Alright, let's go ahead and dip back down
in here into Hebrews. We've just seen in Hebrews 2
that the atonement was not only efficacious, but it was vicarious. I said at the beginning of this,
you're going to hear those words over and over and over again because
the Bible is replete in verses that show this very thing. But we've seen here that the
atonement was made for the children which God hath given Him, and
that whenever He made that, it did some things and He sat down. No need for anything else. And
as that song we just read, that alone is all we need. We don't
need anything else. But turn with me, if you would,
now over to Hebrews chapter 9. And I know there's a lot of good
verses in between some of these. Like I said, I just can't read
Hebrews. One of these days maybe Lord
willing we'll go verse by verse through Hebrews if we ever get
through with John. Hebrews is a beautiful passage.
I was just telling Larry at the break what a great book Hebrews is,
but I still, even to this day, there's a lot of things in Hebrews
that I still haven't grasped very well, and things I still
don't know exactly all the meaning of it yet. the full meaning of it. There's
some of it I don't know the meaning of it yet, that the Lord hasn't
yet given me light upon. So I continue to go back and
go back and go back and read it. And again, sometimes I don't
understand these things. I just pray that the Lord would
give wisdom that I might understand these things as He gives it.
Anyway, in Hebrews chapter 9, I want us to read fitting the
song that Larry just asked for, kind of talked about this a little
bit, verse 12. Actually, let's go back to verse
11. It says, But Christ, being come
and 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,
having obtained eternal redemption." Of course, in my text, there's
for us, but we know that to be the case because of the context
that we've been seeing. So, the blood of Christ obtained
an eternal redemption. Not a time redemption, but an
eternal redemption. Eternity goes backwards as far
as it goes forwards. I've heard Larry say that before.
Eternity isn't just something that's going to go on and on
and on and on. It goes back and back and back and back. Eternity
had no beginning. has no ending. Jesus' blood obtained
a redemption that had no beginning and had no ending. Now, that's
one of those things that I've yet to grasp. A little bit, maybe,
but I haven't fully grasped that. How can something Jesus Christ
came and did in time secure and obtain and be the foundation,
the groundwork, the basis for something that has never
had a beginning and never had an ending. It's amazing to think
of those things. Maybe someone given more life
than me can expound on those things at some time. But, brother,
can you expound on that? No? Okay. Then I'm not alone. I can't expound on that. I don't
know how that works. But I know one thing. I said
it last week. I can't comprehend it, but I
can apprehend it. He said that His blood secured an eternal
redemption. It didn't make an eternal redemption
possible. Now, let's think this out again. Let's think about what the Scriptures
are saying and also what they're not saying. The blood of Jesus Christ obtained,
and we all know English, obtained, what that means, obtained eternal
redemption. If it only made redemption possible,
then that redemption isn't eternal. So His blood didn't obtain an
eternal redemption. If it is only a possible redemption,
if Christ's redemption is only a possibility if it's effected
by something other than His blood, then it's not an eternal redemption. Because the only redemption that
is eternal is the redemption that was secured only by His
blood. If it is a redemption that requires
your faith, your obedience, your repentance, your trust, your
belief, your church membership, your baptism, your tithes, whatever,
any religious word that you want to put on there, if it takes
any of that to effect or to put into effect, to make it happen,
to secure or to bring home in layman's terms, that redemption,
then that's not an eternal redemption because it says here that there
wasn't anything else that could go into that high priestly office,
go into that holy of holies, and make eternal redemption except
blood. Did you realize that in the day
of atonement, whenever the high priest went in, he had to purge
himself, he had to cleanse himself, clean himself, he had to put
on the exact priestly garbs that was given to him, and he went
in and made the sacrifice, and with that blood, it was the blood
that made atonement, not the high priest. The high priest
was only the servant who went in to bring the blood. But it wasn't the high priest.
Now, in the case of redemption, our high priest was very important.
But here it was the high priest who had to follow every jot and
tittle of God's rule on how to come in. Did you realize that
that atonement was made with the blood and the blood only,
and the person who the atonement was being made for wasn't allowed
to come in? wasn't allowed to participate.
And listen, once the blood was shed and sprinkled upon that
altar, the atonement was made. They didn't even have to come
out and say, oh yeah, I believe that. The atonement was for them. No, what happened? On the Day
of Atonement when that blood was sprinkled for the nation
or for the people, the children of God, what happened? What did they do? After it was
done, the priest then went out, they would blow the shofar, and everybody in Israel knew
atonement has been made. Our atonement has been made.
The high priest has finished his job of atonement for us today. whenever Jesus had finished as
the High Priest, not only offering up the sacrifice, but also being
the sacrifice, with a loud voice said, it is finished. And He sat down. The blood was
on the altar. And from there, the blood made
intercession. Nobody had to do anything for
it. Nobody had to beg for it. Nobody had to scream for it.
