Sanctified for Glory (Heb. 2)

… ...of all, from the second chapter, and commencing to read from verse six, But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him, 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 unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies, 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 has given me. And now in chapter 10, the same epistle, chapter 10 and verse 4. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering, thou wouldst not. But a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he has said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And then in the twelfth chapter, there's a few verses there, chapter 12, and verses 11 to 14. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. May he bless his word to us. What a lovely subject our dear brother chose, didn't he, this afternoon? I say what a lovely subject he chose. I should have said what a lovely subject the Lord gave him to speak to us. The love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know. But we do know it, don't we? And we rejoice in the truth of it. And I feel very conscious that the subject I have in my heart tonight, in a way, flows out of it. Because the Lord Jesus loved us, loved us, and gave himself for us. He desires that we should be sanctified. And that is my subject tonight. And that is why I have read these verses from these chapters in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In my experience, we tend a little, you know, to shy away from this subject of holiness, of sanctification. Because it seems to me that in some people's minds they have the thought that sanctification is being sanctimonious. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is indeed the most practical, but very blessed subject. Now, in Hebrews, the subject is dealt with rather differently the way in which it is dealt with elsewhere. And I want us to consider the subject as it comes before us in Hebrews this evening. Elsewhere, it is seen as the work of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God. But here, in the Hebrews, is the Lord Jesus, isn't it? It's the Lord Jesus who is the sanctifier. And in the three chapters that we read, we have three aspects of it. In chapter two, it says, the glorified one, he comes before us, as the sanctifier, bringing the sanctified sons to glory. Ah, yes. So that we are, as that lovely scripture puts it, all of one. We are all of one with him, sanctified for glory. Sanctified with glory in view. For that's where we're bound to, isn't it? To be with the Lord Jesus. In chapter 10, it's his sacrificial work that is the theme. By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Ah, yes, that's the positional side, isn't it? Them that are sanctified. There's a practical side too, as I trust we shall see later. Now, this work has opened the way for us into the holiest as worshippers. So the thought there in chapter 10 is sanctified for worship. Sanctified for glory, sanctified for worship. In chapter 12, it's the practical application to the believer. How often we do find this, don't we, at the end of Paul's epistles. We don't know that this epistle was written by Paul. It probably was, but we don't really know. But at the end of the epistles, so often we have, and how essential it is, the practical application of that which has gone before. And the practical application to the believer. And we have it, don't we, in those words, asserting words, I find them, follow peace, follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Sanctified in our walk and in our ways. So these are the three aspects I want us to consider this evening. Now, referring to chapter two, note that verse 11, for both he that sanctifies, that's the Lord Jesus, and they who are sanctified are all of one. Both he that sanctifies. Now, how does the Lord Jesus sanctify us? You know, dear brethren, we become depressed, at least I speak for myself, we become depressed when we look at ourselves for evidence of sanctification, don't we? Any such appraisal is bound to disappoint because of what we are. Ah yes, but in the very beginning of the epistle to the Hebrews, we're turned away from ourselves, aren't we, to the Lord. We're turned away from ourselves to the Lord as the great object for ourselves, the exalted one, the one who is seated at God's right hand, but the majesty on high. Now, it's perfectly true that sanctification is something to be pursued earnestly, we shall see that a little later, but we find that we just can't do it, don't we? Isn't that your experience? We find that we just can't do it until we understand that sanctification is wrought for us by one outside of ourselves. Before we know what we can do for ourselves, we need to understand and to learn what he has done for us, and therein lies the secret. Now, the character in which the Lord Jesus appears as the sanctifier in chapter two is as the Son of Man, blessed title of our Lord. In the first chapter, he stands alone, doesn't he? Absolutely unique in his glory as the Son of God, far above the