Turn back with me to Hebrews
chapter 2, if you would, please. We're going to be looking at
Christ, our Captain, our Sanctifier, and our High Priest. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our Captain, our Sanctifier, and our High Priest. In Hebrews chapter 2, he says
in verse 5, For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection
the world to come whereof we speak." Now, as I mentioned before,
the book of Hebrews frequently introduces a topic or a subject
throughout the book in one mention. and then later develops it more
fully as it unfolds. And whenever I'm reading it and
I see something new like this, the world to come wherever we
speak, my natural question is, where did He speak of this world
in the verses that preceded this? Well, in chapter 1, He says,
Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall
perish. but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth
a garment." And then he goes on in verse 12, he says, "...and
as a vesture thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed,
but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to
which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool." So this is all speaking
about this world to come. But in the book of Hebrews, the
world to come is another of the major themes. In fact, this is
a major theme in all of what we believe and what we look forward
to as Christians. The world to come. Look at, for
example, verse 1 of chapter 3. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling. That doesn't mean it's just from
heaven. It does mean that. But it's not just a heavenly
calling because it's from heaven, but it's a heavenly calling because
we're called to heaven. And then look at chapter 10,
where he goes on further. He spends a good bit of time
on this subject later on in the book. He says in verse 34 of
chapter 10, For you had compassion of me and my bonds and took joyfully
the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance. And so this is the
theme of chapter 11 too, where all the believers are involved
in this looking forward to something to come. In fact, in verse 1
he says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. We don't
have them yet, but faith is what we do have, and faith is that
evidence of things future, the reality of them. We don't have
the reality of them now, but we do have faith, and faith is
the evidence of the reality of those future things promised
to us by God. God spoke to Abraham. In fact,
his name, remember Abraham's name? Abraham. What did it mean? Father of many nations. He had
no children, and yet God made the promise to him, because God
calls those things which be not as though they were. And God
gave Abraham faith to believe that what he promised, he would
certainly bring to pass. Well, in the gospel, God has
promised to his children something. He's promised them eternal life.
And that eternal life is not only present as a present possession,
but it's a future possession that we will fully realize in
our own experience. And so he says here, In chapter
11, if you look at chapter 11, he says, verse 13, these all
died in faith. All these before he mentioned
Abel and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah and
so on. These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
Abraham didn't receive the promise of the heavenly inheritance.
He did look for it, but he didn't receive it while he was on Earth.
But having seen them afar off, Seeing them by faith and we're
persuaded of them. That's what faith is, is being
seen and being persuaded and embrace them. Faith causes us
to embrace even though we can't tangibly hold it. And they confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Faith
causes us to say this is not my home. This is not the way
that the physical things I see now are not the reality that
God has told me is true, that I'm going to receive and that
he has created for his people. And so they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. And it says in verse 14, for
they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. It's like Abraham, you sojourning
from his homeland to another place, Canaan. Always living
in tents. Can you imagine at 75 years old,
leaving your homeland and then going on and living in tents
all the way until... I can't remember how old Abraham
was when he died. I think he was around 175. Does anyone recollect that? Around
175 years. So he dwelt in tents for like
100 years. That's unbelievable to live in
a tent. He must have become an expert
tent maker because tents were out. But here he declares plainly,
and all that were believing like him declare plainly that they
seek a country. Then what country is that? The
land of Canaan? No, not at all. The land of Israel? No. Anywhere in this world? No. It's the land of heaven,
he says. And notice in verse 15, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, in
other words, if we look back like Lost Wife and think about
everything we're giving up, Because we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and we're and we're holding a fondness to returning and establishing
something in this world or spending our time working toward a comfortable
home in this world instead of spending all of our priorities
on the world to come. Then he's saying if they had
been mindful of that from whence they came out, they might have
had opportunity to have returned. They could have thought, oh,
wow, maybe I should go back to Haran or the land of Mesopotamia. No, if you do, you can go back
there, all right, but you know what you'll miss out on? All
the blessings God has promised. And so Esau wanted a bowl of
porridge instead of the heavenly inheritance, instead of Christ
and Him crucified. And he was called a fornicator
because of that. But anyway, he says, but now
they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. And look
at the next phrase. Wherefore, God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.
