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Caleb Hickman

Hath Perfected

Hebrews 10:14
Caleb Hickman September, 8 2024 Video & Audio
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Caleb Hickman
Caleb Hickman September, 8 2024

In his sermon titled "Hath Perfected," Caleb Hickman addresses the doctrine of Christ's perfecting work in the believer as articulated in Hebrews 10:14. He argues that Christ's single sacrifice is sufficient to perfect those who are sanctified, emphasizing that perfection is a requirement from God, and it cannot be achieved by human efforts or adherence to the law. Hickman references key texts, including Romans 10 and Isaiah 53, to underscore how Christ’s sacrificial offering fulfills God's demand for perfection and secures eternal redemption for His elect. The practical significance of this message is profound; it reassures believers of their complete standing in Christ and liberates them from the burden of striving for righteousness through their actions, affirming that true justification and sanctification are solely the results of God’s grace through faith.

Key Quotes

“For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

“You will not see that holiness, but what we see is Christ. We see Christ as our holiness.”

“He perfected forever. There is now and there never will be, and there's never going to be again, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

“We are perfect in His sight because we're in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's where we have to be if we're gonna be these things.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Okay. Okay. th th Thank you. She has a certain jive that's
on her. It's not much. It's not anything
that interests me. Like, I don't know. But sometimes
a mom, she doesn't do dialysis, it's Wednesday, and she has to
get adjusted before they do dialysis. So, I think tomorrow, and then
if they do dialysis, that's four hours a week. So, I'm thinking
more today, I'm hoping in the morning they'll get it done. Thank you. I want you to look at this. I want you to look at this. Okay. Thank you. We'll send it out to you. And then he had another guy that
he just signed for. Thank you. Let's open up this service with
hymn number 125, Jesus Paid It All, and let's stand together. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to
Him I owe. It had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find My power
in Thine alone Can change the leper's spot And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had wept a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white,
in the blood of Galilee's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, All to Him
I owe! Zid had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow And went before the throne I stand
in Him complete Jesus died my soul to save My lips shall still
repeat Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a
crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Morning again. This morning we're going to read,
if you want to follow, Isaiah 42. Isaiah is like an Old Testament
gospel preacher. Isaiah 42. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry or lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.
A bruised wreath shall he not break. And the smoking flax shall
he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he has set judgment in the earth. The isles shall wait for
his law. Thus said God the Lord, he that
created the heavens and stretched them out, He that spread forth
the earth, and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, the Spirit to them that walk therein. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee. I will give thee for a covenant
of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. to open the blind
eyes to bring out the prisoner from the prison and them that
sit in darkness out of the prison house. And I am the Lord, that
is my name, and my glory will I not give to another. Neither
my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are
come the past, and new things do I declare. Before they spring
forth, I tell you of them. Let us pray. Our Father, we come without any
myrrh in ourselves. We look to Christ and his finished
work. We rejoice in this gospel. We
see him in these scriptures. We are so thankful that we have
a Redeemer who has shed his blood for us. We rejoice in that. We pray, Father, that you would
forgive our sins afresh. Wash us. So we receive the word
as it's preached. We're thankful for Caleb and
for the ministry here. We know that's all your work.
For Christ is all in all. We thank and praise you, Father,
for the work in some of the other churches. We know the light,
the candle is still lit, and we pray for them. And we just
rejoice, Lord, that you have brought this little community
together, this little church, this corporate church. We're
so thankful. We pray, Father, for some that
are struggling with illness and some of the brethren have cancer
and many, many struggles, but we know that you're able to succor
us and to give us strength and to keep us looking to you, resting
as our pastor taught us this morning, just resting in Christ.
not holding on to this worldly stuff with a tight grip, but
just letting things loose, looking to Christ. We're so thankful,
and we pray your blessing this morning as we hear the preaching.
In Jesus' name, amen. I could not find the hymn that
was on the back of the bulletin. I transposed it at one point,
but I can't find it. So I have to transpose it this
week. So we're not going to sing that this week. We'll sing it
next week. So I put a piece of paper out there by the bulletins.
