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. For 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 suffering, 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. 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. All right, this is great. Let's pray. Holy God and our heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, which is so amazing to us, Lord. It's so profound and so rich. Lord, it talks of Christ in so many ways. And we look at him and we think that he is our salvation. He is the captain of our salvation and he leads us through all the way. And we thank you for that. We thank you for your hand upon us and our lives and helping us in every way, in the ways we don't even know about, Lord, but you work all things and you help us in so many ways. And we thank you for that. We thank you for Christ, who is our only hope, our only hope in this world. And we look to him and we have strength and grace in him. And we just praise your name, Lord. We do pray that you will help in the study today. Lord, help me to speak well and clearly and simply, and Lord, help people to understand and to hear and to grow in their faith and to grow and to be conformed more to the image of Christ, who is our big brother, as it says here. We thank you and praise you in his name we pray, amen. All right. So I'm just gonna kind of cover verse nine again. I'm gonna do it more briefly this time than before. So it says, but we see Jesus as the first mention of Jesus in the book of Hebrews, 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. So Jesus now enters the equation the name Jesus, it is significant that the name chosen is his human name. Our author makes him low by referring to him as Jesus, not like the son of God or exalted or something as he did in chapter one, which is amazing. But after the exalted concepts in the first section, the writer shows him to be one who is closely identified with man. He is called Jesus as the son of man and it is in him we see the full fulfillment of Psalm 8. Like in the humiliation he received from his incarnation, life of opposition and death on the cross, he too endures a life lower than the angels. Yet in the results of his sacrificial death and exaltation to his session at the right hand of God, he experiences the glory of honor, which is his, right? Here we see the reality of the already and the not yet. At present, we do not see everything subject to them, as it says in verse 8c. But we already see Jesus, and through him, the process of recovery that has begun is on its way, right? In Christ, you can see that process is underway. As to his human nature and his humiliation, Christ Jesus was lower than the angels, for they ministered to him and strengthened him. As it says in Matthew 4.11 and Luke 22.43, yea, more he consented to live exactly as the poor do, not like princely patrons, but as a beneficiary of some poor women. He had nowhere to lay his head. He emptied himself. He humbled himself even to the shameful death of the cross. But this was only for a season, a little while, compared with the history of the human race, for instance, or just compared with even a normal human life. It was only three years, right? But compared with the eternity of renown and glory before him, it was really nothing but But moreover, in order to leave no doubt about the character of this Christ, he combines the two ideas which at first appear to be opposite. The suffering of death and crowned with glory and honor. Those don't seem like they go together for us. Like the suffering of glory and death, that's miserable and horrible. But then the glory and honor is totally different, right? His humiliation, though, produced his exaltation. His death on the cross was followed by his resurrection in glory. So we are at the true heart of the message of Hebrews. It's the core of everything. All that has been said prepares for this. His incarnation and life on earth were vehicles for his greatness. And his exaltation and second coming flow out of that. He died as the suffering servant of Isaiah 52 to 53 for our sake. As it says there in verse 10, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see his seed. That's so amazing. And in verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. This clearly speaks of him as being alive after his death. I mean, how else can you take that? It simply takes it for granted, and this is glorious and marvelous. The crowning with glory and honor was the direct result of the death suffered by Christ. This understanding results from the distinctive manner in which the writer reads the after the affirmations of Psalm 8.6. The expression with glory and splendor recalls the investiture of Aaron to the high priesthood when God bestowed upon him glory and splendor, as it says there in Exodus 28.2 and 40 in the Septuagint. Sorry about that. It may be proper to find in the statement that Jesus was crowned with glory and splendor another anticipation of his high priesthood, which is not formally introduced until 217 and 18, which is coming up soon. Moreover, all this came by the grace of God, which is a frequent New Testament emphasis pointing to the divine mercy and love of the Godhead that led the father to send his son to die so that we sinners could find salvation. That is what drives all of Christ's first coming, and that was the grace of God. He didn't need to save sinners. He could have condemned all of mankind and been perfectly righteous. But by the grace of God, Christ came, else we would all be lost. The biblical idiom, taste death, means a full experience of death, not as our idiom might suggest, a tentative taste without going through with it or something like that. Now, this is a strong, ancient