We're going to turn in our Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 2 again. Hebrews chapter 2 seems like
we've been here for a while. We could really spend every sermon
on any of the chapters in the book of Hebrews. It's an amazing
book. It contains the gospel. It unfolds to us the gospel of
Christ. And this is what we need to hear. This is what we want to hear.
And this is what God wants us to hear, more importantly. And
so he's written it in his word, which is an amazing grace of
God that he would do that for us. But I want to look at Hebrews
chapter 2 today with this topic in mind, which is the title of
our sermon, The Captain of Our Salvation. the captain of our
salvation. Whenever we sing, whenever we
speak to one another of the Lord, our Savior, whenever we are in
the despair of our sin or the trials of our life, we need one
thing for God to tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ. As we
brought out last week, we see Jesus really summarizes God's
purpose and our salvation, doesn't it? He has lifted up His Son,
and in so lifting Him up has shown to us how God saves, how
God provided, how God delivered Him up, and how Christ offered
Himself up, and how God accepted Him for us, and in so accepting
Christ for us, He has accepted us with Him. And this is really
the essence of the gospel. It's repeated throughout scripture
in beautiful ways how God has saved his people. And so we want
to look at this today, the captain of our salvation. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your merciful grace to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We read in scripture of the riches
of your grace and your great love wherewith you loved us and
sent your son and gave Him up and delivered Him up to be the
propitiation for our sins, to make satisfaction to God for
us, and so wash us from our sins in His own blood. And we delight
to hear these things because we ourselves are in such great
need. And we also delight to hear of
them because in finding the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Savior,
and having no contribution in ourselves to make, but finding
all of our salvation in Him, we take great delight, we rejoice,
because you would accept Him for us. And so we pray, Lord,
that you would give us this grace, not only now at this time, but
throughout our lives, that we would be so delighted in the
Lord Jesus Christ, because you took delight in Him for us. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. In verse nine, I want to read
through this again. Remember the first chapter and the verses
leading up to this verse in verse nine speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of him as our prophet through whom God has spoken,
the one who is in himself the express image of God. of God,
the Father. We read in Genesis how God made
man in His image, and yet when God speaks those words, He's
really speaking in prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ and those
who are given to Him. Because in Adam we lost that
image, and God has to create us new in Christ Jesus. And he's
the one who ultimately fulfills that scripture. And we read so
many things about the Lord Jesus in chapter one. He is God over
all. Unto the Son he saith, thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. And we read about his righteousness,
how he loves righteousness, so that all that he does is righteous.
In verse 9 of chapter 1, thou hast loved righteousness and
hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. So that God, the
gospel of God is a righteous thing. Our salvation from sin
is a righteous thing. Isn't that amazing, that God
would love, the Lord Jesus Christ, God our Father, would love righteousness
and hate iniquity, and yet he would find a way to be just and
justify us and delight in his people. So he must find us, because
of Christ, to be righteous. But we go on and find out that
the Lord never intended to put this world or the world to come
in subjection to angels. And yet God in the history of
this world gave the law to Moses, to Israel through Moses, by the
administration of angels. And so God tells us that the
world to come will not be put under angels, and the message
of God was never about angels. Even though in our sinful condition
we needed the law, we needed the law to show us our guilt
and helplessness, how we could not justify ourselves or be just
before God by what we do, our own personal obedience. But the
administration of that law by angels put us under angels. in
that sense, where God has given the law through angels. And fallen
angels, the devils and demons, are also in that category of
angels. And mankind, under the law, is
under that administration, which angels administer. And fallen
mankind is in subjection to the deception of the devil, who is
the prince of the power of the air, as it says in Ephesians
2.3. And also in 2 Corinthians 4, it says that the God of this
world has blinded the minds of them, which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine to them.
So these things teach us that in our lost condition, We are
under that administration, not only the law to keep us in the
prison of our own guilt and corruptions, but also the world is given over
to false religions which are under the kingdom of Satan. And
God has to take us out of that kingdom of Satan, a kingdom of
darkness. He has to translate us from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. He has
to put us not under angels, but under His Son, under Christ.
