Destiny of the Saved (Part B)

Genesis 47 Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said my father and my brothers their flocks and their herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan and indeed they are here in the land of Goshen and he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. Christ is more merciful and gracious than Joseph could ever dream to be.

Joseph knows that but it is a picture of Christ not being ashamed to call us brothers and sisters even though we are so much less. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Destiny of the Saved is the title of Pastor Rick's message today. He'll be teaching in Hebrews chapter 2. So the next time you stumble and you fall short, no God does not approve of the thing that you've done wrong but he does approve of you getting up in Christ and following him. And so when sanctification is used concerning the work of Christ it is talking about salvation and when it is used in connection with the Holy Spirit it is talking about our development in Christ Jesus. And so again, for both he who sanctifies, that is the work of God, and those who are being sanctified, that would be the saved, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Now we're moving closer into some very important points that we missed so easily, at least I do. He has every right to disown us. God does. He had every right to slaughter Adam and Eve instead of the animals.

He did not. And that's what the sacrifices at the temple and that's what the cross, which it pointed to, spoke of, the slaughter that sin has brought upon the race and creation. Have you ever been ashamed of a family member in the way, in this way, you really don't want to introduce them to anyone else? You do not want anyone to know that that's your brother or your sister or your mother or your father or whatever relationship it is.

Fearing what others might think of you because of it. Joseph did not do that. Now understand, Joseph's brothers at one point in life, he may have had to not be so eager to introduce them. But at the stage in life when they were still considered to be abominable yet decent men now, he was not ashamed of them. He brought them before. The Pharaoh of Egypt, these are my brothers.

This is my father. They are shepherds. You people hold shepherds as an abomination, but I love them and I'm not ashamed of them. That's what Christ does for us. He's not ashamed of us.

Yeah, we do shameful things. That's what mercy and forgiveness is for. But he loves us. Genesis 47, Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan.

And indeed, they are here in the land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. Christ is more merciful and gracious than Joseph could ever dream to be.

Joseph knows that. But it is a picture of Christ not being ashamed to call us brothers and sisters, even though we are so much less. Saved. That's what we are. But we are more than saved.

We are more than conquerors over sin and damnation through Christ. We're family. That's the point.

That's the point that is being made. Now, to appreciate the point of him saying, These are my brothers and sisters. Imagine if he said, These are not my brothers and sisters. To be barred from being considered as family from heaven's standpoint.

When you look at it that way and you see Christ has taken sinners and made them family. You remember what the Pharisees said about him. He eats with sinners. Because he loved them. He loved the Pharisees too, but they wouldn't let him. They wouldn't let his love flow upon them.

They pushed him away. And so, verse 12, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you. So the writer of Hebrews now takes us to the scriptures to back up his point. He's quoting Psalm 22. He's applying it to Christ.

He's saying, This is the application. That even in the scripture, there's something special about this family relationship with God. Christ has fulfilled it. And again, he's speaking to the Hebrews. They knew these Psalms. He is saying he's above the Psalm.

He's the fulfillment of it. Jesus never, as we mentioned last session, directly referred to believers as his brethren until after the resurrection. Because we couldn't really be family. Our sins were still upon us. We could be righteous, considered righteous, in that we believed God. There were righteous Jews, no question about that.

Abraham, John the Baptist, Daniel, Joseph, on and on it goes. There was still a wall between even those righteous souls and a holy and special God. Not until he paid the price of salvation did we become spiritual family, which is eternal family. Physical family is not eternal.

Spiritual it is. And he announced this. And he uses this phrase to announce this to mankind that we have the same Heavenly Father. Jesus, according to his humanity, is saying, You're my brother, and we have the same Father.

Jesus, according to his deity, of course, is way above being our brother, but yet we're family. John's Gospel, chapter 20, Jesus said to her, But go to my brethren. You see it?

There it is. This is at the resurrection. He's saying to Mary, Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Reminds us of Ruth.

Does it die? Your people should be my people. Your God should be my God. Where you go, I go.

Where you die, I die. It's a total commitment. I am loyal. Unlike the other sister by marriage who said, Okay, I'm out.

Not Ruth and not us. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. Christ lined up in formation. He assembled. He was there when muster was called to a dead synagogue, largely. There he was in assembly.

That's why when the writer of the Hebrews gets to the 10th chapter, he says, Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Don't be out of formation. The army would say AWOL. The Marine Corps would say, Let's shoot them. No, they wouldn't. U.A.

Unauthorized absence. But as God, Jesus himself, worshiped. As God, as in his humanity, he worshiped. Let me rephrase that.

I kind of got ahead of myself. In his humanity, when he walked on earth, he assembled, and he worshiped before everybody. And he publicly worshiped the Father. But as God, he is worshiped.

Of course, he was worshiped in his humanity, too, when everybody realized just who he was. But the point that comes out of this is in the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. He's quoting the psalm, and he's saying, Jesus did this.