That is absolutely phenomenal. God is not ashamed to be called
their God. These are people. People of the
earth, insignificant in terms of the greater scheme of things.
If we just look at it on a physical, human level, tipsqueaks. God is vast and unimaginably
huge, infinite in power and wisdom, and can do all things. And man
is insignificant. And yet, God says He's not ashamed
to be called their God. Why? Because He gave them a promise. He gave them faith, and they
held tenaciously to what God has said, and they pursued that
with all of their heart, even though they couldn't see it,
even though there was no evidence in the world that there was a
heavenly country, a heavenly city. And yet, all throughout
the book of Hebrews, this theme, a world to come, the world to
come, is throughout. And so, what he says here in
chapter Look at chapter seven at the very end of Hebrews when
he gets to Melchizedek, our high priest, he says. Let's see, I'm sorry, not chapter
seven, chapter six. When he when he's talking about
the promises made to Abraham, he says. Though we have this promise,
he says, verse 18. Verse 17, wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope, that's future, set before us, which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
enters within into that within the veil. Quither, notice, the
forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. So here, think of a man who's
climbing a mountain. He's got his rope. Somehow, I
don't know how they ever do this. When they're climbing a mountain,
they somehow get their rope tied way above where they're trying
to be. I never figured out how they do that, but let's assume
that they can do it. So they got their rope tethered
way up to the top of the mountain. They're climbing up. And he's
swinging back and forth. The wind is blowing. Buffeting
him all around and yet he knows where he's going because the
rope is Anchored at the top and he's going right up the rope
to the top. That's what we have. We have an anchor of the soul
This hope is our anchor what we're looking for is heaven And
everything else may upset us. Life itself may be lost and troubles
and family and persecutions and everything comes along. But we're
looking for a country that God is preparing for us, a city that
he's preparing for his people. And then he tells us the secret,
how we enter that city. The forerunner, the forerunner
is for us entered there. And that's what he's getting
to in chapter two here. He's bringing in to our focus At the
first, how we enter into our heavenly possession. The way
we enter our heavenly possession is that God has ordained that
we would enter in through the Lord Jesus Christ, our forerunner,
our high priest, our captain. And so that's what he's saying
here. Now, in chapter two, he opens it with a warning not to
let slip what you've heard. What do we let slip? So great
salvation. And what is it that we do to
not let it slip? We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. What do we look for to not let slip? We look to everything
Christ has done, because our salvation is in every part what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. And that's what He's
doing here in chapter 2. He's telling us who Christ is
and the promises God has made for us. So let's look at this
in chapter 2. He says, So the angels weren't
put in, he didn't put the world to come into subjection to the
angels, he says. So he pulls back from Psalm 8
in order to quote this. He says, but one, and if he were
to quote it, it would be somewhere in Psalm 8, one in a certain
place testifies saying this. What is man that thou art mindful
of him or the son of man that thou visitest him? Now, whenever
the words son of man are used in scripture, it points to the
Lord Jesus Christ. The son of man almost always
points to the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate. He came to save
his people. He's the son of man. Jesus said
the son of man must be lifted up. He was speaking of himself
all throughout the New Testament. The most common phrase Jesus
used of himself was the title was the son of man. But God says
here, in fact, look at Psalm 8. Let's look back at Psalm 8,
because this helps us see the context. The Hebrews were very
familiar with the context. So we need to look at the context.
He says in verse one of Psalm 8, Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth. who has set thy glory above the
heavens. We look at the sky and that's
that's the heaven. That's that's what we call the
the first heaven. But then there's something else,
the atmosphere. There's something beyond that called that's where
the sun and the moon and the stars are. That's the second
heaven. And then there's the third heaven where God dwells.
And he says, you've set your glory above the heavens outside
of our even our vision. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies.
This was fulfilled when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on
a donkey and the people cried out, Oh, save us, Hosanna. Oh, save us. And so that was
fulfilled there. But he says he ordained strength
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. Those who were crying
out then, Lord, save us. In prophecy, they were fulfilling
that. And he says that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
And then in verse three, he says this. When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou
hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the
son of man that thou visitest him? Now, the point here he's
making is that God is so great he could create all of this vast
universe. God's greatness is beyond our
understanding. If God is that great, if God
is that great, how insignificant is man that he is simply a creature
of God? And everything else is so much
larger. If God could create all this by his great power, then
how insignificant is man? And why is God even mindful of
him? He spends all... He's as if he
created man at the center of his purposes. And it's true,
he did. So he says, why are you mindful
of him in this way? And the Son of Man that thou
visit'st him, the Son of Man is the Lord Jesus Christ. So
there's something taught here about the condescension of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who as God took on the role of Son of Man
and became so low as to be in a position where you would think
it would be insignificant of God to even take notice of him.
