1. "When I'm at my most honest, I wonder about death and if I'm right to fear it. I wonder about God and how I can answer to Him for things I've done. I wonder about situations I'm in every day and how I can stop making bad choices."

2. "You need a God who can deal with the power of death, the guilt of your sins, and the trials that you're facing right now. And the good news is there is one who has done all of this and more."

3. "Christ understands us and our experience. And He's done all this to bring many of us to glory. The Son has come and led the way, bringing many sons with Him to glory."

4. "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Friends, there's the gospel in that title. How can you have life everlasting through Christ who has died in order to take the death that we've all deserved by our sins upon Himself so that death is dead and life now exists for those of us in Christ."

5. "When you and I struggle with ongoing sin, we're not fighting a losing battle. We're fighting a winning battle. Yes, we're fighting a battle, but our time in the ring with our soul's opponent will end. The bell will sound. The round will be over."

6. "Satan and all his minions of sin are in the process of being defeated right now, even while we struggle. Take hope in this. When you read a history book in light of the final outcome of a struggle, it can't help but affect how you read it. A loss is seen merely as a setback. The victory you know is inevitable."

7. "The devil intends to be a destroyer, but God makes the devil a polisher. Satan cuts, but he's God's scalpel. The Lord is doing His sanctifying work in us."

8. "So far was the bodily resurrection of Christ from being a one-time glitch in the universal death. His resurrection was, in fact, the first crack in the whole unnatural tomb of death. All the cemeteries of the world are about to be emptied."

9. "Study what tempts you. Become an expert in your own heart's weaknesses. You'll only be able to do this by not giving in. Force the evil one to continue the tour of your heart. Notice carefully as temptation highlights the choices you have before you."

10. "Sin doesn't have to be shocking in order to be deadly for you spiritually. No, sin by its nature deceives us into thinking that it's less significant than it is. It's the direction of sin that is so important."

Observation Questions

1. According to Hebrews 2:10, what was "fitting" for God to do, and how did He make the founder of salvation perfect?

2. In Hebrews 2:11, what is the relationship between "He who sanctifies" and "those who are sanctified," and what does this mean Jesus is not ashamed to call believers?

3. According to Hebrews 2:14, what did Jesus partake of by becoming human, and what did He accomplish "through death"?

4. In Hebrews 2:15, who does Jesus deliver, and what had they been subject to throughout their lives?

5. According to Hebrews 2:17, in what ways did Jesus have to be made like His brothers, and what role does He fulfill as a result?

6. What does Hebrews 2:18 say about why Jesus is able to help those who are being tempted?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why was it necessary for Jesus, the eternal Son of God, to take on flesh and blood in order to destroy the devil's power over death? What does this reveal about how God chose to accomplish salvation?

2. The sermon explains that Jesus being made "perfect through suffering" (v. 10) does not mean He had moral flaws to remove. What does "perfect" mean in this context, and why is this distinction important for understanding Christ's work?

3. How does Jesus' role as a "merciful and faithful High Priest" (v. 17) address both God's need for justice and humanity's need for mercy? What is the significance of Christ being both the priest and the sacrifice?

4. The passage says the devil has "the power of death" (v. 14). In what sense does Satan hold this power, and how does Christ's death and resurrection break that power for believers?

5. How does Jesus' experience of suffering and temptation (v. 18) qualify Him to help believers in a way that no one else could? What does this tell us about the nature of Christ's sympathy and assistance?

Application Questions

1. The sermon describes how we are often enslaved to the fear of death in various ways—fear of violence, grief that won't end, or anxiety about the future. In what specific ways does the fear of death or loss currently affect your decisions, relationships, or peace of mind, and how might the truth of Christ's victory change your response?

2. Knowing that Christ made "propitiation for the sins of the people" (v. 17), how should this affect the way you deal with guilt—both the guilt of past sins and the shame that lingers even after confession? What practical step could you take this week to live more fully in the freedom Christ has purchased?

3. The sermon encouraged believers to "study what tempts you" and become an expert in your own heart's weaknesses. What is one recurring temptation you face, and who is a trusted Christian friend or church member you could invite to pray for you and hold you accountable in this area?

4. The preacher noted that Christ helps us through His Spirit, His Word, and His church. Which of these three resources have you been neglecting, and what specific change could you make this week to draw more fully on that means of help in your struggles?

