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'Cause we sing together #219 Two, 19.
Lord, what is man? Is he heard of?
My name.
Her glory.
To love and grace and play when his horse stands in the torn and Bay.
Thorny Bay soul in the end, all the.
Nsnoise.
Uh, green, green preservation and body.
Oh, OK, goodbye.
Long progress day.
Nsnoise.
Hebrew Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 10.
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 sufferings. For both He that sanctify us, and they who are sanctified, are all of one. For which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare my name unto my brethren. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee.
And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I am 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 had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to *******. For 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 succor them that are tempted.
00:05:29
We mentioned again this morning that the chapter can be easily divided into three parts. The 1St 4 verses are a parenthetic warning, and we mentioned that one of five in the book of Hebrews might just briefly mention the others. Some might be interested in the danger. Here is the danger of neglect, the neglect of God's great salvation. Chapter 3. We have the danger of unbelief.
In chapter five and six, we have the danger of not maturing.
And in chapter 10 where we read, we have the danger of drawing back apostasy. In chapter 12, there's the danger of refusing God. And then beginning in verse five, again, as we mentioned, it's the theme of the Son of Man and his future exaltation from verses 5 through 9 and then from verse 10 to the end, it's really.
Uh, his humiliation. We mentioned the four grounds for his humiliation.
Moses was to be the.
Used of God to when the Lord said I've come down to deliver my people who went to Moses, he said I'm going to do it, but you're going to be my servant in it.
And so that call of Moses to that responsibility, the Lord had already been spending 40 years getting him ready for the responsibility.
And, uh, suiting him to it. He was living in the very area in which the children of God would spend the next 40 years of their lives in the wilderness and his own personal experiences through which he was passing in that time.
Prepared him to be the use of God to lead the people.
The verse where we start here in verse 10 has some of that same character to it.
The Lord Jesus is seen as the captain of salvation, but before leaving the people, as we see in the verses which follow on to their heavenly calling in the next chapter, He's going to lead them safe all the way through the journey to their heavenly home. But in doing so and before, he does so, as it says.
It was pleasing to God to make their captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings that is, he went through in his personal life all of those things that.
Perfect here doesn't mean without blemish, but it means passing through those things that suit a person.
For a responsibility or a work. And he passed through those things that would in, as it were, speaking as a man that would enable him to be a faithful and merciful leader.
And captain of salvation, both as an apostle and high priest to the people and.
And uh, so it was for him, and that to be before He, as it were, began this carrying the people out and through to the end that He is what we see here to make bring many sons to glory. First, the captain of their salvation was prepared for it through his own suffering.
Not the suffering here of atonement. It's, uh, that which connected with his life.
So if there was to be a, a new race of men under Christ, there was, which we speak of in the middle of the 10th verse, the many sons, the, the captain and the head of this new race would have to be perfectly. And it was through a path of sufferings that led to that. And, uh, in resurrection and where he is on high in the glory, we find that there's a race attached to him in the following verses 11 Through 13.
00:10:18
Whom he is not ashamed to call his brethren.
And so the complete, the, the purpose of God is it will be fulfilled in a new race of man who cannot fail and will glorify God perfectly as according to what he planned in the originally. So it's a wonderful, uh.
Thing to see the Lord coming and vindicating God in this way and beginning a new race of men that will complete and fulfill the purpose of God fully.
As a rule, when you have the word, suffering in the singular is referring to atonement.
And aspects of atonement. But when you see the word sufferings in plural, then it's referring to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus endured in the pathway. Mr. Barry told us that many, many years ago. And you get both of them in this chapter, verse nine. It says that for the suffering of death and he would taste death for everything. So there's the singular aspect in verse 9, but the plural aspect is in verse 10.
Perfect through sufferings and that would be referring as I just mentioned.
What he experienced in his life and Kathleen and brother John has already mentioned that.
And important to realize that the physical sufferings of Christ here on earth as a man never atoned for one sin.
It was those sufferer, it was the fact that he suffered at the hand of God from above that atoned for sin. Those atoning sufferings that he had, he were sent from God, as it says prophetically, from above hath descent fire into my bones, and it has prevailed against me. Those were the atoning suffering. And so we might raise the question, well, why did God allow His Son to suffer in a physical way?
