Hebrews 2:9-18

actually pick up where we left off.

It's been a minute since we've been in Hebrews, but we're going to deal

a little bit more with verse

9 because of the total context.

And as I said earlier, we're going to work our way all the way through verse 18.

Also, as I said, because this text is

describing the kind of

savior that Jesus is, what

we're going to do is we're not going to dive into each

concept that I'm going to give you in this text in great

detail, each one.

Instead, we're going to be impacted

in a greater way, as I have in my preparation, by

looking at all of these points in verses

9 to 18 in one message.

Now, there have been many, many men,

all down through the history of this world, who

have declared themselves to be God, or

Son of God, or Messiah.

And some have acquired many

followers for themselves.

If you scan the internet, you will find out

there in the world today, especially in third world countries,

there's people, men who

claim to be God, or claim to be Jesus even,

and they have small to very

large followings.

There's a huge one down in Mexico right now.

John MacArthur said, Simon Magus tried to prove

himself the Son of God by flying from a building.

The flying was okay.

The landing was miserable.

All of them have been proven to

be frauds.

That won.

There's only one savior.

And he is a perfect savior.

There is and always will be only one

Son of God, one Messiah.

And that's exactly why Peter said this in

Acts chapter 4 and verse number 12,

and there is salvation in no

one else.

Well, there is no other name, under heaven,

that has been given among men, by

which we must be saved,

and that name is Jesus.

That's why the weighty reality, whether

people like it or not, it doesn't really matter.

weighty reality is that every other so

called Son of God, Messiah,

in the past, in the present, or in the future,

is false, which also means,

another very inconvenient reality in

our modern day, that every other religion

in the world,

besides biblical Christianity is false.

Can't escape it.

Islam, Judaism, Buddhism,

and Hinduism, if you add those religions

together, they make up approximately 3.5

billion people alive on Earth right

now that hold to one of those religions.

And every one of those people.

who believe in the teaching of those religions

are absolutely totally and completely

wrong about who God is.

absolutely, totally, completely wrong about how

God operates in

saving people from his holy justice.

People don't like to hear that, but that's the Bible truths.

All false religions will put a person straight

into hell when they died, the very hell that we read about in

Revelation 20 this morning, If they meet that

moment of death, not having come to

the only savior there is.

The Lord Jesus Christ on his terms.

not yours, of Bible repentance, and

saving faith.

Now, before we dig in here, got

to remember and review a couple of important facts to keep in

your thinking before we get into this text.

We don't know the human author of Hebrews, but

we know for sure, ultimately, the Holy Spirit is

the author of the Book of Hebrews.

The original audience is that congregation of Jews that

we've talked about, and again, it's very important

to keep this in mind, that the writer

is trying to prove to this group

of Jews that Jesus, not only

is he the Son of God and the Messiah, but

that he is also the mediator of a

better covenant than the Old Covenant.

He's saying to these Jews, Let go of all

of the rituals and trappings of the old covenant

because the new covenant replaces and

fulfills, most importantly, it all.

And at the same time, that's happening in the

original audience, this is all massively

instructive for all of the church for all of

human history going forward until Jesus returns.

And remember, to prove that Jesus

is better than every aspect of

anything attached to the Old Covenant, the

writer is brilliant, of course, because

he starts by proving, from the Old Testament

to these Jews, that Jesus is

far superior to all angels.

And if you remember, I taught you about how high regard the Jews had for the angels.

But even after this tremendous presentation that

the writer has made in chapter 1, and then starting into chapter

2, the writer knows that

the Jews will still have a problem in their thinking.

And we can understand this.

How could Jesus, be

better than angels, if

not only was Jesus just a man, but

he was also a man, who died.

You can understand them having that question.

Angels never die.

And they certainly are higher than men in the

way that we saw in the previous message.

And you know what that does?

That brings us right back to where we left off in verse 9.

Take a look at it.

But we do see him.

who was made for a little while, lower

than the angels, namely, Jesus.

And remember, his nature is not lower than

the angels, he's God.

But for a little while.

In his incarnation, as a man,

from that perspective, he became less than

angels, only for a little while, for 33

years or so, to accomplish God

ordained specific purposes.

That gave a direct answer to this original

audience, but the verses we're going to look at today, they're

going to expand this answer greatly.