5. Reflecting on Isaac Backus's four observations about trials—that they are many, necessary, brief, and accompanied by God-given joy—how might this perspective reshape the way you respond to a current difficulty or trial in your life? What would it look like to actively look for God's joy in the midst of that struggle?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Philippians 2:5-11 — This passage describes Christ's humiliation in becoming human and His subsequent exaltation, directly paralleling Hebrews 2's teaching on the incarnation and suffering of the Son.

2. Genesis 3:1-15 — This passage recounts the serpent's introduction of sin and death into the world and God's promise that the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent's head, providing the backdrop for Christ's victory over the devil.

3. Romans 8:1-17 — Here Paul explains how believers are freed from condemnation and the power of sin through Christ, and how the Spirit helps us in our weakness, reinforcing the themes of deliverance and help found in Hebrews 2.

4. 1 John 3:8 — This passage states that the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil, offering a direct parallel to Hebrews 2:14's declaration of Christ's victory over Satan.

5. Hebrews 4:14-16 — This passage expands on Christ's high priesthood, emphasizing that He sympathizes with our weaknesses and invites us to approach the throne of grace for help in time of need, directly extending the truths introduced in Hebrews 2:17-18.

Sermon Main Topics

I. We Want Both/And: Our Competing Desires in Life and Religion

II. The Son of God Became Incarnate and Suffered (Hebrews 2:10-13)

III. To Deliver the Dying (Hebrews 2:14-15)

IV. To Forgive the Sinful (Hebrews 2:16-17)

V. To Help the Tempted (Hebrews 2:18)

VI. Christ's Wounds Speak to Our Wounds

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Detailed Sermon Outline

We tend to want both and. Know what I mean?

I want the hobby that's convenient and it burns calories. I want that food that tastes good and is good for me. I want that restaurant that serves excellent meals and is reasonably priced. I want that place to live that's convenient to work and that has lots of space. I want to shop at that store that pays its employees well and has low prices and convenient hours.

I want that investment that has all the security of a conservative investment, but the potential profitability of a risky investment. I want platinum service for bargain prices. I could go on with competing, even contradictory desires that I'm always having to balance. I assume that I'm not alone in this. As people, we are bundles of desires and wants.

Advertisers depend on this. Politicians use this. Our doctors and counselors and lawyers help us deal with it. And when we move from things to relationships, the stakes get even higher. I want friends who are interesting and interested in me, who give me enough personal space and want to get together when I do.

I want a spouse who is reliable and exciting. I want people close to me and not too demanding. In myself, I want the wisdom of experience and the health of someone half my age.

And when it comes to religion, are we any different?

I want the benefits of ancient spiritual disciplines and a faith that expresses the authentic me. I want a religion that lowers my blood pressure and promises me psychological health. I want a religion that is both affirming and attractive and that has just that dash of correction and personal improvement.

But when I stop and reflect for a moment, I realize that all of that sounds about as deep as opinion polls and as significant as what flavor toothpaste I use.

When I'm at my most honest, I wonder about death and if I'm right to fear it.

I wonder about God and how I can answer to Him for things I've done.

I wonder about situations I'm in every day and how I can stop making bad choices.

I wonder about sin's present power in my life and my past sins' debts that I'll have to pay in the future.

I wonder about how I'm going to get through temptations I'm facing right now.

Visitors, as you search for some contemplative space in your life, time to reflect and evaluate, as you perhaps consider looking in a nearby temple or synagogue, a church or a mosque, I want to tell you the truth. You need a God who can deal with the power of death, the guilt of your sins, and the trials that you're facing right now. And the good news is there is one who has done all of this and more. Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about Him.

In order to do that, I want us to look at the next passage in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament that we've been studying this year. We want to look at the second half of chapter 2, verses 10 to 18. You'll find it on page 1002 in the Bibles provided. The author has been writing about the Son being greater than angels, perennially popular spiritual beings. And in our passage last week, chapter 2, verses 5 to 9, he began to explain why so great a being as the Son was incarnate, being made a man.

He suffered. Why? Why would so great a being become a man and suffer? Listen as I read now. The passage for today, Hebrews 2, beginning at verse 10.

For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, 'I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.' and again, 'I will put my trust in him.' and again, 'Behold, I and the children God has given me.' Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. That through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it's not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abram.

Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect. So that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. So friends, our basic question is this: why did the eternal Son of God become a man? And even suffer.

And the three answers that I want us to notice in our passage are these: Number one, to deliver the dying.

Number two, to forgive the sinful.

And number three, to help the tempted.

