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Life Out of
Death
By
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Villa Rica Communion 10/2/05
Hebrews 2:14-18
God's benevolent design to have mercy on sinners is accomplished in
Jesus becoming a man. There must be a common state and standing for
men to be brethren. Christ became man in order to be completely
identified with the race of man.
In
verse 14 &15 we are informed,
14Therefore,
since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
also partook of the same, that through death He might render
powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15and might free those who through fear of death were subject
to slavery all their lives.
Christ said the Devil was a murderer from the beginning (John. 8:
44). Satan killed man with a lie. He
knew that God would keep his
Word and cut man off for his disobedience.
Satan, though a fallen angel, is nevertheless quite willing to
insist that God be true to Himself and not grant mercy to any man on
the grounds that man has sinned and God's just decree for sin is
death.
In
Zechariah 3:1 we have the picture of Satan standing to resist the
high Priestly work of Jesus. It is Satan who resists God, and tempts
man. He then accuses men before God and takes pride in his success.
The justice,
majesty and perfection of the law of
God is amply vindicated by
Christ's death, more than if the entire human race died, because of
who He is.
Christ's death at Calvary justified God in justifying sinners and
extending mercy to them. The problem God faced in being merciful to
sinners was the problem of his own justice being maintained. There
can be no charge of unrighteousness permitted. Even Satan is
silenced by the death of Christ. There is no way that Satan can find
fault with the redemption God wrought for man, though he has vainly
tried. .
We have an
illustration of how out of death
Christ brought life in the
riddle of Sampson (Judges14: 12-19). The greatest eater of life and
consumer of life is death. Yet out of the eater came forth meat, and
out of Christ's death has come life. As Christ said,
24“Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth
and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:24 (NASB)
The natural man of himself cannot solve the
riddle. It is a total mystery until it is revealed. But in Samson’s
case his fiancé got the answer out of Sampson and gave it to the men
of the city. 18So
the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun
went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
And what is stronger
than a lion?”
And he
said to them,
“If you had not plowed with
my heifer,
You would not have found out
my riddle.”
The secret of the death of Christ, the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, must be revealed. And for those to whom the
riddle is revealed a change of raiment is provided -- a
foreshadowment of the believer's robe of righteousness!
In
Christ’s death there is not just the rendering powerless the devil’s
power of death but the delivering of those who all their lifetime
were subject to bondage through fear of death. Just as Abraham
destroyed the enemies who had taken Lot captive together with the
other inhabitants of Sodom, that he might "deliver" them (Gen.
14:14) and just as David destroyed the Amalekites, that he might
deliver his wives and children and others our of their hands (1 Sam.
27:9), so Christ vanquished the Devil, that he might "deliver" those
who had (by yielding to his temptations) fallen captive to him. How
thankful we ought to be to our dear Redeemer for having delivered us
out of the hand of our great adversary.
Satan cannot prevail against a single member of Christ's fami1y. He
is completely vanquished. Notice that it is not the seed of Adam
that Christ assumes but the seed of Abraham. He befriends the seed
of Abraham, meaning the children of Abraham-like faith (Cf. Gal.
3:7, 26-29).
We have a beautiful analogy of Christ’s
destruction of our enemy in the story of David and Goliath. (Cf. 1
Samuel 17:1-54) Goliath was the invincible enemy of God's people who
was able to defy the armies of Israel. 8He
stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do
you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and
you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come
down to me. 9“If he is able to fight with me and kill me,
then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and
kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.” 10Again
the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a
man that we may fight together.” 1 Sam. 17:8 -10 (NASB)
David is the type of Christ. He leaves his
father’s house laden with blessings for his brethren. When he gets
to his brethren they gave him a very poor reception; his efforts
were unappreciated, his purpose misunderstood, and a false
accusation was brought against him by his eldest brother, We read in
1 Samuel 17:28:
28Now
Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s
anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come down? And
with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know
your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come
down in order to see the battle.” (1
Sam. 17:28 (NASB) But David the shepherd goes out with nothing
but a sling and five stones from the brook. However,it was not the
stone that killed the giant, it was with Goliath’s own sword that he
cut off his head: even so Christ vanquished him that had the power
of death through death, just as David ran,
and stood over the Philistine and
took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut
off his head with it. When the Philistines saw
that their champion was
dead, they fled. And David took the head of the Philistine, and
brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.
(1 Samuel 17:51, 54).
There is no way for
Satan the vanquished foe to get the upper hand except through the
believer's timidity or lack of faith in the victory of Christ, or by
going over to the camp of Satan by yielding to temptation. This puts
you back in his power again.
The
dread and fear of death is removed from the heart of the believer.
It was this "fear" which made Adam and Eve hide themselves from the
presence of God (Gen. 3:8), which made Cain exclaim, my punishment
is greater than I can bear (Gen. 4:13), which made Nabal's heart to
die within him (1 Sam. 25:37), that made Felix to tremble (Acts
24:25), and which will yet cause kings and the great men of the
earth to call on the mountains to fall on them (Rev. 6:15,
The
natural man may succeed in drowning the
accusations of his
conscience in the pleasures of sin, but as the crackling of thorns
under a pot, so are the laughter of the fool (Ecc. 7:6). It is from
this fearful bondage that Christ delivers his people, though his
marvelous grace and by his Spirit filling them with all joy and
peace in believing. (Rom. 15:13)"-- A. Pink
We come to the
table of the Lord with thanksgiving and praise. He has liberated us
from a guilty conscience and the fear of death. We are given life
and that more abundantly.
Beloved in the Lord, hear what gracious words our Savior Jesus
Christ says to all who truly turn to Him. Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My
yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
I am the bread of life: He that cometh
to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never
thirst. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Blessed
are they, which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled
Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that
believeth on Me hath
everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which
cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I
am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is
My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
We invite all who repent of their sins and who trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ for salvation and desire to live as becometh followers
of Christ; also all communicants in good standing in any evangelical
church to participate. We also invite all non-communicants to remain
as well.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
1st Corinthians 11:23-34
1 Corinthians 11:23-34 (NASB)
23For
I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
“This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25In the same way He took the cup also after
supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this,
as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26For
as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until He comes.
27Therefore
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat
of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For he who eats and
drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the
body rightly. 30For this reason many among you are weak
and sick, and a number sleep. 31But if we judged
ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32But when we
are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be
condemned along with the world.
33So
then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one
another. 34If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so
that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters
I will arrange when I come.
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