idiom. It stresses that experience the full enormity. He tasted it and it was in his mouth. To taste is to experience fully. So verse 10, 10 For 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. Perfect through suffering. It's interesting that the text says it became him as if there was something external to Christ which compelled him to sacrifice himself, some idea of himself outside of himself. I don't know, but it's his own glory which compelled him, which is amazing because it gets so deep. But the Son is the Son of the Father, and it became Him to become perfect through suffering to save us, who are vile, wretched, miserable sinners, don't deserve anything good. And yet that reveals to us the glory of the Godhead, the Trinity, and so many other things. It's like, whoa. As Paul wrote of the Father in Romans 11, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Of Him are all things as their eternal source. Through Him are all things. And as much as He brings all to pass, which is in His eternal counsels, to him are all things as being his own last end. The manifestation of the glory of his own perfections being the ultimate because the highest possible design of all his procedure from first to last, which is like, what? His perfections are manifested and that's his amazing glory. The design of God is expressed in this whole matter, and that was to bring many sons unto glory. And herein our author declares the nature of the salvation, which was to be wrought by the Messiah, about which the Jews were so greatly mistaken, and consequently in and about the way whereby it was to be wrought. His purpose here was not now to carry his children into a new Canaan, or to bring them into a wealthy country, an earthly kingdom, which must or might have been done by might and power and arms as of old, but no, his design towards his sons in and by the Messiah was of another nature. It was to bring them unto glory, eternal glory with himself in heaven. That's so amazing. And so it's no wonder if the way whereby this is to be accomplished be quite of another nature than that which whereby their temporal deliverance was wrought, namely by the death and sufferings of the Messiah himself. There is in these words intimated the principal means that God fixed on for the accomplishment of this design of his for the bringing of many sons unto glory. It was by appointing a captain of their salvation The Jews, generally granted the Messiah was to be the captain of their salvation, but misunderstanding that salvation, they also mistook the whole nature of his office. It must have been some temporal, earthly thing. And so why would he have to die? No, he can't die. This doesn't make sense, right? But no, he had to die for us because our sins were before God. And how else are you gonna be saved? You have no other hope. Well, in verse nine it says that he, by the grace of God, Jesus, should taste death. for every man. Jesus died for every man. It's just an awesome thought that it's so clear here. And then in verse 11, it says that then Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren, that we're now part of the household of God that he has saved at haste of death. that he's not ashamed to say, I'm with this evil human being here. I know, it's so amazing, isn't it? It's so amazing. Amen. So there is in these words intimated the principle means that God fixed on for accomplishment of this design of his, for the bringing of many sons unto glory, and it was by appointing, quote, a captain of their salvation, The Jews generally granted that the Messiah was to be the captain of their salvation, but misunderstanding that salvation, they also mistook the whole nature of his office. So for instance, we have the passage as it says in Joshua 5.14. If you wanna turn there. That's yeah, the Old Testament. The old Old Testament. Joshua, he's the one that led the people after Moses. That's correct. Right, so Joshua led the people into the promised land. Moses never entered the promised land. So there in 514 it says, And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, What sayeth my Lord unto his servants? So there's the captain of the Lord right there. And also Isaiah expands on this a lot, actually. So in Isaiah 55, four, we have, behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. It says that in Isaiah 55, four, in the midst of some other things which seem unrelated. And again, in Isaiah 59, 16, we have, and he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. To the islands he will repay recompense." And once again in Isaiah 63 we have, I have trodden the winepress alone And of the people there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked and there was none to help and I wondered that there was none to uphold Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. In all these verses, we have the captain of salvation bringing forth salvation for his people. We start with Isaiah 55.4, there we see Christ given as a witness and a commander of his people. And the second, Christ puts on righteousness. These verses speak of Christ shredding down his enemies and very little actually of the salvation that he wrought for his people. That is what he's doing, right? Bringing forth salvation by his own power. But these verses say that in bringing many sons to glory, that the captain of their salvation needed to be made perfect Not that, of course, he was not perfect already, right? As the eternal Son of God, he was absolutely glorious, but he needed to be made perfect with respect to the salvation that he would offer. That is, he needed to bear the sins of all God's people and carve out a perfect righteousness for them. The intrinsic righteousness of the Son of God