Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Hebrews, the second chapter, Hebrews chapter 2. We are going to have a baptism
immediately after the message and, well, we'll sing the song
immediately after the message, then we'll have baptism. But
I wanted to say this to anyone else who wants to confess their
faith in Christ Jesus. We'll leave the water in for
this evening if you'd like to be baptized, if you want to acknowledge
before this congregation that you love Christ Jesus and you
believe Him. You believe the gospel of grace.
You know, baptism is an act of obedience to the Lord. And it
has nothing to do with salvation. It has nothing to do with washing
away of our sins. The blood of the Savior washed
our sins away. But the Lord brings us to believe
on the Son. And we love Him and we rest in
Him. And He says that we're to confess
Him in the waters of baptism. I'm not ashamed of Him. I'll just tell you this story.
Several years ago when I went into the ministry, I went into
the ministry in 1975. And I've already said to you,
I learned the gospel from Brother Mahan. And I began preaching
the gospel where I was pastoring. And most of those folks had never
heard the gospel before. And it wasn't maybe within the
year or so, first year of my ministry, I baptized most of
the congregation there who renounced their false religion of the past,
free will, works religion, and embraced the gospel of God's
grace. Well, then an unusual thing happened,
and I began to be convicted by my own baptism. Because I had
been put under the water when I was just a lad, as I told you,
what, last week, I guess it was, or the week before last. Then
God taught me the gospel through Brother Mahan, and I went into
the ministry, and it dawned on me one day, I needed
to be scripturally baptized. So I called up my friend, my
best friend, Tim James, and I said, would you come up and baptize
me? And I told the congregation,
I'm going to be baptized. And I called other preachers
and told them to be remembering me, and some of them said, you
don't need to be baptized. And I said, yes, I do. It's an
answer of a good conscience toward God. And they said, yeah, but
you confess Christ Jesus every time you get up and preach the
gospel. I said, well, my Savior was baptized, and I'm going to
be baptized no matter what anybody says. So I tell you, if you believe
this gospel, you need to be baptized. You need to identify. Identify
with the Lord. Identify with this gospel of
God's free grace. Identify with God's servant.
Identify with God's people. And when Deborah goes into the
water here in a little bit, she's saying, listen, I'm not ashamed.
I want you all to know the gospel I love, the Christ I love, I'm
renouncing everything, all religion of the past. I believe Him. I
believe the gospel of grace. And I want you all to know I'm
not ashamed to be associated with this preacher, with this
church, and mainly with this gospel, with this glorious Savior.
So if you want to be baptized, if your conscience gets to bothering
you like mine got to bothering me, there's one way to silence
that. We can take care of that. We
can take care of that in short order this evening. It's out
there for you if God leads you and be glad to baptize you this
evening. All right. Go to Hebrews chapter
2. And I'm going to read just a
verse. And you say, I think you've been
here before, Pastor. Well, we have been, but I'm going
to emphasize something a little different. The same gospel, but
I'm going to start it a little different place. I'll kind of
work on a few different expressions here in this verse. Hebrews 2
verse 10, for it became Him, verse 10, for it became Him,
it became our God, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory. to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. Let me talk to you
today about this subject, bringing many sons to glory. That's my subject and that's
my title, bringing many sons to glory. Where is the Lord bringing
many sons? Not a few sons, but many sons. Where is He bringing them? Well,
the text says He's bringing many sons unto glory. I have to be
sure He's not bringing many sons to worldly glory, and He's not
bringing many sons to fleshly glory. And He is absolutely not
bringing many sons to glory in themselves. He is bringing many
sons to glory in the Lord, and He is bringing many sons unto
heavenly glory. And it needs to be emphasized
that the Lord is bringing these many sons, because we don't come
on our own. He is effectually bringing us.