And in that relationship to Christ, we're under an administration
not of law, but of grace. We're not under the law, Romans
6.14, but under grace. And so for the Hebrews, it meant
leaving that administration of God's law, which is given not
for the righteous, but for sinners, to come under submission to Christ,
through whom God has revealed his grace, by which his law is
fulfilled in our champion, our head. Now, in Hebrews 2, verse
9, it says this, but we see Jesus, we don't see mankind, not all
men. in Adam. We don't see God putting
in subjection under all men in Adam the world that now is or
the world to come. But he's going to explain what
God meant in the prophecy of Psalm 8, that he meant in that
prophecy he would put all things in subjection under the man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, with his people, the church. So that the
world to come is not under the administration of angels. It's
under the administration of the man, who is the express image
of God's being, the brightness of his glory, to whom he has
given all things. He's the heir of all as our mediator.
And so we see him now, he says in verse 9, we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels, and it has a two-fold
meaning. Number one, it means as he came
in the likeness of sinful flesh, from Romans chapter 8, and because
he was made under the law, born of a woman, made under the law,
Galatians 4 verse 4, he was under the same subjection that we were
put under God's law. But he was not put there in order
for him to remain there, but in order that he might obey and
fulfill that law and suffer the penalty demanded by it. In verse
9, he says it this way, But we see Jesus, who is obviously a
man, the Son of Man, and he is son of God, who was made a little
lower, for a little time, in other words, than the angels,
made lower because of that administration under the law, and also because
of the nature he took, being in the likeness of our own nature,
which in our sinful condition was below the angels. He did
this, the Lord Jesus, for the suffering of death. He had to
die in order to bring us to God. So he was made lower for a time
than the angels for the suffering of death made under the law to
fulfill it and to satisfy its demands. But we see him not under
the suffering of death, but how? We see him crowned with glory
and honor. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the
man who has suffered death And he suffered death and is now
crowned because in suffering death, he fulfilled the demands
of God's law that we should die. And therefore, he not only fulfilled
the demands of God's law for our death, but also of the fulfillment
of it for righteousness. And therefore, we see him crowned
with glory and honor as the man God spoke of in Psalm 8, to whom
he would subject all things. not only now, but in the world
to come. Jesus Christ is Lord now. He is exalted already. He already is over all things. All angels, all principalities
and powers, from 1 Peter 3.22, are put in subjection to Him
already, even now. But also the world to come, in
which all of those who are His who are born first to Adam, but
born of God, who are in Christ as their covenant head, they
will be the ones who are over with him, rule in the world to
come. And angels will be under them. They will judge angels,
as it says in 1 Corinthians 6, 1 and 2. The apostle Paul told
the Corinthians, know you not that we shall judge angels? And
so, this is affirming the truth that in Christ, it was God's
intention that in Christ, His people would receive the highest
place in the world to come. And so all things would be in
subjection to them, not because of what they did, but because
the Lord Jesus Christ did something. He himself suffered death. And
it says in the next phrase that he, by the grace of God, should
taste death for every man. So by the grace of God, he did
this. The law required personal obedience. It required obedience
from the heart, with all the heart, with all the mind, with
all the soul, with all the strength, to love God and to love his neighbor
as himself. But the law didn't demand that
a man give his life up in death for another. For one thing, there
was no way that a man, even if he kept the whole law, could
earn a righteousness that he could give to another. What required
that? What required a man to give himself
in love for his friends? What required a man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to give himself to suffer in the place of sinners
and to fulfill God's law for them? What required that? The
grace of God. not the law of God, but the grace
of God. But in fulfilling the grace of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ over-achieved, if you will. He more than fulfilled
the law so that his personal obedience in submission to God
his Father as the representative man like Adam was our representative
father. So the Lord Jesus Christ, in
him, now we have the very righteousness of God. It's given to us, and
therefore we have everlasting life. Obedience to the law allowed
a man to live, if he kept it continuously. But as soon as
he broke it, his life ended. But Christ's obedience was an
everlasting righteousness, and therefore he gives to us an everlasting
life. And he says, this was God's grace
that he should taste death for every man. Now, this phrase,
every man, as I mentioned before, is a problem for those who do
not want to believe God's revealed truth in scripture. We might
begin our Christian life thinking that God loves everyone without
exception in the world, that Jesus died and shed his blood
for everyone in the world, and that therefore the Spirit of
God calls everyone in the world, but something, and this is the
way we may begin to think about God and salvation, that everything
really hinges on the man who believes the gospel. But this
is not the way it's the gospel. This is not the truth of the
gospel, nor is it the way it's revealed in scripture. There
are phrases in scripture that lead us to think this, and those
same phrases are used by false teachers to to set this down
as the way things are, to claim that this is God's intention.
