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I have a secret, a secret for holy living, a secret on how to live the
Christian life well. It's rarely discussed, that's probably why it's a secret, but understanding this secret, you can have more contentment in your life.
You can have a more pure thought life. You can be nicer to other people.
You can love other people with Christ -like love. When you're in a trial, you can persevere in that trial better.
It's a secret doctrine that unlocks all of those struggles and trials and much more.
I wonder what that secret is, wouldn't you like to know the secret? It's not really a secret, but it is so buried in how -to lists in evangelicalism.
It's so covered up with, if I just do the right thing as a Christian, it'll all work out.
The secret for holy living in the Bible has nothing to do with lists, has nothing to do with post -its, has nothing to do with how -to's.
It has nothing to do with our faithfulness. It has everything to do with faith in the right object.
The just shall live by faith. That is the key to Christian living.
Of course, faithfulness follows faith. But having the right object, having the faith in the right object,
Jesus Christ, is the key to the Christian life. Romans 1,
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
Galatians 2 .20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. Galatians 3, Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
And even in the book of Hebrews that we're studying now, my righteous one shall live by faith.
Turn your Bibles, please, if you would, not to Hebrews 2, but to Hebrews 13. I want you to think big picture for a while.
You might be thinking, you know what, so many weeks in Hebrews, so many chapters in Hebrews that we're not talking about what to do, and to -do lists, and I just have to check these things off my list.
I need some practical application. Now we know that all doctrine is practical and all practice is doctrinal, as one of the
Puritans would say. But knowing the right object of your faith will lead you, will drive you to, will help you with your response of faithfulness.
Faith in the right object comes first. Faithfulness, our responsibility, our response to God will certainly follow.
Does not the book of Hebrews even teach us that? Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and half of 10, it has to do with the object of our faith.
Jesus is the high priest. And in light of all those 10 chapters of doctrinal focusing, the focal point on Jesus, the high priest, the mediator between God and man, then he says, in light of that right object, you should live in a holy fashion.
Hebrews 13, the conduct will come out of our walk of faith.
Faithfulness, though, follows faith. Let love, verse 1 of chapter 13, let love of the brethren continue.
He moves this very practical section. He doesn't even say, therefore, or also, and don't forget.
It just flows normally. It just flows quickly. It's almost like, of course, hooked to the engine of the object of your faith.
The caboose is just there. Whenever I drive to the church, there's some railroad tracks over there by the
Clinton football field. And when I was there with Kim the other day, I saw the engine drive by first, and I thought we might as well turn around and go the other direction because I know something about engines.
They usually don't go solo. Maybe if you're a trained person, you can correct me. But there's a long line of cars and then the caboose.
Early on, the book of Hebrews is saying you have to have the right object of your faith. And by the way, this is really a life -changing thing because what if your
Christianity was determined by your faithfulness? I can guilt you like mad because I can guilt myself.
Let's try. How's your prayer life this week? I mean, after all,
Luther said, I'm so busy today, I have to pray for four hours. How's your prayer life this week?
How's your ministry this week? We just go down the list. How's your Bible memory this week? How's your Bible reading this week?
And we go down the list and we think, you know what? I keep feeling like I'm shrinking. Actually, I am.
I used to be 6 '2", now I'm 6 '0". But I'm shrinking spiritually too because you just see what's required.
Of course, it's good to pray. Of course, it's good to read the Bible. But early on, the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't forget the object of your faith.
So then when you see these other areas that flow from it, it's the caboose to the engine, you'll say,
I have a power to do it. When I fail, look at verse 1, let the love of the brethren continue.
Don't read those verses without thinking the great high priest. There is one who did perfectly with brotherly love, love other people.
And he's our example. He's our model. He's our power to do it as he's given us the spirit.
You could go to another one. Verse 2, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Loving strangers.
For this, by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it. This is all faithfulness in light of who
Jesus is. Remember the prisoners, verse 3. Verse 4, let marriage be held in honor among all.
And let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers. God will judge.
God highly honors, highly esteems, highly values marriage. And when you look backwards in Hebrews, and you see this great high priest, who actually when he laid down his life for the church, pictures marriage.
