Our Bible is akin to Hebrews
chapter 2. I titled the message this morning,
But We See Jesus. That is my great desire for today
and every day. The Lord will enable us by faith
to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that you've come here
this morning expecting your pastor to show you Christ from the Word.
In John chapter 12, we read about those Greeks who came to the
Passover to worship. They weren't interested in coming
to sing the Jews ceremony of religion. They came with one
purpose. As soon as they could find Philip,
they told him, sir, we would see Jesus. And that's my desire
for us this morning, that we would see the Lord Jesus Christ.
My prayer is if you're here this morning, have you never seen
Christ by faith? I pray that this morning God
will give you eyes to see, faith to believe in. If you've seen
the Lord many, many times, I pray that this morning the Lord will
bless you again by enabling you to see him and rest in him more
fully. Because nothing is more important
than us seeing and knowing Christ the Savior. If we see him, if
we know him, God saved us. I want to know that I'm saved. I want you and me both. I want
us to know that we know the Lord. I want to give you six things
this morning that every believer sees about the Lord. If you've
seen him this way, the Lord saved you. He's given you eyes to see,
that's why you see. And if you haven't seen the Lord
this way, my advice to you is to go straight home and get along
somewhere and pray. and beg God to reveal himself
to you. All right, number one. But we
see Jesus. If we see him by faith, we've
seen Jesus as the absolute sovereign savior. If we've seen Jesus,
we see the Lord Jesus Christ. We've not seen a mere man. We've
seen the Lord. We've seen God in human flesh.
We've seen him as king. who is sovereign over all things.
Verse five, Hebrews two, under the angels, hath he not put in
subjection the world to come whereof we speak. We looked at
these angels in the past couple of weeks. The angels are powerful,
mighty, created beings, but they're just beings. They're just created
beings. They're just servants who go
do what the king commands. Christ is the king. He's the
one who rules over everything. Everything was made by Him. Everything
was made for Him. And every one of us here, we
are under the rule of Christ the King. Whether we know it
or not, whether we like it or not, we are under His dominion. We can't do one thing without
Him. We can't do anything without His permission. We can't do anything
unless He gives us the ability to do it. And we can't get him
to do anything for us. We're dependent upon his sovereign
will to save us. Look at verse eight. Thou has
put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that's not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. The father's put all things,
everything under the rule of Christ. Now to us, it looks like
there are some things that are not under his control yet. It
looks that way. But don't be deceived. We know
a little bit about Satan. Satan's on the loose. He's the
prince of the power of the air who works in this world. And
Satan's not eternally bound yet. I grant you that. But he is on
God's leash. And you know what's at the other
end of that leash? And it's Christ our Savior holding him. He can
only go as far as God lets him. And one day soon, Satan will
be eternally bound because Christ has already crushed his head
at Calvary and put him out of business. He's a roaring lion. His roars are scary to death,
but he cannot devour God's people. Then we see sin. Sadly, sin has
not been eradicated from the world yet. It's not been eradicated
from the world. It's not been eradicated from
us. And sin causes a lot of harm, doesn't it? Oh, the harm sin
causes, God's creation. Even believers suffer the consequences
of our sin. I don't know how long it'll be,
but we're going to have a funeral pretty soon. It'll be because
of sin. Sin when it's finished, bring
it forth to death. My brother and sister, you listen
to me now. Sin doesn't reign. Sin does not reign in this world. Sin cannot stop God's people
from believing Christ. Can't do it. Sin cannot stop
God's people from loving Him. Because grace reigns under righteousness. Sin doesn't reign. Grace reigns
under righteousness. Sin cannot stop that new man
from believing Christ. And one day soon, sooner than
we expect, sin will be no more. God's going to wrap this creation
up. He's going to fold it up, put it away. And he's going to
create new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness
and will not deal with the effects of sin ever again. And then,
as I mentioned a moment ago, we see death. That final enemy
has not been destroyed yet, has it? We're still going to attend
a lot of funerals. But God's people have been delivered
from the fear of death. Lord willing, I'm gonna bring
a message on that next week. Are you afraid to die? It's a
week away. Henry used to tell us what he's
gonna preach on Sunday night. I'm telling you what I'm preaching
on next Sunday. If you're afraid to die, come.
