Okay, let's read our text now,
Hebrews chapter 2, and let's begin in verse 10. We looked at verse 10 last time,
let's begin again in verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 2. 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. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praises
unto thee. And again I will put my trust
in him, and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me. 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
hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. Well, verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
secure them that are tempted." I guess it wouldn't take much
effort to realize what the Jews were thinking as a nation when
they thought of Jesus Christ. and who he professed to be. And
they realized what a lowly state he was born in and what a lowly
state he lived in. It probably wouldn't be difficult
to imagine what they were thinking when he made such statements
as, I and my father are one. And before Abraham was, I am. Here stands a man that doesn't
even have a place to lay his head. Here stands a man that
others ministered to him. Here stands a man that lived
up in Galilee and Nazareth of all places, a very mean, despised
place. And here he claims to be God. And they said, Why? That's impossible. That's impossible. If God came
down to earth, would He be a man like this? Would He have to live
like this? So they said, this man is a deceiver
and he's a blasphemer. And you know, when they saw Him
hanging on the cross, suffering in His hours of gloom and agony
and darkness, they said, if you be the Son of God, if that's
who you are, that's what you said, and if you're the Son of
God, come down from the cross and we'll believe you. And when
the apostles here began to teach that Christ was better than the
angels, He was superior to the angels, they said, no way. Can't
you just hear the Jews thinking the way they think? No way. They
could not conceive that the Son of God should take to Himself
our humanity and be so humiliated in that humanity and suffer and
die. They couldn't conceive of such
a thing. What was their problem? They had two problems. Two problems. The Lord Jesus said, You err
not knowing the Scriptures. You know why they missed salvation?
They missed Christ. And you know why they missed
Christ? They didn't know the Scriptures. You do err in not
knowing the Scriptures. You and I looked just a few weeks
ago at Isaiah chapter 53. And when you look at that, it's
so plainly, isn't it, that the Messiah was going to be a tender
plant and He was going to grow up. He was going to be despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows. Isaiah said He's going
to be born of a virgin and He's going to suffer not just suffer
but you're going to suffer the cross. They pierced my hands
and my feet. Everywhere in the Word of God
we're told that by the offering of his soul he would atone for
sin. God saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied that he'd be raised from the dead. God wouldn't
leave his soul in hell or suffer his Holy One to seek corruption.
The Scriptures taught everything about Jesus Christ. from his
birth to his sin bearing to his rising to his ascension into
heaven. Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the kingdom of glory shall come in. Who is that? That's
Jesus entering heaven after he rose from the dead. But you know
what the Lord Jesus told those Sadducees and those Pharisees? He said, search the Scriptures.
In them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of Me, but you won't come to Me that you might have
life. And the reason they wouldn't
come to Him because they didn't know Him from the Scriptures.
I tell you, it's a dangerous thing to read the Scriptures
as they did and not see Christ in it, isn't it? But that's why
they erred. They didn't see Christ in the
Scriptures. They did not know the Scriptures. The second thing
was they didn't know God. They didn't know God. The Lord
Jesus told His apostles, He said, there's coming a time they're
going to put you out of the synagogue and they're going to persecute
you and they're going to kill you. Some of you they're going
to kill and they're going to do that because they know not
Him that sent me. They don't know God who sent
me. They could not imagine that God
would send His own Son from heaven to be humiliated. in our flesh. They could not conceive that.
But the Bible says God spared not His own Son, didn't He? The
Bible says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son. The cross to them was not a fence. When they looked upon the Lord
Jesus, they looked upon Him as somebody who was to be despised,
a weak man. And they said, Surely if God
sent His Son, He wouldn't send him like this to be humiliated. And you know what? They didn't
know God. They didn't know the attributes
of God, the love of God. It's just like God to do what
He did. Just like God. That passage I
read to you there in verse 10 from the Amplified, it became
Him. Just like Him. Just like God to do that. Their
concept of God was awful. They had some awful thoughts
of God. They thought He was aloft. They thought He was for all.
