We'll be in Hebrews again, Hebrews
chapter two. We're going to go into chapter three
a little bit this hour. The question I have for us this
morning is if your salvation, your salvation, if it was dependent
upon your faithfulness, would you be saved? If your salvation
was dependent upon your faithfulness, would you be saved? Now, I don't
know how men can answer that by saying yes. I suppose we do
know because they are left to themselves in their own nature
and they have confidence in themselves according to the flesh. But the
believer knows that that is an impossibility for us to be saved
by our faithfulness. Ephesians chapter two verses
eight, verse eight says, for by grace are you saved through
faith. And in case that wasn't clear
enough, he continues by saying, in that not of yourself, not
your faithfulness, not your works, not what you've done, not your
prayers, not by works, not by our righteousness, not of ourself,
it is the gift of God. Salvation is all of grace, all
of grace wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of
Calvary for his people. It is because of the Lord's mercies
we're not consumed. It is because of the Lord's grace
that we are saved. It's because Jesus Christ was
faithful in all things pertaining to God. Now, him being faithful
is mentioned here in our text, and I've titled this message
Merciful and Faithful. Let's read Hebrews 2, and we're
gonna, verse 17, we'll start there, but we're gonna read through
verse three of chapter three. 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 sin of the people. For in
that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch
as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. There is nothing that is faithful
about you and I, but he is. He is in every way, He is in
all things faithful to His people and to His Father. In everything
pertaining to God, pertaining to the salvation of His people,
He is faithful. He is faithful. Deuteronomy 7,
9 says, know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the
faithful God. which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand
generation. He is the faithful God. He's
the only one. He's the only one. Do you remember
Elijah on Mount Carmel? Prophets of Baal were present
and they cried out to their God, Baal. Did Baal answer? He's not
faithful. What about the Egyptian gods
that were They tried to recreate the things that Moses had said
were going to come to pass that the Lord had wrought upon Egypt,
the 10 plagues. Were they able to create all of the plagues
of Egypt? No. And the ones that they did,
they were parlor tricks, weren't they? They weren't real. They
weren't the same. It says they're able to do it,
but we understand. We understand that it was the
Lord that did the first. And the ones that they could
do, well, their gods are not faithful. Their gods are not
faithful. That's the point, isn't it? Now,
knowing our God is faithful removes any part of salvation from our
hands. If we're depending upon our faithfulness,
that's one thing. But if we're depending upon his
faithfulness, that's entirely another thing. There can't be
any middle ground. It can't be his faithfulness
plus my faithfulness. It can't be his faithfulness
mostly and then a little bit of my faithfulness. No, either
it's completely his faithfulness or it's none of his faithfulness.
It's completely my faithfulness or it's none of my faithfulness.
Knowing he's faithful removes any part of salvation from our
hands. It removes our works as any part of our reconciliation
back to God. What did he say here in Hebrews?
He. he reconciled us back to God. Not that he gave us a chance
to be reconciled back to God, not that he gave us an opportunity
to be reconciled, but he says in verse 17, 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 for this reason, to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people, for the sins of his people. That's what he's
saying. He made the reconciliation. The gospel is the declaration
of the complete and perfect work of salvation brought by God. It's not the declaration of a
possibility. It's not the declaration of something that could be. Not
a possibility. The gospel is the declaration
of the perfect finished work of God's salvation wrought by
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for his people.
It's a declaration, it's not a possibility. The truth, the
truth about who God is and what Christ has done is what we preach.