I got a message from these verses, verse 14. 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. Anyone who believes Christ does
not have to fear, does not have to be under that bondage, fearing
death anymore, because Christ has already died in our place
as our substitute. Now of all the things that the
Father has put under the rule of the Son, The most precious
one to me is salvation. That's under the rule of Christ
the Son. Look back at Matthew chapter
11. Matthew 11 verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and you've
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in thy sight. Now, who reveals these things
to babes? Who reveals the things of salvation
and eternal life to his people? Christ the Savior does. Look
at verse 27. All things are delivered unto
me and my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father.
Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. Now, nothing could be more obvious.
The Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign in salvation. He reveals the
Father to whom he will. He saves whom he will. And whom
he will, he hardened him. Now, how does he harden him?
Just by leaving him alone. Just by leaving their cold, dead
heart alone, it'll never get any softer. It'll just continue
to get more hard unless God moves in grace. Christ reveals himself
to whom he will, and he hides himself from whom he will. Now,
how does he hide himself? He's not actively hiding like,
you know, they'd see him if he wasn't hiding himself. No, he
hides himself by leaving them alone in their blindness, just
by withholding His grace. And He does that because the
Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign in salvation, saving whom He
will. I pray God will teach me that
because I know this. The only person I am so proud,
I will never beg, never would I beg. I'd rather starve than
beg. The only person I'll beg is sovereign. One that I cannot
control. One that I cannot manipulate.
One that I cannot bribe. One that I cannot steal from.
That's the only person I will beg. I pray I see Christ as the
sovereign. So I'll beg him to have mercy
on my sorry soul and save me. If I've seen him, I see him as
the sovereign. I'm in his hand to do with as
he will. So I beg him for mercy. All right,
number two, we see Jesus. We see him as our representative. And that's not just a point of
doctrine. When we see him as our representative, if we see
him by faith, it's going to humble us. Verse six. But one in a certain
place testified, this is David saying, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest
him? Now, what is man? Man is nothing but a worm. Man
is nothing but a maggot. He's a rebel against God. He's
a sinner, polluted in his sin. And yet the Holy God thinks upon
men. It's not just that God's aware
that men are living in his creation. Of course he is. God created
them. He gives them life and breath and lets them move and
have being. Of course God's aware of men. This means that God thinks
upon men in mercy. Now, how humbling is it to think
that Almighty God, who created the universe, who rules it all,
who governs it all, who's working all these things together as
creation, takes time to think on a speck of dust like me, and
then to visit the person of his sons. See, here's the problem
with Armenian theology. There's nothing to be amazed
about. Armenian theology is man-centered and not God-centered. It depends
upon men, not upon God. They see no wonder, no amazement
in God being mindful of them. Of course God should be mindful
of me. He should be. Look at me. He should be mindful
of me. He's just waiting on me to accept it. But if we ever
see the Lord Jesus, I can promise you this, Pride is going to be
sapped out of us. And we're going to be amazed.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus of Nazarene. And I wonder,
wonder of wonders, how I wonder that he could ever love me, a
sinner condemned to unclean. Oh, he'd think upon me and that
he'd come in the likeness of my flesh to redeem me by suffering
and dying in my place. If God ever gives me a glimpse
of the Lord Jesus, I'll know this. I'll know He saved me by
His mercy. And I'm not worthy of it. I'm
not worthy of the least of His mercies. To think how far down
He came to the likes of me. I'm not worthy of that. And God
becoming a man was a great act of humiliation for our Savior
to endure. Look at the beginning of verse
7. a little lower than the angels.
