Hebrews chapter 2 at verse number 10. I'll read
verse 9 before we look at verse 10. And Hebrews is a very informative
book unto us. We see a great transition taking
place from As we find Paul as he speaks to the Hebrews, and
he says we have the new way, the living way, which is Christ,
and he sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ before him. Chapter 2,
verse number 9, it says, but we see Jesus. We see Him who
was made a little lower than angels. for the suffering of
death, then says, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man. 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. We find the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it says that He is made a little lower than angels. This is for
a season. This is speaking of His human
nature. And here's a great wonder. Who
made angels? Christ made angels, didn't He?
And He's the Creator of angels. He's the Lord of angels. Not
only that, but angels worshiped Him. But here we find that he
was made a little lower for a season, and that is of human nature.
And human nature, as he took upon human nature, is inferior
to angels in that seeing angels do not die. Angels do not. And he took on this and made
it a little lower than angels for a season, as the Scripture
says here, for the suffering of death. Now, when he died,
mankind dies, but he dies because of sin, doesn't he? Because of
Adam's sin. Because we're part of Adam. But
that wasn't the reason Christ died. Christ had no sin. That's why the Scripture says
he laid down his life. You see the difference there.
So it goes on, it says, Christ tasted death for everyone, and
the man in the original is everyone. That is that he experienced it. And we find that he took the
cup. That means that he took the cup.
The Bible speaks of the bitterness of the cup, and he drank that
cup. Now who's the everyone here in
this passage of the scripture he tasted death for? It's every
one of His sons in the context that it's written. It's every
one that's the heir of salvation. It's every one, as the Scripture
speaks of, and the Lord speaks of that of His brethren, it's
those. It's every member of His church.
It's every one that is given unto Him. And those that He tasted
death for, they shall not have to themselves. See the difference
this morning. He says, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And it goes on, it says, for
it became him. In other words, he's fitted.
It's necessary. This was necessary for him to
save sinners. It was necessary for him to bring
to glory that Christ would suffer in their stead and justice, what
justice required, he would pay. Now the book of Matthew, if you
turn back to Matthew the 16th chapter, and as we speak about
the Lord Jesus Christ and His coming and His death, in the
book of Matthew the 16th chapter in verse number 21, let me read
this verse to you. It says, From that time forth
became Jesus to show His disciples how that He must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things. of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes, and be killed and raised again the third day."
So this is setting forth, and Luke chapter 24 sets forth and
says, Behold, not behold, but it says, Behoove Christ to suffer. That it was necessary for him
to suffer. It was necessary because there
was a covenant agreement. between the Father and the Son.
It all was agreed and settled. The Old Testament prophets, they
spoke of it. And when they spoke of it and
wrote of it, what happens? The Scripture has to be fulfilled,
doesn't it? What was written is fulfilled.
Now we have this verse that says, For it became Him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, Now I want you to look
at one other passage this morning and that's found in the book
of Romans chapter number 11 and verse number 36. It says, For
I of him, now notice this, I of him, through him, to him are
all things. Now this is very similar to what
we have over here. For I of him, to him, are all
things through Him for whom be glory forever. Amen. Now, all things is for His glory. Now, you notice that it says
all things. That is without exception this
morning. It says that all things and by
whom are all things. This shows the very sovereignty
of God, the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. This means
all events and all creatures This means this morning that
He's the efficient cause of all things. He talks about things
made, things done, providence, grace. He's fulfilling His purpose. Is it something that we realize
and see this morning that the Lord is fulfilling His purposes
and all things is going to redound to His glory in Rwanda? The book of Proverbs says He
made all things for Himself. So He is the beginning and end
of all things. They were created for Him, and
there is Him, and this morning is simply owning Him as God. Now, when I say all things here,
and by whom are all things, and as it says over all things by
Him, through Him, and for Him, It just means He's God. That's
what it means this morning, that He's supreme, that He's above
all, that He's directing all, that it's all for His glory and
out of His very will. Then he goes on, he says, bringing
many sons unto glory. This is Christ's work. That's
what He came for. That's what the covenant of grace
stipulated. That also is not only His work,
but His reward as mediator, by whom are all things. Here we
have Christ, and He's the Creator. He creates in you. In Christ, we are created in
you and Him. He preserves. That is, by His
very power, He preserves us. And it goes on, and it speaks
that He, it goes on and He says, bring Him. many sons, bringing."