Remember the issues, OK?

How could Jesus be greater than angels if he was a man?

And on top of that, a man who died?

Angels never died, and he did.

That's what they're thinking.

So verse 9 is quite a verse.

And getting us started in answering these questions.

Look, again, at verse 9.

But we do see him, who

was made a little while lower than the angels,

namely Jesus, because of

the suffering of death.

Now, stop right there.

Very clearly, this is saying that Jesus was

made lower than the angels in

order to die, suffering of death.

His death was the reason that he

was made lower than the angels for what it accomplished.

Jesus was born to

die in exactly the way that he did.

in every aspect.

His death was no accident.

It was God's preordained plan from

before the foundation of the world.

Now, in this text, I'm going to show you five

perfections, if you're taking notes, that

humanity, perfections,

that the humanity and the death of Jesus,

brought about.

In his incarnation, number one, Jesus became our substitute.

Number two, he became our salvation captain.

Number three, he became our sanctifier.

Number four, he became our Satan conqueror,

and number five, our sympathizer,

and that's going to be our outline.

Can y'all handle all that in one sermon?

Okay, you better, you ain't have a choice anyway.

Let's begin with our substitute, verse 9.

Keep going in verse 9.

Because of the suffering of death, crowned

with glory and honor, so that by

the grace of God, he might taste death

for everyone.

Now, that is describing the great doctrine

of the substitutionary death of Christ.

If you're a believer, he died in your place.

He died in my place, and every person in

human history that believes.

Ezekiel said, the soul that sins shall die.

And that principle is laid down again in the New Testament, with, The

wages of sin is death.

Sin brings death.

Sin is the reason there is death,

and God would be perfectly

just, if right after the fall,

in the garden.

He just let every man die in human history and pay for his own sin.

He'd be perfectly just.

He has under no obligation whatsoever to

step in and save anyone.

That's the bigger question.

People say, Well, why don't he save everybody?

That's not the question to ask.

Why did he save anybody?

That's the question to ask.

Because of his love?

and his grace, and his mercy that he has for man.

He allows, for a man, to

take the punishment, for sin

that man deserves to die in

his place, and not just any man.

But the god man.

That was God's whole design, and

sending the second person of the Trinity to this world.

God humbled himself came

to earth to die in the

place of every believer, a substitutionary death.

Don't get anything out of this, get that.

He didn't die to be an example for others.

He didn't die for a cause.

He died as a substitute for all who believe.

God himself became what man is to

substitute for the believing

man's death, which frees the believing man to

eternal life, with God?

Think about this.

This is a stunning, mind

staggering concept that

is completely foreign to every other religious

thought outside of Christianity, in the

history of the world that there is.

There's nothing like this.

In any other religion ever invented by man.

To realize that the creator of the universe, the

creator of angels, the one worshipped by

angels, should, for our sakes, for

a little while, become lower than angels.

Just that.

Just that alone is a humility that

we can't fully comprehend.

And then that he would die, and

pay the penalty for sin that we deserve

is a reality, like no other reality.

And notice it says in verse 9, for the suffering of death.

And always, always, it's important to point out

that the three hours of darkness, while the full theory

of the wrath of God was being poured out upon

sinless Jesus for the sins of all believers for

all time, it was infinitely that

experience was infinitely worse than the physical sufferings

that Jesus experienced.

We know that, right?

But do not pass over the

extreme agony of the

physical sufferings of Jesus.

Don't pass those by, quite literally.

Jesus Christ was tortured to death on Good Friday.

In every sense of the word torture, and what it means, from

the scourgings that ripped his back open, to

the carrying of the cross on the bat that was ripped open.

To the nails, and the thorns,

and the sheer agony of having nails

in your wrist, as we know now from history,

and having to pull up on those nails,

and push up on your feet with

nails in them to catch each breath.

Each breath until you couldn't do it anymore, and

you suffocated to death.

Jesus was tortured to death on Calvary's tree.

So don't pass by the immense physical

sufferings that he endured for those

he came to save.

And this was the absolutely sinless Son of God.

the uncreated one through whom the world was made,

and the purpose of this humiliation into verse 9.

Look at it, that he might taste death.

for everyone.

Don't let that everyone throw you off in your thinking.