Now properly translated that should say he made him a little
lower than the angels. Made him lower than the angels
for just a little while. That's properly translated as
a little while. The time of our Lord's humiliation
was an exact set time. From the time of his incarnation
in Mary's womb until the time of his resurrection. That was just a set time. It
was a little while. And when he was raised, he wasn't
raised in that humiliated flesh anymore. He's raised in glorified
flesh because he got the job done he came to do. Every believer
sees the Lord Jesus Christ as our representative. He's our
federal head. He came in our nature without
sin so that he could be our substitute. He's our representative, the
representative of his people, he's the second Adam. So every
believer is perfect in him. In Christ, every believer has
perfectly obeyed the law. We did what he did. And I'm righteous
in Christ. Just as surely as I'm unrighteous
in Adam because of his disobedience, I'm righteous in Christ because
of his obedience. He's my representative. Every
believer doesn't have to fear death. No reason to fear death. To the believer, all death is,
is the shedding of this clay, the sinful, rotten clay. It's
the putting away of it and going to be with the Lord in perfection.
There's no reason to fear what happens after death because Christ's
death has already satisfied justice for us. So the believer doesn't
fear death. The believer looks forward to
it. The believer has been raised to newness of life in the new
birth. We have the life of Christ. The
believer's already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
because he's our representative. We have union with him. We are
where he is. We've done what he did. So every
believer sees Christ as all their salvation. I'm saved because
of who Christ is and what he accomplished for me. He's my
representative. And I stand in awe. It's probably better to
say I bow in awe, isn't it? I bow in awe of him. Thirdly,
every believer has seen the Lord Jesus as the successful savior,
sees him in that way. Verse seven, thou madest him
for a little while, a little lower than the angels, but now
thou crownest him with glory and honor and did set him over
the works of thy hands. For a little while, the Lord
Jesus was made lower than the angels, but he didn't stay that
way, did he? No. Now he's crowned, he's covered. with all glory and all honor. The Father's given it all to
him because he did what he came to do. Now, what did he come
to do? Did he come to give us an example
that we might follow? Did he come to be this wonderful
prophet that people would think, oh, what a teacher and follow
him? Did he come to live a life as this pitiful creature that
people might feel sorry for him? and maybe he gained some followers,
people feel sorry for him. No, that's not why he came. Christ
came for this purpose, to save his people from their sin. And the Word of God tells us
he did it. He got the job done. And because
he did, now he rules over all of God's creation. He purchased
the right to do it. He has the right to do it because
He's the Son of God. He has the right to rule because
He's God. But He also bought the right to do it. He bought
it all. He bought the field. He bought
it with His perfect obedience and with the blood of His perfect
sacrifice. He glorified every attribute
of the Father. He washed all the sin of His
people away. Wherefore, the Father has highly exalted Him, given
Him a name which is above every name, that we bow before Him. He got the job done. Now verse
eight, we don't see all things put under him yet. We don't see,
looks to us like some things are just, you know, people and
things are doing what they want to do. But verse nine, we see
Jesus who has made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor that by the grace of
God, he should taste death for every man. Now we don't see much. The longer we live, the more
we realize we don't see much. But we do see Christ. We see
Him glorified as all of our salvation. Christ is the successful Savior. I just don't know much, but I
know that. I know He saved His people from
their sin. Now who is it that He came to save? Who is it He
saved now? I hope you've been paying attention
up to now. Please pay attention to me right now. I've got something
for you here. Who is it that Christ came to save? Because
whoever it is he came to save is saved. He came to save God's
elect. He did not try to save everybody.
He didn't try to save as many as might decide to accept him.
Christ came as a representative of his people, God's elect, and
only God's elect. He suffered and died for the
sins of God's elect and only God's elect because they're the
ones God chose to save. Don't be confused by this verse
saying that he tasted by the grace of God, he tasted death
for every man. That does not mean Christ died for every son
of Adam. It does not mean that. That would contradict the rest
of scripture. The scripture never contradicts
itself. Our Lord told us there's some he does not know. He said,
I never knew. There's some he doesn't pray
for. He doesn't pray for everybody. He said, Lord, I pray not for
the world, but for those that you've given me. He came for
his sheep and there's some that are not his sheep. He said, you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. I only came for the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. And this does not mean that God's
grace is offered to everyone. God's grace, the gospel of God's
grace is not an offer to anybody. It's a commandment. You come
and bow. It's a commandment. You're going
to receive it because God is going to give it to you. God
is clear, though. His grace is only for his people.
