Christ is our hope in life and death.
Can I get an amen to that?
And hallelujah, all we have is Christ.
Jesus is our life.
It is not a surprise that those songs are being sung today
on Sanctity of Life Sunday.
It made me think about my own kids.
I know that there was a change in tradition
over the last probably 30, 40, 50 years
where my dad's generation, whenever the child was being born,
weren't typically in the room.
But in my, with my kids, with all three kids,
I was in the room when my kids were born
and it was an amazing, amazing thing.
I remember in the summer of 2012, I was a youth pastor.
I was the Miles of Sunshine Baptist Church
and we did a camp every year
and there's probably about, I don't know, 8, 10 churches,
a bunch of my youth pastor buddies.
We put a camp together for teenagers
and we had done it for like five years in a row
and this particular year something came up
and that was called, Megan was going to have a baby
and the due date was right in the middle of camp.
And so we had to plan and work
so that whenever they didn't have to,
I was the one, kind of one of the leaders of it
and so we worked in plan so that I wouldn't have to be there
because kids come when they want to come.
Have you noticed that?
There's no appointment book too, they just want it's time.
When the fullness of time has come, they're coming, amen.
And I remember we, it was so fun.
It's always fun for the husband, it's not for the wives, right?
But I remember the time was coming where I went
and got everything set up at camp,
then I came back home to Port Charlotte
and sure enough, here comes Wednesday
and it's coming and here they come
and we go to church on Wednesday night, right?
And then right after church, our pastor's like,
well, are you ready, Megan?
No, I'm not ready.
Well, do you need to eat?
Yeah, so we went to Cracker Barrel.
It was fun.
We went to Cracker Barrel and had dinner
and then right at the end of the dinner, Megan's like,
I think, oh man, it's getting time.
And so we pretty much went right then and had the baby
and here it was just the most amazing thing.
Here comes baby Audrey Grace and it was just as miraculous
as Milana come in and then when Z comes later
and I just remembered thinking a couple of things
at the same time.
One is what a precious gift God gives us in our kids.
It's just so precious.
Not everybody gets to be a parent and I understand that
and it is a gift of God.
Our kids are one of the most precious gifts that we get
and then I was also struck every single time.
I thought about what about the kid who's killed
before this even happens, right?
And the Bible is very clear that God is a God of life.
God loves life and God wants us to choose life
and that life, human life is made in God's image
and therefore is valuable.
It's more valuable than, yes, human life is more valuable
than animal life and plant life.
Human life is intrinsically valuable
because mankind is made male and female in the image of God.
Moses brought a word to God's people in Deuteronomy 3019
where he said to them, I call heaven and earth
to record this day against you that I've said before you,
life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore,
choose life that thou, both thou and I see may live.
It's God's a God's God of life.
And I'm always glad when God does this.
I really believe God does this.
I did not prepare specifically in my preaching calendar
for this to be sanctity of human life Sunday.
I just prepared to go to the next passage in Hebrews.
It's kind of one of those deals where when you pick Hebrews,
then you line it out and you try to figure it out.
And this passage showed up and it just happened to be on this day.
And I didn't tell Miss Dawn, Miss Dawn's the one that helps
to choose our music.
I didn't tell Miss Dawn, hey, you need to sing songs about life
and Christ being our life.
And yet that's what happened.
And I think God does those things.
Today is sanctity of human life Sunday all around the nation.
And it's a day that churches affirm the biblical
and scientifically accurate position that all human life is
life from conception.
And the biblical idea that life is sacred.
God is a God of life.
And we know that God sees human life as sacred,
as something to be valued.
And right here in the book of Hebrews,
as we finish our study in chapter two, we see that.
In this great chapter of Hebrews chapter two,
we have been seeing that Jesus Christ is greater in his
humanity.
Jesus is greater.
Do you believe that this morning?
If you don't believe that yet, we want you to believe it after
this Sunday morning and next Sunday morning.
We want you to believe that Jesus Christ is and can be your
life.
By the end of chapter two, what's in view here is Christ's
humanity.
He's been talking about that.
Jesus never stopped being God yet he put on flesh and Jesus
becoming a man helps us in this area of what we think about
life and death.
