Hebrews 2, verse 9 says, we see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, we see Him crowned with glory and honor. Now, who is we? Let me remind
you. Look at verse 1, Therefore we
ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Verse 3, How shall
we escape if we neglect so great a salvation as is confirmed unto
us? The we and the us. and whom this
Hebrews is written to are professing believers. That's who the we
is. We. We see Him, a man named Jesus,
crowned with glory and honor. We see Him. We see why the Lord
came. It says, for the suffering of
death. Verse 9, for the suffering of death. He was made a little
lower than the angels Verse 7 says, Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels for a brief time, thirty-three years. Why? To suffer death, that he might,
verse 9, taste Death by the grace of God. This is the gift of God.
God's wonderful gift. The gift of God, eternal life
through Christ who tasted death as a man by God's grace. He would
taste death for every... Now, people, I don't know why
the word man is there, but it's not supposed to be there. I have the original Greek Bible,
and the word man is not there at all. The word is son. Son. Because the next verse says,
it became him in bringing many sons unto glory. See that? Many sons unto glory. And Christ did not die for every
single human being. That is clear. He Himself said
He came to give His life a ransom for many. He said, I am the Good
Shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. Not goats. Sheep. So that's vital. That's important. But at any
rate, every man whom the Lord came to save, that's who he laid
his life down for. Every son. Alright, but here's
the point. The Lord became a man for one
reason. To suffer death. You often hear
us say that God can't die. Man can't satisfy God's law. Man can't satisfy God's law.
That's what God requires of us, though. And anyone who breaks
God's law, the soul that sinneth must surely die. Okay? But God can't die. So God became
a man. Became a man to satisfy God's
law. for men, for his men, his people,
his women, his people. And he did that and a man died. All through Hebrews, he's referred
to quite often as Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. To
show up that this man, that God became a man. It started in chapter
1, that he's very God of very God, the image of God, the expressed
image of God. But this man named Jesus, looking
unto Jesus, chapter 12. We're going to see Him all through
Hebrews as our High Priest, a man. There's a man in glory. Wednesday
night, Lord willing, I want us to look at how He was made like
us. The next to last verse says,
verse 17, that He was made like unto His brethren. I hope it
should be a great, great blessing. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. A man. A man. That's the only
way he could be. Is to become a man. And God made
him a man. It says a body has self-prepared
to die as the Lamb of God. As a substitute. That's why he
came. We know that. We see that. Why
Christ came. As a substitute. He said, for
this cause came I. into this, out of this world
to die, to die. But now he's not dead, now. We don't refer to Him now as
Jesus, do we? Why? Because He's crowned with
glory and honor. He sits. He's high and lifted
up. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. He's called the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we see Him now. That's how we look to Him now.
That's how we refer to Him now. Alright. We see our Lord Jesus
Christ. made lower than the angels, for
the suffering of death, that he might taste death. Christ
died so that we don't have to. He said, he that believeth in
me shall never taste death. It won't even taste like death
to us. to God's people. It won't even
taste like it. You mark the perfect man. Psalm 37, 37. You mark the perfect man. Mark
it down. The perfect man, that is the
one complete in Christ, the believer. The end of that man is peace. His end will be peace. He won't
taste death. Our Lord tasted death. The bitterness
of death. The sting of death. He tasted that. That separation
from God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Nobody that trusts in Christ
will ever taste that. You won't on your deathbed be
wondering why God has forsaken you. No, no, no, no. He'll have
you in His arms. He promised that. Why? Because
Christ tasted. It won't taste like death. It
will be sweet to you. He has promised that. You shall
not taste of death. But He did. He tasted death for
His people. Alright? It became Him, verse
10. It became Him, for whom are all
things, by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. It became him, this speaking
of God, it became him, the very becoming of our God, to make
Christ the captain of our salvation. The very becoming. We say of
someone when they're wearing something, that's very becoming
of you. No, it's very becoming. Henry,
that suit is very becoming on you. It makes you look good.
Or you make it look good. Very becoming. Okay? Alright? It says, it became him. This so great salvation. It's
very becoming. of our Lord. It's fitting, that is, it fits
him, it suits him, that God who is love, very fitting that God
who is love would display such love. It is very fitting that
God who is merciful should show such mercy. Very fitting, very
becoming. Very fitting that God of all
grace would give such a gracious gift, his Son. Very fitting,
very becoming of Christ that he would become us. That is how
glorious he is, how becoming he is in his How to become Him? It sure makes Him look good,
doesn't it? This salvation makes Him look
so good because He is. It's very becoming. It became
Him. For whom? For His glory. For whom are all
things. By whom are all things. And bringing many sons unto glory. A number which no man can number.
Sons unto glory. To make the Lord Jesus Christ
the captain of their salvation. Perfect through suffering. The captain of their salvation.
