The sitting savior. If you would have looked in the
tabernacle or the temple, what piece of furniture would you
find most conspicuously absent? Chair. There aren't very many rooms
without chairs, are there? Every room in my home has a chair. I'm sure it's the sun, I think.
I don't notice things a lot of times. But what is the most conspicuous
piece of furniture in heaven? A throne. A throne. Verse 11. And every priest standeth, Hebrews
10 and 11. Every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. What were they doing? They were
standing. And that word is said in a way that means That's what
they were always doing, standing. The reason their work was not
finished. Verse 12, but this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Four, by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now This thing of a sitting Savior
who sat down. Do you know this was prophesied
that he would do this in the Old Testament? Remember in Psalm
110, where the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Any saving sight of Christ is
a sight of him sitting. And I'm not talking about the
posture of sitting. I'm talking about what that sitting
represents. In the year the king Uzziah died,
Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord. How did he see? Sitting on a
throne, high and lifted up. the sitting Savior. Verse 11, and every priest standeth. Daily ministry and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Now, let
me point out three things in that verse. They were always
standing. Their work was never finished.
They were offering many sacrifices, not one, many, thousands and
thousands. And here's what all these sacrifices
had in common. They could never take away sins. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had offered one, Sacrifice for sins. He only had to offer one sacrifice. What did he do? He sat down. Having completed his work, nothing
left to do. And what did his sacrifice do
that these other sacrifices did not do? Listen, took away sins. made my sins not to be. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says,
when he had by himself. Don't miss that. He didn't have
any help from me. He didn't have any help from
you. He was by himself when he was on the cross. His father
had forsaken him. His people were nowhere to be
found. He didn't have angels helping
him at this time. They helped him in the garden,
but not now, when he had by himself purged our sins. Now, I've tried to think of what
that means, purging our sins. Now, you've put things in the
washing machine and they come out, they're gone. And then you
put some things that were so soiled and so dirty that when
you put them in the washing machine and they came back out, the stain
was still there. The soil was still there. Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ, by his one offering, made all the sins
of all of his people, the most soiled and filthy sins, he made
them not to be. Perfectly clean, holy, pure in
His sight. And that's the way every believer
is right now. You stand before God right now.
I don't care how bad you feel. You ought to feel bad about your
sin. You ought not sin anymore. I'm not sinning anymore. I'm
not bad. But think of this. You don't have any sin before
God. Holy and unblameable. and unreprovable in his sight. So much so, look down in verses
17 and 18, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now, there's only one way that
he can not remember sins. There's nothing there to remember.
And when I'm in heaven, I love to think about this. I can't,
I know it by faith, I can't get hold of this. I believe it. When
the Lord God will look upon me, he'll look upon someone who has
never sinned, who's always done that which pleased him, and never
did anything displeasing. That is the heritage of every
single believer. Everybody in this room that Christ
died for is gonna hear these words. Well done, thou good and
faithful servant. Enter thou in to the joy of thy
Lord. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. But this man, verse 12, but this
man, now I think this is interesting, see the word man, M-A-N, in the
original, it's called Anthropos, I think, I don't know whether
I'm pronouncing it right. I remember one time I pronounced
a Greek word wrong and somebody corrected me after I was preaching.
And I said, it's a dead language, how do you know? But at any rate,
however the word is pronounced, that word is not in the original.
Most other translations say, But he after he had offered one
sacrifice, but really man's OK. This man. This priest. This king. This God man like. What do we call him? Like when
the angel said to Mary. Speaking of the coming birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ, she said that the angel said that
holy which shall be born into thee,
shall be conceived by the Holy Ghost. It's like the angel didn't
have a word good enough to describe the excellency and the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this man, this priest, this
king, this sacrifice, you know, he's all of those things. You
know, in the Old Testament, in order to worship, you had to
have an altar. You had to have a priest, and
you had to have a sacrifice. Those were the three things that
were absolutely requisite in the worship of God. He's the
altar. His body's the altar. He's the
priest that presents his own blood. He's the sacrifice. He is all of those things. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, Forever. Look back in verse five of this
chapter. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, isn't that a glorious thing to think about the Son
of God coming into the world? When he cometh into the world,
He sayeth sacrifice and offering, thou wouldst not. But a body
hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin. Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it's written of me to do thy will, O God. Now, it was in this body that
this man would do this great work. In this body, he kept God's law perfectly and
never sinned. In this body, and remember, he's
the only one to ever do that. In this body, he bore my sins. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. There was a transfer of sins.