They thought He was hard and strict, unsympathizing. And they thought the only way
to appease God is by fasting, is by afflicting yourself, bringing
our neck under the yoke of the law and suffering. That's the
way they thought they had to appease God. They thought He's
hard. Boy, He's hard. Remember the
parable the Lord Jesus told about He gave the guys the talents? And one guy traded and doubled
his talents. Another guy traded and doubled
his talents. The guy had one talent. He went and hid it in
the earth. When the Lord asked him where the talents was, he
said, I know that you are a hard man. I know that you are a hard
Lord. And I was afraid. I was afraid. These Pharisees did not know
God. They knew nothing of the love of God. They knew nothing
of the grace of God and the mercy of God. If they did, when they
saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, when they saw Him
hanging upon the cross, they'd have said, that's just like God.
That's just like God. It became Him, the King James
Version said. The Amplified said it was an
act worthy of God, fitting and becoming Brothers and sisters, where do
we see the love of God more than any place else? Is it not in
the Incarnation? My goodness, to think that the
Almighty, the Eternal God would leave His throne and come down
in our humanity to save us? Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Where do we see the attributes
of God on display more than any place else? It's in the cross,
isn't it? It's in the cross. Sin had entered
this world and brought forth death in our humanity by one
man. Sin entered this world and death
by sin. And sin had to be punished. And
sin had to be atoned for and death had to be abolished by
one man. Sin entered through the nature
of man. Sin had to be atoned for in the nature of man. And
that's what this Incarnation is all about. That's all about. It's not just the Lord of Glory
occupying a human farm. He did that before the cross.
He appeared to man before the cross in a human farm. But I
tell you, the Incarnation is more than that. The Incarnation
is the Son of God taken to Himself a real humanity, a real body,
and a real human soul. He humbled himself and became
lower than the angels, a humanity that he could suffer in, one
that he could be tempted in, one that he could die in. Jesus
Christ took to himself a real humanity. He was likened to us. The only
difference between Him and us and His humanity was sin. He had no sin. He wasn't born
of a corrupt nation. But in everything it behooved
Him to be made like unto His brother. And that's what He's
teaching you in this chapter. He's emphasizing in this chapter.
There in verse 11 in our text, in chapter 2, notice how He emphasizes
the union of Christ with our humanity, that He's one with
us. For both He that sanctified and they who are sanctified,
they are all of one. We're one with Him and He's one
with us. And in verse 14, for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also likewise Himself took
part of the same. flesh and blood. And in verse
16, For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but
he took on him the seed of Abraham, their likeness. And verse 17,
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren. And then verse 18, For in that
he himself hath suffered, being tempted. He is a man, isn't he? With a real human soul and a
real human body. God can't be tempted. He just
can't be tempted. But Jesus Christ in our likeness
can. Isn't that a mystery? I can't
understand that. You'd think, you know, where
our temptation so often arises from is the sin that's in us.
But He had no sin. How can you be holy and yet be
tempted? That's difficult to understand,
isn't it? He was tempted yet without sin. But He was like
us. He was in our real humanity,
a real humanity. The Son of God was one with us
in our humanity. He says here in verse 11, look
at this, For both He that sanctifieth, and that's Jesus Christ, that's
what He's teaching us, and they who are sanctified are all of
one. He that sanctifieth. This word
sanctifies, if you just look at it in a general term, it means
to be made holy, to be made pure. That's the first meaning. To
consecrate, to set apart, to devote to God, to regard as holy
or as hallowed. The Lord Jesus has sanctified
us. He's made us holy. How has He
did that? Well, by virtue of being in Him,
that makes you holy. This being in Him makes you holy.
Listen to I Corinthians 1. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. Of God are you in Christ. Who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He is our sanctification. By
being in Him, Shannon, you are holy. You're holy. Secondly,
by a new birth. He sanctifies us by a new birth.
We are created in righteousness and true holiness. If any man
be in Christ, what is he? He's a new creature, isn't he?
He's a new creature. A righteous creature, a holy
creature, a sanctified creature. The blood of Jesus Christ has
cleansed him from all our sins. In the 13th chapter it said that
Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood
suffered without the gate. What is it that makes us holy?
