Hebrews 2, and again reading there in verse
8, it says, ìThy has put all things in subjection under His
feet, for in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left
nothing that is not put under Him. But we see not yet all things
put under Him.î But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man, or should taste the death which every man tastes.
For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, and bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is 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 again I will put my trust
in him, and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me. 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. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham,
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, Consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch
as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house.
For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things
is God. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things
which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his
own house. Whose house are we if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end? Now, in thinking about What Brother
Al was talking about there in his study in Genesis is man was
cast out from the garden and put under the curse of death.
And it is illustrated what it says right
here, but we see not yet all things put under him. Adam didn't
have death put under him. Death was put over him. And so
we don't see that death put under him yet, but, he says, we see
Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. In other words,
He came and humbled Himself. We don't see death put under
man by nature. We don't see it under Adam. We
see Adam fall and pray to it. But you see, we're not looking
at that. That's not where our focus is. When we go to the graveyard
and we see a grave, or we go to a funeral and we see somebody
put in a grave, our focus is not on, oh, whoa, what are we
going to do? Death is going to triumph over
us. No. See, we don't see. Our thought
process is not upon the fact that we don't see yet death put
on us because we know that it is appointed unto men once to
die and after this the judgment, but we see Jesus. who was a little lower, made
a little lower than the angels, even though he was higher than
the angels, having created the angels. Yet he humbled himself,
and we see him coming in the flesh and tasting death for every
man. That is the same death that every
man will taste. The Lord Jesus Christ endured
the exact same one. He didn't have an easier death.
In fact, in many cases, perhaps he had a much more difficult
death. I'm sure that he did from the
standpoint of the fact of the soul sufferings that he underwent
in death. I don't know, you know, physically
speaking, if he was physically, had more physical pain for a
longer period of time than some other people may have endured,
but that's not the point. The fact was that he endured
death And he suffered. The Scripture does say that his
body was more marred than any man. I mean, he was more... The strokes, because you see,
the strokes that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ were the strokes
of God. They were the strokes of justice
that came upon him for sin. So it became him, or it pleased
him. It was the thing that he was
appointed to do and the thing that he determined to do. It
was why he came. It became him, it behooved him,
it pleased him, for whom are all things and by whom are all
things, and bringing many sons unto glory. Now what is the purpose
of God is to bring many sons unto glory. That's why Adam fell,
if you want to use those terms, in the garden. It was in order
that the Lord might bring many sons unto glory, because many
sons could not have been brought unto glory had they not come
through this fashion in which the Lord Jesus Christ would bring
them to glory. Adam could not have marched into
glory in the flesh. He couldn't have marched into
glory in the place that he was, but the Lord Jesus Christ has
come into the world made in the likeness of sinful flesh in order
to bring many sons unto glory, to bring us from a place where
we could never have gone. We could never have entered in
apart from His grace and His mercy. So it pleased the Lord, it says,
in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. Now we know nothing was added
to the Lord. He was perfect to start with,
so it certainly does not mean that something was added to Him. But what it means is that he
would demonstrate perfectly what it is that he came to do in making
the captain of their salvation exactly what they needed. And
so it was demonstrated what it was to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. Now why did he suffer? We read
down here in verse 18, it says for him that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he is able to suffer them that are tempted. Now, did the Lord Jesus Christ
have to suffer in order to know what suffering was? Well, of
course not, because He is God. He's the one that made suffering
be what it is. There's no such thing as suffering
apart from God having made it, is there? I mean, is there something
that exists in the world that God didn't determine and bring
to pass? Well, he knew that. It wasn't
that he was made able, whereas before he was going along the
way and he was saying, well, I wonder what it would be like
to suffer. No, you see, in that He Himself has suffered being
tempted, He's able to suffer those that are tempted because,
you see, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone through
that and it's for our sake that He did that. Not for His, but
for our sake. It wasn't so that He would become
knowledgeable about what suffering was. But it is so that we would
see Him as that One willing to suffer for us and knowing that
He already knows exactly what it is to suffer, having seen
Him as our substitute. It says, For both He that sanctified
and they who were sanctified are all of one. For which cause
He is not ashamed to call them brethren. They are all of one
family. The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified,
they are all one. That is, we are united to Christ
by family ties. He loved us with an everlasting
love. He chose us before the foundation
of the world. He made us His children. We were created as the sons of
God if we belonged to Him. We didn't come along somehow
and become those things. He said those that are sanctified
and that one who does the sanctifying, they're all of one. That is,
the Lord had their names written upon His heart. And not just
their names, but He knew them. He said, those that are mine,
I know those who belong to Me. because they are His people.