It's kind of like potentially a downer subject.
Hey, today we're going to talk about death,
but I'm excited to talk about death in this way because of
Jesus's life.
Death is a serious problem.
Life is something that must be pursued and the humanity of
Jesus directly deals with these issues.
And so the question I want to focus on today is this question.
Why did Jesus become a man?
And the reason I want to focus on that question is because
that's the question that Hebrews answers in chapter two right
here in verse 14.
There are three reasons why we're going to see from this
text that Jesus became a man.
There are more than these, but these are the way that the
text answer these questions.
The first reason he came that we're going to look at today is
that he came to release us to release us.
Look at verse chapter two Hebrews chapter two verse 14.
Here's what it says.
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.
There is nothing like a verse like that to get a preacher
excited about preaching.
Okay.
Do you realize what you just heard?
We've already been talking.
We've already talked about and we said this last week that
when Jesus came when he became in his humanity, he became a
human being.
He came to die and that through that death, he might become
well, let's look the reconciler look back at chapter two verse
10.
Here we go.
Let's run up to it for it became him for whom we're all
things and by whom we're all things and bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings.
This is talking about God making Jesus obedient.
Jesus was obedient to the mission that God sent him on
through suffering on his death on the cross.
And when he did that, he brought many sons to glory.
Now you guys point to who the sons are.
That's us.
And if you're thinking, I'm I a daughter?
Yeah, you're a daughter.
Okay.
So the sons and daughters, we've been brought to glory because
Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins.
And so he, God calls us sons in relation to him and Jesus calls
us brothers verse 12 or verse 11 for both he that sanctified
and they who are sanctified are all of one, meaning we're all
human.
Jesus is a human being.
He's God and he's man.
You guys get it?
He's God and he's man.
They're all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call
them brethren.
Romans tells me if he calls his sons and then heirs and joint
heirs with Christ.
We study in Ephesians.
If we're his kids, if Jesus is our big brother, we're joint
heirs with Jesus, we got an inheritance coming.
That's pretty cool, right?
This is some good news for us saying and then he quotes some,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church.
I will sing praise into thee and again, I will put my trust in
him and again, behold I and the children which God has given
me.
So he's quoting the Old Testament and he's saying that when
Jesus became a man that in becoming a man, he made us so
that we can be the sons of God, the Father and brothers and
joint heirs with Christ.
And then he goes on to this verse, for as much then as the
children, our partakers are flesh and blood.
Anybody here made a flesh and blood, right?
Just like Jesus.
Anybody notice that your body's wearing out?
I turned 40 last year.
I turned 41 coming up.
Things are breaking down, folks.
It's not getting better, right?
We're made of flesh and blood and he says, this is amazing,
he also himself likewise took part of the same.
Jesus, Jesus sneezed.
Jesus hiccuped.
Jesus had a body.
He took part in that same thing.
Why?
Why did he do it?
That through death, he might destroy him that had power over
death.
That is the devil.
We exist inside these mortal frames and are bound to these
five senses.
We're therefore a location specific where our bodies are.
We are bound to them as well, you know.
We are bound to them in life and we're bounding them unto death.
In our marriage vows, we make the promise to our spouse,
we express this way, till death do us part.
When our loved ones die, they're gone from us.
Being alive and bound to our own bodies in this life,
we can't go to be with them again.
God is spirit and he's not bound to these senses or a body.
But when Jesus came, he also likewise took part of the same.
He condescended.
He set aside the use of his divine attributes in a way that
submitted to the Father's plan for a time and for a reason.
Why did he do it?
And this passage, there's a beautiful word, that.
He tells us why he died.
Why did he die?
Why did he take on this mortal frame?
Well, part of his motivation, this is so cool,
part of his motivation was for destruction.
If you think Jesus is wimpy, you have a messed up view of Jesus.
He was on a mission of destruction.
I was teaching this verse to Zeke this week at bedtime.
I said, Zeke, you gotta hear this cool verse about Jesus.
Jesus came to destroy.
Destroy what, Daddy?
Destroy death and the devil.
And he did it by dying on the cross and raising from the dead.
You know what Zeke said?
Yep, that's how he did it.
