Jack, can I just realize that?
Can I still preach? I don't know, we'll see. Yeah,
we'll see. It remains to be seen, isn't it? Well, it's always a
delight to be back here at 13th Street. I remember the first
time I was here in 1978, June. Phyllis was here. She wasn't in the home then,
so. It's a private joke, so. I was surprised when Jim said
that he's just going to have one speaker for the whole conference.
But I got to thinking about it, and I thought, well, he told
me he's going to do that, other speakers, one at a time for conferences
down the road. And I think, well, that's wise.
With me, he sets the bar real low. So from now on it'll all
be uphill. You can count on that. And there
you have my brazen attempt at voluntary humility. So that's
all you're gonna get. Hebrews chapter two. What our brother just read about was the redemptive work of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And if we consider that for just
a moment, it remains a most astonishing thing, the most astonishing thing that
a human mind is privileged to ponder. The mind that has been made spiritually
alive and given unction to understand all things is yet made to stand
in awe if he ponders for a moment this great and wondrous and magnificent
thing. We cannot begin to perceive the
unspeakable depths of shame and humiliation and sorrow that our
Lord was plunged into and plunged
Himself into and what He plumbed in order to save the likes of
us Jim and I were talking about this the other day. The more
we read the Scriptures and the longer we stand behind this desk
to preach, the more we realize that we're talking about things
too great for us to even try to explain. Praise Him. Today be in wonder and in awe
continually. The Eternal Son of God laid aside
the robes of His resplendent glory and took upon himself the
form of a servant and the fashion of a man. He, the ruler of heaven
and earth, was made under the law. The sovereign architect
of the universe walked in this world with nowhere to lay his
head. God Almighty became homeless in his own world. Try as we might,
we are simply unable to wrap our finite minds around things
like this. But where our impotent reasoning
betrays us, God has given us this thing called faith. This
wondrous thing that believes and bows and worships and even
understands what cannot be naturally understood. From the realms of glory, Our
Redeemer's path was ever toward this humiliation. This is why
He came. He who was rich for our sakes
became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. We're at a loss to understand
the depths of sorrow and unimaginable anguish and daily dishonor, monstrous
malice, and relentless persecution that culminated with the blessed
Son of God, the Son of the Highest, the desire of all nations, suffering
the incomprehensibly ignominious death of the cross. And it was
a time of glory. He was made to be sin. Don't
try to explain that. You back yourself into a ditch
every time you do. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin. He died on a cruel cross. He
was forsaken of his father and made a curse. Made a curse and
was punished for nothing he ever did. And this is God's handiwork. This is God that did this. Considering
this, there's but one question that is worthy of asking. If
at some point in my life I'm able to rub two cogent thoughts
together, I am compelled to ask, why in the world? Why did the Son of God suffer
such a death? Why did God so torment His beloved
Son and bruise Him in such a vengeful way? I know that it was to save
my soul. I know that. I know that He died
that I would live. He suffered the just for the
unjust that He might bring us to God. And the Word of God plainly
declares this. There's no other way for the
omnipotent God to save me and for Jesus Christ to suffer in
this way. There's no other way. This is
love exercise, that's how God describes it. This one who hangs
in agony and blood on the cruel Roman gibbet is there because
of God's love. He commendeth His love toward
us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, that He laid down His life for us. Here in
His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent
His Son, the propitiation for our sins. Men, in erring efforts
to in their minds exalt the largesse of God's sovereignty, sometimes
say things like, God could have saved men a thousand ways. Could
he? The answer to that question is
asked another question. Could justice be satisfied if
the law honored in any other way? If a sinner's to be made
suitable to stand before the thrice holy God accepted in his
presence, He must stand there justly, must be right for him
to stand there. God must declare him righteous
and declare himself righteous in the act of saving that individual.