They are His kindred. He is that kinsman-redeemer.
For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
Now, every one of us has kin people that we are ashamed to
claim, don't we? We look at them and we don't
want anybody to know that they are related to us. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ doesn't have any relatives like that. All
of his relatives, he said, they're mine. He said, they belong to
me. He says, I came into the world
to claim them. And he's not ashamed to call
us brethren. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto
thee. And the gathering, the calling
out, the coming together of God's people, He said, that's where,
he says, I'll meet with my people. And that's what he told the disciples.
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. He said, I will sing praise with
them in the midst of the church. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And behold, I and the children
which God hath given me. Now he's speaking, of course,
as the man Christ Jesus. He said, I'll put my trust in
Him. I'll put my trust in God as an
example. Is He not the example of a perfect
and pure man? And a perfect and a pure man
has trust in God. That's what he says. I will trust
in Him. And behold, I am the children
which God hath given me. We were chosen in Christ from
before the foundation of the world and given. unto him. Forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise took part of
the same." In other words, again, he's reiterating, he's building
this case. He's coming from it from every
angle that he can. He said, just like the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself took part of the same. that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now the scripture
doesn't have a bunch of things to say about the devil, but it
does have a few things, a few telling things. And one of those
things is found right here that he has the power of death. I
believe this is what the Lord told the serpent when he told
him he'd go upon the ground. He said, Thou shalt bruise his
head or thou shalt bruise his heel, but he shall bruise thy
head." Now I believe that what he's saying to the devil is you
will have the power of death to hurt men in the earth. And that is that. Now we know
that all power is in the hand of God. He killeth and he maketh
alive. The devil can't kill anybody
whom the Lord hasn't appointed unto death. But the devil is
the instrument who has the power of death according to what the
Scripture says. But it says here that the Lord
Jesus Christ, through death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death. And so though he would bruise
his heel, he would bruise his head because he would crush that
serpent. He would destroy him that had
the power of death. Now if the power of something
is destroyed, then the thing itself has to be destroyed. I
mean, if you take the power that causes something away, then it
can't anymore do any harm. And so that's what he has done.
He has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. Now, death is a fearful thing
to the natural man. I mean, it's just nobody looks
forward to dying. I mean, any man that tells you
he's wanting to die is either something wrong in his mind or
something's going on because the natural man recoils from
death. We don't want to die, we want to live. That's just
the way the Lord made man to be. And so the purpose of what the
Lord Jesus Christ came to do is to deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
You see, the fear of death is that which weighs heavy on a
man's mind. But yet in Christ, that's taken
away as we see Him. As we see Him, that one, as it
says here, we don't see. the death, but we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor. And so we don't look
at the death, we look at Him, and that is through the eye of
faith and the work of the Spirit of God in the people of God that
causes that fear of death to be taken away who were all their
lifetime subject to bondage by in the flesh. For verily he took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. That is, he became as a man,
and he tasted death. Wherefore in all things, even
death, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. So
he came as a substitute. He came as a man, and he entered
in once into the holy place, and he has made reconciliation
for the sins of the people. That's what he came to do, and
that's what he did in things pertaining to God in their behalf. For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he is able to suffer them that are tempted,
because we know we have a high priest. who has undergone these
things in our behalf. And therefore, we apply to Him. We come to Him. And we know that
He can indeed meet those needs that we have. Wherefore, holy
brethren. Now, how does brethren get to
be holy? I mean, if we looked at ourselves
and we are honest with ourselves, we probably wouldn't describe
ourselves as holy brethren. But that's because we wouldn't
be looking at it as Christ does. Because He said, they're mine.
