The place looks beautiful. I'm
just amazed. And I'm so happy to be here with
you. Would you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1? I can say with confidence that
the message for this evening is my hope. I'm going to state as clearly
as I can my hope Hebrews chapter 1 verse 6 God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom
He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on High being made so much better
than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. The last or the next to the last
phrase in verse three is what I want to call our attention
to. And this is my hope. When he had by himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. I've entitled this message Sins
Purged. Now in order to have some appreciation
of this, we're going to have to have some understanding of
what sin is. Scripture says, whatsoever is
not of faith is sin. The thought of foolishness is
sin. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. To him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Sin is coming short of the glory
of God. All those definitions are scriptural,
but I think the one that always hits me in the face the hardest,
sin is the transgression of the law. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Every time I sin, I'm putting
something before God. The commandment against idolatry,
which one of us have not invented a view of God that makes us feel
more comfortable with ourselves and vindicate ourselves in our
position. The commandment against taking
his name in vain, that holy, glorious name, not having proper
reverence for that name. Have you ever had the proper
reverence for his name? Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. When have I ever rested perfectly? Honor your father and mother. Be submissive to all God-appointed
authority. Thou shalt not kill. Not physically. Not murdering someone's character
by gossip, innuendo, maybe silence, where I'm really trying to provoke
myself at their expense. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
physically or in my mind, the command against all sexual sin. Thou shalt not steal. That's
more than shoplifting. It's taking credit where credit
really is not due. It's lying and cheating to further
your own cause. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet. You're not to desire that which
belongs to your brother, and you'd rather you have it than
him. Sin is the transgression of the law. And my dear friend,
if you can look at one of these commandments and think you've
kept one of them one time, You betray a complete ignorance of
the holy law of God and your own personal sinfulness. It is the sinner that commits
the sins. I'm a sinner. I'm not proud of
that. There's no excuse for it. I'm a sinner. I'm not talking
about the way I used to be. I'm talking about the way I am
right now. A sinner. I find in light of
God's holy law that I cannot not sin. As a matter of fact,
all I do is sin. And it's all my fault. I can't
blame somebody else. I can't blame God's sovereignty.
I can't blame my circumstances. It's all my fault. And I cannot look down in judgment
on anybody alive. In myself, I have no claims on
God. You know, we've all made the
statement, I would say most of us all have made the statement,
there go I, but for the grace of God. We've made that statement. I've made that statement. And
if we mean that there's no sin apart from restraining grace
that I would not commit, it's true. But I want to consider
how much difference is there in saying, there go I, but for
the grace of God, I'd be like that man. And saying what the
Pharisee in the temple said, God, I thank thee. I'm giving
you the credit that I'm not as other men are. Really not a lot of difference.
Sin. Now anybody that knows anything
about sin is greatly interested in this subject. I shouldn't
even call it a subject. I don't know what to call it.
It's the gospel. Sin's purged. And I pray that God will bless
this and cause his gospel to be preached to where when you
hear this message, you'll know that your sins have been purged. What a blessing that would be. When he had by himself purged
our sins, who is the he referring to? the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look back up at verse 1. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, And He did indeed
do this. Verse 2. Have in these last days. Now the last days are all the
days between the night the Lord Jesus Christ was born and when
He comes again. Those are all the last days. We're living in the last days. hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son. Christ Jesus is the prophet who
speaks. He is the Word of God so much
that He never said, Thus saith the Lord. I say unto you, He is God's final word. Now this one, verse 2, this one
who purged us of our sins, is the one whom He hath appointed
heir of all things. God His Father has appointed
Him heir of all things. Now what that means is, Everything
is for His glory. That's the purpose of the universe.
That's the purpose of the creation. That's the purpose of the fall
of Adam. For the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now somebody has a problem with
this. All I can say is you've got a problem. You've got a real
problem. You're not on the Lord's side.