If those sufferings never atone for one sin, well, we've just had it before us. Let me just read in the 5th chapter, because we get some verses there that, umm, speak for themselves in the 5th chapter of Hebrews and verse seven. Who in the days of his flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication, with strong crying and and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that He feared.
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey, that obey him. So it was necessary that the Lord Jesus come as a man, grow up in this world, feel those things. There were many sufferings con physical sufferings surrounding his trial at the cross and so on, but they were very different from the atoning suffering. And it's good when we go through the Scripture to differentiate.
Just as an example, in Isaiah 53, there's a verse that is often misapplied in connection with he himself for our iniquities. And let's just read it because I have to digress, but just to point out what we're saying in Isaiah 53, and it's quoted in Matthew, which gives it, uh, it's called, which makes us realize it's context, uh, verse four of Isaiah 53.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
And this verse is, I believe, quoted in Matthew, I think. I think it is. And there it's in the context of the Lord Jesus feeling with those he came in contact with in his pathway, the suffering that and sorrow that sin had brought into the world. Why did he touch the leper? Why did he put his hand on the eyes or ears of the one that he was healing? He felt with that person the effects that sin and the curse had brought in.
And so this verse does not apply to the cross. Yes, there's verses in this chapter in the 53rd of Isaiah that I've referred to as the toning sufferings, but we need to differentiate between the two. Both are important and vital in their context, but they are very different.
00:15:01
Wish to bring out something that.
I'll say it's very precious to my own heart and didn't really lay itself upon my soul in a living reality until a few years ago when I met.
A Jewish man.
In Israel.
And became attached to him in some ways and started tell them that I had adopted him as my brother. He's not a believer in the Lord Jesus.
But to my own soul, the heart and soul of these verses is this.
First, by way of introduction in verse five down through verse 10, it's about the Lord Jesus. It's about Jesus, it's personal, it's about himself. We've been occupied with himself in the morning reading as a person. There's no one else connected in those verses until we get to this.
Umm 11 tenth verse and it's still about himself in preparation for.
Others. And then in verse 11 to the end, it's about others connected with himself.
It's already been said. It's probably been said three or four or five times, but it needs to be said again.
These verses, this epistle is written to the Hebrew believer. There's only one verse in the whole of Hebrews that directly connects itself with the church, which is us, if you will, and that's in chapter 12. But when it says, brethren, here.
And when it says the seed of Abraham here, they and I, and the children which God hath given me here, it has a very specific and intense sense.
Of the Lord Jesus earthly. I'm going to put it this way, relative.
The partook of the seed of Abraham. He was born into that specific family on earth.
And just as you and I in this room belong to families, and there is something about our natural family relationships that is expressed when we're not here and and we're still on, that is personal and individual and important and specific to the family to which we belong.
The Lord Jesus was a perfect man having an earthly connection of family that were his natural brethren and he loved them as such. You see that intensity in the Apostle Paul in Romans when his desire, he said I'd be a curse for my brethren, and he was referring to his fellow Hebrew.
Person.
The Lord Jesus had in coming among men, He came here in a specific relationship, naturally speaking to an earthly people, and in a natural way they were His brethren. They weren't His children. There's a difference in that, but they were His brethren and He loved them as such and right to the very end of His life.
He maintained that sense of love that is characteristic of natural relationships, and so on the cross, he expressed it as one of the very acts of his life when he entrusted his own mother into the hands of John.
And the Lord Jesus.
Love them.
And in Isaiah chapter 8, it says, behold, I is quoted in verse 13 here, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me, when it's the children here among that people, the Hebrews, those who had faith, those who were truly going to have the heavenly calling and destiny with himself and as a new race.
00:20:02
Our children, they're the same children that are referred to in Hebrews 21 when it says be I love my master, my wife, that's us and my children, and that's the children of faith among the Hebrews.
Here he is.
If it can be entered into in the heart, it's an expression of the heart of the Lord Jesus for them. He came down among them. They were his natural family.