The Lord God has taken on that role of a man of insignificance
in comparison with God in His greatness. That's how far Christ
stooped. But then he says, you made him
a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and
honor. And the word little here and
also in Hebrews refers not to so much a degree of little, like
my dog is lesser in importance, in rank, than his master. But little in terms of duration
of time. So God is saying He made man
for a while lower than the angels. And He made the Son of Man for
a while lower than the angels. There was a time period when
He was going to be made lower. And then He goes on. You made
Him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You put
all things under His feet. And then He listed here in Psalm
8. But in Hebrews 2, if you go back, verse 8, He says in verse
8, he says in the middle, "...for in that He put all in subjection
under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him." If God
put everything under the Son of Man, why don't we see it put
under Him? Because He says in the next part,
"...but now we see not yet all things put under Him." Why is
it that we don't see man, everything put in subjection to man? Because,
as I mentioned last week, God's purpose was that the prophecy
that was begun in creation, that He put all things under man,
yet at the same time, for a little space of time, He made him lower
than the angels, that prophecy could only be fulfilled when
God put all things, including the angels, under the dominion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because as our mediator, He fulfilled
the will and the work of God. Now, that's what's seen here
in the next part. He says, but we see Jesus, who was made a
little lower, and that word saying little, little in terms of time,
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, Why
was he made lower than the angels? In order to suffer death. And
yet we see him crowned with glory and honor. And this glory and
honor is the fulfillment that God has put all things under
his feet. He did put the world to come under the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the forerunner who has taken
possession of the promised blessings for his people, he himself. took that possession on their
behalf. In other words, everything that
God promised to His people, everything that God promised to His people,
He gives to them only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only because
the Lord Jesus Christ, by His death, His obedience unto death,
has earned the right to that. So God gives him and fulfills
his promise to his people in Christ by giving it to Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ was promised everything. God made promise
to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would
be blessed. He wasn't talking about Isaac or Jacob or Jacob's
sons or even David. He was talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it was to Him all the promises
were made. All the promises of God in Him
are yes and amen to the glory of God. So every promise was
given to Christ, but it wasn't given to Christ just for Him
by Himself. He didn't take on a human nature
so that He could receive these promises as an individual. He took on a human nature to
receive the promises of God on behalf of his people, as the
head of his people, as the captain of his people, as it says here.
And so it says here, he was crowned with glory and honor because
he suffered death. And the reason he suffered death,
and the reason he now sits in glory, is so that he, by the
grace of God, should taste death for every man. Our salvation
is always by the grace of God. Christ being given is by the
grace of God. Him acquiring for us the promised
blessing is by the grace of God. We didn't do anything. He did
it all. We lost it in the fall. All of
creation is cursed, it's under the curse. Remember in Romans
8, he says, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. And yet by the grace of God,
Christ restored that which He took not away. Psalm 89, He restored
what He didn't take away. He didn't lose it, but He restored
it, and He more than restored it. He restored it to the point
where God intended in His promise to give it to His people. And
so he says, by the grace of God, he should taste death for every
man. To taste death means to experience
death. It's like a cook that you watch
these cooking shows. My wife likes to watch these
cooking shows. And we'll see someone cooking.
And one of the things they tell a cook is, if you're going to
cook, you better taste your food before you serve it. Because
if you don't, how do you know if it's not too salty or something
like that? Christ, in order for Him to be the Savior of His people,
He had to taste death. He had to experience death as
it is in all of its fear and terror and pain and shame and
all the weakness of it. He had to taste death. And He
didn't taste death just so He could say, Hey, I've tasted it.
Now you guys be comforted because I've tasted it. I know what it's
like. And I'll send down some some wishful blessings your way
so that when you die, it won't be so painful. He tasted it as
a substitute. He tasted death in our place. He tasted the death that God
would pour out on His people in punishment for their sins.