could not be imputed and is not really appropriate for us, The captain of our salvation has merited salvation for us, which perfectly suits us. The Lord Christ, being consecrated and perfected through sufferings, has consecrated the way of suffering for all that follow him to pass through unto glory. Christians generally allow that the sufferings of Christ were penal, that is, His death satisfied for the sins of mankind or men, but as to the cause and reason of his so suffering, they differ. It's interesting to observe that there's one, there's no other way possible for the salvation of men. Hence arose that saying that one drop of the blood of Christ was sufficient to redeem the whole world. Only it pleased God that he should suffer unto the uttermost. And herein we are to rest, that he has suffered for us. And verse 11, for both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. First, the author describes the captain of salvation and the sons to be brought unto glory by their mutual relation to one another in sanctification. He is, Greek, hagyazon, he that sanctifies, and they are, hoi hagyazomenoi, they that are sanctified. As in the previous verse, giving an account of why God would have Christ to suffer, he describes him by that property of his nature, which includes a necessity of his so doing that it was appropriate for him or deemed, how does it say it? Oh, it became him, it says. It became him, it's so interesting. So, Now the same word being used here, both actively and passively, that is sanctified, it must be in both places be understood in the same sense, but now the one expresses the cause of the other, like Christ sanctifies us. He who is sanctified, and we who are to be sanctified, Christ does it to us. As Christ sanctify, so are the children sanctified. And the act of Christ, which is here intended, is that which he did for the sons and daughters as well, when he suffered for them according to God's appointment. The first consists in the sufferings of Christ and the merits thereof. There's some question whether Hagia zone here connotes making holy sanctification or consecration. That is like whether he, actually makes us holy or just sets us apart as holy. Nothing in the contest really suggests Christian growth, really. And a great deal favors consecration, as the author uses the imagery of consecrating a priest into his office in verse 10. So it's probably better to translate both the one who consecrates and those who are consecrated. The one consecrated to his priestly work in verse 10 is now consecrating his followers into the family of God. And the emphasis is on their unity and oneness. In the Old Testament, it is God who consecrates his people to himself, as in Exodus 31, 13, or Leviticus 20, verse 8. But here it is Christ, right? His followers are clearly the ones who are consecrated. The point is that they are of the same family or of one origin. So that's... The NIV version for verse 11 says, who sanctify and those who are sanctified are all from one Father for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. So we're all sanctified because we're all under the same God, the same God Father. Well, that's an interpretation. It's not a translation of what does the scripture says of one. It's not of one Father. It doesn't say of one nation. Yeah. I mean, that's the NIV for it. They add a word here or there. It's not really, I don't, well, let's go through it. Yeah, let's go through it. So hence, we are so often said to be sanctified by his body and washed in his blood, as our author expresses later in Hebrews 10.10. by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, as it says there in Hebrews 10.10. And again, in Hebrews 13.12, it says, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. To the end that, as in Titus 2.14, it says, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. So this presupposes obviously that all the children to be brought into glory antecedently or beforehand were polluted, defiled, separate from God That's us, right? We're wicked. There's nothing good about me at all. So having given this description of the captain of salvation, of the sons to be brought unto glory, the author affirms that they are of ex-henos, which it says in our Greek text here, of one, ex-henos one, which made it neat, which made it neat for him to suffer and for them to be made partakers of his sufferings. So the equity here of lies in the agreement that he and they are of one into which we must now inquire. So the word has this ambiguity in it that it may be of the masculine gender and denote one person or of the neuter and signify one thing. That's Greek for it. It has gender. Like our words don't have gender. So it could be masculine or neuter, so it also has three genders. So it's either masculine or neuter. They have the same form, so it could be either one. It would look the same. But if it relate unto the person, it may have a double interpretation, that it is God who has intended that. Apparently, it's the NIV translation. I didn't check translations. That may be NIV, right? It is God who is intended. They are all of one, that is, of God. And this may be spoken in several respects, like the son was of him by eternal generation, the many sons by temporal creation. They were made by him, or they are all of him. He ordained him to be the sanctifier, them to be sanctified, him to be the captain of salvation, and them to be brought unto glory. If it respect a person, it may also be of one man, that is, of Adam or Abraham or Christ. They are all of one common root and stock, and he and they came all of one. Unto Adam is the genealogy of Christ referred by Luke, and Abraham is said to be the father of the faithful, and