The Sanctifier and the Sanctified

… Before we start to talk about these verses that we've read, I have a record to put straight. I have to confess to you that the last time I stood on this platform, I was guilty of some inaccuracy as to doctrine, which was kindly pointed out to me afterwards. I think my brethren mostly were too charitable to recognize it, and I would assure you that in nothing that I said did I intend to imply that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was alone efficacious in effecting the reconciliation of man to himself. What I failed to do was to point out that what I had to say beyond that point was about practical reconciliation and not about the doctrine of reconciliation through the finished work of Christ. And if any of you picked up the few notes that were published in the tidings on this subject, you will see that they were at least put right in writing. So if anyone happens to listen to the tape of that particular time, then I would beg you to bear this in mind, that I regret that I should be guilty of so putting out an idea which could be misunderstood to that effect. Well, now, the passage that we have before us this afternoon is perhaps a passage of scripture that we have read to us more than any other. And I, for one, can never remember having sat down to learn it by heart, and yet I'm sure that like many of my friends here this afternoon, I could recite it from beginning to end without any difficulty. So you might well ask, well, why does the brother take up a passage like that in a meeting like this when we all know it so well? Well, I'm quite convinced that the more we read the Holy Word, the more we find out how little we really know about it. And it does seem to me that in this respect, there's one part of the passage that we've read that is frequently misunderstood, and so much so that the translators of the Bible into the new international version have even gone so far as to alter the prepositions in order to make it mean what they think it ought to mean. I hope we shall have a clear understanding about it this afternoon, and I hope that nobody's going to fire any bullets at me afterwards saying that I'm guilty of a misconstruction of this particular passage. We shall come to it presently. And then, you see, I find that as I come to read this passage and come to explore the sources of the quotations, particularly the latter quotations which are included in it, why it opens up an enormous field not only of interest but of practical instruction in Christian truth. I hope we shall be able to look at that. I hope that time will allow us to, and that we shan't lose our way in the intricacies of Isaiah's prophecy. Well, now, in this passage that we've read, there are four main quotations from the Old Testament. And first of all, I would say that in the first chapter of Hebrews, we have an anthology of quotations from the Old Testament referring to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as Son of God. But in the second chapter, we have four quotations referring to his glories as Son of Man. The Son of Man in chapter two. It's with that title, in that position, that we should be occupied with in this afternoon. The first thing that we read was concerning God's purposes, and that was his purposes for the world to come. And God has put the world to come under the subjection not of angels but of man. And surely it was with this in mind that in the first instance he made man in his own image. It was this in mind that he gave man authority, that he placed man in a perfect environment and he gave him the authority to rule it and to cultivate it. Well, now as we read these first verses, from verse five down to verse eight, we read about this, we read how that man was put in a position of authority. Don't let's read into the verses more than they say. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of Man that thou visitest him? And we go on and we see that he hath put all in subjection under him, and we read in Genesis how he did put all in subjection under him. All the creation, everything that he'd made, he put it under the authority of man. Man was under God, the Lord of everything there in the garden. But what do we see? We look around in the world and we see man struggling to be the boss of the world, don't we? But we do not yet see all things under him. Under whom? Under man's authority. We don't see it. But we see Jesus. But we see Jesus. And I beg of you, my brothers and sisters, don't try, don't insist on bringing the Lord Jesus in before you get to verse 9, because otherwise you can't make verse 9 make sense. I can't. And I say again, the translators of the New International Version have had to alter the prepositions in order to make it mean what they want to mean. They want to make the Son of Man further up the chapter refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of Man. But here, surely, I believe I'm not mistaken, it's the Son of Enosh in the original. What is Adam that thou art mindful of him? It's the Son of Adam or the Son of Enosh that thou visitest him. It's the Son of frail, mortal man. We don't see man in the position of authority in which God originally placed him, but we see Jesus. Where do we see Jesus? Why, we see Jesus in the glory of the Son of Man, in incarnation, coming into this world. He didn't come into the world as a member of Adam's fallen race. He didn't come into the world as one whose race had forfeited the control of God's creation that had originally been committed to man. But he came in the full glory of manhood. He came with the full authority that God had given to