Sanctified In Suffering

0:00Morning. I will um before we jump into the official text, I'm going to say generally speaking, um, I try to keep one theme, generally speaking, with with respect to the text in front of us. This week, though, there was multiple themes that were somewhat unavoidable. Um so this this uh sermon might be a slightly more uh discombobulated uh perhaps than normal, or uh there's multiple concurrent themes running here. I'm trying to tie it all back together, just letting you know you've got to keep your wits about you this morning and follow me because it will it will come together. Um but there's your there's your preface. Uh turn turn to chapter 2 of Hebrews. Uh we're gonna be covering verses um uh 10 through 13. Sorry, I had to think about that for a second. 10 through 13 this morning, verses 10 through 13 of Hebrews chapter 2. I'm gonna begin this morning by asking a little bit of a trick question, possibly an ambiguous trick question. And you don't have to answer this one out loud. Um, what is one word you would use to describe your view of Jesus? What is one word you would use to describe your view of Jesus? Okay, maybe you thought mighty, maybe you thought Savior, maybe you thought God or Lord, perhaps? Maybe you went on the other side of it and you thought servant, humble, right? Humility. We've been talking about that a lot in Sunday school. I'm willing to bet, though, that no one thought of the word balanced as an answer to that question of what is your view of Jesus? Balanced. I doubt anybody thought of that. The writer of Hebrews, and really the whole of the New Testament, though, is giving us a balanced view of Jesus. I'll explain what I mean there. Hebrews began by showing us, as we have labored to this point, that Christ is, there's a very high view of Christ. We should have a very high view of Jesus, right? That he's the supreme creator of all things. He's better than all the prophets, he's better than all of the kings, he's better than all of the angels. This is a high view of Christ, right? Lord, King, Master, Creator. Elsewhere, though, we see Christ as a poor carpenter, a humble servant, a man of sorrows, one in total submission to the Father's will. We have on one hand Jesus Christ as God, elevated far above the heavens, sitting on his throne, and on the other, we have a lamb led to the slaughter, mocked and ridiculed. We have this Jesus both commanding the angels and washing feet. And this balanced view is very important to us because in this duality of the natures of Christ, he is really all of those things, right? He is low and humble, and at the same time, he's high and exalted. And often we've joked a little about this idea of Jesus is my homeboy, right? We've talked about that and we've laughed about it, we've joked about it. That attitude is often prevalent in our culture, saying how foolish such an attitude is, because Jesus is not our homeboy, he's our Lord, our God, and our king, right? To that we say amen. However, and this is an important, however, the writer of Hebrews is giving us a balanced view this morning by showing us that Jesus, along with being our Lord, is also our oldest brother. He is our brother. Jesus is our king, he is our God, but he is also our brother and our friend. And anyone who scoffs at such an idea, our reply should be, then how can he be both the just and the justifier? If Jesus can't be both your Lord and your brother, how can he be both your master and servant? Or how can he be both master and servant? How could he be both God and man? If we take him as our Savior, we also have to take him as our Lord. And if we take him as our God, we also get the unspeakable privilege of taking him as our brother and our friend. And it is this balanced view of Jesus that really ignites our hearts in love and devotion to him. When we see him as the author of Hebrews presents him, this presents another paradox to us. Jesus seems too good to be true, being a Savior and our brother. And yet, he is the truest thing we have ever known. So we have seen him as the high and exalted God of the universe. And this morning we will see him as our suffering sanctifier, our loyal brother, who is not ashamed of us. So that's where we're going. Please stand with me once more. Hebrews 2, verses 10 to 13. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your br of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise, and again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, again, for your word. Please speak now for Christ's sake. It's in his name that I pray. Amen. We aren't going to strictly follow the order of the text this morning. Instead, we're going to firmly establish our relationship with Christ as brother first, our relationship with God as family, okay, that our text gives us, and then we'll consider uh sanctification in suffering, and we'll explain that a little bit. Uh so to begin, we see in verse 12 of our text. So this is near the end of the text that we read. Verse 12, um, we have another quotation from uh the Psalms. This time the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 22. If you wish to turn back with me to Psalm 22, you can do that. I'm gonna flip back there real quick to Psalm 22. So we can see that uh this context again. Look at the first words of Psalm 22, verse 1, Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Familiar words and a familiar verse, right? We've talked about this before, but when Christ quoted Psalm 22 on the cross, he was not claiming that the Father had forsaken him, but rather pointing us to Psalm 22 and himself as the true fulfillment of David's words here in this Psalm. Christ, through the inspiration of the Spirit, he gave, Christ gave David those words that he wrote in Psalm 22. So on the Christ, on the cross, Christ puts those words in his mouth to demonstrate that Psalm 22 is not just about crying out to God in suffering generally, which it can be, but more specifically about suffering for a purpose. And what would that purpose be? Psalm 22 ends this way. They, he says, right, this is the last verse of Psalm 22. This is verse 31. They, meaning God's elect, shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. That he has done it. So that's the purpose of Psalm 22, ultimately, right? And I hope that that message is received loud and clear this morning above all messages that Christ, he, has done it. Because of his suffering at the hands of wicked men and his suffering under the wrath of a holy God, we can not only proclaim his righteousness as we should, but we can receive his righteousness. Praise be to God. He has done it. For our purposes this morning, though, the writer of Hebrews takes verse 22 of Psalm 