I was like, he gets it.
That's awesome.
He came to destroy the devil.
The devil's taught, there's a devil.
Yeah, there's a devil.
Look around.
He's a loser.
He's already lost.
What was Jesus' weapon to destroy the devil and to destroy death?
Death itself.
He beat him at his own game.
In the book of Genesis, we're told how the world began,
how man was created.
When man was created, God gave him something interesting,
some interesting instruction.
And in this instruction, we're told of this penalty called death.
Genesis 2, and the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it,
for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
The penalty for disobedience to the law of God to not eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was death.
When God, interesting name for a tree, by the way, wasn't it?
When God created each day at the end of the day and creation,
he said over and over again,
and God saw the things that he made and it was very good.
At this point, sin had not entered the world.
Everything was good and Adam did not know about evil.
This is when we are introduced to another character in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1.
And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said,
ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Now who's the serpent?
John identifies him for us.
He doesn't say that he's the devil in Genesis,
but we know because of a couple passages that it is the devil.
Revelation 12,9 and Revelation 22, the serpent was Satan.
He was a fallen angel and thus a supernatural spirit.
He possesses here the body of a serpent and sets his eyes on mankind to deceive them.
God had told Adam that death would come with disobedience and that's exactly what happened.
Adam and Eve were deceived.
Satan deceived Eve.
She disobeyed. Adam disobeyed with Eve.
Then God came and we read about this later in Genesis 3 when God comes and finds them.
They were hiding and it said they were hiding because they knew that they were naked.
When they disobeyed their eyes were open, knowing good and evil and they realized that they had sinned.
And sin and shame came in that moment and with it death.
Then God asks Adam, he comes and he finds them and they're hiding and you know what happens.
Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. We've been blaming each other ever since.
But notice what God says to Eve.
He says something to Adam, he says something to Eve and then he says something to the serpent.
And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is it thou hast done?
And the woman said, the serpent beckalled me and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle.
Who here hates snakes? Come on.
Thou art cursed above all cattle above every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust thy eat from all the days of thy life.
Here's the cool part. And I will put in mentee, I'll make you an enemy,
between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
What I want you to see is where God talks about the serpent, to the serpent about thy seed and her seed.
Satan and the serpent seed and the seed of the woman.
Excuse my delving into the biological, but the woman does not usually have seed.
The woman has an egg.
This hints towards both a virgin birth and the one born of a woman.
Who is that? Jesus.
The heel of which would be bruised.
The head of the serpent would be crushed.
Seemingly in the metaphor by the heel of the seed of the woman.
A death blow to the head that bruises the heel.
Do you get it?
Jesus died and that was like a bruising of the heel, but what's he doing?
In death, in the bruising of the heel, he crushes the head of the serpent.
The serpent. Remember our text? Let's read it again.
Hebrews 2.14.
For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, himself likewise, took part of the same flesh and blood.
That through death, being bruised in that way because it wasn't a fatal wound, he's alive.
He's alive.
That is so cool.
That through death, he might destroy him and might power over death.
Jesus took on death flesh for a reason.
That through death, he might destroy him that have power over death.
That is devil. This was predicted.
His heel was bruised in death, but it wasn't a fatal blow.
Christ is the one who deals the fatal blow when he crushes the head of the serpent.
What do you mean serpent?
Well, let's look at the references that John talks about the serpent.
John 12.9 says,
And the great dragon was cast out.
This isn't future in Revelation. This was going to happen one day.
It's already not yet.
Are you with me?
Revelation 12.9,
And the great dragon was cast out.
That old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world.
He was cast out into earth and his angels were cast out with him.
Revelation 22, few chapters later,
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years.
What happens later?
Verse 10,
And the devil that deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone.
Where the beasts and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
And I saw a great white throne to him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things, which are written in the book according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead,
which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death and who has so ever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Jesus is going to win.
He's going to destroy the devil through death.
The death of Jesus was the bruising of our Lord Jesus, Lord and Savior.
So that through death, he could destroy death and Satan forever.
Sin could be defeated.
Death could be destroyed.
And that old serpent, the devil could be destroyed as well.
In verse 15 and Revelation 20, there is a whosoever.
It says, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire.