angels, far above all created beings or any name that is named, he stands alone and unique in his majesty. But in chapter two, we learn that this supreme one, this lovely one, this majestic one, the Lord of Glory, he came into this world as a man, as a man, and now, now he is in the glory as a man. He's not ceased to be the Son of God, but now he's in glory as a man, the man Christ Jesus. When he came, as we all know, he was rejected, wasn't he, as God's Son? Though he truly was God's Son, and is eternally God's Son. We have a law, the people said, remember when the Lord Jesus was arraigned before Pilate? We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. He didn't make himself the Son of God, he was and is the Son of God, blessed be his name. Now, of course, God will vindicate his Son, won't he? We know that from the second Psalm, blessed and glorious truth, the Son of God will be vindicated in a day that is yet to come. He was the Son of God, he is the Son of God, indeed, eternally so, brethren, eternally so. He was also and is also the Son of Man. Now, Hebrews 2 introduces the theme of Psalm 8, and that psalm, if you remember, that psalm starts off, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! And then he goes on, I know, to speak of his glory above the heavens. But think of the excellent name of Jesus as the Savior and the Sanctifier here upon earth, here upon earth. Few recognize the excellence of the Son of God, the Son of Man, here upon the earth, did they? Very, very few. First, when he came, we think, don't we, very often of dear Simeon, lovely Simeon. He knew, he knew who the Lord was, didn't he? And so did dear Anna, the prophetess. And what did she do? Because she knew, she spoke of him. And because we know the Lord, we speak of him, don't we? Because he means so much to us. John the Baptist, he knew. Behold, the Lamb of God. Ah yes, he knew. And that little band of devoted disciples, how they loved their Lord. Yes, some received him, some believed in him, some recognized who he was. And I was reading the other day of how the Lord Jesus, you know, was speaking with Nathanael, and how you remember Nathanael turned to the Lord and he said, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. And what did Jesus say in the course of his reply? He said, Hereafter hereafter ye shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, upon the Son of Man. What was it, dear friends, what was it that attracted those devoted souls to the Lord Jesus? It wasn't his pomp and earthly splendor, he had none. He was here as the lowly man. What is man that thou art mindful of him, the Son of Man that thou visitest him? Didn't he himself say, the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head? Ah, it's true. What then did attract? What did attract? What attracted was what we had this afternoon, the love of Jesus. Yes, that's what attracted. It was what he is in himself. And I love the way that it's put in one of our hymns. The Son of God, the Son of Man, with loving, tender heart. Yes, that's what attracted. And that's what drew them to him, that little nucleus of souls who love the Lord. It was really, wasn't it, as we're reminded in the scriptures and in the tenths of John as the good shepherd, the good shepherd. He drew the flock around him, set them apart to himself, that is, sanctify them, for that's what the word means, sanctify them. But now in our day, the Lord Jesus is no longer on earth as we know, he's in the glory, crowned as we read in verse 9, crowned with glory and honor. Dear friends, is his gathering power any of the less now than it was then? No, indeed, I don't think so. He still attracts human hearts. When the love of God and the love of Jesus comes home to a soul, that soul is still attracted through the word of the gospel to the Son of his love. Oh yes, he still attracts, he still draws them to him, and when he draws them to him, he calls them, as it were, apart, apart, and he keeps them so, and he brings them as many sons unto glory, for that's the aim, that's the objective, sanctified for glory. Today it's he that sanctifies, he that sanctifies is the same man, the same man, but now that man is in the glory, in the glory. Now before leaving this point, let's note verse 10. We read there, it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain or the leader of their salvation perfect through sufferings. I ponder that verse many times. It was fitting, it seems to me, that what the verse means is this, it was fitting that God, our Savior God, our Creator God, should bring many sons to glory, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the leader of our salvation perfect through his sufferings. Oh, it's a verse to ponder, friends, isn't it? Perfect, what does it mean? Was he not perfect? Of course he was perfect, sinless, spotless, holy, undefiled, and pure, separate from sinners. He was indeed perfect, but it doesn't mean perfect as to his character, we know he was that, but perfect as to his saviorhood, so that you and I might be brought into the blessing that he