Nobody had to work for it. Nobody had to accept it. The
blood made redemption and no one had to do anything. Well,
brethren, here we see, right here, He says, "...neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place." Meaning that He went in and offered
that blood He gave that blood. Now, I would say that this is
speaking of in the everlasting covenant when the everlasting
covenant was made. In that tabernacle not made with hands, whom this
earthly tabernacle was patterned after the one in the heavenlies.
That's also found here in Hebrews. That He brought that blood before
God and that blood has entered seated for him. I really encourage you, if you
hadn't listened to it, to look it up on Sermon Audio. You can
either go to Grace Baptist Church at Tyler, Texas, Sermon Audio
page and find it there, or just type in Roy Smith's name in Sermon
Audio. Listen to that message that he
preached down at Tyler, Texas at their deal on the interceding
and the blood. Oh, what beautiful picture we
see of an eternal covenant, an everlasting covenant, and at
the heart of that everlasting covenant was blood. It's always
been the blood. That's why we believe in imputed
righteousness, eternal justification, all these things, because Christ's
blood was what was put before God in the Holy of Holies. before
anything else had ever been done. And that blood has interceded
for His people before they ever was formed. But here we see it
says, "...by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once to the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. And for this cause, He is the mediator of the New
Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance." It was for those who are called.
And again, I know I used to say it, everybody is called. The
Gospels will go out to all creatures, thus all people will be called.
No, no, no. Remember, 2 Timothy said that
we were saved and we were called with a holy calling before the
foundation of the world. The Bible also said that those
whom He called, He justified. This calling isn't a universal
call because there's an effect because of the call. Those whom
He called, He justified. He glorified. If all are called
in that sense, if this is speaking of that sense, all are called,
meaning the Gospel call goes out to all, then all are justified. All have
their sins purged. All of them have the promise
of eternal inheritance. See, brethren, the Scriptures
have meaning. We have to read what it says.
and let the Bible say what it says and not let our doctrinal
biases press upon us what it means. And just because one word
is found 15 times in Scripture doesn't mean it means the same
thing 15 times. We have to see what the Bible
defines it as, how the Bible uses that word, and the context
in which it is used. Here we see that everybody who
is called is going to receive the eternal inheritance. So His
blood obtained eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance. Now I don't grasp that either.
Something that He did with His blood secured as far back, as
far forward, an inheritance for us. For where a testament is,
there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. For
a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is
of no strength at all why the testator liveth. Whereupon neither
the first testament was dedicated without blood." Now, it isn't our faith that enacts
the testament? Is it? It's not the water in
the baptistry that enacts the testament. It's not a church
membership that enacts the testament. What enacted the testament? What
enacted all the, and just for the sake of time and discussion,
all the goody of the everlasting covenant? It was the blood. The blood enacted it. That's
what enacted it. The death of Christ had to enact
the Testament. This is the blood of the Testament
which God hath enjoined unto you. He's brought you in to this
Testament. He's brought you in to this covenant
and joined you to it. It says, "...Moreover, He sprinkled
with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry,
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood." Cleaned
out, cleared with blood. We've already seen that He purged
our sins by His blood. "...Purged with blood, and without
shedding of blood is no remission." On the other hand, by the shedding
of blood, there is remission. So when Christ dies, His blood
remits sin. It's efficacious. So now we must determine, is
it efficacious to everyone for whom He substitutes for? Yes,
because He said everybody that He died for obtains eternal redemption. Only those who have been forgiven
of sins can have eternal redemption. It says that they receive eternal
inheritance. Only those who have their sins
forgiven will receive an inheritance. So thus, it is a vicarious, efficacious
substitution. It effected something. What did
it affect? Remissions of sin. Who was it
for? The children that God had given
Him. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in heaven should be purified with these
things, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us." See the tabernacle below, the priestly things that
he set up, was just a picture of those things. We keep saying,
while they are a picture of what Christ did, it was a picture
before it was down here. There's a true thing that was
holy place above. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entering into the holy place
every year with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
his..." So here's another thing that it affected. He put away
sin. I'll say it another way. We've already said that 15 different
times, right? His death put away sin. But yet to the Arminian, the
sin still remains. At least the sin of rejection,
the sin of unbelief. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Brethren, I don't know how more pointed in scope we can get and
how more effective the atonement can be. This isn't just a mere sacrifice
that something might happen. Maybe. Something happened. Let's look at one more here in
Hebrews 10. Starting in verse 6. It says, "...in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure." Why in
the world do dispensationalists think that God is going to strike
back up the temple service in some millennial kingdom and start
offering red heifer sacrifices? That, in my opinion, or should I say in my accurate
but humble opinion, is a slap in the face of Jesus Christ.
