Good evening. Let's turn to the
book of Hebrews as we continue in Hebrews chapter 2. Last week
we saw that Paul began to establish
Jesus as supreme, began to show him as God, began to show him
as Redeemer and the founder of redemption and the security of
the redeemed. and so on and so forth. And so
we left off where we were last week really on chapter 2 verse
10. So let's start in verse 5 and
read down to the end of the chapter and then we'll talk about it.
So chapter 2 verse 5, For it was not to angels that God subjected
the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified
somewhere. What is man that you are mindful
of him? Or the son of man that you care for him? You made him
for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned
him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under
his feet. Now, says Paul, in putting everything in subjection
to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do
not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for
a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.
So by the grace of God, he may taste death for everyone. For
it was fitting that he for whom by whom all things exist in bringing
many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation
perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those
who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he's not
ashamed to call them brothers saying, I will tell of your name
to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing
your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again,
behold, I and the children God has given me. Since therefore
the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook
of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all
those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
For surely it is not of angels that he helps, but he helps the
offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made
like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered
when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
So there's a lot here, and Paul moves rather swiftly into this
section, into this argument. He doesn't spend a lot of time
explaining it because it's not necessarily the point. The point
is he wants to spend the rest of this letter showing and revealing
the priestly work of Christ. Showing and expressing what Christ
has done and the nature of Christ in the incarnation, the nature
of Christ as God creator, the nature of Christ as the sacrifice,
the nature of Christ as the advocate, the mediator, and so on and so
forth. And so if we start there in verse
10, and we see, for it was fitting, because it was fitting that he,
for whom and by whom all things exist, this is the writer showing
us that we need to pay close attention to the fact that Jesus
is the creator God of the universe. And everything that is made was
made for Him, and by Him they all exist, so that we do not
lose sight of who we're talking about when we see Him placed
in a lowly position. What is the lowly position? He
became human. He took on humanity. He died. He suffered death. And then,
of course, He raised Himself to life and glorified, and was
glorified. And so we need to keep in mind
who we're speaking of. Even though we may take and put
him in a place of humanity, at no time was he ever a sinner.
And at no time was he ever not God. And at no time was he ever
out of the control of his own will or the will of the Father.
At no time has his sovereignty ever stopped being sovereignty.
Jesus, in his humanity, was still the sovereign God of all things.
So, why was it? that He was able to be the founder
of their salvation, to finish the work of salvation through
suffering as it says there in verse 10, and bringing many sons
to glory. This is how He became the founder
of the salvation. We are His, He died for us, and
so in His death we are made righteous. not because we become righteous
in our own efforts, not because we become righteous in our flesh,
not because we become righteous in any real and tangible way
in our humanity, but that the righteousness of Christ and His
humanity is credited to us individually and collectively as the body,
as the elect. And now what Paul is doing is
he's transitioning into this teaching going through verses
11, 12, and 13 to show that there is a kinsmanship. There's a kinsman
mindset. There's an intimacy that takes
place in redemption. That Jesus who was God, who came
to do the work of salvation, He did so in order to bring all
the children of God, those elect. Notice that there is no way to
bring universalism into this text. There's no way to say anything
concerning the salvation of the elect as any type of well-meant
offer or universal application. There is no universal application
or interest in the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus was specifically
and particularly for his elect alone, and the elect always will
come to believe the gospel. because God sees to it that they
will come to believe what has been done for them and so this
children that the scripture says here that will be brought to
glory these sons he did this work and bringing many sons to
glory he becomes the founder of our salvation the one who
finished the work through his suffering I spoke about that
last week so then verse 11 gets to some of the aspects of what
this salvation does now In any given season of life, in any
given generation, language is changeable. It is very mutable. The word love is very mutable.
It means a lot of different things than it used to mean. People
can love a Coca-Cola or any other type of soda. People can love
a cloud. People can love the feeling of
a roller coaster. But it's not what love really
means. And people can understand even
the sacrificial aspect of love, and they can say, oh, I gave
myself for the protection of the innocent, so that is an act
of love. And it would be in the context of the Bible. But when
we think of love, even in a true sense in our humanity, we are
never to subject God into our humanistic ways. So we need to
recognize that the Bible teaches that certain words mean something
in the context of Scripture. not to be misunderstood or misinterpreted
based on the context of history. So when we see the word there
for sanctify, sanctification, sanctifies, there's several different
words and terms that I don't really have to go through now
as a grammar lesson or as a Greek lesson or a Hebrew lesson or
anything of that nature because it's not important. What's important
is you need to know that the word is translated often sanctify,
The word is translated sometimes perfected, the word is sometimes
translated holy. So to be set apart means that
you've been given to the Son by the Father. And anyone who
is given to the Son has been crucified with Christ, and anyone
who has been crucified with Christ will be raised up as Christ was
raised in the day. Jesus speaks of this in John
chapter 4 and in John chapter 6. And so we know that being
sanctified is the one thing that historically has become something
that is extremely erroneous when measured against the biblical
context. Sometimes people think sanctification means that we're
progressing in our righteousness, we're progressing in our holiness.