He said, I'm not ashamed to call them brethren. And we're holy
because we're set apart in Christ. Because that word holy simply
means set apart. When the angels, the seraphim
who surround the throne of God, they say, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty. What were they saying? They're
saying He's set apart. He can't be reached. He's immortal. He's invisible. He's beyond the scope of man
or man's ability to approach. Paul said he's immortal, invisible,
the only wise God who only hath immortality dwelling in the light
to which no man can approach. How can a man come into the presence
of God? He can't. He can't. Why can't he? Because he was
driven out of the garden and the scourge of the cross. He
can't have any communion with God whatsoever. He's banished
from it. He can't in his own power. And
so the writer of Hebrews says, wherefore, holy brethren, he
said, in light of all these things I have said to you, Concerning
this one, holy brethren, that is those who are set apart in
Christ. Now this gives us an illustration
of who it is he is speaking to. He is speaking here specifically
to the Hebrew Christians, those who had come to believe out of
Judaism. Now we know that the vast majority
of the early Christians were Jews. simply because that is
those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ came and walked among,
and that was those to whom that first early ministry was sent. And so he is saying to them,
wherefore holy brethren. Now they are not holy because
they are Hebrews. They are holy because they are
in Christ, because they are holy brethren, those who are the brethren
of Christ, those who have been set apart in Him. partakers of
the heavenly calling. Now those two things go hand
in hand. If a man is a brother of the
Lord, eventually at some point in time he will be a partaker
of the heavenly calling. That is what Peter said in the
book of Acts. He said that this message is
sent to you and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. The Lord Jesus said, I know my
sheep, I call them, they hear me. He says, I call and they
answer because they belong to me. And so it is that we are
partakers of the heavenly calling if we are Those brethren, those
holy brethren, we are those who have partaken of that. We've
received it. It's been a thing given to us.
And then he says this. He said, you are brethren. You have been partakers of the
heavenly calling. Now, consider this one who is
the apostle. and high priest of our profession.
Now, the book of Hebrews is written to these Hebrew Christians primarily
because they are following the natural course that all men by
nature follow, that is, to believe and to fall away. Now, all men
by nature will do that. A man will believe today and
he'll quit believing tomorrow. And in order that we might understand
the weakness of the flesh, the Lord often brings us down a path
where we're in and out and in and out. Now, we're not in and
out of being the brethren. We're not in and out of being
those who are partakers of salvation. But we're in and out in our own
mind. We're in and out in our own doubting.
We're in and out in many ways. In fact, the Scripture speaks
of some, and he's going to speak of some further in this epistle,
who turn and walk no more with the Lord. And they proved that
they were not holy brethren, partakers of the calling. But
you see, we can't be concerned with those who turn aside. Now, we are concerned for them,
If there was something we could do for them, we certainly would
do it, but we can't. But we are intent on pressing
upon the children of God to believe. See, who are we wanting to believe? Those who are the brethren of
Christ. We want the brethren of Christ to believe. That's
why we preach the gospel. That those who hear can hear.
Those who see can see. That the Lord might draw them
unto Himself. We're not in the business of
trying to make the goats into sheep, but we want to be sure
that we cull all the sheep. I mean, that's our purpose. That's
what we're sent to do into the world, to gather the people of
God. And so, he said here, consider
the apostle of our profession. Now, he said, You're Jews and you have all
this heritage of following the way of Moses and the prophets. Remember how he started the book
off? He said, God who at sundry times and in divers manners has
spoken unto the fathers in the past by the prophets, hath in
these last days spoken unto us by His Son. He said there's one
messenger. It's not Moses. Moses was a great
man. And he's going to mention him
here later on. We're probably going to get to it. But he said
Moses was a servant. But see, we're not interested
in the servant. We don't want to serve the servant.