This is His agenda. The glory of His Son. And look what He says next in
verse 2. By whom? By the Lord Jesus Christ. By whom He also made the worlds. He's the Creator. This One who
purged us of our sins. He's the Creator. He created
the universe. All things were made by Him and
for Him. And He's before all things and
by Him all things consist. He's the Creator of the universe. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. The world and all they that dwell
therein. It was He who said, let us make
man in our own image. The One who purged us of our
sins is the Creator of the Universe. And look at verse 3. Who? This
One who purged our sins. Who? Being the brightness of
His glory and the express image of His
person. He's the brightness, the effulgence,
the shining forth of the very glory of God. And He's not reflective
glory. He is the glory of God. The express image of His person. He's not like God. He is God. Colossians 2.9 says,
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. And next it says
in verse 3, He upholds all things by the word of His power. Now this One who is said to have
purged us of our sins is the absolute Lord of all, upholding
all things by the Word of His power. He is in control of everything
and everybody and everything that you freely do because you
want to, He's absolutely sovereign over. He's in control. He is
the Lord of all. By Him, all things consist. Everything that happens in time
is His will being done. This is the One who has purged
us of our sins. He's the Lord of Providence. He's before all things, and by
Him, all things consist. He's the one who says, I have
purposed it, I will also do it. I've spoken it, I will bring
it to pass. Everything, everything, without
exception, is His will being done. Now somebody says, I'm
having a hard time with that. If you are, think if it's not
true. Think of the implications if
it's not true. Oh, that'd be the worst thing that could possibly
be. Now, notice, it says of this
one, who upholds all things by the word of his power, we glory
Sydney. He's glorious. I wish I could
speak of him the way he ought to be spoken of. I can't. And
that's one of the things that I lighten on the head about preaching. Failure is built in. It's built
in. None of us are going to give
what this glorious message ought to be given. But notice this
statement, when he had by himself purged our sins. Who's the hour? Who's he talking about? Who has
this blessed grace of having their sins purged? Not everybody's sins are purged.
And I want to say this in fear, I don't even know how to say
it, but there is a place called hell. And there are people in
that place. And their sins are never purged. There's no such thing as purgatory.
That place where you go and you have your sins purged, and it
might take a thousand or ten million years, but you finally
get out because your sins are paid for. No. No. There is no
purgatory. So who is included in the hour? Who is our everybody he purged? Everybody He purged. All of His
elect. Everybody for whom He died. He
said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And him
that cometh to Me, I will know why He is cast out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him
that sent Me. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should
lose nothing. Raise it up again at the last
day. The point behind the atonement
is he's successful. He's successful. Now let me tell
you something that all of these people, without exception, who
have their sins purged, have in common. They need their sins purged. That's what they all have in
common. They need their sins purged. They're filthy and defiled
by sin. Sinners by birth, sinners by
choice, and sinners by practice. And there's nothing they can
do about their sins. They are defiled inside and out
by sin and by sins and they need for Him to do what only He can
do. Purge. Purge. Put away their sins. Now, our text said, or says,
when he had by himself purged our sins. Now let me tell you
what he did by being nailed to Calvary's tree. He purged. He made it to where they're not
there. I'm given a job to clean cabinets. Sometimes I do that, believe
it or not. There's some things that you
can just wipe off. Just wipe off. But when the stain is deep,
ingrained in the wood, we got this stuff called degreaser.
Maybe you have it. It's actually called degreaser.
And you put that on, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will say
this as reverently as I know how, He descends. He made it to where they are
not. That is what the purging of sin
means. All of the sins of all of that
group that he died for, he purged their sin. How? All of the sin all of the
filth, all of the evil, all of the defilement, all of the dirtiness. He was made to be. And on Calvary's tree, He made
that sin to be no more. That is what the purging of sin
is. And guess in his garden, as he
looked upon the cup, he was getting ready to drink the sins of his
people. And he's the only one who knows
how horrible that is. You and I don't know anything
about this. When I start talking about the sinfulness of sin and
the defilement of sin, I'm so hard-hearted, I know little about
it. He knows everything about it. He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me as great drops of blood came from
His pores. And then He said, Nevertheless,
not My will, but Thine be done. And when He bowed His mighty
head on the cross and said, It is finished. All of those sins
were purged, paid for, put away. That means they are no more. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. 1 John 3 verse 5 says, He was
manifested to take away our sins. In Him is no sin. No sin. If I'm in Him, I have
no sin. My sins are not just as if I
never committed them. I stand before God having never
committed them. That's what justification is. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. Now this is such a very important
part of this verse. Don't miss this, when He had
by Himself purged our sins. me and you didn't have anything
to do with this when he had by himself purged
us of our sins it would have been glorious if he said when
he purged our sins but this is better when he had by himself
purged our sins you know what that lets me know I don't have
anything to do with this. I can't do anything to add to
it. I can't do anything to take from it. When he had by himself
purged our sins. Now, when he was on... This is another one of those
things I feel so stupid talking about. I'll try. I'll try because
I feel everything. When he was on Calvary Street,
he was by himself. The Father forsook him. He forsook him because of sin.