Let me repeat those. Number one, to deliver the dying. Number two, to forgive the sinful. And number three, to help the doubting.

I pray that you will find this useful for your own soul as we consider this wonderful portion of God's Word today.

Let's begin first by noticing the way the writer sets up the question of why God has spoken to us as He has done in these last days. He told us up in chapter 1 verse 3 that God had done this. And throughout chapter 1 he argued that the Son is greater than the angels, so great in fact that to ignore the salvation the Son brings, he warmed up in the beginning of chapter 2, is spiritual suicide. But then he introduced this note up in verse 9 that we looked at last week, of Jesus being made for a little while lower than the angels, a reference to His incarnation, to the Son of God becoming a man. And then do you see there at the end of verse 9, the author refers openly to Christ's suffering of death?

Why did Christ suffer death? What's going on here? Well, the author spins his first paragraph in our passage, and I think that's really verses 10 to 13. I would see that as a paragraph. The ESV recognizes that here.

It's hard to tell with the quotations, the way they indent them. But 10 to 13 is that first paragraph. And that really is a paragraph that has one simple idea. He's being explicit about what is going on, that the Son of God, as we confessed earlier, came down and was incarnate, being made a man, He suffered. Look again at our text beginning in verse 10.

For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, that's referring to God, in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. That's referring to Jesus. For, again referring to Jesus, He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name, the Lord's name, God the Father's name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your, the Son speaking to the Father, praise.

And again, I will put my trust in Him, the Lord God. And again, behold I and the children God has given me. Let's just briefly work through these first four verses, verse by verse, verses 10 to 13, telling us that Jesus is God incarnate. And then we'll come to the main part of the message which is those three points of why he's become incarnate. That's covered in verses 14 to 18.

But let's begin with this kind of headline, this introduction we want to make sure we understand in verses 10 to 13. The writer here says in verse 10 that it was fitting that God should bring many sons to glory. How is it fitting that he should do that? Well, it was fitting that he should do it in that he is a God merciful and just in his own character. And it's also fitting that He would do it in this way.

That is, if He's going to bring many sons to glory, He would need to have His Son become a man. So it's fitting with the goal that He had of His actions. This suffering He mentioned here was the way the Son would come and rescue His people as our Messiah King. We Christians here are the ones referred to as many sons he's bringing to glory. Now, even though we're sons wandering in spiritual wilderness, still in part under the power of death, spiritually and physically, he is bringing us to glory.

That process is happening in our lives even now. But we can rejoice in the fact that our people's founder has gone before us. That word for founder is an interesting one. It can be translated many different ways. Captain, captain of salvation.

Leader, author, originator. Jesus Christ is the pioneer. He is the trailblazer, the one who's gone before to make a way for us. He is our Savior. He is the one who's made our salvation and will bring us into the fullness of it.

You remember what the preacher had warned them about up in verse 3, about how great this salvation was and the danger of neglecting it. Well that's because it's Jesus who's done this. He is the one who's brought us into this great salvation. He has led the way and gone first, blazing the trail. And even about the Son, we see this strange phrase there in verse 10 about Him, the founder, the Son of God being made perfect through suffering.

Had a couple different people ask me this week, But isn't Jesus already perfect? Why does He need to be made perfect? This is not referring to His moral flaws being removed. He has no moral flaws. He's not being made perfect in that sense.

This is referring to His task being complete. The steps of his destiny being fulfilled, those things that he was commissioned to do, him doing, he would be made complete in that sense, in the way that my day will be perfected by the evening service and by a meal and sleep. That will perfect my day. It won't make me morally better, maybe, maybe it will in my case. There's more moral room for improvement in me than in Jesus.

But the point, the use of the verb here is it means to complete. This is what has been called the active obedience of Christ. That is not only considering His obedience on the cross, but Christ's obedience all the way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, to death, as Paul wrote about to the Philippians, even death on a cross. I think of what the author will go on and say a few chapters later in chapter 5, verse 8, Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. He experienced firsthand what it was like from the temptations through the crucifixion as Christ obeyed the will of His heavenly Father in perfect trust of Him.

Christ's sufferings filled the pages of the Gospels. And in all of Christ's sufferings, He was entering into our suffering. Because, you see, Christ Himself had no need to suffer. He never done anything that required suffering. He need never suffer.

But you and I, by our very moral beings, and by the moral wrongs we've done, we have suffered. We do suffer, and we will suffer. So when Jesus became a man, he chose to enter into our sufferings. He had no need to suffer. He had done no wrong.