All right. What about this verse? He should
taste death for every man. Well, first of all, the word
man is not even in the original. And I don't know why the translators
chose to translate this this way, but the original Greek says
he tasted death for every He takes the death for the whole.
But who is the effort? It's the whole of God's elect. The people for whom Christ died
are described in the next verses. In verse 10, they're called sons.
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 suffering. Christ came to bring
many sons to glory. He came to bring all of God's
children home to God. And it became him to do it. It became him. It was becoming.
Sometimes, oh, rarely, but sometimes our girls might have, when they
were little, acted up a little bit. And their mama would tell
them, that's not Fred becoming. She'd say, isn't that pretty?
That's not Fred becoming. Nothing is more becoming than the death of Christ. If
you would see what is the most becoming to God, you've got to
go to Calvary. You've got to go to the place
of bloody, awful slaughter. You've got to go to the place
where God's wrath is on full display, where the transaction
is so great, does God turn the son out? rebelled against it. The son
of God being made sin for his people, being sacrificed. Nothing
is more becoming to God than the bloody, awful suffering and
death of his son. Because the death of Christ glorified
every attribute of God. The death of Christ glorified
God's justice. Sin, he put away. The penalty
is fully paid so his people are free from it. The death of Christ
glorified God's wisdom. Man by nature is religious, but
man's not very bright. Man's dumb. Man cannot find a way, can't
devise a way to put sin away and make ourselves right with
God. But God did. In His wisdom, He found a ransom
that enabled God to be both just and justifier. It enabled God
to still be just, still be holy, still punish sin, and show mercy
to poor sinners. The death of Christ glorified
God's grace. Mercy and truth are met together.
God saved sinners by the death of his son. What could be more
gracious than God killing his son to show mercy and grace to
sinners? That death did not fail in any
way. Why? Just as a mere man. The
purpose. I'm going to accomplish something
by the death of one of my daughters. And I was the one, by my hand,
to put them to death. I tell you this, whatever it
was I purposed to do by that would be done. I promise you
it would. God did not put his son to death
in vain. He accomplished what he meant
to accomplish by it. The whole of God's elect were saved by
it. They're called sons in verse
10. In verse 11, they're called his brethren. He's not ashamed
to call them his brethren. The brethren have the same family
or are part of the same family. They have the same father. And
that's what a believer is, both by birth, by the new birth and
by adoption, the adoption of grace. God is our father. We're part of the family of God
so that Christ is our big brother. And because of God's grace, he's
not ashamed to call us his brother. He's not ashamed to identify
with us. Then in verse 13, God's elect are called his children,
the children. Father, here they all are, the
children which thou hast given me. And everybody who sees Christ
in saving faith sees Christ as their substitute. He died. in my place. That's why I'm saved. He suffered the death that I
deserve so he could give me eternal life and I can never lose it
because he can't fail. He's the successful Savior. All
right, fourthly, we see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus as our
holiness, as our sanctification. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. Now, salvation is all of Christ. It's all of Christ. And tell
you what that means. It means it's none of us. If
it's all of him, it can't be any of us. Christ is our righteousness. We don't contribute anything
to it. He is our righteousness. The believer's personal obedience
to the law The Lord Jesus, his perfect obedience to the law.
What he did, we did. He is our righteousness. Christ
is our redemption. He paid the redemption price
for the sin of his people. He paid it in full by himself. We didn't contribute anything
to it. Christ is our wisdom. The only way we can know God
is by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the only manifestation
of God we'll ever have. And the only way I can understand
how God could save a sinner like me, the only way I can understand
that is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. How I see Him. That's the wisdom of God. And
He is our holiness. Christ is our holiness, our sanctification. God doesn't save His people by
grace and then set them back down under the law and expect
them to keep themselves holy by obedience to the law. Salvation is not by grace, and
then you keep it by obeying the law. Christ is our holiness. Christ is our sanctification.