That's like, it makes no sense to me as I read the Scripture,
but if I take little verses and sentences and a couple of sentences
out of certain texts, I can build a doctrine that says, oh, we're
becoming more like Jesus because we're becoming more holy. We're
becoming more set apart for God. Now, can we become more set apart
for God in our language and the way we think? Yes, absolutely.
But are we becoming more like Christ in our standing before
the Lord? And so sometimes people have
addressed this almost, it's a contemporary addressing, that you are sanctified
positionally in Jesus Christ fully, and then you are sanctified
progressively in your maturity. And this progressive being set
apart for God is evidence of your positional setting apart
for God. But that's wrong. That's a terrible
thing to say. Because God's grace does not
equally work in every human being. Some people struggle with sins
and certain sins that others do not and vice versa. And some
people will struggle deeply with certain sins where some people
seem to not struggle with any. And that is by the will of God
and by the purposes of God's grace for those individuals as
God sees fit. So when we see the context here
is what? Salvation. Jesus is the one who
secured and did the work of salvation. So that therefore we are set
apart, we are made righteous before God because of the finished
work of Jesus in redemption. Therefore we are sanctified for
he is the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified
all have one source so now we see Jesus the God-man being set
apart for the work of redemption in order to set apart the ones
who are set apart in him before the foundations of the world
to be holy and blameless before him so sanctification in the
context here is salvation and anything else that's been warranted
against that definition is blasphemy so The source of sanctification
is this gracious, sovereign, and free grace of adopting sinners,
wicked people, into the fold of God's elect and calling them
righteous when they are not because the righteousness of their credit
is the perfection and the righteousness of Jesus Christ and His humanity.
And that's what he's explaining here. And the argument, coming
from a Jewish perspective, as we'll see in chapter 3, 4, 5,
and so on, the argument is, well, what about Moses? What about
the law? And Paul just goes, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop
it, boom! He just punches the law in the
stomach and sets it on fire. And he goes, it is all about
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ alone, alone, alone. The Word of God does not teach
parsing out law and righteousness apart from one another. The Word
of God teaches that righteousness is found only in Christ. Ergo,
the law displays, just like the temple, Jesus. Romans 3. Now, how are critics and intellectual
academics? Well, you just don't understand
them. You know what? Maybe I don't understand, but
God teaches those who read the Word. He teaches, and we know
what the context is here. So it doesn't take a grammatician
to interpret Scripture. It takes a mind that has been
made alive by Christ. Context rules over everything. Even the meaning of words in
a dictionary. He who sanctifies The children
of God will be brought into the presence of God and will be glorified
with the Lord Jesus Christ. So this sanctification has everything
to do with their relationship with Jesus. Some people are like,
well James is crazy tonight, what's going on? I am crazy,
insane, over the top, aggravated, irritated, frustrated when people
mock the gospel of grace and I would rather die than placate
to that garbage. The gospel is not to be played
with. And if there's ever a time that the Lord's people needed
the gospel hard and true and solid and promising and encouraging,
it is in today's times when the inconvenience of a pandemic is
causing people to lose sight of the hope of Christ, evidenced
by the way they speak and what they tend to and what they spend
their time with. The church needs grace upon grace
upon grace. We are in our very flesh this
moment, beloved, the elect of God, the adopted of God. We are
absolutely separated from God if we are not in Christ. But
because we are in Christ, we have been made right with God,
our sins have been paid for, and it is a promise that we will
always be with Him. So, Jesus Christ sanctifies for
the Father in the presence of the Father, as Paul would say,
I think, to the Colossians, he says, presents us and prepares
us for the presence of God. Jesus has done all of the preparation.