And yet suffering was necessary to complete the purpose of his incarnation. To save us. So Christ understands us and our experience. And He's done all this to bring many of us to glory. The Son has come and led the way, bringing many sons with Him to glory.

So that truth in verse 10 is how we understand the author's statements here in verses 11 and 12 and 13. He makes the point in verse 13 that to this end both the Savior and the saved are of the same family. Christ and those of us He saves have one source, He says here in verse 11. And the obvious reference here of that source is to Adam because the point here is that the Son of God had become a man. So He is now also a descendant of Adam as the genealogies in the Gospels point out.

And thus we read here in verse 11 that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. That's just an emphatic way of calling attention to the fact that Jesus had become truly human. And that's what these references to Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8 are doing there in verses 12 and 13. Psalm 22 was a well-known Psalm about the Messiah. Jesus had quoted it on the cross.

Psalm 22 verse 22 prophesied, among other things, that the Messiah would have a family to present before the Lord. This terribly rejected one in Psalm 22 suddenly seems to change to a position of praise. Like at the resurrection and crucifixion in verse 22. That's what he quotes here in verse 12 in our passage, where he envisions that heavenly assembly before the Lord with Jesus as the worship leader, raised from the tomb and up to God's right hand. The Messiah is fulfilling that role that David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, merely previewed.

You're seeing another reference to the picture in Zephaniah 3:17 of the Lord your God in the midst of you exulting over you with loud singing. That's what Jesus is being presented as doing here, the Son over the many sons that He's brought with Him to glory. And then in verse 13, the author adds two brief passages from Isaiah 8 in which the prophet, hoping and trusting in God rather than in others, whether mediums or necromancers or angels, this previews Jesus' trust in the Lord. And the product and his children are signs of God's salvation of his people, just as the Son will be bringing many sons to glory. Friends, these are the elect given by the Father to the Son before the creation of the world.

Now through the dark pictures in the Old Testament, we see really they are lighting up for us the coming of the Son. The Old Testament is explaining to us the Son. That's how the writer to the Hebrews is using it. What Joan read to us earlier from Luke 24, that's exactly what Jesus did. He took the Scriptures of the Old Testament to explain himself to the disciples.

So sometimes you wonder, well, is the Old Testament really worth studying? The answer is simply, yes. That's how you're going to understand Jesus. That's the way Jesus explained himself. He took categories that were established in the Old Testament and he explained his own person and mission by them.

So much we could say here, but notice again how important these Old Testament Scriptures are, just like we saw in Psalm 8 last week in the earlier verses from this chapter. So give time to studying the Old Testament. You know, tonight we're planning to turn to the Old Testament again. And in fact, I don't know if you've noticed this, if you're new here. But every week, whatever Testament we have preached from the morning, the opposite Testament is preached from in the evening and on the same theme.

Every Sunday you get a lecture, as it were, in two parts in biblical theology. We're trying to explain how the whole Bible fits together, and we want to see that every single Lord's Day that we get together. So if you're only coming Sunday mornings, you're getting half our education. Hope it's useful to you. There's more.

Friend, if you're visiting with us today, also note how different Christianity is in this from other religions. Here are no rules for self salvation. Here is news of a Savior come for us. Which brings us to the fact that the Son of God became a man and suffered. That's what he said in verses 10 to 13.

But now let's look at those three reasons why he suffered, all right, through the rest of the passage. He suffered so that first, number one, he could deliver the dying. That's in verses 14 and 15. Look at verse 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death, because if he didn't take on flesh and blood, he couldn't die.

So that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. So Jesus came to defeat the devil and to release those enslaved to him. That's you and me. The Messiah shared in our humanity that He might destroy the devil. Now this letter we think was originally a sermon.

Preached to Jewish Christians, and it's clear that Jesus shared our humanity and that we now by faith share in His heavenly calling. It says there in verse 14, He partook of the same things. It's exactly what we were thinking about recently in Philippians chapter 2. The Son of God became a man. He abased Himself, lowered Himself even to the point of the cross, and then God raised Him up and exalted Him.

Remember, Hebrews 1 showed us that Jesus shared God's being. Now chapter 2 shows us that He shared our being as well. Fully God and fully man. Truly God, chapter 1. Truly man, chapter 2.

The Son of God entered into our humanity. He experienced frailty and vulnerability. What do you mean by that? He could be wounded. He wasn't like Superman.