Preach the truth about what we are and what we've done. We're
nothing, we've done nothing. The truth about who he is and
what he's done, he is God. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. He's a merciful and faithful
high priest. The merciful and faithful king,
as we heard last week. Merciful and faithful prophet,
the prophet of the Lord. Hearing the gospel is not to
cause us to be faithful enough. Faithful enough to have salvation. That's not the purpose of the
gospel. It's to declare his faithfulness. Think about it this way. Everything
that draws attention to ourself, our flesh, you and I, that's
not of the Lord. The Lord points to one. The Spirit
points to one. Faith points, believes the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's it. So if we're looking
at ourself, we're thinking that we're faithful. I'm a little
more faithful now than I used to be. No, we're not. No, I wish
we were. But if we were, we wouldn't need
a substitute, would we? No, I need Christ's faithfulness. I can't
be faithful. Well, you've been coming to church
for 20 years. That doesn't make me faithful in things pertaining
to God. No. No, Christ was faithful in
things pertaining to God, the spiritual things. Sure, I can
do things physically, but spiritually speaking, he's the one that was
faithful to his father. The gospel is not declared to
allow us to choose, but to cause us to see he chose to be merciful. He chose to be merciful, reveal
that he chose to elect, to redeem and to call his people. Not that
we chose, not that we're faithful, not that we're merciful, not
that we chose, but he did all that. He's faithful. He's merciful. He chose. Now I love that because he is
our merciful and faithful high priest, his people in verse one
of chapter three are called holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, holy brethren. Men will talk about other men
who are holy. Matter of fact, this week somebody asked, was
I a righteous man? Found out I was a pastor and
they asked, are you a righteous man? And I said, that's a loaded
question. If I answer one way, you're going
to think this way. If I answer another way, you're going to
think another way. So I said, I need a little bit
of clarification. What do you mean by that? I know what the
scripture says, but what do you mean by that? And he said, do
you live what you preach? Do you live what you preach?
And I thought, yes. Christ is my only hope of salvation. My hope is that I'm looking to
him and everything that I do in him, I'm living, moving, and
having my being in him. If I don't, if that's the question,
yes is the answer. If I don't have him, if I'm not,
and if you're talking about righteous living, no, not by what's described
in men's, whenever they say a man's holy when he's a priest and a
man's holy because he's done this, no, I'm not righteous then.
I'm not holy like that, no. But I'm righteous. My hope is
I'm righteous because I'm in Christ. You're a righteous man.
If I am, if I'm in Christ, I am you righteous. You're in Christ. You are. You're called holy brethren.
That's what he calls us here. We're holy. Why? Because of what
you do? No, not because of my faithfulness because of his faithfulness.
You know, I love the passage of scripture when the Lord looks
at his people when they come before him after death, and he
says, enter in thou good and faithful servant. You've been
faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many. You
ever thought about those words? You're gonna hear those words.
You're going to hear those words. What's faithful about us? Nothing.
That's the entire point. It's the faith of Christ bestowed.
He sees his son when he sees his people. He sees the blood
when he sees his people. He sees perfect obedience to
the law when he sees his people because they're in Christ. That's why he calls us holy brethren
here. We're the holiness of the Lord
in Christ Jesus. He says those who have been given
the, he calls them partakers. You and I, we're the Lord's people. We're partakers of the Lord's
grace, aren't we? We're partakers of the Lord's
mercy. We're partakers of his truth. We love his truth. Partakers of the heavenly calling. He's the one that called. That's
the heavenly calling. You mean God doesn't call everybody?
No, no he doesn't. He calls his people, my sheep.
Rob was in John chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them. What do they do? They follow
me. They're partakers of the heavenly calling. God chose to call some a remnant,
a particular people set aside for his goodwill and pleasure,
vessels of mercy, he calls them. Why? Because he's merciful. Why
did he ordain some to be called vessels of mercy? Because he's
merciful. He delights. Think about that
word. Our God delights in showing mercy. Does he delight in showing mercy
to everyone without exception? No. He delights in showing mercy
to his beloved. He delights in showering her
with presents of grace, presents of joy and peace. It's interesting,
you remember Gomer, whenever she was a harlot, the Lord told
the prophet, go and marry a Hosea, go marry a harlot, and he did.
And she just returns back to her harlotry after she was married,
but she kept finding presents on her doorstep. And she thought,
well, this is my suitors. These are the men I, you know,
they really must find me something special. It wasn't until time
went on, it was found out there was nobody leaving anything on
her doorstep but her husband. When we look around and we see
everything around us and the goodness that's around us, it's
the Lord. It's because of his faithfulness.
It's not our faithfulness, we're the harlot. He just keeps leaving
presents on our doorstep, don't he? How could he do that? Because
he's merciful. And he's faithful. He's faithful
unto his father in redemption for his people. He's faithful
to you and I as our high priest, our interceder. He's faithful. We've been made vessels of mercy. God's people have been made vessels
of mercy, deserving of his wrath, deserving death, deserving damnation,
but because what Christ has done, we're vessels of mercy. Vessels
of mercy. He is merciful and faithful. He made reconciliation for the
sins of his people. We were resurrected in him when
he was resurrected. When the father was satisfied
with him, the father was satisfied with every single person that
was resurrected in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's merciful. He's faithful. Salvation is not
dependent upon you and I or our doing. Salvation is dependent
upon this. He hath made him to be sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's what salvation is dependent upon. Not my faithfulness. Not my goodness. Not my ability
to love. I don't have any of those, spiritually
speaking, and you don't either. But he does. But he does. It's dependent upon his mercy.