He has finished the work. He will stand us before the Father
blameless. But the way that looks in this
life is different for every person. And when we subject our standard
of holy living not from the scripture and not from the context of its
purpose. When we stand and judge one another
we are sinning against the Spirit of God who testifies that is
our body. When we call them condemned when
they indeed are in Christ. Be careful. Christ is the King
who has reigned in redemption and he will bring all of his
elect to glory and sometimes our lives are full of strife
are full of strife and there is no biblical authority outside
of the context of an intimate local assembly whereby one can
make judgment on the faith of another except through the intimate
corrective blessing of the grace of God in church discipline.
Outside of that it is purely devilish. So God's covenant that He made
with Himself, Jesus Christ, is the condition grantor, the condition
meter. He is the one who will take and
fulfill this request. And this request was, or this
condition was, that Jesus, the God of all eternity, the Son
of God, God the Son, must take on humanity. He must suffer in
the place of His people. And that's exactly what he did.
So Jesus took on sanctifying his people by becoming like them. That's what makes it work. That's
what makes it work in a judicial sense. How does God forgive human
beings who are guilty? Because he put the perfect human
being in their place. He judged us on Christ and now
we are forgiven for the penalty has been paid. And we see this
scripture here in verses 12 and 13. And as we look at it, we
know that we are intimate with the Lord. This union between
God, the Son, who is the sanctifier of the elect, and we who are
the children who will receive glory, this union is something
that Christ has done. We see this picture in marriage
where the typical language of the marriage ceremony is this.
What God has put together, let no man tear apart. Jesus says it. Those who come
to me, I will never cast away. He says those who are given to
me can never be plucked out of my hand. Nothing can separate
us from the finished work of Jesus, which is the love of God
and redemption. No one can make us not be children. See what kind of love the Father
has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.
And so we are. This letter of intimacy written
by John, the first epistle of John, chapter 3, verse 1. And so we know that we are the
children, and because we are the children, we know we have
been sanctified. We know we have been set apart. We know we have
been perfected for all time. We are finished in redemption. But there is a moment when the
old will truly be put to death. Though it has been crucified
with Christ, it is no longer living in the context that it
needs judgment. You understand that? To be crucified with Christ,
you cannot kill again what's already been killed. We have
been put to death as Christ was put to death because we were
found in Him. Baptized into His death. To be
found also baptized into His life, into His resurrection.
How can we be glorified when we are sinful? Because Christ
satisfied the wrath of God that He promised now we shall be made
like Him when the day of the Lord comes. We conflate too much
in our culture because we're too smart for our own good. We
conflate the idea of Christian living with Christian hope. We
confuse Old Testament covenants and Old Testament temporary promises
with the promise of eternal life. We try to make people under the
bondage of fear rather than under the freedom of love. We are the
beneficiaries of the great high priest, Jesus Christ, who mediated
for us, who stood in the place of us, who suffered the wrath
of God instead of us. And so the scripture says that
he will call us brothers. We are equally in love. Found in the father, as Jesus
is found in the father. And how is this possible? Because
of the sufferings. So he's already said that through
suffering he finished the work of bringing these sons and daughters,
these children to glory and now because of that he is the founder,
he's the beginning of their salvation as their sanctifier and he is
the sanctified one who sanctifies and he has sanctified us in himself. Since therefore, verse 14, The
children share in the flesh and blood. I've already talked about
this, but let me read it to prove it. He himself likewise partook
of the same things. What does that mean? We share
in flesh. Jesus was truly human. He was
flesh and blood. Jesus was not ethereal. He wasn't metaphysical. He wasn't
a spirit man. He wasn't a superhero with superpowers
in his humanity. He was all true human. He was a true man. So we have
this acceptance before God because Jesus took on our nature and
suffered in our place, and so we know that we have a Savior
of our humanity, of the guilt that comes through sin. And Paul
begins to talk about death. Death is what? The wage of sin.