God loved everyone. Jesus died for everyone. The
spirit, the gospel is preached to everyone, but only some believe
because the spirit doesn't, though he calls everyone, not everyone
is inclined to. Some are just indifferent to
it. Some refuse to believe. And so they exclude themselves
from God's power to save. That is not the gospel. You know
why that's not good news? Because if that's the gospel,
then none of us could be saved. But in the very context here,
we don't have to argue from logic alone. In the very context here,
God explains every man here. And the word in the Greek is
not every man, it's just every. It's translated as everyone in
most translations, but it's just every. So we have to ask, who
did God intend here when he said every? And this is not uncommon
in scripture for God to speak of a whole group of people, but
really design or have an intention of a smaller group. For example,
the nation of Israel. Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter
9 verse 6 says, they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. So here we have a nation. Everyone
in it is called the children of Israel because they were born
physically to Jacob through his lineage, because they were born
to him as their father. They could trace their ancestry
back to him. But they weren't all Israel in
God's view, even though much is spoken about Israel as a group
of people. He said, but the children of
the promise are counted for the seed. In other words, those who
are God's Israel, or the true Israel, or those to whom God
promised to save, those are the ones God calls the Israel of
God. Now, you can read that in Romans
9 and 10 and 11 and Galatians 6, but we aren't going to take
time to do that right now. The point is that God often speaks
of a larger group when he intends a smaller subset within that
group. And here when he says every man,
he says, look at chapter one. He says in verse 14, they are
not all, I'm sorry, the angels, are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for who? For them who shall be
heirs of salvation. So in the context before this,
he's speaking about the heirs of salvation. Look at verse 5.
So what is he talking about? What is he going to put in subjection? The world, not now, but to come. You see, he's talking about a
future inheritance. For the heirs, that's what you
get when you're an heir, is an inheritance of salvation. Those
who are saved, who are the heirs of salvation, who inherit salvation,
also inherit the world to come. So when he speaks of every, in
verse 9, for whom Christ suffered and tasted death, he's speaking
about the heirs of salvation, who will inherit the world to
come. So we don't have to say, well, he was talking about mankind
in Adam, because we don't have any warrant to claim that broad
of an extent of his suffering and tasting death. Christ, if
God said he suffered and tasted death for every man in Adam,
then we would say that's what he did. But he doesn't say that.
He says every, and he means the heirs of salvation, and he means
those who are the heirs of the world to come under Christ. In
other words, Christ himself is the man who would inherit all
things by God's will. He's the heir of all things,
and he's the man who having suffered and tasted death for the every,
in God's view, will go also with him given all things. Now, there's
a lot of ideas that men have of what this means, this word
every here, and I'll give you one that I came across recently
because I want to, I really want to, as the weeks go by and the
months and the years go by that we're together, I want you to
come to a greater understanding of the truth God has in scripture.
It's important that you learn, that you accumulate an understanding
so that your faith grows because faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God and we understand in faith, we understand the truth
and believe that truth so that we see things from God's perspective.
That's an increase of faith. That's a greater understanding
and grace God gives to us. But some men will say that the
every here means this, and this is kind of a clever interpretation,
and it's common today amongst those who in many ways believe
the truth. But they introduce something
they call, and you may have heard this before, that Christ's death
was sufficient for all, but it was only efficient for some. Have you ever heard that? It
means that Jesus' death was of infinite value. And who could
deny that his death was of infinite value? This is the logic, the
people who would say this. His death was of infinite value.