God can do this. Me and you don't have the authority
to do this. We don't have the ability to do it. But God can
take my sin and lift it off me and put it in his son so that
his son, while he never committed a sin, became guilty of the commission
of those sins. And when God the Father killed
him, he didn't kill someone that was innocent. He killed someone
who was guilty. God can do that. This is a part
of the great mystery of the gospel, how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. I love what Charles Spurgeon
said. Charles Spurgeon said, if you asked an angel how God
could be just and justify the ungodly, they'd still be scratching
their head. They'd never figure it out. Me and you wouldn't either. Only God can do this. In his
body, he came. He lived like no other man lived
perfectly and he died like no other man died. He actually satisfied
the justice of God. This man, this priest, this king,
this God perfectly kept God's law and he brought in an everlasting
righteousness. And this is that one sacrifice
for sins. Now look what it says. In verse
12 of Hebrews chapter 10, but this man, after he'd offered
one, that's the emphasis one. Those high priests offered many
sacrifices, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.
This man offered one sacrifice for sins forever. And the reason
being is only one sacrifice was needed because of what he achieved
and what he accomplished by that sacrifice. Now, after he had
offered this one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do? But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down. I know that we can't really picture
this, but I'm trying. I think of the way the Lord sat
down, his work being Finished. Now, shortly before his death,
in his great high priestly prayer for his people, he said, Father,
I've glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work thou
gavest me to do. Now, a couple of things I want
to point out about that. What was Christ's purpose in
coming? Well, somebody says, to save
us. Well, we're benefited by that, but his purpose in coming
was to glorify his father. Listen to this. When God the Father gave His
Son to die for His people, yes, He loved His people, but what
He was doing, He was giving His Son a bride. That was His primary
purpose, to give His Son a bride. Thank the Lord we're in that
group. But that was his purpose. He
said, I came to glorify thee on the earth and how he completely
glorified his father by his work on the cross. He honored and
exalted every attribute of God. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the whole counsel of God and how he glorified his father.
I've glorified thee on the earth and how he did it perfectly,
completely glorified God. And then he said, I finished
the work thou gavest me to do. Now, whatever it was he intended
to do, that's exactly what he did. He intended to save all
of his people from their sins. Matthew 121, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
That's exactly what he did. He went back to the father and
he sat down. This man, after he offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, never to be repeated again, he sat
down at the right hand of God, the sitting Savior. Now let me
give you some scriptures that show the significance of this
thing of him sitting down. In Matthew chapter 25, when he
tells us of the judgment day, the scripture says, when the
son of man shall sit down on the throne of his glory. That's
when he's going to separate the sheep from the goats. He sets
down on the throne of his glory. When he was on trial before Ananias,
the high priest, And the high priest said, are you the son
of the blessed? He said, I am. And hereafter,
you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of
power. When he ascended back to glory
after the resurrection, Mark 16, 19 says, and he was received
into heaven and sat down. at the right hand of God. Turn
with me for a moment to Acts chapter 2. This is when Peter
is preaching to the literal murderers of Jesus Christ. This great sermon
on the day of Pentecost, we read in verse 32 or verse 30. Therefore, being a
prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that at the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this before
speak of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus
have God raised up where we are all witnesses. Therefore being
by the right hand of God, exalted. And having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, which he has shed for this, which
you now see and hear, for David has not sent it into heavens,
but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on
my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
this same Jesus whom you crucified. both Lord and Christ. I love the way he speaks of the
sitting Savior. In Ephesians 1, verses 20 and
21, Paul said, God hath raised him from the dead and set him
at his own right hand far above all principalities and powers. Paul said to the Colossians,
seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Revelation 21, five, and he that
sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And I love thinking about this
a new history. You know, I've heard people say
you can't change history. God did. And my history is a history
without sin, always pleasing the Father. And the one who sits
on the throne is the one who makes that declaration. And those
who are going to be damned, you know what they cry? Rocks and
hills fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne. And the wrath of the Lamb, and
what a precious scripture Hebrews 1, 3 is, when he by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. And Hebrews
8, 1, we have such a high priest after the order of Melchizedek
who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens. And listen to this, our life in walking by faith, here's what
it looks like. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. Let us lay aside every weight
in that sin that does so easily beset us and run with patience
the race that's set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down. We're looking at the sitting
Savior who is set down at the right hand of God sitting because
his work is finished. Sin has been put away. Now, let
me say this. Don't look for him to do anything
else. It's already been done. Rest in the sitting Savior. Sitting, not pacing back and
forth, ruling and reigning in uncontested sovereignty. He's
so undisturbed by all the stuff going down here. He's not worried.