Christ is obviously Our big brother and father, as a common stock of nature, Adam is called the one, the one man in Romans 5. And the others may be considered as more particular cases of the more general one. If the word is taken in the neuter sense, then it denotes one thing. And so it may receive a double interpretation also. It may denote the same mass of human nature, of one and the same mass of human nature, or the same blood. So it said that all of mankind, that God made them ex hanos hematas, of one blood, Acts 17, 26, of one common principle, which gives an alliance or brotherhood unto the whole race of mankind. As the making of all mankind by one God gives them all a relation unto him, as says our author, we are also his offspring, as Paul wrote, so that being made of one blood gives them a brotherhood among themselves. Or by one, some understand the same spiritual nature, the principle of spiritual life, which is in Christ the head and the children his members. And this, they say, is that which is their peculiar oneness, or being of one, seeing all wicked men, even reprobates, are of the same common mass of human nature as the children. Calvin says, hence he says they are all of one. That is, the author of holiness, and we are made partakers of it, are all of one nature, as I understand the expression. It is commonly understood of one Adam, and some referred to God, and not without reasons. But I rather think that one nature is meant, and one I consider to be in the neuter gender, as though he had said that they are made out of the same mass. It is then one common nature. I'm gonna assume one common nature with Calvin. I think it makes the most sense of the text. But the others are okay also. I think to underscore what the apostle's trying to teach here, that what Jesus did, he bring us into fellowship with God. we had no fellowship with God. And so by us becoming his brethren, he'd become brethren with us, we now, in sanctifying from his work, we are now being in this fellowship with God that we never had before. Fellowship with God? Yes. That's so mind-boggling. It's really unbelievable to me. Yeah, and we know that we were at enmity with him. We were enemies of God. And now we are bringing into fellowship with God. And you know, there's other passages that talk about God doesn't hear the prayers of the wicked, unless it's a prayer of repentance, a prayer of salvation. But now that we're part of the family of God, the brother of Christ, how we're instructed, come boldly to the throne of grace. But we can go boldly to the Father. I know, it's crazy. That fellowship now that we have that we didn't have before. Yep. All right, so we're going to assume one common nature anyway. He and they, he and us, are of the same nature, of one mass, of one blood, And hereby he came to be meet to suffer for them, and they to be in a capacity of enjoying the benefit of his sufferings. Which, how it answers the whole design of the author in this place appears clearly now. First he intends to show that the Lord Christ was meet to suffer for the children, and this arose from the idea that he was of the same nature with them, as he afterwards makes clear. and he was meet to sanctify them by his suffering. As in this verse, he clearly explains, for as in an offering made unto the Lord of the first fruits, or meat or of meal, a parcel of the same nature with the whole was taken and offered, whereby the whole was sanctified, say Leviticus chapter two. So the Lord Jesus Christ being taken as the first fruits of the nature of the children and offered unto God, the whole lump or the whole nature of man in the children, that is, all the elect, are separated unto God and effectively sanctified. Effectively sanctified, yeah. So the agreement of Christ and the elect in one common nature is the foundation his fitness to be an undertaker on their, our behalf, and of the equity of their being made partakers of the benefits of his mediation. But this will occur unto us again more fully in Isaiah 8, 14. And by all this, the author shows to the Hebrews the unreasonableness of their offense at the afflicted condition and sufferings of the Messiah. They said, how could the Messiah suffer? Here's why he had to suffer, because you're a sinner. He had shown them of the work that he had to do, which was to save his elect by a spiritual and eternal salvation, which he had also intimated was their condition by nature, that is, that they were unclean, unsanctified, separate from God, and withal had made known what the justice of God, and as the supreme governor and judge of all, required that sinners had to have done to them to be saved. He now minds them of the union that was between him and them, whereby he became fit to suffer for them, as that they might enjoy the blessed effects thereof in deliverance and salvation. for which cause, that is, because they are of one, partakers of one common nature, he calls them brethren. Hereon is built that relation which is between him and us, and them and us. It is true there is more required to perfect the relation of brotherhood between him and us than merely their being of one But it is so far established from hence that he was meet to suffer for them, to sanctify and save them. And without this, there could be no such relation. Now his calling of them brethren declares that they are so, right? And also that he owns them and avouches them as such. But whereas it may be said that although they are thus of one in respect of their common nature. Yet upon other accounts, he is so glorious and they are so vile and miserable that he might justly disavow this recognition and reject us as strangers. The apostle tells us it is otherwise in that passing by all