That's the hymn of the day. So let's sing that together. Let's stand. This is Doxology, the tune Doxology. ? Behold His hands, His feet and
side ? ? Behold the blood, the purchased price ? ? Behold the
Son, the Father slain ? ? Who for His own He hath redeemed
? ? Behold His soul in agony ? ? Behold His visage marred
for me ? His true veil of soul made all things well ? My substitute
hath took my help ? Behold His cry upon the tree ? Forgive them
Father was His plea ? He had to die to redeem Crying, why
hast thou forsaken me? Behold His final words, how clear! He hath cast out all doubt and
fear. It is finished, was His word,
His promise unto us and God. Behold the veil that rent in
two The fire of God he hath consumed God's justice has been satisfied
Now his elect are justified Behold the grave that could not hold
the precious Holy Lamb of God. He satisfied all God's demands. Seated now on his right hand. Please be seated. If you would like to follow,
we'll be in Hebrews chapter 10. I said this before, but Hebrews
chapter 10 is a reiteration of all previous chapter. It is a
summary or a synopsis of everything that's been stated up to this
point in chapter 10. It's all the same facts over
and over again. And now he's just giving it as
a summary, as a summary. The summary is basically this,
no one could be saved under the law. The old law of works has
ended. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness as mentioned in Romans chapter 10. And Christ
has successfully redeemed everyone he died for. That would be the
summary if I could give it as briefly as I could. That means
no more sacrifices required by you and I in any way. No more
sacrifice, because we can't sacrifice and put away sin. That's the
message here. That sounds pretty simple, doesn't
it? All that that I just said, that sounds, I can understand
what that means, that's pretty simple. But did you know that
that's what all false religion has wrong? What I just said,
that no one could be saved under the works of the law, that the
old covenant of the law of works has ended, that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness, Christ successfully redeemed
everyone he died for that was elected, and that there's no
more sacrifice required of you and I for sin. And that is exactly
what every false religious church has wrong. One of those, in some
way, shape, or form, or all of them, or all of them, they go
to the law to justify themselves, or they sacrifice to justify
themselves, as we heard the first hour. That's what all false religion
has wrong. People that say you actually
have to do something to be saved have a self-righteousness. They
have a self-righteousness. We had a couple that came here
on Wednesday nights for some time, and I noticed that she
was interested, but he was becoming increasingly agitated because
of the way that he would speak to me. And eventually, at the
end of one of the messages, out in the, I call that a vestibule,
I guess it's not, a kitchenette, whatever you wanna call it, right
out there. He said to me, are you saying you don't have to
make a choice? And I said, what do you mean? He said, are you
saying salvation's not a choice? And I said, well, yeah, it's
a choice, just not yours. Just not mine, it's God's choice.
He said, no, you have to make a choice. You have to choose
God. And I said, well, that makes you God then. That makes you
God then. He actually got mad. And so I
defused the situation and haven't seen him since. I've said everything
in love as best I could, but that's the truth, isn't it? Is
salvation a choice? Yes, it's God's. God's choice. You know, if people say you must
do something, they're lying. Thank God for his sweet word,
his precious spirit that reveals his truth. Salvation's of the
Lord and it is finished. It is finished. Let's read our
text here, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 through 14. Every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice, which can
never take away sins. 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. Now here's where I'm going to be looking at today,
this one verse in particular, the gospels in this verse, and
it says in verse 14, For by one offering, he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. And when something, I've titled
the message Hath Perfected. Hath perfected, that's past tense,
isn't it? When something is perfect, it
can never be more than that, and it can never be less than
that. If something is perfect, it can never be more than perfect.
Well, people, we don't say, well, that's super perfect. No, that
doesn't make any sense, does it? People do say it's almost
perfect, but that's not true. That just means it's not perfect.
Something that's perfect can't be more than that or less than
that ever, ever. Perfection is the highest plateau.
Nothing can be better. Nothing can compare to perfection. Nothing can compare to perfection. Now understand something, we
as human beings cannot understand perfection because we live in
an imperfect body, in an imperfect world, because of sin, because
of sin. So even though I may look at
my wife and say, you look perfect, she knows what I mean by that,
but at the same time, we can't understand perfection. What is
something around you that's perfect? Something around you that's perfect.
You won't find anything. Everything man-made's not perfect.
Now, to say that God's creation is, well, it's created exactly
the way he's purposed it, but because of sin, because of sin
entering in, it's corrupt. Do we see that? Do we see it's
not perfect? No, there's only one that's perfect. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are unable to produce perfection
by nature. We can't produce perfection.
We're unable to by nature. It's impossible. It's impossible. I've been one in my life, whenever
I hear the word can't, it's got me in a lot of trouble. Because
I say, watch me. Then I try to prove them wrong.