And I'll work on this, the Lord willing, if I have time a little
later in the message this morning, but He lays hold on us in effectual
grace. He raises us from our sleep of
death, spiritual death. He wakens us by the gospel of
His free grace, by the omnipotence of His Spirit. He regenerates
the sinner. We are born again of the Spirit
of God. He brings us to Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus, in fact the
entire Trinity, is bringing us to glory. He has laid His hands
on us. If He didn't do that, we would
never wind up in glory. See, nobody ever goes to heaven
by their own power or by their own natural will. The Lord has
to bring us. He has to bring us to Himself.
And isn't that an evidence of our depravity? Isn't that an
evidence of how serious the fall was in the Garden of Eden when
Adam transgressed God's law? The fact that He's got to bring
us unto Himself. We're like Adam. When the Lord
God went calling in the garden, in the cool of the day, Adam
where art thou? Adam and Eve, they tried to hide
from God. They weren't running toward God.
They weren't coming to the Lord. They weren't seeking mercy. They
weren't seeking salvation. They weren't seeking the forgiveness
of their sins. They sought to run and hide from
God. And they thought they could hide
behind a tree. They could hide from the omnipotent
God, the omniscient God, the God who sees all things. They
thought they could hide in His forest. But they couldn't. And what did
God do? He sought them. That's what happens
in salvation. And in this bringing of many
sons unto glory, the Lord seeks us. He finds us. He lays hold on us in omnipotent,
effectual, irresistible grace. He brings us unto Himself. He
hoists the lost sheep up on His shoulders. We're close to His
heart. And He takes us all the way home to glory. He brings
us home to glory rejoicing. That's what it says in Luke chapter
15. He brings the sheep home rejoicing. So thankfully, this
salvation, it's all about the Lord bringing a sinner from the
miry clay to everlasting glory. He brings us from the sinking
sand. of our filthiness and our depravity. And He lifts us up, He washes
us in His blood, He puts the robe of His righteousness around
us and He takes us or He brings us all the way unto glory and
He won't stop until He gets us all the way to glory. That's
where we're going. That's where we're going. And
He's not going to let us go, He's not going to put us down.
There will never ever come a time in your life as a believer where
the Lord will forsake you and leave you to yourself. He said,
I'll never leave you, because He has got a job to do. Do you understand that? He has
got a job to do, a job that He Himself promised to do to the
Father. Before the world began, when
the Father gave Him a people more numerous than the stars
of the sky, in everlasting election, in eternal grace, In love, God
the Father chose a people in Jesus Christ and gave them to
His Son and said, these are yours, bring them all home to glory.
And He won't lose a one of them. He won't lose a one of them.
And not a hoof shall be left behind. You remember when Israel
left Egypt. That's what Moses said. It's
what the Lord said. Not a hoof shall be left behind.
I mean everybody and every animal, we're all leaving. That's what
Moses said. We're all leaving. Ain't nobody
going to be left behind. I tell you, with God's people,
we're all going to wind up in glory. These many sons. He's got many sons. And He's
bringing them. He's bringing them all home to
glory. And if God Himself has purposed
to bring these many souls, these many sons home to glory, then
not all of the opposition in the world can ever hinder Him
from fulfilling His eternal purpose. The Lord said, I will work and
who will hinder me? Who is going to stop me? And
I tell you today, He's bringing many sons to glory. And there
are many of us, and many of those who are watching, we're being
brought. He's bringing us home. He's not
leaving us. He's taking us home to be with
Himself. He's bringing many sons to glory. Go back to that psalm that Brother
Ron read to us, Psalm 84. Let me show you a verse here,
and I had him read this psalm because I want to go back to
this verse and make a few comments on it, and it's verse 11. Psalm
84 and verse 11. For the Lord God, Psalm 84 verse
11, this is a psalm for the sons of Korah to be sung, Psalm 84 verse 11, for the Lord
God, for the Lord, that's Jehovah God, Jehovah Elohim, Jehovah
our Lord, Jehovah the Maker, Jehovah the Creator, the Great
God, the Eternal God, He is a sun and shield. The Lord will give,
the Lord will give grace and glory. You can't separate grace and
glory. Where God gives grace, He always
gives glory. And where folks wind up in glory,
it's because God gave them grace before the world began. So grace
and glory, they're like a garment without a seam. They go together. It's like a board that has two
sides. Where there's grace, there's
always glory. Where there's glory, there's
always grace that preceded it. Grace was the first gift, glory
is the last gift. The Lord will give grace and
glory. The Lord, Jehovah, the great
I Am. The God of covenant mercy. The
God of covenant grace. Jehovah, the Trinity. Father,
Son, and Spirit. Jehovah, the Lord God, the Maker
and Preserver of all things. He will give. He will give. There's no question about it.