We've been studying the book of John in Sunday school, which tells us the point of the gospel that he wrote.
John tells us that it was written so that we may know that we have eternal life.
The most famous book in the verse in the book of John has a whosoever as well.
You may have heard the verse for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, believe it in him, should not, should not what?
Parish but have everlasting life.
Choose life.
Which whosoever do you want to be?
Do you want to be the whosoever that was not found in the book of life?
Or do you want to be the whosoever that trusted in Christ?
Jesus was made flesh so that he could die and he through death destroyed the one who had a power over death.
Satan, his days are numbered.
And so the book of Hebrews continues, look at verse 15, and deliver them and deliver them.
Who's he talking about?
Those who believe.
Those who are his sons and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Two phrases need to be explained that are closely related here.
Fear of death and subject to bondage.
With just a few seconds of thinking, even someone who doesn't take the Bible as true or the word of God would agree that we are in bondage to death.
How are we in bondage to death?
Number one, we fear death coming.
We do.
Every person has had a fear of death at some point in their lifetime.
We fear our own death.
We fear the death of those around us.
When the young, fit, incredibly athletic and healthy football player falls over, things stop.
Players kneel and pray.
People begin to cry.
Some who didn't even know this player, player's name or background cry.
Why?
We fear death.
We think it's tragic when it seems to come around early.
When death comes, I've seen people without hope and unbearable torment.
I've seen it the funerals of people who have no hope after death and seen them throw themselves on the body of their deceased.
I've heard them wail in pain at the loss of their loved one, thinking, I'll never see this person again.
We've all seen people doing everything they can to reverse aging.
For some it works, for others it doesn't.
It's not polite to ask a woman or age why.
Who wants to talk about that?
We fear death.
Outside of Christ, we fear death.
Here's the other way we're in bondage.
We're bound to die.
What's going to happen to you when you die?
It's a good question.
Here's the statistic, one out of one people die.
Everybody's going to die.
Later in Hebrews, the author puts it this way, and as it is appointed on the men wants to die, and after this the judgment.
Death is an appointment that we all keep.
Physical death is an appointment.
The Bible says that as a result of the effects of sin, our memory verse, if you're doing that with us this week is Romans 6-23.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The author of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus Christ became flesh and blood to have his body broken and his blood shed.
Why? He used death to destroy the one who had power of death so that we could be delivered from the bondage of death.
And let me tell you about some other funerals I've been to.
I've been to some other funerals of people who knew that their loved one knew Christ.
It's a whole different kind of funeral.
Because we're not saying goodbye forever.
We're seeing see you later.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
There is a hope in death that is there because of the resurrection hope of Jesus Christ.
If he can get himself up out of the grave, getting me out of the grave is no problem.
Three passages that will help us understand this point.
Second Corinthians 5-6, therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith and not by sight.
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
For the believer in Christ to be in the body is not to be present with him.
To die then is to go be with him.
We then do not fear death and no longer have to be bondage to it because it brings us to an incredible place.
Remember Jesus told Martha, here's the second passage.
Remember Jesus told Martha, when she said, hey my brother is dead, why didn't you come and heal him?
Jesus said, unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And he and whosoever loatheth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believe us thou this?
She says in him, ye Lord I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world.
To die without Christ means something different.
Jesus told the story of a rich man who was not right with God dying.
And this we're faced with the reality that everyone spends eternity somewhere.
Those who die in Christ are present with the Lord.
Who's excited about that?
Those who die without Christ have the fate that Jesus talked about with this rich man in Luke 16.
And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried and in hell lifted up his eyes being in torments.
To be in Christ is to be released from the bondage of death.
We are bound to die but immediate to physical death is eternal life with Christ forever.
It's not something we need to fear.
It's a welcome end to our physical lives.
The believer in Christ already has eternal life.
It starts at the moment of salvation and lasts forever.
To be outside of Christ though is to be condemned already.
The lost are spiritually dead.
To be absent from the body is to be separated from the Lord.
Even every good gift comes from God.
So to be separated from God is to be separated from everything that's good by definition.
That would be torment.
Jesus died to release us from the bondage of death and the fear of death fully and finally forever.