the other distances between us and setting aside the consideration of our unworthiness for which he might justly disavow us, and remembering that he was one of us, he is not ashamed to call them, or us, brethren. This is a marvelous condescension on the part of the Son. He is infinitely glorious, majestic in every possible way, perfectly righteous without a flaw, And we, on the other hand, are vile, wretched, worthless sinners. How on earth could we in Christ be brothers? But we are, and the Scripture says that He is not ashamed to call us brethren. A later verse, Hebrews 11, 6 says, it says, But now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. for he has prepared for them a city. This is marvelous and glorious that Christ would be called our brother. He is infinitely distanced from us in his person in respect of his divine nature wherein he is and was God over all, blessed forever. Question? He did not so become man as to cease to be God, though he drew a veil over his infinite glory, and he parted not with it. He who calls us brethren, who suffered for us, who died for us, was God still in all these things. The condescension of Christ in this respect that our author, in a special manner, insists upon and improves Philippians 2, 5 through 11, that he who in himself is thus over all, eternally blessed, holy, powerful, should take us poor worms of the earth into this relation with himself and avow us for his brethren is not easy to be believed, really. It's kind of mind-blowing. And yet, but it is forever to be admired and amazed at. So wondrous. Why would Christ take me for a brother? So vile, ugh. Well, one of the things that we can realize, you know, back in Genesis, Genesis 1, it says, so God created man in his own image, and in the image of God created he him, male and female. God created him. And then after God's creation, it says, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and morning was the sixth day. Now you've got God. You have Jesus, not being created, but becoming human in the form of the Virgin Mary. Again, Jesus is now part of that being created image of God, image of the Father. I mean, it's just an awesome thought that, you know, here he created man in his image, and now here Jesus has to take on that humankind, that man image, and the image of God, that Jesus has come down and the Father says, this is my son, who am I? Well, please, now, when Jesus was born, here we got the perfect, because he was born sinless, but again, it's almost like the Genesis effect. And we hear that in one man, Adam died, and in one man, Christ, we all live. And so you see these two creative acts in the image of God the Father from Genesis and Adam and Eve, and God becoming human using the Virgin Mary. Yeah, I'll just leave it at that. You go off on that one, but. OK, anyway. Anyway, this is a ground of unspeakable consolation unto believers, right? With support in every condition, no unworthiness in me, no misery upon me shall ever hinder the Lord Christ from owning. Us and openly avowing us to be his brethren. He is a brother born for the day of trouble, a Redeemer for the friendless and the fatherless. Let their miseries be what they will. He will be ashamed of none but of them who are ashamed of Him and His ways when persecuted and reproached. A little while will clear up great mistakes. All the world shall see at the last day whom Christ will own and it will be a great surprise when men shall hear Him call them brethren whom they hated and esteemed as the offscouring of all things. Because Christ said, for whoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He shall come in His own glory and in His Father's and of the holy angels." That's Luke 9.26. Christ will treat people as he himself has been treated, and he will shame those who were ashamed of him. So we must therefore never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel, nor of any disgrace or reproach that we may undergo for our faithful adherence to him and it. Let us rejoice in any reproach or suffering that we get. And there are many ways of being ashamed of Christ. We are guilty of it whenever we are afraid of letting men know that we love his doctrines, his precepts, his people, his ordinances. We are guilty of it whenever we allow the fear of man to prevail over us and to keep us back from letting others see that we are decided Christians. Whenever we act in this way, we are denying our master and committing a great sin. But now Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. And the great design of the father in the incarnation of his son was to bring him into that condition wherein he might naturally care for his people as their brother, that he might not be ashamed of them, but be sensible of their wants, their state and condition in all things. And so always be ready and meet to relieve them Let the world now take its course and men thereof do their worst. Let Satan rage and the powers of hell be stirred up against us. Let them load them with reproaches and scorn and cover them over with the filth and the dirt of false accusations. Let them bring us into rags and dungeons and death. Christ comes in the midst of all this confusion and says, surely these are my brethren. the children of my Father. And He becomes our Savior. And this is a stable foundation of comfort and support in every condition. So now, verse 12, we have, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise In the testimonies which the author produces out of the Old Testament as confirmation of what he had asserted, there are the two things to be considered concerning them, the end for which they are produced and the inspecial importance of the words contained in them. The first he mentions is