Now turn in our Bibles to the
book of Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. I mentioned in the last few messages,
in the first verses of the book of Hebrews, which is written
to believers, mainly in Jerusalem, who were going through great
persecution, great trials. Some had apostatized from the
faith. You know what apostatized mean?
That means they left it. They turned against it. In other
words, they were men and women who at one time claimed to believe
what we believe, but then because of persecution, because of ridicule,
because of whatever, they turned against it. One thing the book
of Hebrews is written for, it's written to encourage the people
of God to continue in the faith. Now the Bible's very clear on
that subject. There's no argument on it. You
know, today you have people who say, well, in our church, we
believe you can be saved, but then you can be lost if you do
something bad enough. And then in our church, we believe
once saved, always saved, that kind of thing. You have that
argument. The Bible's clear on that. And it is basically, I
hesitate sometimes to use this phrase because people misuse
it and they abuse it and they cast all kinds of arguments against
it, but the Bible does teach once saved, always saved. But
you've got to understand the salvation that it speaks of. and how it describes it. But
once God saves a sinner by his grace in Christ, there is no
going back. You say, well, what about those
who apostatized? Well, what does the Bible say?
You can read about it in several passages. First John 2.19 is
one that comes readily to mind when he says, they went out from
us. But they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have remained with us, but they went out from
us that it might be opened and declared that they were not of
us. And so a person who claims to
believe the truth and then leaves it, apostatizes, turns against
it, they never believed it to begin with. Because once God
the Holy Spirit takes hold of a person, Once God the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit takes hold of a person, he says, no
one's gonna pluck him out of my hand. That's what he says.
Sin cannot be charged to them anymore because they have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. But that's why
in the book of Hebrews we have these warnings, what they call
the warnings. He said, give the more earnest heed to the things
which you've heard. Listen to what's being said.
Don't let it go in one ear and out the other. Don't have your
mind on anything else. Fight right now. You know, we
all have to do that. You're sitting here listening
to me. Are you hearing me? Are you heeding the message?
Give the more earnest heed? Or are you thinking about something
else, you know? Just like the little boy whose
mother said, now you sit down or you're going to get a whipping.
And he sat down and he looked up and he said, I may be sitting
in my rear end, but I'm not sitting in my mind. And you can do that. You can be off somewhere. You
can be in Honolulu today if you want to be or in your mind. But
you better listen to what's being said here. This is life and death.
This is issues of life and death now. This is not something you
can just pass on by, drift on by. That's what he's saying.
And what he does here, he shows us this. And my friend, there
is nothing greater than, no one greater than, nothing more important
for our eternal well-being than Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and raised from the dead. Now, whatever it is we're involved
in at given moments of time in this world, and we'll be involved
in a lot, you young people, you've got all kinds of things to think
about, don't you? Well, I don't even know how you do it. I can't
do it now, I'm too old. But it's something, isn't it?
They talk about multitasking. You got a lot of things that
divert your attention, but I'm telling you right now, and none
of us are guaranteed one more hour of life. There's nothing
more important than salvation God's way by his grace through
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And in showing this in the book
of Hebrews, it shows the superiority of Christ, that God has put all
things into the hands of Jesus Christ. God has put all, certainly
God has put all salvation in Christ. All of it, not part of
it. It's not, the gospel is not he
did his part, now you do yours. That's not the way it is now.
If you're thinking that way, you're not thinking biblically.
You're not thinking like the scripture. It's not that he did
99% and you had the 1%. It's not that he died for you,
now you've got to seal the deal with your faith. That's not the
gospel now, I'm telling you. You better read the book, you
better listen. His name is salvation. Matthew 121, his name shall be
called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Is
he able to do it? Well his name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. This person This
gospel, this salvation is wrapped up mainly in two things. It's
a gospel of good news to sinners who realize that we cannot save
ourselves, we cannot get ourselves out of this mess of sin. If God
were to ever judge us based upon our best efforts to be good,
we would be damned forever. That's what the scripture teaches.
Salvation is not a wage that we earn. It's not something we
earn. It's not something we can ever
deserve. Don't ever think that God owes you anything because
he created you and put you on this earth. Don't ever think
that. If you do, you're thinking more
highly of yourself than what the Bible says. We owe God everything. He owes us nothing. That's right. And the next breath you take
is a gift that you didn't earn and didn't deserve. What do you
think about that? You say, well, that doesn't make sense to me.
Well, it does to me. I'm telling you, the next breath
you take is a gift from God, a free gift. Well, salvation
is certainly a gift. And it's wrapped up in two things.