There's no doubt about it. There's no power that can hinder
Him or stop Him. He will give grace and glory. He will. He will. You notice, first of all, it
says He's a Son and a Shield. Our Lord Jesus is Himself the
Son of Righteousness. He has arisen with healing in
His wings. He is the Great Son. He is the
Great Light. He's a great fountain light.
He's the light of the world. He's the light that dispels the
darkness. He's the light that makes the
days. He's the light that gives light
to the moon and the stars. He's the light that illuminates
His church. He's the light that illuminates
His ministers of the gospel. He's the sun. He's the sun to
enlighten His people with the light of grace. He's the light,
He's the sun to warm us with the beams of His love. I wrote
to someone this past week, and I said, I hope this letter finds
you basking in the love of God. You know, people go to the beach,
they bask in the sun. Oh, it feels so warm. Well, I
wouldn't mind going to the beach and basking in the warmth of
the sun. That feels pretty good. but oh, to bask in the warmth
of His love, the warmth of the rays of His grace, to just soak
it up, soak up His love. We're such busy people. Stop! Stop and realize and meditate
upon and think upon and rejoice in God's everlasting love for
His covenant people and just bask in the love of it. He's
the Son. He's the Son of His people. He
shines down upon us. He makes us fruitful. He makes
us to flourish. And He's a shield. He's a Son
and a shield. He's the shield of faith. That
is, He's the shield to which faith looks. He's the shield to which faith
looks. What does faith do? Faith looks
to the shield. Faith looks to God. Faith looks
to the Lord Jesus. Faith doesn't look anywhere else.
You see, faith is a gift of God. And that which God gives by His
grace always causes us to lean on the Savior. What is faith
but a looking to the Savior, a looking to God, a resting in
Him, resting in the Savior? The shield is that which faith
makes use of against the temptations of the evil one. Say, I'm being
tempted by Satan. What should I do? Look to your shield. And your
shield is not your works. Your shield is not your religion.
Your shield is not your profession of faith. Your shield is your
God. He's your shield. He's your protection. He's the
shield of salvation. And His salvation is a shield
which shelters His people from divine justice, for justice has
been satisfied in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That shield
protects us from wrath to come. Wrath will never touch any of
God's people. The shield protects us from it.
In fact, our shield has already borne the wrath. There is no
condemnation. There is no wrath to the people
of God. The Lord is both our sun and shield for all of those
pilgrims making their way to the land of promise. And we need
Him to be both a sun and a shield to us. He's the sun. He always comforts us. And He's the shield. He never
leaves us unguarded. He never leaves us defenseless.
We're His sheep and He will not leave us to the lion that goes
about seeking whom He may devour. We're His sheep. He's the shepherd.
He protects us from the wolves. There are wolves out here. Did
you know that? Wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. They're lying on God. They pretend
to be ministers of righteousness. They disguise as preachers and
they might even carry a Bible. But beware of them! Beware of
them and rejoice in this. Your shield will protect you
from the wolves. The wolves want to devour the
sheep. The wolves want to conquer the
sheep. The wolf will try to slip in
among the sheep and wreak havoc with the sheep, but bless the
name of God, He's our shield to protect us from the wolves
and to protect us from the lion that goes about seeking whom
He may devour. He hasn't left us defenseless.