When they stuck a spear in his side, it didn't just blunt the point. It went on in because he was truly human. The same thing with the nails. And before that, he needed to eat and to drink and to sleep. He experienced joy and sadness and compassion and anger, and he did all this to the fullest extent.

Thus the Son of God entered into our death. And he died, remember, not because of his own sins, but because of ours. Remember last week we thought about that up in verse 9. He experienced death for us. The verb that the writer uses here to describe in verse 14 what Jesus has done to the devil is a strong verb, destroy.

James uses this in James 4:12. It's the verb paired with save to show the omnipotence of the power of God, that He alone can do anything from save to destroy. His power runs the gamut. Or again, it's the verb Paul chose in Galatians 1:23 to describe what he, Paul, in his former life was trying to do to the gospel. He was trying to destroy it, this thing.

How here has Christ destroyed the devil and broken His power over us in death? How did Christ do that? By His own death. You see, it says that here. He Himself partook of the same things that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death.

You think of the old Puritan title of the book, the Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Friends, there's the gospel in that title: the Death of Death and the Death of Christ. How can you have life everlasting through Christ who has died in order to take the death that we've all deserved by our sins upon Himself so that death is dead and life now exists? For those of us in Christ. Again, the old saying I mentioned last week, born once, die twice, born twice, die once.

Yes, there's a physical death, the result of our sins, but beyond that and far more fearful, there's the spiritual death, and that's what we're delivered from if we have faith in Christ. Friend, that's what you can be delivered from today, the guilt of your sins, if you will Repent of your sins and trust in this one who has come to take the place, to substitute himself for all of those who will trust in him. This is the substitutionary atonement that Christ has provided through his death. Here we see Jesus has broken the devil and his grip, crushed him and robbed him. He has rendered the devil powerless.

And the devil's great power in our world is sin and death. And like Paul said in 2 Timothy 1, Jesus abolished death. That is, its tyranny is now gone. Christ's victory over the power of sin and death has been decisive at the cross and the empty tomb. Brothers and sisters, that's why when you and I struggle with ongoing sin, like the addictive sins of pornography or anger or gluttony, or alcohol misusing it.

We're not fighting a losing battle. We're fighting a winning battle. Yes, we're fighting a battle, but our time in the ring with our soul's opponent will end. The bell will sound. The round will be over.

Even his power to harm us before the bell sounds is limited. He may be a prowling lion, but he's a chained prowling lion under God's sovereign control. Satan and all his minions of sin are in the process of being defeated right now, even while we struggle. Take hope in this. When you read a history book in light of the final outcome of a struggle, it can't help but affect how you read it.

A loss is seen merely as a setback. The victory you know is inevitable. So it is in our struggle with sin. Christ has won the ultimate victory for us. He has assured us of our end in him.

In the meantime, he's left his spirit to assist us. He sometimes transports us out of conflict by giving us victories that are surprising to us, sometimes even unasked for. Other times he leaves us in the conflict with sin to remind us of our dependence on him and keep us mindful of him. And looking to Him and reliant on Him and humble and not proud, walking carefully, not running carelessly. The devil is described here in verse 14 as having the power of death.

What does that mean? Well, consider the devil's role in the Bible. He's the one who introduces death. Back in Genesis chapter 3, he's led us into sin which brings death. It enslaves our hearts through fearing death then.

The devil tempts and he accuses. He means to complete his victory in each one of us by confirming our spiritual death, not just the temporal death of our bodies, but by seeing us plunged in the eternal burnings of God's wrath in the lake of fire. This is our powerful, mortal enemy, the devil. But Jesus has defeated him. Stephen Charnock said, the devil intends to be a destroyer, but God makes the devil a polisher.

So the devil still does what he does, but he's like those things the geologists put the gemstones in. You know, what's it called?

Tumbler, yeah. Is that all it is? Okay. He puts it in the tumbler where, you know, at first it looks rough, but then over time you begin to see what's really going on. So there's abrasiveness from Satan.

There's struggles in our trials, but God is sovereign over the struggles.

Satan cuts, but he's God's scalpel.

The Lord is doing His sanctifying work in us.

All of Jesus' exorcisms of demons in the Gospels were previews of His approaching victory on the cross and resurrection, His ascension and the beginning of His messianic reign over all His enemies. Friends, our whole lives can be described in terms of a conflict with the devil. I love the words of Francis Ridley Havergal's hymn that we sometimes sing, who is on the Lord's side? One stanza goes, Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe, but the King's own army none can overthrow. Round His standard ranging, victory is secure, for His truth unchanging makes the triumph sure.