from Psalm 22, 22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. The end why the apostle produces this testimony is to confirm what he had said immediately before, namely, that with respect unto his being one with the children, Christ owns them for his brethren. For this he very expressly does in this place. So let's take a look at the whole psalm now. So Psalm 22, if you guys would flip there, we're going to go through the whole thing, which is 31 verses. It's 819, so maybe I'll do it kind of quick. Psalm 22, yeah. This great, great psalm. But our author quotes verse 22, which is the beginning of the second part of the psalm, Quite astonishing. Psalm 22. This is the psalm of Christ on the cross. You guys know this psalm, I'm sure. It starts out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, and is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Crazy, right? But be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength. Haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Sorry. So here we get to Psalm 22, which begins the second part of the psalm. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation while I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all ye seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. All the heads of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among all the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship, all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he had done this." Wow. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing. Even back then, they knew of his... But they don't understand it though. That's what's so astounding about the Old Testament. That was talking about Jesus. He's dead. Yeah, clearly. It's just my hands and my feet are pierced. He didn't do that for anything else. He didn't do that. Unbelievable, Howard. Okay, so let me continue here. Yeah, right. While you're getting ready, I just want to say in verse 21, it says, You heard me from the horns of the unicorns, so there are such things as unicorns that are extinct. I just want you to see, it's in the Bible. There were unicorns, but as mankind does, they kill everything and destroy everything, but they're extinct. But there were such things as unicorns. And David's time, in that time period? Yeah, because David probably wrote this song. All right, so why hast thou forsaken me? We must lay the emphasis on every word of the saddest of all utterances. Why, what is the great cause of such a strange fact as for God to leave his own son at such a time and in such a plight? There was no cause in him. Why then was he deserted? Hast, it is done, and the Savior is feeling its dread effect as he asks the question. It is surely true, but how mysterious. There was no threatening or forsaking which made this great surety cry aloud. He endured that forsaking in very deed. Thou, I can understand why traitorous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worse of all, yea, worse than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God. Forsaken, if thou hadst chastened, I might bear it, for thy face would shine, but to forsake me utterly, ah, why is this? Me, thine innocent, obedient, suffering son, why do you leave me to perish? And so we go through the section which talks about Christ's crucifixion, and then we come to the second section which presupposes his resurrection, right? And is most, most glorious. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. The delights of Jesus are always with his church, and hence his thoughts, after much distraction, return at the first moment of relief to their usual channel. He forms fresh designs for the benefit of his beloved ones. He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise unto thee. Among his first resurrection words were these, go to my brethren. In the verse before us, Jesus anticipates happiness in having communication with his people. He purposes to be their teacher and minister and fixes his mind upon the subject of his discourses. The name, i.e., the character and conduct of God are by Jesus Christ's gospel proclaimed to all the holy brotherhood. They behold the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him and rejoice greatly to see all the infinite perfections manifested in one who was bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. What a precious subject is the name of our God. It's the only one worthy of the only begotten whose meat and drink it was to do the Father's will. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee, not in a little household gathering, but, no, the The Lord resolves to proclaim the Father's love in the great assemblies of his saints and in the general assembly and church of the firstborn. This the Lord Jesus is always doing by his representatives who are the heralds of salvation and labor to praise God. And it's 829, but I just have one, two more pages to go. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I, and the children which God hath given me." These two verses are taken from a single place in the Old Testament, namely Isaiah chapter eight. It may seem strange to us that those words are assigned to Christ when they are clearly those of Isaiah, but upon a more careful reading, there is some strangeness to the text, which we will examine quickly here. Clearly, when applied to Christ, the personal emphasis has a different meaning from the original context. It is, in fact, a remarkable statement on the lips of the Messiah. I, even I, the Messiah, will put my trust in him. In this respect, the Messiah places himself on an equality with his brethren, which prepares for the later statement in verse 14 that he shares their nature This attitude of trust is amply seen in the life of Christ and is particularly evident in the Gospel of John, where all the facets of his movement and thought are seen to be in accordance with God's will. It seems certain that the writer had the Isaiah passage in mind in the second quotation, for he follows it up with another from the same passage, 18. The precise purpose of the third saying Here am I, and the children God has given me is not at first obvious, for the words originally referred to the prophet's own children, Isaiah saw himself as linked with his children in the service of God, for he recognized that the children were signs given by God. That's why their names were so strange. This identification of the prophet with his children as signs is parallel in the writer's thoughts by the close link between Christ and His people, which leads naturally into the next important section. So Isaiah 817, I will put my trust in Him, seems out of place, but when seen in the light of its context, makes a lot of sense. Often the New Testament passages from the Old are used in light of the whole context of which they are a part. In this passage, Isaiah is sealing up his prophecies, 816, so that they may indict the stiff-necked generation when they are fulfilled. His fellow Israelites, including the king, may disregard and mock his prophetic warnings from God, but Isaiah will, quote, put his trust in God and his oracles. Jesus did exactly as Isaiah, and in all his sacrifice and suffering, trusted implicitly in God. So likewise must his followers in the midst of the opposition they face. Isaiah 8.18, here am I and the children the Lord has given me, is the following clause in Isaiah 8, but is intended to be a separate citation here. It is making a different point, moving from trust to celebrating the promises of God. Isaiah had two children, one meaning, the spoil speeds, the prey hastens. That's what his name means. So strange. The spoil speeds, the prey hastens. Talking about... And the other one, a remnant shall return. That's his other son's name from 7.3. The thrust is that while God's judgment on the nation will speedily fall, he has promised mercy for his faithful remnant. And Isaiah was the greatest exponent of the righteous remnant concept. There were a few faithful, a faithful few in the midst of the rebellious and apostate people. Those who maintain their trust have been given by God to His Messiah and will be redeemed. The community of the saints has been formed not by their worthiness, but by the salvific actions of God and Christ. A new community has been formed and guaranteed by their redeeming work, and they are watching over it and pouring out their promised mercy upon it. In Isaiah 8, there are several Immanuel references. For instance, the words, O Immanuel, occur in verse 8. There it says, And he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. That's unbelievable, right? Why is he saying, oh, Emmanuel? He's referring to God, to Christ. And again, in verses nine to 10, if you look carefully, there's the phrase God is with us, which is again, he, Emmanuel. Emmanuel is a truth as well as a name. The truth of the Lord's presence with his people and the security which it brings And the prophet says that Jesus uttered these words, I will put my trust in him. Whilst offering this prayer and looking for its fulfillment, he waits upon Jehovah. And I wait upon Jehovah who hides his face before the house of Jacob and hope for him. As the prophet would hope for the grace which was now hidden behind the wrath, so too did Jesus. He trusted in his Father through it all. Isaiah and his children were figures and emblems of redemption, opening a way for itself through judgment. But these words must be seen as the distinct words of Jesus. As the Spirit of Jesus was in Isaiah, the Spirit of Jesus, which is in the midst of this holy family, bound together as it was to the bands of the shadow, quote, the shadow, pointed forward to that church of the New Testament, which would be found together by the bands of the true substance. We have one other place in scripture which speaks of Christ as the father, as father, not the father. It is strange for the scriptures to refer to him as father. I think it's a little odd, unusual, but we have exactly this in Isaiah 9, 6. There it says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. In that place he is called the Everlasting Father, which is weird for Christ, right? He's not the Father, but he is our Father. That's what it says in this verse, anyway. He's not the Father, obviously, but in a very specific sense, we are formed in Him, and He is our very life. And so He is our Father in that sense. The Scriptures say that, like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. Psalm 103.13. And this is maybe something like the sense Let us bear in mind, anyway, the extraordinary condescension by the Lord Jesus Christ to call us brethren. He is perfectly righteous and glorious, and we are utterly wicked, vile, reprehensible creatures. Amen. All right, any questions or anything? I just wanted to bring up how devastating it is They talk of his life and his death in the Old Testament. The prophecies are just so being fulfilled. I mean, they're done now, right? All the prophecies are fulfilled. Not all, but many, yeah. His return has to be fulfilled. His return has to be fulfilled. But a lot of the things that are written are about him, like you're talking about the killings. I know. It's enough to draw. He says in Luke, That, you know, Bible is all of him. From cover to the back, the Bible is all speaks of him. He told the men on the way to Emmaus, right? Yeah, he opened up the scriptures. Their hearts burned within them when they heard the scriptures, like... And they were talking about the Old Testament, yeah. That's all they had then, yeah, there was nothing else. It's amazing. Yeah, it's just amazing to me. That one verse, like, they pierced his hands and feet. Right, I mean, that alone, like, wait a minute, that did happen after this, like 500 years after the book. David was around like 500 years before Christ, right? Somewhere around there? Yeah, somewhere around there. Wow, that's 400 years between the Holy Spirit. 