As for every single person in the world, a history

from Adam to the last person born

on the Earth, is that who the everyone is right here?

No, clearly, this is everyone who believes.

That word taste is strong in the Greek.

Strong, very intense.

The way to convey it is the Bible says,

he tasted death, and he drank

the bitter cup of it down to the dregs,

the complete bottom, every bit of it.

That's the idea behind the word taste.

Every bit of it, he bore for those who believe,

not for those who reject him.

How could it possibly be true?

That he endured all the agony of the cross as

an actual substitute for those

who have to pay their own penalty in hell forever.

It can't be true.

If the Bible teaches, and it does, that his death was

an actual substitutionary death, then

the only way that makes sense is that the substitution

was only for those who believe.

If he paid the penalty, in my place,

And then I go to hell for not believing, where

is the substitution in that?

Can you find it?

If he made actual propitiation

for my sins, which means

God's wrath was appeased for my sins,

and then I reject Christ, and I go to hell when I die, how

does it make sense that he died a substitutionary,

atoning, propitiatory death for me?

It doesn't make sense.

That's why, when it says that he might taste death

for everyone, it means, for everyone who

believes, and we're also going to see in a minute, the context

makes that clear as we go along in this passage.

And then also, not only do we see the extent

and purpose of this humiliation in verse 9, look, also the motive.

We're still under 0.1 of the substitute, but these are some sub points.

Look at the previous phrase in verse 9.

And I know we're going backwards in the verse, but sometimes you got to put it in reverse,

just to make it come out just right.

Okay.

So that by the grace of God.

He might taste death for everyone.

What a statement.

What moved Jesus?

To suffer.

and to die.

If you just use one word.

What motivated him?

That one word is grace.

Is there a greater word than grace?

Unmerited favor.

The unmerited favor of God, the

free loving kindness of God, by

God's grace, all who believe,

get what we don't deserve, and

we don't get what we do deserve.

We get salvation.

We don't deserve it.

It's all solely based upon the good pleasure.

of his sovereign will.

Jesus did not die a substitutionary

death for sinners at the hands of men alone,

or by the working of Satan alone,

even though those were used by God, in the biggest picture.

Church, it's the predeterminate counsel

and foreknowledge of a sovereign God, whose plan was

to glorify the Son, through his display of

the greatest act of love

grace in existence.

Jesus made it clear, in John 10, no

man takes my life from me.

I lay it down myself, he said.

There's still one more thing in this verse, going backward still, verse 9.

The result of all this, because of the suffering of death.

Look at this.

Because of the suffering and death crowned with glory and honor.

Don't you know in that 1st Good Friday, Satan wanted to humiliate him.

His work on the tree did just

the opposite in the big picture.

As a result of his toning work, he was raised from

the dead, as proof that

the work was complete, and he was exalted in

that moment to the right hand of the Father, and he was crowned,

this verse says, with glory and honor, and he

sits on the throne now reigning, and will

continue to reign forever and ever.

There would be no other way.

Church, for us to know the grace of God.

There would be no other way to know his saving power

if Jesus Christ did not die a

substitutionary death for us.

No other way.

Now, let's move to point two.

If we're going to get to verse 18, you're going to have to listen way faster than this.

Number 2

Our salvation, Captain.

I love that phrase.

Look at verse 10.

For it was fitting for him, For whom are

all things, and through whom are all things, and

bringing many sons to glory?

Remember the everyone?

This is many sons to God.

This is not all people who have ever lived, to perfect the author

of their salvation through sufferings.

For it was fitting for him, it

agreed with his nature, for whom

all things, and through whom are all things.

Well, that's God, but that's Jesus as

well, because Jesus is God, right?

In bringing men, men, he sons to glory.

That's God's design and his plan to bring many people to

himself in a salvation that results in glory.

And in order to do that, look, he had to do this next,

perfect the author of their salvation through

suffering.

The King James version says the captain of our salvation.

So the cross, Crosschurch

is the absolute masterpiece of God's infinite wisdom.

God had a problem to solve what no

human brain could solve this problem.

How does a sinful man get right

with holy God and be

brought to glory when he die?

How can this happen?

Clearly, no man can earn his way to glory

by his works because nobody can stop sinning.

So how can the works earn it?