Now, this is important to notice this morning, that we are brought
to glory. He says, bringing to glory. They're
brought. They're brought by Him, as it
says here, by whom are all things, and by whom are all things, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things brought. Now, this is the same word that's
used As you remember the Samaritan and the one that was laying beside
the road and he was half dead, and he bound him up. What did
he do? Says he brought him to the end,
didn't he? This is the same word. Now, under this, by whom are
all things, we find grace. All things is His grace. It's not only His grace, but
it's all other things also. So here we're brought to glory
and it's by His grace. Every part of salvation is of
grace. Our election is of grace. Our
redemption is of grace. Our conversion is grace. Our
justification is of grace. Our sanctification is of grace.
Our adoption is grace. Our preservation is all of grace. And we find that He's the one
that carries it out. by whom are all things. When
we think of our salvation, we've got to think of Christ, by whom
are all things. And he says to bring to glory,
that is, honor. This is his purpose. He will
accomplish his purpose, and it's a purpose of grace, to the praise
and glory of his grace, Ephesians says. This is the ultimate The
destination of every believer is eternal glory. This is where
every believer is going to be brought, that is, to glory, and
this Christ's own glory. As you read in the 17th chapter
of the book of John, it says that they may be with me and
see my glory. They shall share in His glory. And see, here's the redeemed,
and there's not a secondary place. There's not different stages,
but all of them is going to be brought to glory. Just one place. And what is this? Let me explain it this way. It's the highest possible state
of honor and dignity. That's what it is. Heaven is
called glory, yet none knows the glory of heaven. Men talk
about it. They say a lot of things. There's
a lot of speculation about it. But we know some things about
it. There's a worshiping of the Lamb. We know that David said
it's a fullness of joy. We know that the Bible speaks
of it as pleasures evermore. We know that it's like this,
entering into the joy of the Lord. So there's a march of the
redeemed as we look at this very passage of Scripture that begins
here and ends in glory. And it starts out, there's God's
arm, His strong arm. What does He do? He takes us
out of the bondage of nature. He takes us out of sin, that
bondage of sin. He takes us out of darkness.
You look at it and you say, well, what about the strong arm of
the Lord? Is it necessary? It is. The flesh and the devil is against
the Lord. But here we have one that says,
by whom are all things. by whom is His rescue in power. I would this morning that we
would see and know what it is to be saved, what it is to be
a child of God, what it is this morning to be adopted. It means
that we've been rescued. It means that we've come from
darkness into the marvelous light. It means that God has dealt with
us and brought us. And we find here that He leads
to glory. Whatever the difficulties are,
whatever it is, we find our Lord Jesus Christ, and He says, bringing
many sons to glory. All the difficulties, but yet
He's going to accomplish His purposes. This is called a wilderness. This journey here that we live
is called a wilderness journey. And you can go back to the Old
Testament and bring the Old Testament in here of Israel traveling through
the wilderness. You can bring that in here if
you want to. But yet, here he says, bringing many sons. He's
conducting many sons to glory. There's a great number. These
sons, they shall be sons. And we look at who they are.
This is sons and daughters. When it says sons, it's speaking
of sons and daughters. And what were they? They're sinners. They've been fallen, depraved
by their nature. Yet in love, He takes them as
children. Rebellious, but He gives a new
heart. They're adopted. He gives a new
nature. See, that's a wonder of grace
this morning that we're set apart. This is His very Word. John says
in the first chapter of the Gospel of John that He gave power to
become the very sons of God, those that believe upon His name.
