Now open your Bibles with me
to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two, I began
a few weeks back preaching a series of messages in these last few
verses of Hebrews two. And the series is entitled in
the form of a question, which is who is every man? And it comes from verse nine,
look at verse nine. We see Jesus talking about the
people of God. We see with the spiritual eye
because of the power of God the Spirit who gave us new life. We see things that others don't
see, things we didn't see before. And we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels, that's speaking of his humanity.
And it says for the suffering of death, That's why he was made
flesh to dwell among us. God in human flesh. He is God
and man in one person. God, every bit God, every attribute
of deity, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity,
without beginning, without end, everything that can be said about
God can be said of Jesus Christ. Then he is every bit man without
sin everything that can be said of man without sin And that's
who he is and the reason that that had to be the God man You
see you remember in 1st Timothy 3 great is the mystery of godliness. What's the first thing it said?
God was manifest in the flesh and God with us, the word made
flesh. Well, the reason they had to
be is for the suffering of death. God cannot die, but this person
who is God did die. That's to be attributed to his
humanity. He died on the cross. He had
to die. That was the penalty of the sins of his people charged
to him. He had to shed his blood. What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
We had to have blood. Had to have a body, we're gonna
take the Lord's Supper next weekend. His body, his blood symbolized
in the bread and the wine. And it says, and the result of
his death, verse nine, he was crowned with glory and honor.
He was successful in his death. The book of Isaiah 52, the last
verse there before it hits Isaiah 53, the suffering servant said,
he shall prosper. And what that means, he'll be
successful. He's not a failure. in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
So my preachers often, when they give what they call invitations,
and you understand now, the preaching of the gospel is a command. And
there is an invitation there, but it has the force of a command.
But it's not me standing down here trying to beg you to walk
it off. The issue of the gospel, is this
that all whom Christ died for shall be saved and it says he's
crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should
taste death for every man literally everyone who is the everyman
he's not talking about all without exception and so in verse ten
he begins to identify who the everyman is who is everyman who
are those for whom Christ died who shall be saved and in these
verses this is showing how that For his glory, the Lord God has
subjected the whole universe to humanity and the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all under his control. And
this is why God created man, for his glory. But the purpose
could not be accomplished through mere creatures, subject to change. That's proven in the fall of
Adam. But it can only be accomplished through one who is both God and
man without sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he says
that, we see Jesus. Now, as I said, this was proven
in the fall of man, the first man, when he sinned against God.
And what did Adam do when he sinned against God? He took sides
with Satan and his wife against God. That's what he did. Knowingly,
he did that. And he brought the whole human
family into the bondage of sin and death. But God had already
purposed, even before the fall, now think about it, this is what
the Bible teaches. God had already purposed to glorify himself in
the salvation of his chosen people, chosen from among men, by sending
his son into the world, and he becoming incarnate, being made
flesh, He would keep the law and go to the cross of Calvary,
obedience unto death, and pay the price of their redemption
by his blood and bring in an everlasting righteousness whereby
God could be just and justify. And out of that comes spiritual
and eternal life for them. That's why I had Brother Jim
read those two Psalms. He sent redemption to his people. Who sent that? God did. That's
the price paid. And then in that Psalm 110, his
people shall be made willing in the day of his power. Nobody's
gonna be made willing in the day of the preacher's power.
Nobody's gonna be made willing in the day of their own power.
They're only gonna be made willing in the day of God's power. And
that's what the scripture teaches. Now to accomplish this, to glorify
God, Christ had to perform the work of assurity. He had to be
the substitute, the redeemer of his people. And this is why
Christ had to be made flesh and dwell amongst his people. Look
at verse 14 of this passage. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. Why? He had to be flesh and blood.
