they sat there and they ate that food and ate that food and ate
that food that they were given. And pretty soon, the boys are
looking around saying, look, we ain't got no more food. We're
going to starve to death. And his dad, Jacob, he says,
I'm not sending Benjamin. And they're begging. And then
Judah, his brother, comes along and he says this. Listen to what
he said in Genesis 43. He said, I will be surety for
him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto you and
set him before you, let me bear the blame. That's what a surety
is. It's one who guarantees for someone else. Our champion, our savior became
surety for his elect. Listen to what Christ said by
Judah. He said this, if I fail to bring your people to you and
set them before you, let me bear the blame. Let me bear the blame. I will be surety for the sons. all their righteousness that
you require and all their payment for sin, I will pay. And by his own suffering, our
Lord Jesus Christ became the perfect captain of our salvation. Let me ask you this. When Christ
died for his sons, was he successful? Did he actually get the job done?
Everything he promised the father he would do, did he do it? Listen to what the word of God
says, he shall not fail. Nor be discouraged. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said all that the father giveth me, I shall lose
nothing. What does that mean? Do you understand
what he just said? How many is he gonna lose? How
many sons will he lose? Nothing. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore our
sins in his own body on the tree and by his suffering, he hath
perfected forever them that are set apart, that are sanctified. So great, Isaiah said this, behold,
Who is he that cometh from Bosra, glorious in his apparel, traveling
in the greatness of his strength? He sees a man coming in glorious
robes, covered in the great blood. Covered in blood. He said, Who
is this? Glory. You see a man coming from
war, right? And his garments are covered
in blood. You know what he did? He won. He won. You see, I ain't ever seen a
battle like that. But I'm telling you, that's exactly
how those battles in that day were fought. They were fought
hand to hand, face to face, and blood was splattered all over
the place. And when you see a man coming and blood's all over his
garment, you can guarantee this, he won. That's what he says. Who is this guy coming with his
glorious robes dripped in blood? Who is that? Listen, he answers,
I that speak in righteousness Mighty to say. Behold, the victory of my savior,
the champion of my salvation. The ransom has been paid. Justice
has been satisfied. Peace has been accomplished.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, guess what? All
of those that he represented were raised in him. I wasn't
yet born, but I knew this. When he lived, I lived. When
he died, I died. And when he rose again, I rose
with him. So when God raised up Christ,
he raised up all of his sons. Let us lay hold on this by faith.
There is nothing partial or conditional or temporary about the salvation
of Christ. There is nothing partial, there's
nothing conditional, and there's nothing temporary about the salvation
of Christ. He is a perfect Savior. I only just simply ask this, do
you need a perfect Savior? Or you got some of it. You want
to do some of it? Well, you ain't talking about
this guy. I need someone who does it all. I don't need to
put anything to it. If I touch it, I defile it. Therefore, nothing is left to
chance. Nothing is left to man's feeble works or his feeble decisions,
when Christ came as a man, he actually saved his people. Now
then the question is, who are his people? Who are his sons? Look back at your text. For both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one. Who are his sons? They are the
ones that are sanctified by him that sanctifyeth. The word sanctified
means holy. That's what it means. Those that
are made holy, the one who makes them holy, and those who are
made holy are all together one. Sanctification is not a progressive
thing. It's not a progressive. There's
no such thing as progressive sanctification. Listen, there
is progressive knowledge. Isn't there? You that believe,
don't you still want to know things? I mean, I still do. I
know it, but I don't know it to its fullest. There's a progressive
outward conduct. Surely, believers desire, I know
I've never done it, Man, I long to be like my savior. There's
a progressive conduct. We should we should have progressive
conduct. As we grow in Christ, we progress
in faith. We progress in hope. We progress
in love. But sanctification is not a work
of the believer. It is a work of God. Unless if
you want to set yourself apart from somebody else, go right
ahead. Pharisees did that all the time. Were they sanctified?
No. Does that sanctify you because you're better than someone else?
Nope. That's not sanctification, friends. Sanctification is not a work
of the believer, it is a work of God. He that sanctifyeth. Who is He that sanctifyeth? Listen, I'm just one that's been
sanctified. I had nothing to do with the
sanctifying. Jesus Christ, God the Father
is our sanctifier, and God the Son is our sanctifier, and God
the Spirit is our sanctifier. The sons of God are sanctified
ones. They're made holy. That's what they are. They're
sanctified. They were made holy by the will
of God. When God in eternity purposed
that you should be holy, in the purpose and mind of God, you
were holy. Jesus Christ actually came down
and by His death purchased your holiness. You were made holy
when you were in union with Him when He died. I'll prove that to you. Go to
Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Look at this. And verse... The reverse nine Lord Jesus here
low. I come to do thy will. Oh, God,
what was the will? What was the will of God? We've
just been dealing with the will of God. The will of God is he
should come in the flesh and save his sons. That's the will
of God. He take away the first, he may
establish a second by the which will. By the will of God, we
are what? What does it say? We are sanctified. How are you sanctified? By the
will of God. And look through this is the
means of your sanctification through the offering of the body
of Jesus. How many times? How many times
were you sanctified? Once. I was made holy once. Now there is a time that you
will experience this holiness in the new birth. See, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians,
chapter 2. Talking about the sons now. This
is the experience of every son, every sanctified son. Look, this
is our experience. Well, if I ever get to the right
place, then I could read the text, right? 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren. Beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you, listen, to salvation. Here's the means through sanctification
of who? The spirit and belief of the
truth. Here's the means of your sanctification
experimentally. You were sanctified by the will
of God. You were sanctified in the death of Christ. And you
are. How do I know I was sanctified in the will of God and by the
death? How do you know? How do you know? I want to know. Am
I his son or am I not? Listen, only through sanctification
of the spirit and belief in the truth. Do you believe on Christ? Do you believe on Christ? Everyone
who believes on Christ had been sanctified, and this is your
comfort, look at Look at your text one more time. You that
are sanctified by the will of God and by the blood of Christ
through the Spirit of God. Listen. Both for he that sanctified
and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. You got that? He
is not ashamed of me. I am often ashamed of me. Are
you ashamed of you? You dare to believe you not look
in the mirror and see shame. I do. I see it all the time. I see I'm so I love him and I
love him enough. I believe him. I don't believe
him enough. I hope in him and I don't hope in him enough. I
know him, but I don't know him enough. I'm ashamed of me. You
know who's not? He's not. Why? Because I am one
with him. You understand for me to lose
my salvation, he has to actually be dethroned. I just want to have. Why the captain
of my salvation is perfect. It became him by grace and love
to become a man. It became him, it was necessary
for him to become a man to be my surety, to be my savior, my
captain. And the captain of my salvation
is perfect. And therefore he that sanctified me and me who
is now sanctified are all of one. Therefore he's not ashamed
of me. Oh God, help us to be comforted
by this. I pray you will. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your blessing. Pour out your spirit on us. Give
us grace to believe. Cast off our merits and our works
and bow before thy feet. And find mercy, cleansing for
our sins. Help us to see the perfect captain
of our salvation. Find rest. for our souls. In his name I ask. Amen.