When I was four years old, I was on a tricycle. And there was
a curb going down a very steep hill. And my mom said, you can't
go over there. Four years old. Guess what I
did? So here my expecting mother of
nine months being expecting comes running down the hill after me
and I'm crying, I broke my arm because he said, you can't, you
can't. When I tell you you can't produce
perfection, you can't even try to produce perfection. We can't
even try to produce. Even if you're rebelling and
say, oh yes I can, it doesn't matter what you think, you can't.
It's impossible. It is impossible for us to produce
perfection, but that's exactly what God requires perfection. He requires perfection. And if
you are not perfect, and we shouldn't have to put adjectives on that
and say a 100% perfect because if it's 99% it's not perfect,
is it? No. Perfect, if you're not perfect,
you cannot enter in to his kingdom. You cannot be one with him. You
cannot be created in the image of his son. You must be perfect. Furthermore, you and I can't
make anything or anyone perfect besides ourself. Not only can
we not produce it, but I can't make you perfect by what I do,
and you can't make me perfect by what you do. Can't produce
it. Can't make it happen. We cannot
make it happen. If something is perfect, it must
be of God. It must be of His will. It must
be according to His purpose. And that's what the Lord was
talking about in John chapter one when He said, but as many as
received Christ, to them gave He the power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of men, nor of the will of flesh,
but of God. God's will, God's will. If we're gonna be perfect, God's
gonna have to will it. God's gonna have to purpose it.
God's gonna have to perform it. God's gonna have to do it all.
If he doesn't will to do something, if he doesn't choose to intervene,
we will die in our sins, the scripture says, and where he
is, there we may not come. He must intervene, he must intervene. God demands perfection. It's
not that he would really, really like for you to be perfect. So
you need to try harder. No, he demands it as God, as
the sovereign creator of the universe. That is his standard.
Either you are perfect or you are not perfect. If you're not
perfect, you're not accepted. You're not accepted. This is
the God of the universe. This is the one seated on the
throne. Men have this understanding that God loves everybody. That's
not true. that God accepts you the way that you are. That's
not true. God accepts one, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. God doesn't
love me the way that I am. I'm a wretched sinner by nature.
But God loves Christ, and if I'm in Christ, God loves me.
It's that simple. Furthermore, if I'm in Christ,
I'm perfect in Christ. And that's what he demands, that's
what he requires, and he must do that. Demands perfection. Perfection means no flaws. Does
anybody here have any flaws? Oh boy. No faults. No sin. No sin. No blemish whatsoever. Completely
spotless. That's what perfect means. That's
what perfection means. Never having lied. We come from
the womb speaking lies, don't we? Baby will lie as soon as
it's born. It won't need a thing, but it
wants you to pick it up and have attention so it acts like it's dying so
you'll pick it up. That's a lie. Don't think about that. We come from
the womb speaking lies. That's what the scripture tells
us. But if in order to be perfect, you can never tell a lie. Not
one lie, not a white lie, not a purple lie or a blue lie. You
cannot ever have told a lie. You can't steal anything, ever.
Ever. Not a piece of bubble gum. You
can never have stolen anything. God's standard is you cannot
have stolen anything, especially his glory. Especially his glory. And that's what men do is they
steal the Lord's glory. Furthermore, you cannot have
ever sinned in any way, shape, or form. Any way, shape, or form. Scripture says if you look at
your brother, if you hate your brother without a cause, you've
committed murder. That's God's standard. If you look on a woman
to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart. That's
God's standard. Oh, we're born in sin. We're shaping into iniquity.
We're not perfect. Isn't that what people say? Well,
nobody's perfect. Oh, well, nobody's perfect. And that's like the
excuse whenever you mess up or something. You know what I mean? You're
not gonna go to glory and look at God and say, well, Lord, nobody's
perfect. Oh, yes, there is one that's perfect. His name is Jesus
Christ. He's the standard. And if we try to substitute ourself
in any way for him, we're gonna lose. We're gonna die. That said,
this first hour, we have some people left and people came in
for second hour, so I'll repeat this. I have a person that I
was recently speaking to After you tell somebody that if you're,
you know, the Lord has us charged with sin, and if you are not
perfect, then you're gonna die. You're gonna go to hell. You
have to be made perfect. And she told me these words, I'll
just talk to him. I'll just talk to him when I
get there. After all, I'm a nice person. And I've been nice to
people. Surely he'll let me in. Surely
he'll let me in. But what about the sin that's
not been remitted? The sin that has not been paid
for? The Lord demands justice for sin. The Lord demands justice
for transgression, for iniquity. He demands justice. And if God
demands it, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. We can't just
talk to him and say, well, I thought you would understand that one
time I did this and everything would be okay, but my good outweighs
my bad. And that's really the mentality of people. No, God's
just and sovereign, one sin. And what about the mountain of
sin that we are? I mean, oh, we need a substitute. We need
a savior. We need to be made perfect. We
need to be made perfect. That lady also said, well, I'm
really not that bad. I'm really not that bad. We heard last Sunday
that men will excuse themselves and accuse others whenever they
hear the truth. They'll excuse themselves. Well,
I'm not as bad as this person, not as bad as that person. I
said this first hour also, but I'll say it again. A man that
comes to the scripture that's a Pharisee will find a way to
justify himself based upon the scripture. But a man that's been
made a sinner comes to this book needing a savior. needing a savior,
needing to be made perfect. Pharisee believes they're already
perfect. The sinner believes that they know they're not perfect.