What possible way could you earn your way to be right with a holy God?

You cannot.

And from this verse, let's

consider first this phrase, the author of salvation, the

word author in the Greek is archagos.

It means somebody who begins something.

You know how it can also be translated pioneer?

Think of the pioneers in early America, like

somebody who opens up a new territory, or

it could also be translated trailblazer, like

somebody who blazes a trail for other people to follow.

Jesus is the archagoths of our salvation.

Jesus alone authored our salvation.

He's the trailblazer who opened the trail to God for us.

He's the captain of our salvation.

That's who he is.

And in order to be the trailblazer, and the captain,

the archagoths,

This verse is telling us, it was necessary for

God to perfect the

author of our salvation, through sufferings.

Now, isn't that interesting?

Now, let's get our theological

ducks in a row here, in his divine nature,

Christ, of course, is perfect, right, as God.

But guess what?

In his human nature, though he was sinless, the

Bible teaches us that he was perfected through

obedience, and

including in that obedience, was a lot of suffering.

Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, right?

That he might be an understanding high priest, and an example.

That's the right way to look at Jesus' death as an example.

Look at Hebrews 5.

8 through 9.

Although he was a son, son of God.

He learned obedience.

From the things which he suffered.

Look at this, verse 9, and having been made

perfect in his humanity,

he became, to all those who obey him,

the source of eternal salvation.

So not only was he made perfect through obedience through

suffering, in order to be an understanding high priest,

not only to blaze the trail of obedience that

is an example to us, but also, listen carefully,

through his lived experience as a man, to

establish that perfect righteousness.

that is the very righteousness that is imputed to all believers.

Only God could come up with all this stuff at once.

You understand that?

Now, I could just park right here on this for a sermon

series, but I'm trying to get you to see the whole picture

in these verses, so we got to keep going, number three.

Jesus became our sanctifier.

Verse 11.

For both, he who sanctifies, that's Jesus, and

those who are sanctified, that's us, the

ones Jesus came to die for, are all from

one father, for which reason, look

at this, he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Huh?

Now, again, this is just a stunning statement.

Here is the theological reality, in salvation.

We are not just forgiven all of our sins.

We are also, this verse says, sanctify,

which means, set apart, separated.

But in its fullest theological sense in this verse, it

means that we are counted as righteous.

But in what sense?

Christian, you have to get this.

You have to get this down in your bloodstream where you can explain this to somebody.

He literally counts us, Christians

ask holy, how?

Well, as we've learned, by being our substitute,

and paying our penalty in his depth on the cross,

and also

equally as important, he lived a perfectly

righteous life as a man also as our substitute.

Understand, the righteousness that you're imputed is

the righteousness that he acquired when he was here as your substitute as the god man.

And then God, when we believe, takes that very righteousness

that Jesus acquired when he was here on earth, and he imputes it to us.

That means he puts it on our account.

When we believe.

That's how he sanctified us.

That's what this means in this verse.

It does not mean that we are sinless now.

Understand that at the same time.

It simply means, God

treats us as if we are.

What in the world?

Huh?

Because guess what?

All of our sins have been forgiven.

That's present and future when we come to faith in Christ, and the

very righteousness of Jesus is credit to our account.

As brother, at least he used to say, God treated Jesus

as if he had lived my sinful life,

so that he could treat me as

if I had lived Jesus' perfectly righteous life.

That's what it is.

So it's Jesus, perfect righteousness applied to us,

that makes him the sanctifier, and

us the sanctified.

Look at Hebrews 10.10.

By this will we have been sanctified,

through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,

once for all, verse 14, for

by one offering, he has perfected

for all time.

Those who are what?

sanctified.

And there it is.

So just to drill this home.

I want you to get this.

We use two words.

Two words to describe our condition as

Christian people as we're living out the rest of our short time here on this earth.

First, positionally.

Don't forget that word.

Positionally, before God, we are righteous.

We are holy.

We are sanctified.

But we are not right now in

practice, in our daily living, what we are in position.

You hit me?

The whole Christian life is our

struggle every day in practice, to guess what?

Be what we already are in position.

You get me?

We are not made perfectly righteous

in practice down here, but we are declared.

That's a big distinction, perfectly righteous, with the

perfect righteousness of Jesus put on our account.