A new birth will make you holy. It will make you holy because
you are created in righteousness and true holiness. The blood
of Jesus Christ will make you holy. It will sanctify you. And
the third way is this. Christ working in us by His Spirit. That sanctifies us, doesn't it?
That sets us apart for Christ. I've seen people that profess
Christ and it didn't change their life at all. It didn't change
their thoughts to God. It didn't change their living.
They weren't separated to Him. They weren't sanctified to Him.
But you know when the Lord saves us, He works in us by His Spirit. And I don't know if some people
don't like the word progressive sanctification, but call it what
you want. The Lord works in us to will
and to do. There's a growth, isn't there?
Maybe we should call it what Scripture calls it, a growth
in grace and knowledge. We don't stay babies, do we?
He works in us from being infants to grown men in the spiritual
realm. So He sanctifies us that way. Faith increases, doesn't it? Now sometimes we don't realize
this, but we grow in faith. We sometimes say, boy, my faith
is so weak. But if you look back and be objective
about this, you look back when you were just a tiny Christian,
the Lord first began a work of faith in your heart. Your faith
is stronger now than it was then. It is. It's stronger. It's increased. And your love has increased for
Him and for the church. Your knowledge of Him has increased.
So the Lord is working that in us. However you want to look
at Him as our sanctifier, and however you want to look at it
and study from the Scripture, it's Him that does it. It's Christ
that does it. He who sanctifyeth and they who
are sanctified are all of one. If you are here tonight and you
are in Christ, if you are here tonight and He has given you
a new birth and you are here tonight and He is working in
your heart to be devoted to God, to live in His service and live
in His praises, then listen to this, you are one with Him. You are one with Jesus Christ.
He that sanctifyeth, and they who are sanctified are all of
one." Now what does that mean? Well, that means you have the
same Father. You have the same Father that Jesus Christ has.
I send to my Father and your Father. You have the same Spirit
that Jesus Christ has. I'm talking about in His humanity.
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Father, Father, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of His. You have the same mind, the Bible
tells us. Let this mind be in you that
was also in Christ Jesus. You have the mind of Christ.
Not to the same degree, it would be silly for us to think that,
but you have the mind of Christ. You think like He thinks. And
you live like He lived. For God is Father. You have the
same nature. You are partakers of the divine
nature. The Bible says as He is, so are
you in this world. You are one with Him. You are
one with Him. And that is why He is not ashamed
to call you His brethren. He is not ashamed to call you
His brethren because you are one with Him in every way. You
are one with Him. You have the same family as Jesus
Christ. There's just one family and that's
Christ's family. And if we're in his family, we're
all one. We're all one. Whosoever shall
do the will of my Father in heaven, the same is my brother and my
sister and my brother. We're all the body of Christ
in him. He's the head and we're the members.
We're one in him. Therefore, he's not ashamed to
be called our brother. That's one way we look at this,
but maybe the best way to look at it is this. Christ is one
with us. He's one with us. We're one with
Him, and He's one with us. In our humanity, He's one with
us, and therefore He's not ashamed to call us His brethren because
He's one with us in our humanity. When you looked at Mary Magdalene,
can you imagine Him looking at her? She had seven devils, cast
all those devils out. Can you imagine him looking at
her and saying, Mary, you're my sister. Can you imagine that? You're my sister. He's speaking
to her in his humanity. You're my sister. That old Gadarean
that he cast the legion of devils out of that lived in the cemetery
was filthy and stink. And he put him in his right mind
and put clothes on him and fed him and he said, you're my brother.
You're my brother. You're one way. And I'm not ashamed
of you. I'm not ashamed to call you my brethren. Jesus Christ
is not only the Son of God, but He's the Son of Mary, and therefore
He's our near kinsman. He is truly our brother, our
brother. One said this, I don't know who
said this, but one man said this, and I jotted it down. He said,
in His body, He hungered. All the pains and anguish of
intense hunger were felt by him. He therefore is the brother to
all his who hunger. On the cross he said, I thirst.