Why? That through death he might perform a work that we're going
to talk about this morning. through death. Now in these verses,
as he's showing this forth, we see the identification of the
everyman for whom Christ died. You're asking the question, did
Christ die for me? Or you could go all the way back
to eternity past and talk about election. Did God choose me? Well, here's what he says. He
identifies them. Look at verse 10. It says, For
it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things,
and bringing many sons unto glory." They are the many sons who are
brought unto glory. He's talking about the children
of God, both male and female. Many sons and daughters, some
people say. And He's gonna what? Bring them
unto glory. Now what is glory? Well, that's
eternal glory with God in Christ. Occupying the new heavens and
the new earth. That's eternal life. That's beyond this life,
isn't it? That's full salvation. Paul wrote,
I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. That's
the day of judgment. In other words, I know that Christ
is going to bring me unto glory. He is able to save to the uttermost,
the scripture says. Those that come to the Father.
That's the many sons, the many children who he will bring unto
glory. This every man does not include
those who perish in eternal damnation. It's the many sons whom he brought
unto glory. Secondly, he says in verse 11,
for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified.
So it's those who are sanctified. What does that mean? They're
set apart. Set apart from who? Set apart from the world by the
grace of God in Christ. The Bible says in Hebrews 10
and verse 14, for by one offering Christ hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. It means they're completed. And
how are we completed? How are we complete? Well, Colossians
2.9, it says, for in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in him. I'm completely saved
in Christ. I'm completely forgiven by the
blood of Christ. I'm completely righteous by His
righteousness imputed. I'm completely certain for the
glory that He speaks of here because of Christ's work on the
cross and because of the fact that He's seated at the right
hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for me.
He will not let us go. You know that? Well, he said,
they're in my father's hand. Nobody shall pluck them out.
He won't let us go. He'll bring us there under glory.
It's not conditioned on us, conditioned on him. If it were conditioned
on us, I tell you, here's the surety, we'd all be lost. And if you don't believe that,
I'll tell you what your problem is. You think too highly of yourself.
But it's all conditioned on him. This is what David said on his
deathbed. This is what makes my salvation sure. God's made
a covenant with me that's ordered in all things insure. God ordered
it, it's all sure in Christ. And he said this is my whole
salvation. So they're sanctified, they're set apart. Next he says
they're his brethren, verse 11, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren, his brethren. Who are his brethren? He identifies
his brethren. He says they are those who do
the will of my father. What is the will of the father?
To believe on the son whom the father has sent. They're called
his church. If you look at it in verse 12,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, that's the
gospel preach, declaring the name of God, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And to my brethren
in the midst of the church, that's the called out ones, that's what
that means. You've heard the word ecclesia,
ecclesiastes, that's the called out ones. And they're called
out of the world by the preaching of the gospel as his name is
declared unto them. And he said, I'll declare thy
name unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing
praise unto them. This is the church. Now here in verse 14,
and in this series, I've got two more messages in this series.
And in verses 14 and 15, the every man, who these are, everyone
for whom Christ died, they're identified as those who have
been delivered. They've been delivered. And that's
verses 14 and 15. And then the last message I'll
preach in this series is be next week, where he talks about they
are the seed of Abraham. Well, I'm gonna spend a whole
message on that. But today I wanna talk to you
about those who have been delivered. Now, what do you mean delivered?
That means they've been saved, saved out. And what have they
been delivered from? Well, they've been delivered,
he says, from the power of the devil. You know, a lot of people
today, even some who claim to be, they don't even believe in
the devil. Somebody said one time, said
that one of the devil's greatest tricks is to get people to think
that he doesn't exist. May be true. But they're delivered
from the devil. Look at it, verse 14. He says,
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
there he identifies them as the children, he also himself likewise
took part of the same, flesh and blood without sin, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, verse 15, and deliver them, they're the delivered ones,
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." Well, they've been delivered from the power of the
devil, they've been delivered from the power of death, they've
been delivered from bondage, he says. Now, here's the first
thing that we have to understand about this, and you've got to
go, you've got to interpret scripture with scripture. And ask ourselves
this question, what power of death does the devil have? What
exactly, what power of death does he have? How are those for
whom Christ died delivered from that power, that death, that
bondage? Well, here's the first thing,
think about it. The devil has no power ultimately to give life
or to take life. Did you know that? He has no
power ultimately to give life or to take life. But there's
something we need to understand according to God's word. And
that's this. The devil is used of God as an
instrument of judgment upon sinful people. Now he is. He himself is under judgment. We know that. But he was the
way that sin and death And the wages of sin entered into the
world. You can read about it in Genesis
chapter three. Now some people think that's
a myth. It's not a myth. It's a reality. You remember
when Satan appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent? I heard
an old comedian talking about a snake. Yeah, that's how he
appeared. He wasn't a snake. He's called
that old serpent, but he appeared in that form. You see, he's a
deceiver. We're gonna talk about that.