longs to give to us, and which his love toward us tells us something of the truth of. We can't plumb the depths of those sufferings, brethren, can we? We try to, but all that we can do as we think of those sufferings is to bow in worship before the one who endured the suffering of death, in order what? To separate us to himself, to sanctify us, set us apart to himself, and to bring us eventually as sons to glory. That was his intention and desire. In the 17th chapter of John, if I might digress from Hebrews for a moment, we have the son sanctifying himself, don't we? The Lord is in prayer to his father, concerning those who were his when he was here on earth, and also those who would believe through their word. Father, he says, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That's what he desires, he wants us to be with him, to behold his glory, sanctified for glory. What a hope, what an expectation for the people of God today, sanctified for glory. And then he says, earlier he says, for their sakes I sanctify myself. It isn't that the Lord needed to make himself holy, he was holiness itself, but what he means is that he would set himself apart for them. And he prays, sanctify them through thy truth. Now we might well ask, what truth? What truth? What truth is referred to here? Well, surely, I suppose, really, in a broad sense, it's the whole of the word of God, for this book is the truth of God. But, you know, I feel that it's the truth as we have it here, in Hebrews, specifically. The father setting before us the glories of the son, for that's what Hebrews does. The father setting before us the glories of his son, in whom we are sanctified. As the lowliest son of man, he had revealed the father, hadn't he? Oh yes, he had indeed. Now the father speaks by him and through him in this epistle, for our blessing and benefit. And he reveals the truth of our oneness, our oneness with him. See that verse again, and with one another. See verse 11 again, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. All of one. You know, I think this is somewhat different to the truth that we have in Galatians. In Galatians, we are spoken of as being all one in Christ Jesus. That's a glorious truth, isn't it? A wonderful truth. But I think this is a little different to that. And it's different again, I think, to the unity of the body of Christ. But here, as his brethren and children, for these, this is the language that's used here, we belong to each other because we belong to him. And that's fellowship, isn't it? We belong to each other because we belong to him. Sanctified for glory with him. Now, in the 10th chapter, and that clock's going around so quickly, but I did start nearly 10 minutes late, because the collection was being taken. Chapter 10. Here we have his sacrificial work as the theme. The sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus. In chapter 2, as we've been seeing, it's the Lord himself, isn't it? The Lord himself, he that sanctifies. As the son of man, bringing us as sons to glory. Certainly, we also saw in that scripture his tasting death for everything, for that's what the scripture really says. Now, the key verses, I think, here are verses 10 and 14. Just look at those. Verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Once for all, we have in the authorized version, it really means just once. And then in verse 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever, then that are sanctified. Now, one blessed result of this work, this sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus is, is that we are sanctified for worship. And that's more fully developed a little further on in the chapter, isn't it? In verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. And we enter in for what purpose? For worship. For worship. The holiest we enter in perfect peace with God. Oh, we sing the words, do we comprehend their meaning? The holiest we enter in perfect peace with God. But to enter into the holiest means to be holy, brethren, to be sanctified, doesn't it? Verses five to nine here in this chapter are quotations from the 40th Psalm, as I'm sure many of you know, of which, of course, the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment. Clearly from these and the earlier verses, the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus has entirely superseded the sacrifices of law. And we have this beautifully summed up, don't we, in those words in verse nine, he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. Glorious truth, isn't it? Judaism was to be done away with, that he might establish the second. Now see verse five, wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Now in the Old Testament reference, that is, of course, Psalm 40, it says, the wording is very slightly different. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened or prepared, or as one has put it deep, mine ears hast thou opened, prepared. These scriptures indicate to me, and to you I'm sure, dear Christians, the willingness of the Son in the timeless past. Oh yes, in the timeless past, I fully believe to do God's will. Though I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. Ears opened and a body prepared, prepared for him. In Exodus 21, you know, we have the beautiful illustration of the bored ear of the Hebrew servant. I love my master, I will not go out free. In Isaiah 50, we have the open ear, don't we? He wakeneth morning by morning, the Lord God hath opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. But in the 40th Psalm in verse 6, it's the opened ears, the opened ears, or the prepared ears. And all, I think, these scriptures all have their application to the Lord's willingness to serve, to serve from the beginning. Though I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. It's the burnt offering, isn't it? It's the burnt offering aspect of the death of our Lord Jesus upon the cross, his entire devotion to God. In Gethsemane's garden, we're sometimes reminded of it on Lord's Day morning, the Lord said, not my will, but thine be done. And in the fourth of John, we find him speaking to the woman at the well, and saying to his disciples when they came, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. And this completed fulfillment of God's will has resulted in our sanctification. See verse 10 again. By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And again verse 14, for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. I wonder if every dear Christian here tonight realizes that they are already sanctified. This is something that God has done for every one of us. It's the positional side, the side into which we've been brought by the sacrifice of our Savior upon the cross. If we truly desire assurance as to our sanctification, we have it not by looking at ourselves. No, we have it not by that, but by looking to him in the glory, seated at the right hand of God. His work complete, seated at the right hand of God. No Old Testament saint was ever seen seated, was he? They stood, because their work was never finished, was it? Never finished. For the Lord Jesus, having completed that work upon the cross, he went to glory and he sat down. He sat down. A completed, wonderful work. He had perfected in perpetuity them that are sanctified, as someone has put it. And we have it again in another one of our hymns. Clean every wit thou saidst it, Lord, shall one suspicion lurk. Thine surely is a faithful word and thine a finished work. And because this is so, verse 19, because this is so, as worshipers we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated or dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Sanctified for worship, dear Christian friends, you are sanctified for worship, that you might worship, that I might worship. And when we come together next, tomorrow morning, Lord's Day morning, around the table of our Lord Jesus, will not our objective be to worship, to enter the holiest, to worship the Son, to worship the Father, for all the wonder of that sacrificial death that he achieved upon Calvary's cross, that finished, wonderful work. And now chapter 12. We've considered sanctified for glory, sanctified for worship, and now we have in verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Here we come to the practical application, sanctified in our walk, sanctified in our ways. All the Lord's provision for us brings responsibility to us. Oh, don't let's ever forget that, it's true. A responsibility that is personal and a responsibility that is collective. Follow peace with all men, all men. Ah, brethren, I believe that peace and holiness go together. And where there is holiness among the people of God in a collective way, there is peace among the people of God. I verily believe that that is true. Peace and holiness go together. We live in a world of strife, don't we? Oh, we do. And sometimes, you know, some of that strife seems to rub off, as it were, and to come into our assemblies. How sad that is. This twelfth chapter's very practical. It deals with spiritual weakness. You notice verse 12, it speaks of hands hanging down, doesn't it? Of feeble knees. And I think of the jealousies and the discouragements and the murmurings and the irritations, the self-seeking, and all those things that spoil, and which are not consistent with holiness, are they? Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, and all resulting in estrangement. I was looking recently in Matthew 5, and those searching words there, verse 23, Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come, and offer thy gift, and offer thy gift. Follow peace with all men, and holiness. Holiness is being sanctified, being set apart for a sacred and a holy purpose. The psalmist says, you know, in a psalm that I'm very fond of, and I'm sure many of you are, Psalm 34. For many years it's been my favorite psalm, if one might exclude Psalm 23 and about a dozen others. We love the psalms, don't we? Yes, Psalm 34, it's a lovely psalm. In the course of that psalm, the psalmist says, seek peace and pursue it. Go after it, seek it. Don't just sort of hang back, but pursue it. Seek peace and