It's dependent upon his love. His love accomplishes something.
I love that. His love actually accomplishes
something. I could tell somebody I love them and it doesn't do
anything. But he says he loves you. He's
gonna give you life. He's gonna give you peace. He's
gonna give you hope. He's gonna give you joy. He's gonna give
you rest. All things pertaining to God and his spirit. All the
spiritual blessings. of the spirit, he gives it to
his people freely by his grace. Salvation's not determined by
us believing. Christ saved his people from
their sin and in time he causes us to believe him. Us believing
is the result of salvation being accomplished. Us believing is
not the result of our, is not the cause of our salvation, it's
the result of him being faithful, of him being merciful. It's the
cause and effect that all religion has backwards. Everything about
our gospel is simple. He's the cause and he is the
effect. We can't cause and we can't affect
it. It's that simple. He did it all,
being our faithful and merciful high priest, our king, our lord. Some pretend that they have part
in salvation and that, I can put it this way, he's the
entirety of salvation. Some believe that there's some
other ingredient missing. And you can think about different
religions and you understand they don't really think that
intentionally, but that's what they're doing. Adding to or taking
away one thing from the finished work, it's saying that the All
the ingredients are not there for salvation. You have to add
something to it. Like we're making a cake and
we have the flour, but the Lord has the rest of the ingredients.
We have to add our flour to it. What did the Lord say? A little
leaven, leaven it the whole lump. We're the problem. We can't add
to or take away anything from the finished work of the Lord.
He's the sum and substance of salvation. He's the sum and substance
of it. Was the ark just a key factor
in Noah's redemption? Just a part? No, it was the only
reason Noah was spared from the wrath. It was the sum and substance
of his salvation, wasn't it? Was God parting the Red Sea just
part of them being saved from Egypt that was coming up? They
had to do something else? Somebody said, well, they had
to walk. Well, what did they walk by? Faith. God gave them faith to
do so. No, it wasn't just part of the
equation. What they do and what God did
equaled something. It's what God did. I will save
you. I will redeem you. You're mine. I've bought you
with a price. God parting the Red Sea was the
result of them being his children. He chose them and he saved them
according to his will. What about every lame man and
woman? I use this example the first hour. Was their standing
part of their being healed? All you have to, telling a lame
man, an impotent man, all you have to do is stand up and walk
to the Lord and he will heal you. That's what men are preaching
today and it's not possible. No, the sum and substance of
that man receiving his strength to walk came through and by one
thing, the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord, the word
of his power, the word of his choice, his purpose. Did the Lord say, Lazarus, if
you'll be faithful, I'll resurrect you. Aren't you glad he didn't? He didn't say, Lazarus, if you'll
try, I'll let you come forth. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
It wasn't an invitation. It's not dependent upon you and
it's not dependent upon me. It's depending upon what he did.
And our flesh so often wants to look around us and be distracted.
And somebody said, why do you go to church so often? Well,
we're in a desert, number one, crawling through this desert,
and we're getting all this sand and dirt upon us, and we have
an oasis to come to. And we come to this fountain
and beg the Lord to wash us again, because we're dirty and we're
stinky all over again. We've got to be washed. It's a life source. We wouldn't
pass by an oasis in a desert, would we, if we were thirsting
to death? No, we'd go and drink. Well, that's why we come. Wouldn't
pass up bread. We wouldn't pass up moldy bread
if we were starving to death, would we? But this is the best
bread that's ever been. It's the bread of life. It's
the bread from heaven. We've got to have it. That's
why we come. Tell me how he was merciful. Tell me how he is faithful.
Don't tell me about myself. Tell me about him. Don't give
me an invitation. Don't give me, don't make me one of the
key ingredients to salvation. Tell me it is finished. That's
what I'm telling you. It is finished because he's faithful
because he's merciful. Every part in its entirety of
salvation, every part without exception is completely and absolutely
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished. It's completely dependent upon
him being merciful and faithful, and here's what Thessalonians
524 tells us. Faithful is he that calleth you.