It's wrapped up in who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ
has done, what he has accomplished to save his people from their
sins. And in order to do that, God has put all things in subjection
unto Christ. Look at this. Christ is set forth
as the surety of his people. You know what a surety is? If
you go to the bank and you say you want to borrow money, and
the bank says, well, you don't have any collateral, and you
don't have any assets upon which the bank could loan you money,
they say you're going to have to get a cosigner. You ever heard
of that? And if you can find somebody
who the bank will loan you money based upon their signature, that's
a cosign, that's a surety. In other words, if you can't
pay the debt, the surety becomes responsible for it. Well, Christ
is the surety of his people. And here's the point. There's
never been a time that we could ever pay the debt. We're sinners. And the wages of sin is what?
Debt. Now salvation's not a wage, it's
a gift. The gift of God, you see the
difference there? The gift of God is eternal life
through our surety, through Jesus Christ, who paid the debt for
his people. That's what he did, he paid that
debt. And so, everything is put into his hand. All of salvation
was conditioned on him. And he fulfilled the conditions.
He paid my debt in full. I didn't contribute one penny
to it. That's what grace is all about. Well, is he able to do
that? Well, his name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. God with us. He's God in human flesh without
sin. Did you know that? That's who
Jesus Christ is. He's not just a good prophet
or a good man. He's not just one of many morality
spreaders. He's God, man. You say, that's
something that I can't wrap my mind around. Well, welcome to
the club. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? The word made flesh, that's who he is. And that's what he's
saying here. Look at verse eight of Hebrews
two. He says, thou has put all things
in subjection under his feet. Everything's put in subject.
Now, what has been put in subjection to Christ? All things. Nothing
excepted. Well, who is he? Well, look back
up at verse seven. Thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crown'st him with glory
and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. That's
speaking of his humanity. In his humanity, he was made
a little lower than the angels. But his humanity in connection
with his deity, God-man, everything, of the works of God's hand is
he's set over. He's in control. That's what
that means. So look at verse eight again.
Thou has put all things on subjection under his feet. Your very life
is in subjection to Christ. And you'll either bow to him
in faith, believing in him, resting in him, trusting in him, or you'll
be forced to bow in the end as an enemy, a conquered enemy.
And he says, for in that he put all in subjection under him,
he left nothing that is not put under him. I like that. I heard
a preacher on TV several years ago. He says, a lot of Christians,
he said, are under a misconception. They're under the misconception
that God is in control. And he said, I'm here to tell
you that's not true. And I thought, you fool. What does God's word
say? He said, he left nothing that
is not put under him. Now, can we understand how everything
is in God's control? Can we really grasp that when
we see all the mess that this world is in? And the answer is
no. Here's what I do know. I can't wrap my mind around that
either. I mean, it's mind boggling. But I know that it is under his
control. You know why I know that? He said it. You say, well,
that's not good enough for you? Okay. and go about your business. That's what you do, isn't it?
He's in control. He's working all things after
the counsel of his own will, Ephesians 1. All things work
together for good. In fact, if you don't believe,
I said when that preacher made the statement, I said, well,
don't ever quote Romans 8, 28 again then. All things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to his purpose. Now how can we know that all things are working
together for ultimate good? I'll tell you how, because God's
doing the working there. Not you, not me, but God is. Well, he says, but now, verse
eight, but now we see not yet all things put under him. We
don't see it in our daily lives when we see things going about
in this world, in Providence, reading the newspaper, watching
the news. Sometimes it looks like chaos
to me, how about you? Sometimes I wonder how in the
world this world's gonna exist anymore. But here's what we do
see by faith, God-given faith. Verse nine, but we see Jesus.
Now look at this. Who was made a little lower than
the angels. Why? That's talking about his
humanity. For the suffering of death. Now he had to die. His death was not a token. His
death was not just a warm expression. His death was a necessity. Why? Because the soul that sinneth
must surely die. God is a just God. That's why
he must die. You say, well, now why must he
die? Because he wasn't a sinner. He's the sinless substitute.
Well, because he became surety for his people before the foundation
of the world. It's what the Bible teaches.
Christ, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter seven, he was the surety
of a better covenant. Better than what covenant? Better
than the law covenant. You see, the law covenant said
this. It said do or die. That's what the law covenant
says. Is that simple enough? Do this, don't do that, or die. But the covenant of salvation
is a covenant of grace. And it says, and the gospel is
the preaching of that grace, and it says it's done, done and
live. Who did it? Christ did. Christ did it. He did it all. He was made surety for his people
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
He took responsibility. Our sins, the Bible uses the
word imputed, our sins were imputed to him, charged, accounted to
him. If you owe money to a bank in town, that debt is imputed
to you. You owe it. But the debt of God's
people, his elect, the scripture calls them, his sheep, was imputed
to Christ. And Christ had to be made a little
lower than the angels to pay that debt. He had to die in their
place. He's a substitute, not a token,
a substitute. Well, look at verse nine again.