He is therefore the brother to all his people who are truly
thirsty. He knew the pleasures of life
for he was a guest at the feast. He is brother to them therefore
that know the dangers of plenty. He was weary and sat on Jacob's
well. He is brother, therefore, to
those who are weary. He suffered bodily pain. He is
a brother, therefore, to those who suffered. He is tempted in
all points as we are. He is brother, therefore, to
those who are tempted. He died. Therefore, he is a brother
to those who are dying. And I think we could add this
to that. He was grieved in his spirit, therefore he is a brother
to all of those who grieve. He was a man of exceeding sorrow,
therefore he is a brother to his people who are bowed down
with troubles. In all things it behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren. He is one with us in our humanity
in every way. And because He is, He looks upon
us in our humanity and says, I'm not ashamed of you. I'm one
with you in your humanity. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that
amazing? He was a real man, a real human
soul and a real body. And while He was here in this
world, He looked on His apostles and on His disciples and all
their utter weakness and their fallen state and said, I'm not
ashamed to call you my brother. I'm one with you. Look at me.
Behold my hands. I'm one with you. A spirit hath
not flesh and bones as you see me have. I'm one with you. I'm
of your humanity. Never to be separated from your
humanity again. For an angel to come to this
earth, brothers and sisters, and to take on real humanity,
you talk about stupid. But I'm telling you when the
eternal Son of God did it, to identify with us in every way
what love and in what grace. And you know, having joined Himself
to us, He'll never be separated from us again. It's utterly impossible
for even God to deny us because He's one with us in our humanity. That's amazing. Here in verses
12 and verse 13, quickly Paul gives some scripture as a proof
that Christ really took our humanity to Himself. He goes all the way
back in the Old Testament. He says here in verse 12, when
He was going to prove that Christ is truly our brethren, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise unto thee. I want you to look at this
over. This came out of Psalms chapter
22. I want you to look over there
right quickly at this. He quoted this out of Psalms
chapter 22 You remember, if you've studied
your Bible, you remember what Psalms 22 is about. It's about
the Lord Jesus and His humanity and His sufferings. And in verse
1, look in Psalms 22 and verse 1, you remember this, My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Why art thou so far from
helping me and from the words of my roaring? That's what he
said on the cross, wasn't it? He suffered in our humanity upon
the cross. And look what he said down in
verse 16. The dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet. It's obviously this is a man
talking. This is not a spirit or an angel.
They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.
So there is the context, Jesus Christ in our humanity. And look
what he says in verse 22. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation while I sing praises
unto thee. So he's speaking of Christ in
his humanity. This is a man speaking. And what's
he saying? Well, when I was here, when I
was upon the earth, I reveal God to my apostles." What did
he do when he came to this earth? He taught them of God, didn't
he? He revealed the Father to them. He says, when you pray,
say, My Father which is in heaven. He taught them the love of God
and the goodness of God and the justice of God. He taught them
of God. He preached the Word to them.
Father, I've given them the Word and they've received it. He did
that right in the midst of his people as a man. And He led them
in worship. He said He taught them to sing,
didn't He? In the midst of the church, in
the midst of My people, will I sing praises unto thee. He taught them to worship. And
how did He do that? By becoming a man and living
among them. In the midst of the church, will
I sing praises unto thee. Remember the night they went
out to the garden just before they left the upper room? It
says they sang a hymn. You just about know who picked
the hymn and who led the hymn. It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if this wasn't speaking of Him in His humanity, then who
was it speaking of? It was Christ in His humanity,
and the Apostle was going to prove that. He said, while He
was here, He declared the Word of God to us, and He sang in
the midst of His church. In verse 13 of Hebrews, He gives
another passage of Scripture. We will not turn over there to
it, but He gives another in verse 13. And again, I will put my
trust in Him. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. I will put my trust in Him. There are several places in the
Old Testament that you could say this was the Lord Jesus speaking
and He's made this very statement that He put His trust in God
His Father. Psalm 16 and 1, listen to this,
Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. That's Jesus
speaking as a man, putting His trust in God His Father. Psalm
18, 2, The Lord is my rock, He's my fortress, my deliverer, my
God, my strength, and whom I will trust. So there's different places
in the Old Testament where Jesus trusted God His Father. Now listen,
He didn't have to trust Him if He's in heaven, did He? No, He's
right there with Him. No faith in heaven, you don't
need it. But as a man in our humanity upon this earth suffering,
He said, My Father, I put my trust in You. Remember on the
cross? when they come around mocking
Him, they said He trusted in God? Let God have Him now. He did trust God, didn't He?