Then you begin to think, okay, the way that I could be more content with money, if you go to verse 5, let your character be free from the love of money.
Being content with what you have. For he himself emphatically said, there are five negatives in the
Greek here, just load it up, so you get the point. I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever desert you, and I'll never, ever forsake you.
So we confidently then say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What shall man do to me? My question is this this morning. Why doesn't
Hebrews 13 belong in Hebrews 1? I mean, we like practical, we like some how -to -do lists.
How -to -do list? How do you do lists? Why isn't chapter 13 in chapter 1?
Why is it arranged this way? Answer, because the key to Christian life is not
Hebrews 13 faithfulness, it's faith in Christ Jesus, which then will lend itself to faithfulness.
The righteous shall live by what? Faith. And so all these things detract our mind and distract our mind away from a biblical view of Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews wants to make sure, and he painstakingly makes sure that we know
Jesus is who he says he is, and the right thinking about God determines everything about you.
So now let's go back to Hebrews chapter 2, where we are today. I want to just make sure you understand, as we look at the book of Hebrews, if you're not careful, you might fall into that trap.
It's another sermon today about who Jesus is. Now we wouldn't really say that. I can't believe we had to hear about Jesus for another hour today.
You say, there are marriage issues, there's contentment issues, there's brotherly love issues. Those all will be helped and will flow from the right object of your faith.
So he's got the magnifying glass and the sun's in the back.
You ever do that when you were a kid? This bright, hot Nebraska sun. It's 98 out, and I mean temperature and humidity, the same thing, 98 by 98.
And you get that magnifying glass out. At the very end of the magnifying glass, there's that white, hot, hot focal point.
And that's perfect to burn grasshoppers with. I mean, if you're a Nebraska kid, that'd be perfect for that.
We would never do it, but we would beat up the kids that did. He's taking the
Old Testament in chapter 1. Jesus is the sun, the divine sun.
And the focal point of the New Testament, all driving down to this white, hot spot is, He is
God. And to the Jew listening to the book of Hebrews, these Jewish people, you mean Jesus is
God? But He's not only God, chapter 2 we move into, He is the
God -man. Because to be the high priest, He's got to be God to intercede on behalf of God, and man to intercede on behalf of man.
So as you feel in yourself, okay, I want this to drive to application.
It does drive to application. Show me someone with poor habits, I'll show you poor theology in their life, and vice versa.
So we come to Hebrews chapter 2, right thinking about the object of your faith.
Before we say the quantity of your faith, the quality of your faith, the quantity of faithfulness, it has to be, the main question is, knowing who
Jesus is, and as a God -man, He lives a perfect life, He dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead, to get that crystal clear in our minds.
So then in fact we can run the race with endurance. Yes? Without Jesus the high priest, all the commands of God, be content, be sexually pure, love other people, all those commands would drive us where?
It wouldn't drive us to run the race with endurance, it would make us run for our lives. We've got to get out of this place, how could we ever do it?
But you run with endurance, fixing your eyes on, how often you prayed today, how often you did such and such, no, fixing your eyes on the
God -man of chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Looking at the high priest, the divinity of Jesus found in chapter 1, and now the humanity of Jesus in chapter 2.
The writer is smart, he knows that you may feel the tug of saying,
Jesus is man, that maybe makes him inferior. How can Jesus really be great if he's a man?
I mean, after all, angels are great, God is greater, but on the pecking order of God, angels, man, if Jesus is the
God -man to be our mediator, to be our priest, what's going on with the pecking order?
How can Jesus be superior to angels and still be a man?
I mean, he suffered, he died. How can he be such a great high priest?
So let's look now at verses 5 through 9. We began last week to look at this, how the incarnation makes
Jesus just for a little while lower than the angels, but after his death and exaltation, he no longer is lower than the angels.
My outline this morning is simple. Three facts about Jesus designed to fix your faith on the right object.
Three facts about Jesus designed to fix your faith on the right object, to think clearly with focal point on who
Jesus is, which then will lend itself for faithful living. Three facts about Jesus.