He says, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honor, that means his death accomplished what it was meant to do. His
death, what happened to him? He died based upon the sins of
his sheep, imputed, charged, accounted to him. And out of
his death, justice was satisfied, and that brings forth righteousness.
Satisfaction to God's justice. He was buried, and what happened?
He arose again the third day. Why? Because he got the job done.
He paid the debt. He satisfied justice. Righteousness
was established. For as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So he was crowned with honor
and glory. He arose from the dead. He ascended unto the Father. Where is he now? The God-man,
my surety, my Lord, my substitute, my Savior, my Redeemer. He's
seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. And here's the thing. If he's
ever reigning and living to make intercession for me, I can never
be lost. That's right. Well, look here,
verse nine. It says, all this happened that
he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. Now, here's the question. This
is what Brother Jim said. It's the title of the message.
Who is every man? Now, somebody might say, well,
now that's a silly question. That's everybody without exception.
Oh, no. No, it's not. In the original,
As you know, the Bible was the New Testament, originally written
in the Greek. The word man wouldn't even appear there, it'd just
be every or everyone. Now that's a pronoun. I'm not
here to give you a grammar lesson. But stay away while I give you
a little grammar lesson. Everyone, what is that? That's
an indefinite pronoun. Now every pronoun has what they
call an antecedent. That means that's someone or
some group specifically that the pronoun refers to. For example,
I'll give you an easy example. If I were to stand up here and
say, he was swallowed by a great fish, who is the he? Jonah. Jonah's the antecedent
to the pronoun he. If I tell you, I say make this
statement, you stand up. Now which one of you am I talking
about? Am I talking about everybody or am I talking about one of
you? You don't know until you hear the antecedent. Now you
understand what I'm saying? This pronoun here has an antecedent.
Who is the everyman? Who's he talking about here?
So what is he talking about? The security of God's people
is because of the death of Christ, who as God-man took our place
on the cross. He lived, he died, he was buried,
he arose again the third day. And so he tasted death. He went
through the agony of death, suffered unto death. The man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief, all of that. We talk about the death
of Christ, it's unimaginable. Pain and agony. Coming to a point
where he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The
father forsaking the son. Based on our sins, the sins of
his people, charged to him. Whereupon he died and he gave
up the ghost, the scripture said. And you remember what he said
before he died in John 19, 30? He said, it is finished. It's a pronoun. What's the antecedent?
You know what he's talking about? It is finished. The work that
he was commissioned and came to do was finished. A finished
work. What was he set to do? To satisfy
justice, to pay the debt of the sins of his people, to establish
righteousness. Romans 10.4 says, Christ is the
end of the law. That word end is the same word
as finished in John 19.30. He's the finishing of the law. For everyone, no, it says, for
Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth, is
what it says. I was talking about believers. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. So who is the everyman here?
Well, the whole context of the Bible and the context of this
passage shows you. Everyman here refers not to all
without exception, but to God's people. They are God's elect. I know people don't like to hear
that today, but that's what the Bible says. Why don't you like
to hear what the Bible says? You say, well, that doesn't sound
fair to me. Well, let me tell you about fairness. If God were
to give us what was fair based upon who we are and what we've
done, it would be eternal death. God is not unfair. God is not
unjust. God makes no mistakes. He's talking
about his sheep, John chapter 10, verse 11. The good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep. He's talking about his church,
the redeemed of the Lord. As Brother Jim read in John 6,
37, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh unto me I shall in no wise cast out. This is
the will of the Father which has sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. That's what he's talking about.
How do we know this? All right, now let's look. Now,
what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna read through some of this, and
I'm gonna come back in the coming weeks when I get back, and I'm
gonna give you some details on this, but let's just look at
this. Look at verse 10 of Hebrews 2. Here's the first thing that
you're gonna see. He says, for it became him for
whom are all things and by whom are all things. In other words,
it was fitting to God. All right? Whatever's going to
be said here, it was appropriate to the glory and the nature of
who God is. You see, what he's saying here
in these verses is that this whole thing about salvation,
It's about the glory of God. It's not about us, but it's about
God. When we meet to worship, what
is this all about? It's about the glory of God in
Christ. It's not about you and your felt
needs, but here's the point. If you ever come to see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, your need will be met. as God
is glorified. You'll rejoice in that. You'll worship. You see, churches
today, there's too many of them. It's all about people. Who you
are, what you give, and what you do, and what you've tried
to do. Honoring this man, honoring that
man, honoring this woman, that's not what this is about. It became
him. Whom to know is life eternal. It became him, for whom all things
are for God, his glory. And by whom are all things. In
this salvation, he's the worker of it all. He says, in bringing,
now look at this. Verse 10, here's the first thing.