And he presented God to them, and some of them accepted it and became the children that God had given him. But his love for them was intense all the way through. And that's something of what? And those who accepted were drawn from it to the heavenly calling.
You get a little sense in your heart of it in two other ways in the Old Testament.
Uh, one of them is not particularly emphasized, but Moses was leading.
If you will, brothers and sisters and cousins and uncles and aunts and so on. That was it was a family together that some of them didn't make it. Some of them weren't a faith. And so they were left behind in the wilderness. And there was that sadness to it. But you see the heart of Moses toward them in that way. And in Joseph, his life is another Old Testament picture of this same.
Sense of family When you see Joseph's brethren being restored to Joseph, you are seeing.
The brethren of the Lord Jesus being restored to him during the tribulation. And when you see Joseph's heart toward his brethren when that work is going on, you're seeing a picture of the heart of the Lord Jesus toward those that were his own. And so these verses have a broader application or interpretation, but the heart of them.
Is seeing if you enter into the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Toward his, his brethren. And we, we can enter into it when we recognize our own hearts. If a particular love for our children, our cousins or whatever that's in this room, it's a double relationship. And we if they're not the Lords and the gospel is being preached and we recognize they have to be children of God, then we have a special burden.
As the Gospels preached for them.
That it that it be brought that way. And so I just encourage you to see the Lord Jesus as a man.
Who, like you, has that special feeling toward those of the seed of Abraham?
Some of these verses look on. Just give an example in verse 12.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church, or it's really should be assembly. Will I sing praise unto Thee? We had it already, but go back to the 22nd Psalm.
You get the sense of it.
And the 22nd Psalm.
It says in verse 22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
He looks forward.
Not only for the heavenly called out ones of the of the Hebrews, but when the nation itself is restored to its place before God, who's going to lead us to praise Himself?
00:25:00
Himself. That's what it is in the 22nd verse. It's not about us here. It's about himself and his, His people of Earth, His earthly family.
He says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. It's the same expression, my brethren, and that's what it refers to. And it says in the midst of the congregation or assembly, or in the New Testament, the word church was used. I will praise thee, and he will have this.
Cents with umm and Zachariah where it says what are these wounds, those with which.
I was he was wounded in the House of his friends, he feels.
The feelings of the very, if, if I could put it this way, it's one thing if somebody you're not related to treat you a certain way, but there is an intensity of feeling if it's your wife or one of your children or one of your family members that you have this natural relationship with.
And you feel their rejection or for you feel a difficulty that has come in. And so he says, these are the ones in the House of my friends at the zeal of thy house that's eaten me up. And he quotes But when it comes to the end result. And again, this is not the heavenly side of those that are called out with him for as his children for heaven, but.
It's the thought of his own personal.
Umm, love.
In relationship to the seed of Abraham.
Brother Don TH in this chapter that we're in, though, this is applying to the church, not to you're giving two different aspects of something. No, it does not apply to the church as the church in in this chapter, there's only one verse in Hebrews that isn't to the Hebrews as well, and that is in chapter 12, the Church of the first born.
We, we, we tend, we tend to want to apply everything to ourselves. And, and when brothers were saying, and that's why I emphasized in the beginning the fact that it's written to Hebrew believers. That's what it's written to.
Just be. Maybe I'm maybe I didn't make myself clear. In Psalms 22, it's written to the Jews, it's written to that particular verse, and here it's written as a prophetic of the great congregation of Israel and it's restored state to the Lord.
Yes, but here it's the church in Hebrews or.
I'm, I'm asking as a question, I'm not challenging you. I just wanna make sure I understand. Umm, I, I do not believe that what is in view in verse 12 is the church.
Others may I don't wanna I'll leave it with the Lord. I do not believe that verse 12. I just wonder because of the context it says umm where it says umm in verse 11 for both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one or like kind. So that would be those who would be uniquely identified with Christ that would represent the church. But the context of the sentence goes on for which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren saying.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. So it seems like the context I I don't know if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm just it just seems the context is the flow that that one is is typical of what is going to happen in the future with Israel. But this is what pertains to the church today. I.