We're going to look at Jesus' subjection of all things regains what Adam's lost. We're going to see
Jesus' suffering leads to glory and we will see Jesus' substitution is motivated by grace.
All walking by faith in the right object. Number one,
Jesus' subjection of all things regains what Adam lost. That's the first fact about Jesus, the object of your faith.
We looked at this last week, didn't we? In verse 5 of Hebrews 2. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking.
Remember in Daniel 10 and Daniel 12 the principalities controlling certain territories, angels designated as the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece, Michael the great prince.
They may have the world subjected to them now or before the death of Christ.
But in the world to come, notice verse 5, that's all Jesus' realm. That's no longer angels' realm.
That is Jesus' realm. There's a time when Jesus was raised from the dead and enthroned that made him the ruler.
Angels aren't ultimately the rulers. Jesus is. Adam fell.
You've got to have a man regain paradise and that's exactly what happened. Verse 6 of Hebrews 2.
It has been testified somewhere. He's quoting everything from the Greek version of the Old Testament and he quotes from Psalm 8.
What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.
So think back into the garden time before the fall. You can hear the echo of Genesis 1.
Man is to rule the earth. Man is to have everything in subjection to him. He is to have dominion over the earth.
And then Adam falls. And now he's lost paradise.
There is an ultimate man, as we learned last week, the last Adam who undoes all of what
Adam did. Everything is in subjection to Adam.
He loses it and a man has to regain it. Angels can't regain it.
A legion of angels can't regain it. And you almost get a little hint of who this person is by the language of verse 6.
Or the son of man. I think that's a good hint. Did not
Jesus call himself the son of man? That might not be the perfect translation in the
Greek for when he would use son of man in the New Testament, but it's certainly an echo of the true restore of humanity.
It is Jesus, not just the son of God, but the son of man. Man fell.
Man had to regain. First Adam lost it. The last Adam, Jesus, gains it.
He fulfills everything that the first man should have done. It says in verse 8, giving the interpretation, which is certainly a
Christ -centered interpretation of Psalm 8. We noticed this last week, did we not? Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.
At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. God rules.
The God -man rules over all the earth. Even though when you look at the world now, you might not think, oh, everything's going the way it should if Jesus were at the helm, there's a future subjection as well, and we know that happens when the
Lord returns. Psalm 8 is interpreted messianically by Paul in 1
Corinthians 15 and in Ephesians 1, and now this writer, Hebrews, does the same thing.
What was lost by man was regained by man, capital M. Secondly, and now we move to new ground, the second fact about Jesus designed to fix your faith on the right object, himself, the high priest, not only does
Jesus' subjection of all things regain what Adam lost, Jesus' suffering leads to glory.
Jesus' suffering leads to glory. Side note, did you notice we're using some alliteration?
I know sometimes you want me to use alliteration every week, and maybe that's the Baptist in you, but I just want you to know, for today,
I used alliteration. I used double alliteration, just to be clear, just for you double
Baptists. I'll never forget the time Kim and I went to see a baptism in Los Angeles, and this lady was at our
Bible study, she got saved, Steve and Janet might remember. She was in the Hollywood industry, and so she wanted to do everything like Hollywood style.
And so why just get baptized one time? There was a church in downtown L .A. that baptized in the name of the
Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. So that was a triple baptism.
Jesus' suffering leads to glory. Think big picture. Who's better, Jesus or angels?
That's chapter 2. How could Jesus be better than angels? Well, angels don't cloak themselves or add humanity and then die, but Jesus dies, but His suffering doesn't end in the cross.
I mean, it doesn't end at the cross. It leads to glory. Look at the writer's interpretation of Psalm 8.
He's no longer quoting Psalm 8. Verse 9, But we see Him with eyes of faith, of course, who for a little while was made lower than the angels.
Not Adam. Namely, and for the first time in this book, He uses the human name of Jesus.
Why would He use the human name of Jesus? Well, the answer is obvious. To ask it is to answer it.
Namely, Jesus, by the way, He's not lower than angels now, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.
Namely, Jesus. The Son of Man is introduced as Jesus because that is
His name. Remember, when we say Jesus Christ, we're not talking about Mike Abendroth.