and he deceived Eve. And then Adam came along and
he knew full well what he was doing and he took sides with
Satan and Eve against God and brought the whole human family
into the bondage of sin and death. Now Satan, the devil, was the
instrument by which that was accomplished. And I tell you,
I know people have a hard time with this, but you need to understand,
Satan did not sneak up on God and take him by surprise. This was always foreordained
in the scheme of God's purpose to glorify himself in the salvation
of sinners. That's why the Bible talks about
Christ was set up before the foundation of the world to be
the savior of his people. That's why Paul talked to Timothy
about salvation, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. And somebody says, well, does
that make God the author of sin? No, it doesn't. How do you explain
all that? I don't, I just know what the
Bible says. And I tell, how many times have
I told you? Somebody will look at me and they'll say, well,
I can't wrap my mind around that. And I'll say, well, join the
club. I just know it's true because that's what God's word says.
And that's good enough. But here's the point, ultimately
only God has the power of life and death. Do you believe that?
Well, Hannah prayed, remember Hannah's prayer? First Samuel
two and verse six, listen to part of her prayer. The Lord
killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and
bringeth up. Do you believe Hannah's prayer
was the word of God? I do. Job, you know what happened
to Job? His whole family was wiped out.
And here's what he said, Job 121. He said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's something, isn't it? Hebrews 9, 27. As it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Who does the
appointing here? Satan? Why, no, he himself is
appointed unto death. God does the appointing. And
I'll tell you something, it's vital to faith in Christ and
vital to the Christian life to be able to recognize what power
of death Satan has. Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians
11.3. He told the Corinthians, he said, I fear lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. If our minds
are corrupted from the single message of salvation in Christ
and him alone, righteousness in Christ and him alone, it's
through the subtlety of Satan, he says. Listen to Ephesians
six and verse 11, talking about the whole armor of God, put on
the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand or to
stand against the wiles of the devil. Peter instructed his readers,
first Peter five eight, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He's talking to believers there.
Now we know that God's people cannot ultimately be deceived
unto death. How do you know that? They're
the many sons who will be brought to glory. His people shall be
willing in the day of his power. But I'll tell you what, Satan
can sure do a number on the minds of people. Here's the second
thing that we need to understand. Look back at Hebrews 2.14. There
are two ways that Satan is an instrument in the power of death.
Now listen to this, there's two ways. Number one is as an accuser. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. And that is Satan being used
as an instrument of death to all sinners to whom sin is imputed. Now I'll explain that in just
a minute, further. But the second way that Satan
is used as an instrument in the power of death is the power of
deception. He is a deceiver, we've been
talking about that. Again, we all fell in Adam into
sin and death, and we're all born spiritually dead and spiritually
kin to Satan. Let me show you a passage here,
look at Ephesians chapter two. Now this is something that most
people will not accept. The writer of Hebrews has been
defining who the everyman is. They're the many sons, children
of God. But by nature, now listen to
me, by nature, we're children of Satan. We fell in Adam, we're
born dead in trespasses and sins, and we come forth speaking lies.
We're sinners. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Why is that so? Is that because
you chose to do it? Well, you did choose to do it,
but it's because that's the way we are by nature, the natural
man. Now let me show you that. Look
at Ephesians 2 and verse 1. This is why we have to be born
again. This is why we have to be quickened. Look at it. Verse
1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins, spiritually dead. Verse two, wherein in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, that's the ungodly,
unbelieving world, according to the prince of the power of
the air. Now who's that? That's Satan.