Who will also do it? Faithful is he that calleth you.
What did he do? He saved his people from their
sins. He calls his people in time, enabling them to come and
take of the water of life freely, enabling them to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that called you
who will also do it. Before time, Jesus Christ, our
Lord, was the steward of salvation, the one that was to tend to salvation,
the one that was to perform the work necessary for the salvation
of the Lord's people. He was the steward. He was the
predetermined surety for his people. Now think about this,
God trusted the son first. Father trusted the son first
insomuch that he rested on the Sabbath from the foundation of
the world. Father trusted the son, who are we trusting? If
God trusted his darling son with the salvation of his people,
that better be who we're trusting as well. Not ourself and our
faithfulness. Salvation was so sure because of the word of the
Lord, who he is. The father rested on his Sabbath,
the Lord Jesus Christ from the foundation of the world. If he could fail, that means
it's possible he's not faithful. Well, that's an impossibility.
He's faithful. If we confess our sin, He's faithful
and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He is faithful. Faithful because He is God. He
didn't become a man to become God. He didn't become a man to
do something to become God. He was born. God, the God man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful and faithful Lord and savior
of his people. He cannot sin. Here in verse 18, I want to make certain that we
look at this verse because it has a word that's not used often
in scripture. It's the word sucker. And I wanted to Point this out
to us, because of the Lord's faithfulness, because of who
he is, he says, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted,
he is able to succor them that are tempted. That word tempted
means tested. And I want us to understand something
very important this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
have sinned, or he was not God. This wasn't a temptation, as
some men put it, as if he had a choice to sin. This was a test. This was a test of his isness. Did he pass the test? Well, of
course he did. He's God. This was a test. He could not
have sinned or he's not God. Our Lord had no desire. Think
about our desires. Why do we sin? By our own lust.
Did the Lord have any lust? No, he's God. He had no ability
to sin. See, he's so much more faithful
to the Father than we can even fathom. He had no lust whereby
to be tempted. What could Satan have tempted
him with wherewith he would have been interested in doing it? Nothing. Nothing. This was a
test. He wasn't tempted to sin because
he No guile in him could be found. No sin in him could be found.
He was sinless. He can't sin. He was faithful. He was tested and tried just
as our faith is tested and tried. But our faith never sins because
of the source of it. Faith can't sin. It looks to
Christ in all things. His faith bestowed can no more
sin than he can. That's why in John chapter 14,
verse 30, scripture says that whenever Satan tested the Lord,
he could find nothing. He could find nothing that intrigued
the Lord to sin because of his faithfulness, because of who
he was, his dedication to his father, because of his perfection,
because of his holiness. Therefore, He's able to give
aid to them. That's what that word sucker
means. Give aid to them that are tempted. When you and I are
actually tempted, when you and I are tested, there's only one
thing that's going to stand and that's the faith of the Lord
given. We're not going to stand. We're not faithful, but he's
able to give aid. How does he do that? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. How does he do that? Come unto
me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That's
how he suckers us. He shuts us up to Christ. He's
faithful. When faith is tried, no matter
the trial, when faith is tried, it's to remove our unbelief.