The justice of God must be perfectly satisfied. The only way God could
save people and forgive their sins was the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Scripture says, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. This is Bible doctrine,
and it's of nuclear import. It encompasses the very glory
of the gospel. This blessed truth severs true
Christianity from all other religions, all of them. If this truth is
removed from Christianity, then it becomes a valueless thing
to the souls of men as valueless as Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism
or Shintoism or Islam, where perfect justice is not administered
in punishment of sin, there is no salvation. There is no salvation. The Scriptures warn us of damnable
heresies entering in, brought in by false teachers and false
prophets. And among those damnable heresies,
none is more common and none is more destructive to the souls
of men than the denial of God's satisfaction in Christ's death
and Christ's satisfaction in His travail. Over in Hebrews
chapter 10, In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
26, it says this, For if we sin willfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sin. Now if you sin, you do it willfully,
but it's not talking about just any sinning here, it's being
particular. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite to the Spirit of God, counting the blood
of Christ an unholy thing. What does that mean? The word
actually means common. Unholy here means common. What does that mean? It means
undesignated or without intent, a common thing that was for nobody
in particular or everybody, but not to a particular group. Those who deem the blood of Christ
a common thing, an ineffectual thing, a thing without merit,
or those who are without hope. They're described here as worthy
of a sore punishment than dying under Moses' law. Jesus Christ's substitutionary
work is proclaimed in the text that our brother read as the
necessity in order that satisfaction be made for sin. And here it says in our text,
we see Jesus. We see Jesus. Who sees Him? We believers see Him as He's
revealed in this Word. We see Him because the Spirit
of God has graciously revealed Him to us. We see Him as our
Savior. We see Him as the Christ of God. We see Him as the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. We see Him as grace effectually
bestowed and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. In Him God is pleased to give
the fullness of preeminence. We see Him as complete redemption. In Him we have forgiveness of
sin, it says in Ephesians 1. He is the Christ, our Redeemer,
the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Lord, our righteousness. He is our all. For God has made
Him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
so that no flesh could glory in His presence. If He's all
that to us, we have no place to glory. If you see Him, if
you see Him, you truly see Him then flesh and blood. And if you do, it's because God
has revealed it to you. No other way. We see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels. You say, well, He's
the creator of the angels. How could He be made a little
lower than the angels? He was made of the seed of woman.
Made under the law to redeem them that are under the law.
This is why He came. This is why Christ was made a
little lower than the angels. Why? For the suffering of death. That's what it says. For the
suffering of death. He was made lower than the angels
so He could die. so He could die. Our sweet Savior
entered this world to die. He entered this world to suffer
death. He did not come to set up a government
in an earthly Jerusalem. He did not leave glory to start
some new religion or even establish a Babylonist church. He did not
come to be a reformer. He did not come to set an example
of morality and virtue. Jesus Christ, the Immaculate,
Eternal Son of God, who is God, became a man for one reason,
to die in the stead of His people, His elect, and redeem every last
one of them. And He did it. He accomplished
it. We have here recorded for us
the unqualified success of this wondrous death. He was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and
he's crowned with glory. Scott Richardson preached a message
on glory many years ago. Many of you probably have heard
it. It was a piece of work. It was a wondrous thing. You
know how Scott could preach. It was a blessing. He said, but
glory belongs to the winner. He made this statement. He said,
those who run a race, if they get the silver medal or the gold
medal, those are consolation prize for losing. The one who
gets the gold is the one who has the glory. We have hybrid
forsythias in our yard. They grow much faster than I
want them to. I trim them and they grow up and they grow into
my gutters and leave seeds in my gutters, sprout forsythia.
Why do I have those flowers? Because in the springtime, for
just a few weeks, they become this bright, glorious yellow
bush. That's the glory of that bush.
And that glory belongs to that bush. And the glory of salvation
belongs to Christ. He is crowned with glory. Crowned with glory. Paul said it to the Philippian
church, when he was made a servant to be counted in the fashion
of man, he was obedient even to the death of the cross, wherefore
God has honored Him. God has glorified Him and given
Him a name. Given Him a name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
and every tongue confess to what? That He's Lord. To the glory
of the Father. Things in heaven, things in earth,
things in the sea, everything's going to give glory to God. Isaiah
said the trees are going to clap their hands together singing
the praises of Jesus Christ. Christ is exalted. Now He's not
on a cross. I know we sing about the cross
and we talk about the cross. That's His death. But He's not
on that cross anymore. He's not on that cross anymore.
He's in glory. And He's the Lord. He's the Lord because He was
always Lord. And He was the Lord because of
this. He earned the right to that title as a human being,
to be the Lord of the living and the dead. And if you meet
Christ today, you're not going to meet Him on a cross, because
He ain't there no more. He's on the throne. And the one
true thing I can tell to everybody I meet, whether they know Christ
or whether they don't, no matter what religion they are, I can
tell them one truth. I can't tell them God loves them
because He don't love everybody. He loves His people. I can't
tell them Christ died for them because Christ died for His sheep.
He didn't die for everybody. But I can tell them this and
be true in every case. Jesus Christ is your Lord. You say, well I don't make Him
Lord. You ain't got nothing to do with it. He's Lord. He's your Lord. And when He speaks
in this book, it comes as an absolute command. When He tells you to believe,
He's not asking you to exercise your will and make a decision.