The believer is sanctified because we're all of one, one with Christ,
so that we are what he is. The believer is one with Christ. So whatever it is he is, that's
what we are. Christ is many things, isn't
he? He's holy. so his people are holy. He's
righteous, so his people are righteous. I know we strive to
live a holy life. If we believe God, if we've seen
Christ, we strive to live a holy life. But not because we have
to keep the law so that God will bless us. A believer strives
to live a holy life because he wants to. He wants to be like
Christ. He wants to honor Christ. He
wants to obey Christ. Now, we've got to be taught that.
We've got to be taught how to do that. But when the believer
hears that, he says, yeah, I want to do that. I want to follow
him that way. The believer wants to live a
holy life because now we hate sin. We hate sin that caused
our Savior to suffer and die. The believer wants to live a
holy life because God's given us a new want to. He's given
us a new nature that loves righteousness and hates sin. If I've seen Christ,
I know this. I know I'm holy in Him. I'm holy,
not by what I do, I'm holy in Him. And I want to live a holy
life to honor Him. I know that He's our sanctification.
Fifth, we see this. We see Christ, our preacher.
Verse 12, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In
the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Now,
if we're going to hear the gospel, If we're going to hear from God,
we're going to hear from one of God's servants that he sent
us to preach Christ to us. And over the course of my life,
how many of them I've heard, I'm so thankful for them, I love
them. Oh, I'm just so thankful. I know that. I know it by experience.
I know this from reading God's word. I know this as I prepare messages
for you. If I could just reach down in
your heart, put it there, I would. If I could do it by my enthusiasm,
if I could do it by great words and well thought out arguments,
I would do that. Oh, I would do that. If I know
this by experience, the only thing that I can do for you,
the only thing God's servants can do for me, is to clearly
and simply preach Christ. Because we're not going to be
saved. Nobody's going to be saved until we hear from God. When He speaks, I hear. I hear. Now I hear. And I tell you where
Christ speaks to the heart. It's in the public worship service.
Yes, He speaks to us in our private worship, our private reading
and private prayer. But he speaks to the heart that
where he promises to speak and meet with his people is in a
public worship service. He says here, I'm going to sing
praise unto thee, where? In the midst of the church, in
public worship service. And he's going to do it in the
midst of the church, in the midst of his people, in their heart. And when he speaks, we're going
to believe. Now, what does the spirit of Christ declare to the
hearts of his people? Well, he declares Christ. He
says here, I'm going to declare thy name unto my brethren. He's going to tell us who Christ
is. His name tells us who he is. The Spirit's going to declare
that Christ is the Sovereign Savior. That he's the second
Adam. Come to be the representative
of his people. We're righteous in him just like we're unrighteous
in Adam. The Spirit's going to tell us Christ is our wisdom. If you're ignorant, come to Christ.
He's your wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. If you're lost in sin, come to
Christ. He makes you whole. Christ is our representative.
If sin's got a debt on your head you cannot pay, come to Christ.
He's our redemption. The sacrifice of Christ is all
you need. Now go to Him. This is who He
is. Now go to Him. He's not just enough to know
who He is. We've got to go to Him. We've got to cast our soul
upon Him. And the spirit gives faith in
the heart to do just that, to believe him. So we rest in him. And we'll be thankful for God's
preacher, but we'll know this. I didn't believe because the
preacher is so persuasive. I believe because I heard the
Savior in my heart. He gave me a new heart and now
I can't not believe him. I spent years, I mean years,
trying to believe, trying to make myself believe. And you
know what? Couldn't do it. I couldn't do
it. And one day, I was listening to the gospel. And Henry made
the most amazing statement. He said, now you believe, right
now you believe. He said, I know you believe.
I thought, how does he know that? I thought, I've been trying to.