man. We see Jesus in incarnation, crowned with glory and honor. And had he not been in that position, he could never have tasted death for every man. So God put him into that place. We see him crowned with glory and honor in incarnation in this world as man, entirely fitted to taste death for the redemption of the whole creation. And I submit to you, my brothers and sisters, that that is the correct interpretation of these verses. I haven't read it. I remember a brother explaining it to me once in the war. He wasn't in our fellowship, so you'll say he was probably wrong. But I'm quite convinced, having cogitated over it and prayed over it and thought about it all the years since the war, I'm more and more and more convinced that the Lord Jesus doesn't come into this passage until you get to verse 9. We don't see everything under the authority of man, but we see Jesus. We see him in incarnation, crowned with glory and honor, entirely capable of tasting death for every creature. Then we pass on and we come to the purposes of God again in verse 10. It became him. What was his purpose? His purpose was to bring many sons unto glory. And how was he going to achieve it? It was by raising up one who would be the leader of their salvation, one who would be made perfect, and that through sufferings. And we can ask ourselves the question, wasn't the Lord Jesus always perfect? Morally speaking, of course he was always perfect, perfect in infancy, perfect in manhood, perfect in all his words and all his works and in all his thoughts, perfect in the moral sense. But this isn't speaking in a moral sense. This is speaking in a question of fitness for being the leader of the salvation of the human race. And for him to be fit for that, he had to pass through sufferings. And as we go down this passage, we keep on encountering the sufferings of Christ, tasting death, being made perfect through sufferings. And further down in verse 14, he took part of flesh and blood that through death he might destroy. It behoved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Perfect through sufferings. And in the epistle to the Hebrews, we see him through temptation, all points tempted as we are, and so fit in that sense to be the captain of our salvation. And in chapter 5, we read about him being made perfect through sufferings, learning obedience by the things which he suffered. And if we turn to Peter's epistle, we find there, we shan't turn to it this afternoon, but there we find various aspects of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sufferings for sins, sufferings for righteousness' sake. Various aspects of the sufferings of Christ brought out there, showing the process which God had foreordained to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. And then as we look on down the chapter, we come to verse 11, and we see there the sanctifier and the sanctified. We see the Lord Jesus Christ as the sanctifier, and we see those that are partakers of his salvation as the sanctified ones. And it says there that they are all of one. All of one. And people ask the question, all of one what? And if it had been church truth, which I believe it isn't, if it had been church truth, then the answer would presumably have been all of one body. But I don't think it is church truth. And then again, the New International Version has tried to put it right, and they've said all of one family. I feel that's very nearly the right answer. But a very respected brother by the name of Mr. William Kelly, he goes so far as to say that they are all of one set. And that's about as indefinitive as you could possibly be. All of one set. In other words, they all belong together. I don't use another word, but I was going to say all in one category. But let's stick to what scripture says. They are all of one. There's a unity between them. The sanctifier and the sanctified. When we finish the meeting, we're going to sing the hymn, Lord Jesus, are we one with thee? The sanctifier and the sanctified, they are all of one. And so you see, in this great grace, he's not ashamed to call them brothers. Now mark well, the scripture never gives you and me the authority to call the Lord Jesus our brother. Never let us fall into that pitfall. Many like to do it. They like to do it perhaps in the church services, they might say, our friend and brother. It's presumptuous, my brethren. The Lord Jesus, in his lowly grace, he is not ashamed to call them brothers. In the same way that we read in verse 11 concerning the fathers, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. And so we have these persons of the Godhead, in all their greatness, in all their magnificence, as they look upon the redeemed of the human race, then they're not ashamed in their respective way to be called their God, nor is the Lord Jesus ashamed to call the sanctified ones his brothers. And you know when you and I refer to ourselves as brethren, we do it with a small b, don't we, not with a capital B, and we don't put any Plymouth in front, neither any other epithet, but we're so thankful that the Lord is not ashamed to call us brothers. And so we have this beautiful picture here of the Lord Jesus as the son of man, the sanctifier, with the sanctified around him, and he says that he's not ashamed. Now there are two senses in which this unity is applicable. We've spoken of the sanctification, and here we've just mentioned in John 17 and the 19th verse the words of the Lord Jesus in his prayer when he says, for their sakes I sanctify myself, and let's have the right wording, not the authorised version, for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be