That's the confidence we have, is those who are in Christ. We are in the one who has destroyed the one who has power of death. That is the devil. But the writer here doesn't leave it to us to guess. He's clear about the effect on those who've been bound in our sins.

Look at verse 15. Christ has freed those enslaved to death. He destroyed the devil in verse 14, so that he might deliver us in verse 15. 15. So friends, part of what we mean to do in our weekly meetings here is to recall the victories that Christ has won for us.

So we do that in some ways that are scripted and required by Jesus. So next Sunday night, Lord willing, we'll be having the Lord's Supper, which he told his followers to do specifically to recall to our memories what he has done for us in giving himself for our salvation. So Lord willing we do that as we gather next Sunday. But we do it in unscripted ways as well. So tonight there'll be various people sharing in the evening service about things that the Lord has been doing in their lives.

So as we hear those testimonies of God's faithfulness reflected in our imperfect faithfulnesses, we're encouraged and it helps us to keep going. You see how important it is for us to be a good church together. We rejoice in the victories of Christ. We celebrate them. We pray regularly as Jesus taught us, asking to be delivered from the devil.

Deliver us from evil, we pray. And we look forward to the certain victory that we have in Christ. In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, Paul writes. The first fruits. So far was the bodily resurrection of Christ from being a one-time glitch in the universal death.

His resurrection was, in fact, the first crack in the whole unnatural tomb of death. All the cemeteries of the world are about to be emptied. Friends, this is that strange message of Jesus Christ we talked about last week. Jesus' own family thought he was insane. Festus thought Paul was out of his mind.

This is the message. We are saying that the cemetery's look of permanence is a lie. And we're saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof of that coming resurrection. I think of the words of John Ryland at the interment of Andrew Gifford's body, which I've used a number of times in sermons, but I don't think you've memorized it yet, so I can use them again. Farewell, thou dear old man.

We leave thee in possession of death till the resurrection day, but we will bear witness against thee, O King of Terrors, at the mouth of this dungeon. Thou shalt not always have possession of this dead body. It shall be demanded of thee by the great conqueror. And at that moment, thou shalt resign thy prisoner. O ye ministers of Christ, ye people of God, ye surrounding spectators, prepare.

Prepare to meet this old servant of Christ at that day, at that hour, when this whole place shall be all nothing, but life and death shall be swalloed up in victory.

Friends, I pray that if you have suffered from a fear of death or from violence, I mean, look at where we live, friends, or from the fear of violence affecting others, or if you're menaced by a grief that won't seem to end, in whatever ways you're enslaved to death and its fear, I pray that God will give you a sweet deliverance, as you remember that in Christ, the journey may be painful, but the home we go to is worth it, infinitely worth it, as our lifelong slavery is transmuted into eternal freedom in Christ, in the very presence of our loving heavenly Father. The Son of God became a man to deliver the dying. But also number two, to forgive the sinful, to forgive the sinful. Are you in trouble with God? Look again at verse 16.

For surely it's not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Verse 16 makes it clear that Jesus helps not angels, but Abraham's descendants. And the true descendants of Abraham are those who trust in and obey Jesus. But I think his point is really the class of creatures helped, humans, rather than another class, angels.

Again, the author is showing us the high concern God has for people. The fallen were made in His image, and now were saved by His Son. We read in verse 17, He had to be made like His brothers so that that he might become a high priest and make atonement for their sins. The author will talk a lot more about this in chapter 5. But it's clear that his brothers here are Abraham's offsprings, Christians, humans who believe in Christ.

As Paul says in Galatians 3, It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. He's done this so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, merciful faithful as a high priest to man, faithful as a high priest to God, offering himself on the cross. The writer will have more to say about Jesus' high priesthood later, but now he's stressing Jesus' full identification with them in his incarnation and suffering. Christ made propitiation as a priest.

And as did priests in the Old Testament, his service was only for the people of God. Friends, to atone means to make up for. And the substitutionary atonement is to make up for someone else by standing in their place. And a penal substitutionary atonement means to make up for them by taking their penalty on oneself. And that's what Jesus has done for us.

He has taken the penalty that we have deserved on himself if we will believe in him.