800 or so. Yeah. Right. So they pierced my hands and my feet. They weren't doing, they didn't do that to people at that time. They hung him up with his ropes or whatever. Yeah. But the nailing, the nailing. And he did it for us. And he did it all for us. He called us brethren. He came down and humbled himself absolutely all the way. But he talked a lot of his death. He really did talk of him. The son of a man must be killed. Yeah, he talked about it all the time. All through his life. No one believed him. No one understood him. I mean, guess what? I was pretty scared about it. Obviously, that was pretty much the human part of him, I would think. Although it was spiritual in nature, but him talking about his death a lot like that probably had him scared to death. Him? Well, the human part of it was he experienced you know, he experienced being bludgeoned and that sort of stuff. But that really, I mean, the piercing of his hands and feet isn't what really, the suffering, that was some suffering, but the suffering was God took every one of our sins and put on him, and then God forsaken him, God turned his back on Jesus. Jesus was never separated from God before. Even in this earthly body, he still communed with God. He still had that fellowship. He was limited because he was now in an earthly body. But the real punishment that Jesus endured was to be separated from God, to have God the Father turn his back on him, and to wheel out the judgment, whatever that judgment is that that the sinner is gonna have to bear. Remember, the sinner is gonna no longer have any contact with any blessing from God. God's gonna turn his back on every sinner in hell. And so likewise, Jesus had the experience of being totally separated. And we don't really know what it's like. I mean, the sinner enjoys a blessing from God. We can eat, we can enjoy this creation, We can breathe, we can survive, even though we haven't been forgiven for our sins. But they will be separated ultimately from God forever, eternity. And that's what Jesus really endured for us. Wow, you mean sins are definitely wiped away Amen to that, yeah. So instead of us having to spend an eternity of being forsaken by God, being no longer under any blessing. And you've got to understand the blessings from God. God restrained sin. In your years of life, how Maybe once or twice you came so close to death and you said, how did that? I missed that. I was almost in that accident. I was almost at God restrains sin. He, he, he keeps things. We're blessed all the time. Just send everybody else's foolishness. So, so that was really. What Jesus was saying, Father God, is there another way? Do I have to drink of this cup? Do I have to drink of this cup? I mean, I wanna save these people. I wanna save every soul, but is there another way without you? turning your back on me, forsaking me, separating me. And we can't understand the intensity because we can't understand how infinite and magnificent God is, but Jesus understood. He knew what... He told Nicodemus, who from heaven can tell you things in heaven and who came down from heaven? So Jesus knows what was up there. and who God is, and who the Father is, and being forsaken. And that's, I mean, that is the more significant than him being nailed to the cross, than him being pierced in the side. The fact is that... Did he get that point? Was God with him with the piercing and all that? God was still with him when he was getting pierced and stuff like that? Yeah, I mean, this was all part of the payment, the sacrifice. When they sacrificed the animal, what they had to do That's our message for today that Christ had to take on human flesh it to be one of us and Yeah. He couldn't be anything else. He couldn't be an angel and die for us. That makes no sense, man. And it's strong because we have to believe that. There are a lot of non-believers that don't believe it that strong. So many believe that Christ came. As time goes on in my walk with the Lord, I just keep getting so blessed and blessed. Lord, I thank you for letting me know who you are, you know. And he's, I said, I know you know how you're with me, you know. Just watch over me when I pass away. That's all. I hope you're there. Just so you Lord, just so you're my judgment day. That's all I care about. Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man and it says that the rich man ended up in hell and he called out to Lazarus and asked Abraham, can Abraham just dip his finger into Just a drop of water because of my suffering that I'm getting and in that parable it says But when Lazarus died The angels took him to heaven When we die, our soul, we're wondering well how is that transition going to happen? But we're being told there, our guardian angel, the angels that God has assigned to us Is going to get our soul and take us to the king. It's just fantastic You know, we don't know how I'm going to get there. But the angel, now our spirit, is going to be taken on to glory, to be God. You're a provider. Believe in Him. You have to believe in Him. And what are we to pray for, the non-believers? We just pray that they can believe in Jesus, that they can put their trust and faith in Him. That's not their doom, right? Yeah, well, it talks about, you know. The love of God.