He only had one life to give. He gave his whole life, therefore
his death had the potential of saving everyone. God truly did
love all men without exception, and Jesus' death really had the
potential, had the merit to save the entire world, if God intended
it to. But God, even though he loved
all men, and Christ died in this way, this is what they say, again,
his death was sufficient or had the potential to save all men,
it was never God's intent, really, to save all men, but only those
who believe. So when this way of understanding
God's saving work in Christ is taken, then they use this to
explain all the scriptures in the New Testament that speak
of either all, the world, or every, as in this case. But the
problem with this understanding, or this doctrine of men, I would
call it, the problem with it is where in scripture does God
ever say that the death of Christ was sufficient to save everyone
without exception? Where does it say that? I can't
think of a place. Instead, I hear these things
in Scripture, that when the high priest went into the holy place,
he had the names of the children of Israel on his breast. Or when
it says in Hebrews 1.3 that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he had
by himself purged our sins, means made an atonement for a cleansing
of our sins. His work in his atonement not
only propitiated God, which is first and foremost, but he washed
us from our sins in his own blood. Therefore, his death actually
accomplished an atonement for his people. And also in Romans
8, 32, it says that if God the Father has delivered up his son
for us and didn't spare his own son, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things? So that if God the Father gave
his son for us, and if you say, well, it was sufficient for the
whole world, then it had to be given for them. then he would
give all things with Christ to all men, and he didn't. And then
in Romans 8, 34, he says, who is he that condemneth? The question
is raised and answered, it is Christ that died. Hence, if Christ
died for us, we cannot come under condemnation. And then Jesus
said in John 10, 11, I lay down my life for the sheep. And in
verse 15, the same thing. And Ephesians 5, 25, he says,
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So these are
very specific designations of those for whom Christ died. He
died for the church, for the sheep, for those God gave to
him, and the ones who are not condemned, the ones God brings
to glory. He says in Acts 15 verses 17
and 18 that all those on whom his name, God has put his name,
those are the ones he knew before the foundation of the world and
by his work then he saved them. So these statements about God's
foreknowledge of his people, all those he foreknew he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son, so that there's none
foreknown that weren't predestinated, none predestinated that were
not called and justified and glorified. All glorified ones
have beforehand been known by God and predestinated and justified
and called. So these things are clear from
scripture. And when Jesus died, it says,
by his one offering of himself, he has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. God set him apart in electing
love. The Lord, our Father, chose us
in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. Chosen in Christ, redeemed by his blood, called by the Spirit
of God, sprinkled with the blood of Christ. These are the ones
for whom Christ died, and it's affirmed again for us in the
very context following this verse, which I've made a list of before,
but I want to remind you of this. Look at chapter 2, Hebrews chapter
2, and verse 10. He says, for it became him, speaking
of God the Father, for whom are all things. Everything's for
God the Father, and by whom are all things. Everything is by
him. In bringing what? Many sons to glory. And who are the sons? Those,
according to Ephesians 1-4, that were predestinated to the adoption
of sons by Jesus Christ when God the Father adopted them to
himself, which means to choose them and to make them his sons. by his will, and in Christ's
redeeming blood, and in the call of the Spirit of God. So these
things are clear. These ones who are included in
the every are the many sons, the heirs of salvation, those
who will inherit the world to come, to whom all will be subjected
with Christ, because God delivered up his son for them. He freely
gives them all things with him. They're called the many sons.
And he's going to bring them to glory. Who are those brought
to glory? The ones Christ tasted death
for and suffered for. And then in the same verse, verse
10, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Who are the every? The ones over
which Christ is captain. And what kind of a captain is
he? The captain of their salvation. So they're the saved ones. So
you can go all the way through this and see that God is very
specific. He did not, Christ did not taste
death for every son of Adam because it says in Verse 16, he did not
take on him the nature of, which is in italics, should have just
been the saving of angels. or the nature of angels. It just
means he didn't take on their case. He didn't come to deliver
angels, fallen angels. But he says he took on the seed
of Abraham. He didn't take on the seed of
Adam. Notice, he did not take on the seed of Adam. That would
mean every person ever born into the world. But he did take on
the seed of Abraham. And who are the seed of Abraham?
Well, he says in Galatians 3, 7, all who believe Christ like
Abraham believed. In fact, look at the very context
here in Hebrews chapter 2. He says in verse 13, and again,
I, speaking of the Lord Jesus, I will put my trust in him. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
trusted in God, his Father. This is from Psalm 22, verse
8, where it says he rolled himself upon Jehovah. When he was on
the cross, he actually put the entire weight of his own soul
and body, deliverance from death, And all enemies on his father,
he trusted his father to deliver him according to his promise
and his word to him, that when he obeyed in all things and submitted
himself in obedience unto death, that God his father would raise
him up from the dead by the power of his spirit, which he did.
And so all who trust Christ are the children of God. of Abraham,
the seed of Abraham, but they're also the children, in the same
way, of the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, because they do what
he did. They trust God, the Father. They
trust Christ, and trusting him, they trust in God. Jesus said
in John 14, you believe in God, believe also in me, because believing
Christ is believing God. By him, you do believe in God,
he says in 1 Peter chapter 1, and around verse 20 through 22.
All right, so I want to establish that. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered,
but He couldn't suffer unless He was made a man, because only
men can suffer, especially only man can die. As the Son of God,
He could not die, couldn't change, but as the Son of Man, He could.
