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[0:00] Through the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 2, at verse 10. Let us read the previous verse again. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

[0:23] For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

[0:38] For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.

[0:54] In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children which God hath given me.

[1:07] It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

[1:27] Now as we have seen in the previous verses, the writer has quoted Psalm number 8, where it tells us how God made man a little lower than the angels, how God crowned man with glory and with honor, and how God set him over the works of his hands, and how God put all things under subjection to him.

[1:54] And what the writer is doing there is this. He is showing to us, as we have already said, a picture of ideal man. This is what God intended when God made man in his own image and after his own likeness.

[2:14] He made him in a sense a miniature God. He made him a little lower than the angels. He crowned him with glory and with honor.

[2:26] He gave him dominion over all the created things of God. And that was God's ideal man.

[2:37] But as the writer tells us in verse 8, but now he says, looking at ideal man, we see not yet all things put under him.

[2:49] Something has happened, you see. Sin has intruded into the affairs of men. And man is no longer able to bear the image of God in which he was created.

[3:03] There are traces there. But he is no longer what God intended him to be. He has lost the image. It has been hopelessly defaced because of sin.

[3:18] And what is God's purpose? God's purpose in salvation is to restore once more man to the ideal that God had set.

[3:30] And this is why he has sent his son. And this is what the writer is saying. But now, he says, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels.

[3:45] Jesus, who came in the same form as man, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.

[3:57] This is the purpose then of Christ coming, to taste death for men, to take the sting out of death for men, to recover man from his lostness, to bring man back to God, to restore to man the image that he had lost in the fall.

[4:22] And so what God has done, he has appointed Christ his son as the captain of his people's salvation. For it became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things.

[4:39] That's God. It became God. For whom are all things, by whom are all things. God the creator, who has made all things for himself and for his own glory.

[4:53] It became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

[5:08] And so God has appointed his own son to be the captain of his people's salvation. Not only has he appointed his own son to be the captain of his people's salvation, but he has also appointed his own son to be the sanctifier of his people.

[5:29] For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. And the two things that I want to bring to your notice this evening from these verses and to my own notice is this, that God has first of all appointed his own son Christ Jesus to be the captain of our salvation.

[5:56] And secondly, he has appointed his own son to be our sanctifier. Oh yes, I know that it is the work of the spirit of God to sanctify, but yet, God has also appointed his own son to be our sanctifier.

[6:14] But let's look at this first point, that God has appointed his son Christ Jesus to be the savior of his people. What did God do with his son?

[6:29] Well, he entered into a covenant with his son. A covenant is merely an agreement. It's a contract that has been drawn up.

[6:42] And there are two parties involved in this contract. On the one hand, there is God, who wants to bring many sons to glory. On the other hand, there is Christ, and God has appointed him to bring these many sons to glory.

[7:02] And so the agreement has been made between the father and the son, that the father will give these many sons to his son, on condition that his son will fulfill all their responsibilities and obligations.

[7:20] And so only one person could make an atonement for these many sons in order to bring them to glory, and that person was his own son, Christ Jesus. You know, we use this word atonement.

[7:33] But as someone has said, or as it used to be said in the older days, the word atonement is really three syllables. At one meant.

[7:49] And this is precisely what Christ has come to do, to bring to one the people of God and God himself through his own work.

[8:02] And so Christ Jesus has been appointed by God to be the saviour of his people. the authorised version describes him as the captain of salvation as we have it here.

[8:14] If you were to look up the new international version of the Bible, you would discover that it's translated that Christ is the pioneer of salvation.

[8:25] If you turn to the new English Bible, he is called the leader who delivers. And these three terms are all the same because they really give to us the idea that here is Christ and he is the one who forges ahead, who guides to the true destination, who saves to the uttermost all who come to God by him.

[8:58] And isn't this what God has done with his son? He has appointed him and said to his son, Christ Jesus, these people that I am bringing to glory, these many sons, you must go down and you must lead them and take them out of the bondage of corruption and deliver them from the thralldom of sin and break the power of sin that holds them and deliver them from the wrath that is to come.

[9:33] And not only do I want you to do that, God seems to say to his son to deliver them from that, but I entrust to you this great task of presenting these many sons to me unblameable and unreprovable and perfect in my sight.

[9:56] Ah, what a task. What a task indeed. To deliver men from the damnation of God is one thing.

[10:10] To present them faultless before a father's throne is another thing. And this is the twofold task that God has given to his son to accomplish.