Now, this is before being quick and this is before being born
again. He goes on, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, that's the children of unbelief, Among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature, that is as we were naturally born, the children
of wrath even as others. To be in unbelief is what is described here. I
don't care what kind of person you are. You may be a moral,
religious person, but if you don't know Christ, as Christ
told the Pharisees in John 8, 44, he said, you're of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father you do. What did Satan
do in the beginning when he deceived Eve? Well, he pulled out a bottle
of whiskey and got her drunk. Is that what he did? No. No, what he did is he told a
lie. And what was the lie that he
told? Do you remember what the lie was? Anybody know it? Thou what? Thou shall not surely
die. That was the title of the first
message that Satan ever preached. Hath God said, hath God said,
thou shalt. God said in the day ye eat thereof,
you shall surely die. Here's my message, you shall
not surely die. This gospel preacher's up here
telling you that if you're ignorant of or not submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ, you will die. But another preacher comes along
and says, nah, he's just a doctrinal idiot. You shall not surely die. Jeremiah, he had another name
for that message in the false preachers of his day, the satanic
preachers. He said, they cry, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. You see, here's what I'm telling
you. There's no peace between us and God, except that which
exists in Christ, who died for the sins of his people and brought
forth righteousness, whereby God could be just and justify
them. There's no peace outside of that,
not with God. Oh, you may feel at peace, but
feelings come and go. Feelings can be what? Deceiving. See, we go by the word of God,
not by how we feel. One day I may feel good, the
next day I feel bad. That has no bearing on this.
What does God's word say? Christ made peace by the blood
of his cross. That's what it says. Outside
of the blood of the cross, there is no peace. The command of the
gospel is be ye reconciled to God on what ground? For God made
him, Christ, to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There's the ground
of peace. There's the ground of reconciliation.
What is the righteousness of God? It's the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. It's his righteousness imputed,
the scripture says. Nothing else will do it. So we
come to God on that basis and we find peace with God by faith
in Christ. So it's vital that we understand
this. Now, here's the crux of it. This is the third point. It takes
the power of God's grace in and by Christ to deliver us from
the power of Satan in both areas, from the power of his accusation
and the power of his deception. Turn to an Old Testament passage
with me. It's in the book of Zechariah,
one of the minor prophets. Zechariah, it's on page 1172
in your Bible. Zechariah 3. Well, it is in mine. If you all have the right Bible,
it should be the same as mine. Isn't that right? Well, I know some of you have
the large print, so it might be a different page. Zechariah
3. Zechariah the prophet. He was
given a vision and a dream of the man who was the high priest
of Israel at that time. His name was Joshua. That was
a common name. And this man who was the high priest of Israel,
or the high priest of Judah at that time. And look at chapter
three, look at verse one. This is a great picture of what
I'm talking about. It says, he showed me Joshua
the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Here's
Joshua the high priest of Judah standing before the angel of
the Lord. And Satan, if you look at the word Satan in your concordance,
it says the adversary. That means he's against, he's
an enemy. Satan's standing at his right hand to resist him. And that word, that could be
to say that he stood as his adversary. He stood in opposition. And it says, and he's accusing
Joshua, the high priest. That's what he's doing. And verse
two says, and the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee.
Now, you know, Here's the first key to this. If we're going to
stand against Satan, if we're going to see Satan defeated in
these areas, we can't do it. And I don't care if you've got
10 gallons of holy water in your cabinet. And you can dash it
around the house, whatever. I don't care if you've got 50
crosses laid up. I don't care if you've got it
on your neck. It's not going to do you any good. See, that's
mythology. That's even cartoonish. You know
how most people think of Satan, you know, the horns and the fangs
and the fork and tail. That's a deception. That's a
concoction of false religion to scare children. That's not
Satan. Here he is, standing, resisting,
as an adversary, accusing Joshua. And the first thing we need to
know, that is this, the Lord rebuke thee. Not just me, the Lord has to
do this. And look what it says, it says
in verse two, the Lord rebuke thee, oh say, even the Lord that
hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. That's the God of election.