He's undisturbed by opposition, sitting in regal splendor, sitting
as the intercessor of his people. I love that Scripture in Romans
834, who is he that can condemn? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, as
our great intercessor, sitting. Now, when Stephen, was being
stoned. Do you know what he said? Behold,
I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing. He was standing
ready to receive his faithful martyr. Listen to this, if you're
a believer, when you enter heaven, He's going to stand up for you.
You see, the scripture says precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints. And when you enter glory, he's
gonna stand up and embrace you. You see, you're gonna be perfect.
You're not gonna have anything to be ashamed of. You're gonna
behold his face in righteousness. He's gonna stand up and welcome
you. You say, I can't believe that.
Believe it. That's the heritage of every
believer. He's going to stand when you
come in. Verse 13, now read verse 12. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand
of God. And there's something else he's
doing besides sitting. He's expecting, just waiting
till his enemies be made his footstool. Now this sitting savior
has enemies. everybody who does not believe
his gospel. He has enemies, but he's not
worried. He's expecting, simply waiting
for his father to make his foes his footstool. Four, verse 14,
four. This sitting Savior, here's why
he's sitting, for by one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now that's why he's sitting.
This is what he accomplished in this one offering. He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now first, who are
these people described as sanctified? I love that word, sanctification. It's the work of God in salvation.
Who are these people that are described as sanctified? They're
the ones the Father set apart in an eternal election to be
His. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy. That's what sanctification
is, holy. God chose me to be that. When Christ died, In 1 Peter 3, verse 15, where
it says, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Well, you can't
make Him holy. You can't set Him apart to be
holy. I'll tell you what you can do. You can regard Him as
holy. Regard Him as He is. Well, God
the Father, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, He
regards every believer as holy, without guilt. And this sanctification
included is the sanctification of the spirit, but we're bound
to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit. That's the new birth that's regeneration
and belief of the truth. How do you know if you've been
regenerated, you believe the truth. If you do believe the
truth, the gospel, it's because God has sanctified you. You were
sanctified in eternal election, you were sanctified on the cross
when Christ put away your sins, and you're sanctified when God
the Holy Spirit gives you this new nature. This is that holiness
that the writer of the Hebrews said, follow after holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. Sanctification. Now what did
he do for these people who are sanctified? For by one offering, he, and that's the most important
word in that verse, isn't it? He. This is what puts the efficacy
to the saving work that he accomplished, who he is. By one offering, he,
the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is incapable
of failure. Whatever he intends to do, he
does because of who he is. I believe in effectual redemption
because of who died. It's Christ that died. That makes
what he did effectual. For by one offering, speaking
of his death on the cross when he offered it up himself, By
one offering, he hath perfected forever. Now that word forever
is put there because it's in the original in the perfect tense. Perfectly completed. Never to
be repeated because there's no need. You see, if you're perfected,
you can't get any better and you can't get any worse. You're
perfect. And that is what every believer is by virtue of what
the Lord did for them by this one offering. He had perfected,
perfectly completed, perfected, made every believer without fault,
complete, wholly unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight.
And that's why I sat down. There's nothing left to be done. Do you believe that? So whether you believe it or
not, but there is nothing left to be done. The sitting Savior. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for him
who is sitting on the throne even now, eternally as the ruler
of the world, making intercession for your people by him sitting
there as our representative. Lord, we ask in his name that
you would take your word and bless it according to your will
and enable every one of us to rest in him who sits on the throne,
having perfected forever everybody that he died for. Lord, give
us faith. We can't work it up. Deliver
us from trying to work it up, but give us faith to simply rest
in his glorious sacrifice. In his name we pray. Amen.