I'm repeating myself because I want you to get this to where you can

explain it to people.

You can't explain the gospel without this.

It's the wonder of all wonders that, all

Christians, in position, are

as righteous as Jesus Christ.

That should blow your mind.

It does mine.

I mean, is that grace?

Or what?

We cannot even grasp how thankful we should be

for God's sovereign saving grace.

Now, back to Hebrews.

Look at 2:11.

Arthur says that both he who sanctifies, and those who

are sanctified, are all from one father,

literally in the Greek, are all out of one.

Out of one father.

That's extraordinary.

This is something that would definitely need some extra explaining

to that original Jewish audience, by the way.

I mean, the Messiah, the Son of God,

and the ones that he sanctifies are

all out of the same source, God, the Father?

I mean, they wouldn't even say the name of God out loud.

But here's the truth.

It's true for them, true for us, true for everybody, because of the

righteousness of God, with Christ, we are

with him all from one Father, all out of one

God, all adopted by grace into the family of

God, and to make it even more impactful.

Look next in verse 11, for which reason

he, Christ, is not ashamed

to call them brethren.

We are called brethren, because

we share his righteousness.

We are called brothers, because we are joint heirs with him.

And he would absolutely have every reason to be

ashamed of us if he were only looking at the

practical aspect of our being on the Romans

seven struggle bus every day of our Christian lives.

He'd have every reason to be ashamed of that, right?

But he's not ashamed.

to call us brothers, because in position we have been

declared righteous with his perfect righteousness.

There's nothing better than Christianity, folks.

There's absolutely nothing better that could possibly happen to you in

this world than to become a Christian.

Now, because the writer

knows that the original audience of Jews would struggle with this.

One of the things they would say is, What you talking about, Willis?

Where is that in the Old Testament?

And again, what does he do?

He takes them straight to the Old Testament to address the issues.

In verses 12 and 13.

These are direct quotes from Psalm 22, 22,

and Isaiah, chapter 8, verses 17 and

18 to show them that even in the Old Testament,

centuries before the Messiah, anticipated

the brotherhood that

he has for his people, proclaimed in verse 11.

Look at the end of verse 11.

He is not ashamed to call them brethren, then verse 12.

Look at this, saying, I

will proclaim your name to my brethren,

in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise.

That is from Psalm 22.

A direct quote.

The Jews knew well.

Psalm 22 is about the most messianic section of the whole Old Testament.

This is Messiah, the second person of the Trinity, talking

to God, the Father, and he says, Father, I'm going to proclaim your name to my brothers.

Out of the Old Testament.

And here's an interesting tidbit.

Before the cross, Jesus

never called any of his followers, brothers.

Never not one time.

He called on disciples.

He called them friends.

He called them sheep, but before the cross, never

brothers, but when he came out of that grave.

And the first thing he said when he came out of that grave

to Mary was what?

Go to my brother.

Hmm?

That was because it was only possible to be a brother when holy

justice have been satisfied.

When your sins had been forgiven, and Christ's righteousness had been

imputed to you, and credit to your account, then you

could be called his brother.

His brethren, Spirit of God, inspired

the psalmist to see this brotherhood centuries

before he came to this earth.

I will proclaim your name to my brethren in

the midst of the congregation.

I will see your praise.

Just picture what this foresees in eternity,

future, Messiah, taking his place amongst his brethren,

before God the Father, singing praise to God the Father

in the midst of his brethren, incredible.

What a scene.

You're going to be there, Christian.

You're going to be there at that scene.

And he's not ashamed to call us brothers.

We are in no way worthy of that.

But that's what grace does.

And then he's not done.

He goes to another book in the Old Testament.

He pulls from Isaiah, hey, look at verse 13, direct

quo, and again, I will put my

trust in him, and again, behold, I and

the children whom God has given me.

That's the Messiah in the Old Testament, saying, I will put my trust in him.

Jesus trusted his father during the time of the incarnation.

And then next, behold, I and the children whom

God has given me.

And as his brothers, we are to trust God

during our time of sanctification.

And this is Messiah.

declaring that God would be giving him

children, identified as

brothers in Psalm 22,

Now, fast forward sixth centuries in my time machine

with me just for a second, okay?

And let's go to the high priestly prayer.