You have a similar situation when you come to the business for Peter. The epistles to Peter are not written to the church either, are they? They're written to the elect among the Jews. Perhaps some of the difficulty in our mind is we equate a Christian blessedness in totality without a collective blessedness of the church, which is really brought out in Paul's epistle, such as Ephesians and Colossians. And so there is that distinction where you don't have the church truth per SE brought out. I would like to just add there in the 22nd Psalm, you see the rippling effect of that blessing on earth as it goes out.
It begins in the 22nd verse. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. Perhaps that was just believing Jews, those the two tribes that ripples out in verse 25. My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation. Perhaps that extends to all of Israel in the 27th verse. This is all the ends of the world to remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before Thee. Now we know that the blessing on earth will extend out to the nations.
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And then we come down in verse 31. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born in future generations. He hath done this. So we have that marvelous work of Christ that it blends again. That's all of an earthly scene, which is you can get in connection with Hebrews as we've already had. It's wilderness epistle. It's the heavenly call. We're not seen as seated in the heavenlies yet. And so there are those distinctions. Just make one of the common. As an aside, let me turn to Romans chapter 9:10 and 11:00. We see the Gentiles, not the Jews now, but the Gentiles brought into a special place of favor on the earth.
You say that's the church. No, it's not the church.
It's an hour place of blessedness on earth with the light of Christian benefits. And that's what Romans takes up the Gentile side, the Gentiles brought into a place of blessing. But that is not the church per SE. And we find here in the same way. And again, I think the Epistle to Peter are especially helpful in that way because you have the truth of priesthood and things like that. You see, those are proper Christian blessings. But it isn't the Church of God, the Assembly of God in that sense. So it's it's a distinction. And in our minds we might.
We might combine them together, but again, the, uh, the Epistle to Hebrews does not take up assembly truth per Southeast.
But we can distinguish between the church and Christianity, can't we? So the book of Romans doesn't take up the church either. It just barely mentioned at the end, but it takes up Christianity. It's the foundation of Christianity. And so with all these epistles, Hebrews was written for Christians too, wasn't it? They were Jewish Christians historically, but the interpretation is broader, isn't it? He's certainly our high priest as well, as he was the high priest for the Jewish believers.
And so, uh, uh, but it's not church truth because church truth embraces union with Christ, which we don't have in this epistle, but it's certainly Christian truth. Is that your thought, Bill? Yes. Is that Ed? You understand it? Yes, I do, I appreciate that. Thank you. I think we're all on the same page there.
The oneness of kind that's mentioned here in verse 11 is that the oneness that we have in the new creation is linked with Him.
That's important to see. There's different onenesses in the scripture. We have the oneness of the body of Christ. That's not here. We have oneness in the family of God. That's not here that be in John's ministry, but here it's the oneness in the, uh, the new creation. And so 3 scriptures are quoted from the Old Testament here. And to give the principle of the thing of how he is so associated with that new company of sons that he's bringing to glory in the new creation. And we are all of one in that sense.
We're partakers of the divine nature, aren't we?
Is that a similar thought in Peter?
We're not divine. We will never be divine.
But we are partakers of the divine nature.
We might even mention in verse 13 we have a couple quotations. Umm, the first one is from Isaiah 8.
I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God has given me. Uh, the margin, uh, points that also to, uh, Isaiah 8817 and 18 we have there. And that's during Israel's defection, is it not?
That he acquires children during Israel's defection.
Which are the believers of the present period?
00:35:18
Become as little children, ye shall not at all enter the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven.
That is, they had to learn to become little children. It's the same word here. You could have translated this little children, and it seems so suitable for this epistle.
Uh, the Lord is leading humble little children to become, to be brought sons under glory, but they're under tutoring or discipline. Uh, it's related to the word chastisement or discipline also, but it's in the dimuni diminutive form. So it's the idea of little children that are subject to him, his leadership, their Big Brother. You might see if I can speak reverently.
And they were receiving a Kingdom like we have, uh, at the end of uh, chapter 12. But we have brought in adopted son and we can claim these same things for ourselves. The word for church here is called out. We're called out Also, we all, we, we Gentiles have that same heavenly calling.
And being more familiar with the Old Testament scriptures, we can understand what he's talking about here.
Just like the native natural born children.