They're adopted into His family. They become sons. And we find
here He brings them to glory. He owns them as sons. Then He
goes on and it says, in bringing, here's one, for
whom are all things, and whom are all things, in bringing many
sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation. He's the
captain this morning. There's over 300 titles to our
Lord Jesus Christ given in the Scriptures, and here's one of
them. And here it tells us what he's doing. This means this morning
as captain that he's ordained for this. Christ is appointed. He's chosen for this. This word
is also used in other places and one place is called, he's
called the author, author of our salvation. It's called prince
in some places. What it means, he's the chief
leader. Christ he is. And that which God does, now
here's a key this morning that you'd realize. That which God
does, He does by a captain. And this captain is Christ. This
captain is a mediator. See, this is different. What
is taught most places, they talk about everything else. But what
God does, He does it by this captain. He does it by a mediator. And everything is ordained through
a mediator. I like what Rock Barnard said
one time. He said in preaching, he says,
you might not need one, but I need a mediator. We need a mediator,
and that's Christ. This whole system of grace, the
Father works by the Son to bring many sons unto glory. Christ
represents them. It's His power. He's working
for these, His sons. Now, in a sense here, the New
Testament captain is a little different from what we think
of a captain today. We think of a captain as one
that is in the back of the lines and he's issuing orders and everybody
is going in front of him. He's standing at the back. That's
what you probably find in a lot of cases today. A captain in
the New Testament sense is this, he's the one that went before.
He's the one that set an example. He's the one that inspired the
soldiers. He went before them. There was
the commands and he commanded them and went before them. Now
our Lord Jesus Christ, he's gone before us. He's gone before us
in obedience. He's gone before us in suffering.
He's gone before us in glory. And here it says, by the captain,
to make the captain of their salvation. Now, there's going
to be no sons in glory except by this captain. You just mark it down. You just put that right down.
There'll be no sons except by the captain, the Lord Jesus Christ. For he says, I am the way, the
truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now this blessed captain here,
he makes all the arrangements. We look at his responsibility. You know a captain that has a
regiment and so forth, he has a lot of responsibilities. Today
we have great companies and large companies and they have 30,000
to 50,000 employees. That puts a lot of responsibility
upon somebody, doesn't it? But here, our Lord Jesus Christ,
that's nothing compared to the responsibility of the Lord Jesus
Christ, what's put under Him here. This requires great care
of this Captain. It requires great wisdom. Now you think about the Captain
and bringing many sons. Now this many sons is from the
beginning to now and through whenever the end is. But look
at the responsibility of this Captain, our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. It requires great wisdom. It
requires great power. It requires great love. Making
it all necessary from here to heaven. Making provisions for
them. And see it beforehand. Here's
the Lord and there's His providence. He works all things in His providence. He works all things on behalf
of His people. He's made every arrangement for
salvation. Isn't it good today that He sent
the Gospel to you? There's many people sitting in
churches that never hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's not far away. I talked to a fellow regular
in Yakonville. He says the preacher went three
years and they never did hear him say anything hardly about
Christ in three years. As much goes on. But aren't you
glad that he made arrangements for you to be on the gospel?
The gospel of God's grace? and that he applied it with power.
It's not just to the ear, but it's to the heart. It's not just
to the head, but it goes deeper than that. Making arrangements. He leads. He gives orders. He commands. He leads in the
way. He's with us. There's battles. There's spiritual battles. He's
with us. There's weariness. He's with
us. He's with us to encourage us.
And we have a captain that must lead us. We have a captain that
leads and one that must conquer. This morning, He's not some weak,
fickle leader that's wishy-washy. That's not our Lord, but He's
a mighty leader. He's a mighty captain. See, God
didn't just select anybody for this. He didn't even select an
angel. You read in the Scriptures how
mighty angels are. But God, He didn't just put it
on anybody, but in Christ, the only begotten. So this morning,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He's capable of bringing sons to glory. He's
capable of all that is required of Him. He shall not fail, the
Scripture says, nor be discouraged. He is faithful. He is a successful
leader. The Bible says the pleasure of
the Lord shall be in His hand. Now, let's talk about this captain
this morning, a few things this morning about him, that he's
a perfect Savior. He's God. Now, look at the weight
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the responsibility of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the awful load that came under Him. Look at
all the evil and sin and the load that He would carry upon
Calvary's cross. He's God. That's how He is sustained. We admire Him, we adore Him this
morning for that of His work. Those that reject Him, there's
no foundation. As Hebrews says, if you reject
that of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross and His suffering,
you reject this sacrifice, there's no more sacrifice for sin. That's
what the Scripture says. There's no other. There's no
other place to turn. You have no captain this morning.
You have no leader. You have no guide if you do not
have Christ. But he's fitted for this work.