What is your first name and your last name? Jesus' last name isn't Messiah. His name is
Jesus. That's the name His parents gave Him. And when you say Jesus, you're focusing on humanity.
When you say Christ, you're focusing on His deity. And here the focus is on His humanity.
Why? Because it's humanity that suffers. God doesn't have a body. God can't suffer on a tree.
God the Son has to now add humanity so He can suffer. That's what makes Him better than the angels.
No angel added human form or human name or actual human nature.
Michael didn't do it. Here He's called Jesus because He suffered and really died.
And if you're a Jewish person and you hear this name Jesus, you would be thinking that's a man's name, but you'd also be thinking that's the
Old Testament Hebrew God saves. Joshua. Jehoshua.
He saves. God, the incarnate God, saves. And I love the way the writer says it in verse 9, we see
Him. What is this? Actual, optical perception?
No, it's spiritual perception. There's a pastor in Los Angeles and he says he gets up to shave every morning, and when he shaves,
Jesus comes in and puts His arm around him and helps him and watches him shave.
And I remember my pastor said to this other pastor, the real Jesus puts His arm around you when you're shaving?
This is not seeing the real Jesus. This is by faith.
This is with spiritual perception. This is spiritual sight. It's a metaphor.
It's a symbol. This is walking by faith. You see, you're aware of, you take notice of something.
It's translated in the book of Hebrews 3, take care, Hebrews 10, as you see the day drawing near.
You don't actually see it, but you have spiritual perception through the Bible. Jesus was crowned with glory and honor.
Why? Because He suffered. And if you go down to verse 17, you'll see where He's driving everything.
Chapter 2, verse 17, Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation or satisfaction, assuage the wrath for the sins of the people.
If the wages of sin is death, Jesus doesn't sin, but He becomes a sin bearer.
He has to die. We can't have the invisible Spirit God die. God doesn't die.
The reason why the Father exalts the Son is because Jesus died, did everything
He was supposed to. What did Jesus say on the cross? It is what? Finished everything that you sent
Me to do, I did. And if the Father sent Him to go redeem the elect, what would the
Father do afterwards? He would applaud. He would praise.
He would give glory and honor. Jesus dies. By the way, first time it says death here.
Substitutionary atonement, death on the cross for other people. He's humiliated.
I mean, there's nothing more humiliating than death and burial. And for a little while,
He was in fact lower than the angels, but after He was raised from the dead, humiliation is over, death over, full realization of exaltation, even in chapter 1.
Today, He says, My throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.
There was the cross and then there was a crown. By the way, going back to Genesis, going back to Jesus being tempted in the wilderness,
Satan wanted to do everything he could just to bypass this plan. The plan was always cross, then crown.
Suffering, then glory. And Satan knew, if I can just switch that around, it'd be over.
But it's suffering and exaltation. And no angel did this. Angels don't die.
And Jesus now is crowned. Anybody here named Stephen? Sefinos is the word.
Crowned. And it's a permanent tense. He's always crowned. He's always full of glory and honor.
To give Jesus glory and honor. To see Him. No angel died. No angel gets the glory.
How do I think rightly about Jesus? Well, number one, I think to myself from the Scripture, He subjects all things to His feet.
He suffers. And now number three, Jesus' substitution is motivated by grace.
In His substitution, we see the grace of God. The gracious substitutionary death of Jesus.
Notice verse nine. So that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.
By the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. See that little word for?
F -O -R. Hooper is what it is. There was a liberal theologian who said that's the most important word in the
Bible. The bad news is, he's a liberal theologian, so I won't tell you who said it.
But the good news is, broken clocks are right twice a day. That could be the most important word in the
Bible. On behalf of, in the place of, for other people. This is the language of substitution.
When the kids were little, I'd always say, what's the most important concept in all the Bible? Jesus. Okay, besides Jesus.
Substitution. And if you don't understand substitution, you don't get what Jesus did. You'll fall into the trap of the liberals that just say, well, you know what?
When I look at the death of Jesus, Amen. Good job. He loved His people. I love love.
I love those who love other people. Jesus, excellent demonstration of love.