Hebrews 2.16 then goes on to say this.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Just walking through the passage.
Are you with me?
Look, Jesus Christ did not take on a merely lesser supernatural being than him but more than man to rescue man.
Meaning he didn't take on, he could have just become an angel but he didn't.
He became a man and not just any kind of human being.
He became a being in the line of Abraham.
He became a Jew.
Why is this significant?
You see this talks about Abraham in the passage?
Are you guys still with me?
It's a warm in here.
I hope I'm not putting you to sleep.
Okay.
Genesis 12 once says this.
Now the Lord God said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation.
I will bless thee and make thy name great.
And thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseeth thee.
And the curse of them that curseeth thee.
And in thee all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
God gave Abraham this specific command linked to a promise.
He was to go in faith to a land that God was going to show him.
And he said, I'm going to make of you this great nation and in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
How were all the nations?
How all the ethos, the people groups of the earth blessed, they're blessed because the Messiah came through the Jewish people.
We read it this morning.
Salvation is of the Jews.
Why?
Because salvation comes to the person of Jesus Christ.
Why did God choose a nation to do it through?
Because he made promises and prophecies so that when Jesus showed up we'd exactly know who he was.
The author of Hebrews states here that Jesus himself was part of that progeny.
And this way every kindred of the earth was blessed because Christ's death is available to atone for the sin of every person on earth.
And can I tell you this?
God fulfills his promises.
He fulfills his promises.
He made a plan of redemption and he carried it through.
This plan for redemption is not only amazing and unexpected.
It's also true.
It happens in history.
There are real reasons to believe its veracity.
Jesus loves us and became like us.
Why?
To release us from the bondage to death.
Who's excited about that this morning?
I'm so excited about it.
Why did Jesus become a man to destroy death through death and release us from the power of death?
Number two.
Now, why did Jesus come in?
He came to release us from Satan and from bondage.
Number two, He came to reconcile us.
Look at what it says.
Wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.
Who's He talking about?
He's talking about the brethren is who?
Who is made like His brethren?
Jesus.
Why?
That He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God
to make reconciliation for the sins of people.
It's another incredible verse.
It was the right move to be made like His human brethren and not angels for yet another reason.
His aim in becoming a man was to release us from the bondage of death through death.
It was also to reconcile us to God.
By becoming a man, the Bible makes it clear He could be a merciful and faithful high priest.
Now, let me talk a little bit about what does it mean that Jesus is a high priest?
This is something we're going to go into several times in Hebrews.
A prophet in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament,
his ministry, the ministry of a prophet was this.
The prophet spoke on behalf of God.
You could sum up the ministry of a prophet by saying,
Thus saith the Lord.
You see that all through the Old Testament.
This is what God is saying.
That makes sense?
We think of prophets as foretelling,
meaning prophets knew the future and they sometimes would prophesy about the future.
Who links in your own mind prophecy with telling the future?
Okay, yeah.
And the reason that is is because who knows the future?
God does.
So when God tells man to go give messages to other men,
sometimes in the Old Testament,
He did that by telling them what was going to happen in the future.
And if you've never studied the Bible, you need to understand,
the Bible has like an incredible track record of telling the future and it coming to pass.
Okay?
So you need to know that.
So that's what a prophet was.
So a prophet went to man on behalf of God.
What did the priest do?
The priest had a different ministry.
The priest would go to God on behalf of man.
Where the prophet would go to men on behalf of God,
God used the priest to go to God on behalf of man.
The priest's role was to go to God on behalf of people.
To help us explain this concept now,
let's just say that Jesus could be a faithful and merciful high priest
because he knows what it means to be a man.
Angels do not know pain.
Not like we do.
Jesus knew something about pain.
Angels do not know what it's like to live a little lower than the angels.
Jesus does.
Jesus faced temptation and he defeated it.
He obeyed it as we'll see.
His high priestly ministry continues to this day.
Think about this.
Romans 8 tells us this in Romans 834.
Who is he that condemned us?
It is Christ that died.
Ye rather that is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God who also make us intercession for us.
You know what that means?
I can go to God because Jesus in his humanity and in his divinity
represents me as a faithful high priest to God on my behalf.
How cool is that?