He's the God-man. He's being captain. We find that
man who failed, and it says here he's made a little lower than
angels and taken up flesh as we have flesh. We see him triumphant. He will not fail. But He went
to the cross and took the whole wrath of God for that of His
people. He lived some 30 years here upon
the earth. He lived and walked. He didn't
just come, but He lived and walked and went to the cross. He saw
sin in every shape and form. Even the very worst of it, He
says, crucify Him, crucify Him. They put Him on the cross. They
beat Him. They scourged Him. He knew the very deceitfulness
of hearts. And the Bible says He took our
infirmities and bore our sorrows. He did this in order to bring
sons unto glory. He is a Savior this morning of
love. No greater love is this than
to lay down His life Herein is love that Christ died. Herein
is love. We see Him of zeal, a Savior
of zeal. We see Him a Savior of meekness. We see Him a Savior of determination. The Bible says He was sent like
a flint toward Jerusalem. You know how hard a flintstone
is. That's what they used to make irons out of. They're hard. The Bible says he is set like
a flint. In other words, that was it. There is no turning back. And he is a Savior that was fearless. He is fully qualified this morning.
This captain that we have, he is perfectly able to be Savior.
He meets all the needs of sinners this morning. And it comes out
of his fullness. He is all sufficient. There is
pardon in his blood. There's justification in His
righteousness. There's wisdom in His teaching.
The Scripture says, as they looked at Christ, there's no man that
ever spoke like Him. They heard the doctors in the
day and the learned men of the day. But when it comes to Christ,
they said no man ever spoke like Him. Do you remember when He
was 12 years old, He was in the temple speaking to those that
were learning? There's also the sanctification
of His Spirit. We find that He exceeds. There's His love. There's His
power and His grace. He's able to meet all cases. He's able to meet the very worst
cases. You look at Saul. He met his
case, didn't he? was putting Christians to death. He stood by as they stoned Stephen. Held his clothes. But Christ met his case, didn't
he? There was Peter. He met Peter's case. There's
a jailer and he was a jailer in that day. See they, a little
different Then that day and this day, they were very cruel people. They beat prisoners and they
were very cruel people. Hardened. You had to be hardened
to be a jailer and beat people and continuously beat people
and so forth and put them in handcuffs. But the Lord made His case, didn't
He? He made His case. There was Paul
in silence, and there was two prisoners like he never had before.
They were singing at midnight. The scripture says, singing hymns,
praying. And Jailer says, what must I
do to be saved? They told him, believe upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy household. He
made his case. There was an old tax collector,
and he'd been robbing people, and in that day, the tax collectors,
what they would do, they'd take a share of taxes, and they'd
also take a share for themselves. We were taxed to death in our
day too, but the old tax collectors, he'd take a share for himself.
Take some for the government, and take some for himself. But the Lord saw him. Zacchaeus,
up in the tree, told him to come down. Salvation has come to thy
house. He met his case, didn't he? He
met his case. And here's a Savior. Here's a captain who's able to
meet the cases. What about the thief on the cross? This is a wonderment, isn't it?
He was a thief, getting ready, already put upon the cross, dying. He said to the Lord Jesus Christ,
says, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Boy, this was a last hour, wasn't
it? Remember me! And the Lord said, Today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. He made his case. So here's one
that's suitable to meet the sinner's case. I thought also of that
woman that they brought up. Oh, that's going to have her
stoned, isn't he? Them Pharisees are going to have
this woman, this adulterous woman, stoned. You know, he spoke and wrote
something in the sand. Nobody knows what he wrote, but
he wrote something. And they all departed. He turned
to her. He met her case, didn't he? See,
He's able to save to the uttermost. Able. His power will continue. His power, grace will continue. He's made you creatures of millions
down through the years. This Captain, His power will
never be exhausted. His blood, the virtue of it,
His merit, and never disminish, demise or anything like that.
His power to save stands. There's none that ever came to
the Lord. There's none that was brought
to the Lord that He didn't heal. We read of the Scriptures of
the blind coming. He healed the blind. The lame. Even Lazarus had been dead four
days in the tomb. He raised Lazarus. Raised him
from the dead. Oh, this morning he's able. Now,
there's something about these stories that we read in the Scripture. When it speaks of the lame, that
should speak to us of a spiritual condition. When it speaks of
the blind, We look at it and that should speak to us of a
spiritual condition. That's what man is. He's lame. He's blind. Even Lazarus, we
read that and we see the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
also we should see what the teaching is of death, spiritual death. And he raises from spiritual
death, Christ does, each one of them. So it shows that he's
able. You know, the Old Testament says,
look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and thou shalt be
saved. I'm God. All the ends of the
earth. So He cures, and His cures were
instantaneous. You know, you met the case of
that woman, I just now thought of it, that had the issue of
blood for 12 years and spent everything she had upon physicians.