In John 17, verse 6, pray to the Father,

Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men whom

you gave me out of the world.

They were yours, and you gave them to me, just

like he says in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 8.

There's no book like this book.

No book like this book.

comes close.

God's children, Jesus' brothers,

our love gifts from the Father, to

the Son, prophesied in the Old Testament.

He is our perfect savior.

Now, think about where we've been.

We've seen him as our substitute.

He's our salvation captain.

He's our sanctifier, but we're not done.

Let's keep going.

Verse 14, he's our Satan conqueror.

14 and 15.

Therefore, based on all that was just previously said,

since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself,

likewise, also partook of the same, that through death,

he might render powerless him who had the

power of death, that is, the devil, and might free

those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives.

Wow, that's a powerful two verses.

The writer starts out in verse 14 by saying, Therefore,

since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, likewise,

also partook of this thing.

This is so...

The Bible can get so specific.

with these Greek words.

The word for share, in the Greek means

to have fellowship.

or communion with.

All human beings have flesh and blood.

We share in flesh and blood together.

We all have that right.

But guess what?

See, that word partook?

Likewise, also, he himself, Jesus, partook,

oh, the word partook is very different.

It has, it's a totally different word.

It has to do with something that is not naturally

one's own kind.

Amen.

All of us by nature, we are flesh and blood, not Jesus.

He willingly took hold of something which did not naturally

belong to him in his incarnation.

And why did he do it?

Well, in addition to all that we've ever covered in this verse so far,

this whole message.

This next verse gives us another reason.

Look at it, that through death, he might render powerless

him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.

Now, I have to admit to you, I have struggled with understanding the full meaning of this.

How does Satan have the power of death?

What does that mean?

Well, I think I'm getting closer to grasping it.

I don't think I fully yet completely understand it as

well as I want to, but I think I'm getting closer through my study this week.

Let me give you a try for you.

Satan's primary power over

man and supreme weapon against us is death.

Okay?

Now, sin is a part of it, but death

is the ultimate weapon.

And so think of it this way.

Satan's power over us, this weapon

of death, and I'm going to explain a little bit more than that in a minute.

It had to be broken in

order for us to be brought to God.

Think about this.

Satan has always known, since the garden, that God required

death because of sin, right?

Because he was right there.

I mean, he was part of the cause for it.

And he's always known.

That if men remain in sin,

all their life, when they die, immediately they go to hell.

And he always wants to hold on to, as

many as he can until they die, because at that point, salvation is not possible.

You understand what I'm saying?

So he does all the evil stuff he does in the world system to distract men away from the word.

The little G god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe

not the glorious gospel.

And so Satan's hold on men, in

this sense, is death, and nobody escapes it.

Nobody escapes death.

And in that sense, since the fall, Satan

has wielded the power of death in that way.

You understand what I'm saying?

And this verse gives us another reason.

For why Jesus came, that reality had to be conquered.

And that's what Jesus did.

What this verse is saying is that Jesus became a

man to me, Satan, on his own ground.

He had to face death as man,

and he had to conquer death as man in

his incarnation, and guess what?

He has a weapon way more powerful than death.

It's called life.

Eternal life.

He went into an experienced

death, and guess what?

He came out on the other side, and he showed he

could conquer death when he came out of the other side, because he rose from the dead.

That proves it.

And that's how he can say to us, because I live.

Christian, you shall live also.

The resurrection provides us with eternal life.

It's the only thing that could have been done.

The proof that Jesus conquered death.

Now, next, verse 15.

And might free those who,

through the fear of death, were subject to slavery,

all their lives.

It's incredible.

Can you say with me that once you came to Christ,

how incredibly different you'd view death now?

Huh?

I mean, I look at it a thousand percent differently.

I don't mind thinking about death all day.

I really don't.

Why?

Because we don't fear death anymore.

Death is simply the entrance into heaven.

We understand.

Why, Paul said, for me to live is Christ,

and to die is getting, right?

Oh, death, where is your victory?

Oh, death?

where is your sting, he said.

He understood it too, and he really understands it now.

We don't fear death.

We've been placed when you place your

faith in the conqueror of death.

You believe with saving faith

that he's going to lead you into one side of that graven, right outside the other.

into the presence of Christ.