How did He trust Him if He wasn't a man, a real man in our humanity? And that's what the Apostle has
proven. And I tell you, brothers and sisters, when I go to the
Scriptures and I see Jesus in our humanity, placing the trust
of His heart in God His Father, don't that give you courage to
trust Him? I mean, if the Lord Jesus trusted him, I can trust
him. Sometimes I think if I had a
thousand souls, I could trust God to save every one of them
because Christ trusted him. No matter what. Look at his,
in the awful circumstances that he was in upon the cross. Look
what he was facing. And they looked up at him and
said, ìHeís trusting in God?î ìYes, yes, heís still trusting
God.î And trusted him right up until he bowed his head and said,
ìFather, into your hands I commend my spirit.î Boy, what a way to
die. Thatís a good way to die, isnít it? When you come down
to breathe your last breath, say, ìFather, I trust you. I
trust you. Just as your Son taught me to
trust you, I trust you.î And then the last Scripture that
he gives us here in chapter 2 and verse 13, ìBehold, I am the children
whom God hath given me.î Now you find this in Isaiah chapter
8 and verse 18. Who are the children? ìBehold,
I am the children.î Thatís not angels, is it? Who are the children? Theyíre human beings. Theyíre
people. God has given Jesus Christ a
people. And Jesus is as much one with
them in His human nature as a father, an earthly father, is to His
children. Our Lord Jesus not only called
His people His brethren, but He calls them His children. He's
one with them. Remember when He was standing
on the shore after His resurrection, they had caught Him fish, and
He said, Children, have you any meat? the children. I tell you, if you've got a father,
you're one, Larry, with your dad. You're one with your dad.
Me and my dad is one. And Jesus Christ in His humanity
said, Behold, I am the children that you've given me. He's got
to be one with them then if they're His children. So that's what
He's proven here. For as much then as the children,
His children whom the Father has given Him, was partaker of
flesh and blood, read in verse 14, He also likewise Himself
took part of the same. Why did He take part of the same?
That through His 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. O death, where is thy sting? It's gone. Why? Jesus in our
humanity tasted it. He tasted it. The incarnation
of the Son of God is not a block on His character. It is not a
stigma on Him. His cross is not an offense as
the Jews assumed it was, but it is one of the most glorious
displays of the love and power and grace of God that this world
has ever seen. Herein is love, real everlasting
love. unconditional love, not that
we love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's why He did it. And I tell
you, if He hadn't have took our humanity and tasted death in
our place, if He hadn't have humbled Himself, if He hadn't
have been humiliated, where would that have left you and where
would that have left me? Without any hope at all. That's
our only hope. that he stooped below the angels
for a while for the suffering of death. Mr. Newton said this, Jesus who passed
the angels by assumed our flesh to bleed and die and still he
makes it his abode as man he fills the throne of God. Our
next of kin, our brother now, is he to whom the angels bow.
They join with us to praise his name that we the nearest interest
claim. But oh, how faint our praises
rise. Sure it is the wonder of the
skies that we who share his riches love so cold and unconcerned
should prove. Oh, glorious hour, it comes with
speed when we from sin and darkness freed shall see the God who died
for man. and praise him more than angels
can. Angels can't praise him like
we praise him. Angels can't love him like we
love him. Because he stooped below the angels to redeem us
at a great cost to himself. That's wonderful, isn't it? What
a wonderful gospel we have. Shannon, would you dismiss us?