I learned something this morning. I looked up the word captain.
I knew there were quite a few references in scripture. But
the main one is over there in 1 Samuel 22, where it says everyone
that was distressed and discontented and in debt came to David in
that cave and he became captain over there. David, such a type
of Christ. Captain, there's no higher rank
in the Old Testament. There's not general, there's
not captain, then colonel, then lieutenant. No, no. Captain is
the highest, Mac. That's the highest. That means
head. That means general. That means
the ruler. That means the protector. That means the Lord. Whoever's
captain, that's as high as you can get. Captain. Well, our Lord
is the captain of our salvation. The head. The ruler. The one in charge. Keeper. It
means chief. Captain means chief. He's the
chief shepherd. And the one whom God put our
salvation into his hands, and as Scripture says, by himself.
By himself. Single-handedly. accomplished this great salvation. He was perfect for the job. Perfect. The Lord made him a
perfect man. There are two ways you can look
at it. The Lord says He made him perfect
through suffering. He's a perfect God. He's a perfect
man. He's a perfect sacrifice. He's perfect. The word perfect
means complete. We're going to look at perfect
peace in a little while. Perfect peace means that's all
you need. You don't need to look anywhere
else. That's what perfect means. It means complete. You don't
need to look anywhere else. It's all right here. It's perfect. You're complete in Him. He's
all and in all. For our salvation, you don't
need to look anywhere else but to the Lord Jesus Christ. God made him perfect through
suffering. We're going to look more at that
Wednesday night. Verse 11, For both he that sanctifies,
and they who are sanctified are all of one. Now, this is speaking
of our Lord. Remember when he said, I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified. sanctified through
the body of Christ. That's in the Hebrew. Once for
all. Once. One person for all his
people. Christ said, I sanctify myself.
I set myself apart. I set myself apart for God's
glory and for holiness that they might be sanctified. He's made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, Say it. Sanctification and redemption. Alright? He that sanctified Christ
and they who are sanctified are all of one, of God. Christ is
the Son of God, sent by God, and He's the elect. He's the
firstborn among many what? Brethren. We're going to look
at that. Brethren. Alright? They're all
of one. We're born of God. We're born
of God. He's sent by God. We're born
of God. We're all of one. One God and
one Father of all. Our Lord said, I go to my Father
and your Father. We're all of one. One Father. And for which cause? Because
they are the sons of God. We are the sons of God. This is a wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful thing. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. Not ashamed. Now, and we're going to see this all
through the Hebrew. He calls us brethren, brethren,
brethren. Well, look at chapter 3. Wherefore,
holy brethren. The greatest illustration of
this is the story of Joseph. Turn
over there. Genesis 45. Genesis 45. We have
time. Genesis 45, I thought, if we
go over there, we'll get stuck there. Well, that's alright.
I told Gabe this morning, you know, we have a habit sometimes
of getting on one point and can't get away from it. And I said,
well, fine. We can only retain so much anyway.
We can get one thing, one or two things, The Lord is not ashamed
to call us brethren. We are shameful though we be.
Worthless though we be. The worthless sons of Jacob.
These sons of Jacob. Do you remember all of them?
Levi, Simeon, Judah, all of them. They were none of them worth
anything except Joseph. Right? Benjamin. Those are the
legitimate sons of Jacob. But Joseph, remember, was ill-treated,
despised, rejected of all of his brethren. Brethren. And they sold him. What a picture
of Christ Joseph did. And here in the end, see Joseph
is set up by God as Lord, as king, as ruler. God made him
their salvation. The one they rejected. And look
at this, here is when Joseph revealed himself to his brethren. Chapter 45, verse 1, Then Joseph
could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and
cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood
no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. The Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard it, and Joseph said unto his
brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? His
brethren could not answer him. They were troubled at his presence. Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me. They came near. He said, I am
Joseph your brother. And he said this with love and
mercy and kindness. They're a bunch of no good, worthless
brethren. But at this point, God had broken
them. The Lord had broken them. He'd
shown them what they'd done to their brother. They all to a
man said, we're all guilty of our brother's blood. They're
broken men and they come before Him and that's when He makes
Himself known. How? I'm your brother. He's not
ashamed to call them brethren. For this cause. Because God put
him on that throne to save them. Sorry as though they be. That's
why he was sent. Read on. He said, Don't be not
grieved, verse 5, nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither.