He's our son and He's our shield. Just like He was to Israel. and
He's the sun above us and He's the shield that is around us.
Blessed are those people, I say blessed are those people to whom God is both a sun and
a shield. You have nothing to be anxiously
concerned about or worried about. Why not? He's your sun and He's
your shield. And then watch this, the Lord
will give grace and glory. This is what I want to work on.
The Lord will give grace and glory. Who else but Jehovah could
give grace and glory? In 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse
10 he said to be the God of all grace. In John chapter 1 we read, for
the law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It's the very nature of God.
Now listen to me on this. It's the very nature of the Lord
to give freely of His grace. That's His nature. I know some
have said, and maybe you have said, I don't know. If you've
said it, don't say it again. But some have said, you know,
God didn't have to save anybody. He didn't have to pour out grace
upon any sinners. I differ with that. I don't think
that's correct because it's the very nature of God to be giving
and to be gracious. Now, He certainly has the right
to give and to be gracious to whom He will, and He does give
His grace sovereignly. Yet, it is absolutely certain
that He's going to be gracious to somebody because God is full
of grace. The Scripture says God is love
and love must be expressed. Not to everyone, of course. There
are a lot of Esau's out there. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. There are a lot of Esau's out
there, but bless the name of God, there are a lot of Jacob's
out there too. Yeah, there are a lot of Jacob's.
And we're loved not for our sake, but in spite of what we are,
with no foresight of God seeing what we would do, but He loved
us freely in Christ Jesus. The Lord will give grace because
He's gracious. That's His name. Now He'll give
His grace to whoever He wants to give it to, but He's going
to give grace to somebody because our God is gracious. He is full
of mercy. The Scripture says He's plenteous
in mercy to all that call upon Him. Well, why not you? Why not you? There has never
been a sinner yet who fled to the Lord God of glory through
Jesus Christ the Lord for mercy and for grace and for salvation
and for life and for forgiveness of sins, but what they didn't
find at all in Christ Jesus the Lord. And the fact of the matter
is, if you do flee to Him, it's because He's bringing you. Isn't that right? He's bringing
you. He's not going to reject somebody he's bringing by his
effectual grace. When the Lord hid Moses in the
cleft of the rock and we sang Rock of Ages, by one of my favorite
writers, brother, top lady, sovereign grace preacher. He didn't back
down. I admire preachers that don't
back down. Preachers that don't buckle when
faced with a bunch of free will folks that are against them.
Old top lady stood firm. He stood firm against the Wesleys. John Wesley with his false gospel. The top lady stood firm and he
wrote a lot of good songs. And he wrote Rock of Ages, Cleft
for Me. Where did that song come from?
Where did those lyrics come from? When God hid Moses in the cleft
of the rock. Moses said, Lord show me your
glory. Nobody can see my glory. There's
a cleft in the rock, I'm going to hide you in it. Oh, God, hide
me in the cleft of the rock, that rock that was smitten and
wounded and bruised for our transgressions. That rock was Christ Jesus. 1
Corinthians tells us that. When God hid Moses in the cleft
of the rock, God proclaimed His name to Moses. The Lord passed
by him, it says, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious. Longsuffering. Hey, and you read
over in the New Testament, the long-suffering of God, 2 Peter
chapter 3, the long-suffering of God is salvation. It is salvation. He's long-suffering and He's
abundant in goodness and truth. He doesn't have to show grace
and mercy to me and He doesn't have to show grace and mercy
to you, but He's going to show it to somebody. Because that's
who He is. He's a gracious God. And He's
full of mercy. Full of mercy. The Lord will
give grace and glory. He will give it. You see, grace
is glory in the bud. Glory is grace in the flower. Grace is the foundation of glory. Glory is the fruit of grace.