And so He took on our nature, He took on our case, and He did
that in order to save us. He tasted death for us. Now look
at verse 10. For it became him." In other
words, it pleased God, it seemed good in God's eyes, the Father. For whom are all things, and
by whom are all things. Everything that is, everything
that's created, all events in time are for God, the Father. Now that tells you there's a
purpose in everything, doesn't it? It means it's for his purpose. It says in Revelation 4.11, for
thy pleasure they are and were created. In Colossians 1.16,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the same thing is said of Him. He has
created all things. All things were created by Him
and for Him. So we see that in Scripture,
God equates the dignity and the sovereignty of the Father and
the Son. They are equal, equally sovereign. Equally almighty, equally all-knowing,
all belongs to them, all was created by Him and for Him. But in this verse he's speaking
of God the Father in order to show something here about our
relationship to Him. He says, it became Him for whom
are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
to glory. We see here right away that our
being the sons of God is entirely up to the Father, you see. It
was His will, it seemed good to Him. How would He accomplish
this will? We can see the next verse, the
next phrase. In bringing many sons to glory to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. Who is the captain
of our salvation? The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
when David went to visit his brothers and see how they did
at the army, and there was the Philistine, Goliath, standing
in that valley, challenging the armies of Israel, defying the
armies of the living God, blaspheming God, and what did David do? Who
is this uncircumcised Philistine? And Goliath laid down the challenge. He said, I will fight. You bring
a man to me, and I will fight, and he will fight. And whoever
wins, that will be the victor. If I win, then you'll be our
servants. If he wins, we'll be your servants.
One man in the kingdom of Israel, one man in the kingdom of the
Philistines. They met, and the outcome of that battle determined
the outcome for all of them. You see, the victory of the captain
was the victory of his people. And so here, the captain of what? Our salvation. Of what is Christ
the captain? Our salvation. And what do we
save from? We're saved from our sins. We're
saved from the destroying temptations of the devil, the accusations
of the devil that by God's justice would have sent us to an eternal
hell. We're saved from that. We're
saved from the wrath of God we deserve. We're saved from the
present evil world. We're saved from the curse of
God's law. We're saved from our own sinful nature. We're saved
from the sin in this body. By the Lord Jesus Christ, our
captain, we're saved from everything that sin brought upon us. And it was all our fault, you
see. And God appointed a captain for us. We did not fight in this
battle when he had by himself purged our sins. The captain
stood for the people, fought for the people. His battle was
the battle the people couldn't fight, but needed to fight against
their enemies. So he stepped in for them and
fought it for them. And his victory is their victory.
His reward is their reward. The spoils of the war are his
and theirs. Look at Isaiah in chapter 53,
where this is brought out in a beautiful way. Isaiah chapter 53. You know this
chapter when as soon as I mention it, you know this is about the
sufferings of our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen
to this in verse 12 of Isaiah 53. because of all that Christ suffered,
therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
How was Christ our captain? You can read it right here. He poured out his soul to death.
He was numbered with the transgressors. He bare the sin of many, and
he made intercession for the transgressors. You see, the fight
against the enemy was a fight that he accomplished, was a battle
that he accomplished by satisfying God's demands from his people
directly. He went to God the judge, God
whose law we had broken, the one we had offended by our sins,
and he made a restitution. He restored what he didn't take
away when he gave himself as a ransom for his people. And
in so doing, in pouring out his soul unto death, the death we
deserve, which we could never pay, and by being numbered among
the transgressors, or being counted by God as a sinner, because our
sins were laid on Him, and bearing the sin of many." He says in
verse 8, he was stricken for my people. and then here and
making intercession for us. Remember on the cross, Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do. Here the Lord Jesus
Christ is our captain because he took the fight against the
enemy by taking our right, by fulfilling our righteousness
to God and by satisfying God's law and therefore God condemned
our enemies. Our sin, the bodies of our sin,
the body of our sin died in the body of Christ when He bore our
sins and died in His body. Our sins were put away and no
more remembered when He was buried. And we rose when He rose again,
Colossians 3.1. You're risen with Christ if you
then be risen with Christ. And so in all these things, we
see our captain. He fought the battle to remove
our sins. He propitiated God. He made satisfaction. He appeased the wrath of God
in his own substitutionary death. And he fulfilled our righteousness
in his own obedience unto death. And therefore he was given the
victory over death, and he put away our sins. He washed us from
our sins, and therefore we rise with him. And we're given all
things with him, because he's our captain. Now the word captain
here means a champion, like David was a champion against Goliath.
He won the battle for Israel. And he foreshadowed Christ. And
it also means our forerunner. A forerunner goes before and
runs and enters first. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. This same idea is there. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You know this is a chapter about
the resurrection. Why are we raised in our bodies?