He fulfilled this. In verse 13, and again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here I am. Here am I and the children whom God has given me. See, he keeps, he says again and again, he's pointing out that there's more scriptural weight behind the things that he is saying concerning Messiah joining humanity and going to the cross and dying. Again, a reminder, he's writing to Jews who are thinking about no longer being Christians but going back to being Jews, or kind of mingling the two together, which you cannot do. He's quoting Psalm 16 here in Hebrews 2-13, and he's quoting Isaiah 17. Oh, pardon me, Isaiah 8-17. Here am I and the children whom God has given me. Now, Isaiah's children were symbolically a representation of believers.

They're prophetic. God used the children of Isaiah to be a testimony in the world, to be a testimony among the Jews at that time. The writer here is saying we are to have part in this.

We are to have a testimony in the world that belongs to God. Some overemphasize their testimony. Some overemphasize family. Some overemphasize their church. These become distractions, these gifts, these beautiful things, testimony, family, church.

They can become a distraction if we do not handle them right. Christ did not send me to preach family. He did not send me to preach testimony or the church, but to preach him. Paul was the same. We all love this, to hear it, because we want it.

1 Corinthians 1, for Jews request a sign. Pause there. Wow me.

That's what they're saying. Make me go, wow. Do something that ministers to my feelings. And the Greeks, after wisdom, impress me. Make me understand, wow, you actually have a command of the language, and you have an education. I'm now impressed with you. Okay, now I'll listen to you. Jesus is saying, through Paul, that's how the world rolls.

That's what they do. Then Paul says, well, we preach Christ crucified. That's not very impressive to the Jew. It's a stumbling block. He says, we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. And to the Greeks, foolishness. The Greeks would say, what kind of king would let himself be crucified?

But that's what we preach. So overemphasizing the message of Christ, the things surrounding Christ, you can't overemphasize the message of Christ, but overemphasizing the testimony, the family, et cetera. Make Christ the background. What if I were a martyr, and I suffered in another country, and I got to speak in pulpits around the country, and I so centered people on my experiences that they would wow, but they did not hear the voice of Christ.

Something would be wrong. What if I pray for God like Hannah did to give me a child, and I get the child, and I get many more children, and I go around telling them, God has blessed my children. Look at my children. Look how blessed they are. They're all believers. But I'm not preaching Christ. People are seeing my children, my family, how God has blessed me, but where am I preaching Christ? What about my testimony?

Have you heard people tell their stories? Well, I used to be this, and I used to be that, and everybody comes away identifying with them, but not with Christ. And so we have to be careful that we make sure he's not background. He's foreground.

He is everything. It is Jesus, not the story and not even the passion behind the story, but him. Lazarus, when Lazarus was risen from the dead, when Christ raised him from the dead, Lazarus was not the story. Christ was the story. What happened when Jesus shows up at the tomb?

The tomb of the dead. Oh, look how he loved him. Why did they say that? Because they were emotionally drawn in.

Because what was happening that provoked that statement? Jesus wept. See, they were just seeing the emotional. Oh, he loved Lazarus. Well, he did love Lazarus, and he was being emotional about it.

There's nothing wrong with those two things, except that is not the foreground. When he said Lazarus come forth and Lazarus did it, that's the story that Christ has the power. That he is everything that no one else is. That he is the center of my attention.

He is never the background. And so the writer here, he says, again, I will put my trust in him. That's what Christ did.

And again, here am I. And the children whom God has given me, that is us. But given us to Christ.

He is the center. Verse 14, and as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil. You ever go to a funeral of a Christian and all they talk about is the one that died and not Christ?

It's very sad when that happens. You go to another Christian funeral where the believers are hot, and they're just talking about, yeah, we miss him, we'll talk a little bit, but he is with Jesus or she is with Christ because of Christ. And if you're here today, this gathering is not about how dearly departed, it's about you. If you have not taken Christ into your life, and if you have taken him into your life, then be stronger because of our magnifying the Lord. We need to be made stronger all the time. Is there any Christian here that says, no, I'm strong enough, I don't need any more, thanks, I'm good?

That would be foolish. Inasmuch then as the children, that would be the believers, have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that is coming in flesh and blood, this is the incarnation of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the virgin birth and that which led after. He's making the point that God put on humanity in coming to earth as a human, born of a virgin.

He did not materialize and just show up one day and start preaching in Galilee. God did not give our Lord, as he did with Adam, a mature body instantly. Christ was not full grown when he came here, Adam was.

And this would answer, this would be an interesting thing. If you were in the Garden of Eden and God breathed life into Adam and Adam became a living being, if Adam chopped down a tree, would it have rings in it of its age? I think so, because I think God created the original creation in a matured state. That would account for so many things. If God says, you know, I'm going to create Adam, I'm going to make him, oh, let's say, Rick, how old are you?

You're a good model of this. You say, I'm going to make him, you know, I don't know, 30 years old. So when I'm going to make a tree, I'm going to make it how old? When I make the mountains and the hills, the stars, you know how long the light has to take to get to earth from those long distances. So in a matured state, which drives the naysayers wacky.

It's so funny. Anyway, I'm getting off of what we're supposed to be talking about. Anyway, he merged Christ into humanity in the experience of humans, us, from the womb to the tomb, we would say. Hebrews 10, 5, therefore, he's quoting Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10. When he, Christ, came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. He continues in verse 14, that through death he might destroy him who had power of death. That is the slanderer, the devil.