[10:24] And that is why this writer speaks about angels in chapters 1 and chapters 2. And why does he speak about these angels? Because he is impressing upon the minds of his readers that this is not a work that any angel could perform.

[10:42] No angel, no matter his rank, could come down from heaven and perform a task like this. And there is no power on earth that could perform a task like this and so God has entrusted the task to his own dear son.

[11:01] God, as it has been put in another part of the Bible, has devised means for bringing back his banished one. And the means devised for bringing back his banished one demanded that the person who was to do this had to be adequate for the work that he had to do.

[11:24] And so we find God saying in the book of Psalms, I have made a covenant with my chosen. And who is God's chosen? Christ.

[11:37] And God says to this chosen one of his, I have made a covenant with you. you will bring many sons to glory. And we can also say this, that Christ Jesus through his sufferings has brought into effect God's saving purpose for his people.

[12:05] For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

[12:19] And so in bringing many sons to glory the captain had to be made perfect through sufferings. Now when you and I think of being made perfect we think of the opposite of perfect.

[12:37] And the opposite of perfect is imperfection. What is imperfect? And the suggestion might be made, well does this text infer that Jesus was in some way imperfect?

[12:53] Not at all. Not at all. It doesn't mean that at all. We are not to think that there is any suggestion of any kind here that Christ Jesus was in some way imperfect and that he had to be made perfect in suffering.

[13:13] There is no suggestion of any kind like that at all in the scriptures. There was no moral imperfection in our Lord that had to be cured.

[13:28] our Lord Jesus was blameless, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin.

[13:44] And that is why Jesus was able to say, which of you convinceth me of sin? well then if that is so, the question will be asked naturally enough.

[13:58] What does it mean by being made perfect? Well if we were to turn to the original language, the Greek language, we would discover that the word means, the word perfect means, to be made adequate, to be made completely effective, and the emphasis is not on the captain being made adequate or completely effective, but the work that he was involved in, being made adequate and completely effective.

[14:36] And so you see, Christ Jesus had to suffer, and these sufferings were the ingredients of the work of salvation and that work of salvation could only be brought to perfection by the sufferings in which our Lord and Saviour was involved.

[15:03] I've quoted on other Sabbaths the book Christ Above All, written recently by Raymond Brown, and he puts it like this, although Christ was morally perfect and sinless, his life and work were brought by sufferings to a form of perfection or completion which cannot have been possible without them.

[15:37] In other words, the work of the atonement would have been impossible without these sufferings that Jesus had to be involved in.

[15:50] And so Jesus had to be among us here, us men, and he had to shed tears. These were his sufferings.

[16:04] He had to experience pain in all its intensity. He had to undergo sorrow.

[16:18] And only he could say, see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which the Lord hath done unto me in the day of his fierce anger. Jesus knew what it was to endure loneliness, the loneliness of that cross on Calvary's bloody hill.

[16:46] He knew what it was to hunger and to thirst. And what I am saying is this, that all these were the ingredients in his sufferings in order to make salvation possible for you and for me.

[17:06] listen to the prophet Isaiah. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

[17:19] Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

[17:30] The chastisement about peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

[17:44] Smitten of God and afflicted, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

[17:55] sins. Now we see what the writer meant when he said that it was necessary for the captain of our salvation to be made perfect through suffering.

[18:08] It wasn't that he had to be made perfect, but the work had to be brought to perfection, to completion, and the captain had to suffer.

[18:19] every drop in the cup that Jesus drank, he had to drink it for us, until it wrung from him that cry, that mysterious cry, it is finished.

[18:41] What's finished? All that was given him to do, all that his father had told him he must do if he was going to bring many sons to glory.

[18:57] And so Christ Jesus has been made perfect through suffering. That is to say, he is a perfect saviour, isn't he?

[19:12] He is a perfect high priest in every sense of the word. He is a perfect intercessor. But Christ Jesus, in leading many sons to glory, had to lead them to glory.

[19:40] These sons could only be brought to glory through this head, this captain, this pioneer, this leader.

[19:52] And the writer is in all probability thinking back to Moses because he's going to speak about Moses later on and show to us how Christ is greater than Moses. But what was the great task of Moses?

[20:07] Moses. The great task of Moses was to lead God's ancient people from the slavery of Egypt to the promised land. And so Moses had to go in and confront Pharaoh and demand the deliverance of God's people from the hand of Pharaoh.

[20:30] And after Pharaoh at last yielded, Moses had to lead these people. He had to lead them almost every step of the way through that wilderness until at last he brought them to the borders of the promised land.