Fear is what? The wage of sin. And who has
been given domain and dominion over this fear and over this
death? The enemy. By how? By the will of God. Who
one day, Lucifer will actually partake in the judgment of death. Though right now, God uses him
to work out his purposes in reprobation. His purposes in the world. His
purposes in evil. For his own glory and for the
good of his people. So here when we have this illustration, Jesus
took on the same things. He took on flesh and blood. We
share in a humanity. And it says that through death
he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver all those through who fear of death
were subject to lifelong slavery. Slavery. The prison of death
is the eternal consequence of sin. The prison and the fear
of death is inseparable from sin. We are not able to understand
death unless we understand sin. Because it is through sin that
death came into the world. It is death that is righteous
and good and natural to be laid out in a wrathful and just way
over sin and sinners. And so as we see this type of
bondage, we see the outcome of the work of Christ that delivers
us from this bondage. It delivers us from death. He
has delivered us from the wage of our own guilt because he took
it. He took it. He took it. And what is this but the love
of God? What is this but the grace of
God? What is this but this divine working of this love that God
has had for his people before the foundations of the world
from which he brought the world into existence and for which
he brought the world into existence because he wanted to create a
people for himself and be the redeemer, the gracious redeemer
of his elect. So, as it says in verse 16, we're
not sitting here looking for Christ to have saved all creatures
of all things of all worlds. He says he had to be made like
his brothers. I mean, it's not of angels that he helps, but
he helps the offspring of Abraham. Now this is important. This is
important because a lot of people say, well, it must be then Jewish
people. Paul has made clear in Romans
and in other places like Galatians that it is not those who are
the sons of the flesh who are the offspring of Abraham of the
promise, but it is the son of promise. It is the one whom God
has promised. Jesus Christ, of course, is the
ultimate and real true son of promise. And then the picture
of election through Abram And the birth of Abraham's two sons,
the first being not the son of promise, to be the son of the
slave and be in slavery and bondage like all humanity is in slavery
and bondage to sin. And then the second son being
the son of promise that came through divine work of God by
his promise so that he might be the father of many nations.
It is the sons of promise, the children of promise who are the
true children of Abraham The children of promise are the ones
who are sanctified in Jesus Christ. The ones who are sanctified in
Jesus Christ are the ones who have been given to Him, and the
ones who have been given to Him are the elect who have been known
by God. That means they've been loved
by God effectually before they ever existed. Not because of
God's looking to the future. Because of God's pure, electing,
sovereign grace that caused all things to work after the counsel
of His will. The very nature of Satan's power
is a result of sin. The very nature of Christ's redemption
is to take away the power of the enemy immediately. So when Christ died, the power
of the enemy immediately was withdrawn. There is no one who
is in Christ or for whom Christ died that is under the power
of the enemy. Well, how do you know? Because you believe in the statement
that I just made. You believe in the truth of the work that
I'm speaking of. You believe in the promise of
the very thing that's being dealt with in the context here of this
text. This Jesus, who is Messiah, had
to be made, as we see in verse 17, like his brothers in every
respect, so that he might become a faithful and merciful high
priest in the service, I think I mixed those up, in the service
to God, making propitiation for the sins of his people. You see,
I get ahead when I explain things, because I know what's coming,
logical common sense in the way this operates. It's logical. It's easy to see. Jesus was promised. He was Meshaic. He was the Christ. He was the
one to come to be the Lamb, to be the priest of His people.
And in order for that to be effectual, he had to be made like his brothers.
Understand that. The scripture here, Paul is saying,
now who is he talking to? He's talking to his brothers
in two respects. His brothers in the flesh, who
are ethnic Jews. And his brothers in the faith,
who are the brothers of Christ. So he's talking to his brothers.
Now he's using the same language in a way that will help them
recognize they are in Christ. That's what makes them brothers.
So for Christ to come, he had to be made like his brothers.
Who are the brothers of Christ? The elect. Not all humanity,
the elect. So, of course, all humanity share
in what? All humanity shares in their
humanity, in their flesh and blood. All humanity share in
the wages of sin. All humanity share in the fallenness
and depravity of our nature. But Christ, in taking on flesh,
He did so with one particular people in mind. His brothers. Not all humanity. The scripture
doesn't say that Christ took on humanity so he could save
all humanity. The scripture says that Christ
had to be made like his brothers. Why? Because he was substituted
for his brothers. And of course that's not a gender
specific term in the Bible. It's sisters included. In every respect. Why? It's like
a part of verse 17. So that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in the service of God. Now you're going
to see a lot of that when we get over into chapter 4 and 5. Paul's going to really explain
that in a great way. But for tonight, we need to know
that he had a role, he had an office. He was supposed to exercise
being the substitute, the mediator between God and the elect, his
brothers. And so he did that through the
incarnation. He did that through his life
of obedience. He did that through his death on the cross. He did
that through the fulfillment of the prophecy. He did that
by laying down his life. He did that by raising his life
back up again. So that as, think about this
for a second, Paul says it this way in Ephesians 2, you who were
once alienated from the Lord, God in His love What does he
say? Go there and read it, Ephesians
chapter two. I don't want to misquote, I want to paraphrase it for you.