God did send me before you to preserve life. Verse 7, God sent me before you
to preserve you apostate, to save your lives by a great deliverance,
by so great a salvation. And verse 8, He was not you that
sent me, but God. Oh, you remember Peter's message? You with wicked hands have taken
and crucified the Lord of glory, but you did what God determined
before to be done. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? This is amazing. Amazing grace. And down in verse
9, oh, there's so much. God hath made me Lord over all. Verse 15 and 16. So he kissed. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren
and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren,
they talked to him. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. Tell you, isn't that the most
amazing verse in all of God's Bible? That's amazing. Amazing. Well, if we could just
get a hold of that, we might worship that one. Sons of Jacob. Back in our text, it says, It
says this, verse 12, and here's what the Lord did in the midst
of his brethren. He said, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. Like old Joseph did to his brethren. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto
thee. He's quoting a Psalm, Psalm 22.
And again, another place, Isaiah, I will put my trust in God, in
Jehovah. And again, behold I and the children
which God hath given me. Pharaoh, back there in that story,
Joseph presented all his brethren to Pharaoh, that these are my
brethren, and Pharaoh accepted all of them. Bring them in. Joseph
and Pharaoh made the announcement, Joseph's brethren are here, let's
have a celebration. And they were all there. They
were all there, with one of them missing. And our Lord is going
to present every single son to the Father. All the children
of God, not one will be missing. He lost none. To the praise of
the glory of His grave. All right. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." Our Lord, as a man, became our captain to face Satan. This is talking about Satan,
that he might destroy him, that he might condemn sin in the flesh,
and that he might, as the second Adam, see, the first Adam, was
destroyed by, was brought down by Satan, wasn't he? He died. And Satan, who brought sin in,
is the one to cause of that. Okay? Well, Christ, as the second
Adam came, First Adam was of the earth earthing, but the second
Adam is the Lord from glory. And he came, and the first thing
he did as a man was what? Face Satan. Before he came and
chose his disciples and all that, he was tempted for 40 days and
40 nights by Satan. And right there, he faced every
temptation without sin. Until he finally said, get. Get behind me. And from there on, for the next
three years, he told his disciples, he's desired to sit with you,
but he can't have you because he's got me to contend with.
And then finally, in the end, he said, all right, now, right
before he's going to the cross, John, he says, now is the Prince
of this world cast out, judged. He said, I'm going to send the
cross and I'm going to crush his head. I'm going to put my
foot on his neck and crush his head. This is the woman's seed,
people. This is the woman seen, whom
the serpent bruised his heel, but he crushed his head. And
Christ on Calvary's tree took captivity, kept it, took hold
of our captor, took all those who were held captive by him
at his will, the strong man armed. Spoiled his goods. That was me.
That was you. That was us. Spoiled his goods.
Stronger than he. Took what belonged to him from
this adversary. That's the captain of our salvation. Okay, that he might destroy,
and he did. He destroyed death by dying himself. And he destroyed sin so that
we might say, O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death
is sin. Christ removed it so there is
no sting, no taste of death. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. And it says he delivers us who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And we're still, to a degree, bound with fear of death. But we shouldn't be if we look
to Him. I'm going to stop right there. I'm going to deal with the other
verses Wednesday night. But in the next hour, we're going
to look at how this perfect peace, real, complete peace, in looking
to Christ who said, He cannot lie. He that believeth in me
shall never die. We still have this fear of death,
fear of dying, when our Lord is the truth. He cannot lie. And if we could just trust Him,
if we could just trust Him, we wouldn't have any fear of
dying. We would positively look forward to this. You see, we
still have a little of this bonded. Our Lord went in the tunnel. Remember, He kept saying for
three years, don't fear man, fear God. Fear Him who kills
and makes alive. Don't fear Him who kills the
body, and after that, that's all He can do. Don't fear Satan.
Don't fear disease. Don't fear these things. God
is the one who sends these things. God is God. There is nothing
else. He says, if you fear Him, you need not fear anything or
anyone else. He tells us that. He kept telling
them that. He said, no man takes my life
from me and no man takes your life from you. He proved that
time and time and time again. And then finally, they did kill
him, didn't they? Who did? God did. That's what He said. I kill, I make love. And they
thought for three days, then they were just totally distraught
for three days. And then three days later, he
walked out of that grave and said, I told you, I've been telling
you for three and a half years. Why are you so faithless? It's
me. I told you. Why don't you believe
me? Why are you so slow to believe the prophet? Why are you so slow
to believe me? Why are you so slow? And he walked out of that grave.
And they saw him walk on into glory. And then, they didn't
have too much fear of dying. Before, they met in secret. They met in secret for fear of
the Jew. After he arose, they went straight to the temple.
No more fear. And Peter, you know, remember
Peter ran and hid because he was afraid? And the rest of them
did too. After the Lord was risen, Seated, reigning, Peter stood
before everybody and said, shall I fear God or man? Do what you
will. Kill me. He hadn't killed me
at all. It will be with the Lord. So,
he came to deliver us from that fear, that bondage of death by
dying. But he said, behold, I'm not
dead, I'm alive. And so are you.