And you know what? It was that. But if you only see love on the cross, you don't understand. You don't understand what's so important to be a high priest.
So, well, you know what? God has rules. We're not like the United States government or many other governments where if you've got enough power, you don't have to play by the rules, above the law.
And you know, Jesus, He's a sin bearer, so that just shows God's just. Jesus pays the penalty for other people, and at least the moral government of the universe is upheld.
Somebody has to pay. Jesus pays. That's true. But if you only see God as a demonstration of love at the cross or of justice at the cross, you missed it.
You've got to understand this little word for our huper. It is in place of, and it's all motivated by grace.
You're saved by grace through faith. And that is not what? Of yourself.
What if you had to get saved by merit? Alright, let's just forget about what we've done in our past, but starting today, right now after the service, and our goal was we get saved by what we do.
Larry and I were talking in the discipleship class. He was taught that if you put the, would you say a scapula?
Didn't you say scapular? I think you did. Around his neck, and he had to wear it, and if he wore it every day, he'd go to heaven.
And then one day, he forgot that he had taken it off before a shower and didn't wear it for like three days.
He's done. He's undone. Can you imagine?
God, He's so holy. His laws are so just. No wonder it says in Galatians 3, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
For it stands written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and to do them.
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
For it is written, and it stands written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
When you think of substitution, I want you to think about grace. It was
God's grace that designed, I will accept the death of another in your place.
If we had to start from today on to try to merit our salvation, how long would it take before we broke
God's law? By our works, our baptism, our good deeds. But we know we're not saved by that.
We're saved by grace. Why did God send
Jesus? He was out of love, but it was out of grace. Why did Jesus go? He was out of love, but it was by grace.
And there's an interesting textual problem here with the phrase, by the grace of God. Some texts, the best ones, the oldest ones, read, by the grace of God.
Some newer ones read, apart from God. I think the best is by the grace of God, but even if the text said, apart from God, that apart from God He might taste death for everyone, that would only draw out the truth that when
Jesus was on the cross and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That God the
Son, as sin bearer, the Father had to turn His back and not to look upon Him as it were.
The fellowship of Father and Son was broken as Jesus was a sin bearer, and the Father is apart from the
Son. But the best translation is, the oldest one, is by grace.
God's grace. Why are you saved? I have a question for you. What's the cause of your salvation?
If you were to die today and go to heaven and God were to say to you, well, why are you here? I guess you could say that two different ways.
Why are you here? But why are you here? Well, I got baptized.
I went on mission trips. I got confirmed. I was actually an usher at Bethlehem Bible Church.
If you could get to heaven that way, why would the Father kill the
Son? Isn't that Galatians 2? If there were any other way to get to heaven, wouldn't you want to protect the
Beloved? This is my Beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. That was not just said at the transfiguration. That was not just said at the baptism.
That's been said for eternity past. This is my Beloved Son. Why would He say, you know what?
I've got to send my Son. The only reason He said it, there's no other way that God can be the just and the justifier.
To rescue sinners, it has to be out of grace, out of love, but there has to be substitution. And no wonder there was so much blood spilled in the
Old Testament. You talk about blood and Passover and the Day of Atonement and around the temple.
I thought to myself, you know, what if I was an Old Testament priest? What if my last name was Cohen and it was like 3 ,000 years ago?
You know what? I have it so much easier today because back then I'd be your butcher is what
I'd be. You'd bring me the animal and I'd cut it. I'd slit its throat, drain down the little stone ditch all the flies, all the dogs, all the just gross stuff that goes along with blood everywhere.
I mean, you spill a little tiny vial of blood in the hospital and it is code blue, man, code red.
Which one is it? It's red everywhere. There's blood everywhere. You're just a butcher. The people just keep sinning and sinning.
They keep bringing their sacrifices. It costs. Why is it called sacrifice? This is a cow.
This is a good cow. I've got to kill it now for what reason? Because sin is so heinous.
I read this week, if God wasn't gracious and loving, it would be like every one of His attributes was designed to just pulverize us for eternity.
God's immutability, God never changes. God never says, well, you know, okay, son, I'll let that one go.