Because Christ rose. Because he dealt with sin in
his death. Therefore, we are raised. But
in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15, now is Christ risen from
the dead. Already he's risen from the dead,
isn't he? We haven't risen from the dead in our body, have we?
Our bodies are dying, and they're going to die because of sin.
But there's a resurrection coming because he who is the resurrection
and the life is our forerunner. Listen, now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. All
who died in Christ are going to be raised just like their
forerunner. He's the first fruits and they're
the harvest. He says in verse 21, for since
by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the
dead. The first man was Adam. The second
man, which is the last Adam, is Christ. Verse 22, for as in
Adam all die. Everyone born to Adam died when
Adam sinned. And because we're sinners, when
we die, it's because of our sin. And then he goes on, as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Not all are
in Christ, but those who are, are made alive because of Christ,
their forerunner. So the captain of our salvation,
would suffer. He would die. That would be our
victory. And he would spoil the enemy
of his prey. He would take away from him those
who were in the castle, or if you will, were in his kingdom.
He would translate them from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of his dear son. He would deliver them from the
devil. And so he goes on. Now, these
who are saved, these who are represented by their captain,
they're part of that every. But look at verse 11. For both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one. Let me ask you this first. What
does it mean that they are all of one? What's he talking about
here? Well, back up in verse 10. So,
what does it mean when it says they're all of one? Well, a little bit further down,
he says, I will declare thy name to my brethren. In the midst
of the church will I sing praise to thee. And then he says, for
as much, in verse 14, for as much as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same. So being
all of one means they're all of one, first and foremost, one
father. one Father. They're all sons
of one Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only begotten Son. We're sons by adoption, but we're
all sons of God. We're all heirs of God. We're
joint heirs with Christ because we're sons of God. Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. So we're one in that sense. But
what is Christ here? What is his title in this verse,
verse 11? He that sanctifieth. He's the sanctifier. You see,
the sanctifier of the sanctified. Now, in Exodus chapter 8, if
you want to read that, Moses took the oil, the anointing oil,
and the blood off the altar, and he sprinkled them on Aaron
and his sons. And when he did that, it says
he sanctified them by the blood and by the anointing oil. How
did the Lord Jesus Christ sanctify his people? First of all, we
know he did because he's called the sanctifier. He that sanctifyeth. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
captain of our salvation. In order to save us, he has to
sanctify us. What does it mean to be sanctified?
It means to be made holy. It means to be set apart to God
and to His worship for His purpose. We're sons of God. We have to
be holy. And who did that? We didn't do it. Christ did it. We don't sanctify ourselves.
He sanctifies us. He makes us holy. We were chosen
in Him, Ephesians 1, 4, that we should be holy and without
blame before God the Father in love. So God's love towards us
is, first of all, because he chose us in Christ, and secondly,
because he has to make us holy and without blame. We can't have
those he loves that are not holy, but in Christ we're holy. But
the Lord Jesus Christ himself sanctified us. Look at John chapter
17. In his prayer to his father just
before he went to the cross, He said this in John 17 verse
17. He prays to his father and he
says, sanctify them through thy truth. Here Christ is praying
for his people, right? Those that God has given him.
He's not going to lose one of them. They're all his, and all
his are the fathers, and all that belong to the fathers are
his. And he prays for them. He says,
Lord, Father, sanctify them through thy truth. What is God's truth?
Whatever God says. But specifically, what truth
is God using to sanctify his people? where our souls are purified,
our hearts are purified in believing or in obeying the truth. And
what truth? The truth about how God has provided
his son, offered up his son, and by his son removed our sins
and satisfied his law and brings us to glory through his sufferings
and death. The gospel. This is the gospel he's talking
about. Sanctify them through thy truth. The truth that Christ
came to reveal. By him, God reveals his grace
and his truth. God required. Truth, to be fulfilled. Christ fulfilled it. That is
the gospel. So sanctify them through thy
truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I sent them into the world. Verse 19. And
for their sakes, I, Christ, sanctify myself. How did he do that? when he offered up himself to
God. He's the high priest. How is the high priest sanctified?
By the anointing oil and by the blood. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ sanctified himself when he offered himself to God for
his people. He offered himself in total.