That's the death that He tasted. In other words, He took death
in order that by the grace of God, He might take it for His
people. So, He tasted death for us and
He obtained the blessings for us in order that God might give
everything to us in Him. Christ, because we were in Christ. What does it say in 1 Peter 2.24? Who His own self bear our sins
in His own body on the tree that we being dead to sin. You read
that and you go, wait a minute. Christ is the one that died. How can God say that we being
dead to sin? Because when he died, he didn't
die for himself. He died as a substitute and as
a representative in union with his people so that when he died,
his death was counted mine. And so God poured out the punishment
of my sins on him. And when he suffered that death,
then I suffered that death. And so he says here, he tasted
it for his people. And not only did he taste death
for them, but he obeyed God for them so that the righteousness
that he rendered to God was a fulfillment of all that was required so that
God could bless his people and give them the blessings in that
covenant. And so the reward of that was
to exalt him to the highest place in heaven over all things, over
the angels and over everything. But in order for him to do that,
he had to suffer the humiliation and the shame and pain of death.
So in verse 10, he says here, he speaks of God the Father in
verse 10. He says, For it became him for whom are all things and
by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. Do you see
that? We know it's speaking of God
the Father because he says he's bringing many sons to glory. But notice he says, it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things. Everything
is for God the Father. Everything is by God the Father. Everything. Everything in this
world is for him. Everything is for him. All things
are by him. Do wars occur? Yes, they do.
Why do they occur? According to the will of God,
according to the purpose God had in place for bringing those
wars into the world in order to accomplish His purpose. Is
God sinning when He does bring evil into the world to destroy
or to bring sickness? No. Remember what Joseph said
to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for
good. Everything that God does, he
does for a good purpose. And he does it at the same time
the wars and things like this bring about the consequences
of sin in the world. So it's both a compensation or
a consequence of sin, which is just, and it's also fulfilling
the good will of God, so in all things it's just that God does
it. So it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are
all things. But it's also true that everything is for and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. If everything is for the Father
and by the Father, and it's also for the Son and by the Son, as
it says in Colossians 1.16, all things were created by Him and
for Him, Then we know that this is also a claim, a statement,
a strong statement, that not only did Christ become the Son
of Man, but He still remains as God. He is God Himself. And so He's bringing us to this
point to see Christ as God, He's the Man, but now He says, but
God the Father, for Him, it was fitting, it was right, it became
Him. For whom are all things and by
whom are all things in doing this. And here's a major, major
purpose in what God is doing in the world. This is why he
created the world. This is why he sent Christ into
the world. This is why how he receives praise
to the honor of his grace. Look at the next phrase in bringing
many sons to glory. Do you see that bringing many
sons to glory? Who are these sons that he brought
to glory? Who are they? Were they sons before God decided
to bring them to glory? Well, they became sons through
adoption. Remember what Ephesians 1.5 says? Look at Ephesians 1.5. Ephesians 1.5 says this, that
God has chosen us, in verse 4, in
Christ, before the foundation of the world, in order that we
should be holy and without blame before Him. And then it says,
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
We were adopted as children. And that adoption was determined.
It was predestined for us to become adopted by Jesus Christ.
And that That will to make us His sons by Jesus Christ was,
like all things with God, it established the thing as true.