They need the one who is perfect. They need Christ. God says this, be not deceived,
God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. If he sows to the flesh, he shall
of the flesh reap corruption. But if he sows to the Spirit,
he shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. How do you sow to
the Spirit if you're in the flesh? You look to Christ through the
eyes of faith that he's given you. You wanna sow to the Spirit,
look to Christ. Look to the perfect one. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's sowing to the Spirit.
That's sowing to the Spirit. You must be born again. You must
be made perfect, absolutely perfect. This is why Christ, this is why
he had to die. And this is what he did on Calvary. Let's read this verse again.
For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Now I wanna go bit by bit in
this verse with a few points. The Lord be our help and show
us the gospel here in this one verse. What did Christ accomplish? Well, I've spent the first 20
minutes or so talking about perfection for this reason. He perfected.
He hath once perfected. That's what he did. He hath once
perfected. According to his own will and
purpose, he hath perfected. The second thing would be, who
did he perfect? I'm sorry, how did he perfect?
How did he perfect? By sacrifice. That's what he
says here. For by one offering, he hath
perfected. One offering, one sacrifice.
He hath perfected. Which sacrifice though? Was it
my sacrifice? Was it your sacrifice? No, it
was his sacrifice, wasn't it? The sacrifice of himself on Calvary's
cross. And what was it that he sacrificed?
You ever asked yourself that? What did Christ sacrifice? everything,
everything. He sacrificed fellowship with
the Father. He sacrificed his own body. His soul was made offering
for sin. He sacrificed everything. His soul was poured out unto
death for his elect. In Isaiah 53, it says, thou shalt
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. shall see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied." They spit on him, they mocked
him, they hit him, blindfolded him and said, The Lord said this, that he didn't
pay no attention to that. That's not why in the garden
he was agonizing with God. Father, let this cup pass from
me because he knew he was gonna be mocked and spit upon and his
beard plucked. That wasn't the dread, the terror
that came over him and why his sweat became as great drops of
blood. No, it was being made sin for us. It was being made
sin for us in the blackness and the darkness and God's wrath
falling upon him until justice was satisfied. You and I can
hear those words, but we don't understand exactly what that
means. We just believe it. We just believe it. God poured
out his eternal wrath on his son upon the cross of Calvary.
That's why his soul is in agony. That's why he was suffering.
It's not our sacrifice, it was his. It was his. Scripture says that he who knew
no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And if you look up that word
righteous, you'll find out that it parallels with perfection.
Perfection before God. He made us righteous. He made
us perfect by the sacrifices himself. He went as a sheep done
before the shearers. And when the universe was blacked
out, he spoke about the sorrow that he was feeling. He said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He did it to make
us perfect. He did it to make his people
perfect, not to try to make them perfect, not to hope that you
would let him make you perfect. He did it to satisfy God's justice
and make his people perfect. I love the thought of each drop
of blood that out poured. As he was being offered up, our
sin just became less and less until it was cast as far as the
east is from the west into the sea of forgetfulness. It disappeared. It disappeared, it's gone. Until
he cried with a loud voice, it is finished. It is finished.
What is finished? He, by one offering, he hath
perfected. That's what's finished. That's
what's finished. Well, and the next question would
be for how long is it Is it finished? How long is the perfection? Look at the next word in this.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever. Forever. That's something else
we can't really wrap our mind around because we're in the flesh
and we're subject to time. But forever, it never has a beginning
and it never has an end. It's eternal. How long did he
perfect for? Forever. Forever, by one sacrifice
he perfected forever. There is now and there never
will be and there's never going to be again no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus. He perfected forever. He perfected
forever. Look at verse, the sin's gone.