Who agrees? That's a good deal for us.
The one who made intercession for us is like us.
He calls us brethren.
He is the firstborn among brethren.
He lived as we have and walked on this mortal soil like we do.
He had a childhood.
He had an adolescence.
He had a mom.
He had brothers and sisters.
He had, he slept.
He sneezed. He had hiccups.
He was tempted in all points like we are yet without sin.
But ultimately what did he do?
He died for us.
He gave us his righteousness.
Now he intercedes for us and that means he goes to God on our behalf.
The fundamental issue that had to be dealt with between us and God is our sin.
Our sin offends a holy God.
As sinners this creates a problem.
We cannot appease for our own sin because our own sin never stops.
There is no full and final payment and atonement for sin outside of Christ.
The Old Testament priests and the temple, I'm going to bring this up more than once,
there were no seats in the temple.
The priests never sat down because they were always, always, always, always, always sacrificing for sin.
Because the sacrifice was temporary.
Every day they sacrificed all the time.
The Old Testament priests were essentially butchers.
That's what they did.
But when Jesus goes to the Father who's sinned to reconcile us to God and all things,
he paid the sin payment fully and finally.
And then he sat down.
It's the only way it could happen.
Who's excited about Jesus?
This is our high priest.
He's also the sacrifice more on that later.
If we have not trusted in Christ, we're yet in our sins and our fundamental relationship with God is as enemies.
Romans 5.10 says,
For if when we were enemies we were all reconciled to God by the death of his son,
much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we've also received the atonement.
Through his death, he can release us from the bondage of death and the fear of death.
Through his resurrection life, he lives to intercede to God on our behalf and gives us resurrection life as well.
Our sins can be forgiven.
And now we can have a relationship with God.
Not as enemies, but as sons because Christ ever lives to make intercession for us.
He reconciles us.
How did he, what does he reconcile us?
He reconciles us to God and he reconciles us from our sin.
Why did Jesus become a man?
To release us, to reconcile us.
Here's the last one.
Number three, to rescue us.
Verse 18, for in that he himself had suffered being tempted, he is able to secure them that are tempted.
Because Jesus was tempted, he endured temptation fully and righteously.
He never sinned one time.
He always did exactly what he was supposed to do and he did it for the right reasons to glorify his father.
Could you imagine being married in Joseph and having a perfectly obedient son?
That would be cool. Who votes for that?
If there's a situation, who messed up? It's always me.
Not my kid, right? That's not how I deal with it now.
He always did exactly what was right.
He always did what was right for the right reason.
Not only did he do the right thing, he did it with the right motivation.
I do a lot of things right for the wrong reason.
How about you?
He did it for the right reason.
And his obedience even led to death and the Bible says even death on a cross.
Here he says, for in that he himself suffered being tempted.
He is able to, and there's this big old English word, secure, them that are tempted.
The word, the Greek word here is boateo, which means to aid or to relieve or to help or to secure.
Mount's dictionary says to run to the aid of those who cry for help.
To advance to the assistance of anyone.
That sounds like a good definition to me.
This may be the most relevant and obvious way of summarizing this whole chapter.
How many of you have been in church a long time?
If you've been coming to church a long time in your life.
Raise your hand. You've been in church a long time.
There's a danger in coming to church a long time.
And the danger is we can get used to hearing this.
We can get really apathetic.
Yeah, Jesus died for a sense. He died for a sense. I've known that a long time.
You understand what a miracle it is that you can even take a breath.
We don't deserve it. We don't deserve just this life.
We definitely don't deserve eternal life.
When we call out to God, he does not.
He only has to come rescue us because he's obligated himself to do so.
He didn't have to obligate himself to us. Does that make sense?
I am so glad that he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
He said, whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.
He says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God had raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved for the heart man believes under righteousness and with the mouth confessions made to salvation.
He says, whosoever believeth in him should not be ashamed.
You know what that means?
Ashamed here doesn't mean like, ashamed means they will not be let down because God doesn't come through on his promise.
You ever been stood up? You had a meeting, you had a date, and you knew you were supposed to be there and the person was a no-call, no-show.
You ever have that happen? I've done it to people.