Let's hear the word of the Lord this afternoon. Ephesians chapter
two, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which
you once walked, following the course of this world, following
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in
work in the sons of disobedience. The sons of disobedience are
in direct contrast with the brothers of Christ. You were once like
them in the respect by nature. Amongst whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind of barbarity, and were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of humanity. But God," verse four, being rich
in mercy, merciful, high priest, because of the great love with
which he loved us, what was his motivator? What caused him to
do what he did? His love for us. What's a word
for love in the Bible? Foreknowledge. Anytime you see the word foreknowledge
as it relates to a subject, of God's people. It means God's
love for them. His operating, active love in
redemption. Because of the love with which
He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, He, with His
love, because of the love, made us alive together with Christ. And then He screams in the middle
of this sentence, by grace you've been saved, on paper. By grace
you've been saved! This is the grace of God for
you. And He's made us alive and raised us up with Him and seated
us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I don't know
about you, but I'm not sitting in the presence of God with Jesus
right now. Are you? No, we're sitting in
a room spread out so far we can't even tell who's here. If we don't
have our glasses on. And the rest of us are out there
in social media land somewhere, sitting in our homes. We're not there in a physical
way, but we're there in a perfect way with Christ, as Christ is
able to be in the presence of God. So we are also, as His brothers,
as His body, able to be in the presence of God this very moment.
There is nothing left for our lives to be, for our lives to
become, for our lives to accomplish, in order to be prepared for the
presence of God, because we are in Christ Jesus. We are in Christ
Jesus. And the reason this is so, as
Paul continues in Ephesians 2, so that in the coming ages He,
might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and faith is not of your own doing. Faith is the
gift of God, not as a result of your works, so that no one
may boast. For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to serve one another with good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. Back
to Hebrews 2. He had to be made like his brothers
in every respect. So that, in order that, he might
become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of
God. Now that's important as you'll see in chapter 3 when
he talks about Moses being a steward over the house of God. And what
is it? Now see some people say, you're
just talking out of both sides of your mouth. No, I'm not. Listen
very carefully. This is an effectual done redemption,
people who were in Christ and were given to Christ before the
foundation of the world, they are going to believe in Him. And they're going to believe
in the witness that you're hearing preached this very night. Because another
witness of any gospel that's not what I've said, according
to the text that is in this Bible, is a false gospel. And it will
not save. And no matter how long you believed
it, no matter how much service you've had in the local church,
no matter how many times you've shared it or how many other people
have come to believe your false gospel, if they are not believing
in the gospel that's coming out of my mouth this day, the Bible's
witness says they are not born of God. This is not an issue
of maturity or confusion or almost right. If you're almost right,
you're wrong. And if you're wrong concerning the witness of Christ
and his redemptive work for the elect of God, you are not in
Christ. Why is it so hard for us, and
I'm going to get to the next thing, this preposition here,
why is it so hard for us to not love people enough to say, I
don't believe you are born of God? Because those who are not
born of God, when confronted with the prospect that they're
not born of God, but they think they're born of God, they get
furious in their spirit and they become belligerent. And they
bang their head against the proverbial wall of humanism and go, I will
not serve a God like that. And they're absolutely telling
the truth. They will not serve a God that
saves if they don't believe in His sovereign grace. What is it that the high priest
has done in the service of God to make propitiation for the
sins of the people? This is not metaphorical in the
personal Christ. This is not hypothetical. This
is not theoretical. This is absolutely essential
as literal. For because he himself has suffered
when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
Remember the occasion of the letter, right? This is what Paul's
trying to help them. They're being tempted to do what?
To apostate from Christ. They're being tempted to keep
a foothold on Jesus and put a foothold on Moses. They're being tempted
to walk in a way that the culture wants them to, that looks real
Christianly or Jewishly. and then go over here and just
keep a little foot over here on Jesus. They're wanting to hold Jesus
by one hand, and they're wanting to hold the religiosity of their
ancestral faith by the other. They're wanting to say, it's
all of Christ, but let's worship in the temple. Hey, let's do
like this, but let's be circumcised. Hey, it's all about Jesus, but
hey, I want to follow these rules just in case. Paul says no. You're being tempted
and it's hard. Listen, if temptation was easy,
it wouldn't be written in the Bible. And I find it interesting
to see that the measure, you have to walk away from this and
look at it from an objective point of view, and you have to
see the amount of time that the apostles deal with certain specific
sins. They list them real quick and
they move right along. This is wrong, you know this, don't do
this, live like this, love your brother, you know this, good
gracious. A little sentence and then seven paragraphs of gospel
power that we can rest in knowing that no matter what, when we're
tempted, this is our hope, propitiation through Jesus Christ alone, the
atonement, the finished work of Christ, our great high priest,
he is the lamb of God that took away my sin, I trust in him.