If he was going to have a people for himself, his children, he had to.
Do what was necessary to free them.
From that which would keep them.
From that place God desired for them. So in verse 14 he partakes the flesh and blood.
That's his manhood. He partakes of it.
So that through death could deliver them.
The children of Israel had needed a not a ruler and a judge, but they needed a deliverer. They needed one that could take them from where they are to where God wanted them to be. And so for us.
The the case that the Lord Jesus had to come down and He had to partake of flesh and blood, and He had to go through that which would enable Him to be the captain of our salvation and to be our deliverer. And so one of the enemies of the purpose calling was death.
And if death were not conquered, as to its claim over us?
Then.
We couldn't be brought into that place that God purposed and desired for our blessing. So we thank God that He is able to be the captain of salvation through that which He has done and has doing for us, having an all the power of death.
I have a little problem here.
When these things that we have been speaking about now and that we have been reading.
I meant for Jewish believers.
Which has been emphasized all the way through when we who are non Jewish heritage read these things, how can we then enjoy these scriptures knowing that they're not for us, they're just for believing Jews?
00:40:11
To them, it's for us.
Mm-hmm. Let me just give you a little illustration from quoting from the Old Testament. We often think of that Scripture in Zephaniah in connection with him joining over them with singing when he's in the midst of them. Well, we know from the context that God's earthly people, there's going to be a day when there's a shout of the king amongst them. He's going to lead the singing amongst his earthly people.
But we think about if, when we think about that, if that's true in connection with his earthly people, we can think about it in connection with the fact that he's going to rejoice over us in the coming day. If it's true of his earthly people that he has re, He will read, he has redeemed or will re as a result of the work of Calvary, won't it be true of the heavenly company as well? Who's going to lead the singing in heaven? He's going to lead the singing. And so.
In its context.
It's about Israel and we want to keep it in its proper context. But I thought what Eric said was good. We can, when we separate the church and Christianity, then we can in a sense apply it and enjoy it in connection with it, in relationship to our position, whether it's now or in a future day.
Would you say that this is the only epistle that really has an emphasis on priesthood?
And somebody has said that priesthood is like the fence that is built at the top of the Cliff to prevent you from going over it.
And advocacy is like the hospital that's at the bottom if you do fall over it.
And then there if you look at comparing Hebrews with Romans and Galatians, in the book of Galatians you have the cross of Christ predominantly brought before us. In the book of Romans you have the death of Christ predominantly brought before us. But in the book of Hebrews you have the the blood of Christ, and it's the fact that it, its power brought predominantly before us.
So there's an emphasis in those three epistles and they are for us to lay, for us to lay hold of, for our our confidence and blessing in what Christ has done.
Like to make a comment on verse 16 by reading the new translation. It says for he does not indeed take hold of angels by the hand, but takes hold of the seed of Abraham.
To take hold of by the hand is is that sense of coming near to someone.
And.
As you will take hold of them and it's.
It's a precious thing to realize that.
He comes near.
To us and to those here, He comes near and as it were, takes hold of us by the hand. I wanna give a little illustration of it. It's not this point here, but I think it gets the heart of it. Umm. A few years ago I had occasion to have a conversation with a man that had cancer.
And uh.
At that point he was under treatment, but they didn't know whether.
The treatment would be.
Bring out the results of life or whether he was going to die.
And so we were talking about Matthew 11.
Where we have the Lord Jesus say, Come unto me.
Take my yoke upon you and I will give you rest.
And the thought expressed in the conversation was the needs before him in his circumstance to.
Come nearer to the Lord Jesus and accept with the Lord the yoke, that they might go through the trial together, and and there would be in that way peace to his soul.
00:45:08
And he answered with a very, to me, wonderful response to the thought. He said, you know, I've thought about it, the Lord Jesus was.
A Carpenter, and he made good jokes and he knew how to make those yolks in a way that was suited to the circumstance of what they were yoked, what was being yoked. And he said I can willingly accept a yoke of his own making.
For the two of us.
And he died with that peace.
That's in a certain way in which.
The Lord is fitted to come near to us, to be merciful and faithful to us in the circumstances of life, in taking us all the way home.
And here we have him in that.