And I thought, I don't know when it happened, but I do. I do believe Him. I believe that
Christ is not just the Savior, but He's my Savior. Not just
He's the sacrifice for sin, He's my sacrifice for sin. How'd that
happen? Well, I don't know how it happened,
but I don't know when it happened. It's because God spoke to the
heart. That's when it happened. If you believe Christ, you heard
more from the preacher. You've heard from God himself,
giving you faith to believe. Then last, if we've seen Jesus,
we've seen this. We've seen Christ, our surety.
Verse 13. And again, I'll put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God has given
me. Now, before time began, the father and the son spoke to each
other in the covenant of grace. In that covenant, Christ agreed
to take the people that the father chose and he agreed to save them.
Christ said, Father, I'll be surety for them. I will go redeem them. I'll go
pay the price and I will bring every last one of them to you.
You can require them at my hand. And the father said, I trust
you to do it. The father was the first one
who trusted in Christ. He trusted Christ to go accomplish
all of God's purpose of redemption. And in time, he came and did
it, didn't he? And right now, the only reason he keeps this
ball spinning in space is for one reason. He's still calling
out his elect. He's still saving them by his
grace. And dealing with time is no more. The son's going to
speak again. He's going to say, Father, behold,
I and the children that you've given me. Remember when you gave
them to me? They're all here. When one's
lost, you count every one. They're all here. They're here
because I'm here. They're here because they have
union with me. Now, when were those children
given to Christ? This is a great transaction.
When those children were given to Christ. Well, we just saw
they were given to Christ when the Father chose them in divine
election. He gave them to Christ, didn't
he? Then when Christ came and he died to purchase their salvation,
he bought them, lot, stock, and barrel. He received them to himself. He purchased them. They belong
to him. They're his by divine election. They're his because
the Father gave them to him, and they're his by purchase of
his blood. Then they were given to Christ when the Holy Spirit
came. He gives them life in the new birth and he calls them to
Christ and they come to Christ. And when they come, he receives
them. Open arm receive them. No probationary period. He receives
them. He never cast one of them out.
This man receives sinners and he saves them. You see, Christ
is the surety of our salvation. Christ is what makes salvation
sure. because it all depends upon Him.
The writer here calls Christ the captain of our salvation. I'm told that I can't do this,
but someday when I have grandchildren, I have a couple of names I've
picked out for one of myself. One of them is Captain, and I'm
told I can't do that. But Captain, that describes a
certain authority, doesn't it? Christ the captain of our salvation. He's the captain of it, because
he's the author of it. He's the one that purposed it.
He's the one that planned it. He's the one that devised this
whole battle plan, and he's the one that carried it out. He's
the captain of our salvation, because he's the commander of
it. He sends his people where he will, to accomplish his purpose.
And he commands them to come. Come to the captain. And they
do. They don't have the right, they don't have any right to
disobey him. He commands and they come. He's the captain because
he's the one who leads his people in the battle. He leads his people
in this salvation. Brother, he never leads them
wrong, ever. And you know where he leads them?
He leads every one of them to himself. Ultimately, he'll lead
every one of them to glory. God saved us. That's the one
we've seen. And that's the one. We'll spend
eternity just gawking at what a glorious Savior, what a glorious
Savior. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You for this message that You've
given us to hear, to believe. Father, I praise we leave here
this morning. You give us the heart to believe Him, to believe
Christ, to rest in Him, to cast our soul upon Him and to leave
it there. Just leave it all in His hands
and depend wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I beg of
you that you'd let us see Him. Oh, if we'd see Him, we'd forget
so many other things. If we'd just see Him, we'd forget
about trying to please you by our works and earn salvation
by our works and just rest in Him. If we'd see Him, we'd forget
about the glory, trying to get any glory to this flesh, to see
His glory, to bask in His glory, be thankful for His glory. Oh,
if we'd just see Him and His sacrifice, how we'd rest knowing
His blood, His sacrifice cleanses us from all sin and makes us
the righteousness of God in Him. If we just see Him, how we'd
forget about our doubts and fears and cares, enjoy Him, have confidence
in Him. Father, give us a sight of Your
blessed Son, we pray. It's in His precious name.