Grace is the origin of glory. And glory is the very consummation
of grace. The Lord is bringing many sons
into glory. Many sons. He will give grace
and glory. As I said, the first gift is
grace. That's where it all begins. It
all begins with grace. And the very end of it is glorification. We'll be glorified. You read
those five great blessings listed there in Romans chapter 8. Four
knowledge. Predestination. Calling. Justification. Glorification. That's where we're going to wind
up. We're going to be glorified. What do you think about that?
We're going to be glorified. Those of us who, we drink iniquity
like water. That's just the way we are. And the Lord's brought us to
believe and we rejoice in Him and we hate our sin. We do, we
hate our sin. But we know, we recognize to
some degree the faults and failures we've still got. And we know
that whatever we do, whatever we do is stained with sin. But one of these days we're going
to be glorified. You are. I am. How wonderful is that? That the
Lord is going to take this old dead dog sinner, a worm of the dust, and raise
me up how high? All the way to glory. And then
He's going to put me and all of His children on display for
all of the angels, and Christ Jesus will say, Behold, I and
the brethren which God has given me. Look at them now! Oh, it
ain't much to us now, but someday, someday in the beauties of Christ
Jesus, radiating the light of His glory in His presence, will
be jewels in His crown. Where is He bringing many sons?
He is bringing many sons to glory. To glory. Because He says, I
will give grace and glory. Grace and glory. And if He's
bringing many sons, and make your way back to Hebrews chapter
2, if He's bringing many sons to glory, then you may rest assured
He's already given them grace. Because glory, we cannot be raised
to glory apart from G-R-A-C-E, grace. How are we going to get
to glory? By grace. By grace, not by works. It's according to the election
of grace. Romans chapter 11 says that.
He chose us in grace. It's according to the redemption
that is due to the riches of God's grace. We are redeemed
by the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, why did He redeem us? Because
of grace. and regeneration calling. Why
did He call us? Why did He draw us effectually
unto Himself? Why did He send us a preacher?
Why did He send us the gospel of His free grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Why did He do that? Due to His
grace. He was gracious. He sent a voice
to tell us the truth. He didn't have to, He wasn't
obligated to, except in the sense He was obligated to fulfill His
eternal purpose. But He had no obligation to us
because of what we are or what we did. It's just all a matter
of grace. This is all about bringing many
sons to glory. And I'll tell you this, this
has always been God's purpose. From the very beginning, God's
eternal purpose has been to bring many sons to glory. That's what
He set out to do. And He shall not fail. He shall
not fail. He's going to have a whole group
of people. All of these many sons, they're
predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
to the praise of the glory of His grace. And all of these many
sons that God gave Him in that covenant of old, that covenant
of grace, they shall all be brought to glory. And grace will lay
the top stone of all of it. And the Lord shall have all the
praise for it. He's bringing many sons unto
glory. Let me ask you this, back to
Hebrews chapter 2. Is our God able to bring many
sons into glory? Does He have the ability to do
this? Well, let's see. Here in Hebrews 2 verse 10. It
says right at the beginning of the verse, for whom are all things
and by whom are all things. Listen. All things are for Him
and all things are by Him. Well, He can bring many sons
to glory. Oh yeah. It became Him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things. Here's God set forth as being
the beginning and the ending of all things. All things are
for God and all things are brought to pass by God. The Lord hath
made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. All things are made by the Lord
to do His bidding, to accomplish His purpose, to set forth His
glory. See, this salvation of sinners,
this bringing of many sons unto glory, it required the work of
one for whom are all things and by whom are all things. He's
up to the task. He can do it. He can do it. Who else could save sinners but
God Himself? Any power less than divine power
would be insufficient to save sinners. Any wisdom less than
divine wisdom would be insufficient to purpose salvation by the sacrifice
of a suitable substitute. Any righteousness less than divine
righteousness would be insufficient to meet the demands of a holy
God. The one who is behind salvation,
the one who ordained salvation, the one who chose to save, the
one who chose the Savior, the one who chose the recipients
of this salvation is that one for whom are all things and by
whom are all things. Salvation is of the Lord. If we are to be brought from
the dunghill of sin and set among the princes of the Lord's people,
the Lord Himself must do the work. He's got to bring these
many sons unto glory. If we're to be rescued from the
power of Him who holds all men captive at His will, the Lord
Himself must do the work. You go ahead and brag about free
will. You go ahead and talk about what
your will can do. Old Brother Toplady said, man's
free will can't even cure a toothache. much less take a man to glory.