I try not to but I've done it. Have you done it? You ever made a promise you didn't keep?
God doesn't do that. God is never a no-call, no-show.
What he's obligated himself to, he will do.
And Jesus came and became a man to destroy the devil through his death and to give us life through his suffering and his resurrection life.
Church, don't get over that. Don't get over that.
And don't forget what's common every day, every Sunday to you, there's a whole world of people who have never heard it.
And God is able to rescue those who call upon him.
This may be the most relevant and obvious way of summarizing this whole chapter.
Jesus became a man to rescue us.
We need rescue. We need rescue from sin to righteousness.
We need rescue from death to life.
We need rescue from the power of Satan to the power of God.
And because Jesus became a man, he submitted to the Father in that way.
He had performed righteousness. He had a performed righteousness that led to him to death, even the death of a cross.
God poured out his wrath for our sin on him and like the thief on the cross, when we look to him by faith for salvation.
Jesus Christ says to us, thou shalt be with me in paradise.
We can be released from the bondage of death, the fear to death.
We can be released from the power of Satan.
We can be reconciled to God. He can accept us as sons and Jesus can welcome us as brethren.
He can give us righteousness and that's how he rescues us.
This is why Jesus became a man.
Four words out of characterize a response.
Listen, I want you to come to church and one of the things I want you to think when you come to Trinity Baptist Church is this.
God, what are you wanting to do in my life today?
What do you want me to, how do you want me to respond today?
How do you want to respond to your word today?
Is there ever a time when the word goes out where there's not some deficit in my life that needs to be dealt with?
So what's the response? Well, four words I think of number one, faith.
Faith in Christ is the only shot we have at rescue.
Faith in Christ is your only shot to get to heaven.
Well, we don't have a lot of visitors here today pastor. Why are you talking? We're all saved. Are you?
Are you?
It's not because you come to church that you're going to heaven.
It's not because your grandpappy was a preacher, your mama was a Sunday school teacher.
It's not why you're going to heaven. Jesus is your only shot.
But I'm at church on a Sunday. I'm wearing a suit. Who cares?
What does that have to do with anything?
Jesus had a beard and wore sandals. It doesn't matter.
Faith in Jesus is your only shot at salvation.
Have you put your trust in Him? You believe it then Him should not be ashamed.
The one who calls out for rescue, he's able to secure, to rescue.
He can do it. His arm is not too short that he cannot say, put your trust in Him.
Here's another response. How about some worship? Who's worthy of worship?
God's worthy of all the worship and honor that we can give to Him.
Done just happen in singing. You know worship is not just a musical thing. It's a life thing.
We ought to worship Him with our lives. How about Thanksgiving?
Have you gotten over your salvation? Have you gotten over it?
Do you think you deserved it? We ought to be thankful.
If you're saved and you've been released and you've been released and reconciled and rescued,
we ought to be thankful for all that Christ has done for us.
And the last word, faith, worship, Thanksgiving. Here's another one. What about duty?
D-U-T-Y duty. These truths must be believed and they can only be believed if people are told.
There is a rescue for sin. There is a reconciliation to God.
There is a life after death. Choose life. People need to hear that.
And they only hear it if they're told. Do you remember what we sang earlier?
We've only sung it a couple of times at our church. But the truth of it is, you guys are like,
oh no, he's going to have us sing again. No, I'm not going to do that. We did that last week.
But I don't think it was an accident that we sang this song again today. Listen to the words of it.
What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone, Christ alone.
What is our only confidence that our souls to Him belong?
Who holds our days within His hand? What comes apart from His command?
And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand.
What truth can calm a troubled soul? God is good. God is good.
Whereas His grace and goodness known in our great Redeemer's blood.
Who holds our faith when fears arise? Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us? Nigh, reconciled, unto the shore, the rock of Christ.
And unto the grave, what will we sing? Christ, he lives. Christ, he lives.
And what reward will heaven bring? Everlasting life with Him.
Then we will rise to meet our Lord. Then sin and death will be destroyed.
And we will feast in endless joy. Who's for that?
When Christ is ours forevermore. Oh, sing, hallelujah.
Our hope springs eternal. Oh, sing, hallelujah.
Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me this morning?