22, right? That's why you can remember this verse, 22, 22, Psalm 22, verse 22. Sorry. Um and he attributes those words to Christ as well, right? Verse 22, Psalm 22. And why wouldn't he? They are the words of Christ, right? One commentator noted this, uh noted that this is a reminder to us, this aspect of Christ putting these words in his mouth and throughout the psalm, that Jesus is the true singer of the Psalms, right? The songs. Jesus is the true and original singer of them. But in verse 22, he says, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. Our Lord, the Lord, is calling us here. Jesus is calling us his siblings, his brothers and sisters. As a result of his mercy and through his suffering, he calls me his brother. If you are in Christ, he calls you his brother, his sister. It's almost too much. But we're just getting started. Romans 8, 15 to 17, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. And again in Ephesians 1, verse 5, in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. For he is the son, Christ. The adopted sons have this privilege in the eternal son. To bring saved men into a filial relation to God required a Savior standing in that relationship himself. Hence, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son that we might obtain the adoption of as sons and daughters. We are adopted in Christ, and then he remakes our spiritual DNA by pouring the Holy Spirit into our hearts to make us real members of the family. So to say that Christ is our brother is far more than just some trite saying, right, or something that comforts us when we're feeling rejected, though it does. It's a comfort because it's true, it's real. You were alienated, you were estranged, you were spiritually orphaned, you were homeless and wandering without a family, but God saw you in that state and he called you from it. He adopted you into the royal family of God, and as a result, you are a true and everlasting brother and sister of Christ. Let that sink in. Even more, he is not ashamed to call us his brother, sister. How many of us have lived under the weight of trying not to bring shame upon our family? How many have brought shame, justified or unjustified, and live in that pain of hostility and regret? If you've experienced any of that, you can relate to how tremendous it is to know that Christ knew all of your shame before even you did, and yet he still suffered the cross for you. He bore the burden and drank the cup so that he might call you his brother and sister. And he is not ashamed that you are in his family. Who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. That is more practically why or how Jesus is the answer to all of the problems, right, that we discussed last week or we began to discuss last week. Through faith in Christ, we have been brought into a new family. We have died to who we once were and were reborn as new people with new names, new identities. We are children of God. And in him and through him, there is no more hostility. In Christ we are reconciled to God. Christ himself is our peace. And we have that peace in him free from shame. This is also why family now for believers means a little something different. Family doesn't primarily mean those for whom blood relation, or maybe it's better to say that it means more than that for us. Romans 8, verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. I know I'm repeating myself a bit here. I want you to get it though. Christ was the firstborn of a new creation that is presently being remade by him. He is also the firstborn of a new family that are all being adopted under his name. Okay, John 3, 3 to 7. Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old, can enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. Everyone had a first birth, right? And according to Christ, the fact that you were born once doesn't really do anything for you spiritually. You must die to your flesh and be born again in the Spirit by faith. This second spiritual birth brings you into a new family. Look around the room. Seriously, look around the room. This is your family. This is your family. These are your brothers and sisters whom you will spend eternity with. Christ is our older brother, who not only gives us the perfect model of what a sibling looks like, right? Which he does. But his work started this amazing family that we have the privilege of being a member of. That is verse 11 of our text this morning. The one who sanctifies Jesus Christ, and those who are being sanctified, that is us, all have one source. We are all united in the same family, the royal family of God. That is why he has no shame in calling us his brothers and sisters, because we all have our spiritual origin and unity in him, in the Godhead. Let me be clear that this does not mean that we are all somehow mushed together in this bland unitarian family, like we're not unitarians. God is one, but he's also three distinct persons, right? And without slipping into some heresy, which I hopefully not do that, we can consider the body of Christ in somewhat the same way. One in Christ, but also still uniquely distinct. We have to be okay with these paradoxes to keep this balanced view that we opened with and talked about. We are individuals, right? And at the same time, we are all one. Individuals, but one. Distinct branches of the same tree, to use the biblical example. This is important to emphasize because when we get real about the true nature of our family and our adoption into this family, we begin to see what our intended purpose is in life. We glorify God when we are recognized as a holy people of God. Ephesians 4, 21 and 24. Assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to the former manner of your life, and it's corrupt, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Fundamental to this new identity and this new family is to put off your old self and to put on your new self. To be conformed after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. And part of that end is the sanctification that happens in this life. More specifically, transformation into holiness. Richard Phillips, of whom I read a large part of the commentary I read, is from him. He says this quote Francis Schaeffer once defined the basic aspiration of people today, including evangelical Christians, as material affluence and enough personal peace to enjoy. But what we see in this passage is something far greater, a higher and more wonderful destiny and calling. We were reborn in Christ as his fellow brothers and sisters for the glory that is in his heavenly realms, and the holiness that distinguishes God and his children. This is what the Christian life is about: growth in holiness. This involves the