Who is the fulfillment of those sacrifices? Who is everything
those sacrifices were speaking to, pointing to? Every sacrifice
of bulls and goats and all these other things that those guys
did, Everyone, every day, every year, everyone was screaming,
Christ, Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ,
look to Christ. And whenever Christ came as the
perfect sacrifice and gave Himself for us, why, why, why, after
being told, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou
hast had no pleasure, no pleasure, no pleasure, do we want to start
up sacrifices of burnt offerings Why do we want to do service
to God in things that bring Him no pleasure when there was only
one thing that brought Him pleasure? It pleased the Lord to bruise
His Son. And in the bruising of His Son,
the shedding of His blood, the remission of sins came, the justification
of all of His people, and the satisfying of God. That's where
it came. Why go back to anything else?
Why look to anything else? All these Torah law keepers that
want to continue to keep the laws, they're pointing to Him. In no way does He find pleasure
in all your sacrifices and offerings, but only in Christ. Then said I, Christ speaking
here. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of Me. From cover to cover in the Torah
as well as every bit of the rest of it, it speaks of Christ. It's written about Him. It's
about Him. All those sacrifices and feasts
and festivals and laws in the Old Testament that was given
was about Christ. Lo, in the volume of the book
it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God. If you take out
the parenthesis, it says, Then said I, Lo, I come to do Thy
will, O God. Above, when He said, Sacrifice
is an offering, and burnt offerings is an offering for sin. Thou
wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by
the law..." See, that's offered by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
He may establish the second." The first is gone. The First
Testament is gone. The shadow is gone. The type
is gone. The picture is gone. Why? Because that which it all was
meant for has come. He taketh away the first that
He may establish the second. Now brethren, I don't see where
it says, then He adds a third later on somewhere else with
temple sacrifices again. V. 10, by the which will. Which will are we talking about?
The will of God. Lo, I come to do Thy will, by
the which will we are sanctified." Wait a minute, I thought it was
by my will. Brother Larry, wasn't that what
you were taught growing up? It's by your will? But the Bible clearly
says that it's not of the will of man in John chapter 1. The Bible says in Romans chapter
9, it's not of him that willeth or him that runneth, but God.
Show us mercy. And then now here in Hebrews,
it said it's by the will of God. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And again, that word for all
is in italics, so those who want to bear down on that and say
that means all people, all where, well, actually the translators
put that in to make it read better, Again, if you want to leave the
for all there with the italics, still the context bears out who
for all is. And by the way, we're sanctified
by the body of Jesus Christ, not by our law keeping, not by
our keeping up with our sanctification, by our means. We were sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. So it's by the witch will we
are sanctified. So Christ's death also affected
something. It sanctified everyone for whom He died. And every priest standing daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstools." Henceforth expecting. Have you ever paused to see what
that's talking about there? He made the sacrifice, he sat
down, and now he's expecting something from his sacrifice.
He's waiting. Doesn't that sound like something
Peter wrote? 2 Peter 3? Or 2, with 3, 2, 3? 9, 2. 2 Peter
3, verse 9. He is not willing that any should
perish. He is long-suffering towards usward. Why is He not
coming? He's sitting down at the right
hand of God, long-suffering, waiting. Why? Because He's not
willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance.
He is sitting at the right hand of God, long-suffering, waiting,
expecting till His enemies be made His
footstools. Were you not an enemy of God?
But you were made His servant, right? His footstool. You were made His footstool. The place of service. The footstool. The place of worship. The footstool. We were made the footstool. We
who were enemies were made the footstool. We who boasted and
would not succumb I'll not be a servant to Him. He's not my
God. I would never serve that God
who elects some and not others. I would never serve that God
who dies for only some and not others. A sovereign God who dictates
everything? I wouldn't serve that God. The
God who Does not let our free will choose. I wouldn't serve
that guy. We were enemies of God. Haters
of God. But we were made His footstool.
From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. So it seems to me that even God
Himself, and I hope that this is not blasphemous for me to
use this analogy, but it seems that God is looking for a return
on the investment. Not because man does anything,
because Jesus did it. God invested His Son and His
blood and expects the return for why He did it.
There's sins to be gone. They had to be sanctified, given
all inheritance, to be reconciled to God. Who does that work? Well, it
isn't the preacher. It isn't the mama or daddy. Who
does that work? The Spirit does that work. He's
there expecting the Spirit to apply all the things that Christ
died for. for by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Well, that's something also that
was efficacious. We have been perfected. If Christ
died for everybody, then everyone has been perfected. Wherefore, the Holy Ghost also
is a witness to us. See, there it is. God's expecting. One thing He's seeing and expecting
is the Holy Ghost to be a witness to us, all these things. For
after that, He said before, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law into
their hearts." Wait a minute, who does that? The Spirit does,
right? I will put My laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more." That's what Christ's
death did. Christ's death was efficacious.