The law and its sacrifices did none of this. They neither liberated us from the fear of death nor cleansed us from our sins. But Jesus came to give us not only the sacrifice which would assuage God's wrath against us, but which would be a part of God's adopting love toward us, which would say not only you may go, you're free of any charge against you, but also you may come, come into my presence as my own beloved. In his atoning sacrifice, Jesus answered both God's call for justice and his call for mercy. Oh, friends, the image here is a striking one of Jesus being both the priest offering the sacrifice and as the sacrifice itself.

Later in chapter 7, The writer refers to the uniqueness of Jesus having been the high priest that offered up himself.

Oh, as you stare at this in the text, just admire Christ's work for us. Admire what he has done. There is no other way that we can be loosed from the shackles of the eternal consequences of our own actions with justice. By sacrificing himself, Christ has taken up our penalty. His love has motivated him to action, even to make propitiation for our sins.

Some have questioned whether substitutionary atonement was really central to Christ's work. But if we see what is written here, how can we think anything else? This is how he helps us. This is the form His mercy takes by spending His blood to purchase mercy for us that is still faithful to God's own holiness. My visiting friends, notice again this one simple but profound point: Jesus did not come as a guru.

To show us how to save ourselves. He came as a conqueror to liberate the captives. The Son of God became a man to deliver the dying and to forgive the sinful. And third thing also, number three, to help the tempted. Look at the last verse, verse 18.

For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. Because He suffered when tempted, He is able to help those being tempted. The Son of God entered into our temptations. As we'll come to in a couple of chapters, in chapter 4 verse 15, we read that He was tempted in every way just as we are. Jesus experienced the lure of sin.

He was really tempted. And yet we see in chapter 4 verse 15, Without sinning. You know when you're tempted, one way you can deal with it is to give in. And what happens when you give in? The temptation stops.

Then when you're tempted again, let's say this time you resist a little bit more, it's like the devil keeps searching. He feels more of the surface of your soul till he finds maybe another way in and you give in. But you have learned a little bit more about him and his wileliness and his ways and a little bit more about yourself, about where some of your vulnerable points are. Imagine if you never gave in. How much more thorough and searching and wearing might be the temptation.

How much further in, as it were, you might have to go in your battle against sin until your enemy was finally bested. Friends, that's Jesus. He was tempted his whole life, but he never gave in. He must have had a unique relationship with Satan during those years. Encountering Satan at every turn.

Directly in the desert, indirectly in the murderous envy of kings, the cries of the demon-possessed, the embarrassed denunciation by his family, the religious leaders disowning him, even his own disciples deserting and betraying him? In each of these places Christ met Satan, faced his temptation to yield, to comply, to surrender himself, to immediate acceptance and praise, wealth untold and no cross. But out of his love for his people who he came to save, Jesus resisted.

Does this phrase here, those who are being tempted, does that describe you today?

Brothers and sisters, study what tempts you. Become an expert in your own heart's weaknesses. You'll only be able to do this by not giving in. Force the evil one to continue the tour of your heart. Notice carefully as temptation highlights the choices you have before you.

Slow down. Try to be clear on what the choices are. If you're struggling today feeling like you're in the wilderness, remember that Christ is our merciful and faithful High Priest who has already suffered and been tempted and He is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus is able to save the lost and help the saved.

Friends, part of that is going to be a very strange skill to learn, the skill of discerning the difference between self-hatred and self-discipline and self-control. When I was a young man, those categories weren't as confused. But today we're living in a time where even one of the most basic fruits of the Spirit, self-control, has been demonized by our culture as a way to extinguish the authentic flame of the self. I think you'll find a similar skill is needed to the one Eve needed when she heard Satan in the Garden of Eden suggest to her that God couldn't love her. And tell her no.

Well, the truth was he could. In fact, the truth was he had to. Friends, that's what we need to see as the fruit of God's Spirit in our lives. What are your temptations today? Luther observed that every age has its peculiar temptations, even for the godly.

Thus the young man is especially tried by sexual desire. The mature man by ambition and vainglory, the old man by greed.

You realize that sin doesn't have to be shocking in order to be deadly for you spiritually. No, sin by its nature deceives us into thinking that it's less significant than it is. It's the direction of sin that is so important. As C.S. Lewis once put it, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

So friends, how can you signpost your temptations? How can you train yourself to notice them? Maybe you can build relationships with others where you talk about them honestly and openly. Where you review your own soul, where you explain as you make your temptations known to a Christian brother or sister, maybe to a member here. In fact, maybe that's part of the basic normal function of church membership, the way we care for each other's burdens and sorrows.