He's commanding you to believe or perish. When He commands you
to repent, He's commanding you to repent or perish. He's the
Lord. L-O-R-D, Lord. That's true of every person sitting
here. You're His. And let me tell you something
else. If you don't know Him here tonight, you're still going to
do His bidding. Here He is. He moves and manipulates all
things and all people to see fit, as He sees fit, to bring
all glory to His name and for the good of every one of His
people. I know we live in a time when
most of us old people with gray hair are shaking our heads and
wondering what in the world is going on. I'll tell you what's
going on. Everything is going on on schedule. Everything. And it's for your
good and for His glory because He controls it all. He's the
Lord. Christ is exalted. He's exalted. This singular, excellent human
being that died for us and redeemed us on Golgotha now sits in respite,
crowned with glory, imbued with honor as the Lord over all. He
is that old lion described in Genesis 49. Who shall rouse him
up? Nobody can rouse him up. He's
resting, having finished the work that he came to do. The
very one, this very one, was made a little lower than the
angels to suffer death and is crowned with glory. This very
one who died for us rules the world, moves and manipulates
all things and all people. to give eternal life to as many
as God has given him. Consider the next phrase. Christ
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. This phrase does not depart from
its context as many folks would like it to. Paul does not decide
suddenly in the middle of the context to inject a false notion
of universal redemption. He doesn't do that here or anywhere
else in Scripture. This is not a declaration that
Christ died for those whom he would not pray. For he said in
John 17, I pray not for the world, I pray for them that thou hast
given me. Or for those that are not his sheep, he said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. Or for those who are manufactured
as vessels of wrath out of that singular pile of clay. or for those whom he hid the
truth from in Matthew 11. And thank God for doing this.
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. You see, it's the glory of the
Lord to conceal a thing. This statement that Paul makes,
tasting death for every man, does not even suggest Christ
died for those who suffer the wrath of God in hell. No, such
thoughts would count his shed blood to be vanity, and would
deny the accomplishment of his sacrifice. This phrase tells
us that Christ did not die to be a good example, but rather
as a surety, as a surety in the room instead of men. In the original
language, there's no word in this phrase that should be translated
man. The sentence literally reads that he by the grace of God should
taste death for every. or for all, or for every one. Now who's He talking about? The
Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died upon the cursed tree for
every one of the sons who He's going to bring to glory. That's
who that's wording. That's verse 10. He died for
every single brother that He had unashamedly and unabashedly
calls His own. I'm not ashamed to call them
brethren. That's what He said. He died
for every member of His body in the midst of which He will
sing praise. He died for every one of the
children of God, every one of the children that God had given
Him to save. For those sake, He assumed flesh and blood. That's
what it said. For as much then, in verse 14,
as the children are partakers. Now, which comes first there?
Now think about this. They were children, so He became
flesh and blood. They must have been children
a long time. You reckon? Because he became
flesh and blood because they were children. Interesting, isn't
it? Interesting. Every one of Abraham's
seed is mentioned here. Who are Abraham's seed? According
to Galatians chapter 3, those who believe on Jesus Christ are
the seed of Abraham and heirs according to promise. It's a
wonder. Verse 10, for it became him who
are all things, that by whom all things in the bringing many
sons to glory, to make the captive of their salvation perfect through
suffering. Everyone. Verse 10 is a wonder
because it flies in the face of what men generally think about
suffering and shame. What man looks at a person brought
to suffering shame and indignity, especially if that person has
done nothing wrong, and says that such humiliation really
looks good on him? Nobody says that, do they? Such humiliation really honors
him. Such humiliation adorns him. Such humiliation suits him. But this humiliation did, for
it said it became him. It became him. It was necessary. It had to be. But more than that,
it was impressively lovely. It was an adornment. An adornment. The scripture plainly declares
the death of Christ was necessary. There's no doubt about that.
God's decree demanded it. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Our Lord's covenant surety
agreements made sure of it. He said, I don't lay down my
life for anybody but my sheep. The Father has given me this
command. No man takes my life from me. I lay down my life for
the sheep. The Old Testament prophesied
it, all the law, and the prophets gave witness to Christ. That's
what Paul said was the way he worshipped God, the heretical
way he worshipped God. He said that's the way men called
heresy, that's how I worshipped God, believing all that's written
in the law and the prophets. Now when he wrote that, what
book did they have? When Jesus Christ walked this
earth and preached the gospel, what book did he have? Before
Corinthians was written in 50 A.D., what book did they have?