Capacity to do that and we need him in that.
To take us safely to our home.
And the Lord Jesus can do that because in the 30 plus years that he lived here in this world, he never got used to sin. And it's a it's effect, did he? You know, we get used to sin and it's effect to some degree, if we're not careful, we get callous to things. Perhaps we pass through something a number of times. We kind of build up a wall and we become a little callous or even indifferent. We perhaps hear things from day-to-day and.
After a while it's like we don't even hear it anymore. But I was thinking of the Lord Jesus as a man as he stood at the grave of Lazarus in the 11Th chapter of John. And it's an interesting statement that's repeated twice concerning the Lord Jesus there. He groaned in spirit. It's repeated twice and I believe for a very good reason and in a different context, when he came to the grave and he saw Mary and the others weeping.
He groaned in spirit and was troubled, and Jesus wept. He wept there. He groaned there as the sympathizer. When he saw the weeping of Mary, who loved her brother, He fully entered in and sympathized with Mary. But then a couple of verses later, he groaned in spirit again. Why? Because he felt, even after 30 some years, the effects that sin had brought into this world.
And he felt it very keenly. He never got used to it. And so the Lord Jesus, as a man now, the same man that stood at the grave of Lazarus and groaned in spirit twice. The same man that wept. The same man that went through the circumstances of this life, from being a baby born in Bethlehem's Manger till he ascended back to heaven on the Mount from the Mount of Olives. He is the same man that is now our merciful and faithful High Priest.
And that ought to be a great comfort, you know, taking up many things in these readings, many precious things. And perhaps there are some here who say, well, I just didn't seem to grasp a lot of it. It just seems so wonderful. And it is wonderful. And it, it takes time, meditation and going over these things and the work of the Spirit of God so that we can at least in some measure grasp and enjoy these things. But one thing we can't understand is what we have in these last few verses of the chapter.
And that is that you and I have a man in the glory at God's right hand, whose living forests as our merciful and faithful high priest. And there's a him in our little block hymn book that sums up, sums it up very well. He in the days of feeble flesh poured out his cries and tears, and though ascended fields afresh what every member bears. And in the chapters that follow here he's going to go on to develop at some length.
The subject of the priesthood of Christ and the Lord Jesus was never a priest on earth. Very important to understand that he never was a priest on earth. But remember, Hebrews doesn't present to us so much the Lord's work on earth as the results of his work and where he is now. It's not so much wha, wha, who it, it's not so much what, uh, as he was, but it as he is.
00:50:21
And the Spirit of God is very careful when he takes up the subject of the high priestly work of Christ, that is the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God. Now later on in the 8th chapter, he sums it up by saying of the things which we are have spoken, this is the sum. We have a high priest who is set down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, because as he says in that chapter, he was not a high priest on earth. Why? Because the Lord Jesus was not from the priestly tribe of Levi. He was from the kingly tribe of Judah. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah.
And it would have been very wrong for the Lord Jesus to go in and offer a sacrifice when He was in the temple, when He was here on earth, would have been very wrong. He never did it, but now, as the offended glorified man, which is what Hebrews presents, where, not where He was, but where He is now, that he can introduce and go on and take up the subject of His priestly function.
I think what you bring out, Brother Jim, is important because it's hard for us, especially if we've been raised in the light of Christian truth and blessedness.
To put ourselves back in the position of the Jew under law, and especially with regard to this matter of through fear of death.
Uh, we're all the lifetime subject to *******. We don't understand what it was for the Lord Jesus not to have come and gone into death and risen from the dead to say I have the keys of death and health. We don't understand that. All we have known is the death and resurrection of Christ. You see one like Hezekiah who feared death. They didn't know what lay beyond. And so you see the Jewish position.
And it's beautifully illustrated and often commented on that the story of David and Goliath brings a great illustration of the truth of annulling the power of the devil. Again, the devil is not destroyed. Ultimately, his end is the lake of fire, but he's the Prince of the power of the air. Today he is not destroyed, but his power and death has been annulled. And we see that as Goliath went up and down and instilled terror into the hearts of the Israelites, the champion of the Philistine, and that sword that speaks of the power of death. No one would want to stand up to that.