Let them help you by praying for you about them. Perhaps give you wisdom and encouragement in your struggle. As believers, we can find our relationship to sin confusing. Our fallen natural inclination is to rob God of his glory. Our core impulse is to be the object of our own glory.

We have fallen short of the glory of God. Sin isn't just what we do, but it is our failure to give God glory. That's our basic sin of omission. We don't give God the glory he deserves. The book of Romans shows what happens when we serve the creature rather than the Creator and rob God of His glory.

And don't we want to worship the God whom we love? This is why we confess our sins as we did earlier in the service. We confess them to God and we pray for Him to forgive them and we ask Him to help us. Friends, the greater talent we have, the greater temptation to glorify ourselves. Here in this room, there are a lot of you who face a lot of temptation to glorify yourself in socially acceptable ways.

Beware, beware.

Christ's example encourages us. He invites us to call on Him for help. He offers His Spirit, His wisdom for us in His Word. His church is full of people who will lend a hand an ear, a prayer, if we'll let them. There are so many ways that Christ will help us through our temptations.

So how are you being tempted in your trials today?

How could you turn those trials from times of temptation into times of blessing? As Christians, we are intimately familiar with people who are unjustly tried, unjustly imprisoned, even unjustly killed. One Christian who spent a fair amount of time as an innocent man in jail was a Massachusetts Baptist preacher named Isaac Backus. Reflecting on his sufferings, Backus once gave four observations about his sufferings. Number one, that manifold trials attend God's people in this world.

Number two, that these are sent because we have need of them, to kill pride, to cure us of worldly mindedness and love to the creature, to rouse us from our sloth, to quicken our regard to eternal things, etc. Number three, that these temptations and sorrows continue but for a short season.

And four, that in the midst of them, God gives His saints springs of great joy. Friends, let me put that in simpler, more modern language. There are a lot of them. We need them. They don't last long and God gives us joy even during them.

Let me say those again. There are a lot of these trials. We need these trials. These trials don't last that long. And God gives us joy even during them.

Jesus came to help the tempted.

We should conclude. Edward Shillito was a poet reflecting on the sufferings of the soldiers in World War I. He published a brief poem in 1919 called Jesus of the Scars.

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now. Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars. We must have sight of thorn pricks on thy brow. We must have thee, O Jesus, of the scars. The heavens frighten us.

They are too calm. In all the universe we have no place. Our wounds are hurting us. Where is the balm? Lord Jesus, by thy scars we claim thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, thou drawest near, only reveal those hands, that side of thine. We know today what wounds are, have no fear. Show us thy scars, we know the countersign. The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak. They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne.

But to our wounds, Only God's wounds can speak. And not a God has wounds, but Thou alone.

What does the word say? Because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

Oh, friends, this book of Hebrews is thick. You know, we dip our hands in and we pull it out. And we've got theology, we've got experience, we've got so much.

So let's take a moment of quietness now. Let me ask you to reflect on your own life and experience. You can stare at the windows, or you can stare at me, or you can close your eyes, do whatever helps you, just reflect quietly. Kind of like we do at the beginning and the end of the service, but let's do it right now. Consider for a moment trials that you are undergoing right now, burdens that you're carrying, maybe some distress that you're feeling.

Take a moment to try to identify what a few of your greatest cares are or what troubles you're facing. Or maybe what besetting temptations are for you.

Can you identify any sorrows that currently dim your heart's joy?

Lord, we know Satan works best in the dark, with his temptations unnoticed by us. Lord, we pray that you would make them visible to us, even now. Help us to see what struggles we are in fact involved in. Make us aware, we ask.

Kids, if you are 12 or 13 or 14, maybe at the dinner table, you can take the lead in your family conversation. Maybe you can come up with something that you yourself have struggled with that you can share with your parents. Maybe you'll help convince your parents that they could share something that they're struggling with. What will you do with all of these things? They're not hypothetical.

They're real.

Who can really change things? Who understands by experience the effects of violence?

Who can deal with your guilt before God? Who can really relate to what yout're going through and help you.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank youk for sending youg only Son. We thank youk for loving us in this way.

For teaching us through Him what it means to resist the devil.

Thank youk for the freedom you bring us in Christ. Freedom from charges against us. Freedom from threatening fears. Freedom from despair. Freedom from resigning to our sins.

Thank youk for all of this. We pray, Lord, that yout would teach us when we're wondering what we should do, teach us to turn to youo. Teach us how to do that. Help us as yous invite us to in youn Word. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.