progressive renewal of the old man, leaving sin behind us while we are putting on the new man. We call this progressive sanctification, and it is our calling and our destiny and our duty. End quote. Remember back in Genesis, when we considered the fall of man, we noted that when God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, he stationed cherubim to guard the entrance to the garden. Remember that? Later, when God gave instructions for the sewing of the curtain that veiled the entrance into the Holy of Holies, he instructed them to embroider cherubim there as well, right? That was not in Genesis, but we talked about that. There was this constant reminder to them of their separation from God and from his holiness. And that the separation was the result of their sin. And the law, too, should have been a constant reminder that the standards of holiness that were required were so far beyond our reach that we were utterly hopeless. Right? This was their constant reminder. And it was in this state of hopelessness that Christ entered into. Romans 3, 23 to 26, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When our text then says that Christ was made perfect through suffering, that was verse, the second half of verse 10, it was not that Christ needed to be perfected, right? He was perfect. But rather that he was consecrated through his suffering that he might be the holiness that was required of us, but that we could not attain. This consecration required the shedding of blood. It required suffering. And Christ perfected us through his suffering. He spilled his blood. And he himself was the mercy seat on which the blood was spilt. He satisfied the requirement for entrance back into paradise. He relieved the cherubim of their duty, right? He tore the curtain which separated us from God. He gave us, again, unfettered access to the holiness of God. Hebrews 9, 11 to 14. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood and goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing our eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a defiled person with ashes of heifer sanctify it for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? So the purpose of Christ's life was the securing of an eternal redemption. And it was efficacious because Christ was a worthy, holy, and perfect sacrifice. Now for us, having received that redemption by grace through faith, the purpose of our lives is to draw near to be transformed by the holiness of the one who saved us. Hebrews 10 19 to 22. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. First, the text shows us the true nature of love. And the vastness of God's love for us. John Murray says this quote What love for men that the Father should execute upon his own son the full toll of holy wrath, so that we should never taste it. This was John's amazement when he wrote, This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Suffering that Christ endured on the cross for our salvation and sanctification must be seen as the grandest act of love. What is love? Not what we do that we call love, right? That's not love. What is love is that Christ came in the flesh to suffer the full wrath of God so that he could give us his righteousness so that we may call him our brother. That's love. That's love. Secondly, because Jesus is not ashamed of us, we should not be ashamed of him. If it was fitting, as we read, if it was fitting for God to humble himself to save a sinner such as I, that it should be equally fitting for me and you to be unashamed, to unashamedly sing praises to and serve our great Savior. 2 Timothy 2, 8 to 9. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. Finally, as 2 Timothy alluded to there, the text calls us to be unashamed, to bear scorn, to suffer for his sake, or to be sanctified into the holiness that he paid such a price to give us. And this is really a tough one. Because standing with Christ or standing up for Christ, our dear brother and our Lord, will always put us in tough situations. He was unashamed of us, right? And that sent him to the cross. Fortunately for us, being unashamed of Christ will almost certainly not send us to a cross. Thanks be to God for that. But it will put you in difficult conversations with coworkers and friends, perhaps. It will often call on you to deny yourself, to deny your desires. To say no when you want to say yes, and to say yes when you want to say no. Maybe it means you can't laugh along with all your coworkers and those jokes they tell. Or act like one of the guys. Maybe it means you tell someone not to gossip instead of just joining in with them. There are a million ways that this plays out in our lives, but the point is not to put legalism on us, but to encourage you in your pursuit of holiness. Through his suffering, Christ is sanctifying you. And if you are in Christ, you have been adopted into a royal holy family. The last verse that our text referenced this morning, and this is kind of going along with this conclusion, this is verse 30, the last half of verse 13 is from Isaiah 8. Behold, I and the children God has given me. And this verse speaks of trusting in the testimony of God despite worldly pressures, and it speaks of waiting on the Lord. I'm going to read from a section from Isaiah 8. I will wait for the Lord. This is Isaiah 8, verse 17, if you wanted to turn there. I just got it in my notes, so I'm going to read it out of here. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on the behalf of the living? To the teaching, and to the testimony? If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged, and they will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness. But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, and they are glad when they divide the spoil. How can we be assured of this? How can we be assured of that and live unashamed of him? Just a few verses later in Isaiah 9, verse 6, for unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Christ is our brother. Christ is our Lord. Christ is the firstborn of our new family. He is our counselor. He is our God, and He is our peace. This is the balanced view we must have of the one who unashamedly suffered for our sanctification. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you again for your word, Lord, as always. We thank you that you suffered for us, Lord. By your Spirit, Lord, please help us to live unashamed of you. Lord, may we serve you in all that we do. It is our heart to serve you, Lord. It is our heart to be transformed into your holiness, to be sanctified by you, Lord. Please do it. And we trust that you will, Lord. Thank you for allowing us to call you our brother. Thank you for being our Savior. Jesus' name.