We don't want to give allegiance to the servant. But he said,
consider the apostle of our profession here. Now who is the apostle
and what does that mean? Well, we know that the Scripture
speaks of twelve apostles. And the apostles were, insofar
as men are concerned, were men who were set apart with a foundational
ministry. That's who the twelve apostles
were. The Lord gave them gifts. and he gave them a calling and
gave them a commission to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. That was specifically given to
the twelve apostles. As the Lord gathered them, he
said, Go and do it. Make disciples and teach them
the truth. Now, we have the Scriptures before
us, the New Testament, because of the fact that these apostles
were sent. And there is a foundation. The
church is built on the foundation of what? The apostles. Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone. Now here, we're speaking about
the one who is the chief apostle. Now there are twelve apostles
given to men, but there is really only one apostle, the apostle
who is the foundation. He is the one upon whom this
thing is built. Now the apostles were foundational
in the sense of men going out into the world, but they went
speaking about this one. And so we're not considering
that the foundation, he says, is not what the Lord gave to
the Jews in time past. That's what it was. It was temporary. It was given to bring in something
that was better. He says, when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part is done away. And so when
Jesus Christ has come into the world as the Apostle, the foundation
upon which all of the truth of God rests, then we don't need
to consider anything else. This is the one we need to put
our thought and mind towards. Forget about those things that
went in the past. Now, the problem that the Jews
had then and the problem that the Jews have now is even when
they often profess that they believe that Christ is the Savior
of sinners, they always want to revert back to the law. Now,
unfortunately, you know, I see this played out even in the present
time. There are several congregations
around of people who are of Jewish descent, at least they think
they are. I mean they have some reason to believe that they were
descended in this line. I think it is pretty hard actually
to determine who is by birth a Hebrew, but there are people
that do that. And what they want to do is they
want to revert back to the law, and they want to make the law
a requirement that you keep these particular things. That's what
Paul wrote the Galatians about, was it not? That they needed
to move on. That's what he's writing to them
here. He said, look, here's what you need to consider. Consider
the apostle of our profession, the foundation, Jesus Christ. And He is our High Priest. See, we don't need a priest to
go into the holy place for us. We don't need the feasts and
all of the ceremonial laws that went before. We don't need that. We have a High Priest, and His
name is Jesus Christ, and He is our salvation. He is that
One who is the satisfier of all of the requirements of the law.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, this is what
we confess, that Jesus Christ is that one who was faithful
to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all
of his halves. Now, he said, just in the same
fashion in which Moses was appointed to do the thing that the Lord
sent him to do, so the Lord Jesus Christ was, but there's a big
difference in Moses and Christ. Now, it's true Moses was faithful.
It's true that the law of Moses is a good thing. Certainly nothing
that we would speak evil of the law of Moses. The Lord said,
I didn't come to overturn the law, but He said, I came to fulfill
it. He didn't speak ill of Moses, but what did He do when He went
to the Mount of Transfiguration? And Peter said, when he saw Elijah
and he saw Moses with the Lord, and he said, well, man, this
is great. Let's build three temples. See, that's what a lot of people
of the kind of ones I'm speaking about here desire to do today. Oh, they believe that Jesus Christ
is who He said He was, but they want to build another temple.
Dear brethren, we don't need another temple. We don't need
another priest. And as great as Moses was, you
see, the difference between Moses and Christ is that Moses was
a faithful man appointed to do the thing that he was as one
who would work in the house of God. But he said there is one
greater than Moses that is here. Because you see, he is not the
one who was appointed to work in the house. He's the one who
built the house. And that's the big difference.
And so for every house is built by some man, but He that built
all things is God. Well, I missed this verse. For
this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch
as he who hath built the house hath more glory than the house. Moses was the house. Christ was
the builder. And so the one who built the
house has more glory than the house. Moses was faithful as
a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be
spoken after, but Christ as a son over His own house. You see,
it belongs to Him. And He came and He is established
as that one, and whatever He says has superseded all that
went before. He said, I give to you a new
commandment. He said, I shall love thy neighbors
as thyself. Love one another, even as I have
loved you, so do ye the same. He said, But Christ has a Son
over His own house, whose house are we, We hold the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." Now, he's warning
them. Now, why do we warn the sons
of God? Do we warn the sons of God because
we believe that some of the true sons of God are going to turn
aside and perish with the unbelievers? No, we warn them so that they
won't be those things. You see, we warn them And the
means of warning is that which the Lord uses to keep them. And what does He say to do? Consider
Christ. Because He says this, if you
don't consider Christ in the proper place, then you don't have a profession
that's correct. And so it's not enough to begin.
Now when I was growing up, that was the thing that they were
interested in. They just wanted you to begin.
They didn't care what happened after that. They just wanted
you to make that profession of faith and believe and buddy you
was in and that was it. That's not what he says here.
He said we are made partakers if we hold the confidence and
rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. There's no turning aside from
Christ. To what are you going to turn? Now, he goes on later
in this book, and he says basically, what is there to turn to? There's
certain fearful looking for fire of judgment. I mean, you're either
going to embrace Christ, or if you turn aside, what have you
got left then? Moses' law? I mean, is it going
to be Christ, or is it going to be the law? Is it going to
be Christ, or is it going to be the way that you've traveled?
And so he would say to us, consider the apostle of our profession,
because he's the only hope we've got. Dear brethren, to whom shall
we go? He has the words of eternal life.
If we turn aside from that, what have we got left? Nothing at
all. And so that's the place that
he's called us to. May the Lord give us grace to
be those that remain firm and steadfast even to the end. By
doing so, we will demonstrate that the work of grace has begun
in us, because He which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.