So who did that sacrifice go to? If it went to everybody,
everybody has the law in their hearts and in their minds. Everybody's sins and iniquities
are no longer remembered. Now the inconsistent Arminian
is going to say, again, he died for all of our sins except for
unbelief. Then they're going to turn around and say, we're
all going to stand before the judgment and we're going to have to give
an account to God for everything that we did or didn't do that
was a sin against God. Now wait a minute. Did He forgive
every sin except for unbelief? Or did He not forgive any sins
and you're going to have to give an account for all of them whenever
you get before His throne? See, again, there is no logic
in that and there is no Bible to all that. Everyone for whom
Christ died, because of that, And look, look at verse 16. This
is the covenant. Is God breaking His covenant
when He doesn't put the law in their hearts and minds? If you
say Christ died for everybody, and yet God doesn't put the law
in their hearts and minds, then God has broken the covenant. and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more?" If God remembers their sins and
iniquities, then God has broken the covenant. Because the covenant
says the shedding of blood brings remission of sins, reconciles
to God, sanctifies them, justifies them, but yet God would break
His covenant if He required of them after the shedding of blood. Now where remission of there
is Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin." Huh. So my free will is not an offering?
My choice is not an offering? My membership is not an offering?
My baptism is not an offering? There is no offering more for
sin. The only offering that there was for sin was Christ. Having
therefore brethren... Uh oh, there's the context. That
old context, it just kind of messes things up for our free
will desires, right? having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and
living way, which He hath consecrated for us, brethren." Again, context. "...through the veil, that is
to say, His flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance." Surely that means hope, in full hope. No, no, no. It says in full assurance of
faith. Faith brings assurance. We're
given faith. The fact that we're given faith
to trust in Christ alone for our salvation is an assurance. That's weird. I hear so many
people say that it's not that. But yet the Scriptures say it
is, so someone's right. Someone's wrong. Let us draw
near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, because we've
had having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water." So one of the things that Christ's
death affected for us and the application of the Spirit is
that we have faith that brings full assurance. We
have hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And then he
says in verse 23, "...let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised." For He is faithful that promised. This is the profession of our
faith. So whenever someone says, I'm making a profession of faith,
it isn't just in that Christ died, was buried, and resurrected. Whenever we go into the baptistry
and we are buried, raised, we're not just saying Christ died,
buried, resurrected. That's the Gospel in a nutshell.
1 Corinthians. Go look for it yourself. That's
all you need to know. If you at least know that, you're
a Gospel believer. Skippy yay? Let's have a pray. No? Right here he said, let us
hold fast the profession of our faith. He just explained our
profession of faith. The profession of our faith is
that there is nothing that affects anything except the blood of
Christ, and that affects everything, and it was for His people. There's a lot more that we could
say, brethren, but we'll go ahead and stop there. Mainly because I'm
getting a little light-headed, maybe because I'm getting a little
wound. These Scriptures are blessed
to the child of grace. Me and Larry were talking about
how precious these things are. When I read these Scriptures,
when I hear about my Savior, He is a Savior. He's not a Savior
wannabe. You know, I don't know if any
of y'all remember, but back in the 80s, I was telling Brother
Larry, I said, you know, I've always grown up, I was a kid
that liked to read comics and liked superheroes and things
like that. The good superheroes, not the bad superheroes. I liked
the good superheroes who always tried to do good. Back in the 80s, there was a
TV show that came on called The Greatest American Hero, and it
was this like bumbling idiot who was supposedly this hero,
and he really didn't have much of any kind of powers or anything
like that, but he was kind of a bumbling superhero. Whenever
I look at Jesus, whenever they say that He's a Savior, but yet
we look at it through the lens of Arminianism and what they
say, and what actually happens according to them as it all plays
out, I'm reminded of that bumbling superhero that wants to be the
hero, that tries to be the hero, but most of the time just up
and fails. Whenever I think of Savior, I
think of someone who cannot fail, who does not fail, who does everything
that his power has power to do, and he does it. Jesus is a Savior. Not a potential
Savior, and not a weak Savior. He is a Savior. He shall save
His people from their sins, and He did so by His efficacious,
vicarious substitution. Well, we'll stop right there,
Brian. Anybody got any questions or anything to add? Any comments
or anything from the brothers? Anybody else want to shout? Because
I do. After reading these things, I just want to shout. Praise
God that we have this. Alright, well we'll stop right
there and probably only have one more Sunday in this and then
we'll move on to the next topic. Alright, let's stand and we'll
have a word of prayer.