Have them from the body, present, with the Lord.

Lastly, I got one more for you.

Number six.

Jesus is our sympathizer.

And this is going to complete the total picture here for today.

Verse 16, for assuredly, he

does not give help to angels.

But he gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

Now, he doesn't give help to angels.

That's pretty easy to understand, they don't need help.

We learned about the angels, a couple of sermons back.

They're sinless, they're holy, they're spiritual beings, but we?

We are another story.

As we learn, even though we are sanctified,

positionally, right now, down

here in responsibility land, we are weak, we are frail.

And I said, as I said earlier, every day we are on the

Romans 7 struggle bus.

We do what we don't want to do, what we don't want to do, we find ourselves doing all the time.

And we need help.

And that's why this verse says, but he gives help, to

the descendants of Abraham.

And listen, there's no debate here.

We don't have to debate this.

I don't care whether you're an ethnic Jew, a Mexican, a

Gentile of any sort.

In either case, no matter your ethnicity, the

only descendants of Abraham's He

helps are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

And guess what that means, only believers.

I don't care how much melanin you have or don't have in your skin.

It doesn't matter.

All the ground is completely level at the foot of across.

And how could he help us?

How could he possibly help us if he didn't understand this?

And how is it that he could understand us best?

Well, I'm glad you asked that, because verse 17 tells us.

Therefore, he had to be made

like his brethren in all things,

so that he might become a

merciful and faithful high priest

in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation,

wrath, appeasement for the sins of his people.

I'm telling you, it was necessary for him to get in our skin.

and feel what we feel and suffer what

we suffer, including temptation.

Look at verse 18.

For since he himself was tempted in that which

he suffered, he is able to come

to the aid of those who are tempted.

Folks, he went all through the same temptations that we had as children.

He went through all the same temptations that we had as young adults.

And as adults, especially during his ministry, especially

the 40 days with Satan

in the wilderness, and finally, and most severely.

in that last week of his life.

He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, contemplating,

absorbing the wrath of God for all the sins of all believers who

will ever believe, as he sweat, great

drops of blood in the garden.

He was so overcome.

And you say, well, he was God, he couldn't sin.

That's right.

He couldn't sin, but that doesn't mean he couldn't feel the temptation.

In fact, He

felt it to a degree that we couldn't possibly experience.

The fact that he never gave in to temptation means that he

took all the fuel fury of every

temptation every time he was tempted.

We give in regularly.

He never gave in, not once.

So we never got to that point.

We never will.

This church is how he became a

merciful and faithful high priest.

He was hungry.

Like I am right now.

He was thirsty.

He loved, he was glad, he was tired.

He was righteously angry, he was troubled, he

was righteously sarcastic, he grieved.

We saw it just a couple of weeks ago.

He wept.

Right?

At the grave of Lazarus.

He prayed all night, he read the scripture.

He felt all the things that we feel, and

he felt them to the nth degree as the god man in a way that we never could.

And notice verse 18 focuses in on, he

was tempted in that which he suffered.

I don't care what you're going through.

You ain't never suffered like Jesus.

All of us put together, and he never suffered like Jesus did when he

was here as our substitute.

And why?

Why?

So that, into verse 18, he is

able to come to the aid of

those who are tempted, that

we might have a merciful and faithful high

priest who can be touched with the feelings of our

infirmities.

That's why.

He knows our frame from experience, and that great?

This is our perfect savior, our substitute,

our salvation captain, our sanctifier,

our Satan conqueror, our sympathizer.

There is no other savior like this one, because

he's the only one there is.

Most important question that you have to answer.

is he, your savior.

Let's pray.

By the way, thank you for the book of Hebrews and the magnitude

of the exaltation of Christ.

I can't even possibly... get

to the tip of the iceberg of what it deserves.

But you gotta have somebody to attempt it.

And I thank you that you've allowed me the great privilege to be able to preach

this tremendous text to your people today.

I pray, Lord, that every person would leave out of here with

a greater and deeper understanding of Jesus, a greater and deeper

appreciation for who he is and what he's done.

And I pray if any are here who have not bowed the knee to his kingship

and lordship and saving faith.

I pray you'd use this message preach to draw them to yourself.

I pray that all that we've done in this place today has brought you

all of the glory.

In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.