And what he's saying here is this Joshua is a chosen vessel. He's one of the many sons. And
then look in the next line, is not this a bran plucked out of
the fire? Joshua is chosen of God and he's
a bran plucked out of the fire. What's the fire represent? The
wrath of God. This is one who's been taken
out from under the wrath of God. He's not under the judgment of
God. That's what he's saying. And then he illustrates it further.
Look at verse three. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. Now what does that mean?
Well, filthy garments in the scripture is a picture of our
sinfulness. What are we? We're sinners. And so what is our hope? Look
at verse four. He says, and he answered and
spake unto those that stood before him saying, take away the filthy
garments from him. Take away his sin. Now we know
that God can only take away our sins on a just ground. Isn't
that right? And the Bible teach that. What can wash away my sins? See, this is a bran plucked out
of the fire because somebody went under the fire in our place.
That's the only way we're gonna be plucked out of the fire. For
someone whom God chose, someone who's willing, and someone who's
able to go under the fire in our place. And that's Jesus Christ. And it says, take away the filthy
garments from him, and look on now, and unto him he said, behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. I'm gonna give you a new garment.
Now what is that? That's the righteousness of Christ,
imputed. And then it says they set a fair
mitre upon his head. That has to do with his mind.
They let him in on it, let him know about it. Now that's a great
picture, isn't it? We'll look back over at Revelation. Turn with me to Revelation 12,
and I'm running out of time, but I want you to see this. Revelation 12. Look at verse 9. This here in
Revelation is speaking of Satan being allowed to attack the church. And God does allow that. We read
that. Peter talked about it. Satan
roaming about as a roaring lion, wanting to devour you. You see,
Satan cannot destroy the people of God. But that doesn't mean
he's not gonna try. He's just as ignorant about some
things as we are. But look here, it says in verse
nine, look at Revelation 12. It says, and the great dragon
was cast out, that's Satan, he was cast out when Christ died.
That old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world, there's the power of deception. And how does he
deceive people? With false religion, false gospels,
false refuges. And he said, he was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ, the Lord rebuke thee Satan. For the accuser of our
brethren is cast down. That's who Satan is. Which accused
them before our God day and night. He won't stop accusing. Now,
how are we delivered? from condemnation, from the bondage
of death because of our sin. Satan accusing us, you're a sinner,
you're a sinner, you're a sinner. Look at that, you deserve death,
you deserve hell. Me too. Well look at verse 11. Now listen to this. And they
overcame him, overcame that accuser by the blood of the lamb. You
see it? Wait a minute, Satan accusing
me, I'm a good guy. I preach, I sing hymns, I pray. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's
not gonna turn back Satan's accusations. The only one thing it'll turn
him back, that's the blood of the lamb. And it says, and by the word
of their testimony. What's the word of our testimony?
It's the gospel of God's grace in Christ, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. How am I going to be delivered
from the bondage of condemnation? By the blood of the Lamb. Christ
took my punishment. The accusations of Satan cannot
stick. For who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
I stand before God, washed clean from all my sins in the blood
of the Lamb. I stand before God with Christ's
righteousness imputed to me. Satan's accusations cannot stay. I've been delivered. I'm a bram
plucked out of the fire. But I was born in sin, born dead
in trespasses, born in unbelief. Well, he says in verse 11, and
by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives
unto death. One more scripture and I'll quit. Second Corinthians
four. Listen to this. How are we delivered from Satan's
power to deceive us? How are we delivered from Satan's
power to accuse us? By the blood of the lamb. By
the righteousness of Christ freely imputed. How are we delivered
from Satan's power to deceive us and keep us in darkness. We'll
look at verse three of 2 Corinthians 4. But if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for
Jesus' sake. Here's how we're delivered from the power of his
deception, verse six. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's when God the Holy Spirit
brings us out of the kingdom of darkness Satan's kingdom and
into the kingdom of God's dear son the light of the glory of
God We walk in the light as he is in that we know and believe
the gospel we know and love and believe Christ we plead his blood
his righteousness alone and That's and all who that's that's who
the everyman is Do you know do you know the ground of salvation
the ground of just of it? Do you know how God saves sent? Do you know Christ? Do you look
to Him? Do you rest in Him for all salvation
and all righteousness?