Ecclesiastes 3.14, God requires that which is past. Everything
that God does in time, He already determined in eternity, and it's
settled at that point. When God determines it in eternity,
it's done. If it's done in God's will, it's
done. Yet, it has to be brought to
pass. So one of the big purposes, the big will that God had, the
big theme in the gospel is that God would bring many sons to
glory. And how does He bring many sons
to glory? You would think, well, why did He just not create them
in glory? Well, that wasn't what God determined
to do. It didn't become Him to just
create them in glory. Well then, why didn't he keep
Adam from falling and allow them to inherit all things in Adam? Well, because it didn't become
him that God... it didn't become God. It didn't
seem fitting to God that that would be the best thing. What
did seem good in his sight was that the Lord Jesus Christ would,
before the world was created, make an agreement with his father,
like Judah did with his father Jacob, on behalf of Benjamin,
that he would stand as the surety for his people, secure his son
Benjamin to Jacob forever, so that he would be a surety to
Jacob for Benjamin in order to bring Benjamin back, and that
he would also be a surety to Benjamin in interposing himself
between Benjamin and the governor of Egypt, Joseph, and stand on
Benjamin's behalf and allow himself to be treated as the guilty one,
in order to redeem Benjamin from the debt he owed, a crime debt,
to Joseph in Egypt, the governor, and then to bring Benjamin back
to Jacob whole and sound. That is what Judah did as a surety. And God is saying, that pictures
for us what the Lord Jesus Christ did before the world began. He
stood up. He approached God the Father
and said, I will be surety for them. This is God's will. He knew it was God's will. How
can I bring many sons to glory? The Lord Jesus Christ stepped
forward, engaged Himself. He says, I will be surety for
them. I will stand for them." And he stood up in the eternal
purposes of God, in the will of God, and he put himself forward,
and God himself appointed and approved of him and accepted
him as our surety and mediator. And so in that transaction, God
said, and you will, it seems good to me. Remember how Jesus
put it? Father, You've hidden these things
from the wise and prudent, and You've revealed them to babes.
And this is why. Because it seemed good in Thy
sight. And someone said in a hymn one
time, what was there in us to merit esteem or give the Creator
delight? It was even so, Father, we ever
must sing, because it seemed good in Thy sight. And Hebrews
1 verse 10 says this, in essence, it seemed good in God's sight
to bring many sons to glory in this way, to make the captain
of their salvation, perfect through sufferings. And what is this
captain? This captain is the champion. The captain is the forerunner.
The captain is the one who was chosen to stand as one man for
all the people. The captain is the one who, like
David, went out to fight Goliath. One man for the nation. If he
won, the nation won. If he lost, they were all gone.
And so God laid on him who is mighty God laid on him who is
mighty that he might go forward and bring many sons to glory,
that he might himself suffer the consequences of sin and the
pain of it and the shame of it and the indignation of God against
it in order. to satisfy God's justice in order
to give full expression to His love according to justice, and
God Himself would be glorified in the grace that He would show
to His people, that He would provide such a Savior, such a
Captain, so mighty to be able to save them without any contribution
from them. He would do it all by Himself.
And so, this seemed good in God's sight. But in doing this, in
making Christ our captain, in laying on Him the responsibility
to bring His many sons to glory. It seemed good in God's sight
to do that through the suffering of death. And He says here in
verse 11, For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. The sanctifier And the sanctified,
he says here, are all of one. They're all of one. Now, in the
Old Testament, the one who sanctified was the high priest. The priest
would sanctify the people. Remember what it says in Hebrews
chapter 9. It says, For even the Old Testament
was not dedicated without blood. What did Moses do when God gave
the Old Testament? He took the blood of goats and
calves, and took water and took a hyssop, a thing with some kind
of a grass or something, and he stuck it in there, blood in
the water, and he sprinkled both the book and all the people with
the blood. And then he said this when he
sprinkled them, this is the blood of the covenant which God hath
enjoined to you. God has put it upon you, this
covenant God has put on you because of the blood I'm sprinkling here.
And God is saying that the one who sanctifies is the one who,
by the sprinkling of blood, makes the covenant or sets the people
apart to God under this covenant. So when you see this word sanctify,
There's someone who does the sanctifying and there's those
who are sanctified. And there's two things to understand
here. Number one, the one who sanctifies was a high priest
and he was the same as the people. He was one with them. He was
their brethren, their brother. But then there are those who
are sanctified and the sanctification took place because the sanctifier
did all of that work for them. And we're going to see both these
things in a second. The first thing I want to look at here
is this notion of being sanctified. What does it mean to be sanctified?
Look at Hebrews chapter 10. And a lot of times you hear about
sanctification. as a process that we undergo.
We're sanctified, our sanctification, and we're growing in sanctification.
We're growing in holiness. But here, there's a sanctification
that is expressed here in Hebrews 10, which is what Christ did.
He says, by the witch will, the will that God had, that not by
bulls and goats, but by the offering of Christ, He would perfect His
people. He says, by the witch will, we are sanctified. through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Do you see that? Why were we
sanctified? Because of the will of God. How
were we sanctified? By the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ. Who accomplished it? Jesus Christ. God did it in Jesus Christ. When
did it happen? When He died. That sanctification
is something that God did, accomplished. It's in the past. It's for us.