[20:51] But as this writer is going to inform us, here is Jesus and he not only has he delivered us from our Egypt of sin, and not only is he leading us through this wilderness, but he's not going to leave us at the borders of the promised land, he is going to go into the promised land and present us to his father with exceeding joy.

[21:17] And so what Christ has come to do is to take us out of the darkness of sin into the marvelous light of God, and that's what happens at conversion.

[21:33] And not only does Jesus do that, not only does he lead us out of the darkness of sin at conversion, into the marvelous light of God, but he brings us through the wilderness of this world, through our pilgrimage that we have to make now until journey's end, and he leads us on safely until at last he brings us to heaven.

[22:02] He brings us to heaven. It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory.

[22:17] Yes, these many sons are being brought to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. them. So we are being brought to glory.

[22:29] Later on in chapter 11, it's called a city, glory is called a city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God. In that same chapter, chapter 11, glory or heaven is described as a better country, a homeland.

[22:49] land. In chapter 12, this writer calls heaven the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

[23:03] It's also called in that same chapter, chapter 12, a kingdom which cannot be moved. And in chapter 13, he calls heaven an abiding city.

[23:17] And so what the writer is pointing out at the very beginning of his letter is this. Christ Jesus is our captain. He has come down here to perfect salvation for us through his sufferings.

[23:36] And he and he alone is leading many sons to glory. And this is God's aim in salvation, to bring many sons to his everlasting paradise, to bring many sons to his eternal home.

[24:00] And so he sent his son on this errand to do this. And by being made perfect through sufferings, Christ Jesus has brought to completion the process salvation.

[24:17] He has brought to completion the way into the presence of God, the holiest of all, for us. He has made it possible. It wasn't possible before for any person to go into the holiest of all.

[24:35] It wasn't possible before this for any person to enter into the presence of God. But you see, our captain has done it.

[24:48] And he has opened up the way into the eternal presence of God for us. Through what he has done, he is bringing many sons to glory.

[25:03] And that is why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It may be if I read J.B.

[25:19] Phillips' translation of this, it may so throw some more light on it. This is how J.B. Phillips paraphrases it. You might wonder why I quote these different translations.

[25:33] Well, I tell you this, I find it very helpful to consult these other translations. If you find a bit of the Bible very difficult, the authorised version, why don't you consult another version?

[25:47] Many of these men who have written these other versions were sanctified men, as well as been scholarly men. Some of them might not have been, but some of them were.

[26:00] And J.B. Phillips was a good man. He says it was right and proper that in bringing many sons to glory, God, from whom and by whom everything exists, should make the leader of their salvation a perfect leader through the fact that he suffered.

[26:23] yes, Jesus suffered. And through these sufferings he has brought about a perfect salvation.

[26:36] But then there is this other point that I want to bring to your attention, and that is that God has appointed Christ Jesus to be the sanctifier of his people. in the plan of salvation God intends much more than saving men from sin.

[27:01] The plan of God is to embrace this, the restoration of man to the ideal that God had in mind and much more when he created man at the beginning.

[27:14] originally what God did when he created man was to make man in his own likeness and after his own image.

[27:32] But now God is recreating us, remaking us into the image of his own dear son.

[27:44] and that is why the apostle Paul tells us in his epistle to the Ephesians God has given different officers to the church, men with varying gifts and different gifts.

[28:00] And why has God given to the church these men with different gifts? Well, says the apostle, in order that we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God and to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

[28:22] That's God's ideal now. To bring men and women to the stature of the fullness of Christ.

[28:33] Christ. To bring men and women to the state of perfection in Christ. And so our captain leads us on to glory, to this end.

[28:51] And by his spirit he sanctifies us and makes us complete in him. As it tells us here, for both he that sanctifies that's Christ, and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren.

[29:18] Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee and again I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children which God hath given me.

[29:31] Now I know that these verses are difficult but as I see them they suggest this to me that what Christ Jesus is doing as well as being the captain of our salvation he is doing this he is giving to us the family likeness of heaven he is saying to us I am going to make you my brethren I have come into the congregation to call you to be my brethren and I am not ashamed says Jesus to call you my brothers and when you become a brother in a family it means that you have got the family likeness doesn't it just as when you look at families you are able to say oh my he belongs to that family he is so like them and so with God's people the sons whom