It's to remove our unbelief, no matter the trial. And we often talk about our trials
with each other, our frustrations, our tribulations that we may
experience or whatever life may bring. But the Lord's the one
that's faithful in bringing those trials to drive us unto him,
even though they are grievous for a season to our flesh. The
faith of the Lord will stand the test of that trial regardless
of what it is because we have one that is faithful and he has
given us the same faith, his faith. It's promised to be by
mercy that the Lord gives us these trials, by mercy. Understand
something, only if the Lord chastens his children, everybody else
he leaves to themselves. Leaves to themselves. What is
he doing when he tries us? What is he doing when we are
enduring certain things in life? He's causing us to flee to Christ. Peter would never have said,
Lord, save me, had he not started sinking. Jonah would have never
said salvation is of the Lord, had he not found himself in the
belly of the whale. It's the Lord's mercy that we're
not consumed. He drives us to Christ. for our
good and for his glory. That's why David, the writer
of Psalm 119, verse 75, said, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments
are right. Do you know that? Thy judgments
and my judgments are not right. Your judgments are right. And
that thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me. thou in faithfulness
hath afflicted." Do you think Job could have rejoiced in his
affliction during the trial had it not been God sending Elihu
and the Lord giving, talking to Job out of the whirlwind and
saying, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundation of
the world? What does that do? It causes us to put our hand
over our mouth. He's going to faithfully bring us back to him
over and over and over. He's going to cause his people
to persevere. It's not us that persevere. No, we're In Christ,
in Christ, and he is faithful. In mercy, he afflicts his people
and causes them to run to the captain of their salvation. They're
merciful and faithful high priest. Listen to Revelation 19. I saw heaven opened and behold
a white horse and he that sat upon it was called faithful and
true. That's his name. That's his name. Believe him. Believe him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
In righteousness he does judge and make war. It's not just his
attribute as men make it seem to be that he spoke truth. He was truth. He was truth manifested. It's who he is. It's what he's
done. It's what he's doing. It's what he's going to do forever.
And the good news of the gospel is, I will have mercy. He said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That means he has
mercy. There's hope for a sinner, isn't there? Have mercy on me,
Lord. Have mercy on me. Our faithful. Merciful Lord. He's faithful, perfectly faithful
as our intercessor. He can be perfectly merciful
for what he accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Mercy is not
just. Not getting what we deserve,
it is that. But the only way to not get what
we deserved is for the Lord to do something. The Lord just didn't
see us in sin and not judge us. Christ Jesus had to endure that
judgment on the cross of Calvary so that he could show mercy unto
sinners, unto his sinners. Grace could not be given until
the law was satisfied. Justice had to be satisfied. You all that have children understand
that sometimes in dealing with your children, you desire to show mercy. You disobeyed
and your reaction, you have to punish, you have to honor your
word. And sometimes you want to show, and you do, you know,
I do, I show mercy. I said, listen, I'm not going
to punish you this time. And what's the reason for that?
Well, I love my children. I don't get any pleasure out
of disciplining my children, just as no parent does. No good
parent, I guess, you know, but what's my point? The Lord couldn't
look at me and you in love and see how cute we were and how
much he loved us because of us and how faithful we are. And
now this one little mistake that you've made, I'm going to let
it slide this time. But next time, the consequence is eternal
damnation. That's silly. No, as a matter
of fact, his only begotten son had to endure the exact wrath
that you and I deserve, the eternal judgment and wrath of God on
the cross of Calvary, so that when he sees you and I, he can
see us in love and in mercy and by his grace alone. What does
he say? I know my thoughts of you. I
know my thoughts of you, they're not, they're not bad. They're not evil. They're good.
They're good thoughts unto you. Thoughts of peace, thoughts of
goodness, thoughts of mercy. How can that be? He's merciful
and faithful in the person of his darling son. He was merciful
and faithful in the work of salvation on the cross of Calvary. This
is the only way. It's the only way that he can
have mercy upon his people and remain perfectly faithful as
our intercessor. He's our surety, our substitute,
all of our salvation. Somebody said, why do you keep
calling him all? Well, because the Lord makes
him all to his people, doesn't he? He really is all. He really
is all to his people. We see that we're not faithful.
But we hear the glorious news of the gospel. If we believe
not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Your
believing doesn't determine your salvation. Christ Jesus, determine
your salvation. And because of that, you will
believe. It's not that I decided to believe and now I'm saved.
No, you were saved from the foundation of the world and the Lord says,
believe in time. If you believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. I wanna be very clear, if someone
doesn't believe, then they're not. Well, they're not a believer.
You understand what I'm saying there? Man, woman, we have to
believe, yes, but it's of him that we believe, all because
of his faithfulness, not ours. Only sinners need mercy, and
he's merciful. I quoted this once, and I'll
quote this in closing. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Only sinners need mercy. And only the Lord can be faithful
and just because of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
on Calvary. He's full of mercy, and he's
ever faithful to God and to his people. Therefore, no wonder
David said in Psalm 46.1, God is our refuge and our strength,
a very present help in time of trouble. How can he be your refuge? How can he be your strength?
Because he's merciful and because he's faithful. Let's pray. Father,
cause us to believe, cause us to confess, cause us to flee
unto you. In Christ's name, amen.