We didn't contribute it in any way. We were passive. It was
outside of us. The Lord Jesus Christ set us
apart. to God by the offering of Himself. Just like in the Old Testament,
Moses took the hyssop, dipped it in the blood of goats and
calves with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and he sprinkled
it on the book and the people and tabernacle and all the vessels
of the ministry. This is what Jesus Christ did.
He sanctified the people by His own blood. And He sanctified
them, He made the covenant, He enjoined his covenant to them
by his blood. When he took the cup and gave
it to his disciples, he says, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. Drink it all. Drink all of it.
All of you drink it. And so when he did that, the
new covenant was put into force by his blood and it was applied
to the people by his blood. His blood was the ratification. It made it happen. It put it
into force. All that God promised was sealed
to His people by when He shed His blood. And not only that,
but when they were sprinkled, that signified the fact that
when the gospel is preached and the Spirit of God comes to us
and causes us to be persuaded of the truth of it and to see
it's true and embrace it, then God sprinkles our conscience.
And that sprinkling of our conscience causes us to see that the new
covenant in Christ's blood is ours. All the blessings are ours
by what Christ has done. That's what he's talking about
here. The one who sanctifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
who are sanctified, they're sanctified by His blood, by the offering,
without remission of sins. I mean, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no cleansing. There's no sanctification. And
so, we're sanctified. We're cleansed. Our conscience
is cleared. We're perfected all by the blood
of Jesus Christ. We're set apart to God. We're
made holy. 1 Corinthians 1.30. God has made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification, and holiness, and redemption.
And so that's what he's done. But it says here something so
wonderful that it defies our understanding. Verse 11, both
the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of
one. They're all of one. Now, what
does this mean, they're all of one? And this is a huge topic.
This is so amazing. The heavens are parting and we're
looking into something we've never seen before. And all of
a sudden it breaks upon our vision and we see this infinite, this
image before us is infinite in its extent and beyond our understanding. And this is what it is. We're
one with Christ. One with Christ. What does it
mean to be one with Christ? We're one with the sanctifier.
Well, one of the things it means is that the Lord Jesus Christ,
when God gave His people to Him, that He didn't just give them
to Him as distinct from Him, but He joined them together so
that God forever would treat His people and His Son as one. That's beyond our ability to
really appreciate. But think of it this way. The
best example that I can give is the relationship between a
husband and his wife. The husband and the wife, God
says, when Adam saw Eve and the rib had been taken from Adam's
side to make her, he looked upon her, he said, this is now bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Exactly the same way, the people
of God were given by God, before they were created, they were
given by God to the Lord Jesus Christ to be His bride. It was
in God's will that through His death, like Adam sleeping and
his rib taken from him, through Christ's death, He would create
the church. We are called that in Christ
we're the new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. But our union with Christ is
so intimate that it's only God could picture it by the relationship
between the husband and the wife. And so, He uses that. The intimacy
of marriage and the fact that the rib was taken from Adam's
side all point to the fact that the wife and the husband are
one in God's sight. The two shall be one flesh, Jesus
said in Matthew 5. So this relationship of husband
and wife is so intimate that God says in Ephesians chapter
5 that when he speaks about the husband and wife, when he made
the woman, when he made the woman, he did it with Christ in his
church in view. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. The husband is the head, verse
23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is
the head of the church. And because he is the head, he's
the savior of the body. Those two things are are overlays
saying the same thing. He's the head of the church and
he's the savior of the body. The church is his body. The people
of God, the elect of God, the redeemed of God are called his
body, his people, his church. And says, therefore, in verse
24, as the church is subject to Christ, so that the wives
be to their husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wife even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Why did he give himself for the
church? Because he loved the church. Why did he love the church? Because she was given to him.
She was his wife. In order that, verse 26, he might,
there's our word, sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing
of water by the word, which speaks of his work of redemption and
his work of regeneration applied to us. In order that he might
present it, the church, to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and
without blemish. This is what God is telling us
what Christ has done. He loved His church. He gave
Himself for it. By giving Himself for it, He
might be able to wash them by the water of the Word, bringing
His Spirit to live within us, causing us to look to Him and
to fulfill that union in our faith, which He established by
His love in eternity. He says here that His death and
His giving His Spirit to us, the Word of God through the Spirit
of God, Teaching us of what He's done makes us holy and without
blame before Him. But look down in verse 20, 32. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. This fact that we're
one, the husband is joined to his wife and the wife to her
husband, and they're one flesh, this is a great mystery. But
God did that in order to teach us that Christ and His people
are one. There's many ways in Scripture
where God teaches us the unity between His people and His Son.