The sin's all gone. Look at verse 17. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. He hath perfected forever
by putting away the sin. He put the sin away. Lastly,
who did he perfect? Who, he tells us here. Them that
are sanctified. That's who he did it for. Them
that are sanctified. Not going to be. Not are getting
there. They're almost there. They're
on their way. They're getting better. Not them that are trying
to be sanctified. them that are sanctified. I love the Lord using past tense,
don't you? I love the perfect past tense
of this verse. He once perfected, he hath past
tense perfected them that are past tense sanctified. He did
it. He did it. Who did he sanctify
who did he make perfect everyone well if he did then that means
there's not one person in hell that's what that means and we
know that that's not true because what the scripture says so it
can't be for everyone or he really didn't sanctify and he didn't
perfect if that's the case but because he did perfect, and because
he did sanctify. It has to be to a particular
people. It has to be for a specific purpose. It wasn't a general
atonement. It was a limited, it was to a
particular people, particular redemption. Christ only died for his chosen
people, given to him in the covenant of grace before time ever began,
written in the Lamb's book of life. He was the one found worthy
to loose the seals and open the book thereof. And those seals
that opened up represented the perfect judgment of God on the
cross of Calvary. And that's exactly what outpoured
upon him. In order for us to be made perfect, Christ had to
be made sin for us. And he was. That you and I would
be made the righteousness of God in him. He successfully redeemed
every one of them, but more than just making us perfect, I love
this, more than just making us perfect, He also sanctified us.
What does that mean? That means He made us as holy
as He is right now. right now. Now you won't see
that when you look in the mirror, and you won't see that whenever
that car cuts out in front of you whenever you leave here.
And I use that example a lot, and I know I do. But it's a simple example
that we all deal with, and you understand it. You won't see
that holiness, but what we see is Christ. We see Christ is our
holiness and it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's the new
man, born of his spirit, born from above, not this flesh, born
from above. We've been born again, made just
as holy as God is. And one of these days, that glory
that's in us will be revealed when we are conformed to his
image, when we're face to face with him. The Lord's gonna look
at us and he's gonna see Jesus Christ and say, enter in my good
and faithful servant. You're perfect. You're perfect. He's the one that brings life.
in Christ, revealing that we are the very righteousness of
God in him right now. We're not waiting to be righteous.
We're not trying to become righteous. We're not waiting to be sanctified.
We're not trying to become sanctified. We're not waiting to be made
perfect. We are perfect in his sight because we're in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that's where we have to be if we're gonna
be these things. Let's read verse 14 again. For
by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Not could be, not might be, not
gonna be, not maybe, sanctified right now. Sanctified right now. You are just as holy as God is
right now in the inward man born of his spirit. What did he do? He perfected.
He perfected. How did he do it? By the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross. How long did he perfect for?
Forever and ever and ever and ever. Who did he perfect? Them that are sanctified. Them that are made the righteousness
of God in Christ by him being made sin for us. the glorious part of this, because
it's already all been done, and it's all past tense. The words
hath and the words are are all past tense. I'll read it again.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's all past tense. You and I cannot change it. We cannot alter it. We cannot
manipulate it. We cannot mess it up. That's
the best way I can put it. I know I say that a lot, but
I rest in that. I can't mess up God's salvation. He did it. He did it. By one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. His people are
forever perfected, forever sanctified, and forever the righteousness
of God in Christ. Let's pray. Father, bless this
to our understanding according to your will. Thank you for your
sweet salvation in Christ's name, amen. In closing, let's turn to number 228. My
faith has found a resting place. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One,
His wounds for me shall bleed. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My great Physician heals the
sick, the lost He came to save. For me His precious blood He
shed, for me His life He gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Before I dismiss you, I want
to remind everyone, some were not here, of our two-year anniversary
dinner next Sunday following service. Bring what you want.
Okay, now you're dismissed.
Caleb Hickman
About Caleb Hickman
Caleb Hickman is the pastor of Oley Grace Church, at 761 Main St. Oley, PA 19547. You may contact him by writing to: 123 Nickel Dr. Bechtelsville, PA 19505, Calling or texting (484) 624-2091, or Email: calebhickman1234@gmail.com. Our services are Sundays 10 a.m. & 11 a.m., and in Wednesdays at 7. The church website is: www.oleygracechurch.net
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