He sanctified himself in order that we might be sanctified through
his offering of himself. And he goes on, he says, for
their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. the truth of the gospel. Again,
he did the work, the gospel tells what he did, and the application
of that is our sanctification by the spirit, the anointing
oil. The spirit of God takes the things of Christ and he shows
them to us, and with that word of Christ, he quickens us, he
makes us alive. The words that I speak to you,
Jesus said, they are spirit and they're truth. And so in 1 Peter
1, 2, we're sanctified. by the sprinkling of the blood
of Christ, as the Spirit of God applies it to us. So, back in
Hebrews 2, the sanctifier is Christ. Those who are sanctified
are those given, the many sons given to him to save. He did
it by offering himself to God. He offered himself in blood.
Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and so
we are sanctified. If you look at Hebrews 9, just
briefly looking ahead in the book, he says, In verse 11, but
Christ being come and high priest of good things to come, Christ
our high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, that tabernacle, by the way, was his own body,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
does sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. So in Hebrews 10.10 it says we're
sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. And
in Hebrews 10.29, it says that we're sanctified by his blood.
And also in Hebrews 13.12, we were sanctified by the blood
of Christ. Here he says, in comparison in the Old Testament, those animal
sacrifices simply cleanse the outward flesh. But they only
pointed to what Christ would do when He offered His blood
and purged us before God. And the Spirit of God, bringing
that truth to us, sanctifies us by purging our conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. Christ is the sanctifier. His blood sanctifies. And because
He sends His Spirit to us, the Spirit of God takes Christ's
blood and sprinkles it on our conscience in application. He
convinces us this is all of our salvation. And being so convinced,
what do we do? We come to God by the blood of
Jesus. This is the way we worship God.
This is the way we are acceptable to God. This is how we're sanctified. He's the sanctifier and the every
and the sanctified are the same. I want to underscore this. The
one who sanctifies is Christ. We do not sanctify ourselves.
He sanctifies us. He does it by his blood. He does
it by his spirit, applying the gospel to us when he effectually
applies it to us. Now, he says, he goes on in verse
11. He sanctifies them. He's not
ashamed to be called their brethren. And here we have a very glorious
thing. He spoke this next phrase and I brought this out in Psalm
22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise to thee. The Lord Jesus Christ is
not ashamed of his people. He is not ashamed of them. Isn't
that wonderful? There's a song by a man named
Paul Overstreet and he says to his wife, he says, I'm going
to pledge my love to you again on top of a mountain. I'll tell
the whole world. I'll say it loud enough for all
the world to hear. I will travel through the deepest,
darkest canyon. You know, he's describing this
in kind of a hyperbole of his love, as men do when they're
talking to their wife. They speak in this very flowery
language. And of course, their wives love
to hear it. They're trying to express with their words what
they feel towards their wife in love. But the Lord Jesus Christ
did that. What Paul Overstreet in his song
Intimated, between that love between a man and a woman, is
actually fulfilled In fact, their love is only a picture of this,
fulfilled in Christ, who on the highest mountain, Calvary, pledged
his love when he laid his life down. And he said it loud enough
for all the world to hear. And he went through the deepest,
darkest canyon. And he said, I'll be your companion
when the mountains disappear. This is amazing truth spelled
out here. The Lord Jesus Christ hung on
the cross, and he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And in his sufferings, he was
thinking of his people. That's why he was there. because
it was the will of God for him to lay his life down and suffer
and die and taste death for his people, the sons God would have
him bring to glory, the children that God had given to him, his
brethren. I'm not ashamed to call them
brethren. So he says, I will declare thy
name in Psalm 22, verse 22 through 26. I will declare thy name to
my brethren. Now here in this fact that he
did this on the cross means that we are made the sons of God through
his suffering. He redeemed us. He was made under
the law that he might redeem those who were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4, 4 and 5.
And so he says here, I'm going to declare your name. I'm going
to declare my father, who he is, his purpose, his person,
and his work to my brethren by revealing to them my own person
and my own purpose and work of salvation and their own salvation. I'll declare thy name to my brethren
in the midst of the church. I'll sing praise to thee." He's
joyful over his people. He says in Jeremiah 32 that he's
going to, in verse 41, he's going to rejoice over them. In Zephaniah
317, I'll rejoice over them with singing. These are the words
of God the Son and God the Father having joy over his people. And
he's not ashamed to be called their brethren. How could he
who loves righteousness and hate iniquity actually take delight
in sinners? Because he made them holy. He
sanctified them with his own blood and righteousness. And
then he says in verse 13, and again, I will put my trust in
him. Again, we see this, we trust God like he did. He laid everything
on his father to fulfill his word. Just like Abraham, when
Abraham offered up Isaac, what was he doing when he held that
knife above his son, ready to plunge it into the heart of his
son and offer him up? God had promised, in thee and
in thy seed I will bless the nations. In Isaac shall thy seed
be called. Abraham saw in Isaac that God
had promised he would bring Christ through his son. And if he didn't
bring Christ through his son, not only was Abraham's salvation
going to be totally lost, but also God's oath that he would
do this. God himself would lose all credibility. He would lose his glory. And
so when Abraham did that, he knew that if God told him to
do this, God's oath and God's reputation, God's Godhead and
his own salvation was tied up in the fact that God must raise
up Isaac and therefore he would raise up Christ from the dead.