He never changes and that means His holiness never changes. His standards never change.
His righteousness never changes. His omnipresence never changes. He always knows.
He always sees. He always hears. If it wasn't for grace, we'd be undone.
If it wasn't for the grace of substitution, 1 Peter 2, aren't you glad He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness?
Aren't you glad 1 Peter 3 ,8 says of substitution, for Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.
I don't like courtrooms. I'm sure you don't either. But can you imagine going into a courtroom for treason against the
United States? I'd be afraid. Can you imagine now standing before the
God, God's bar of justice, every one of us? If we had no high priest, if we had no gracious, loving mediator, we stand before God for not only treason, but for blasphemy.
Times how many? But since Jesus was our substitute, He took our place.
God charges Jesus with my blasphemy. God charges Jesus with your treason and it's paid in full.
And we know it worked because God raised Him from the dead. Every curse, every punishment, all out on Christ.
What if God said, like Spurgeon noted, what if God's attitude was this? I will have no substitute.
Each man should suffer for himself. He who sins shall die. And then
Spurgeon said, none could have murmured. And then
Spurgeon said, it was grace and only grace which led the divine mind to say,
I will accept a substitution. You look at songs that we sing in the hymnal.
They just talk about this all the time. Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood.
Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior.
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior, tis I deserve Thy place. Look on me with Thy favor.
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace. Everywhere you go, our hymnody reflects this truth for huper, substitutionary atonement.
O my soul, O my soul, what wondrous love is this, what wondrous love is this that caused the
Lord of bliss, now this is substitutionary language, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused
His pain? For me whom Him to death pursued? What's the next line?
Amazing love, how can it be that you, my God, should die for me? If you don't have
Jesus as your substitute, He's your judge. He's nothing to you except judge, jury, and executioner.
But if He is your substitute because you've looked to Him with eyes of faith, you know the reasons behind it.
Why would God ever do that? And the answer is because He loves sinners. He's gracious to sinners.
When people come to you and say, don't sing songs about substitutionary atonement, like trying to change in Christ alone.
Remember years ago in the Presbyterian Church USA, they had a new hymnal and they didn't want to sing in Christ alone.
What part did they not want to sing? Well, they didn't like it when He said the wrath of God was satisfied.
They wanted to change it to something else. Let's not sing, on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.
I mean, you know, it's hard to get a lot of giving if you have songs like that. I mean, God's so angry with me.
He's full of wrath. I mean, can you imagine standing underneath the wrath of God? I thought God was like kind of a grandpa figure, but He's got wrath towards me.
Let's not sing about that. I mean, who sings about wrath? Well, you don't sing only about wrath.
And you don't change the word to the love of God was magnified. Reverend Chris Joyner, First Presbyterian Church in Franklin, said he agreed that they shouldn't sing that song anymore.
He said the words of the song don't work. I don't know if he was thinking about tempo and pitch and rhyme and meter.
I think he was talking about theology. He said, that lyric comes close to saying that God killed Jesus. The cross is not an instrument of God's wrath.
Friends, the cross is an instrument of God's wrath. But it's motivated by grace toward you and love toward you.
God demonstrates His love toward us that while we were yet what? Sinners. God justifies the ungodly.
If we had to try to make ourselves winnable and lovable, we would never make it. No wonder
Lloyd -Jones said the ultimate test of our spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God.
And what did Jesus do? Look at your text, verse 9. It says He tasted death. What does that mean?
Like He just kind of sipped it? Just like a little tiny bit? Like a little sample?
You know, you go to Stone... What kind of Stone thing do we go to for samples? Stone what?
Stonewall Kitchen. And you get a sample of all their little jellies and stuff like that? We just go there because it's a cheap lunch.
A lot of sugar for the kids. You get these little sample crackers, right?
Kind of gets just a little taste. It's enough taste to get that kind of hot mango chutney flavor that you want to buy the whole thing.
Is that what He means? He just kind of like barely tasted death? Well, in our discipleship class this morning we were talking about figures of speech, and this is one.
This is a wonderful figure of speech which means to experience. Total experience.
Not partial, but total. To the fullest, He experienced death.