pursue it. And you know, Peter quotes that verse, doesn't he, in his first epistle? Oh yes, he does, and several other verses too. And three or four verses later, he says, and sanctify the Lord, the Christ, in your hearts. You see the association of the two things again, holiness and peace. In the earlier part of Hebrews 12, we're exhorted, aren't we, as we know very well in verse 2, to look unto Jesus. Looking off, as I think is a good translation of the word, looking off unto Jesus. And this exhortation, of course, follows that wonderful 11th chapter of the word is of faith and faithfulness. Oh yes, it wasn't only faith, was it? Faith and faithfulness of all those dear Old Testament saints we read about in the 11th chapter. But what does this mean, to look off unto Jesus? It means, I believe, in other words, by faith to see the Lord. That's what it means, by faith to see the Lord. But dear friends, we can't do that and be looking off to worldly things at the same time, can we? All dear young Christians here tonight, and a brother prayed in the prayer meeting that there might be a word for the young people. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him, is not in him. We can't look off unto Jesus and see him by faith and look off to the world. The two things are incompatible, aren't they? Of course they are. It seems to me that we need to link verse 2, looking off to Jesus, seeing him by faith, and verse 14, holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now friends, we all fail in this, don't we? We do, we all fail in it. And believe you me, dear brethren, no one is pointing a finger at anyone. We all fail in it. But we're all the losers, aren't we? For we miss the joy of seeing the Lord, of seeing the Lord by faith in our day-to-day lives, seeing the Lord. Oh, I know that we shall all see the Lord in that glory that we've been talking about. John says we shall see him as he is. Oh, what a joy! Not as he was, the man of sorrows and the acquaintance of grief, but as he is in his glory. We shall see him. That is our hope and expectation, and very soon I believe it may be realized. But do we see him by faith, dear friends, in our spiritual exercises here upon the earth? Is the Lord before us? That's the thing I want to bring out. Is the Lord before us in all our assembly activities, in the breaking of bread? Yes, the Lord's Supper. Is the Lord before us? When he is, it makes such a difference, doesn't it? It makes such a difference to that meeting when the Lord is before us, when our eyes are upon him. In ministry, is it for self-exaltation, or is the Lord before us in our ministry, in our gospel preaching, or any form of outreach that we engage in and I trust that we all are? Is the Lord before us? Is it his honor and his glory that we have in mind? At our reading meetings, at our prayer meetings, in all in which we engage as the people of God, is the Lord before us? Well, it will be. I'm convinced it will be if we follow holiness, if we're truly sanctified. It's the Lord's love that desires us to be sanctified. We all love, I'm sure, those of us who study the scriptures at all, the 16th Psalm, don't we? And what do we have in the 16th Psalm? I have set the Lord always before me. I shall not be moved. Profoundly true. I have set the Lord before me. I shall not be moved. And in our second chapter, we read those words, we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus. We do. We do if we follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Brethren, this is a practical thing. It's a spiritual experience that we ought to know far more about than we do in our day-to-day lives. We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, sanctified for glory, sanctified for worship, sanctified in our walk and in our ways. I want to close by reading something that was written by a dear friend of mine, who I had the privilege to meet some years ago, a dear man of God. He's 97 now, and he's still looking unto Jesus, and he's living in America. And I had a lovely letter from him at Christmas. He said, I'm feeling very feeble these days, but he said, I long to see the King in his beauty, in his glory. He's looking to the coming of the Lord. And this is what this dear man of God, Herbert Lockyer, has written about sanctification. When we are wholly yielded to the Lord, he accomplishes in us, for us, and through us, all that he requires of us. How blessed we are when we discover that what God orders, he offers. Who among us could fill the order, be holy, if left to ourselves to manufacture such holiness? But what God seeks, he supplies. For he says, for I am holy. Thus the holiness which is to the Lord, is a holiness which is from the Lord. I believe those words are true, and they sum up in large measure, I believe, what we've had before us this evening, from the epistle to the Hebrews on sanctification. May we appreciate, dear brethren, more and more, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires that we should be holy for him, and holy because we belong to him, for his dear name's sake. …