Oh Lord have mercy on me, lead me not into temptation. So when does our hope come? Jesus
has suffered when tempted. What does it mean? He was tempted?
Yeah, He was tempted to what? Deny His calling? Tempted to
display His glory outside of the will of the Father and the
timing of God? He was tempted to renounce His submission to
the Father? He was tempted to exercise His
power to fulfill His flesh? Turn these rocks to bread. Nothing
wrong with eating. He was tempted to forsake it all, He was fearful,
but yet He trusted in the promises of the Father. He knew His job
and His calling divinely, eternally, and always was to suffer for
the sake of His people because we could not escape death otherwise. So that when we feel tempted,
And our souls are being downtrodden and our minds are being destroyed.
Especially because, you know what? When Jesus was tempted,
He did not sin. When we are tempted, we always
sin. Now people will argue with that. No, we don't. You just did. You were tempted to say that
you weren't sinful. When you're tempted and you just
lied. You can't even bear a true witness
about your own mind. Well, I didn't punch that guy.
Doesn't matter. He would have found joy in it. Sometimes people are too short-sighted
to see the depravity of their own flesh. And they stand around and they
say, you know, I thank God that I'm no longer like this, and
I thank God that I'm no longer like that, and I thank God that
I'm no longer like that guy. God, could you just get his life
together? And that guy's laying down on the ground weeping, going,
have mercy on me, a sinner. Sound familiar? Jesus says that
the one who cries out, have mercy on me, O sinner, is the one who
is mine. He belongs to me because he sees me. He sees that I am
the mercy seat, that I am his hope, that my death in his place
is what matters. This guy over here is so holy,
he doesn't need God anyway. As a matter of fact, Jesus says
these are the people who don't need a physician because they're
not sick. And they give glory to God for the lack of their
sickness. When the true saint, even sometimes to a fault, sinfully
falls into self-deprecation and self-condemnation, we forget
this. He is able to help us when we're
being tempted. We are His, beloved. A true Christian is one who is
always warring with the flesh. Always warring. Always warring. And even then, that's not a very
good litmus test, is it? Because there are some times
we just like, I've just given up trying. I'm not giving up
trying. Thank God a try is always a failed
attempt. So every time we try, we've always
failed. But in Christ, we've always succeeded
because He succeeded for us. Let me read the next few sentences
here so that we can have some jumping off, some springboarding
for next week. Therefore, because he helps us,
because he has satisfied God's wrath for us, because he has
done the work of bringing us into the fellowship of God, holy
brothers, you see that? Sanctified brothers, that's what
that means. Therefore, sanctified brothers, you who share in a
heavenly calling, Consider Jesus. What does that mean? Think on Him. The Apostle and
the High Priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed
Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus
has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more
glory as the builder of a house, as more honor than the house
itself. For every house is built by someone, not the builder of
all things, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses
was faithful in all God's house as a servant, a slave, to testify
of the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful
over God's house as a son, and we are his house if indeed we
hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope who
is Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Let's pray. Father, if there
is nothing else that you do for us this night, give us absolute
joy and hope in this perfect gospel, this finished gospel,
this perfected gospel, this powerful gospel that cannot be thwarted
and that will never be derailed. Father, take your elect out of
the small-minded, free-willed decisionism of our culture today
and bring them to the knowledge of the truth. Use these hard
times of suffering and fear and frustration and anxiety of uncertainty
to bring your sheep to the knowledge of grace. Lord, let your church
herald the sovereign and free grace of Jesus Christ over and
above all things. Put away the stupidity and the
infancy of our fodder and everything that we spill out over into our
social spheres and into our living rooms and on our phones and through
our messengers that has no eternal value whatsoever. Let the world
rot and let the country rot with it. Let the things of this world
decompose before our eyes as it's all burned away. Father,
we will see the ineffable glory of you through the face of Jesus
Christ who has caused us to see and helped us know that we have
a confident assurance until the day of eternity has come, and
in His name we pray, and in His name we hope. Amen.