He met her case, and He cures instantaneously. Salvation is instantaneously. One trusts Christ, they're saved.
One believes, they're saved. Then this Captain, he's not only
that fit to be Captain, he is a successful Captain, a successful
Savior. His success is in those words
when he cried upon the cross, it is finished. That's a successful
cry. That means that he had paid the
ransom. He paid it in full. It's already
been paid. He wrought out a righteousness
and there's no more to be wrought out. He wrought it out when he
lived. Christ did. The Bible says we are reconciled
by His death, by His blood. When was that? We were reconciled
when He shed His blood. It speaks of a new and living
way. And it says the veil was rent, and that is by His body,
His sacrifice. It is finished, that cry upon
the cross. What was finished? The Bible
says He finished transgression and made an end of sin. And He
did it for all His people, every one of them. And in every case,
the work will be applied and it will be successful in every
case. The Bible says, none He had cast
away. Thou art the glory of a perfect
salvation, a complete Savior. There'd be no glory this morning
if He wouldn't If He was an imperfect Savior, there'd be no glory.
There'd be no glory this morning if He is an incomplete Savior. This morning, apart works and
apart grace. There's no grace. It's either
grace or it's not a grace. You can't say it's part of this
and part of that. If man has to do something this
morning to make the atonement efficacious or efficient, that's
no atonement. That's no atonement. And yet
that's what's taught today, that they say that Christ died and
He paid and He did all this, but yet you've got to make it
efficient. That makes you the Savior, not
Christ. Christ is the Savior, and He
atones, and He's a complete Savior, a perfect Savior. His salvation
is perfect. This is what He brings to us,
and it comes to us. Nothing in our hands, but He
brings it. It comes to us. This one, it
says, by whom are all things. So it doesn't mean this morning
when we read this verse that He's part Savior. It means this
morning it became Him for whom are all things. Our salvation
is owed to Him completely this morning. It's owed to Him. Now,
really, let's get down to it. What can you contribute to God? I mean, let's face it, what can
you contribute? What can man contribute to God?
Realize who He is. But it's God that gives rich
grace and gives mercy. So Christ this morning is a complete
and perfect Savior. He's Captain. He's the Chief
Leader. And we've been committed into
His hands. Now, I like that. committed into
His hands, this great leader. He's our captain. Oh, man's not
His master. Christ is our master, isn't He?
He's our captain. He's our great leader. He's our
mighty captain. He's our faithful leader. He's
our powerful leader. There'll be difficulties, there'll
be dangers and oppositions. This wilderness is like the Israel
of old on the way to the promised inheritance. There are all kinds
of difficulties and dangers and oppositions, but here's a mighty
captain that leads through. And we need a captain such as
he is. We need a guide such as he is. We need one such as he is to
carry us through. And we have him. And the scripture
says here, the captain of their salvation. He's our captain. Then he says, their salvation
perfect through suffering. We'll look at that maybe next
week with Lord willing. perfect through suffering. Speaking
of His death and so forth. But what a captain that we have.
Just think about this, made a little lower than angels for the suffering
of death. Yet He is Creator of angels. But look at this also crowned
with glory and honor. This bringing sons into glory.
He's crowned with glory and honor. And that's going to be throughout
all eternity. This speaks of His humiliation. When He talks about being made
a little lower than angels in the suffering of death. But here,
crowned with glory and honor, speaks of His exaltation. He's
at the right hand of the Father. There in glory on the throne. May we ponder these things of
bringing many sons unto glory. Bringing them. That's what he's
been doing all down through the years. Bringing his sons and
his daughters to glory as a captain of their salvation. May we pray,
Father, take the message. Use it today to benefit our very
souls and that we might worship Thee We worship Thee, bow before
Thee. We are thankful of a captain,
a strong leader, infallible leader, one that would bring us to glory.
We thank Thee and we praise Thee. Bless Thee to sit under Your
Word today and bless the message to wherever it goes. In Christ's
name, Amen.