He was by himself. He didn't have any angels there
helping him. You know, in Gethsemane's garden, before he was actually
made sin, they came to minister to him, but they weren't ministering
to him at this time. He was by himself. He didn't have any of
his people there with him. They'd all forsaken him and fled.
He didn't have anybody saying, we know you're doing this for
us and we love you for it. He was by Himself. When He had by Himself purged
our sins. Now in this great work of the
purging of our sins, He did it. by himself. Not by enabling me or you to
do something that would activate what he did. Not us enhancing what he did. Now, listen to this real carefully.
Forget doing. Forget doing. Do not think about what you need
to do, doing in the light of what He has done. Now listen
to me. If my salvation is dependent upon me doing something, if my salvation is dependent
upon my faith, or my repentance or my holy living I have no hope but thank God praise his holy
name he did this by himself at a point in time in a particular
place on Golgotha's Hill, he by himself, with no contribution
from me or you, purged our sins. And what did he do after that? When he had by himself purged
our sins. He sat down. The sitting Savior. Now what is the significance
of this? In the Levitical system, in the
tabernacle, there was an altar for sacrifice
A labor to wash, which demonstrates the continual cleansing of that
blood. We continually cleanse, don't
we? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from
all sin. There was a table of showbread
in the holy place. Christ our food. There was an
altar of incense. I need Christ to pray for me.
Peter, I pray for you. There was a golden candlestick,
Christ our light, as to how God can accept somebody like me or
you. Inside, the Holy of Holies, there was the Ark of the Covenant
with the mercy seat over it that the high priest would come in
once a year and sprinkle blood. But you know a piece of furniture
that was not there? A chamber. Why? The high priest's work was never
done. He was never done. Saying things over and over and
over again. Doing things that represented
something. But could never take away sin. Turn with me for just a moment
to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 11, And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one
offering he hath perfected it for ever them that are sanctified."
Look back in Hebrews chapter 9. But Christ, verse 11, but
Christ being come in high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, and look at this, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. A redemption that never had a
beginning. A redemption that will never end. There's nothing
you can do to mess it up. He hath obtained eternal redemption
for us. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and His salvation is forever. To think of the Lord, once again
I don't know how to think about this, but the scripture says
the Lord entered into the very presence of his father himself
with his own blood. Now I want to ask you a question. How satisfied was the father
with what his son did? He was infinitely satisfied. He could ask no more. How satisfied was Christ with
what he did? Scripture says, he shall see
the travail of his soul. That's everything that took place. And be satisfied. Satisfied. Not looking for anything
else. Not wanting anything else. Complete satisfaction. And you're not satisfied? There's something wrong with
that picture, isn't there? We're to find satisfaction in the same
thing God the Father does. In the same thing God the Son
does. In the same thing God the Holy
Spirit does. And it's this. He by Himself. By Himself. But what am I to do? Nothing. Don't make any resolutions about,
from this time on it's going to be better. I'm going to change. I'm going to start serving Him
better. Do not think that there's something
you could do to add to His glorious Word. Don't think of anything
you do. It's done. He, by Himself. purged our sins. And you and I are to find the
exact same place of satisfaction that the Godhead does. He by himself purged our sins. Now let me remind you of one
thing. Did He do this for me? Do you need this? Do you need this? Then, beloved,
He did it for you. Amen. We are less smart.