Marriage is the most obvious way. But there's also the picture
of the Redeemer. Remember, the Redeemer had to
be a near kinsman. You can't buy someone's inheritance
for them, buy them out of prison, as a Redeemer unless you are
already related to them in a near kinsman relationship, unless
you have the money to buy them, and unless the one you're going
to buy it from even accepts you. Christ has all those things.
He didn't have any debt of His own. He was a near kinsman because
He took on our cause, our nature, and He was made one with us,
and He was able to pay everything for us. So by the near kinsman
relationship of Redeemer, we're one with Christ. We're also one
because He took on our flesh and blood. He took on our nature.
All these things teach us that He that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified are all of one. And so, it was God's will that
He would make Him perfect through sufferings in order that He might
sanctify us by His death. And then He goes on in Hebrews
2.11 and He says, For this reason, for this cause, He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. So we see we're also won by being
part of His family. He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
But this is the same God who created us, who's above all things,
of whom it was said, Who are you that even has mindful of
man, the Son of Man, that you even visit Him? And now He's
saying He's not ashamed to call them brethren. Saying, I will
declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will
I sing praise unto thee. And isn't that exactly what Jesus
did when he had the Lord's Supper? When he gave the Lord's Supper
to his disciples before he went to the cross, you know what they
did? They sang a hymn. It fulfilled this. I will declare
thy name in the midst of the church while I sing praise unto
thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. These are quotations
from the Old Testament. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. You see what he's saying
here? Is that the reason the Lord Jesus
Christ is not ashamed to call His people brethren is because
God gave them to Him as His children, His own children. They were God's
sons and God made them Christ's brethren. I and the children,
God's children, were given to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were
given to Him in order that He might redeem them." And so he
goes on and explains that in the rest of this. But you see
through these things, and I'm just going to wrap it up here.
We'll cover the rest of this another time. You see through
these things that God, in His purpose and His will, determined
to have a people. That God in His purpose and His
will determined that it would be through His Son that He would
bring them to glory. And that His Son would receive
all the praise and all the glory and all the honor and fulfill
all the obligations needed to give them this eternal inheritance. and that this eternal inheritance
consists of a future world in which Christ reigns and His people
reign with Him, and they reign and receive all the blessings
that Christ received because they're one with Him. He sanctified
them by His own blood, and He brings them to God by His work
alone. And this is the great boat, if
you will. The analogy is, this is our so
great salvation, and He says, don't let this slip. Don't let
it slip. Hear what God is saying here.
This is all your hope and all your glory. What Christ has done
is everything to you. Don't discount it. Don't just
ignore it. Don't neglect it. And give heed
to it. Everything else is rubbish. Everything
else is fading away. Keep your eyes focused on the
world to come. the country, the city that God
is preparing for His people. By faith, look to that and look
to Christ who has brought it all to us and obtained it all
for us. He has obtained for us an eternal inheritance, an eternal
redemption, and forever put away our sins all by Himself. And
this is why he's such a great high priest. And this exalts
him so far in our hearts above the angels that they pale in
comparison. We see there then that they're
simply servants fulfilling his will. Let's pray. Father, we
pray you'd give us strength so that we could understand and
appreciate. Give us faith, Lord, to lay hold
on this so great salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. You have
bound us to Yourself by an eternal union of love, and You've given
us this faith so that we can see it, that the coupling, the
ties between us are Your eternal love, not the strength of anything
in us, not our goodness, nothing found in us now or future. And
that our Lord Himself has determined that this would be the way He
would bring us to glory and give us all that He has for His people.
And take to Himself great glory for His grace and His name. Lord,
we pray that He would be all of our desire. We would look
for Him. We would long for Him. We would take all of our confidence
in Him and from Him. And we, like the wife, would
be subject to our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, in everything.
We would love Him as He loved us. And we pray, Lord, give us
this grace in Jesus' name. Amen.