[30:31] God is bringing to glory through the captain of their salvation through Christ Christ is making them into his brethren and giving to them his likeness son and son and Paul in his epistle to the Romans tells us that the predestinating purpose of God is to conform us to the image of his son that's what Paul says in Romans 8 you are he says being conformed and this is God's predestinating purpose for you you are being conformed to the image of God's son so my friend my Christian friend this is what God is doing with you as he brings you to glory he is imparting to you the family likeness and he's not ashamed to call you his brethren listen to the apostle

[31:39] John we quoted him in the morning we quote him again this evening he says this beloved he says now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear that's Christ when he shall appear we shall be like him we shall be like Christ for we shall see him as he is is and the writer goes on John to say this and every man that hath this hope in him purify himself even as he is pure and so Christ is giving to us the family likeness have you got it are you like Christ is Christ able to say this I'm not ashamed to call you my brother brother in the midst of a congregation I'm not ashamed to call you my brother and I'm bringing you on as one of

[32:42] God's sons to glory is that happening to you and not only is Christ imparting to us the family likeness as I see it here but isn't he also giving to us the family trust again I will put my trust in him and here the writer brings us back to 2nd Samuel chapter 22 verse 3 and also it's repeated in Psalm 18 verse 2 where in that messianic Sam we are being reminded of the messiah being subjected to the harassment that was going to lead him on to his final death and yet the messiah was able to say this no matter what came against him

[33:50] I will put my trust in thee however the sorrows of hell encompass the messiah he trusted in the lord and this is one of the things that you notice about Christ Jesus throughout his life his unshakable trust his unshakable confidence in God and even in the darkest hour of his life when he was dying there upon the cross of Calvary when his father had withdrawn from him he was able to cry out from the gloom of that terrible hour my God my God he never lost trust and that's the trust that

[34:54] Christ imparts to his people so that they never lose trust in God and so Jesus gives us that trust and again I will put my trust in him but Christ Jesus will bring us to the family home I've been speaking about the family likeness the family trust but there is the family home isn't there and Christ is bringing us to this family home family is bringing us to glory.

[35:48] Well, Christ is bringing us to the family home. And at the end of the day, if by the grace of God you and I stand there in heaven, beside our Saviour, what will our Saviour say?

[36:05] Just what it said here. Behold I. Jesus will say to his Father, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

[36:19] Here are your many sons. I've redeemed them. I've brought them out of the darkness of sin.

[36:32] I've brought them through the wilderness of this world. I've sanctified them. My Spirit has been given to them.

[36:45] And now here they are. I and the children that you've given me. The writer, you see, is recalling the words that we find in Isaiah chapter 8 verse 18.

[36:59] Where Isaiah speaks these words in connection with himself and the children of Israel. And what the writer is doing, he is arguing that Christ, whom God has appointed the captain of our salvation, our leader, is bringing many sons to glory and he is emphasising this, that this captain of our salvation, this leader, this pioneer, whatever we like to call him, Christ, our Saviour, he is not going to lose one of those sons whom God has given him to bring to glory.

[37:46] we read together John 17 where in that great prayer of our Lord's he says this to his father in one of his petitions, those those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled.

[38:19] And so the Lord is able to say tonight in heaven as he appears in the presence of God for his people none of them is lost. and at the end of the history of our world when everything is finalised our Lord Jesus will say to his father not one of them is lost but the son of perdition behold I am the children whom God has given me.

[38:49] isn't that wonderful? If you are one of God's sons God has provided you with this great captain and he has saved you.

[39:05] And not only has God provided you with this great captain who has saved you but this great captain will see to it that you won't be lost in the way.

[39:19] He's got a complete count of all these sons not one of them will be lost not one of them will be missing You recall what it says in the epistle of Jude that very short epistle and yet it's such a wonderful epistle where Jude says he is able in his benediction that is Christ he is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

[40:04] And so my friend if you are my Christian friend in heaven when we stand with Christ our mighty saviour and our captain will say to his father there they are I'm with them and these many sons that you gave to me I haven't lost one behold I and the children whom God have given me I would ask you in closing is this Christ is this captain is this pioneer is this leader is he yours have you committed your life to him have you come to Christ and said oh Christ

[41:09] I can't save myself but you can save me grant that I might be numbered among the many sons and bring me safe to glory but if you are hopeful that you are one of his sons I ask you this too have you got the family likeness can people see ah you're one of the brethren of Christ you're one of Christ's brothers you're so like him you're one of his brothers can people say that about you have you got the faith in God that your saviour had the captain of your salvation had and at the end will you be safe in the father's house when our elder brother will say

[42:11]  I and the children whom God has given me may God grant it all of an and the children will say that is and he will say the son of love too is that is that is I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I