Can't cure toothache. Your will is enslaved. My will
is enslaved by nature to Satan. He holds all men captive at His
will. We need somebody who will burst
the bands that hold us. We need somebody who will raise
the dead. We need somebody whose will is
much stronger than my will and Satan's will. And I'll tell you
this, Satan and God are not in a tug of war. This is no contest. There is no contest between God
Almighty and Satan. Satan is being used as simply
as a pawn on the chess board that God has ordained. And he
is using him to accomplish his purpose as he uses everything
and everybody and then someday he is going to cast him aside.
God breaks the chains at Bible. He has to do that to bring many
sons unto glory. It takes the Lord to save. It
takes the Lord to bring many sons unto glory. And what He
has set out to do, He will fulfill. He will fulfill. He set out to
bring many sons unto glory. He's got many sons. Not just
a few. Not just a few. You read about
these many sons throughout the Scriptures. You read about them
way back in Genesis chapter 6, when the sons of God married
the daughters of men. Don't pay any attention to those
commentators who say, well, those sons of God are angels that married
men. No, angels don't have any sex. They're neither male nor female.
They're neuter. They're neither. The sons of
God who married the daughters of men. The sons of God means
those who followed Seth. Those who worshiped God. The
sons of God. Sons we are by God's election
who on Jesus Christ believe by eternal destination. We're sons
of God. Now are we the sons of God. It
does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. We're the sons of God. We're the offspring of God. But
as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. You can't
say you're a son of God. You don't have that privilege
to say, I'm a child of God. I'm a son of God. unless you've
received the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king. And if you've received Him into
your heart willingly, voluntarily, lovingly, submissively, you've
received Him by the irresistible grace of the Spirit of God, you
have the privilege to say, I'm a son of God. I'm one of those
that He's bringing to glory. And you see, as many as are led
by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. And someday, according
to Romans chapter 8 verse 19, it's going to be made manifest
to all of creation who the sons of God are, who the children
of God are. And Philippians chapter 2 and
verse 15 says He's going to present these sons of God blameless and
harmless. You mean I'm going to be blameless
before God? Nothing to blame me for? Blameless. You know why? Christ took all
my blame. He took all my sins. I can't
be blamed for anything. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can? Will God? No. He's accepted the price that's
been paid. And if God won't accept any charge
brought against His elect, it doesn't matter whether anybody
else registers a charge or not. It ain't gonna stick. If you'll
permit me to use that kind of English, it just won't stick.
Because our debt's been paid. We're children of God. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not because it knew Him not. He's bringing many sons to glory. And He won't fail. He won't fail. My heart's just overwhelmed with
His free and sovereign grace again to me through Christ Jesus.
Lord, thank You for bringing me to glory. I'll be with You
someday. According to Your eternal purpose,
I know You've given me grace, and one of these days at the
appointed hour, You're going to give me glory. You're going
to give me glory. And all that that involves, being
with Christ Jesus, being like Christ Jesus, without sin, blameless,
holy, harmless, sinless, undefiled, before Him, before God's face,
He's bringing many sons to glory. I say hallelujah. Don't you? Can you say amen? Can everybody
say amen? Amen? Amen. Could you say it
again? Amen. That's right. His son be
happy about it. His son be thankful for it. Be
joyful. Let's enjoy the salvation God's
given us. He's bringing many sons to glory. The Father is bringing. Will
any of His sons be missing? No. I like what somebody said,
be lots of room in heaven, plenty of room in heaven, but when we
all get there, won't be any empty seats. Every seat is going to
be filled with a child of God. Child of God. Let's sing 228
and Debra and I will