We'll talk more about him as we move through the remaining epistles. Christ, our sacrifice and our savior and our high priest who is our mediator, according to verse 17, when we get to the end of this. Christianity has no blood sacrifices with a human or animal.

It's all done now. We need not offer blood offerings to the Lord that speak of sin. Christ has done that.

He is the substitute. This power of death that Satan had came through sin, of course, by way of Satan. And sin has kept us separated from God, separates the righteous even from God. We talked about that before Christ.

We weren't his brethren. When the righteous died, they went to a holding place in the spiritual realm called Sheol, the righteous side of Sheol. The wicked went to the unrighteous side. They still go to the unrighteous side until the great white throne judgment.

We'll talk about that, hopefully, Wednesday. But sin kept us separated and slammed heaven's door shut on sinners, all of us. Without a savior, that door remains slammed shut. But he opened it, Christ did, and in so doing, destroyed the work of the devil.

This work, destroyed in the Hebrew, is actually to make useless, to void out. So by dying as a sinner, without sin for sinners, he satisfied the debt to the Father and that swung the door wide open. John saw that door open in Revelation 4. I saw a door open in heaven.

He never would have seen that door open in heaven without the Christ. And verse 15, And released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Believers are not supposed to live and die like unbelievers.

Everything about us is supposed to be different, better. Now unfortunately, because sin is still here in us as our sinful nature, it's not always the case. And many times Christians fail.

They do actually worse sometimes, some Christians, than unbelievers. Sometimes Christians do not face death so courageously, though we are supposed to face it courageously. Of course, many times we do. Many times we do get the victory over death and life and all these things. We become the light that shines in a dark world.

So we need to understand the real risks that are around us and we also need to be encouraged. Maybe you are here this morning and I don't want to look at anybody so I'll just look up that way. Maybe you are notoriously a failure when it comes to the Christian walk. What should you do? I can tell you what Satan will tell you and you can tell me what Satan will tell you. Quit! Give up! You'll never get any better.

That's Satan. Christ of course nudges you forward. Take courage. Keep moving.

Get up. I'm still with you. I said I would never leave you nor forsake you. Yes, there are others better than you. You're going to have to learn to live with that part.

Right now I want you to be better than you and I'm not giving up. That makes even the weak Christians stronger of whom I'm one. In Revelation 12 they overcame him by the word of the Lamb.

Their testimony because they did not love their lives to the death. Paul when writing to the Thessalonians speaking about the rapture, he said we have a hope that is greater than those in the world. We do not face death hopelessly. We do not have the hope that wishes it's going to be so.

We have the hope that knows it is so and that's what we're laying our hands on. So if you are one of those Christians and you have a fear of death, face it. Meditate on it. Put some thought into it. When I've started working in the steel industry, there's no way I could walk across those beams, not even 10 feet above the floor, let alone 40, 50, 60 stories up. And so it really bothered me and I didn't know how to overcome it. I tried walking on sidewalk curbs and saying, okay, it's mind over matter. If I can walk six inches off the ground on this, well what's the difference between 60 feet?

A lot. 60 feet is what the difference is. So the Lord just, I think it was the Lord that gave me the idea to just go up on the high rises and expose myself to the height repeatedly. Just be up there. And as a result, it came to me.

I was able to hover by the time I retired. Watch this. So, I don't know what that has to do with anything. Oh, I know. I know.

I got it. So this fear of death, face it. Don't judge into it. Spurgeon says death is our last enemy.

Let's leave it for last. Good advice. But you have to face it. What is so frightening about death? Well, judgment. Well, Christ has dealt with that. Act as though you believe the things you find so sweet in scripture. The unknown. That's probably the most spooky thing about it. Only faith can overcome that.

And that kind of faith comes from exposure to Christ while facing those things that scare us. Then there's the finality. From this side. It's over here.

It's done. There's no more. But not from heaven's side.

Heaven, what do you mean? We're just beginning. The party has just started. Are you going to protest if you have to wear a little party hat when you get to heaven? I'm not. I just want headlights on mine.

I want mine to be better than everybody else's. I'm honest about it. But anyhow. Jesus died in the flesh. Flesh and blood to rise again.

The first fruits to show us. It can be done and I've done it for you. It's going to be your turn one day. Do you trust me? I know you love me, but do you trust me? And we want our children to trust us. We say, trust us, trust me on this. The cookies are mine.

We just want them to trust us. It's okay. Develop this. Have that kind of relationship with Christ where anything that scares you, you take it to him.

The worst thing in the world that you can do is become satisfied with it and just say, I'm going to leave it be. I mean, we can reach a time when you've exhausted in his speech to Christ. I'm going to leave it with you for now, Lord, but I'll be back because this really is under my skin. So if you are afraid of death, and I will add, you might not be afraid of death in your youth when you're strong and your vitality is there. But as the years roll by and you say, you know what, I'm getting a little close to those gates.

I couldn't see them before. Now all of a sudden, this is getting serious. I don't mind ankle deep water. Well, unless I'm on a submarine. That's going to be bad.

But I don't want that water starting to rise very quickly. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.