He says, in bringing many sons unto glory. That's who the everyman
is, the many sons who are brought unto glory. Now you ladies, this
means daughters too. He's speaking generically here.
He's talking about God's people. And he says, how do you know
who they are? The everyman, they're brought unto glory. He says in
verse 10, to make the captain of their salvation. Now who's
the captain of my salvation? Who's the captain of your salvation?
Christ is. Now if you believe salvation
is conditioned on you, and you made the difference, then you're
the captain of your salvation. But Christ is the captain of
our salvation. And to make the captain of our
salvation perfect through sufferings, now the perfect there doesn't
mean sinlessly perfect. Christ was never made sinlessly
perfect. He was that by nature. He was sinless. But what that
means is that through his suffering, the work that he did as the captain
of my salvation was completed, perfected, finished, accomplished,
done. That's what that means. It was
through his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross,
that Christ accomplished, finished all that God requires of these
many sons for them to be saved, preserved, and brought unto glory. Go on to verse 11. For both he
that sanctifieth, that's Christ, he sets his people apart. And
they who are sanctified, those who are set apart, are all of
one. They're united. What is said
of Christ concerning the salvation of their souls can be said of
them. And he says, for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them, look here, brethren. Who is the
everyman? His brethren. Look over at Matthew
chapter 12 with me. Christ in his earthly ministry,
he went about preaching, teaching, performing miracles. And here
he comes back to his hometown. And it says here in verse 46
of Matthew 12, listen to this. It says, while he yet talked
to the people, Behold his mother, now you know his mother was Mary,
that was his earthly mother. His mother and his brethren stood
without, that's his earthly half-brothers. Joseph and Mary had other children.
Now Christ, Jesus, was born of a virgin. He was created in the
womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, a miraculous birth. But
after that, Joseph and Mary had other children. It says, his
mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with
him. Verse 47, then one said unto
him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring
to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto
him that told him, who is my mother? Who are my brethren? What's he asking there? Who is
my family? He said, in verse 49, he stretched
forth his hand towards his disciples and said, behold my mother and
my brethren, behold my family, for whosoever shall do the will
of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother, the same are my family. Now what is it to do the will
of the father? You read it in John six. I'll go back there
in later messages and say, what shall we do that we may do the
will of God or work the works of God? Believe on the Son for
all salvation. Rest in Christ. And we'll go
through the rest of these later, but think about this. There's
a brotherhood here. Y'all know something about brotherhood,
don't you? In just about every area of life, we have various
brotherhoods. There's the brotherhood of man,
we talk about, which all human beings are part of by creation,
but that's not the brotherhood that Christ is speaking of. Sometimes, just by illustration,
you can think about this. If you play on a team, you have a brotherhood with your
teammates. When you play against another team, that other team,
they're not your brothers. They're trying to defeat you,
and you're trying to defeat them. My team got shellacked yesterday. Bad, wasn't it? Me and Leonard,
we're both brothers in that team, aren't we? We don't play, obviously.
But we're Kentucky fans. We got beat, beat bad. Tennessee
wasn't our brothers. You all have earthly families.
You have brothers and sisters and father and mother. You say,
well, all men and women are my brothers and sisters. Not like
your family. Well, it's the same way in the
household and family of God in Christ. There's a brotherhood
there. And what brings us all together? Well, he says it in
verse 12. He says, saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will
I sing praise unto thee. How does he declare his name
unto his brethren? Through the preaching of the
gospel. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Am I right? How are you going
to call in whom you've not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word
of God. the gospel, wherein Christ is
revealed in the glory of who he is and in the success of his
accomplishment to save his people from their sins by paying their
debt, their sin debt, and establishing righteousness. That's why the
Bible says in Romans 1, 16, 17 that the gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. What is that right? That's the
merits of Christ, the earning, the quality of Christ's work
for his people that ensures the salvation of the many sons under
glory, that ensures the salvation of those that he sanctified and
are sanctified, that ensures the salvation of his brethren,
the church. All right.