truly sanctified. The Lord Jesus had it in mind in his prayer, and it's been pointed out that his sanctification, where he sanctified himself, was not in his service here in this world, but it was in his resurrection, in his position that he was taking in heaven, he's taken up a position there in heaven for the sanctification of you and me, for the sanctification of those whom he's not ashamed to call his brothers. So there is this, the unity of sanctification, and also we have to bear in mind that there's the heavenly call because God is bringing many sons to glory. And so this company, the sanctifier and the sanctified, they have this in common, that the glory is theirs. You see, God looks upon the sanctified and he's made provision for them in the glory. You and I, if we read in Ephesians, we find we're already seated with him in heavenly places, in him, in heavenly places. The glory is ours. You and I need to remember that here we have no continuing city, we seek one to come. We need to remember that our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the saviour. And so our calling is a heavenly calling. So this company, the sanctifier and the sanctified, they have this dual character, sanctification and the heavenly call. And then we come to the other quotations which we have grouped together, the twelfth and the thirteenth verses. And whereas the first quotation from the eighth psalm that we've already spoken about, I've put it to you, was a question of the glories of the son of man in incarnation, then these three quotations all are applicable to him, particularly in resurrection. The first one we often refer to, don't we, in the twelfth verse, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. As we read so often in the twenty-second psalm, the psalm which speaks of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the hand of God, the psalm which contains that word, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why, in the end, we see, the latter part of the psalm, we see those blessed words in verse twenty-two, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. If you read in the fortieth psalm, you'll find out what he was engaged in through his lifetime. I've given them the words which thou gavest me. He refers to it again in his prayer in the seventeenth chapter. That was his ministry here, to give the words which God had given him, but in resurrection he declares unto them his name. And we see that he doesn't even wait for the moment when he appears amongst his disciples to declare to them his name, but he sends the very first messenger who is available to him. He says, go and tell my brothers, lo, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. He wants them to be in the enjoyment and in the realization, both of the personal relationship with God as Father, and with the personal experience of God as their God, individually and personally for each one of themselves. And so you see in that way, he's anxious, he's eager. He's been waiting for the time of his resurrection so that he could declare his Father's name to the sanctified ones whom he'd come to redeem. So we have that beautiful passage here. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. And then he sees himself there in resurrection as the one who leads the praises of his people. And I believe that the thought here, because this is the epistle to the Hebrews, because this is not church truth that we're reading, is primarily millennial in its character, and the Lord Jesus anticipates the time when he will be there in the midst of his people on earth, leading their praises. He will be there surrounded by the redeemed nation of Israel. All Israel shall be saved. And there the nations which are brought into subjection will be around them. And there the Lord Jesus, in the midst of all the throne, will be there to lead the praises to Jehovah. A wonderful day, a wonderful day. The praises of Jehovah will be sounded forth from this earth during the millennial scene. You and I, there is a different meaning, is there not? A meaning that we appropriate to ourselves, even if it isn't the primary sense of this passage, when we think of when we come into the Lord's presence, we meet together in assembly with the Lord in the midst. And surely it's the Lord who leads our praises. As a dear brother in the north loves to say, and I'd like to hear him say it, we sing with the Lord. We don't sing to the Lord, nor do we sing about the Lord, but we sing with the Lord, and with the Lord we sing praises to God in the midst of the church. It's in the midst of the congregation, in Psalm 22. In the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee. Let's remember it. When we come in assembly, whether it be for the breaking of bread, to remember the Lord in His death, or whether it be some other time when we meet together in assembly, let us remember that the Lord is in the midst, and the Lord in the midst of His gathered saints is the one who leads the praise to God the Father. Why don't we pass on from there, and we find two quotations which are perhaps to you and me a little bit more remote. And I have to confess to you now that this is really where I came in. This is where this subject came to me. Because, you see, I must admit to a great liking for the beloved prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah, he reveals the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in many remarkable ways. And, you know, it's such a shame that some of us find the reading of the prophet Isaiah to be tedious. Perhaps we have it in the Bible reading, and it goes on week after week after week