Well, you know David, a picture of Christ crucified in weakness. He goes down to meet the giant in the valley of Elah. And ultimately, after the stone is put into Goliath's forehead and David takes Goliath's own sword and severs his head, the very instrument by which the hearts of the children of Israel failed them for fear. He took that the sword, the power of death, and cut off the lion's head. Their fear was gone. The enemy had been vanquished for him. Ultimately it was destroyed.
But it's a beautiful illustration for us. And then we see that at the cross the Lord Jesus could say this is your hour and the power of darkness. But the Lord Jesus went into death and he and he annulled him that had the power of death. And now we know him as arisen, arisen Christ. He's on the other side of death. And it's so beautiful there in that assembly in Smyrna, that suffering church that were faithful unto death. He presents himself as the 1St and the last, the one that had been dead and is alive again. He said you're going into that, but I've already gone through that before you and I'm on the other side for you.
And so we, we stand in the rest, in the blessedness of a risen Christ to give us assurance which these dear, uh, Jewish believers, year after year, they did not know this. And now they're coming into the, the one of the great blessings of the death of Christ.
So we can say in First Corinthians 3, just as a further thought, Paul can say all things are yours, life or death and so on.
Belongs to the believer.
Who are those who are delivered here in verse 15?
Says deliver them. Who would they? Who would them be?
I think you can tell us, Bruce.
00:55:00
I mean, I suppose the the quick answer with the Old Testament Saints, but how did the death of Christ deliver Old Testament Saints from the death when they passed through death and died? It wasn't it those under the law, particularly those that were under the sentence of the law?
At the time of the Lord's death.
I see.
The Jewish people too, particularly were all their blessings had to do with the earth.
And there was not only a fear of what was beyond death, but the very thought of death meant to be cut off from that for which you had your blessing.
For us, death has No Fear because our blessings, first of all, we live in resurrection for children of God and the victory was won and when the Lord Jesus went into a man in resurrection.
Why would I fear death when God has already demonstrated his power to me that that to which he has called me for blessing is there's a living man who has gone through death and is on the other side of it and my blessings are on that his side, if you will. And and I think though, for the Jewish mind of the of the Hebrew believer, particularly, although it might include others, but it was death was.
To be feared as that cut me off.
From everything that I had been promised as far as earthly blessings, because they weren't promised heaven.
They didn't know they had faith that went beyond Abraham, looked beyond but not as a revelation. But it wasn't a promise to Abraham, but he had the confidence and faith that there was something better for him. But at the same time, death was the end of hope as far as presence. And you see it not necessarily in the fear side of it, but people today live for now because.
That's coming, and they have nothing beyond it. The only thing they have to live for is the here and now. And I want to get as much as I can, as long as I can because, well, that is the end of what I anticipate or know to be my joy, my happiness. And that makes that fear as that which will cut me off from that for which I live.
Suppose we could say that the martyrs were examples of this, aren't they?
The authorities in those days felt that the fear of death would dissuade him from any principle belief. And yet they didn't fear death. We know the early Christians, the stories are told of young women who dressed in their unmarried woman, who dressed in their wedding garments when they went into the arena to meet a certain death because they knew soon they'd be in the Lord's presence. And we read untold stories, don't we, of martyrs who, uh, did not fear death.
And, uh, many, many stories of those even during the days of the Reformation.
Who, uh, the authorities thought they could, uh, dissuade him? The power of Satan was death, and that's what those men feared. But these martyrs didn't fear that death, did they? They knew there was something higher and greater than death and beyond that. And so they weren't subject to ******* I suppose. Uh, there are those who were subject to *******. They felt, uh, they many, many gave up in apostasize rather than face death.
But the martyrs did not. And they went forward and were delivered. They didn't have this. They, they, they were delivered those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. But they're those who did not fear death because they knew what was beyond. And they went to those stakes and, uh, those tortures and, uh, the annals of Christianity are full of that because they didn't fear Satan's ultimate tool.
That of death.
Well, we're running short on time and just to, uh, summarize a little bit, perhaps again, we're speaking from verse 10, perhaps even a little sooner, but the foregrounds for which for Christ's humiliation. And again, uh, perhaps we can say as recently as verse 10, it was for God's glory. God had purposes and it required that the Lord Jesus.