Where did they preach Christ from? Genesis to Malachi. That's where
they preached Christ. That's why I like the Old Testament
so much. It's so much fun finding Christ, isn't it? All the law and prophets,
what do they talk about? Talk about Jesus Christ. From Genesis
1 to Malachi, all of them did. divine election ordained the
recipients of the benefits of this great death. The only way
God could save his elect was to satisfy his justice by and
through the death of his dear son. That's it. That's why when
we're baptized we show forth his death. That's why when we
take the Lord's table we show forth his death until he comes
again. That's why when he stands up here and preaches the gospel,
or I do it at home, or if there's any other preachers here that
preach the gospel, This is what you do. You talk about death.
You talk about the death that satisfies God. We talk about death all the time.
Christianity is a bloody religion. A bloody religion. Says this, for whom all things
and by whom are all things. You mean he's in charge of the
whole thing? He who hung there on that cross was actually running
the show. You mean he gave the strength
to those Roman soldiers to grab those spikes and nail them into
his head? Yeah, they couldn't have done it without him. They
couldn't have done it without him. He gave the strength to
Caiaphas to cuss him and curse him. Gave strength to Peter to deny
him three times. Men don't do anything without
Christ. Nothing at all. for whom and by whom are all
things. We use words like necessity or
necessary because we are bound by our inability to express the
magnitude of what took place. It was necessary for God to save
sinners this way. Not because there were other
options, but because this is the way God did it. Here's the
key. If God does a thing, that's the
way to do it. That's the only way to do it.
If God does it, it's right. God did it and there's no other
way. Here the Lord God is described as the first cause of all things,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things. If it has
been done, it is for Him and by Him. That's what it says in
Colossians chapter 1, isn't it? For Him and by Him. Why did He
do it? In bringing many sons to glory.
Bringing many sons to glory is the declaration. God's gracious
design toward His elect. I know my thoughts toward you,
He says. They're good and not evil to
bring you to an expected or an appointed end. They're already
the sons of God. We've already seen that. They're
the sons by eternal adoption and divine predestination. There's
that good old word. Predestination. Love that word. Don't you just love that word?
Some people don't like that word. A fella told me one time he didn't
like that word. He said, I don't believe in predestination.
I looked at my watch and said, you said it right on time. We were given the privilege to
be made aware that we were sons when God gave us his spirit through
the preaching of the gospel. The new birth, born not of the
flesh and blood, but of God. As to the number of his sons,
it says there's many. Now, many to us might be a lot,
but when God uses the word many, that's probably a lot, a really
whole lot. Maybe an innumerable company.
You reckon? Who is this wonderful one? Who will bring many sons to glory?
He said, to be the captain of our salvation. The captain. Because the victory belongs to
Him. He alone took upon Himself responsibility
for it before the world began, signing His name to the debt
that His elect owed, so that when they came into the world,
though they were guilty as all get out, they were never responsible. to pay the debt because it had
already been assigned by the Lord Jesus Christ as our surety.
He alone took upon himself responsibility for it. He alone has earned the
rank of glory for the accomplishment of it. He earned that lofty rank
because he was made perfect through suffering, as it says. The perfect
one, the sinless one, The God of all glory, the Creator, Sustainer
and Consummator of all things, is said to be made perfect through
the things He suffered. That's one of these places where
we just bow our head and say, my soul, I don't get that. That's too big for me. It was
by His perfect sufferings and death as our substitute that
He has perfected them that are sanctified. Without his sufferings
for the satisfaction of justice, there could be no salvation.
Though he were a son, it says in Hebrews 5, yet learned he
obedience. Go ahead, get your commentary
and see how they explain that. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. Anybody want to explain that
to me? He learned obedience by the things
he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal
salvation unto all that obey him. His suffering satisfied justice
and justified those for whom he died. And three things are
clearly declared in this text. It is impossible for a holy and
just God to save any sinner apart from the satisfaction of justice.
Secondly, Christ satisfied justice for many sinners. And thirdly,
it is impossible for God in His holiness to punish any sinner
for whose sins justice has been satisfied by the blood of Christ. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. For by his righteous skill, he
shall justify many, because he'll bear their transgressions. Here's what I know. The law has
no claim on an executed felon. That's what we are in Christ.
The old poet said, payment cannot twice demand. Justice cannot
twice demand payment at my bleeding, surety's hand, and then again
at mine." What did he do? He made us righteous before God.
No, he did more than that. He made us righteousness, that's
what it says. Righteousness! We who have received such amazing
grace can do nothing but sit in admiration and in awe, and
adoringly ponder the perfections of our Captain, But we see Jesus
is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor. And he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. For it became him for whom
are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many
sons to glory to make their captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. Hallelujah. For the sake