after week after week after week. And we say, in the words of Scripture, perhaps dreadful that we should do so, what a weariness it is. When are we going to get to the end of this long book? But what a tragedy, my brothers and sisters. Never mind about the Bible reading. Take the prophet Isaiah. Don't take it in the authorised version. Take it in a modern rendering. Don't be too particular about reading doctrine into the modern rendering, but read it in a rendering which flows easily and which you can assimilate as you read it and read it through and see what God is telling you in the prophet Isaiah. And then afterwards you can come and you can get the critical renderings and you can check up as to the accuracy of doctrine. And then you can get your lexicon out if you wish, your Hebrew, and see what the words mean if you want to go that far. But I would say to you it's much more important that as you read through the prophet Isaiah, so you read through the historical books and there you find out the situation that prevailed in the nation of Israel and in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in Judah at the time when the prophecy was written. You then learn the background against which these things were said and then you can begin to interpret them in the light of New Testament truth and then you begin to realise something of the full significance of the prophecies which are written there for our learning. But in these particular passages that we have, he says first of all, I will put my trust in him. And you and I that are reading this passage down in the second of Hebrews, we say, well, what's that got to do with putting in subjection the world to come and what's that got to do with the glories of the Son of Man? I will put my trust in him. Well, I can only say to you it's a good question but it's one we have to hunt for the answer to. And you know, I find we only really get the answer to that question when we take two and three together. In the 13th verse, I will put my trust in him and again, behold I and the children which God hath given me. We see those two together and we find the place where they come from. They come from the same passage in the eighth chapter of the prophet Isaiah. And there we find the fact that as Isaiah is first saying those words, behold I and the children which God hath given me, he's already said, I will put my trust in him. So the two passages are essentially linked in the place where they first occur. They belong together and the Spirit of God in bringing them forward in the New Testament, he puts them together. Well, what's the background of this then? Well, we need to read quite a lot to find out. We need to read all about that wicked king Ahaz. He was the grandson of Uzziah who became a leper and I believe I'm right in saying that he was the father of Hezekiah, the one who had the shadow go backwards on the sundial, the one who spread out the letter from the Assyrians in the house of the Lord, Hezekiah. Father of Hezekiah, grandson of Uzziah, and the most thoroughly wicked and disreputable lot that ever sat on the throne of David. You read about him in two passages, you read about him in two Kings, 16, and you read about him in two Chronicles, 28. And dare I say there's nothing to choose between the two accounts so far as the portrayal of a thoroughly wicked man is concerned. And one can only wonder however it came about that God allowed such a man to sit upon the throne of David. See what it says, we'll take the Chronicles passage. It says, He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made also molten images for Balaam. Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria and they smote him and carried away a great multitude of them captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter. For Pekar the son of Ramaliah slew in Judah and 120,000 in one day. That's as much of all the population of Gloucester and Cheltenham put together. If that means anything to you Londoners. 120,000 in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. And then it goes on, The children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren 200,000 women, sons and daughters and took also away much spoil from them and brought them to Samaria. What do you think? That's a terrible recital. It's not all. Come to the end of the chapter. Can you read this? For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel. For he had made Judah naked and transgressed against the Lord. And Tiglath-Pilneser king of Assyria came unto him and distressed him but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the house of the king and of the princes and gave it unto the king of Assyria. But he helped him not. And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord. This is that king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus which smote him. And he said because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord. And he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods and provoke to anger the Lord God of his fathers. How long are we going on reading about this dreadful man? Why it was for him. It was to him. It was at his time that these two quotations that we have in the second of Hebrews were first uttered. You see God had respect to David. He had respect to the throne of David. And he sent Isaiah the prophet to Ahaz. And he sent him first of all with his elder son. A boy called Shear Jashub which means the remnant will return. And then afterwards Isaiah had another son. And his other son was called Maya Shalal Hashbaz which means rush to the spoil and divide the prey. Now these two sons were given to Isaiah