01:00:19
Become a man and be made perfect through suffering.
And then secondly.
Uh, we have, uh, in verse, umm, 14 for the destruction of Satan's power. What we're just speaking about the, uh, death is Satan's ultimate, uh, ultimate, uh, tool, but he has no power beyond death. And so the Lord Jesus became, uh, became a man came into this world in order to destroy the power of 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 that *******. And then in verse six, uh, verse 17, as we mentioned, we might want to clear the language up a little bit here. But in verse 17, wherefore in all things that behoove him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God to make. And uh, we notice the margin here.
Propitiation for the sins of the people. Sins are not reconciled. People are reconciled, but sins are never reconciled. No such thing as reconciling sins. Sins need to be propitiated. They need to be satisfied by a perfect sacrifice, and that's the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we might make that change in our margin or perhaps circle the change. And then the last is what we have in verse 18.
For in that He himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor or help them that are tempted. He came that he might be a sympathetic High priest for us at the present time. So four reasons for Christ's humiliation.
Nsnoise.
Wonder if someone could help us a little bit with uh, verse 17. It's been well said already that, uh, the board.
Jesus could not have been a high priest on earth. This verse, uh, as others have written, is perhaps a singular verse in that it, uh, seems to connect his high priesthood with making propitiation for the sins of the people. And, uh, another is written that even in that though, uh, he was lifted up from the earth and, uh, so perhaps someone have a, a thought on that.
When Aaron.
And the priest?
Where to?
Take an offering from the people.
To bring it as a sacrifice to God.
They themselves couldn't be the sacrifice. They couldn't do anything. They were taking an animal.
For that.
And bringing it before God for themselves.
But in in a different way. The Lord Jesus personally himself.
Propitiate to God with respect to sin.
He was one who.
If you will properly met the holy requirements of God in the offense to God that sin was.
And having done that.
He also in heaven has become the one that Himself could present matters before God for us.
And he, in some ways, he fulfills things that in the Old Testament picture, they could not do.
But he can do and has done for us and having done it for.
Uh, she now acts as a faithful and merciful high Priest.
01:05:00
In other words, there was the altar of sacrifice.
There was the labor, there was ultimately the ark in the presence of God, and they were pictures about the fulfillment of every single one of them was himself.
And now and there was blood connected with some of them, all of them really, and it was his blood. Later on in a different aspect in in Chapter 9 and 10, he himself enters into the presence of God as the offering, presents himself to God as the offering. And having made it and having shed his precious blood, he can once for all sit down.
Umm. And so some of these things are contrasting him to that which really couldn't properly satisfy the holy claim of God. But he only is the only one that could propitiate.
With respect to sin.
So when the flesh is a man of Israel, he could not enter into this into the sanctuary because he was at the tribe of Judah. We're told that later on, but in tight and in reality at the cross, he was both priests and sacrifice. Is that right? Yeah, I think that's a simple answer. There you have the three great types in the Old Testament of Christ and and priesthood. What Phineas because he made atonement.
He was given an everlasting priesthood as an atonement. Aaron is a type of Christ in his present place as the high priest, Intercession is the leading thought. And in the Kingdom, it's gonna be out, uh, the type of Melchizedek, not the order there, but the type of Melchizedek that is a king and a priest. And we see that that's unmixed blessing. But today it's the, the type of, of Aaron is the high priest. And of course, the Lord Jesus had to go into death and then ascend on high before he could move into his capacities as a high priest interceding for us.
And that is after the order of Melchizedek. Whereas the, uh, ironic priesthood of Hold is only good as long as he lived, and then he died and the next one came on. But the order of Melchizedek is eternal.
You know, we get in the 9th chapter, for instance, just as our time is running out, but it it says in verse 26 For then must he often Hebrews 926 have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world of the consummation of the ages hath he appeared. That's Christ to put away sin. And then notice this last part by the sacrifice of himself. So there he's both sacrificed and priest.
#35 in the appendix.
35 in the appendix.
#35 in the appendix was given out.
Nsnoise.