Jesus dies on the cross and everything that comes with death, He experienced. That's what He's after.
This is physically died. One writer said, it is a graphic expression of the hard and painful reality of dying which is experienced by man and which was suffered also by Jesus.
We know that it talks about death even when it's used elsewhere by our Lord in Mark 9. Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.
John 8, Jesus said to him, Now we know that you have a demon. Excuse me, the Jews said to Him, We know you have a demon.
Abraham died as did the prophets. Yet you say, Everyone who keeps My word will never taste death.
Here's the point, friends. Angels didn't taste death. Angels weren't on a rescue mission.
Angels didn't come to know death. Not one angel ever knows what it's like to really die a human death.
Right here at the center of Christianity is the death of Christ for sinners.
That is why when Jesus humbled Himself for Philippians 2, He could go no lower than dying.
God doesn't just forgive by saying, Forgiven. There has to be payment. But His justice is matched by His grace and by His love.
So let's just stop for a second and kind of think through this. Do you notice even through a frail preacher, as you begin to contemplate these realities, you know, for the last 40 minutes,
I forgot about money. I forgot about trials.
I forgot about persevering through trials. I forgot about all those other things because my mind is riveted back to the issue.
What if I had all the money? What if I had no trials? What if I had everything else, but I didn't have forgiveness?
I didn't have reconciliation from God and with God. I didn't have grace from God. It all means nothing.
The cure to hedonism is to try it, basically Solomon said. That's Ecclesiastes. But for God with Him...
By the way, this is Romans 8 .32. With God, with Jesus Christ, He gives you the best.
Doesn't He give you everything else? Everything else is just a gift. You look at life and you just go, this is above and beyond.
When I was a kid, we would have this for a dinner. Dad didn't like any kind of what he would call weird dinners.
All the dinners that I would love now. You know, Indian, Korean, Japanese. He didn't want any of that.
He wanted some meat and potatoes, but there was one last thing that he had to have, or else it wasn't an
Abendrothean dinner. He had to have gravy bread.
Nice piece of wonder bread, bunch of gravy on top. You can cut that with a fork, by the way.
Everything God gives. It's just like gravy on the top. Cream on the top.
Sunny day, beautiful day. You have a wife, you have children, you have a spouse, you have this, you have that.
You have senses and you go, I'm right with God. If I'm not right with Kim, it messes up my day.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine? You're not right with God. I'm not right with God. If you're not a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're not right with God. And you have a personal relationship with Him.
He's your enemy. And he says, though, to his enemies, lay down your pride, lay down your self -righteousness, lay down your sins.
I offer you clemency because I love people like you. I'm gracious to people like you.
I save people like you. I used to think a certain way about Jesus. Now believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, this great risen Savior. Here's clemency for you. You can be right with me.
I declare Jesus as treated as if He wasn't right with me because He was bearing sin. And now because of what
He has done, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. If you realize that your assurance comes from the work of Christ, then you say,
I can be content with my money. I can have the marriage bed undefiled. I can love other people in a neighborly way.
It all follows faith in the right object. Then faithfulness comes. Let's pray.
I thank You, Father, for today. Who is like You? Taking something so awful, so terrible, so vile, that is my sin, these dear people's sin, and then judging it.
You didn't ignore it. You didn't cover it somehow. You judged it and not on us.
You never condoned sin. You judged it on Jesus because You're just, but You're also gracious because of grace.
Grace greater than all our sins. Father, to me, it doesn't seem grace can be so wonderful unless we know how sinful we are.
And we're thankful that You've shown us the depth of our sin, even in the Bible. We would recognize that before You saved us, our hearts were tainted, our wills were tainted, our minds were tainted, our bodies tainted by sin.
And yet Jesus takes on a body with none of that tainting. He did something that angels could never do, and that is
He added humanity so He might suffer. You crown Him with glory. You regain what
Adam did and You save us for no reason except by Your grace and love.
Thank You for loving sinners. Some of us don't know what it's like to be loved by people.
Maybe our parents didn't love us rightly or spouses didn't. So much unfaithfulness in the world, yet You have loved us with an everlasting love demonstrated at Calvary.