and the funny names that God gave them were not given to them just for a talking point but they were given them so that this might be true. That I and the children whom God has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel. And we see this young prophet. I believe he was a young prophet. I think of him as a tall man. I don't know whether he was a tall man. I think of him as a fine honest straightforward intellectual tall man. One who was very humble before his God. And he's standing there with his two little boys in his two hands. They're both given to him for signs and wonders in Israel. One of them that the remnant is going to return. The other one that there's going to be a terrible destruction. Rush to the spoil and divide the prey. And it was in the days of Hezekiah that the same Assyrian to whom Ahaz sold himself, he came down you remember and he laid waste the whole country as far as Jerusalem and he laid siege to Jerusalem. Terrible destruction of the country. It was only at Jerusalem's gates that God destroyed the Assyrians and turned them back because God had respect to the throne of David. So we see here this wonderful man, this prophet Isaiah with his two little boys. Here we are. The children that God has given me. They're for signs and wonders in Israel. And if you read above that, you read about the warnings that God gave. The warnings that God gave to Judah. And then you read about the fact that God was not going to allow his city to be taken. And he gave the instruction to Isaiah. He wasn't to take part with those around him when they said, join hands with the Assyrians, the confederacy. But he said to him, sanctify the Lord of hosts. And let him be your fear and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary. And so on. You know just to turn aside for a moment. I'm watching the clock Mr. Hubbard. Just to turn aside for a moment. Here we are in our time. And you talk to anybody out in the street. You find that the talking point is the bomb. And you know about these little cubby holes you're supposed to make in some quiet corner of your house where you can hide away so as you're free from the fallout. And you know about what the medical profession has said about the impossibility of giving medical help after the bomb. And you find that people are getting more and more into a state of fear. Into a state of anxiety. Into a state of agitation concerning the days in which we live. Read these words for yourself, my brother and my sister. Don't be like them and say the things that they say. But sanctify the Lord of hosts in your heart. And let him be your fear. And let him be your dread. And fear no one else. Remember that whoever they say has his finger on the button, whether it be a President of the United States or whatever he is, the Politburo, you know, the Russians. Whoever it is. Or whether it be the British Prime Minister. It matters not. For you and me, the one who is in control is the one whom we read of in Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had to learn about him that it's the most high that rule is in the affairs of men. And so don't share in the panic. And don't share in the gossip. And don't share in all the things that men and women say. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And let him be your fear. And let him be your dread. And you can go about this world in confidence. And you can pass on the confidence that you have in God to those who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation. So we see Isaiah with his two little boys. Behold I and the children whom God has given me. But he's already said, I will put my trust in him. I will put my trust in him. Now if you'll forgive me just a moment. When I was in hospital six weeks ago, I had that wonderful Psalm 91. He shall give his angels charge over thee. I know it's for the Lord. Of course it's for the Lord when he was here. Satan knew it was for the Lord. Satan quoted it to the Lord. But it's not only for the Lord. Because thou hast made the Lord thy trust. There shall no evil befall thee. Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. I will put my trust in him. And so we see not now Isaiah with his two little boys in his hands. But we see the Lord Jesus, the sanctifier, standing up in the midst of the sanctified company. The one who when he was here on earth, like no other man before him or no other man since, he had that total confidence in the Lord his God. There he could be on the sea in the storm. And the disciples could cry out, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he could rise up and he could say to the wind and the sea, Peace, be still. O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? We have him standing in the midst of the sanctified company. Isn't it wonderful? He's leading the praises to God, your praises and my praises. And so we have the quotations and we realise a bit the meaning of these quotations as we look back over the Old Testament passages. Then we come back to our letters to the Hebrews and we see the wonderful words that it says, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. Now we're coming back to the Incarnation. He also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might annul him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Men and women around us are subject to slavery because of the fear of death. But you're not and I'm not. And why not? Because the Lord Jesus came to annul him that had the power of death. And that's why we stand round the grave and we quote those wonderful words, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. May he bless his work. …