And so we have it here, I put my trust in him. The Lord Jesus
Christ offered himself knowing God would have to raise him from
the dead. God pledged his word. He pledged it by an oath, and
so he did it here. And he says, Behold I and the
children which God hath given him. Amazing. And verse 14, For
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
because he took their place, he had to die, he had to suffer,
he is their captain, he had to go into that valley and engage
with the enemy, On their behalf, therefore, he says, because they
were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. That through death, this is amazing,
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil. The death of Christ destroyed death. And in destroying death,
Christ destroyed the works of the devil. Amazing, isn't it? And I brought this out before
many times in John chapter 8, where the Pharisees brought this
woman, taken in adultery, and he said, neither do I condemn
thee. Christ stands for his people. He answers God for them. In the
supreme court of heaven, the decision of the court is passed
down in his favor and in favor of his people, the ones he advocates
for. And therefore, the accuser loses
the court battle. And therefore, he, like Haman,
is hanged on the gallows. He prepared for Christ and for
his people to destroy all the Jews. The Lord Jesus Christ so
obtained the victory that he spoiled Satan. He made a show
of him openly triumphing over it in his cross in Colossians
2 verse 14. In verse 15, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. You see what fear does to us?
What does fear do? It creates a bondage. But grace
removes the fear and the bondage is lifted. Our salvation is compared
to a redemption. Christ paid the ransom price.
We're set free. In Genesis 44, in the last few
verses, Judah stands before Joseph and pleads for Benjamin, and
he asks Joseph to release Benjamin, take me, let him go free, up
with his brethren, back to his father. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ lays down his life, a ransom, and he asks in that ransom price,
release them from the fury of your wrath, bringing enemies
against them, release them from the bondage of the fear of the
devil and of death. And he released them, and they
go back up to their father with all of God's elect. And verse
16, for verily he took not on angels, but he took on the seed
of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. This is amazing. to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. Here the Lord Jesus Christ, our
captain, is our high priest. He's our sanctifier. He's the
one who took our nature and took our case and delivered us from
death, destroyed our enemies, made us holy, brought us to glory,
and is not ashamed to call us his brethren. He made propitiation
in his blood. He reconciled us to God. And
now, not only that, we see him interceding for us, running to
our aid. That word succor means to run
to the aid of those who are tempted. Here we see who Christ is. We
see what he did. We see who he did it for, where
he is now, and what he's doing there, don't we? He's our captain.
He suffered death, tasted it for his people. And where are
we because of that? What did he obtain for us? Eternal redemption. He made us
holy to God. He brought many sons to glory.
He delivered us from the devil. And he reconciled us to God by
his own blood. And where is he now? What is
he doing? He's interceding for us. He runs to our aid in every
time of need. And that's why we're to go to
his throne of grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the
all sufficient work of the Lord Jesus Christ to save your people
from their sins, to deliver them from their enemies, to bring
them to yourself as your beloved sons, and to bring us with your
sons, and to give us a lot out of his inheritance that we might
rest in his work, who accomplished all and defeated our enemies
all by himself. We thank you, Lord, that he makes us holy.
We can't do it. Thank you that he takes away
our sins in his own suffering and death because we couldn't
do that either. Thank you that he fulfills all of our righteousness,
that he reconciled us to God by his own propitiating death.
We couldn't do that. Thank you that he runs to our
aid because we need him at all times to do so. And thank you
that he makes intercession for us and that his intercessions
are always heard so that he will save us to the uttermost because
he ever lives to make intercession for us. And thank you, Lord,
that everything in our salvation is. designed by you, provided
by you, accomplished by Christ, and accepted from Him by you
for us, and therefore we are saved. Let us forever now see
Jesus and look to our Captain, our Sanctifier, our High Priest,
and go to Him at all times through your grace, for grace, that we
might trust you like He did. and like Abraham and all your
people do, and that we might, in our hearts, be thankful, and
that everything we do might be found acceptable to you through
him. We ask these things for Jesus' sake and for your glory.
In his name we pray, amen.